Aripiprazole monotherapy in children and young adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders: a retrospective study.

Background: Pervasive developmental disorders (PDDs) are severe psychiatric disorders characterized by impairment in social interactions, in verbal and non-verbal communication, and by restricted and stereotyped patterns of interest and behaviour, with onset in the first 3 years of life. The appropriate use of pharmacotherapy can improve some aberrant symptoms and behaviours and increase the person's response to non-pharmacological interventions.

Objective: To describe clinical outcomes, or symptom changes, and adverse effects during naturalistic treatment with aripiprazole monotherapy in children with PDDs and severe behavioural disorders (such as aggression against self and/or others, hostility, hyperactivity, severe impulsiveness).

Control and synchronization of laser bursting and its implications in neuroscience.

We present experimental and numerical evidence of control and synchronization of burst events in modulated CO(2) lasers. Bursts appear randomly in each laser as trains of large amplitude spikes intercalated by a small amplitude chaotic regime. Experimental data and model display the frequency locking of bursts in a suitable interval of coupling strengths.

Attractor selection in a modulated laser and in the Lorenz circuit.

By tuning a control parameter, a chaotic system can either display two or more attractors (generalized multistability) or exhibit an interior crisis, whereby a chaotic attractor suddenly expands to include the region of an unstable orbit (bursting regime).Recently, control of multistability and bursting have been experimentally proved in a modulated class B laser by means of a feedback method. In a bistable regime, the method relies on the knowledge of the frequency components of the two attractors.

Synchronization of spontaneous bursting in a CO2 laser.

We present experimental and numerical evidence of synchronization of burst events in two different modulated CO2 lasers. Bursts appear randomly in each laser as trains of large amplitude spikes intercalated by a small amplitude chaotic regime. Experimental data and model show the frequency locking of bursts in a suitable interval of coupling strength.

Present and previous psychopathology of juvenile onset migraine: a pilot investigation by Child Behavior Checklist.

The objective was to describe the premorbid state of migraine with juvenile onset. Thirty subjects with migraine and 30 healthy subjects were enrolled in a case-control study. A structured questionnaire (Child Behavior Checklist, CBCL) was administered to the mothers and ratings were obtained for the past two age periods (0-3 and 4-6 years) and for the present state.

Phase control of intermittency in dynamical systems.

We present a nonfeedback method to tame or enhance crisis-induced intermittency in dynamical systems. By adding a small harmonic perturbation to a parameter of the system, the intermittent behavior can be suppressed or enhanced depending on the value of the phase difference between the main driving and the perturbation. The validity of the method is shown both in the model and in an experiment with a CO2 laser.