Traveling waves for nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations with nonzero conditions at infinity, II

We prove the existence of nontrivial finite energy traveling waves for a large class of nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations with nonzero conditions at infinity (includindg the Gross-Pitaevskii and the so-called "cubic-quintic" equations) in space dimension $N \geq 2$. We show that minimization of the energy at fixed momentum can be used whenever the associated nonlinear potential is nonnegative and it gives a set of orbitally stable traveling waves, while minimization of the action at constant kinetic energy can be used in all cases. We also explore the relationship between the families of traveling waves obtained by different methods and we prove a sharp nonexistence result for traveling waves with small energy.Comment: Final version, accepted for publication in the {\it Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis.} The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00205-017-1131-

Long term response to steroid therapy in Rasmussen encephalitis

SummaryRasmussen encephalitis (RE) is a severe and progressive focal epilepsy of unknown origin that leads to deterioration of motor and cognitive function. In a previous study, we described positive effect of high doses of steroids during the first year after the onset of RE. The objective of this study was to evaluate this therapy at long term.We reviewed 11 patients (7 girls and 4 boys) with RE of the right hemisphere (7) and the left (4) at a follow-up of 9±2 years. Age at onset of RE ranged from 2 to 14 years.Six patients had no benefit from steroid therapy and underwent hemispherotomy. Five had significant reduction of seizure frequency with disappearance of epilepsia partialis continua, and improved motor function. Of these, two died of unexpected sudden death 5 and 7 years after seizure control. Two others with initial response experienced progressive recurrence of seizures 1 to 4 years after the end of steroid therapy and required hemispherotomy. Finally, only one patient exhibited total cessation of seizures with steroids for 3 years, but seizures progressively recurred although the frequency was moderate.Our data confirm that although steroid treatment can be useful when given early in the course of RE, long term relapse can occur among the good responders requiring delayed hemispheric disconnection

Drug Development for Rare Paediatric Epilepsies: Current State and Future Directions

Rare diseases provide a challenge in the evaluation of new therapies. However, orphan drug development is of increasing interest because of the legislation enabling facilitated support by regulatory agencies through scientific advice, and the protection of the molecules with orphan designation. In the landscape of the rare epilepsies, very few syndromes, namely Dravet syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and West syndrome, have been subject to orphan drug development. Despite orphan designations for rare epilepsies having dramatically increased in the past 10 years, the number of approved drugs remains limited and restricted to a handful of epilepsy syndromes. In this paper, we describe the current state of orphan drug development for rare epilepsies. We identified a large number of compounds currently under investigation, but mostly in the same rare epilepsy syndromes as in the past. A rationale for further development in rare epilepsies could be based on the match between the drug mechanisms of action and the knowledge of the causative gene mutation or by evidence from animal models. In case of the absence of strong pathophysiological hypotheses, exploratory/basket clinical studies could be helpful to identify a subpopulation that may benefit from the new drug. We provide some suggestions for future improvements in orphan drug development such as promoting paediatric drug investigations, better evaluation of the incidence and the prevalence, together with the natural history data, and the development of new primary outcomes

Convergence of Ginzburg-Landau functionals in 3-d superconductivity

In this paper we consider the asymptotic behavior of the Ginzburg- Landau model for superconductivity in 3-d, in various energy regimes. We rigorously derive, through an analysis via {\Gamma}-convergence, a reduced model for the vortex density, and we deduce a curvature equation for the vortex lines. In a companion paper, we describe further applications to superconductivity and superfluidity, such as general expressions for the first critical magnetic field H_{c1}, and the critical angular velocity of rotating Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 45 page

Unusual consequences of status epilepticus in Dravet syndrome

AbstractAlthough status epilepticus (SE) affects the course of Dravet syndrome (DS), it rarely alters dramatically psychomotor outcome. We report an unusual pattern in 3 patients who following refractory SE lasting respectively 2, 7 and 12h experienced persistent and severe cognitive and motor deterioration. We compared these patients to published data and to personal experience in Necker hospital, to find links between severe outcome and clinical features such as treatment or duration of refractory SE. The key point was that anoxoischemic-like lesions appeared on MRI although cardiovascular function had remained stable. Therefore, neither hemodynamic failure, nor abnormalities of cardiac rhythm could explain the lesions and neurological worsening. For theoretical reasons the responsibility of therapy common for the 3 patients, e.g., barbiturates was suspected

PP270—Computational modeling of dravet syndrome

e102 Volume 35 Number 8S clorazepate (20mg 2× /d), and pregabalin (100 mg 3× /d). Because of resurgence of severe anxio-depressive symptoms, without any change of the treatment, the patient was readmitted 2 months later. Despite increasing the dose of clomipramine up to 225 mg/d, there was no clinical improvement, and the patient finally attempted to her life by abusing drugs. She then improved after 2 weeks on clomipramine IV (50 mg/d). Compliance was estimated good and no pharmacokinetic interactions with the rest of the treatment were found. C and DC plasma levels were measured, and CYP2D6/CYP2C19 genotype analyzed. Results: The plasma levels of C and DC are given in the Table below. Measures were done at the steady state and at trough concentration for IV treatment and 10 hours after the last dose for oral treatment

Successful private–public funding of paediatric medicines research: lessons from the EU programme to fund research into off-patent medicines

The European Paediatric Regulation mandated the European Commission to fund research on off-patent medicines with demonstrated therapeutic interest for children. Responding to this mandate, five FP7 project calls were launched and 20 projects were granted. This paper aims to detail the funded projects and their preliminary results. Publicly available sources have been consulted and a descriptive analysis has been performed. Twenty Research Consortia including 246 partners in 29 European and non-European countries were created (involving 129 universities or public funded research organisations, 51 private companies with 40 SMEs, 7 patient associations). The funded projects investigate 24 medicines, covering 10 therapeutic areas in all paediatric age groups. In response to the Paediatric Regulation and to apply for a Paediatric Use Marketing Authorisation, 15 Paediatric Investigation Plans have been granted by the EMAPaediatric Committee, including 71 studies of whom 29 paediatric clinical trials, leading to a total of 7,300 children to be recruited in more than 380 investigational centres. Conclusion: Notwithstanding the EU contribution for each study is lower than similar publicly funded projects, and also considering the complexity of paediatric research, these projects are performing high-quality research and are progressing towards the increase of new paediatric medicines on the market. Private–public partnerships have been effectively implemented, providing a good example for future collaborative actions. Since these projects cover a limited number of offpatent drugs and many unmet therapeutic needs in paediatrics remain, it is crucial foreseeing new similar initiatives in forthcoming European funding programmes

Butyltin compounds in a sediment core from the old Tilbury basin, London, UK

Sections from a sediment core taken from the River Thames were analysed for butyltin species using gas chromatography with species-specific isotope dilution mass spectrometry. Results demonstrated that in most samples tributyltin concentrations of 20–60 ng/g accounted for <10% of the total butyltin species present, which is in agreement with data from other sediment samples which were historically contaminated with tributyltin. Vertical distribution of the organotin residues with depth throughout the core, with data on organochlorine compounds and heavy metals allowed for the construction of a consistent hypothesis on historical deposition of contaminated sediments. From this it was possible to infer that the concentrations of tributyltin in sediments deposited during the early 1960s were in the order of 400–600 lg/g by using degradation rate constants derived by other workers. Such values fall well within the range quoted for harbour sediments in the literature