The role of pharmacists in developing countries: the current scenario in Pakistan

During the past few years, the pharmacy profession has expanded significantly in terms of professional services delivery and now has been recognized as an important profession in the multidisciplinary provision of health care. In contrast to the situation in developed countries, pharmacists in developing countries are still underutilized and their role as health care professionals is not deemed important by either the community or other health care providers. The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of pharmacists in developing countries, particularly in Pakistan. The paper draws on the literature related to the socioeconomic and health status of Pakistan's population, along with background on the pharmacy profession in the country in the context of the current directions of health care

Complete Active Space Wavefunction-Based Analysis of Magnetization and Electronic Structure

International audienceA theoretical framework for the generation of natural orbitals, naturalspin orbitals, as well as orbital- and spin-magnetizations from multi-configurationalab-initio wavefunction calculations including spin-orbit coupling is presented. It isshown how these computational orbital and magnetization tools can be used to inter-pret and rationalize the magnetic properties of selected complexes containing tran-sition metals, lanthanides, and actinides

Fear of the Unknown: Uncertain Anticipation Reveals Amygdala Alterations in Childhood Anxiety Disorders

Children with anxiety disorders (ADs) experience persistent fear and worries that are highly debilitating, conferring risk for lifelong psychopathology. Anticipatory anxiety is a core clinical feature of childhood ADs, often leading to avoidance of uncertain and novel situations. Extensive studies in non-human animals implicate amygdala dysfunction as a critical substrate for early life anxiety. To test specific amygdala-focused hypotheses in preadolescent children with ADs, we used fMRI to characterize amygdala activation during uncertain anticipation and in response to unexpected stimuli. Forty preadolescent (age 8–12 years) children, 20 unmedicated AD patients and 20 matched controls completed an anticipation task during an fMRI scan. In the task, symbolic cues preceded fear or neutral faces, such that ‘certain ’ cues always predicted the presentation of fear or neutral faces, whereas ‘uncertain ’ cues were equally likely to be followed by fear or neutral faces. Both AD children and controls showed robust amygdala response to faces. In response to the uncertain cues, AD children had increased amygdala activation relative to controls. Moreover, in the AD children, faces preceded by an ‘uncertain’ cue elicited increased amygdala activation, as compared with the same faces following a ‘certain ’ cue. Children with ADs experience distress both in anticipation of and during novel and surprising events. Our findings suggest that increased amygdala activation may hav