Vasopressinergic modulation of stress responses in the central amygdala of the Roman high-avoidance and low-avoidance rat

The central nucleus of the amygdala (CEA) is selectively involved in the passive component of the behavioral (immobility) and the accompanying parasympathetic response during conditioned, stressful environmental challenges. Vasopressinergic mechanisms in the brain seem to play a role in these stress responses. The effects of the neuropeptides arginine-8-vasopressin (AVP) and oxytocin (OXT) on modulating CEA activity during conditioned stress of inescapable footshock were studied in male Roman high-avoidance (RHA/Verh) and low-avoidance (RLA/Verh) rats, psychogenetically selected on the basis of shuttle-box acquisition behavior. In RLA/Verh rats, the cardiac and behavioral responses to the conditioned emotional stressor were bradycardia and immobility, suggesting an important role for the CEA in these rats. The RHA/Verh rats, however, failed to show any change in heart rate or immobility in response to a conditioned stress situation. The low dose of AVP (20 pg) in the CEA of conscious RLA/Verh rats caused an enhancement of the stress-induced bradycardiac and immobility response. However, the high dose of AVP (2 ng) and OXT (200 pg) attenuated the bradycardiac and immobility responses in the RLA/Verh rats. Infusion of AVP and OXT in the RHA/Verh rats failed to induce any change in heart rate nr immobility. Binding studies revealed that the AVP receptor selectively binds AVP with high affinity. In contrast, the OXT receptor recognizes both AVP and OXT with a similar (but lower) affinity. This suggests that the behavioral and autonomic responses of the high dose of AVP may be caused by OXT receptor stimulation. In conclusion, on the basis of the present results one may hypothesize that CEA differences in AVP and OXT innervation and/or receptor densities may contribute to the differences in coping strategy found in these animals.

Determination of interaction effects in expectations for post-event information on memory for items in a service encounter

Our minds are not a blank canvas onto which experiences leave their independent and indelible impression. Consumers, therefore, would rarely enter a service encounter without prior knowledge to guide their expectations. The importance of prior knowledge – in the form of schemas – while acknowledged in the study of post-event misinformation effects on memory has received limited attention. Outside of studies investigating misinformation effects, the literature indicates that inconsistency between our expectations and what we experience, improves recall accuracy. Whether this effect translates into reduced susceptibility to misinformation effects and that schema consistency increases susceptibility, is unclear. The main contribution of this thesis is the demonstration that consistency between schema and the experience, and its interaction with encoding goals, changes a person’s susceptibility to misinformation and their subsequent store quality perceptions. The effects of encoding goals – whether someone is trying to form an impression or remember the details of their experience – while used in previous misinformation studies, has not been previously investigated. To investigate the effects of schema consistency and encoding goals on misinformation acceptance, and the subsequent impact of misinformation acceptance on store quality perceptions, a three-way between participant design was undertaken using a café service encounter as the context. The three factors – independent variables – and their levels included in the study were schema consistency (consistent/ inconsistent), encoding goal (impression/ recall) and post-event information (misinformation/ neutral). Results from the study showed that misinformation effects are most likely when people are paying less attention to the service environment. The explanation provided in the study is that when there is a match between what people expect and what they experience they pay less attention to the details of the experience, which results in less diagnostic information encoded into memory. If, however, they were paying attention due to an inconsistency, the information would be attended and result in reduced misinformation acceptance. Where a person was instructed to try and remember the details of their experience rather than form an impression, they paid greater attention to detail than those who were forming an impression. When their expectations were not met in an experience, subsequent exposure to misinformation causes these people to accurately recall their original experience and escape the effect of misinformation. Significant results were also observed for changes to store quality perceptions, revealing that consumers who accept the misinformation have store quality perceptions that reflect its inclusion. Also observed was an interaction with the initial expectations that meant merchandise quality perceptions improved when a person’s memory for the experience was consistent with their original expectations, and lower when inconsistent

Coalition theories: empirical evidence for dutch municipalities

The paper analyzes coalition formation in Dutch municipalities. After discussing the main features of the institutional setting, several theories are discussed, which are classified as size oriented, policy oriented and actor oriented models. A test statistic is proposed to determine the predictive power of these models. The empirical analysis shows that strategic positions as well as some of the distinguished preferences are important in the setting of Dutch municipalities. Especially, the dominant minimum number principle yields highly significant results for coalition formations in the period 1978–1986

Development of an evidence-based checklist for the detection of drug related problems in type 2 diabetes

Objective To develop an evidence-based checklist to identify potential drug related problems (PDRP) in patients with type 2 diabetes. Setting The evidence based checklist was applied to records of ambulatory type 2 diabetes patients in New South Wales, Australia. Method After comprehensive review of the literature, relevant medication groups and potential drug related problems in type 2 diabetes were identified. All the relevant information was then structured in the form of a checklist. To test the utility of the evidence-based checklist a cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted. The PDRP checklist was applied to the data of 148 patients with established type 2 diabetes and poor glycaemic control. The range and extent of DRPs in this population were identified, which were categorized using the PCNE classification. In addition, the relationship between the total as well as each category of DRPs and several of the patients’ clinical parameters was investigated. Main outcome measure: Number and category of DRPs per patient. Results The PDRP checklist was successfully developed and consisted of six main sections. 682 potential DRPs were identified using the checklist, an average of 4.6 (SD = 1.7) per patient. Metabolic and blood pressure control in the study subjects was generally poor: with a mean HbA1c of 8.7% (SD = 1.5) and mean blood pressure of 139.8 mmHg (SD = 18.1)/81.7 mmHg (SD = 11.1). The majority of DRPs was recorded in the categories ‘therapy failure’ (n = 264) and ‘drug choice problem’ (n = 206). Potentially non-adherent patients had a significantly higher HbA1c than patients who adhered to therapy (HbA1c of 9.4% vs. 8.5%; P = 0.01). Conclusion This is the first tool developed specifically to detect potential DRPs in patients with type 2 diabetes. It was used to identify DRPs in a sample of type 2 diabetes patients and demonstrated the high prevalence of DRPs per patient. The checklist may assist pharmacists and other health care professionals to systematically identify issues in therapy and management of their type 2 diabetes patients and enable earlier intervention to improve metabolic control