A novel approach to model 4 decades of marine chemical data

The awareness of the negative effects of chemical pollution in the sixties has led to an increased concern on the chemical status of the marine environment in the following decades. International regulation in Europe started with the Oslo and Paris convention in the seventies, later on leading to the OSPAR commission. At national level, extended research on chemical pollutants in marine sediments and marine biota was done within the “Project Mer/Projekt Zee” from 1970 to 1976. Since then, a long series of research and monitoring projects was conducted, reporting on the chemical status of the Belgian Part of the North&nbsp;Sea. &nbsp; Within the 4demon project, a major work package focused on the collection, quality control and intercalibration of more than 40 years of data on heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls. In this presentation, the modelling approach and results on sediment data will be&nbsp;presented. &nbsp; Within current OSPAR and MSFD monitoring on chemical pollution, variability in location, seasonality, grain size, etc. is reduced thanks to standardized OSPAR guidelines. This facilitates comparability of data within and between regions and assessments based on 5-15 year timetrends are frequently made. Within more than 40 years of pollution data, variability is much larger, and multiple issues should be tackled to intercalibrate the data: changes in sampling locations and analyses methods over time, missing essential metadata, sample analysis on different grain size fractions,… Therefore, existing time trend modelling approaches could not be applied within the 4Demon project. An alternative approach, focused on cluster analysis and different normalisation procedures was proposed. A parametric linear mixed effect model was used to integrate all data into consistent long term time lines which give a view on PCB and heavy metal pollution on a large time&nbsp;frame. &nbsp; Acknowledgement We want to thank the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) for the financial support of the 4Demon&nbsp;project.</p

Flemish network on rare connective tissue diseases (CTD): patient pathways in systemic sclerosis. First steps taken.

peer reviewedDespite the low prevalence of each rare disease, the total burden is high. Patients with rare diseases encounter numerous barriers, including delayed diagnosis and limited access to high-quality treatments. In order to tackle these challenges, the European Commission launched the European Reference Networks (ERNs), cross-border networks of healthcare providers and patients representatives. In parallel, the aims and structure of these ERNs were translated at the federal and regional levels, resulting in the creation of the Flemish Network of Rare Diseases. In line with the mission of the ERNs and to ensure equal access to care, we describe as first patient pathways for systemic sclerosis (SSc), as a pilot model for other rare connective and musculoskeletal diseases. Consensus was reached on following key messages: 1. Patients with SSc should have multidisciplinary clinical and investigational evaluations in a tertiary reference expert centre at baseline, and subsequently every three to 5 years. Intermediately, a yearly clinical evaluation should be provided in the reference centre, whilst SSc technical evaluations are permissionably executed in a centre that follows SSc-specific clinical practice guidelines. In between, monitoring can take place in secondary care units, under the condition that qualitative examinations and care including interactive multidisciplinary consultations can be provided. 2. Patients with early diffuse cutaneous SSc, (progressive) interstitial lung disease and/or pulmonary arterial hypertension should undergo regular evaluations in specialised tertiary care reference institutions. 3. Monitoring of patients with progressive interstitial lung disease and/or pulmonary (arterial) hypertension will be done in agreement with experts of ERN LUNG

Optical phonon lifetimes in sputtered AlN thin films

We study the vibrational properties of AlN thin films deposited on silicon (100) substrates by the reactive DC-pulsed magnetron sputtering. The frequencies and lifetimes of the E-1(TO) and A(1)(LO) optical phonons are calculated from Fourier transform infrared spectra using the factorized model of a damped oscillator. We analyze the structural properties by the x-ray diffraction technique to correlate the elongation of phonon lifetimes with increasing film thickness. The lifetimes of the phonon modes in AlN thin films are compared to the values in a single crystal. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4711773]Applied Physic

A novel approach to model 4 decades of marine chemical data

The awareness of the negative effects of chemical pollution in the sixties has led to an increased concern on the chemical status of the marine environment in the following decades. International regulation in Europe started with the Oslo and Paris convention in the seventies, later on leading to the OSPAR commission. At national level, extended research on chemical pollutants in marine sediments and marine biota was done within the “Project Mer/Projekt Zee” from 1970 to 1976. Since then, a long series of research and monitoring projects was conducted, reporting on the chemical status of the Belgian Part of the North&nbsp;Sea. &nbsp; Within the 4demon project, a major work package focused on the collection, quality control and intercalibration of more than 40 years of data on heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls. In this presentation, the modelling approach and results on sediment data will be&nbsp;presented. &nbsp; Within current OSPAR and MSFD monitoring on chemical pollution, variability in location, seasonality, grain size, etc. is reduced thanks to standardized OSPAR guidelines. This facilitates comparability of data within and between regions and assessments based on 5-15 year timetrends are frequently made. Within more than 40 years of pollution data, variability is much larger, and multiple issues should be tackled to intercalibrate the data: changes in sampling locations and analyses methods over time, missing essential metadata, sample analysis on different grain size fractions,… Therefore, existing time trend modelling approaches could not be applied within the 4Demon project. An alternative approach, focused on cluster analysis and different normalisation procedures was proposed. A parametric linear mixed effect model was used to integrate all data into consistent long term time lines which give a view on PCB and heavy metal pollution on a large time&nbsp;frame. &nbsp; Acknowledgement We want to thank the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) for the financial support of the 4Demon&nbsp;project.</p

Potential of five willow species (Salix spp.) for phytoextraction of heavy metals

The potential of short rotation coppice (SRC) for phytoremediation of contaminated sites and simultaneous generation of bio-energy by conversion of the produced biomass has been discussed in previous publications. The current study compares five species of Salix spp. in their ability to extract and accumulate heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) in harvestable plant parts. The species used in this study were: Salix dasyclados 'Loden', Salix triandra 'Noir de Villaines', Salix fragilis 'Belgisch Rood', Salix purpurea x Salix daphnoides 'Bleu', Salix schwerinii 'Christina'. The comparison was conducted in a pot experiment in open air over the course of a growing season on three different soil types: a moderately contaminated dredged sediment derived surface soil (A I), a heavily polluted sediment derived surface soil (A2) and a sandy soil with moderately elevated concentrations due to atmospheric deposition by historic smelter activities (A3). In addition, the effects of soil treatment with 2.5 mmol kg(-1) ethylene diamine disuccinate (EDDS) on metal accumulation in stems and leaves were evaluated for one Salix clone (Loden). Of the five clones tested, Christina, Loden and Belgisch Rood exhibited the highest Cd and Zn concentrations and therefore deserve further attention in field validation. A first estimation of the order of magnitude of Cd and Zn that could potentially be annually extracted with these clones, resulted in 5-27 kg ha(-1) for Zn and 0.25-0.65 kg ha(-1) for Cd, based on the soil type. However, biomass production in field situations will mainly determine metal removal. Treatment with EDDS exhibited distinct differences in inducing metal removal on the various soils. Uptake of Cd and Zn could not be enhanced in A1, whereas in A2 and A3 removal of these metals could be increased by 50-100% after treatment. In all soils EDDS treatment also had a distinct effect on Cu uptake. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

4DEMON: Centralization and valorization of 4 decades of biota contaminant data in the Belgian Part of the North Sea

From the sixties, growing general awareness arose concerning the negative effects of chemical pollution in the marine environment. This led to international regulation in Europe starting with the Oslo and Paris convention in the seventies and leading to several research projects and monitoring programs. In the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS), modern oceanography, with systematic campaigns for assessing the quality of the marine environment, started with the “Projet Mer/Projekt Zee” (PMPZ) in 1970. Within this first phase of the Belgian Federal North Sea Research Program, all compartments of the marine ecosystem were studied. This initial program was followed by other research actions, programs and monitoring campaigns, resulting in a large set of valuable historical data on the marine environment of the BPNS. &nbsp; As part of the 4DEMON project (4 Decades of Marine Monitoring), a massive amount of marine pollution data in sediment and biota has been centralized from various data sources. A quality check was performed on the data (coordinates, units, duplicates,…) resulting for biota in a dataset of no less than 82000 analyt values with metadata including those of heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The data were valorized by performing long-term trends modelling on a defined subset of the&nbsp;data. &nbsp; When collecting 40 years of pollution data, variability in the dataset is large and various issues have to be addressed to intercalibrate the data: sampling locations and species changed over time, major method changes occurred and essential metadata might be missing. Therefore, a linear mixed effect model was used to integrate all data into consistent long-term time trends, including the parameters season, sampling location and analysis method as model variables. The selected species for most contaminants were blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), brown shrimp (Crangon crangon), flounder (Platichthys flesus), and swimming crab (Liocarcinus spp). The model output gives a view on PCB and heavy metal pollution on a large time&nbsp;frame. &nbsp; &nbsp; Acknowledgement We want to thank the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) for the financial support of the 4Demon&nbsp;project.</p

Revalorisation of metal contaminated land by Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) for production of Renewable Energy

C