Scientific discourse is increasingly internationalised, as a result of the great influence that the discourse conventions of the international English-speaking academic community exert on scientific communication worldwide. Contrastive rhetoric studies, however, have shown that the particular configuration of different discourse communities may have an influence on the construction of genres. This book explores rhetorical preferences in the research article abstract genre. The main focus of the study is an investigation of the extent to which there is cross-linguistic variation in terms of the rhetorical strategies used by writers in abstracts to foreground their main knowledge claims and present themselves as qualified discourse community members. From a quantitative and qualitative perspective, the author compares the rhetorical structure and other socio-pragmatic features of abstracts written in English for international scientific journals with those written in Spani! sh for Spanish journals in the experimental social sciences, and more specifically in the disciplines of phonetics and psychology. In the interpretation of results, the author mainly draws on socio-cultural and contextual factors to account for cross-cultural rhetorical variation.

This book brings together a collection of selected empirical studies by researchers and English for Academic Purposes professionals working with scholars who use English as an additional language and who face barriers to publication when communicating the results of their research in the international context. The contributions have their origins in papers and workshops presented at the conference «Publishing and Presenting Research Internationally: Issues for Speakers of English as an Additional Language (PRISEAL), which took place at the University of La Laguna (Spain) from 11 to 13 January 2007. The various issues which are addressed in this volume are grouped into three main themes: 1. Descriptive studies of linguistic and rhetorical features of written and spoken academic genres. 2. Contrastive studies of academic discourse with a focus on rhetorical preferences of members of scientific communities across cultures, disciplines and genres. 3. Studies which evaluate English for Academic Purposes courses and materials in terms of how successfully they develop the scholar's ability to communicate more effectively in English.

La rizartrosis produce gran incapacidad del pulgar debido al dolor, perdida de fuerza y rigidez. Es frecuente sobre todo en mujeres postmenopausicas. Se han descrito multitud de tecnicas quirurgicas. Actualmente no se ha demostrado que ningun tratamiento sea superior a otro y es la opinion y experiencia del cirujano uno de los principales puntos a tener en cuenta a la hora de escoger el tratamiento mas adecuado. Realizamos un estudio clinico prospectivo comparando tres tratamientos quirurgicos: artroplastia de reseccion/suspension, artroplastia de reseccion/interposicion y protesis total trapeciometacarpiana. Valoramos parametros subjetivos (dolor y satisfaccion), objetivos (fuerza de puno y pinza, balance articular) y radiologicos. Se realiza valoracion preoperatoria, a los 3, 6 y 12 meses. Las protesis trapeciometacarpianas consiguen los mejores valores postoperatorios y de forma mas precoz, seguidos por la artroplastia de reseccion/suspension y por la artroplastia de reseccion/interposicion.