Working Paper 08-08 - Welvaartsbinding van de sociale zekerheidsuitkeringen : een overzicht van de recente ontwikkelingen

Welfare programs, Social Security benefits

Working Paper 04-11 - Welvaartsbinding van sociale en bijstandsuitkeringen

One of the main sections in the current draft of the 2011-2012 Interprofessional Agreement concerns the welfare adjustment of social benefits. This draft results from a long process and fits in with the law concerning the Solidarity Pact between the Generations, which established a structural mechanism at the end of 2005, linking social benefits to welfare evolution. This working paper ‘Welfare adjustment of social benefits' describes the first stage of that process: estimating the disposable financial means for the welfare adjustment of social benefits for the period 2011-2012, to which the Federal Planning Bureau contributed. In the employees scheme these means amount to 233.8 million in 2011 and to 497.9 million in 2012, of which the draft of the Interprofessional Agreement proposes to utilize merely 60%. Furthermore, this paper offers an overview of Belgian social policy by portraying its main turning points on the one hand and analysing the evolution of the average amounts of the main social benefits since 1980 on the other. The outcome is marked with contrast: over the period 1980-2009 the relative standard of living globally improved for pensioners, as opposed to the unemployed and the disabled.Welfare programs, Social Security benefits

Tmprss3 loss of function impairs cochlear inner hair cell Kcnma1 channel membrane expression

Before acquiring their mature state, cochlear hair cells undergo a series of changes in expression of ion channels. How this complex mechanism is achieved is not fully understood. Tmprss3, a type II serine protease expressed in hair cells, is required for their proper functioning at the onset of hearing. To unravel the role of Tmprss3 in the acquisition of mature K+ currents, we compared their function by patch-clamp technique in wild-type Tmprss3WT and Tmprss3Y260X-mutant mice. Interestingly, only outward K+ currents were altered in Tmprss3Y260X-mutant mice. To determine by which mechanism this occurred, we compared the protein network of Tmprss3WT and Tmprss3Y260X-mutant mice using proteomic analysis. This led to the identification of a pathway related to potassium Kcnma1 channels. This pathway was validated by immunohistochemistry, focusing on the most downregulated protein that was identified as a cochlear Kcnma1-associated protein, APOA1. Finally, we show that, in contrast to Tmprss3WT, Kcnma1 channels were absent at the neck of inner hair cells (IHCs) in Tmprss3Y260X-mutant mice. In conclusion, our data suggest that lack of Tmprss3 leads to a decrease in Kcnma1 potassium channels expression in (IHCs

Contrôle et lutte contre la fraude du patient européen

Il est des chiffres qui donnent le vertige. Incontestablement, ceux concernant les pertes dues à la fraude et la corruption en matière de soins en font partie. Certaines estimations font en effet état de 56 milliards d'euros perdus annuellement en Europe, ce qui représente près de 80 millions de perte chaque jour et plus de 5% de l'ensemble des budgets nationaux consacrés à la santé (Gee et alii, 2010)

An analysis of effects of heterozygosity in dairy cattle for bovine tuberculosis resistance

Publication history: Accepted - 23 November 2017; Published online - 24 January 2018Genetic selection of cattle more resistant to bovine tuberculosis (bTB) may offer a complementary control strategy. Hypothesising underlying non-additive genetic variation, we present an approach using genome-wide high density markers to identify genomic loci with dominance effects on bTB resistance and to test previously published regions with heterozygote advantage in bTB. Our data comprised 1151 Holstein–Friesian cows from Northern Ireland, confirmed bTB cases and controls, genotyped with the 700K Illumina BeadChip. Genome-wide markers were tested for associations between heterozygosity and bTB status using marker-based relationships. Results were tested for robustness against genetic structure, and the genotypic frequencies of a significant locus were tested for departures from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Genomic regions identified in our study and in previous publications were tested for dominance effects. Genotypic effects were estimated through ASReml mixed models. A SNP (rs43032684) on chromosome 6 was significant at the chromosome-wide level, explaining 1.7% of the phenotypic variance. In the controls, there were fewer heterozygotes for rs43032684 (P < 0.01) with the genotypic values suggesting that heterozygosity confers a heterozygote disadvantage. The region surrounding rs43032684 had a significant dominance effect (P < 0.01). SNP rs43032684 resides within a pseudogene with a parental gene involved in macrophage response to infection and within a copy-number-variation region previously associated with nematode resistance. No dominance effect was found for the region on chromosome 11, as indicated by a previous candidate region bTB study. These findings require further validation with large-scale data.We are grateful for the financial support from the University of Edinburgh and the Roslin Institute, through the Principal's Career Development Scholarship (ST), and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council institute strategic project ISP3: BB/P013759/1 (JAW). We would also like to thank BBSRC for their support through CEDFAS initiative grants BB/E018386/1 (RS); EJG; SCB; JAW also received support through CEDFAS grants: BB/E018335/1 and 2; Animal Health Research Club grant BB/L004054/1; Institute Strategic Programme Grants (ISP3 Innate Immunity & Endemic Disease, BB/J004227/1; ISP1 Analysis and Prediction in Complex Animal Systems, BB/J004235/1; and ISP2 Control of Infectious Diseases, BB/P013740/1)

Strategic Scanning and innovative design: fuel the C/K method through Strategic Scanning information

The aim of this article is to study the role of StrategicScanning in innovation processes. We seek to answer the followingquestion: how can Strategic Scanning feed an innovative designactivity? We mobilized the C-K theory which models the logic ofcreation in companies and the method of the same name. Based ona case study of 65 participants, we conducted a Strategic Scanningstudy to feed an innovative C-K design approach. The results showthat Strategic Scanning helps to provide knowledge in a C-Kprocess. It helps either to build the knowledge base of noviceparticipants, or to validate the existing knowledge of expertparticipants. The Strategic Scanning activity also makes it possibleto start the first disjunction mechanism C→K from the C0concept. &nbsp

Arte y Poder en la historia

Public power establishes, in a more or less transitory or sustained manner, the objective conditions for the development of art. Specifically, power allows the emergence of a type of specialization that drives the dynamic development of “professional” art, as a trade, to which the artist can dedicate, it ensures the conditions for financing, obtaining raw materials and importing innovations. In this way it allows art to evolve. Even though official art can be very conservative, it has the inclination or inertia to preserve. Let us talk then about the art that, since the down of history, is made at the request of power and for its own purposes, most art, because most of the artistic phenomena of our civilization originate from the demand of power: political, ecclesiastic o economic.El poder público establece, de manera más o menos transitoria o sostenida, las condiciones objetivas para el desarrollo del arte. El poder específicamente permite que se produzca el tipo de especialización que impulsa el desarrollo dinámico del arte “profesional”, como un oficio, al que el artista puede dedicarse, asegura las condiciones en las cuales se puede financiar, conseguir materias primas e importar innovaciones. De ese modo permite que el arte evolucione. Aunque también puede ser muy conservador el arte oficial, tiene esa inclinación o inercia, de conservar. Hablemos pues del arte que, desde los albores de la historia, se hace a solicitud del poder y para sus fines, casi todo el arte, porque la mayoría de los fenómenos artísticos de nuestra civilización se originan en esa demanda del poder: político, eclesiástico o económico