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Background and purpose: Although physical problems after stroke have been well studied, there is little information on one of the crucial aspects of the quality of life of those patients, namely sexual functioning and satisfaction. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of stroke on sexual functioning in a stable cohort of Turkish stroke patients with mild or no disability and to assess the relationship between post-stroke sexuality and a number of socio-demographic, clinical and laboratory variables. Methods: The sexual functioning of 103 Turkish stroke patients with no disability or mild disability was assessed in two consecutive interviews along with clinical and sociodemographic features. NIH stroke, Glasgow coma, Barthel, and Rankin scales were also applied to assess neurologic status and disability. Results: Most of the patients were male (61%) and illiterate (70%). There was a significant difference between the baseline and post-stroke frequency of sexual activity of the patients. The differences between baseline and post-stroke vaginal lubrication, orgasms and satisfaction were all statistically significant. This latter difference was significant for both genders. Frequency of coitus both prior to and after the stroke was significantly different between males and females. Erection and ejaculation of the males was significantly affected by the stroke, and lubrication and orgasm was affected in the females. Interestingly, fear of recurrent stroke did not differ between genders. Discussion and Conclusion: Our study has shown that Turkish stroke survivors have sexual health needs during the rehabilitation process, though this has not been addressed previously. Sexual health needs seem to be affected by cultural factors and biases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Langmuir films (LFs) of biphenyl and anthracene derivatives on the surface of liquid mercury were studied by surface-specific X-ray and surface tension measurements. Phases of lying-down, side-lying and standing-up molecules were found, some of which exhibit long-range lateral order. The molecular symmetry and the position and nature of the side-, end-, and headgroups are shown to dominate the structural evolution of the LFs with surface coverage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Risperidone, a benzisoxazole derivative, is a novel antipsychotic drug that binds with high affinity to serotonin type 2 (5-HT[sub 2]), dopamine D[sub 2] and α[sub 1] -adrenergic receptors, and causes antagonism at these receptor sites. Risperidone has been proven to be effective in psychotic disorders, aggression and several other psychiatric disorders. The most frequent adverse reactions observed during clinical trials with risperidone are insomnia, agitation, extrapyramidal disorders, anxiety and headache. Apart from these events, several other adverse reactions have been observed with this drug during pre- and postmarketing periods, of which oedema has been reported in several case reports and more recently in a large-scale study. Although the aetiology of this adverse effect has not been established yet, new experiences, studies and case reports would improve our understanding of the causes of oedema associated with risperidone. In this report, we present a case of oedema due to risperidone, and review the associated literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We show that adding CTAB (CTAB, hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide) in sub-millimolar bulk concentrations to water reduces its surface tension (ST) to a level where spontaneous surface spreading of a monolayer of medium-sized alkane (C n H2n+2, 12≤ n ≤17) occurs. ST and X-ray reflectivity (XR) measurements are used to show that the quasi two-dimensional (2D) liquid monolayer can be driven through a reversible surface freezing phase transition upon cooling. Grazing incidence diffraction (GID) shows that the frozen monolayer is crystalline, hexagonally packed, with surface-normal molecules, and a crystalline coherence length of at least a few hundred Å, very similar to the structure of surface-frozen (SF) monolayers at the surface of similar-length alkane melts. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Pathological laughing and crying (PLC) is characterized by uncontrollable,mood-incongruent laughing and crying episodes. PLC is commonly associatedwith cerebrovascular diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and bulbar andpseudobulbar palsy related to multiple sclerosis. The process underlying PLChas been linked with serotonergic system dysfunction and partial injury of theserotonergic raphe nucleus and associated hemisphere. Serotonin reuptakeinhibitors are the mainstay of treatment, but other antidepressants andpsychotropic drugs have also been used in the treatment of PLC. Here, a 67year old patient with poststroke PLC and the treatment process employed hasbeen presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surface-normal electron density profile ρs(z) of concentrated aqueous salt solutions of RbBr, CsCl, LiBr, RbCl, and SrCl2 was determined by x-ray reflectivity (XR). For all but RbBr and SrCl2 ρs(z) increases monotonically with depth z from ρs(z)=0 in the vapor (z<0) to ρs(z)=ρb of the bulk (z>0) over a width of a few angstroms. The width is commensurate with the expected interface broadening by thermally excited capillary waves. Anomalous (resonant) XR of RbBr reveals a depletion at the surface of Br- ions to a depth of ∼10 Å. For SrCl2, the observed ρs(z)>ρb may imply a similar surface depletion of Cl- ions to a depth of a few angstorms. However, as the deviations of the XRs of RbBr and SrCl2 from those of the other solutions are small, the evidence for a different ion composition in the surface and the bulk is not strongly conclusive. Overall, these results contrast earlier theoretical and simulational results and nonstructural measurements, where significant surface layering of alternate, oppositely charged, ions is concluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temperature dependent phase behavior of Langmuir films of n-alkanes [CH3(CH2)n-2CH3, denote Cn] on mercury was studied for chain lengths 19≤n≤22 and temperatures 15≤T≤44 °C, using surface tensiometry and surface x-ray diffraction methods. In contrast with Langmuir films on water, where molecules invariably orient roughly surface normal, alkanes on mercury are always oriented surface parallel and show no long-range in-plane order at any surface pressure. A gas and several condensed phases of single, double, and triple layers of lying-down molecules are found, depending on n and T. At high coverages, the alkanes studied here show transitions from a triple to a double to a single layer with increasing temperature. The transition temperature from a double to a single layer is found to be ∼5 °C, lower than the bulk rotator-to-liquid melting temperature, while the transition from a triple to a double layer is about as much below the double-to-single layer transition. Both monolayer and bulk transition temperatures show a linear increase with n with identical slopes of ∼4.5 °C/CH2 within the range of n values addressed here. It is suggested that the film and bulk transitions are both driven by a common cause: the proliferation of gauche defects in the chain with increasing temperature.© 2004 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]