In vivo and in vitro assessment of mirtazapine pharmacokinetics in cats with liver disease.

BackgroundLiver disease (LD) prolongs mirtazapine half-life in humans, but it is unknown if this occurs in cats with LD and healthy cats.Hypothesis/objectivesTo determine pharmacokinetics of administered orally mirtazapine in vivo and in vitro (liver microsomes) in cats with LD and healthy cats.AnimalsEleven LD and 11 age-matched control cats.MethodsCase-control study. Serum was obtained 1 and 4 hours (22 cats) and 24 hours (14 cats) after oral administration of 1.88 mg mirtazapine. Mirtazapine concentrations were measured by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry. Drug exposure and half-life were predicted using limited sampling modeling and estimated using noncompartmental methods. in vitro mirtazapine pharmacokinetics were assessed using liver microsomes from 3 LD cats and 4 cats without LD.ResultsThere was a significant difference in time to maximum serum concentration between LD cats and control cats (median [range]: 4 [1-4] hours versus 1 [1-4] hours; P = .03). The calculated half-life of LD cats was significantly prolonged compared to controls (median [range]: 13.8 [7.9-61.4] hours versus 7.4 [6.7-9.1] hours; P < .002). Mirtazapine half-life was correlated with ALT (P = .002; r = .76), ALP (P < .0001; r = .89), and total bilirubin (P = .0008; r = .81). The rate of loss of mirtazapine was significantly different between microsomes of LD cats (-0.0022 min-1 , CI: -0.0050 to 0.00054 min-1 ) and cats without LD (0.01849 min-1 , CI: -0.025 to -0.012 min-1 ; P = .002).Conclusions and clinical importanceCats with LD might require less frequent administration of mirtazapine than normal cats

Signature change from Schutz's canonical quantum cosmology and its classical analogue

We study the signature change in a perfect fluid Friedmann-Robertson-Walker quantum cosmological model. In this work the Schutz's variational formalism is applied to recover the notion of time. This gives rise to a Schrodinger-Wheeler-DeWitt equation with arbitrary ordering for the scale factor. We use the eigenfunctions in order to construct wave packets and evaluate the time-dependent expectation value of the scale factor which coincides with the ontological interpretation. We show that these solutions exhibit signature transitions from a finite Euclidean to a Lorentzian domain. Moreover, such models are equivalent to a classical system where, besides the perfect fluid, a repulsive fluid is present.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, to appear in PR

One more reason to learn a new language: Testing academic self-efficacy transfer at junior high school

The powerful role of self-efficacy within human development broadly, and in education specifically, is widely acknowledged. Less is understood about how self-efficacy might transfer between domains of varying conceptual distance. The current study examines academic self-efficacy in three domains (mathematics, Japanese and foreign language) across students’ first year at junior high school. Two studies were conducted each including three school (study-A: n=480; study-B: n=398) to support a test and retest of the differences and inter-relationships across this critical period of adjustment. Difference testing presented a general pattern of significant small declines in students’ self-efficacy for all three subjects. Longitudinal latent analyses indicated a consistent moderate effect from foreign language self-efficacy to native language self-efficacy. The pattern of declines, while consistent with research in Western contexts is a source of concern. The transfer of self-efficacy from foreign to native language learning has educational and broad theoretical implications.

Psychological response to disaster: implications for Hawaii.

Given the frequency of natural disasters in Hawaii, it is important for practitioners to be aware of the numerous resulting psychological responses and risk factors, especially those unique to Hawaii. Practical guidelines are presented for practitioners, both in providing leadership during the disaster and in screening for psychopathology thereafter

Superconductivity and Field-Induced Magnetism in Pr2−x_{2-x}Cex_xCuO4_4 Single Crystals

We report muon-spin rotation/relaxation (muSR) measurements on single crystals of the electron-doped high-T_c superconductor Pr$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$. In zero external magnetic field, superconductivity is found to coexist with Cu spins that are static on the muSR time scale. In an applied field, we observe a Knight shift that is primarily due to the magnetic moment induced on the Pr ions. Below the superconducting transition temperature T_c, an additional source of static magnetic order appears throughout the sample. This finding is consistent with antiferromagnetic ordering of the Cu spins in the presence of vortices. We also find that the temperature dependence of the in-plane magnetic penetration depth in the vortex state resembles that of the hole-doped cuprates at temperatures above ~ 0.2 T_c.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure