History of Premenstrual Mood Change and Postpartum Episodes are Associated with Perimenopausal Episodes in Women with Bipolar Disorder

Background and Aims: Reproductive life events are potential triggers of mood episodes in women with bipolar disorder. We aimed to establish whether a history of premenstrual mood change and postpartum episodes are associated with perimenopausal episodes in women who have bipolar disorder. Methods: Participants were 339 post-menopausal women with DSM-IV bipolar disorder recruited into the Bipolar Disorder Research Network (www.bdrn.org). Women self-reported presence (N = 200) or absence (N = 139) of an illness episode during the perimenopausal period. History of premenstrual mood change was measured using the self-report Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST), and history of postpartum episodes was measured via semi-structured interview (Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry, SCAN) and inspection of case-notes. Results: History of a postpartum episode within 6 months of delivery (OR = 2.13, p = 0.03) and history of moderate/severe premenstrual syndrome (OR = 6.33, p < 0.001) were significant predictors of the presence of a perimenopausal episode, even after controlling for demographic factors. When we narrowed the definition of premenstrual mood change to premenstrual dysphoric disorder, it remained significant (OR = 2.68, p = 0.007). Conclusions: Some women who have bipolar disorder may be particularly sensitive to reproductive life events. Previous mood episodes in relation to the female reproductive lifecycle may help clinicians predict individual risk for women with bipolar disorder approaching the menopause. There is a need for prospective longitudinal studies of women with bipolar disorder providing frequent contemporaneous ratings of their mood to overcome the limitations of retrospective self-report data

Growth and characterization of heteroepitaxial La-substituted BaSnO3_3 films on SrTiO3_3 (001) and SmScO3_3 (110) substrates

Heteroepitaxial growth of BaSnO$_3$ (BSO) and Ba$_{1-x}$La$_x$SnO$_3$ (x = 7 %) (LBSO) thin films on different perovskite single crystal (SrTiO$_3$ (001) and SmScO$_3$ (110)) substrates has been achieved by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) under optimized deposition conditions. X-ray diffraction measurements indicate that the films on either of these substrates are relaxed due to the large mismatch and present a high degree of crystallinity with narrow rocking curves and smooth surface morphology while analytical quantification by proton induced x-ray emission (PIXE) confirms the stoichiometric La transfer from a polyphasic target, producing films with La contents above the bulk solubility limit. The films show degenerate semiconducting behavior on both substrates, with the observed room temperature resistivities, Hall mobilities and carrier concentrations of 4.4 $m \Omega cm$, 10.11 $cm^2 V^{-1} s^{-1}$, and 1.38 $\cdot 10^{20} cm^{-3}$ on SmScO$_3$ and 7.8 $m \Omega cm$, 5.8 $cm^2 V^{-1} s^{-1}$, and 1.36 $\cdot 10^{20} cm^{-3}$ on SrTiO$_3$ ruling out any extrinsic contribution from the substrate. The superior electrical properties observed on the SmScO3 substrate are attributed to reduction in dislocation density from the lower lattice mismatch.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, supplementary informations 2 figure

Numerical analysis of non-isothermal Newtonian flows in plate heat exchangers

Associar ao Dep. de Tecnologia Química e Biológica - docente Ricardo DiasNumerical analysis of non-isothermal Newtonian flows in plate heat exchanger passages is carried out in the laminar flow region. The results of this analysis are compared with information available in the literature. Some interesting trends are observed for both heat transfer and pressure drop with varying chevron angle. Areas of further work are delineated and it is emphasised that practical ranges of inter-plate distance, corrugation pitch and the development ratio need to be studied to fully understand the practical implications of the current numerical work

Design and Implementation of Single Phase Inverter

Now a days due to industrialization, there is gap between demand and supply, therefore the need of electricity is increased and we use the electricity efficiently. We cannot store the electricity in AC form, so we store the energy in battery in the form of DC and then it converts into AC using inverter. In that project, we are design and implement the inverter bridge on single phase full and half bridge inverter with R and RL load In that project the PWM method can be used for the generation of the waveforms

Evolution of nanoripples on silicon by gas cluster-ion irradiation

Si wafers of (100), (110) and (111) orientations were bombarded by gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) of 3000 Ar-atoms/cluster on average at a series of angles. Similar surface morphology ripples developed in different nanoscales. A simple scaling functional satisfactorily describe the roughness and wavelength of the ripple patterns as a function of dosage and angle of incidence. The ripples are formed orthogonal to the incident cluster-ions at large off-normal angles. An ellipsoidal pattern was created by two consecutive irradiations incident in mutually orthogonal directions with unequal exposure times between each irradiation, from 7:1 to 10:1, beyond which the original ripple imprints would be over-written. This work was inspired by use of the ripples to seed growth of controlled nanostructures without patterning by lithography or predeposition of catalysts