A spiritual perspective on loss and bereavement

This article investigates the experience of loss and bereavement from the point of view of a spiritual perspective on the phenomenon. It also looks at the experience of holding a marginalized viewpoint within an academic and professional community and adopts an autoethnographic approach to the inquiry. Some conclusions are drawn from the study in terms of its implications for theory and professional life.

El apoyo a la investigación en las bibliotecas universitarias españolas

Los cambios sufridos por los modelos de comunicación científica hacen que las bibliotecas universitarias se vean obligadas a dar nuevos servicios. Para adecuarse al investigador los bibliotecarios están desarrollando habilidades, colaborando con cada vez más estamentos y sustentando el acceso abierto. Apoyándose en una lista de posibles servicios, basada en la literatura especializada, este trabajo pretende cuantificar y evaluar el apoyo a la investigación desde las bibliotecas universitarias españolas. El sondeo demuestra la aparición de nuevos servicios e infraestructuras. Pero estas asistencias no suelen sistematizarse, difundirse ni evaluarse. Y, por otra parte, las consecuentes inversiones en personal y TIC han generado una brecha entre universidades

Is there an association between angiotensin-converting enzyme gene variants and chronic nonproductive cough?

Background: It is unclear why some patients develop a chronic nonproductive cough. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inactivates tussive peptides in the airways such as bradykinin and tachykinins. An insertion/deletion polymorphism in the ACE gene accounts for variation in ACE levels, and patients with the II genotype have lowest serum ACE levels compared with ID and DD genotypes. We hypothesized that the II genotype would be associated with increased risk of developing a chronic cough.

Materials and methods: We recruited 47 patients (33 women), referred for evaluation of cough (median cough duration, 24 months; range, 2 to 240 months). Cough patients were evaluated using a comprehensive diagnostic protocol, and cough reflex sensitivity was measured using a capsaicin inhalation challenge. ACE genotyping was performed on DNA samples from patients using the polymerase chain reaction followed by agarose gel electrophoresis. ACE genotypes in patients with chronic cough were compared with those in 199 healthy control subjects. Serum ACE levels were determined using a colorimetric assay.

Results: Genotype frequencies for the ACE gene were similar between patients and control subjects. There was no correlation between capsaicin sensitivity and ACE genotypes or serum ACE levels.

Conclusion: Susceptibility to develop chronic cough is not associated with ACE genotype.

An analytic geometry-variant approach to line ratio enhancement above the optically thin limit

We describe a simple theoretical model to investigate the anomalous effects of opacity on spectral line ratios, as previously studied in elements such as Fe XV and Fe XVII. The model developed is general: it is not specific to a particular atomic system, thus giving applicability to a number of coronal and chromospheric plasmas; furthermore, it may be applied to a variety of astrophysically relevant geometries. The analysis is underpinned by geometrical arguments, and we outline a technique for it to be used as a tool for the explicit diagnosis of plasma geometry in distant astrophysical objects.

Polynomials on Banach spaces with unconditional bases

We study the classes of homogeneous polynomials on a Banach space with unconditional Schauder basis that have unconditionally convergent monomial expansions relative to this basis. We extend some results of Matos, and we show that the homogeneous polynomials with unconditionally convergent expansions coincide with the polynomials that are regular with respect to the Banach lattices structure of the domain.

Acoustic features of song categories and their possible implications for communication in the common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos)

In many passerine species, males sing more than one distinct song type. Commonly, songs are assigned to different song types or song categories based on phonological and syntactical dissimilarities. However, temporal aspects, such as song length and song rate, also need to be considered to understand the possible functions of different songs. Common nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) have large vocal repertoires of different song types but their songs additionally can be grouped into two distinct categories (particular groups of song types): whistle songs and nonwhistle songs. Whistle songs are hypothesised to be important to attract migrating females. We studied temporal properties of whistle songs and nonwhistle songs and examined the relationship between those song parameters and song output parameters, such as song rate and song length. To investigate how song parameters vary among males, we calculated the coefficients of variation for different song traits. We found that the variation in the proportion of whistle songs was significantly higher among males than variation in other song parameters. Furthermore, the proportion of whistle songs was negatively correlated with other sona output patterns. These findings suggest that the production of whistle songs might be constrained and/or that whistle songs and their succeeding pauses may act as a functional unit in communication.

The discursive capacity of graphic design

The relationship between rhetoric and graphic design is presented in this article. The comparison between a classical orator and a graphic designer, between a discourse and a piece of design comes from the connections between with the communication and creativity. We will see how an application of the fundamentals of rhetoric can open new doors to the professional practice, the education of graphic design and the same theory of the rhetoric of the image.By the analysis of a design is exemplified the points of union that show how the arguments, operations, figures of discourse and rhetorical phases are present in the creative process of graphic design and how designers, perhaps unconsciously, use techniques that were traditional. In other words, graphic design is a rhetorical construction.There is then a transposition of a discourse model created by linguistic signs to a discourse model consists of visual and typographic signs, causing design is seen as a discursivediscipline that goes beyond the aesthetic component.

Enhanced lymphocyte interferon (IFN)-γ responses in a PTEN mutation-negative Cowden disease kindred.

Identification of immune modifiers of inherited cancer syndromes may provide a rationale for preventive therapy. Cowden disease (CD) is a genetically heterogeneous inherited cancer syndrome that arises predominantly from germline phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) mutation and increased phosphoinositide 3-kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin (PI3K/mTOR) signalling. However, many patients with classic CD diagnostic features are mutation-negative for PTEN (PTEN M-Neg). Interferon (IFN)-gamma can modulate the PI3K/mTOR pathway, but its association with PTEN M-Neg CD remains unclear. This study assessed IFN-gamma secretion by multi-colour flow cytometry in a CD kindred that was mutation-negative for PTEN and other known susceptibility genes. Because IFN-gamma responses may be regulated by killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) and respective human leucocyte antigen (HLA) ligands, KIR/HLA genotypes were also assessed. Activating treatments induced greater IFN-gamma secretion in PTEN M-Neg CD peripheral blood lymphocytes versus healthy controls. Increased frequency of activating KIR genes, potentially activating KIR/HLA compound genotypes and reduced frequency of inhibitory genotypes, were found in the PTEN M-Neg CD kindred. Differences of IFN-gamma secretion were observed among PTEN M-Neg CD patients with distinct KIR/HLA compound genotypes. Taken together, these findings show enhanced lymphocyte secretion of IFN-gamma that may influence the PI3K/mTOR CD causal molecular pathway in a PTEN mutation-negative CD kindred.

Computational techniques for a simple theory of conditional preferences

A simple logic of conditional preferences is defined, with a language that allows the compact representation of certain kinds of conditional preference statements, a semantics and a proof theory. CP-nets and TCP-nets can be mapped into this logic, and the semantics and proof theory generalise those of CP-nets and TCP-nets. The system can also express preferences of a lexicographic kind. The paper derives various sufficient conditions for a set of conditional preferences to be consistent, along with algorithmic techniques for checking such conditions and hence confirming consistency. These techniques can also be used for totally ordering outcomes in a way that is consistent with the set of preferences, and they are further developed to give an approach to the problem of constrained optimisation for conditional preferences.