Influence of analyzed sequence length on parameters in laryngeal high-speed videoendoscopy

Laryngeal high-speed videoendoscopy (HSV) allows objective quantification of vocal fold vibratory characteristics. However, it is unknown how the analyzed sequence length affects some of the computed parameters. To examine if varying sequence lengths influence parameter calculation, 20 HSV recordings of healthy females during sustained phonation were investigated. The clinical prevalent Photron Fastcam MC2 camera with a frame rate of 4000 fps and a spatial resolution of 512 x 256 pixels was used to collect HSV data. The glottal area waveform (GAW), describing the increase and decrease of the area between the vocal folds during phonation, was extracted. Based on the GAW, 16 perturbation parameters were computed for sequences of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 consecutive cycles. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS Statistics, version 21. Only three parameters (18.8%) were statistically significantly influenced by changing sequence lengths. Of these parameters, one changed until 10 cycles were reached, one until 20 cycles were reached and one, namely Amplitude Variability Index (AVI), changed between almost all groups of different sequence lengths. Moreover, visually observable, but not statistically significant, changes within parameters were observed. These changes were often most prominent between shorter sequence lengths. Hence, we suggest using a minimum sequence length of at least 20 cycles and discarding the parameter AVI

A Chiral Perturbation Expansion for Gravity

A formulation of Einstein gravity, analogous to that for gauge theory arising from the Chalmers-Siegel action, leads to a perturbation theory about an asymmetric weak coupling limit that treats positive and negative helicities differently. We find power counting rules for amplitudes that suggest the theory could find a natural interpretation in terms of a twistor-string theory for gravity with amplitudes supported on holomorphic curves in twistor space.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, no figures; v2: one reference adde

Oral Administration of Levo-Tetrahydropalmatine Attenuates Reinstatement of Extinguished Cocaine Seeking by Cocaine, Stress or Drug-Associated Cues in Rats

Cocaine addiction is characterized by a persistently heightened susceptibility to drug relapse. For this reason, the identification of medications that prevent drug relapse is a critical goal of drug abuse research. Drug re-exposure, the onset of stressful life events, and exposure to cues previously associated with drug use have been identified as determinants of relapse in humans and have been found to reinstate extinguished cocaine seeking in rats. This study examined the effects of acute oral (gavage) administration of levo-tetrahydropalmatine (l-THP), a tetrahydroprotoberberine isoquinoline with a pharmacological profile that includes antagonism of D1, D2 and D3 dopamine receptors, on the reinstatement of extinguished cocaine seeking by a cocaine challenge (10 mg/kg, ip), a stressor (uncontrollable electric footshock [EFS]) or response-contingent exposure to a stimulus (tone and light complex) previously associated with drug delivery in male Sprague–Dawley rats. Extinguished drug seeking was reinstated by ip cocaine, EFS, or response-contingent presentation of drug-associated cues in vehicle-pretreated rats following extinction of iv cocaine self-adminisration. Oral administration of either 3.0 or 10.0 mg/kg l-THP 1 h prior to reinstatement testing significantly attenuated reinstatement by each of the stimuli. Food-reinforced responding and baseline post-extinction responding were significantly attenuated at the 10.0, but not the 3.0 mg/kg, l-THP dose, indicating that the effects of 3 mg/kg l-THP on reinstatement were likely independent of non-specific motor impairment. These findings further suggest that l-THP may have utility for the treatment of cocaine addiction

Tobacco use in patients with ENT tumours: Deficits in the provision of education and smoking cessation support

Purpose Smoking is not only one of the main risk factors for the development of most malignant and numerous benign ENT tumours but also has an important influence on therapy and prognosis. Even quitting smoking at the time of diagnosis significantly reduces mortality. Patients have a particularly strong desire to stop smoking when they are diagnosed. The present study investigated to what extent patients were aware of the relationships between smoking and the development and prognosis of tumours and how much information and smoking cessation support they were offered by physicians. Methods A total of 194 patients (74.7% male, 62.0 ±10.6 a) with malignant primary ENT tumours, pre-cancerous tumours, Reinke’s oedema and salivary gland tumours were interviewed. Results 22.7% were nonsmokers, 49.5% were cigarette smokers and 27.8% were ex-smokers. A total of 57.0% of the smokers said they would have quit before the onset of the disease if they had known about the association. Forty-one percent did not receive information about the association between smoking and the development of their disease, while 45.5% did not receive information about the relationship with their prognosis. The provision of information lasted less than 5 min for 40.4% of the patients and more than 10 min for only 13.5%. In total, 50.7% of the patients were directly requested not to smoke. A total of 7.7% received offers of smoking cessation support from otolaryngologists and 18.2% received such offers from family physicians. Conclusions There is a pronounced need for improvements in the provision of medical information about the health risks associated with smoking and offers to support patient efforts to stop smoking. In particular, the appointment during which the diagnosis is communicated to the patient should be considered a ‘teachable moment’ that can lead to smoking cessation