Commitment: the term and the notions

The notion of 'commitment' is widely used in at least three major areas of linguistic inquiry: studies on speech acts, studies on modality and evidentiality, and the formal modelling of dialogue/argumentation. In spite of its frequent use, the notion has rarely been theorised for its own sake. In this introductory paper, we review the notion as used in the three areas mentioned above, paying particular attention to who commits themselves to what, and to whether commitment is essentially a private or a public attitude. The paper also introduces the eleven contributions to issue 22 of the Belgian Journal of Linguistics

Impact of exercise-nutritional state interactions in patients with type 2 diabetes

Introduction This study examines the role of nutritional status during exercise training in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus by investigating the effect of endurance-type exercise training in the fasted versus the fed state on clinical outcome measures, glycemic control, and skeletal muscle characteristics in male type 2 diabetes patients. Methods Twenty-five male patients (glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), 57 ± 3 mmol·mol−1 (7.4% ± 0.3%)) participated in a randomized 12-wk supervised endurance-type exercise intervention, with exercise being performed in an overnight-fasted state (n = 13) or after consuming breakfast (n = 12). Patients were evaluated for glycemic control, blood lipid profiles, body composition and physical fitness, and skeletal muscle gene expression. Results Exercise training was well tolerated without any incident of hypoglycemia. Exercise training significantly decreased whole-body fat mass (−1.6 kg) and increased high-density lipoprotein concentrations (+2 mg·dL−1), physical fitness (+1.7 mL·min−1·kg−1), and fat oxidation during exercise in both groups (PTIME 0.05). HbA1c concentrations significantly decreased after exercise training (PTIME < 0.001), with a significant greater reduction after consuming breakfast (−0.30% ± 0.06%) compared with fasted state (−0.08% ± 0.06%; mean difference, 0.21%; PTIME × GROUP = 0.016). No interaction effects were observed for skeletal muscle genes related to lipid metabolism or oxidative capacity. Conclusions Endurance-type exercise training in the fasted or fed state do not differ in their efficacy to reduce fat mass, increase fat oxidation capacity, and increase cardiorespiratory fitness and high-density lipoprotein concentrations or their risk of hypoglycemia in male patients with type 2 diabetes. HbA1c seems to be improved more with exercise performed in the postprandial compared with the postabsorptive state

Are "Modal Adverbs" automatically Modal Markers? The Case of French "Certainement" with its Epistemico-Modal and its Evidential Use

The French adverb certainement (‘certainly’) is labelled a “modal adverb”. It has two (sentence adverb) uses according to the literature, called “strong modal use” and “weak modal use”. The strong modal use is indeed strong (epistemico-)modal in that it indicates total certainty, whether subjective or intersubjective. What is called its “weak modal use” is shown to be an evidential use. It indicates primarily that the content qualified by the adverb results from a non-monotonic inference, performed by the speaker, whose conclusions are plausible, defeasible, and thus never totally certain. This is due to the presence of an evidential-inferential component in its meaning. As for the so-called weak modal element of “probability” in its meaning, we reanalyse it as “non- certainty” and argue it is an element of utterance meaning, a property of quasi-assertions to which non-monotonically inferred content gives rise. Finally, we claim that the adverb also has a meaning component that we call “epistemic posture of certainty”, shown to be different from epistemic modality. On the basis of three parameters and their values, we show how certainementcan be interpreted, in a series of contextual configurations, either as an instance of its epistemico- modal use or of its evidential use

ECCO essential requirements for quality cancer care : Melanoma

Background ECCO essential requirements for quality cancer care (ERQCC) are explanations and descriptions of challenges, organisation and actions that are necessary to give high-quality care to patients who have a specific type of cancer. They are written by European experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care. ERQCC papers give oncology teams, patients, policymakers and managers an overview of the elements needed in any healthcare system to provide high quality of care throughout the patient journey. References are made to clinical guidelines and other resources where appropriate, and the focus is on care in Europe. Melanoma: essential requirements for quality care: Melanoma, the most-deadly skin cancer, is rising in incidence among fair-skinned people in Europe. Increasing complexity of care for advanced disease in clinical areas such as staging and new therapies requires attention to a number of challenges and inequalities in a diverse patient group. Care for advanced melanoma must only be carried out in, or in collaboration with, specialist melanoma centres which have both a core multidisciplinary team and an extended team of allied professionals, and which are subject to quality and audit procedures. Access to such units is far from universal in all European countries. It is essential that, to meet European aspirations for high-quality comprehensive cancer control, healthcare organisations implement the requirements in this paper, paying particular attention to multidisciplinarity and patient-centred pathways from diagnosis to treatment and follow-up, to improve survival and quality of life for patients. Conclusion: Taken together, the information presented in this paper provides a comprehensive description of the essential requirements for establishing a high-quality service for melanoma. The ERQCC expert group is aware that it is not possible to propose a 'one size fits all' system for all countries, but urges that access to multidisciplinary teams and specialised treatments is guaranteed to all patients with melanoma.Peer reviewe

Synonymes : petite bibliographie d’études descriptives

1. Introduction 1. Dans cette bibliographie restreinte sont rassemblées des références d’études portant sur des mots sémantiquement apparentés du français (français moderne, médiéval et classique). Il s’agit d’une bibliographie d’études descriptives, empiriques de synonymes, non d’une bibliographie d’études théoriques sur le phénomène ou la notion de synonymie. N’y ont été retenues que les études dans lesquelles sont décrites au moins deux expressions. Tantôt ces expressions sont explicitemen..

Henning Nølke, Kjersti Fløttum, Coco Norén (éd.), Scapoline. La théorie scandinave de la polyphonie linguistique

Les notions de polyphonie et de dialogisme sont à nouveau très en vogue, si on en juge par les nombreuses publications s’y rapportant. L’ouvrage de Nølke, Fløttum et Norén vient s’ajouter à la liste. Il présente l’état actuel du modèle scandinave de la polyphonie linguistique, appelé ScaPoLine, modèle élaboré depuis 1999, à partir des travaux de Nølke, par un groupe de chercheurs intégrant trois linguistes — les trois auteurs — et trois littéraires. Ce livre, qui compte neuf chapitres (auxqu..

Henning Nølke, Kjersti Fløttum, Coco Norén (éd.), Scapoline. La théorie scandinave de la polyphonie linguistique

Les notions de polyphonie et de dialogisme sont à nouveau très en vogue, si on en juge par les nombreuses publications s’y rapportant. L’ouvrage de Nølke, Fløttum et Norén vient s’ajouter à la liste. Il présente l’état actuel du modèle scandinave de la polyphonie linguistique, appelé ScaPoLine, modèle élaboré depuis 1999, à partir des travaux de Nølke, par un groupe de chercheurs intégrant trois linguistes — les trois auteurs — et trois littéraires. Ce livre, qui compte neuf chapitres (auxqu..

Point de vue et évidentialité

Dans cet article nous examinons les liens entre les notions de point de vue linguistique et littéraire et celle d’évidentialité. Après une présentation succincte des deux notions, nous comparons le marquage évidentiel avec le marquage du point de vue (ou la perception et la pensée représentées) pour constater qu’il s’agit de marquages de natures fondamentalement différentes, même s’ils peuvent exprimer tous les deux la même source du savoir. Nous examinons ensuite la question de savoir s’il y a un bénéfice à utiliser la notion (linguistique) de point de vue pour la description des marqueurs évidentiels, examen qui aboutit à une réponse (provisoirement) négative. Enfin, nous constatons que le marquage évidentiel peut apparaître à l’intérieur du point de vue (littéraire), mais ne saurait être considéré lui-même comme une marque d’identification du point de vue, à ajouter à la liste de celles qu’énumère Rabatel.In this article we examine the relationship between the notions of linguistic and literary point of view on the one side and the notion of evidentiality on the other. First we give a brief presentation of both notions and we compare evidential marking with the marking of (literary) point of view, considered as represented perception (and thought). We conclude that they are markers of two completely different kinds, although they both can express the same source of knowledge. We then examine if using the notion of point of view for the description of evidential markers would be of benefit. Our conclusion on that point is (provisionally) negative. Finally, we argue that evidential marking can occur inside the (literary) point of view, but it cannot be considered as a extra characteristic for the identification of the point of view to be added to those listed by Rabatel

Neuromuscular electrical stimulation prevents muscle wasting in critically ill comatose patients

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Portland Press via the DOI in this recordFully sedated patients, being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU), experience substantial skeletal muscle loss. Consequently, survival rate is reduced and full recovery after awakening is compromised. Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) represents an effective method to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and alleviate muscle disuse atrophy in healthy subjects. We investigated the efficacy of twice-daily NMES to alleviate muscle loss in six fully sedated ICU patients admitted for acute critical illness [n=3 males, n=3 females; age 63 ± 6 y; APACHE II (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II) disease-severity-score: 29 ± 2]. One leg was subjected to twice-daily NMES of the quadriceps muscle for a period of 7 ± 1 day whereas the other leg acted as a non-stimulated control (CON). Directly before the first and on the morning after the final NMES session, quadriceps muscle biopsies were collected from both legs to assess muscle fibre-type-specific cross-sectional area (CSA). Furthermore, phosphorylation status of the key proteins involved in the regulation of muscle protein synthesis was assessed and mRNA expression of selected genes was measured. In the CON leg, type 1 and type 2 muscle-fibre-CSA decreased by 16 ± 9% and 24 ± 7% respectively (P<0.05). No muscle atrophy was observed in the stimulated leg. NMES increased mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) phosphorylation by 19 ± 5% when compared with baseline (P<0.05), with no changes in the CON leg. Furthermore, mRNA expression of key genes involved in muscle protein breakdown either declined [forkhead box protein O1 (FOXO1); P<0.05] or remained unchanged [muscle atrophy F-box (MAFBx) and muscle RING-finger protein-1 (MuRF1)], with no differences between the legs. In conclusion, NMES represents an effective and feasible interventional strategy to prevent skeletal muscle atrophy in critically ill comatose patients