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

Analytical modeling of HSUPA-enabled UMTS networks for capacity planning

In recent years, mobile communication networks have experienced significant evolution. The 3G mobile communication system, UMTS, employs WCDMA as the air interface standard, which leads to quite different mobile network planning and dimensioning processes compared with 2G systems. The UMTS system capacity is limited by the received interference at NodeBs due to the unique features of WCDMA, which is denoted as `soft capacity'. Consequently, the key challenge in UMTS radio network planning has been shifted from channel allocation in the channelized 2G systems to blocking and outage probabilities computation under the `cell breathing' effects which are due to the relationship between network coverage and capacity. The interference characterization, especially for the other-cell interference, is one of the most important components in 3G mobile networks planning. This monograph firstly investigates the system behavior in the operation of UMTS uplink, and develops the analytic techniques to model interference and system load as fully-characterized random variables, which can be directly applicable to the performance modeling of such networks. When the analysis progresses from single-cell scenario to multi-cell scenario, as the target SIR oriented power control mechanism is employed for maximum capacity, more sophisticated system operation, `feedback behavior', has emerged, as the interference levels at different cells depend on each other. Such behaviors are also captured into the constructed interference model by iterative and approximation approaches. The models are then extended to cater for the features of the newly introduced HSUPA, which provides enhanced dedicated channels for the packet switched data services such that much higher bandwidth can be achieved for best-effort elastic traffic, which allows network operators to cope with the coexistence of both circuit-switched and packet-switched traffic and guarantee the QoS requirements. During the derivation, we consider various propagation models, traffic models, resource allocation schemes for many possible scenarios, each of which may lead to different analytical models. All the suggested models are validated with either Monte-Carlo simulations or discrete event simulations, where excellent matches between results are always achieved. Furthermore, this monograph studies the optimization-based resource allocation strategies in the UMTS uplink with integrated QoS/best-effort traffic. Optimization techniques, both linear-programming based and non-linear-programming based, are used to determine how much resource should be assigned to each enhanced uplink user in the multi-cell environment where each NodeB possesses full knowledge of the whole network. The system performance under such resource allocation schemes are analyzed and compared via Monte-Carlo simulations, which verifies that the proposed framework may serve as a good estimation and optimal reference to study how systems perform for network operators

SWI/SNF remains localized to chromatin in the presence of SCHLAP1

SCHLAP1 is a long noncoding RNA that is reported to function by depleting the SWI/SNF complex from the genome. We investigated the hypothesis that SCHLAP1 affects only specific compositions of SWI/SNF. Using several assays, we found that SWI/SNF is not depleted from the genome by SCHLAP1 and that SWI/SNF is associated with many coding and noncoding RNAs, suggesting that SCHLAP1 may function in a SWI/SNF-independent manner

Towards a Realistic Neutron Star Binary Inspiral: Initial Data and Multiple Orbit Evolution in Full General Relativity

This paper reports on our effort in modeling realistic astrophysical neutron star binaries in general relativity. We analyze under what conditions the conformally flat quasiequilibrium (CFQE) approach can generate ``astrophysically relevant'' initial data, by developing an analysis that determines the violation of the CFQE approximation in the evolution of the binary described by the full Einstein theory. We show that the CFQE assumptions significantly violate the Einstein field equations for corotating neutron stars at orbital separations nearly double that of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) separation, thus calling into question the astrophysical relevance of the ISCO determined in the CFQE approach. With the need to start numerical simulations at large orbital separation in mind, we push for stable and long term integrations of the full Einstein equations for the binary neutron star system. We demonstrate the stability of our numerical treatment and analyze the stringent requirements on resolution and size of the computational domain for an accurate simulation of the system.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, accepted to Phys. Rev.

Mode-Locking in Driven Disordered Systems as a Boundary-Value Problem

We study mode-locking in disordered media as a boundary-value problem. Focusing on the simplest class of mode-locking models which consists of a single driven overdamped degree-of-freedom, we develop an analytical method to obtain the shape of the Arnol'd tongues in the regime of low ac-driving amplitude or high ac-driving frequency. The method is exact for a scalloped pinning potential and easily adapted to other pinning potentials. It is complementary to the analysis based on the well-known Shapiro's argument that holds in the perturbative regime of large driving amplitudes or low driving frequency, where the effect of pinning is weak.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX, Submitte

Peripheral serotonin deficiency affects anxiety-like behavior and the molecular response to an acute challenge in rats

Serotonin is synthetized through the action of tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) enzymes. While the TPH2 isoform is responsible for the production of serotonin in the brain, TPH1 is expressed in peripheral organs. Interestingly, despite its peripheral localization, alterations of the gene coding for TPH1 have been related to stress sensitivity and an increased susceptibility for psychiatric pathologies. On these bases, we took advantage of newly generated TPH1(-/-)rats, and we evaluated the impact of the lack of peripheral serotonin on the behavior and expression of brain plasticity-related genes under basal conditions and in response to stress. At a behavioral level, TPH1(-/-) rats displayed reduced anxiety-like behavior. Moreover, we found that neuronal activation, quantified by the expression of (Bdnf) and the immediate early gene (Arc) and transcription of glucocorticoid responsive genes after 1 h of acute restraint stress, was blunted in TPH1(-/-) rats in comparison to TPH1 animals(+/+). Overall, we provided evidence for the influence of peripheral serotonin levels in modulating brain functions under basal and dynamic situations

Relativistic Hydrodynamic Evolutions with Black Hole Excision

We present a numerical code designed to study astrophysical phenomena involving dynamical spacetimes containing black holes in the presence of relativistic hydrodynamic matter. We present evolutions of the collapse of a fluid star from the onset of collapse to the settling of the resulting black hole to a final stationary state. In order to evolve stably after the black hole forms, we excise a region inside the hole before a singularity is encountered. This excision region is introduced after the appearance of an apparent horizon, but while a significant amount of matter remains outside the hole. We test our code by evolving accurately a vacuum Schwarzschild black hole, a relativistic Bondi accretion flow onto a black hole, Oppenheimer-Snyder dust collapse, and the collapse of nonrotating and rotating stars. These systems are tracked reliably for hundreds of M following excision, where M is the mass of the black hole. We perform these tests both in axisymmetry and in full 3+1 dimensions. We then apply our code to study the effect of the stellar spin parameter J/M^2 on the final outcome of gravitational collapse of rapidly rotating n = 1 polytropes. We find that a black hole forms only if J/M^2<1, in agreement with previous simulations. When J/M^2>1, the collapsing star forms a torus which fragments into nonaxisymmetric clumps, capable of generating appreciable ``splash'' gravitational radiation.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, submitted to PR

AdS Bubbles, Entropy and Closed String Tachyons

We study the conjectured connection between AdS bubbles (AdS solitons) and closed string tachyon condensations. We confirm that the entanglement entropy, which measures the degree of freedom, decreases under the tachyon condensation. The entropies in supergravity and free Yang-Mills agree with each other remarkably. Next we consider the tachyon condensation on the AdS twisted circle and argue that its endpoint is given by the twisted AdS bubble, defined by the double Wick rotation of rotating black 3-brane solutions. We calculated the Casimir energy and entropy and checked the agreements between the gauge and gravity results. Finally we show an infinite boost of a null linear dilaton theory with a tachyon wall (or bubble), leads to a solvable time-dependent background with a bulk tachyon condensation. This is the simplest example of spacetimes with null boundaries in string theory.Comment: 45 pages, 6 figures, harvmac, eq.(2.16) corrected, references adde

Strongly Hyperbolic Extensions of the ADM Hamiltonian

The ADM Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity with prescribed lapse and shift is a weakly hyperbolic system of partial differential equations. In general weakly hyperbolic systems are not mathematically well posed. For well posedness, the theory should be reformulated so that the complete system, evolution equations plus gauge conditions, is (at least) strongly hyperbolic. Traditionally, reformulation has been carried out at the level of equations of motion. This typically destroys the variational and Hamiltonian structures of the theory. Here I show that one can extend the ADM formalism to (i) incorporate the gauge conditions as dynamical equations and (ii) affect the hyperbolicity of the complete system, all while maintaining a Hamiltonian description. The extended ADM formulation is used to obtain a strongly hyperbolic Hamiltonian description of Einstein's theory that is generally covariant under spatial diffeomorphisms and time reparametrizations, and has physical characteristics. The extended Hamiltonian formulation with 1+log slicing and gamma--driver shift conditions is weakly hyperbolic.Comment: This version contains minor corrections and clarifications. The format has been changed to conform with IOP styl