Substratum Influence on (Rig-Vedic) Sanskrit?

published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Middle Indo-Aryan "Aspirate" Clusters Revisited

no abstrac

On some effects of Utterance Finality, with special consideration of South Asian languages

Pitch lowering, avoidance of prosodic prominence, and segmental reductions in utterance-final position are well known crosslinguistic tendencies. In verb-final languages the prosodic effects of Utterance Finality intersect with an independent, crosslinguistic tendency of verbs to receive relatively weak prominence within larger prosodic domains. As a consequence, verbs in SOV languages are special targets for the effects of Utterance Finality. After providing crosslinguistic illustrations of these effects I focus on a number of phenomena in South Asian languages which can be explained in terms of the intersection between Utterance Finality and Verb Finality. These include the relative order of negation and verb and the apparent optionality of ‘be’-deletion in Hindi, the difference in verb accentuation between main and dependent clauses in Vedic, and (possibly) the fact that Kashmiri ki/zi-clauses, unlike relative clauses, have V2, rather than verb-final order

Complications and clinical outcome of hepatic artery embolisation in patients with hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia

BACKGROUND: Hepatic artery embolisation (HAE) in patients with hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is controversial because of the associated complications and unproven long-term benefit. We present our results in 20 such patients over a time span of 17 years. METHODS: Staged HAE was performed using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) particles and coils. Complications, clinical symptoms and cardiac output were assessed before and after therapy as well as at the end of follow-up (median 92 months, range 26–208 months). RESULTS: Two patients died within 30 days following HAE (10 %). Four further deaths resulted from causes unrelated to HAE. Ischaemic cholangitis, cholecystitis and focal hepatic necrosis with biliary sepsis necessitated re-intervention in four patients. In all but one patient, clinical symptoms resolved with mean cardiac output falling from 11.84 ± 3.22 l/min pre-treatment to 8.13 ± 2.67 l/min at the end of follow-up (P < 0.001). One patient required liver transplantation for de novo symptoms of portal hypertension 4 years after primary symptoms had been cured by HAE. CONCLUSION: The 30-day mortality of HAE in patients with HHT is 10 %. The rate of complications requiring re-intervention is 20 %. Clinical response at long-term follow-up is satisfactory. KEY POINTS: • Hepatic artery embolisation (HAE) in hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) provides long-term benefit. • Mortalities of HAE and liver transplantation in HHT patients are comparable. • In HHT, complications of HAE are lower than those of liver transplantation. • Complications of HAE can be further reduced by refinement of technique. • Complications include ischaemic cholangitis, hepatic necrosis, biliary sepsis and death

Snap, Pursuit and Gain : Virtual Reality Viewport Control by Gaze

Head-mounted displays let users explore virtual environments through a viewport that is coupled with head movement. In this work, we investigate gaze as an alternative modality for viewport control, enabling exploration of virtual worlds with less head movement. We designed three techniques that leverage gaze based on different eye movements: Dwell Snap for viewport rotation in discrete steps, Gaze Gain for amplified viewport rotation based on gaze angle, and Gaze Pursuit for central viewport alignment of gaze targets. All three techniques enable 360-degree viewport control through naturally coordinated eye and head movement. We evaluated the techniques in comparison with controller snap and head amplification baselines, for both coarse and precise viewport control, and found them to be as fast and accurate. We observed a high variance in performance which may be attributable to the different degrees to which humans tend to support gaze shifts with head movement

Probiotics for gastrointestinal disorders: Proposed Recommendations for children of the Asia-Pacific region

Recommendations for probiotics are available in several regions. This paper proposes recommendations for probiotics in pediatric gastrointestinal diseases in the Asia-Pacific region. Epidemiology and clinical patterns of intestinal diseases in Asia-Pacific countries were discussed. Evidence-based recommendations and randomized controlled trials in the region were revised. Cultural aspects, health management issues and economic factors were also considered. Final recommendations were approved by applying the Likert scale and rated using the GRADE system. Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745 (Sb) and Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) were strongly recommended as adjunct treatment to oral rehydration therapy for gastroenteritis. Lactobacillus reuteri could also be considered. Probiotics may be considered for prevention of (with the indicated strains): antibiotic-associated diarrhea (LGG or Sb); Clostridium difficile-induced diarrhea (Sb); nosocomial diarrhea (LGG); infantile colic (L reuteri) and as adjunct treatment of Helicobacter pylori (Sb and others). Specific probiotics with a history of safe use in preterm and term infants may be considered in infants for prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis. There is insufficient evidence for recommendations in other conditions. Despite a diversity of epidemiological, socioeconomical and health system conditions, similar recommendations apply well to Asia pacific countries. These need to be validated with local randomized-controlled trials

Exercise capacity in patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot aged 6 to 63 years

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to provide a perspective for the interpretation of exercise capacity (peakVO2) in patients with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot (patients with rTOF) by describing the course of peakVO2 from patients aged 6-63 years. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed between September 2001 and December 2016 in the German Heart Centre Munich, Germany, and in the University Medical Centre Groningen, the Netherlands. A total of 1175 cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPETs) were collected from 586 patients with rTOF, 46% female. Maximal exertion was verified using a respiratory exchange ratio ≥1.00. PeakVO2 was modelled using time-dependent multilevel models for repeated measurements (n=889 in 300 patients), and compared with subject-specific reference values calculated by the models of Bongers et al and Mylius et al. RESULTS: The peakVO2 of patients with rTOF was reduced at all ages. At the age of 6, the peakVO2 was 614 mL/min (70% of predicted (95% CI 67 to 73)). The reduced increase in peakVO2 during adolescence resulted in a significant lower maximum peakVO2 of 1209 mL/min at 25 years (65% predicted, p<0.001). A linear decline after 25 years was observed in patients and references, although patients showed an accelerated decline, with a -0.24% point of predicted (95% CI 0.11 to 0.38) per year without differences between sexes (p=0.263). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a context for peakVO2 across ages in patients with rTOF under contemporary treatment strategies. It showed that the reduction in peakVO2 originates from childhood and declines over time. Sex differences in patients with rTOF were similar to natural existing sex differences