Retórica y análisis de discursos

Enseñada como disciplina obligatoria en escuelas y universidades occidentales hasta el siglo XVIII y tras volver hoy al orden del día, la causa de su presencia en los eventos de los medios, la retórica dejó trazos muy fuertes en nuestra cultura de producción de textos. Surgió en las colonias griegas de Sicilia, allá por el año 485 A.C., se desarrolló, a partir de los procesos de convencimiento utilizados por los hombres en su vida cotidiana, como un conjunto de técnicas para creación de discursos (siempre que se trate de retórica clásica, esta palabra está empleada en el sentido de textos proferidos en vivo delante del público) judiciales, usados en tribunales, en los que se reivindicaba la posesión de tierras. Después estas técnicas salieron de los tribunales hacia otros géneros de textos, frecuentes en la vida cotidiana de los griegos, en los que se argumentaba para defender una tesis; los discursos políticos de las asambleas y los discursos de homenaje. En el transcurso de los siglos, la retórica impregnó también la producción de cualquier tipo de textos, independientemente de los canales movilizados en los procesos de comunicación o del grado de formalidad exigido. Algunas partes de la técnica retórica aún continúan siendo enseñadas hasta hoy como parte del programa de otras disciplinas escolares relacionadas con la enseñanza de la redacción, la técnica literaria y la oratoria. Por ser una técnica de producción textual, la retórica es también, de modo más o menos implícito, la primera teoría de la producción y recepción de textos. Sus primeros profesores fueron Empédocles de Agrigento, Corax y Tisias

Pectus Carinatum Evaluation Questionnaire (PCEQ): a novel tool to improve the follow-up in patients treated with brace compression

A questionnaire (Pectus Carinatum Evaluation Questionnaire, PCEQ) was developed to be applied in follow-up of patients with Pectus Carinatum (PC). After validation of the PCEQ, we aimed to quantify the compliance to brace compression and to assess factors that could influence this treatment in patients with PC. From July 2008 to July 2014, 56 patients with PC were treated with the Calgary Protocol of compressive bracing at Paediatric Surgery Department of Hospital So Joo. Forty patients (71%) completed the questionnaire. The PCEQ was divided into four sections: (i) compliance; (ii) symptoms; (iii) social influence; (iv) activities. For the validation process of the PCEQ, principal components analysis (PCA), orthogonal varimax or oblimin rotation and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were used. To evaluate the association between compliance and other sections of the questionnaire, we estimated the Pearson's correlation between compliance factor scores ('Compliance Days' and 'Compliance Hours') and the final score of each new questionnaire component identified by PCA ('Chest Pain', 'Dyspnoea', 'Back Pain', 'Parents' Influence', 'Friends' Influence', 'Activities', 'Time To Compliance'). For the sections 'Symptoms', 'Social Influence' and 'Activities', we estimated final scores as the sum of the questions that constitute each component. For the section 'Compliance', the factor scores were estimated by the regression method. After PCA analysis, the PCEQ found nine different components with high reliability. When analysing the compliance of our study group, the final score for 'Activities' revealed a significant correlation with the factor score for 'Compliance Hours' (r = 0.382, P = 0.015). The final score for 'Time To Compliance' showed a significant correlation with both factor scores for 'Compliance Hours' (r = -0.765, P < 0.001) and 'Compliance Days' (r = -0.345, P < 0.029). The PCEQ seems to be an important tool to follow up patients with PC treated by brace compression. Practical steps, such as developing a tight schedule in the early follow-up period or applying the PCEQ in first visits after initiating brace therapy, can be taken in order to increase compliance with brace therapy and improve the quality of life.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Validation Of The Ebmt Risk Score In Chronic Myeloid Leukemia In Brazil And Allogeneic Transplant Outcome.

The management of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has changed radically since the introduction of imatinib therapy. The decision of whether to offer a patient a hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) must be based on the probability of success of the procedure. The aim of this retrospective analysis of 1,084 CML patients who received an allogeneic HSCT in 10 Brazilian Centers between February 1983 and March 2003 was to validate the EBMT risk score. The study population comprised 647 (60%) males and 437 (40%) females, with a median age of 32 years old (range 1 - 59); 898 (83%) were in chronic phase, 146 (13%) were in accelerated phase and 40 (4%) were in blast crisis; 151 (14%) were younger than 20 years old, 620 (57%) were between 20 and 40 and 313 (29%) were older than 40; 1,025 (94%) received an HLA fully matched sibling transplant and only 59 (6%) received an unrelated transplant. In 283 cases (26%) a male recipient received a graft from a female donor. The interval from diagnosis to transplantation was less than 12 months in 223 (21%) cases and greater in 861 (79%). The overall survival, disease-free survival, transplant-related mortality and relapse incidence were 49%, 50%, 45% and 25%, respectively. Of the 1084 patients, 179 (17%) had a risk score of 0 or 1, 397 (37%) had a score of 2, 345 (32%) had a score of 3, 135 (12%) had a score of 4 and 28 (2%) a score of 5 or 6. The overall survival (OS) rate in patients with risk scores 0-1 and 2 was similar (58% and 55%, respectively) but significantly better than that in patients with scores 3 or more (score 3 - 44%, 4 - 36 % and 5-6 - 27%, respectively) pp<0.001). Disease-free survival (DFS) and transplant related mortality (TRM) in a patients with a score of 3 or more were 46% and 49%, respectively and the relapse rate beyond score 5-6 was 77%. Disease status had a negative impact on all outcomes (OS, DFS, TRM, and relapse). The OS rate for male recipients of a graft from a female donor was 40% compared to 52% among the other donor-recipient pairs (p=0.004). DFS and TRM were significant for disease phase and female donor-male recipient (p<0.001 and p<0.003, respectively). In our experience, age and interval between diagnosis and transplant did influence OS, DFS, TRM, and relapse rate. Our results validate the EBMT risk score in the context of a developing country and confirm its usefulness for making point decisions in the imatinib era.90232-

Mapping density, diversity and species-richness of the Amazon tree flora

Using 2.046 botanically-inventoried tree plots across the largest tropical forest on Earth, we mapped tree species-diversity and tree species-richness at 0.1-degree resolution, and investigated drivers for diversity and richness. Using only location, stratified by forest type, as predictor, our spatial model, to the best of our knowledge, provides the most accurate map of tree diversity in Amazonia to date, explaining approximately 70% of the tree diversity and species-richness. Large soil-forest combinations determine a significant percentage of the variation in tree species-richness and tree alpha-diversity in Amazonian forest-plots. We suggest that the size and fragmentation of these systems drive their large-scale diversity patterns and hence local diversity. A model not using location but cumulative water deficit, tree density, and temperature seasonality explains 47% of the tree species-richness in the terra-firme forest in Amazonia. Over large areas across Amazonia, residuals of this relationship are small and poorly spatially structured, suggesting that much of the residual variation may be local. The Guyana Shield area has consistently negative residuals, showing that this area has lower tree species-richness than expected by our models. We provide extensive plot meta-data, including tree density, tree alpha-diversity and tree species-richness results and gridded maps at 0.1-degree resolution

Geographic patterns of tree dispersal modes in Amazonia and their ecological correlates

Aim: To investigate the geographic patterns and ecological correlates in the geographic distribution of the most common tree dispersal modes in Amazonia (endozoochory, synzoochory, anemochory and hydrochory). We examined if the proportional abundance of these dispersal modes could be explained by the availability of dispersal agents (disperser-availability hypothesis) and/or the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits (resource-availability hypothesis). Time period: Tree-inventory plots established between 1934 and 2019. Major taxa studied: Trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.55 cm. Location: Amazonia, here defined as the lowland rain forests of the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield. Methods: We assigned dispersal modes to a total of 5433 species and morphospecies within 1877 tree-inventory plots across terra-firme, seasonally flooded, and permanently flooded forests. We investigated geographic patterns in the proportional abundance of dispersal modes. We performed an abundance-weighted mean pairwise distance (MPD) test and fit generalized linear models (GLMs) to explain the geographic distribution of dispersal modes. Results: Anemochory was significantly, positively associated with mean annual wind speed, and hydrochory was significantly higher in flooded forests. Dispersal modes did not consistently show significant associations with the availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits. A lower dissimilarity in dispersal modes, resulting from a higher dominance of endozoochory, occurred in terra-firme forests (excluding podzols) compared to flooded forests. Main conclusions: The disperser-availability hypothesis was well supported for abiotic dispersal modes (anemochory and hydrochory). The availability of resources for constructing zoochorous fruits seems an unlikely explanation for the distribution of dispersal modes in Amazonia. The association between frugivores and the proportional abundance of zoochory requires further research, as tree recruitment not only depends on dispersal vectors but also on conditions that favour or limit seedling recruitment across forest types

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Alquimia, Ocultismo, Maçonaria: o ouro e o simbolismo hermético dos cadinhos (Séculos XVIII e XIX)

Este artigo apresenta a arqueologia das enigmáticas marcas impressas na base de cadinhos dos séculos XVIII e XIX recuperados nas escavações da Casa da Moeda do Rio de Janeiro, na década de 1980, e a explanação do seu significado simbólico à luz da alquimia, do ocultismo e da Maçonaria. Espraiando-se extraordinariamente mundo afora através de uma bem-sucedida estratégia de comunicação visual, a Maçonaria utilizou símbolos herméticos para a difusão de seus princípios nos mais diferentes suportes. Aparentemente estamos diante de um sinal de reconhecimento maçônico, o sinal exterior de uma organização oculta, só partilhado por iniciados e incompreensível para os demais, que contribuiu para difundir veladamente a doutrina maçônica por diferentes pontos do globo