Titel Promotor Affiliaties "Korte inhoud" "Hydrogen diffusion and distribution in quenched and partitioned steels- Experiment and modelling" "Kim Verbeken" "Vakgroep Materialen, Textiel en Chemische Proceskunde" "geen abstract" "Een algemene wet die de diffusie van membraaneiwitten in vivo beschrijft op basis van monoliet tracking van membraaneiwitten in Escherichia Coli." "Johan Hofkens" "Moleculaire Visualisatie en Fotonica" "The ultimate goal of cell biology is to understand how proteins function in real cells and to understand their regulatory mechanisms. To achieve this goal one needs to analyze molecules in their cellular environment and not under idealized test tube conditions. A major difference between in vivo and in vitro conditions is the crowdedness (and associated molecular complexity) of the cytoplasm and biological membranes. As a consequence diffusion in this environment is significantly slower. To make biology more quantitative, we should measure the key parameters such as reaction rates and diffusion coefficients in vivo. Here, I propose an experimental set-up to measure the diffusion of membrane proteins in live bacterial cells. The main objective of this project is to establish a relationship between the diffusion coefficient and number of trans-membrane helices (radius in the membrane) of membrane proteins. The mobility of fluorescently labeled proteins will be probed at the single molecule level in the membranes of a model prokaryotic organism – Escherichia coli. Single molecule tracking of membrane proteins systematically increasing in size (radius in the membrane) will be implemented to obtain a general model of protein diffusion in the membranes. Assigning actual numbers to the parameters of a cell will provide a quantitative context for systems biology efforts and sharpen our understanding of how a cell works. By training-through-research, the fellowship will allow me to learn new techniques (single molecule tracking, programming) and how to build/align microscope set-ups. This will help me transform from a microscope user to a microscope constructor and vastly increase my potential as a cell biologist. In the international and interdisciplinary environment of the host group I will improve my ability to train and manage people, learn to translate my science, across disciplines, to a new audience and to translate fundamental research into industrial applications." "SMDNA.: Nieuwe methoden voor het onderzoek naar de diffusie van enzymen op individuele DNA moleculen." "Johan Hofkens" "Moleculaire Visualisatie en Fotonica" "Enzymen zijn, in het genoom van cellen, in staat om specifieke DNA sequenties te vinden tussen verschillende millioenen base-paren om dan aan deze sequencies specifiek te binden. Het doel van dit onderzoeksproject is om deze opmerkelijke prestatie mechanistisch te begrijpen. Dit zal gebeuren door middel van single molecule metingen van enzymen die diffunderen op individuele DNA ketens. Twee objectieven worden vooropgesteld. Een eerste objectief is na te gaan wat het effect is van de topologie van het DNA op de diffusie van de enzymen. DNA kan inderdaad verschillende topologien aannemen zoals bijvoorbeeld de zogenaamde supercoiled structuur waaronder men DNA aantreft in de celkern. Om deze studie aan te vatten zullen we DNA fluorescent merken. De studie van de diffusie van enzymen op verschillende topologien die DNA kan aannemen is essentieel om de te begrijpen hoe enzymen interageren met DNA. Het tweede objectief is om de relatie na te gaan tussen de structuur van de gebruikte enzymen en de manier waarop ze over DNA bewegen. Dit zal gebeuren door gebruik te maken van goed gekaraterizeerde enzymen en de directe visualizatie van hun beweging over individuele DNA ketens." "Doorbraken in kwantitatieve magnetische resonantie beeldvorming voor verbeterde detectie van hersenziekten (B-Q MINDED)." "Jan Sijbers" "Bio-imaging lab, Fysiofarmacologie (FYSFAR), Visielab" "Magnetische resonantie beeldvorming (MRI) is een van de meest bruikbare en snelgroeiende neuroimaging tools. Helaas worden signaalIntensiteiten in conventionele MRI-afbeeldingen uitgedrukt in relatieve eenheden die afhankelijk zijn van scannerhardware en acquisitie protocols. Hoewel dit de visuele inspectie van de anatomie niet belemmert, bemoeilijkt dit de kwantitatieve vergelijking van weefseleigenschappen binnen een scan, tussen opeenvolgende scans en tussen onderwerpen. Daartegenover maken geavanceerde kwantitatieve MRI (Q-MRI) -methoden zoals MR-relaxometrie of diffusie MRI een absolute kwantificering van biofysische weefselkarakteristieken mogelijk. De lange scantijd die vereist is voor Q-MRI veroorzaakt echter ongemak voor patiënten. B-Q MINDED is bedoeld om de huidige barrières te overwinnen door breed toepasbare doorbraken voor nabewerking voor te ontwikkelen Q-MRI versnellen. De originaliteit van B-Q MINDED ligt in de ambitie om de conventionele meerstapsverwerking te vervangen door een geïntegreerd parameterschattingsraamwerk. Deze aanpak zal een schat aan opties genereren voor Q-MRI. Om dit doel te bereiken, stelt B-Q MINDED een collaboratieve multidisciplinaire aanpak voor (van elementaire MR-fysica naar klinische toepassingen) met een sterke betrokkenheid van de industrie." "Onderzoek en training voor het paleis-museum van morgen." "Krista De Jonge" "Geschiedenis, Theorie en Kritiek van de Architectuur" "PALAMUSTO ETN, a network of leading European universities, heritage institutions and palace-museums, investigates the court residence or palace as a phenomenon of cultural exchange, not only in the past but also today and in the future. A new history of the palace is indeed needed in order to define its relevance for present-day Europe.The palace’s status as heritage, as prime touristic attraction and as part of the experience economy offers a continuous challenge to society in a global context, considering that the heritage industry is gradually replacing many traditional sectors of European economy. PALAMUSTO ETN offers multidisciplinary, trans-sectoral training to early career researchers who will become the first exponents of a new professional profile capable of meeting these challenges. Training through individual research on the palace, shored up by specific methodology modules, will run parallel with teaching the palace as heritage in all its complexity. PALAMUSTO researchers will learn to conserve, curate and manage the palace-museum on-site, interacting with professionals. They will learn to explain the palace’s societal relevance to all stakeholders and audiences engaged with this heritage.Together the PALAMUSTO researchers will establish a new history of the palace, based on the insight they gain in the material culture and architecture of the courts which constitute the case-studies of their doctoral research. They will map the patterns of diffusion of specified movable objects with representational value in the world of European courts, paying special attention to location and display; some of these define the palace as functional machine. In parallel, they will map specific representational architectural spaces of the palace, their functioning, placing, and routing to/from. The overlay of patterns of diffusion, realized through digital means based on a GIS platform, is expected to generate a new understanding of the court residence" "Golf-gebaseerde inspectie voor schade-evaluatie in structureel geavanceerde composieten." "Wim Desmet" "Mecha(tro)nische SysteemDynamica (LMSD)" "Guided waves are recognized as one of the most promising techniques for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), as they provide reliable, long-range and highly sensitive damage inspection capabilities. Progress in this field would be impactful to EU transportation, aerospace and offshore industries, where safety is crucial given the potential human, economic or environmental consequences of failures.Despite some encouraging applications to lightweight components, the implementation of SHM strategies in advanced structures remains challenging. Indeed, in order to combine high stiffness-to-weight ratio with vibro-acousticrequirements these structures frequently involve composites, dissipative materials or periodic patterns to produce desirable response within targeted bandwidths. These new lightweight designs also produce more complex propagative behaviours, such as mode conversions or Bragg resonances, which result in highly scattering waves and increased noise-to-signal ratios. To overcome these limitations, new studies must exploit the remarkable scattering properties of these waves.In this research, a numerical framework will be developed to predict and explore the physics of guided waves’ interaction with commonly encountered structural damages. These interactions, described by frequency-dependent ‘diffusion properties’ will allow the creation of an innovative feature-based characterization technique exploiting the wave conversion phenomenon.The outcomes of this project will result in a new type of wave-based SHM system able to cover the upcoming generation of lightweight components. Undertaking this research with two high-ranking representatives of their fields, along with formal training and mentoring activities will enhance the researcher’s academic profile and scientific experience. It will also provide him with an outstanding content expertise in wave-based methods, structural health monitoring and modelling of lightweight composites. " "Gebruik van vortexen om dispersie te onderdrukken en nieuwe scheidingsvermogensgrenzen te bereiken (EVODIS)" "Wim De Malsche" "Chemische Ingenieurstechnieken en Industriele Scheikunde" "The 21st century is expected to develop towards a society depending ever and ever more on (bio-)chemical measurements of fluids and matrices that are so complex they are well beyond the current analytical capabilities. Incremental improvements can no longer satisfy the current needs of e.g. the proteomics field, requiring the separation of tens of thousands of components. The pace of progress in these fields is therefore predominantly determined by that of analytical tools, whereby liquid chromatography is the most prominent technique to separate small molecules as well as macromolecules, based on differential interaction of each analyte with support structures giving it a unique migration velocity. To improve its performance, a faster transport between these structures needs to be generated. Unfortunately the commonly pursued strategy, relying on diffusion and reducing the structure size, has come to its limits due to practical limitations related to packing and fabrication of sub-micron support structures, pressure tolerance and viscous heating. A ground-breaking step to advance chromatographic performance to another level would be to accelerate mass transport in the lateral direction, beyond the rate of diffusion only. To meet this requirement, an array of microstructures and local electrodes can be defined to create lateral electroosmotic vortices in a pressure-driven column, aiming to accelerate the local mass transfer in an anisotropic fashion. The achievement of ordered arrays of vortices is intimately linked to this requirement, which is also of broader importance for mixing, anti-fouling of membrane and reactor surfaces, enhanced mass transfer in reactor channels, emulsification, etc. Understanding and implementing anisotropic vortex flows will therefore not only revolutionize analytical and preparative separation procedures, but will also be highly relevant in all flow systems that benefit from enhanced mass transfer." "Leren van innovatie in publieke sectoromgevingen." "Geert Bouckaert" "Instituut voor de Overheid (OE)" "The LIPSE project (Learning from Innovation in Public Sector Environments) identifies drivers and barriers to successful social innovation in the public sector. Through studying social innovation and co-creation practices and processes in 11 European countries and 7 policy sectors, LIPSE will create and disseminate essential knowledge about public innovation. The LIPSE consortium consists of leading institutions in 11 European countries. Seven empirical cross-national work packages will collect new insights on five building blocks of social innovation in the public sector:Innovation environmentsInnovation inputsInnovation tools and processesInnovation outcomes, diffusion and upscalingFeedback loops in innovative systemsThe project will firstly map institutional environments to study the role of social capital, innovation champions and leadership, using survey research and social network analysis.The project will then look at citizens’ inputs into public innovation processes through participation, complaints and co-creation. This will be achieved by:analysing secondary administrative datasets from ombudsmen and national audit officescase studies in social and welfare services and urban and rural regeneration andlarge scale survey research. It will then examine the use of risk management in innovation processes.A work package on innovation diffusion and adoption will assess what factors contribute to the successful upscaling of ICT-driven social innovations, with a focus on teleworking (as a new way of working) and e-procurement.Finally, the project will develop a comprehensive set of public sector social innovation indicators and explore future trends in social innovation through scenario-mapping with academic and practitioner experts. The dissemination of knowledge will be widespread, using websites, articles, books, road shows and conferences across Europe." "Het begrijpen en voorkomen van de impact van hormoonontregelaars op de hypothalamus-hypofyse-as bij gevoelige populaties" "Annick Bogaerts" "Vrouw en Kind, Stamcel- en Ontwikkelingsbiologie" "Exposure to multiple endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) is an environmental insult that interferes with the development and function of the endocrine system, governed by the hypothalamus-pituitary (HP) axis. This interaction is specially concerning in developmental stages of life, such as the perinatal period and puberty. Despite the current body of knowledge on EDC actions on the endocrine system, a comprehensive, holistic understanding of the impact on the HP axis is still lacking. HYPIEND aims to understand the effects of EDC co-exposure in the function and epigenetic programming of the HP axis to delineate interventional strategies for minimizing exposure and consequences on the neuroendocrine system during the perinatal and pre-pubertal stages. To do that, a computational toxicology methodological framework will be built leveraging public data and state of the art data analysis techniques to define EDC co-exposure patterns in target population. The resulting patterns will be evaluated in a sequential tiered approach consisting in cell-based screenings, Danio rerio models of HP axes, in vitro, in silico and in vivo models of placenta and blood brain barrier diffusion and new models of organoids-based organ-on-chip recapitulating the HP axis. EDC effects on epigenetic programming will be evaluated in preclinical models of perinatal and early childhood. Whole genome DNA methylation patterns in the different models will be explored as a source of non-invasive biomarkers of HP axis disruption by EDC. The knowledge generated in preclinical models will be applied in two multi-centre-controlled intervention studies intended to minimize exposure to EDC in children in the perinatal and pre-puberty stages. HYPIEND outcomes will be novel approach methodologies based in in vitro and in silico models, non-invasive biomarkers of HP disruption by EDC and new intervention strategies to minimize EDC exposure in sensitive population." "Nepnieuws risicobeperker" "Online social networks, news media and web platforms are the way contemporary societies operate for communication, information exchange, business, co-creation, learning and knowledge acquisition . However, the veracity of information circulating in the digital world is often in dispute. Indeed, disinformation and fake news (D&FN) increasingly affect and distort public opinion. National governments and supranational institutions recognize the spread of D&FN as a pernicious social problem. Indeed, the diffusion online of D&FN may have severe consequences. First, the spread of D&FN might infuse uncertainty and fear, intensify the crisis situations, weaken the European societies aggravating their divisions. In turn, the increase in divisions and fear leads to episodes of physical violence offline and other hate crimes. As such, D&FN have the power to polarise public debates and put the health, security, and environment of EU citizens at risk. Finally, the use of fake accounts, the involvement of AI-generated fake content and the use of bots that can spread D&FN at scale pose additional problems. FERMI will exploit a holistic and cross-disciplinary methodology towards a framework that will thoroughly analyse D&FN and their sources, in combination with all the socioeconomic factors that may affect both the spreading of such incidents and their effects on multiple dimensions of society. Comprising a set of innovative technological developments, FERMI will facilitate EU Police Authorities to detect and monitor the way that D&FN spread, both in terms of locations and within different segments of the society, and to put in place relevant security countermeasures; it will produce and diffuse tailor-made training material designed for i) European Police Authorities, ii) other professionals and stakeholders, iii) EU citizens for combating the spread and limiting the impact of D&FN and increasing digital trust."