Narcolepsy and pregnancy: a retrospective European evaluation of 249 pregnancies

In a retrospective cohort study undertaken in 12 European countries, 249 female narcoleptic patients with cataplexy (n = 216) and without cataplexy (n = 33) completed a self-administrated questionnaire regarding pregnancy and childbirth. The cohort was divided further into patients whose symptoms of narcolepsy started before or during pregnancy (308 pregnancies) and those in whom the first symptoms of narcolepsy appeared after delivery (106 pregnancies). Patients with narcolepsy during pregnancy were older during their first pregnancy (P < 0.001) and had a higher body mass index (BMI) prior to pregnancy (P < 0.01). Weight gain during pregnancy was higher in narcoleptic patients with cataplexy (P < 0.01). More patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy during pregnancy had impaired glucose metabolism and anaemia. Three patients experienced cataplexy during delivery. The rate of caesarean sections was higher in the narcolepsy-cataplexy group compared to the narcolepsy group (P < 0.05). The mean birth weight and gestational age of neonates were within the normal range and did not differ across groups. Neonatal care was affected adversely by symptoms of narcolepsy in 60.1% of those with narcolepsy during pregnancy. This study reports more obstetric complications in patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy during pregnancy; however, these were not severe. This group also had a higher BMI and higher incidence of impaired glucose metabolism during pregnancy. Caesarian section was conducted more frequently in narcolepsy-cataplexy patients, despite cataplexy being a rare event during delivery. Furthermore, symptoms of narcolepsy may render care of the infant more difficult.

Different fever definitions and the rate of fever and neutropenia diagnosed in children with cancer: a retrospective two-center cohort study

Background. The definition of fever, and thus fever and neutropenia (FN), varies between different pediatric oncology centers. Higher temperature limit should reduce FN rates, but may increase rates of FN with complications by delaying therapy. This study determined if different fever definitions are associated with different FN rates. Procedure. Two pediatric oncology centers had used three fever definitions in 2004–2011: ear temperature >=38.5°C persisting >=2 hours (low definition); axillary temperature >=38.5°C >=2 hours or >=39.0°C once (middle); and ear temperature >=39.0°C once (high). Clinical information was retrospectively extracted from charts. FN rates were compared using mixed Poisson regression. Results. In 521 pediatric patients with cancer, 783 FN were recorded during 6,009 months cumulative chemotherapy exposure time (501 years; rate, 0.13/month [95% CI, 0.12–0.14]), 124 of them with bacteremia (16%; 0.021/month [0.017–0.025]). In univariate analysis, the high versus low fever definition was associated with a lower FN rate (0.10/month [0.08–0.11] vs. 0.15/month [0.13–0.16]; rate ratio, 0.66 [0.45–0.97]; P ¼ 0.036), the middle definition was intermediate (0.13/month [0.11–0.15]). This difference was not confirmed in multivariate analysis (rate ratio, 0.94 [0.67–1.33]; P ¼ 0.74). The high versus low definition was not associated with an increased rate of FN with bacteremia (multivariate rate ratio, 1.39 [0.53–3.62]; P ¼ 0.50). Conclusion. A higher fever definition was not associated with a lower FN rate, nor with an increased rate of FN with bacteremia. These may be false negative findings due to methodological limitations. These questions, with their potential impact on health-related quality of life, and on costs, need to be assessed in prospective studies.

A Comparative Study of Two Semantic Systems: Body Russian and Russian Phraseology

Grigorij Kreidlin (Russia). A Comparative Study of Two Semantic Systems: Body Russian and Russian Phraseology. Mr. Kreidlin teaches in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics of the State University of Humanities in Moscow and worked on this project from August 1996 to July 1998. The classical approach to non-verbal and verbal oral communication is based on a traditional separation of body and mind. Linguists studied words and phrasemes, the products of mind activities, while gestures, facial expressions, postures and other forms of body language were left to anthropologists, psychologists, physiologists, and indeed to anyone but linguists. Only recently have linguists begun to turn their attention to gestures and semiotic and cognitive paradigms are now appearing that raise the question of designing an integral model for the unified description of non-verbal and verbal communicative behaviour. This project attempted to elaborate lexical and semantic fragments of such a model, producing a co-ordinated semantic description of the main Russian gestures (including gestures proper, postures and facial expressions) and their natural language analogues. The concept of emblematic gestures and gestural phrasemes and of their semantic links permitted an appropriate description of the transformation of a body as a purely physical substance into a body as a carrier of essential attributes of Russian culture - the semiotic process called the culturalisation of the human body. Here the human body embodies a system of cultural values and displays them in a text within the area of phraseology and some other important language domains. The goal of this research was to develop a theory that would account for the fundamental peculiarities of the process. The model proposed is based on the unified lexicographic representation of verbal and non-verbal units in the Dictionary of Russian Gestures, which the Mr. Kreidlin had earlier complied in collaboration with a group of his students. The Dictionary was originally oriented only towards reflecting how the lexical competence of Russian body language is represented in the Russian mind. Now a special type of phraseological zone has been designed to reflect explicitly semantic relationships between the gestures in the entries and phrasemes and to provide the necessary information for a detailed description of these. All the definitions, rules of usage and the established correlations are written in a semantic meta-language. Several classes of Russian gestural phrasemes were identified, including those phrasemes and idioms with semantic definitions close to those of the corresponding gestures, those phraseological units that have lost touch with the related gestures (although etymologically they are derived from gestures that have gone out of use), and phrasemes and idioms which have semantic traces or reflexes inherited from the meaning of the related gestures. The basic assumptions and practical considerations underlying the work were as follows. (1) To compare meanings one has to be able to state them. To state the meaning of a gesture or a phraseological expression, one needs a formal semantic meta-language of propositional character that represents the cognitive and mental aspects of the codes. (2) The semantic contrastive analysis of any semiotic codes used in person-to-person communication also requires a single semantic meta-language, i.e. a formal semantic language of description,. This language must be as linguistically and culturally independent as possible and yet must be open to interpretation through any culture and code. Another possible method of conducting comparative verbal-non-verbal semantic research is to work with different semantic meta-languages and semantic nets and to learn how to combine them, translate from one to another, etc. in order to reach a common basis for the subsequent comparison of units. (3) The practical work in defining phraseological units and organising the phraseological zone in the Dictionary of Russian Gestures unexpectedly showed that semantic links between gestures and gestural phrasemes are reflected not only in common semantic elements and syntactic structure of semantic propositions, but also in general and partial cognitive operations that are made over semantic definitions. (4) In comparative semantic analysis one should take into account different values and roles of inner form and image components in the semantic representation of non-verbal and verbal units. (5) For the most part, gestural phrasemes are direct semantic derivatives of gestures. The cognitive and formal techniques can be regarded as typological features for the future functional-semantic classification of gestural phrasemes: two phrasemes whose meaning can be obtained by the same cognitive or purely syntactic operations (or types of operations) over the meanings of the corresponding gestures, belong by definition to one and the same class. The nature of many cognitive operations has not been studied well so far, but the first steps towards its comprehension and description have been taken. The research identified 25 logically possible classes of relationships between a gesture and a gestural phraseme. The calculation is based on theoretically possible formal (set-theory) correlations between signifiers and signified of the non-verbal and verbal units. However, in order to examine which of them are realised in practice a complete semantic and lexicographic description of all (not only central) everyday emblems and gestural phrasemes is required and this unfortunately does not yet exist. Mr. Kreidlin suggests that the results of the comparative analysis of verbal and non-verbal units could also be used in other research areas such as the lexicography of emotions.

Weak Senses as a Type of Semantic Information

'Weak senses' are a specific type of semantic information as opposed to assertions and presuppositions. The universal trait of weak senses is that they assume 'if' modality in negative contexts. In addition they exhibit several other diagnostic properties, e.g. they fill at least one of their valency places with a semantic element sensitive to negation (i.e. with an assertion or other weak sense), they normally do not fall within the scope of functors, do not play any role in causal relations, and resist intensification. As weak senses are widespread in lexical, grammatical and referential semantics, this notion holds the clue to phenomena as diverse as the oppositions little - a little, few - a few, edva ('hardly') - cut' ('slightly), where a little, a few, cut, convey 'weakly' approximately what little, few, and edva do in an assertive way, the semantics of the Russian perfect aspect, and the formation rules for conjunction strings. Zeldovich outlines a typology of weak senses, the main distinction being between weak senses unilaterally dependent upon the truthfulness of what they saturate their valency with, and weak senses exerting their own influence on the main situation. The latter, called, non-trivial, are instantiated by existential quantifiers involved in the semantics of indefinite pronouns, iterative verbs, etc.

The Language of Political Conflict: A Logico-Semantic Approach

A semantic approach towards political conflict first emerged in the 1930s and provides the methodological foundations for the description of political conflicts, in particular as the correlation between the language of description and reality. Any military or political confrontation presupposes axiological, conceptual and ideological confrontation. The form of adequate description can only be comprehended if the characteristic features of its language (structure) and thesaurus are revealed. Admitting the possibility of different descriptions implies the necessity of analysing this possible ambiguity, i.e. the characteristic features of the language which enable us to form various statements, including mutually exclusive ones. The insoluble task of finding a middle ground between the viewpoints of the conflicting parties should be replaced by soluble procedures of explaining and assessing the conflicting axiologies. For the description of conflict situations, when it is essential to represent various positions within a uniform system, an apparatus of model semantics seems to be the most appropriate one both for generating alternatives and for bringing them together in a modal system of a world in which procedures of transition from one world to another (i.e. the transworld compatibility between them) are also reflected. Reality is reconstructed not as a sort of middle ground between the mutually exclusive approaches nor as their sum, but as a result of the overlapping of various worlds and the procedures of transition from one state of affairs to another. The description of a conflict is therefore seen as a system of worlds connected by modal relations, with a system of worlds emerging as a reality to be described. This approach makes it possible to describe the processes from the points of view of the participating parties and, at the same time, to reveal their basic attitudes. The main idea of this research is shown by the problems analysed: the description of conflict as methodology; language and behaviour (general problems of semiotic description), the logico-semantic analysis of the notions of "problem and conflict", "Genesis and Chronology", "the recurrent model of the (historical) explanation and interpretation of the conflict". Zolyan used data on the Karabagh conflict to demonstrate the dependence of the structure of semio-cultural codes on current political development and considered post-soviet history as a semio-cultural problem. He sought to consider and reveal the logic of manipulations with history, and proposed the logic of preferences as a possible instrument for achieving compromise.

Technetium-99m-HDP uptake characteristics in equine fractures: a retrospective study

Bone scintigraphy is a very sensitive diagnostic tool to detect elevated bone metabolism. In cases of fractures and fissure fractures, the radiopharmaceutical uptake in the bone is said to be increased within a few hours after the injury. In this retrospective study, the scintigraphic uptake characteristics at the fracture site of 36 horses with radiographically confirmed fractures or fissure fractures were evaluated. Uptake ratios between the fracture region and adjacent normal bone or soft tissue activity respectively were calculated and compared to different anamnestic and radiographic data. The overall sensitivity of bone scintigraphy was 94.4% (34 positive cases out of 36). In the 36 horses, no correlation between the age of the fracture and the radiopharmaceutical uptake was found. However, there seems to be a lack of sensitivity in early detection of equine pelvic fractures when a standing bone scintigraphy examination protocol is used.

[Histiocytic sarcoma in the Swiss population of Bernese mountain dogs: a retrospective study of its genetic predisposition]

A retrospective study to evaluate the genetic predisposition for histiocytic sarcoma in the Swiss population of purebred Bernese mountain dogs identified 51 histologically confirmed cases between 1997 and 2003. Segregation analysis using five major genetic modes was used to evaluate the 51 cases. The general mode yielded the best results suggesting a genetic predisposition for histiocystic sarcoma in this breed. The disease was found in all families analyzed, therefore elimination of the disease through seletive breeding of certain family lines is not possible.

Public, Private and University Collaboration: Applying a Retrospective Study of the Central Massachusetts Bio-Medical Cluster, Cluster Project Summary for Mosakowski Institute

Three Clark faculty members are studying the development of the Worcester Biotechnology Cluster for any lessons it might hold for current efforts to catalyze the growth of a sustainable energy/green jobs cluster in Worcester or elsewhere. Mary Ellen Boyle (GSOM), Jennie Stephens (IDCE/ESP), and Jing Zhang (GSOM) have conducted extensive in-depth interviews and combed the literature of cluster development to produce several articles and working papers.