Kinematic and correlational analyses on labial and lingual functions during syllable repetitions in Cantonese dysarthric speakers with Parkinson's disease of varying severity using electromagnetic articulography (EMA)

Articulatory imprecision in Parkinson patients with hypokinetic dysarthria has been attributed to articulatory undershooting. However, contradictory results in terms of acoustics and instrumental investigation has been reported in the literature throughout the years. The present study aimed to investigate labial and lingual kinematics in dysarthric Cantonese speakers with Parkinson’s disease (PD) of different severity (in terms of dysarthria) during rapid syllable repetitions and compared the measures with that of healthy age-matched controls using a 3-dimensional Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA). Dysarthria severity was also correlated with labial and lingual kinematics. Tongue tip, tongue back, upper and lower lips and jaw motion in five PD and six normal participants during repetitions of /pa/, /ta/ and /ka/ were recorded. Participants were also rated perceptually on their dysarthria severity. When compared to the normal group, the PD group showed reduced velocity in lingual movement and reduced distance travelled and velocity in labial movements. Correlational analysis between dysarthria severity and kinematic data revealed positive correlation for duration of lingual movement. Negative correlation was identified for the velocity and rate of lingual movement, and for distance travelled and velocity of labial movement. The present results supported the hypothesis of articulatory undershooting as a contributing factor of articulatory imprecision in hypokinetic dysarthria, while tongue and lip tremor might also cause such consonant imprecision. Possible differential effect of dopamine deficiency on the different cranial nerves has been hypothesized. Keywords:published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Accuracy of hiatal hernia diagnosis in bariatric patients : preoperative endoscopy versus intraoperative reference

Background and Aim: Obesity is becoming increasingly prevalent in Asia. Bariatric surgery in the region is growing in popularity to reflect increasing demand. Hiatal hernia (HH) is common among the obese population. There is a lack of evidence comparing preoperative endoscopy against intraoperative findings as a standard of reference for HH diagnosis. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of a bariatric procedure database from a single tertiary teaching hospital and high-volume endoscopy center. Electronic medical records were reviewed. Endoscopy results were compared to intraoperative findings, and subgroup analysis of >2 cm hernias was performed. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, and global diagnostic test accuracy were calculated. Results: A total of 434 patients were eligible for this study, of which HH was detected in 37 patients (prevalence rate 8.55%). Mean age was 41.51 ± 11.07 years, and body mass index was 39.37 ± 5.67 kg/m2 . Endoscopy sensitivity was 75.68% (95% confidence interval, 58.80–88.23%) and specificity 91.44% (88.24–94.00%). Positive likelihood ratio was 8.53 (6.11–12.79) and negative likelihood ratio 0.27 (0.15–0.47). Positive predictive value was 45.16% (36.27–54.38%) and negative predictive value 97.58% (95.80–98.62%). Accuracy of endoscopy for preoperative HH diagnosis was 90.09% (86.89–92.74%). Conclusion: Endoscopy can have a high diagnostic accuracy of preoperative HH diagnosis in obese Asian patients using intraoperative diagnosis as the reference standard

Emission Factors for a Taxi Fleet Operating on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a Function of Speed and Road Slope

Real-driving emissions of NOx, CO, and THC, as well as fuel consumption (FC) were studied from 18 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fueled taxis operating in a metropolitan road network. Euro 2 to Euro 5 technology vehicles were measured with the use of portable emission measurement systems (PEMS). Statistical processing was implemented to derive mean emission levels for the different technologies. The taxis were measured from 6 months to 2.5 years after their catalysts and lambda sensors were replaced. The emission levels of Euro 4 taxis after catalyst replacement appear higher compared to pre-replacement levels, while pre-Euro 4 taxis emission levels were moderately reduced by the catalyst replacement. Overall, Euro 5 LPG taxis exhibit the lowest emissions, even below the respective regulated limits. The NH3 and N2O pollutant levels of a Euro 5 LPG taxi measured in the lab were found at about half its NOx emissions. Different integration methods of PEMS data were investigated toward the development of emission factors, including both time-based and distance-based approaches at different resolutions. Distance-based integration in sections of 500 m was considered suitable, as this provides a large dataset for statistical confidence and sufficient resolution for link-based modeling. Based on this, FC and emission factors of NOx, CO, and THC as a function of speed and road slope are presented, separately for vehicles considered as normal and high emitters. Volatile organic compounds speciation of Euro 5 taxis showed that methane and butane are the most abundant hydrocarbon species in the exhaust

A Model to Induce Low Temperature Trauma for in vitro Astrogliosis Study*

Astrogliosis is an inevitable and rapid response of astrocytes to physical, chemical and pathological injuries. To study astrogliosis, we developed a reproducible in vitro model in which low temperature injury to cultured astrocytes could be induced by placing the culture dish onto a copper pipe pre-cooled by liquid nitrogen. Using this model, the relationship between the temperature decline and the severity of cellular damage was analyzed. An increase in the expression of some known injury-related proteins, such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), immediate early response genes (IEGs), and heat shock proteins 70 (HSP70), was demonstrated in astrocytes after low temperature trauma. With the use of this low temperature trauma model, the flexibility in the temperature control and injury area may allow researchers to evaluate cryotherapy and cryosurgery, which could be applicable to future development of quality health care

Identification of microbial community in the urban environment: The concordance between conventional culture and nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing

IntroductionMicrobes in the built environment have been implicated as a source of infectious diseases. Bacterial culture is the standard method for assessing the risk of exposure to pathogens in urban environments, but this method only accounts for <1% of the diversity of bacteria. Recently, full-length 16S rRNA gene analysis using nanopore sequencing has been applied for microbial evaluations, resulting in a rise in the development of long-read taxonomic tools for species-level classification. Regarding their comparative performance, there is, however, a lack of information.MethodsHere, we aim to analyze the concordance of the microbial community in the urban environment inferred by multiple taxonomic classifiers, including ARGpore2, Emu, Kraken2/Bracken and NanoCLUST, using our 16S-nanopore dataset generated by MegaBLAST, as well as assess their abilities to identify culturable species based on the conventional culture results.ResultsAccording to our results, NanoCLUST was preferred for 16S microbial profiling because it had a high concordance of dominant species and a similar microbial profile to MegaBLAST, whereas Kraken2/Bracken, which had similar clustering results as NanoCLUST, was also desirable. Second, for culturable species identification, Emu with the highest accuracy (81.2%) and F1 score (29%) for the detection of culturable species was suggested.DiscussionIn addition to generating datasets in complex communities for future benchmarking studies, our comprehensive evaluation of the taxonomic classifiers offers recommendations for ongoing microbial community research, particularly for complex communities using nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing

Study of Benzofuroquinolinium Derivatives as a New Class of Potent Antibacterial Agent and the Mode of Inhibition Targeting FtsZ

New generation of antibacterial agents are urgently needed in order to fight the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria. FtsZ is currently identified as a promising target for new types of antimicrobial compounds development because of its conservative characteristics and its essential role played in bacterial cell division. In the present study, the antibacterial activity of a series of benzofuroquinolinium derivatives was investigated. The results show that the compounds possess potent antibacterial activity against drug resistant pathogens including MRSA, VREF and NDM-1 Escherichia coli. Biological studies reveal that the compound is an effective inhibitor that is able to suppress FtsZ polymerization and GTPase activity and thus stopping the cell division and causing cell death. More importantly, this series of compounds shows low cytotoxicity on mammalian cells and therefore they could be new chemotypes for the development of new antibacterial agents targeting the cell-division protein FtsZ

Large Fragment Pre-S Deletion and High Viral Load Independently Predict Hepatitis B Relapse after Liver Transplantation

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) associated end-stage liver diseases are the leading causes of liver transplantation (LT) in Taiwan. Relapse of hepatitis B occurs after LT, raising the risk of graft failure and reducing patient survival. Although several oral antiviral agents have been approved for anti-HBV treatment, lamivudine (LAM) remained to be the most widely used preventive regimen in Taiwan. While several clinical predictors have been identified for hepatitis B relapse, the predictive roles of the histopathological characteristics in liver explants as well as the genotypic features of the viruses in pre-LT serum samples have not been assessed. Between September 2002 and August 2009, 150 consecutive hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive patients undergoing LT were included for outcome analysis following assessment of the clinicopathological and virological factors prior to LT. Kaplan-Meier analyses discovered that pre-operative LAM treatment ≤3 months; membranous distribution and higher expression of tissue HBsAg in liver explants; preoperative viral load ≧106 copies/ml; and presence of large fragment (>100 base pairs) pre-S deletion (LFpreSDel) correlated significantly with hepatitis B relapse. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the presence of LFpreSDel (P = 0.001) and viral load ≧106 copies/mL (P = 0.023) were independent predictors for hepatitis B relapse. In conclusion, besides high viral load, LFpreSDel mutation is an important independent predictor for hepatitis B relapse after LT. More aggressive preventive strategies should be applied for patients carrying these risk factors

HURP Expression-Assisted Risk Scores Identify Prognosis Distinguishable Subgroups in Early Stage Liver Cancer

Hepatoma up-regulated protein (HURP) is a component of the chromatin-dependent pathway for spindle assembly. We examined the prognostic predictive value of HURP in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).HURP expression was evaluated by immunocytochemistry of fine needle aspirated hepatoma cells in 97 HCC patients with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage A. Subsequently, these patients underwent partial hepatectomy (n = 18) or radiofrequency ablation (n = 79) and were followed for 2 to 35 months. The clinicopathological parameters were submitted for survival analysis.HURP expression in aspirated HCC cells was detected in 19.6% patients. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that positive HURP expression (P = 0.023), cytological grading ≥3 (P = 0.008), AFP ≥35 ng/mL (P = 0.039), bilirubin ≥1.3 mg/dL (P = 0.010), AST ≥50 U/L (P = 0.003) and ALT ≥35 U/L (P = 0.005) were all associated with a shorter disease-free survival. A stepwise multivariate Cox proportional hazard model revealed that positive HURP expression (HR, 2.334; 95% CI, 1.165-4.679, P = 0.017), AST ≥50 U/L (HR, 3.697; 95% CI, 1.868-7.319, p<0.001), cytological grade ≥3 (HR, 4.249; 95% CI, 2.061-8.759, P<0.001) and tumor number >1 (HR, 2.633; 95% CI, 1.212-5.722, P = 0.014) were independent predictors for disease-free survival. By combining the 4 independent predictors, patients with different risk scores (RS) showed distinguishable disease-free survival (RS≤1 vs. RS = 2, P = 0.001; RS = 2 vs. RS = 3, P<0.001). In contrast, the patients cannot be separated into prognosis distinguishable subgroups by using AJCC/UICC TNM staging system.HCC patients with BCLC stage A can be separated into three prognosis-distinguishable groups by use of a risk score that is based upon HURP expression in aspirated HCC cells, ALT, cytological grade and tumor number

A reference-grade wild soybean genome

Wild relatives of crop plants are invaluable germplasm for genetic improvement. Here, Xie et al. report a reference-grade wild soybean genome and show that it can be used to identify structural variation and refine quantitative trait loci

A reference-grade wild soybean genome

Efficient crop improvement depends on the application of accurate genetic information contained in diverse germplasm resources. Here we report a reference-grade genome of wild soybean accession W05, with a final assembled genome size of 1013.2 Mb and a contig N50 of 3.3 Mb. The analytical power of the W05 genome is demonstrated by several examples. First, we identify an inversion at the locus determining seed coat color during domestication. Second, a translocation event between chromosomes 11 and 13 of some genotypes is shown to interfere with the assignment of QTLs. Third, we find a region containing copy number variations of the Kunitz trypsin inhibitor (KTI) genes. Such findings illustrate the power of this assembly in the analysis of large structural variations in soybean germplasm collections. The wild soybean genome assembly has wide applications in comparative genomic and evolutionary studies, as well as in crop breeding and improvement programs