Research works

Note on Stochastic Vehicle Routing With Delivery Choice Under Recourse Options

ABSTRACT In this paper, we consider the stochastic vehicle routing problem with delivery choice, where, upon reaching a particular customer, the driver has the choice of how much to deliver once the customer demand is revealed. In our earlier work, a basic version of the problem...

Local Optimization and Systemic Failure: An Analytical Framework of Temporal, Boundary, Level, and Feedback Mismatches

The relationship between local optimization and systemic failure is one of the most explanatory problems in System Logic. An action, an organization, or a policy may achieve optimality within its local system while producing systemic failure at broader spatial or temporal scales....

Kalman Filter-Aided Bayesian Learning for Sparse Multipath Channel Estimation in ACO/DCO-OFDM Visible Light Communication Systems

This paper proposes a novel Kalman Filter-Aided Bayesian Learning (Kalman-BL) channel estimator for sparse multipath channel impulse response (CIR) estimation in intensity-modulation and direct-detection (IM/DD)-based optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (O-OFDM) vi...

Axis-parallel square packing with an exact formula for optimal packing of seven squares

How large a square is needed to hold axis-parallel squares of prescribed side lengths? We give exact formulas for the optimal side through seven squares, with explicit constructions and geometric lower-bound proofs. For every $n \ge 6$, the optimum for $n$ squares is a sum of at...

Impact of Feed Composition and Operating Conditions on Product Yield and Quality, and Cycle Length of an Industrial Hybrid Naphtha Catalytic Reformer

Modern petroleum refining relies heavily on the performance of the catalytic reforming of naphtha, as its liquid product (reformate) provides about 30% of the refinery’s high-octane gasoline pool. The octane number of reformate, its yield, and the cycle length of the naphtha refo...

Mechanical Variability and Acoustic Emission Heterogeneity of Bedded Coal Under Uniaxial Compression

Bedding orientation affects coal strength and the interpretation of acoustic-emission (AE) signals, but detected activity and retrospective sequence descriptors have different monitoring meanings. Twelve coal specimens were tested under uniaxial compression, with three at each be...

Age-related changes in the levels of active DNA demethylation pathway products in urine and in DNA isolated from leukocytes

Abstract Background DNA methylation changes are recognized as a key hallmark of biological aging. We analyzed the products of active DNA demethylation pathways in DNA isolated from leukocytes and the urine of healthy volunteers aged between 1.5 and 71 years. Results A statistical...

Decentering Leuven University: A Transnational History

To mark Leuven University’s six hundredth birthday, Christiaan Engberts has had the excellent idea of undertaking a new kind of institutional history, one that while taking an individual university...

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT GROWTH AND REPORTED SAVINGS FROM COMPETITIVE PROCUREMENT PROCEDURES IN UZBEKISTAN, 2021–2025: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS

Public procurement constitutes an important mechanism through which governments allocate financial resources, deliver public services, support businesses, and influence market competition. In Uzbekistan, the rapid expansion of electronic public procurement and the increasing part...

DCC-Transformer: a dense cross-connected Transformer leveraging multi-feature fusion for hyperspectral unmixing

More and more deep learning models are being applied in the field of hyperspectral unmixing (HU), among which Transformer-based models have shown superior performance. However, Transformer-based models currently lack the ability to extract various feature information from hypersp...

Economic nationalism and the uneven fate of domestic firms: why small businesses exit

Purpose Economic nationalism is commonly justified as a policy approach that prioritizes domestic firms and strengthens national economies. However, existing research largely assumes that domestic firms benefit uniformly from such policies. This study challenges that assumption b...

Perceived university career guidance, career adaptability, and school-to-work transition readiness among vocational and technical education students in South-East Nigeria

Abstract The transition from higher education to employment is a critical developmental milestone that requires both institutional support and individual psychological resources. Yet multi-institutional structural evidence linking perceived career guidance, career adaptability, a...

Anesthetic management for patients with morbid obesity undergoing robot-assisted gynecological surgery: pathophysiology, risks, and contemporary approaches (a narrative review)

The prevalence of morbid obesity (BMI ≥40 kg/m²) among women of reproductive age is increasing, leading to a growing need for surgical treatment of gynecologic pathology. Robot-assisted procedures expand the possibilities of minimally invasive surgery but create specific anesthet...

Performance Boundaries of Hybrid Photovoltaic–Battery Inverters Under Dynamic, Unbalanced, and Grid Disturbance Conditions

Hybrid photovoltaic (PV)–battery inverters are increasingly required to provide functions extending beyond conventional energy conversion, including zero-export operation, battery coordination, grid support, and backup supply. However, rated power and peak efficiency alone do not...

Nothing new to see here?! A critical (visual) discourse analysis of climate (im)mobility in IOM documents

This paper revisits critical climate mobility literature that explores the role of images and visual materials within policy briefs and papers, published about a decade ago, to contrast those findings with present-day policy documents. Based on a discourse analysis of 10 recent I...

Structural and mechanistic basis of selective inhibition of the fungal‐specific histone deacetylase Hos3 from the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are critical epigenetic regulators of fungal growth and pathogenicity and constitute promising targets for antifungal drug development. Hos3 defines a fungal-specific HDAC subclass that lacks a clear mammalian ortholog; however, the structural determi...

Socioeconomic inequality in teenage pregnancy among adolescent girls in Ethiopia: evidence from the 2019 Mini EDHS

Abstract Teenage pregnancy remains a major public health and development challenge in Ethiopia and disproportionately affects adolescents from socioeconomically disadvantaged households. Adolescence is a period marked by increased vulnerability to adverse sexual and reproductive...

Process-design-translation interplay in lipid nanocarriers for vaginal mucosa delivery: how far have we advanced?

Nowadays, translational research all across the globe has increasingly been valued for focusing on mucosa delivery across the vaginal avenue, attributed to its anatomy and physiology; however, rapid mucus turnover, poor permeability, and retention popped out as the biggest constr...

The economic burden of hypertension in Sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic literature review

Abstract Background Quantifying the economic burden of disease is vital for informing healthcare resource allocation and priority setting particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where the incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is rising among the region’s predominantly yo...

MicroRNAs in autoimmune connective tissue diseases: Pathogenic roles, clinical implications, and therapeutic potential

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are key post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression involved in immune homeostasis, inflammation, fibrosis, and vascular remodeling. Their dysregulation has been increasingly implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune connective tissue diseases (ACTDs)...