Infinite Generation of Language Unreachable From a Stepwise Approach.

Language is commonly thought of as a culturally evolved system of communication rather than a computational system for generating linguistic objects that express thought. Furthermore, language is commonly argued to have gradually evolved from finite proto-language which eventually developed into infinite language of modern humans. Both ideas are typically integrated in accounts that attempt to explain gradual evolution of more complex language from the increasingly strong pressures of communicative needs.

The slings and arrows of comparative linguistics.

In this Formal Comment the authors respond to objections to their previous Essay, reiterating that comparative linguistics is not an easy undertaking.

Meaningful syntactic structure in songbird vocalizations?

The faculty of language is thought to be uniquely human. Recently, it has been claimed that songbirds are able to associate meaning with sound, comparable to the way that humans do. In human language, the meaning of expressions (semantics) is dependent on a mind-internal hierarchical structure (syntax).

Phonemic clicks and the mapping asymmetry: How language emerged and speech developed.

Language existed before human populations became separated (all descendant populations have language) but language did not emerge until long after these population divergences occurred (behavioral modernity only showed then). Distinguishing capacity for language from externalized language resolves the apparent paradox, eliminates the need of proto-language, and rules out monogenesis. Speech emerged only after the capacity for language became (sufficiently) fixated in the species.

Structures, Not Strings: Linguistics as Part of the Cognitive Sciences.

There are many questions one can ask about human language: its distinctive properties, neural representation, characteristic uses including use in communicative contexts, variation, growth in the individual, and origin. Every such inquiry is guided by some concept of what 'language' is. Sharpening the core question--what is language?--and paying close attention to the basic property of the language faculty and its biological foundations makes it clear how linguistics is firmly positioned within the cognitive sciences.

Degeneration and atherosclerosis inducing increased deposition of type IIA secretory phospholipase A2, C-reactive protein and complement in aortic valves cause neutrophilic granulocyte influx.

Background And Aim Of The Study: Recent studies have indicated that atherosclerosis-like changes are involved in the pathogenesis of aortic valve stenosis. Increased blood and valve tissue levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) have been reported in patients with aortic valve disease, although the different pathological conditions involved were not analyzed. The study aim was to monitor the deposition of CRP, its activator sPLA2-IIA and its effector complement, and the subsequent influx of neutrophilic granulocytes in degenerative and atherosclerotic aortic valves.

Increased infiltration of Chlamydophila pneumoniae in the vessel wall of human veins after perfusion.

Background: Several studies have suggested an association between Chlamydophila pneumoniae (Cp) infection and atherosclerosis. A recent study detected Cp DNA in the saphenous vein of 12% of all patients before bypass grafting and in 38% of failed grafts. We used a system in which human veins were perfused with autologous blood under arterial pressure.

A new system for right atrial cooling.

Purpose: Controlled hypothermia of the right atrium has been shown to reduce postoperative atrial fibrillation after on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting. A device has been developed that couples right atrial and nodal cooling with modified dual-stage venous drainage by circulating cold sterile saline through an intracavity, shape-memory balloon.

Description: The atrial cooling device was used in 41 patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting.

Percutaneous coronary intervention without on site surgical back-up; two-years registry of a large Dutch community hospital.

Aims: To assess safety and efficacy of off-site percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in The Dutch invasive cardiovascular system.

Methods And Results: Descriptive single centre registry of elective and emergency PCI. Setting is a Dutch community hospital, 40 km north of Amsterdam, with an adherent population of 400,000 people.

Cardiac response is greater for colloid than saline fluid loading after cardiac or vascular surgery.

Objective: To study the effects on volume expansion and myocardial function of colloids or crystalloids in the treatment of hypovolaemic hypotension after cardiac and major vascular surgery.

Design And Setting: A single-centre, single-blinded, randomized clinical trial at the intensive care unit of a university hospital.

Patients And Methods: Patients (n=67) were subjected to a 90-min filling pressure-guided fluid challenge with saline 0.

Myosin heavy chain composition and the economy of contraction in healthy and diseased human myocardium.

Changes in myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform expression and protein composition occur during cardiac disease and it has been suggested that even a minor shift in MHC composition may exert a considerable effect on myocardial energetics and performance. Here an overview is provided of the cellular basis of the energy utilisation in cardiac tissue and novel data are presented concerning the economy of myocardial contraction in diseased atrial and ventricular human myocardium. ATP utilisation and force development were measured at various Ca(2+) concentrations during isometric contraction in chemically skinned atrial trabeculae from patients in sinus rhythm (SR) or with chronic atrial fibrillation (AF) and in ventricular muscle strips from non-failing donor or end-stage failing hearts.

The use of a mini bypass system (Cobe Synergy) without venous and cardiotomy reservoir in a mitral valve repair: a case report.

The use of mini cardiopulmonary bypass circuits is an emerging technology. The venous and cardiotomy reservoir have been excluded from the circuit. This results in a reduction of the blood contact surface area and of the priming volume.

Myocardial contraction is 5-fold more economical in ventricular than in atrial human tissue.

Objective: Cardiac energetics and performance depend on the expression level of the fast (alpha-) and slow (beta-) myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform. In ventricular tissue, the beta-MHC isoform predominates, whereas in atrial tissue a variable mixture of alpha- and beta-MHC is found. In several cardiac diseases, the slow isoform is upregulated; however, the functional implications of this transition in human myocardium are largely unknown.

The impact of heparin-coated cardiopulmonary bypass circuits on pulmonary function and the release of inflammatory mediators.

Unlabelled: Reduction of the inflammatory reaction with the use of heparin coating has been found during and after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The question remains whether this reduced reaction also decreases the magnitude of CPB-induced pulmonary dysfunction. We therefore evaluated the effects of a heparin-coated circuit versus a similar uncoated circuit on pulmonary indices as well as on inflammatory markers of complement activation (C3b/c), elastase-alpha(1)-antitrypsin complex, and secretory phospholipase A(2) (sPLA(2)) during and after CPB.

Clinical efficacy of the use of information technology in cardiology: initial results of angiographic teleconsultation in the Netherlands.

Background: With the increasing use of cineless diagnostic angiography laboratories, modern telecommunication networks provide an excellent opportunity to transfer dynamic cardiac catheterisation images from a referring centre to a cardiac intervention centre. This electronic data transfer may lead to improved patient care and reduced waiting times.

Methods: Two departments of cardiology started a pilot project using a digital ISDN-30 point-to-point data-line connection between Alkmaar and Amsterdam over which MPEG compressed angiograms are sent.

Effects of calcium, inorganic phosphate, and pH on isometric force in single skinned cardiomyocytes from donor and failing human hearts.

Background: During ischemia, the intracellular calcium and inorganic phosphate (P(i)) concentrations rise and pH falls. We investigated the effects of these changes on force development in donor and failing human hearts to determine if altered contractile protein composition during heart failure changes the myocardial response to Ca(2+), P(i), and pH.

Methods And Results: Isometric force was studied in mechanically isolated Triton-skinned single myocytes from left ventricular myocardium.

Isometric tension development and its calcium sensitivity in skinned myocyte-sized preparations from different regions of the human heart.

Objective: In this study we investigated whether differences exist or develop in patients with aortic or mitral valve disease in myofibrillar contractile function and contractile protein composition between subendo- and subepicardial human ventricular tissue. Isometric tension, its calcium sensitivity and contractile protein composition were studied in left ventricular subendo- and subepicardial and in atrial biopsies obtained during open heart surgery from 24 patients with mitral or aortic valve disease.

Methods: Isometric tension was measured in mechanically isolated skinned myocyte-sized preparations at different free calcium concentrations at 15 degrees C.

Force production in mechanically isolated cardiac myocytes from human ventricular muscle tissue.

Objective: The expression of contractile isoforms changes during various pathological conditions but little is known about the consequences of these changes for the mechanical properties in human ventricular muscle. We investigated the feasibility of simultaneous determination of protein composition and isometric force development in single cardiac myocytes from human ventricular muscle tissue obtained from small biopsies taken during open heart surgery.

Methods: Small biopsies of about 3 mg wet weight were taken during open heart surgery from patients with aortic valve stenosis.

Standardization of non-invasive impedance cardiography for assessment of stroke volume: comparison with thermodilution.

Since its introduction by Kubicek and colleagues, impedance cardiography has been suggested as a non-invasive, simple, safe and cost-effective method of measuring stroke volume. Several controversial reports on its validity have been published. Pitfalls of this method included the nature of the electrode system and the validity of the equations.

Impedance cardiography. Importance of the equation and the electrode configuration.

Objective: Electrical impedance cardiography (EIC) has been suggested as a non-invasive method to measure cardiac output. In several studies it proved to be a reliable method, although there were some restrictions. In 1966 Kubicek et al.

Cardiopulmonary bypass with modified fluid gelatin and heparin-coated circuits.

We have assessed the efficacy of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) using normal colloid oncotic pressure (COP) in a randomized, controlled study of 20 patients undergoing elective coronary artery surgery using heparin-coated circuits. For CPB, we used either crystalloid priming 1650 ml (n = 10) or colloid priming 1650 ml (2.4% modified fluid gelatin, n = 10).