Schur maps, Young tableaux, and supersymmetric algebra

It is shown that the Hopf algebra dual of a supersymmetric Hopf algebra admits two presentations, and a natural isomorphism between them is described.     

Availability of knowledgeable informants for a psychological autopsy study of suicides committed by elderly people

Psychological autopsy methodology has not been applied in studies of elderly suicides, despite the fact that the elderly are associated with a higher rate of suicide than any other age group. One school of thought argues that older adults who die by suicide are socially isolated and/or estranged for a long period of time before death, so that knowledgeable informants are difficult or impossible to obtain. In the present retrospective study we examine the number and availability of knowledgeable informants for 145 older people who committed suicide. We believe that the ability to access several motivated informants per case is essential to any psychological autopsy study by modern standards. The stereotype of the "average expectable" elderly suicide victim as socially isolated and living alone or in an institutional setting was not supported by our findings; an unexpectedly high percentage of subjects were married at the time of their death. There was at least one knowledgeable informant in 90% of cases and two or more in almost 50%. In 46%, the subject had expressed despondency over illness. In a prospective study involving interviews with informants for eight subjects, all eight had at least two knowledgeable and willing informants. Two cases of the eight are presented to illustrate the role of delirium and an ominous diagnosis (cancer) as causes of suicide. We conclude that it is feasible to do a psychological autopsy study of elderly suicides.     

How do health care education and training professionals learn about the environment?

Preparing for the health care system of the future includes the ability to abstract information from relevant sectors of the environment. This study looked at the way health care educators scan the environment and the relationship of scanning behavior to management style. Results indicate that education and training professionals focus on the regulatory and customer sectors of the environment more than the technological and sociopolitical sectors.     

Large-cell lymphomas: clinical and prognostic features

We reviewed the clinical and pathologic features in 186 patients with large-cell lymphomas seen at Vanderbilt University Hospital between 1970 and 1986. Ninety-two cases (49%) were large noncleaved-cell lymphoma (LNCCL), 61 cases (33%) were large-cleaved-cell lymphoma (LCCL), 17 cases (9%) were peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), and 16 cases (9%) were immunoblastic sarcoma of B cells (IBS-B). These subsets of large-cell lymphoma did not differ with respect to median age, distribution by stage, or incidence of bone marrow involvement. Significant differences between groups were noted with regard to male:female ratio, incidence of symptoms, incidence of extranodal disease, and pattern of adenopathy. However, when LCCL was excluded from the analysis, none of these differences were significant. By univariate analysis, age, stage, marrow involvement, extranodal disease, B symptoms, elevated serum lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), and diffuse pattern were unfavorable prognostic features in large-cell lymphoma. However, when cases were stratified by cell of origin, nodular versus diffuse pattern was of no prognostic significance. Nodularity was favorable only because 71% of nodular and nodular-diffuse cases were LCCL, while the majority of diffuse cases were LNCCL. Although IBS-B is considered a "high-grade" lymphoma, we found no evidence for inferior survival in these patients compared with LNCCL or LCCL. In fact, survival was better in IBS-B than in LNCCL or LCCL, although this difference was not significant. However, survival was significantly inferior in PTCL (median, 11 months) compared with the other subsets of large-cell lymphoma (median, 46 months; P = .038, log-rank test). Since the association of PTCL and an inferior survival has most often been noted in the context of "second-generation" chemotherapy, we believe that this association may be therapy-dependent and may be minimized by the use of more aggressive chemotherapy regimens.     

Reconnecting with relational values in highly conflicted separating couples: A narrative therapy-informed relational interviewing teamwork-based supervision approach

This article outlines a new supervision practice of narrative therapy-informed reflecting team-based relational interviewing for a high-conflict stuck case of a separated middle-aged couple. The article demonstrates the supervision method consisting in five parts. First, the supervisor interviews the couples' relationship while the team watches from behind the one-way mirror. Second, the team responds to the interview while the couple and the supervisor witness their conversation. The couple is then invited to respond back to the team. Furthermore, there is a meta-conversation about the supervision in collaboration with the couple. The intervention ends with therapeutic letter writing to the relationship. The couple showed a meaningful shift in their positioning towards a more relational awareness and found valuable ways for continuing their therapy. The theoretical elements of the approach underpinning practice to tackle high conflict are considered through the illustration of the case.     

Analgesic use for headache treatment by schoolchildren of southern Brazil

The importance of the use of analgesic medication for the symptomatic relief of pain has been underestimated in medical practice. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of tension-type and migraine-type headaches and the associated analgesic consumption for its treatment within elementary school students from Porto Alegre (Brazil). A systematic random sample of 538 students from 5th to 8th grades was produced to complete the cross-sectional delineation. Subjects were individually submitted to a structured interview on headache and to general physical and neurological examination. Lifetime prevalence for headaches was 93.3%, 82.9% of the students recalled having headaches during the last year and 31.4% reported headaches in the last week. The prevalence for headaches in the previous 24 h was 8.9%. There was a significant prevalence of headache in females. The prevalence of analgesic consumption was 84.1% throughout life, 85.7% in the last year, and 54% in the last 3 months. A significantly higher prevalence of headache medication consumption was also depicted for females. However, the small age differences within the sample did not appear to be an important factor in influencing analgesic use for headaches. Different agents composed the individual treatment of headaches, with predominant use of over-the-counter preparations. Acetylsalicylic acid, consumed by 58.3% of the children, was the drug most frequently used for both tension-type and migraine-type headache treatments. In spite of the verification that headache was very frequently experienced by the children composing this sample accompanied by a consequent use of analgesics, no medication abuse was diagnosed.     

The structure of human S-phase chromosome fibres

Recentin situ hybridization studies suggested that within the range of 0.1–1.0 Mb, human interphase chromosomes follow a random walk model (i.e. they behave as flexible polymers without major constraints). However, chromosome structure may differ in the G1, S, and G2 phases, and phase-specific constraints may be masked if the chromosome analysis does not discriminate between the phases. Therefore, using confocal microscopy, we examined the structure of S-phase chromosomes labelled with 5-iododeoxyuridine after prolonged treatment with 5-fluorodeoxyuridine. In the S-phase, labelled 0.32 µ chromosome fibres mostly appear as semi-circles with an average diameter of 0.83 ±0.03 µ. These semi-circles are joined together to form different 3D structures, and two semicircles frequently adopt s- or-like conformations involving about 2.5 µ of the chromosome contour length (L). Morphometric analysis of the S-phase fibres suggests that our data fit both the random flexible polymer model and also a model in which two constrained semi-circles are attached to each other by a flexible joint, thus eliminating constraints at long distances (L more than 2 µ).     

Plethystic algebras and vector symmetric functions

An isomorphism is established between the plethystic Hopf algebra Pleth(Super[L]) and the algebra of vector symmetric functions. The Hall inner product of symmetric function theory is extended to the Hopf algebra Pleth(Super[L]).