Cost-effective method for computational prediction of thermal conductivity in optical materials based on cubic oxides.

In this paper we report on a computationally cost-effective method designed to estimate the thermal conductivity of optical materials based on cubic oxide including mixed ones, i.e. solid solutions of different oxides. The proposed methodology take advantage from Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to extract essential structural parameters and elastic constants which represent the inputs for revised versions of Slack and Klemens equations relating thermal conductivity to elastic constants. Slack equation is modified by the introduction of a corrective factor that incorporates the Grüneisen parameter γ, while in the revised Klemens equation a distortion parameter d accounting for the impact of point defects on lattice symmetry is added, which is a critical factor in determining thermal conductivity in optical materials with mixed compositions. The theoretical results were found in good agreement with experimental data, showing the reliability of our proposed methodology.

Rates and clinical correlates of treatment non-adherence in schizoaffective bipolar patients.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze demographical, clinical, and therapeutic variables that may be associated with pharmacological non-adherence in a sample of schizoaffective patients, bipolar type. METHOD: Adherence to treatment and its clinical correlates were assessed at the end of a 10-year follow-up in 76 patients meeting DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type. Adherent and poorly adherent patients were compared regarding clinical and therapeutic variables. RESULTS: The rate of poorly adherent patients was 32/76 (41.2%) of the sample. Adherent patients were more likely to have presented an affective episode at illness onset and to have fewer purely - non-affective - psychotic episodes. Demographic or other clinical variables were not found to be associated to treatment adherence. Family history for psychiatric disorders or suicide did not correlate either, and neither did any specific pharmacological agent. CONCLUSION: Rates of non-adherence in schizoaffective disorder are high. Adherence seems to be associated to a more affective course of illness (affective first episode and fewer purely psychotic episodes). Patients with more prominent schizophrenia-like characteristics could be at higher risk for poor adherence and need to be closely followed and monitored. Even when properly treated, schizoaffective disorder is a disabling and severe disorder with high risk for recurrences.

Similar discontinuation symptoms for withdrawal from medium-dose paroxetine and venlafaxine after nine years in the same patient.

A woman who had developed a discontinuation syndrome nine years ago with paroxetine tapered from 10 to 5 mg/day represented the same syndrome recently when she occasionally missed her 75 mg q 12 h venlafaxine doses. The symptoms, comprising agitation, numbness, pricking sensations, sweating, difficulty concentrating, weakness, derealisation and perceived xerophthalmia, immediately subside upon drug dose reinstitution. The patient had used cannabis irregularly before the onset of pauci-symptomatic panic attacks, but none of her panic symptoms were present in her withdrawal symptomatology. Some symptoms waxed and waned during the withdrawal period. The syndrome is compatible with both hyper- and hypoactivity of the central serotonergic system.