Drug deprescription-withdrawal risk, prevention, and treatment

In most cases, a sudden interruption of most medications has no major consequences. There are well-recognized therapies that, when withheld, can either lead to the reappearance of the symptoms they were controlling or to signs or symptoms of withdrawal. In this article, we present a table including medications that when interrupted can produce withdrawal syndromes, the signs and symptoms of the withdrawal syndrome, the time to onset and resolution of the syndrome, information regarding alternative delivery options for the drug/s when the oral route is not possible, as well as prevention and therapy

Multifaceted Changes in Synaptic Composition and Astrocytic Involvement in a Mouse Model of Fragile X Syndrome.

Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), a common inheritable form of intellectual disability, is known to alter neocortical circuits. However, its impact on the diverse synapse types comprising these circuits, or on the involvement of astrocytes, is not well known. We used immunofluorescent array tomography to quantify different synaptic populations and their association with astrocytes in layers 1 through 4 of the adult somatosensory cortex of a FXS mouse model, the FMR1 knockout mouse. The collected multi-channel data contained approximately 1.6 million synapses which were analyzed using a probabilistic synapse detector. Our study reveals complex, synapse-type and layer specific changes in the neocortical circuitry of FMR1 knockout mice. We report an increase of small glutamatergic VGluT1 synapses in layer 4 accompanied by a decrease in large VGluT1 synapses in layers 1 and 4. VGluT2 synapses show a rather consistent decrease in density in layers 1 and 2/3. In all layers, we observe the loss of large inhibitory synapses. Lastly, astrocytic association of excitatory synapses decreases. The ability to dissect the circuit deficits by synapse type and astrocytic involvement will be crucial for understanding how these changes affect circuit function, and ultimately defining targets for therapeutic intervention

Dissipative dynamics of vortex arrays in trapped Bose-condensed gases: neutron stars physics on μ\muK scale

We develop a theory of dissipative dynamics of large vortex arrays in trapped Bose-condensed gases. We show that in a static trap the interaction of the vortex array with thermal excitations leads to a non-exponential decay of the vortex structure, and the characteristic lifetime depends on the initial density of vortices. Drawing an analogy with physics of pulsar glitches, we propose an experiment which employs the heating of the thermal cloud in the course of the decay of the vortex array as a tool for a non-destructive study of the vortex dynamics.Comment: 4 pages, revtex; revised versio

Vortex Lattice Structures of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Rotating Lattice Potential

We study vortex lattice structures of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate in a rotating lattice potential by numerically solving the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation. By rotating the lattice potential, we observe the transition from the Abrikosov vortex lattice to the pinned lattice. We investigate the transition of the vortex lattice structure by changing conditions such as angular velocity, intensity, and lattice constant of the rotating lattice potential.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Quantum Fluids and Solids Conference (QFS 2006

Manifestation of superfluidity in an evolving Bose-condensed gas

We study the generation of excitations due to an ''impurity''(static perturbation) placed into an oscillating Bose-condensed gas in the time-dependent trapping field. It is shown that there are two regions for the position of the local perturbation. In the first region the condensate flows around the ''impurity'' without generation of excitations demonstrating superfluid properties. In the second region the creation of excitations occurs, at least within a limited time interval, revealing destruction of superfluidity. The phenomenon can be studied by measuring the damping of condensate oscillations at different positions of the ''impurity''

Creation of a monopole in a spinor condensate

We propose a method to create a monopole structure in a spin-1 spinor condensate by applying the basic methods used to create vortices and solitons experimentally in single-component condensates. We show, however, that by using a two-component structure for a monopole, we can simplify our proposed experimental approach and apply it also to ferromagnetic spinor condensates. We also discuss the observation and dynamics of such a monopole structure, and note that the dynamics of the two-component monopole differs from the dynamics of the three-component monopole.Comment: The focus of the paper is shifted towards creation and observation of monopole

Effect of the patient information brochure in communicating the risks associated with crizotinib treatment to patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Europe

Crizotinib (XALKORI®) is indicated for anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive and ROS1-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer. This study evaluated the distribution of the crizotinib patient information brochure (PIB) in Europe and patient knowledge of the key messages in the PIB. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 10 European countries among patients who received crizotinib to ascertain whether each patient received and read the PIB, and his/her knowledge of its key messages on hepatotoxicity, interstitial lung disease/pneumonitis, QTc prolongation, bradycardia, and vision disorders. Of the 341 patients contacted, 40 responded (11.7%), and 39 patients were eligible. A total of 77% of respondents acknowledged receiving the PIB, of which, 93% reported reading it. Knowledge of the individual side effects ranged from 36% to 85%, and precautions for use ranged from 56% to 67%. Understanding the reasons for calling a physician ranged from 54% to 85%. Knowledge of each of the 6 key side effects was greater among readers of the PIB compared to non-readers or respondents who did not recall receiving the PIB. Approximately three-quarters of survey respondents recalled receiving the crizotinib PIB and respondents who read the PIB were more knowledgeable of the key side effects of crizotinib than those who did not read or receive. Caution should be taken in generalizing these results because of the potential for selection bias and small sample size. These survey results suggest that the crizotinib PIB may be an effective risk communication tool for crizotinib-treated patients in Europe

Periodically-dressed Bose-Einstein condensates: a superfluid with an anisotropic and variable critical velocity

Two intersecting laser beams can produce a spatially-periodic coupling between two components of an atomic gas and thereby modify the dispersion relation of the gas according to a dressed-state formalism. Properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate of such a gas are strongly affected by this modification. A Bogoliubov transformation is presented which accounts for interparticle interactions to obtain the quasiparticle excitation spectrum in such a condensate. The Landau critical velocity is found to be anisotropic and can be widely tuned by varying properties of the dressing laser beams.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Stability of rotating states in a weakly-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate the lowest state of a rotating, weakly-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a harmonic confining potential that is driven by an infinitesimally asymmetric perturbation. Although in an axially-symmetric confining potential the gas has an axially-symmetric single-particle density distribution, we show that in the presence of the small asymmetric perturbation its lowest state is the one given by the mean-field approximation, which is a broken-symmetric state. We also estimate the rate of relaxation of angular momentum when the gas is no longer driven by the asymmetric perturbation and identify two regimes of "slow" and "fast" relaxation. States of certain symmetry are found to be more robust.Comment: 6 pages, RevTe

Vortex lattices in a stirred Bose-Einstein condensate

We stir with a focused laser beam a Bose-Einstein condensate of $^{87}$Rb atoms confined in a magnetic trap. We observe the formation of a single vortex for a stirring frequency exceeding a critical value. At larger rotation frequencies we produce states of the condensate for which up to eleven vortices are simultaneously present. We present measurements of the decay of a vortex array once the stirring laser beam is removed