De transversale bevoegdheden in het federale België

Dit boek is het derde deel van de subreeks “bevoegdheidsverdeling” in de bibliotheek Grondwettelijk Recht - de Staatshervorming. De publicatie is na 'De bevoegdheden van de gewesten' en 'De bevoegdheden van de gemeenschappen' het laatste deel binnen deze subreeks. Het boek 'De transversale bevoegdheden in het federale België' bundelt commentaren over de gemeenschappelijke bevoegdheden van gemeenschappen, gewesten en soms ook de federale overheid. Onder de transversale bevoegdheden behoren: de mogelijkheid om een eigen administratie uit te bouwen of rechtspersonen op te richten, de mogelijkheid om de naleving van de eigen regels te controleren of te sanctioneren, parallelle bevoegdheden zoals wetenschappelijk onderzoek, de regels die nageleefd moeten worden bij de onderlinge samenwerking en bij de internationale contacten, de mogelijkheid om de eigen structuren vorm te geven (zelfinrichtingsbevoegdheid), de samenwerking intern en internationaal met inbegrip van de buitenlandse handel en de ontwikkelingssamenwerking. Hier past ook een commentaar over de fiscale bevoegdheden van de gemeenschappen en de gewesten. Omdat naast de eigen fiscaliteit ook de algemene financiering van de deelstaten van groot belang is voor de mogelijkheden van beleidsvoering en bij de opeenvolgende staatshervormingen bij de politiek meer gevoelige onderwerpen hoort, vonden de auteurs het nuttig ook hierover een algemene toelichting op te nemen, zonder in al te veel technische details te treden. Naast een beschouwing over de leidende beginselen van de Belgische staatshervorming, bevat dit boek bijdragen binnen het institutionele, de inhoudelijk parallelle bevoegdheden en de instrumentele bevoegdheden

Principes du traitement pharmacologique de l'addiction

peer reviewe

A Novel Phase Portrait to Understand Neuronal Excitability

Fifty years ago, Fitzugh introduced a phase portrait that became famous for a twofold reason: it captured in a physiological way the qualitative behavior of Hodgkin-Huxley model and it revealed the power of simple dynamical models to unfold complex firing patterns. To date, in spite of the enormous progresses in qualitative and quantitative neural modeling, this phase portrait has remained the core picture of neuronal excitability. Yet, a major difference between the neurophysiology of 1961 and of 2011 is the recognition of the prominent role of calcium channels in firing mechanisms. We show that including this extra current in Hodgkin-Huxley dynamics leads to a revision of Fitzugh-Nagumo phase portrait that affects in a fundamental way the reduced modeling of neural excitability. The revisited model considerably enlarges the modeling power of the original one. In particular, it captures essential electrophysiological signatures that otherwise require non-physiological alteration or considerable complexication of the classical model. As a basic illustration, the new model is shown to highlight a core dynamical mechanism by which the calcium conductance controls the two distinct firing modes of thalamocortical neurons

Estimation of Genetic Parameters for Growth, Feed Consumption, and Conformation Traits for Double-Muscled Belgian Blue Bulls Performance-Tested in Belgium

For 1,442 Belgian Blue bulls performance- tested at the Centre de Selection de la Race Blanc-Bleue Belge, nine traits were observed: height at withers at 7 mo, height at withers at 13 mo, weight at 7 mo, weight at 13 mo, average feed consumption of concentrates, average daily gain, average feed consumption of concentrates per average daily gain, average feed consumption of concentrates per mean metabolic weight, and price per kilogram of live weight. This price is based on muscle conformation and is therefore used as muscle conformation score. Restricted maximum likelihood with a derivative-free algorithm was used to estimate (co)variance components because there were different models and missing values per trait. Estimates of heritabilities were above .50 except for average feed consumption per average daily gain (.16) and average feed consumption per mean metabolic weight (.33). Estimates of genetic and phenotypic correlations between height at withers and weight traits were positive and moderate to high. Average daily gain showed a negative genetic correlation with weight at 7 mo ( -.68) but had positive correlations with height at withers at 13 mo and weight at 13 mo (.22 and .43). Muscle conformation expressed as price per kilogram of live weight was related to low average feed consumption per average daily gain. Average feed consumption showed high correlations with weight at 7 mo and weight at 13 mo. Average feed consumption per average daily gain had a high negative genetic correlation with average daily gain ( -.89)

Reconversion to organic famring, between organic rules and agro-food chain referential: How to fit out the organic fattening referential?

peer reviewe

How modeling can reconcile apparently discrepant experimental results: the case of pacemaking in dopaminergic neurons.

Midbrain dopaminergic neurons are endowed with endogenous slow pacemaking properties. In recent years, many different groups have studied the basis for this phenomenon, often with conflicting conclusions. In particular, the role of a slowly-inactivating L-type calcium channel in the depolarizing phase between spikes is controversial, and the analysis of slow oscillatory potential (SOP) recordings during the blockade of sodium channels has led to conflicting conclusions. Based on a minimal model of a dopaminergic neuron, our analysis suggests that the same experimental protocol may lead to drastically different observations in almost identical neurons. For example, complete L-type calcium channel blockade eliminates spontaneous firing or has almost no effect in two neurons differing by less than 1% in their maximal sodium conductance. The same prediction can be reproduced in a state of the art detailed model of a dopaminergic neuron. Some of these predictions are confirmed experimentally using single-cell recordings in brain slices. Our minimal model exhibits SOPs when sodium channels are blocked, these SOPs being uncorrelated with the spiking activity, as has been shown experimentally. We also show that block of a specific conductance (in this case, the SK conductance) can have a different effect on these two oscillatory behaviors (pacemaking and SOPs), despite the fact that they have the same initiating mechanism. These results highlight the fact that computational approaches, besides their well known confirmatory and predictive interests in neurophysiology, may also be useful to resolve apparent discrepancies between experimental results