Patients' spontaneous discourse on the importance of significant others in the course of transplantation: A qualitative study

Background: This study explores significant ones' implication before and after transplantation. Methods: Longitudinal semi-structured interviews were conducted in 64 patients awaiting all-organ transplantation. Among them, 58 patients spontaneously discussed the importance of their significant other in their daily support. Discourse analysis was applied. Findings: During the pre-transplantation period renal patients reported that significant others took part in dialysis treatment and participated to regimen adherence. After transplantation, quality of life improved and the couple dynamics returned to normal. Patients awaiting lung or heart transplantation were more heavily impaired. Significant others had to take over abandoned roles. After transplantation resuming normal life became gradually possible, but after one year either transplantation health benefits relieved physical, emotional and social loads, or complications maintained the level of stress on significant others. Discussion: Patients reported that significant others had to take over various responsibilities and were concerned about long-term stress that should be adequately supported.

The category 'natural' in the discourse of couples who used medically assisted procreation

As a constantly evolving set of complex biotechnologies, medically assisted procreation (MAP) jeopardises a category that seems to be taken for granted: that of 'natural'. What is 'natural' or not when MAP is used to procreate? What are the boundaries between a 'natural' and a 'non-natural' fertilisation? Drawing upon a dialogical approach to language and cognition, our study examined the semantic field of the category 'natural' as expressed in interviews between a psychiatrist and seven couples who resorted to MAP and had to decide whether to keep their frozen pre-embryonic cells (zygotes) for further procreation or to allow them be destroyed. We examined how these couples evoked the category 'natural' and showed that in their argumentation, the category 'natural' encompassed a wide variety of phenomena, which shifted the boundaries between the 'natural' and 'non-natural'. In so doing, the couples 'renaturalised' MAP, normalized it, moved the boundaries between what is legitimate or not, and showed their accountability. Hence, reference to the category 'natural' seemed to act both as an argumentative and a psychological resource in the elaboration of the person's experience in resorting to MAP.

Genetic structure of Gymnures (genus Hylomys; Erinaceidae) on continental islands of Southeast Asia: Historical effects of fragmentation

Eustatic sea level changes during Pleistocene climatic fluctuations produced several cycles of connection-isolation among continental islands of the Sunda shelf. To explore the potential effects of these fluctuations, we reconstructed a model of the vicariant events that separated these islands, based on bathymetric information. Among many possible scenarios, two opposite phylogenetic patterns of evolution were predicted for terrestrial organisms living in this region: one is based on the classical allopatric speciation mode of evolution, while the other is the outcome of a sequential dispersal colonization of the archipelago. We tested the applicability of these predictions with an analysis of sequence variation of the cytochrome b gene from several taxa of Hylomys. They were sampled throughout SE-Asia and the Sunda islands. High levels of haplotype differentiation characterize the different island taxa. Such levels of differentiation support the existence of several allopatric species, as was suggested by previous allozyme and morphological data. Also in accordance with previous results, the occurrence of two sympatric species from Sumatra is suggested by their strongly divergent haplotypes. One species, Hylomys suillus maxi, is found both on Sumatra and in Peninsular Malaysia, while the other, H. parvus, is endemic to Sumatra. Its closest relative is H. suillus dorsalis from Borneo. Phylogenetic reconstructions also demonstrate the existence of a Sundaic clade composed of all island taxa, as opposed to those from the continent. Although there is no statistical support for either proposed biogeographic model of evolution, we argue that the sequential dispersal scenario is more appropriate to describe the genetic variation found among the Hylomys taxa. However, despite strong differentiation among island haplotypes, the cladistic relationships between some island taxa could not be resolved. We argue that this is evidence of a rapid radiation, suggesting that the separation of the islands may have been perceived as a simultaneous event rather than as a succession of vicariant events. Furthermore, the estimates of divergence times between the haplotypes of these taxa suggest that this radiation may actually have predated the climatic fluctuations of the Pleistocene. Further refinement of the initial palaeogeographic models of evolution are therefore needed to account for these results.

Historical review: Negative efficacy and the constitutive activity of G-protein-coupled receptors.

The idea that a receptor can produce signalling without agonist intervention and that several antagonists can be 'active' in repressing such spontaneous activity is contained in the concept of ligand-induced conformational changes. Yet, this idea was neglected by pharmacologists for many years. In this article, we review the events that brought inverse agonism and constitutive activity to general attention and made this phenomenon a topic of current research. We also suggest a classification of antagonists based on the cooperativity that links their primary site of interaction with other functional domains of the receptor.

Southern Cone Initiative for the elimination of domestic populations of Triatoma infestans and the interruption of transfusion Chagas disease: historical aspects, present situation, and perspectives

Created in 1991 by the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay, the Southern Cone Initiative (SCI) has been extremely important for Chagas disease control in this region. Its basic objective was to reach the interruption of this disease, chiefly by means of the elimination of the principal vector Triatoma infestans and by the selection of safe donors in the regional blood banks. After a summarized historic of SCI, the text shows the advance of technical and operative activities, emphasizing some factors for the initiative success, as well as some difficulties and constraints. The future of SCI will depend of the continuity of the actions and of political priority. Scientific community has been highly responsible for this initiative and its maintenance. At the side of this, national and international efforts must be involved and reinforced to assure the accomplishment of the final targets of SCI. Very specially, the Pan American Health Organization has cooperated with the Initiative in all its moments and activities,being the most important catalytic and technical factor for SCI success.

Metodologia qualitativa d'anàlisi d'imatges

L'anàlisi de la significació tant del contingut com del discurs generat per les imatges s'aborda amb mètodes qualitatius. La interpretació de les dades manifestes i latents de la imatge és el resultat de la interacció de l'observador amb la imatge i està afectada pel coneixement del context, la interpretació simbòlica que se'n fa i l'entorn social, històric i cultural en què estan immersos tant l'observador com la mateixa imatge.

Electron microscopy of trypanosomes: a historical view

Since the discovery of the electron microscope and the development of the initial techniques for the processing of biological samples for electron microscopy, the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi has been the subject of intense investigation. This review analyzes the results obtained by observation of whole trypanosomes as well as thin sections and replicas using several microscopic approaches. Micrographs detailing the appearance of T. cruzi using several methods illustrate the evolution of electron microscopic techniques as well as its contribution to understanding the structural organization of the protozoan.

Parasites in rodent coprolites from the historical archaeological site Alero Mazquiarán, Chubut Province, Argentina

The aim of this study was to examine the parasitic remains that were found in rodent coprolites collected from the archaeological site Alero Mazquiarán (Chubut Province, 45º44'15"S, 70°25'9"W), which is assigned to the interface of the Araucanian and Tehuelche cultures, dated at 212 ± 35 years B.P. The faecal material from two unidentified rodent species (X-10 and X-11) was collected from one human pelvic cavity found in a multiple burial. The faecal samples were processed and examined using paleoparasitological procedures. The X-10 coprolites were positive for eggs of Monoecocestus sp. (Cestoda: Anoplocephalidae) and the X-11 faeces were positive for Pterygodermatites sp. (Nematoda: Rictulariidae), Trichosomoides sp. (Nematoda: Trichosomoididae) and Monoecocestus sp. In this study, we discuss parasitic life cycles, the zoonotic importance of parasites and the behaviour of the aboriginal people.

Le déterminisme linguistique en Russie actuelle

Résumé : Depuis la fin de la perestroïka s'est mis en place en Russie un discours identitaire qui, en linguistique, prend des formes extrêmes, reposant sur un strict déterminisme de la pensée par la langue. Les organismes de financement de la recherche scientifique soutiennent des projets qui étudient le rapport entre la grammaire russe et le « caractère national russe ». Des objets nouveaux apparaissent : « l'image linguistique russe du monde », « la personnalité linguistique », la « linguoculturologie ». Cet ensemble discursif construit dans l'imaginaire une identité collective rassurante, reposant sur l'idée que 1) tous les gens qui parlent la même langue pensent de la même façon; 2) les langues, donc les pensées collectives, sont imperméables entre elles, et donc intraduisibles. Cette tendance néo-humboldtienne dans la linguistique russe actuelle se déploie en toute méconnaissance de ses origines historiques : le Romantisme allemand dans son opposition à la philosophie des Lumières, le positivisme évolutionnisme d'Auguste Comte et la linguistique déterministe de l'Allemagne des années 1930.AbstractSince the end of perestroika, in linguistics in Russia, a new form of discourse has taken place, which stresses a very tight determinism of thought by language. The funding organizations of scientific research back up projects studying the relationship between Russiangrammar and the « Russian national character ». New objects of knowledge come to light : « the Russian linguistic image of the world », « linguistic personnality », « culturology ». This kind of discourse builds up an imaginary comforting collective identity, which relies on the principle that 1) all the people who speak the same language think the same way; 2) languages, hence collective kinds of thought, are hermetically closed to each other, and untranslatable. This neo-humboldtian trend in contemporary Russian linguistics has no knowledge of its historical origins : German Romanticism in its Anti-Enlightenment trend, evolutionnist positivism of Auguste Comte, and deterministic linguistics in Germany in the 1930s.

El proceso de codificación sintáctica de la causalidad en las lenguas románicas medievales

En esta comunicación vamos a examinar los patrones que sigue la codificación sintáctica en los conectores causales resultantes de procesos de gramaticalización. Tal como observó Givón (1979:107), la dirección de los procesos de codificación puede producirse desde el discurso a la sintaxis. Esta idea se ha retomado en teorías más recientes como, por ejemplo, la Teoría de la Relevancia, desarrollada en distintos trabajos de Sperber y Wilson, entre otros. La aplicación de esta teoría en el ámbito de los conectores discursivos ha sido llevada a cabo por distintos autores, entre los cuales destaca Blakemore. El propósito de nuestro trabajo residirá en integrar las ventajas de un análisis pragmático discursivo como la citada Teoría de la Relevancia con una teoría sintáctica formal de la gramaticalización, concretamente la que proponen dentro del marco de la gramática generativa Roberts y Roussou (2003). Esto permitirá profundizar, por un lado, en el tipo de codificación de las instruccions lingüísticas que aportan los conectores (información procedimental) y, por otro, en la relación lógico-discursiva entre las proposiciones y en la propia estructura del nexo

Procedural Meaning Explicatures in the Development of New Subordination Strategies in Romance

The sociocultural changes that led to the genesis of Romance languages widened the gap between oral and written patterns, which display different discoursive and linguistic devices. In early documents, discoursive implicatures connecting propositions were not generally codified, so that the reader should furnish the correctinterpretation according to his own perception of real facts; which can still be attested in current oral utterances. Once Romance languages had undergone several levelling processes which concluded in the first standardizations, implicatures became explicatures and were syntactically codified by means of univocal new complexconjunctions. As a consequence of the emergence of these new subordination strategies, a freer distribution of the information conveyed by the utterances is allowed. The success of complex structural patterns ran alongside of the genesis of new narrative genres and the generalization of a learned rhetoric. Both facts are a spontaneous effect of new approaches to the act of reading. Ancient texts were written to be read to a wide audience, whereas those printed by the end of the XV th century were conceived to be read quietly, in a low voice, by a private reader. The goal of this paper is twofold, since we will show that: a) The development of new complex conjunctions through the history of Romance languages accommodates to four structural patterns that range from parataxis tohypotaxis. b) This development is a reflex of the well known grammaticalization path from discourse to syntax that implies the codification of discoursive strategies (Givón 2 1979, Sperber and Wilson 1986, Carston 1988, Grice 1989, Bach 1994, Blackemore 2002, among others]