Perceptual and Acoustical assessment of voice in children with cleft lip and palate

BACKGROUND: The speech of individuals with cleft lip and palate is primarily characterized by nasality of oral speech because of cleft and or velopharyngeal dysfunction. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study is to investigate the acoustical assessment and perceptual rating measurements in cleft lip and palate children. METHODS: The study participants included 30 children with cleft lip and palate in the age range of 4 to 12 years. Prior parental consent was obtained for the inclusion of their children in the study. Speech samples of all the l the participants were recorded. Prerecorded speech samples of the individuals of the CLP groups were mixed and randomized and played,using headphone conditions in a quiet room. The SLPs speech language pathologists rated the nasality of the participant. Samples given for perceptual evaluation are 15 phonation samples of /ă/, /ɪ/ and /ŭ/ vowels vowel, 15 conversation samples and 30 subjects (3 oral sentences each so total 90 sentences). RESULTS: For the Phonation sample, SLP must evaluate the presence of hypernasality by Wilcoksons nasality scale. Acoustic analysis was done using PRAAT software. The spectral and temporal parameters were measured. The Kappa coefficient was 0.88 for inter-rater reliability for nasality rating scale, 0.82 for speech intelligibility,1.02 for speech understandability,1.00 for speech acceptability, which suggests substantial agreement between the raters for four different rating scales. CONCLUSION: Thus, to conclude in children with cleft lip and palate both acoustical and perceptual evaluation plays an important role while assessing the speech domain by using different kinds of speech stimuli

Overweight and obese men are more prone to infertility-Myth or Fact?

To investigate the association of sub-fertility/ infertility with increased BMI in overweight and obese men and in control group in Karnataka, South India. In this pilot study 20 overweight and obese men, aged 25-45, and 10 normal-weighed men with proven fertility were included. Both groups were married. All cases and controls were evaluated for different semen parameters according to World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS software, version 16.0. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Different infertile conditions are evident among overweight and obese individuals recruited for this study. Variations in the semen parameter are significant in obese men compared to controls but sperm function test does not show statistical significant values in overweight and obese men when compared with control group. In case of oligoasthenospermic subjects pH shows a significant increase (p=0.002) compared to controls. Also the levels of Fructose show a significant decline in both azoospermic (

A good practice guide for translating and adapting hearing-related questionnaires for different languages and cultures

Objectives: To raise awareness and propose a good practice guide for translating and adapting any hearing-related questionnaire to be used for comparisons across populations divided by language or culture, and to encourage investigators to publish detailed steps. Design: From a synthesis of existing guidelines, we propose important considerations for getting started, followed by six early steps: (1) Preparation, (2, 3) Translation steps, (4) Committee Review, (5) Field testing and (6) Reviewing and finalising the translation. Study sample: Not applicable. Results: Across these six steps, 22 different items are specified for creating a questionnaire that promotes equivalence to the original by accounting for any cultural differences. Published examples illustrate how these steps have been implemented and reported, with shared experiences from the authors, members of the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology and TINnitus research NETwork. Conclusions: A checklist of the preferred reporting items is included to help researchers and clinicians make informed choices about conducting or omitting any items. We also recommend using the checklist to document these decisions in any resulting report or publication. Following this step-by-step guide would promote quality assurance in multinational trials and outcome evaluations but, to confirm functional equivalence, large-scale evaluation of psychometric properties should follow

HEAT TRANSFER ANALYSIS OF RECUPERATIVE AIR PREHEATER

Abstract: Steam generators are very complex class of pressure vessels. It contains many accessories for the generation of required steam quality. The prime motto of industrial steam generator is to generate steam at medium pressure (MP), low pressure (LP) steam at required pressure temperature and quantity for the process industry like sugar, paper, jute and chemical industries. LP and MP steam after expansion in the turbine from super saturation is utilized by process industry. In the present work Air Preheater, one of the accessories of the steam generator is analysed. Air preheaters make a considerable contribution to the improved overall efficiency of fossil-fuel-fired power plants. In this study, a theoretical design of Recuperative Primary Air preheater with In-line tube arrangement and a combination of fluid dynamics analysis with theoretical value. The model enables heat transfer of the flue-gas flow through the air preheater as well as the tubular heat transfer and the resulting temperature distribution in the matrix of the preheater. The present work is carried in Mysore Paper Mills (MPM) Bhadravathi, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis of recuperative air preheater is carried out using ANSYS CFX-12.1.The analysis of flue gas flow phenomenon and air flow phenomenon are discussed using Laminar model, k-ε model, k-ω model and SST model. The parameters like temperature distribution, heat flux, pressure drop, velocity, are also discussed. An increase of 2.7% in boiler efficiency was found out with incorporation of this design, their by an increase in the air inlet temperature of about 60℃ is been observed

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Not AvailableA high demand for fungal lignin peroxidases on account of their innumerable biotechnological applications necessitates enhanced production This paper describes the enhanced production of lignin peroxidase by three isolates (LPS1, LPS2 and LPS3) of white rot fungi for delignification of crop residues. Initial screening of medium components was performed using a Plackett–Burman design and the variables with statistically significant effects such as pH, temperature, carbon source, nitrogen source, inoculums size, incubation period, inhibitors on lignin peroxidase production were identified. The optimized temperature was 300C with pH 3 for LiP production in all three isolates (LPS1, LPS2 and LPS3). Veratryl alcohol proved to be the best substrate for lignin peroxidase production. The best carbon source and nitrogen sources were glucose and sodium nitrite respectively. The lignin peroxidase activity was found to be maximum in LPS1 (280 µmoles/min), followed by LPS2 (233 µmoles/min) and LPS3 (220 µmoles/min). These variables were selected for further optimization studies of lignin peroxidase production by LPS1 using Response Surface Methodology. Optimized conditions for the production of LPS1 using design expert software were temperature of 300C, pH of 4.2, glucose at 12 g concentration, Veratryl alcohol and H2O2 of 100mM and 0.1mM concentrations respectively. The maximum LiP activity obtained by statistical optimization for LPS1 was 349.3 units which was 21% higher in comparison to LiP activity with unoptimized medium. Validation experiments proved that experimentally determined production values of 328.63 units obtained for LPS1 were in close agreement with statistically predicted ones, confirming the reliability of the model. Treatment of nine crop residues with lignin peroxidase produced under optimized conditions showed a reduction in lignin content ranging between 0.21 and 0.94 and increase in vitro dry matter digestibility ranging between 0.45 and 2.76, proving its delignification potential.Department of Biotechnology, (DBT), Government of India, New Delh

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Not AvailableCrop residues are renewable sources of energy for ruminants. Pre-digestion of such materials with ligninases from white rot fungi may transform the lignocellulosic substrate into a feed with greater digestibility and higher quality for ruminants. This study has evaluated the effect of crude (T1) and purified(T2) lignin peroxidase (LiP) obtained from immobilized white rot fungi (LPS1) on chemical composition and in vitro digestibility of nine cereal crop residues commonly used for feeding ruminants. Untreated straw served as control(C). Each straw was hand chaffed into 2.3 to 3.0 cm bit length and treated with the enzyme by spraying at a ratio of 1:2.5 and left for 24 h before analysis. Significant P and F values at 99% CI respectively were obtained in case of ADF, NDF and ADL with both T1 and T2. Also in vitro digestibility of dry matter (IVDMD) increased significantly in both T1 and T2. Highest increase of 20 % in IVDMD was obtained upon treatment of BRM, FXM and PRM with purified lignin peroxidase (T2) while LM showed the lowest of 12.34 % . T2 thus showed higher digestibility than T1 for all the crops as shown by LS means. Correlation graph with digestibility on Y-axis and lignin degradation on X-axis showed a strong negative correlation for all the crop residues used with increase in digestibility giving a linear decrease in lignin content or vice versa. Also digestibility and lignin degradation differed for each type of straw evaluated. BRM and LM showed a very strong negative correlation (correlation coefficient r= -98.54 and -98.07) with FXM (r = -92.43) being the next in line followed by FMS (r=-87.67) and BA (r=-87.39). PRM, MS and PS followed with JR (r= -66.54) at the end. High yield of LiP obtained through immobilization on PUF cubes was effective in delignification and could be employed for enhancing the digestibility of crop residues.Department of Biotechnology, (DBT),Government of India, New Delh

Investigation of Pd/MoO x

Sub-stoichiometric molybdenum oxide (MoO x) has recently been investigated for application in high efficiency Si solar cells as a "hole selective"contact. In this paper, we investigate the electrical and light-emitting properties of MoO x-based contacts on Si from the viewpoint of realizing functional bipolar devices such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and transistors without any impurity doping of the Si surface. We realized diodes on n-type Si substrates using e-beam physical vapor deposition of Pd/MoO x contacts and compared their behavior to implanted p +n-Si diodes as a reference. In contrast to majority-carrier dominated conduction that occurs in conventional Schottky diodes, Pd/MoO x/n-Si diodes show minority-carrier dominated charge transport with I-V, C-V, and light-emitting characteristics comparable to implanted counterparts. Utilizing such MoO x-based contacts, we also demonstrate a lateral bipolar transistor concept without employing any doped junctions. A detailed C-V analysis confirmed the excessive band-bending in Si corresponding to a high potential barrier (> - > 0.90 V) at the MoO x/n-Si interface which, along with the observed amorphous SiO x(Mo) interlayer, plays a role in suppressing the majority-carrier current. An inversion layer at the n-Si surface was also identified comprising a sheet carrier density greater than 8.6 × 10 11 cm - 2, and the MoO x layer was found to be conductive though with a very high resistivity in the 10 4 ω-cm range. We refer to these diodes as metal/non-insulator/semiconductor diodes and show with our device simulations that they can be mimicked as high-barrier Schottky diodes with an induced inversion layer at the interface