Evidence for active control of tongue lateralization in Australian English /l/

Research on the temporal dynamics of /l/ production has focused primarily on mid-sagittal tongue movements. This study reports how known variations in the timing of mid-sagittal gestures are related to para-sagittal dynamics in /l/ formation in Australian English (AusE), using three-dimensional electromagnetic articulography (3D EMA). The articulatory analyses show (1) consistent with past work, the temporal lag between tongue tip and tongue body gestures identified in the mid-sagittal plane changes across different syllable positions and vowel contexts; (2) the lateral channel is largely formed by tilting the tongue to the left/right side of the oral cavity as opposed to curving the tongue within the coronal plane; and, (3) the timing of lateral channel formation relative to the tongue body gesture is consistent across syllable positions and vowel contexts, even as the temporal lag between tongue tip and tongue body gestures varies. This last result is particularly informative with respect to theoretical hypotheses regarding gestural control for /l/s, as it suggests that lateral channel formation is actively controlled as opposed to resulting as a passive consequence of tongue stretching. These results are interpreted as evidence that the formation of the lateral channel is a primary articulatory goal of /l/ production in AusE

Quality of medicines : deficiencies found by Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) on good manufacturing practices international inspections

The circulation of poor quality medicines, especially in the developing countries, is a public health concern. Compliance with good manufacturing practices (GMP) is essential to ensure the quality, efficacy, and safety of medicines. This study evaluated the outcomes of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency's (ANVISA) international inspections of two years (2015 and 2016) and compared these to those of other regulatory authorities. The information from 255 inspection reports was analyzed, and the type and extent of deficiencies were collected. In the period evaluated, 62.75% of ANVISA-inspected companies were classified as GMP ªsatisfactory,º 24.71% were classified as having ªon demandº status, and 12.55% of inspections concluded that the company did not comply with Brazilian GMP regulations (ªunsatisfactoryº). The most common areas of deficiency were documentation (28.63%) and premises (26.27%). The pattern of deficiencies was similar to the findings of other regulatory agencies. However, ANVISA detected a more significant number of non-compliance results than other authorities, which may be caused by differences in classifications adopted by each Agency. Furthermore, manufacturers inspected by ANVISA may follow different standards and practices for products manufactured for the Brazilian market. Disclosure of main GMP deficiencies found can be useful for encouraging the industry to comply with GMP, and additional guidelines in the specific areas where deficiencies are often identified may be useful to industry to improve GMP compliance. Harmonization of GMP guidelines and inspection procedures are the key steps to avoid duplicate work, but regulatory authorities also need to work together to enforce the proper level of GMP compliance by pharmaceutical manufacturers, assuring high quality and safe medicines supply

Articulatory analysis of palatalised rhotics in Russian

The present work investigated the articulatory variation of palatalised and plain rhotics and laterals in Russian. It has often been often observed that palatalised rhotics are diachronically quite unstable, which has been attributed to the articulatory incompatibility between trilling and palatalisation. The sound changes which affected palatalised rhotics in Slavic languages can be divided into three categories (Kavitskaya 1997, Carlton 1991): 1) contrast neutralisation: palatalised /rj/ and plain /r/ merge into /r/ (Chapter 2) 2) glide insertion: /rj/ changes into a sequence of plain /r/ followed by a glide /j/ (Chapter 3) 3)spirantisation: /rj/ changes into a fricative trill /r/ or a postalveolar fricative /Z/ (Chapter 4) Although laterals and rhotics belong to the same class of liquids (Proctor 2009, Kochetov 2005), the phonological opposition between /lj/ and /l/ has been neutralised less often than between /rj/ and /r/. This thesis aimed to investigate whether the comparison between rhotics and laterals could shed light on the diachronic instability of the phonological opposition between /rj/ and /r/ and of palatalised rhotics itself

A review of data collection practices using electromagnetic articulography

This paper reviews data collection practices in electromagnetic articulography (EMA) studies, with a focus on sensor placement. It consists of three parts: in the first part, we introduce electromagnetic articulography as a method. In the second part, we focus on existing data collection practices. Our overview is based on a literature review of 905 publications from a large variety of journals and conferences, identified through a systematic keyword search in Google Scholar. The review shows that experimental designs vary greatly, which in turn may limit researchers' ability to compare results across studies. In the third part of this paper we describe an EMA data collection procedure which includes an articulatory-driven strategy for determining where to position sensors on the tongue without causing discomfort to the participant. We also evaluate three approaches for preparing (NDI Wave) EMA sensors reported in the literature with respect to the duration the sensors remain attached to the tongue: 1) attaching out-of-the-box sensors, 2) attaching sensors coated in latex, and 3) attaching sensors coated in latex with an additional latex flap. Results indicate no clear general effect of sensor preparation type on adhesion duration. A subsequent exploratory analysis reveals that sensors with the additional flap tend to adhere for shorter times than the other two types, but that this pattern is inverted for the most posterior tongue sensor

Patient Centric Pharmaceutical Drug Product Design—The Impact on Medication Adherence

Medication adherence is a growing concern for public health and poor adherence to therapy has been associated with poor health outcomes and higher costs for patients. Interventions for improving adherence need to consider the characteristics of the individual therapeutic regimens according to the needs of the patients. In particular, geriatric and paediatric populations as well as dermatological patients have special needs/preferences that should be considered when designing drug products. Patient Centric Drug Product Pharmaceutical Design (PCDPD) offers the opportunity to meet the needs and preferences of patients. Packaging, orodispersible formulations, fixed dose combinations products, multiparticulate formulations, topical formulations and 3D printing are of particular relevance in a PCDPD process. These will be addressed in this review as well as their impact on medication adherence

When innovation outpaces regulations:The legal challenges for direct-to-patient supply of investigational medicinal products

AIMS: We profile the lack of specific regulation for direct‐to‐patient postal supply (DTP) of clinical trial medications (investigational medicinal products, IMPs) calling for increased efficiency of patient‐centred multi‐country remote clinical trials. METHODS: Questionnaires emailed to 28 European Economic Area (EEA) Medical Product Licensing Authorities (MPLAs) and Swissmedic MPLA were analysed in 2019/2020. The questionnaire asked whether DTP of IMPs was legal, followed by comparative legal analysis profiling relevant national civil and criminal liability provisions in 30 European jurisdictions (including The Netherlands), finally summarising accessible COVID‐19‐related guidance in searches of 30 official MPLA websites in January 2021. RESULTS: Twenty MPLAs responded. Twelve consented to response publication in 2021. DTP was not widely authorised, though different phrases were used to explain this. Our legal review of national laws in 29 EEA jurisdictions and Switzerland did not identify any specific sanctions for DTP of IMPs; however, we identified potential national civil and criminal liability provisions. Switzerland provides legal clarity where DTP of IMPs is conditionally legal. MPLA webpage searches for COVID‐19 guidance noted conditional acceptance by 19 MPLAs. CONCLUSIONS: Specific national legislation authorising DTP of IMPs, defining IMP categories, and conditions permitting the postage and delivery by courier in an EEA‐wide clinical trial, would support innovative patient‐centred research for multi‐country remote clinical trials. Despite it appearing more acceptable to do this between EU Member States, provided each EU MPLA and ethics board authorises it, temporary Covid‐19 restrictions in national Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidance discourages innovative research into the safety and effectiveness of clinical trial medications

Technical report on 1-phenyl-2- (pyrrolidin-1-yl)pentan-1-one (α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone, α-PVP)

This publication presents the data and findings of the risk assessment on α-PVP (1-phenyl- 2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-1-pentanone), carried out by the extended Scientific Committee of the EMCDDA on 18 November 2015. α-PVP is the eleventh new psychoactive substance to be risk assessed under the terms of Council Decision 2005/387/JHA. On the basis of the Risk Assessment Report — and on the initiative of the European Commission — on 27 June 2016, the Council decided that α-PVP should be subject to control measures across the Member States

Temporal articulatory stability, phonological variation, and lexical contrast preservation in diaspora Tibetan

This dissertation examines how lexical tone can be represented with articulatory gestures, and the ways a gestural perspective can inform synchronic and diachronic analysis of the phonology and phonetics of a language. Tibetan is chosen an example of a language with interacting laryngeal and tonal phonology, a history of tonogenesis and dialect diversification, and recent contact-induced realignment of the tonal and consonantal systems. Despite variation in voice onset time (VOT) and presence/absence of the lexical tone contrast, speakers retain a consistent relative timing of consonant and vowel gestures. Recent research has attempted to integrate tone into the framework of Articulatory Phonology through the addition of tone gestures. Unlike other theories of phonetics-phonology, Articulatory Phonology uniquely incorporates relative timing as a key parameter. This allows the system to represent contrasts instantiated not just in the presence or absence of gestures, but also in how gestures are timed with each other. Building on the different predictions of various timing relations, along with the historical developments in the language, hypotheses are generated and tested with acoustic and articulatory experiments. Following an overview of relevant theory, the second chapter surveys past literature on the history of sound change and present phonological diversity of Tibetic dialects. Whereas Old Tibetan lacked lexical tone, contrasted voiced and voiceless obstruents, and exhibited complex clusters, a series of overlapping sound changes have led to some modern varieties that are tone, lack clusters, and vary in the expression of voicing and aspiration. Furthermore, speakers in the Tibetan diaspora use a variety that has grown out of the contact between diverse Tibetic dialects. The state of the language and the dynamics of diaspora have created a situation ripe for sound change, including the recombination of elements from different dialects and, potentially, the loss of tone contrasts. The nature of the diaspora Tibetan is investigated through an acoustic corpus study. Recordings made in Kathmandu, Nepal, are being transcribed and forced-aligned into a useful audio corpus. Speakers in the corpus come from diverse backgrounds across and outside traditional Tibetan-speaking regions, but the analysis presented here focuses on speakers who grew up in diaspora, with a mixed input of Standard Tibetan (spyi skad) and other Tibetan varieties. Especially notable among these speakers is the high variability of voice onset time (VOT) and its interaction with tone. An analysis of this data in terms of the relative timing of oral, laryngeal, and tone gestures leads to the generation of hypotheses for testing using articulatory data. The articulatory study is conducted using electromagnetic articulography (EMA), and six Tibetan-speaking participants. The key finding is that the relative timing of consonant and vowel gestures is consistent across phonological categories and across speakers who do and do not contrast tone. This result leads to the conclusion that the relative timing of speech gestures is conserved and acquired independently. Speakers acquire and generalize a limited inventory of timing patterns, and can use timing patterns even when the conditioning environment for the development of those patterns, namely tone, has been lost

Rhotics.New Data and Perspectives

This book provides an insight into the patterns of variation and change of rhotics in different languages and from a variety of perspectives. It sheds light on the phonetics, the phonology, the socio-linguistics and the acquisition of /r/-sounds in languages as diverse as Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Kuikuro, Malayalam, Romanian, Slovak, Tyrolean and Washili Shingazidja thus contributing to the discussion on the unity and uniqueness of this group of sounds

Retail pharmacy network sales trends of over-the-counter codeine containing medicines in Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwazulu Natal

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Medicine in Pharmaceutical Affairs Johannesburg, South Africa 2017In the Republic of South Africa codeine containing medicines are either sold as prescription only medicines or over the counter depending on the strength of codeine contained in the medicine. The analgesic properties of codeine are thought to be derived from the conversion of codeine to morphine. Codeine is often combined with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).Codeine is a relatively weak opioid analgesic that has seemingly addictive properties; the misuse of codeine-containing-medicines can cause morbidity in patients with known codeine addiction. The Regulation of codeine has been reviewed in a number of countries to try and curb the misuse of the product. This involves the reduction in the strength of codeine, reduction in the package size and duration of treatment of over-the-counter (OTC) codeine containing products and in some countries the OTC codeine containing products have been rescheduled into prescription only medicines. The study aims to monitor and describe trends in the sales of OTC codeine-containing medicines from Pick n Pay retail pharmacies in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal provinces of South Africa from July 2011 to June 2014. Secondary data on the sales of OTC codeine-containing medicines from Pick n Pay Pharmacies database was obtained, which described the(1) pharmacy name, (2) the trade name of the medicine items sold, (3) the quantities of the medicines sold, (4) the purchase date of medicine, (5) the cost of the medicine, (6) the age of the purchaser, (7) the gender of the purchaser and (8) the mode of payment used when purchasing for the study period. A statistical software system, SPSS® version 20 was used to analyse the data. The study findings indicate a steady increase in the sales of the OTC codeine containing medicine over the years. Females were found to be the main purchasers of these products and the age group which purchased most of the products is the 40 to 45 years age group. The top three selling brands of the OTC codeine containing medicines were found to be Genpayne Capsules (30%), Myprodol Capsules (27%) and Mybuline Tablets (14%) of all the sales of these products in the three provinces combined. The mode of payment used for these purchases was mainly cash payment which accounted for sixty-five percent of the payments. There is a need to review the Codeine Car Initiative to monitor and audit the sales of these products so as to make an informed decision on their appropriate regulation.MT201