Death and Paperwork Reduction

How does government value people\u27s time? Often the valuation is implicit, even mysterious. But in patches of the federal administrative state, paperwork burdens are quantified in hours and often monetized. When agencies do monetize, they look to how the labor market values the time of the people faced with paperwork. The result is that some people\u27s time is valued over ten times more than other people\u27s time. In contrast, when agencies monetize the value of statistical life for cost-benefit analysis, they look to how people faced with a risk of death subjectively value its reduction. In practice, agencies assign the same value to every statistical life saved by a given policy. This Article establishes these patterns of agency behavior and suggests that there is no satisfying justification for them. Welfarist and egalitarian principles, along with the logic of statistical life valuation, lean against the use of market wages to monetize a person\u27s time doing government paperwork. The impact of this practice might be limited, given the modest ambition of today\u27s paperwork reduction efforts. But time-related burdens—and benefits—are key consequences of government decisions in countless contexts. If we want to scale up a thoughtful process for valuing people\u27s time in the future, we will need new foundations

Internet gaming disorder in Lebanon: relationships with age, sleep habits, and academic achievement

Background and aims: The latest (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders included Internet gaming disorder (IGD) as a disorder that needs further research among different general populations. In line with this recommendation, the primary objective of this was to explore the relationships between IGD, sleep habits, and academic achievement in Lebanese adolescents. Methods: Lebanese high-school students (N = 524, 47.9% males) participated in a paper survey that included the Internet Gaming Disorder Test and demographic information. The sample’s mean average age was 16.2 years (SD = 1.0). Results: The pooled prevalence of IGD was 9.2% in the sample. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated that IGD was associated with being younger, lesser sleep, and lower academic achievement. While more casual online gamers also played offline, all the gamers with IGD reported playing online only. Those with IGD slept significantly less hours per night (5 hr) compared with casual online gamers (7 hr). The school grade average of gamers with IGD was the lowest among all groups of gamers, and below the passing school grade average. Conclusions: These findings shed light on sleep disturbances and poor academic achievement in relation to Lebanese adolescents identified with IGD. Students who are not performing well at schools should be monitored for their IGD when assessing the different factors behind their low academic performance

Compte rendu d'expériences internationales

Cet article présente trois expériences de service social des groupes qui ont été menées en France et au Liban. Josiane Deveaud nous fait d'abord connaître une utilisation innovatrice des TUC (Travaux d'Utilité Collective) dans les îles de Ré, Aix et Oléron. Des actions de groupe conduites conjointement par des travailleurs sociaux, des jeunes, des partenaires sociaux et municipaux, permettent à des jeunes issus de milieux défavorisés, de s'engager dans un processus d'insertion professionnelle et sociale. Par ailleurs, à Saint-Ouen-L'Aumône, le Service des Retraités, appuyé par le Centre Communal d'Action Sociale, développe le travail social de groupe avec les aides-ménagères pour le maintien à domicile des personnes très âgées. Anny Gracient nous fait part de cette initiative et fait ressortir les effets positifs de cette intervention de groupe, tant au niveau de la qualité du travail des aides-ménagères qu'au plan de leur développement personnel. Finalement, Hyam Samaha-Kahi montre comment différentes formes de groupes peuvent être génératrices de potentiels humains et de ressources collectives parmi la population libanaise aux prises avec les difficultés et les souffrances provoquées par la guerre. L'auteure témoigne des efforts déployés pour humaniser les conditions de vie dans les centres de regroupement des déplacés

How fast and how often: the pharmacokinetics of drug use are decisive in addiction

How much, how often and how fast a drug reaches the brain determine the behavioural and neuroplastic changes associated with the addiction process. Despite the critical nature of these variables, the drug addiction field often ignores pharmacokinetic issues, which we argue can lead to false conclusions. First, we review the clinical data demonstrating the importance of the speed of drug onset and of intermittent patterns of drug intake in psychostimulant drug addiction. This is followed by a review of the preclinical literature demonstrating that pharmacokinetic variables play a decisive role in determining behavioural and neurobiological outcomes in animal models of addiction. This literature includes recent data highlighting the importance of intermittent, ‘spiking’ brain levels of drug in producing an increase in the motivation to take drug over time. Rapid drug onset and intermittent drug exposure both appear to push the addiction process forward most effectively. This has significant implications for refining animal models of addiction and for better understanding the neuroadaptations that are critical for the disorder

A case study with breast cancer and brain metastasis encompassing acute onset of amnesia and altered mental status due to limbic encephalitis - biochemical and proteomic aspects

A biochemical case study is reported on a 50-year old lady known to have breast cancer. The woman was treated by mastectomy and this was followed by unraveling brain metastases three years post-diagnosis of the cancer, which was treated by radiation and chemotherapy. Two months after ending her treatment, she exhibited acute changes in her mental status manifested by severe amnesia and fever. A generalized analytical and biochemical assessment revealed the presence of paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis

Le défi du futur

Les textes qui composent cet article proviennent de communications présentées lors du panel de clôture du 11e symposium sur le service social des groupes. Ce panel avait pour but de partager la vision de cinq spécialistes de différents pays concernant les défis auxquels seront confrontés les travailleurs sociaux dans cette décennie qui commence

Three-dimensional digital template atlas of the Macaque brain

We present a new 3D template atlas of the anatomical subdivisions of the macaque brain, which is based on and aligned to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data set and histological sections of the Saleem and Logothetis atlas. We describe the creation and validation of the atlas that, when registered with macaque structural or functional MRI scans, provides a straightforward means to estimate the boundaries between architectonic areas, either in a 3D volume with different planesof sections, or on an inflated brain surface (cortical flat map). As such, this new template atlas is intended for use as a reference standard for macaque brain research. Atlases and templates are available as both volumes and surfaces in standard NIFTI and GIFTI formats