Modern Clinical Research on LSD

All modern clinical studies using the classic hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in healthy subjects or patients in the last 25 years are reviewed herein. There were five recent studies in healthy participants and one in patients. In a controlled setting, LSD acutely induced bliss, audiovisual synesthesia, altered meaning of perceptions, derealization, depersonalization, and mystical experiences. These subjective effects of LSD were mediated by the 5-HT2A receptor. LSD increased feelings of closeness to others, openness, trust, and suggestibility. LSD impaired the recognition of sad and fearful faces, reduced left amygdala reactivity to fearful faces, and enhanced emotional empathy. LSD increased the emotional response to music and the meaning of music. LSD acutely produced deficits in sensorimotor gating, similar to observations in schizophrenia. LSD had weak autonomic stimulant effects and elevated plasma cortisol, prolactin, and oxytocin levels. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance studies showed that LSD acutely reduced the integrity of functional brain networks and increased connectivity between networks that normally are more dissociated. LSD increased functional thalamocortical connectivity and functional connectivity of the primary visual cortex with other brain areas. The latter effect was correlated with subjective hallucinations. LSD acutely induced global increases in brain entropy that were associated with greater trait openness 14 days later. In patients with anxiety associated with life-threatening disease, anxiety was reduced for 2 months after two doses of LSD. In medical settings, no complications of LSD administration were observed. These data should contribute to further investigations of the therapeutic potential of LSD in psychiatry

Sweep gas membrane distillation in a membrane contactor with metallic hollow-fibers

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. This work revolves around the use of porous metal hollow fibers in membrane distillation. Various stages are covered, starting from membrane synthesis up to the testing of a pilot scale membrane module. Mechanically stable metal hollow fibers have been synthesized by phase inversion of a stainless steel particle loaded polymer solution, followed by thermal treatment to remove the polymer and sinter the particles together. The pore surface of the metal fibers has been made hydrophobic by functionalization with polydimethylsiloxane or stearic acid. A water evaporation flux of 0.2kgh-1m-2 was obtained at a feed water temperature of 333K and a sweep gas flow rate of 135Lh-1 (Reair=2458) with pure water as feed. Under similar operating conditions, an evaporation flux of 0.14kgh-1m-2 was achieved when a 600gL-1 sucrose solution was used as feed.status: publishe

Process intensification by coupling the Joule effect with pervaporation and sweeping gas membrane distillation

This work concerns the intensification of membrane processes by coupling the Joule effect with two membrane processes: pervaporation and sweeping gas membrane distillation. For this purpose, conducting metallic hollow fibers impregnated or coated with polydimethyl siloxane were simultaneously used as membrane and heating electric resistance. The application of an electrical potential resulted in an enhancement of 40% of the water vapor permeate flux in sweep gas membrane distillation. However, the flux enhancement is the result not only of the heating on the membrane vicinity but also on the enhancement of the feed temperature. In the case of pervaporation of aqueous ethanol solutions (20%), the direct heating of fibers allowed improving by 100% the ethanol permeate flux while increasing the process selectivity.status: publishe

Maintenance, reserve and compensation: the cognitive neuroscience of healthy ageing

Cognitive ageing research examines the cognitive abilities that are preserved and/or those that decline with advanced age. There is great individual variability in cognitive ageing trajectories. Some older adults show little decline in cognitive ability compared with young adults and are thus termed ‘optimally ageing’. By contrast, others exhibit substantial cognitive decline and may develop dementia. Human neuroimaging research has led to a number of important advances in our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying these two outcomes. However, interpreting the age-related changes and differences in brain structure, activation and functional connectivity that this research reveals is an ongoing challenge. Ambiguous terminology is a major source of difficulty in this venture. Three terms in particular — compensation, maintenance and reserve — have been used in a number of different ways, and researchers continue to disagree about the kinds of evidence or patterns of results that are required to interpret findings related to these concepts. As such inconsistencies can impede progress in both theoretical and empirical research, here, we aim to clarify and propose consensual definitions of these terms