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Background and aims: With the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic declining, activities in the gastrointestinal clinic are being recommenced after a period of stringent measures. Since a second COVID-19 wave is not entirely ruled out health care professionals might remain faced with the need to perform endoscopic procedures in patients with a confirmed positive or unknown COVID-19 status. With this report we aim to provide a practical relevant overview of preparation and protective measures for gastroenterologists based on the currently available guidelines and our local experience and results of a national Belgian survey, to guarantee a fast recall of an adequate infection prevention if COVID-19 reoccurs. Methods: From the 23rd of March 2020 and the 13th of May 2020 we performed a Pubmed, Embase and Medline search, resulting in 37 papers on COVID-19 and endoscopy. Additionally, we combined these data with data acquired from the national BSGIE survey amongst Belgian gastroenterologists. Results: Based on 72 completed surveys in both university and non-university hospitals, the results show (1) a dramatic (, SCOPUS: re.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

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The analysis of hierarchical data that take the form of clusters with random size has received considerable attention. The focus here is on samples that are very large in terms of number of clusters and/or members per cluster, on the one hand, as well as on very small samples (e.g., when studying rare diseases), on the other. Whereas maximum likelihood inference is straightforward in medium to large samples, in samples of sizes considered here it may be prohibitive. We propose sample-splitting (Molenberghs et al. (2011)) as a way to replace iterative optimization of a likelihood that does not admit an analytical solution, with closed-form calculations. We use pseudo-likelihood (Molenberghs et al. (2014)), consisting of computing weighted averages over solutions obtained for each cluster size occurring. As a result, the statistical properties of this approach need to be investigated, especially because the minimal sufficient statistics involved are incomplete. The operational characteristics were studied using simulations. Simulations were also done to compare the proposed method to existing techniques developed to circumvent difficulties with unequal cluster sizes, such as multiple imputation. It follows that the proposed non-iterative methods have a strong beneficial impact on computation time; at the same time, the method is the most precise among its competitors considered. The findings are illustrated using data from a developmental toxicity study, where clusters are formed of fetuses within litters. Financial support from the IAP research network #P7/06 of the Belgian Government (Belgian Science Policy) is gratefully acknowledged. The research leading to these results has also received funding from the European Seventh Framework programme FP7 2007–2013 under grant agreement Nr.602552. We gratefully acknowledge support from the IWT-SBO ExaScience grant.

Een 30-jarige man biedt zich aan wegens ademhalingsgebonden thoracale pijn. Hij heeft een voorgeschiedenis van een arterioveneuze malformatie (AVM) die geëmboliseerd werd door middel van onyx. Op een CT-scan van de thorax uitgevoerd wegens de thoracale pijn is er hiervoor geen verklaring te vinden. De scan toont wel een lineaire dense structuur in de rechteronderkwab en bilateraal verspreid enkele kleine punctiforme densiteiten. Deze afwijkingen werden veroorzaakt door het migreren van de onyx van de hersenen naar de longen. Men spreekt in dit geval van niet-trombotische longembolen.

Oncogenic fusion events have been identified in a broad range of tumors. Among them, RET rearrangements represent distinct and potentially druggable targets that are recurrently found in lung adenocarcinomas. Here, we provide further evidence that current anti-RET drugs may not be potent enough to induce durable responses in such tumors. We report that potent inhibitors such as AD80 or ponatinib that stably bind in the DFG-out conformation of RET may overcome these limitations and selectively kill RET-rearranged tumors. Using chemical genomics in conjunction with phosphoproteomic analyses in RET-rearranged cells we identify the CCDC6-RETI788N mutation and drug-induced MAPK pathway reactivation as possible mechanisms, by which tumors may escape the activity of RET inhibitors. Our data provide mechanistic insight into the druggability of RET kinase fusions that may be of help for the development of effective therapies targeting such tumors.

Vijf maanden na de start heeft het ORG-ID consortium op 30 januari de eindrapportage opgeleverd. Een mooi traject. Vooral mooi door de bereidheid van alle gesprekspartners om hier tijd en aandacht aan te geven. En dat waren er aardig wat. We mochten 52 mensen interviewen, 49 mensen deden mee aan de reflectiesessies, 82 mensen kwamen naar het World Cafe en nog 66 mensen deden mee met de schriftelijke enquête. Daarna hebben zo’n 30 mensen het concept-eindrapport gelezen en ons feed back gegeven. De Stuurgroep Ruimtelijke Adaptatie gaf aan blij te zijn met het rapport. Ook de stuurgroep kwam met vragen en tips. Al deze waardevolle reacties zijn (binnen de kaders van onze opdracht en onafhankelijke rol) verwerkt in de definitieve versie van de eindrapportage. De belangrijkste bevinding is dat wanneer je naar de afgelopen periode kijkt, je kan concluderen dat het glas half vol is. Kijk je naar de komende jaren richting 2020, dan is het glas half leeg en moet er een tandje bij om de doelen voor 2020 te halen. Dat tandje erbij omvat onder andere het formuleren van concrete tussendoelen, het organiseren van regie op regionaal niveau, een helderder en steviger communicatie voor meer samenhang, bredere bewustwording en effectievere kennisdeling, het in samenhang benutten van bestaand juridisch instrumentarium, meer aandacht voor financieringsmodellen, en monitoring.

BACKGROUND: Serious infections in children (sepsis, meningitis, pneumonia, pyelonephritis, osteomyelitis, and cellulitis) are associated with considerable mortality and morbidity. In children with an acute illness, the primary care physician uses signs and symptoms to assess the probability of a serious infection and decide on further management. AIM: To analyse the diagnostic accuracy of signs and symptoms, and to create a multivariable triage instrument. DESIGN OF STUDY: A prospective diagnostic accuracy study. SETTING: Primary care in Belgium. METHOD: Children aged 0-16 years with an acute illness for a maximum of 5 days were included consecutively. Signs and symptoms were recorded and compared to the final outcome of these children (a serious infection for which hospitalisation was necessary). Accuracy was analysed bivariably. Multivariable triage instruments were constructed using classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. RESULTS: A total of 3981 children were included in the study, of which 31 were admitted to hospital with a serious infection (0.78%). Accuracy of signs and symptoms was fairly low. Classical textbook signs (meningeal irritation impaired peripheral circulation) had high specificity. The primary classification tree consisted of five knots and had sensitivity of 96.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 83.3 to 99.9), specificity 88.5% (95% CI = 87.5 to 89.5), positive predictive value 6.2% (95% CI = 4.2 to 8.7), and negative predictive value 100.0% (95% CI = 99.8 to 100.0), by which a serious infection can be excluded in children testing negative on the tree. The sign paramount in all trees was the physician's statement 'something is wrong'. CONCLUSION: Some individual signs have high specificity. A serious infection can be excluded based on a limited number of signs and symptoms.

Thesis about the charge carrier dynamics in PbSe and PbS semiconductor nanocrystals. The main goal of the research is to assess their potential as new materials for high-efficiency solar cells. The nanocrystals under investigation consist of PbSe quantum dots (Ch 2), PbSe nanorods (Ch 3 & 4) and PbS nanosheets (Ch 6), and the spectroscopic methods used are terahertz, microwave and optical ultrafast laser spectroscopy. The thesis also decribes the synthesis and structural characterization.

The endocrine cells (ECs) of the gastrointestinal mucosa form the largest endocrine system in the body, not only in terms of cell numbers but also in terms of the different produced substances. Data describing the association between the relative distributions of the peptide-specific ECs in relation to feeding habits can be useful tools that enable the creation of a general expected pattern of EC distribution. We aimed to investigate the distribution of ECs immunoreactive for the peptides gastrin (GAS), cholecystokinin (CCK-8), neuropeptide Y (NPY), and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in different segments of the digestive tract of carnivorous fish dorado (Salminus brasiliensis) by using immunohistochemistry procedures. The distribution of endocrine cells immunoreactive for gastrin (GAS), cholecystokinin (CCK-8), neuropeptide Y (NPY), and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in digestive tract of dorado S. brasiliensis was examined by immunohistochemistry. The results describe the association between the distribution of the peptide-specific endocrine cells and feeding habits in different carnivorous fish. The largest number of endocrine cells immunoreactive for GAS, CCK-8, and CGRP were found in the pyloric stomach region and the pyloric caeca. However, NPY-immunoreactive endocrine cells were markedly restricted to the midgut. The distribution pattern of endocrine cells identified in S. brasiliensis is similar to that found in other carnivorous fishes.