What is a sign?

First of all, and above all, a sign is expected to be significant. A sign without significance is like a hollow husk. It is chaff without seed. Sign and significance are correlative terms like parent and child. Just as no one is a parent who has not begotten or borne a child so nothing which does not have significance can be a sign. On this point the English and the Latin words are self-explanatory. In English the words “sign” and “significance” contain the same root. In the Latin words “significans” – that which signifies – and “significatum” – that which is signified – the correlation is even more obvious. In German, however, there is no such ready evidence of the correlation in the terms themselves. Indeed at first blush the terms “Zeichen” and “Bedeutung” seem so unrelated that philosophers have felt themselves constrained to write volumes of explanations on the term “Bedeutung”

Optimale Körperformen mit minimalem Strömungswiderstand

Im Rahmen energieeffizienter Umströmungsprozesse sind Verfahren zur Entwicklung optimaler Körperformen notwendig. In einem Verbundforschungsvorhaben wird mit unterschiedlichen Methoden an diesem Ziel gearbeitet. Umströmungen von Körpern treten in Natur und Technik in vielfältigen Formen auf. Bei Tragflügeln ist der Auftrieb ein wesentliches Kriterium zur Funktion des Flugzeugs. Im Blick auf die Energieeffizienz kommt dem Widerstand immer größere Bedeutung zu. Im Rahmen eines Verbundprojekts „EUdaF-Energieeffiziente Umströmungsprozesse durch automatisierte Formoptimierung“ [1] wird nach Methoden geforscht, wie man die optimale Körperform für die Umströmung mit dem geringsten Widerstand finden kann

Katholische Pastoralinstruktion und protestantische Uppsala-Erklärung zur Massenkommunikation

Das Dilemma kirchlicher Reflektion über die Massenmedien spiegelt sich symptomatisch in der programmatischen Überschrift der Pastoralinstruktion "Communio et Progressio". Die Begriffsgeschichte der Worte "Gemeinschaft" und "Fortschritt" ist - jedenfalls in Deutschland - zwei sehr unterschiedlichen philosophisch-politischen Traditionen zuzuordnen. Eine bestimmte Gemeinschaftsideologie steht in der Tradition einer romantisch restaurativen Auffassung von Politik und Gesellschaft, die sich von der aufklärerisch demokratischen Tradition des selbstbewußt mündigen Bürgers abzusetzen versuchte. Für die kirchliche Tradition der beiden großen Konfessionen war Publizistik zumeist Ausdruck der Emanzipation von kirchlichen Autoritäten. Siegalt als Inbegriff des Modernismus und wurde deshalb vornehmlich einer apologetisehen Behandlung unterzogen. (...) English The Pastoral Instruction "Communio et Progressio" and the Declaration of the 4th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala (1968) on "The Church and the means of social communication" adhere rather strongly to the tradition of the Christian Churches which were opposed to the means of social communications. lt is true that they introduce modern conceptions, but, at the same time, in an old-fashioned way they fetter the free flow of a public discussion (this applies to "Communio et Progressio" in particular). The churches excite suspicion that they adopt the language of emancipation in order to appear communicative again within an unchanged missionary aim. A "theology of communication"(Christ as the Master of communication) might reproduce and back up hierarchical structures of communication. Inspite of these shortcomings, both the Protestant and Catholic document may be regarded as a new approach, the reflections of which are ahead of the present practice of ecclesiastical means of social communications.

A Microcystic Adnexal Carcinoma in the Auditory Canal 15 Years after Radiotherapy of a 12-Year-Old Boy with Nasopharynx Carcinoma

Background: : Radiogenic malignancies require cure of the primary disease and a prolonged survival. The introduction of high-volt technology in the 1950s and 1960s made radical radiotherapy feasible and successful in terms of higher cure rates and longer survival. We are already in a time when a higher number of patients with radiogenic secondary malignancies must be expected. Case Report: : A 12-year-old boy is reported who suffered from an advanced nasopharynx carcinoma and was treated with radical irradiation in 1983. 15 years later he developed a rare microcystic adnexal carcinoma of the auditory canal inside the volume of the target dose. The secondary malignant neoplasm was resected and required another radiation treatment (1 Gy b.i.d.) due to involved margins. Discussion and Literature Review: : The entity of microcystic carcinoma is discussed with a review of the literature on biology, diagnosis, and treatmen

Disulfiram, an Option for the Treatment of Pathological Gambling?

Aim: Pathological gambling and comorbid alcohol dependence often occur in combination. Disulfiram is one of the proven drugs for alcohol dependence. In addition to its inhibiting acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, disulfiram inhibits dopamine β-hydroxylase and may thereby increase dopamine and decrease norepinephrine cerebral concentrations. Because there may be common neurochemical substrates and neuronal circuits for pathological gambling and addiction, we wished to explore the effect of disulfiram in gambling. Method: We describe the outcome of a patient with alcohol dependence and pathological gambling treated with disulfiram D. Results: During treatment with disulfiram, the patient reported that his desire to gamble disappeared entirely. Follow-up indicated that he has not gambled for >12 months. Conclusions: Although uncontrolled case observations should be interpreted with caution, disulfiram deserves further investigation in pathological gamblin

Fulminant Cardiotoxicity in a Patient With Cardiac Lymphoma Treated With CAR-T Cells

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Interjections and the Language Functions Debate

Five views of the function of interjections, developed in the first half of the 20th century by the psychologist-linguist Bühler, the linguists Gardiner, and Jakobson, and the psychologists Révész and Duijker, are discussed. All five scholars reject the earlier psychologism that reinforced the traditional emotion-expressive view of interjections; all of them argue for a listener-directed, communicative view of language in general, and all include a specific appeal-to-the-listener-function in their model of language functions. My original hypothesis was therefore that these scholars would reject the one-sided traditional view that interjections mainly express the speaker’s emotions, acknowledging instead that the central function of most interjections is to make some appeal to the listener (a view supported by recent investigation of a corpus of spoken Dutch, which shows that only 7% fulfils a purely expressive function). As it turns out, however, all five scholars support the traditional view and attributed an expressive function to interjections. In this paper I try to explain this unexpected result

Effect of automated versus conventional ventilation on mechanical power of ventilation—A randomized crossover clinical trial

Introduction: Mechanical power of ventilation, a summary parameter reflecting the energy transferred from the ventilator to the respiratory system, has associations with outcomes. INTELLiVENT–Adaptive Support Ventilation is an automated ventilation mode that changes ventilator settings according to algorithms that target a low work–and force of breathing. The study aims to compare mechanical power between automated ventilation by means of INTELLiVENT–Adaptive Support Ventilation and conventional ventilation in critically ill patients. Materials and methods: International, multicenter, randomized crossover clinical trial in patients that were expected to need invasive ventilation > 24 hours. Patients were randomly assigned to start with a 3–hour period of automated ventilation or conventional ventilation after which the alternate ventilation mode was selected. The primary outcome was mechanical power in passive and active patients; secondary outcomes included key ventilator settings and ventilatory parameters that affect mechanical power. Results: A total of 96 patients were randomized. Median mechanical power was not different between automated and conventional ventilation (15.8 [11.5–21.0] versus 16.1 [10.9–22.6] J/min; mean difference –0.44 (95%–CI –1.17 to 0.29) J/min; P = 0.24). Subgroup analyses showed that mechanical power was lower with automated ventilation in passive patients, 16.9 [12.5–22.1] versus 19.0 [14.1–25.0] J/min; mean difference –1.76 (95%–CI –2.47 to –10.34J/min; P < 0.01), and not in active patients (14.6 [11.0–20.3] vs 14.1 [10.1–21.3] J/min; mean difference 0.81 (95%–CI –2.13 to 0.49) J/min; P = 0.23). Conclusions: In this cohort of unselected critically ill invasively ventilated patients, automated ventilation by means of INTELLiVENT–Adaptive Support Ventilation did not reduce mechanical power. A reduction in mechanical power was only seen in passive patients. Study registration: Clinicaltrials.gov (study identifier NCT04827927), April 1, 2021 URL of trial registry record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04827927?term=intellipower&rank=