Story-telling and a sense of place An existential phenomenology of environments

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Pindolol does not augment central serotonin function increases to citalopram in humans : an auditory evoked potential investigation

Animal studies have demonstrated that the co-administration of pindolol and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) potentiate serotonergic functioning to a greater degree than SSRIs alone. However, clinical trials of pindolol augmentation in patients with major depressive disorder have reported contradictory findings, and the central effects of this treatment regime on serotonin functioning in humans are unknown. The current double-blind placebo controlled repeated measures investigation used the loudness dependence auditory evoked potential (LDAEP) to assess central serotonin functioning in healthy participants across three acute treatment conditions: placebo, citalopram (20 mg), and pindolol (10 mg) + citalopram (20 mg). The current paper focuses on the effects of pindolol augmentation of citalopram as compared to the administration of citalopram alone. Enhancement of serotonin function with citalopram in comparison to placebo decreased the slope of the LDAEP (i.e. weaker LDAEP). However, there were no significant differences between the changes in the LDAEP induced by co-administration of pindolol and citalopram compared to citalopram. The present results indicate that, in healthy controls, pindolol augmentation of SSRIs does not potentiate central serotonin function to a greater degree than the administration of an SSRI alone. The findings may provide further support for why pindolol may not be an effective therapeutic strategy to augment serotonin function and antidepressant response

An examination of acute changes in serotonergic neurotransmission using the loudness dependence measure of auditory cortex evoked activity: effects of citalopram, escitalopram and sertraline

The underlying effect of serotonergic neurotransmission has been implicated in several psychiatric disorders. The inability to routinely and non-invasively determine the integrity of the serotonergic system in vivo has limited our understanding of disorders with a putative serotonergic abnormality. The loudness dependence of the auditory evoked potential (LDAEP) has been proposed as a reliable measure of central serotonin function in humans. While animal studies suggest that the LDAEP is sensitive to changes in central serotonin neurotransmission, evidence in humans has been indirect and inconsistent. The aim of this study was to assess the sensitivity of the LDAEP to acute augmentation in central serotonergic neurotransmission in humans. The study used a double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over design, in which healthy subjects were tested under four acute treatment conditions, with pharmacologically equivalent single doses of placebo, escitalopram (10 mg), citalopram (20 mg) and sertraline (50 mg) to examine the direct effect of acute enhancement of synaptic serotonin on the LDAEP. Furthermore, the outcome of the serotonergic modulatory effects on the LDAEP was also examined using two methods (dipole source analysis (DSA) vs. scalp analysis). Escitalopram, citalopram and sertraline had no effects on the LDAEP and were independent of the analysis method used. These findings question the sensitivity of the LDAEP to acute changes in serotonin neurotransmission and its validity as a reliable measure of central serotonin function in humans

Projectile fragment emission angles in fragmentation reactions of light heavy ions in the energy region < 200 MeV/nucleon: Experimental study

Measurements of fragment emission angles for 57 and 93 MeV/nucleon 12C and 95 MeV/nucleon 16O projectiles in graphite, Plexiglas and polyethylene targets were performed using trajectory tracing technique with CR-39 detectors. The results were compared with calculations with the fragmentemission angle model (FRANG). The angular resolution of the measurements was achieved to be <0.1 . The measured fragment emission angles imply that the generally accepted straight-ahead approximation of fragment emissions in nuclear collisions is oversimplified as the fragments are clearly emitted at different angles related to the primary particles. The calculated values were in agreement with the experimental ones within the margin of a few degrees for most of the examined projectile-target systems. However, some discrepancies were observed. Thus a new calculation was performed with a modified version of the model M-FRANG. For both FRANG and M-FRANG, chai-square values were calculated to test the degree of agreement with our measurements. It was confirmed that the M-FRANGshowed better agreement despite its simplicity, and it was established it can be successfully used in several applications, including simple and fast test of more complicated 3D particle and heavy ion transport codes