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Abstract Since its emergence in 1996, the Asian H5 Goose/Guangdong (Gs/Gd) lineage has circulated widely in poultry in southern China, spilling over to wild birds by 2002. Wild bird infections facilitated global dissemination via migratory waterfowl and repeated spillback into poultry, challenging the view that HPAI primarily arises from LPAI mutation. Subclade 2.3.4.4b emerged in Asia in 2013, reached Europe in 2016, caused recurrent epizootics, diversified into multiple genotypes, became dominant in wild birds, and shows zoonotic potential.This thesis investigates critical knowledge gaps regarding H5Nx subclade 2.3.4.4b in poultry: (1) early within-flock spread after punctual introduction in chickens, particularly during the first European epizootics; (2) influence of pre-existing immunity on silent circulation; (3) limitations in diagnostic throughput during epizootic peaks; (4) potential of environmental surveillance, including air and dust sampling; and (5) impact on egg contamination and the reproductive tract, relevant for food safety and zoonotic risk.Four main objectives were addressed: (1) development of an experimental model simulating punctual introductions and spread, comparing 2017 and 2020 strains and assessing pre-existing immunity; (2) enhancement of diagnostic capacity via alternative sampling, semi-automated RNA extraction, and high-throughput processing; (3) evaluation of air and dust sampling for virus monitoring under experimental and field conditions; and (4) assessment of egg contamination risk. Alternative sampling and environmental monitoring were also applied to Newcastle disease virus as a comparative notifiable pathogen. Jury Prof. Tuci Elio - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Anthony Cleve - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Pierre-Yves Schobbens - University of Namur, BelgiumProf. Alvaro Gutierrez - Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, EspagneMr. Fabian Duchesne - Qualitics SPRLProf. Anders Lyhne Christensen - SDU, Denmark Evènement public et gratuit - Inscription obligatoire Je m'inscris

Between anti-colonial legacies, contemporary critiques, and new challenges...Far from being a conference or a lecture, this meeting is intended to be a friendly and participatory event, designed to share everyone's thoughts and questions about a school of thought that continues to shape political debates within the African diaspora in Belgium. Not familiar with Pan-Africanism? Don't worry, we'll explain it to you! Born as a response to colonial violence, racial oppression, and the fragmentation of African and diasporic societies, Pan-Africanism has championed a project of material, symbolic, and political liberation. From independence struggles to current debates on identity, sovereignty, and globalization, it has been celebrated, criticized, reinterpreted, and questioned in turn.Some analyses today denounce its essentialist excesses, its nostalgic tendencies, or its confinement to a rhetoric of victimization. Others question its ability to respond to contemporary challenges, particularly those related to technological dependence, informational sovereignty, and new forms of global domination.We would be honored to have your association participate in this collective discussion.Participants are encouraged to read this article before the debate: Analysis - Drawing on Pan-Africanism to Envision African Digital Autonomy - FUCIDLunch will be provided. Learn more

Jury PromotersProf. Anthony Simonofski - University of NamurProf. Corentin Burnay - University of NamurOther members of the juryProf. Annick Castiaux - University of NamurProf. Lieselot Daneels - Ghent UniversityProf. Ida Lindgren - Linköping UniversityProf. Benoît Vanderose - University of NamurChair of the juryProf. Sophie Béreau - University of Namur

The show focuses on how ideologies infiltrate everyday actions, intimate relationships, media discourse, and domestic conflicts. It reveals what causes people to change their minds, hesitate, or give up... but also what allows them to repair, care for, and remain connected. How can we get involved without losing ourselves, without crushing ourselves, without reproducing the violence we are fighting against? The show brings out forms of solidarity that are "warm," sensitive, localized, sometimes tiny, but capable of producing common ground and restoring a grip on reality.Between minor frictions and major historical events, the Théâtre Universitaire de Namur and the Compagnie Gami compose an ode to the collective, the common good, exchange, and diversity. Register

A unique evening, followed by the awards ceremony for the It’s Not Rocket Science® science communication competition, which this year is open to high school seniors. Because, now more than ever, the mission of a university is above all to make knowledge accessible to everyone.The venue will be announced by email to registered participants a few days before the date.Participation is free, but registration is required! I'm signing up!

The UNamur Gender Committee invites you to its "Gender and Economy" lunch on Tuesday, March 10, between 12:50 p.m. and 1:50 p.m., to discuss economic violence, echoing the theme chosen for this year's March 8.We will welcome the non-profit organization Financité, which will present a 30-minute film featuring testimonials from women who have been victims of economic violence within their relationships. A discussion will follow with Catherine Guirkinger, economist at UNamur, and a representative from Financité, moderated by François-Xavier Fiévez.Sandwiches will be provided before the conference. The event is free, but registration is required. Register

📍 Four places to remember: the Citadel, Place d'Armes, Place Maurice Servais, and Rue du Collège.🕓 March 15 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.On the program:La Namuroise at the Citadel, on the esplanade, will be offering tastings of Houppe and Bertinchamp beers accompanied by crochons and biétrumés.La Liégeoise on the Place d'Armes will offer tastings of Val-Dieu and peket accompanied by boulets liégeois.La Chimacienne on Place Maurice Servais will offer Chimay Bleue, Chimay Blanche, and Blood Orange, served with Chimay cheese and charcuterie.La Brabo on Rue du Collège will offer tastings of Brugse Zot with a delicious carbonnade. Information and registration

Abstract Deep learning has revolutionized computer vision in recent years and has been applied to many fields. This thesis focuses on medical endoscopy, where deep learning can assist physicians in many tasks, such as navigating the lungs during bronchoscopy, assisting in the detection of lung diseases, detecting Crohn's disease from capsule endoscopy (PillCam), or automating the detection of polyps during colonoscopy procedures.This thesis, entitled From Pixels to Practice: Deep Learning for Endoscopy, explores how modern neural networks and learning paradigms can improve visual understanding in endoscopy, with the aim of contributing to computer-aided detection (CAD) systems that can be integrated into clinical workflows.This work follows an article-based structure and links methodological advances in geometric and temporal modeling to techniques for handling data scarcity and imbalance, as well as to the practical and clinical implications of deep learning for lung tumor detection, both from a clinical and practitioner perspective. The first part of the manuscript provides a common foundation for all subsequent parts. First, we present a general introduction to the field of machine learning in Chapter 1, explaining concepts such as classification, loss functions, and artificial neural networks. Next, Chapter 2 focuses on the field of deep learning for computer vision, detailing the main vision tasks, the concept of convolutional neural networks, ResNet, and U-Net. Finally, Chapter 3 describes medical imaging, with a focus on computed tomography (CT) scans and optical imaging. The second part of the thesis focuses on learning spatio-temporal representations. In Chapter 4, we use deep neural networks combining spatial features and temporal recurrence to address the problem of detecting the bronchial carina, an anatomical landmark that helps doctors navigate the lungs. By evaluating classification (ResNet-50), segmentation (nnU-Net), and recurrent (GRU) models on a bronchoscopy dataset we created, the study highlights the benefits of combining information from segmentation masks and temporal features. Chapter 5 continues the segmentation task by analyzing the extent to which rotation-equivariant U-Nets, based on E(2)-CNNs with C4, C8, and D4 symmetry groups, can improve performance when the orientation of objects in the image is arbitrary. Together, these chapters show how temporal and geometric modeling capture complementary aspects of visual structure. They further highlight that data imbalance and scarcity are recurring problems in deep learning. The third part studies learning in situations of data scarcity and imbalance. First, Chapter 6 explores supervised contrastive pre-training [1] on large, domain-close endoscopic datasets (Hyper-Kvasir [2], LDPolyp [3]), which is then transferred to smaller, disease-specific data (Crohn-IPI [4]). This methodology performs better than pre-training on ImageNet or based on cross-entropy, highlighting the value of domain-specific contrastive representations. Next, Chapter 7 introduces Mask-Aware Cropping (MAC), a new data augmentation technique that mitigates pixel-level imbalance in segmentation. On various datasets with varying imbalance regimes (URDE [5], Kvasir-SEG [6], HAM10000 [7]), MAC consistently improves Dice and IoU metrics under conditions of extreme imbalance. Together, these methods form a data-centric framework for effective learning when annotations are scarce or unevenly distributed. The fourth part of the thesis focuses on deep learning in the operating room. Chapter 8 proposes a first model (ResNet-50) for the visual detection of lung cancer in bronchoscopy, trained on real, in-vivo data. The model outperforms junior physicians, while remaining inferior to experts. This result shows that CAD systems for lung cancer detection are promising. Chapter 9 extends this work by evaluating the usability of a CAD system based on a deep learning model. Combining probability indices, temporal graphs, and saliency map overlays, a multicenter evaluation with 10 physicians is conducted. The tool received favorable feedback, with high usability (SUS score of 80.5 [8]) and strong clinical acceptance. Beyond endoscopy, the results concerning rotation equivariance and pixel imbalance can be generalized to other fields such as microscopy, dermatology, and aerial imaging. This shows that the proposed methods are applicable to visual learning under structured variability and limited data constraints.Keywords: machine learning, computer vision, medicine, endoscopy, convolutional neural networks, segmentation, recurrent models, equivariance.  Jury Prof. Bruno Dumas - University of NamurProf. Frénay Benoit - University of NamurProf. Schobbens P-Y. - University of NamurProf. Beuls Katrien - University of Namur,Dr. Benjamin Mertens - Lys MédicalProf. Oramas Mogrojevo José Antonio - University of AntwerpDr. Mancas Matei - University of Mons Register

Far from a conference or a lecture, this is a convivial, participatory moment, led by our project manager Valérie Tilman, to question - in particular - European policies on managing migration and welcoming refugees.Practicalities : - Meet on Thursday December 4, from 12:45 to 1:45 pm, at FUCID- Lunch offered: in order to anticipate the number of sandwiches, please register by Tuesday December 2, with info@fucid-unamur.beParticipants are advised to listen to the podcast "Shelters of fortune. Partie 2" avant le débat : Le monde allant vers | Abris de fortune. Part 2: Hotspots and informal camps | Ausha Event link

Save the date! More information coming soon.

The Spring of Science is a major scientific and technological (STEM) event in Wallonia and Brussels. Initiated by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the event is coordinated by the Sciences.be network and organized by French-speaking universities and colleges. It takes place every year at the beginning of spring and is open to everyone, young and old alike. Throughout the week, numerous free activities are offered to students during the week and to anyone who is curious. Through this week of scientific and technological discovery, the Printemps des Sciences inspires or confirms scientific vocations, helps teachers improve and enrich science education, gives students a more realistic perception of what science is today, improves the general perception of science and technology, contributes to reintegrating science into the heart of general culture, and improves the scientific culture of citizens.About this year's theme"The awakening mind: 25 years of scientific culture"Scientific culture helps us see the world differently: it teaches us to ask questions. Thanks to it, we discover hidden or surprising things that make everyday life more interesting. Scientific culture transforms what seems mundane into something extraordinary. It allows us to better understand our environment, to question ourselves, and to marvel at its beauty and complexity.  Full program & practical information

The exhibition, which opened on December 4, is also an opportunity to highlight 12 original pictorial works by Filipino artists around the person of Rizal. This is the BeLikha project, produced by the Filipino diaspora in Belgium.In conjunction with the exhibition, a film-debate evening will be held in the first week of February. The students have selected the documentary "Overseas" (2019), whose director Sung-A Yoon is an INSAS graduate; the film is produced by a Belgian company (Iota Production). It focuses on a domestic training school in the Philippines. The debate scheduled after the film will focus on modern slavery, in the presence of the director and experts in the history of slavery.Guided tours by appointment: expo-philippines@unamur.be.Context of the exhibitionGiven the desire and support of Senator Loren LAGARDA (in the Philippines) wishing to promote research on the Philippines, the University of Namur has signed several agreements (the latest in November 2024) with the Philippine Embassy in Belgium undertaking to promote the study of the Philippines, particularly in Geography and History. The program is called Philippine Studies.The University of Namur has a long tradition of exchanges with universities and various associations in the Philippines (Geography, Philosophy of Science, FUCID, History...)The date chosen to hold this exhibition corresponds to the launch of the year commemorating the death of Philippine revolutionary hero José Rizal (†1896), who stayed in Belgium and wrote his main work El Filibusterismo, and to the 80th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Belgium and the Philippines (1946). A commemorative work on Rizal will also close the year in December 2026 (the precise date of the commemoration of his death).