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PubMed1998

Pathomechanics and classification of cartilage lesions, facilitation of repair.

Joint forces have a high potential to promote degenerative changes in articular cartilage. Researchers have not yet developed a material that simulates natural articular cartilage, and replacement procedures have finite lives. In all patients, regardless of diagnostic category, the impact of rehabilitative procedures on the integrity and health of articular cartilage should be a consideration. In this paper, I will review why articular cartilage breaks down, how cartilage lesions are classified in vitro and in vivo, as well as cartilage's capacity for repair and repair enhancement. The primary focus will be on processes and procedures that impact physical therapy. Review sources included common computer-based search instruments and literature in all languages. This research showed that most studies have been conducted on animals, which differ in important respects from humans. Such studies, however, provide guidelines for physical therapists. Unloading and overloading are detrimental to articular cartilage. Research indicates value in controlled, progressive regimes that alternate load and non-load conditions.

Animals↗

PubMed2001

Filler + infinitive and pre- and protomorphology demarcation in a French acquisition corpus.

This paper presents a case study on the acquisition of grammatical morphemes via fillers, i.e., underspecified place holders, with particular focus on early structures made up of a filler followed by an infinitive. The path leading from fillers to French semi-auxiliaries and subject clitics is analyzed within the framework of Natural Morphology and constructivism which assumes that grammatical modules are not innate but are constructed by children. The evolution of fillers in the corpus studied is described as a grammaticization process of form and meaning through successive linguistic dissociations. Emphasis is put on the functional polyvalence of fillers and on their relation to the main phases in the construction of grammar.

Humans↗

PubMed1989

On the nature of phonological development: evidence from normal children's spelling errors.

Spelling errors of 45 elementary school children were analyzed for phonological process patterns. A considerable proportion of errors involved both syllabic reduction and feature changes similar to those seen in normal speech development. Results are discussed with respect to application of phonological constructs to the study of development of speech production. An alternative psychological model of development is proposed in outline.

Child↗

PubMed2006

Economic growth and biodiversity loss in an age of tradable permits.

Tradable permits are increasingly becoming part of environmental policy and conservation programs. The efficacy of tradable permit schemes in addressing the root cause of environmental decline-economic growth--will not be achieved unless the schemes cap economic activity based on ecological thresholds. Lessons can be learned from the largest tradable permit scheme to date, emissions trading now being implemented with the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol caps neither greenhouse gas emissions at a level that will achieve climate stability nor economic growth. If patterned after the Kyoto Protocol, cap-and-trade schemes for conservation will not ameliorate biodiversity loss either because they will not address economic growth. In response to these failures to cap economic growth, professional organizations concerned about biodiversity conservation should release position statements on economic growth and ecological thresholds. The statements can then be used by policy makers to infuse these positions into the local, national, and international environmental science-policy process when these schemes are being developed. Infusing language into the science-policy process that calls for capping economic activity based on ecological thresholds represents sound conservation science. Most importantly, position statements have a greater potential to ameliorate biodiversity loss if they are created and released than if this information remains within professional organizations because there is the potential for these ideas to be enacted into law and policy.

Air Pollution↗

PubMed1998

Der Placebo-Effekt in biosemiotischer Sicht.

Placebo from a Biosemiotic Point of View The rise and success of modern science, first in physics, later in medicine, was based on a mechanic linear model of causality. Its only category of explanation of natural processes is the mechanical machine. As human beings using and processing signs we cannot recognize ourselves in this reductionistic model. As all living creatures we perceive, interpret and answer the stimuli of the environment. To explain the behaviour of organisms we need a semiotic-circular causality. Semiotics, the study of signs, can be subdivided in semantics, the theory of meaning of signs, in syntax, the theory of the forms and the arrangement of signs, and in pragmatics, the theory of the contextual rules of communication. Semiotics is not exclusively concerned with language, but helps as so-called biosemiotics also to explain the network of communication of a living organism. The 'Denkstil' of established pharmacology is likewise restricted to mechanistic causality. One of the consequences is the fact that theplacebo effect is defined as 'non-specific' or 'non-characteristic'. Such negative definitions exclude concrete questions of investigation. We have to accept a biosemiotic view in pharmacology, to see drugs as signs consisting of a physical vehicle equipped with meaning. The therapy with drugs must be seen in a broader treatment context investigated by pharmacopragmatics. The semiotic expansion of pharmacology does not invalidate the achievements of classic pharmacology, but elucidates in addition a view of the pragmatic components and makes the scientific integration of the placebophenomenon into drug therapy possible. The placebo effect loses its inconsistency.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Signed and spoken language: a unique underlying system?

Sign language has only recently become a topic of investigation in cognitive neuroscience and psycholinguistics. In this paper, we review research from these two fields; in particular, we compare spoken and signed language by looking at data concerning either cortical representations or early acquisition. As to cognitive neuroscience, we show that clinical neuropsychological data regarding sign language is partially inconsistent with imaging data. Indeed, whereas both clinical neuropsychology and imagery show the involvement of the left hemisphere in sign language processing, only the latter highlights the importance of the right hemisphere. We discuss several possible interpretations of these contrasting findings. As to psycholinguistics, we survey research on the earliest stages of the acquisition of spoken language, and consider these stages in the acquisition of sign language. We conjecture that under favorable circumstances, deaf children exploit sign input to gain entry into the language system with the same facility as hearing children do with spoken input. More data, however, are needed in order to gain a fuller understanding of the relation of different kinds of natural languages to both the underlying anatomical representations and their early acquisition.

Brain↗

PubMed2003

J's rhymes: a longitudinal case study of language play.

A longitudinal study of one child aged 2;5 documents an invented language game consisting of suffixal reduplication and onset replacement. Initially, reduplication is partial: the reduplicant enlarges in discrete increments over the five stages of the game until by the last stage reduplication is total. Reduplication is accompanied by a process of onset replacement, in which the reduplicant always begins with /b/. Early in the game, this replacive onset 'dissimilates' to /p/ whenever the reduplicant would independently have begun with /b/. In subsequent stages, other voiced obstruents trigger dissimilation as well. Though similar in many ways to adult language reduplication, it is argued that J's game may more closely resemble adult rhyme (both poetic and word rhyme). Regardless, the structure of the game clearly reveals the child's awareness, in the third year of life, of stress and metrical feet, segmental natural classes, and segments themselves (phonemic awareness).

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1994

Text management in a healthcare information system.

Virtually there. Natural language or textual data in the patient record plays a critical role in medicine. Read about the innovative system LDS Hospital has implemented to integrate textual data into the computerized patient record.

Authorship↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Conceptions and questions concerning morphological processing.

The understanding of the nature and extent of morphological processing is critical to the overall investigation of how words are organized in the mind. In this overview article, we discuss the nature of morphological processing and the domain of morphological processing research. We claim that investigations crucially involve the understanding of relations among morphologically simple and morphologically complex words, and sketch how specific questions of morphological processing within the 2004 special issue on the mental lexicon fall under these categories. Finally, we discuss issues of construct, content and ecological validity within the field and what morphological processing can reveal about the association of form and meaning in the mind.

Humans↗

PubMed1995

A computational theory for movement pattern recognition based on optimal movement pattern generation.

We have previously proposed an optimal trajectory and control theory for continuous movements, such as reaching or cursive handwriting. According to Marr's three-level description of brain function, our theory can be summarized as follows: (1) The computational theory is the minimum torque-change model; (2) the intermediate representation of a pattern is given as a set of via-points extracted from an example pattern; and (3) algorithm and hardware are provided by FIRM, a neural network that can generate and control minimum torque-change trajectories. In this paper, we propose a computational theory for movement pattern recognition that is based on our theory for optimal movement pattern generation. The three levels of the description of brain function in the recognition theory are tightly coupled with those for pattern generation. In recognition, the generation process and the recognition process are actually two flows of information in opposite directions within a single functional unit. In our theory, if the input movement trajectory data are identical to the optimal movement pattern reconstructed from an intermediate representation of some symbol, the input data are recognized as that symbol. If an error exists between the movement trajectory data and the generated trajectory, the putative symbol is corrected, and the generation is repeated. In particular, we present concrete computational procedures for the recognition of connected cursive handwritten characters, as well as for the estimation of phonemic timing in natural speech. Our most important contribution is to demonstrate the computational realizability for the 'motor theory of movement pattern perception': the movement-pattern recognition process can be realized by actively recruiting the movement-pattern formation process. The way in which the formation process is utilized in pattern recognition in our theory suggests a duality between movement pattern formation and movement pattern perception.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2003

The dual biological identity of human beings and the naturalization of morality.

The last two centuries have been the centuries of the discovery of the cell evolution: in the XIX century of the germinal cells and in the XX century of two groups of somatic cells, namely those of the brain-mind and of the immune systems. Since most cells do not behave in this way, the evolutionary character of the brain-mind and of the immune systems renders human beings formed by t wo different groups of somatic cells, one with a deterministic and another with an indeterministic (say Darwinian) behavior. An inherent consequence is that of the generation, during ontogenesis, of a dual biological identity. The concept of the dual biological identity may be used to explain the Kantian concept of the two metaphysical worlds, namely of the causal necessity and of the free will (Azzone, 2001). Two concepts, namely those of complex adaptive systems (CAS) and of emergence (Holland, 2002), are useful tools for understanding the mechanisms of adaptation and of evolution. The concept of complex adaptive systems indicates that living organisms contain series of stratified components, denoted as building blocks, forming stratified layers of increasing complexity. The concept of emergence implies the use of repeating patterns and of building blocks for the generation of structures of increasing levels of complexity, structures capable of exchanging communications both in the top-down and in the bottom-up direction. Against the concept of emergence it has been argued that nothing can produce something which is really new and endowed of causal efficacy. The defence of the concept of emergence is based on two arguments. The first is the interpretation of the variation-selection mechanism as a process of generation of information and of optimization of free energy dissipation in accord with the second principle of thermodynamics. The second is the objective evidence of the cosmological evolution from the Big Bang to the human mind and its products. Darwin has defended the concept of the continuity of evolution. However evolution should be considered as continuous when there is no increase of information and as discontinuous when there is generation of new information. Examples of such generation of information are the acquisition of the innate structures for language and the transition from absence to presence of morality. There are several discontinuity thresholds during both phylogenesis and ontogenesis. Morality is a relational property dependent on the interactions of human beings with the environment. Piaget and Kohlberg have shown that the generation of morality during childhood occurs through several stages and is accompanied by reorganization of the child mental organization. The children respect the conventions in the first stage and gradually generate their autonomous morality. The transition from absence to presence of morality, a major adaptive process, then, not only has occurred during phylogenesis but it occurs again in every human being during ontogenesis. The religious faith does not provide a logical justification of the moral rules (Ayala, 1987) but rather a psychological and anthropological justification of two fundamental needs of human beings: that of rendering Nature an understandable entity, and that of increasing the cooperation among members of the human societies. The positive effects of the altruistic genes in the animal societies are in accord with the positive effects of morality for the survival and development of the human societies.

Adaptation, Biological↗

PubMed1978

The law of perceptual stability: well-definedness and validity.

Axiomatic foundations for a theory of perception have been given in a prior communication [Shiman, L. G. (1978) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 75, 2049-2053]. The theory is based on mathematically characterized stable images. Stable images model subjective (psychological) states of observers. We showed there is a universal procedure by which such stable images can be assigned to objects of perception (icons), employing observer-dependent perceptual judgements. We construct an abstract model for an icon from the mathematical structure of a stable image that has been assigned to it. We identify the model with the icon. By identifying the model with the object of perception, we can analyze perception of the icon in terms of the mathematical properties of its associated stable images. Thus subjective phenomena, in this mathematical form, can be used to analyze the mechanisms of sensory processes. Grounds for validity of the stability law are given. The procedures are demonstrably universal. A stable image, although subjectively derived from an icon, is a mathematical entity, and has therefore objective status. Stable images give a natural and potentially complete (mathematical) classification of icons, along nontraditional lines, which includes a classification and account of many well-known "visual illusions."Extension of this (static) theory to include time-dependent (kinetic) cases is outlined. We consider grammar for vision, semantics, and the role of stability theory in constructing a unified theory of vision and natural languages.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Compensatory strategies in the language of closed head injured patients.

The study reported here examined the nature and effectiveness of compensatory strategies appearing in the conversational discourse of six closed head injured patients. Subject performance on a range of communication measures was compared with their judged abilities on a taxonomy of 32 compensatory strategies. Results indicated that all subjects employed a wide range of strategies but to differential effect. The overall effectiveness of these strategies correlated strongly with performance on the oral language subtest of the Western Aphasia Battery, the Communicative Abilities in Daily Living Test and a pragmatic protocol. The development of compensation following brain injury is viewed as a process of equilibration, determined in part by neurological and subject variables, and in part by ecologic variables. The implications for therapeutic management are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1964

[AN ATTEMPT AT AUTOMATION OF DOCUMENTATION IN MEDICINE].

Since there is still little mechanization in medical documentation, it seemed interesting to study an attempt at automation in a medical specialty, cancerology. The author explains the difficulties which derive from the multidisciplinary nature of the specialty itself and from the diversity of its users' needs. The system used is Filmorex, which is described in some detail. The author then examines the problems connected with the development of a documentation language and describes an attempt to solve these problems in a documentation center of moderate size (10,000 documents per year).

Abstracting and Indexing↗

PubMed2001

Neuropsychological function and brain arteriovenous malformations: redefining eloquence as a risk for treatment.

Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) of the brain, thought to begin during fetal development and undergo an unclear maturation process; most often do not become symptomatic until the patient reaches adulthood. Authors of recent prospective studies have suggested that relatively few patients present with neuropsychological abnormalities in the absence of hemorrhage. In general, neuropsychological evaluations in patients with AVMs have yielded mixed results with respect to localization of function, and the authors of most cognitive studies have not been able to demonstrate the nature and degree of impairment seen in acute ischemic stroke in comparable brain regions. Superselective Wada testing prior to therapeutic embolization, functional imaging studies, and intrasurgical cortical mapping have shown redistribution of language and memory to unpredictable regions. Developmental cognitive history in these patients indicates that most will have at least some background of learning problems during the school-age years with varying degrees of severity, reflecting a time when brain reorganization may be occurring. These data suggest that traditional assumptions about the eloquence of brain regions may not hold for patients with AVMs and that establishing treatment risk in the individual patient needs to be made on an empirical basis.

Amobarbital↗

PubMed1995

On-line comprehension of VP-ellipsis: syntactic reconstruction and semantic influence.

We describe two experiments that explored the on-line processing of coordinated (e.g., The policemen defended himself and the fireman did [e] too, according to someone who was there) and subordinated VP-ellipsis (e.g., The policeman defended himself because the fireman did [e], according to someone who was there). Such constructions have two possible interpretations: The "sloppy" reading is that the fireman defended himself, where himself corefers with the fireman. The "strict" reading is that the fireman defended him, where him corefers with the policeman. In our experiments we examined the strict reading, and found different time courses of processing the coordinated and subordinated structures. In coordination we found immediate reaccess of the nonlocal subject at the gap. In subordinated structures we found the reaccess effect only downstream from the gap. We interpret these patterns as reflecting the automatic nature of gap filling in coordinated ellipsis, but in subordinated ellipsis a causal relation must be computed between the two clauses, " drawing out" reaccess of the filler.

Humans↗

PubMed2005

Syllable structure and sonority in language inventory and aphasic neologisms.

Phonological theories have raised the notion of a universally preferred syllable type which is defined in terms of its sonority structure (e.g., ). Empirical evidence for this notion has been provided by distributional analyses of natural languages and of language acquisition data, and by aphasic speech error analyses. The present study investigates frequency distributions of syllable types in German, which allows for a rather complex syllable structure, and in neologistic utterances of a German speaking jargon aphasic. The findings suggest that the sonority structure of the patient's neologisms is generally in accordance with the notion of theoretically preferred syllables. Moreover, comparative analyses suggest that the predominance of the preferred syllable type is especially pronounced in the aphasic data. On the basis of these findings, the influence of sonority in impaired phonological lexical processing is discussed.

Aphasia, Wernicke↗

PubMed1999

Cultural sensitivity in public health: defined and demystified.

There is consensus that health promotion programs should be culturally sensitive (CS). Yet, despite the ubiquitous nature of CS within public health research and practice, there has been surprisingly little attention given to defining CS or delineating a framework for developing culturally sensitive programs and practitioners. This paper describes a model for understanding CS from a public health perspective; describes a process for applying this model in the development of health promotion and disease prevention interventions; and highlights research priorities. Cultural sensitivity is defined by two dimensions: surface and deep structures. Surface structure involves matching intervention materials and messages to observable, "superficial" characteristics of a target population. This may involve using people, places, language, music, food, locations, and clothing familiar to, and preferred by, the target audience. Surface structure refers to how well interventions fit within a specific culture. Deep structure involves incorporating the cultural, social, historical, environmental and psychological forces that influence the target health behavior in the proposed target population. Whereas surface structure generally increases the "receptivity" or "acceptance" of messages, deep structure conveys salience. Techniques, borrowed from social marketing and health communication theory, for developing culturally sensitive interventions are described. Research is needed to determine the effectiveness of culturally sensitive programs.

Black or African American↗