Objectives: Childhood cancer is a life-threatening disease that poses significant challenges to the life of the diagnosed child and his/her family members. Based on the ABCX-model, the aim of the current study was to explore the association between family functioning, cancer appraisal and the individual adjustment of patients, parents and siblings. Method: Participants were 60 children with leukemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 172 parents and 78 siblings (115 families). Time since diagnosis varied from zero to 33 months. Patients, parents and siblings (...) completed the Family Environment Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, Situation-Specific Emotional Reactions Questionnaire and Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory/Maudsley Marital Questionnaire. Results: Family functioning and the appraisal of the cancer diagnosis proved to be related to patients’, parents’ and siblings’ cancer-related emotions and quality of life post-diagnosis. In addition, family members differed in their perception of some family functioning domains, the appraisal of the cancer diagnosis, positive feelings and quality of life. Discussion: Our findings led to the conclusion that family functioning and the appraisal of the cancer diagnosis are important for the individual adjustment of patients, parents and siblings when facing a diagnosis of cancer in the child. Differences across members within one family speak to the need of screening all family members and intervening at the level of the family unit. (shrink)

La kairologie, telle que la cerne Thomas Vercruysse, est une attitude de pensée qui privilégie la circonstance plutôt que l'essence, la métamorphose plutôt que la substance. Ce livre montre comment la saisie de la circonstance et de ses chances réclame la labilité de la métamorphose : saisir l'occasion, profiter des circonstances, c'est ne pas rater une seule occasion de se métamorphoser, de suivre l'air du temps que l'on respire, qui nous modifie et que l'on modifie. La kairologie pourrait bien (...) servir la cause des sciences humaines dans la mesure même où elle permet de repenser la cause dans les sciences humaines. Penser en termes de kairos, c'est refuser le déterminisme causal, peu susceptible d'éclairer les phénomènes humains et biologiques - leur créativité, leur imprévisibilité, leur inventivité."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Personnel management in localgovernment in Flanders bas undergone some major reforms during recent years. We examine the purposes and the extent of these reforms. Also, the new personnel management in Flemish local government is evaluated in terms of flexibility. The Flemish civil service can be considered as an Internal Labour Market. The rigidity which characterises the Internal Labour Market in local government in Flanders is shown by the fact that local government lacks discretion in elaborating the personnel statute, which still (...) constitutes the basis of personnel management. However, the thesis that the public sector employment policy is too rigid has to be nuanced. The civil service is familiar with irregular forms ofemployment. Infact, in Flemish local government only half of all personnel are employed according to a statute.Despite some constraints on the development of more flexible personnel policies, it is still possible to find opportunities which provide hope for the development of new and modern personnel management strategies in local government. (shrink)

In this contribution, we shall examine how Valéry leaves Descartes, and the paradigm of sight, in favor of the dancer Athiktè, typical of the paradigm of hearing and touch. If Descartes offers the pattern of an analytic mapping, that method reveals itself irrelevant to take into account what Valéry calls the C.E.M (Corps Esprit Monde). On the other side, a dancer, like Athiktè appears as the model of poiesis, showing the natura naturans in progress.