Is there a prosodic boundary between the Transylvania and Modavia spoken languages?

En este trabajo analizamos la entonación transilvana; esta presenta notables diferencias respecto a las demás hablas dacio-rumanas. Realizado el análisis mostraremos la existencia de una frontera entre las hablas de Transilvania y las de Moldavia. El estudio ha sido realizado a partir de los datos obtenidos de dos comunidades rurales próximas, situadas a ambos lados de los Cárpatos Orientales: Mureşenii Bârgăului (Transilvania) y Prăleni (Moldavia). Los resultados de la investigación dan cuenta de la existencia de diferencias entre las dos hablas sobre todo en el caso de las interrogativas absolutas.In this paper we analyze the Transylvania intonation which is different from the one of other Daco-Romanian idioms. Simultaneously, we aim to demonstrate that there is a prosodic boundary between Transylvania and Moldavia intonation; through a research of two villages situated on both sides of the Oriental Carpathians: Mureşenii Bârgăului (Transylvania) and Prăleni (Moldavia). The results of the research prove that there are large differences between the two areas concerning the melodic character of the total interrogative utterances

Variation in colon cancer survival for patients living and receiving care in London, 2006-2013: does where you live matter?

BACKGROUND: Marked geographical disparities in survival from colon cancer have been consistently described in England. Similar patterns have been observed within London, almost mimicking a microcosm of the country's survival patterns. This evidence has suggested that the area of residence plays an important role in the survival from cancer. METHODS: We analysed the survival from colon cancer of patients diagnosed in 2006-2013, in a pre-pandemic period, living in London at their diagnosis and received care in a London hospital. We examined the patterns of patient pathways between the area of residence and the hospital of care using flow maps, and we investigated whether geographical variations in survival from colon cancer are associated with the hospital of care. To estimate survival, we applied a Bayesian excess hazard model which accounts for the hierarchical structure of the data. RESULTS: Geographical disparities in colon cancer survival disappeared once controlled for hospitals, and the disparities seemed to be augmented between hospitals. However, close examination of patient pathways revealed that the poorer survival observed in some hospitals was mostly associated with higher proportions of emergency diagnosis, while their performance was generally as expected for patients diagnosed through non-emergency routes. DISCUSSION: This study highlights the need to better coordinate primary and secondary care sectors in some areas of London to improve timely access to specialised clinicians and diagnostic tests. This challenge remains crucially relevant after the recent successive regroupings of Clinical Commissioning Groups (which grouped struggling areas together) and the observed exacerbation of disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic

Association between age, deprivation and specific comorbid conditions and the receipt of major surgery in patients with non-small cell lung cancer in England: A population-based study.

INTRODUCTION: We investigated socioeconomic disparities and the role of the main prognostic factors in receiving major surgical treatment in patients with lung cancer in England. METHODS: Our study comprised 31 351 patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer in England in 2012. Data from the national population-based cancer registry were linked to Hospital Episode Statistics and National Lung Cancer Audit data to obtain information on stage, performance status and comorbidities, and to identify patients receiving major surgical treatment. To describe the association between prognostic factors and surgery, we performed two different analyses: one using multivariable logistic regression and one estimating cause-specific hazards for death and surgery. In both analyses, we used multiple imputation to deal with missing data. RESULTS: We showed strong evidence that the comorbidities 'congestive heart failure', 'cerebrovascular disease' and 'chronic obstructive pulmonary disease' reduced the receipt of surgery in early stage patients. We also observed gender differences and substantial age differences in the receipt of surgery. Despite accounting for sex, age at diagnosis, comorbidities, stage at diagnosis, performance status and indication of having had a PET-CT scan, the socioeconomic differences persisted in both analyses: more deprived people had lower odds and lower rates of receiving surgery in early stage lung cancer. DISCUSSION: Comorbidities play an important role in whether patients undergo surgery, but do not completely explain the socioeconomic difference observed in early stage patients. Future work investigating access to and distance from specialist hospitals, as well as patient perceptions and patient choice in receiving surgery, could help disentangle these persistent socioeconomic inequalities

Intonational Structures in Romanian Yes-No Questions

This paper presents the conclusions resulted from an intonational analysis of Romanian Yes-No questions. The recent analysis results consist in dividing and structuring the F0 curves into intonational units. Each intonational unit is described by a tone sequence using ToBI labels used in annotation of the most important phonetic events: pitch accents and boundary tones. The authors of the present study propose a description of the resulted patterns for F0 contour in terms of intonational units structures described by their tone sequence. We consider this description suitable for the variety of melodic contours resulted from different speakers and different focalizations in their utterances. In paragraph 3, the paper presents the intonational variants resulted from our speech corpus analysis. The conclusions of Yes-No question analysis are important for linguistic studies and in Romanian speech synthesis

Intonational Structures in Romanian Yes-No Questions

This paper presents the conclusions resulted from an intonational analysis of Romanian Yes-No questions. The recent analysis results consist in dividing and structuring the F0 curves into intonational units. Each intonational unit is described by a tone sequence using ToBI labels used in annotation of the most important phonetic events: pitch accents and boundary tones. The authors of the present study propose a description of the resulted patterns for F0 contour in terms of intonational units structures described by their tone sequence. We consider this description suitable for the variety of melodic contours resulted from different speakers and different focalizations in their utterances. In paragraph 3, the paper presents the intonational variants resulted from our speech corpus analysis. The conclusions of Yes-No question analysis are important for linguistic studies and in Romanian speech synthesis