University College West Flanders

This study explores the professionalization of the rising design engineering discipline, called 'biodesign'. Despite its potential for circular, regenerative solutions, its industrial application remains limited. To address this challenge, this study investigates 'why' and 'how' professional designers engage in designing of, with and for biology. The study explores the motivations and practices of professional biodesign pioneers through extensive expert interviews (n= 21). A qualitative analysis applying the Qualitative Analysis Guide of Leuven methodology identified five key codes: biodesign mindset, -process, -resources, -materials, and -future. These aspects were further investigated through their five most cited sub-codes, offering evidence-based findings into current biodesign practice. Synthesising these findings, a novel methodological biodesign framework is proposed, that maps nested environments (operating space-biodesign space-biosphere space) and an iterative systemic cybernetical loop between human and more-than-human agencies. The framework offers a structured point of departure for biodesign professionalization and supports future empirical validation and tool development for professional practice and education.

ABSTRACT Full 3D modeling of time-domain electromagnetic data requires tremendous computational resources. Consequently, simplified physics models prevail in geophysics, relying on a much faster but approximate 1D forward model. A method was introduced that combines the accuracy of a 1D simplified physics model with the flexibility of coarse grids to reduce modeling errors, thereby avoiding full 3D accurate simulations. The method was applied to time-domain airborne electromagnetics (AEM) data, generating data with a modeling error often smaller than the standard measurement noise level. The modeling error depends on the specific subsurface model (electrical conductivity values and angle representing the deviation of the 1D assumption) and the specific (temporal) discretization. Computation time can be decreased by a factor of 27. This modeling strategy may serve as an alternative to surrogate models or statistical relations derived from large 3D data sets.

Walking offers substantial health and environmental benefits, yet real-world studies on walking behavior often struggle with environmental control and recall bias. This study explores Virtual Reality (VR) combined with an omnidirectional treadmill as a novel, immersive method to examine environmental factors influencing walking for transport. The study aimed to (1) assess the usability of the VR setup and (2) evaluate whether it can identify walking-related environmental factors consistent with findings from traditional methods. s: A convenience sample of 37 participants aged 12 and older completed a VR walking session on a modeled urban street in Ghent, Belgium. After a familiarization phase, participants walked while verbalizing their thoughts using the think-aloud method. Usability was assessed through questionnaires measuring presence, realism, VR sickness, and task load. Qualitative data were analyzed using deductive content analysis. Participants reported moderate to high immersion and low VR sickness. However, the treadmill's physical and cognitive demands presented some usability challenges. Qualitative analysis identified environmental factors influencing walking, such as perceived safety, sidewalk quality, and aesthetics, that align with previous walk-along studies in real environments. This study highlights the potential of VR as a controlled and immersive tool for studying environmental factors related to walking behavior. The findings establish a strong foundation for future research exploring diverse urban settings and their impact on walking as a mode of transport. • Virtual Reality with an omnidirectional treadmill offers a controlled and immersive method for studying walking behavior. • The VR setup provided moderate to high immersion while maintaining low levels of VR sickness. • Participants identified key micro-environmental factors influencing walking for transport. • VR can serve as a valuable tool for studying pedestrian-friendly urban design.

An injective colouring of a graph is a colouring in which every two vertices sharing a common neighbour receive a different colour. Chen, Hahn, Raspaud, and Wang conjectured that every planar graph of maximum degree Δ ≥ 3 admits an injective colouring with at most ⌊3Δ/2⌋ colours. This was later disproved by Lužar and Škrekovski for certain small and even values of Δ and they proposed a new refined conjecture. Using an algorithm for determining the injective chromatic number of a graph, i.e. the smallest number of colours for which the graph admits an injective colouring, we give computational evidence for Lužar and Škrekovski’s conjecture and extend their results by presenting an infinite family of 3-connected planar graphs for each Δ (except for 4) attaining their bound, whereas they only gave finitely many examples for each Δ. Hence, together with another infinite family of maximum degree 4, we provide infinitely many counterexamples to the conjecture by Chen et al. for each Δ if 4 ≤ Δ ≤ 7 and every even Δ ≥ 8. We provide similar evidence for analogous conjectures by La and Štorgel and Lužar, Škrekovski, and Tancer when the girth is restricted as well. Also in these cases we provide infinite families of 3-connected planar graphs attaining the bounds of these conjectures for certain maximum degrees Δ ≥ 3.

Student well-being is a multidimensional construct encompassing physical and mental health. However, its assessment in educational contexts remains fragmented, limiting understanding of the diverse factors that shape students' experiences. This gap is particularly pronounced for cognitively strong students (CSS), whose unique intellectual, emotional, and social challenges are frequently overlooked by traditional approaches. Current work introduces a methodology to develop a holistic understanding of student well-being by integrating multimodal data, uncovering key patterns that influence well-being and academic performance, and offering actionable insights for targeted interventions. The framework, developed through an extensive literature review and refined using the Delphi method, integrates three core components: physiological measures (e.g., heart rate variability and sleep data) to detect stress; self-reporting tools for qualitative insights; and surveys to capture psychological stressors and socio-economic influences. While broadly applicable, it emphasizes CSS-specific stressors. Qualitative and quantitative data are analyzed using large language models for sentiment analyses and classical machine learning techniques analyze physiological and survey data integration. This approach aims to identify patterns in stress and coping mechanisms, offering insights into broader dimensions of well-being. This research provides a scalable, ethically grounded methodology for AI-supported assessment of student well-being, supporting interventions that promote healthy development, particularly for CSS.

BackgroundIn major trauma patients, hypocalcemia is associated with increased mortality. Despite the absence of strong evidence on causality, early calcium supplementation has been recommended. This study investigates whether calcium supplementation during trauma resuscitation provides a survival benefit.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective analysis using data from the TraumaRegister DGU® (2015–2019), applying propensity score matching to balance demographics, injury severity, and management between major trauma patients with and without calcium supplementation. 6 h mortality, 24 h mortality, and in-hospital mortality were considered as primary outcome parameters.ResultsWithin a cohort of 28,323 directly admitted adult major trauma patients at a European trauma center, 1593 (5.6%) received calcium supplementation. Using multivariable logistic regression to generate propensity scores, two comparable groups of 1447 patients could be matched. No significant difference in early mortality (6 h and 24 h) was observed, while in-hospital mortality appeared higher in those with calcium supplementation (28.3% vs. 24.5%, P = 0.020), although this was not significant when adjusted for predicted mortality (P = 0.244).ConclusionIn this matched cohort, no evidence was found for or against a survival benefit from calcium supplementation during trauma resuscitation. Further research should focus on understanding the dynamics and kinetics of ionized calcium levels in major trauma patients and identify if specific conditions or subgroups could benefit from calcium supplementation.

Recommender systems are increasingly being used in university or online education. However, recommender systems still have not found major usage in K12 education. This may be because of the unique challenges that recommender systems face when used by a young and diverse population. However, recommender systems for K12 education could provide many benefits for students and teachers, such as the simplification of personalized learning. Some of the issues with K12 educational recommender systems may be solved by the use of deep learning and implicit feedback. As such, we investigated the use of deep recommendation algorithms and implicit feedback for K12 educational recommender systems. To do this, we compared metrics for highly cited traditional and deep recommendation algorithms trained on explicit and implicit data. We found that recommendation algorithms using deep learning as a group do not differ in performance compared to traditional recommendation algorithms. We also found that the use of implicit feedback led to higher performance than using explicit feedback. The best performing algorithm used both deep learning and implicit feedback. We conclude that deep learning can be a benefit for K12 recommender systems, particularly when the ordered sequence of items is carefully accounted for. We also conclude that researchers and developers must carefully consider which feedback contributes the most information for learning.