Analysis of Lithium

The technology of lithium and its compounds was accorded little consideration a few years ago. Immediately following World War II fundamental knowledge of lithium began to be greatly expanded and its importance in industry has risen. Lithium and its compounds are used in porcelain enamels, and glazes; in air conditioning units; in greases, cosmetics and the like, just to cite a few examples. Lithium is the lightest of all the metals having an atomic weight of 6.94. The lithium ion has the smallest ionic radius of the alkalies and is approximately the same size as the magnesium ion. Its chemical properties frequently parallel those attributed to alkaline earths; this is the property which sets lithium apart from the other alkalies

Divergent Humoral Responses to 23-Valent Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Vaccine in Critically-Ill Burn and Neurosurgical Patients

INTRODUCTION: Critically ill hospitalized patients are at increased risk of infection so we assessed the immunogenicity of 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23) administered within six days of injury. METHODS: This prospective observational study compared the immunogenicity of PPSV23 among critically ill burn and neurosurgical patients at a tertiary, academic medical center. Patients received PPSV23 vaccination within six days of ICU admission per standard of care. Consent was obtained to measure concentrations of vaccine-specific IgG to 14 of 23 serotype capsule-specific IgG in serum prior to and 14-35 days following PPSV23. A successful immunologic response was defined as both a ≥2-fold rise in capsule-specific IgG from baseline and concentrations of \u3e1 mcg/mL to 10 of 14 measured vaccine serotypes. Immunologic response was compared between burn and neurosurgical patients. Multiple variable regression methods were used to explore associations of clinical and laboratory parameters to immunologic responses. RESULTS: Among the 16 burn and 27 neurosurgical patients enrolled, 87.5% and 40.7% generated a successful response to the vaccine, respectively (p = 0.004). Both median post-PPSV23 IgG concentrations (7.79 [4.56-18.1] versus 2.93 [1.49-8.01] mcg/mL; p = 0.006) and fold rises (10.66 [7.44-14.56] versus 3.48 [1.13-6.59]; p CONCLUSION: Critically ill burn patients can generate successful responses to PPSV23 during acute injury whereas responses among neurosurgical patients is comparatively blunted. Further study is needed to elucidate the mechanisms of differential antigen responsiveness in these populations, including the role of acute stress responses, as well as the durability of these antibody responses

Different paths to the modern state in Europe: the interaction between domestic political economy and interstate competition

Theoretical work on state formation and capacity has focused mostly on early modern Europe and on the experience of western European states during this period. While a number of European states monopolized domestic tax collection and achieved gains in state capacity during the early modern era, for others revenues stagnated or even declined, and these variations motivated alternative hypotheses for determinants of fiscal and state capacity. In this study we test the basic hypotheses in the existing literature making use of the large date set we have compiled for all of the leading states across the continent. We find strong empirical support for two prevailing threads in the literature, arguing respectively that interstate wars and changes in economic structure towards an urbanized economy had positive fiscal impact. Regarding the main point of contention in the theoretical literature, whether it was representative or authoritarian political regimes that facilitated the gains in fiscal capacity, we do not find conclusive evidence that one performed better than the other. Instead, the empirical evidence we have gathered lends supports to the hypothesis that when under pressure of war, the fiscal performance of representative regimes was better in the more urbanized-commercial economies and the fiscal performance of authoritarian regimes was better in rural-agrarian economie

25th annual computational neuroscience meeting: CNS-2016

The same neuron may play different functional roles in the neural circuits to which it belongs. For example, neurons in the Tritonia pedal ganglia may participate in variable phases of the swim motor rhythms [1]. While such neuronal functional variability is likely to play a major role the delivery of the functionality of neural systems, it is difficult to study it in most nervous systems. We work on the pyloric rhythm network of the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG) [2]. Typically network models of the STG treat neurons of the same functional type as a single model neuron (e.g. PD neurons), assuming the same conductance parameters for these neurons and implying their synchronous firing [3, 4]. However, simultaneous recording of PD neurons shows differences between the timings of spikes of these neurons. This may indicate functional variability of these neurons. Here we modelled separately the two PD neurons of the STG in a multi-neuron model of the pyloric network. Our neuron models comply with known correlations between conductance parameters of ionic currents. Our results reproduce the experimental finding of increasing spike time distance between spikes originating from the two model PD neurons during their synchronised burst phase. The PD neuron with the larger calcium conductance generates its spikes before the other PD neuron. Larger potassium conductance values in the follower neuron imply longer delays between spikes, see Fig. 17.Neuromodulators change the conductance parameters of neurons and maintain the ratios of these parameters [5]. Our results show that such changes may shift the individual contribution of two PD neurons to the PD-phase of the pyloric rhythm altering their functionality within this rhythm. Our work paves the way towards an accessible experimental and computational framework for the analysis of the mechanisms and impact of functional variability of neurons within the neural circuits to which they belong