Acoustically evoked brain stem potential in Wilson disease

By 48 patients with Wilson's disease the brainstem acoustic evoked potentials were stated. There were 35 pathological findings (73%), 13 were normal (27%). The waves, determined by the middle and upper brainstem (Pons and Mesencephalon) showed most of all pathological changes. Those patients with forms of Wilson's disease called Pseudoskelerose and Pseudoparkinson showed the most pathological findings. But one could watch these findings by about 30% of patients in preclinical stage. This method can possibly be used for early detection of disorders of brainstem functions and in the same way it can be used for control of treatment by patients in preclinical stage.     

Clinical and cisternographic differential diagnosis between presenile dementia and Hakim syndrome

The authors compared with regard clinical and the radionuclide cisternography examination 27 patients with Hakim-Syndrome and 11 with Alzheimer-Disease. In all cases, dementia was a stable symptom. Patients with Hakim-Syndrome have an early gait disturbance, ataxia and epileptic seizures. Only in case of patients with Alzheimer-Disease we found aphasia, apraxia and psychotic disorders. 24 hours after the injection radionuclide cisternography showed ventricular retention and absence of parasagital accumulation only in patients with Hakim-Syndrome. Lighter changes (mixed cisternographic pattern) were found in patients with Alzheimer-Disease as well.     

A patient who had trouble with geography

Aspects of geography are important in relation to the establishment of body ego, since they inevitably supply from the external world the early symbols that represent in the mind the basic elements of infantile experience in regard to body parts, functions, and relationships with primal objects. The accretional inter-twining of all subsequent psychic conflicts can therefore be expressed in symbolic geographic terms. These conflicts center on the developmentally evolving meanings of the mother's body as epitomized in the riddle of the Sphinx. Illustration of the concepts includes a brief clinical report and selected literary and mythological examples.     

Value of mechanographic studies in neuromuscular function diagnosis

Mechanographic examinations have hitherto played only a minor role in general clinical neuromuscular functional diagnostics. The purpose of this contribution is, therefore, to present an appropriate recording apparatus (W. Zett , 1969), to report on the values that can be considered normal and to outline the diagnostic value of the method using clinical applications as examples. Special value is attached to simultaneous recording of the EMG and the mechanograph because this method permits differentiated conclusions to be drawn regarding disturbances in muscular activity, the electromechanical coupling and the actual process of contraction. The method is also important for pharmacological investigations and should be used principally in connection with musclepathology for objectifying the effects of medication.     

Least squares metric,unidimensional unfolding

The partial derivatives of the squared error loss function for the metric unfolding problem have a unique geometry which can be exploited to produce unfolding methods with very desirable properties. This paper details a simple unidimensional unfolding method which uses the geometry of the partial derivatives to find conditional global minima; i.e., one set of points is held fixed and the global minimum is found for the other set. The two sets are then interchanged. The procedure is very robust. It converges to a minimum very quickly from a random or non-random starting configuration and is particularly useful for the analysis of large data sets with missing entries.This paper benefits from many conversations with and suggestions from Howard Rosenthal.     

Liberation Pneumatology: On the Unfettered Work of the Holy Spirit in the World

Despite the frequent refrain concerning the paucity of attention paid to pneumatology in the theological discipline, a review of literature over the past fifty years reveals that pneumatology is an idea whose time has come. However, while writings on the Holy Spirit are manifold, systematically developed pneumatologies are not. In response to this reality, this essay explores four contextually constructed pneumatologies based in communities experiencing marginalisation, oppression, and exclusion: Latin American, womanist, Latinx, and black. These pneumatologies not only represent particular ethnic, social, and racial contexts, but also express a particular hermeneutical perspective on the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, i.e., that of liberation. This perspective reflects the conviction that each genuine act of the Holy Spirit is essentially liberating—individually, socially, politically, ecclesially, and theologically. While other effects accompany this experience, liberation emerges at the heart of the encounter with Spirit. Exemplifying this in multiple ways are pneumatology as the irruption of the Spirit by liberation theologian José Comblin, pneumatology as the memory of the future by womanist Linda E. Thomas, the Holy Spirit as the improvisation of God by black theologian David Emmanuel Goatley, and the Spirit dwelling in convivencia by Latinx theologian Néstor Medina.