114 research outputs found
Studia Alphabetica: On the Origin and Early History of the Northwest Semitic, South Semitic and Greek Alphabets
This book touches on aspects, chiefly chronological ones, that are relevant to the emergence of the Northwest Semitic, South Semitic and Greek alphabets. In chapter two a conceptual and chronological link is suggested between the Middle Kingdom system of transliterating Semitic names and the birth of the Northwest Semitic alphabet. Chapter three traces the early development of the South Semitic scripts in finds from Arabia, Mesopotamia and the Levant, in search of the period most suitable for the emergence of the alphabet in the kingdom of Sheba. The birth-date of the Greek alphabet, a subject on which scholarly agreement is still lacking, is discussed in chapter four. The author combines the relevant Semitic and Greek epigraphical evidence in order to elicit the time of the adoption of the Greek alphabet from the Phoenician one
Recherches sur les premières écritures alphabétiques
Les quatre conférences ont mis en valeur certains aspects des recherches nouvelles en épigraphie ouest-sémitique. La première a fait le point sur les Empreintes araméennes sur des briques de Babylone et leur apport à l’histoire babylonienne au temps de Nabuchodonosor. Les fouilles allemandes à Babylone, dirigées de 1899 à 1917 par Robert Koldewey, ont mis au jour plus de trois cents briques ou fragments de brique comportant des impressions araméennes et / ou figuratives. Sauf quelques mention..
Tinnitus-related distress and pain perceptions in patients with chronic tinnitus – Do psychological factors constitute a link?
Objective:
To investigate the co-occurrence of tinnitus-related distress and pain experiences alongside psychological factors that may underlie their association.
Method:
Patients with chronic tinnitus (N = 1238) completed a questionnaire battery examining tinnitus-related distress and affective and sensory pain perceptions. A series of simple, parallel- and serial multiple mediator models examined indirect effects of psychological comorbidities as well as -process variables including depressivity, perceived stress and coping attitudes. Moderator and moderated mediation analyses examined differential relational patterns in patients with decompensated vs. compensated tinnitus.
Results:
There were significant associations between tinnitus-related distress and pain perceptions. These were partially mediated by most specified variables. Psychological comorbidities appeared to influence tinnitus-pain associations through their impact on depressivity, perceived stress, and coping attitudes. Some specific differences in affective vs. sensory pain perception pathways emerged. Patients with decompensated tinnitus yielded significantly higher symptom burden across all measured indices. Tinnitus decompensation was associated with heightened associations between [1] tinnitus-related distress and pain perceptions, depressivity and negative coping attitudes; and [2] most psychological comorbidities and sensory, but not affective pain perception. Moderated mediation analyses revealed stronger indirect effects of depressivity and anxiety in mediating affective-, and anxiety in mediating sensory pain perception in patients with decompensated tinnitus.
Conclusion:
Psychological constructs mediate the co-occurrence of tinnitus- and pain-related symptoms across different levels of tinnitus-related distress. Psychological treatment approaches should conceptualize and address individualised interactions of common cognitive-emotional processes in addressing psychosomatic symptom clusters across syndromatic patients with varying distress levels
Lower survival after coronary artery bypass in patients who had atrial fibrillation missed by widely used definitions
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of limiting the definition of post-coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) atrial fibrillation (AF) to AF/flutter requiring treatment-as in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons\u27 (STS) database- on the association with survival.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: We assessed in-hospital incidence of post-CABG AF in 7110 consecutive isolated patients with CABG without preoperative AF at 4 hospitals (January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2010). Patients with ≥1 episode of post-CABG AF detected via continuous in-hospital electrocardiogram (ECG)/telemetry monitoring documented by physicians were assigned to the following: Group 1, identified as having post-CABG AF in STS data and Group 2, not identified as having post-CABG AF in STS data. Patients without documented post-CABG AF constituted Group 3. Survival was compared via a Cox model, adjusted for STS risk of mortality and accounting for site differences.
RESULTS: Over 7 years\u27 follow-up, 16.0% (295 of 1841) of Group 1, 18.7% (79 of 422) of Group 2, and 7.9% (382 of 4847) of Group 3 died. Group 2 had a significantly greater adjusted risk of death than both Group 1 (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02 to 1.33) and Group 3 (HR: 1.94; 95% CI, 1.69 to 2.22).
CONCLUSIONS: The statistically significant 16% higher risk of death for patients with AF post-CABG missed vs captured in STS data suggests treatment and postdischarge management should be investigated for differences. The historical misclassification of missed patients as experiencing no AF in the STS data weakens the ability to observe differences in risk between patients with and without post-CABG AF. Therefore, STS data should not be used for research examining post-CABG AF
Pharmacotherapy for Alcohol Dependence: Anticraving Medications for Relapse Prevention
Alcohol dependence is a chronic disorder that results from a variety of genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors. Relapse prevention for alcohol dependence has traditionally involved psychosocial and psychotherapeutic interventions. Pharmacotherapy, however, in conjunction with behavioral therapy, is generating interest as another modality to prevent relapse and enhance abstinence. Naltrexone and acamprosate are at the forefront of the currently available pharmacological options. Naltrexone is an opioid receptor antagonist and is thought to reduce the rewarding effect of alcohol. Acamprosate normalizes the dysregulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-mediated glutamatergic excitation that occurs in alcohol withdrawal and early abstinence. These different mechanisms of action and different target neurotransmitter systems may endow the two drugs with efficacy for different aspects of alcohol use behavior. Since not all patients seem to benefit from naltrexone and acamprosate, there are ongoing efforts to improve the treatment outcomes by examining the advantages of combined pharmacotherapy and exploring the variables that might predict the response of the medications. In addition, novel medications are being investigated to assess their efficacy in preventing relapse and increasing abstinence
Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set
We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s
using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays
in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at
production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton
collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment
at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity.
We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the
B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2,
-1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in
agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model
value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by
other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012
An examination of the language construct in NIMH's research domain criteria:Time for reconceptualization!
The National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain
Criteria (RDoC) Initiative “calls for the development of new ways of classifying psychopathology
based on dimensions of observable behavior.” As aresult of this ambitious initiative, language has
been identifi d as an independent construct in the RDoC matrix. In this article, we frame language
within an evolutionary and neuro- psychological context and discuss some of the limitations to the
current measurements of language. Findings from genomics and the neuroimaging of performance during
language tasks are dis- cussed in relation to serious mental illness and within the context of
caveats regarding measuring language. Indeed, the data collec- tion and analysis methods employed
to assay language have been both aided and constrained by the available technologies,
methodologies, and conceptual defi Consequently, differ- ent fields of language research
show inconsistent defi s of language that have become increasingly broad over time. Individ- ually,
they have also shown significant improvements in conceptual resolution, aswell as inexperimental
and analytic techniques. More recently, language research has embraced collaborations across
disciplines, notably neuroscience, cognitive science, and computa- tional linguistics and has
ultimately re-defi classical ideas of language. As we move forward, the new models of language with
their remarkably multifaceted constructs force a re-examination of the NIMH RDoC conceptualization
of language and thus the
neuroscience and genetics underlying this concept
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