Numerical modelling of wave penetration in Ostend Harbour

The initial Ostend harbour entrance at the North Sea coast of Belgium is being modified and extended with two new rubble-mound breakwaters. Through an integrated study of the wave penetration in Ostend harbour, the waves are being acquired by prototype measurements and physical and numerical modelling is carried out. Two numerical models are used. SimWave is a numerical model based on Nwogu’s extended Boussinesq equations. The second numerical model is MILDwave, a mild-slope wave propagation model based on the equations of Radder and Dingemans. The present study concentrates on applications of the numerical models, throughout the different design stages and construction phases of the new breakwaters

Strategy for the identification of micro-organisms producing food and feed products : bacteria producing food enzymes as study case

Recent European regulations require safety assessments of food enzymes (FE) before their commercialization. FE are mainly produced by micro-organisms, whose viable strains nor associated DNA can be present in the final products. Currently, no strategy targeting such impurities exists in enforcement laboratories. Therefore, a generic strategy of first line screening was developed to detect and identify, through PCR amplification and sequencing of the 16S-rRNA gene, the potential presence of FE producing bacteria in FE preparations. First, the specificity was verified using all microbial species reported to produce FE. Second, an in-house database, with 16S reference sequences from bacteria producing FE, was constructed for their fast identification through blast analysis. Third, the sensitivity was assessed on a spiked FE preparation. Finally, the applicability was verified using commercial FE preparations. Using straightforward PCR amplifications, Sanger sequencing and blast analysis, the proposed strategy was demonstrated to be convenient for implementation in enforcement laboratories

Towards an efficient and highly accurate coupled numerical modelling approach for wave interactions with a dike on a very shallow foreshore

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