Discourse or dialogue? Habermas, the Bakhtin Circle, and the question of concrete utterances

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via the link below.This article argues that the Bakhtin Circle presents a more realistic theory of concrete dialogue than the theory of discourse elaborated by Habermas. The Bakhtin Circle places speech within the “concrete whole utterance” and by this phrase they mean that the study of everyday language should be analyzed through the mediations of historical social systems such as capitalism. These mediations are also characterized by a determinate set of contradictions—the capital-labor contradiction in capitalism, for example—that are reproduced in unique ways in more concrete forms of life (the state, education, religion, culture, and so on). Utterances always dialectically refract these processes and as such are internal concrete moments, or concrete social forms, of them. Moreover, new and unrepeatable dialogic events arise in these concrete social forms in order to overcome and understand the constant dialectical flux of social life. But this theory of dialogue is different from that expounded by Habermas, who tends to explore speech acts by reproducing a dualism between repeatable and universal “abstract” discursive processes (commonly known as the ideal speech situation) and empirical uses of discourse. These critical points against Habermas are developed by focusing on six main areas: sentences and utterances; the lifeworld and background language; active versus passive understandings of language; validity claims; obligation and relevance in language; and dialectical universalism

Bilateral adrenocortical carcinoma in a patient with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) and a novel mutation in the MEN1 gene

The incidence of adrenal involvement in MEN1 syndrome has been reported between 9 and 45%, while the incidence of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) in MEN1 patients has been reported between 2.6 and 6%. In the literature data only unilateral development of ACCs in MEN1 patients has been reported. We report a 31 years-old female MEN1-patient, in whom hyperplasia of the parathyroid glands, prolactinoma, non functioning pancreatic endocrine carcinoma and functioning bilateral adrenal carcinomas were diagnosed. Interestingly, a not previously described in the literature data, novel germline mutation (p.E45V) in exon 2 of MEN1 gene, was detected. The association of exon 2 mutation of the MEN1 gene with bilateral adrenal carcinomas in MEN1 syndrome, should be further investigated

Surface pretreatments for medical application of adhesion

Medical implants and prostheses (artificial hips, tendono- and ligament plasties) usually are multi-component systems that may be machined from one of three material classes: metals, plastics and ceramics. Typically, the body-sided bonding element is bone. The purpose of this contribution is to describe developments carried out to optimize the techniques , connecting prosthesis to bone, to be joined by an adhesive bone cement at their interface. Although bonding of organic polymers to inorganic or organic surfaces and to bone has a long history, there remains a serious obstacle in realizing long-term high-bonding strengths in the in vivo body environment of ever present high humidity. Therefore, different pretreatments, individually adapted to the actual combination of materials, are needed to assure long term adhesive strength and stability against hydrolysis. This pretreatment for metal alloys may be silica layering; for PE-plastics, a specific plasma activation; and for bone, amphiphilic layering systems such that the hydrophilic properties of bone become better adapted to the hydrophobic properties of the bone cement. Amphiphilic layering systems are related to those developed in dentistry for dentine bonding. Specific pretreatment can significantly increase bond strengths, particularly after long term immersion in water under conditions similar to those in the human body. The bond strength between bone and plastic for example can be increased by a factor approaching 50 (pealing work increasing from 30 N/m to 1500 N/m). This review article summarizes the multi-disciplined subject of adhesion and adhesives, considering the technology involved in the formation and mechanical performance of adhesives joints inside the human body

Small Molecule Inhibited Parathyroid Hormone Mediated cAMP Response by N–Terminal Peptide Binding

Ligand binding to certain classes of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) stimulates the rapid synthesis of cAMP through G protein. Human parathyroid hormone (PTH), a member of class B GPCRs, binds to its receptor via its N–terminal domain, thereby activating the pathway to this secondary messenger inside cells. Presently, GPCRs are the target of many pharmaceuticals however, these drugs target only a small fraction of structurally known GPCRs (about 10%). Coordination complexes are gaining interest due to their wide applications in the medicinal field. In the present studies we explored the potential of a coordination complex of Zn(II) and anthracenyl–terpyridine as a modulator of the parathyroid hormone response. Preferential interactions at the N–terminal domain of the peptide hormone were manifested by suppressed cAMP generation inside the cells. These observations contribute a regulatory component to the current GPCR–cAMP paradigm, where not the receptor itself, but the activating hormone is a target. To our knowledge, this is the first report about a coordination complex modulating GPCR activity at the level of deactivating its agonist. Developing such molecules might help in the control of pathogenic PTH function such as hyperparathyroidism, where control of excess hormonal activity is essentially required

Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations at large transverse momenta in p+pp+p and Au+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}= 200 GeV

Results on high transverse momentum charged particle emission with respect to the reaction plane are presented for Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$= 200 GeV. Two- and four-particle correlations results are presented as well as a comparison of azimuthal correlations in Au+Au collisions to those in $p+p$ at the same energy. Elliptic anisotropy, $v_2$, is found to reach its maximum at $p_t \sim 3$ GeV/c, then decrease slowly and remain significant up to $p_t\approx 7$ -- 10 GeV/c. Stronger suppression is found in the back-to-back high-$p_t$ particle correlations for particles emitted out-of-plane compared to those emitted in-plane. The centrality dependence of $v_2$ at intermediate $p_t$ is compared to simple models based on jet quenching.Comment: 4 figures. Published version as PRL 93, 252301 (2004

Azimuthal anisotropy in Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV

The results from the STAR Collaboration on directed flow (v_1), elliptic flow (v_2), and the fourth harmonic (v_4) in the anisotropic azimuthal distribution of particles from Au+Au collisions at sqrtsNN = 200 GeV are summarized and compared with results from other experiments and theoretical models. Results for identified particles are presented and fit with a Blast Wave model. Different anisotropic flow analysis methods are compared and nonflow effects are extracted from the data. For v_2, scaling with the number of constituent quarks and parton coalescence is discussed. For v_4, scaling with v_2^2 and quark coalescence is discussed.Comment: 26 pages. As accepted by Phys. Rev. C. Text rearranged, figures modified, but data the same. However, in Fig. 35 the hydro calculations are corrected in this version. The data tables are available at http://www.star.bnl.gov/central/publications/ by searching for "flow" and then this pape

Production of phi mesons at mid-rapidity in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC

We present the first results of meson production in the K^+K^- decay channel from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV as measured at mid-rapidity by the PHENIX detector at RHIC. Precision resonance centroid and width values are extracted as a function of collision centrality. No significant variation from the PDG accepted values is observed. The transverse mass spectra are fitted with a linear exponential function for which the derived inverse slope parameter is seen to be constant as a function of centrality. These data are also fitted by a hydrodynamic model with the result that the freeze-out temperature and the expansion velocity values are consistent with the values previously derived from fitting single hadron inclusive data. As a function of transverse momentum the collisions scaled peripheral.to.central yield ratio RCP for the is comparable to that of pions rather than that of protons. This result lends support to theoretical models which distinguish between baryons and mesons instead of particle mass for explaining the anomalous proton yield.Comment: 326 authors, 24 pages text, 23 figures, 6 tables, RevTeX 4. To be submitted to Physical Review C as a regular article. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Rapidity and Centrality Dependence of Proton and Anti-proton Production from Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 130GeV

We report on the rapidity and centrality dependence of proton and anti-proton transverse mass distributions from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 130GeV as measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. Our results are from the rapidity and transverse momentum range of |y|<0.5 and 0.35 <p_t<1.00GeV/c. For both protons and anti-protons, transverse mass distributions become more convex from peripheral to central collisions demonstrating characteristics of collective expansion. The measured rapidity distributions and the mean transverse momenta versus rapidity are flat within |y|<0.5. Comparisons of our data with results from model calculations indicate that in order to obtain a consistent picture of the proton(anti-proton) yields and transverse mass distributions the possibility of pre-hadronic collective expansion may have to be taken into account.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, submitted to PR