Title Participants Abstract "Theology of Religions as a Process of Discernment: A Critical Appraisal of the Dialectical Tension between Jacques Dupuis' Theology of Religions and the Theology of Dominus Iesus." "William Odeke Owire" "The current theological scholarship on Jacques Dupuis' paradigm and Dominus Iesus concentrate either on a positive appraisal of their positions on the one hand, or on a critical assessment of certain aspects in them on the other hand. While acknowledging the contributions made by the existing corpus, my project seeks to go beyond the appreciators, faultfinders and one-sided approaches to both Dupuis' paradigm and the Declaration. The critical analysis of the dialectics between the two is undertaken in view of retrieving insights and attitudes for reorienting the discourse on the mystery of God, the Church's self-understanding and the practice of interreligious dialogue. The dissertation begins by presenting the historical-theological background and exploring the methodological approaches adopted by Dupuis and Dominus Iesus in approaching the question of religious pluralism. In this regard, Dupuis adopts a hermeneutical interreligious approach in which the first act is a serious praxis of interreligious dialogue, from which one turns to Christian revelation for direction and, then, back to praxis. On its part, Dominus Iesus espouses a deductive, syllogistic and neo-scholastic approach - a method which enters into a tensile encounter with theologies which take experiential realities as the point of departure. The author contends that the theological themes in the Dupuis and Dominus Iesus debate can adequately be addressed through the category of theological dialectics. These themes include the dialectics between (1) God's universal love and evangelization; (2) universality and particularity of divine revelation; (3) universality and particularity of salvation in Jesus Christ; and (4) universality of the Church's mediation and her setting within boundaries. The above themes which oscillate between the universal and the particular, call for dialectical reasoning owing to their paradoxical nature. Essentially, theological dialectics maintains the two poles of the paradox in a creative tension. It defies thinking which proceeds with precision and exactitude in favour of pendulation between the universal and particular poles of the dialectic. Dialectical reasoning is characterized by attributes of deliberation, conversation, relation, mediation, discernment and openness. It does not deal with static formulations. In the final analysis, after critically appraising Dupuis' paradigm and Dominus Iesus' teaching, I make a plea for a discerning Christian theology of religions. More precisely, he argues that contrary to one-sided emphases on either an apologetic Christian identity or uncritical openness to other religious and cultural traditions, a discerning hermeneutic in the theology of religions admits of a certain amenability to both approaches. In other words, he makes a case for a theological via media. In his view, to draw a bold line of distinction between doctrine and discernment, faith and life, Christian identity and relevance, truth and love, theory and praxis constitutes a false dilemma. It is not a question of either or but of both and. Moreover, he concludes that adequate analysis of the dialectics between Dupuis' paradigm of inclusive pluralism and Dominus Iesus' inclusivist view can serve as a creative locus theologicus. This is especially in providing theological insights and resources like paradox, analogy and dialectics. These resources are important in inspiring theological modesty in speaking about God, in ecclesiological discourse and in the practice of interreligious dialogue. By mediating the polarities of the paradox, theological dialectics helps to shutter the classical fortified distinctions, for example, between so-called liberal and conservative age-old tags. In its place, it fosters a hermeneutically nuanced dialectical way of theologizing." "Mystical theology and its relevance for today's theology" "Robert Faesen" "Although a convergence between theology and mystical literature can be observed in recent years, it is not always very clear what the relationship between the two is. That there has been a gap between the two, for several centuries, is obvious. A passage in Teresa of Avila's work is a sign of this, as are the difficulties the Jesuit Balthasar Alvarez encountered during his lifetime. However, there are older models-such as those by the twelfth-century Carthusian Guigo-in which there is an organic connection between the two. The cause of the problem may lie in a misunderstanding of the status of both, namely that the rational, investigative activity of theology on the one hand and the receptive surrender to God of mystical contemplation on the other are regarded as mutually exclusive. However, if one assumes, as John of Ruusbroec does, that the contemplative can be situated on the level of being, namely of the direct contact between God as Creator and the human person as creature, and not on the same ""level"" as the faculty of reason or intellect, then this misunderstanding disappears, and activity (including intellectual activity of theology) and contemplation can go together well. In particular, the model of the personal encounter between God and the human person can be helpful in this regard." "Smart casting of concrete structures by active rheology and stiffening control (ERC advanced grant project)" "Geert De Schutter" "Concrete production processes do not take fiill advantage of the rheological potential of ffesh cementitious materials, and are still largely labour-driven and sensitive to the human factor. The recently started ERC Advanced Grant project 'SmartCast' proposes a new concrete casting concept to transform the concrete industry into a higlily automated technological industry. Currently, the rheological properties of the concrete are defined by mix design and mixing procedure without any further active adjustment during casting. The goal of the 'SmartCast' project is the active control of concrete rheology during casting, and the active triggering of early stiffening of the concrete as soon as it is put in place. The ground-breaking idea to achieve this goal, is to develop concrete with actively controllable rheology by adding admixtures responsive to extemally activated electromagnetic frequencies. Inter-disciplinary insights are important to achieve these goals, including inputs from concrete technology, polymer Science, electrochemistry, rheology and computational fluid dynamics. In the short term, achieving the active control of the pumping slip layer will have an immediate impact on concrete industry, as this can be applied on pump trucks without interfering with the clements to be cast. In the longer term, making possible concrete casting with active control of flow and stiffening will be a totally new paradigm for concrete industry. Moving from ‘passively’ relying on evolving properties of ffesh concrete, to ‘actively’ controlling rheology and stiffening will revolutionize concrete industry and bring quality levels to higher standards. The developed active rheology control will also provide a fundamental basis for the development of future-proof 3D printing techniques in concrete industry. For society, it will mean more reliable construction, with less damage cases and less failures, while better preserving the environment (reduced carbon footprint, reduced noise and vibration levels, reduced exposure of technicians to safety and health risks)." "Responsive superplasticizers for active rheology control of cementitious materials" "Geert De Schutter, Metwally Muhammad, Karel Lesage, Richard Hoogenboom" "Actual concrete mixtures and casting processes do not enable on-demand real-time adjustment of the rheology of the fresh concrete, forcing operators to passively rely on the intrinsic evolution of the material properties during processing. Newly-developed functional polymers responsive to external electromagnetic trigger signals can be used as chemical admixtures in fresh cementitious materials to enable active rheology control (ARC) and active stiffening control (ASC) on demand. Polycarboxylate ether (PCE) based superplasticizers can be given extra functionalities by incorporating specific chemical groups. A TEMPO-based extension of PCE enables redox-controlled adsorption on cement particles, adjusting rheological properties. A DOPA-based extension of PCE in combination with magnetic nanoparticles enables magneto-rheological control. This paper presents the labora-tory proof of concept results and opens a ground-breaking route for on-demand adjustment of rheology of fresh concrete in the post-mixing stage." "Introduction to the concept of active rheology control in case of pumping of cementitious materials" "Geert De Schutter, Khadija El Cheikh, Robin De Schryver, Chizya Chibulu, Dengwu Jiao, Mert Yücel Yardimci, Karel Lesage" "In the framework of the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant Project ""Smartcast"", new ways are fundamentally studied to develop the concept of Active Rheology Control (ARC) and Active Stiffening Control (ASC) of fresh concrete. Concrete pumping control is a major potential application of active rheology control (ARC) of concrete. Actve control of the yield stress of the pumped material will lead to a control of the pressure losses in the pumping pipe, both in steady state (dynamic yield stress) or while resuming pumping after a standstill (static yield stress). Active control of the rheological properties of the pumped material, by way of controlling the relation between shear rates and shear stresses, will lead to a control of velocity profiles and discharge rates. Active rheology control can be achieved, e.g. by applying static or alternating magnetic fields on concrete containing magnetic particles. The paper introduces the basic concept, and shows some elements of the experimental setup currently used as a proof of concept. An operational control of concrete pumping operations by applying adequate and well-positioned external fields along the pumping pipe is a realistic option." "Effect of entrapped and entrained air on the workability and rheology of cementitious materials" "Jeroen Dils, Veerle Boel, Salima Aggoun, Abdelhak Kaci" "The influence of air on the fresh properties of cementitious materials is still a point of discussion in concrete research. On the one hand, fluctuations of entrapped air can change the predicted properties in an undesirable way. On the other hand, it is known that the addition of air entrainment changes the rheology significantly. A profound research on the impact of different methods to change the air content, is necessary. We investigated the influence of vacuum mixing and air entrainment on the workability of paste and mortar. For self-compacting mortar also the influence on the rheology was examined. For vibrated paste and self-compacting mortar a clear decrease of the workability is determined when air is added. This was also found for the rheology of self-compacting mortar. In case of vibrated mortar an overall increase of the workability occurred, when the air content increased. In conclusion, vacuum mixing can control the air content and changes the workability and rheology in an acceptable way. A more important change of the slump flow and, if determined, the rheology, is obtained by air entrainment. Further research should be performed on the influence of air on the worability and the rheology of ultra-high performance concrete." "Morphology, rheology and crystallization in relation to the viscosity ratio of Polystyrene/Polypropylene polymer blends" "Salim Hammami, Nadji Moulai-Mostefa, Pieter SAMYN, Mikhael Bechelany, Alain Dufresne, Ahmed Barhoum" "Microfibrillar and droplet morphology of polypropylene (PP) phase dispersed in polypropylene (PS) was fabricated by using melt-extrusion. This morphology was obtained by introducing isotactic PP (20 wt.%) with different viscosity in the PS matrix (80 wt.%). Furthermore, the rheological properties of the blend investigated as a function of the viscosity ratio K. The variations in blend morphology were related to crystallization, melting properties, and viscoelasticity. The blends with K >> 1 develop a fine morphology with PP microfibrils along the flow direction, while diameters of the dispersed PP droplets gradually increase with lower values of K = 1, or K 1), or matrix (K < 1). The variation in blend properties with microfibrillar morphology can be clearly distinguished from heterogeneous blends containing PP droplets, providing an efficient tool to create a binary blend with unique properties." "Rheology and microstructure of alkali-activated slag cements produced with silica fume activator" "Xiaodi Dai, Serdar Aydin, Mert Yücel Yardimci, Karel Lesage, Geert De Schutter" "The effects of silica fume and sodium silicate-based activators (SFA and SSA, respectively) with different Ms (SiO2/Na2O) values on the setting behavior, rheological, mechanical, and microstructural properties of alkaliactivated slag cement (AASC) were investigated. Setting time test results showed that the setting time of AASCs activated by SFA prolonged significantly with an increase of Ms value opposite to SSA activation case. From the rheological point of view, SFA-activated mixtures exhibited a slower structural build-up in the early stage and better workability retention than SSA-activated mixtures. In addition, SFA mixtures showed lower drying shrinkage and slightly higher mechanical properties as compared to SSA mixtures. Microstructure analysis revealed that the mixture produced by SFA with Ms value of 1.2 had less micro-cracks and a well-packed microstructure as compared to the mixtures produced by SSA. The overall evaluation of the test results revealed that SFA could be more economical and sustainable alternative to SSA with its lower cost, much lower CO2 emissions, and more favorable engineering properties." "Influence of entrapped air on the rheology of high performance mortar" "Jeroen Dils, Veerle Boel" "High performance mortars are an important evolution in concrete technology. Most of them are made selfconsolidating and attain a high compressive strength. They reduce the working time and increase the freedom of architects and engineers. In the last decades a lot of research is done to find the boundaries of this new type. Mixers equipped with a vacuum pump are a new way to improve the performance. A profound research is necessary, because little is known about this technique for air content reduction. Using a rheometer and simple workability tests we investigated the influence of a reduced air content on the fresh properties. This paper reports the effect of vacuum mixing on the slump flow, V-funnel, viscosity and yield value. For ultra-high performance mortar the workability and rheology decreases due to a reduced air content, while it increases for a standard self-consolidating mortar. A low significance level was found, especially for the viscosity and yield value, due to a high scatter. In conclusion, the air content can be controlled by vacuum mixing and the workability and rheology change in an acceptable way. This technique may have a more significant influence on other properties, because an important change in microstructure was found. Further research should be done in order to confirm this." "Rheology of nanocomposites Modelling and interpretation of nanofiller influence" "Christophe Block, Nick Watzeels" "In this study, a methodology is developed for the quantitative characterisation of the nanofiller network in polymer nanocomposites via dynamic rheometry. Nanoclay-reinforced poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) nanocomposites were prepared by melt mixing. Frequency sweep experiments in the melt state display at low frequencies a solid-like elastic response that can be attributed to the formation of a physical nanofiller network. Combining a semi empirical model and the time-temperature superposition principle permits a reliable determination of the zero shear modulus that characterises the solid-like response of nanocomposites at low frequency, and which is related to the nanofiller dispersion."