A Paradigm for Testing Contrastive Topic Projection

Contribution to Linguistic Evidence 202

Presupposition Accommodation of the German Additive Particle auch (= “too”)

Presupposition triggers differ with respect to whether their presupposition is easily accommodatable. The presupposition of focus-sensitive additive particles like also or too is often classified as hard to accommodate, i.e., these triggers are infelicitous if their presupposition is not entailed by the immediate linguistic or non-linguistic context. We tested two competing accounts for the German additive particle auch concerning this requirement: First, that it requires a focus alternative to the whole proposition to be salient, and second, that it merely requires an alternative to the focused constituent (e.g., an individual) to be salient. We conducted two experiments involving felicity judgments as well as questions asking for the truth of the presupposition to be accommodated. Our results suggest that the latter account is too weak: mere previous mention of a potential alternative to the focused constituent is not enough to license the use of auch. However, our results also suggest that the former account is too strong: when an alternative of the focused constituent is prementioned and certain other accommodation-enhancing factors are present, the context does not have to entail the presupposed proposition. We tested the following two potentially accommodation-enhancing factors: First, whether the discourse can be construed to be from the perspective of the individual that the presupposition is about, and second, whether the presupposition is needed to establish coherence between the host sentence of the additive particle and the preceding context. The factor coherence was found to play a significant role. Our results thus corroborate the results of other researchers showing that discourse participants go to great lengths in order to identify a potential presupposition to accommodate, and we contribute to these results by showing that coherence is one of the factors that enhance accommodation

Epidemiology of diabetes in Poland in 2014–2017

Background. The number of people with diabetes increases every year, both in Poland and worldwide. In Poland, the exact number is not known, and the latest data comes from 2014. The aim of the study was to assess basic epidemiological indicators regarding diabetes in Poland in 2014–2017. Methods. Division into types of diabetes and other analyzes was carried out on the basis of data prepared by a team of experts and employees of the Department of Analysis and Strategy of the Ministry of Health. The NHF databases were used, concerning realized medical interventions and refunded prescriptions. Results. The number of people with diabetes in Poland in 2014 was 2.113 million (1.167 million women and 0.946 million men). This number increased in subsequent years and in 2017 amounted to 2.533 million (1.408 million women and 1.124 million men), which constituted 6.58% of the population. Using the adopted methodology, the number of patients in whom the type of diabetes could not be determined was large and ranged from 39.57% to 32.75% in individual years. Conclusions. Diabetes prevalence in Poland is increasing. The adopted methodological assumptions regarding the division criteria for type 2 and type 1 diabetes do not allow an accurate determination of the epidemiology of diabetes by type (incidence rate and morbidity), but they allow to determine “specific” subpopulations of patients with a given type of disease.Background. The number of people with diabetes increases every year, both in Poland and worldwide. In Poland, the exact number is not known, and the latest data comes from 2014. The aim of the study was to assess basic epidemiological indicators regarding diabetes in Poland in 2014–2017. Methods. Division into types of diabetes and other analyzes was carried out on the basis of data prepared by a team of experts and employees of the Department of Analysis and Strategy of the Ministry of Health. The NHF databases were used, concerning realized medical interventions and refunded prescriptions. Results. The number of people with diabetes in Poland in 2014 was 2.113 million (1.167 million women and 0.946 million men). This number increased in subsequent years and in 2017 amounted to 2.533 million (1.408 million women and 1.124 million men), which constituted 6.58% of the population. Using the adopted methodology, the number of patients in whom the type of diabetes could not be determined was large and ranged from 39.57% to 32.75% in individual years. Conclusions. Diabetes prevalence in Poland is increasing. The adopted methodological assumptions regarding the division criteria for type 2 and type 1 diabetes do not allow an accurate determination of the epidemiology of diabetes by type (incidence rate and morbidity), but they allow to determine “specific” subpopulations of patients with a given type of disease

Dziedzictwo kulturowe. Edukacja. Historia. Dziedzictwo regionalne. Muzyka, literatura, sztuka i media

The following publication showcases research on national heritage by early career researchers from Poland. Articles included are related to the broad domain of pedagogy, spanning over social sciences or arts and humanities. Contributions represent both historical and contemporary insights from a range of disciplines: education, history, area studies, art and media studies. Various examples of national heritage are discussed from both Polish and general perspective. The aim of the book was to contribute to the process of inclusion of new researchers into interdisciplinary and intergenerational dialogue

Characteristics of the Alternative Phenotype of Microglia/Macrophages and its Modulation in Experimental Gliomas

Microglia (brain resident macrophages) accumulate in malignant gliomas and instead of initiating the anti-tumor response, they switch to a pro-invasive phenotype, support tumor growth, invasion, angiogenesis and immunosuppression by release of cytokines/chemokines and extracellular matrix proteases. Using immunofluorescence and flow cytometry, we demonstrate an early accumulation of activated microglia followed by accumulation of macrophages in experimental murine EGFP-GL261 gliomas. Those cells acquire the alternative phenotype, as evidenced by evaluation of the production of ten pro/anti-inflammatory cytokines and expression profiling of 28 genes in magnetically-sorted CD11b+ cells from tumor tissues. Furthermore, we show that infiltration of implanted gliomas by amoeboid, Iba1-positive cells can be reduced by a systematically injected cyclosporine A (CsA) two or eight days after cell inoculation. The up-regulated levels of IL-10 and GM-CSF, increased expression of genes characteristic for the alternative and pro-invasive phenotype (arg-1, mt1-mmp, cxcl14) in glioma-derived CD11b+ cells as well as enhanced angiogenesis and tumor growth were reduced in CsA-treated mice. Our findings define for the first time kinetics and biochemical characteristics of glioma-infiltrating microglia/macrophages. Inhibition of the alternative activation of tumor-infiltrating macrophages significantly reduced tumor growth. Thus, blockade of microglia/macrophage infiltration and their pro-invasive functions could be a novel therapeutic strategy in malignant gliomas

Racial differences in systemic sclerosis disease presentation: a European Scleroderma Trials and Research group study

Objectives. Racial factors play a significant role in SSc. We evaluated differences in SSc presentations between white patients (WP), Asian patients (AP) and black patients (BP) and analysed the effects of geographical locations.Methods. SSc characteristics of patients from the EUSTAR cohort were cross-sectionally compared across racial groups using survival and multiple logistic regression analyses.Results. The study included 9162 WP, 341 AP and 181 BP. AP developed the first non-RP feature faster than WP but slower than BP. AP were less frequently anti-centromere (ACA; odds ratio (OR) = 0.4, P < 0.001) and more frequently anti-topoisomerase-I autoantibodies (ATA) positive (OR = 1.2, P = 0.068), while BP were less likely to be ACA and ATA positive than were WP [OR(ACA) = 0.3, P < 0.001; OR(ATA) = 0.5, P = 0.020]. AP had less often (OR = 0.7, P = 0.06) and BP more often (OR = 2.7, P < 0.001) diffuse skin involvement than had WP.AP and BP were more likely to have pulmonary hypertension [OR(AP) = 2.6, P < 0.001; OR(BP) = 2.7, P = 0.03 vs WP] and a reduced forced vital capacity [OR(AP) = 2.5, P < 0.001; OR(BP) = 2.4, P < 0.004] than were WP. AP more often had an impaired diffusing capacity of the lung than had BP and WP [OR(AP vs BP) = 1.9, P = 0.038; OR(AP vs WP) = 2.4, P < 0.001]. After RP onset, AP and BP had a higher hazard to die than had WP [hazard ratio (HR) (AP) = 1.6, P = 0.011; HR(BP) = 2.1, P < 0.001].Conclusion. Compared with WP, and mostly independent of geographical location, AP have a faster and earlier disease onset with high prevalences of ATA, pulmonary hypertension and forced vital capacity impairment and higher mortality. BP had the fastest disease onset, a high prevalence of diffuse skin involvement and nominally the highest mortality

Contrastive topic projection

Developing a suitable paradigm to compare focus and contrastive topic projection (empirical linguistics)

Experiments on the German additive particles 'auch' and 'noch'

An investigation of the German particles "auch" and "noch" (experimental linguistics), focusing on the role of topic situations

The German additive particle 'noch': Testing the role of topic situations

The particle 'noch' (‘still’) can have an additive reading similar to 'auch' (‘also’). We argue that both particles indicate that a previously partially answered QUD is re-opened to add a further answer. The particles differ in that the QUD, in the case of 'auch', can be re-opened with respect to the same topic situation, whereas 'noch' indicates that the QUD is re-opened with respect to a new topic situation. This account predicts a difference in the accommodation behavior of the two particles. We present an experiment whose results are in line with this prediction