[Establishment and application of mandarin cleft palate speech database].

OBJECTIVE: This research aims to collect speech samples from patients with cleft palate, establish a mandarin-based database of cleft palate speech after sample analysis and classification, and provide a reference for the diagnosis of hypernasal or cleft palate, clinical education, and standard training for professional speech therapists and related research. METHODS: A total of 768 speech samples were collected from patients and volunteers from the Speech Therapy Center, West China Hospital of Stomatology, between May 2016 and March 2018. These samples were edited and categoried before being saved into the cleft lip and palate biologic information database. RESULTS: A mandarin-based database of cleft palate speech was established from 768 subjects, including 456 children (male 227, female 229), 312 adults (male 178, female 134), 369 normal speech voices, 155 low-level hypernasal samples, 102 moderate-level hypernasal samples, 142 high-level hypernasal samples, and 64 512 words, 24 576 phonemes, and 7 680 numbers. CONCLUSIONS: This study first established a mandarin-based database of cleft palate speech, which has enormous value for the education of speech pathology of cleft palate in mandarin and further research.

[A technique to design the framework of removable partial denture by multi-stage expert system].

This study aims to apply a new expert system to design removable partial denture (RPD) framework. The RPD design is completed in three steps, namely, "selecting missing teeth", "selecting abutment condition", and "selecting personalized clasp". The system can help auxiliary dentists develop personalized treatment plans to reduce their clinical workload. It can also generate a dental preparation guideline for clinical preparation, which can prevent tooth preparation mistakes. By generating the standard electronic drawings of the framework design, the system can reduce the inconvenience caused by manual drawing, thereby facilitating dentist-technician communication and reducing the rate of remade.