Interpreting the Risks of Diabetic Renal Disease: Perspectives of those Most at Risk

Fifty people with diabetes attending a 'high risk' renal clinic were interviewed about their perceptions of diabetic nephropathy and other diabetes related complications. Despite the high risks involved many patients appeared relatively unconcerned with, or even unaware of, the severity of their condition. It is argued that lack of obvious symptoms associated with nephropathy can lead to ambiguity during consultations and greater opportunity for the use of a variety of risk attenuation strategies by the patient. It is recommended that medical staff become aware of these strategies in order to understand failures in self-management in the face of complications such as nephropathy.     

Analysis of Argumentation in the Discussion Sections of Published Articles in ESP Journal: A Diachronic Corpus-Based Approach

Argumentation has remained under-researched in studies analyzing academic journal publications despite its importance in academic writing. This paper reports a study in which we investigated stereotypical argumentative trends, lexico-grammatical features, and interactional metadiscourse markers in 354 research article free-standing discussion sections from the journal of ESP over forty years. The field of ESP was chosen because of its maturity, which has given substance to a dynamic ground for arguments. We drew on the pragma-dialectical approach to analyzing argumentations in the corpus. Findings indicated that due to the argumentative nature of the discussion section, certain argumentative trends recurred more often. The analysis of the lexico-grammatical features and metadiscourse markers of the standpoints also showed patterns of variability over time. The study concludes that it is imperative to incorporate relevant facets from various argumentation models to construct a comprehensive argumentation theory and gain deeper insights into argumentation in academic writing.

     

Passive smoking is associated with cognitive and emotional impairment in adolescent girls

It is well established that smoking is associated with impaired mental health and sleep problems. However, the possible effects of passive smoking on cognitive and emotional characteristics have not previously been evaluated in adolescents. We investigated the association between passive smoking and cognitive and emotional function, and sleep patterns in 940 adolescent girls. The girls were divided into two groups [305 exposed subjects and 635 non-exposed subjects (the controls)]. The passive smokers had a significantly lower cognitive function and higher depression, aggression, and insomnia scores compared to the control group (P?<?0.05). No significant difference was detected with respect to day-time sleepiness and sleep apnea. Logistic regression analyses showed that the passive smokers were more likely than the controls to have cognitive impairments, depressive mood, aggressive behavior, and insomnia. Adolescent passive smokers had significant differences in their cognitive abilities and emotional function.