An ELF Approach to False Friends in Pronunciation in the Context of English for Science and Technology

La pronunciación de palabras en inglés en el ámbito científico internacional puede ser muy problemática, lo cual puede llevar a la falta de o error en la comunicación entre los miembros de este campo en términos de inteligibilidad. La razón por la que un mensaje llega a ser ininteligible es porque el interlocutor cree haber oído otra palabra (y por consiguiente, otro significado) o incluso por no haber entendido nada. Este estudio se centra en aquellas palabras cuya ortografía es igual o similar en español e inglés, pero difieren a nivel fonético, en el patrón acentual o ambos. Esta idea de semejanza formal se ha unido a la noción de “falso amigo”. Dada la inexistencia de pautas normativas en cuanto a la pronunciación estándar de tecnicismos científicos, esta disertación tiene como objetivo demostrar la dificultad que conlleva la interacción entre científicos de diferentes nacionalidades en un contexto de inglés como Lingua Franca. Para ello, se han tomado como punto de partida dos variedades generales del inglés, RP (Received Pronunciation) y GA (General American). La selección de palabras utilizada en este estudio proviene de diferentes fuentes: resumen, clases teóricas y glosarios. Este material se ha analizado desde un punto de vista cualitativo y cuantitativo. Mediante el estudio cualitativo se ha demostrado dónde se pueden encontrar las diferencias tanto a nivel segmental como suprasegmental. Además, el estudio cuantitativo ha servido para aclarar con qué frecuencia aparecen dichas dificultades. El análisis de este trabajo se ha desarrollado a través de la comparación de la clasificación propuesta por Roca Varela y mi propia clasificación, concluyendo que es de gran importancia ser conscientes de dónde pueden estar las diferencias en pronunciación de dos palabras formalmente similares o iguales en dos idiomas diferentes ya que puede llevar a una interpretación errónea del mensaje

Numerical simulation of blood flow through permeable vascular network embedded in tumour porous interstitium

Tumour blood flow plays a critical role in tumour growth and cancer therapies. Computational fluid dynamics is an efficient method to study blood behaviour by modelling fluid flow through numerical simulations. A mathematical model is developed to study the blood flow through a three-dimensional permeable vascular network embedded in a solid tumour, and its transvascular movement and spread within tumour interior in context with cancer therapies. The vasculature is described by the parametric equations in terms of vessel centre lines. The flow through each tumour vessel is approximated with the leading component in the longitudinal direction of the vessel, and its governing equation becomes an ordinary differential equation based on the parameter of the parametric equation for the vessel centre line. The pressure continuity and mass conservation conditions are imposed at every junction within tumour vascular network. The interstitial flow is described by the Darcy’s law which is converted into the Laplace equation. The coupling effect between the flows through tumour vasculature and within tumour interstitial due to the vascular permeability is described by the Starling’s law. A coupling mathematical model is then developed. Based on mass conservation, a differential equation for pressures on both sides of vascular surface is obtained. Transforming the Laplace equation into the boundary-integral form by using the Green’s function offers another equation linking the pressures inside and outside vessels. The numerical procedure is developed, and the discretised differential and integral equations are solved by finite difference method and boundary element method respectively. The model is applied to investigate how different types of physical parameters and special characters of tumour vasculature affect tumour blood flow. Finally, an approximation model by ignoring the term with small value of the fully coupling model is developed, and its validity and simulation efficiency are examined

Late Effects of Ionizing Radiation on Normal Microvascular Networks

Therapeutic doses of ionizing radiation result in changes in the structure and function of microvascular networks in normal tissue. Previously, we reported on the early effects of ionizing radiation on microvascular networks at 3, 7, and 30 days post-irradiation [1-3]. Data from the early time points suggested that ionizing radiation significantly alters the structure and function of microvascular networks and interferes with the normal processes of vessel maturation. Here, we present our findings on the late effects of ionizing radiation on normal tissue microvasculature at 60, 120, and 180 days post-irradiation. The cremaster muscle of Golden Syrian hamster was locally irradiated (single 10Gy dose, delivered at 2 Gy/min). Microvascular networks were selected in reference to a well-defined location in the tissue to reduce heterogeneity due to spatial variation. Intravital microscopy was used to measure both structural and functional parameters. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology was used to establish network topology. At all late time points, the diameter of irradiated vessels was significantly larger than control. Red blood cell velocity in irradiated vessels showed a significant decrease from controls at 120 days post-irradiation and an increase at 180 days post-irradiation. Others parameters such as lineal density, tortuosity, vessel length, and vessel tone showed no significant difference between control and irradiated vessels. The hamster cremaster muscle proved to be an effective model in examining the effects of radiation on normal microvascular tissue. Together our early effect and late effect studies suggest that significant changes occur in structural and functional parameters of irradiated microvascular networks and, hence, that radiation therapy may alter the oxygen delivery capacity of normal tissue microvascular networks

Biological response to prosthetic debris.

Joint arthroplasty had revolutionized the outcome of orthopaedic surgery. Extensive and collaborative work of many innovator surgeons had led to the development of durable bearing surfaces, yet no single material is considered absolutely perfect. Generation of wear debris from any part of the prosthesis is unavoidable. Implant loosening secondary to osteolysis is the most common mode of failure of arthroplasty. Osteolysis is the resultant of complex contribution of the generated wear debris and the mechanical instability of the prosthetic components. Roughly speaking, all orthopedic biomaterials may induce a universal biologic host response to generated wear débris with little specific characteristics for each material; but some debris has been shown to be more cytotoxic than others. Prosthetic wear debris induces an extensive biological cascade of adverse cellular responses, where macrophages are the main cellular type involved in this hostile inflammatory process. Macrophages cause osteolysis indirectly by releasing numerous chemotactic inflammatory mediators, and directly by resorbing bone with their membrane microstructures. The bio-reactivity of wear particles depends on two major elements: particle characteristics (size, concentration and composition) and host characteristics. While any particle type may enhance hostile cellular reaction, cytological examination demonstrated that more than 70% of the debris burden is constituted of polyethylene particles. Comprehensive understanding of the intricate process of osteolysis is of utmost importance for future development of therapeutic modalities that may delay or prevent the disease progression

Psychological Case Record

DIAGNOSTIC CLARIFICATION: The patient was apparently all right till four years back. During the second year of PUC patient complained to his parents that he had been sexually abused by an elderly male person while he was in a park. He was severely distressed and was taken to a psychologist where he underwent therapy. Following this he was apparently all right and had joined a catering course. He was staying in a hostel in his second year. During this time he was reportedly sexually abused by his hostelmates and when he had tried to resist, had been threatened that he would be killed. Since then, has been expressing that he had frequent repetitive thoughts that semen was continuously passing out of him. He felt that the anal region had some sticky sensation on standing, making him have the urge to pass stools. He also felt that there was a snake inside his abdomen and whenever he touched a metal piece he had the thought that it may become a sickle and cut his body into pieces. Hence he deliberately avoided touching any metal. He says that these thoughts were recurrent, recognizing that it is partly true, struggling to dismiss these thoughts because of its disturbing nature but unable to do so. He had less control over the obsessions and upto fifty percent of time was successful in diverting the attention by imagining that these problems were transferred to another person. CONCLUSIONS: Thought processes lacked clarity. Obsessive nature of thinking was predominant. There was fear of being harmed. Interpersonal relations were poor and group conformity also was poor. His mentation was slow. Inability and inferiority were evident. There was low ego strength and under productivity. Anxiety and depressive features were also evident. Findings revealed that his reality orientation was not very strong; however he did not have responses that were suggestive of a psychosis. There were indicators of a severe level of emotional disturbance. Patient would improve significantly with psychotherapy and medication. NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT: The patient is a known diabetic and hypertensive since fifteen years. In 1998 in his office he was found unconscious and probably not attended for about an hour. In the hospital his blood pressure was found to be high. The CT scan revealed gross intraventricular hemorrhage with large hypo dense area in right tempro-occipital region, small intra cerebral hematoma in left Para ventricular region with few lacunar infarcts on both sides. He regained consciousness in 3 to 4 hours time. The details of his physical status were not known as he was admitted in intensive care unit. The relatives did not notice any features suggestive of any neurological deficits during his stay in the hospital and was discharged in the eighth day. Following the discharge he was found to have problems in memory. He was not able to identify close relatives and used to let strangers into the house. He was not able to remember his address, not aware of the current events, misplace things and forget what he had for the breakfast. He was unable to understand what is spoken and had difficulty in finding correct word. He also had difficulty in using familiar objects like tooth brush and had difficulty in performing simple tasks at home. He was almost fully dependent in ADL like feeding, toileting, bathing, dressing and grooming. He also had difficulty in relating to news paper or TV. He also had difficulty in managing finance or give advice to people regarding the insurance. He also was unable to engage in social activities and behave in socially appropriate way. He improved gradually after a period of 3 to 4 months and has improved up to fifty percent in one year period. He did not show much improvement after these. CONCLUSION: Deficit was evident across lobe functions. DIAGNOSTIC CLARIFICATION: Ten yeas back when patient presented with depressive symptoms like anhedonia, easy fatigability, low mood decreased concentration and memory feeling of worthlessness and hopelessness he was treated with antidepressants but discontinued the medication in less than a month due to the side effects. Details of his clinical status were not known but he had consultations with multiple medical practitioners and underwent numerous investigations over the next five to six years. During this period he completed his PUC, B.Sc. and had joined for MIT in Chennai. In 2004 he was treated with antidepressants and antipsychotics when he presented with depressive symptoms with psychotic features. He seemed to have been on regular antidepressants till date when he presented. While on medication he presented with three to four months history of suspiciousness towards family members, talkative, had spoken proud of himself, and was hyperactive. He had engaged in odd behaviors like sending telegrams that his family members were dead etc. He presented with high irritability, assaultiveness and occasionally threatened to kill himself or other family members. He claimed that he had lodged a complaint with the supreme court and CBI regarding his threat and they were on their way to catch the relatives .The symptoms were worse when he claimed that he heard strange noises that people were coming to kill him .Patient claimed that God had given him information with which he had escaped from several attempts in his life. There were no history of head injury, high grade fever, loss of consciousness, seizure, or vomiting preceding this episode. There was no history of any substance abuse. PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT: Patient had the first episode of abnormal movements of the body three months back. It occurred at school and was characterized by hyperextension of both upper limbs, with flexion of the neck with eyeball moving upwards followed by a loud cry. Patient was fully conscious but could not speak. Each episode lasted for ten to fifteen minutes. This was not associated with any incontinence or generalized tonic clonic movements. Such episodes had occurred multiple numbers of times at school. At times this used to occur three to four times in succession in a short span of time with full recovery in between the episodes. Such episodes were very infrequent at home. There were no such episodes during sleep. Last episode was ten days back. There were no history of headache or vomiting or any features suggestive of neurological deficits. There were no histories of head injury or substance abuse. There were no histories suggestive of depressive, manic or psychotic or obsessive compulsive or anxiety symptoms. The onset of symptoms had a temporal correlation with few stressors following a warning by the headmistress and parents, for the love affair with a boy of the same school And in the same week some unknown person make some sexual advances towards her. Other stressors elicited were, difficulty in studies, the problem in relationship with younger sibling and the critical attitude of the parents. CONCLUSIONS Tests revealed feelings of decreased self-esteem, anxiety, uncertainty, insecurity and apprehensiveness about issues in life. High affection and dependency needs were present and this had lead to helplessness and suffering. Her low average intelligence and poor coping skills and the high expectation of the relatives contributed to her problem. Test findings were suggestive of cluster C personality traits. INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT: He was sent to school at three years of age and was average in the studies in the initial few classes .However he gradually started having difficulty in reading complex sentences and in calculation .He was then shifted to a different curriculum in a low functioning school. In class six he had failed once and was currently in class seven during his visit to the hospital. He had been regular to school and but for the past six months prior to the visit had discontinued. Previous consultations – at one and a half years of age he was not able to close the left eye lid with pupils rotated medially. He underwent surgery the following year, the details of which are not known. Two years later he had a sudden deviation of angle of mouth to right side with sixth and seventh cranial nerve palsy. CT scan showed the left lateral ventricle mildly dilated with hemi atrophy features. No specific treatment was advised Five years later he developed mild weakness of the upper limb and was advised physiotherapy. In 2003 the repeat CT scan showed parenchymal volume loss in left hemisphere. There was no history suggestive of seizures, psychosis, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, tics or other pervasive developmental disorder

Mathematical modelling of solid tumour growth: a Dynamical Density Functional Theory-based model

We present a theoretical framework based on an extension of Dynamical Density Functional Theory (DDFT) to describe the structure and dynamics of cells in living tissues and tumours. DDFT is a microscopic statistical mechanical theory for the time evolution of the density distribution of interacting many-particle systems. The theory accounts for cell pair-interactions, different cell types, phenotypes and cell birth and death processes (including cell division), in order to provide a biophysically consistent description of processes bridging across the scales, including the description of the tissue structure down to the level of the individual cells. Analysis of the model is presented for a single species and a two-species cases, the latter describing competition between a cancerous and healthy cells. In suitable parameter regimes, model results are consistent with biological observations. Of particular note, divergent tumour growth behaviour, mirroring metastatic and benign growth characteristics, are shown to be dependent on the cell pair-interaction parameters

Patterns of injury and violence in Yaoundé Cameroon: an analysis of hospital data.

BackgroundInjuries are quickly becoming a leading cause of death globally, disproportionately affecting sub-Saharan Africa, where reports on the epidemiology of injuries are extremely limited. Reports on the patterns and frequency of injuries are available from Cameroon are also scarce. This study explores the patterns of trauma seen at the emergency ward of the busiest trauma center in Cameroon's capital city.Materials and methodsAdministrative records from January 1, 2007, through December 31, 2007, were retrospectively reviewed; information on age, gender, mechanism of injury, and outcome was abstracted for all trauma patients presenting to the emergency ward. Univariate analysis was performed to assess patterns of injuries in terms of mechanism, date, age, and gender. Bivariate analysis was used to explore potential relationships between demographic variables and mechanism of injury.ResultsA total of 6,234 injured people were seen at the Central Hospital of Yaoundé's emergency ward during the year 2007. Males comprised 71% of those injured, and the mean age of injured patients was 29 years (SD = 14.9). Nearly 60% of the injuries were due to road traffic accidents, 46% of which involved a pedestrian. Intentional injuries were the second most common mechanism of injury (22.5%), 55% of which involved unarmed assault. Patients injured in falls were more likely to be admitted to the hospital (p < 0.001), whereas patients suffering intentional injuries and bites were less likely to be hospitalized (p < 0.001). Males were significantly more likely to be admitted than females (p < 0.001)DiscussionPatterns in terms of age, gender, and mechanism of injury are similar to reports from other countries from the same geographic region, but the magnitude of cases reported is high for a single institution in an African city the size of Yaoundé. As the burden of disease is predicted to increase dramatically in sub-Saharan Africa, immediate efforts in prevention and treatment in Cameroon are strongly warranted

NONCONTACT DIFFUSE CORRELATION TOMOGRAPHY OF BREAST TUMOR

Since aggressive cancers are frequently hypermetabolic with angiogenic vessels, quantification of blood flow (BF) can be vital for cancer diagnosis. Our laboratory has developed a noncontact diffuse correlation tomography (ncDCT) system for 3-D imaging of BF distribution in deep tissues (up to centimeters). The ncDCT system employs two sets of optical lenses to project source and detector fibers respectively onto the tissue surface, and applies finite element framework to model light transportation in complex tissue geometries. This thesis reports our first step to adapt the ncDCT system for 3-D imaging of BF contrasts in human breast tumors. A commercial 3-D camera was used to obtain breast surface geometry which was then converted to a solid volume mesh. An ncDCT probe scanned over a region of interest on the breast mesh surface and the measured boundary data were used for 3-D image reconstruction of BF distribution. This technique was tested with computer simulations and in 28 patients with breast tumors. Results from computer simulations suggest that relatively high accuracy can be achieved when the entire tumor was within the sensitive region of diffuse light. Image reconstruction with a priori knowledge of the tumor volume and location can significantly improve the accuracy in recovery of tumor BF contrasts. In vivo ncDCT imaging results from the majority of breast tumors showed higher BF contrasts in the tumor regions compared to the surrounding tissues. Reconstructed tumor depths and dimensions matched ultrasound imaging results when the tumors were within the sensitive region of light propagation. The results demonstrate that ncDCT system has the potential to image BF distributions in soft and vulnerable tissues without distorting tissue hemodynamics. In addition to this primary study, detector fibers with different modes (i.e., single-mode, few-mode, multimode) for photon collection were experimentally explored to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of diffuse correlation spectroscopy flow-oximeter measurements

Selection of Response Criteria for Clinical Trials of Sarcoma Treatment

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139995/1/onco0032.pd