The value of 'positive' clinical signs for weakness, sensory and gait disorders in conversion disorder: a systematic and narrative review.

Experts in the field of conversion disorder have suggested for the upcoming DSM-V edition to put less weight on the associated psychological factors and to emphasise the role of clinical findings. Indeed, a critical step in reaching a diagnosis of conversion disorder is careful bedside neurological examination, aimed at excluding organic signs and identifying 'positive' signs suggestive of a functional disorder. These positive signs are well known to all trained neurologists but their validity is still not established. The aim of this study is to provide current evidence regarding their sensitivity and specificity. We conducted a systematic search on motor, sensory and gait functional signs in Embase, Medline, PsycINfo from 1965 to June 2012. Studies in English, German or French reporting objective data on more than 10 participants in a controlled design were included in a systematic review. Other relevant signs are discussed in a narrative review. Eleven controlled studies (out of 147 eligible articles) describing 14 signs (7 motor, 5 sensory, 2 gait) reported low sensitivity of 8-100% but high specificity of 92-100%. Studies were evidence class III, only two had a blinded design and none reported on inter-rater reliability of the signs. Clinical signs for functional neurological symptoms are numerous but only 14 have been validated; overall they have low sensitivity but high specificity and their use should thus be recommended, especially with the introduction of the new DSM-V criteria.

All-Ireland Health Data Inventory. Part 1: Metadata for key data sources, version 1.0

The All-Ireland Health Data Inventory. Part 1 is a catalogue of key sources of health data in the Republic and Northern Ireland. It includes relevant datasets from the major information reviews, conducted in the North and South, in the past few years. Information is essential for informed decision making and service provision. This inventory draws together information sources to facilitate such decision making. The inventory is intended as a resource for health professionals, researchers and the general public, providing the first phase of a ‘one-stop’ catalogue of health data. The datasets have been catalogued using an expanding numbering system which will allow for the inclusion of future resources. The Institute of Public Health in Ireland is in the process of expanding the Inventory to include further data sources.

La Bible se raconte : initiation à l'analyse narrative

La Bible est l'un des plus fabuleux trésors d'histoires de l'humanité. Car depuis la nuit des temps, les croyants racontent. Mais pas n'importe quoi. Longuement façonnés dans l'oralité, patiemment rédigés, les récits bibliques obéissent à de subtiles règles de composition. Derrière les histoires apparemment naives se cache la fine stratégie d'un narrateur. Grâce à ses qualités pédagogiques, le livre de Daniel Marguerat et Yvan Bourquin s'est imposé comme un manuel de référence pour l'initiation à l'analyse narrative des textes bibliques. Il a été traduit en plusieurs langue. Pour cette 4e édition, l'étude de l'intrigue et de la construction des personnages a été renouvelée. Avec clarté, ses auteurs ont aménagé un parcours qui permet de découvrir les outils de l'analyse narrative, d'étudier leur application, d'évaluer leur efficacité. Toute la magie de la lecture biblique s'en trouve éclairée.

Narrative Diagrammatik. Mit einer Modellanalyse: Die Diagrammatik des "Decameron"

Taking as a starting point the seeming inconsistency of late-medieval romances notoriously 'run wild' (verwildert), this article is concerned with the description of an abstract form of narrative coherence that is based on the notion of the diagrammatic. In a first section, this concept is illustrated in a simplified manner by an analysis of Boccaccio's Decameron based on two levels of spatial structure: that of the autograph Berlin manuscript (Codex Hamilton 90) and that of the recipient's mental visualisation of the relations between the frame and the tales of the work. It is argued that the connectivity of the work as a whole depends on the perception of those two spatial representations of the plot. A second section develops this concept in a more theoretical fashion, drawing on Charles Sanders Peirce's notion of diagrammatic reasoning as a way of perceiving relations through mental and material topological representations. Correspondingly, a view of narrative is proposed that does not depend on the traditional perspective of temporal sequence but emphasizes the spatial structure of literary narrative. It is argued that these conditions form the primary ontological mode of narrative, whereas the temporal development of a story is an aesthetic illusion that has been specifically stimulated by the narrative conventions of approximately the past three centuries and must thus be considered a secondary effect. To conclude, an interpretation in miniature of an aspect of Heinrich von Neustadt's Apollonius von Tyrland that seems to have 'run wild' is undertaken from a diagrammatic perspective.

L'essor de nouvelles lectures en exégèse : l'analyse narrative

Quelques théologiens des différentes confessions chrétiennes (catholique, orthodoxe et protestante) se sont réunis du 4 au 8 septembre 2002 au Monastère de Bose (Italie) pour étudier un sujet brûlant : « Comment faire de la théologie aujourd'hui ? ». Les principales conférences ont abordé avec audace les thèmes controversés de la recherche contemporaine : les changements culturels et leur influence sur la manière de faire de la théologie ; la responsabilité des théologiens devant l'Église et le monde ; les différentes lectures de la Bible ; la vie liturgique et paroissiale ; la pertinence du dogme christologique ; la nouvelle spiritualité ; le renouveau de l'Église orthodoxe.

Entrer dans le monde du récit. Une présentation de l'analyse narrative

L'analyse narrative permet d'apprécier comment une théologie se dit en narrativité. L'analyse narrative fait réaliser que la construction d'une intrigue, le dispositif d'un réseau de personnages ou la gestion de la temporalité sont autant d'indicateurs de l'intention théologique qu'un énoncé kérygmatique ou une confession de foi. C'est rendre justice aux auteurs bibliques que s'instruire des outils dont ils ont usé pour construire leur récit, quand bien même la théorisation narratologique leur était étrangère. Enfin, l'analyse narrative offre un appareil de lecture et un métalangage simple

Semantic web adoption: online tools for web evaluation and metadata extraction

This work briefly analyses the difficulties to adopt the Semantic Web, and in particular proposes systems to know the present level of migration to the different technologies that make up the Semantic Web. It focuses on the presentation and description of two tools, DigiDocSpider and DigiDocMetaEdit, designed with the aim of verifYing, evaluating, and promoting its implementation.

Social Security in Theory and Practice (II): Efficiency Theories, Narrative Theories, and Implications for Reform

166 countries have some kind of public old age pension. What economic forces create and sustain old age Social Security as a public program? Mulligan and Sala-i-Martin (1999b) document several of the internationally and historically common features of social security programs, and explore "political" theories of Social Security. This paper discusses the "efficiency theories", which view creation of the SS program as a full of partial solution to some market failure. Efficiency explanations of social security include the "SS as welfare for the elderly" the "retirement increases productivity to optimally manage human capital externalities", "optimal retirement insurance", the "prodigal father problem", the "misguided Keynesian", the "optimal longevity insurance", the "government economizing transaction costs", and the "return on human capital investment". We also analyze four "narrative" theories of social security: the "chain letter theory", the "lump of labor theory", the "monopoly capitalism theory", and the "Sub-but-Nearly-Optimal policy response to private pensions theory". The political and efficiency explanations are compared with the international and historical facts and used to derive implications for replacing the typical pay-as-you-go system with a forced savings plan. Most of the explanations suggest that forced savings does not increase welfare, and may decrease it.