Sexual Functioning and Opioid Maintenance Treatment in Women. Results From a Large Multicentre Study

Opioid maintenance treatment (OMT) is the most widespread therapy for both females and males opioid addicts. While many studies have evaluated the OMT impact on men’s sexuality, the data collected about the change in women’s sexual functioning is still limited despite the fact that it is now well-known that opioids - both endogenous and exogenous - affect the endocrine system and play an important role in sexual functioning. The present study aims to determine how OMT with buprenorphine (BUP) or methadone (MTD) affects sexual health in women; examining also any possible emerging correlation between sexual dysfunction (SD), type of opioid and patients’ mental health. This multi-center study case recruited 258 female volunteers attending Italian public Addiction Outpatients Centers that were stabilized with OMT for at least 3 months. SD was assessed with the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale. The twelve-item General Health Questionnaire was used to assess participants’ mental health conditions. The results show that 56.6% of women receiving OMT for at least 3 months presented SD without significant differences between MTD e BUP groups. The majority of the subjects with SD have a poorer quality of intimate relationships and worse mental health than the average. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the largest report on the presence of SDs in women as a side effects of MTD and BUP used in OMT. Since SDs cause difficulties in intimate relationships, lower patients’ quality of life and interfere with OMT beneficial outcomes, we recommend that women undertaking an opioid therapy have routine screening for SD and we highlight the importance to better examine opioid-endocrine interactions in future studies in order to provide alternative potential treatments such as the choice of opioid, opioid dose reduction and hormone supplementation

BMS flux algebra in celestial holography

Starting from gravity in asymptotically flat spacetime, the BMS momentum fluxes are constructed. These are non-local expressions of the solution space living on the celestial Riemann surface. They transform in the coadjoint representation of the extended BMS group and correspond to Virasoro primaries under the action of bulk superrotations. The relation between the BMS momentum fluxes and celestial CFT operators is then established: the supermomentum flux is related to the supertranslation operator and the super angular momentum flux is linked to the stress-energy tensor of the celestial CFT. The transformation under the action of asymptotic symmetries and the OPEs of the celestial CFT currents are deduced from the BMS flux algebra

Nonlinear dynamics of a nems carbon nanotube resonator

In this study we consider a slacked CNT and analyze the nonlinear response under electrostatic and electrodynamic actuation. We introduce a reduced-order model, which takes into account the single-mode dynamics and is derived via the Ritz method and the Padéapproximation. The overall scenario of the device behavior is investigated when both the frequency and the electrodynamic voltage are varying. Extensive numerical simulations are performed by the combined use of frequency response diagrams, attractor-basins phase portraits, and frequency-dynamic voltage behavior chart. Our aim is that of illustrating the richness of the nonlinear events that may undergo in the device due to the coupling of mechanical and electrical nonlinearities. We observe that the CNT exhibits coexisting competing attractors, which lead to a versatile behavior. We examine the multistability in detail. The response is explored not only at low electrodynamic voltages, where the safe jump between attractors is ensured, but also at large electrodynamic excitation, where the inevitable escape (dynamic pull-in) becomes impending. We detect the theoretical boundaries of appearance and disappearance of the main attractors, which provide a complete description of the response. © 2012 by ASME

Jump and pull-in dynamics of an electrically actuated bistable MEMS device

This study analyzes a theoretical bistable MEMS device, which exhibits a considerable versatility of behavior. After exploring the coexistence of attractors, we focus on each rest position, and investigate the final outcome, when the electrodynamic voltage is suddenly applied. Our aim is to describe the parameter range where each attractor may practically be observed under realistic conditions, when an electric load is suddenly applied. Since disturbances are inevitably encountered in experiments and practice, a dynamical integrity analysis is performed in order to take them into account. We build the integrity charts, which examine the practical vulnerability of each attractor. A small integrity enhances the sensitivity of the system to disturbances, leading in practice either to jump or to dynamic pull-in. Accordingly, the parameter range where the device, subjected to a suddenly applied load, can operate in safe conditions with a certain attractor is smaller, and sometimes considerably smaller, than in the theoretical predictions. While we refer to a particular case-study, the approach is very general

Nonlinear dynamics of an imperfect microbeam under an axial load and electric excitation

This study is motivated by the growing attention, both from a practical and a theoretical point of view, toward the nonlinear behavior of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). We analyze the nonlinear dynamics of an imperfect microbeam under an axial force and electric excitation. The imperfection of the microbeam, typically due to microfabrication processes, is simulated assuming the microbeam to be of a shallow arched initial shape. The device has a bistable static behavior. The aim is that of illustrating the nonlinear phenomena, which arise due to the coupling of mechanical and electrical nonlinearities, and discussing their usefulness for the engineering design of the microstructure. We derive a single-mode-reduced-order model by combining the classical Galerkin technique and the Padé approximation. Despite its apparent simplicity, this model is able to capture the main features of the complex dynamics of the device. Extensive numerical simulations are performed using frequency response diagrams, attractor-basins phase portraits, and frequency-dynamic voltage behavior charts. We investigate the overall scenario, up to the inevitable escape, obtaining the theoretical boundaries of appearance and disappearance of the main attractors. The main features of the nonlinear dynamics are discussed, stressing their existence and their practical relevance. We focus on the coexistence of robust attractors, which leads to a considerable versatility of behavior. This is a very attractive feature in MEMS applications. The ranges of coexistence are analyzed in detail, remarkably at high values of the dynamic excitation, where the penetration of the escape (dynamic pull-in) inside the double well may prevent the safe jump between the attractors. Copyright © 2011 by ASME

Loop-corrected subleading soft theorem and the celestial stress tensor

We demonstrate that the one-loop exact subleading soft graviton theorem automatically follows from conservation of the BMS charges, provided that the hard and soft fluxes separately represent the extended BMS algebra at null infinity. This confirms that superrotations are genuine symmetries of the gravitational S-matrix beyond the semiclassical regime. In contrast with a previous proposal, the celestial stress tensor accounting for the one-loop corrections follows from the gravitational phase space analysis and does not require the addition of divergent counterterms. Moreover, we show that the symplectic form on the radiative phase space factorises into hard and soft sectors, and that the resulting canonical generators precisely coincide with the correct BMS fluxes