Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university

The vibrant think-tank ‘Transition UGent’ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies. In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of ‘policy entrepreneurs’ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders

Localization of non-palpable breast cancer using a radiolabelled titanium seed

Background: Resection guided by a radiologically placed hookwire is the most common surgical technique for non-palpable breast cancer. This technique has several well described disadvantages such as incidental migration, kinking or fracture of the wire, and difficult logistics between the radiology, surgical and nuclear medicine departments. Use of an iodine-125-radiolabelled (I-125) seed for localization of non-palpable breast tumours could potentially prevent these problems. Methods: Data on use of the I-125 seed localization technique in 325 consecutive women were collected prospectively between October 2003 and June 2009. All patients with screen-detected, histologically proven malignancy were included. Patients with a preoperative core biopsy showing either ductal carcinoma in situ or unclear pathology were excluded from this study. Results: The mean(s.d.) age of the women was 59.5(11.9) years. Localization was guided ultrasonographically in 275 procedures, stereotactically in 45 and by both techniques in five. The I-125 seed was removed by surgery after a mean of 4(5) days. The mean duration of operation was 62.9(21.2) min. Complete tumour removal was achieved in 310 procedures (95-4 per cent). Conclusion: Localization of impalpable breast cancer using a I-125 seed was safe and led to a high proportion of radical lumpectomies.Surgical oncolog

Redox potential is a robust indicator for decomposition processes in drained agricultural peat soils:A valuable tool in monitoring peatland wetting efforts

Peat decomposition driven by soil metabolic processes is responsible for approximately 2 % of global annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. A peat soil's redox potential (Eh) and pH reflect its biogeochemical state and are therefore linked to the rate of peat decomposition and greenhouse gas production. In this study, we aim to establish if continuous Eh measurements are an effective tool to monitor metabolic peat decomposition processes and thus to quantify the effects of peat wetting efforts. We applied continuous in-situ Eh measurements (&gt;150 sensors 2020–2022) as a proxy for metabolic peat decomposition processes, which we validated under field conditions with extensive sampling of porewater chemistry (pH, NO3–, SO42−, Mn(II), Fe(II), S2− and CH4, &gt;2000 samples) for five agricultural, drained, minerotrophic peatland sites in the Netherlands. These 5 sites consisted of plots with and without subsoil irrigation (SSI), where SSI aims to raise groundwater levels and thus wet the peat soil. We found that in-situ continuous Eh measurements closely reflected spatial and temporal heterogeneity in pore water chemistry. Therefore, we concluded that Eh is a robust proxy for peat decomposition processes. Building on this result, we used continuous Eh measurements to study the prevalence of specific metabolic processes from site-to-site in relation with groundwater level changes. We found that, while groundwater levels are an important driver for (an)aerobic conditions, groundwater levels do not explain the full dynamics and extent of (an)aerobic conditions. O2 intrusion was mostly limited to approximately 0.5 m depth at deep (&gt;0.8 m) groundwater levels, likely due to air diffusion limitation. Higher and more constant groundwater levels year-round at SSI plots decreased oxygen intrusion and tended to deplete porewater Fe(II) and SO42−, which led to more reducing Eh and higher porewater CH4 concentrations. The depletion of electron acceptors and occurrence of methanogenesis differed from site to site. In summary, high-frequent Eh monitoring is found to be an effective tool to monitor metabolic peat decomposition processes and quantify the effects of peatlands wetting efforts. Therefore, this methodology is suitable to evaluate and further optimize peatland monitoring and preservation.</p

Efficient differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into a homogeneous population of osteoprogenitor-like cells

The use of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) in both research and therapeutic applications requires relatively large homogeneous populations of differentiated cells. The differentiation of three hESC lines into highly homogeneous populations of osteoprogenitor-like (hESC-OPL) cells is reported here. These cells could be expanded in a defined culture system for more than 18 passages, and showed a fibroblast-like morphology and a normal stable karyotype. The cells were strongly positive for the same antigenic markers as mesenchymal stem cells but negative for markers of haematopoetic stem cells. The hESC-OPL cells were able to differentiate into the osteogenic, but not into the chondrogenic or adipogenic, lineage and were positive for markers of early stages of osteogenic differentiation. When cultured in the presence of osteogenic supplements, the cells indicated the capacity to achieve, under inductive conditions, a mature osteoblast phenotype. The differentiation protocol is based on a monolayer approach, and does not require any exogenous factors other than fetal calf serum, or coculture systems of animal or human origin. This method is likely to be amenable to large-scale production of homogeneous osteoprogenitor-like cells and thus overcomes one of the major problems of differentiation of hESC, with important relevance for further cell therapy studies