European Integration Studies through Oral History and Multimedia Research - Innovative methodologie and new content creation

Presentation (2022, July 11)

Presentation of three study cases: 1.Oral Historyand MultimediaResearch–Project ‘’Pierre Werner and Europe’’ (2011-2017) 2.Collaborative Oral History Project –‘’Brexit Reality Portraits’’ (2021-2022) 3 ... [more ▼]

Presentation of three study cases: 1.Oral Historyand MultimediaResearch–Project ‘’Pierre Werner and Europe’’ (2011-2017) 2.Collaborative Oral History Project –‘’Brexit Reality Portraits’’ (2021-2022) 3.Oral History Research Project –‘’The role of women in European and international relations in Luxembourg (after the Second World War)’’ (2022-2025) [less ▲]

Creatures of reason: the imminence of constitutional courts in liberal democracies

Presentation (2022, July 11)

GRN Mutations Are Associated with Lewy Body Dementia

in Movement Disorders (2022)

ABSTRACT Background Loss-of-function mutations in GRN are a cause of familial frontotemporal dementia, and common variants within the gene have been associated with an increased risk of developing ... [more ▼]

ABSTRACT Background Loss-of-function mutations in GRN are a cause of familial frontotemporal dementia, and common variants within the gene have been associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Although TDP-43-positive inclusions are characteristic of GRN-related neurodegeneration, Lewy body copathology has also been observed in many GRN mutation carriers. Objective The objective of this study was to assess a Lewy body dementia (LBD) case–control cohort for pathogenic variants in GRN and to test whether there is an enrichment of damaging mutations among patients with LBD. Methods We analyzed whole-genome sequencing data generated for 2591 European-ancestry LBD cases and 4032 neurologically healthy control subjects to identify disease-causing mutations in GRN. Results We identified six heterozygous exonic GRN mutations in seven study participants (cases: n = 6; control subjects: n = 1). Each variant was predicted to be pathogenic or likely pathogenic. We found significant enrichment of GRN loss-of-function mutations in patients with LBD compared with control subjects (Optimized Sequence Kernel Association Test P = 0.0162). Immunohistochemistry in three definite LBD cases demonstrated Lewy body pathology and TDP-43-positive neuronal inclusions. Conclusions Our findings suggest that deleterious GRN mutations are a rare cause of familial LBD. © 2022 International Parkinson Movement Disorder Society. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA. [less ▲]

Le parcours de vie entre défense sociale et maladie mentale de Maxence C. Etude d’un cas de dégénéré délinquant dans la Belgique du XXème siècle

Scientific Conference (2022, July 08)

« L’intelligence et le sens moral d’un enfant de 8 ans », c’est par ces mots qu’en août 1933, le médecin-chef de l’Etablissement de Défense Sociale de Tournai qualifie l’état psychique de Maxence C., un ... [more ▼]

« L’intelligence et le sens moral d’un enfant de 8 ans », c’est par ces mots qu’en août 1933, le médecin-chef de l’Etablissement de Défense Sociale de Tournai qualifie l’état psychique de Maxence C., un débile mental (sic) reconnu coupable du chef de vol et d’escroquerie mais jugé incapable du contrôle de ses actions. A l’aube de ses 27 ans, ce « demi-fou » enchaîne depuis vingt ans les séjours en institution. Entre internats médico-pédagogiques, asiles d’aliénés et établissements de défense sociale, le parcours de vie de Maxence C. est jalonné de multiples interactions avec les autorités judiciaires, médicales et administratives qui tantôt le condamne à l’incarcération, tantôt favorise sa réhabilitation au sein de la société. Arrimé à cette identité de marginal dans un « monde faux et crapuleux » selon ses dires, Maxence C. peine à acquérir une pleine autonomie synonyme de liberté (re)trouvée. Travail, suivi médical, tutelle morale et accompagnement familial semblent toujours vains. Devenu sexagénaire, il demeure ainsi un « danger social » balloté entre asiles-prisons et prisons-asiles aux quatre coins du royaume. A travers l’examen minutieux d’un dossier de plusieurs centaines de pages élaboré par la Commission de défense sociale de Forest, cette communication propose de mettre en lumière la complexité de la trajectoire de vie d’un individu à la fois criminel et aliéné, visé par un dispositif hybride de sécurité et de soins. Si cette étude considère la perspective du patient à travers une histoire par le bas, elle dépasse celle-ci pour entrouvrir la possibilité d’un récit polyphonique sur des temps longs qui confronte de multiples voix (celle de l’administration et de la police, celle des médecins et des magistrats, celle du malade et de ses proches). Nourrit par les enseignements de la micro-histoire et de l’étude de cas dans la recherche historique, cette contribution offre un regard original sur l’évolution des normes qui conditionnent un mouvement vers ou, au contraire, hors de l’institution. Les phases d’entrée et de sortie des établissements sont en effet des moments charnières de l’affirmation du pouvoir des acteurs. Dès lors, quels sont les motifs à une incarcération et quelles sont les conditions à un élargissement ? Comment s’organise la prise de la décision entre les différents intervenants ? Et qui en assure le contrôle et le suivi ? Enfin, quelles sont les marges de manœuvre et les capacités d’actions du « malade » face à eux ? Cette étude d’une trajectoire de vie individuelle constitue également une opportunité de s’interroger sur l’évolution des systèmes de prise en charge des criminels malades mentaux dans le royaume au XXème siècle. Ainsi durant l’existence de Maxence C. se créent de nouvelles structures psychiatriques (dispensaires d’hygiène mentale, annexes psychiatriques dans les prisons et les hôpitaux généraux, établissements de défense sociale, etc.) se construisent des nouvelles politiques sociales (INAMI, CPAS, mutualités, etc.), s’élaborent des nouvelles législations (loi relative à la défense sociale, au handicap, à la maladie mentale), s’affirment de nouveaux métiers de la santé mentale (psychologue, infirmière psychiatrique, assistants sociaux, etc.), s’établissent de nouveaux rapports à la folie, au handicap et à la criminalité. [less ▲]

The European Public Prosecutor Office and White-Collar Crimes

Scientific Conference (2022, July 08)

Die Großregion in zwei Nachkriegszeiten. Grenzgeschichtliche Perspektiven auf Kontinuitäten und Brüche

Conference given outside the academic context (2022)

Die "sorties de guerre" 1918 und 1945 haben die heutige Großregion - wie viele andere europäische Grenzregionen - stark geprägt. Offensichtlichster Ausdruck waren diverse Verschiebungen von staatlichen ... [more ▼]

Die "sorties de guerre" 1918 und 1945 haben die heutige Großregion - wie viele andere europäische Grenzregionen - stark geprägt. Offensichtlichster Ausdruck waren diverse Verschiebungen von staatlichen Grenzen mit ihren politischen, kulturellen, sozialen und ökonomischen Folgen. Die Beziehungen zwischen Staaten, aber auch zwischen Bewohnern mussten neu konfiguriert werden. In der historischen Analyse treten neben diesen Brüchen jedoch auch Kontinuitäten auf. Der Vortrag geht dieser Thematik aus der Sicht der Grenzgeschichte nach und fragt nach der sozialen Funktion von Grenzen in der Großregion nach den beiden Weltkriegen. [less ▲]

Rezension zu Jonas Springer, Die Bundeswehr und die Belgischen Streikräfte in Deutschland

in Wissenschaftlicher Literaturanzeiger (2022), 61(2),

University students’ friendship networks: Ambivalence and the role of attachment and personality

in Trends in Psychology (2022), online first

Given the importance of friendships throughout the life span and the possible experience of ambivalence within these relationships, the present study aims at examining the role that attachment and ... [more ▼]

Given the importance of friendships throughout the life span and the possible experience of ambivalence within these relationships, the present study aims at examining the role that attachment and personality dimensions may play in this experience. University students (N = 87) completed an online survey, including the Big Five Inventory-10 (BFI-10), the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), as well as a two-item scale and an emotion checklist as two measures of ambivalence towards their friends. The correlation analysis revealed significant correlations between the ambivalence measures and secure attachment, fearful attachment, neuroticism, and agreeableness. A subsequent regression analysis demonstrated that fearful attachment, neuroticism, agreeableness, and gender can explain a considerable amount of variation in the degree of ambivalence. The results indicate that both certain attachment dimensions and certain personality dimensions predict the experience of ambivalence, although their importance may vary depending on the object of ambivalence. [less ▲]

Energy Efficiency Optimization for Backscatter Enhanced NOMA Cooperative V2X Communications under Imperfect CSI

in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (2022)

Automotive-Industry 5.0 will use beyond fifth-generation (B5G) technologies to provide robust, computationally intelligent, and energy-efficient data sharing among various onboard sensors, vehicles, and ... [more ▼]

Automotive-Industry 5.0 will use beyond fifth-generation (B5G) technologies to provide robust, computationally intelligent, and energy-efficient data sharing among various onboard sensors, vehicles, and other devices. Recently, ambient backscatter communications (AmBC) have gained significant interest in the research community for providing battery-free communications. AmBC can modulate useful data and reflect it towards near devices using the energy and frequency of existing RF signals. However, obtaining channel state information (CSI) for AmBC systems would be very challenging due to no pilot sequences and limited power. As one of the latest members of multiple access technology, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has emerged as a promising solution for connecting large-scale devices over the same spectral resources in B5G wireless networks. Under imperfect CSI, this paper provides a new optimization framework for energy-efficient transmission in AmBC enhanced NOMA cooperative vehicle-to-everything (V2X) networks. We simultaneously minimize the total transmit power of the V2X network by optimizing the power allocation at BS and reflection coefficient at backscatter sensors while guaranteeing the individual quality of services. The problem of total power minimization is formulated as non-convex optimization and coupled on multiple variables, making it complex and challenging. Therefore, we first decouple the original problem into two sub-problems and convert the nonlinear rate constraints into linear constraints. Then, we adopt the iterative sub-gradient method to obtain an efficient solution. For comparison, we also present a conventional NOMA cooperative V2X network without AmBC. Simulation results show the benefits of our proposed AmBC enhanced NOMA cooperative V2X network in terms of total achievable energy efficiency. [less ▲]

Bachelor Study Programms of Psychology: Moving towards more culture-inclusive curricula

Scientific Conference (2022, July 07)

One facet of contemporary societies is their increasingly diverse composition. To what extent has this diversity entered the teaching of psychology to undergraduate students? The Bologna Process created ... [more ▼]

One facet of contemporary societies is their increasingly diverse composition. To what extent has this diversity entered the teaching of psychology to undergraduate students? The Bologna Process created the European Higher Education Area, defining qualifications and learning outcomes and making higher-education qualifications in Europe comparable. Study programs need to meet the standards and guidelines for the quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG 2015). In addition, national psychological associations such as the German Association for Psychology (DGPs) introduce a special catalogue of course content, study programs need to comply with to achieve quality control accreditation. The field is constantly expanding with pressure to include the latest developments, for example in the field of neuro-cognitive sciences. This makes for already very tight curricula – yet how can we enhance the awareness of and increase the competences in dealing with ethnic and cultural diversity in the next generation of psychology students? Possible avenues of building a culture-inclusive curriculum will be shown by building on the analysis of the cultural content of introductory psychology textbooks. An extensive analysis of the cultural content of introductory psychology textbooks has shown that it is possible to integrate cultural references into all topics taught in psychology. There are different ways to do so – options will be presented and discussed as well as examples of good practice provided. Importantly, teaching of culture is not relegated to specialized courses – cultural examples can be cited in any subfield or facet of psychology. In addition, some examples on how to include the cultural lens will be provided from the Bachelor of Psychology Program (BAP) taught at the University of Luxembourg. These examples are thought as impulses for a discussion towards more inclusive teaching of psychology in an increasingly diverse European cultural context. [less ▲]