Evidence for a compulsive-like behavior in rats exposed to alternate access to highly preferred palatable food.

Converging evidence suggests that recurrent excessive calorie restriction causes binge eating by promoting behavioral disinhibition and overeating. This interpretation suggests that cognitive adaptations may surpass physiological regulations of metabolic needs after recurrent cycles of dieting and binging. Intermittent access to palatable food has long been studied in rats, but the consequences of such diet cycling procedures on the cognitive control of food seeking remain unclear. Female Wistar rats were divided in two groups matched for food intake and body weight. One group received standard chow pellets 7 days/week, whereas the second group was given chow pellets for 5 days and palatable food for 2 days over seven consecutive weeks. Rats were also trained for operant conditioning. Intermittent access to palatable food elicited binging behavior and reduced intake of normal food. Rats with intermittent access to palatable food failed to exhibit anxiety-like behaviors in the elevated plus maze, but displayed reduced locomotor activity in the open field and developed a blunted corticosterone response following an acute stress across the diet procedure. Trained under a progressive ratio schedule, both groups exhibited the same motivation for sweetened food pellets. However, in contrast to controls, rats with a history of dieting and binging exhibited a persistent compulsive-like behavior when access to preferred pellets was paired with mild electrical foot shock punishments. These results highlight the intricate development of anxiety-like disorders and cognitive deficits leading to a loss of control over preferred food intake after repetitive cycles of intermittent access to palatable food.

The young infant's triangular communication in the family : access to threesome intersubjectivity ? Conceptual considerations and case illustrations

During these last decades, the notion of primary intersubjectivity has gained acceptance among developmentalists and clinicians. But a new challenge is put out to our models by recent findings on the triangular competence of the very young infant, or her capacity to simultaneously communicate with two partners at a time. This discovery raises the question of a collective form of intersubjectivity. Findings on the triangular competence of the 3- to 4-month-old interactions with father and mother in different contexts of the Lausanne trilogue play situation are reviewed and illustrated, with a view to examine whether it is based on a dyadic or triangular program and whether conditions for a threesome form of primary intersubjectivity are fulfilled. The discussion focuses on the revisions of the theory of intersubjectivity, of developmental theory, and of clinical practice these findings call for, pointing toward a three -person psychology too.

Insight into oversight : how information commissioners contribute to the achievement of access-to-information policy objectives

This thesis examines how oversight bodies, as part of an ATI policy, contribute to the achievement of the policy's objectives. The aim of the thesis is to see how oversight bodies and the work they do affects the implementation of their respective ATI policies and thereby contributes to the objectives of those policies using a comparative case study approach. The thesis investigates how federal/central government level information commissioners in four jurisdictions - Germany, India, Scotland, and Switzerland - enforce their respective ATI policies, which tasks they carry out in addition to their enforcement duties, the challenges they face in their work and the ways they overcome these. Qualitative data were gathered from primary and secondary documents as well as in 37 semi-structured interviews with staff of the commissioners' offices, administrative officials whose job entails complying with ATI, people who have made ATI requests and appealed to their respective oversight body, and external experts who have studied ATI implementation in their particular jurisdiction. The thesis finds that while the aspect of an oversight body's formal independence that has the greatest impact on its work is resource control and that although the powers granted by law set the framework for ensuring that the administration is properly complying with the policy, the commissioner's leadership style - a component of informal independence - has more influence than formal attributes of independence in setting out how resources are obtained and used as well as how staff set priorities and utilize the powers they are granted by law. The conclusion, therefore, is that an ATI oversight body's ability to contribute to the achievement of the policy's objectives is a function of three main factors: a. commissioner's leadership style; b. adequacy of resources and degree of control the organization has over them; c. powers and the exercise of discretion in using them. In effect, the thesis argues that it is difficult to pinpoint the value of the formal powers set out for the oversight body in the ATI law, and that their decisions on whether and how to use them are more important than the presumed strength of the powers. It also claims that the choices made by the commissioners and their staff regarding priorities and use of powers are determined to a large extent by the adequacy of resources and the degree of control the organization has over those resources. In turn, how the head of the organization leads and manages the oversight body is crucial to both the adequacy of the organization's resources and the decisions made about the use of powers. Together, these three factors have a significant impact on the body's effectiveness in contributing to ATI objectives.

Accès aux soins et maintien dans la communauté des personnes difficiles à engager dans un traitement psychiatrique [Access to care and maintenance in the community of persons who are difficult to engage in psychiatric treatment]

Psychotic patients to not access easily to psychiatric care. First, psychotic disorders are difficult to identify among a great number of non psychotic depressive and anxious disorders. Second, inpatient care has shortened and now focus on acute care rather than long stay. For some psychotic patients, desinstitutionalization means exclusion and marginalization. Intensive case management can answer these needs in collaboration with relatives and professionals of patient's social network. Results and care's steps of intensive case management as practiced in Lausanne are described and illustrated with cases vignettes.

Brain injury program to ensure greater access to community-based services, July 2006

More than 2,200 Iowans each year experience a traumatic brain injury that requires hospitalization. Of those, more than 750 will experience long-term disability as a result. According to a 2000 CDC report, there are an estimated 50,000 such individuals living in Iowa – a number similar to the population of Ames.

Brain injury program to ensure greater access to community-based services, July 2006

More than 2,200 Iowans each year experience a traumatic brain injury that requires hospitalization. Of those, more than 750 will experience long-term disability as a result. According to a 2000 CDC report, there are an estimated 50,000 such individuals living in Iowa – a number similar to the population of Ames.

Brain injury program to ensure greater access to community-based services, July 11, 2006

More than 2,200 Iowans each year experience a traumatic brain injury that requires hospitalization. Of those, more than 750 will experience long-term disability as a result. According to a 2000 CDC report, there are an estimated 50,000 such individuals living in Iowa – a number similar to the population of Ames. As part of an enterprise-wide effort to ensure that all Iowans, including those with brain injuries, have access to quality healthcare, Governor Tom Vilsack signed the Brain Injury Services program bill on May 23. The bill will allow the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) to implement a one-of-a-kind program to help those with brain injuries and their families in navigating and maximizing the Iowa community-based service system.

Short term behavioural consequences of denied access to environmental facilities in milk

Selostus: Eräiden ympäristövirikkeiden saatavuuden estämisen välittömät vaikutukset tarhaminkin käyttäytymiseen

Access to Justice och domstolarnas roll i framtiden

Kirjoitus perustuu Suomalaisen Lakimiesyhdistyksen Lakimiespäivillä 5.10.2002 pidettyyn esitykseen

Standardized enforcement: Access to justice vs. contractual innovation

We model the effect of contract standardization on the development of markets andthe law. In a setting in which biased judges can distort contract enforcement, we findthat the introduction of a standard contract reduces enforcement distortions relative toreliance on precedents, exerting two effects: i) it statically expands the volume of trade,but ii) it crowds out the use of open-ended contracts, hindering legal evolution. We shedlight on the large-scale commercial codification undertaken in the nineteenth centuryin many countries (even common-law ones) during a period of booming commerce andlong-distance trade.

Less is more ? The Commission proposal on access to EU documents and the proper limits of transparency

Transparency is now seen as a key tool of democratic governance. The European Union's commitment to transparency is now at the centre of a crucial debate between the Commission and the Parliament on the future of citizen's right of access to information. This article presents the main characteristics of the current regime and questions the pertinence of the proposed changes in light of the international drive at modernising access to information laws and the attempt at identifying the ̳proper limits of transparency'. The questions raised range from the identification of what can be accessed to the definition of exemption and the protection of competing interests.