INTRODUCTION We aimed to investigate activities of metalloproteinases 2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9 in aqueous humour of patients with diabetes mellitus with various stages of diabetic retinopathy. MATERIAL AND METHODS We included 36 samples of aqueous humour of patients suffering from diabetes mellitus, undergoing routine cataract surgery. Seven of them suffered from proliferative diabetic retinopathy...

Humour occupies a special place in human social interactions. The brain regions and the potential psychological processes underlying humour appreciation were investigated by testing patients who had focal damage in various areas of the brain. A specific brain region, the right frontal lobe, most disrupted the ability to appreciate humour. The individuals with damage in this brain region also re...

The effects of humour on health were investigated using a sample of 504 individuals comprising three groups (community group, university students, and respondents with a medical condition). Hypotheses were: (1). that after controlling for other variables, humour would be significantly associated with health: (2). that individuals with a greater sense of humour would report significantly higher ...

The most challenging aspect to humour research is in defining exactly what it means to “have a sense of humour”. Does it mean an ability to create or respond to jokes and other overtly funny events or stories? Or is it something larger and less specific – perhaps an ability to tolerate difficulties with good grace and strength (Vejleskov, 2001)? Is a “sense of humour” a single trait or one with...

In this paper, the connection between metaphor, metonymy, blending and humour is discussed against an analysis of puns in print advertisements featuring both visual and verbal elements. The analysis is based on the theory of conceptual blending (Fauconnier and Turner 1994, 1996 etc.) and on analyses of humour within that framework made by Coulson (1996, 2001, in press), but it also draws on obs...

Humour is one of the most interesting and puzzling aspects of human behaviour, and it has been rightfully argued that it plays an important role in an individual’s development, as well as in interpersonal communication. Research on this topic has received a significant amount of attention from fields as diverse as linguistics, philosophy, psychology and sociology, and recent years have also see...

A computer model of " a sense of humour " suggested previously [1, 2], relating the humorous effect with a specific malfunction in information processing , is given in somewhat different exposition. Psychological aspects of humour are elaborated more thoroughly. The mechanism of laughter is formulated on the more general level. Detailed discussion is presented for the higher levels of informati...

Is a sense of humour a virtue? In an informal sense of the term ‘virtue’, of course it is. A sense of humour is a trait nobody wants to be thought of as lacking, and one that we value in partners, friends and colleagues alike. But the claim that a sense of humour is a moral virtue seems far more controversial. Yet in a fascinating article, just this claim has been advanced by Robert C. Roberts,...

In recent years there has been increasingly emphasised the importance of developing a sense of humour in patients with depression, which is considered an important competence promoting recovery processes and preventing relapse. Research on the sense of humour in depression focuses on two main areas. The first one concerns the answer to the question whether depressed patients are able to make us...