Commentary: Using the convection-dispersion model and transit time density functions in the analysis of organ distribution kinetics

The convection-dispersion model and its extended form have been used to describe solute disposition in organs and to predict hepatic availabilities. A range of empirical transit-time density functions has also been used for a similar purpose. The use of the dispersion model with mixed boundary conditions and transit-time density functions has been queried recently by Hisaka and Sugiyanaa in this journal. We suggest that, consistent with soil science and chemical engineering literature, the mixed boundary conditions are appropriate providing concentrations are defined in terms of flux to ensure continuity at the boundaries and mass balance. It is suggested that the use of the inverse Gaussian or other functions as empirical transit-time densities is independent of any boundary condition consideration. The mixed boundary condition solutions of the convection-dispersion model are the easiest to use when linear kinetics applies. In contrast, the closed conditions are easier to apply in a numerical analysis of nonlinear disposition of solutes in organs. We therefore argue that the use of hepatic elimination models should be based on pragmatic considerations, giving emphasis to using the simplest or easiest solution that will give a sufficiently accurate prediction of hepatic pharmacokinetics for a particular application. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss Inc. and the American Pharmaceutical Association J Pharm Sci 89:1579-1586, 2000.

Syntactic and pragmatic constraints on processing relative clauses

Thc oen itninteureasc ttioo nb eo fa pcreangtmraal tiiscs uaen di ns ymnotadcetlisc ocfo nsestnrtaeinnctse processing. It is well established that object relatives (1) are harder to process than subject relatives (2). Passivization, other things being equal, increases sentence complexity. However, one of the functions of the passive construction is to promote an NP into the role of subject so that it can be more easily bound to the head NP in a higher clause. Thus, (3) is predicted to be marginally preferred over (1). Passiviazation in this instance may be seen as a way of avoiding the object relative construction. 1. The pipe that the traveller smoked annoyed the passengers. 2. The traveller that smoked the pipe annoyed the passengers. 3.The pipe that was smoked by the traveller annoyed the 4.The traveller that the pipe was smoked by annoyed the 5.The traveller that the lady was assaulted by annoyed the In (4) we have relativization of an NP which has been demoted by passivization to the status of a by-phrase. Such relative clauses may only be obtained under quite restrictive pragmatic conditions. Many languages do not permit relativization of a constituent as low as a by-phrase on the NP accessibility hierarchy (Comrie, 1984). The factors which determine the acceptability of demoted NP relatives like (4-5) reflect the ease with which the NP promoted to subject position can be taken as a discourse topic. We explored the acceptability of sentences such as (1-5) using pair-wise judgements of samddifferent meaning, accompanied by ratings of easeof understanding. Results are discussed with reference to Gibsons DLT model of linguistic complexity and sentence processing (Gibson, 2000)

Developing pragmatic skills at the pre-school level: a case study

This paper reviews a study undertaken to develop activities to help teach communicative functions of language.

Pragmatic oriented data interoperability for smart healthcare information systems

Smart healthcare is a complex domain for systems integration due to human and technical factors and heterogeneous data sources involved. As a part of smart city, it is such a complex area where clinical functions require smartness of multi-systems collaborations for effective communications among departments, and radiology is one of the areas highly relies on intelligent information integration and communication. Therefore, it faces many challenges regarding integration and its interoperability such as information collision, heterogeneous data sources, policy obstacles, and procedure mismanagement. The purpose of this study is to conduct an analysis of data, semantic, and pragmatic interoperability of systems integration in radiology department, and to develop a pragmatic interoperability framework for guiding the integration. We select an on-going project at a local hospital for undertaking our case study. The project is to achieve data sharing and interoperability among Radiology Information Systems (RIS), Electronic Patient Record (EPR), and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS). Qualitative data collection and analysis methods are used. The data sources consisted of documentation including publications and internal working papers, one year of non-participant observations and 37 interviews with radiologists, clinicians, directors of IT services, referring clinicians, radiographers, receptionists and secretary. We identified four primary phases of data analysis process for the case study: requirements and barriers identification, integration approach, interoperability measurements, and knowledge foundations. Each phase is discussed and supported by qualitative data. Through the analysis we also develop a pragmatic interoperability framework that summaries the empirical findings and proposes recommendations for guiding the integration in the radiology context.

How single is ‘single’ : some pragmatic reflections on single versus multifaceted interventions to facilitate implementation

An earlier overview of systematic reviews and a subsequent editorial on single-component versus multifaceted interventions to promote knowledge translation (KT) highlight complex issues in implementation science. In this supplemented commentary, further aspects are in focus; we propose examples from (KT) studies probing the issue of single interventions. A main point is that defining what is a single and what is a multifaceted intervention can be ambiguous, depending on how the intervention is conceived. Further, we suggest additional perspectives in terms of strategies to facilitate implementation. More specifically, we argue for a need to depict not only what activities are done in implementation interventions, but to unpack functions in particular contexts, in order to support the progress of implementation science.

Reconstructive Dreams: A Pragmatic Fantastic After Postmodernism

This dissertation focuses on the use of fantastic elements in the work of a young generation of writers which explore the possibilities of literary development after and beyond postmodernism. By overtly declaring the fictionality of their fantastic stories by means of frame narratives, texts like Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated (2002), Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000), Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000), David Mitchell’s number9dream (2001) and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi (2001) reassess the communicative value of genre boundaries in an attempt to move beyond postmodern relativity and breakdown of communicability. This clear focus on pragmatic concerns marks a shift in the use of the fantastic which calls for a reconsideration of some of the general critical assumptions about the workings of the mode. Though the relation between reality and fiction remains a central issue, the main concern shifts away from such epistemological and ontological considerations, towards questions concerning the pragmatic function of literary fiction in general and different genres in particular. Instead of dwelling on the typically postmodern concerns about the fictionality of reality and the instability of meaning, the works under discussion emphasise the constructive role fiction plays in dealing with reality, the uses to which it can be put and the functions it fulfils in fashioning our being in the world. Drawing on Iser’s theory of the fictive, Irmtraud Huber therefore suggests a reconceptualisation of the fantastic mode, which newly foregrounds its underlying pragmatic structure. She bring this adapted understanding to bear in a close textual analysis of the above mentioned literary texts, with the aim to account for their use of the mode in their commitment to a larger literary endeavour of a new generation that engages with the inheritance of postmodernism and struggles to come into its own.

A pragmatic Bayesian approach to wind field retrieval

The ERS-1 Satellite was launched in July 1991 by the European Space Agency into a polar orbit at about 800 km, carrying a C-band scatterometer. A scatterometer measures the amount of backscatter microwave radiation reflected by small ripples on the ocean surface induced by sea-surface winds, and so provides instantaneous snap-shots of wind flow over large areas of the ocean surface, known as wind fields. Inherent in the physics of the observation process is an ambiguity in wind direction; the scatterometer cannot distinguish if the wind is blowing toward or away from the sensor device. This ambiguity implies that there is a one-to-many mapping between scatterometer data and wind direction. Current operational methods for wind field retrieval are based on the retrieval of wind vectors from satellite scatterometer data, followed by a disambiguation and filtering process that is reliant on numerical weather prediction models. The wind vectors are retrieved by the local inversion of a forward model, mapping scatterometer observations to wind vectors, and minimising a cost function in scatterometer measurement space. This thesis applies a pragmatic Bayesian solution to the problem. The likelihood is a combination of conditional probability distributions for the local wind vectors given the scatterometer data. The prior distribution is a vector Gaussian process that provides the geophysical consistency for the wind field. The wind vectors are retrieved directly from the scatterometer data by using mixture density networks, a principled method to model multi-modal conditional probability density functions. The complexity of the mapping and the structure of the conditional probability density function are investigated. A hybrid mixture density network, that incorporates the knowledge that the conditional probability distribution of the observation process is predominantly bi-modal, is developed. The optimal model, which generalises across a swathe of scatterometer readings, is better on key performance measures than the current operational model. Wind field retrieval is approached from three perspectives. The first is a non-autonomous method that confirms the validity of the model by retrieving the correct wind field 99% of the time from a test set of 575 wind fields. The second technique takes the maximum a posteriori probability wind field retrieved from the posterior distribution as the prediction. For the third technique, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques were employed to estimate the mass associated with significant modes of the posterior distribution, and make predictions based on the mode with the greatest mass associated with it. General methods for sampling from multi-modal distributions were benchmarked against a specific MCMC transition kernel designed for this problem. It was shown that the general methods were unsuitable for this application due to computational expense. On a test set of 100 wind fields the MAP estimate correctly retrieved 72 wind fields, whilst the sampling method correctly retrieved 73 wind fields.

#srynotfunny : Communicative functions of hashtags on Twitter

This study investigates various communicative functions served by hashtags in written communication on Twitter from a linguistic pragmatic perspective. A tweet containing a hashtag links to, and is integrated into, a timeline of other tweets containing the same hashtag. Thus, hashtags are by default categorizing or organizing; a user of Twitter may add the tag #food to their tweet to integrate it into a general conversation about this topic. However, this study demonstrates that hashtags are also used creatively to perform other communicative functions. In the data presented, hashtags are employed as complexly multifunctional linguistic devices for, among other things, structuring information, playing games, and engaging in reflexive meta-commentary. Notably, while pragmatic methodology is typically applied to speech, this study indicates that a traditional speech acts framework may be profitably applied to written communication in new media.

Functions of code-switching in multilingual student community

Dissertação de Mestrado, Ciências da Linguagem, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2013

Mechanisms Predisposing Penile Fracture And Long-term Outcomes On Erectile And Voiding Functions.

Purpose. To determine the mechanisms predisposing penile fracture as well as the rate of long-term penile deformity and erectile and voiding functions. Methods. All fractures were repaired on an emergency basis via subcoronal incision and absorbable suture with simultaneous repair of eventual urethral lesion. Patients' status before fracture and voiding and erectile functions at long term were assessed by periodic follow-up and phone call. Detailed history included cause, symptoms, and single-question self-report of erectile and voiding functions. Results. Among the 44 suspicious cases, 42 (95.4%) were confirmed, mean age was 34.5 years (range: 18-60), mean follow-up 59.3 months (range 9-155). Half presented the classical triad of audible crack, detumescence, and pain. Heterosexual intercourse was the most common cause (28 patients, 66.7%), followed by penile manipulation (6 patients, 14.3%), and homosexual intercourse (4 patients, 9.5%). Woman on top was the most common heterosexual position (n = 14, 50%), followed by doggy style (n = 8, 28.6%). Four patients (9.5%) maintained the cause unclear. Six (14.3%) patients had urethral injury and two (4.8%) had erectile dysfunction, treated by penile prosthesis and PDE-5i. No patient showed urethral fistula, voiding deterioration, penile nodule/curve or pain. Conclusions. Woman on top was the potentially riskiest sexual position (50%). Immediate surgical treatment warrants long-term very low morbidity.

Two-component System Vicrk Regulates Functions Associated With Establishment Of Streptococcus Sanguinis In Biofilms.

Streptococcus sanguinis is a commensal pioneer colonizer of teeth and an opportunistic pathogen of infectious endocarditis. The establishment of S. sanguinis in host sites likely requires dynamic fitting of the cell wall in response to local stimuli. In this study, we investigated the two-component system (TCS) VicRK in S. sanguinis (VicRKSs), which regulates genes of cell wall biogenesis, biofilm formation, and virulence in opportunistic pathogens. A vicK knockout mutant obtained from strain SK36 (SKvic) showed slight reductions in aerobic growth and resistance to oxidative stress but an impaired ability to form biofilms, a phenotype restored in the complemented mutant. The biofilm-defective phenotype was associated with reduced amounts of extracellular DNA during aerobic growth, with reduced production of H2O2, a metabolic product associated with DNA release, and with inhibitory capacity of S. sanguinis competitor species. No changes in autolysis or cell surface hydrophobicity were detected in SKvic. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA), and promoter sequence analyses revealed that VicR directly regulates genes encoding murein hydrolases (SSA_0094, cwdP, and gbpB) and spxB, which encodes pyruvate oxidase for H2O2 production. Genes previously associated with spxB expression (spxR, ccpA, ackA, and tpK) were not transcriptionally affected in SKvic. RT-qPCR analyses of S. sanguinis biofilm cells further showed upregulation of VicRK targets (spxB, gbpB, and SSA_0094) and other genes for biofilm formation (gtfP and comE) compared to expression in planktonic cells. This study provides evidence that VicRKSs regulates functions crucial for S. sanguinis establishment in biofilms and identifies novel VicRK targets potentially involved in hydrolytic activities of the cell wall required for these functions.

Monte Carlo Simulation Of The Response Functions Of Cdte Detectors To Be Applied In X-ray Spectroscopy.

In this work, the energy response functions of a CdTe detector were obtained by Monte Carlo (MC) simulation in the energy range from 5 to 160keV, using the PENELOPE code. In the response calculations the carrier transport features and the detector resolution were included. The computed energy response function was validated through comparison with experimental results obtained with (241)Am and (152)Eu sources. In order to investigate the influence of the correction by the detector response at diagnostic energy range, x-ray spectra were measured using a CdTe detector (model XR-100T, Amptek), and then corrected by the energy response of the detector using the stripping procedure. Results showed that the CdTe exhibits good energy response at low energies (below 40keV), showing only small distortions on the measured spectra. For energies below about 80keV, the contribution of the escape of Cd- and Te-K x-rays produce significant distortions on the measured x-ray spectra. For higher energies, the most important correction is the detector efficiency and the carrier trapping effects. The results showed that, after correction by the energy response, the measured spectra are in good agreement with those provided by a theoretical model of the literature. Finally, our results showed that the detailed knowledge of the response function and a proper correction procedure are fundamental for achieving more accurate spectra from which quality parameters (i.e., half-value layer and homogeneity coefficient) can be determined.

Data collapse, scaling functions, and analytical solutions of generalized growth models

We consider a nontrivial one-species population dynamics model with finite and infinite carrying capacities. Time-dependent intrinsic and extrinsic growth rates are considered in these models. Through the model per capita growth rate we obtain a heuristic general procedure to generate scaling functions to collapse data into a simple linear behavior even if an extrinsic growth rate is included. With this data collapse, all the models studied become independent from the parameters and initial condition. Analytical solutions are found when time-dependent coefficients are considered. These solutions allow us to perceive nontrivial transitions between species extinction and survival and to calculate the transition's critical exponents. Considering an extrinsic growth rate as a cancer treatment, we show that the relevant quantity depends not only on the intensity of the treatment, but also on when the cancerous cell growth is maximum.

Charm and longitudinal structure functions within the Kharzeev-Levin-Nardi model

We use the Kharzeev-Levin-Nardi (KLN) model of the low x gluon distributions to fit recent HERA data on F(L) and F(2)(c)(F(2)(b)). Having checked that this model gives a good description of the data, we use it to predict F(L) and F(2)(c) to be measured in a future electron-ion collider. The results are similar to those obtained with the de Florian-Sassot and Eskola-Paukkunen-Salgado nuclear gluon distributions. The conclusion of this exercise is that the KLN model, simple as it is, may still be used as an auxiliary tool to make estimates for both heavy-ion and electron-ion collisions.