Lamotrigine treatment of aggression in female borderline patients, Part II: an 18-month follow-up

Borderline patients often display pathological aggression. We previously tested lamotrigine, an anti-convulsant, in therapy for aggression in women with borderline personality disorder (BPD) (J Psychopharmacol 2005; 19: 287–291), and found significant changes on most scales of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) after eight weeks. To assess the longerterm efficacy of lamotrigine in therapy for aggression in women with BPD, this 18-month follow-up observation was carried out, in which patients (treated with lamotrigine: n = 18; former placebo group: n = 9) were tested every six months. According to the intent-to-treat principle, significant changes on all scales of the STAXI were observed in the lamotrigine-treated subjects. All subjects tolerated lamotrigine relatively well. Lamotrigine appears to be an effective and relatively safe agent in the longer-term treatment of aggression in women with BPD

Quantum chaotic resonances from short periodic orbits

We present an approach to calculating the quantum resonances and resonance wave functions of chaotic scattering systems, based on the construction of states localized on classical periodic orbits and adapted to the dynamics. Typically only a few of such states are necessary for constructing a resonance. Using only short orbits (with periods up to the Ehrenfest time), we obtain approximations to the longest living states, avoiding computation of the background of short living states. This makes our approach considerably more efficient than previous ones. The number of long lived states produced within our formulation is in agreement with the fractal Weyl law conjectured recently in this setting. We confirm the accuracy of the approximations using the open quantum baker map as an example.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Morphology of galaxies with quiescent recent assembly history in a Lambda-CDM universe

The standard disc formation scenario postulates that disc forms as the gas cools and flows into the centre of the dark matter halo, conserving the specific angular momentum. Major mergers have been shown to be able to destroy or highly perturb the disc components. More recently, the alignment of the material that is accreted to form the galaxy has been pointed out as a key ingredient to determine galaxy morphology. However, in a hierarchical scenario galaxy formation is a complex process that combines these processes and others in a non-linear way so that the origin of galaxy morphology remains to be fully understood. We aim at exploring the differences in the formation histories of galaxies with a variety of morphology, but quite recent merger histories, to identify which mechanisms are playing a major role. We analyse when minor mergers can be considered relevant to determine galaxy morphology. We also study the specific angular momentum content of the disc and central spheroidal components separately. We used cosmological hydrodynamical simulations that include an effective, physically motivated supernova feedback that is able to regulate the star formation in haloes of different masses. We analysed the morphology and formation history of a sample of 15 galaxies of a cosmological simulation. We performed a spheroid-disc decomposition of the selected galaxies and their progenitor systems. The angular momentum orientation of the merging systems as well as their relative masses were estimated to analyse the role played by orientation and by minor mergers in the determination of the morphology. We found the discs to be formed by conserving the specific angular momentum in accordance with the classical disc formation model. The specific angular momentum of the stellar central spheroid correlates with the dark matter halo angular momentum and determines a power law. AbridgedComment: 10 pages, 9 figures, A&A in pres

The stellar metallicity gradients in galaxy discs in a cosmological scenario

Indexación: Web of ScienceContext. The stellar metallicity gradients of disc galaxies provide information on disc assembly, star formation processes, and chemical evolution. They also might store information on dynamical processes that could affect the distribution of chemical elements in the gas phase and the stellar components. Understanding their joint effects within a hierarchical clustering scenario is of paramount importance. Aims. We studied the stellar metallicity gradients of simulated discs in a cosmological simulation. We explored the dependence of the stellar metallicity gradients on stellar age and on the size and mass of the stellar discs. Methods. We used a catalogue of galaxies with disc components selected from a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation performed including a physically motivated supernova feedback and chemical evolution. Disc components were defined based on angular momentum and binding energy criteria. The metallicity profiles were estimated for stars with different ages. We confront our numerical findings with results from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) Survey. Results. The simulated stellar discs are found to have metallicity profiles with slopes in global agreement with observations. Low stellar mass galaxies tend to have a larger variety of metallicity slopes. When normalized by the half-mass radius, the stellar metallicity gradients do not show any dependence and the dispersion increases significantly, regardless of the galaxy mass. Galaxies with stellar masses of around 10(10) M-circle dot show steeper negative metallicity gradients. The stellar metallicity gradients correlate with the half-mass radius. However, the correlation signal is not present when they are normalized by the half-mass radius. Stellar discs with positive age gradients are detected to have negative and positive metallicity gradients, depending on the relative importance of recent star formation activity in the central regions. Conclusions. Our results suggest that inside-out formation is the main process responsible for the metallicity and age profiles. The large dispersions in the metallicity gradients as a function of stellar mass could be ascribed to the effects of dynamical processes such as mergers, interactions and/or migration as well as those regulating the conversion of gas into stars. The fingerprints of the inside-out formation seem better preserved by the stellar metallicity gradients as a function of the half-mass radius.http://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2016/08/aa28188-16/aa28188-16.htm

Covalent and non-covalent strategies for surface modification of different textile materials with antimicrobial properties

New advances have been released in textile industry. Contributions at the level of textile fiber chains engineering has allowed modification of their structure, production of smart polymers responding to changes in environment, and attachment or entrapment of cells and bioactive molecules. Likewise, our society high demand of hygienic patterns, has raised the intensive research and development of antimicrobial textiles. Applications are being extended to underwear, sportswear, home furnishing, protective clothes, wound-dressings and in areas with high risk of microbial infection, as hospitals, schools and hotels. Throughout last decades hospitals have faced tough challenges concerning microbial multi-resistance, especially in immunodepressed patients. The strongest cause for microbial resistance may be due to the abuse of antibiotics uptake, either by humans to treat something non appropriately, as by animals, to earn weight. The development of antimicrobial textiles arise as a promising solution that may significantly decrease the risk of nosocomial infections. Several antimicrobial agents have been applied in textiles, namely quaternary ammonium compounds, silver, polyhexamethylene biguanides and triclosan. However, they have shown a reduced spectrum of microbial inhibition which cause resistances, cytotoxicity causing skin irritation, as well as toxic to the environment. Furthermore, these compounds gradually lose their bioactivity with use and launderings. L-cysteine (L-Cys) that is found in several living organisms is a natural defensive thiolated aminoacid never studied before as a potential antimicrobial agent for textiles, which can grant antibacterial properties without cytotoxicity. Furthermore, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) belong to innate immune system of multicellular organisms and appear as an alternative to antibiotics. They are small, amphipathic, and strongly cationic which bind to negatively charged phospholipid headgroups of microbial membranes. Although the mechanism of AMPs-microbial killing is still not known, many hypotheses have been proposed: (i) membrane depolarization, (ii) formation of physical holes at the membrane, (iii) programmed bacterial death processes, (iv) phospholipidic redistribution, and (v) internalization of the AMP. They have broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity. Once their target is the bacterial membrane microorganisms hardly develop resistance, otherwise they would have to change all their lipidic composition and/or organization, which is high demanding and not energetically worth it. During this work, non-covalently adsorbed L-Cys to wool (patent PAT 104540 A) and to cotton showed to be non-toxic to human cells, and had antimicrobial effects against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria and its main mechanism of action on cotton was assessed by flow citometry. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) will also be immobilized on textiles, in order to find if textile imobilized-AMP can attract and kill bacteria. Natural polymers have shown few adverse reactions, once they have excellent humidity control, biocompatibility and low-allergic responses, due to their similarity to macromolecules which biological environment is prepared to recognize and to deal with metabolically. AMPs will be selected, based on their 3D structure, terminal charge and size. Best-studied AMPs are cationic due to their action on negative surface charged microorganisms. Evaluation of minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of AMPs will elucidate the amount of AMPs to be used to functionalize textile substrates and cytotoxicity studies will provide the toxicity of functionalized textiles to human cells. In order to develop long-lasting and washable functionalized textiles we propose the covalent binding of AMPs on textiles through selected chemistries already employed on surface modifying of medical devices elsewhere. Alternatively, we will use plasma treatment, which is usually used to modify many surface properties of polymeric materials. This study may allow the development of innovative antimicrobial textiles, simulating microbial-free microenvironments in order to develop, in the future, antimicrobial fabrics to avoid airborne spreading and improve patient’s quality of life in a hospital context

Variation of fundamental parameters and dark energy. A principal component approach

We discuss methods based on Principal Component Analysis to constrain the dark energy equation of state using a combination of Type Ia supernovae at low redshift and spectroscopic measurements of varying fundamental couplings at higher redshifts. We discuss the performance of this method when future better-quality datasets are available, focusing on two forthcoming ESO spectrographs - ESPRESSO for the VLT and CODEX for the E-ELT - which include these measurements as a key part of their science cases. These can realize the prospect of a detailed characterization of dark energy properties almost all the way up to redshift 4.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, version to match publication in PR

Integration of physical operations in the hydrometallurgical processing of spent Zn-MnO2 batteries

The recycling of spent Zn-MnO2 batteries by hydrometallurgy involves the leaching of material previously treated by physical processing to allow the liberation of electrode particles and the separation of unwanted scrap. The integration of these physical operations with leaching is therefore crucial for the optimization of the process, allowing achieving high recovery yields of zinc and manganese and minimizing reactants consumption and iron contamination. In this paper, several options involving physical processing and leaching with sulphuric acid are presented and discussed. After batteries shredding and disaggregation, the separation of steel scrap was performed by sieving or magnetic separation, and the remaining solids were treated by leaching. These options were compared, in terms of metals recovery and contamination, with the alternative of direct leaching of all the shredded fractions without physical treatment. The separation of the steel scrap by sieving or magnetic separation allowed the removal from the circuit of 37 or 49% of iron, respectively, with losses of 15 or 6% of zinc and 2 or 4% of manganese. Therefore more than 50% of iron remained in the process, which was attributed to the presence of iron oxides formed by the corrosion of the battery cases. In the leaching operation, zinc dissolution was very effective (yields above 97%) while manganese is strongly depended from the process option, being its leaching proportional to the presence of scrap (yields of 80%, 56% and 43%, respectively in direct leaching, sieving / leaching and magnetic separation / leaching). These results showed that iron plays an important role in the reductive leaching of manganese species (III or IV), and so the presence of steel scrap in leaching, besides disadvantages concerning solutions contamination, contributes positively for the leaching efficienc