Evaluating the effectiveness of air quality interventions.

Evaluating the extent to which air quality regulations improve public health--sometimes referred to as accountability--is part of an emerging effort to assess the effectiveness of environmental regulatory policies. Air quality has improved substantially in the United States and Western Europe in recent decades, with far less visible pollution and decreasing concentrations of several major pollutants. In large part, these gains were achieved through increasingly stringent air quality regulations.

Increased accumbal dopamine during daily alcohol consumption and subsequent aggressive behavior in rats.

Background: Alcohol drinking may lead to increased aggression in certain individuals, and both fighting and drinking increase levels of dopamine and serotonin in mesocorticolimbic structures. Assessing the dynamic changes in these neurotransmitters during the course of drinking and fighting has remained challenging.

Objective: The objective of the study was to learn about ongoing monoaminergic activity in the nucleus accumbens of rats that engaged in aggressive behavior after having consumed low doses of alcohol.