Industry in Belgium : past developments and challenges for the future

The article constitutes the synthesis of a broad study on industry in Belgium, conducted by the NBB, at the request of social partners. Some contributions were also made by the Federal Planning Bureau. In the past decades, industry has been submitted to two global trends. Firstly, deindustrialisation took the form of nominal activity and employment transfers between branches, i.e. from industry to services, while at the same time real industrial value added kept growing at a similar rate as the total economy, due to large productivity gains. Secondly, and partly linked to what precedes, economic globalisation was generalised thanks to liberalisation and technological progress, which has thoroughly modified the environment in which companies operate by opening up new markets and allowing an increased division of the production process in search of efficiency. Recently, these long-known trends seem to have further accelerated due to the emergence of rapidly growing economies, which are either closely linked to European countries (ten new member states) or are large-scale economies (China). More than ever, the industry’s future lies in safeguarding competitiveness and looking for new competitive edges, a challenge which it shares with the total economy. First of all, it requires a close monitoring of cost developments, especially as competition mainly takes place with neighbouring, thus similar, economies. In this respect, wages are an important, but only one component of production costs. Nevertheless, the competitiveness of an economy increasingly results from a large group of non-cost elements, which together determine its innovation capacity. Among these, we mainly stress the importance of continuous private and public investments, which are necessary to preserve and enhance the capital stock, of a well-educated and continuously trained labour force, of sufficient and well-oriented R&D efforts and of adequate and diversified sources of financing. Broadly speaking, innovation and economic dynamism require an integrated and extended approach, bringing together enterprises, research centres, universities and public authorities, in order for them to agree on a common view and maximise the spillover effects. Industry will still have an important role to play in meeting this objective.industry, deindustrialisation, globalisation, competitiveness, innovation

Belgium’s position in world trade

The objective of the article is to give a general overview of the position that Belgium occupies in the world trade stakes and its ability to adjust in response to changes in the international environment. Over the last two decades, world trade has expanded considerably, buoyed up by the rapid growth of new economic centres, the advanced economies generally having seen a drop in their market share. However, the growth in Belgium’s exports has lagged behind the average for twelve European countries going through the same major changes ; and the loss of market share has been higher than the average. A classical econometric analysis of price competitiveness shows up the limited role of relative export prices as a determinant in gains/losses of market share. This finding mainly reflects the fact that prices are largely fixed on international markets, producers cannot adjust their export prices according to the costs that they have to bear. In this context, a reasonable development of production costs, and with stronger reason wage costs, is essential in order to ensure the continuity of export activities. Beyond relative price effects, it is necessary to take into account structural elements in order to explain changes in market share. From this standpoint, it appears that the type of production has a crucial role to play. Faced with competition from emerging economies, Belgium’s external trade performance in the case of standardised products has been well below world demand. On the other hand, high-value-added products or those of a highly innovative nature or with a high research content are the ones that enable it to maintain or improve on its position in global trade. Export activities and innovation share some common features, not least because they are concentrated in the hands of a small number of large enterprises. In view of the high foreign market entry costs, the best performing firms are the ones that tend to be the exporters. However, factors such as the innovative nature of products on offer can of course influence the likelihood of success on foreign markets. Here, innovation efforts by Belgian firms are not creating enough opportunities for marketing new products. Yet, it is most certainly goods with a high value added or highly innovative products that Belgium will be able to count on to ensure sustainable economic development and to support the prosperity of its people.competitiveness, market share, export price, innovation, R&D

A SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATION BETWEEN ADULT AND PEDIATRIC INTENSIVISTS: VENO-VENOUS EXTRACORPOREAL MEMBRANE OXYGENATION FOR A PEDIATRIC PATIENT WITH LIFE-THREATENING TRACHEAL OBSTRUCTION

peer reviewe

First order parent formulation for generic gauge field theories

We show how a generic gauge field theory described by a BRST differential can systematically be reformulated as a first order parent system whose spacetime part is determined by the de Rham differential. In the spirit of Vasiliev's unfolded approach, this is done by extending the original space of fields so as to include their derivatives as new independent fields together with associated form fields. Through the inclusion of the antifield dependent part of the BRST differential, the parent formulation can be used both for on and off-shell formulations. For diffeomorphism invariant models, the parent formulation can be reformulated as an AKSZ-type sigma model. Several examples, such as the relativistic particle, parametrized theories, Yang-Mills theory, general relativity and the two dimensional sigma model are worked out in details.Comment: 36 pages, additional sections and minor correction

Reduction of microglial activity in a model of multiple sclerosis by dipyridamole

BACKGROUND: Despite extensive and persistent activation of microglia in multiple sclerosis (MS), microglia inhibitors have not yet been identified for treatment of the disorder. We sought to identify medications already in clinical use that could inhibit the activation of microglia. On the basis of the reported inhibitory effects of dipyridamole on phosphodiesterase activity that result in the production of various anti-inflammatory outcomes, we selected it for study. Dipyridamole is used clinically for secondary prevention in stroke. In this study, dipyridamole was examined using microglia in culture and in the mouse model of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). RESULTS: We found that dipyridamole attenuated the elevation of several cytokines and chemokines in human microglia caused by Toll-like receptor stimulation. Morphological characteristics of activated microglia in culture were also normalized by dipyridamole. In mice, dipyridamole decreased the clinical severity of EAE and reduced microglial activity and other histological indices of EAE in the spinal cord. CONCLUSIONS: Dipyridamole is an inhibitor of microglia activation and may have a role in MS and other neurological conditions to attenuate microglial activity

Thrombocytopaenia and Down Syndrome - What about the Usual Suspects ?

Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder renowned for conferring a predisposition to auto-immune and hematological conditions; hematological abnormalities in this population should prompt investigations to exclude malignancy, but comprehensive differential diagnosis should be broadened to other pathologies. A 15 months-old infant with Down syndrome presented with isolated moderate thrombocytopenia during an episode of upper respiratory tract infection. Clinical examination was unremarkable except for mild hepatomegaly and diffuse petechial rash. A bone marrow aspiration showed no malignant infiltration. Intravenous immunoglobulins showed little benefit over the course of the following 7 days. The patient secondarily developed hemolytic anemia. ADAMTS13 activity was undetectable, and plasmatic inhibitors were detected confirming the hypothesis of immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), triggered by an infection. Daily plasmapheresis were started with immediate but short-lived benefit, and TTP persistently recurred every 48h after interruption of exchanges, warranting initiation of treatment with Rituximab and enabling the achievement of long-term remission. Acquired TTP is an extremely rare entity in children below 9 years of age (<1/1.000.000), and can be life-threatening due to the formation of micro thrombi occluding terminal circulation leading to organ damage and dysfunction. Prompt recognition of this entity is important to avoid long-term damages. Altered IFN signaling in Down syndrome could theoretically predispose to immune TTP, although we couldn’t find any other report of cases of immune TTP in patients with Down syndrome

Liver transplantation for hepatic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma

peer reviewedL’hémangioendothéliome épithélioïde est une affection maligne rare qui peut survenir dans le foie. Lorsque la forme est multifocale et bilobaire, la transplantation hépatique constitue le traitement curateur de cette affection. Dans cet article, les auteurs décrivent le diagnostic et le traitement d’une femme de 52 ans souffrant d’un hémangioendothéliome épithélioïde hépatique traitée par transplantation du foie

Paravertebral Burkitt's Lymphoma in a Child: An Unusual Presentation

Paravertebral malignant tumors constitute 4.8% of cancer cases in pediatric oncology and are mostly composed of neuroblastoma (46.4%) and soft tissue sarcomas (35.7%). We describe the case of a Caucasian 6-year-old boy who was admitted for middle back pain radiated to limbs and progressively increasing weakness of the legs, suggesting a spinal cord disease. The exploration revealed two paravertebral masses extending through the neural foraminae into the epidural space. The association with elevated serum neuron specific enolase suggested at first the diagnosis of neuroblastoma, but the pathological examination revealed a Burkitt's lymphoma. This is a rare location of sporadic Burkitt's lymphoma with neurologic syndrome as first symptoms

Neonatal screening improves sickle cell disease clinical outcome in Belgium.

Objectives To compare the outcomes of sickle cell disease patients diagnosed through neonatal screening with those who were not. Methods In an observational multicenter study in Belgium, 167 screened and 93 unscreened sickle cell disease patients were analyzed for a total of 1116 and 958 patient-years of follow-up, respectively. Both groups were compared with propensity score analysis, with patients matched on three covariates (gender, genotype, and central Africa origin). Bonferroni correction was applied for all comparisons. Results Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival without bacteremia were significantly higher in the screened group than the unscreened group (94.47%; [95% CI, 88.64-97.36%] versus 83.78% [95% CI, 72.27-90.42%]), p = 0.032. Non-significant differences between both groups were reported for survival without acute chest syndrome, acute anemia, cerebral complication, severe infection, and vaso-occlusive crisis. Significantly lower hospitalization rate and days per 100 patient-years were observed in the screened compared with the unscreened group (0.27 vs. 0.63 and 1.25 vs. 2.82, p = 0.0006 and <0.0001). Conclusion These data confirm the benefit of a neonatal screening programme in reducing bacteremia and hospitalization