Page Lieux et acteurs de la recherche: Luxembourg

Computer development (2016)

This is the text of a webpage devoted to the study of the Middle Ages in and about the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, to be part of the website "Menestrel, Medievalists on the web", which aim is to provide ... [more ▼]

This is the text of a webpage devoted to the study of the Middle Ages in and about the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, to be part of the website "Menestrel, Medievalists on the web", which aim is to provide European web based ressources for mediaevalists on the internet. This page is a new reworking of a page written in 2009 and never updated since then. It describes the research institutions, associations, libraries, museums, scholarly journals, relating to the study of mediaeval history in Luxembourg. It gives references to ressources available on the web such as source material, web-pages of research-projetcts, etc. [less ▲]

Los pagos por servicios ambientales en la Ciudad de México: un enfoque de coherencia de políticas públicas

in Región y Sociedad (2022), 34

Objective: to analyze two programs of environmental services payment in the Mexico City Soil Conservation Lands using the policy coherence for development theoretical-methodological framework. Methodology ... [more ▼]

Objective: to analyze two programs of environmental services payment in the Mexico City Soil Conservation Lands using the policy coherence for development theoretical-methodological framework. Methodology: qualitative analysis based on policy coherence typologies. Results: the programs’ beneficiaries economically depend on the associated subsidies; there are restrictions for the economic activities’ development; the financial mechanisms are inefficient and there is a lack of a sustainability vision that considers the socioeconomic dimensions. Limitations: participation of authorities and community members in this type of study is limited and there is a lack of information on the relationships between institutions and work programs. Value: the analysis of peri-urban public policies through the policy coherence for development framework. Conclusions: applying the policy coherence for development framework helped identifying imbalances and synergies among the policy dimensions analyzed. This methodology can promote the mainstreaming of sustainability norms. [less ▲]

Pain and cognitive pain modulation in aging

Article for general public (2020)

Pain behavior and spinal cell activation due to carrageenan-induced inflammation in two inbred rat strains with differential hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity

in Physiology and Behavior (2012), 105(4), 901-908

Pain modulation induced by Heterotopic Noxious Counter-Stimulation (HNCS) : psychophysiological assessment of adequate stimulation paradigms and sex-related effects

Doctoral thesis (2010)

This work comprises three studies whose main concern was to find a valid tonic pain model able to trigger a genuine diffuse noxious pain inhibition. All studies were performed in healthy, drug-free ... [more ▼]

This work comprises three studies whose main concern was to find a valid tonic pain model able to trigger a genuine diffuse noxious pain inhibition. All studies were performed in healthy, drug-free volunteers and whereas the first two are validation studies, the third is an application study of the previous two. The aim of the first study was to characterize the cold pressor (CPT) and hot water immersion test (HIT) from a physiological and a psychophysical point of view. A second issue was to clarify the origin of potential autonomic responses during both tests; are they related to baroreflex activity or rather a consequence of the pain experience per se? The study was performed in 30 volunteers aged 19-57 (median 24) years, and consisted of a single session including one CPT (4 ± 0.2°C) and one HIT (47 ± 0.5°C) with a cut-off-point of 5 minutes. Participants were randomly assigned to sequence order (the sequence of both trials was alternated) and groups were paralleled with respect to gender. Cardiovascular, respiratory and electrodermal activities as well as subjective pain intensity were continuously monitored. Pain detection and tolerance thresholds as well as pain unpleasantness and nervous tension were assessed additionally. Both tests were found to be comparable with respect to intensity of subjective pain and time course, but a significantly higher blood pressure increase during CPT could be observed, compared to the HIT. In conclusion, the HIT appears to be less confounded with baroreflex activity and hence seems to be a more adequate tonic pain model. The second study tested the internal validity of inter-digital web pinching (IWP) with regard to its potential as DNIC-trigger. 24 gender-matched participants, aged 21-54 (median 25) years, volunteered for the controlled study. The protocol included the assessment of thermal and mechanical perceptual wind-up (WU) before and after a HIT (47.5 °C) or an IWP (15 N) of 2 minutes duration each. WU pain was induced by 10 repetitive (1 Hz) contact heat (max. 49°C; 5 5 mm thermode) or 10 ballistic impact stimuli (0.5 g at 9m/s) on the phalanges of the non-dominant hand. Cardiovascular and corrugator muscle activity as well as pain experience were permanently monitored. Both heterotopic noxious counter-stimulation (HNCS) types produced a similar pain experience, but a more pronounced cardiovascular activity was observed for the HIT. Painful water immersion is though accompanied by a stronger baroreceptor activity. WU pain was significantly reduced for both pain modalities, although the inhibition was somewhat stronger for the HIT than the IWP. The IWP, being practically uncontaminated by baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), proved its validity as DNIC-trigger. The third study investigated temporal characteristics of electrically elicited pain and nocifensive RIII-reflex activity in a gender-balanced sample of 28 volunteers aged 21-38 (median 27) years, using IWP as HNCS, a tonic pain model previously validated to be BRS-unrelated. Sex-related differences in the post HNCS time courses of pain perception were identified with women demonstrating a more rapid return to baseline compared to men. Interestingly, an opposite pattern was observed regarding nociceptive reflex activity with a steeper return rate of electromyographic responses in males, whereas those of women remained attenuated over the entire observation period. These findings may reflect a stronger defensive response to pain in women. [less ▲]

Pain Processing in Older Age – Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

Scientific Conference (2021, June)

Aging is known to affect neurobiological and physiological aspects of pain perception and has been associated with reduced pain sensitivity and a deterioration of descending pain inhibitory mechanisms. To ... [more ▼]

Aging is known to affect neurobiological and physiological aspects of pain perception and has been associated with reduced pain sensitivity and a deterioration of descending pain inhibitory mechanisms. To investigate age differences in neural electrophysiological correlates of pain processing, we induced acute pain in healthy older (60 yrs+) and younger adults (18 to 35 yrs), using short transdermal electrical pulses administered to the inner forearm, with individually adjusted stimulation intensities. Participants received alternating blocks of painful and non-painful control stimulation and rated the intensity and unpleasantness of each stimulus on two visual analog scales. Pain-related evoked potentials were recorded with a 64-channel EEG. Preliminary results indicate that younger and older participants rated painful stimuli more intensive and unpleasant compared to the control stimulation, with older adults showing a slight habituation over time. In younger adults, ERP amplitudes (N2, P2 P3) of painful stimulation were enhanced compared to non- painful stimulation. In contrast, older participants showed generally reduced ERPs, no difference between pain and non-painful stimulation and by tendency longer latencies for painful stimulation. This suggests that nociceptive neural processing is altered in aging, while the reported pain perception is unaffected. Given that aging is also associated with a decline of cognitive functions and PFC volume and activity changes, this could have implications for the efficacy of cognitive pain modulation. Altogether, our results highlight the need for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying pain processing in older adults, and how these age-related changes affect (cognitive) pain treatments in this population. [less ▲]

Pain, Anxiety, and Cooperativeness in Children with Cerebral Palsy after Rhizotomy: Changes Throughout Rehabilitation

in Journal of Pediatric Psychology (1997), 22(5), 689-705

Assessed pain, anxiety, physical functioning, and cooperativeness in 32 children with spastic cerebral palsy. This is the first study to assess children throughout rehabilitation following selective ... [more ▼]

Assessed pain, anxiety, physical functioning, and cooperativeness in 32 children with spastic cerebral palsy. This is the first study to assess children throughout rehabilitation following selective posterior rhizotomy. Results of the Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress and observer Liken ratings confirmed the hypothesis that children's pain and anxiety decrease over time. Children's physical functioning and cooperativeness improve over time. No significant correlation was found between pain and changes in physical functioning. Cognitive impairment, parental involvement, and children's pain behaviors explained 77% and 56% of the variance in two forms of cooperativeness. Research and clinical implications are discussed, and special considerations regarding pain assessment and management in this population are addressed. [less ▲]

A Painful Peek into the Underlying Mechanisms of Mindfulness

Doctoral thesis (2022)

The burgeoning scientific interest in the clinical benefits of mindfulness has resulted in an extensive body of research linking mindfulness-based practices to improvements across a wide range of pain ... [more ▼]

The burgeoning scientific interest in the clinical benefits of mindfulness has resulted in an extensive body of research linking mindfulness-based practices to improvements across a wide range of pain-related outcomes. Yet, a clear understanding of the mechanisms via which mindfulness conveys its purported effects is still lacking. Novel insights from neuroimaging studies suggest that mindfulness may alleviate pain via unique neural mechanisms characterised by increased pain-related sensory processing and abatement of evaluative and memory-related processes. In light of these observations, recently formulated predictive processing accounts posit that the non-elaborative sustained attention to present-centred experience during mindfulness practice may lead to a weighing of incoming sensory information over prior information during the perceptual process. This interpretation hence raises the intriguing possibility that mindfulness may mitigate the well-documented biasing influence of prior expectations and information on pain perception. We tested this hypothesis across three separate pain expectancy-manipulation paradigms. Study 1 investigated whether the instructed use of a mindfulness strategy vs. an vsernative cognitive regulatory strategy (i.e., suppression) differentially modulates susceptibility to conditioned hypoalgesic and hyperalgesic effects during an implicit classical pain conditioning paradigm. The results revealed that while participants assigned to the suppression condition exhibited preserved cue-induced hypoalgesic effects, no such effects were observed for the mindfulness condition. In Study 2, we employed a recently developed pain categorization paradigm to test whether trait mindfulness level modulates the influence of prior categorical information on pain perception and pain-related decision-making. Although the paradigm successfully elicited categorization-induced perceptual biases, modulation of these effects did not differ across individuals with high and low trait mindfulness. Finally, in Study 3, we used an explicit pain-cueing paradigm in which we aimed to address some of the methodological limitations of Study 1. The analyses revealed that high trait mindfulness scorers reported smaller cue-induced hyperalgesic effects for pain unpleasantness ratings compared to low trait mindfulness scorers. There were, however, no group differences in cue-induced hypoalgesia. Results from the pain conditioning studies provide partial support for the notion that mindfulness may mitigate the influence of prior expectations and information on pain perception. These findings add to growing evidence suggesting that mindfulness may alleviate pain via neuropsychological mechanisms opposite to those typically involved in conditioning/placebo-induced hypoalgesia. The discussion section explores potential methodological and mechanistic explanations for the asymmetric pattern of results observed across the three studies and considers the potential clinical implications of those findings. [less ▲]

Pairing-Friendly Elliptic Curves Resistant to TNFS Attacks

Scientific Conference (2017)

La Paix d’Augsbourg de 1555 : un modèle pour les Pays-Bas ? L’ambassade des princes luthériens allemands auprès de Marguerite de Parme en 1567

in Cauchies, Jean-Marie (Ed.) Entre royaume et empire : frontières, rivalités, modèles, (2002)