Room-temperature ultraviolet nanowire nanolasers.

Room-temperature ultraviolet lasing in semiconductor nanowire arrays has been demonstrated. The self-organized, <0001> oriented zinc oxide nanowires grown on sapphire substrates were synthesized with a simple vapor transport and condensation process. These wide band-gap semiconductor nanowires form natural laser cavities with diameters varying from 20 to 150 nanometers and lengths up to 10 micrometers. Under optical excitation, surface-emitting lasing action was observed at 385 nanometers, with an emission linewidth less than 0.3 nanometer. The chemical flexibility and the one-dimensionality of the nanowires make them ideal miniaturized laser light sources. These short-wavelength nanolasers could have myriad applications, including optical computing, information storage, and microanalysis.

[Neurosis and accident insurance]. / Neurose und Unfallversicherung.

The federal law-court for social insurance in Switzerland has recently changed his way of judging insurance claims for neurotic sequels of accidents. A short history of the traumatic neurosis is given and the consequences of this new situation are discussed in view of the psychiatrist as legal expert.

Neonatal severe primary hyperparathyroidism and alkaptonuria in a boy born to related parents with familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia.

We describe a study of a boy with neonatal severe primary hyperparathyroidism (NSPHP) and alkaptonuria born to related parents of Turkish origin. The clinical and chemical courses (e.g. of mineral metabolism, of urinary excretion of amino acids and collagen metabolites) in response to various therapeutic approaches including total parathyroidectomy (PTX) are reported. Urinary excretion of calcium was unusually low before and immediately after PTX, and later during an inadvertent vitamin D intoxication. It corresponded to values typical for patients with familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia (FHH), an autosomal dominant disorder. Both parents and one sibling had episodes of hypercalcemia with inappropriately high parathormone levels; in the father there was also relative hypocalciuria consistent with FHH. On the basis of the genetic and pathophysiologic data reported here, we speculate that homozygosity for the 'FHH-gene' is the cause of the life-threatening manifestation of NSPHP, whereas heterozygosity for the same gene leads to FHH, by comparison a mild disorder. The association of the two very rare recessively transmitted disorders, alkaptonuria and NSPHP, is unique; close linkage of the two genes, one coding for homogentisic acid oxidase, the other for the unknown gene product defective in NSPHP, can be suspected.

[Medical ethics problems in psychiatry]. / Medizinisch-ethische Probleme in der Psychiatrie.

A humanitarian attitude and ethical convictions have contributed much to the development of psychiatry. In the present time these convictions have been codified, for instance in the declaration of the World Federation of Psychiatry in Hawaii 1977. In more detail the author discusses 3 areas where ethical considerations have special significance: the scope of psychotherapy, psychosurgery, and the use of psychiatric means to suppress and discipline politically dissident persons.

[The endocrine psychosyndrome in the long term. III. A catamnestic reexamination of patients suffering from hypothalamo-hypopituitary dwarfism (author's transl)]. / Das endokrine Psychosyndrom im Langzeitverlauf. III. Langfristige Katamnesen von Kranken mit hypothalamo-hypophysärem Zwerg-oder Kleinwuchs.

Fifteen patients (4 females and 11 males) with hypothalamo-hypopituitary dwarfism underwent extensive psychiatric investigation in 1962-1965. A follow-up study of the personality development and social conditions was made in 1977. The age of the patients ranged from 31 to 56 years (the average being 40). As before, the main finding was an infantile personality with a defective psychosexual maturity. Only a few patients had reached a somehat adult, independent personality in spite of hormonal deficiencies. Several patients had continued to grow and attained a stature slightly below average. However, this subsequent growth scarcely influenced personality development. Depressive moods are now more frequent than before and among the more differentiated patients, the neurotic symptoms are mainly phobic fears. Almost all of the patients have discontinued treatment with hormonal substitutes (androgenes, cortison, thyrotropic hormone) inspite of persistent deficiency symptoms, because the outcome did not match their high expectations. The symptoms of the endocrine psychosyndrome seem of minor importance compared with the psychic infantilism and the reactions to the experience of dwarfism and missing puberty. One female has suffered several psychotic episodes which were understood as being partially of endocrine origin.

Pseudohypoparathyroidism and idiopathic hypoparathyroidism: relationship between serum calcium and parathyroid hormone levels and urinary cyclic adenosine-3',5'-monophosphate response to parathyroid extract.

Forty patients with hypocalcemia and/or Albright's hereditary osteodystrophy were studied. Based on the estimation of serum calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels as well as the urinary cAMP response to infusions with parathyroid extract, it was possible to classify all of the patients studied as cases with idiopathic hypoparathyroidism (n = 6, low PTH, normal cAMP response), pseudohypoparathyroidism (PHP) type I (n = 18, high PTH, low cAMP response) and type II (n = 2, high PTH, normal cAMP response), as well as pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (n = 14, normal PTH, normal cAMP response). In three cases studied at the age of 12, 17, and 23 yr, the signs of Albright's hereditary osteodystrophy were not observed. PTH levels were unusually high for a given serum calcium concentration in some patients with PHP, the increased PTH levels were, however, normalized during iv calcium infusions. In two young children with PHP, a gradual increase of serum PTH levels occurred despite persistent normocalcemia over a period of 3 yr. This suggests that factors other than hypocalcemia or frequent small unobservable falls of the serum calcium concentration, such as a deficient formation of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, secretion of an abnormal PTH, or an abnormal metabolism of the hormone, may contribute to the secondary hyperparathyroidism in PHP.

Vitamin D therapy in hypoparathyroidism and pseudohypoparathyroidism: weight-related dosages for initiation of therapy and maintenance therapy.

The aims of this study were to determine the dose of vitamin D2 that maintains the serum calcium level within the normal range in hypoparathyroid and pseudohypoparathyroid children and to establish a safe and quickly acting dose for initiating therapy in symptomatic patients. The dose requirement for maintenance therapy was studied in 11 patients and initiation therapy was studied in five newly diagnosed hypocalcemic patients. The results show that (1) the maintenance requirement of vitamin D2 is proportional to body weight and averages 2,000 IU (50 microgram)/kg/day for children of all ages and with all types of hypoparathyroid disorders and the (2) in newly diagnosed symptomatic patients, carefully controlled administration of 8,000 IU (200 microgram) vitamin D2/kg/day for the first one to two weeks corrects hypocalcemia quickly and safely.

Keratitis with hypoparathyroidism.

Chronic kiratitis developed in two children with nonsurgical hypoparathyroidism, as part of an autosomal recessive syndrome that included adrenal insufficiency and moniliasis in what was postulated to be an autoimmune disease. The corneal changes may also have been caused by autoimmune mechanism. Activity of the keratitis diminished once the hypoparathyroidism had been brought under control. However, these patients were thought to be at risk for adrenal insufficiency: neither had moniliasis or adrenocortical insufficiency at present, but the features of the hypoparathyroidism adrenal insufficiency-moniliasis syndrome appeared at different ages and in differing sequences.

[The endocrine psychosyndrome in the long term. II. A catamnestic reexamination after treatment of patients suffering from Cushing's syndrome (author's transl)]. / Das endokrine Psychosyndrom in Langzeitverlauf. II. Langfristige Katamnesen von Kranken mit Cushing-Syndrom nach Behandlung.

Twelve patients with Cushing's syndrome (11 females, 1 male) who were examined for psychopathologic alterations in the course of the endocrine disease during the years 1960-61, were reexamined in 1976 regarding psychiatric sequelae after treatment. Ten patients had been treated by adrenalectomy, one patient by radiotherapy of the hypophysis, and one patient had refused any treatment. The average lapse of time from operation to reexamination or death (five patients) was 15 2/3 years. In seven patients it had been possible to stop completely the excessive production of adrenal hormones. Corresponding the long-term result was favorable, with complete recovery of the ability to work. The previous symptoms of the endocrine psychosyndrome disappeared almost completely. There was no permanent alteration of personality and the vital dependence on hormonal substitution was well tolerated. In four of the five patients with an unfavorable course of the disease it had not been possible to stop the excessive production of adrenal hormones. These patients became increasingly invalid and had to be cared for. Symptoms of chronic organic brain syndrome developed. In contrast to the course of panhypopituitarism where nonspecific personality factors are of considerable importance, in Cushing's syndrome the long-term prognosis depends entirely on the successful stoppage of the overproduction of adrenal hormones. The artificial subsitution is not necessarily a disadvantage for the psychic functioning of the patient.

[The endocrine psychosyndrome in the long term. I. A cantamnestic reexamination of patients suffering from panhypopituitarism (author's transl)]. / Das endokrine Psychosyndrom im Langzeitverlauf I. Langfristige Katamnesen von Kranken mit Hypophysenvorderlappeninsuffizienz.

Twelve patients (8 females, 4 males) with panhypopituitarism who had been thoroughly examined psychiatrically in 1957 and 1958 were reexamined in 1974 for psychopathologic alterations in the course of their endocrine disease. Eleven patients had been receiving an adequate hormonal treatment during the intervening years or (four patients) until the time of their death. Seven patients showed a good or excellent result of hormonal therapy, in respect of the psychic symptoms: the endocrine psychosyndrome which had been observed prior to treatment had improved considerably. Signs of organic brain syndrome were judged to be caused by age and not by the endocrinopathy. The factors influencing prognosis of psychic symptoms are: alteration in mental activity, in the sense of apathy and lack of drive, and the extent of social distegration caused by these alterations; the age of the patient at the onset of symptoms and the lapse of time prior to the beginning of adequate therapy; finally the personality structure and the social situation of the patient.

Neonatal mucolipidosis II (I-cell disease): clinical and radiologic features in three cases.

Three unrelated southern Italian children manifested I-cell within the first month of life, but it was not recognized initially. Radiologic findings of osteopenia, subperiosteal new bone formation and resorption, and irregular metaphyses suggested systemic bone disease. Premature suture synostosis was evident at age 2-4 weeks. Review of the literature and experience with these cases establish these findings as valuable and specific clue to the diagnosis of I-cell disease. By 6-10 months of age, the clinical and radiologic features were similar to those in Hurler syndrome. Cardiorespiratory death occurred in two cases.