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Genetic relatedness figures heavily in contemporary ethical debates on egg freezing, although the arguments lack empirical‐based evidence. Rather than adding another theoretical view on the moral relevance of genetic connections, this paper instead proposes an empirically grounded perspective based on two independent qualitative interview‐based studies conducted in Belgium and France. Three themes emerge from our empirical data: (1) prioritizing family building; (2) centering the gestational experience of motherhood; and (3) identifying the complexities and limitations of adoption. These themes suggest that the relationship between egg freezing, genetics, biological motherhood, and adoption is highly complex and less straightforward than what is often assumed in the egg freezing debate. Our study provides more detailed insights into women's ambivalent experiences regarding those reproductive options. We discuss the ethical implications of our empirical findings and hold that pursuing genetic desire is not necessarily the main moral reason why women freeze their eggs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Compassionate communities have been put forward as a promising model for community-based support for people facing serious illness, caregiving, dying, and loss. In particular, educational institutions are increasingly acknowledged as potential settings to function as compassionate schools and compassionate workplaces, cultivating acceptance and validation of these experiences beyond the university setting. Objectives: This paper investigates the activities and outcomes of a compassionate community initiative—the Compassionate University program at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium. Design: Ripple Effects Mapping was used to guide the focus group and individual interviews conducted with core team members responsible for the development and implementation of the Compassionate University program. Methods: During the focus group and individual interviews, the core team members reflected on the program contributions, with their narratives visually depicted via a hand-drawn mind map. Qualitative data derived from this mind map were entered into XMIND mapping software and fine-tuned based on the focus group and individual interview transcripts and additional project records. Results: Thematic analysis identified four outcome areas that encapsulate the key contributions of the Compassionate University program: (i) increased acceptance and integration of topics such as serious illness, death, and bereavement into existing practices; (ii) broader support for and formalization of compassionate procedures and policies; (iii) emergence of informal networks and internal collaboration on the topics; and (iv) diffusion of compassionate ideas beyond the university. Conclusion: The Compassionate University program facilitates a cultural shift within the university environment, fostering greater acceptance of integrating topics such as serious illness, death, and bereavement into existing practices. Additionally, compassionate procedures and policies for students and staff have been formalized, and core team members are increasingly called upon to provide support on these matters. Notably, Compassionate University stands out as one of the pioneering initiatives in Europe, attracting different educational institutions seeking guidance on cultivating a more compassionate environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The assessment of primary care organizations is considered to be essential for improving care. However, the assessments' acceptability to professionals poses a challenge. Developing assessment programmes in collaboration with the end-users is a strategy that is widely encouraged to make interventions better targeted. By doing so, it can help to prevent resistance and encourage adherence to the assessment. This process, however, is rarely reported. This paper aims to fill this gap by describing the process of the co-production of an assessment programme for community health centres (CHCs) affiliated to the Federation of Community Health Centres (FCHC) in French-speaking Belgium. Methods: We conducted a documentary study on the co-production of the assessment programme before carrying out semi-structured interviews with the stakeholders involved in its development. Results: CHCs in French-speaking Belgium are increasing in number and are becoming more diverse. For the FCHC, this growth and diversification pose challenges for the meaning of CHC (an identity challenge) and what beneficiaries can expect in terms of the quality of organizations declaring themselves CHC (a quality challenge). Faced with this double challenge, the FCHC decided to develop an assessment programme, initially called Label, using participatory action research. During the co-production process, this initial programme version was abandoned in favour of a new name "DEQuaP". This new name embodies new objectives and new design regarding the assessment programme. When studying the co-production process, we attributed these changes to two controversies. The first concerns how much and which type of variety is desired among CHCs part of the FCHC. The second concerns the organization of the FCHC in its capacity as a federation. It shed light on tensions between two professional segments that, in this paper, we called "political professionalism" and "pragmatic professionalism". Conclusions: These controversies show the importance of underlying challenges behind the development of an assessment programme for CHCs. This provided information about the evolution of the identity of multidisciplinary organizations in primary care. Issues raised in the development of this assessment programme also show the importance of considering assessment methods that reflect and embody the current realities of these organizations and the way of developing these assessment methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to parenthood exacerbates gender inequality in couples' division of paid work. While this is widely documented for general populations, in particular, potential underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon remain un(der)explored for couples with different migration backgrounds. Hence, this paper examines how women's pre-birth relative wage potential affects the gender division of paid work after the transition to parenthood in Belgium among native, Southern-European and non-European origin couples. Our results show that, among all couples, the division of paid work is more gender-equal after childbirth when women's wage potential is higher than or similar to that of their male partner. However, there is substantial variation by couples' migration background and relative wage potential in partners' gender division of paid work and the extent to which it changes after parenthood. These findings suggest that both normative and institutional factors moderate the impact of partners' relative resources on couples' division of paid work after parenthood, particularly among non-European origin couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic immensely impacted care provision, including quality of care in general practice. This paper aimed: (1) to assess how Belgian general practices acted upon the six dimensions of quality of care during COVID-19; (2) to study differences between the three Belgian regions; and (3) to benchmark the performance of the Belgian practices against the performance in other European countries. Methods: The data collected from 479 Belgian practices during 2020–2021 using an online survey as part of the international cross-sectional PRICOV-19 study were analyzed. Hereby, descriptive statistics, chi-squared tests, and binary logistic regression analyses were performed. Thirty-four survey questions related to the six dimensions of quality of care were selected as outcome variables. The adjusted regression models included four practice characteristics as covariates: practice type, being a teaching practice for GP trainees, multidisciplinarity of the team, and payment system. Results: Belgian practices made important organizational changes to deliver high-quality care during COVID-19. Most practices (n = 259; 56.1%) actively reached out to vulnerable patients. Limitations to the practice building or infrastructure threatened high-quality care in 266 practices (55.5%). Infection prevention measures could not always be implemented during COVID-19, such as using a cleaning protocol (n = 265; 57.2%) and providing a separate doctor bag for infection-related home visits (n = 130; 27.9%). Three hundred and sixty practices (82.0%) reported at least one safety incident related to a delayed care process in patients with an urgent condition. The adjusted regression analysis showed limited significant differences between the Belgian regions regarding the quality of care delivered. Belgian practices demonstrated varied performance compared to other European countries. For example, they excelled in always checking the feasibility of isolation at home but reported more patient safety incidents related to timely care than at least three-quarters of the other European countries. Conclusions: Future studies using different design methods are crucial to investigate which country and practice characteristics are associated with delivering high-quality care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a growing policy interest in establishing connections between heritage and education. Nevertheless, there seems to be very little evaluation or critical reflection on what actually happens in practice, and it remains unclear how heritage education is employed in countries throughout Europe. The aim of this paper is to assess the current status of heritage education in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium) via a literature review and an exploratory case study. The perceptions and opinions of pre-service teachers (n = 17) were investigated using three instruments: a questionnaire, document analysis, and the think aloud method. The results show that the pre-service teachers had a traditional interpretation of heritage, mainly relying on well-known and monumental examples and following a rather historical–artistic conception. However, it was found that their opinions were positive towards the use of heritage as an educational resource, and their evaluations of educational materials from the heritage and museum sector provided detailed information concerning teachers' desires and needs in this regard. The implications of this study should encourage initial teacher training in Flanders to further consider the epistemological and methodological challenges in the emerging field of heritage education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development in the field of energy and the growing demand for sustainable energy, gas–electric integrated energy systems are attracting attention as an emerging energy supply method. At the same time, with the deep application of information technology, the cyber–physical interactions of gas–electric integrated energy systems are increasingly enhanced. To this end, first, the reliability assessment indices of a gas–electric integrated energy system, which comprehensively considers the interactions between cyber–physical and different energy sources, are established in this paper to quantitatively assess the reliability level of the system under different fault and failure conditions. Second, to solve the reliability optimization problem, a comprehensive reliability enhancement optimization model is constructed in this paper, which targets the sum of the total penalties of the failure rate and average repair time modification. The impact of the cyber systems on the gas–electric integrated energy systems is transformed into a modification of the failure rate and the average repair time, and the model is solved by an adaptive Gaussian particle swarm optimization algorithm. Finally, the applicability and superiority of the adaptive Gaussian particle swarm optimization algorithm to the reliability optimization of the gas–electricity integrated energy system are verified by conducting simulation tests on the gas–electricity integrated energy system coupled with an 8-node distribution system and the 11-node natural gas system in Belgium. Furthermore, the effects of cyber systems and cyber-attacks on system reliability optimization are also analyzed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and the rationality of the newly defined reliability indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal processes represent a significant fraction of industrial energy consumptions, and they rely mainly on fossil fuels. Thanks to technological innovation, highly efficient devices such as high-temperature heat pumps are becoming a promising solution for the electrification of industrial heat. These technologies allow for recovering waste heat sources and upgrading them at temperatures up to 200 °C. Moreover, the coupling of these devices with thermal storage units can unlock the flexibility potential deriving from the industrial sector electrification by means of Demand-Side Management strategies. The aim of this paper is to quantify the impact on the energy system due to the integration of industrial high-temperature heat pumps and thermal storage units by means of a detailed demand–supply model. To do that, the industrial heat demand is investigated through a set of thermal process archetypes. High-temperature heat pumps and thermal storage units for industrial use are included in the open-source unit commitment and optimal dispatch model Dispa-SET used for the representation of the energy system. The case study analyzed is Belgium, and the analysis is performed for different renewable penetration scenarios in 2040 and 2050. The results demonstrate the importance of a proper sizing of the heat pump and thermal storage capacity. Furthermore, it is obtained that the electrification of the thermal demand of industrial processes improves the environmental impact (84% reduction in CO2 emissions), but the positive effect of the energy flexibility provided by the heat pumps is appreciated only in the presence of a very high penetration of renewable energy sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Non-communicable diseases, such as arterial hypertension (HTN) and type-2 diabetes (T2D), pose a global public health problem. Integrated care with focus on person-centred principles aims to enhance healthcare quality and access. Previous qualitative research has identified facilitators and barriers for scaling-up integrated care, however the lack of standardized terms and measures hinder cross-country comparisons. This paper addresses these gaps by presenting a generic codebook for qualitative research on integrated care implementation for HTN and T2D. Description: The codebook serves as a tool for deductive or deductive-inductive qualitative analysis, organizing concepts and themes from qualitative data. It consists of nine first level and 39 second level themes. First level codes cover core issues; and second level codes provide detailed insights into facilitators and barriers. Discussion: This codebook is more widely applicable than previously developed tools because it includes a broader scope of stakeholders across micro, meso, and macro levels, and the themes being derived from highly diverse health systems across highand low-income countries. Conclusion: The codebook is a useful tool for implementation research on integrated care for HTN and T2D at global scale. It facilitates cross-country learning, contributing to improved implementation, scale-up and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The i-DREAMS project established a 'Safety Tolerance Zone (STZ)' to maintain operators within safe boundaries through real-time and post-trip interventions, based on the crucial role of the human element in driving behavior. This paper aims to model the inter-relationship among driving task complexity, operator and vehicle coping capacity, and crash risk. Towards that aim, data from 80 drivers, who participated in a naturalistic driving experiment carried out in three countries (i.e., Belgium, Germany, and Portugal), resulting in a dataset of approximately 19,000 trips were collected and analyzed. The exploratory analysis included the development of Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) and the choice of the most appropriate variables associated with the latent variables "task complexity" and "coping capacity" that are to be estimated from the various indicators. In addition, Structural Equation Models (SEMs) were used to explore how the model variables were interrelated, allowing for both direct and indirect relationships to be modeled. Comparisons on the performance of such models, as well as a discussion on behaviors and driving patterns across different countries and transport modes, were also provided. The findings revealed a positive relationship between task complexity and coping capacity, indicating that as the difficulty of the driving task increased, the driver's coping capacity increased accordingly, (i.e., higher ability to manage and adapt to the challenges posed by more complex tasks). The integrated treatment of task complexity, coping capacity, and risk can improve the behavior and safety of all travelers, through the unobtrusive and seamless monitoring of behavior. Thus, authorities should utilize a data system oriented towards collecting key driving insights on population level to plan mobility and safety interventions, develop incentives for road users, optimize enforcement, and enhance community building for safe traveling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Cancer causes a substantial burden to our society, both from a health and an economic perspective. To improve cancer patient outcomes and lower society expenses, early diagnosis and timely treatment are essential. The recent COVID-19 crisis has disrupted the care trajectory of cancer patients, which may affect their prognosis in a potentially negative way. The purpose of this paper is to present a flexible decision-analytic Markov model methodology allowing the evaluation of the impact of delayed cancer care caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium which can be used by researchers to respond to diverse research questions in a variety of disruptive events, contexts and settings. Methods: A decision-analytic Markov model was developed for 4 selected cancer types (i.e. breast, colorectal, lung, and head and neck), comparing the estimated costs and quality-adjusted life year losses between the pre-COVID-19 situation and the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium. Input parameters were derived from published studies (transition probabilities, utilities and indirect costs) and administrative databases (epidemiological data and direct medical costs). One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses are proposed to consider uncertainty in the input parameters and to assess the robustness of the model's results. Scenario analyses are suggested to evaluate methodological and structural assumptions. Discussion: The results that such decision-analytic Markov model can provide are of interest to decision makers because they help them to effectively allocate resources to improve the health outcomes of cancer patients and to reduce the costs of care for both patients and healthcare systems. Our study provides insights into methodological aspects of conducting a health economic evaluation of cancer care and COVID-19 including insights on cancer type selection, the elaboration of a Markov model, data inputs and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Belgium, the Planning Commission for Medical Supply is responsible for monitoring human resources for health (HRH) and ultimately proposing workforce quotas. It is supported by the Planning Unit for the Supply of the Health Professions. This Unit quantifies and forecasts the workforce in the healthcare professions on the basis of a stock and flow model, based on trends observed in the past. In 2019, the Planning Unit asked the KCE (Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre) to develop additional forecasting scenarios for the midwifery workforce, to complement the standard historical trend approach. The aim of this paper is to present the development of such forecasting scenarios. Methods: The Robust Workforce Planning Framework, developed by the Centre for Workforce Intelligence in the UK was used to develop alternative midwifery workforce scenarios. The framework consists of four steps (Horizon scanning, Scenario generation, Workforce modelling, and Policy analysis), the first two of which were undertaken by KCE, using two online surveys and five workshops with stakeholders. Results: Three alternative scenarios are proposed. The first scenario (close to the current situation) envisages pregnancy and maternity care centred on gynaecologists working either in a hospital or in private practice. The second scenario describes an organisation of midwife-led care in hospitals. In the third scenario, care is primarily organised by primary care practitioners (midwives and general practitioners) in outpatient settings. Conclusions: The Robust Workforce Planning Framework provides an opportunity to adjust the modelling of the health workforce and inform decision-makers about the impact of their future decisions on the health workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To review the prevalence of loneliness (during/after COVID-19) in older people. Design. Scoping review using Medline and PsycInfo for worldwide prevalence estimates (white published literature search) and Google for prevalence data inside the Euregio Meuse-Rhine (grey literature). Setting. Worldwide prevalence estimates and a focus on the Euregio Meuse-Rhine. Participants. Papers published between 2016 and 2022 and a mean age of minimum of 65 years. Measurements. Prevalence estimates for older people. Results. The white literature search yielded 37 articles. Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness estimates were the highest in Nigeria (46%) and the lowest in Australia (5%) (mean prevalence was 25.6%). Loneliness was reported to be higher in specific populations, for example, people living in specific communities such as senior housing communities or with impairments, than in the general population, with a mean prevalence estimate of 47.8%. During COVID-19, the prevalence of loneliness was higher than that before the pandemic: we observed a mean prevalence of 39.4%, in comparison to 25.6 before COVID-19. The grey literature search showed that, compared to Belgium and the Netherlands (13.5% and 36.5%, respectively), loneliness estimates were the lowest in Germany, with a mean prevalence of 7.7%. Conclusion. Large international differences in the prevalence of loneliness were observed between countries and populations studied. Several hypotheses could explain such differences, including sociocultural or historical-political characteristics. Without surprise, the pandemic and associated measures were linked to a higher level of loneliness. Furthermore, recommendations for addressing loneliness, including interventions, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we revisit this well‐established linear relationship of person‐organisation, demands‐abilities, and needs‐supply fit with job satisfaction, commitment, and OCBs, and propose that this relationship may be linear for affective work outcomes but curvilinear for behavioural ones. We test this idea in a two‐wave sample of 212 employees, with measures taken 4 weeks apart. The results support the idea that the relationship between fit and behavioural outcomes can, indeed, be curvilinear. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the nature of the relationship between fit and work outcomes by challenging the long‐held 'more fit is better' logic that pervades much of the PE fit research to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript explores the potential of macro-X-ray fluorescence (MA-XRF) for the non-invasive analysis of heritage textiles. XRF, especially with the portable instruments, is a well-known technique for the non-destructive examination of various cultural heritage objects. It allows analysis of elemental composition based on single-point measurements. However, large, or complex textiles require numerous analysis points to identify the materials used and correctly interpret the spectra. MA-XRF takes this type of research to the next level, as it is possible to visualise the element distribution over an entire mapped area. In this paper, we discuss the application of this technique to the study of complex and multi-layered textile objects from exceptional Belgian heritage collections, including two mitres attributed to Bishop Jacques de Vitry, dating between twelfth and thirteenth century, and two of the seven extremely fine medieval reliquary purses from Namur. These are very fragile, richly decorated textile objects whose current state of preservation is a major impediment to sampling. MA-XRF mapping was applied for the identification of the elements of different materials in a non-invasive manner, including metal threads, ink, dyes, and various materials used in illuminations. In addition to material identification, stratigraphic information was obtained from the visualisation of element distributions, and hidden structural details were discovered. MA-XRF was also tested on some areas with more relief, such as the embroidery and braid made with metal threads, and the undulated multi-layered structure of the parchment mitre. Even though the analyses here could not be carried out in optimal conditions, these locations could also be analysed, albeit at a lower resolution. Finally, the technique proved very effective as a tool for screening, allowing samples to be taken at a more informative and representative location and minimising sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two common challenges in analyzing spatial epidemiological data, specifically disease incidence rates recorded over small areas: filtering noise caused by small local population sizes and deriving estimates at different spatial scales. Geostatistical techniques, including Poisson kriging (PK), have been used to address these issues by accounting for spatial correlation patterns and neighboring observations in smoothing and changing spatial support. However, PK has a limitation in that it can generate unrealistic rates that are either negative or greater than 100%. To overcome this limitation, an alternative method that relies on soft indicator kriging (IK) is presented. The performance of this method is compared to PK using daily COVID-19 incidence rates recorded in 2020–2021 for each of the 581 municipalities in Belgium. Both approaches are used to derive noise-filtered incidence rates for four different dates of the pandemic at the municipality level and at the nodes of a 1 km spacing grid covering the country. The IK approach has several attractive features: (1) the lack of negative kriging estimates, (2) the smaller smoothing effect, and (3) the better agreement with observed municipality-level rates after aggregation, in particular when the original rate was zero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geodetic-grade Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers designed to implement permanent stations represent the most complex and costly technology in the field of GNSS instrumentation. On the other hand, a large number of innovative applications, highly demanding in terms of positioning precision and accuracy, is pushing the implementation of networks of permanent stations with a higher and higher spatial density. In this scenario, the development of brand new GNSS reference stations, which combine the most advanced technologies in the field of data availability and integrity together with reduced costs (of instrumentation, installation and management) is becoming of paramount importance. For this reason, in 2019 the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) has financed a research project, called "next Generation gnss REference stATion—GREAT", aimed at developing and demonstrating the potentiality of a brand new GNSS receiver suitable to implement permanent stations. This paper describes the solution developed by the project consortium, composed of four Small or Medium Enterprises (SMEs) based in Italy, France and Belgium, and the preliminary results achieved in the field tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing volume of collected Earth observation (EO) data, artificial intelligence (AI) methods have become state-of-the-art in processing and analyzing them. However, there is still a lack of high-quality, large-scale EO datasets for training robust networks. This paper presents AgriSen-COG, a large-scale benchmark dataset for crop type mapping based on Sentinel-2 data. AgriSen-COG deals with the challenges of remote sensing (RS) datasets. First, it includes data from five different European countries (Austria, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, and the Netherlands), targeting the problem of domain adaptation. Second, it is multitemporal and multiyear (2019–2020), therefore enabling analysis based on the growth of crops in time and yearly variability. Third, AgriSen-COG includes an anomaly detection preprocessing step, which reduces the amount of mislabeled information. AgriSen-COG comprises 6,972,485 parcels, making it the most extensive available dataset for crop type mapping. It includes two types of data: pixel-level data and parcel aggregated information. By carrying this out, we target two computer vision (CV) problems: semantic segmentation and classification. To establish the validity of the proposed dataset, we conducted several experiments using state-of-the-art deep-learning models for temporal semantic segmentation with pixel-level data (U-Net and ConvStar networks) and time-series classification with parcel aggregated information (LSTM, Transformer, TempCNN networks). The most popular models (U-Net and LSTM) achieve the best performance in the Belgium region, with a weighted F1 score of 0.956 (U-Net) and 0.918 (LSTM).The proposed data are distributed as a cloud-optimized GeoTIFF (COG), together with a SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC), which makes AgriSen-COG a findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were adopted in Belgium in order to decrease social interactions between people and as such decrease viral transmission of SARS-CoV-2. With the aim to better evaluate the impact of NPIs on the evolution of the pandemic, an estimation of social contact patterns during the pandemic is needed when social contact patterns are not available yet in real time. Methods: In this paper we use a model-based approach allowing for time varying effects to evaluate whether mobility and pre-pandemic social contact patterns can be used to predict the social contact patterns observed during the COVID-19 pandemic between November 11, 2020 and July 4, 2022. Results: We found that location-specific pre-pandemic social contact patterns are good indicators for estimating social contact patterns during the pandemic. However, the relationship between both changes with time. Considering a proxy for mobility, namely the change in the number of visitors to transit stations, in interaction with pre-pandemic contacts does not explain the time-varying nature of this relationship well. Conclusion: In a situation where data from social contact surveys conducted during the pandemic are not yet available, the use of a linear combination of pre-pandemic social contact patterns could prove valuable. However, translating the NPIs at a given time into appropriate coefficients remains the main challenge of such an approach. In this respect, the assumption that the time variation of the coefficients can somehow be related to aggregated mobility data seems unacceptable during our study period for estimating the number of contacts at a given time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution addresses the federal architecture of Belgium to understand its core functioning elements with regard to the country's climate change governance. For several historic, cultural and political reasons, Belgium bears a heavily decentralised institutional and organisational setup, which, however, provides for several drawbacks when addressing face-offs and cross-cutting policy issues such as climate change. The compartmentalised allocation of powers and the intergovernmental conflicts arising as a result of diverging political stances at different levels of government towards climate action have led to several policy failures. This paper will thus first outline the complex governance structure of the Belgian federal state. While doing so, it will also underscore key formal and informal features underpinning policymaking in Belgium, which are of utmost relevance for climate policy. Next, it will chart such governance structure within the specific context of climate action in Belgium. Last, it will display some examples of climate policy failures to unfold how different tenets of the Belgian system interplay with climate change planning and policy implementation. Notably, Belgium displays an example of how decentralisation could be put at odds with the effective development and implementation of climate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linguistic time-series forecasting model (LTS-FM), which has been recently proposed, uses linguistic words of linguistic variable domains generated by hedge algebras (HAs) to describe historical numeric time-series data. Then, the LTS-FM was established by utilizing real numeric semantics of words induced by the fuzziness parameter values (FPVs) of HAs. In the existing LTS-FMs, just the FPVs of HAs are optimized, while the used word set is still chosen by human experts. This paper proposes a co-optimization method of selecting the optimal used word set that best describes numeric time-series data in parallel with choosing the best FPVs of HAs to improve the accuracy of LTS-FMs by utilizing particle swarm optimization (PSO). In this co-optimization method, the outer loop optimizes the FPVs of HAs, while the inner loop optimizes the used word set. The experimental results on three datasets, i.e., the "enrollments of the University of Alabama" (EUA), the "killed in car road accidents in Belgium" (CAB), and the "spot gold in Turkey" (SGT), showed that our proposed forecasting model outperformed the existing forecasting models in terms of forecast accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Big data research requires public support. It has been argued that this can be achieved by public involvement and engagement to ensure that public views are at the centre of research projects. Researchers should aim to include diverse communities, including seldom‐heard voices, to ensure that a range of voices are heard and that research is meaningful to them. Objective: We explored how researchers involve and engage seldom‐heard communities around big data research. Methods: This is a qualitative study. Researchers who had experience of involving or engaging seldom‐heard communities in big data research were recruited. They were based in England (n = 5), Scotland (n = 4), Belgium (n = 2) and Canada (n = 1). Twelve semistructured interviews were conducted on Zoom. All interviews were audio‐recorded and transcribed, and we used reflexive thematic analysis to analyse participants' experiences. Results: The analysis highlighted the complexity of involving and engaging seldom‐heard communities around big data research. Four themes were developed to represent participants' experiences: (1) abstraction and complexity of big data, (2) one size does not fit all, (3) working in partnership and (4) empowering the public contribution. Conclusion: The study offers researchers a better understanding of how to involve and engage seldom‐heard communities in a meaningful way around big data research. There is no one right approach, with involvement and engagement activities required to be project‐specific and dependent on the public contributors, researchers' needs, resources and time available. Patient and Public Involvement: Two public contributors are authors of the paper and they were involved in the study design, analysis and writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transportation networks are used in many application areas, like traffic control or river monitoring. For this purpose, sensors are placed in strategic points in the network and they send their data to a central location for storage, viewing and analysis. Recent work proposed graph databases to represent transportation networks, since these networks can change over time, a temporal graph data model is required to keep track of these changes. In this model, time-series data are represented as properties of nodes in the network, and nodes and edges are timestamped with their validity intervals. In this paper, we show that transportation networks can be represented and queried using temporal graph databases and temporal graph query languages. Many interesting situations can be captured by the temporal paths supported by this model. To achieve the above, we extend a recently introduced temporal graph data model and its high-level query language T-GQL to support time series in the nodes of the graph, redefine temporal paths and study and implement new kinds of paths, namely Flow paths and Backwards Flow paths. Further, we analyze a real-world case, using a portion of the Yser river in the Flanders' river system in Belgium, where some nodes are equipped with sensors while other ones are not. We model this river as a temporal graph, implement it using real data provided by the sensors, and discover interesting temporal paths based on the electric conductivity parameter, that can be used in a decision support environment, by experts for analyzing water quality across time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fixed wireless access (FWA) provides a solution to compete with fiber deployment while offering reduced costs by using the mmWave bands, including the unlicensed 60 GHz one. This paper evaluates the deployment of FWA networks in the 60 GHz band in realistic urban and rural environment in Belgium. We developed a network planning tool that includes novel backhaul based on the IEEE 802.11ay standard with multi-objective capabilities to maximise the user coverage, providing at least 1 Gbps of bit rate while minimising the required network infrastructure. We evaluate diverse serving node locations, called edge nodes (EN), and the impact of environmental factors such as rain and vegetation on the network design. Extensive simulation results show that defining a proper EN's location is essential to achieve viable user coverage higher than 95%, particularly in urban scenarios where street canyons affect propagation. Rural scenarios require nearly 75 ENs per km 2 while urban scenarios require four times (300 ENs per km 2 ) this infrastructure. Finally, vegetation can reduce the coverage by 3% or increment infrastructure up to 7%, while heavy rain can reduce coverage by 5% or increment infrastructure by 15%, depending on the node deployment strategy implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. Aging is a growing public health concern for people, organizations, and governments. The current study was undertaken to provide insights into the global research output on geriatric nursing. Methods. A bibliometric study was implemented using the WoS database for the period from 1900 to 2020. Various tools and measures were used to analyze and visualized. Results. The search strategy found 4923 papers. The oldest paper was written by Beverly C. Andre in 1953. As team size increases, so does the number of citations. The USA was the active country and the highest number of coauthors. New York University was an active institution. Stig Karlsson was the most active author in Geriatric Nursing with 28 articles from Sweden, followed by Koen Milisen and Sandman, with 26 articles each from Sweden and Belgium. The most frequent words in this field were depression, malnutrition, education, Alzheimer's disease, and dementia. The latest research themes in this field were COVID-19, interprofessional locomotive syndrome, emergency nursing, and public health. The most influential papers were specified. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society was the most active journal. Conclusions. Geriatric nursing is a rooted field and has received special attention in the last decade. Policymakers, especially in developing countries, should pay attention to geriatric nursing as a specialty of nursing to solve aging issues they would face considering the increasing elderly population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to examine methanol as a new aging marker of insulating paper. An analytical GC-MS method coupled to headspace injection was developed, followed by a validation. To further validate the possible applicability of methanol for different transformer conditions some laboratory studies were performed such as a stability and an aging test. Oil samples of power transformers of several Belgian nuclear and coal-fired power plants have been analyzed since mid 2009 and are followed-up periodically to correlate the results with the analysis of the furanic compounds which have been used since mid 1980s as oil soluble degradation products of the insulating winding paper. It seemed that while no 2FAL was present some considerable amount of MeOH was detected which revealed some paper degradation. A second real case study was started to further correlate MeOH and 2FAL results. From these laboratory and real case studies it seemed that MeOH is a very promising marker for paper degradation in power transformers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archived seismograms recorded in the 20th century present a valuable source of information for monitoring earthquake activity. However, old data, which are only available as scanned paper-based images should be digitised and converted from raster to vector format prior to reuse for geophysical modelling. Seismograms have special characteristics and specific featuresrecorded by a seismometer and encrypted in the images: signal trace lines, minute time gaps, timing and wave amplitudes. This information should be recognised and interpreted automatically when processing archives of seismograms containing large collections of data. The objective was to automatically digitise historical seismograms obtained from the archives of the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB). The images were originallyrecorded by the Galitzine seismometer in 1954 in Uccle seismic station, Belgium. A dataset included 145 TIFF images which required automatic approach of data processing. Software for digitising seismograms are limited and many have disadvantages. We applied the DigitSeis for machine-based vectorisation and reported here a full workflowof data processing. This included pattern recognition, classification, digitising, corrections and converting TIFFs to the digital vector format. The generated contours of signals were presented as time series and converted into digital format (mat files) which indicated information on ground motion signals contained in analog seismograms. We performed the quality control of the digitised traces in Python to evaluate the discriminating functionality of seismic signals by DigitSeis. We shown a robust approach of DigitSeis as a powerful toolset for processing analog seismic signals. The graphical visualisation of signal traces and analysis of the performed vectorisation results shown that the algorithms of data processing performed accurately and can be recommended in similar applications of seismic signal processing in future related works in geophysical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Lung cancer is the most common and deadliest cancer worldwide, and the number of new cases per year is expected to grow. Belgium is among the top 10 countries with most new cases of lung cancer in the world, with lung cancer incidence accounting for 11.8% of all cancers diagnosed and 23.8% of all cancer-related deaths. This study aimed to determine the overall acceptability of a lung cancer screening program in the Flemish population and the main factors that would influence the overall acceptability of such a program. Modeling of the results of a questionnaire distributed to the Flemish population showed 92% acceptability. Furthermore, policymakers should aim for it to be reimbursed, and campaigns should be gender-specific, focused on those with lower educational and socioeconomic status, along with investment in increasing total knowledge about lung cancer and about protective factors. Lung cancer is the most common and deadliest cancer in the world, and its incidence is expected to grow. Nonetheless, this growth can be contained through smoking cessation programs and effective lung cancer screening programs. In 2018, Belgium had the seventh highest incidence of lung cancer in the world, with lung cancer incidence accounting for 11.8% of all cancers diagnosed and 23.8% of all cancer-related deaths that same year. The aims of this study were to determine the overall acceptability of a lung cancer screening program in the Flemish population and to determine the main factors that would influence the overall acceptability of such a program. A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was performed in the Flemish population and distributed online and on paper. The results are presented with the variables of interest and the main outcome, i.e., the acceptability of participating in such a program if implemented. Odds ratios were used to compare acceptability between subgroups. A multivariate regression model was used to determine the key factors that would have the largest impact on the level of acceptability and, thus, on the possible efficiency of such a program. This study estimated that acceptability of participating in a lung cancer screening program was 92%. Irrespective of the smoking status, levels of acceptability were higher than 89%. The key factors which could significantly influence the acceptability of a lung cancer screening program were individuals with low education, low protective factor knowledge and total knowledge, and lung cancer screening reimbursement, which were significantly associated with acceptability (0.01, 0.001, 0.01, and 0.05 respectively). Low protective factor knowledge decreased the log odds of acceptability 3.08-fold. In conclusion, the acceptability of implementing a lung cancer screening program in Flanders seems to be extremely high and would be well received by all. When implementing such a program, policymakers should aim for it to be reimbursed, campaigns should be gender-specific, focused on those with lower educational and socioeconomic status, and there should be investment in increasing total knowledge about lung cancer and knowledge about protective factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on an ethnography of Wisconsin-based descendants of Belgian immigrants, this article explores social dynamics relating to ways lay users of genomic ancestry testing (GAT) understand genomic ancestry and how their understanding raises questions concerning the construction of their identities. The study focuses on a group that presents interesting features for which the existing literature is sparse (i.e. a rather secure Belgian ancestry/present identity, the absence of a clear ascription to the category "Belgium/Belgian" from the tests, and a biological connectedness in the Belgian community). GAT is approached as a socio-cultural object contextualized at a local level. The analysis involves specifying the discursive practices by which individuals entangle with this knowledge, following a two-pronged perspective derived from the nature of the information received by users, which is both individuating/deindividuating and deterministic/probabilistic. The paper, therefore, provides new insights into the manners in which social actors trigger their responsibility in response to genomic ancestry, and this questions the users' sense of identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the Blankaart Water Production Center, a reservoir containing 3 million m 3 of raw surface water acts as a first biologic treatment step before further processing to drinking water. Over the past decade, severe algal blooms have occurred in the reservoir, hampering the water production. Therefore, strategies (e.g., the injection of algaecide) have been looked at to prevent these from happening or try to control them. In this context, the HYperspectral Pointable System for Terrestrial and Aquatic Radiometry (HYPSTAR), installed since early 2021, helps in monitoring the effectiveness of these strategies. Indeed, the HYPSTAR provides, at a very high temporal resolution, bio-optical parameters related to the water quality, i.e., Chlorophyll-a ( C h l a ) concentrations and suspended particulate matter ( S P M ). The present paper shows how the raw in situ hyperspectral data (a total of 8116 spectra recorded between 2021-02-03 and 2022-08-03, of which 2988 spectra passed the quality check) are processed to find the water-leaving reflectance and how S P M and C h l a are derived from it. Based on a limited number of validation data, we also discuss the potential of retrieving phycocyanin (an accessory pigment unique to freshwater cyanobacteria). The results show the benefits of the high temporal resolution of the HYPSTAR to provide near real-time water quality indicators. The study confirms that, in conjunction with a few water sampling data used for validation, the HYPSTAR can be used as a quick and cost-effective method to detect and monitor phytoplankton blooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate photovoltaic (PV) power generation forecasting is crucial for optimizing the integration of solar energy into power grids and advancing towards a cleaner, more sustainable energy future. However, the inherent variability and complexity of PV power generation data pose significant challenges for accurate forecasting. To address these challenges, this paper introduces Collaborative Directional Representation (CoDR), a novel deep learning model that extracts and represents the directional fluctuations of solar irradiance data to improve forecasting accuracy and reliability. CoDR utilizes a series of steps, including data preprocessing, fluctuation extraction, directional representation, linearization, de-extraction, mapping, and data postprocessing, to capture both the temporal and spatial dependencies within the data. CoDR leverages a unique directional representation to capture both temporal and spatial dependencies in the data, enabling superior forecasting accuracy and robustness compared to twenty-two state-of-the-art benchmark methods. We validate CoDR on a real-world dataset of PV power generation in Belgium, demonstrating its effectiveness through extensive experiments, ablation studies, and sensitivity analyses. Importantly, CoDR enhances the transparency of the forecasting process by revealing the causal relationships and directional influences among input variables and PV power output. This explainability feature provides valuable insights into the underlying drivers of PV power generation, promoting trust and informed decision-making in the transition to cleaner energy systems. • Introduces Collaborative Directional Representation (CoDR) for accurate PV forecasting. • Outperforms 22 benchmark methods, achieving significant error reductions. • Provides explainable insights into PV power generation using 3D visualizations. • Demonstrates effectiveness on a real-world Belgian dataset through extensive analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have investigated the distribution of greenhouse gas emissions associated with household consumption, highlighting that richer households have a substantially larger carbon footprint than poorer households. While these studies have typically used income or household expenditures as a proxy of households' living standards, the association between emissions and wealth has hardly been studied. Wealth is not just an important component of households' material living standards, known to be imperfectly correlated with income and expenditures, but it is also a very relevant dimension for climate policies. For instance, affluent households have more scope to invest in reducing emissions (e.g. insulation of their homes). Therefore, in this paper, we compare the inequality of emissions over wealth groups as well as groups defined by other living standard concepts such as income, expenditure and the joint distribution of income and wealth to add a focus on wealth to the analysis of emission inequality. Our study focuses on Belgium and the United Kingdom, which differ considerably in their level of wealth inequality. Our results highlight that the social distribution of emissions varies between expenditures, income, wealth and the joint distribution of income and wealth, with per capita emissions being more strongly associated with the joint distribution of income and wealth than with income alone. We also show that a significant share of households has both low income and low wealth, and may thus be lacking the means to prepare for a carbon-neutral future. Although increasing wealth taxation could provide much-needed revenues for low carbon investments, our results suggest that it would have a lower direct impact on the level of emissions and emission inequality compared to increasing taxes on high incomes. • Wealth is positively correlated with emissions. • Emission inequality according to wealth is higher than according to income. • People with low income and low wealth face a cumulative disadvantage. • Wealth inequality is a relevant dimension when designing climate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first to calculate welfare, measured by the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), for the EU-15 countries in a standardized and comparable way. This paper does so by building on a case study for Belgium by Van der Slycken and Bleys (2023) that puts forward a "2.0 methodology" with two distinct ISEWs that deal with cross-time and cross-boundary issues. Both welfare and GDP per capita improved in the EU-15 between 1995 and 2018. Yet, there is an important divergence between welfare and GDP: over time experiential welfare per capita and the per capita benefits and costs of present activities improved by respectively 10,5% and 13,4%, which is less than one third and half of the growth in GDP per capita that grew by 32,4%. These welfare trends are mainly driven by individual consumption growth, the shadow economy and welfare losses from income inequality, which compensated about half of the welfare gains of the former two categories. The gap between welfare and GDP diverged especially after the financial crisis when welfare started stagnating. At the end of the studied period, the EU-15 had already recovered from the financial crisis from a GDP perspective, but not from a welfare view. Since welfare in 2018 was less than 2% lower than the period-maximum, there is no conclusive evidence in favor of the threshold hypothesis at the level of the EU-15. However, the fact that welfare levels in nine countries are more than 5% lower than their peak values signals a clear threshold for these countries. Yet, welfare can be increased beyond previous peaks with postgrowth policies that focus on social and ecological welfare. • Two variants of the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare with distinct time and boundary choices are compiled for the EU-15. • From 1995 to 2018, GDP per capita grew by 32,4% while welfare per capita only increased by 10,5% and 13,4%. • Welfare and GDP increasingly diverged, especially after the financial crisis when welfare started stagnating. • By 2018, the EU-15 had already recovered from the financial crisis from a GDP perspective, but not from a welfare view. • A majority of the EU-15 countries has a clear welfare threshold point with 2018-values being lower than period maxima. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Droughts are the most expensive climate disasters as they leave long-term and chronic impacts on the ecosystem, agriculture, and human society. The intensity, frequency, and duration of drought events have increased over the years and are expected to worsen in the future on a regional and planetary/global scale. Nature-based solutions (NBS) such as wetland and floodplain restorations, green infrastructures, rainwater harvesting, etc., are highlighted as effective solutions to cope with the future impacts of these events. While the role of NBS in coping with the impacts of other disasters, such as floods, has been extensively studied, there has been a lack of comprehensive review of NBS targeting drought. The following paper provides a unique critical state-of-the-art literature review of individual drought-related NBS around the world, in Europe, and particularly in Belgium, and assesses the critical differences between the NBS applied globally and in Flanders. An extensive literature review was conducted to systematically analyze NBS, listing the type, the location, the status of the implementation, and the possible recommendations proposed to optimize future NBS applications. Finally, a comparison is made between small- and large-scale applications of NBS. By analyzing all these aspects, especially the level of effectiveness and recommendations, insight was gained into the future potential of NBS and possible improvements. The research indicated a lack of scientific publications, especially in Belgium. Hence, grey literature was also included in the literature review. Only four papers included a quantitative assessment regarding the effectiveness of drought on a global level, all stating a positive impact on groundwater recharge. In contrast, at regional and country levels, the performance of NBS was not quantified. The number of large-scale implementations is low, where landscape- or watershed-scale holistic approaches to drought mitigation are still scarce. Some successfully implemented projects are only very local and have a long realization time, two aspects that limit achieving visible impact at a larger scale. Among the many NBS, wetlands are recognized as highly effective in coping with drought but are still degraded or lost despite their significant restoration potential. A common effectiveness evaluation framework shall be followed, which gives policymakers a clear view of the different NBS investment options. Furthermore, a more collaborative approach is recommended globally, including different stakeholder groups, with specific attention to the local communities. To conclude, future research should increase the evidence base and implementation of drought-mitigating NBS. • Drought-mitigating Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are systematically reviewed. • Few NBS studies focus on drought compared to other hazards such as floods. • Most NBS implementations are located in Europe. • Effectiveness is not well quantified for implemented NBS. • For achieving considerable drought mitigation, large-scale NBS are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing trend toward urbanisation and the increasingly frequent occurrence of extreme weather events emphasise the need for further monitoring and understanding of weather in cities. In order to gain information on these intra-urban weather patterns, dense high-quality atmospheric measurements are needed. Crowdsourced weather stations (CWSs) could be a promising solution to realise such monitoring networks in a cost-efficient way. However, due to their nontraditional measuring equipment and installation settings, the quality of datasets from these networks remains an issue. This paper presents crowdsourced data from the "Leuven.cool" network, a citizen science network of around 100 low-cost weather stations (Fine Offset WH2600) distributed across Leuven, Belgium (50∘52′ N, 4∘42′ E). The dataset is accompanied by a newly developed station-specific temperature quality control (QC) and correction procedure. The procedure consists of three levels that remove implausible measurements while also correcting for inter-station (between-station) and intra-station (station-specific) temperature biases by means of a random forest approach. The QC method is evaluated using data from four WH2600 stations installed next to official weather stations belonging to the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI). A positive temperature bias with a strong relation to the incoming solar radiation was found between the CWS data and the official data. The QC method is able to reduce this bias from 0.15 ± 0.56 to 0.00 ± 0.28 K. After evaluation, the QC method is applied to the data of the Leuven.cool network, making it a very suitable dataset to study local weather phenomena, such as the urban heat island (UHI) effect, in detail. (10.48804/SSRN3F, Beele et al., 2022). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regardless of the earlier assumptions about the obsolescence of the classic federal theory, the paper emphasizes the contemporary significance and relevance of federalism. Europe is the epicentre of modern federalization processes, not only when it comes to the European Union, but also a number of European countries such as Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom. The paper points out the fundamental distinction between the classic and modern federalism, which has its origin in the fact that federal systems 'arise' differently as a result of opposite processes of federalization and that in this sense we can distinguish between classic "integrative" and modern "devolutive" federalism. The basic assumptions of the paper are that 1) these two federalism patterns originally differ in the character of the basic constitutive act of the federal union with regard to the subject of creating a federation, and 2) because contemporary federations are "federal states without a federal foundation" this difference is not noticeable today. On the contrary, it has largely disappeared, and in this way, the difference between classic and modern federalism is actually bridged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacteriophage is the generic name given to microorganisms that can destroy bacteria. The name (which comes from the Latin bacteria and the Greek φᾰγεῖν phagein - "to eat", "to devour") was introduced by the Canadian bacteriologist Félix d'Herelle in 1917, the year he discovered a virus possessing such characteristics. Also called bacteria-eating viruses, bacteriophages represent a group of viruses with a destructive effect on bacteria (lytic effect), being widespread in nature, in all living environments (water, soil, air). Discovered during the First World War and developed in the 1920s and 1930s, phage therapy is currently making a comeback and enjoying a renewed interest in countries such as the USA, Belgium and France, in parallel with the development of antibiotic resistance, in the face of the increasing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, a challenge for the whole planet. Today, phage therapy has begun to be used to disinfect food. Also, before surgery, in some hospitals, bacteriophages are sprayed in the operating rooms to reduce the risk of infection. Through their mechanism of action, bacteriophages can become a kind of additional immune system for organisms, and phage therapy, a therapy to be studied and perspective for maintaining human and animal health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe and apply a method probing into linguistic (in)directness in complaint tweets. The sample analyzed consists of French-language Twitter complaint interactions, half of which are between the SNCF (the French National Railway company) and its customers and half between the SNCB (the Belgian National Railway company) and its customers. The aim of this paper is two-fold: first, we present and test a methodology that measures the explicitness (or linguistic (in)directness) of complaints, which, we argue, in line with Decock and Depraetere (2018), must be differentiated from perceived (im)politeness or perceived face-threat. Linguistic (in)directness is analyzed in the complete complaint situation, that is, in the first tweet as well as in the ensuing interaction. Secondly, as the sample shows differences in the realization of complaints in two linguistically close communities, we put forward some hypotheses concerning the relative impact of cultural differences and the companies' response strategy. • We analyze complaint components and how they are linguistically realized. • We differentiate complaint (in)directness and perceived (im)politeness. • Twitter complaints vary in their degree of linguistic (in)directness. • We explore the impact of response strategy on Twitter complaint interaction. • Twitter complaint realizations in French are different in Belgium and France. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the topical issue of R&D tax incentives and their impact on the level of innovation development and macroeconomic stability. The research is based on causality analysis and estimation of the strength, time lags and directions of mutual influence of R&D tax incentives and macro indicators. Systematization literary sources and approaches for solving this problem indicates that R&D tax incentives are studied in fragments in the context of macroeconomic stability. The research's main purpose is to improve the methodological bases of substantiation of the choice of relevant instruments of innovation stimulation considering causal relations of R&D tax incentives and macro indicators. The paper presents the results of dynamic analysis of R&D tax incentives in 13 European countries, for which OECD statistics for 2007-2017 are freely available. The significance, strength, and nature of the relationship between these indicators and the following macro indicators are determined: the level of the country's innovation development, the share of investment in GDP (in general and in the corporate sector in particular), net international investment position, the share of the business sector in the cost structure of R&D. Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated depending on the variable subordination to the law of normal distribution (verified by the Shapiro - Wilk test) on the admissible calculation interval taking into account time lags from 0 years to 3 years. The causality of the studied indicators was established using the Granger causality test. The calculations are important for the prioritization of instruments for the implementation of innovation support. The highest priority should be given to the establishment of tax incentives for R&D, as this tool's impact on all studied macro indicators in most countries was direct. Its effect was manifested in the shortest possible time (with a lag of 0-3 years). The second priority should be given to setting hidden rates of business tax subsidies on R&D, as this indicator's impact on most of the studied indicators was statistically significant and direct with a time lag of 0-3 years. The paper substantiates the inefficiency of direct public financial support, as the impact of this indicator on most of the analyzed macro-indicators was reversed with a lag of 0-2 years. Thus, it is more expedient for the state to help entrepreneurs by providing tax benefits to provide innovation development and macro stability than through direct reimbursement of costs. Moreover, lag regression models were built for those countries where identified links were the most important (Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic). They take into account inflation rates and interest rates on long-term liabilities and the number of labour resources in the country as control variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Thai migration to Belgium is numerically a woman-led phenomenon, which has captured social attention for the last decades. This attention entails stereotypes about Thai migrant women as 'workers' in the intimate industry and/or 'exotic wives' of Belgian men. To challenge these stereotypes, the present paper explores the often-ignored dimension of Thai women's sociality. Specifically, it examines the transmission dynamics occurring in their Buddhist social spaces, which shape and reinforce their sense of belonging. To do so, it draws from ethnographic fieldwork with Thai migrant women and key social actors within the Thai population in the country. Data analysis unveils that these women engage in multiform modes of transmission in their Buddhist social spaces. First, they transmit good deeds from the material world to the spiritual realm through merit-making practices and by seeking spiritual guidance in the temple. Second, they pass their socio-cultural ways of belonging to their children by engaging in different socializing activities. And third, they involve themselves in sharing religious faith, material symbols, and tastes described as part of Thai culture. Through this multiform transmission, Thai migrant women confront in subtle ways the common-held views about them at the intersection of their various identities as spouses, mothers, citizens, and Buddhist devotees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy harvesting is an effective technique for prolonging the lifetime of Internet of Things devices and Wireless Sensor Networks. In applications such as environmental sensing, which demands a deploy-and-forget architecture, energy harvesting is an unavoidable technology. Thermal energy is one of the most widely used sources for energy harvesting. A thermal energy harvester can convert a thermal gradient into electrical energy. Thus, the temperature difference between the soil and air could act as a vital source of energy for an environmental sensing device. In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept design of an environmental sensing node that harvests energy from soil temperature and uses the DASH7 communication protocol for connectivity. We evaluate the soil temperature and air temperature based on the data collected from two locations: one in Belgium and the other in Iceland. Using these datasets, we calculate the amount of energy that is producible from both of these sites. We further design power management and monitoring circuit and use a supercapacitor as the energy storage element, hence making it battery-less. Finally, we deploy the proof-of-concept prototype in the field and evaluate its performance. We demonstrate that the system can harvest, on average, 178.74 mJ and is enough to perform at least 5 DASH7 transmissions and 100 sensing tasks per day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new distribution named as unit-power Weibull distribution (UPWD) defined on interval (0,1) is introduced using an appropriate transformation to the positive random variable of the Weibull distribution. This work offers quantile function, linear representation of the density, ordinary and incomplete moments, moment-generating function, probability-weighted moments, L -moments, TL-moments, Rényi entropy, and MLE estimation. Additionally, several actuarial measures are computed. The real data applications are carried out to underline the practical usefulness of the model. In addition, a bivariate extension for the univariate power Weibull distribution named as bivariate unit-power Weibull distribution (BIUPWD) is also configured. To elucidate the bivariate extension, simulation analysis and application using COVID-19-associated fatality rate data from Italy and Belgium to conform a BIUPW distribution with visual depictions are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite mounting evidence of disparities in health service provision for migrants and ethnic minorities (MEM) across EU countries, there has been limited research into how services (meso) and policy (macro) can contribute to reducing these disparities. In Flemish (Belgian) substance use treatment (SUT) policy making, no systematic attention is given to MEM. Nevertheless, preliminary studies have identified some disparities, especially among non-Belgian MEM. For this paper we studied the factors related to these disparities and ways forward based on 21 semi-structured interviews with SUT coordinators and experts. The low representation of MEM populations in psychiatric hospitals due to language exclusion criteria stands out as the main disparity. Moreover, respondents indicated that exclusion may be anticipated by general practitioners in the referral process, causing additional disparities. The exclusion of MEM from policy making processes, waiting lists and the structure of the federalized Belgian health system are identified as indirect macro contributors to disparities. Respondents specified four main ways to reduce disparities in SUT among MEM: targeted treatment and policy making, installing diversity policies in SUT services, enhancing training and education, and community-based treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This data paper describes a recent and spatially complete inventory of the terrestrial isopods of Belgium between 2011 and 2020. During these 10 years every 10 × 10 km² cell of the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid in Belgium (373 grid cells) was visited in search for terrestrial isopods. Inventories covered different habitat types in every grid cell such as forest, wetlands or stream sides, and urban areas. Most of the dataset records were obtained by hand-collection methods such as turning stones and dead wood, or by sieving litter and through casual observations. These inventories were carried out by specialists from Spinicornis, the Belgian Terrestrial Isopod Group. Their data is complemented with pitfall trap data from scientific projects and verified citizen science data collected via waarnemingen.be and observations.be from the same time period. This resulted in 19,406 dataset records of 35 terrestrial isopod species. All dataset records are georeferenced using the centroid of their respective 5 × 5 km² UTM grid cell. The dataset is published as open data and available through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Direct link to the dataset: https://doi.org/10.15468/mw9c66. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hiring subsidies are widely used to create (stable) employment for the long-term unemployed. This paper exploits the abolition of a hiring subsidy targeted at long-term unemployed jobseekers older than 45 years of age in Belgium to evaluate its effectiveness in the short and medium run. Based on a triple-difference methodology, the hiring subsidy is shown to increase the job-finding rate by 13% without any evidence of spillover effects. This effect is driven by a positive effect on individuals with at least a bachelor's degree. However, the hiring subsidy mainly creates temporary short-lived employment: eligible jobseekers are not more likely to find employment that lasts at least 12 consecutive months compared with ineligible jobseekers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hiring subsidies are widely used to create (stable) employment for the long-term unemployed. This paper exploits the abolition of a hiring subsidy targeted at long-term unemployed jobseekers older than 45 years of age in Belgium to evaluate its effectiveness in the short and medium run. Based on a triple-difference methodology, the hiring subsidy is shown to increase the job-finding rate by 13% without any evidence of spillover effects. This effect is driven by a positive effect on individuals with at least a bachelor's degree. However, the hiring subsidy mainly creates temporary short-lived employment: eligible jobseekers are not more likely to find employment that lasts at least 12 consecutive months compared with ineligible jobseekers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic review's objective was to conduct a complete analysis of the literature on the root canal morphology using advanced micro-computed tomography. The electronic web databases PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane were examined for research papers concerning the chosen keywords, evaluating the root canal morphology using Micro-CT, published up to 2021. The articles were searched using MeSH keywords and searched digitally on four specialty journal websites. DARE2 extended (Database of Attributes of Reviews of Effects) was used to assess bias risk. The information was gathered from 18 published studies that strictly met the criteria for inclusion. In the included studies, a total of 6696 samples were studied. The studies were conducted on either maxillary (n-2222) or mandibular teeth (n-3760), permanent anteriors (n-625), and Third molars (n-89). To scan samples, a Scanco Medical machine in was used in 10 studies, Bruker Micro-CT in 34, and seven other machines were utilized in the rest. Bruker Micro-CT software from Kontich, Belgium, VG-Studio Max 2.2 software from Volume Graphics, Heidelberg, Germany, was the most commonly used software. The minimum Voxel size (resolution) adopted in the included studies was 11.6 µm. However, 60 µm was the maximum. Most studies classified the root canal morphology using Vertucci's classification system (n-16) and the four-digit system (n-6). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1976, the NGO "Qualité Village Wallonie" has worked to safeguard local rural heritage. Yet, over the years, the staff working at the NGO have noticed important changes in rural communities, including other perspectives on the local heritage. This may be linked with rapid changes in demography or changes of interests with globalization. This paper documents the apparent loss of sense of local heritage among inhabitants of the Belgian countryside and, in doing so, reflects on the sense of local places in an era of globalization. Based on interviews with the staff of the NGO and on an e-survey, the research presents a number of explanations for the findings. The results show a shift of attention away from religious and farming heritage toward places that make the village unique. The notion of heritage is evolving from something of the past that requires protection to things, sometimes intangible, that could be useful for the present and future generations. People claim that local heritage matters for the bonding and well-being of rural people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]