Speech Acoustic Parameters for Predicting Presbyphagia: A Preliminary Study in the Elderly Shanghainese Population.

PURPOSE: Age is a high-risk factor for dysphagia. Speech and swallowing share the same anatomical and neurophysiological basis. Their functions are closely related; hence, speech assessment can predict the risk of dysphagia. This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing presbyphagia in a normal elderly Shanghainese population by analyzing speech acoustic parameters. METHODS: Relevant speech acoustic parameters were compared between 15 people with dysphagia and 15 without dysphagia. After extracting sensitive speech acoustic parameters related to swallowing, changes in sensitive parameters were compared at different ages to analyze the relevant factors influencing presbyphagia in the normal elderly population. RESULTS: Eight speech acoustic parameters related to swallowing, including maximum phonation time (MPT), max F0, /ʔʌ/Jitter, /ʔʌ/L-DDK, /hʌ/L-DDK, /pataka/DDK, F1/a/, and vowel space area, were extracted after comparing the relevant data between the two groups. Analyzing the changes in each of these parameters between different age groups (age 18-39, 40-64, and 65 and above), we discovered that three speech acoustic parameters, including MPT, /hʌ/L-DDK, and /pataka/DDK, had statistical differences, with a decreasing trend in their mean values with increasing age. CONCLUSIONS: The elderly group had significantly lower MPT, /hʌ/L-DDK, and /pataka/DDK than the young and middle-aged groups. We hypothesized that reduced respiratory support and control, decreased range of mouth movements and coordination, closed control of the vocal cords, and inadequate airflow control in vocal cord abduction are risk factors for presbyphagia in the elderly Shanghainese population.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of vocal fatigue index (VFI) to Chinese language.

Objectives: This study aimed to translate the Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI) into Simplified Chinese and test its reliability and validity in mainland China. Methods: The original English version of the VFI was translated and adapted to a Simplified Chinese version (VFI -SC). Fifty-four participants with voice disorders and 21 healthy controls completed the VFI-SC. Sixteen participants with voice disorders completed it again two weeks later. Reliability, validity, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) of the VFI-SC were analyzed. Results: The Cronbach's alpha values for the VFI factor scores were found to be 0.930 for tiredness and avoidance of voice use (factor 1), 0.878 for physical discomfort with voice use (factor 2), and 0.915 for improvement of symptoms with voice rest (factor 3). The test-retest reliability was 0.967 for all three factors. There was a significant difference between the total scores of the patient group and the control group (p < 0.01). Factor 1 and factor 2 were positively correlated with the Voice Handicap Index (VHI-30). The ROC curves showed acceptable intrinsic accuracies for factor 1 (AUC = 0.883), factor 2 (AUC = 0.901), and factor 3 (AUC = 0.800), with cutoff scores of 22, 7, and 9, respectively. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence that the VFI-SC has good reliability and validity. It can be used to screen for clinical symptoms of voice fatigue in mainland China.

Laryngeal Diadochokinesis in the Mandarin Population.

INTRODUCTION: This study identifies the most suitable syllable for laryngeal diadochokinesis (LDDK) in Mandarin speakers. METHODS: One hundred and ten Mandarin speakers aged 18-83 years were used in the study. LDDK was assessed using quick repetitions of /ʔe/, /ʔi/, /ʔa/, /he/, /ha/, and /hi/. The observation index included the average rate (syllable/s) and regularity (%). RESULTS: In the various age groups, there was no significant difference in LDDK rate and regularity of adducted syllables (p > 0.05), and only the regularity of /ʔi/ is significantly different between aged 18-40 and 41-64 years (p = 0.040). When vocal fold adduction was compared between various syllables, there was no significant difference in LDDK rate and regularity (p > 0.05). In various age groups, the LDDK rate of abduction syllables is different (p < 0.05) compared with the LDDK regularity of abduction syllables (p > 0.05). In various abduction syllables, there is no difference in LDDK rate (p > 0.05); however, /ha/ and /hi/ have significant differences in LDDK regularity (p = 0.007). CONCLUSION: According to the preliminary data, /ʔa/ and /ha/ can be used as suitable indicators to analyse the coordination ability of the laryngeal movement of Mandarin speakers.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) dataset with porn addiction and healthy teenagers under rest and executive function task.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) signal data were obtained from Yayasan Kita dan Buah Hati (YKBH), Jakarta, Indonesia and collected using a Brain Maker EEG machine with 19 channels. The sampling rate of the machine was 250 Hz. Fourteen participants (five females and nine males) participated in the data collection. A psychologist verified that seven of them were addicted to porn, and seven were healthy teenagers. The EEG data were recorded using one protocol with nine tasks for 10 min. The three stages were the baseline (tasks with eyes closed and open), emotional state (happy, calm, sad and fearful tasks) and main (15-words memorisation task, executive task and 15-words recall task) stages. The data obtained was used to analyse the signal pattern of pornography addiction amongst teenagers, as well as the emotional signal pattern and working memory capacity.

Specific phenotypic, genomic, and fitness evolutionary trajectories toward streptomycin resistance induced by pesticide co-stressors in Escherichia coli.

To explore how co-occurring non-antibiotic environmental stressors affect evolutionary trajectories toward antibiotic resistance, we exposed susceptible Escherichia coli K-12 populations to environmentally relevant levels of pesticides and streptomycin for 500 generations. The coexposure substantially changed the phenotypic, genotypic, and fitness evolutionary trajectories, resulting in much stronger streptomycin resistance (>15-fold increase) of the populations. Antibiotic target modification mutations in rpsL and rsmG, which emerged and dominated at late stages of evolution, conferred the strong resistance even with less than 1% abundance, while the off-target mutations in nuoG, nuoL, glnE, and yaiW dominated at early stages only led to mild resistance (2.5-6-fold increase). Moreover, the strongly resistant mutants exhibited lower fitness costs even without the selective pressure and had lower minimal selection concentrations than the mildly resistant ones. Removal of the selective pressure did not reverse the strong resistance of coexposed populations at a later evolutionary stage. The findings suggest higher risks of the selection and propagation of strong antibiotic resistance in environments potentially impacted by antibiotics and pesticides.

Profiling of pornography addiction among children using EEG signals: A systematic literature review.

Nowadays human behavior has been affected with the advent of new digital technologies. Due to the rampant use of the Internet by children, many have been addicted to pornography. This addiction has negatively affected the behaviors of children including increased impulsiveness, learning ability to attention, poor decision-making, memory problems, and deficit in emotion regulation. The children with porn addiction can be identified by parents and medical practitioners as third-party observers. This systematic literature review (SLR) is conducted to increase the understanding of porn addiction using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. We have searched five different databases namely IEEE, ACM, Science Direct, Springer and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) using addiction, porn, and EEG as keywords along with 'OR 'operation in between the expressions. We have selected 46 studies in this work by screening 815,554 papers from five databases. Our results show that it is possible to identify children with porn addiction using EEG signals.

[Study on the genotoxicity of cefuroxime lactone--an impurity substance in antibiotics].

OBJECTIVE: To study the genotoxicity of cefuroxime lactone, a kind of impurity in cefuroxime sodium, and to provide experimental basis for the toxicological safety evaluation of cefuroxime sodium. METHODS: A set of efficient and convenient genetic toxicity tests were used to evaluate the genotoxicity of cefuroxime lactone, focusing on gene mutation, chromosomal aberration, DNA damage and repair. RESULTS: (1) Ames assay: The number of colonies with back mutation (revertant) in varied strains of Salmonella typhimurium (TA97, 98, 100 and 102) through all doses of cefuroxime lactone did not exceed the number of spontaneous mutation colony by two times with or without rat liver microsomal enzymes (S9). (2) Micronucleus test in Kunming mice: Micronucleus rate in mice treated with 40 mg/kg cyclophosphamide, which used as a positive control, was 19.74 per thousand, significantly higher than that of negative control (1.82 per thousand) (P < 0.05), and micronucleus rate in mice dosed by 125, 250 and 500 (mg/kg) of cefuroxime lactone were 3.06 per thousand, 2.83 per thousand and 3.24 per thousand, showing no significant difference when compared with the negative control (P > 0.05). (3) Chromosome aberration assay: In the conditions of S9 existence or not, the chromosomal aberration rate of positive control (20 microg/ml cyclophosphamide and 0.1 microg/ml mitomycin c) was significantly higher than that of negative control (P < 0.05), while chromosomal aberration rate from cefuroxime lactone revealed no significant difference compared with the negative control (P > 0.05). (4) TK gene mutation assay: The relative survival (RS), relative viability (RV), relative suspension growth (RSG) and relative total growth (RTG) was decreased along with the increase of cefuroxime lactone concentrations, however, no significant difference was discovered between the dosed groups and negative control for TK gene mutation frequency (P > 0.05). (5) Comet assay: Comet rate of positive control (5.0 microg/ml methyl methanesulfonate) was 94.5%, higher than that of negative control (7.0%) (P < 0.05), while comet rates in varying concentrations of cefuroxime lactone showed no statistically difference compared with the negative control (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: genotoxicity was observed under our experimental conditions, which suggested that cefuroxime lactone has no mutagenic effect.