Scientific papers

In accordance with its mission to support high level research in Belgium, the University Foundation provides financial support towards the publication in high level international journals of scientific papers which report on research in Belgian research groups. Financial support may be granted to partially cover the costs due by the author for illustrations, for page charges and for article processing fees, and for linguuistic control. 

Because the possible support is restricted to Belgian research groups, the regulations and application procedures are only available in French  and in Dutch.

Articles subsidized by the University Foundation

What follows is a list of articles to which a subsidy was awarded by the University Foundation. The titles are ordered by year of publication and by title.

Anne Fromont et al.

Fromont, A. et al.  (2017) Exploring the validity of scores from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) in Burundi: A multi-strategy approach.  Journal of Psychology in Africa, Vol. 27, no.4, pp. 316-324.

The present study aimed to validate the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) in Burundi, through a multi-strategy approach used in cross-cultural studies. Respondents were 906 health workers (men =56%; caregivers 60%). They responded to a bilingual version of RSES. We utilized Confirmatory Factorial Analysis (CFA) with structural equation modelling and a back translation test to explore the structure of the RSES and the reliability of scores from the scale.

Sabine Rudischhauser

Rudischhauser, S. (2017) From the 8-Hour Day to the 40-Hour Week: Legitimization Discourses of Labour Legislation between the Wars in France and Belgium. Politics and Governance, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages 6–14.

In the interwar period both France and Belgium passed legislation reducing the number of working hours and established a hybrid regulatory regime lending a certain degree of official authority to collective agreements. The paper analyses discourses by scholars who, as experts, were close to the political elites, and who tried to legitimize this kind of co-regulation by pointing out the inefficiency of state intervention and the epistemic authority of non-state actors.

Jonas R.M. Van Audenaerde et al.

Van Audenaerde, JRM et al. (2017) Interleukin-15 stimulates natural killer cell-mediated killing of both human pancreatic cancer and stellate cells.  Oncotarget.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the 4th leading cause of cancerrelated death in Western countries with a 5-year survival rate below 5%. One of the hallmarks of this cancer is the strong desmoplastic reaction within the tumor microenvironment (TME), orchestrated by activated pancreatic stellate cells (PSC). This results in a functional and mechanical shield which causes resistance to conventional therapies.

Lorenz Demey & Hans Smessaert

Demey, L & Smessaert, H. Logical and Geometrical Distance in Polyhedral Aristotelian Diagrams in Knowledge Representation. Symmetry 20179(10), 204.

Aristotelian diagrams visualize the logical relations among a finite set of objects. These diagrams originated in philosophy, but recently, they have also been used extensively in artificial intelligence, in order to study (connections between) various knowledge representation formalisms. In this paper, we develop the idea that Aristotelian diagrams can be fruitfully studied as geometrical entities. In particular, we focus on four polyhedral Aristotelian diagrams for the Boolean algebra B4, viz.

Didier Gonze, Leo Lahti, Jeroen Raes & Karoline Faust

Gonze, D. et al. (2017) Multi-stability and the origin of microbial community types.  The ISME Journal (doi:10.1038/ismej.2017.60)

The study of host-associated microbial community composition has suggested the presence of alternative community types. We discuss three mechanisms that could explain these observations. The most commonly invoked mechanism links community types to a response to environmental change; alternatively, community types were shown to emerge from interactions between members of local communities sampled from a metacommunity. Here, we emphasize multi-stability as a third mechanism, giving rise to different community types in the same environmental conditions.

Joery Goossens et al.

Goossens, J. et al. (2017) No added diagnostic value of nonphosphorylated tau fraction (p-taurel) in CSF as a biomarker for differential dementia diagnosis. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 9:49

Background: The Alzheimer’s disease (AD) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers Aβ1–42, t-tau, and p-tau181 overlap with other diseases. New tau modifications or epitopes, such as the non-phosphorylated tau fraction (p-taurel), may improve differential dementia diagnosis. The goal of this study is to investigate if p-taurel can improve the diagnostic performance of the AD CSF biomarker panel for differential dementia diagnosis. 

Robert Hilbrands et al.

Hilbrands, R. et al. (2017) Pancreas and gallbladder agenesis in a newborn with semilobar holoprosencephaly, a case report. BMC Medical Genetics,  DOI 10.1186/s12881-017-0419-2.

Background: Pancreatic agenesis is an extremely rare cause of neonatal diabetes mellitus and has enabled the discovery of several key transcription factors essential for normal pancreas and beta cell development. 

Julie Jacobs at al.

Jacobs, J. at al. (2017) Preclinical data on the combination of cisplatin and anti-CD70 therapy in non-small cell lung cancer as an excellent match in the era of combination therapy. Oncotarget.

In contrast to the negligible expression of the immunomodulating protein CD70 in normal tissue, we have demonstrated constitutive overexpression of CD70 on tumor cells in a subset of primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) biopsies. This can be exploited by CD70-targeting antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC)-inducing antibodies. Early clinical trials of these antibodies have already shown promising results in CD70-positive malignancies. In this study, we explored the potential of cisplatin to induce CD70 expression in NSCLC.

Kobe Desender, Filip Van Opstal & Eva Van den Bussche

Desender, K. et al.  (2017) Subjective experience of difficulty depends on multiple cues. Sci. Rep. 7, 44222; doi: 10.1038/srep44222.

Human cognition is characterized by subjective experiences that go along with our actions, but the nature and stability of these experiences remain largely unclear. In the current report, the subjective experience of difficulty is studied and it is proposed that this experience is constructed by integrating information from multiple cues.

Marina Miscioscia, Adelaide Blavier, Paolo R. Pagone and Alessandra Simonelli

Miscioscia M et al.  (2017) The Desire of Parenthood: Intuitive Co-parental Behaviors and Quality of Couple Relationship among Italian and Belgian Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex CouplesFront. Psychol. 8:110. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00110

Studies that focused on family issues have allowed a great understanding of the aspects related to its subsystems, such as parenting desire and its expectations, couples’ satisfaction and quality of child’s outcomes. All these aspects are greatly interconnected and contribute to the creation of specific family dynamics, such as the quality of family interactions. The present study focuses on intuitive co-parental behaviors and the quality of couple relationship observed during the decision process (intention and desire) to be (or become) parents.

Youssef Sanhadji El Haddar, Sibel Cetik, Babak Bahrami, and Ramin Atash

El HaddarY.S., Cetik S., Bahrami, B., and Atash R. (2016) A Comparative Study of Microleakage on Dental Surfaces Bonded with Three Self-Etch Adhesive Systems Treated with the Er:YAG Laser and Bur, BioMed Research International, vol. 2016, Article ID 2509757, 6 pages, doi:10.1155/2016/2509757

This study sought to compare the microleakage of three adhesive systems in the context of Erbium-YAG laser and diamond bur cavity procedures. Cavities were restored with composite resin.

Benoit Van Driessche et al.

Van Driessche, B. et al. (2016) Characterization of new RNA polymerase III and RNA polymerase II transcriptional promoters in the Bovine Leukemia Virus genome. Sci. Rep. 6, 31125.

Bovine leukemia virus latency is a viral strategy used to escape from the host immune system and contribute to tumor development. However, a highly expressed BLV micro-RNA cluster has been reported, suggesting that the BLV silencing is not complete. Here, we demonstrate the in vivo recruitment of RNA polymerase III to the BLV miRNA cluster both in BLV-latently infected cell lines and in ovine BLV-infected primary cells, through a canonical type 2 RNAPIII promoter.

Demonceau M. et al.

Demonceau, M. et al. (2016) Effects of 12 weeks of aerobic or strength training in addition to standard care in Parkinson's disease.  European Journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine

BACKGROUND: Physical exercises in addition to standard care (SC) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) are now common practice in many care units. However, exercises can cover a wide range of interventions, and the specific effects of different interventions still deserve to be further investigated.
AIM: To compare the effects of 12 weeks of two different types of physical exercises with SC in patients suffering from PD.
DESIGN: Pseudo-randomized controlled trial.
SETTING: University laboratory for outcomes, University Hospital Centre for interventions.

Susanne Lub, Anke Maes, Ken Maes, Kim De Veirman, Elke De Bruyne, Eline Menu, Karel Fostier, Alboukadel Kassambara, Jérôme Moreaux, Dirk Hose, Xavier Leleu, Randall W. King, Karin Vanderkerken, Els Van Valckenborgh

Lub, S. et al. (2016) Inhibiting the anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome induces a metaphase arrest and cell death in multiple myeloma cells, Oncotarget, vol. 7, n° 4.

The anaphase promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is an ubiquitin ligase involved in cell cycle. During the metaphase-anaphase transition the APC/C is activated by Cdc20. The aim of this study is to elucidate the importance and therapeutic potential of APC/C and its co-activator Cdc20 in multiple myeloma (MM). Gene expression analysis revealed that Cdc20 was expressed at higher levels in gene expression-based high-risk MM patients. Moreover, high Cdc20 expression correlated with poor prognosis.

Viviana Otero, Katrien Quisthoudt, Nico Koedam and Farid Dahdouh-Guebas

Otero, V.; Quisthoudt, K.; Koedam, N.; Dahdouh-Guebas, F. (2016) Mangroves at Their Limits: Detection and Area Estimation of Mangroves along the Sahara Desert CoastRemote Sensing, 8, 512.

The northernmost and most arid mangrove ecosystem ofWest Africa is found in Mauritania, in the Parc National du Banc d’Arguin (PNBA). The existing global and regional maps of Mauritania’s mangroves have little detail, and available estimates of the mangrove area differ among studies. We assessed the use of automated Remote Sensing classification techniques to calculate the extent and map the distribution of the mangrove patches located at Cap Timiris, PNBA, using QuickBird and GeoEye imagery.

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