Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Strategies for boosting local adenosine A1 signaling as a treatment for focal epilepsy: from positive allosteric modulators of the inhibitory A1 receptor to deep brain stimulation and photopharmacology." "Paul Boon" "Department of Head and Skin" "Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder, characterized by spontaneous recurrent epileptic seizures. Despite adequate treatment with anti-epileptic drugs, still 30% of the patients continue to have seizures or suffer from severe medication-related side effects due to the large doses of AED they need to take. Therefore, innovative treatments for epilepsy are highly needed. The neuromodulator adenosine, which interacts with A1 receptors (A1Rs), has been shown to exert a seizure-suppressing effect. Strategies aiming at increasing adenosine levels and thus enhancing A1R signaling, may be a promising approach in the treatment of epilepsy. In this project, we will investigate the seizure-suppressing effect of T62, a positive allosteric A1R modulator that enhances the effect of adenosine and A1R signaling. Next, the potential of T62 to enhance the efficacy of deep brain stimulation (DBS), an FDA-approved treatment for epilepsy, by means of enhancing A1R signaling will be evaluated. Eventually, photopharmacology, a fast emerging approach in which light-sensitive drugs such as caged T62 can only be activated upon local illumination of a specific wavelength, will be studied. Using this methodology, we aim to demonstrate that photopharmacology in combination with T62 and DBS is a viable strategy for precision treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy patients." "Local Identity and Global Entanglements of Cantonese Literati during the Ming-Qing Transition (1644-1680s)" "Angela Schottenhammer" "Early Modern History (15th-18th Centuries), Leuven" "In seventeenth-century China, the identity crisis that arose from a dynastic changeover not only raised a discussion on ethnicity, but also led to inter-national cultural interactions in premodern East Asia. Chinese scholarly literature on historiographies of the Ming-Qing transition has neglected the crucial phenomenon of a so-called “localist-turn'' in Guangdong, especially in the context of Sino- European maritime encounters. This project will re-write the narrative of the conflict between the Han Chinese and the Qing Manchus using both historical and literary evidence. By offering novel perspectives of local and global entanglements from peripheral Cantonese literati and the complex Sino-Manchu tension, this research will unfold the creation of local identity, and multifaceted intellectual and cultural interactions between indigenous Cantonese and European merchants. Through both local and global historical lenses, this project will examine the life and work of a Cantonese Ming-loyalist scholar, Qu Dajun (1630-1696), who was the leading figure of the elite circle in Guangdong. Also, it will analyse how the notion of “Guangdong Culture” was created collectively by the Cantonese literati. Their perceptions of the “other”, self-proclaimed identity of “our Cantonese” and newly-defined “barbarians”, including the Japanese, Dutch, and Portuguese, deserve a thorough study which can shed fresh light on Sino-Manchu, Sino-Japanese and Sino-European entanglements in maritime Canton." "Accommodating (im)mobility. Spaces of accommodation as hubs between global migration flows and local urban life, 1850-1930." "Hilde Greefs" "Centre for Urban History" "Both in contemporary literature as in historical research, the arrival of travellers and migrants in a city has been described as a critical moment. A lack of knowledge about the urban context they arrived in as well as a lack of trustworthy information made them vulnerable for abuse. This project will focus on the arrival in the city as a crucial moment for newcomers to orientate into the urban fabric and on spaces of accommodation as crucial locations of encounter for different actors intending to channel mobile people. This project will study spaces of accommodation as key hub in the infrastructural complexes of arrival within the urban environment, offering space where people got connected and could decide to settle, find a job, or to prepare for onward travel, or conversely, where people were deceived and hindered in aspired mobility trajectories. It will reveal how these places functioned as funnel places between the global flows and the local urban environment, where the practices of and conflicts over the movement of people were constructed and contested, impacting both upon the mobility trajectories of people and the socio-spatial development of the city. The objectives are to explore 1) the changing roles and functions of these spaces of accommodation within the complex arrival infrastructure and the urban environment in the period 1850-1930, characterised by a strong increase and democratisation of migration and mobility, but also by growing concerns and moral panics about mobile people; 2) and to identify causes of these evolutions by emphasizing changing interactions but also tensions and conflicts between different actors and organisations trying to influence mobility patterns. Its results will not only enhance our understanding in the ways these spaces of accommodation were used to enhance or obstruct mobility. It will also bring a fluid population into the picture which has remained concealed by the dominant view on migrants who settled and were registered, as well as bridge the gap between migration, mobility, and urban studies." "Local to global variability in organic carbon dynamics in coastal marsh sediments subject to submergence by sea level rise." "Stijn Temmerman" Ecosphere "Coastal marshes are among the most effective ecosystems that can mitigate climate warming by sequestration of carbon into their soils. But the climate warming in itself is impacting coastal marshes through sea level rise and there is much uncertainty about the impact on soil carbon accumulation and preservation. Our objective is to advance understanding of the global and local variability in the accumulation and preservation of different sources of soil organic carbon in response to coastal marsh submergence by sea level rise. We want to gain knowledge on how this response differs (1) on a global scale from highly organic-rich to highly mineral-rich marsh soils, and (2) on local scales in response to gradients from stable marsh zones, where sediment accretion and vegetation are in balance with sea level rise, to unstable marsh zones, where vegetation is increasingly stressed due to submergence by the rising sea level. This project will combine (1) the analyses of innovative global datasets, (2) a detailed field study in marshes with clear spatial gradients in submergence by sea level rise, and (3) applications of a new integrated model of carbon accumulation in marsh soils in response to sea level rise. The results will enable, for the first, to estimate the changes in carbon accumulation in coastal marshes in response to future scenarios of sea level rise, on local to global scales." "Preliminary regional and a local assessment of the global ecosystem restoration potential in Europe." "Hans Verbeeck" "Department of Environment" "The project aim to develop preliminary methodologies to enable a better understanding of regional and local ecosystem restoration potential in Europe. Here we will adapt the methodologies developed in “The global tree restoration potential” study led by Dr. JF Bastin to the regional and local level. In particular, the project will focus on (i) increasing the spatial resolution, (ii) using more recent land cover products and (iii) implementing local biotic and abiotic layers. " "SI4SD | The role of local administrations in Social innovation: a global understanding from the comparative study of Flanders and Madrid" "Pieter Van den Broeck" "Urban Design, Urbanism, Landscape and Planning" "Civil mobilization, civil-public collaboration and multi-actor experimentations are spreading in different geographical contexts as mechanisms through which different urban actors gain a relevant and active role in politics and collaborate to address urban challenges and social needs. This research aims to develop a holistic understanding of how such ongoing mobilization and multi-actor experimentations are being developed, and how they are transforming urban governance and contributing to democratic innovation. By identifying and defining such phenomena as “socially innovative multi-actor collaborations” (IMACs), the research stresses the relevance and linkages of these processes both to social innovation and democratic innovation theory and practice. Theoretically, the research builds an inter-disciplinary framework that takes social innovation theory as starting point, complemented with literature from the fields of political science, public administration and planning, together with theories from governance, management, collaboration, and leadership studies. Methodologically, The study takes action research as main approach, building inter- and transdisciplinary collaborative trajectories with different researchers and urban actors involved in IMACs working to transform food systems in Madrid and Leuven.The thesis is articulated around three research questions that look into different dimensions and scales of IMACs. First, IMACs are conceptualized and investigated with respect to why and how they emerge (RQ1) through the analysis of governance transformations in Madrid during the “Government of Change” led by AhoraMadrid (2015-19). Second, digging into how IMACs develop and their internal governance and co-production processes, specific insights about enabling roles, mechanisms and practices for and in IMACs (RQ2) are reached from the study of IMACs intervening in urban food governance in Leuven and the transdisciplinary action research trajectory developed at this stage of the research. Third, the macro- and micro level of governance and performance of IMACs already investigated are reconnected, questioning how IMACs contribute to democratizing urban governance and addressing urban challenges (RQ3). This is achieved investigating whether and how IMAC, as a process, institutionalized in food governance in Madrid between 2015 and 2023. Eventually, the connection and upgrading of the results related to each research question and stage allows to build a holistic and applied understanding of IMAC(s) both as governance mechanisms and a governance process." "Global IP law and local politics: The political economy of African seed business law" "Geertrui Van Overwalle" "Research Unit KU Leuven Centre for IT & IP Law (CiTiP)" "The World Trade Organisation has promoted Western-styled intellectual property (IP) norms around the world. This IP-related endeavours can be seen as part of a global move in the direction of less state and more private entrepreneurship. Whereas some ‘orthodox’ development scholars have welcomed the turn towards market institutions in development policy, other ‘critical’ development scholars have argued that Western IP norms are ill-suited to the needs of developing countries, especially in the agricultural sector. Both orthodox and critical scholars have two blind spots in their research. On the one hand, they have focused on emerging economies and extrapolated their findings about ‘neoliberal’ policy prescriptions towards the rest of the developing world. The poorest African countries have been manifestly understudied. On the other hand, there is a problematic lack of data on how the law works on a day-to-day basis.My PhD aims to contribute towards filling these geographical and empirical gaps. I specifically look at the implementation in Africa of ‘seed business law’: patent law on agrobiotechnology, plant variety protection law and seed legislation. My argument is that seed business law is not supporting multinational seed companies to the extent usually assumed, but is rather locally adapted to the interests of domestic elites (politicians, bureaucrats, traditional leaders, landlords, businessmen, army, traders etc.). These interests, part of the local political economy, sometimes revolve around clientelistic redistribution via patronage networks, which results in separate circuits of capital accumulation. Accordingly, seed business law is to a large extent disused (not implemented) and to some extent dysfunctional (working towards goals other than the ones for which it was designed).In addition to a broad desktop study including statistics and legal sources, I conduct interview-based comparative case studies of seed business law vis-à-vis rice in Senegal and cotton in Burkina Faso. Senegal and Burkina Faso have the same legal framework for seed business law, but different political economies. Accordingly, comparing the two countries allows to isolate the effects of political economy on the use of seed business law. I link my fieldwork findings to the development studies literature. I argue that legal scholars should scrutinize domestic elites when researching the effects of international legal norms on development in Africa." "From local sensing to global lumen reconstruction" "Paolo Fiorini, Jos Vander Sloten" "Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics (RAM), BioMechanics (BMe)" "Developing techniques to reconstruct vascular lumens from a selection of sensor modalities, including: IVUS, EM, shape and forward looking OCT. Through sensor fusion the methods will be made robust against occlusions, artifacts or disturbances. Machine Learning methods will be adopted to extract relevant anatomic features and establish correspondences. Mosaicking methods will be adopted to stitch local features to a global representation. In a 2nd round, the deformation of the lumen (due to physiological processes or interaction with the passing instrument) will be incorporated. This leads to 4D modelling (3D+time). Energy-based methods that minimize the total energy of the combined instrument/vessel structure will be investigated. Furthermore, the lumen represented by its centreline will be deformed by local models such as e.g. a cylinder-model fitted through the latest sensor data, the instrument shape or physiologic process models. Relevant measures will be further extracted directly from the raw data to provide guidance cues e.g. distance to an anatomic target to be avoided." "Association between different measures of global and local adiposity with clinico-pathological features, circulating markers, lipidomic profiles and outcome in postmenopausal breast cancer patients treated in the IBCSG 35-07 (SOLE) / BIG 1-07 trial" "Christine Desmedt" "Laboratory for Translational Breast Cancer Research, Laboratory of Lipid Metabolism and Cancer" "More than half of the Belgian women are either overweight or obese. Obese breast cancer (BC) patients are at higher risk of recurrence. In the breast, enlarged adipocytes and Crown-like Structures (CLS), composed by a dead or dying adipocytes surrounded by macrophages, have been reported as mediators of pro-inflammatory markers of adiposity. While promising, these markers have only been evaluated in relatively small and retrospective series of 3,000 early postmenopausal BC patients treated in the IBCSG 35-07 (SOLE)/BIG 1-07 trial. Additionally, we will explore plasmatic circulating endocrine and inflammatory markers together with lipidomic profiles before and during treatment in ~100 of these patients to further enhance our understanding of the systemic effects of global and local adiposity" "Association between different measures of global and local adiposity with clinico-pathological features, circulating markers, lipidomic profiles and outcome in postmenopausal breast cancer patients treated in the IBCSG 35-07 (SOLE)/BIG 1-07 trial" "Christine Desmedt" "Laboratory for Translational Breast Cancer Research" "We will aim at investigating the association between different measures of global (BMI) and local (CLS and size of adipocytes) adiposity with clinico-pathological features and outcome in 3000 early postmenopausal breast cancer patients treated in the IBCSG 35-07 (SOLE/BIG 1-07 trial. Additionally we will explore plasmatic circulating endocrine and inflammatory markers together with lipidomic profiles before and during treatment in 100 of these patients to further enhance our understanding of the systemic effects of global and local adiposity"