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Power Dynamics in Managing Public Open Spaces in Planned Settlements: Community Call for Reframing Management Roles in Kinondoni Municipality Dar es Salaam City
No full textOn the global agenda, public open spaces have been acknowledged to support making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The major challenge is how individual countries articulate actions despite the limited resources and global population increase. in Tanzania, particularly in Kinondoni Municipality, 96% of these spaces have been encroached upon, posing serious management challenges. This study investigates power relations between different actors, ownership, and the flow of communications. through qualitative methods, including document reviews, interviews, observations, and storytelling. Findings reveal a top-down management approach by authorities, lacking community involvement and transparency in decision-making. Weak enforcement of regulations has exacerbated encroachment issues. The study proposes the urgent need for stronger enforcement of rules and regulations, increased community engagement, and the integration of digital technologies to monitor and protect these essential urban areas to ensure their sustainable use for future generations.VLIR-UOS Institutional University
Cooperation (IUC) programhttps://sustainablecities.aru.ac.tz/publications/conference-proceeding
Rethinking community-based housing for older adults: a research agenda for spatial justice
No full textThis critical review discusses community-based housing developments for minoritised older adults, examining literature on both top-down sheltered housing and grassroots-developed cohousing projects. It reviews and integrates perspectives from housing studies and gerontology to explore the benefits such housing arrangements provide (shelter, care and support, community) as well as their potential for including minoritised older adults. Going beyond discussions on affordability and accessibility, the paper applies an interpretive spatial justice lens to examine redistributive, recognitive, and representative justice concerning community-based housing projects. Rethinking how research has addressed matters of justice thus far, the paper concludes by laying the groundwork for a research agenda. Specifically, it argues that we a) need to view community-based housing as situated in a spatial context, b) pay attention to how older adults can participate in shaping community-based housing and its surroundings, and c) recognise older adults and their diverse identities within community-based housing.This work was supported by the HORIZON EuROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie ActionHOMeAGE—Advancing Research and Training on Ageing, Place and Home underthe Grant Agreement 101073506 and the Leverhulme Trust (grant RL-2019-011)
What drives bank financing in family firms? A systematic review and research agenda
No full textGiven the significant role of family firms worldwide, their access to bank financing to fund growth and operations is crucial for the global economy. Through a systematic literature review analyzing 126 empirical articles published between 1998 and 2023, this study focuses on the determinants of bank financing use on the one hand and bank financing conditions on the other hand. In this article, we disentangle the diversified and evolving research domain of family business bank financing, uncover what might explain the conflicting findings in extant research, and discuss how scholars could move this field forward. Guided by behavioral theories, we present promising directions for future research by identifying gaps considering the role of the business family in the decision-making process regarding bank finance use and conditions.This research was supported by the UHasselt Grant BOF18NI02 and the National Bank of Belgium Grant NBB18NI02. We gratefully acknowledge their financial support
Which outcomes are key to the pre-intervention assessment profile of a child with developmental coordination disorder? A systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textBackground: Purpose of this study was to determine what key aspects of function should be incorporated to make up a pre-intervention assessment profile of a child with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD); more specifically, what aspects of functioning are implicated in DCD and what is their relative impact? Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted, for which Pubmed, Web of Science, Scopus and Proquest were searched (last update: April 2023, PROSPERO: CRD42023461619). Case-control studies were included to determine point estimates for performances on field-based tests in different domains of functioning. The risk of bias was assessed, and the level of evidence was estimated. Random-effect meta-analyses were performed to calculate the pooled standardized mean differences for domains of functioning and subgrouping was done for clinically relevant subdomains. Heterogeneity was determined with I2. Results: 121 papers were included for analyses. Data of 5923 children with DCD were included (59.8% boys) and 23 619 Typically Developing (TD) children (45.8% boys). The mean (SD) age of the DCD group was 10.3y (1.2) and 9.3y (1.3) for the TD children. Moderate evidence was found for motor performance, executive functions, sensory processing and perceptions, cognitive functions and sports and leisure activities to be affected in children with DCD. Conclusion: Differences between the two groups varied per domain of functioning. This emphasizes the diversity present within children with DCD and provides a rationale for explaining the heterogeneity in this patient group. Yet, results highlight the potential involvement of all these domains and call for clinicians to be alert not only to examine motor skill difficulties but also other aspects of function. Results indicate the need to develop an individualized pre-intervention multi-dimensional assessment profile for each child with DCD. It also supports the important role that clinicians play in an interdisciplinary team to tackle the difficulties encountered by children with DCD.The authors are part of the “DCD Big Ideas Group” consisting of 25 key researchers in the field of DCD (from early-career to established) working to develop a clear vision for the future of research on DCD. We thank Prof Bert Steenbergen and Prof Peter Wilson for taking the initiative to form the “Big Ideas Group”. The research contribution of Ludvík Valtr is supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR EXPRO scheme: 21-15728X)
Capacité des kinesithérapeutes à suspecter, détecter et référer une cause spécifique de lombalgie: résultats préliminaires de l’étude Direct Physio.
No full textN° JFK25-515 Capacité des kinésithérapeutes à suspecter, détecter et référer une cause spécifique de lombalgie : résultats préliminaires de l'étude DirectPhysio Type de présentation souhaité : Communication orale Souhaitez-vous participer à un prix ? : Oui Merci de préciser : Trophée Gérard Pierron, Grand Prix de la SFP Introduction : La lombalgie est une problématique mondiale qui devrait malheureusement augmenter dans les années à venir [1]. La première étape recommandée par les consensus scientifiques (guidelines) pour la prise en charge des lombalgies est le triage diagnostique [2,3]. Cependant, des études antérieures ont mis en évidence des résultats préoccupants quant à la capacité des kinésithérapeutes à utiliser le triage diagnostique chez les patients souffrant de lombalgie [4,5]. L'objectif de cette étude était d'évaluer les kinésithérapeutes recrutés dans le cadre de l'étude DirectPhysio sur leur capacité à suspecter, détecter et orienter les patients avec une cause spécifique de lombalgie
Heart failure improvement, remission, and recovery: A European Journal of Heart Failure expert consensus document
No full textHeart failure (HF) is a heterogeneous and dynamic syndrome characterized by progressive pathophysiological alterations, variable clinical trajectories, and differential responses to therapeutic interventions. The concept of HF with improved ejection fraction (HFimpEF) underscores this complexity, identifying patients who exhibit an increase in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) following time and/or pharmacological and device-based therapies. However, the distinction between improvement, remission, and recovery remains inconsistently defined and is primarily LVEF-centric, lacking comprehensive assessment of structural, functional, and symptomatic HF status. This expert consensus document delineates HF trajectories, examines factors reflecting HF improvement beyond recovery of LVEF, and explores the prognostic implications of these phenotypic transitions. Emphasis is placed on the necessity of continued guideline-directed medical and device therapy to minimize the risk of relapse. While a subset of patients attains sustained myocardial and clinical recovery, others remain susceptible to relapse, necessitating individualized monitoring and long-term management. Persistent knowledge gaps regarding the safety and feasibility of treatment de-escalation, the role of genetic predisposition, and optimal therapeutic strategies underscore the need for further research to refine risk stratification and evidence-based decision-making in HFimpEF
Synergistic design strategies for the improvement of thermally activated delayed fluorescence properties in near-infrared emissive molecules
No full textIn the last decade, organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology has risen from novelty to dominance due to its appealing advantages in terms of reduced energy consumption, compatibility with flexible substrates, large-scale processability, and tuneability of material properties. However, several challenges must still be overcome in the development of efficient OLED emitters, especially at the long wavelength edge of the visible spectrum. More specifically, the expansion into the deep-red and near-infrared region (DR/NIR, 650–1400 nm) represents a significant development that addresses particular needs within phototherapy, bio-imaging, spectroscopy, sensing, cryptography, and optical communication. Despite these benefits, the commercialization of DR/NIR OLEDs has been constrained by challenges tied to their modest internal and external quantum efficiency (IQE and EQE, respectively). In parallel with a high intrinsic photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), it is vital for new materials to be able to generate emissive excitons from both singlet and (typically inaccessible) triplet states, thereby achieving a higher IQE (up to 100%) than their classical fluorescent dye counterparts. Different mechanistic approaches (denoted as different OLED generations) have been developed over the last decades, which include thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF), transition metal complex-based phosphorescence, hybridized local and charge transfer (HLCT), hyperfluorescence (HF), and radical doublet emission. Among these, TADF (and in extension HF) has been identified as a viable candidate toward the further development of sustainable, efficient NIR-OLED materials. TADF is supported by the available thermal energy of the environment, and becomes active when the energy difference between singlet and triplet states (or singlet-triplet energy gap, ΔEST) is minimized. The design of charge-transfer (CT) TADF emitters that achieve such small ΔEST typically relies on the use of electron-donating (D) and electron-accepting (A) molecular subunits, which maintain a twisted conformation along their connecting bond(s). As such, careful and balanced molecular design and structural finetuning are both crucial for the development of novel high-performance TADF materials. Unfortunately, pushing the emission toward the longer wavelengths (lower energy range) of the NIR region is further complicated by the infamous ‘energy gap law’. This principle refers to the increasing interaction between the excited emissive state and the vibrational levels of the ground state as the energy gap between the two becomes smaller. This results in more non-radiative vibrational losses which compete and therefore reduce the emission efficiency. Naturally, improving the rigidity of the emitter can help to counteract these losses but this also makes the active material more vulnerable to undesired aggregation, potentially leading to aggregation-caused quenching of the NIR emission and solubility issues during material preparation. A careful balance must therefore be maintained.
In this thesis, three (synergistic) design strategies were selectively employed to probe the influence of structural templates on the most important emission parameters (i.e. TADF performance, luminescence efficiency, and emission wavelength) and to subsequently improve them through the development of novel NIR-TADF emitters. A first strategy, known as ‘isomeric modulation’, entailed the investigation of regio-isomers of existing, well-performing NIR-TADF emitters to compare the performance between reported and unexplored isomeric motifs. In most cases (as evidenced by Chapter 2, 3, and 5) this led to the discovery of molecular templates which showed an improved TADF performance. Meanwhile, numerous efforts were focused on the creation of small, but nonetheless strongly electron-deficient acceptor moieties in an attempt to enlarge the attainable emission red-shift without the material falling victim to aggregation-induced luminescence quenching. Additionally, this strategy helped to limit the overall size of the emitter, which could potentially improve its overall solubility and processability, making them more suitable for both solution-processed and thermally evaporated OLED devices. Various novel acceptor units with deep LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) energies were eventually designed, synthesized, and subsequently employed, showing varying degrees of success in terms of their emission red-shift and/or luminescence efficiency (Chapter 3, 4, and 5). Nonetheless, other potential candidates remain of interest, provided that a suitable synthesis pathway can be found. Finally, both D-A-D and D-A type structures were often obtained – either by choice or by chance – which allowed to examine the influence of the number of donor units on their respective emission properties. Since the presence of a second donor unit notably affected the aggregation behavior, molecular geometry, and excited state distribution of a certain emitter template, its advantageous role varied within each series of chromophores.
In the end, a variety of novel DR/NIR (TADF) emitters were successfully developed, some of which were even incorporated into (preliminary) solution-processed OLED devices. Despite their admittedly limited performance in terms of the attainable emission red-shift, PLQY, and EQE, deeper understanding of structure-property relationships was gained, providing valuable insights into the possibilities and shortcomings of NIR-TADF emitters and expanding my laboratory expertise and investigative skills as a young academic researcher
Effects of exercise on cardiac structure and function in patients with type 2 diabetes: a narrative review of prospective imaging studies
No full textAround 30% of patients with type 2 diabetes(T2D) develop heart failure and this leads to poor prognosis. Treatment with exercise intervention can improve left cardiac function at rest in T2D, but its effects on subclinical HF markers, maximal cardiac function during exercise, and right cardiac function are unknown. This review aimed to synthesize the effects of exercise on cardiac structure and function in patients with T2D from prospective cardiac imaging trials. The secondary aim was to address the methodological shortcomings of previous studies and map future avenues. Our synthesis showed that exercise interventions can improve left ventricular structure and systolic and diastolic function at rest and during exercise, and right ventricular systolic function at rest in patients with T2D. Study shortcomings were inadequate reporting of randomization, concealment, between-group point estimates, intervention adherence, attendance and adverse events. Future studies should investigate sex-and phenotype-specific effects of exercise on the left and especially right heart during rest and peak exercise, determine the optimal exercise intensity, duration and volume for inducing cardiac changes, and determine if cardiac changes translate to a long-term prognosis.This research was supported by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), Belgium (11M2725N)
Efficient Compression of Mass Spectrometry Images via Contrastive Learning-Based Encoding
No full textIn this study, we introduce a novel encoding algorithm utilizing contrastive learning to address the substantial data size challenges inherent in mass spectrometry imaging. Our algorithm compresses MSI data into fixed-length vectors, significantly reducing storage requirements while maintaining crucial diagnostic information. Through rigorous testing on data sets, including mouse bladder cross sections and biopsies from patients with Barrett's esophagus, we demonstrate that our method not only reduces the data size but also preserves the essential features for accurate analysis. Segmentation tasks performed on both raw and encoded images using traditional k-means and our proposed iterative k-means algorithm show that the encoded images achieve the same or even higher accuracy than the segmentation on raw images. Finally, reducing the size of images makes it possible to perform t-SNE, a technique intended for frequent use in the field to gain a deeper understanding of measured tissues. However, its application has so far been limited by computational capabilities. The algorithm's code, written in Python, is available on our GitHub page https://github.com/kskrajny/MSI-Segmentation.The work was supported by the Polish National Science Centre Grant no. 2021/41/B/ST6/03526. We acknowledge the BioGeMT Team (HORIZON-WIDERA-2022 Grant ID: 101086768) at the University of Malta