1,147 research outputs found
At the edge of intonation: the interplay of utterance-final F0 movements and voiceless fricative sounds
The paper is concerned with the 'edge of intonation' in a twofold sense. It focuses on utterance-final F0 movements and crosses the traditional segment-prosody divide by investigating the interplay of F0 and voiceless fricatives in speech production. An experiment was performed for German with four types of voiceless fricatives: /f/, /s/, /ʃ/ and /x/. They were elicited with scripted dialogues in the contexts of terminal falling statement and high rising question intonations. Acoustic analyses show that fricatives concluding the high rising question intonations had higher mean centres of gravity (CoGs), larger CoG ranges and higher noise energy levels than fricatives concluding the terminal falling statement intonations. The different spectral-energy patterns are suitable to induce percepts of a high 'aperiodic pitch' at the end of the questions and of a low 'aperiodic pitch' at the end of the statements. The results are discussed with regard to the possible existence of 'segmental intonation' and its implication for F0 truncation and the segment-prosody dichotomy, in which segments are the alleged troublemakers for the production and perception of intonation
From Teamchef Arminius to Hermann Junior: glocalised discourse about a national foundation myth
If for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the ‘Battle of the Teutoburg Forest’, fought in 9 CE between Roman armies and Germanic tribes, was predominantly a reference point for nationalist and chauvinist discourses in Germany, the first decade of the twenty-first century has seen attempts to link public remembrance with local/regional identities on the one hand and international/intercultural contact on the other. In the run up to and during the ‘anniversary year’ of 2009, German media, sports institutions and various other official institutions articulating tourist, economic and political interests attempted to create a new ‘glocalised’ version of the public memory of the Teutoburg battle. Combining methods of Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, the paper analyses the narrative and argumentative topoi employed in this re-orientation of public memory, with a special emphasis on hybrid, post-national identity-construction. Das zweitausendjährige Gedenkjahr der „Schlacht im Teutoburger Wald“ im Jahr 2009 bot eine günstige Gelegenheit, die bis in die zweite Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts dominante Tradition nationalistisch–chauvinistischer Deutungen des Sieges von germanischen Stämmen über drei römische Legionen zu korrigieren und zu überwinden. Der Aufsatz analysiert mit Hilfe diskurslinguistischer Methoden die Anstrengungen regionaler Institutionen und Medien, die nationale Vereinnahmung des historischen Gedenkens kritisch zu thematisieren sowie neue, zum eine lokal situierte, zum andern international orientierte Identifikationsangebote anzubieten. Die Analyse zeigt, dass solche „de-nationalisierten“ Identifikationsangebote zwar teilweise auch früher verwendet wurden, aber heutzutage rekontextualisiert und auf innovative Weise in den Vordergrund gestellt werden
Update of Guidelines for laparoscopic treatment of ventral and incisional abdominal wall hernias (International Endohernia Society (IEHS)) : Part B
In 2014 the International Endohernia Society (IEHS) published the first international "Guidelines for laparoscopic treatment of ventral and incisional abdominal wall hernias". Guidelines reflect the currently best available evidence in diagnostics and therapy and give recommendations to help surgeons to standardize their techniques and to improve their results. However, science is a dynamic field which is continuously developing. Therefore, guidelines require regular updates to keep pace with the evolving literature. Methods For the development of the original guidelines all relevant literature published up to year 2012 was analyzed using the ranking of the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based-Medicine. For the present update all of the previous authors were asked to evaluate the literature published during the recent years from 2012 to 2017 and revise their statements and recommendations given in the initial guidelines accordingly. In two Consensus Conferences (October 2017 Beijing, March 2018 Cologne) the updates were presented, discussed, and confirmed. To avoid redundancy, only new statements or recommendations are included in this paper. Therefore, for full understanding both of the guidelines, the original and the current, must be read. In addition, the new developments in repair of abdominal wall hernias like surgical techniques within the abdominal wall, release operations (transversus muscle release, component separation), Botox application, and robot-assisted repair methods were included. Results Due to an increase of the number of patients and further development of surgical techniques, repair of primary and secondary abdominal wall hernias attracts increasing interests of many surgeons. Whereas up to three decades ago hernia-related publications did not exceed 20 per year, currently this number is about 10-fold higher. Recent years are characterized by the advent of new techniques-minimal invasive techniques using robotics and laparoscopy, totally extraperitoneal repairs, novel myofascial release techniques for optimal closure of large defects, and Botox for relaxing the abdominal wall. Furthermore, a concomitant rectus diastasis was recognized as a significant risk factor for recurrence. Despite still insufficient evidence with respect to these new techniques it seemed to us necessary to include them in the update to stimulate surgeons to do research in these fields. Conclusion Guidelines are recommendations based on best available evidence intended to help the surgeon to improve the quality of his daily work. However, science is a continuously evolving process, and as such guidelines should be updated about every 3 years. For a comprehensive reference, however, it is suggested to read both the initially guidelines published in 2014 together with the update. Moreover, the presented update includes also techniques which were not known 3 years before
Recent Innovations & Daily Problems. A new prosthesis in inguinal hernia repair:preliminary results of a pilot study.
Introduction: Elective surgery for inguinal hernia is affected by very
low mortality « 1 per 10000 operation); in contrast, when surgery
is carried out for complicated inguinal hernia, risks of postoperative
complication are higher. TAPP is a world-wide accepted surgical practice
in the treatment of elective bilateral or recurrent inguinal hernia,
above all in young patients. Few exploratory studies were published on
laparoscopic approach in the treatment of urgent complicated inguinal
hernia. Aim of this study was to analyze feasibility (operative time,
conversion rate), safety (postoperative morbidity, length of hospital
stay) and quality of life (acute and chronic pain, return to work) of
trans-abdominal pre-peritoneal laparoscopic hernia repair in acute
incarcerated inguinal hernia. Rationale of laparoscopic trans-abdominal
approach is the easier hernia reduction under vision and a better
exploration of the abdominal cavity.
Methods: from September 2012 to September 2013, 15 consecutive
patients admitted in emergency at the Division of General Surgery of
University "Sapienza", Polo Pontino, for acute incarcerated inguinal
hernia were submitted to TAPP using 3 trocars (1 of 10 mm and 2 of
5mm) and polyester prosthesis fixed by fibrin glue. Exclusion criteria
for laparoscopic approach were age III, previous
abdominal surgery, signs of strangulated hernia. All of them were
evaluated for operative time, conversion rate, postoperative morbidity,
organ resection or other surgery required. All patients were scored for
pain by Visual Analogic Scale (VAS) during postoperative in hospital
stay at 7 days, 1,6 and 12 months after surgery.
Results: median follow-up was 16 months and 12 as minimum. In all
cases reduction of hernia was always possible and none conversion
to open surgery was recorded, median operative time was 89 minutes
(55-137 as range), omental resection was carried out in one patient
(6,6%), no other organ resections needed, whereas contralateral hernia
was diagnosed and repaired at the same time in 4 patients (26,6%). No
major complications were observed, median blood loss was 100 ml,
minor morbidity was contained to 18% represented by fever and
wound infection of surgical umbilical scar. Median in hospital stay
was 1,5 days with 1-5 days as range. Postoperative median acute pain,
measured by visual analogic scale (VAS), was 2 (range:0-4), none
patient referred any pain during follow-up. Median time of return to
work was 6,5 days, ranged between 3 to 15 days. Patients' compliance
to treatment and to follow-up was complete as well their satisfaction. Conclusions: In centres skilled for laparoscopy in emergency, TAPP
could be considered a feasible and safe technique. In well-selected
patients (especially if emolled in controlled clinical trial) TAPP could
represent an alternative surgical approach for complicated incarcerated inguinal hernia to conventional open surgery even in urgency. The
main advantages of laparoscopic approach are the ability to perform
surgical hernia reduction under vision, a better exploration and evaluation
of abdominal cavity and diagnosis and treatment of eventual
contralateral defect of wall, otherwise often missed. Finally, the good
control of acute and chronic pain, faster return to normal activity and
work, better aesthetic results contributed to total satisfaction and compliance
of the patients
Measurement of the branching ratio of pi^0 -> e^+e^- using K_L -> 3 pi^0 decays in flight
The branching ratio of the rare decay pi^0 -> e^+e^- has been measured in
E799-II, a rare kaon decay experiment using the KTeV detector at Fermilab. The
pi^0's were produced in fully-reconstructed K_L -> 3 pi^0 decays in flight. We
observed 275 candidate pi^0 -> e^+e^- events, with an expected background of
21.4 +- 6.2 events which includes the contribution from Dalitz decays. We
measured BR(pi^0 -> e^+e^-, x>0.95) = (6.09 +- 0.40 +- 0.24) times 10^{-8},
where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. This result is
the first significant observation of the excess rate for this decay above the
unitarity lower bound.Comment: New version shortened to PRL length limit. 5 pages, 4 figures.
Published in Phys. Rev. Let
Disclosure of Maternal HIV Status to Children: To Tell or Not To Tell . . . That Is the Question
HIV-infected mothers face the challenging decision of whether to disclose their serostatus to their children. From the perspective of both mother and child, we explored the process of disclosure, providing descriptive information and examining the relationships among disclosure, demographic variables, and child adjustment. Participants were 23 mothers and one of their noninfected children (9 to 16 years of age). Sixty-one percent of mothers disclosed. Consistent with previous research, disclosure was not related to child functioning. However, children sworn to secrecy demonstrated lower social competence and more externalizing problems. Differential disclosure, which occurred in one-third of the families, was associated with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Finally, knowing more than mothers had themselves disclosed was related to child maladjustment across multiple domains. Clinical implications and the need for future research are considered
Realism, Liberalism and Non-ideal Theory Or, Are there Two Ways to do Realistic Political Theory?
The charge that contemporary political theory has lost touch with the realities of politics is common to both the recent ideal/non-ideal theory debate and the revival of interest in realist thought. However, a tendency has arisen to subsume political realism within the ideal/non-ideal theory debate, or to elide realism with non-ideal theorising. This article argues that this is a mistake. The ideal/non-ideal theory discussion is a methodological debate that takes place within the framework of liberal theory. Realism, contrary to several interpretations, is a distinct and competing conception of politics in its own right that stands in contrast to that of liberal theory. While the two debates are united in a sense that contemporary liberal theory needs to be more realistic, they differ significantly in their understanding of this shortcoming and, more importantly, what it is to do more realistic political theory
Differential (2+1) Jet Event Rates and Determination of alpha_s in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA
Events with a (2+1) jet topology in deep-inelastic scattering at HERA are
studied in the kinematic range 200 < Q^2< 10,000 GeV^2. The rate of (2+1) jet
events has been determined with the modified JADE jet algorithm as a function
of the jet resolution parameter and is compared with the predictions of Monte
Carlo models. In addition, the event rate is corrected for both hadronization
and detector effects and is compared with next-to-leading order QCD
calculations. A value of the strong coupling constant of alpha_s(M_Z^2)=
0.118+- 0.002 (stat.)^(+0.007)_(-0.008) (syst.)^(+0.007)_(-0.006) (theory) is
extracted. The systematic error includes uncertainties in the calorimeter
energy calibration, in the description of the data by current Monte Carlo
models, and in the knowledge of the parton densities. The theoretical error is
dominated by the renormalization scale ambiguity.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, submitted to Eur. Phys.
Searches at HERA for Squarks in R-Parity Violating Supersymmetry
A search for squarks in R-parity violating supersymmetry is performed in e^+p
collisions at HERA at a centre of mass energy of 300 GeV, using H1 data
corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 37 pb^(-1). The direct production
of single squarks of any generation in positron-quark fusion via a Yukawa
coupling lambda' is considered, taking into account R-parity violating and
conserving decays of the squarks. No significant deviation from the Standard
Model expectation is found. The results are interpreted in terms of constraints
within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), the constrained MSSM
and the minimal Supergravity model, and their sensitivity to the model
parameters is studied in detail. For a Yukawa coupling of electromagnetic
strength, squark masses below 260 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level in a
large part of the parameter space. For a 100 times smaller coupling strength
masses up to 182 GeV are excluded.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 3 table
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