Whistler mode chorus waves generally occur outside the plasmapause in the magnetosphere. The most striking feature of the waves is their occurrence in discrete elements. One of the parameters that describe the discrete elements is the repetition period (Trp), the time between consecutive elements. The Trp has not been studied statistically before. We use high‐resolution waveform data to derive distributions of Trp for different local times. We find that the average Trp for the nightside (0.56 s) and dawnside (0.53 s) are smaller than those for the dayside (0.81 s) and duskside (0.97 s). Through a comparison with the background plasma and magnetic fields, we also find that the total magnetic field and temperature are the main controlling factors that affect the variability of Trp. These results are important for understanding the generation mechanism of chorus and choosing parameters in simulations that model the acceleration and loss of electrons by wave‐particle interactions.

Lowe syndrome (LS) is an X-linked developmental disease characterized by cognitive deficiencies, bilateral congenital cataracts and renal dysfunction. Unfortunately, this disease leads to the early death of affected children often due to kidney failure. Although this condition was first described in the early 1950s and the affected gene (OCRL1) was identified in the early 1990s, its pathophysiological mechanism is not fully understood and there is no LS-specific cure available to patients. Here we report two important signaling pathways affected in LS patient cells. While RhoGTPase signaling abnormalities led to adhesion and spreading defects as compared to normal controls, PI3K/mTOR hyperactivation interfered with primary cilia assembly (scenario also observed in other ciliopathies with compromised kidney function). Importantly, we identified two FDA-approved drugs able to ameliorate these phenotypes. Specifically, statins mitigated adhesion and spreading abnormalities while rapamycin facilitated ciliogenesis in LS patient cells. However, no single drug was able to alleviate both phenotypes. Based on these and other observations, we speculate that Ocrl1 has dual, independent functions supporting proper RhoGTPase and PI3K/mTOR signaling. Therefore, this study suggest that Ocrl1-deficiency leads to signaling defects likely to require combinatorial drug treatment to suppress patient phenotypes and symptoms.

The Bureau of Controlled Drugs at Ministry of Health, Executive Yuan in Taiwan All prescription data were divided into three 4 month periods: period I was when the flunitrazepam prescription was not controlled, period II represented the time when flunitrazepam was placed on Schedule III and when physicians were required to use a special duplicated prescription form and period III was when the TMU-WFH started to set a stricter control for the prescription of flunitrazepam. The results indicated that the number of flunitrazepam prescriptions during period III had decreased significantly compared with period I (P £ 0.05). Eventually, 45.7% of flunitrazepam-medicated patients were followed up monthly with a restriction of their flunitrazepam supply to no more than 14 days, 22.9% of patients were followed up fortnightly at clinics with a 14 day supply of flunitrazepam, 15.7% were followed up fortnightly with a 14 day restriction of flunitrazepam plus a non-flunitrazepan benzodiazepine supplement, 10.7% were referred to clinics within the Department of Psychiatry and 5% were switched from flunitrazepam to other drugs. Like most BZD, flunitrazepam produces five physiologic (anxiolytic, sedative, anticonvulsant, musclerelaxing and amnestic) functions. 1 Usually, there is no life-threatening outcome of overdose with flunitrazepam alone because it acts only on BZD GABA A (or simply benzodiazepine) receptors in the central nervous system. 1 However, flunitrazepam has the potential to be fatal if coadministered with alcohol, which acts directly on chloride ion channels. 1,5 Flunitrazepam readily dissolves and, once in solution, is colorless, odorless and tasteless. 5,6 Victims are vulnerable to sexual assault when flunitrazepam is administered in an alcoholic drink; therefore, flunitrazepam is widely abused as a drug in date rape or acquaintance rape scenarios. 3,7 Before 1 April 2000, all BZD were easily obtained from any drugstore in Taiwan. However, the Bureau of Controlled Drugs of Ministry of Health, Executive Yuan classified all BZD as Schedule IV drugs (Table 1), 8 with the exception of three BDZ (brotizolam, triazolam and flunitrazelam), which were specifically placed on Schedule III. 8 Of these three BZD, only flunitrazepam is available from the formulary in the Department of Pharmacy at Taipei Medical University-Wan Fang Hospital (TMU-WFH). Only 2 mg flunitrazepam pills are available at the TMU-WFH. According to Government policy, a prescribing physician needs to register with the Bureau for a prescribing license and fills out a duplicate prescription sheet when he/she prescribes any controlled drug on Schedules I-III. 8 To abide by the new policy of the Bureau of Controlled Drugs, the Committee of Controlled Drugs was founded at TMU-WFH in the summer of 2000. The Committee assumed the task of hospital-wide education and in-service training for physicians and related clinical disciplines (nurses, physicians' assistants, pharmacists etc.) about the classification of scheduled drugs (Table 1) and the regul...