Projects
Unveiling the relative contribution of carbon starvation and hydraulic failure in relation to the water use strategy of angiosperm species during drought induced tree mortality. Ghent University
As global change-type droughts are expected to lead to increasing forest mortality events, this research will focus on hydraulic failure and carbon starvation in different functional tree types subjected to different drought intensities. Special attention will be paid to internal CO2 as a carbon storage pool enabling woody tissue photosynthesis, a feature which has often been overlooked in mortality studies.
The social distribution of cancer in Belgium. Socioeconomic inequalities in cancer mortality around the turn of the century. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The formation of metastases is the main cause of cancer-related mortality Ghent University
The formation of metastases is the main cause of cancer-related mortality (90%). Strikingly, no effective anti-metastatic therapy is available in the clinic yet. N-Cadherin (NCad) is a protein that is abnormally active in metastatic tumors and helps them spread. The current project aims at developing molecules which can block NCad in patients.
Econometric models for insurance applications: essays on Bayesian mortality models, heavy tails and extreme value statistics with censored data. KU Leuven
Life insurers, pension funds, health care providers and social security institutions face increasing expenses due to continuing improvements of mortality rates. The actuarial and demographic literature has introduced a myriad of (deterministic and stochastic) models to forecast mortality rates of single and multiple populations.
Chapter 2 in this PhD thesis presents aBayesian analysis of two related multi-population mortality models of ...
Prevention of early mortality by presumptive tuberculosis treatment in HIV infected patients initiating antiretroviral therapy Institute of Tropical Medicine
The overall goal of the project is to evaluate a strategy for reducing early mortality during antretroviral treatment in settings with high incidence of TB and limited facilities for diagnosing TB in symptomatic, severely immunosuppresssed HIV-infected patients.
Improved profitability in the cattle industry by reducing calf mortality Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Calf mortality can result in considerable economic loss. Because the cause of most calf losses remains unknown, the farmer cannot take targeted action to prevent calf mortality. As a consequence, mortality remains (too) high. Calf morbidity is also associated with high veterinary bills. Investigating the causes of calf mortality can help to remediate this problem.
Research ...
Disturbed energy metabolism in critical illness: role in organ failure and mortality, underlying mechanisms, and therapeutic perspectives. KU Leuven
The central aim of this research project is to thoroughly characterize the mitochondrial abnormalities during critical illness, with elucidation of a number of detrimental or protective mechanisms embedded in the ultimate goal of improving patient care and outcome. The results are anticipated to be of multidisciplinary importance, of interest not only to critical illness but also diabetes and every field of medicine with an organ-specific ...