Poverty in Belgium

The EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) surveys gives a harmonised source of data making it possible to get a good idea of inequality and poverty, at both the Belgian and European levels. Disposable income distribution appears to be slightly more egalitarian in Belgium than the EU15 average, and around 15 p.c. of the population lives below the poverty line in our country, compared with 16 p.c. in the EU15 as a whole Poverty can be defined in many different ways. The rate of monetary poverty corresponds to the percentage of the population with an income below the poverty line. The European Union has conventionally set this threshold at 60 p.c. of the median income. Other approaches (such as that based on material deprivation and the subjective approach, subjective in the sense that it relies on the personal perception of the people being surveyed) contribute to a better understanding of the true nature of poverty but they are not a perfect match. The perceived rate of poverty is thus higher in Belgium and France than the poverty rate based on relative income, whereas the reverse is true in the United Kingdom. The monetary poverty indicators calculated on the basis of the SILC surveys are given preference in this article, even though they are not immune to problems. In particular, disposable income as calculated from the SILC surveys does not take account of several components, including the imputed rent for households that own their home. For households with members of working age, employment offers good protection against poverty, provided a high enough number of hours are worked at an adequate wage level. In Belgium, the minimum wage tends to limit the number of working poor. So, households with a full 100 p.c. work intensity rate in our country enjoy the lowest poverty rate in the EU15, regardless of whether or not they have children in the home. Single parents make up the category of households at the highest risk of poverty. The proportion of retirees living below the poverty line is also higher than that among the population of working age. The situation as regards the elderly nevertheless needs to be put into perspective because proportionally more of these people own their home than among the rest of the population. Education is a key factor for employment. A high level of education goes hand in hand with a lower likelihood of both falling into poverty and remaining poor for long periods of time. Ensuring access to quality education for all is thus essential for promoting equal opportunities. Longitudinal data show that, at any given moment, a large number of people are falling into or getting out of poverty. By comparison with other European countries, Belgium has a very low poverty entry rate, but it also has a fairly low poverty exit rate.poverty, SILC, Belgium, EU

The social balance sheet 2008

There was an average annual increase in employment of 1.7 p.c. in 2008, according to the statistics gleaned from a reduced population of enterprises that filed their social balance sheet by 16 September 2009 at the latest. End-of-year results (+0.8 p.c.) point to a significant slowdown in growth during the course of the year, reflecting the economic downturn which began at the end of 2007. Full-time staff numbers stabilised, but the number of part-time workers continued to grow. The expansion of this part-time working arrangement is not only attributable to the recruitment of workers on shorter hours ; shifts between full-time and part-time working arrangements have also been observed, especially in large firms that have restructured. As a result of the economic downturn, the share of temporary work has fallen. In firms filing a full-format social balance sheet, a reduction in the use of temporary agency workers has also been noted. The overall wage bill in the firms included in the reduced population grew by 5.3 p.c. in 2008. At the same time, the volume of labour expanded by 1.6 p.c., so that costs per hour worked increased by 3.7 p.c. on average. This article includes an assessment, by branch of activity, of how closely the indicative wage norm set for the period 2006-2008 has been followed. This survey was carried out on the basis of a population of firms that had filed a social balance sheet for the three consecutive years. For the first time ever, thanks to the introduction of a new version of the social balance sheet, it has been possible to have a breakdown of staff numbers by educational level. On average, women tend to have a more intensive level of training than men. Workers’ educational requirements vary considerably according to the branch of activity. Since the year 2008, training activities have been broken down between formal and informal vocational training and initial training, whereas before only formal training and a very small proportion of informal training had been taken into account. Participation rates for these three types of training come to respectively 37, 21 and 1 p.c. of the workforce. Budgets for training accounted for a total of 1.7 p.c. of staff expenses, including 1.2 p.c. for formal training alone, which is still well below the target for the private sector that had been set at 1.9 p.c. for 2006. Major differences in training policy can be observed in firms classified by size and branch of activity, whether it is a question of ranging from the volume of training activities, the size of budget, or type of training selected. An analysis of individual data shows that the probability for an enterprise to provide formal or informal training depends above all on its size, with the branch of activity ranking second. Whether it is linked to a non-resident firm and the composition of the workforce (notably the relative share of staff with higher education qualifications) also play a significant role. Within firms that do offer training, the dispersion of training costs depends very much on firm-specific factors, which cannot be taken into consideration by a general model.employment, staff costs, training, working hours, employment contract, full-time, part-time, skills, temporary worker

The social balance sheet 2007

According to the results of the social balance sheets available in September 2008, employment rose by 2.3 p.c. in 2007. The increase concerned both full-time as well as part-time workers. The rise in part-time working is only partially explained by the hiring of part-time workers : this year again, medium-sized and large enterprises also saw numerous changes in working arrangements. Although women still account for the bulk of part-time workers, the increase in the part-time rate was greater for men than for women. The analysis shows that part-time working is spread unevenly in the various branches of activity. As in previous years, the article studies staff movements and the characteristics of workers joining and leaving companies filing full-format accounts. It also examines reasons for leaving and the external turnover of workers by comparing the results from the various groups of enterprises categorised according to their size or their branch of activity. The analysis also highlights the further advance in 2007 of temporary employment contracts – whose proportion is tending to become more uniform in the various categories of company size – and the increased use of agency work in companies filing full-format accounts. Recourse to these contracts as instruments for workforce adjustments varies considerably from one branch of activity to the other. The total wage bill rose by 5.1 p.c. between 2006 and 2007 in the reduced population of companies. Over the same period there was a 2.3 p.c. growth in the number of hours worked, so that hourly labour costs grew by 2.8 p.c. on average. The rise was more pronounced for full-time than for part-time workers. Major differences in levels are still discernible in terms of hourly costs, depending on the size and branch of activity of the companies. In terms of training, the results for 2006 still fall well short of the set targets : training costs accounted for 1.17 p.c. of the total wage bill whereas the target specified in the Generation Pact for this same year was 1.9 p.c. At the same time, the participation rate in training was only 35.2 p.c. whereas a target has been set of 50 p.c. by 2010. Growth was nevertheless recorded between 2006 and 2007 within a favourable economic context : the cost indicator for training grew by 4 p.c. and the participation rate by 0.2 p.c. If these increases were applied to the level observed in 2006, these same indicators should amount to 1.22 and 35.3 p.c. respectively for 2007.employment, staff costs, training, working hours, employment contract, full-time, part-time, skills, temporary worker

Changing the subtext: coping with bias in museums and the historical record in South Africa today

Paper presented at the Wits History Workshop: Myths, Monuments, Museums; New Premises? 16-18 July, 199

Extension of Yeast Chronological Lifespan by Methylamine

Background: Chronological aging of yeast cells is commonly used as a model for aging of human post-mitotic cells. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae grown on glucose in the presence of ammonium sulphate is mainly used in yeast aging research. We have analyzed chronological aging of the yeast Hansenula polymorpha grown at conditions that require primary peroxisome metabolism for growth. Methodology/Principal Findings: The chronological lifespan of H. polymorpha is strongly enhanced when cells are grown on methanol or ethanol, metabolized by peroxisome enzymes, relative to growth on glucose that does not require peroxisomes. The short lifespan of H. polymorpha on glucose is mainly due to medium acidification, whereas most likely ROS do not play an important role. Growth of cells on methanol/methylamine instead of methanol/ammonium sulphate resulted in further lifespan enhancement. This was unrelated to medium acidification. We show that oxidation of methylamine by peroxisomal amine oxidase at carbon starvation conditions is responsible for lifespan extension. The methylamine oxidation product formaldehyde is further oxidized resulting in NADH generation, which contributes to increased ATP generation and reduction of ROS levels in the stationary phase. Conclusion/Significance: We conclude that primary peroxisome metabolism enhanced chronological lifespan of H. polymorpha. Moreover, the possibility to generate NADH at carbon starvation conditions by an organic nitrogen source supports further extension of the lifespan of the cell. Consequently, the interpretation of CLS analyses in yeast should include possible effects on the energy status of the cell.

The Mechanisms of Codon Reassignments in Mitochondrial Genetic Codes

Many cases of non-standard genetic codes are known in mitochondrial genomes. We carry out analysis of phylogeny and codon usage of organisms for which the complete mitochondrial genome is available, and we determine the most likely mechanism for codon reassignment in each case. Reassignment events can be classified according to the gain-loss framework. The gain represents the appearance of a new tRNA for the reassigned codon or the change of an existing tRNA such that it gains the ability to pair with the codon. The loss represents the deletion of a tRNA or the change in a tRNA so that it no longer translates the codon. One possible mechanism is Codon Disappearance, where the codon disappears from the genome prior to the gain and loss events. In the alternative mechanisms the codon does not disappear. In the Unassigned Codon mechanism, the loss occurs first, whereas in the Ambiguous Intermediate mechanism, the gain occurs first. Codon usage analysis gives clear evidence of cases where the codon disappeared at the point of the reassignment and also cases where it did not disappear. Codon disappearance is the probable explanation for stop to sense reassignments and a small number of reassignments of sense codons. However, the majority of sense to sense reassignments cannot be explained by codon disappearance. In the latter cases, by analysis of the presence or absence of tRNAs in the genome and of the changes in tRNA sequences, it is sometimes possible to distinguish between the Unassigned Codon and Ambiguous Intermediate mechanisms. We emphasize that not all reassignments follow the same scenario and that it is necessary to consider the details of each case carefully.Comment: 53 pages (45 pages, including 4 figures + 8 pages of supplementary information). To appear in J.Mol.Evo

Selective Ion Changes during Spontaneous Mitochondrial Transients in Intact Astrocytes

The bioenergetic status of cells is tightly regulated by the activity of cytosolic enzymes and mitochondrial ATP production. To adapt their metabolism to cellular energy needs, mitochondria have been shown to exhibit changes in their ionic composition as the result of changes in cytosolic ion concentrations. Individual mitochondria also exhibit spontaneous changes in their electrical potential without altering those of neighboring mitochondria. We recently reported that individual mitochondria of intact astrocytes exhibit spontaneous transient increases in their Na+ concentration. Here, we investigated whether the concentration of other ionic species were involved during mitochondrial transients. By combining fluorescence imaging methods, we performed a multiparameter study of spontaneous mitochondrial transients in intact resting astrocytes. We show that mitochondria exhibit coincident changes in their Na+ concentration, electrical potential, matrix pH and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production during a mitochondrial transient without involving detectable changes in their Ca2+ concentration. Using widefield and total internal reflection fluorescence imaging, we found evidence for localized transient decreases in the free Mg2+ concentration accompanying mitochondrial Na+ spikes that could indicate an associated local and transient enrichment in the ATP concentration. Therefore, we propose a sequential model for mitochondrial transients involving a localized ATP microdomain that triggers a Na+-mediated mitochondrial depolarization, transiently enhancing the activity of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Our work provides a model describing ionic changes that could support a bidirectional cytosol-to-mitochondria ionic communication