Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Modular formal verification of expressive low-level object-oriented programming languages" "Bart Jacobs" "Distributed and Secure Software (DistriNet)" "In this PhD project, we perform research on the theory and tool-building aspects of performing modular formal verification of safety and security properties of programs written in industrially-relevant programming languages such as C++, with the goal of making modular formal verification technology more applicable to industrial practice. Challenges include supporting C++ templates and the C++ Standard Template Library, and adding full support for treating structs or classes as values, which is not yet well-supported by existing technologies." "Annotation Inference for Modular Formal Software Verification" "Bart Jacobs" "Informatics Section" "Modular formal verification promises to enable software development teams to deliver software withhigher assurance of security, safety, and correctness at lower cost. However, in the current state of the art this ishampered by the high effort required to author formal specifications and proof hints. I will performresearch into algorithms and techniques for reducing the user effort required to apply formal modularverification by generating as many specification and proof elements as possible automatically. I willbuild on existing work on inference of loop invariants and function specifications involving bothdata values and the shape of pointer-based data structures. I will extend these techniques asnecessary and integrate them into a complete formal modular verification workflow and supporting toolchain.My goal is to combine the best of the worlds of fully automated whole-program static analysisand manual modular specification authoring, to obtain an approach that significantly advances the state of the art." "Modular Formal Verification of Total Correctness Properties of Concurrent Imperative Programs" "Bart Jacobs" "Informatics Section" "For software development projects with very high correctness requirements (including safety requirements, security requirements, responsiveness requirements, or real-time requirements), in many cases insufficient assurance of correctness can be obtained through classical quality assurance techniques such as testing and code review. In contrast, the alternative approach of formal verification, where mathematical methods are used to mathematically formalize and prove that the system meets the intended correctness properties, can offer much higher assurance. In this project, I will perform research on improving the state of the art in this area to make it more economically feasible to apply formal verification in practice and enable software development teams to deliver high-assurance products cost-effectively. I will focus in particular on the important but complex aspects of total correctness (as opposed to partial correctness, where issues of termination and liveness are ignored) and concurrency (where the program specifies only a partial order on the execution steps, leading to an explosion of possible executions)." "The palaeodemographic and palaeopathological study of the St.Rombout's cemetery, Mechelen" "Wim Van Neer" "Division of Geology, Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation, Forensic Biomedical Sciences" "Contextual archaeo-anthropological studies – whereby skeletal and archaeological analyses are treated as one whole – are still uncommon. The detailed study of a sub-sample of 400 individuals from the excavation of St. Rombout’s cemetery in Mechelen, Belgium (10th-18th centuries AD) nevertheless demonstrates its enormous potential. A macroscopic study of mortality patterns and age and sex composition (palaeodemography) and the investigation of disease (palaeopathology) was combined with the study of funerary practices. This allowed the exploration of ‘who’ was buried in the churchyard, different socio-economic groups, burial customs and the physical health and lifestyle of the parish population. It also offered suggestions for circumstances of death in the case of several unusual burials.The excavation, carried out between 2009 and 2011, resulted in the largest skeletal assemblage so far in Belgium, with over 4,000 individuals still in anatomical position, spread across more than eight centuries of continuous burial. Detailed on-site registration, extensive sampling for future biochemical analyses and archival documentation add to the exceptional nature of this collection and its potential for the study of patterns between groups and over time. The burials showed variation in the use of a coffin, the position and orientation of the body, the presence of a layer of lime, ash or loam and the number of individuals in the grave with indications for single, collective and multiple burial. This variation was used to explore patterns in the skeletal data. It offered interpretations on the socio-economic background, health and lifestyle of individuals and also documented the influence of sex and particularly age on social roles. Various skeletal changes were studied to explore wider patterns, including disturbances in the growth of individuals due to malnutrition or disease, lesions related to injury and physical stress, dental health and disease.Chronological changes in demographic and palaeopathological data were observed from the late medieval to post-medieval period and the presence of different social groups was established. The main change was the appearance of a large group of adolescents (12-17 years) and young adults (18-25 years), mostly males, from the 15th-16th century layer onwards. Their less expensive and more unusual burials – including plain earth and collective burial, unusual positions and orientations – point towards a poorer and dependent social position. The individuals showed higher frequencies of growth disturbances, evidence of physical stress and disease. They may be servants, apprentices and immigrants and, considering the much higher proportion of males, may reflect the ‘extended male adolescence’ known from medieval historical sources. A Spanish military hospital (1585-1715 AD) near the cemetery may also have affected the age and sex composition. For individuals over 25 years of age single graves and coffins were more common. They showed fewer indications for growth disturbances and lesions related to disease, which were more commonly healed, indicating these were stronger, surviving, individuals. Wealth and social position may have depended on age or social position could have affected the probability of reaching old age.Although females were generally more commonly associated with coffin burial, over 50 years of age males were more frequently buried in coffins. Males showed a large presence in the young adult category, while females showed a larger presence in the over 50 year category. Young adult males were also associated with growth disturbances, a high degree of physical stress and disease, while young adult females only showed higher levels of injury. Patterns of physical stress varied between sexes and between age categories. Overall males showed more pronounced differences as they got older and seem to have achieved more evident changes in social position around 25 years of age. Females showed less marked differences, with an apparently lower impact of lifestyle on health. The multiple burials, which indicate episodes of unusual or elevated mortality, showed a large proportion of adolescents and young adults, who were almost all male. The high probability of death between 15-29 years of age was different from the single depositions and a natural mortality pattern. However, it also does not illustrate a catastrophic mortality, where all age categories would have been equally affected. The age and sex composition implies a selection and the inclusion of individuals was likely related to both circumstances of death and socio-economic background, with higher numbers of poor and dependent individuals. The palaeopathological patterns are similar to those in the plain earth burials, but with more pronounced evidence for growth disturbances, physical stress and disease. A background with high levels of stress may have made these individuals more likely to succumb to mortality crises such as epidemics or famines. There is no macroscopic evidence for a specific cause of death, although the lack of trauma inflicted around the time of death argues against violence. Differences in the organisation of the graves between the two studied groups of multiple burials (labelled as groups A and B), which date to different periods and showed differences in age and sex composition, suggest that they result from different circumstances of death and burial. Group A, with one phase of deposition (second half 15th century–early 17th century), reflects more abrupt mortality crises, such as epidemics or famines, in the parish population. Group B, where individuals were buried in different phases (second half 17th century–18th century), may possibly be connected to the Spanish military hospital.Other unusual graves included lime burials. Physico-chemical analyses confirmed the presence of lime and the contextual analysis indicated the possibility of different motives and variable practices. Disease could however be proposed for several burials, where lime may have been included for disinfection. The contextual study of a mass grave with the remains of 41 executed brigands (1798 AD), also underlined the importance of detailed excavation and the combination of archaeological, historical and skeletal information. The execution could be reconstructed and compared to historical descriptions, some of which could be contradicted.Using the differences in funerary practices to explore patterns in the skeletal data resulted in detailed and nuanced interpretations. The assemblage does not directly represent the original parish population and includes different social groups from the lower and middle classes. Gender and particularly age influenced the meaning of social roles and affected physical health and lifestyle. The results could be compared to other late medieval and post-medieval studies in North-Western Europe. This showed similarities as well as regional variation and emphasised the influence of population background on patterns in the skeletal data.The study demonstrates the importance of contextual analyses for the interpretation of patterns in archaeological skeletal collections. Hopefully this approach will become more common, with an increased cooperation between archaeologists and archaeo-anthropologists.  " "Strategic Research Programme: Cultures of Mathematics: Logic, Philosophy and History of Mathematical Practices." "Bart Van Kerkhove, Jean Paul Van Bendegem" "Interdisciplinary Research group - Freemasonry, Law Science Technology and Society, History, Archeology, Arts, Philosophy and Ethics, Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Communication Sciences, Philosophy - Moral Sciences" "Cultures of Mathematics: Logic, Philosophy and History of Mathematical Practices" "Services in support of the OptiMEDs study." "Tinne Dilles" "Centre for Research and Innovation in Care (CRIC)" "Nursing homes residents often take many medications. Some medications can be potentially inappropriate, leading to side-effects such and increased risks for falls, hospitalisations or mortality. To reduce the number of potentially inappropriate medications, we present the OptiMEDs tool: a combined intervention of an electronic decision support tool for the identification of potentially inappropriate medications, anticholinergic medications, or medications that can be deprescribed, with focussed nurse-observations supporting a multidisciplinary medication review. The Ageing of the population will lead to more older adults. For Belgium; around 18% of the population is 65 years or older, but this number is to rise significantly to 23% by 2030 (equalling more than 100.000 extra adults of 65 years and older). These older adults will develop an increasing number of diseases (multimorbidity), affecting their social life, activities of daily living, and quality of life. As a result, they will be prescribed more medications, but this again can induce problems. Older adults are more sensitive to the effects and side-effects of medications than younger adults. DRPs potentially affect quality of life and are also an important risk factor for hospital admissions or increased risks for mortality. All prescribers face a more complex medication choice process in poly-medicated patients with a higher level of multimorbidity. All face the problem of lack of specific evidence in this particular age group so support complex drug choice processes with regard to efficacy and safety of medications. Medications can affect the quality of life of patients, could induce severe medication side-effects, and could increase the costs for the Belgian government. For Belgium, the findings of the PHEBE project indicate that nursing home residents have a high chronic intake of medications (mean of 7.1 chronic medications), costing up to 140€ each month. An analysis of the quality of prescribing showed that 82% of the nursing home residents had potentially inappropriate medications, showing the potential for optimising the pharmacotherapy. Currently, medication reviews are seldom performed, or are not structured. Nurses reported different barriers (a lack of pharmacotherapeutic knowledge, a lack of communication possibilities), believing that observation of Drug Related Problems (DRPs) is not part of their job. Pharmacists mostly restrict their role in nursing homes to the delivery of medications. With our intervention, we propose a method that could investigate the medication use on a deeper level, in order to support the decision of GPs regarding the pharmacotherapy of older adults. We want to aid and involve different actors (nurses and clinical pharmacists) in the medication review by offering them tools to strengthen their role (enhanced knowledge, focussed observation). The study objectives are to examine whetherThe OptiMEDs intervention, the combination of an electronic decision support tool (for the appraisal of potentially inappropriate medication use, anticholinergic use, or medications that can be deprescribed in the medication chart of nursing home residents) with focussed nurse observations (derived from the Pharmanurse component in the OptiMEDs software, where potential medication symptoms are listed based on the medication chart of nursing home residents), that will serve as the basis during a medication review between GPs and nurses (where additional feedback from clinical pharmacists is provided) can lead to a more appropriate, safer, and more cost-effective pharmacotherapy in nursing home residents (e.g. less medication-related symptoms, less inappropriate prescribing, a better quality of life, less hospitalisations, health care usage, or mortality)." "Tackling major pitfalls in lung transplantation" "Geert Verleden" "Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases and Thoracic Surgery (BREATHE), Thoracic Surgery" "Lung transplantation (LTx) is still hampered by two major problems namely organ shortage, which prolongs waiting times and waiting list mortality, and chronic rejection (CR), the most important cause of late morbidity and mortality after LTx. CR is clinically marked by a decline in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and histologically by obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) lesions. In our research we focused on both these problems. Enlargement of the donor pool can be obtained by using non-heart beating donors (NHBD). These donors die due to cardiac arrest instead of brain-death in heart-beating donors (HBD). We showed that outcome, both short and medium-term, of patients receiving controlled NHBD lungs is equally good compared to HBD recipients and that mortality and the occurrence of CR are not different between both types of recipients. From these studies we can conclude that NHBD can safely be used to enlarge the donor pool. Since the pathogenesis of CR is still not fully understood and the prognosis remains poor, a good animal model is indispensable to unravel the pathogenesis and to improve treatment options. Many animal models have been developed but none truly mimics the human situation. A good animal model should include orthotopic allograft LTxleading to histological OB lesions and all this in a species wherein lung function can be measured repeatedly and which has enough genetic variance to investigate a whole range of pathological mechanisms. We successfully succeeded in developing a new murine model of CR departing from anorthotopic left LTx. Clear OB lesions were seen in 25-50% of the mice, depending on the time-point after LTx. This model opens new perspectivesin unraveling the pathogenesis of CR and exploring new treatment options. " "Optimizing Feasible Tax Systems with Heterogeneous Populations: Solution Methods and Applications to Household Savings" "André Decoster" "Research Centre of Public Economics, Leuven" "A variety of factors affect our moral opinions of how much each individual should contribute to fund public expenditures, and how deserving they are of social support. Innate abilities, industriousness, needs, bequests received, and numerous other factors within the realms of luck and responsibility play a role. Our hopes of reaching a perfect allocation are limited by a lack of information. Given individually declared incomes, consumption levels and observed characteristics, combined with aggregate information from surveys and educated speculation, legislators and the treasury attempt to balance fairness against efficiency in the design of the tax system. The theory of optimal taxation aims to guide this process by offering general principles, logically combining our knowledge of the economy with our moral intuitions. One of the central questions is the optimization of joint tax systems, e.g. taxing couples or taxing labour and capital incomes, taking into account the multitude of simultaneous dimensions in which individuals can differ. My dissertation aims to contribute to our better understanding of this topic. The first chapter shows how the existence of persistent individual characteristics, such as innate abilities, that cause rates of return to savings to be heterogeneous, strengthens the case for a positive and progressive tax on capital income. The second chapter shows how normal returns to capital should be taxed separately from excess returns, balancing concerns about redistribution, insurance and efficiency against the uncertainty of government revenue. The final chapter proposes a method to study the optimization of multidimensional tax functions if individuals are truly heterogeneous, introducing a localized distributional characteristic that captures our moral intuitions, again balancing efficiency against equity concerns." OptiBIRTH "Koen Putman" "Interuniversity Centre For Health Economics Research, Medical Sociology" "Optimal, healthy pregnancy followed by normal birth is the ideal. Caesarean section (CS) doubles the risk of mortality and morbidity (hysterectomy, blood transfusion), and increases the risk of postnatal infection by 5, compared with vaginal birth (WHO Global Survey on Maternal and Perinatal Health). The European Perinatal Health Report (2008) notes ""widespread concern"" over rising CS rates, which vary from 15% in the Netherlands to 38% in Italy. Much of the rise is due to routine CS following previous CS, despite calls for increased vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC), which results in less mortality and morbidity and is the preferred option for the majority of women. VBAC rates in Ireland, Germany, and Italy are significantly lower (29-36%) than those in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland (45-55%), a difference that equates to 160,000 unnecessary CSs per annum in Europe, at an extra direct annual cost of EURO156m. Using a cluster randomised trial in Ireland, Germany and Italy, with 15 clusters of 94 women, the OptiBIRTH study will attempt to increase VBAC rates from 33 to 53% through increased women-centred care and women's involvement in their care, making savings of EURO2m for every 100,000 births in future. The intervention involves evidence-based education of women and clinicians, introduction of communities of practice (women and clinicians sharing knowledge), opinion leaders, audit and peer review of CSs in each site, and joint decision-making by women and clinicians. The experienced project team developed from an ESF-funded workshop ""Promoting Normality in Childbirth"" and a COST Action (IS0907: Creating a Dynamic EU Framework for Optimal Maternity Care), and includes 12 partners from 8 countries representing service users, midwifery, obstetrics, epidemiology, sociology, bioethics, health economics and industry (SME). The project, through meaningful patient centred care, will influence EU health policymaking, as advocated by the European Patients' Forum." "Reducing/adjusting painful management practices in piglets: an attempt to improve animal welfare and zootechnical results" "Rony Geers" "Bioengineering Technology, Geel Campus, Division Animal and Human Health Engineering" "In the pig industry, farmers always strive for optimal productions results. In order to obtain these results, they carry out several managementpractices on piglets like tail docking (to avoid tail biting; routinelyprohibited), teeth shortening (to avoid wounding to the udder of the sow or to litter mates; routinely prohibited), castration of male piglets (to avoid boar taint), All these procedures are however considered to be painful and therefore can also influence animal welfare and zootechnical results of the piglets. The aim of this thesis was to study the effects of reducing or adjusting these painful management practices on pigletwelfare and zootechnical results. In the society of today, animal welfare is gaining consumers interest and concern. Pigletcastration is a sensitive issue that has drawn the attention of the public as a result of animal welfare organizations campaigns. Therefore itis important to know consumers opinion on this topic. For that reason the opinion of Flemish consumers on unanesthetized piglet castration, and three possible alternatives is reported in the second chapter. A totalof 2018 people, spread over the 5 provinces, were questioned. The results showed that in spite of several media campaigns of animal welfare organizations over the past few years, still about half of the Flemish respondents were not aware of the problem of unanesthetized piglet castration. However, after being informed, the majority wanted unanesthetized castration to be banned. Although the concern about animal welfare implications was very high, the willingness to pay extra for alternatives was low, which might prevent the return of investment for the farmers since production costs will increase. Results of the second chapter demonstrated that castration under anesthesia was the most accepted alternative by Flemish consumers. Therefore castration under carbon dioxide (CO2) anesthesia was compared to unanesthetized castration in thethird chapter. No behavioral differences were found in piglets treated with CO2-anesthesia or zolazepam, tiletamine (Zoletil®) and xylazine (Xyl-M®), which is an indication that CO2 matches the anesthetic propertiesof the combination of Zoletil® and Xyl-M®. In the main experiment, observed differences in behavior were not conclusive. However, a difference in interactive behavior indicated a better state of welfare for the CO2-anesthetized castrated piglets compared to the unanesthetized castrated piglets. On the other hand, all barrows, including the anesthetized group, displayed behaviors indicative of pain or discomfort. Therefore, piglets may need to be provided with additional analgesia to eliminate the pain caused by castration even if they are anesthetized prior to castration. Castration is not the only event that may threaten piglets welfare. As mentioned before, piglets are subjected to several painful management practices, especially during their first week of life. In order to improve overall welfare, not only castration has to be dealt with, but painful management procedures in general. In the fourth chapter it was therefore investigated if reducing painful interventions during the first week of life resulted in better zootechnical performanceof the piglets, reduced piglet mortality and if the overall welfare, indicated by behavioral criteria, was improved. In 22 litters, all pigletswere weighed after birth. The four lightest piglets of each litter of the experimental group were not subjected to tail docking or teeth shortening, the other procedures (castration for the male piglets, iron injection, vaccination, ear tagging) were carried out as normal. The four lightest piglets of each litter of the control group did have their tails docked and teeth shortened, next to the other management procedures. All procedures were applied on the heavier piglets of both the control and the experimental group.The lightest piglets seemed to show less pain related behavior when their teeth and tail were left intact. Moreover,mortality rate tended to be lower when compared with the lightest piglets of the control group but further research specified on neonatal mortality would be useful. The objectives of the previous two chapters, reducing painful procedures and using anesthesia during these procedures, were combined in the fifth chapter. Two experiments, using 41 litters, were carried out. In the first experiment, all procedureswere performed on one moment in time in the experimental group while inthe control group procedures were carried out as normal (spread over the first week of life). In the second experiment, bundling of the procedures without anesthesia was compared to bundling the procedures after theanimals were anesthetized with CO2. Piglets seemed to cope better with pain if painful interventions were not combined. Moreover, the applied CO2-anesthesia had facilitated the pain experience after treatment, since lying, interactive and walking behavior indicated more discomfort for the anesthetized piglets. Anesthetized piglets had only anadvantage when considering nursing behavior. Although the beneficial effect of anesthesia during painful procedures is not really confirmed by the results, these results should be interpreted as a delayed pain experience for anesthetized piglets rather than an additional pain experience. As already found in chapter one CO2-anesthesia relieves the pain during the procedure, but not after the anesthesia has wore of.The post-operative pain may have been present in both treatments, but the absent pain experience during the procedures for piglets of the anesthetized group can still be interpreted as advantageous to piglet welfare.  The results of this thesis showed that public awareness on piglet castration was still low. On the other hand, when respondents were informed, they felt the need for alternatives was high. Castration under anesthesia was the most accepted alternative but willingness to pay an extra price to improve piglet welfare was low. Reducing painful procedures (tail docking and teeth clipping) improved animal welfare and survival rate to a certain extent. Adjusting the painful procedures by using CO2-anesthesia and/or bundling all procedures on one moment in time did not give clear results. Bundling of the procedures without anesthesia did not seem to benefit the piglets. Anesthesia with CO2 provides anesthesia and analgesia on the moment of the procedure, which improves animal welfare, but it wears off quickly resulting in postoperative pain. Further research could be useful to optimize the procedure, e.g. by providing additional analgesia for the postoperative pain.  "