Evaluating the impact of river restoration on the local groundwater and ecological system: a case study in NE Flanders

River restoration changes the interaction between groundwater and surface water. Therefore, it is expected to have an impact on ecosystems at the interface between groundwater and surface water. Quantifying and generalizing the level of change of this interaction for different hydrogeological environments is scientifically and practically challenging. In this paper we investigated the impact of different restoration measures and the effect on the interaction of the temporal resolution of the groundwater modeling methodology. The interaction is analysed in the water bodies and wetlands in the valley of the Zwarte Beek, one of the most valuable nature reserves of Flanders. In the past, several changes have been made to the river and drainage system. These adaptations are now considered to be bottlenecks in maintaining a good ecological and hydrological status of its water dependent biotopes. Hence, in the context of the EU Water Framework Directive, it is necessary to (at least partly) restore the initial natural situation. The measures proposed include the reinstatement of old meanders and the removal of a weir. By removing the weir, fish migration is again possible. Reconnecting old meanders increases the habitat diversity. We used transient groundwater modeling to evaluate the impact on the groundwater system of the wetlands. Results indicate that a peat layer, present in most of the wetland, minimizes the effects of the restoration on the groundwater table. The largest changes are confined to the areas near the old meanders and the weir. Steady-state situations do not allow a calculation of average lowest and highest groundwater levels, which are essential for simulating ecological site conditions. Hence, transient simulations with 14 days time steps are required to detect a considerably greater range of groundwater fluctuation than indicated by the seasonal simulation. It is shown that the river restoration project thus resulted in an improvement of the structure of the watercourse rather than the rewetting of the valley. We concluded also that high resolution transient groundwater modeling is an essential step towards river restoration and ecohydrological predictions

Het oudheidkundig bodemonderzoek aan de Sacramentstraat te Tongeren. Eindverslag 1993

In de zomer van 1993 werd een noodopgraving uitgevoerd op de terreinen van De Lijn tussen de Elfde Novemberwal en de Sacramentstraat aan de noordelijke rand van Tongeren, de voormalige civitashoofdstad van de Tungri. Dankzij deze kortstondige opgraving was het voor het eerst sinds lang nog eens mogelijk het bodemarchief van de noordoostelijke sector van de Romeinse stad te evalueren. De opgegraven zones situeren zich in de waarschijnlijk op één na meest noordoostelijk gelegen insula van de Romeinse stad, ten oosten van de meest oostelijke cardo van het stratennet. Dit deel van de civitashoofdstad ligt net binnen de 2de-eeuwse stadsmuur, maar ver buiten de 4de-eeuwse. Het ligt bovendien ver buiten de middeleeuwse omwallingen, waardoor het Romeinse bodemarchief nauwelijks door post-Romeinse graafactiviteiten was aangetast. Deze perifere positie heeft ongetwijfeld de aard van de bewoning van dit stadsdeel beïnvloed. De twee onderzochte werkputten tonen aan dat deze zone vanaf het begin tot de civitashoofdstad van de Tungri gerekend werd. De oudste Romeinse sporen dateren uit de militaire aanlegfase van de stad omstreeks 10 v.Chr. De eerste permanente bewoners vestigden er zich pas enkele decennia na de stichting van de stad, in de Tiberische of Claudische tijd. Het onderzoek heeft geen sporen of vondsten uit de laat-Romeinse tijd aan het licht gebracht. In totaal 3790 artefacten werden tijdens de opgraving verzameld, die in deze bijdrage allemaal gedetailleerd aan bod komen. Ook de dierlijke en plantaardige resten uit de opgraving langs de Sacramentstraat werden uitgebreid bestudeerd. De resultaten hiervan liggen grotendeels in lijn met eerdere analyses op materiaal uit Romeins Tongeren. Van belang ten slotte is daarnaast dat dankzij deze opgravingen nu vaststaat dat er zeker ook nog resten van prehistorische bewoning in deze sector aanwezig zijn. Tot nu toe was hierover nog maar erg weinig geweten

Comparison of automated interval measurements by widely used algorithms in digital electrocardiographs

Background: Automated measurements of electrocardiographic (ECG) intervals by current-generation digital electrocardiographs are critical to computer-based ECG diagnostic statements, to serial comparison of ECGs, and to epidemiological studies of ECG findings in populations. A previous study demonstrated generally small but often significant systematic differences among 4 algorithms widely used for automated ECG in the United States and that measurement differences could be related to the degree of abnormality of the underlying tracing. Since that publication, some algorithms have been adjusted, whereas other large manufacturers of automated ECGs have asked to participate in an extension of this comparison. Methods: Seven widely used automated algorithms for computer-based interpretation participated in this blinded study of 800 digitized ECGs provided by the Cardiac Safety Research Consortium. All tracings were different from the study of 4 algorithms reported in 2014, and the selected population was heavily weighted toward groups with known effects on the QT interval: included were 200 normal subjects, 200 normal subjects receiving moxifloxacin as part of an active control arm of thorough QT studies, 200 subjects with genetically proved long QT syndrome type 1 (LQT1), and 200 subjects with genetically proved long QT syndrome Type 2 (LQT2). Results: For the entire population of 800 subjects, pairwise differences between algorithms for each mean interval value were clinically small, even where statistically significant, ranging from 0.2 to 3.6 milliseconds for the PR interval, 0.1 to 8.1 milliseconds for QRS duration, and 0.1 to 9.3 milliseconds for QT interval. The mean value of all paired differences among algorithms was higher in the long QT groups than in normals for both QRS duration and QT intervals. Differences in mean QRS duration ranged from 0.2 to 13.3 milliseconds in the LQT1 subjects and from 0.2 to 11.0 milliseconds in the LQT2 subjects. Differences in measured QT duration (not corrected for heart rate) ranged from 0.2 to 10.5 milliseconds in the LQT1 subjects and from 0.9 to 12.8 milliseconds in the LQT2 subjects. Conclusions: Among current-generation computer-based electrocardiographs, clinically small but statistically significant differences exist between ECG interval measurements by individual algorithms. Measurement differences between algorithms for QRS duration and for QT interval are larger in long QT interval subjects than in normal subjects. Comparisons of population study norms should be aware of small systematic differences in interval measurements due to different algorithm methodologies, within-individual interval measurement comparisons should use comparable methods, and further attempts to harmonize interval measurement methodologies are warranted

Cost-effectiveness of postural exercise therapy versus physiotherapy in computer screen-workers with early non-specific work-related upper limb disorders (WRULD); a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Exercise therapies generate substantial costs in computer workers with non-specific work-related upper limb disorders (WRULD).</p> <p>Aims</p> <p>To study if postural exercise therapy is cost-effective compared to regular physiotherapy in screen-workers with early complaints, both from health care and societal perspective.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Prospective randomized trial including cost-effectiveness analysis; one year follow-up. Participants: Eighty-eight screen-workers with early non-specific WRULD; six drop-outs. Interventions: A ten week postural exercise program versus regular physiotherapy. Outcome measures: Effectiveness measures: Pain: visual analogous scale (VAS), self-perceived WRULD (yes/no). Functional outcome: Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder and Hand- Dutch Language Version (DASH-DLV). Quality of life outcome: EQ-5D.</p> <p>Economic measures: health care costs including patient and family costs and productivity costs resulting in societal costs. Cost-effectiveness measures: health care costs and societal costs related to the effectiveness measures. Outcome measures were assessed at baseline; three, six and twelve months after baseline.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At baseline both groups were comparable for baseline characteristics except scores on the Pain Catastrophizing Scale and comparable for costs. No significant differences between the groups concerning effectiveness at one year follow-up were found. Effectiveness scores slightly improved over time. After one year 55% of participants were free of complaints. After one year the postural exercise group had higher mean total health care costs, but lower productivity costs compared to the physiotherapy group. Mean societal costs after one year (therefore) were in favor of postural exercise therapy [- €622; 95% CI -2087; +590)]. After one year, only self- perceived WRULD seemed to result in acceptable cost-effectiveness of the postural exercise strategy over physiotherapy; however the probability of acceptable cost-effectiveness did not exceed 60%.</p> <p>Considering societal costs related to QALYs, postural exercise therapy had a probability of over 80% to be cost-effective over a wide range of cost-effectiveness ceiling ratios; however based on a marginal QALY-difference of 0.1 over a 12 month time frame.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although our trial failed to find significant differences in VAS, QALYs and ICERs based on VAS and QALYs at one-year follow-up, CEACs suggest that postural exercise therapy according to Mensendieck/Cesar has a higher probability of being cost-effective compared to regular physiotherapy; however further research is required.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>ISRCTN 15872455</p

L2-norm multiple kernel learning and its application to biomedical data fusion

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This paper introduces the notion of optimizing different norms in the dual problem of support vector machines with multiple kernels. The selection of norms yields different extensions of multiple kernel learning (MKL) such as <it>L</it>_∞, <it>L</it>₁, and <it>L</it>₂MKL. In particular, <it>L</it>₂MKL is a novel method that leads to non-sparse optimal kernel coefficients, which is different from the sparse kernel coefficients optimized by the existing <it>L</it>_∞MKL method. In real biomedical applications, <it>L</it>₂MKL may have more advantages over sparse integration method for thoroughly combining complementary information in heterogeneous data sources.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We provide a theoretical analysis of the relationship between the <it>L</it>₂optimization of kernels in the dual problem with the <it>L</it>₂coefficient regularization in the primal problem. Understanding the dual <it>L</it>₂problem grants a unified view on MKL and enables us to extend the <it>L</it>₂method to a wide range of machine learning problems. We implement <it>L</it>₂MKL for ranking and classification problems and compare its performance with the sparse <it>L</it>_∞and the averaging <it>L</it>₁MKL methods. The experiments are carried out on six real biomedical data sets and two large scale UCI data sets. <it>L</it>₂MKL yields better performance on most of the benchmark data sets. In particular, we propose a novel <it>L</it>₂MKL least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) algorithm, which is shown to be an efficient and promising classifier for large scale data sets processing.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This paper extends the statistical framework of genomic data fusion based on MKL. Allowing non-sparse weights on the data sources is an attractive option in settings where we believe most data sources to be relevant to the problem at hand and want to avoid a "winner-takes-all" effect seen in <it>L</it>_∞MKL, which can be detrimental to the performance in prospective studies. The notion of optimizing <it>L</it>₂kernels can be straightforwardly extended to ranking, classification, regression, and clustering algorithms. To tackle the computational burden of MKL, this paper proposes several novel LSSVM based MKL algorithms. Systematic comparison on real data sets shows that LSSVM MKL has comparable performance as the conventional SVM MKL algorithms. Moreover, large scale numerical experiments indicate that when cast as semi-infinite programming, LSSVM MKL can be solved more efficiently than SVM MKL.</p> <p>Availability</p> <p>The MATLAB code of algorithms implemented in this paper is downloadable from <url>http://homes.esat.kuleuven.be/~sistawww/bioi/syu/l2lssvm.html</url>.</p

NEXMIF encephalopathy:an X-linked disorder with male and female phenotypic patterns

Purpose Pathogenic variants in the X-linked gene NEXMIF (previously KIAA2022) are associated with intellectual disability (ID), autism spectrum disorder, and epilepsy. We aimed to delineate the female and male phenotypic spectrum of NEXMIF encephalopathy. Methods Through an international collaboration, we analyzed the phenotypes and genotypes of 87 patients with NEXMIF encephalopathy. Results Sixty-three females and 24 males (46 new patients) with NEXMIF encephalopathy were studied, with 30 novel variants. Phenotypic features included developmental delay/ID in 86/87 (99%), seizures in 71/86 (83%) and multiple comorbidities. Generalized seizures predominated including myoclonic seizures and absence seizures (both 46/70, 66%), absence with eyelid myoclonia (17/70, 24%), and atonic seizures (30/70, 43%). Males had more severe developmental impairment; females had epilepsy more frequently, and varied from unaffected to severely affected. All NEXMIF pathogenic variants led to a premature stop codon or were deleterious structural variants. Most arose de novo, although X-linked segregation occurred for both sexes. Somatic mosaicism occurred in two males and a family with suspected parental mosaicism. Conclusion NEXMIF encephalopathy is an X-linked, generalized developmental and epileptic encephalopathy characterized by myoclonic-atonic epilepsy overlapping with eyelid myoclonia with absence. Some patients have developmental encephalopathy without epilepsy. Males have more severe developmental impairment. NEXMIF encephalopathy arises due to loss-of-function variants

Gene expression variability across cells and species shapes innate immunity.

As the first line of defence against pathogens, cells mount an innate immune response, which varies widely from cell to cell. The response must be potent but carefully controlled to avoid self-damage. How these constraints have shaped the evolution of innate immunity remains poorly understood. Here we characterize the innate immune response's transcriptional divergence between species and variability in expression among cells. Using bulk and single-cell transcriptomics in fibroblasts and mononuclear phagocytes from different species, challenged with immune stimuli, we map the architecture of the innate immune response. Transcriptionally diverging genes, including those that encode cytokines and chemokines, vary across cells and have distinct promoter structures. Conversely, genes that are involved in the regulation of this response, such as those that encode transcription factors and kinases, are conserved between species and display low cell-to-cell variability in expression. We suggest that this expression pattern, which is observed across species and conditions, has evolved as a mechanism for fine-tuned regulation to achieve an effective but balanced response

Innovative Solutions in Health Monitoring at Home: The Real-Time Assessment of Serum Potassium Concentration from ECG

Maintenance of normal potassium homeostasis is increasingly an important limiting factor in the therapy of several diseases including patients with heart failure. Nowadays, quantification of potassium concentration in the blood ([K+]) is invasive and laboratory-based. The aims of the study were to develop a method quantifying [K+] from the electrocardiogram (ECG) and validate it on 13 hemodialysis (HD) and 7 congenital long-QT type 2 (LQT2) patients. Reference values were obtained from blood samples. An ECG-based potassium estimator (KECG) was defined and compared to the reference values. Data from 33/39 HD sessions gave consistent results. In 6 sessions, the presence of a systematic error inhibited reliable estimates. Patient specific calibration allowed good agreement in all HD patients (error: -0.04\ub10.61mM). As expected, [K+] was significantly underestimated in LQT2 patients (error: 1.24\ub10.75mM, p<0.01). Preliminary results show KECG estimates can be an effective tool for hyper/hypokalemic risk patient monitoring at home