The Resistance Threshold to the Amalgamation of Jurisdictions: MP’s Attitudes About Budget Control and Social Identification in the Swiss Cantons

Over time, territorial boundaries have become increasingly incongruent with functional public activities. To overcome the exiguity of the territory and take advantage of economies of scale, governments often engage in partnerships across jurisdictions to provide public services. Budgets are then earmarked to finance these joint ventures, eroding independent control over finances. Amalgamation have been one response to recover this lost control. However, locals tend to be reluctant to see their community merge with other communities. Based on a survey conducted among the members of parliament in two Swiss cantons, this exploratory study locates what we call the ‘resistance threshold’ to amalgamation. We define this ‘resistance threshold’ as the share of the budget earmarked to finance joint ventures above which the decision-maker considers amalgamation a viable solution to recover budget control, even if that merger might erode social identification

Experimental research on the friction of pivots

In horology the friction between solids is of the greatest importance; one limited, however, to the application of the laws of Coulomb which, do not at all correspond with reality. This report presents a review of the subject and some general conclusions. The choice of lubricant is discussed as well as the pressure between frictional surfaces. The gears in a watch are used extensively as examples

Involuntary admissions to the emergency department: a retrospective observational study.

The main objective of this study was to describe patients who were involuntarily admitted to the emergency department of Lausanne University Hospital on involuntary admission in 2018 in terms of age, gender, emergency department length of stay, the motive for involuntary admission, use of psychoactive substances, diagnosis, and destination at emergency department discharge, with or without discontinuation of involuntary admission. This retrospective, observational, and monocentric study included patients 18 years and older admitted to the emergency department of Lausanne University Hospital on involuntary admission from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2018. Patients were identified by the Cantonal Medical Office of Vaud. The emergency department length of stay and patient destination on discharge from the emergency department were extracted from the patient flow database, and discharge letters and involuntary admission were extracted from the electronic archiving software. Descriptive statistics were processed by using means and standard deviations for quantitative variables with a normal distribution and median and interquartile range for non-normally distributed data. During the study period, 83 patients were admitted on involuntary admission to the emergency department. The majority of the patients were male (58%) with a mean age of 55 (±20) years. The median emergency department length of stay of patients with an involuntary admission was between 9 and 16 hours, depending on whether the involuntary admission was confirmed or discontinued after patient assessment in the emergency department. In comparison, the median emergency department length of stay was 6 hours for patients overall. The two principal diagnoses described were psychiatric (schizophrenia) and mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use. Half of the patients on involuntary admission consumed psychoactive substances, primarily alcohol, and had a mean ethanolaemia of 53 (±32) mmol/l. Only a third of patients admitted on involuntary admission saw this measure confirmed after their assessment in the emergency department. Involuntary admissions with admission to the emergency department is used to force patients to be examined by an emergency physician or even a psychiatrist. On-call and primary care physicians seemed to lack the time or resources to set up alternatives to emergency department admissions on involuntary admission, especially in situations in which the involuntary admission was discontinued after an emergency department assessment. This demonstrates the inappropriate use of this measure because a patient cannot be involuntarily hospitalised in an emergency department

An ERP study reveals how training with Dual N-Back task affects risky decision making in a gambling task in ADHD patients

Impaired decision making and Working Memory (WM) are among the characteristic symptoms of patients affected by Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In order to investigate whether a WM training can affect the attitude towards risky decision making, we designed a study where participants had to perform a Probabilistic Gambling Task. Our study has demonstrated that WM training affects in a different way controls and ADHD patients, who showed an increased tendency towards a risk-taking attitude in case of the adaptive variant of the memory task. In ADHD patients, the frontal sites appeared the most affected, whereas global brain activity was likely to be affected in controls. This study shows also the benefits of cognitive training in ADHD patients, but in healthy subjects too

Sleep and decision. A neurocognitive perspective

Depuis plusieurs décennies, notre qualité de sommeil a baissé. Les raisons peuvent être nombreuses : lumières artificielles, écrans en continu, stress au travail et horaires compliqués. Nous savons déjà qu'un sommeil de mauvaise qualité peut avoir un impact néfaste sur notre santé, mais qu'en est-il de nos décisions ? Cette thèse fait partie d'un projet qui tente de répondre à cette question. Lorsque l'on se retrouve devant un choix d'abord nous identifions chaque option, ensuite nous les évaluons et les comparons. Dans cette thèse, nous identifions la suite des mécanismes qui mènent à une décision grâce à l'électroencéphalographie (EEG) et nous localisons les zones du cortex cérébral impliquées dans ces mécanismes grâce à une technique d'imagerie optique. En parallèle, nous évaluons la qualité de sommeil des participants de notre étude avec l'aide d'un appareil d'actigraphie. Ce projet est en cours d'analyse, cependant, nos premiers résultats suggèrent que le sommeil peut impacter nos décisions par l'intermédiaire de plusieurs fonctions cognitives, telles que l'attention, le contrôle exécutif ou la régulation des émotions. De plus, nous avons pu identifier des groupes de gens avec des mécanismes de décision différents. Nous pensons qu'une altération du sommeil peut avoir des conséquences différentes dans chacun de ces groupes. -- Over the past decades, we have seen a general deterioration in the quality of sleep. This degradation has harmful effects on our health, as well as effects, often unconscious, on our ability to make decisions. A decision is the product of a complex neurocognitive process, made up of several mechanisms. This thesis develops a neurocognitive basis for decision making and analyzes the vulnerability of several mechanisms to impaired sleep. The cognitive processes of several tasks are dissected using a combination of two methods: electroencephalography (EEG) and diffuse optical imaging (DOi). The results of several studies, as well as the existing literature suggest that cognitive functions such as attention, working memory, executive control and the regulation of emotions may mediate the effects of impaired sleep on decision making. ln addition, this work underlines the importance of taking into account certain between-subject differences in behavior which imply a different functioning of the processes responsible for decision making. This thesis is the starting point of an ongoing project. -- Au cours des dernières décennies, il s'est produit une dégradation de la qualité de sommeil, et ceci de manière générale. Cette dégradation a des effets néfastes sur notre santé, ainsi que des effets, souvent inconscients, sur notre capacité à prendre des décisions. Une décision est le produit d'un processus neurocognitif complexe, composé de plusieurs mécanismes. Cette thèse développe une base neurocognitive pour la prise de décision et analyse la vulnérabilité de plusieurs mécanismes à une altération du sommeil. Les processus cognitifs de plusieurs tâches sont disséqués en utilisant une combinaison de deux méthodes : l'électroencéphalographie (EEG) et l'imagerie optique diffuse (DOi). Les résultats de plusieurs études, ainsi que la littérature existante, suggèrent que les fonctions cognitives telles que l'attention, la mémoire de travail, le contrôle exécutif et la régulation des émotions peuvent être médiateurs des effets d'une altération du sommeil sur la prise de décision. De plus, ce travail souligne l'importance de prendre en compte certaines différences individuelles de comportement qui impliquent un fonctionnement différent des processus responsables de la prise de décision

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In bound volumes: Copyright Deposits 1820-186