Phonetic Disorders in Complete Upper Denture Wearers

Articulation is the production of speech sounds in any language. These sounds are minimal units of speech and in isolation do not have any meaning. Words are formed only when speech sounds are combined. Every individual produces speech sounds in a different way, thus producinga different acoustic effect. Different modes of sound production create different forms of sounds which are appropriately classified into phonemes. The research included 50 patients with complete upper dentures, and deals with the effect of dimension, retention and duration of speech. Dimension was measured on 6 points which are relevant to soundmaking, retention was graded on a scale 1-4 and duration was between 0-5 years. Words with sounds in which the palate affects their articulation were chosen, and sounds produced by all the patients were recorded. The soundmaking was analyzed and compared with the soundmaking of the control group, which comprised 50 students with all their natural teeth. The results obtained by statistical analysis show that accommodation has a significant effect on accurate soundmaking. Moreover,they also point to the fact that accurate dimension and good retention must be included. Only harmony of all three elements ensures good results of prosthodontic therapy

Capabilities, Design, Construction and Commissioning of New Vibration, Acoustic, and Electromagnetic Capabilities Added to the World's Largest Thermal Vacuum Chamber at NASA's Space Power Facility

NASA s human space exploration plans developed under the Exploration System Architecture Studies in 2005 included a Crew Exploration Vehicle launched on an Ares I launch vehicle. The mass of the Crew Exploration Vehicle and trajectory of the Ares I coupled with the need to be able to abort across a large percentage of the trajectory generated unprecedented testing requirements. A future lunar lander added to projected test requirements. In 2006, the basic test plan for Orion was developed. It included several types of environment tests typical of spacecraft development programs. These included thermal-vacuum, electromagnetic interference, mechanical vibration, and acoustic tests. Because of the size of the vehicle and unprecedented acoustics, NASA conducted an extensive assessment of options for testing, and as result, chose to augment the Space Power Facility at NASA Plum Brook Station, of the John H. Glenn Research Center to provide the needed test capabilities. The augmentation included designing and building the World s highest mass capable vibration table, the highest power large acoustic chamber, and adaptation of the existing World s largest thermal vacuum chamber as a reverberant electromagnetic interference test chamber. These augmentations were accomplished from 2007 through early 2011. Acceptance testing began in Spring 2011 and will be completed in the Fall of 2011. This paper provides an overview of the capabilities, design, construction and acceptance of this extraordinary facility

Quality of medical training and emigration of physicians from India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physician 'brain drain' negatively impacts health care delivery. Interventions to address physician emigration have been constrained by lack of research on systematic factors that influence physician migration. We examined the relationship between the quality of medical training and rate of migration to the United States and the United Kingdom among Indian medical graduates (1955–2002).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We calculated the fraction of medical graduates who emigrated to the United States and the United Kingdom, based on rankings of medical colleges and universities according to three indicators of the quality of medical education (a) student choice, (b) academic publications, and (c) the availability of specialty medical training.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Physicians from the top quintile medical colleges and of universities were 2 to 4 times more likely to emigrate to the United States and the United Kingdom than graduates from the bottom quintile colleges and universities.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Graduates of institutions with better quality medical training have a greater likelihood of emigrating. Interventions designed to counter loss of physicians should focus on graduates from top quality institutions.</p

Staphylococcus aureus Protein A Binds to Osteoblasts and Triggers Signals That Weaken Bone in Osteomyelitis

Osteomyelitis is a debilitating infectious disease of the bone. It is predominantly caused by S. aureus and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. It is characterised by weakened bones associated with progressive bone loss. Currently the mechanism through which either bone loss or bone destruction occurs in osteomyelitis patients is poorly understood. We describe here for the first time that the major virulence factor of S. aureus, protein A (SpA) binds directly to osteoblasts. This interaction prevents proliferation, induces apoptosis and inhibits mineralisation of cultured osteoblasts. Infected osteoblasts also increase the expression of RANKL, a key protein involved in initiating bone resorption. None of these effects was seen in a mutant of S. aureus lacking SpA. Complementing the SpA-defective mutant with a plasmid expressing spa or using purified protein A resulted in attachment to osteoblasts, inhibited proliferation and induced apoptosis to a similar extent as wildtype S. aureus. These events demonstrate mechanisms through which loss of bone formation and bone weakening may occur in osteomyelitis patients. This new information may pave the way for the development of new and improved therapeutic agents to treat this disease

Physical activity and mental health in women with polycystic ovary syndrome.

Physical activity is prescribed as a component of primary management for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). This study investigates the association between physical activity and mental health as well as the exercise barriers, motivators and support providers for younger women with and without PCOS to assist in physical activity uptake and prescription for these women

Cuffless blood pressure monitoring technologies based on pulse transit time

Cuffless sensing techniques for monitoring pulse transit time (PTT) to estimate blood pressure was proposed. Developing such techniques is imperative to providing an at-home solution that is more convenient than current monitoring systems. PTT, or the time interval for an arterial pulse wave to travel along the arterial wall from a proximal to a distal site, relative to the heart, has been shown in previous works to have an inverse relationship with blood pressure. However, limited techniques exist to conveniently measure PTT in daily life. This work focuses on developing two techniques for convenient PTT measurements using a scale-based and wearable approach. First, a scale-based approach utilizes full-body vibrations, called the ballistocardiogram, to provide a measurement of the pulse at a proximal location to the heart. By attaching a custom-made optical sensor on the foot and thus measuring a distal pulse timing, the scale-based approach captures true aortic pulse transit time and provides a superior estimation compared to conventional timing based methods. We further refined the measurement of the distal pulse by developing an array-based optical sensor and signal selection techniques to capture a pulse wave while a subject simply stands quietly to obtain a measurement. Second, a watch-based sensor, SeismoWatch, allows the user to sense pulse timings at the chest and the wrist. To acquire two timing references for PTT, an inertial sensor detects the vibrations of the chest associated with opening of the aorta, based on seismocardiography, and an optical sensor at the wrist measures the distal pulse wave. SeismoWatch is non-invasive and compact, allowing for convenient and portable blood pressure tracking.Ph.D