Lirias (KU Leuven)

Irrigation is becoming an increasingly important component of the hydrological cycle in many regions across Europe and the globe. However, information on the location and amounts of water application is not easily obtained. Soil-vegetation models often poorly represent irrigation, but satellite signals should detect irrigation. Consequently, misfits between modeled soil moisture and vegetation si…

Medication use during pregnancy is nearly universal, yet the evidence to guide safe use remains critically limited. Pregnant individuals have historically been excluded from randomised controlled trials, leaving them and their healthcare professionals (HCPs) to weigh the benefits and risks of pharmacological treatment on the basis of incomplete and slowly accruing post-marketing data. This eviden…

status: Accepted

Non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS) uses fetal cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in maternal plasma to detect aneuploidies early in pregnancy. Because most cfDNA originates from the mother and NIPS is widely used, these datasets offer a large potential resource for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and polygenic risk score (PRS) analyses. As the NIPS workflow entails generating low-coverage (0.1-0.2×…

status: Accepted

Plastic wastes are so far underexplored as feedstocks for producing 'upcycled' materials. This project, focusing on the large available mass of end-of-life polyolefins, aims at selective oxidation of these hydrocarbon-type materials. As a first option, alcohol (and ketone) groups are created along the polyolefin chain. For this, selective Ti-containing zeolites and clean oxidants (e.g. hydrogen p…

The rapid emergence and global spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represent a critical threat to public health, undermining the efficacy of existing antibiotics and severely limiting treatment options for bacterial infections. Conventional antimicrobial strategies have predominantly relied on bactericidal or bacteriostatic mechanisms, which impose strong selective pressure and thereby accel…

status: Published

India is the largest banana producer in the world. Most banana growing regions of the world, including India, are largely dependent on Cavendish cultivars which now face a serious threat from the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), tropical race-4 (TR4). Foc TR4 causes Fusarium wilt which is an economically important disease since it results in huge crop losses worldwide. Man…

Despite the rapid growth of photovoltaic (PV) energy, hidden yield losses from gradual degradation, soiling, and abrupt faults continue to erode the economic viability of PV installations worldwide. Manual inspection remains the dominant practice, yet it is labour-intensive (up to 8 h/MW), error-prone, and impractical for large-scale or remote plants. This thesis introduces a comprehensive, fully…

The intestinal microbiota impacts many facets of human health and plays an important role in modulating risk of various chronic disease, including IBD, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Recent research shows that diet is a major factor driving the composition and metabolism of this bacterial community. However, it is suggested that the amount, type and balance of dietary macronutrients (carbohydrates, …

Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury remains a major determinant of outcome following acute myocardial infarction. Although timely reperfusion is essential for myocardial salvage, it simultaneously initiates inflammatory cascades that contribute to additional injury and drive long-term ventricular remodeling. Despite extensive experimental research, many cardioprotective strategies have f…

Inhalational anesthetics are often used to maintain general anesthesia. However, it is known that volatile anesthetics are greenhouse gases and some can damage the earth's ozone layer. To lower the use of these anesthetic agents, a low flow anesthesia technique can be applied. This technique is based on re-inhaling expired anesthetic agent by reducing fresh gas flow (mixture of administered oxyge…

The 'financialization' of the economy has become a popular thesis in political economy and, hence, economic geography in recent decades. One institution which has arguably been transformed by financial agents, logics and motives - or, corporate financialization - has been that of the nonfinancial corporation (NFC). More than two decades of theorization and research have produced competing notions…

European Union policies aimed at achieving climate neutrality by 2050 are accelerating electrification and the deployment of renewable energy across Europe. A significant part of this transformation is set to take place at the distribution level through the uptake of distributed energy resources (DERs), including rooftop photovoltaic systems, battery storage, and electrified heating and mobility.…

The ever-growing demand for more performant heat transfer devices has led to increasingly compact and complex designs. Additive manufacturing, and in particular Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), has been proposed as a viable route to produce such next-generation thermal components. While LPBF offers excellent resolution for most engineering materials, copper remains challenging due to its high ther…

Second pillar pension accumulation for employees in Belgium is promoted by granting different types of tax reliefs (including preferential social security contributions). Contributions to the second pillar are subject to lower taxation compared to the same amount paid out as professional income. Also, the interests generated in a second pillar pension product are generally tax-exempt, whereas int…

Modern viticulture is facing increasing pressure to maintain grape yield and fruit quality under changing climatic conditions while reducing reliance on resource-intensive agricultural inputs. Rising temperatures, drought, and increasingly erratic weather patterns are altering grapevine development and berry ripening across many wine-producing regions. In warmer climates, accelerated ripening can…

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing public health issues of our time, responsible for over a million deaths each year. While many people are aware of the overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, few realize how our waste treatment systems contribute to the problem. WWTPs process sewage from households, hospitals, and farms, which often contains antibiotics and bacteria th…

Sour beers obtained through maturation of conventionally fermented beers in wooden barrels are becoming increasingly popular in the (craft) beer community due to their noteworthy balance between sourness, aroma and flavour complexity. However, severe lack of predictability and control of the process often leads to inconsistent results that can lead to substantial financial losses. Recent studies …