Obesity is associated with insufficient behavioral adaptation

Obesity is one of the major health concerns nowadays according to the World Health Organisation (WHO global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2010). Thus, there is an urgent need for understanding obesity-associated alterations in food-related and general cognition and their underlying structural and functional correlates within the central nervous system (CNS). Neuroscientific research of the past decade has mainly focussed on obesity-related differences within homeostatic and hedonic processing of food stimuli. Therein, alterations during anticipation and consumption of food-reward stimuli in obese compared with lean subjects have been highlighted. This points at an altered adaptation of eating behavior in obese individuals. This thesis investigates if adaptation of behavior is attenuated in obese compared to lean individuals in learning-related processes beyond the food domain. In five consecutive experimental studies, we show that obese participants reveal reduced adaptation of behavior within and outside the food context. With the help of MRI, we relate these behavioral findings to alterations in structure and function of the fronto-striatal dopaminergic system in obesity. In more detail, reduced behavioral adaptation seems to be associated with attenuated utilization of negative prediction errors in obese individuals. Within the brain, this relates to reduced functional coupling between subcortical dopaminergic target regions (ventral striatum) and executive cortical structures (supplementary motor area) in obesity, as revealed by fMRI analysis

Docketology, District Courts, and Doctrine

Empirical legal scholars have traditionally modeled trial court judicial opinion writing by assuming that judges act rationally, seeking to maximize their influence by writing opinions in politically important cases. To test such views, we collected data from a thousand cases in four different jurisdictions. We recorded information about every judicial action over each case’s life, ranging from the demographic characteristics, workload, and experience of the writing judge; to information about the case, including its jurisdictional basis, complexity, attorney characteristics, and motivating legal theory; to information about the individual orders themselves, including the relevant procedural posture and the winning party. Our data reveal opinions to be rare events in the litigation process: only 3% of all orders, and only 17% of orders applying facts to law, are fully reasoned. Using a hierarchical linear model, we conclude that judges do not write opinions to curry favor with the public or with powerful audiences, nor do they write more when they are less experienced, seeking to advance their careers, or in more interesting case types. Instead, opinion writing is significantly affected by procedure: we predict that judges are three times more likely to write an opinion on a summary judgment motion than a discovery motion, all else held equal. Judges similarly write more in cases that are later appealed, and in commercial cases, while writing less in tort and prisoner cases. Finally, jurisdictional culture is very important. These findings challenge the conventional wisdom and suggest the need for further research on the behavioral aspects of opinion writing

The psychology of climate change: From prevention to promotion

The present work makes the proposition that current debates on climate change may overemphasize the motivational focus of prevention in the sense of regulatory focus theory, possibly hindering necessary societal changes, or giving rise to debates around technological fixes such as climate engineering

Journal of Air Transportation, Volume 10, No. 3

The following topics are discussed: The Effects of Safety Information on Aeronautical Decision Making; Design, Development, and Validation of an Interactive Multimedia Training Simulator for Responding to Air Transportation Bomb Threats; Discovering the Regulatory Considerations of the Federal Aviation Administration: Interviewing the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee; How to Control Airline Routes from the Supply Side: The Case of TAP; An Attempt to Measure the Traffic Impact of Airline Alliances; and Study Results on Knowledge Requirements for Entry-level Airport Operations and Management Personnel

Problem space of modern society: philosophical-communicative and pedagogical interpretations. Part II

This collective monograph offers the description of philosophical bases of definition of communicative competence and pedagogical conditions for the formation of communication skills. The authors of individual chapters have chosen such point of view for the topic which they considered as the most important and specific for their field of study using the methods of logical and semantic analysis of concepts, the method of reflection, textual reconstruction and comparative analysis. The theoretical and applied problems of modern society are investigated in the context of philosophical, communicative and pedagogical interpretations

Survey of air cargo forecasting techniques

Forecasting techniques currently in use in estimating or predicting the demand for air cargo in various markets are discussed with emphasis on the fundamentals of the different forecasting approaches. References to specific studies are cited when appropriate. The effectiveness of current methods is evaluated and several prospects for future activities or approaches are suggested. Appendices contain summary type analyses of about 50 specific publications on forecasting, and selected bibliographies on air cargo forecasting, air passenger demand forecasting, and general demand and modalsplit modeling