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Targeting Oxidative Stress in Head and Neck Cancer: From Redox Profiling to ROS-Responsive Drug Delivery
No full textPlaveiselcelcarcinoom van hoofd en hals (HNSCC) is een van de meest voorkomende kankers wereldwijd. Standaard behandelingen zoals chemotherapie zijn weinig selectief, waardoor zowel kankercellen als gezond weefsel worden aangetast. Dit leidt tot zware nevenwerkingen en een verminderde levenskwaliteit. Nanotechnologie biedt een veelbelovend alternatief dankzij gerichte toediening en verhoogde stabiliteit van medicatie. Deze studie focust op nanocarriers (NC’s) die reageren op reactieve zuurstofverbindingen (ROS) en hun chemotherapeutische lading vrijgeven in de ROS-rijke tumoromgeving van HNSCC. We onderzochten het redoxprofiel in snel-, gemiddeld- en traag groeiende HNSCC-cellijnen, waaronder een HPV-positieve lijn. Flowcytometrie en confocale microscopie toonden aan dat gemiddeld-groeiende cellen vaker oxidatieve stress vertonen. Ook snelgroeiende cellen bleken verhoogde stress te vertonen, zowel in vitro als in muismodellen, wat hun gevoeligheid voor ROS-responsieve therapieën suggereert. We evalueerden ook de biocompatibiliteit en werkzaamheid van met cisplatine geladen NC’s. Deze NC’s werden efficiënt opgenomen door HNSCC-cellen en verminderden de cel viabiliteit op dosisafhankelijke wijze. De celdood bleef echter beperkt, wat wijst op nood aan verdere optimalisatie. Toch tonen ROS-responsieve NC’s potentieel als een meer gerichte en minder toxische therapie voor HNSCC
Flexible Package Manufacturing – Pouch Formation and Sealing
No full textThis chapter examines pouch forming mechanisms and seal technologies for flexible packaging applications. It discusses key stages in vertical and horizontal form-fill-seal (FFS) systems. The principles of heat-conductive sealing and ultrasonic sealing are compared, and other seal technologies are briefly outlined. The concept of caulkability is introduced as a critical factor in achieving seal integrity and reliable seal-through performance. An overview of thermoplastic seal polymers, barrier materials, substrates and mono-material solutions is provided, along with considerations for recycled content and its impact on seal properties. The chapter concludes by addressing recent advancements in seal equipment and process adaptations that enable high seal quality while supporting circular packaging systems
Saving more than one: potentially endangered parasitic flatworms can benefit from the conservation program of the endangered European weatherfish
No full textUsing Process Mining to Connect Process Orientation and Data-driven Decision Making in Healthcare: a Qualitative Assessment and Integration of New Data Sources
No full textHealthcare organizations face increasing pressure to deliver care that is not only efficient and cost-effective, but also patient-centered and responsive. In this context, process orientation (PO) and data-driven decision making (DDDM) are widely promoted as complementary paradigms to improve healthcare delivery. However, their integration in daily practice remains fragmented. While PO fosters end-to-end thinking across organizational silos, DDDM relies on the growing availability of healthcare data to support operational and clinical decisions. The central aim of this doctoral research is to strengthen the connection between PO and DDDM by enriching process insights with experiential and engagement-related dimensions of care. Process mining bridges both approaches by analyzing real-world care pathways. Yet, most applications only focus on execution data, which limits the scope of how the patient experienced the process. This doctoral research explores how non-traditional data sources, specifically remote health monitoring and patient-reported experience data can be integrated into process mining analyses. In doing so, the research identifies key methodological, technical, and organizational challenges that arise when extending process mining beyond its conventional data foundations. The research is structured around three interrelated studies: (1) a qualitative study of Flemish hospital departments to assess the current state, opportunities and challenges of integrating PO and DDDM; (2) a process mining study using remote monitoring data in a cardiology context; and (3) a process mining study at a hospital that combines event logs with patient experience data in a breast cancer care pathway. Together, these studies aim to advance both the conceptual understanding of process mining as a means to integrate PO and DDDM, and its methodological application in data-rich, patient-centered healthcare environments
Home Urinary Sodium Measurements as a Predictor of Heart Failure Stability After Acute Heart Failure Hospitalization Results of the FAST-RESPONSE Study
No full textResearch Foundation-Flanders (FWO), Belgium [1SF6824N
Diversiteit en justitie: naar een analytisch kader om vertrouwen in justitie te bestuderen
No full textHet vertrouwen in justitie daalt. Dat wordt in het maatschappelijk debat gelinkt aan vermoedens van klassenjustitie. Breder dan dat, wordt ook (een tekort aan) diversiteit binnen de magistratuur in verband gebracht met vertrouwen in justitie. Er zijn echter te weinig gegevens voorhanden om een beeld te scheppen van hoe divers de magistratuur nu eigenlijk is, hoe ze omgaat met diversiteit in de samenleving, en welke impact dat eventueel heeft op vertrouwen. Het thema is bovendien beladen, omdat het streven naar een diverse magistratuur afbreuk lijkt te doen aan de onafhankelijkheid en onpartijdigheid van de magistratuur. Deze bijdrage zet een diverse magistratuur daarom op de onderzoeksagenda. Ze biedt een analytisch kader om na te gaan of en hoe een diverse magistratuur - in hoe ze rechtspreekt, of hoe ze is samengesteld - impact heeft (of niet) op de uitkomst van een geschil en op vertrouwen in justitie, en wat dat betekent voor de onafhankelijkheid en onpartijdigheid van de magistratuur
Verbeurdverklaring met toewijzing aan de burgerlijke partij (curator) : wettelijke compensatie op basis van de COIV-wet gooit roet in het eten
No full textCardiovascular function in transgender women on hormone therapy: the role of circulatory Power, Rate-pressure product, and blood pressure responses to exercise
No full textIntroduction
Gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) may influence cardiovascular physiology in transgender women, but its impact on hemodynamic responses to exercise remains unclear. This study investigated circulatory power (CircP), rate-pressure product (RPP), and blood pressure (BP) responses during maximal exertion in transgender women compared with cisgender women and cisgender men.
Methods
This cross-sectional study included 51 physically active individuals (17 transgender women on GAHT for 8.1 ± 3.7 years, 17 cisgender women, 17 cisgender men), matched by age and aerobic fitness. Participants underwent maximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET). Systolic and diastolic BP were measured at rest, at the first ventilatory threshold (VT1), and at peak. CircP was defined as peak oxygen uptake (VO2) × systolic BP, and RPP as heart rate (HR) × systolic BP. Between-group differences were assessed with Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni correction, and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was adjusted for hypertension.
Results
Transgender women exhibited significantly lower CircP than cisgender men (Δ = −2528.2; p < 0.001; η2 = 0.287) and similar values to cisgender women (Δ = −345.1; p = 1.000). Peak systolic BP was lower in transgender women (180.3 ± 20.1 mmHg) versus cisgender men (200.3 ± 32.2 mmHg; p = 0.025), despite comparable peak VO2 and HR. At VT1, transgender women resembled cisgender men in systolic BP but differed from cisgender women. RPP followed a similar gradient, with transgender women intermediate, but group differences were not significant after adjustment (p = 0.123; η2 = 0.089). Diastolic BP differed at VT1 but not at peak. Hypertension did not significantly affect CircP.
Conclusion
transgender women under GAHT demonstrate consistently lower CircP and attenuated systolic BP responses during exercise, suggesting a distinct cardiovascular adaptation. CircP showed stronger discriminatory power than RPP, supporting its role as a sensitive marker. CPET may assist functional evaluation and cardiovascular risk stratification in gender-diverse populations
Leveraging hand-crafted radiomics on multicenter FLAIR MRI for predicting disability worsening in people with multiple sclerosis
No full textBackground Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, leading to varying degrees of functional impairment. Conventional tools, such as the Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), lack sensitivity to subtle disease worsening. Radiomics provides a quantitative imaging approach to address this limitation. This study applied machine learning (ML) and radiomics features from T2-weighted Fluid-Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to predict disability worsening in MS.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on real-world data from 247 PwMS across two centers. Disability worsening was defined as a change in EDSS over two years. FLAIR MRIs underwent preprocessing and super-resolution reconstruction to enhance low-resolution images. White matter lesions (WML) were segmented using the Lesion Segmentation Toolbox (LST), and tissue segmentation was performed using sequence Adaptive Multimodal Segmentation. Radiomics features from WML and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) were extracted using Pyradiomics, harmonized with Longitudinal ComBat, followed by recursive feature elimination for feature selection. Elastic Net, Balanced Random Forest (BRFC), and Light Gradient-Boosting Machine (LGBM) models were trained and evaluated.Results The LGBM model with harmonized radiomics and clinical features outperformed the clinical-only model, achieving a test area under the precision-recall curve (PR AUC) of 0.20 and a receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC AUC) of 0.64. Key predictive features, among others, included Gray-Level Co-Occurrence Matrix (GLCM) maximum probability (WML) and Gray-Level Dependence Matrix (GLDM) dependence non-uniformity (NAWM). However, short-term longitudinal changes showed limited predictive power (PR AUC = 0.11, ROC AUC = 0.69).Conclusion These findings highlight the potential of ML-driven radiomics in predicting disability worsening, warranting validation in larger, balanced datasets and exploration of advanced deep learning approaches.Funding
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This research received funding from the Flemish Government under the “Onderzoeksprogramma Artificiële Intelligentie (AI) Vlaanderen” program, Stichting Multiple Sclerosis Research (19-1040 MS) and the Bijzonder OnderzoeksFonds (BOF19DOCMA10). Authors acknowledge financial support from the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation programme under grant agreements: ImmunoSABR n° 733008, CHAIMELEON n° 952172, EuCanImage n° 952103, IMI-OPTIMA n° 101034347, RADIOVAL (HORIZONHLTH-2021-DISEASE-04-04) n°101057699, EUCAIM (DIGITAL2022-CLOUD-AI-02) n°101100633, GLIOMATCH n° 101136670, AIDAVA (HORIZON-HLTH-2021-TOOL-06) n°101057062, and REALM (HORIZON-HLTH-2022-TOOL-11) n° 101095435.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Zohaib Salahuddin (The D-Lab, Department of Precision Medicine, GROW – Research Institute for Oncology and Reproduction, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands) for his valuable feedback and insights during the development of this study. We also acknowledge Raymond Hupperts (Academic MS Center Zuyd, Department of Neurology, Zuyderland Medical Center, SittardGeleen, Netherlands) for his guidance and support in shaping the clinical aspects of this work