Olanzapine or chlorpromazine plus lithium in first episode psychotic mania: An 8-week randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Treatment strategies for mental disorders may vary according to illness stage. However no data currently exist to guide treatment in first episode psychotic mania. The aim of this study was to compare the safety and efficacy profile of chlorpromazine and olanzapine, as add-on to lithium, in patients with a first episode of psychotic mania, expecting better safety profile and adherence to olanzapine but similar efficacy for both treatments. METHODS: Data from 83 patients were collected in an 8-week randomised controlled trial on clinical variables, side effects, vital signs, and weight. Analyses of treatment differences over time were based on intent-to-treat principles. Kaplan-Meier estimated survival curves were used to analyse time-to-event data and mixed effects models repeated measures analysis of variance were used to determine treatment group differences over time on safety and efficacy measures. RESULTS: Ethics committee approval to delay informed consent procedure until recovery from the acute episode allowed the inclusion of 83 patients highly representative of those treated in the public sector. Contrary to our hypotheses, safety profile of both medications was similar. A signal for higher rate (P=.032) and earlier occurrence (P=.043) of mania remission was observed in the olanzapine group which did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. CONCLUSIONS: Olanzapine and chlorpromazine have a similar safety profile in a uniquely representative cohort of patients with first episode psychotic mania. The possibility for a greater impact of olanzapine on manic symptoms leading to earlier remission of the episode needs exploration in a large sample.

Bassossa Erik Lindström

Opinnäytetyössäni tavoitteena on saada tietoa Erik Lindströmistä basistina, sekä selvittää, mitkä tekijät ovat vaikuttaneet hänen menestyksekkääseen basistin uraansa. Esitän hypoteesina, että ominaisuudet, joita freelancebasistilta edellytetään, ovat varsin samanlaisia nykyään, kuin Lindströmin uran alkuvaiheilla 1940-luvulla. Opinnäytetyötäni varten olen haastatellut Lindströmiä ja kirjoittanut hänen bassonsoittourastaan musiikkiharrastuksen alusta alkaen. Haastattelu on liitteenä CD-muodossa työn takakannessa ja sen kesto on 60 minuuttia. Erik Lindström syntyi Helsingissä 29.5.1922. Hänen isänsä oli aktiivinen amatöörimuusikko, jonka kanssa Erik oli jo 10-vuotiaana ensimmäisellä tanssikeikalla. Ensimmäinen soitin oli viulu, jota hän soitti korvakuulolta. Erik tutustui myöhemmin jazzia harrastaviin ikätovereihinsa Cotton Clubilla. Tästä porukasta alkoi muodostua yhtyeitä, joissa Lindström soitti bassoa. Hän tutki amerikkalaisten esikuviensa soittoa ja opiskeli klassista kontrabasson soittoa kolme vuotta. Luvussa bassonsoiton opiskelu käsitellään jazzinnostusta ja esikuvien vaikutusta, sekä Lindströmin tärkeänä pitämiä asioita, kuten soundia, timea ja yhtyesoittoa. Lisäksi pohditaan korvakuulosoittoa ja nuotinlukua. Lindströmistä kehittyi nopeasti yksi Helsingin kysytyimpiä basisteja. Valittuaan ammattimuusikon uran hän asennoitui kunnianhimoisesti työhönsä ja kehitti itseään niin teoreettisesti kuin taidollisestikin. Hän työskenteli ahkerasti studioissa soittaen erilaisissa tuotannoissa. Ammattilaisura-osassa käsiteltäviä asioita ovat asenne, instrumentit, keikat ja uran kohokohdat. Lopuksi Lindström antaa ohjeita nuoremmille soittajille. Tämän tutkimuksen valossa freelancebasistilta vaadittavat ominaisuudet eivät ole juuri muuttuneet Erik Lindströmin uran alkuajoista. Lindström pitää tärkeänä hypoteesissa mainitsemiani ominaisuuksia: soundia, taimia, musiikin omaksumistaitoja sekä täsmällisyyttä ja luotettavuutta niin musiikillisissa kuin käytännön asioissakin.

A new approach for the separation of spermatozoa from other cell types in forensically relevant samples.

Due to imbalance in genetic material contribution, gynecological samples collected following a sexual assault are challenging to process in order to resolve the male contributor's DNA profile. We set up a new and fast procedure for the recovery and separation of cells from cotton swabs, or other supports. Using spermatozoa specific CD52 antibody coupled to magnetic beads along with magnetic columns, this procedure was first developed and optimized by flow cytometry. It allows the recovery of two enriched cell fractions: a sperm fraction, mostly enriched with the alleged offender's spermatozoa, and a non-sperm fraction, mostly enriched with cells from the victim. Processing fresh as well as six months old mock samples, made of buccal swabs loaded with sperm dilutions, resulted in full single NGM SElect DNA profiles of the sperm donors, respectively the epithelial cells donors, for the sperm and the non-sperm fractions. Untreated duplicate samples processed in parallel only provided the autosomal DNA profiles of the epithelial cells donors. This new procedure can be rapidly tested and adopted by forensic laboratories worldwide as it uses material already commercially available. Moreover it can be easily automated with existing platform, and could therefore provide a mean to rapidly reduce existing backlogs.

The Coordinated Radio and Infrared Survey for High-mass Star Formation. II. Source Catalog

The CORNISH project is the highest resolution radio continuum survey of the Galactic plane to date. It is the 5 GHz radio continuum part of a series of multi-wavelength surveys that focus on the northern GLIMPSE region (10° < l < 65°), observed by the Spitzer satellite in the mid-infrared. Observations with the Very Large Array in B and BnA configurations have yielded a 1.''5 resolution Stokes I map with a root mean square noise level better than 0.4 mJy beam 1. Here we describe the data-processing methods and data characteristics, and present a new, uniform catalog of compact radio emission. This includes an implementation of automatic deconvolution that provides much more reliable imaging than standard CLEANing. A rigorous investigation of the noise characteristics and reliability of source detection has been carried out. We show that the survey is optimized to detect emission on size scales up to 14'' and for unresolved sources the catalog is more than 90% complete at a flux density of 3.9 mJy. We have detected 3062 sources above a 7σ detection limit and present their ensemble properties. The catalog is highly reliable away from regions containing poorly sampled extended emission, which comprise less than 2% of the survey area. Imaging problems have been mitigated by down-weighting the shortest spacings and potential artifacts flagged via a rigorous manual inspection with reference to the Spitzer infrared data. We present images of the most common source types found: H II regions, planetary nebulae, and radio galaxies. The CORNISH data and catalog are available online at http://cornish.leeds.ac.uk.