Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Cert-7: DASH7 certification and pre-compliance testing." "Maarten Weyn" "Internet Data Lab (IDLab)" "The DASH7 Alliance Protocol is an evolution of the ISO 18000-7 standard for active RFID using 433 MHz, initially promoted by the US Department of Defense for container inventory. DASH7 targets wireless machine-to-machine communication for low-power, mid-range applications. This project aims to set up a certification lab for the wireless communication standard DASH7 with an accompanying pre-compliance testing system." "Airway in a dish: advancing translational testing of cystic fibrosis rescue strategies." "Marianne Carlon" "Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases and Thoracic Surgery (BREATHE)" "The overall goal of this project is to create cutting-edge cellular models mimicking the airway pathology of human CF.by:1) creating a biobank of airway cells from patients and assess the effect of drugs on CFTR  in a personalized medicine approach,2) improve airway cell models to evaluate the efficacy of gene-directed therapies better,3) create an airway on multi-electrode array chip to assess biological effects of CF and of CFTR -directed therapies at the level of individual cells composing the airways." "Alien neurogenesis in a dish: novel techniques to study neurodevelopment in Octopus vulgaris" "Eve Seuntjens" "Animal Physiology and Neurobiology, BioMechanics (BMe)" "Within the phylum Mollusca the Cephalopoda arose approximately 530 million years ago. They comprise the shelled nautiloids and the soft-bodied coleoids, for example cuttlefish and the common octopus. All cephalopods share a basic organisation of the nervous system: a supra- and a suboesophageal brain mass surrounding the oesophagus, a pair of optic lobes laterally and an axial nerve chord spanning into the appendages. The octopus’ nervous system is the most complex one within the cephalopods, comprising more than 40 lobes in the brain and the ability to move each arm independently. Strikingly, after hatching the animal contains about 0.04% of the neurons compared to adulthood, yet how this brain expansion occurs remains to be uncovered. Interestingly, the octopus has evolved a complex nervous system within the mollusc phylum, which evolved analogous to complex nervous systems seen in vertebrates, especially humans. That is why we are interested in the development of an alternative, highly structured brain which enables to perform fascinating cognitive tasks. The main idea of the PhD project is to investigate the central brain neurodevelopment of the cephalopod Octopus vulgaris. We aim to elucidate similarities or differences in neurogenesis compared to vertebrate brains. Therefore, we will characterise the neurogenic zone of the developing embryo by establishing innovative in-vitro models, like explants and organoids. These systems will allow the study of intrinsic properties of the neurogenic zone and what is needed to establish a basic neural network in the complex brain of O. vulgaris." "Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease- the role of adipose tissue in the development of NASH: a translational study" "Schalk Van der Merwe" Hepatology "Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in Western countries that could lead to serious health problems including liver failure, cancer or death. This disease is paralleled by the global obesity pandemic affecting a growing number of people. It therefore comes as no surprise that inflammatory events occurring in the adipose tissue play a central role in the pathogenesis of this disease. We have previously shown that inflammation in adipose tissue and the infiltration of macrophages into this site may be prerequisites for development of NASH in humans. Here we aim to build on these results and in this study we shall extensively characterize the immunological events within adipose tissue that may be of importance in triggering the progression from steatosis and the induction of inflammation in the liver. Moreover we shall unravel which signals are released by adipose tissue and how these signals affect liver cell cultures. Finally, this systematic approach using clinical samples of adipose tissue in patients stratified into well characterized NAFLD subgroups should identify molecular targets that may be exploited to treat these patients in the future." "Iranian PhD student, Siavash Manafi Khajeh Pasha" "Adam Bezuijen" "Department of Civil engineering" "Its main task is the comprehensive analysis of the measurements taken during the field trial zettingsvloeiing in the Westerschelde in 2014. He, building on the first analysis conducted by Deltares. The original goal was to determine whether there during zettingsvloeiingsproef there was a '' verwekingsvloeiing '' or '' bresvloeiing '. Because not really has encountered a large-scale flow, that question seems to be already more or less answered during the test. His task will therefore be to analyze why in addition to the large spontaneous flow which in July led to the same flow, and under what circumstances the dredging would have led to a large flow. In addition to the analysis of the measurements and immerse themselves in the available computational models, and he will also triaxial tests, and bezinkproeven trials to determine performance of the red light speed (parameter in a bresvloeiing). The focus of his PhD on measurements and laboratory research. This is in addition to the digital work that is carried out through MPM (probably mainly zettingsvloeiing), and the work that is carried out in the group of Professor van Ree to the Delft University of Technology (mainly bresvloeiing). It is emphatically called the task Siavash to maintain contact with these groups so that his work can be toeleverend to the work of these groups, or that he uses the work of those groups." "DISH: Detection of food Intake using Smart devices in Healthcare" "Bart Vanrumste" "Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing and Data Analytics (STADIUS), Food and Microbial Technology (CLMT), Distributed and Secure Software (DistriNet)" "Award in the context of impulse financing for research on the detection of food intake by smart appliances and specifically for home care." "Liver and systemic haemodynamic alterations, noninvasive diagnostic markers and potential pathophysiological mechanisms for NAFLD and NASH: a large longitudinal cohort study." "Laboratory Experimental Medicine and Pediatrics (LEMP)" "Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), the accumulation of fat in the liver (steatosis) related to obesity and glucose disturbances, can lead to severe liver disease and is an important contributor to metabolic disease. Many patients are at risk. Accurate screening tools to diagnose NAFLD without the need for a liver biopsy are urgently warranted. By prospectively and thoroughly assessing the presence of liver disease in obese patients we recently developed scoring systems that accurately predict liver disease but that need further validation. Specific biomarkers will be searched for to enable physicians to select, out of the large numbers of patients with obesity and diabetes, those who need further, more invasive testing and treatment. Furthermore, we previously showed that severe steatosis leads to changes in liver blood flows. We will study the impact of these changes on the evolution of the disease and on the risk of complications in surgery for obesity. Analysis of blood samplesobtained from the liver by a specific technical procedure will be performed to study the specific contribution of the liver to the health problems associated with obesity. Liver tissue samples will be examined to identify factors that contribute to disease. Finally, patients will be followed-up and re-examined after one year, in order to increase our understanding of the natural history of the disease, and to identify factors that not only predict disease severity but also its evolution." "One for all and all for cash? An inquiry into sustainable social network and collective action effects of cash transfers in rural Uganda." "Nathalie Holvoet" "Development processes, actors and policies" "Cash transfers are a common component of social security and poverty reduction policies. To date, positive effects have been registered on expenditures, investments and children's education and health outcomes while the evidence base as regards savings and production effects is somewhat smaller and less consistent. Drawing on intrahousehold allocation literature and the assumption that women tend to spend more on children's human capital and public goods, cash transfers are generally allocated to women in the household. However, while the expectation is that his might lower gender-based inequalities and increase women's empowerment, findings are mixed so far. While research on the topic is booming, there are gaps in the evidence base which we seek to address: (1) The scope of existing research has centred on individual and household effects. We broaden the scope to the community level by investigating the effects on social cohesion and networks, trust and collective action. Focusing on changes at the collective level is critical because social cohesion, in itself, is a desirable outcome and also a means to generate the public goods (e.g. schools, water, roads) needed to sustainably lift citizens out of poverty. Moving beyond the individual and intra-household level might also help us to understand the mixed effects of cash transfer interventions on gender equality, as gendered effects are often mediated through changes (or lack thereof) at the collective level. (2) There has been little attention paid to long term effects, something our study wants to correct by explicitly investigating to what extent cash transfer effects, both at household and individual level (first order & second & third order effects) and at collective level are sustainable after program closure. Drawing upon insights of social sciences and development studies, we hypothesize likely effects that will materialize and test hypotheses in rural western Uganda using a cross-sectional & longitudinal design and mixed methods approach. Our quasi-experimental impact study is linked to a recently finalized two-year experiment of universal unconditional mobile cash transfer (UCT) implemented by the Eight project in western Uganda (http://www.eight.world). Two rounds of data collection using a multitude of data collection tools (including conventional survey, network survey and focus groups) have been done so far and will be (partial) input for the currently proposed study. In addition to a substantive contribution, our study is also methodologically innovative as it applies social network analysis (SNA) to analyze cash transfer effects on social interaction patterns and structures, something which has, to the best of our knowledge, not been done before. Given the widespread use of cash transfers and the existing gaps in the evidence base, our study is obviously not only interesting for an academic audience but also for policy makers and practitioners. As to trigger the policy impact of our research, findings will be synthesized through infographics, policy briefs and will be presented during (policy) seminars and the European Development Days. Eight's substantial media-coverage (see http://www.eight.world for an overview), which is likely to get a new boost in the future as a documentary is in the making, also opens opportunities to reach a broader audience with vulgarized research findings, something which is increasingly high on the academic agenda. Also tailor-made feedback to local communities and duty bearers is part and parcel of the outreach plan." "Uptake: Socio-spatial inequality among families with children with disabilities who are entitled to cash benefits and welfare services." "Wim Van Lancker" "Centre for Sociological Research" "Our aim for this project is to strengthen the basis for future international funding e.g. from the EU, by involving researchers from Belgium, France, and the US in our expert advisory board for the socio-spatial inequality among families with children with disabilities who are entitled to cash benefits and welfare services." "Bridging knowledge to the field: an evaluation of the agronomic potential of Robusta coffee genetic resources as a cash crop in the Congo Basin" "Olivier Honnay" "Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation" "Coffee is an important source of income for small coffee farmers in the South and is traded worldwide as a soft commodity. The economy of coffee production is influenced by the ecology, climate change, the biodiversity, the soil fertility and the socio-economic conditions of the production system. The COFFEEBRIDGE-project (BRAIN-be 2.0 - BELSPO) aims to integrate the expertise from different disciplines to revive a sustainable coffee production in the province of Tshopo, DR Congo. The acquired knowledge will be valorized by developing a scientific-based advisory policy. The emphasis will be on the preservation of the genetic diversity of Coffea canephora (Robusta coffee) and the development of a local sustainable economy in a global context. This project will contribute directly and indirectly to the conservation and valorisation of the genetic resources of Robusta coffee and to several United Nations Development Goals. Although the project focuses on the Congo Basin and the province of Tshopo, it will also contribute to the broader challenges in coffee production. The Botanical Garden of Meise is coordinating the COFFEEBRIDGE-project, which aims to evaluate the potential of Coffea canephora with a focus on the valorization of the genetic diversity. The project is in collaboration with KU Leuven, Koninklijk Museum van Midden-Afrika, INERA Yangambi, ERAIFT, Rijksarchief, UNIKIS, ULB and CoffeeLab Independent. The COFFEEBRIDE-project consists of several work packages of which this doctoral research is part of. The research will describe the diversity of the Robusta coffee in the collection of INERA on a morphological and genetic level, as well as a chemical and organoleptic evaluation. The objectives of the research are as follows: • Developing descriptors for Coffea canephora • Describing the different genetic lines of Coffea canephora in the collections of the INERA (fieldwork) • Creating (herbarium) vouchers (fieldwork) • Constructing of collection protocols for the chemical and organoleptic analyses (in collaboration with CoffeeLab Independent, UNIKIS and ULB) • Supervising local staff and coordinating research in Yangambi • Processing and interpretation of the collected data (including data from genetic and • chemical analyses) • Publication of several scientific articles in leading journals and the completion of a doctoral thesis • Presentation of results at several international conferences The project involves a considerable amount of fieldwork which will be carried out mainly in Yangambi (DR Congo). Here, the researcher will collaborate with local researchers and staff of the INERA and UNIKIS."