Auxiliary chains in medical discourse: Combinatorial models and semantic categorisation

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el funcionamiento de las cadenas de auxiliaridad en textos especializados, en concreto, pertenecientes al discurso médico. De este modo, damos respuesta a dos tareas relevantes y novedosas de la gramática sincrónica del español actual, a saber: 1) especificar el comportamiento de estas construcciones pluriverbales y 2) esclarecer la incidencia del discurso médico en las perífrasis encadenadas. Los textos con los que hemos trabajado, que cuentan con el mayor grado de especialización, pertenecen a cuarenta revistas médicas publicadas entre 2018 y 2020. Cabe señalar que las publicaciones científicas analizadas se erigen como las de mayor impacto en sus respectivas especialidades y, en términos generales, se ocupan de ser la expresión científica de órganos oficiales, como la Sociedad Española de Oncología o la de Cardiología, entre otras. Para ello, llevamos a cabo nuestra investigación del siguiente modo: en primer lugar, recopilamos los principales esquemas de agrupación; a continuación, describimos las perífrasis encadenadas registradas y los modelos secuenciales a los que se asocian; por último, desarrollamos la naturaleza semántica de cada cadena de auxiliaridad en función de variables como la frecuencia de uso o la posición sintáctica. Una vez llevado a cabo el análisis del corpus, obtenemos dos conclusiones fundamentales: a) en la posición más cercana al verbo pleno, los textos especializados seleccionan auxiliares que se caracterizan bien por la ausencia de restricciones semánticas, bien por presentar un uso habitual en la lengua general; por ejemplo, en contextos no especializados pueden localizarse agrupaciones como tener que seguir y tener que terminar de, pero el discurso médico escoge exclusivamente la primera opción; y b) las secuencias más empleadas están motivadas por el propio lenguaje de especialidad: las cadenas que acentúan los valores modales ―especialmente deónticos― y que expresan la información en voz pasiva son habituales en los textos analizados porque responden a dos rasgos esenciales del ámbito de la medicina, a saber, la relevancia de los significados de orden y necesidad y la impersonalización del discurso.The aim of this paper is to examine the functioning of auxiliary chains in specialized texts, specifically, those belonging to medical discourse. In this way, we respond to two relevant and novel tasks in the synchronic grammar of current Spanish, namely: 1) to specify the functioning of these pluriverbal constructions and 2) to clarify the semantic properties that chained periphrases acquire in specialized languages. The texts we have worked with, which have the highest degree of specialization, belong to forty medical journals published between 2018 and 2020. It should be noted that the scientific journals analysed are those with the greatest impact in their respective specialities and, in general terms, are the scientific expression of official bodies, such as the Spanish Society of Oncology or the Spanish Society of Cardiology, among others. To this end, we carried out our research in the following way: first, we compiled the main grouping schemes; then, we described the recorded chained periphrases and the sequential models to which they are associated; finally, we developed the semantic nature of each auxiliary chain according to variables such as frequency of use or syntactic position. Once the analysis of the corpus has been carried out, we obtain two fundamental conclusions: a) in the position closest to the full verb, specialized texts select auxiliaries which are characterized either by the absence of semantic restrictions or by their habitual use in the general language; for example, in In non-specialized contexts we can find groupings such as tener que seguir and tener que terminar de, but medical journals choose exclusively the first option; and b) the most frequently used sequences are motivated by the specialized language itself: chains stressing modal values ―especially deontic ones― and expressing information in the passive voice are common in the texts analyzed because they respond to two essential features of the field of medicine, namely, the relevance of the meanings of order and necessity and the impersonalization of discourse

Reseña de Devís, Pedro Pablo. 2017. Comparativas de desigualdad con la preposición "de" en español. Comparación y pseudocomparación. Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang

Obra ressenyada: Pedro Pablo DEVIS, Comparativas de desigualdad con la preposición "de" en español. Comparación y pseudocomparación. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2017

Verbal Periphrases in the medical discourse of current Spanish

Esta tesis tiene por objeto examinar la incidencia de la situación comunicativa en el comportamiento de la categoría perífrasis verbal, de modo que demostremos que las propiedades del lenguaje médico motivan, por un lado, el empleo de unas formaciones perifrásticas específicas y, por otro, la aparición de rasgos diferenciales con respecto a la comunicación ordinaria en cuestiones de frecuencia de uso, categorización semántica, combinatoria o restricciones formales y de significado. Contamos con numerosas e importantes contribuciones acerca de las perífrasis verbales del español actual, pero son inexistentes los trabajos publicados sobre cómo influyen las características definitorias de las lenguas de especialidad en el funcionamiento de las construcciones analizadas. Teniendo esto en cuenta, nuestra investigación viene motivada por dos cuestiones fundamentales: por un lado, la escasez de investigaciones que profundizan en las relaciones y los límites entre lengua general y discurso especializado y, por otro, el convencimiento de que la naturaleza de las categorías gramaticales se ve alterada en contextos con fines específicos. Para ello, en primer lugar, proporcionamos una visión panorámica sobre las propuestas definitorias del concepto perífrasis verbal, defendemos nuestra propia caracterización y fijamos las pruebas sintácticas y los dominios semánticos que vertebran nuestro análisis del corpus. A continuación, señalamos las propiedades del discurso médico y delimitamos hasta qué punto estas características modifican la categoría analizada. A partir de aquí, iniciamos el estudio de los textos seleccionados y realizamos un análisis comparativo LG-LM (lengua general y lenguaje médico, respectivamente) por dominios semánticos, a saber: modalidad verbal, aspecto gramatical, marcador del discurso, voz pasiva e información pasivo-aspectual. La investigación de las formaciones perifrásticas atiende a cinco cuestiones esenciales: inventario y delimitación, continuum categorial, frecuencia de uso, valores semánticos y funcionamiento según la especialidad médica. Este análisis del corpus concluye con un capítulo dedicado al estudio de las perífrasis encadenadas, como puede empezar a hablar o tienen que volver a leer. Las cadenas de auxiliaridad configuran una línea de investigación incipiente y sugerimos avances significativos en aspectos como el orden y la posición de los constituyentes, las restricciones formales o las limitaciones semánticas. En cuanto a los textos objeto de análisis, nuestro corpus está compuesto por los contenidos de cuarenta revistas médicas escritas en español que se han publicado entre 2018 y 2020. Cabe señalar que son textos escritos por y para investigadores, con el más elevado grado de especialización, puesto que hemos prescindido de manuales didácticos y repertorios divulgativos. De esta investigación se concluye que las formaciones perifrásticas no se comportan del mismo modo según la situación comunicativa: el análisis comparativo LG-LM favorece la detección de características idénticas y rasgos diferenciales entre un discurso y otro y demuestra, en definitiva, que la categoría adquiere un conjunto de propiedades sintáctico-semánticas específicas en la comunicación especializada. Así pues, la investigación nos permite llegar a conclusiones innovadoras que, por un lado, esclarecen aún más la especificidad de la categoría y, por otro, arrojan luz sobre su funcionamiento en una lengua de especialidad tan relevante y necesaria como es el discurso médico.This dissertation aims to examine how the communicative situation affects the behavior of verbal periphrases, the category under study, and prove that the properties of medical language determine, on the one hand, the use of specific periphrastic constructions and, on the other, the appearance of features that distinguish it from ordinary communication in terms of frequency of use, semantic categorization, combinational properties or formal and semantic restrictions. There are numerous important contributions on verbal periphrases in contemporary Spanish, but there are no published works on how the defining features of specialized languages influence the behavior of periphrastic verbal constructions. Therefore, my research is prompted by two key issues: on the one hand, the scarcity of research delving into the relationship and boundaries between general language and specialized discourse; on the other, my conviction that the nature of grammatical categories gets altered in specialized contexts. To this end, I will first provide an overview of the different definitions for the concept of verbal periphrasis, defend my own definition and establish the syntactic tests and semantic domains that structure my analysis of the corpus. Next, I will point out the properties of medical discourse and determine to what extent these features affect verbal periphrases. I will then proceed to study the selected texts and conduct a GL-ML (general language and medical language, respectively) comparative analysis by semantic domains, namely: verbal modality, grammatical aspect, discourse markers, passive voice, and passive-aspectual information. The research on periphrastic constructions addresses five key issues: inventory and delimitation, categorical continuum, frequency of use, semantic values, and their behavior depending on medical specialty. The corpus analysis ends with a chapter devoted to the study of chain periphrases, such as puede empezar a hablar (‘one can start to talk’) or tienen que volver a leer (‘they have to go back to reading’). Concatenation of auxiliaries is an incipient line of research, and I suggest significant advances in aspects such as the order and position of constituents, formal restrictions, or semantic constraints. The corpus in this study is made up of content from forty medical journals written in Spanish and published between 2018 and 2020. It should be noted that they are highly specialized texts written by and for researchers. Neither teaching manuals nor non-specialized informational texts have been used. The findings of this research indicate that periphrastic constructions behave differently depending on the communicative situation: the GL-ML comparative análisis helps detect identical and distinguishing features of these two types of discourse and it evidences that the category takes on a set of specific syntactic-semantic properties in specialized communication. Therefore, I derive novel conclusions that, on the one hand, further clarify the specificity of the category and, on the other, shed light on its behavior in a specialized language as indispensable as medical discourse

Searching for Faraday rotation in cosmic microwave background polarization

We use the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 9th-year foreground reduced data at 33, 41 and 61 GHz to derive a Faraday rotation at map and at angular power spectrum levels taking into account their observational errors. A processing mask provided by WMAP is used to avoid contamination from the disc of our Galaxy and local spurs. We have found a Faraday rotation component at both, map and power spectrum levels. The lack of correlation of the Faraday rotation with Galactic Faraday rotation, synchrotron and dust polarization from our Galaxy or with cosmic microwave background anisotropies or lensing suggests that it could be originated at reionization (ℓ ≲ 12). Even if the detected Faraday rotation signal is weak, the present study could contribute to establish magnetic fields strengths of B ~ 10 G at reionization.This work was partially supported by projects CSD2010-00064 and AYA2011-24728 of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and by Junta de Andalucía Grant FQM-108.Peer Reviewe

Analysis and performance of lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors for W-band

Lumped-element superconducting resonators are a promising technology for their use in millimeter-wave observations and quantum computing applications that require large arrays of extremely sensitive detectors. Among them, lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs) have shown good performance in the submillimeter band in several earth-based telescopes. In this work, LEKIDs for their use as millimeter-wave receivers of astronomical applications are presented. LEKID arrays using a thin bilayer of superconducting titanium/aluminum (Ti/Al), deposited on the silicon substrate, have been designed and fabricated. The design of a dual-polarization LEKID with the goal of detection at the W -band for two orthogonal polarizations is described and a fabricated array has demonstrated absorption at ambient temperature. Also, an approximate design methodology of the coupling parameter for LEKIDs' readout, essential for dynamic range optimization of the detector under millimeter-wave radiation, is proposed. In addition, the resonance characteristics and coupling factor of the fabricated superconducting resonators using high-quality internal factor Qi under cryogenic temperatures have been analyzed. The design guidelines in this work are applicable to other LEKID arrays, and the presented superconducting Ti/Al thin-film LEKIDs can be used in future receiver arrays in the millimeter bands.This work was supported by Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities under Grants ESP2017-83921-C2-2-R, ESP2017-86582-C4-1-R, ESP2017-86582-C4-3-R, ESP2017-92706-EXP, AYA2017-92153-EXP, “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (MINECO, Grant SEV-2016-0686). By Comunidad de Madrid under Grant P2018/NMT-4291. D.G. and A.G also acknowledge Grant DEFROST N62909-19-1-2053 from ONRGlobal. A.G. acknowledges IJCI-2017-33991

Bi-layer kinetic inductance detectors for W-band

An array of superconducting kinetic inductance detectors (KID) has been fabricated and it has demonstrated absorption at W-Band. The use of a bi-layer structure based on aluminum (AI) and titanium (Ti) shows a lower superconducting critical temperature (T c ), which allows the detection at W-band. A design methodology is presented taking into account the KID geometry in order to maximize the absorption and a dual-polarization KID has been designed using the proposed methodology. Two prototypes of KID on Silicon substrate have been fabricated showing a good agreement between measurement and simulation results. The measurements at room temperature from 65 to 110 GHz show the matching at the frequency band, while dark cryogenic characterization demonstrated the low frequency design.The authors acknowledge financial supports: Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities Grants ESP2017-83921-C2-2-R, ESP2017-86582-C4-1-R, ESP2017-86582-C4-3-R, MAT2017-85617-R, ESP2017-92706-EXP, AYA2017-92153-EXP and from Comunidad de Madrid through Grant P2018/NMT-4291 TEC2-SPACE-CM. A.G. acknowledges IJCI-2017-33991; IMDEA Nanociencia acknowledges support from the “Severo Ochoa” Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (MINECO, Grant SEV-2016-0686). D.G. and A.G also acknowledge Grant DEFROST N62909-19-1-2053 from ONR-Global

QUIJOTE scientific results -- XIII. Intensity and polarization study of supernova remnants in the QUIJOTE-MFI wide survey: CTB 80, Cygnus Loop, HB 21, CTA 1, Tycho and HB 9

We use the new QUIJOTE-MFI wide survey (11, 13, 17 and 19 GHz) to produce spectral energy distributions (SEDs), on an angular scale of 1 deg, of the supernova remnants (SNRs) CTB 80, Cygnus Loop, HB 21, CTA 1, Tycho and HB 9. We provide new measurements of the polarized synchrotron radiation in the microwave range. For each SNR, the intensity and polarization SEDs are obtained and modelled by combining QUIJOTE-MFI maps with ancillary data. In intensity, we confirm the curved power law spectra of CTB 80 and HB 21 with a break frequency $\nu_{\rm b}$ at 2.0$^{+1.2}_{-0.5}$ GHz and 5.0$^{+1.2}_{-1.0}$ GHz respectively; and spectral indices respectively below and above the spectral break of $-0.34\pm0.04$ and $-0.86\pm0.5$ for CTB 80, and $-0.24\pm0.07$ and $-0.60\pm0.05$ for HB 21. In addition, we provide upper limits on the Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME), suggesting that the AME contribution is negligible towards these remnants. From a simultaneous intensity and polarization fit, we recover synchrotron spectral indices as flat as $-0.24$, and the whole sample has a mean and scatter of $-0.44\pm0.12$. The polarization fractions have a mean and scatter of $6.1\pm1.9$\%. When combining our results with the measurements from other QUIJOTE studies of SNRs, we find that radio spectral indices are flatter for mature SNRs, and particularly flatter for CTB 80 ($-0.24^{+0.07}_{-0.06}$) and HB 21 ($-0.34^{+0.04}_{-0.03}$). In addition, the evolution of the spectral indices against the SNRs age is modelled with a power-law function, providing an exponent $-0.07\pm0.03$ and amplitude $-0.49\pm0.02$ (normalised at 10 kyr), which are conservative with respect to previous studies of our Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud.Comment: 33 pages, 15 figure, 15 tables. Submitted to MNRAS. QUIJOTE data maps available at https://research.iac.es/proyecto/quijot

QUIJOTE scientific results - V. The microwave intensity and polarization spectra of the Galactic regions W49, W51 and IC443

We present new intensity and polarization maps obtained with the QUIJOTE experiment towards the Galactic regions W49, W51 and IC443, covering the frequency range from 10 to 20 GHz at ∼ 1 deg angular resolution, with a sensitivity in the range 35–79 μK beam−1 for total intensity and 13–23 μK beam−1 for polarization. For each region, we combine QUIJOTE maps with ancillary data at frequencies ranging from 0.4 to 3000 GHz, reconstruct the spectral energy distribution and model it with a combination of known foregrounds. We detect anomalous microwave emission (AME) in total intensity towards W49 at 4.7σ and W51 at 4.0σ with peak frequencies νAME = (20.0 ± 1.4) GHz and νAME = (17.7 ± 3.6) GHz, respectively; this is the first detection of AME towards W51. The contamination from ultracompact H II regions to the residual AME flux density is estimated at 10 per cent in W49 and 5 per cent in W51, and does not rule out the AME detection. The polarized SEDs reveal a synchrotron contribution with spectral indices αs = −0.67 ± 0.10 in W49 and αs = −0.51 ± 0.07 in W51, ascribed to the diffuse Galactic emission and to the local supernova remnant, respectively. Towards IC443 in total intensity we measure a broken power-law synchrotron spectrum with cut-off frequency ν0,s = (114 ± 73) GHz, in agreement with previous studies; our analysis, however, rules out any AME contribution which had been previously claimed towards IC443. No evidence of polarized AME emission is detected in this study.Partial financial support was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the projects AYA2007-68058-C03-01, AYA2007-68058-C03-02, AYA2010-21766-C03-01,AYA2010-21766-C03-02, AYA2014-60438-P, ESP2015-70646-C2-1-R, AYA2017-84185-P,ESP2017-83921-C2-1-R,AYA2017-90675-REDC (co-funded with EU FEDER funds), PGC2018-101814-B-I00, PID2019-110610RB-C21, PID2020-120514GB-I00, IACA13-3E-2336, IACA15-BE-3707, EQC2018-004918-P, the Severo Ochoa Programs SEV-2015-0548 and CEX2019-000920-S, the Maria de Maeztu Program MDM-2017-0765, and by the Consolider-Ingenio project CSD2010-00064 (EPI: Exploring the Physics of Inflation). We acknowledge support from the ACIISI, Consejeria de Economia, Conocimiento y Empleo del Gobierno de Canarias and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under grant with reference ProID2020010108. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement number 687312 (RADIOFOREGROUNDS). DT acknowledges the support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) with Grant N. 2020PM0042; DT also acknowledges the support from the South African Claude Leon Foundation, that partially funded this work. EdlH acknowledges partial financial support from the Concepción Arenal Programme of the Universidad de Cantabria. FG acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 101001897). FP acknowledges the European Commission under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement number 658499 (PolAME). FP acknowledges support from the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) under grant numbers PID2019-105552RB-C43. BR-G acknowledges ASI-INFN Agreement 2014-037-R.0.With funding from the Spanish government through the "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" accreditation (CEX2019-000920-S).Peer reviewe

QUIJOTE Scientific Results – XVII. Studying the anomalous microwave emission in the Andromeda Galaxy with QUIJOTE-MFI

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is the Local Group galaxy that is most similar to the Milky Way (MW). The similarities between the two galaxies make M31 useful for studying integrated properties common to spiral galaxies. We use the data from the recent QUIJOTE-MFI Wide Survey, together with new raster observations focused on M31, to study its integrated emission. The addition of raster data improves the sensitivity of QUIJOTE-MFI maps by almost a factor 3. Our main interest is to confirm if anomalous microwave emission (AME) is present in M31, as previous studies have suggested. To do so, we built the integrated spectral energy distribution of M31 between 0.408 and 3000 GHz. We then performed a component separation analysis taking into account synchrotron, free–free, AME, and thermal dust components. AME in M31 is modelled as a lognormal distribution with maximum amplitude, AAME, equal to 1.03 ± 0.32 Jy. It peaks at νAME = 17.2 ± 3.2 GHz with a width of WAME = 0.58 ± 0.16. Both the Akaike and Bayesian information criteria find the model without AME to be less than 1 per cent as probable as the one taking AME into consideration. We find that the AME emissivity per 100 μm intensity in M31 is 28.4 GHz AME = 9.6 ± 3.1 μK MJy−1 sr, similar to that of the MW. We also provide the first upper limits for the AME polarization fraction in an extragalactic object. M31 remains the only galaxy where an AME measurement has been made of its integrated spectrum.Partial financial support was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the projects AYA2007-68058-C03-01, AYA2007-68058-C03-02, AYA2010-21766-C03-01, AYA2010-21766-C03-02, AYA2014-60438-P, ESP2015-70646-C2-1-R, AYA2017-84185-P,ESP2017-83921-C2-1-R, PID2019-110610RB-C21, PID2020-120514GB-I00, IACA13-3E-2336, IACA15-BE-3707, EQC2018-004918-P, the Severo Ochoa Programs SEV-2015-0548 and CEX2019-000920-S, the Maria de Maeztu Program MDM-2017-0765, and by the Consolider-Ingenio project CSD2010-00064 (EPI: Exploring the Physics of Inflation). We acknowledge support from the ACIISI, Consejeria de Economia, Conocimiento y Empleo del Gobierno de Canarias, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under grant with reference ProID2020010108. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement number 687312 (RADIOFOREGROUNDS). MFT acknowledges support from the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU) and the European Social Fund (ESF) under grant with reference PRE-C-2018-0067. CA-T acknowledges support from the Millennium Nucleus on Young Exoplanets and their Moons (YEMS). FP acknowledges support from the Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información (ACIISI) under the European FEDER (Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional) de Canarias 2014–2020 grant No. PROID2021010078.With funding from the Spanish government through the "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" accreditation (CEX2019-000920-S).Peer reviewe