Building Bridges, Paediatric Palliative Care in Belgium: A secondary data analysis of annual paediatric liaison team reports from 2010 to 2014.

in BMC palliative care (2018), 17(1), 77

BACKGROUND: Although continuity of care in paediatric palliative care (PPC) is considered to be an essential element of quality of care, it's implementation is challenging. In Belgium, five paediatric ... [more ▼]

BACKGROUND: Although continuity of care in paediatric palliative care (PPC) is considered to be an essential element of quality of care, it's implementation is challenging. In Belgium, five paediatric liaison teams (PLTs) deliver palliative care. A Royal Decree issued in 2010 provides the legal framework that defines the PLTs' missions, as ensuring continuity of curative and palliative care between the hospital and home for children diagnosed with life-limiting conditions. This national study describes how PLTs ensure continuity of care by describing their activities and the characteristics of the children they cared for from 2010 to 2014. METHODS: Thematic analysis of open-ended questions was performed and descriptive statistics of aggregated data issued from annual reports, collected by the Belgian Ministry of Public Health through the Cancer Plan was used. A review panel of PLT members discussed the results and contributed to their interpretation. RESULTS: Between 2010 and 2014, 3607 children and young adults (0-21 years) were cared for by the 5 Belgian PLTs (mean of 721/per year). Of these children, 50% were diagnosed with an oncological disease, 27% with a neurological or metabolic disease. Four hundred and twenty eight (428) children had died. For 51% of them, death took place at home. PLT activities include coordination; communication; curative and palliative care; education; research and fundraising. Different perceptions of what constitutes a palliative stage, heterogeneity in reporting diagnosis and the current lack of specific valid indicators to report PPC activities were found. CONCLUSION: PLTs are offering highly individualised, flexible and integrated care from diagnosis to bereavement in all care settings. Improvements in data registration and implementation of outcome measures are foreseen. [less ▲]

German early career scholars in Gender Studies: Do networks matter?

in Journal of Applied Social Theory (2018)

Next Generation Cryptographic Ransomware

in Proceedings of the Secure IT Systems (2018)

We are assisting at an evolution in the ecosystem of cryptoware - the malware that encrypts files and makes them unavailable unless the victim pays up. New variants are taking the place once dominated by ... [more ▼]

We are assisting at an evolution in the ecosystem of cryptoware - the malware that encrypts files and makes them unavailable unless the victim pays up. New variants are taking the place once dominated by older versions; incident reports suggest that forthcoming ransomware will be more sophisticated, disruptive, and targeted. Can we anticipate how such future generations of ransomware will work in order to start planning on how to stop them? We argue that among them there will be some which will try to defeat current anti-ransomware; thus, we can speculate over their working principle by studying the weak points in the strategies that seven of the most advanced anti-ransomware are currently implementing. We support our speculations with experiments, proving at the same time that those weak points are in fact vulnerabilities and that the future ransomware that we have imagined can be effective. [less ▲]

Provable Security of (Tweakable) Block Ciphers Based on Substitution-Permutation Networks

in Provable Security of (Tweakable) Block Ciphers Based on Substitution-Permutation Networks (2018)

Substitution-Permutation Networks (SPNs) refer to a family of constructions which build a wn-bit block cipher from n-bit public permutations (often called S-boxes), which alternate keyless and “local” ... [more ▼]

Substitution-Permutation Networks (SPNs) refer to a family of constructions which build a wn-bit block cipher from n-bit public permutations (often called S-boxes), which alternate keyless and “local” substitution steps utilizing such S-boxes, with keyed and “global” permu- tation steps which are non-cryptographic. Many widely deployed block ciphers are constructed based on the SPNs, but there are essentially no provable-security results about SPNs. In this work, we initiate a comprehensive study of the provable security of SPNs as (possibly tweakable) wn-bit block ciphers, when the underlying n-bit permutation is modeled as a public random permutation. When the permutation step is linear (which is the case for most existing designs), we show that 3 SPN rounds are necessary and sufficient for security. On the other hand, even 1-round SPNs can be secure when non-linearity is allowed. Moreover, 2-round non-linear SPNs can achieve “beyond- birthday” (up to 2 2n/3 adversarial queries) security, and, as the number of non-linear rounds increases, our bounds are meaningful for the number of queries approaching 2 n . Finally, our non-linear SPNs can be made tweakable by incorporating the tweak into the permutation layer, and provide good multi-user security. As an application, our construction can turn two public n-bit permuta- tions (or fixed-key block ciphers) into a tweakable block cipher working on wn-bit inputs, 6n-bit key and an n-bit tweak (for any w ≥ 2); the tweakable block cipher provides security up to 2 2n/3 adversarial queries in the random permutation model, while only requiring w calls to each permutation, and 3w field multiplications for each wn-bit input. [less ▲]

Know Your Preferences: Self-Regulation as Need-Congruent Goal Selection

in REVIEW OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY (2018), 22(4), 437-451

Theory and research on self-regulation is dominated by a social-cognitive perspective that places an emphasis on postdecisional (i.e., volitional) control processes of goal-maintenance in response to dual ... [more ▼]

Theory and research on self-regulation is dominated by a social-cognitive perspective that places an emphasis on postdecisional (i.e., volitional) control processes of goal-maintenance in response to dual-motive conflict. In the current contribution, we focus on research on self-regulation that acknowledges the affective fundamentals of motivated action, and we highlight processes of goal selection as vital parts of self-regulation. From our perspective of motivational competence, affective and cognitive processes work together rather than oppose each other in self-regulation, rendering effortless rather than effortful goal pursuit as the hallmark of efficient human action. A precondition for such motive- and self-congruent goal pursuits is that individuals have insight into their basic preferences and (can) act accordingly. Therefore, we address capacities, such as mindfulness, which may take effect in predecisional (i.e., motivational) action phases, thereby determining all subsequent action processes. [less ▲]

Georges Kaeckenbeeck (1892–1973)

in Galerie des internationalistes francophones (2018)

This biographical sketch presents the life and work of Georges Kaeckenbeeck, a Belgian international lawyer who, despite also producing highly regarded scholarly work, was mostly active as a diplomat, an ... [more ▼]

This biographical sketch presents the life and work of Georges Kaeckenbeeck, a Belgian international lawyer who, despite also producing highly regarded scholarly work, was mostly active as a diplomat, an international judge and civil servant between the 1910s and the 1960s. [less ▲]

Space Mining And The Protection Of Extra-terrestrial Environment In The Light Of Article IX Of The Outer Space Treaty

in Proceedings of the 78th Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space (2018)

Selbstakzeptanz: Die Rational-Emotive Verhaltenstherapie nach Albert Ellis

Book published by Klett-Cotta (2018)

Das Buch führt in die Grundlagen der REVT ein und skizziert die Weiterentwicklung der erfolgreichen Methode bis heute. Dem Überblick folgt der Einblick in die konkrete therapeutische Arbeit von Albert ... [more ▼]

Das Buch führt in die Grundlagen der REVT ein und skizziert die Weiterentwicklung der erfolgreichen Methode bis heute. Dem Überblick folgt der Einblick in die konkrete therapeutische Arbeit von Albert Ellis: Dieser bevorzugte effektive, herausfordernde Interventionen, die Veränderungen »kurz und wirksam« anstoßen können. In einem Therapieprotokoll wird deutlich, dass herausfordernde, manchmal provozierende Worte sehr gut zusammengehen mit einer tief humanistischen und zugewandten therapeutischen Grundhaltung. [less ▲]

Recensie van: Anne Morelli (red.), "Le Bruxelles des révolutionnaires, de 1830 à nos jours" & Joseph Van Wassenhove, "Bruxelles: la vie quotidienne au XIXe siècle par les écrivains de l’époque"

in Contemporanea (2018), (1),

The impact of self-control cues on subsequent monetary risk-taking.

in Journal of behavioral addictions (2018), 7(4), 1044-1055

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The "process-model" of self-control proposes that the ego-depletion effect is better explained by a switch between interest in "have-to" labor and cognitive "want-to" leisure, rather ... [more ▼]

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The "process-model" of self-control proposes that the ego-depletion effect is better explained by a switch between interest in "have-to" labor and cognitive "want-to" leisure, rather than being mainly due to a decrease in cognitive resources, as advanced by the "strength-model" of self-control. However, it is currently difficult to disentangle the "process-model" from the "strength-model" of self-control. Here, we employed a stepwise approach, featuring three studies, for testing the process model of self-control. METHODS: In Study 1, we created a list of 30 self-control events for characterizing "have-to" conducts in the daily life. In Study 2, mental visualization of effortful self-control events ("have-to") and monetary risk-taking ("want-to") were employed for testing the strength-model of self-control. In Study 3, to test the process-model of self-control, participants were simply required to read self-control (or neutral) sentences. RESULTS: Study 1 provided evidence regarding external validly for the list of self-control events. Study 2 showed that mental visualization of effortful self-control events increases subsequent monetary risk-taking. Study 3 highlighted that the brief apparition of a self-control-related sentence was sufficient for increasing risk-taking. These patterns were evidenced in the trial with the less advantageous gain/loss ratio. DISCUSSION: Altogether these findings support the process-model of self-control in showing that triggering the semantic content of a "have-to" conduct, without its actual execution, is sufficient for modulating subsequent "want-to" activity. CONCLUSION: These findings could contribute to advancing current knowledge on how the high availability of ready-to-consume rewards in modern environments is redefining humans' self-control ability. [less ▲]