Regional Variation in Attitude of Mental Health Professionals Towards Tackling Illicit Drug-use and Drug-related Disorders

This study sought to assess the attitudes of Mental Health Professionals (MHPs) towards tackling illicit drug use and drug-related disorders in Nigeria and to explore regional variations in attitude. Based on the validated Substance Abuse Attitude Survey (SAAS), a quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted in a randomized sample of 292 MHPs practicing in neuropsychiatric hospitals and mental health departments of teaching hospitals from four geopolitical zones of Nigeria. A response rate of 81.1% was achieved. MHPs tended towards non-permissive, moralistic and stereotypic spectrum and exhibited distinctly defined attitude towards their professional role. The Kruskal-Wallis analysis established significant regional variation in the attitude of multidisciplinary MHPs, H (3)=18.727, p< .0001 reflecting a stochastic domination across the region; therefore a step-down follow-up analysis was conducted. This analysis revealed that the distribution of attitude total-score varies significantly between the South-south and the Southwestern region (p< .0001), the northeastern and southwestern region of the country (p< .028). A holistic approach towards standardization of drug treatment and care that takes into consideration possible regional variation in attitudes of MHPs should be implemented to foster the reintegration and rehabilitation of drug-using populations into the mainstream society

Multifunctions of bounded variation

Consider control systems described by a differential equation with a control term or, more generally, by a differential inclusion with velocity set F(t,x). Certain properties of state trajectories can be derived when it is assumed that F(t,x) is merely measurable w.r.t. the time variable t . But sometimes a refined analysis requires the imposition of stronger hypotheses regarding the time dependence. Stronger forms of necessary conditions for minimizing state trajectories can be derived, for example, when F(t,x) is Lipschitz continuous w.r.t. time. It has recently become apparent that significant addition properties of state trajectories can still be derived, when the Lipschitz continuity hypothesis is replaced by the weaker requirement that F(t,x) has bounded variation w.r.t. time. This paper introduces a new concept of multifunctions F(t,x) that have bounded variation w.r.t. time near a given state trajectory, of special relevance to control. We provide an application to sensitivity analysis

Variation of Hilbert Coefficients

For a Noetherian local ring (\RR, \m), the first two Hilbert coefficients, $e_0$ and $e_1$, of the $I$-adic filtration of an \m-primary ideal $I$ are known to code for properties of \RR, of the blowup of \spec(\RR) along $V(I)$, and even of their normalizations. We give estimations for these coefficients when $I$ is enlarged (in the case of $e_1$ in the same integral closure class) for general Noetherian local rings

Variation Of Mixed Hodge Structures

Variation of mixed Hodge structures(VMHS), introduced by P. Deligne, is a linear structure reflecting the geometry on cohomology of the fibers of an algebraic family, generalizing variation of Hodge structures for smooth proper families, introduced by P. Griffiths. Hence, it is a strong tool to study the variation of the geometric structure of fibers of a morphism. We describe here the degenerating properties of a VMHS of geometric origin and the existence of a relative monodromy filtration, as well the definition and properties of abstract admissible VMHS.Comment: 46 page