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Contrasts and Comparisons of Incentive Situations in Domestic Poultry
- M J Haskell, M Vilarino, N C A Coerse, M Picard
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- Journal:
- Animal Welfare / Volume 10 / Issue S1 / February 2001
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 11 January 2023, p. S241
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Understanding the way in which animals perceive important features of their environment, and how this information may be stored and used, underpins the study of the impact of husbandry systems on animal welfare. Research into incentive contrast in laboratory animals has indicated that they can store and use information about stimuli associated with situations or resources. If cognitive processes are used, the relevant stimuli associated with a resource or event are encoded, allowing comparisons to be made when the key stimuli are changed. The presence and quality of this comparison, negative or positive, can be ascertained by assessing the change in the animal's level of appetitive or operant responding in order to gain access to the situation on the subsequent trial. We wished to determine whether the presence of a sudden change in appetitive response, such as speed of approach to an area following a change in incentive features of a resource or event in that area, is shown by the domestic chicken. This would indicate the presence of a cognitive comparison of incentives. The magnitude of such a change may also provide a measure of the welfare impact of the change. In the first experiment, 16 groups of four broiler chicks were trained to run a maze to an area where they received a high quality test diet. After training, the test diet of eight groups was changed to a low quality diet that all groups had been receiving in their home pens. Compared to the control unchanged groups, the experimental birds took increasingly longer to run the maze on successive post-change trials; the decrease reaching significance on the fourth post-change trial (P < 0.05). The behaviour of the chicks on the day of the change was indicative of frustration, with greater activity and redirected foraging shown (P < 0.05). Although there was no definitive evidence of cognitive processing which would have been shown by an immediate decrease in approach speed, this may have been due in part to the testing of groups of chicks. However, the occurrence of a frustration reaction indicated that some cognitive representation of food quality may have been present. In a second experiment, individual adult hens were trained to run a runway for access to food or water, while food- or water-deprived, respectively. Every fourth trial in a total of 16 trials, access to the resource was thwarted by a clear plastic lid on the dish. Time taken to traverse the runway was significantly longer on the two trials following this experience (P < 0.05), with no effect of repetition of thwarting (P > 0.05), indicating that the experience of thwarting was aversive. These results indicated that chickens appear to be able to store and use information on incentives. Additionally, with appropriate experimental design, an incentive contrast paradigm might be used to assess birds’ perception of the quality of changes in incentives.
Obesity/overweight Program in an Eating Disorders Unit
- D. Zambrano-Enríquez Gandolfo, M. Félix Alcántara, K. Eaton Itúrbide, B. Unzeta Conde, P. Vilariño Besteiro, C. Perez Franco, E. Guerra Gómez
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- Journal:
- European Psychiatry / Volume 30 / Issue S1 / March 2015
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 15 April 2020, p. 1
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INTRODUCTION
The Eating Disorders Unit (EDU) of the Santa Cristina Hospital (Madrid) is an intensive treatment resource addressed to chronic patients diagnosed with eating disorders (ED) with repeated therapeutic failures and / or psychiatric comorbidities.
In recent years the number of patients referred with overweight and obesity is increasing more and more, becoming the 21% of the treated patients.
ObjectivesConsidering the increasing demand to treating patients with overweight and obesity and their differential clinical features we created a specific treatment program specially for this population.
MethodsEDU is a partial hospitalization resource with two shifts, the one in the afternoon is addressed to patients with impulse control deficit, diagnosed with Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder. The treatment at this Unit is essentially multidisciplinary and mainly based on group dynamics.
Overweight and obese patients attend to a specific program to manage eating symptoms, disease awareness and motivation to change, and futhermore to enhance weight loss promoting moderate physical exercise and the acquisition of healthy habits based on the Mediterranean Diet. They are also provided a more homogeneous space to deal with their body dissatisfaction.
ResultsPatients who follow the specific overweight / obesity program experience strong group cohesion that is very motivating to introduce progressive changes in self-care.
ConclusionsClinical management of overweight and obesity is complicated when there is a comorbid eating disorder. A specific and intensive multidisciplinary treatment is recommended in these type of patients.
Incidence of Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders in Asian Populations of British Columbia
- Joshua D. Lee, Colleen Guimond, Irene M. Yee, Carles Vilariño-Güell, Zhi-Ying Wu, Anthony L. Traboulsee, A. Dessa Sadovnick
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- Journal:
- Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences / Volume 42 / Issue 4 / July 2015
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 15 June 2015, pp. 235-241
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Background: Global variation in the incidence of multiple sclerosis (MS) is generally ascribed to differences in genetic and environmental risk factors. Here we investigate temporal trends in the incidence of MS and related disorders in British Columbia, Canada, from 1986 to 2010, focusing particularly on the Asian ethnic subpopulation. Methods: A longitudinal database was screened to identify newly diagnosed cases of MS and related disorders, including neuromyelitis optica and clinically isolated syndromes. Age-standardized, sex-specific mean annual incidence was calculated for the Asian and non-Asian population of British Columbia for 5-year intervals from 1986 to 2010. Temporal changes and cohort differences in incidence rates and demographic characteristics were evaluated. Results: During this period, the incidence of MS and related disorders in the non-Asian population remained relatively unchanged, from 10.41 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.87-10.97) to 9.91 (95% CI: 9.46-10.39) per 100,000 (p=0.167). In contrast, incidence in the Asian population doubled during the same period. This increase was driven by a precipitous rise in the incidence of MS in females from 0.71 (95% CI: 0.01-1.50) to 2.08 (95% CI: 1.43-2.91) per 100,000 (p=0.004), including both Canadian-born and immigrant Asians. The incidence of neuromyelitis optica did not change significantly during this period. Conclusions: The incidence of MS may be increasing among females in the Asian ethnic population of British Columbia.