L’émergence d’un problème : l’objet politique « secte » en Belgique

Comment comprendre qu’à un moment donné toute une série de groupements communément qualifiés de « sectes » sont devenus un problème pour les autorités publiques belges ? Il n’est pas rare d’entendre comme réponse à cette question que le suicide-homicide de l’Ordre du Temple Solaire serait à l’origine des préoccupations et de la réaction des autorités publiques vis-à-vis de ces groupements. Cet événement tragique aurait décidé nos représentants à s’intéresser à la question sectaire. Afin de rompre avec la linéarité qu’impose en apparence ce simple rapport de causalité, nous entendons poser un autre regard sur le processus de mise à l’agenda politique pour lui rendre autant que possible le dynamisme et la complexité qui le caractérisent. Autrement dit, il s’agit de proposer à nos lecteurs un autre éclairage de la construction de l’« objet-secte » en tant qu’objet politique en Belgique. À partir de l’examen d’un corpus discursif composé essentiellement de documents d’origine institutionnelle, nous allons tenter de retracer historiquement l’émergence de cette singularité événementielle afin de démontrer que la mise à l’agenda politique du « phénomène sectaire » ne résulte pas uniquement de la survenance d’un fait tragique, mais bien de l’interdépendance d’une multiplicité d’éléments.How understand that a series of groupings, commonly qualified as “sectarian”, became, at a certain time, a problem for the Belgian public authorities? It is not uncommon to hear as an answer that the suicide-homicide of the Solar Temple Order would be at the origin of the preoccupations and reaction of the public authorities towards those groupings. That tragic event would have brought our representatives to take an interest in the sectarian issue. In order to break with the linearity apparently imposed by this simple causal link, we would like to have a different look at the process of putting this issue at the political agenda so as to render as much as possible the dynamism and the complexity it is characteristic of. In other words, it’s a matter of proposing to our readers to shed a different light on the construction of the “sectarian object” as political object in Belgium. We will try to retrace historically the emergence of this factual singularity from the examination of a discursive corpus essentially composed of documents of institutional origin to show that putting the “sectarian phenomenon” at the political agenda doesn’t simply result from a tragic fact but from an interrelationship of a multiplicity of elements.¿Cómo explicar que a partir de un determinado momento toda una serie de grupos calificados comúnmente de “sectas” se hayan convertido en un problema para las autoridades públicas belgas? No es raro escuchar como respuesta a esta pregunta que el suicidio-homicidio de la Orden del Templo Solar (OTS) dio origen a la preocupación y a la reacción de las autoridades públicas frente a esos grupos. Dicho suceso trágico habría decidido a las autoridades belgas a interesarse en la cuestión sectaria. A fin de romper con la aparente linealidad impuesta por esa relación de causalidad simple, queremos analizar de otra manera el proceso de ingreso de esta problemática a la agenda política para devolverle, hasta donde sea posible, el dinamismo y la complejidad que la caracterizan. Dicho de otra manera, se trata de proponer otra interpretación de la construcción del “objeto-secta” en tanto objeto político en Bélgica. A partir del examen de un corpus discursivo compuesto en esencia de documentos provenientes de instituciones, intentamos rastrear históricamente la emergencia de esta situación y sostenemos la hipótesis de que el ingreso a la agenda política del “fenómeno sectario” no resulta únicamente del acaecimiento de un suceso trágico, sino de la interdependencia de múltiples elementos

A better fit between decision-makers : reflecting on recent changes in deciding over prison leave in Belgium

In this presentation, we sketch the role and place of two actors involved in decision-making: the prison director and the Service for the Management of Imprisonment (SMI). After a prisoner applies for a type of prison leave, the prison director provides a formal advice to the SMI, and the SMI takes the final decision. Research conducted in 2012 had laid bare differences in decision-making by prison directors and the SMI, resulting in a poor degree of agreement in decisions on prison leave (e.g. for an extended type of prison leave, in less than 50% of the cases in which prison directors gave a positive advice, the SMI decided to grant the leave). Since then, internal changes in decision-making by the SMI have led to a shift in the relationship between prison directors and the SMI, resulting in a better fit between both decision-makers. After reiterating these changes, we reflect on what is to happen next. Improving upon the criteria to decide of prison leave have not been followed by substantially higher levels of granting 335 leave. In light of the very low level of absconding and recidivism, further steps can be taken in improving decision-making

Teaching Introductory Statistics with DataCamp

We designed a sequence of courses for the DataCamp online learning platform that approximates the content of a typical introductory statistics course. We discuss the design and implementation of these courses and illustrate how they can be successfully integrated into a brick-and-mortar class. We reflect on the process of creating content for online consumers, ruminate on the pedagogical considerations we faced, and describe an R package for statistical inference that became a by-product of this development process. We discuss the pros and cons of creating the course sequence and express our view that some aspects were particularly problematic. The issues raised should be relevant to nearly all statistics instructors. Supplementary materials for this article are available online

Potentiation of cytotoxicity by combination of imatinib and chlorimipramine in glioma.

Rat C6 glioma is a chemo-resistant experimental brain tumor that is difficult to treat with various drug combinations. Previous studies suggested that imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) is effective in pre-clinical trials for glioblastoma. Also, chlorimipramine (Anafranil) is an anti-depressant drug in use in the clinic and shown to have anti-neoplastic activity. We hypothesized that treatment of resistant C6 glioma with combination of imatinib and chlorimipramine may potentiate cytotoxicity and reverse resistance. C6 glioma was examined both as monolayer and as spheroid cultures. Several experimental designs were examined all of which showed synergistic activity albeit at different time kinetics. Combination treatment resulted in inhibition of cell growth and enhanced cell death as determined by dye exclusion. Further, the combination treatment resulted in significant induction of apoptosis as determined by Annexin V-FITC and PI. Also, there was inhibition of DNA synthesis and cAMP. Altogether, these findings supported the antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects of the combination treatment. Morphological studies were also performed using transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Significant synergistic apoptosis was detected by the combination treatment in both the monolayers and spheroid cultures. There was also a synergistic effect in autophagy by the combination. Several altered morphological features were noted by both the individual compound and enhanced by the combination treatment. The present findings support our hypothesis and demonstrate the potentiation of cytotoxicity by the com-bination of imatinib and chlorimipramine in C6 glioma. Further, the findings suggest the potential clinical application of the combination in the treatment of drug-resistant glioma

An Educator’s Perspective of the Tidyverse

Computing makes up a large and growing component of data science and statistics courses. Many of those courses, especially when taught by faculty who are statisticians by training, teach R as the programming language. A number of instructors have opted to build much of their teaching around use of the tidyverse. The tidyverse, in the words of its developers, “is a collection of R packages that share a high-level design philosophy and low-level grammar and data structures, so that learning one package makes it easier to learn the next” (Wickham et al. 2019). These shared principles have led to the widespread adoption of the tidyverse ecosystem. A large part of this usage is because the tidyverse tools have been intentionally designed to ease the learning process and make it easier for users to learn new functions as they engage with additional pieces of the larger ecosystem. Moreover, the functionality offered by the packages within the tidyverse spans the entire data science cycle, which includes data import, visualisation, wrangling, modeling, and communication. We believe the tidyverse provides an effective and efficient pathway for undergraduate students at all levels and majors to gain computational skills and thinking needed throughout the data science cycle. In this paper, we introduce the tidyverse from an educator’s perspective. We provide a brief introduction to the tidyverse, demonstrate how foundational statistics and data science tasks are accomplished with the tidyverse, and discuss the strengths of the tidyverse, particularly in the context of teaching and learning

Linkage and continuity of care after release from prison : an evaluation of Central Registration Points for drug users in Belgium

Purpose This paper aims to report the findings of an evaluation study concerning the Central Registration Points (CRPs) for drug users in Belgian prisons. CRPs support drug users to link with community-based services. Design/methodology/approach The study applied a multi-method approach that involved an exploratory literature review; a secondary analysis of the CRPs' databases; a qualitative study of the perceptions of a diverse sample of stakeholders with regard to the functioning of CRPs; and a prospective registration study. Findings One-third of the clients never attended an outpatient or residential substance abuse service before prison entry. This illustrates that the CRPs managed to reach clients who were not previously reached by (substance abuse) treatment services. All interviewed actors emphasized the added value of the CRPs in terms of informing, contacting, motivating and referring prisoners with a substance abuse problem. Practical implications Based on the research findings, two issues seem to be of paramount importance in the successful practice of CRPs: the confidentiality and specific expertise on (substance abuse) treatment. Given the complex situation of drug users in prison, an independent positioning and categorical assistance with drug-specific expertise seem to be essential. Originality/value CRPs can be considered to be one of the "building blocks" that contribute to high-quality care and continuity of care for drugs users in detention

Variable expression and silencing of CRISPR-Cas9 targeted transgenes identifies the AAVS1 locus as not an entirely safe harbour

Background: Diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) can lead to severe outcomes including sudden death. The generation of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) reporter lines can be useful for disease modelling and drug screening by providing physiologically relevant in vitro models of disease. The AAVS1 locus is cited as a safe harbour that is permissive for stable transgene expression, and hence is favoured for creating gene targeted reporter lines. Methods: We generated hiPSC reporters using a plasmid-based CRISPR/Cas9 nickase strategy. The first intron of PPP1R12C, the AAVS1 locus, was targeted with constructs expressing a genetically encoded calcium indicator (R-GECO1.0) or HOXA9-T2A-mScarlet reporter under the control of a pCAG or inducible pTRE promoter, respectively. Transgene expression was compared between clones before, during and/or after directed differentiation to mesodermal lineages. Results: Successful targeting to AAVS1 was confirmed by PCR and sequencing. Of 24 hiPSC clones targeted with pCAG-R-GECO1.0, only 20 expressed the transgene and in these, the percentage of positive cells ranged from 0% to 99.5%. Differentiation of a subset of clones produced cardiomyocytes, wherein the percentage of cells positive for R-GECO1.0 ranged from 2.1% to 93.1%. In the highest expressing R-GECO1.0 clones, transgene silencing occurred during cardiomyocyte differentiation causing a decrease in expression from 98.93% to 1.3%. In HOXA9-T2A-mScarlet hiPSC reporter lines directed towards mesoderm lineages, doxycycline induced a peak in transgene expression after two days but this reduced by up to ten-thousand-fold over the next 8-10 days. Nevertheless, for R-GECO1.0 lines differentiated into cardiomyocytes, transgene expression was rescued by continuous puromycin drug selection, which allowed the Ca 2+ responses associated with HCM to be investigated in vitro using single cell analysis. Conclusions: Targeted knock-ins to AAVS1 can be used to create reporter lines but variability between clones and transgene silencing requires careful attention by researchers seeking robust reporter gene expression

Variable expression and silencing of CRISPR-Cas9 targeted transgenes identifies the AAVS1 locus as not an entirely safe harbour

Background: Diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) can lead to severe outcomes including sudden death. The generation of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) reporter lines can be useful for disease modelling and drug screening by providing physiologically relevant in vitro models of disease. The AAVS1 locus is cited as a safe harbour that is permissive for stable transgene expression, and hence is favoured for creating gene targeted reporter lines.Methods: We generated hiPSC reporters using a plasmid-based CRISPR/Cas9 nickase strategy. The first intron of PPP1R12C, the AAVS1 locus, was targeted with constructs expressing a genetically encoded calcium indicator (R-GECO1.0) or HOXA9-T2A-mScarlet reporter under the control of a pCAG or inducible pTRE promoter, respectively. Transgene expression was compared between clones before, during and/or after directed differentiation to mesodermal lineages.Results: Successful targeting to AAVS1 was confirmed by PCR and sequencing. Of 24 hiPSC clones targeted with pCAG-R-GECO1.0, only 20 expressed the transgene and in these, the percentage of positive cells ranged from 0% to 99.5%. Differentiation of a subset of clones produced cardiomyocytes, wherein the percentage of cells positive for R-GECO1.0 ranged from 2.1% to 93.1%. In the highest expressing R-GECO1.0 clones, transgene silencing occurred during cardiomyocyte differentiation causing a decrease in expression from 98.93% to 1.3%. In HOXA9-T2A-mScarlet hiPSC reporter lines directed towards mesoderm lineages, doxycycline induced a peak in transgene expression after two days but this reduced by up to ten-thousand-fold over the next 8-10 days. Nevertheless, for R-GECO1.0 lines differentiated into cardiomyocytes, transgene expression was rescued by continuous puromycin drug selection, which allowed the Ca2+ responses associated with HCM to be investigated in vitro using single cell analysis.Conclusions: Targeted knock-ins to AAVS1 can be used to create reporter lines but variability between clones and transgene silencing requires careful attention by researchers seeking robust reporter gene expression