Current attachment representations of incarcerated offenders varying in degree of psychopathy.

The present study sought to examine the current mental representations of early attachment relationships in 24 psychopathic criminal offenders, incarcerated in a forensic psychiatric hospital or a medium-security prison. The participants had been assessed on Hare's Psychopathy Checklist, Revised: Screening Version (PCL-R, sv, 1997) and scored either high or low. They were interviewed with the Main and Goldwyn Adult Attachment Interview (1998) and completed the EMBU, a Swedish self-report questionnaire tapping memories of the parent's rearing techniques. The results pointed to an extensive over-representation of individuals who were dismissing of attachment and attachment-related experiences (close to three times as many as in the normal population), no secure individuals, and with the remainder being either unclassifiable or unresolved with regard to severe early abuse/trauma. In addition, an examination of the EMBU data revealed an association between a higher psychopathy score and a family constellation of a rejecting father and an emotionally very warm (idealized) mother. The discussion will focus on the unique discourse of the dismissing individuals and on clinical implications.

Expert approaches to communicating violence risk.

There has been virtually no empirical study of the way in which evaluating clinicians communicate their conclusions about the risk of violence toward others. Risk communication has become particularly important in recent years, serving as the link between empirical data from recent studies and the understanding and use of such data by evaluators and decision makers. The present study considered how psychologists and psychiatrists, identified as experts in violence risk assessment, responded to eight vignettes that systematically measured preferences for risk communication. The vignettes involved the presentation of the following factors in a 2 x 2 x 2 within-subjects design, counterbalanced for order: (1) risk model (prediction vs. management), (2) risk level (high vs. low risk of the individual being assessed), and (3) risk factors (the predominance of static vs. dynamic risk factors). A total of 71 individuals (41 psychologists, 2 sociologists, and 28 psychiatrists) responded to a survey mailed to 100 individuals, for a response rate of 71%. Participants were asked to rate the value of six forms of risk communication for each of the eight vignettes. There were few significant differences between the ratings assigned by psychologists and those assigned by psychiatrists. The most highly valued form of risk communication involved identifying risk factors applicable to the individual and specifying interventions to reduce risk. A repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance yielded a main effect for risk level and an interaction between risk level and risk factors. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Risk communication: clinicians' reported approaches and perceived values.

Despite significant conceptual and empirical advances in research on the risk assessment of violence during the last decade, there has apparently been no empirical research in the related area of risk communication. After summarizing the major theoretical and practical justifications for studying risk communication, this article describes the results of two studies of clinicians' risk communication practices. In Study 1, practicing clinicians (psychiatrists and psychologists; n = 55) were surveyed. Only one clinician indicated that he employed numerical probability figures in communicating risk; a total of nine reasons for not using numerical probabilities were cited, in varying combinations, by participants. Risk communication practices that were reportedly employed included a total of 11 approaches, endorsed in varying combinations. In Study 2, a separate sample of clinicians (n = 59) rated (1) the importance of the Study 1 reasons against using numerical probability figures in risk communication and (2) the value of the different forms of risk communication derived in Study 1. These data apparently offer the first empirical description of how clinicians communicate the results of risk assessments of violence and their reasons for communicating in such ways.

Management of the abnormal papanicolaou smear during pregnancy: lessons for quality improvement.

OBJECTIVE: Our goal in this study was to evaluate the management of pregnant patients with abnormal Papanicolaou smears. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the records of 292 patients undergoing colposcopy to evaluate abnormal cervical cytology during pregnancy. RESULTS: A total of 32 (11%) of the subjects had Papanicolaou smears demonstrating atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance; 178 (61%) had low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions; 69 (23.6%) had high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions; and 2 (1%) had a malignancy. The first colposcopy was performed most commonly during gestational week 24. Colposcopy showed findings consistent with minor changes in 154 cases (53%) and with major changes in 61 (21%). Only 27 patients (9% of the total) underwent a colposcopically directed biopsy, and 51 (83.6%) of the 61 patients with a colposcopic impression of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or greater did not undergo biopsy. Only 24 (26%) of the 91 patients scheduled for follow-up colposcopy during pregnancy complied, and 123 of the 292 patients (42%) returned for follow-up examinations after delivery. Four patients had an invasive cervical carcinoma diagnosed in the 12 months immediately after delivery. Although the first intrapregnancy colposcopy in two of these patients noted findings consistent with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or greater, none of the four underwent biopsy during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Evaluation of cytological abnormalities is frequently suboptimal during pregnancy. The threshold for colposcopically directed biopsy is often modified during pregnancy in a way that may be harmful to the patient. Extra effort is needed to tailor follow-up to the patient's need and to improve patient compliance.

The effects of the duration and timing of drought plus heat plus gibberellin A4/7 on apical meristem development and coning in Sitka spruce [Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr].

Coning was induced on container-grown grafts of Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr. by stem injection of 2 mg per month or part of a month of gibberellin A4/7 in combination with drought and high temperatures. The treatments were applied in a polyethylene-covered greenhouse at five different times or durations during spring and summer. Coning response was determined the following spring. Shoots were sampled every fortnight from early May until late August and buds were dissected and fixed for anatomical study of apical development. The best coning resulted from the May to June, and June treatments with lesser coning occurring in the May, July, and May (2 wk only) treatments (all received heat + drought + gibberellin A4/7 ). Both pollen cones and seed cones were induced. Apices from control trees began to initiate bud scales in early May and leaf primordia about mid-July. Apices from May-treated trees began to differentiate into vegetative, pollen-cone or seed-cone buds in mid-June. Apices from the June-treated trees showed the earliest stages of vegetative, seed-cone and pollen-cone bud differentiation in mid-July, about 2 wk after treatment stopped. Apices from the May to June, and the July-treated trees began to differentiate into vegetative, pollen-cone and seed-cone buds in mid-June and mid-July respectively. The 2 wk May treatment induced too few cones to warrant anatomical study. The long period (May-July), during which apices can be induced to differentiate into cone buds, may be explained partly by variation in the stage of bud development and partly because treatments alter the time of differentiation and synchronize apical development. Thus the earliest treatment (May) produced earlier differentiation and promoted more buds to develop in a uniform and vigorous manner to the stage where differentiation occurs. Other treatments (May-June, and June) which preceded the natural time of bud differentiation also promoted early and uniform bud development and the longer treatment stimulated many apices, which would otherwise have slowed or stopped their development, to continue developing. Later treatment, in July, delayed apical differentiation and allowed lagging and retarded apices to catch up and thus be susceptible to the inductive treatment.

Quantitation of Gibberellins A(1), A(3), A(4), A(9) and a Putative A(9)-Conjugate in Grafts of Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) during the Period of Shoot Elongation.

The levels of endogenous gibberellin A(1) (GA(1)), GA(3), GA(4), GA(9), and a cellulase hydrolyzable GA(9) conjugate in needles and shoot stems of mature grafts of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis [Bong.] Carr.) grown under environmental conditions that were either inductive, hot, and dry, or noninductive, cool, and wet, for flowering, were estimated by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry selected ion monitoring using deuterated [(2)H(2)]GA(1), GA(3), GA(4), and GA(9) as internal standards. The samples were taken when the shoots had elongated about 30, 70, and 95% of the final shoot length and 17 days after elongation had terminated. The concentration of putative GA(9)-conjugate, estimated by GCSIM of GA(9) after cellulase hydrolysis of the highly water soluble fraction, was 33 nanograms per gram fresh weight in the needles of both heat and drought- and cool and wet-treated plants sampled just after bud burst. The concentration gradually decreased to a final value of 13 nanograms per gram fresh weight in the heat and drought-treated grafts and 6 nanograms per gram fresh weight in the cool and wet-treated grafts. The stems contained no detectable putative GA(9) conjugate. Free GA(9) was highest in heat and drought-treated material. For plants subjected to this treatment, GA(9) increased from 22 to 32 nanograms per gram fresh weight in needles and from 1 to 22 nanograms per gram fresh weight in stems during the rapid stem elongation phase. By day 17, after cessation of shoot elongation, GA(9) had decreased to 12 nanograms per gram fresh weight in needles and 9 nanograms per gram fresh weight in the shoot stems. The cool and wet-treated material also showed an increase in GA(9) concentration during shoot elongation. However, the concentration was not as high and was also delayed compared with heat and drought-treated material. By day 17, after cessation of shoot elongation, GA(9) concentration was 9 nanograms per gram fresh weight in needles and 5 nanograms per gram fresh weight in stems for cool and wet treatment plants. The concentration of GA(4) was very low in tissue from both treatments. Fluctuation in concentration of the more polar gibberellins, GA(1) and GA(3), showed the same pattern as fluctuations in the content of GA(9). However, the heat and drought-treated material had lower amounts of GA(1) and GA(3) during the later phases of shoot elongation, than the cool and wet-treated material. These results imply differential metabolism between clones treated with conditions inductive and noninductive for flowering. Higher concentrations of putative GA(9) conjugate and free GA(9) in the hot and dry treatment indicate a higher capacity of synthesizing, for flowering, the physiologically important GA(4) in the heat and drought-treated material. This synthesis does not, however, result in a buildup of the GA(4) pool, probably because of a high turnover rate of GA(4). The cool and wet-treated material had higher amounts of GA(1) and GA(3), indicating that the differentiation was preferentially directed toward vegetative growth.

Quantitation of gibberellins A1, A 3, A 4, A 9 and an A 9-conjugate in good- and poor-flowering clones of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) during the period of flower-bud differentiation.

The levels of endogenous gibberellin A1 (GA1), GA3, GA4, GA9 and a cellulase-hydrolysable GA9-conjugate in needles and shoot stems of Sitka spruce [Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.] grafts with different coning or flowering histories were estimated by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry selected ion monitoring using deuterated GA3, GA4 and GA9 as internal standards. The samples were taken at the approximate time of the start of flower-bud differentiation, i.e. when the shoots had elongated approx. 95% of the final length. The needles of the good-flowering clones contained 11-12 ng per g fresh weight (FW) and 15-28 ng· (g FW) (-1) of GA9-conjugate and GA9, respectively. The shoot stems of the same material contained no detectable amounts of GA9-conjugate and 11-15 ng-(g FW)(-1) of GA9. The amounts of GA9-conjugate and GA9 were apparently lower in the poor-flowering clones, the needles containing 4-9 ng-(g FW)(-1) and 7-17 ng·(g FW)(-1), respectively. Also in this material the shoot stems contained no detectable amounts of GA9-conjugate. The amounts of GA4 were very small in both materials, ranging from 1-1.6 ng-(g FW)(-1). The good-flowering clones contained no detectable amounts of the more polar gibberellins, GA1 and GA3. The poor-flowering clones, on the other hand, contained high levels of GA15 17-19ng·(gFW)(-1) in the needles and 10-13 ng·(g FW) (-1) in the shoot stems, and also smaller amounts of GA3, 2-3 ng·(g FW)(-1) in the needles and approx. 1 ng·(g FW)(-1) in the shoot stems. The results demonstrate differences in GA-metabolism between the poor- and the good-flowering clones. The higher amounts of GA9-conjugate and GA9 might indicate a higher capacity for synthesizing GA4 in the good-flowering material. This synthesis does not, however, result in a build-up of the GA4-pool, maybe because of a high rate of turnover. Gibberellin A4 was apparently neither hydroxylated to GA1 nor converted to GA3 in the goodflowering material, as was the case in the poor-flowering material. This might indicate that gibberellin metabolism in the poor-flowering material is directed towards GA1 and GA3, GAs preferentially used in vegetative growth.

Root growth in Sitka spruce and Douglas-fir transplants: dependence on the shoot and stored carbohydrates.

When dormant Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) transplants were lifted from the nursery in March and transferred to favorable growing conditions in a controlled environment chamber, new roots emerged and elongated even when the plants were bark-ringed so that the roots could not receive metabolites from the shoot by phloem translocation. Carbohydrate analysis showed that starch reserves in the roots of the bark-ringed plants were depleted, indicating that these reserves provided the energy source for new root growth. The shoot also had a role in new root growth as excised root systems showed greatly reduced root growth. This response is compared to that of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) in which bark-ringing prevented root growth indicating that current photosynthate is needed for new root growth. The findings are discussed in relation to the problems of establishing these species in forest plantations.

Effect of nitrendipine in a rat model of ischemic acute renal failure.

An increase in intracellular calcium has been identified as an etiologic factor in acute renal failure (ARF) and blockade of slow calcium channels has been successful in its amelioration. Diuretics may also prevent or mitigate the effects of renal ischemia. We examined the actions of a new calcium channel blocker, nitrendipine (NTR), given intravenously to rats prior to bilateral clamping of the renal pedicle for 45-60 min. Four groups of rats were studied. Group I: Rats given the vehicle only and subjected to sham surgery had a creatinine clearance (Ccr) of .93 +/- .05 ml/min (n = 20). Group II: Rats given NTR (1 or 3 mg/kg) and subjected to sham surgery had a Ccr of .65 +/- .03 ml/min (n = 17). Group III: The infusion of the vehicle alone 10-15 min before clamping resulted in a Ccr of .12 +/- .02 ml/min (n = 23, p less than .001 vs. group I). Group IV: Rats given NTR and then clamped had a Ccr of .30 +/- .04 ml/min (n = 31, p less than .001 vs. group III, p less than .001 vs. group II). Higher doses of NTR did not improve the results. We concluded that NTR partially protects against ARF, but NTR lowered Ccr compared to control rats (p less than .001, group I vs. group II).

Evaluation of cardiovascular risk for renal transplantation in diabetic patients.

Cardiovascular disease contributes in a major way to morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients with end-stage renal disease. Sixty patients with type I diabetes were evaluated prior to renal transplantation to determine the risk of cardiovascular complications. On the basis of results of thallium stress testing and/or cardiac catheterization, each patient was assigned to one of five categories. There were no cardiovascular events in the seven patients who had negative results on stress testing. Of the remaining 53 patients, all of whom underwent cardiac catheterization, 30 had normal coronary arteries. None of these 30 patients had any cardiac morbidity, and the two deaths that occurred in this group were not attributable to cardiac causes. Significant coronary artery disease was present in 38 percent of the patients. The overall mortality rate was 5.4 percent in those patients without coronary artery disease and 43.5 percent in those with the disease. In addition, the mortality rate in patients with coronary disease classified as severe was 62 percent, whereas it was 20 percent in those categorized as having moderate disease. The data indicate that patients with diabetes and end-stage renal disease who are at highest risk for cardiovascular events can be identified, and these patients probably should not undergo renal transplantation.

Arthritis of the elbow caused by metastatic bronchogenic carcinoma.

While bone metastases are frequent, involvement of the juxta-articular bone and synovium is very rare. We report a 62 year old male with bronchogenic carcinoma that metastasized to the elbow. An open biopsy of the proximal ulna and synovium was necessary to establish the definitive diagnosis.

Portugues nao-padrao nordestino: ideias educacionais

O presente trabalho, mediante uma abordagem socio-linguistica, procura chamar a atencao as atitudes desfavoraveis de certos educadores em relacao aos dialetos nao-padrao do Nordeste. Tais dialetos, embora diferentes da lingua padrao, nao constituem nenhum obstaculo a comunicacao eficiente entre seus falantes, fato que a escola primaria devera levar em consideracao.

Studies on the action of abscisic acid on IAA-induced rapid growth of Avena coleoptile segments.

A linear displacement transducer has been used to monitor the growth of a column of Avena coleoptile segments in flowing solution. IAA at 10(-5)M in phosphate buffer of pH7 promotes growth after a latent period of 10.9 min, the initial maximum growth rate occurring after 25 min. Simultaneous treatment with 10(-5) M ABA does not affect either the latent period or the initial maximum growth rate in response to the IAA treatment, but subsequently gives rise to an inhibition of growth detectable after 30 min. In contrast, pretreatment with ABA for 100 min increases the duration of the latent period and reduces the initial maximum growth rate. Removal of the ABA rapidly relieves the inhibition of IAA-induced growth but a growth rate comparable to that of material treated only with IAA is never attained. Studies using 2-[(14)C]ABA and 1-[(14)C]IAA suggest that the latent period before ABA inhibition of growth is detectable is not due to a lag in ABA uptake, and that ABA is not acting by reducing IAA uptake.

The effects of temperature and IAA concentration on the latent period for IAA-induced rapid growth of Avena coleoptile segments.

Indoleacetic acid buffered at pH 7.0 induces a high growth rate in Avena coleoptile segments after a latent period, the duration of which is dependent upon both IAA concentration and temperature. A minimum latent period of 7.3 min is observed at 25° C with 10(-3) M IAA in phosphate buffer at pH 7.0.In contrast, 5×10(-3) M IAA made up in 0.01 M KH2PO4 alone, promotes elongation almost immediately, regardless of whether the segments have been previously incubated in 0.01 M KH2PO4 at pH 4.7, or phosphate buffer at pH 7.0. This immediate response is unaffected by 10(-4) M KCN which abolishes the rapid growth induced by 5×10(-3) M IAA buffered at pH 7.0 but does not affect the immediate appearance of low-pH-induced growth. Since we consistently find solutions of 5×10(-3) M IAA in 0.01 M KH2PO4 to have a pH of 3.5, our results indicate that the immediate growth response elicited by this solution is attributable to its low pH rather than to the presence of IAA as previously reported in the literature.

Molecular requirements for abscisic acid activity in two bioassay systems.

Twenty-two analogues of ABA have been tested in the Avena coleoptile and lettuce germination bioassays. Ten of these analogues were considerably more active than ABA itself as inhibitors of lettuce germination, but in the Avena coleoptile assay their activity never significantly exceeded that of ABA. The molecular requirements for activity also differ in the two assay systems, although the presence of the ring double bond is a requirement of both.