Scriptiebank overzicht

Electric traction motors for hybrid and battery vehicles are currently designed by
wrapping a finite-element key-performance-indicator (KPI) evaluator in an evolu
tionary optimisation loop, an approach that can take days of compute on a multi-core
node per customer case. This thesis addresses the same problem from the inverse
direction: given a target peak performance profile together with the electrical limits
imposed by the inverter and battery, generate a diverse set of compliant double-V
interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM) geometries. The pro
posed framework combines three components, using a dataset of 85384 physically
valid samples obtained by latin hypercube sampling of the 17 free geometric pa
rameters: (i) a residual multilayer-perceptron surrogate that maps geometry and
electrical limits to the 80-point peak torque–speed curve through a 19-component
principal-component bottleneck, (ii) a conditional variational autoencoder (CVAE)
with a 15-dimensional latent space that learns to generate performance-compliant
geometries, given the working conditions, and (iii) a gradient-based latent space
optimisation stage that refines a sampled candidate towards minimal volume under
soft performance-compliance and structural-integrity penalties driven by the frozen
surrogate.

On the held-out test set, the surrogate reaches a mean relative L2 error of 0.62%
on the denormalised torque curve at sub-millisecond inference cost. A performance
regularised CVAE variant, which augments the evidence lower bound with a dif
ferentiable compliance penalty derived from the frozen surrogate, lifts the mean
prior-sampling compliance on eight industrial conditions from 49.1% to 75.7% while
preserving roughly 86% of the per-feature design-range coverage. The subsequent
latent-space optimisation returns a compliant candidate for every one of the eight
conditions and for both CVAE variants, converging within roughly 100 iterations and
finishing in about 45s per condition on a single CPU core. A single FEM run con
firms that the optimised torque–speed curve passes through the requested operating
points. The framework therefore compresses what is currently a days-long search
into a sub-minute generative step. Thermal, efficiency, noise-vibration-harshness,
and demagnetisation behaviour remain out of scope and are identified as the prior
ity directions for further work.

Deze masterproef onderzoekt hoe keratine uit veren kan worden verwerkt tot een nieuw materiaal. Commercieel keratinepoeder uit eendenveren werd gecombineerd met twee chemische verbindingsmiddelen: glutaaraldehyde en genipine, een natuurlijke stof uit fruit. Beide stoffen verbonden de korte eiwitfragmenten tot samenhangende films. Glutaaraldehyde leverde sterkere, minder rekbare films op. Met genipine ontstonden donkerblauwe, buigzamere films, waarvan de sterkte en taaiheid toenamen bij een hogere geteste concentratie. Hoewel de films nog gevoelig zijn voor water, toont het onderzoek aan dat versnipperde verenkeratine opnieuw een vast materiaal kan vormen. Dit biedt een vertrekpunt voor de verdere ontwikkeling van biogebaseerde materialen.

(Severe) Combined Immunodeficiency ((S)CID) comprises a heterogeneous group of inborn errors of immunity (IEI) characterized by impaired T cell development and/or function. Recently, my host lab identified bi-allelic variants in GTF3A, encoding transcription factor IIIA (TFIIIA), as a novel cause of (S)CID. TFIIIA is a unique transcription factor of 5S ribosomal RNA (rRNA). TFIIIA deficiency results in reduced nascent 5S rRNA transcription, suggesting that disturbed ribosomal function may underlie the disease pathogenesis, potentially linking TFIIIA deficiency to the broader spectrum of ribosomopathies. However, the in vivo consequences of TFIIIA deficiency and the functional impact of some patient-derived variants remain incompletely understood.
In this thesis, a zebrafish (Danio rerio) model was used to functionally characterize TFIIIA deficiency in vivo. First, an in vivo complementation assay was established by injecting CRISPR-Cas9-mediated Tg(lck:EGFP) gtf3aa crispants with wild-type (WT) human GTF3A mRNA. This complementation restores the thymic EGFP area and rescues severe developmental abnormalities in gtf3aa crispants, demonstrating a strong conservation between the human and zebrafish protein. These findings establish the in vivo complementation assay as a platform for functional variant analysis.
Next, the functional impact of multiple patient-derived TFIIIA variants was assessed in vivo. Complementation with known loss-of-function variants H120Y and ZF7KO completely fails to restore thymic EGFP area, confirming the robustness of the assay. The H64D variant similarly fails to rescue the thymic fluorescence, demonstrating its loss-of-function in an in vivo context. Interestingly, developmental phenotypes such as craniofacial abnormalities are more readily rescued than the T cell phenotype, indicating that T cell development might be particularly sensitive to reduced TFIIIA activity.
Overall, this thesis establishes a robust in vivo zebrafish complementation platform for functional assessment of TFIIIA variants and provides novel mechanistic insights into TFIIIA deficiency. The findings further support the hypothesis that TFIIIA deficiency can be classified as a ribosomopathy with prominent immunological manifestations and highlight a differential tissue sensitivity to TFIIIA deficiency, with T cell development being particularly vulnerable.

Shark species are declining and anthropogenic pressures are on the rise.
This study investigates the occurrence and characteristics of anthropogenic injuries in bull sharks and oceanic blacktip sharks at Aliwal Shoal, Umkomaas, South Africa. The aim is to assess injury frequency, origin, type, anatomical distribution and seasonal variation, as well as the influence of photographic coverage on injury detection.
A total of 383 sharks were analysed, consisting of 53 bull sharks and 330 oceanic blacktip sharks. For bull sharks, 3,975 photographs were systematically reviewed, while 25,354 photographs were analysed for oceanic blacktip sharks. Data was collected using photographic records and classified according to injury presence, number, origin, type and body location. Seasonal patterns were derived from the month of observation and grouped into seasonal categories.
Anthropogenic injuries were recorded in both species, with a substantial proportion of individuals affected. Fishing-related injuries were the most frequent in both bull sharks and oceanic blacktip sharks, followed by vessel-related injuries. Most sharks exhibited a single injury, although multiple injuries per individual were also observed, particularly in oceanic blacktip sharks. Retained fishing gear and associated wounds were the most common injury type, while fins were the most frequently affected body region in both species.
Seasonal variation in newly observed injuries indicated differences in distribution across seasons, with relatively higher frequencies during warmer periods. Photographic analysis showed that a considerable proportion of sharks did not have full-body coverage, suggesting that some injuries may not have been detected and that reported values likely underestimate true occurrence.
Overall, the results demonstrate widespread anthropogenic interaction with sharks at Aliwal Shoal and highlight the importance of fisheries as the main source of injury, as well as the need for improved monitoring methods to better assess impacts on shark populations.

This thesis examines how climate change reshapes security and mobility by comparing two distinct pathways of climate-related displacement: rapid-onset drought and agricultural collapse in Syria, and slow-onset sea-level rise and salinization in Bangladesh. Building on Environmental Security, Human Security, and Securitization Theory, the study argues that these frameworks illuminate important mechanisms—such as climate change as a “threat multiplier” and the political construction of (in)security—but remain limited by state- and anthropocentric assumptions. To address these limits, the thesis advances a Green Theory–informed perspective that centers ecological integrity and climate justice as core security referents. Methodologically, the research employs a comparative case design with process-tracing and pattern-matching across secondary data (peer-reviewed studies, attribution science, displacement statistics, and policy reports). The Syria case links multi-year drought, rural–urban migration, and governance failures to heightened social unrest and onward displacement. The Bangladesh case shows how chronic inundation, salinity intrusion, and livelihood erosion generate primarily internal, incremental mobility with long-term human security risks. Cross-case synthesis demonstrates convergent vulnerabilities (exposure, adaptive capacity, and institutional response) alongside divergent temporal dynamics and policy needs. The thesis contributes in two ways: empirically, by integrating visual and quantitative evidence on climate impacts and mobility patterns across contrasting contexts; and normatively, by proposing elements of a sui generis protection regime for climatedisplaced persons (eligibility criteria for planned relocation, responsibility-sharing formula, and dedicated financing and monitoring). Overall, it reframes security in the Anthropocene toward ecocentric and justice-oriented protection that better aligns with the lived realities of climate-affected populations.

Recurrent glioblastoma (rGB) remains to have a 5-year survival of <10%. Current treatments consist of re-resection, re-irradiation and/or immunotherapy, but therapy resistance remains unresolved due to multiple factors, such as the blood-brain-barrier, high tumor heterogeneity and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. In this context, CAR T-cell therapy is emerging as a promising approach. In particular, the use of nanobodies (Nbs) as the antigen binding moiety overcomes limitations such as tonic signaling and immunogenicity, commonly associated with scFv-based CARs. CAR T-cell therapies targeting B7-H3 showed promising results in the treatment of rGB, but in vivo toxicity has been recently described, highlighting the need for improved CAR designs. In this thesis, we developed an mRNA-based platform to identify the most efficient CAR design as an alternative to the laborious and time-consuming methods currently available. Briefly, we developed an mRNA-based approach for the production of mRNA encoding NanoCAR variants and the screening of NanoCAR functionality, comparing it to a plasmid-derived mRNA NanoCAR. We used our optimized workflow, to select previously evaluated NanoCAR T-cells which resulted in the same lead being selected. Therefore, we applied our technology to generate B7-H3 NanoCAR T-cells and selected four candidates for further development. Finally, we tested B7-H3 mRNA NanoCAR T-cells in vivo to evaluate if a transient expression would be sufficient to address the toxicity issue. Overall, we showed that our mRNA platform is a promising alternative to the current methods for CAR screening allowing us to select new B7-H3 NanoCAR T-cells and further proceed with their characterization.

Following recent evolutions in sustainability, this master’s thesis examines what consumers are willing to pay for fast-moving consumer goods with certain eco-friendly attributes. The methodology used is ratings-based conjoint analysis, applied to data obtained via a web-based survey. Each respondent was asked to rate ten profiles of a body wash product with varying prices, ingredients, packaging and branding attribute levels. This rating data was later analysed using R. Based on the coefficients of a linear regression analysis, the willingness-to-pay and importance measures of each product attribute (level) were derived. The regression is then repeated for several subsamples constructed on sociodemographic characteristics, i.e., age, gender, income level and highest obtained degree. In this way, results can be compared across different types of consumers. The findings of this study are that the willingness-to-pay is highest for products that contain biological ingredients and that are sold in reusable packaging. In line with this trend, the product content is the most important attribute to consumers, followed by the product packaging. Furthermore, the price only comes in third place and branding has the lowest importance measure. The analysis of the demographic subgroups shows that the most sustainable shopper is female, older than 45 years old, highly educated and has a high-income level.

Een van de grootste uitdagingen in tissue engineering is het creëren van functionele bloedvaten binnen artificiële weefsels. Deze studie onderzoekt het gebruik van alginaat als porogen om na het printen poriën te creëren in bio-inkt, wat de vorming van vasculaire netwerken bevordert.
De eigenschappen van alginaat als porogen werden geëvalueerd, evenals het evenwicht tussen volledige verwijdering van alginaat en de impact daarvan op cellevensvatbaarheid. De optimale combinatie van GelMA en porogen werd bepaald op basis van printbaarheid en effecten op de cel fysiologie van ingekapselde cellen. GelMA-Porogen leverde bij elke celtest betere resultaten op dan GelMA alleen, wat het tot een geschikte biomateriaalcombinatie maakt voor de vorming van vasculaire netwerken.

Hartcellen zijn gekweekt vanuit stamcellen van patiënten met een aandoening van het hart en onderzocht via microscopie en kleuring.

Is it possible to predict the area-level prevalence of COVID-19 infections in Belgium by
analyzing self-reported symptoms on Twitter? This research project is about generating
estimates of the incidence of COVID-19 infections, at the municipality level, by using
Multilevel Regression Post-Stratification (MrP) to account for sampling biases in the social
media sample. At first, tweets are obtained from users based on keywords derived from
previous research, e.g., tweets mentioning fever, cough, loss of taste, fatigue, etc. Then, key
demographic and geographical features of interest are extracted using the M3 deep learning
pipeline, as well as simple self-reported characteristics, effectively transforming the
unstructured twitter sample into a survey-like object. Finally, based on these demographic
features and census characteristics, a mixed effects logistic regression model with
post-stratification according to the Belgian census is proposed to forecast the number of
infected individuals on a particular day. This study intends to contribute to the proof of
concept of a complete end to end pipeline to perform real time predictions of disease
prevalence at a granular level in a population using social media data.

Dit onderzoek vormt een wandeling door de stad Hasselt met de Demer als leidraad. Na een beknopte literatuurstudie wordt een dérive, een vrije wandeling, uitgevoerd en vervolgens gebruikt als inspiratie voor een (anti-)architectuurproject. Het belang van dit soort wandeling wordt op een organische manier duidelijk gemaakt met het project.

Basisonderzoek naar de rol van LEDGF en MeCP2 in kader van LINE-1 retrotranspositie. De productie en validatie van LEDGF en MeCP2 knock-out cellijnen. In vivo productie van lokale LEDGF knock-out in neuronen en het effect op MeCP2.

Het NV centrum in diamant is een veelbelovend systeem voor verschillende kwantum applicaties. Deze scriptie handelt over hun gebruik in een kwantum Otto motor en toont een aantal fundamentele onderdelen van deze motorwerking experimenteel.

De ziekte van Niemann-Pick type C1 is een ziekte waarvoor tot op heden enkel symptomatische behandelingen beschikbaar zijn. In deze scriptie wordt een behandeling gebaseerd op mesenchymale stamcel-afgeleide extracellulaire vesikels getest.

In mijn scriptie onderzocht ik de rol van BRD4 in de basale transcriptie en reactivatie van HIV. Ik heb ook het effect van BRD4 remming op de transcriptie van LEDGIN-geheroriënteerd provirus bestudeerd. Verder heb ik MLL1 knock down cellijnen gegenereerd om de bijdrage van MLL1 in 'latency reversal' van HIV te onthullen.

Het verband tussen de drie variabelen persoonlijkheid, psychologische contractbreuk en burn-out wordt nagegaan in een longitudinaal onderzoek bij 240 Vlaamse werknemers via online vragenlijsten. We veronderstelden dat psychologische contractbreuk een mediator vormt bij het verband tussen de vijf persoonlijkheidseigenschappen van de 'big five' en burn-out.

Bone tissue engineering is een veelbelovend alternatief voor chirurgische ingrepen waarvoor nu nog bot wordt getransplanteerd. Naast het type cel, bepaalt ook de origine van de donorcellen hoe goed ze in staat zijn om bot te vormen. Dit kan worden verklaard doordat de activiteit van relevante genen voor botvorming sterk afhangt van zowel het celtype als de celorigine.

This thesis described a linear equation between the priority interest rate and these four determinants. The article also comes up with one question that there are still some other determinants of affecting the priority interest rate. What’s more, these determinants are also important role in affecting the priority interest rate.

Deze scriptie omvat een schaalbare methodologie die het mogelijk maakt om herbebossingsprojecten te evalueren aan de hand van satellietgegevens. Door de satellietgegevens te combineren met data die in-situ verzameld werden, doet Pello Múgica Gonzalez een robuuste analyse over een herbebossingsproject in Noord Nicaragua op korte termijn.

De vrouwenbeweging van de jaren zeventig werd gekenmerkt door een grote verscheidenheid aan initiatieven. Deze masterscriptie vergelijkt de standpunten van het vrouwenhuis in Brussel met die van het vrouwenhuis in Amsterdam aan de hand van de tijdschriften die de groepen uitgaven.

De tumor immunologie van eierstokkanker bestuderen met als doel het immuunsysteem als bondgenoot te gebruiken in nieuwe behandelingsstrategieën.

Een onderzoek naar de relatie tussen architectuur en melancholie. Vertrekkend vanuit andere kunstvormen om te zien hoe men daar mee omging. Het eindresultaat resulteerde in hoe ik kon omgaan met mijn eigen melancholie en daarmee aan de slag kon gaan.

Tijdens deze scriptie werd een procedure ontwikkeld om snel en eenvoudig proteïnen met lineaire herhalingen te verlengen of verkorten. Deze procedure laat toe om meerdere energetisch geoptimaliseerde sequenties te bekomen.

Morfologische en genetische ontwikkeling van de nier, met nadruk op de genen die in mutante vorm aanleiding geven tot niercortexhypoplasie

Deze masterproef gaat na of het mogelijk is om zinkvonken (EDM) toe te passen op koolstofcomposiet (CFRP). Er is over dit onderwerp weinig literatuur beschikbaar. Daarom wordt gestart met enkele experimenten. Deze tonen aan dat industrieel CFRP (???? = 0,01Ωcm) bewerkbaar is met vonkerosie. Een ruimer opgezet experimenteel onderzoek, bestudeert in tweede instantie de optredende materiaalafnamemechanismen en de invloed van het vonkproces op het materiaal. De volgende experimentele randvoorwaarden zijn daarbij van toepassing: een koperelektrode (Ø = 10mm) met negatieve polarisatie die 1mm diep vonkt. Een parameterbereik met stroom van 1 tot 65A en pulsduur van 0,8 tot 200µs. Verder wordt een machinefunctionaliteit gebruikt waardoor overige parameters automatisch optimaal worden geregeld. Het resultaat wordt onderzocht via een spaananalyse en microscopie, en SEM en EDX analyses toegepast op bewerkte doorsneden en oppervlakken. Dit laat toe om vier mogelijke optredende materiaalafnamemechanismen te verklaren. De verschillende experimenten resulteren ook in twee optimale vonktechnologieën. Met een statistische analyse wordt de relatie tussen de procesparameters en een aantal uitgangsgrootheden (MRR, Ra en randkwaliteit) onderzocht. De studie wordt afgerond met het onderzoeken van het effect van polarisatie; de invloed van een grafietelektrode; en een analyse van stroom en spanningspulsen via pulsmonitoring.

Tumor geasscocieerde Macrofagen: de achillespees van een tumorInleidingWe zijn in staat het oppervlak van pluto te fotograferen, dodelijke infectieziektes uit te roeien met een simpel vaccinspuitje en nog steeds sterven jaarlijks 8.2 miljoen mensen aan kanker. Is kanker de onoverkomelijke prijs die we betalen als multicellulair organisme of is het gewoon tijd voor een andere aanpak?Kanker en het immuunsysteemKankercellen zijn lichaamseigen cellen die de controle over hun celdeling verloren zijn.

1 Problem definition and research questionsYoung Innovative Companies (YICs) play a crucial role in today’s innovation landscape. Because these companies spend at least 15 percent of their budget on R&D, they are considered to be highly innovative. Moreover, these companies are also very young, small and often lack financial resources. Therefore, they face so-called innovation boundaries that prevent them from intensifying their innovation and R&D activities.

Flow-based market coupling, the cheapest path to security of supplyCurrently a lot of European countries struggle with the Security of Supply of electricity. Belgium is one of the leading problem cases. In order to achieve long-term security of supply, Europe puts its stake on increasing the interconnection capacity between member states (1). This option is expensive but can be viable. For short-term problems, like shortages in Belgium, the investment plan offers no solution. In research a lot attention is given to complex and challenging solutions like demand side management.

 Allocation of biomass from production sites to bioenergy plants in FlandersThe role of multimodal transportation networksBy Junhui Jiang, Annelies De Meyer, Jos Van OrshovenTo reduce human dependency on limited fossil fuel and to mitigate climate change, increasing attention is attributed to the development of the bioenergy sector. Besides, the development of the bioenergy sector also favours social and economic objectives by among others creating jobs and increasing farmers’ incomes.

Patenting embryonic stem cells -influence of recent jurisprudence on (Belgian) stem cell research Debaere, M1; Iserentant, D1,2; Pappaert, K3 ; Paemen, L3  1Ghent University, 2VIB, 3De Clercq & Partners Abstract: In October 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that procedures relating to human embryonic stem cells or human embryonic stem cell lines are excluded from patentability if they required the destruction of a human embryo. This EU ruling consequently has affected the practice of the European Patent Office and has caused a lot of confusion in the scientific community.