Social separation and diazepam withdrawal increase anxiety in the elevated plus-maze and serotonin turnover in the median raphe and hippocampus

The present work aimed to evaluate the effects of social separation for 14 days (chronic stress) and of withdrawal from a 14-day treatment with diazepam (acute stress) on the exploratory behaviour of male rats in the elevated plus-maze and on serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) turnover in different brain structures. Social separation had an anxiogenic effect, evidenced by fewer entries into, and less time spent on the open arms of the elevated plus-maze. Separation also selectively increased 5-hydroxytryptamine turnover in the hippocampus and median raphe nucleus. Diazepam withdrawal had a similar anxiogenic effect in grouped animals and increased 5-hydroxytryptamine turnover in the same brain structures. Chronic treatment with imipramine during the 14 days of separation prevented the behavioural and neurochemical changes caused by social separation. It is suggested that the increase in anxiety determined by both acute and chronic stress is mediated by the activation of the median raphe nucleus-hippocampal 5-hydroxytryptamine pathway.

Competing notions of social justice and contradictions in special education reform

In the past three decades, special education has been subjected to extensive critique and reform of practices. These critiques have been based on notions of social justice and equity. However, the field has suffered from inadequate attention to assumptions about social justice. Social justice is essentially a contested concept. Rather than representing a unitary and universally shared concept, social justice has variable meanings. Differing views of social justice can be seen to underlie apparent contradictions in continuing practice in response to pressures for reform. Reforms predicated on individual rights have been undermined by deep commitments to meritocratic practices in U.S. schools. Reforms based on more communitarian principles, however, ignore the need for structure and the tendency for communal values to marginalize people with disabilities. Special education reform today requires a different basis in a relational definition of the self, structures to support the qualities of relationships, and a belief in the mutability of social justice.

Response to AIDS in Brazil: contributions of social movements and the sanitary reform

This paper briefly outlines how the political scenario and the mobilization of different actors have contributed to the construction of a public health policy in response to the AIDS epidemics in Brazil. Three factors are presented and discussed: the political context of the 1980s, characterized by redemocratization, growth of social movements, and consolidation of the Brazilian health care reform; the socio-cultural context of the 1970s and 1980s, characterized by achievement of individual freedom, which was key to the organization of the AIDS movement; and finally the actions carried out in the international scenario to support the sustainability of the Brazilian domestic policy and the reinforcement of a global response to face the epidemics in lower-middle income economies.