Relationships of proactive behaviour with job-related affective well-being and anticipated retirement age: an exploration among older employees in Belgium

Developed countries throughout the world are challenged with the ageing of their labour force. In these societal contexts, low employment rates and early labour market exits of older employees are at stake, as well as arrangements for retirement, financial household considerations and mutual obligations between generations. Although proactive behaviour has been extensively studied, no research has addressed the proactive behaviour of older employees themselves when facing (re)hiring and retention versus early retirement. For the first time, this study tests the relationships of proactive behaviour with job-related affective well-being and anticipated retirement age in a sample of employees aged 50+ (N = 89) in Belgium. The findings are obtained by using a self-report questionnaire. Statistical analysis includes correlation and regression analysis. Major findings are that (i) proactive older employees feel energetic, enthusiastic, inspired, at ease, relaxed and satisfied; and (ii) later retirement is anticipated when experiencing positive affective well-being at study

Measuring performance in healthcare

Hospitals invest in process management and process optimization from an organizational and patient perspective to increase efficiency and simultaneously the quality of their operations. Consequently, the use of process-oriented performance measurement systems gains importance. This study contributes to the development of a dashboard for the process of hip surgery using a case study design. We integrate strategic goals of hospital management and different stakeholders with the analysis of Business Process Management and Hospital Information Systems’ data. Process-oriented KPIs were integrated into the dashboard using a three-step approach. Dashboards enable healthcare organizations to put process-oriented performance measurement into practice

Designing the customer journey in a service delivery network: evidence from cancer patient treatments

Customer experiences - not in the least for customers with chronic diseases - depend on a series of exchanges over a considerable amount of time with a variety of service providers and thus a service delivery network (SDN). The impact of SDNs on the customer experience, however, is unclear. This research provides insight into (1) the service delivery system characteristics in SDNs, and (2) their impact on the relationship between customer journey duration and value for time as an important customer experience indicator. The service delivery system characteristics were explored by process travel sheets of patients undergoing cancer treatment in a hospital (n=412). These data were linked to time measurement data (n=262) and survey data (n=312) to explain customer journey duration and value for time, thereby showing the importance of the number of service events and the type of service providers. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed

Ph.D. holders on the Belgian labour market

In which sector do Ph.D. graduates end up working? What is the minimum and desired education level for their current job? Which skills do they need in their current job, and how does this compare to the skills acquired during the Ph.D. track? These questions are answered by looking at responses of a sample of 4190 doctorate holders in the Belgian Careers of Doctorate Holders Survey 2010 (CDH)

Israeli acute paralysis virus infection leads to an enhanced RNA interference response and not its suppression in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris

RNA interference (RNAi) is the primary antiviral defense system in insects and its importance for pollinator health is indisputable. In this work, we examined the effect of Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV) infection on the RNAi process in the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, and whether the presence of possible functional viral suppressors could alter the potency of the host's immune response. For this, a two-fold approach was used. Through a functional RNAi assay, we observed an enhancement of the RNAi system after IAPV infection instead of its suppression, despite only minimal upregulation of the genes involved in RNAi. Besides, the presence of the proposed suppressor 1A and the predicted OrfX protein in IAPV could not be confirmed using high definition mass spectrometry. In parallel, when bumblebees were infected with cricket paralysis virus (CrPV), known to encode a suppressor of RNAi, no increase in RNAi efficiency was seen. For both viruses, pre-infection with the one virus lead to a decreased replication of the other virus, indicating a major effect of competition. These results are compelling in the context of Dicistroviridae in multi-virus/multi-host networks as the effect of a viral infection on the RNAi machinery may influence subsequent virus infections

Rectification in single molecular dimers with strong polaron effect

We study theoretically the transport properties of a molecular two level system with large electron-vibron coupling in the Coulomb blockade regime. We show that when the electron-vibron coupling induces polaron states, the current-voltage characteristic becomes strongly asymmetric because, in one current direction, one of the polaron state blocks the current through the other. This situation occurs when the coupling between the polaron states is smaller than the coupling to the leads. We discuss the relevance of our calculation for experiments on C_140 molecules.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Functional dissection of transcriptional regulation during normal and malignant T-cell development : an integrative (epi)genomic approach

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a highly aggressive malignant disorder. While originally associated with poor prognosis, more recent intensified T-ALL therapy has led to remarkable improvements in survival of these patients. Unfortunately, these therapeutic schemes are associated with severe acute and long-term toxicities, thus demanding for further research in order to design more precision medicine oriented treatment. Importantly, for T-ALL patients with relapsed and refractory T-ALL, outcome remains extremely poor, thus urging further investigations to design therapies with further reduced relapse risk and/or novel treatment to cure relapsed cases. To shift towards this personalized medicine approach, a more profound understanding of the molecular basis of T-ALL progression is required. Several decades of genetic studies in T-ALL have uncovered a remarkable heterogeneous and complex landscape of combined oncogenic and loss-of-function mutations that contribute to malignant thymocyte transformation. One of the major challenges in T-ALL research is to unravel in detail how the diverse complement of oncogenes and tumor suppressors functionally contribute to T-ALL pathogenesis and response to therapy. To this end, I have studied the functional properties and cooperation of several key players that participate in normal and malignant T-cell development at the level of transcriptional regulatory networks. TLX1 is a major driver oncogene causing transformation of immature thymocytes towards T-ALL. Previous pioneering work partly uncovered its mode of action in relation to T-ALL formation, showing that ectopic overexpression of TLX1 in immature thymocytes causes repression of multiple T-ALL tumor suppressor genes. The study performed during this doctoral mandate, led to the observation of an unexpected antagonism between the TLX1 and NOTCH1 oncogenes, with activated TLX1 suppressing NOTCH1 and key NOTCH1 target genes. Based on this finding, we hypothesized that this unique interaction between both oncogenes could explain the presence of NOTCH1 mutations in most TLX1 driven T-ALL. Furthermore, the required cooperativity of NOTCH1 (pathway) activating mutations can also explain the very long latency of T-ALL development in a TLX1 driven leukemia mouse model (paper 1). In addition to NOTCH1 mutations, PHF6 loss-of-function mutations are also frequently observed, pointing at a further putative required cooperative genetic lesion for full-blown TLX1 driven T-ALL formation. Given the lack of insight into the normal cellular function of the epigenetic reader protein PHF6, I investigated its role during normal hematopoiesis and observed a profound effect of PHF6 loss on hematopoietic lineage development (paper 2). Moreover, in the context of TLX1 driven T-ALL formation, I identified the tyrosine kinase ‘interleukine-7 receptor’ (IL7R) as a robustly upregulated gene upon PHF6 knockdown. Given the role of IL7R signaling in survival of maturing thymocytes, this observation opens an exciting perspective that PHF6 loss is required as an essential cooperative event in TLX1 driven T-ALL pathogenesis by re-installment of TLX1 repressed IL7R expression. Importantly, in addition to paving the way for further animal modeling and mechanistic studies, this finding is also highly relevant in the context of design of novel therapies targeting IL7R downstream JAK-STAT signaling (paper 3). Until recently, transcriptional regulatory networks were mainly studied from a ‘gene-protein coding’ genomic viewpoint. Several studies have challenged this central dogma based on the proven role of non-coding RNAs in control of normal cellular behavior. Given this exciting new perspective on further expanding complexity of gene regulation during normal development and malignant transformation, I decided to study the role of such micro-RNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in T-ALL perturbed transcriptional networks. More specifically, I studied the role of miRNAs under control of TAL1 (paper 4), unraveled the landscape of lncRNAs implicated in the NOTCH1 signaling pathway (paper 5) and performed the first landscaping of the TLX1 lncRNAome (paper 6). In conclusion, my work has contributed to novel insights into transcriptional networks in normal and malignant T-cell development, revealing several novel nodes for therapeutic intervention in the pursuit of personalized medicine development in the field of T-ALL research