Pendrin: the thyrocyte apical membrane iodide transporter?

In the thyroid, the transport of iodide from the extracellular space to the follicular lumen requires two steps: the transport in the cell at the basal side and in the lumen at the apical side. The first step is mediated by the Na(+)/I(-) symporter (NIS). In most reviews and textbooks, the second step is presented as mediated by pendrin. In this review, we analyze this assumption. There are several arguments supporting the concept that indeed pendrin plays an important role in thyroid physiology. However, biochemical, clinical and histological data on the thyroid of a patient with Pendred syndrome do not suggest an essential role in iodide transport, which is corroborated by the lack of a thyroid phenotype in pendrin knockout mice. Experiments in vivo and in vitro on polarized and unpolarized cells show that iodide is transported transport of iodide at the apex of the thyroid cell. Moreover, ectopic expression of pendrin in transfected non-thyroid cells is capable of mediating iodide efflux. It is concluded that pendrin may participate in the iodide efflux into thyroid lumen but not as the unique transporter. Moreover, another role of pendrin in mediating Cl(-)/HCO(3)(-) exchange and controlling luminal pH is suggested.

Les derniers écueils vers la parité politique en Belgique: Une analyse des élections régionales de 2004

In Belgium, gender-parity has been compulsory for all party lists (in local, regional, federal and European elections) for several years. As a result, the proportion of women has risen from a fourth up to a third of the deputies. Yet, strict parity is still far from realised. This article seeks to establish what causes this glass ceiling, namely the parties' reluctance to place female candidates in the top positions or even as the front-runner. In a proportional representation system with half-open lists, and especially when the constituencies are small, this automatically leads to a smaller proportion of women among the elected deputies. One important reason for the parties' reluctance to rank female candidates higher is their assumption that women are less effective as "election locomotives" than men. However, the analysis of the Belgian election results makes clear that this is not the case. Female candidates in top positions are as successful as their male counterparts. © (2008) Swiss Political Science Review.

The Harsh Reality of Pursuing Innovations: Emerging Market Perspectives

This short conference paper serves as a distillation of a keynote address delivered at the the Second National Conference on Management and Higher Education Trends & Strategies for Management & Administration hosted by Bangkok-based Stamford International University (Thailand) on November 1, 2014.Innovation is discussed as the heart of entrepreneurial processes occurring in today's capitalist economic systems, including transition economies like China and Vietnam, which underscores economic competitiveness of firms and economies. But the innovation effort and process also face dilemma of "entrepreneurial curse of innovation". Advantages and disadvantages are weighed for a more balanced view, especially in the context of outnumbering SMEs and given existence of pitfalls and traps along the innovation path of development. Toward the end, the value of the market is once again stressed amid the concern of subjective assumption and illusion about availability of market opportunities in the mind of innovators, which may contrast totally with the dismal outcome the actual market realities may show ex post.

A New Approach to Media Cluster Research: Bringing the Human Factor back into Scope

This paper is part of a collaborative project being undertaken by the three leading universities of Brussels, VUB, ULB and USL-B supported by Innnoviris. The project called Media Clusters Brussels - MCB - started in October 2014 with the goal to analyze the development of a Media Park around the two public broadcasters at the site of Reyers in Brussels being host of a media cluster in the capital city. Not only policymakers but also many authors recognized in the last decade that the media industry is characterized from a geographical point of view by a heavy concentration to a limited number of large cities, where media clusters have emerged (Karlsson & Picard, 2011). The common assumption about media clusters is that locating inside a regional agglomeration of related actors brings advantages for these firms. Especially, the interrelations and interactions between the actors on a social level matter for the shape and efficiency of the agglomerations (Picard, 2008). However, even though the importance of the actors and their interrelations has been a common assumption, many authors solely focus on the macro-economical aspects of the clusters. Within this paper, we propose to realize a socio-economical analysis of media clusters to make informed decisions in the development and so, bring the social (human) factor back into scope. Therefore, this article focuses on the development of a novel valuable framework, the so-called 7P framework with a multilevel and interdisciplinary approach, which includes three aspects, which have been identified as emerging success-factors of media clusters: partnerships, (media) professionals and positive spillovers.