Evaluation and outcome of patients with chronic non-productive cough using a comprehensive diagnostic protocol

Background-Asthma, post-nasal drip syndrome (PNDS), and gastrooesophageal reflux (GOR) account for many cases of chronic non-productive cough (CNPC). Each may simultaneously contribute to cough even when clinically silent, and failure to recognise their contribution may lead to unsuccessful treatment.

Methods—Patients (all lifetime non-smokers with normal chest radiographs and spirometric measurements) referred with CNPC persisting for more than three weeks as their sole respiratory symptom underwent histamine challenge, home peak flow measurements, ear, nose and throat (ENT) examination, sinus CT scanning, and 24 hour oesophageal pH monitoring. Treatment was prescribed on the basis of diagnoses informed by investigation results.

RESULTS—Forty three patients (29 women) of mean age 47.5 years (range 18-77) and mean cough duration 67 months (range 2-240) were evaluated. On the basis of a successful response to treatment, a cause for the cough was identified in 35 patients (82%) as follows: cough variant asthma (CVA) (10 cases), PNDS (9 cases), GOR (8cases), and dual aetiologies (8 cases). Histamine challenge correctly predicted CVA in 15 of 17 (88%) positive tests. ENT examination and sinus CT scans each had low positive predictive values for PNDS (10 of 16 (63%) and 12 of 18 (67%) positive cases, respectively), suggesting that upper airways disease frequently co-exists but does not always contribute to cough. When negative, histamine challenge and 24 hour oesophageal pH monitoring effectively ruled out CVA and GOR, respectively, as a cause for cough.

CONCLUSION—This comprehensive approach aids the accurate direction of treatment and, while CVA, PNDS and GOR remain the most important causes of CNPC to consider, a group with no identifiable aetiology remains.

Stylistics, criticism and mythrepresentation again: squaring the circle with Ray Mackay's subjective solution for all problems

This article is a response to an article by Ray Mackay (1996) which constitutes an attack on stylistic analysis in general, and the writings of the above authors and Ron Carter in particular. Mackay's article (in Language and Communication) accuses stylistics of 'scientificness' and claims that its attempt to provide objective analyses of literary texts is futile.1 We suggest that Mackay has misrepresented what stylisticians have said about objectivity, and that his understanding of objectivity, science and the nature of text-interpretative argument is seriously flawed.

Production and Productive Reason

This article explores two rival understandings of production and what it means to be a rational productive subject. Against ‘technicist’ models of productive reason, it defends a ‘phronetic’ model on both normative and pragmatic grounds. The discussion begins with a description of the general principles underpinning technicist theories of workplace organisation, principles which continue to inform work design approaches to this day. The technicist model is thereafter criticised on three counts: that it represents a specific managerial agenda which privileges sectional interests; that it is suspect morally for a number of reasons; and that despite its aspiration of arriving at ‘one best method’, it represents but one way of organising work processes. The phronetic model is then set out using the notion of ‘practices’ as a guide. This notion is important in providing a view of production in which technical reason is subsumed under a broader practical reason incorporating individual experience and judgement. Against the charge that this view is merely an instance of nostalgic craft romanticism having little relevance to present industrial realities, there are recognisable contemporary instances of phronetic production, one of the most interesting being Volvo’s innovations in automotive assembly systems.

New light on death in prehistoric Malta: the Brochtorff Circle.

Trump, D., Malone, C and Stoddart, S., ,G. Burenhult, (ed.). 1993, Harper Collins: New York. p. 100-101.

Excavating the Brochtorff-Xaghra Circle, Gozo,

Malone, C. and S. Stoddart (with Vella Gregory, I. ). In prep. 2013. Midsea Books. Valletta: Midsea.

Geophysical and hydrogeological characterisation of the impacts of on-site wastewater treatment discharge to groundwater in a poorly productive bedrock acquifer

Contaminants discharging from on-site wastewater treatment systems (OSWTSs) can impact groundwater quality, threatening human health and surface water ecosystems. Risk of negative impacts becomes elevated in areas of extreme vulnerability with high water tables, where thin unsaturated intervals limit vadose zone attenuation. A combined geophysical/hydrogeological investigation into the effects of an OSWTS, located over a poorly productive aquifer (PPA) with thin subsoil cover, aimed to characterise effluent impacts on groundwater. Groundwater, sampled from piezometers down-gradient of the OSWTS percolation area displayed spatially erratic, yet temporally consistent, contaminant distributions. Electrical resistivity tomography identified an area of gross groundwater contamination close to the percolation area and, when combined with seismic refraction and water quality data, indicated that infiltrating effluent reaching the water table discharged to a deeper more permeable zone of weathered shale resting on more competent bedrock. Subsurface structure, defined by geophysics, indicated that elevated chemical and microbiological contaminant levels encountered in groundwater samples collected from piezometers, down-gradient of sampling points with lower contaminant levels, corresponded to those locations where piezometers were screened close to the weathered shale/competent rock interface; those immediately up-gradient were too shallow to intercept this interval, and thus the more impacted zone of the contaminant plume. Intermittent occurrence of faecal indicator bacteria more than 100 m down gradient of the percolation area suggested relatively short travel times. Study findings highlight the utility of geophysics as part of multidisciplinary investigations for OSWTS contaminant plume characterisation, while also demonstrating the capacity of effluent discharging to PPAs to impact groundwater quality at distance. Comparable geophysical responses observed in similar settings across Ireland suggest the phenomena observed in this study are more widespread than previously suspected.

Productive Synergies in the City

The chapter focuses on the development of sustainable growing infrastructure in the city at two scales. Firstly the development of a large-scale city wide fuel productive landscape through the development of algae arrays in Liverpool and their connection through urban agriculture systems to develop a closed-cycle food and energy system where waste is food and secondly a hyper-localised neighbourhood food production system in Salford UK that utilises a closed cycle aquaponic system to re-invigorate an urban food desert.

The author develops a three-part model for the implementation of urban agriculture based on hardware (the technological system), software (the biological components) and interface (the links to food and other social networks). The conclusion being that it is possible to develop urban agriculture in cities if their implementation is seen as a process, rather than a static design. Also that as the benefits of such systems are wider than purely the physical outputs of the system in terms of energy and food, and thus we should re-evaluate the purely economic model of appraisal to include these.