North-West University

Deterministic Intelligence Orchestration: Treating Neural Inference as a Scarce Residual Resource

Large language models are commonly deployed as the default computational substrate for tasks that combine retrieval, reasoning, transformation, and linguistic realization. This paper evaluates an alternative architecture in which deterministic computation resolves, validates, nar...

Deterministic Intelligence Orchestration: Treating Neural Inference as a Scarce Residual Resource

Large language models are commonly deployed as the default computational substrate for tasks that combine retrieval, reasoning, transformation, and linguistic realization. This paper evaluates an alternative architecture in which deterministic computation resolves, validates, nar...

Regional disparities in infant mortality in Tanzania: uncovering contextual heterogeneity using survey-weighted and regional frailty models

Infant mortality remains a major public health concern in Tanzania, with large subnational inequities that could jeopardise progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.2. National averages may conceal regional variability. We examined live births in the five years preced...

Computational screening of alloy-type H2/O2 recombination catalysts: A hybrid approach using machine-learning interatomic potentials, molecular dynamics, and Bayesian optimization

Hydrogen safety is a critical issue for hydrogen-based energy and industrial systems, where controlling hydrogen accumulation is essential to mitigate the risk of serious explosions. Passive autocatalytic recombiners (PARs) with equipped catalysts address this challenge by cataly...

Hydrogen-Based Fluidized Bed Direct Reduction of Iron Ore: Fundamentals, Process Evolution, and Industrial Challenges

The iron (Fe) and steel industry is responsible for a significant share of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, primarily owing to its reliance on carbon (C)-based reduction routes such as the blast furnace (BF)-basic oxygen furnace (BOF) process. In response to increasingly st...

Exploring How Lecturers’ Behaviours Relate to Students’ Motivation to Participate in Self-Directed Learning in African Higher Education

Lecturer feedback, dialogical pedagogies, and supportive relationships are recognised as important for motivating participation in self-directed learning (SDL), yet the transferability of predominantly non-African evidence remains uncertain amid diverse African sociocultural, ins...

Predictors of contraceptive use at first sexual intercourse among adolescent girls in Ratlou local municipality, South Africa

Adolescent girls are vulnerable to unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and sexually transmitted infections when contraception is not used at sexual debut. Understanding the factors influencing contraceptive use at first sex is important for informing adolescent sexual and r...

Optimizing advanced microthermal systems: Synergistic effects of dual streaming potentials and induced magnetic fields in EMHD-driven hybrid flows

This paper presents a comprehensive analytical investigation of electroosmotic magnetohydrodynamic (EOF-MHD) mixed convection flow of Cu/water, SnO 2 /water, and SiO 2 /water nanofluids in a porous vertical microchannel, incorporating viscous dissipation, Joule heating, wall suct...

Neurophysiological and neuromuscular responses associated with the repeated bout effect following eccentric exercise in healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Muscle damage severity decreases after repeated eccentric exercise bouts (the repeated bout effect [RBE]), but whether accompanying neural and neuromuscular changes contribute to protection or arise secondary to reduced damage remains unclear. This systematic review and...

School principals' burnout trajectories: Nature, predictors, and outcomes

This study seeks to achieve a dynamic person-centered understanding of the distinct burnout trajectories observed among 1574 Finnish school principals measured five times over a period of four years. Our results revealed that burnout trajectories corresponded to five main profile...

Cardiovascular Effects of Chronic GIPR and GLP-1R Agonism in Lean and Diet-Induced Obese Mice: Sex Differences and Dose-Dependent Remodeling

Glucose‑dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon‑like peptide‑1 (GLP‑1) regulate metabolism and are increasingly targeted in therapies for type 2 diabetes and obesity. Although GLP‑1 receptor agonists confer cardiovascular benefits, the cardiovascular effects of GI...

Multilevel Latent Profile Analyses: A Comprehensive Guide

The organizational sciences have recently seen an uptake in the use of both person-centered analyses, most typically implemented via latent profile analyses (LPA), and multilevel analyses. Yet their combination remains conceptually underdeveloped and forms the focus of the curren...

The Genealogy of Pastoral Power: Ritualized Care and the Regulation of Gender Diversity in Botswana—A Systematic Review

Botswana provides a setting in which to examine pastoral power. Customary authority, Christian institutions, public-health programmes, and state law have each helped to shape the social regulation of gender and sexuality. This systematic review brings together Botswana-specific s...

A review and synthesis of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research’s work on climate-induced extreme rainfall and floods, 2012–2023

In recent decades, the increased frequency of extreme rainfall events has significantly affected agri-food systems, accounting for 19% of the total crop damage across the world and 18–43% of observed anomalies in global crop yields. Some studies indicate a global weighted mean ri...

Bivariate spectral computation of heat generation/absorption effects on quadratic mixed thermal-solutal convective nanofluid coating flow over a conical frustum

Abstract This study investigates nonlinear (quadratic) thermal and solutal buoyancy effects in nanofluid boundary-layer flow over the external surface of a truncated cone, motivated by applications in nanomaterial coating processes. The analysis incorporates Soret diffusion and i...

Binary Darboux transformations for a skew-symmetric matrix integrable nonlinear Schrödinger equation

The aim of this article is to construct a class of binary Darboux transformations for a skew-symmetric matrix integrable nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The associated AKNS-type Lax pairs, corresponding to the orthogonal Lie algebra so(2m), provide the framework necessary for sys...

Dry Anaerobic Digestion as a Waste-to-Energy Pathway: A Systematic Review of Performance, Scalability, and Deployment Evidence from 2010 to 2025

Dry anaerobic digestion (DAD) is increasingly recognized as a promising waste-to-energy pathway for treating high-solids organic wastes. However, the extent to which the contemporary peer-reviewed literature addresses conditions relevant to scalable implementation remains unclear...

The cymothoid isopod Anilocra chromis is negatively associated with multiple metrics of host condition in the Caribbean damselfish Chromis multilineata

Abstract Parasitism is widespread among fishes in nature and can have significant impacts on individuals, populations, and communities. The family Cymothoidae includes over 380 species of parasitic isopods that infect a wide variety of host fishes, mostly in tropical and subtropi...

Varying Gravity from a Modified Fractional Model: Observational Constraints and Slow–Fast Dynamics

We investigate a fractional gravity model in which both the Hubble parameter and the gravitational constant evolve dynamically due to fractional renormalization-group effects. The model incorporates a scalar field coupled to a time-varying G, generating nonlocal corrections chara...

Radiological Hazard Assessment of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials in the Hwange Mining Area, Zimbabwe: A Gamma Spectrometric Study

The Hwange Mining Area, located in the Mid-Zambezi Karoo Basin in northwestern Zimbabwe, is a major centre for coal mining, processing, and thermal power generation. This study evaluates the ecological and public health risks associated with these activities by characterising rad...