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Cities are major drivers of environmental change at all scales and are especially at risk from the ensuing effects, which include poor air quality, flooding and heat waves. Typically, these issues are studied on a city-by-city basis owing to the spatial complexity of built landscapes, local topography and emission patterns. However, to ensure knowledge sharing and to integrate local-scale processes with regional and global scale modelling initiatives, there is a pressing need for a world-wide database on cities that is suited for environmental studies. In this paper we present a European database that has a particular focus on characterising urbanised landscapes. It has been derived using tools and techniques developed as part of the World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (WUDAPT) project, which has the goal of acquiring and disseminating climate-relevant information on cities worldwide. The European map is the first major step toward creating a global database on cities that can be integrated with existing topographic and natural land-cover databases to support modelling initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cone penetration testing (CPT) is one of the most efficient and versatile methods currently available for geotechnical, lithostratigraphic and hydrogeological site characterization. Currently available methods for soil behaviour type classification (SBT) of CPT data however have severe limitations, often restricting their application to a local scale. For parameterization of regional groundwater flow or geotechnical models, and delineation of regional hydro- or lithostratigraphy, regional SBT classification would be very useful. This paper investigates the use of model-based clustering for SBT classification, and the influence of different clustering approaches on the properties and spatial distribution of the obtained soil classes. We additionally propose a methodology for automated lithostratigraphic mapping of regionally occurring sedimentary units using SBT classification. The methodology is applied to a large CPT dataset, covering a groundwater basin of ~60 km2 with predominantly unconsolidated sandy sediments in northern Belgium. Results show that the model-based approach is superior in detecting the true lithological classes when compared to more frequently applied unsupervised classification approaches or literature classification diagrams. We demonstrate that automated mapping of lithostratigraphic units using advanced SBT classification techniques can provide a large gain in efficiency, compared to more time-consuming manual approaches and yields at least equally accurate results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘The 100 km Dodentocht’, which takes place annually and has its start in Bornem, Belgium, is a long distance march where participants have to cover a 100 km trail in at most 24 hours. The approximately 11 000 marchers per edition are tracked by making use of passive radio-frequency-identification (RFID). These tracking data were analyzed to build a spatially explicit marching model that gives insights into the dynamics of the event and allows to evaluate the effect of changes in the starting procedure of the event. For building the model, the empirical distribution functions (edf) of the marching speeds at every section of the trail in between two consecutive checkpoints and of the checkpoints where marchers retire, are determined, taking into account age, gender, and marching speeds at previous sections. These distribution functions are then used to sample the consecutive speeds and retirement, and as such to simulate the times when individual marchers pass by the consecutive checkpoints. We concluded that the data-driven model simulates the event reliably. Furthermore, we tested three scenarios to reduce the crowdiness along the first part of the trail and in this way were able to conclude that either the start should be moved to a location outside the town center where the streets are at least 25% wider, or that the marchers should start in two groups at two different locations, and that these groups should ideally merge at about 20 km after the start. The crowdiness at the start might also be reduced by installing a bottleneck at the start in order to limit the number of marchers that can pass per unit of time. Consequently, the operating hours of the consecutive checkpoints would be longer. The developed framework can likewise be used to analyze and improve the operation of other endurance events if sufficient tracking data are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1983 the sentinel laboratory network was established because of the need to describe the epidemiological evolution of infectious diseases. During the study period of 30 years (1983–2013), microbiology laboratories reported on weekly basis the laboratory diagnosed cases for a selection of infectious diseases. This resulted in a large longitudinal laboratory based database allowing to provide trends over time and distribution by person and place. During this period, adaptations to data collection were made due to changes in diagnostic methods and public health priorities, introduction and application of digital revolution, and multiple reorganizations of the laboratories. Since the surveillance network is dynamic, it necessitates a continuous evaluation to ensure that, over time, it continues to be representative of the general epidemiological trends in the country. Secondly the aim is to examine the robustness and stability of this surveillance system. Here we demonstrated that the flexibility of the data collection methodology by the sentinel laboratory network is unique and that adaptations do not affect the capacity of the system to follow trends. Therefore, the surveillance by this network is representative of the current epidemiological situation in Belgium. To our knowledge, no such surveillance network with such a long-term follow-up and demonstrated stability for multiple infectious diseases in the general population was earlier described. Furthermore, expected trends due to the implementation of vaccination or other events were accurately detected. The collected data obtained from this network allows interesting comparisons with other national and international information sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The placoderm fauna of the upper Famennian tetrapod-bearing locality of Strud, Belgium, includes the antiarch Grossilepis rikiki, the arthrodire groenlandaspidid Turrisaspis strudensis and the phyllolepidid Phyllolepis undulata. Based on morphological and morphometric evidence, the placoderm specimens from Strud are predominantly recognised as immature specimens and this locality as representing a placoderm nursery. The Strud depositional environment corresponds to a channel in an alluvial plain, and the presence of a nursery in such environment could have provided nutrients and protection to the placoderm offspring. This represents one of the earliest pieces of evidence for this sort of habitat partitioning in vertebrate history, with adults living more distantly from the nursery and using the nursery only to spawn or give live birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frankincense, the oleogum resin from Boswellia sp., has been an early luxury good in both Western and Eastern societies and is particularly used in Christian funerary and liturgical rites. The scant grave goods in late medieval burials comprise laterally perforated pottery vessels which are usually filled with charcoal. They occur in most regions of western Europe and are interpreted as incense burners but have never been investigated with advanced analytical techniques. We herein present chemical and anthracological results on perforated funerary pots from 4 Wallonian sites dating to the 12–14th century AD. Chromatographic and mass spectrometric analysis of lipid extracts of the ancient residues and comparison with extracts from four Boswellia species clearly evidence the presence of degraded frankincense in the former, based on characteristic triterpenoids, viz. boswellic and tirucallic acids, and their myriad dehydrated and oxygenated derivatives. Cembrane-type diterpenoids indicate B. sacra (southern Arabia) and B. serrata (India) as possible botanical origins. Furthermore, traces of juniper and possibly pine tar demonstrate that small amounts of locally available fragrances were mixed with frankincense, most likely to reduce its cost. Additionally, markers of ruminant fats in one sample from a domestic context indicate that this vessel was used for food preparation. Anthracological analysis demonstrates that the charcoal was used as fuel only and that no fragrant wood species were burned. The chars derived from local woody plants and were most likely recovered from domestic fires. Furthermore, vessel recycling is indicated by both contextual and biomarker evidence. The results shed a new light on funerary practices in the Middle Ages and at the same time reveal useful insights into the chemistry of burned frankincense. The discovery of novel biomarkers, namely Δ2-boswellic acids and a series of polyunsaturated and aromatic hydrocarbons, demonstrates the high potential for organic chemical analyses of incense residues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]