Gallbladder cancer: South American experience

Large differences in terms of incidence and mortality due to gallbladder cancer (GBC) have been reported worldwide. Moreover, it seems that GBC has unique characteristics in South America. We surveyed the literature looking for information about the epidemiology, basic and translational research, and clinical trials performed in South America in order to critically analyze the magnitude of this health problem in the region. Compared to other geographic areas, age-standardized mortality rates (ASMR) for GBC in women are very high, particularly in many western areas of South America. Genetic, as well as dietary and environmental factors likely contribute to the pathogenesis of this disease in the area. Compared to other regions the profile of abnormalities of key genes such as KRAS and TP53 in GBC seems to slightly differ in South America, while the clinical behavior appears to be similar with a median overall survival (OS) of 6.5 to 8 months in advanced GBC. In contrast to Europe and USA, prophylactic cholecystectomy is a common practice in western areas of South America. GBC particularly affects women in South America, and represents a significant public health problem. It appears to have peculiarities that pose an urgent need for additional research aimed to discover risk factors, molecular events associated with its development and new treatment options for this lethal disease.Fil: Arroyo, Gerardo F.. Intergrupo Latinoamericano de Oncología Gastrointestinal; ArgentinaFil: Gentile, Alberto. Provincia de Salta. Ministerio de Salud Pública; ArgentinaFil: Parada, Luis Antonio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Patología Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud. Instituto de Patología Experimental; Argentin

Los grados de la cortesía verbal: reflexiones en torno a algunas estrategias y recursos lingüísticos en el español peninsular contemporáneo

La concepción y las manifestaciones de lo que habitualmente entendemos por cortesía lingüística difieren considerablemente en la conversación ordinaria y en otras manifestaciones interaccionales caracterizadas por el conflicto y la polémica entre los participantes. Partiendo de la necesaria distinción, a nuestro juicio, entre usos verbales socialmente aceptables, por un lado, y aquellos a los que cabe calificar con más propiedad como corteses (o descorteses), por otro, tanto unos como otros, presentan en estos discursos unos perfiles muy diferentes

Reflexiones en torno al concepto de convergencia lingüística y su aplicación a las variedades del español en contacto con el catalán. Aspectos estructurales y sociolingüísticos

In view of the terminological and conceptual ambiguity that often appears to adorn some terms in the linguistics on contact varieties, and more particularly those that involve typologically similar languages, efforts were recently made to draw up a trial classification of the phenomena present in bilingual discourse that affect Spanish in communities in which Catalan is spoken. The concept of convergence is one of the most widely used in contact linguistics. In general, convergence is used to refer to the reduced potential for conflict and the strengthening of the formal and functional compatibility between the languages. Nevertheless, in specific cases and depending on the author they are being analysed by, the way these possibilities are interpreted can vary, sometimes to a considerable extent. In fact, in the contact varieties that are being dealt with here, we can find convergence phenomena that correspond to different conceptions of the term.Dada la ambigüedad terninológica y conceptual con que aparecen adornados a menudo algunos térninos en la lingüística sobre las variedades de contacto, y en particular aquellas que tienen como protagonistas a lenguas tipológicamente muy similares, recientemente hemos realizado un ensayo de clasificación de los fenómenos del discurso bilingüe que afectan al español en las comunidades del ámbito lingüístico catalán. El concepto de convergencia es uno de los mas usados en la lingüística de contacto. Por lo general, se habla de convergencia para caracterizar la reducción del potencial conflicto y el refuerzo de la compatibilidad formal y funcional entre las lenguas, pero la interpretación de estas posibilidades en el análisis de casos concretos difiere, en ocasiones considerablemente, de unos autores a otros. De hecho en las variedades de contacto que nos ocupan podemos encontrar fenómenos de convergencia que responden a concepciones diferentes del término

Spanish and Catalan in the Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands are one of the autonomous regions of modern Spain, where both Catalan and Spanish are considered o‰cial languages and are widely spoken among the population. Historically, the main language of the region has been Catalan, brought to the islands during the Spanish Reconquest from the thirteenth century onwards. The presence of Spanish was noted much later, as a slow language substitution process starting in the sixteenth century took place. This article analyzes the functional distribution of both languages today, as well as consequences of secular language contact and some attitudinal aspects of Balearic social bilingualism

Constraint factors in the formulation of questions in conflictual discourse: an analysis of spanish face-to-face election debates

This paper presents a study of the constraint factors that condition the form and functions of questions in a corpus composed of several face-to-face election debates that took place in Spain during different election campaigns. Some of these factors are of a distributional nature, such as the position of the questions in the politician’s turns at talk, with final positions and fragments of simultaneous speech being the most favourable contexts for the formulation of these utterances. Questions are also favoured by stylistic and rhetorical forces, such as those which lead the speaker to repeat questions or question formats within wider inquisitive sequences, which represent almost half the corpus. In addition, these communicative units are also influenced by institutional factors, such as the political role played by the candidates in the debates (government/opposition), as well as the political expectations and identities that the politicians seek to enhance, and which may vary in different moments of the election campaign

Las actitudes hacia el bilingüismo en las comunidades de habla hispánicas

El objeto del presente artículo es analizar, desde una perspectiva crítica, las principales líneas de investigación desarrolladas en el ámbito de la sociolingüística hispánica en las últimas dos o tres décadas sobre el tema de las actitudes hacia el bilingüismo y hacia los fenómenos lingüísticos propios del mismo