Chinese Emotional Speech Audiometry Project (CESAP): Establishment and Validation of a New Material Set With Emotionally Neutral Disyllabic Words

PURPOSE

The Chinese Emotional Speech Audiometry Project (CESAP) aims to establish a new material set for Chinese speech audiometry tests, which can be used in both neutral and emotional prosody settings. As the first endeavor of CESAP, this study demonstrates the development of the material foundation and reports its validation in neutral prosody.

METHOD

In the development step, 40 phonetically balanced word lists consisting of 30 Chinese disyllabic words with neutral valence were first generated. In a following affective rating experiment, 35 word lists were qualified for validation based on the familiarity and valence ratings from 30 normal-hearing (NH) participants. For validation, performance-intensity functions of each word list were fitted with responses from 60 NH subjects under six presentation levels (-1, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 20 dB HL). The final material set was determined by the intelligibility scores at each decibel level and the mean slopes.

RESULTS

First, 35 lists satisfied the criteria of phonetic balance, limited repetitions, high familiarity, and neutral valence and were selected for validation. Second, 15 lists were compiled in the final material set based on the pairwise differences in intelligibility scores and the fitted 20%-80% slopes. The established material set had high reliability and validity and was sensitive to detect intelligibility changes (50% slope: 6.20%/dB; 20%-80% slope: 5.45%/dB), with small covariance of variation for thresholds (15%), 50% slope (12%), and 20%-80% slope (12%).

CONCLUSION

Our final material set of 15 word lists takes the initiative to control the emotional aspect of audiometry tests, which enriches available Mandarin speech recognition materials and warrants future assessments in emotional prosody among populations with hearing impairments.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25742814.

Endurance Training Inhibits the JAK2/STAT3 Pathway to Alleviate Sarcopenia

Aging leads to a decrease in muscle function, mass, and strength in skeletal muscle of animals and humans. The transcriptome identified activation of the JAK/STAT pathway, a pathway that is associated with skeletal muscle atrophy, and endurance training has a significant effect on improving sarcopenia; however, the exact mechanism still requires further study. We investigated the effect of endurance training on sarcopenia. Six-month-old male SAMR1 mice were used as a young control group (group C), and the same month-old male SAMP8 mice were divided into an exercise group (group E) and a model group (group M). A 3-month running exercise intervention was performed on group E, and the other two groups were kept normally. Aging caused significant signs of sarcopenia in the SAMP8 mice, and endurance training effectively improved muscle function, muscle mass, and muscle strength in the SAMP8 mice. The expression of JAK2/STAT3 pathway factor was decreased in group E compared with group M, and the expression of SOCS3, the target gene of STAT3, and NR1D1, an atrophy-related factor, was significantly increased. Endurance training significantly improved the phenotypes associated with sarcopenia, and the JAK2/STAT3 pathway is a possible mechanism for the improvement of sarcopenia by endurance training, while NR1D1 may be its potential target. Keywords: Sarcopenia, Endurance training, Janus kinase 2/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (JAK2/STAT3), Nuclear receptor subfamily 1, group D member 1 (Nr1d1).

Evidence for causal effects of neuropsychiatric conditions on risk of venous thromboembolism: A univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization study

BACKGROUND

Substantial observational evidence suggests an association between neuropsychiatric conditions and venous thromboembolism (VTE). However, the causal relationship between these two conditions requires further investigation. Therefore, we used a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to assess the bidirectional causal effects between four neuropsychiatric conditions and VTE, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism (PE).

METHODS

Genetic variants associated with four neuropsychiatric conditions (ie, schizophrenia, major depressive disorder [MDD], bipolar disorder, and epilepsy) and VTE, deep vein thrombosis, and PE were selected. Bidirectional univariable and multivariable MR methods were applied to evaluate the causal relationships among these conditions. The primary causal estimates were obtained using the inverse variance weighted method with multiplicative random effects, supplemented by MR Egger regression, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode. Sensitivity analysis was conducted using the MR pleiotropy residual sum, funnel plots, and outlier (MR pleiotropy and residual sum and outlier) method.

RESULTS

Univariable MR results showed that genetic susceptibility to MDD increases the risk of VTE and PE (VTE: odds ratio [OR], 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08-1.46; P = .004; PE: OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.09-1.69; P = .006) and that PE has an adverse causal effect on MDD (OR, 1.02; 95% CI, 1.00-1.04; P = .026). Adjustment for confounders such as obesity, sleep duration, smoking, physical activity, and alcohol consumption revealed that increased genetic susceptibility to MDD is also associated with VTE and PE.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that genetic susceptibility to MDD might have an adverse causal effect on the risk of VTE and PE and that PE has a reverse causal effect on MDD. Prevention and early diagnosis of depression are crucial in the management of VTE and PE.

Dietary fat supplementation relieves cold temperature-induced energy stress through AMPK-mediated mitochondrial homeostasis in pigs

BACKGROUND

Cold stress has negative effects on the growth and health of mammals, and has become a factor restricting livestock development at high latitudes and on plateaus. The gut-liver axis is central to energy metabolism, and the mechanisms by which it regulates host energy metabolism at cold temperatures have rarely been illustrated. In this study, we evaluated the status of glycolipid metabolism and oxidative stress in pigs based on the gut-liver axis and propose that AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a key target for alleviating energy stress at cold temperatures by dietary fat supplementation.

RESULTS

Dietary fat supplementation alleviated the negative effects of cold temperatures on growth performance and digestive enzymes, while hormonal homeostasis was also restored. Moreover, cold temperature exposure increased glucose transport in the jejunum. In contrast, we observed abnormalities in lipid metabolism, which was characterized by the accumulation of bile acids in the ileum and plasma. In addition, the results of the ileal metabolomic analysis were consistent with the energy metabolism measurements in the jejunum, and dietary fat supplementation increased the activity of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and lipid metabolism. As the central nexus of energy metabolism, the state of glycolipid metabolism and oxidative stress in the liver are inconsistent with that in the small intestine. Specifically, we found that cold temperature exposure increased glucose transport in the liver, which fully validates the idea that hormones can act on the liver to regulate glucose output. Additionally, dietary fat supplementation inhibited glucose transport and glycolysis, but increased gluconeogenesis, bile acid cycling, and lipid metabolism. Sustained activation of AMPK, which an energy receptor and regulator, leads to oxidative stress and apoptosis in the liver; dietary fat supplementation alleviates energy stress by reducing AMPK phosphorylation.

CONCLUSIONS

Cold stress reduced the growth performance and aggravated glycolipid metabolism disorders and oxidative stress damage in pigs. Dietary fat supplementation improved growth performance and alleviated cold temperature-induced energy stress through AMPK-mediated mitochondrial homeostasis. In this study, we highlight the importance of AMPK in dietary fat supplementation-mediated alleviation of host energy stress in response to environmental changes.

Investigating Perception to Production Transfer in Children With Cochlear Implants: A High Variability Phonetic Training Study

PURPOSE

This study builds upon an established effective training method to investigate the advantages of high variability phonetic identification training for enhancing lexical tone perception and production in Mandarin-speaking pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients, who typically face ongoing challenges in these areas.

METHOD

Thirty-two Mandarin-speaking children with CIs were quasirandomly assigned into the training group (TG) and the control group (CG). The 16 TG participants received five sessions of high variability phonetic training (HVPT) within a period of 3 weeks. The CG participants did not receive the training. Perception and production of Mandarin tones were administered before (pretest) and immediately after (posttest) the completion of HVPT via lexical tone recognition task and picture naming task. Both groups participated in the identical pretest and posttest with the same time frame between the two test sessions.

RESULTS

TG showed significant improvement from pretest to posttest in identifying Mandarin tones for both trained and untrained speech stimuli. Moreover, perceptual learning of HVPT significantly facilitated trainees' production of T1 and T2 as rated by a cohort of 10 Mandarin-speaking adults with normal hearing, which was corroborated by acoustic analyses revealing improved fundamental frequency (F0) median for T1 and T2 production and enlarged F0 movement for T2 production. In contrast, TG children's production of T3 and T4 showed nonsignificant changes across two test sessions. Meanwhile, CG did not exhibit significant changes in either perception or production.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest a limited and inconsistent transfer of perceptual learning to lexical tone production in children with CIs, which challenges the notion of a robust transfer and highlights the complexity of the interaction between perceptual training and production outcomes. Further research on individual differences with a longitudinal design is needed to optimize the training protocol or tailor interventions to better meet the diverse needs of learners.

[Clinical efficacy of induction chemoimmunotherapy for locally advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma: a prospective phase Ⅱ study]

Objective: To evaluate the objective response rate (ORR) of induction chemoimmunotherapy with camrelizumab plus TPF (docetaxel, cisplatin, and capecitabine) for locally advanced hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LA HSCC) and potential predictive factors for ORR. Methods: A single-center, prospective, phase 2 and single-arm trial was conducted for evaluating antitumor activity of camrelizumab+TPF(docetaxel+cisplatin+capecitabine) for LA HSCC between May 21, 2021 and April 15, 2023, patients admitted to the Eye & ENT Hospital affiliated with Fudan University. The primary endpoint was ORR, and enrolled patients with LA HSCC at T3-4N0-3M0 received induction chemoimmunotherapy for three cycles: camrelizumab 200 mg day 1, docetaxel 75 mg/m2 day 1, cisplatin 25 mg/m2 days 1-3, and capecitabine 800 mg/m2 days 1-14. Patients were assigned to radioimmunotherapy when they had complete response or partial response (PR)>70% (Group A), or assigned to surgery plus adjuvant radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy when they had PR≤70% (Group B), and the responses were defined by using tumor volume evaluation system. Tumor diameter was also used to assess the treatment responses by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1. Use SPSS 23.0 software was used to analyze the data. Results: A total of 51 patients were enrolled who underwent the induced chemoimmunotherapy for three cycles, and all were males, aged 35-69 years old. After three cycles of induction immunochemotherapy, 42 (82.4%) patients existed in Group A (complete response or PR>70%) and 9 patients (17.6%) in Group B (PR≤70%), the ORR was 82.4%. The primary endpoint achieved expected main research objectives. Compared to the patients of Group A, the patients of Group B showed the higher T stage and the larger volume of primary tumor before induced immunochemotherapy, and also had the less regression of tumor volume after induced immunochemotherapy (all P<0.05). The optimal cutoff value of pre-treatment tumor volume for predicting ORR was 39 cm3. The T stage (OR=12.71, 95%CI: 1.4-112.5, P=0.022) and the volume (OR=7.1, 95%CI: 1.4-36.8, P=0.018) of primary tumor were the two main factors affecting ORR rate of induction chemoimmunotherapy. Conclusion: The induction chemoimmunotherapy with camrelizumab plus TPF shows an encouraging antitumor efficacy in LA HSCC.

Sleeve gastrectomy links the attenuation of diabetic kidney disease to the inhibition of renal tubular ferroptosis through down-regulating TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway

PURPOSE

To investigate how sleeve gastrectomy (SG), a typical operation of bariatric surgery, attenuated symptom, and progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD).

METHODS

DKD model was induced by high-fat diet (HFD) combined with streptozocin in Wistar rats. SG was performed, and the group subjected to sham surgery served as control. The animals were euthanized 12 weeks after surgery, followed by sample collection for the subsequent experiment. The HK-2, a renal proximal tubular epithelial cell line derived from human, was utilized to investigate the potential mechanisms.

RESULTS

SG improved metabolic parameters and glucose homeostasis, and could alleviate DKD in terms of renal function indices as well as histological and morphological structures in DM rats, accompanied with a significant reduction in renal tubular injury. Compared with sham group, SG reduced the renal tubular ferroptosis. To further clarify the mechanism involved, in vitro experiments were performed. In the presence of high glucose, renal tubular TGF-β1 secretion was significantly increased in HK-2 cell line, which led to activation of ferroptosis through TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway. Inhibition of TGF-β1 receptor and phosphorylation of Smad3 significantly ameliorated TGF-β1-mediated ferroptosis. In vivo experiments also found that SG improved the hyperglycemic environment, reduced renal TGF-β1 concentrations, and down-regulated the TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway.

CONCLUSIONS

With the capacity to lower the glucose, SG could attenuate the ferroptosis by inhibiting TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway in DKD rats, and eventually attenuated DKD.

[The association between portal vein thrombosis and rebleeding after non-urgent endoscopic treatment of esophagogastric varices]

Objective: To investigate the association between portal vein thrombosis and rebleeding after non-urgent endoscopic treatment of esophagogastric varices. Methods: The cirrhotic patients with esophagogastric varices diagnosed in the People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2017 to March 2023 were retrospectively collected. The patients were divided into thrombotic group and non-thrombotic group according to the presence or absence of portal vein thrombosis. The failure rate of endoscopic treatment and rebleeding rate in different periods were compared between the two groups. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to select the best cutoff value of gastric varicose diameter that affected total rebleeding during follow-up in both groups. The influencing factors of rebleeding within 12 and 36 months in both groups were analyzed, and the influencing factors of rebleeding within 36 months in thrombus group were further analyzed. Results: A total of 106 patients were enrolled, including 53 patients in the thrombotic group [male 37, female 16, aged 18-78 (54±13) years] and 53 patients in the non-thrombotic group [male 37, female 16, aged 27-83 (55±12) years]. The follow-up time of the two groups were (20±15) and (25±15) months, respectively. The total rebleeding rate in the thrombotic group was higher than that in the non-thrombotic group [30.2% (16/53) vs 13.2% (7/53), P˂0.05]. The rebleeding rates within 6, 12, 24 and 36 months in the thrombotic group were higher than those in the non-thrombotic group [18.9% (10/53) vs 5.7% (3/53), 18.9% (10/53) vs 5.7% (3/53), 28.3% (15/53) vs 9.4% (5/53), 30.2% (16/53) vs 11.3% (6/53), all P˂0.05]. The best cut-off value of the diameter of gastric varices that affects the total rebleeding in the two groups was 10.4 mm (10 mm was selected as the best cut-off value for the convenience of practical clinical application). Hemoglobin ˂ 85 g/L (HR=0.202, 95%CI: 0.043-0.953, P=0.043), 10 mm ˂ the diameter of GV ≤ 15 mm (HR=5.321, 95%CI: 1.161-24.390, P=0.031) and endoscopic variceal ligation combined with endoscopic tissue adhesive injection (EVL+ETAI) (HR=7.172, 95%CI: 1.910-26.930, P=0.004) were the risk factors for the first gastroesophageal variceal rebleeding within 12 months after non-urgent endoscopic treatment. EVL+ETAI (HR=3.811, 95%CI: 1.441-10.084, P=0.007) and portal vein thrombosis (HR=4.026, 95%CI: 1.483-10.932, P=0.006) were the risk factors for the first gastroesophageal variceal rebleeding within 36 months after non-urgent endoscopic treatment. The study found that, 10 mm ˂ the diameter of GV ≤ 15 mm (HR=7.503, 95%CI: 1.568-35.890, P=0.012) was the risk factor for rebleeding within 36 months in the thrombotic group. Conclusion: Portal vein thrombosis is a risk factor for rebleeding after non-urgent endoscopic treatment of esophagogastric varices.

Dietary-fat supplementation alleviates cold temperature-induced metabolic dysbiosis and barrier impairment by remodeling gut microbiota

As important components of the mammalian diet and tissues, fats are involved in a variety of biological processes in addition to providing energy. In general, the increase in basal metabolism and health risks under cold temperature conditions causes the host to need more energy to maintain body temperature and normal biological processes. The intestine and its microbiota are key components in orchestrating host metabolic homeostasis and immunity, and respond rapidly to changing environmental conditions. However, the role of dietary-fat supplementation in regulating host homeostasis of metabolism and barrier functions through gut microbiota at cold temperatures is incompletely understood. Our results showed that dietary-fat supplementation alleviated the negative effects of cold temperatures on the alpha-diversity of both ileal and colonic microbiota. Cold temperatures altered the ileal and colonic microbiota of pigs, and the extent of changes was more pronounced in the colonic microbiota. Translocation of the gut microbiota was restored after supplementation with a high-fat diet. In addition, cold temperatures exacerbated ileal mucosal damage and inflammation, and disrupted barrier function, which may be associated with decreased concentrations of butyrate and isobutyrate. Cold temperature-induced metabolic dysbiosis was manifested by altered hormone levels and upregulation of expression of multiple metabolites involved in metabolism (lipids, amino acids and minerals) and the immune response. Supplementation with a high-fat diet restored metabolic homeostasis and barrier function by improving gut-microbiota composition and increasing SCFAs concentrations in pigs. In conclusion, cold temperatures induced severe translocation of microbiota and barrier damage. These actions increased the risk of metabolic imbalance. Dietary-fat supplementation alleviated the adverse effects of cold temperatures on host metabolism by remodeling the gut microbiota.

Two-Stage Treatment Protocol of Fungal Periprosthetic Hip and Knee Joint Infections: the Clinical Experience from a Single Center Experience

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

To evaluate the clinical results and safety of fungal periprosthetic joint Infections (fPJIs) using two-stage treatment protocol.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

8 patients with fPJIs (3 hips and 5 knees) using two-stage revision were reviewed retrospectively and followed up at least 2 years. The preoperative demographic data, two-stage treatment protocol, results of microbiology and histologic workup and postoperative follow-up results (reimplantation success rate and infection free time) were recorded.

RESULTS

7 patients got successful reimplantation, with a 75% reimplantation success rate. Two patients got knee arthrodesis eventually. All patients were infection free with a median follow-up of 4.0 ± 2.0 years (range, 2-7 years). Of them, Candida species were found in 7 patients, while non-Candida specimen was only isolated in 1 patient with Aspergillus. Only 2 patients had coexisting bacterial infection (Methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococci and Proteus mirabilis respectively). The average interval between the initial surgery and diagnosis of fPJIs was 21.50±34.79 months (range, 4-104 months). The mean time of spacer implantation was 7.75±2.77 months (range, 6-14 months). None serious complication or above knee amputation was found.

DISCUSSION

fPJIs are very rare and considerable challenge after total hip or knee arthroplasty. The goal of therapy is to eradicate local infection and maintain function. Candida species were the most common pathogen. The duration between spacer placement and staged reimplantation was highly variable, and generally dependent upon the results of joint aspirates and infl ammatory markers. The current study shows that the two-stage treatment protocol is recommended for fungal periprosthetic hip and knee joint infections.

CONCLUSIONS

The two-stage treatment protocol is recommended for fungal periprosthetic hip and knee joint infections. The safety and effi cacy of biantibiotical impregnated (antifungal + antibiotics) cement spacer is confi rmed. Further evidence-based work is needed to determine the optimal drug dose and reimplantation time.

KEY WORDS

two-stage treatment protocol, fungal periprosthetic infections, hip spacer, knee spacer.

Testosterone promotes the migration, invasion and EMT process of papillary thyroid carcinoma by up-regulating Tnnt1

PURPOSE

To explore the key genes and molecular pathways in the progression of thyroid papillary carcinoma (PTC) promoted by testosterone using RNA-sequencing technology, and to provide new drug targets for improving the therapeutic effect of PTC.

METHODS

Orchiectomy (ORX) was carried out to construct ORX mouse models. TPC-1 cells were subcutaneously injected for PTC formation in mice, and the tumor tissues were collected for RNA-seq. The key genes were screened by bioinformatics technology. Tnnt1 expression in PTC cells was knocked down or overexpressed by transfection. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation assay, scratch assay and transwell assay were adopted, respectively, for the detection of cell proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion. Besides, quantification real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blot were utilized to determine the mRNA and protein expression levels of genes in tissues or cells.

RESULTS

Both estradiol and testosterone promoted the growth of PTC xenografts. The key gene Tnnt1 was screened and obtained by bioinformatics technology. Functional analysis revealed that overexpression of Tnnt1 could markedly promote the proliferation, colony formation, migration, invasion, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process of PTC cells, as well as could activate p38/JNK pathway. In addition, si-Tnt1 was able to inhibit the cancer-promoting effect of testosterone.

CONCLUSION

Based on the outcomes of bioinformatics and basic experiments, it is found that testosterone can promote malignant behaviors such as growth, migration, invasion and EMT process of PTC by up-regulating Tnnt1 expression. In addition, the function of testosterone may be achieved by activating p38/JNK signaling pathway.

Comparison of anal function and quality of life after conformal sphincter preservation operation and intersphincteric resection of very low rectal cancer: a multicenter, retrospective, case-control analysis

PURPOSE

Conformal sphincter preservation operation (CSPO) is a sphincter preservation operation for very low rectal cancers. Compared to intersphincteric resection (ISR), CSPO retains more dentate line and distal rectal wall, and also avoids damaging the nerves in the intersphincteric space. This study aimed to compare the postoperative anal function and quality of life between the CSPO and ISR.

METHOD

Patients with low rectal cancer undergoing CSPO (n = 117) and ISR (n = 66) were included from Changhai and Huashan Hospital, respectively, between 2011 and 2020. A visual analog scale (range 0-10) was utilized to evaluate satisfaction with anal function and quality of life. The anal function was evaluated with Wexner scores and low anterior resection syndrome (LARS) score. Quality of life was evaluated with the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-CR38.

RESULTS

The CSPO group had more male patients (65.8% vs. 50%, p = 0.042), more preoperative chemoradiotherapy (33.3% vs. 10.6%, p < 0.001), lower tumor position (3.45 ± 1.13 vs. 4.24 ± 0.86 cm, p < 0.001), and more postoperative chemotherapy (65% vs. 13.6%, p < 0.001) compared to the ISR group. In addition, CSPO patients had shorter postoperative stay (6.63 ± 2.53 vs. 7.85 ± 4.73 days, p = 0.003) and comparable stoma reversal rates within 1 year after surgery (92.16% vs. 96.97%, p = 0.318). Multivariable analysis showed that CSPO significantly contributed to higher satisfaction with anal function (beta = 1.752, 95% CI 0.776-2.728) and with quality of life (beta = 1.219, 95% CI 0.374-2.064), but not to Wexner, LARS score, or EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-CR38.

CONCLUSION

CSPO improved the satisfaction with anal function and quality of life but utilized more preoperative chemoradiotherapy. CSPO may be an alternative choice for patients with very low rectal cancers in better physical health and with higher requirements for anal function and quality of life.

Diagnostic performance of diffusion-weighted imaging and intravoxel incoherent motion for renal lesions: a meta-analysis

AIM

To compare the diagnostic performance of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) parameters, specifically true diffusion coefficient (D), pseudo diffusion coefficient (D∗), and perfusion fraction (f) for quantitatively differentiating benign and malignant renal lesions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A comprehensive search was conducted in the EMBASE and PubMed databases before September 2022 to identify studies in English investigating the diagnostic accuracy of DWI and IVIM in renal lesions. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the QUADAS-2 tool. Pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) values were estimated for each parameter.

RESULTS

A total of 19 studies involving 1,860 renal lesions (1,160 malignant and 700 benign), met the inclusion criteria. Among these studies, 15 assessed the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), four assessed IVIM, and three evaluated both ADC and IVIM. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and AUC for ADC were 0.84 (95% confidence interval [Cl], 0.79-0.88), 0.82 (95% Cl, 0.72-0.89), and 0.89 (95% Cl, 0.86-0.92), respectively. The IVIM parameter with the highest diagnostic accuracy was D, with a pooled sensitivity, specificity, and AUC of 0.89 (95% Cl, 0.74-0.96), 0.96 (95% Cl, 0.85-0.99), and 0.98 (95% Cl, 0.96-0.99), respectively. The pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC for f were 0.67 (95% Cl, 0.55-0.77), 0.81 (95% Cl, 0.30-0.98), and 0.73 (95% Cl, 0.69-0.77), respectively. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and AUC for D∗ were 0.87 (95% Cl, 0.81-0.91), 0.59 (95% Cl, 0.48-0.70), and 0.82 (95% Cl, 0.78-0.85), respectively.

CONCLUSION

This meta-analysis indicated that both IVIM and DWI had moderate to high diagnostic accuracy for differentiating benign and malignant renal lesions. Among the IVIM parameter, D exhibited the highest diagnostic accuracy, demonstrating higher sensitivity and specificity than ADC, D∗, and f.

Analysis and prediction of UAV-assisted mobile edge computing systems

As the demand for the internet of things (IoT) continues to grow, there is an increasing need for low-latency networks. Mobile edge computing (MEC) provides a solution to reduce latency by offloading computational tasks to edge servers. However, this study primarily focuses on the integration of back propagation (BP) neural networks into the realm of MEC, aiming to address intricate network challenges. Our innovation lies in the fusion of BP neural networks with MEC, particularly for optimizing task scheduling and processing. Firstly, we introduce a drone-assisted MEC model that categorizes computation offloading into synchronous and asynchronous modes based on task scheduling. Secondly, we employ Markov chains and probability-generation functions to accurately compute parameters such as average queue length, cycle time, throughput, and average delay in the synchronous mode. We also derive the first and second-order derivatives of the probability-generation function to support these computations. Finally, we establish a BP neural network to solve for the average queue length and latency in the asynchronous mode. Our results from the BP neural network closely align with the theoretical values obtained through the probability-generation function, demonstrating the effectiveness of our approach. Additionally, our proposed UAV-assisted MEC model outperforms the synchronous mode. Overall, our MEC scheduling approach significantly reduces latency, enhances speed, and improves throughput, with our model reducing latency by approximately 11.72$ \% $ and queue length by around 9.45$ \% $.

Articulation distortion in Mandarin-speaking individuals with complete arch maxillary implant-supported fixed dental prostheses

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Implant-supported fixed dental prostheses (IFPs) have been increasingly used to restore edentulous jaws, yet few studies have utilized acoustic analysis for objective evaluation of postrestoration speech outcomes.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this clinical study was to assess speech articulation in edentulous individuals before and after the provision of IFPs by combining the results of subjective evaluations and objective acoustic analysis parameters.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study included thirty-four individuals who had an edentulous maxilla and had been provided with an IFP for over 6 months, along with 6 dentate controls. Acoustic analysis was conducted, and mean opinion scores (MOS) were rated from recordings. The participants were interviewed about perceived speech changes. Changes in the parameters were evaluated using the paired t test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test (α=.05). A comparison between dentate controls and edentulous individuals (with or without prostheses) was made using an independent t test or Mann-Whitney U test (α=.025).

RESULTS

Following restoration, the center of gravity (CoG) changes occurred in 11 of 12 consonants in edentulous individuals (P<.05). Prosthesis use allowed the CoG of all affricates and fricatives to appear larger and closer to control values. Before restoration, the CoG of 9 of 12 consonants in edentulous individuals differed from controls (P<.01); after restoration, this reduced to 3 out of 12 (P<.01). MOS improved in 10 of 12 consonants (P<.01), nearing a score of 4. Despite restoration, the CoG of alveolo-palatals [tɕh], [tɕ], and [ɕ] remained different from controls (P<.01). Most participants were satisfied with the improvement, with few reporting discomfort with alveolars [s] and [tsh].

CONCLUSIONS

IFPs can enhance speech in edentulous individuals, yet articulation distortions of alveolar and alveolo-palatal consonants persist. The improper palatal shape of IFPs or an abrupt joint between the IFP and atrophic natural bone may contribute to these distortions.

Performance analysis of a two-level polling control system based on LSTM and attention mechanism for wireless sensor networks

A continuous-time exhaustive-limited (K = 2) two-level polling control system is proposed to address the needs of increasing network scale, service volume and network performance prediction in the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network and an attention mechanism is used for its predictive analysis. First, the central site uses the exhaustive service policy and the common site uses the Limited K = 2 service policy to establish a continuous-time exhaustive-limited (K = 2) two-level polling control system. Second, the exact expressions for the average queue length, average delay and cycle period are derived using probability generating functions and Markov chains and the MATLAB simulation experiment. Finally, the LSTM neural network and an attention mechanism model is constructed for prediction. The experimental results show that the theoretical and simulated values basically match, verifying the rationality of the theoretical analysis. Not only does it differentiate priorities to ensure that the central site receives a quality service and to ensure fairness to the common site, but it also improves performance by 7.3 and 12.2%, respectively, compared with the one-level exhaustive service and the one-level limited K = 2 service; compared with the two-level gated- exhaustive service model, the central site length and delay of this model are smaller than the length and delay of the gated- exhaustive service, indicating a higher priority for this model. Compared with the exhaustive-limited K = 1 two-level model, it increases the number of information packets sent at once and has better latency performance, providing a stable and reliable guarantee for wireless network services with high latency requirements. Following on from this, a fast evaluation method is proposed: Neural network prediction, which can accurately predict system performance as the system size increases and simplify calculations.

A bibliometric analysis of media coverage of mental disorders between 2002 and 2022

PURPOSE

Mental disorders are a public health concern with media as a primary source of information. This study aims to present current research on how the media reports mental disorders.

METHODS

This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 130 published studies on media coverage of mental disorders, focusing on the research themes and research trends of the published studies.

RESULTS

The results show that media coverage of mental disorders was generally negative and influenced by socio-demographic factors (e.g., age, gender, and cultural values). Results also show that social media was becoming crucial for mental health communication.

CONCLUSION

Media worsen the stigma against those with mental disorders, continuing prejudice and discrimination. The field has shifted from traditional media to social media, and from general to specific mental disorder descriptions.

Association of Computed Tomography Radiomics Signature with Progression-free Survival in Neuroblastoma Patients

AIMS

To investigate the association of computed tomography radiomics signature with progression-free survival (PFS) in neuroblastoma patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We retrospectively included 167 neuroblastoma patients who were divided into a training set and a test set through stratified sampling at a ratio of 7:3. Regions of interest of the primary tumours were delineated on pretreatment contrast-enhanced computed tomography images and radiomics features were extracted from them. The intraclass correlation coefficient, Pearson correlation coefficient, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression algorithm were applied to select radiomics features and construct the radiomics signature. The effectiveness of the signature in predicting PFS was evaluated using the concordance index (C-index) and 95% confidence interval in both the training and the test sets. The time-dependent receiver operator characteristic curve of the radiomics signature was plotted and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. A calibration curve was used to assess the difference between the predicted probability of the radiomics signature and the observed probability at different time points.

RESULTS

The radiomics signature was composed of six features, which achieved a C-index of 0.733 (95% confidence interval 0.664-0.803) in the training set and 0.734 (95% confidence interval 0.608-0.861) in the test set. In the training set, the radiomics signature yielded an AUC of 0.707, 0.737, 0.788, 0.859 and 0.829 for 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year PFS, respectively. Similarly, the radiomics signature exhibited an AUC of 0.738, 0.807, 0.761, 0.787 and 0.818 for 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year PFS, respectively, in the test set. The calibration curves showed no significant difference between the predicted probability of the radiomics signature and the observed probability for up to 5 years.

CONCLUSIONS

Computed tomography radiomics features exhibit a significant correlation with the PFS of neuroblastoma patients, particularly in terms of long-term outcomes.

Using entropy of snoring, respiratory effort and electrocardiography signals during sleep for OSA detection and severity classification

STUDY OBJECTIVES

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a very prevalent disease and its diagnosis is based on polysomnography (PSG). We investigated whether snoring-sound-, very low frequency electrocardiogram (ECG-VLF)- and thoraco-abdominal effort- PSG signal entropy values could be used as surrogate markers for detection of OSA and OSA severity classification.

METHODS

The raw data of the snoring-, ECG- and abdominal and thoracic excursion signal recordings of two consecutive full-night PSGs of 86 consecutive patients (22 female, 53.74 ± 12.4 years) were analyzed retrospectively. Four epochs (30 s each, manually scored according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine standard) of each sleep stage (N1, N2, N3, REM, awake) were used as the ground truth. Sampling entropy (SampEn) of all the above signals was calculated and group comparisons between the OSA severity groups were performed. In total, (86x4x5 = )1720 epochs/group/night were included in the training set as an input for a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to classify the OSA severity classes. Analyses were performed for first- and second-night PSG recordings separately.

RESULTS

Twenty-seven patients had mild (RDI = ≥ 5/h but <15/h), 21 patients moderate (RDI ≥15/h but <30/h) and 23 patients severe OSA (RDI ≥30/h). Fifteen patients had an RDI <5/h and were therefore considered non-OSA. Using SE on the above three PSG signal data and using a SVM pipeline, it was possible to distinguish between the four OSA severity classes. The best metric was snoring signal-SE. The area-under-the-curve (AUC) calculations showed reproducible significant results for both nights of PSG. The second night data were even more significant, with non-OSA (R) vs. light OSA (L) 0.61, R vs. moderate (M) 0.68, R vs. heavy OSA (H) 0.84, L vs. M 0.63, M vs. H 0.65 and L vs. H 0.82. The results were not confounded by age or gender.

CONCLUSIONS

SampEn of either snoring-, very low ECG-frequencies- or thoraco-abdominal effort signals alone may be used as a surrogate marker to diagnose OSA and even predict OSA severity. More specifically, in this exploratory study snoring signal SampEn showed the greatest predictive accuracy for OSA among the three signals. Second night data showed even more accurate results for all three parameters than first-night recordings. Therefore, technologies using only parts of the PSG signal, e.g. sound-recording devices, may be used for OSA screening and OSA severity group classification.

Evaluating the Relative Perceptual Salience of Linguistic and Emotional Prosody in Quiet and Noisy Contexts

How people recognize linguistic and emotional prosody in different listening conditions is essential for understanding the complex interplay between social context, cognition, and communication. The perception of both lexical tones and emotional prosody depends on prosodic features including pitch, intensity, duration, and voice quality. However, it is unclear which aspect of prosody is perceptually more salient and resistant to noise. This study aimed to investigate the relative perceptual salience of emotional prosody and lexical tone recognition in quiet and in the presence of multi-talker babble noise. Forty young adults randomly sampled from a pool of native Mandarin Chinese with normal hearing listened to monosyllables either with or without background babble noise and completed two identification tasks, one for emotion recognition and the other for lexical tone recognition. Accuracy and speed were recorded and analyzed using generalized linear mixed-effects models. Compared with emotional prosody, lexical tones were more perceptually salient in multi-talker babble noise. Native Mandarin Chinese participants identified lexical tones more accurately and quickly than vocal emotions at the same signal-to-noise ratio. Acoustic and cognitive dissimilarities between linguistic prosody and emotional prosody may have led to the phenomenon, which calls for further explorations into the underlying psychobiological and neurophysiological mechanisms.

[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia arising from malignant tumors]

Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics, cytogenetics, molecular biology, treatment, and prognosis of patients with therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia (t-MDS/AML) secondary to malignancies. Methods: The clinical data of 86 patients with t-MDS/AML in West China Hospital of Sichuan University between January 2010 and April 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. The clinical characteristics, primary tumor types, and tumor-related therapies were analyzed. Results: The study enrolled a total of 86 patients with t-MDS/AML, including 67 patients with t-AML, including 1 patient with M(0), 6 with M(1), 27 with M(2), 9 with M(3), 12 with M(4), 10 with M(5), 1 with M(6), and 1 with M(7). Sixty-two patients could be genetically stratified, with a median overall survival (OS) of 36 (95% CI 22-52) months for 20 (29.9%) patients in the low-risk group and 6 (95% CI 3-9) months for 10 (14.9%) in the intermediate-risk group. The median OS time was 8 (95% CI 1-15) months in 32 (47.8%) patients in the high-risk group. For patients with non-acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and AML, the median OS of the low-risk group was 27 (95% CI 18-36) months, which was significantly longer than that of the non-low-risk group (χ(2)=5.534, P=0.019). All 9 APL cases were treated according to the initial treatment, and the median OS was not reached, and the 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS rates were 100.0%, (75.0±6.2) %, and (75.0±6.2) % respectively. Of the 58 patients with non-APL t-AML (89.7%), 52 received chemotherapy, and 16 achieved complete remission (30.8%) after the first induction chemotherapy. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS rates of the non-APL t-AML group were (42.0 ± 6.6) %, (22.9±5.7) %, and (13.4±4.7) %, respectively. The median OS of patients who achieved remission was 24 (95% CI 18-30) months, and the median OS of those who did not achieve remission was 6 (95% CI 3-9) months (χ(2)=10.170, P=0.001). Bone marrow CR was achieved in 7 (53.8%) of 13 patients treated with vineclar-containing chemotherapy, with a median OS of 12 (95% CI 9-15) months, which was not significantly different from that of vineclar-containing chemotherapy (χ(2)=0.600, P=0.437). In 19 patients with t-MDS, the 1-, 2-, and 3-year OS rates were (46.8±11.6) %, (17.5±9.1) %, and (11.7±9.1) % with a median OS of 12 (95% CI 7-17) months, which was not significantly different from that in t-AML (χ(2)=0.232, P=0.630) . Conclusions: Breast cancer, bowel cancer, and other primary tumors are common in patients with t-MDS/AML, which have a higher risk of adverse genetics. Patients with APL had a high induction remission rate and a good long-term prognosis, whereas patients without APL had a low remission rate and a poor long-term prognosis.

A chaos-based adaptive equilibrium optimizer algorithm for solving global optimization problems

The equilibrium optimizer (EO) algorithm is a newly developed physics-based optimization algorithm, which inspired by a mixed dynamic mass balance equation on a controlled fixed volume. The EO algorithm has a number of strengths, such as simple structure, easy implementation, few parameters and its effectiveness has been demonstrated on numerical optimization problems. However, the canonical EO still presents some drawbacks, such as poor balance between exploration and exploitation operation, tendency to get stuck in local optima and low convergence accuracy. To tackle these limitations, this paper proposes a new EO-based approach with an adaptive gbest-guided search mechanism and a chaos mechanism (called a chaos-based adaptive equilibrium optimizer algorithm (ACEO)). Firstly, an adaptive gbest-guided mechanism is injected to enrich the population diversity and expand the search range. Next, the chaos mechanism is incorporated to enable the algorithm to escape from the local optima. The effectiveness of the developed ACEO is demonstrated on 23 classical benchmark functions, and compared with the canonical EO, EO variants and other frontier metaheuristic approaches. The experimental results reveal that the developed ACEO method remarkably outperforms the canonical EO and other competitors. In addition, ACEO is implemented to solve a mobile robot path planning (MRPP) task, and compared with other typical metaheuristic techniques. The comparison indicates that ACEO beats its competitors, and the ACEO algorithm can provide high-quality feasible solutions for MRPP.

Sustainable Benefits of High Variability Phonetic Training in Mandarin-speaking Kindergarteners With Cochlear Implants: Evidence From Categorical Perception of Lexical Tones

OBJECTIVES

Although pitch reception poses a great challenge for individuals with cochlear implants (CIs), formal auditory training (e.g., high variability phonetic training [HVPT]) has been shown to provide direct benefits in pitch-related perceptual performances such as lexical tone recognition for CI users. As lexical tones in spoken language are expressed with a multitude of distinct spectral, temporal, and intensity cues, it is important to determine the sources of training benefits for CI users. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a rigorous fine-scale evaluation with the categorical perception (CP) paradigm to control the acoustic parameters and test the efficacy and sustainability of HVPT for Mandarin-speaking pediatric CI recipients. The main hypothesis was that HVPT-induced perceptual learning would greatly enhance CI users' ability to extract the primary pitch contours from spoken words for lexical tone identification and discrimination. Furthermore, individual differences in immediate and long-term gains from training would likely be attributable to baseline performance and duration of CI use.

DESIGN

Twenty-eight prelingually deaf Mandarin-speaking kindergarteners with CIs were tested. Half of them received five sessions of HVPT within a period of 3 weeks. The other half served as control who did not receive the formal training. Two classical CP tasks on a tonal continuum from Mandarin tone 1 (high-flat in pitch) to tone 2 (mid-rising in pitch) with fixed acoustic features of duration and intensity were administered before (pretest), immediately after (posttest), and 10 weeks posttraining termination (follow-up test). Participants were instructed to either label a speech stimulus along the continuum (i.e., identification task) or determine whether a pair of stimuli separated by zero or two steps from the continuum was the same or different (i.e., discrimination task). Identification function measures (i.e., boundary position and boundary width) and discrimination function scores (i.e., between-category score, within-category score, and peakedness score) were assessed for each child participant across the three test sessions.

RESULTS

Linear mixed-effects (LME) models showed significant training-induced enhancement in lexical tone categorization with significantly narrower boundary width and better between-category discrimination in the immediate posttest over pretest for the trainees. Furthermore, training-induced gains were reliably retained in the follow-up test 10 weeks after training. By contrast, no significant changes were found in the control group across sessions. Regression analysis confirmed that baseline performance (i.e., boundary width in the pretest session) and duration of CI use were significant predictors for the magnitude of training-induced benefits.

CONCLUSIONS

The stringent CP tests with synthesized stimuli that excluded acoustic cues other than the pitch contour and were never used in training showed strong evidence for the efficacy of HVPT in yielding immediate and sustained improvement in lexical tone categorization for Mandarin-speaking children with CIs. The training results and individual differences have remarkable implications for developing personalized computer-based short-term HVPT protocols that may have sustainable long-term benefits for aural rehabilitation in this clinical population.

HE-YOLOv5s: Efficient Road Defect Detection Network

In recent years, the number of traffic accidents caused by road defects has increased dramatically all over the world, and the repair and prevention of road defects is an urgent task. Researchers in different countries have proposed many models to deal with this task, but most of them are either highly accurate and slow in detection, or the accuracy is low and the detection speed is high. The accuracy and speed have achieved good results, but the generalization of the model to other datasets is poor. Given this, this paper takes YOLOv5s as a benchmark model and proposes an optimization model to solve the problem of road defect detection. First, we significantly reduce the parameters of the model by pruning the model and removing unimportant modules, propose an improved Spatial Pyramid Pooling-Fast (SPPF) module to improve the feature signature fusion ability, and finally add an attention module to focus on the key information. The activation function, sampling method, and other strategies were also replaced in this study. The test results on the Global Road Damage Detection Challenge (GRDDC) dataset show that the FPS of our proposed model is not only faster than the baseline model but also improves the MAP by 2.08%, and the size of this model is also reduced by 6.07 M.

Adaptive Guided Equilibrium Optimizer with Spiral Search Mechanism to Solve Global Optimization Problems

The equilibrium optimizer (EO) is a recently developed physics-based optimization technique for complex optimization problems. Although the algorithm shows excellent exploitation capability, it still has some drawbacks, such as the tendency to fall into local optima and poor population diversity. To address these shortcomings, an enhanced EO algorithm is proposed in this paper. First, a spiral search mechanism is introduced to guide the particles to more promising search regions. Then, a new inertia weight factor is employed to mitigate the oscillation phenomena of particles. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, it has been tested on the CEC2017 test suite and the mobile robot path planning (MRPP) problem and compared with some advanced metaheuristic techniques. The experimental results demonstrate that our improved EO algorithm outperforms the comparison methods in solving both numerical optimization problems and practical problems. Overall, the developed EO variant has good robustness and stability and can be considered as a promising optimization tool.

[The application value of shear wave dispersion and shear wave elastography combined with serological indicators in the evaluation of liver fibrosis]

Objective: To explore the application value of shear wave dispersion (SWD) and shear wave elastography (SWE) combined with serological indicators in the evaluation of liver fibrosis. Methods: A total of 219 patients with liver disorders who underwent liver biopsy were prospectively collected in Huashan Hospital, Fudan University from January 2021 to September 2022, including 130 males and 89 females, aged from 18 to 76 (42±12) years. All patients underwent SWD and SWE examinations before liver biopsy. Serological indicators including alanine aminotransferase(ALT), aspartate aminotransferase(AST), alkaline phosphatase(ALP)) and γ-glutamyl transpeptadase (GGT) were also collected. Based on pathological diagnosis of liver fibrosis stage (from S0 to S4), the distribution of dispersion slope and liver elastic modulus at different fibrosis stages were analyzed in all patients. All patients were divided 7: 3 into training set (156 cases) and validation set (63 cases) in chronological order. In training set, factors influencing liver fibrosis≥S2 stage and S4 stage were analysed using binary logistic regression. The predictive models were established for diagnosing liver fibrosis≥S2 stage and S4 stage by using R language, and the models were evaluated by the area under curve (AUC) and calibrated for validation. Results: The dispersion slope and elastic modulus increased with the severity of fibrosis, with statistically significant differences in different fibrosis stages (both P<0.001). In training set, dispersion slope, elastic modulus, ALT, AST, and GGT were influential factors in liver fibrosis≥S2 stage and S4 stage(both P<0.05), and prediction models were constructed based on these indicators. In training set, the AUCs of the predictive model, SWD and SWE for diagnosingliver fibrosis≥S2 stage were 0.743 (95%CI: 0.665-0.821), 0.709 (95%CI: 0.628-0.790) and 0.725 (95%CI: 0.647-0.804), respectively; for diagnosing liver fibrosis S4 stage, the AUCs were 0.988 (95%CI: 0.968-1.000), 0.908 (95%CI: 0.852-0.963) and 0.974 (95%CI: 0.945-1.000), respectively. In validation set, the AUC of the predictive model, SWD and SWE for diagnosing liver fibrosis≥S2 stage were 08.735 (95%CI: 0.612-0.859), 0.658 (95%CI:0.522-0.793) and 0.699 (95%CI:0.570-0.828), respectively; for diagnosing liver fibrosis S4 stage, the AUC were 0.976 (95%CI: 0.937-1.000), 0.872 (95%CI: 0.757-0.988) and 0.948 (95%CI: 0.889-1.000), respectively. The calibration curves of the prediction models were consistent in the training and validation sets. Conclusion: The predictive model of SWD and SWE combined with serological indicators is helpful in the diagnosis of stage of liver fibrosis non-invasively.

Hearing Assistive Technology Facilitates Sentence-in-Noise Recognition in Chinese Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

PURPOSE

Hearing assistive technology (HAT) has been shown to be a viable solution to the speech-in-noise perception (SPIN) issue in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, little is known about its efficacy in tonal language speakers. This study compared sentence-level SPIN performance between Chinese children with ASD and neurotypical (NT) children and evaluated HAT use in improving SPIN performance and easing SPIN difficulty.

METHOD

Children with ASD (n = 26) and NT children (n = 19) aged 6-12 years performed two adaptive tests in steady-state noise and three fixed-level tests in quiet and steady-state noise with and without using HAT. Speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) and accuracy rates were assessed using adaptive and fixed-level tests, respectively. Parents or teachers of the ASD group completed a questionnaire regarding children's listening difficulty under six circumstances before and after a 10-day trial period of HAT use.

RESULTS

Although the two groups of children had comparable SRTs, the ASD group showed a significantly lower SPIN accuracy rate than the NT group. Also, a significant impact of noise was found in the ASD group's accuracy rate but not in that of the NT group. There was a general improvement in the ASD group's SPIN performance with HAT and a decrease in their listening difficulty ratings across all conditions after the device trial.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings indicated inadequate SPIN in the ASD group using a relatively sensitive measure to gauge SPIN performance among children. The markedly increased accuracy rate in noise during HAT-on sessions for the ASD group confirmed the feasibility of HAT for improving SPIN performance in controlled laboratory settings, and the reduced post-use ratings of listening difficulty further confirmed the benefits of HAT use in daily scenarios.

Characteristics of glucose and lipid metabolism and the interaction between gut microbiota and colonic mucosal immunity in pigs during cold exposure

BACKGROUND

Cold regions have long autumn and winter seasons and low ambient temperatures. When pigs are unable to adjust to the cold, oxidative damage and inflammation may develop. However, the differences between cold and non-cold adaptation regarding glucose and lipid metabolism, gut microbiota and colonic mucosal immunological features in pigs are unknown. This study revealed the glucose and lipid metabolic responses and the dual role of gut microbiota in pigs during cold and non-cold adaptation. Moreover, the regulatory effects of dietary glucose supplements on glucose and lipid metabolism and the colonic mucosal barrier were evaluated in cold-exposed pigs.

RESULTS

Cold and non-cold-adapted models were established by Min and Yorkshire pigs. Our results exhibited that cold exposure induced glucose overconsumption in non-cold-adapted pig models (Yorkshire pigs), decreasing plasma glucose concentrations. In this case, cold exposure enhanced the ATGL and CPT-1α expression to promote liver lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation. Meanwhile, the two probiotics (Collinsella and Bifidobacterium) depletion and the enrichment of two pathogens (Sutterella and Escherichia-Shigella) in colonic microbiota are not conducive to colonic mucosal immunity. However, glucagon-mediated hepatic glycogenolysis in cold-adapted pig models (Min pigs) maintained the stability of glucose homeostasis during cold exposure. It contributed to the gut microbiota (including the enrichment of the Rikenellaceae RC9 gut group, [Eubacterium] coprostanoligenes group and WCHB1-41) that favored cold-adapted metabolism.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of both models indicate that the gut microbiota during cold adaptation contributes to the protection of the colonic mucosa. During non-cold adaptation, cold-induced glucose overconsumption promotes thermogenesis through lipolysis, but interferes with the gut microbiome and colonic mucosal immunity. Furthermore, glucagon-mediated hepatic glycogenolysis contributes to glucose homeostasis during cold exposure.

Screening of differentially methylated genes in skeletal fluorosis of rats with different types and involvement of aberrant methylation of Cthrc1

Fluoride is a widespread pollutant in the environment. There is a high risk of developing skeletal fluorosis from excessive fluoride exposure. Skeletal fluorosis has different phenotypes (including osteosclerotic, osteoporotic and osteomalacic) under the same fluoride exposure and depends on dietary nutrition. However, the existing mechanistic hypothesis of skeletal fluorosis cannot well explain the condition's different pathological manifestations and their logical relation with nutritional factors. Recent studies have shown that DNA methylation is involved in the occurrence and development of skeletal fluorosis. DNA methylation is dynamic throughout life and may be affected by nutrition and environmental factors. We speculated that fluoride exposure leads to the abnormal methylation of genes related to bone homeostasis under different nutritional statuses, resulting in different skeletal fluorosis phenotypes. The mRNA-Seq and target bisulfite sequencing (TBS) result showed differentially methylated genes in rats with different skeletal fluorosis types. The role of the differentially methylated gene Cthrc1 in the formation of different skeletal fluorosis types was explored in vivo and in vitro. Under normal nutritional conditions, fluoride exposure led to hypomethylation and high expression of Cthrc1 in osteoblasts through TET2 demethylase, which promoted osteoblast differentiation by activating Wnt3a/β-catenin signalling pathway, and participated in the occurrence of osteosclerotic skeletal fluorosis. Meanwhile, the high CTHRC1 protein expression also inhibited osteoclast differentiation. Under poor dietary conditions, fluoride exposure led to hypermethylation and low expression of Cthrc1 in osteoblasts through DNMT1 methyltransferase, and increased the RANKL/OPG ratio, which promoted the osteoclast differentiation and participated in the occurrence of osteoporotic/osteomalacic skeletal fluorosis. Our study expands the understanding of the role of DNA methylation in regulating the formation of different skeletal fluorosis types and provides insights into new prevention and treatment strategies for patients with skeletal fluorosis.

An improved strategy for identification and annotation of easily in-sourced dissociation diterpene lactones from plant natural products: Taking Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) as an example

RATIONALE

Diterpene lactones (DL) in Andrographis paniculata (AP) are known as "natural antibiotics" for their excellent antibacterial activity. During mass spectrometry (MS) analysis, the hydroxyl groups in the AP DL skeleton are prone to neutral loss of H₂ O, producing high in-source fragment peaks and affecting the characterization of these components.

METHODS

Mass tags were applied during the MS data acquisition step, and special adduct ion form was used to guide the data processing and characterization steps. Besides, the total number of characterized AP DLs significantly increased when combining the number of neutrally lost H₂ O from AP DLs, incorporating information on the diagnostic ions, and adopting molecular networks generated with the Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking database.

RESULTS

Ninety-nine DLs, comprising 6 monohydroxyl groups, 20 dihydroxyl groups, 27 trihydroxy groups, and 46 DLs with more than 3 hydroxyl groups, were characterized from AP. In addition, based on the characteristic fragments in the product ions (C₃ H₄ , Δm/z = 40.03 Da), it could be assumed that 90 DLs had the C19-OH structure among the identified DLs. The current study provides a new approach for collecting, processing, and characterizing MS analysis of natural DLs prone to in-source fragmentation.

CONCLUSIONS

MS characterization of AP DLs was significantly improved, and many potential new compounds were identified in AP. This characterization provides new methods for the purification and identification of AP DLs.

Impaired emotion perception in schizophrenia shows sex differences with channel- and category-specific effects: A pilot study

Individuals with schizophrenia reportedly demonstrate deficits in emotion perception. Relevant studies on the effects of decoder's sex, communication channels and emotion categories have produced mixed findings and seldom explored the interactions among these three key factors. The present pilot study examined how male and female individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls perceived emotional (e.g., angry, happy, and sad) and neutral expressions from verbal semantic and nonverbal prosodic and facial channels. Twenty-eight (11 females) individuals with schizophrenia and 30 healthy controls (13 females) were asked to recognize emotional facial expressions, emotional prosody, and emotional semantics. Both accuracy and response time showed subpar performance for all communication channels and emotional categories in the schizophrenia group. More severe emotion perception deficits were found with the nonverbal (not the verbal) materials. There was also a reduced level of impairment with anger perception, especially in the female individuals with schizophrenia while biased perception towards emotional semantics was more pronounced in male individuals with schizophrenia. These findings, although preliminary, indicate the channel- and category-specific nature of emotion perception with potential sex differences among people with schizophrenia, which has important theoretical and practical implications.

N 6-methyladenosine modification contributes to respiratory syncytial virus infection

Background

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the second leading cause of death due to lower respiratory tract infections. Effective prevention and treatment measures are lacking, posing a huge socioeconomic burden to the world. N ⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) is the most common internal modification in messenger RNA and noncoding RNA. Numerous recent studies have shown that the dysregulation of m⁶A modification is associated with diseases caused by pathogenic viruses.

Methods

The changes in m⁶A modification were evaluated using m⁶A RNA methylation assay. The differences in gene expression levels of various m⁶A-modifying enzymes were observed using Quantitative Real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) during RSV infection. The autophagosomes were observed using transmission electron microscopy, and the expression of autophagy-associated protein Microtubule Associated Protein 1 Light Chain 3 Beta Ⅱ/Ⅰ (LC3B Ⅱ/Ⅰ) and Beclin1 in Human Normal Lung Epithelial Cells (BEAS-2B) cells using Western blot during RSV infection. The significantly differentially expressed genes were screened guided by bioinformatics. Their relationship with m⁶A-modifying enzymes was analyzed through protein-protein interaction network and expression correlation analysis.

Results

The m⁶A abundance decreased and demethylase Fat Mass and Obesity- Associated Protein (FTO) significantly increased during RSV infection after 24 h. We also found that the DNA Damage-Inducible Transcript 3 Protein (DDIT3) level significantly increased during RSV infection after 24 h and observed autophagosomes in BEAS-2B cells. In addition, RSV infection could cause the upregulation of LC3B Ⅱ/Ⅰ and Beclin1. The expression correlation analysis showed that DDIT3 levels were positively correlated with the FTO level, and Methyltransferase Like 3 (METTL3), RNA Binding Motif Protein 15B (RBM15B), YTH Domain-Containing Family Protein 1 (YTHDF1), and levels were negatively correlated with the DDIT3 level.

Conclusions

We uncovered a significant role for m⁶A modification during RSV infection. Also, a correlation was found between m⁶A and autophagy, providing new ideas for therapeutic advancements in RSV treatment.

Aging-Related Decline in Phonated and Whispered Speech Perception Not Compensated For by Increased Duration and Intensity: Evidence From Mandarin-Speaking Adult Listeners

PURPOSE

This study aimed to examine how aging and modifications of critical acoustic parameters may affect the perception of whispered speech as a degraded signal.

METHOD

Forty Mandarin-speaking adults were included in the study. Part 1 of the study compared the perception of Mandarin lexical tones, vowels, and syllables in older and younger adults in whispered versus phonated speech conditions. Parts 2 and 3 further examined how modification of duration and intensity cues contributed to the perceptual outcomes.

RESULTS

Perception of whispered tones was compromised in older and younger adults. Older adults identified lexical tones less accurately than their younger counterparts, particularly for phonated T2 and T3 and whispered T3. Aging also negatively affected the vowel identification of /i, u/ in the whispered condition. Syllable-level accuracy was largely dependent on the accuracy of lexical tones and vowels. Furthermore, reduced duration led to the decreased accuracy of phonated T3 and whispered T2 and T3 but increased accuracy of phonated T4. Reduced intensity lowered the recognition accuracy for phonated vowels /i, ɤ, o, y/ in older adults and /i, u/ in younger adults, and it also lowered the accuracy of whispered vowels /a, ɤ/ in older adults. Contrary to our expectation, increased duration and intensity did not improve older adults' speech perception in either phonated or whispered conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that aging adversely affected speech perception in both phonated and whispered conditions with more challenges in identifying whispered speech for older adults. While older adults' diminished performance may be potentially due to problems with processing the degraded temporal and spectral information of the target speech sounds, it cannot be simply compensated for by increasing the duration and intensity of the target sounds beyond the audible level.

Auditory Pitch Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PURPOSE

Pitch plays an important role in auditory perception of music and language. This study provides a systematic review with meta-analysis to investigate whether individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have enhanced pitch processing ability and to identify the potential factors associated with processing differences between ASD and neurotypicals.

METHOD

We conducted a systematic search through six major electronic databases focusing on the studies that used nonspeech stimuli to provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment across existing studies on pitch perception in autism. We identified potential participant- and methodology-related moderators and conducted metaregression analyses using mixed-effects models.

RESULTS

On the basis of 22 studies with a total of 464 participants with ASD, we obtained a small-to-medium positive effect size (g = 0.26) in support of enhanced pitch perception in ASD. Moreover, the mean age and nonverbal IQ of participants were found to significantly moderate the between-studies heterogeneity.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study provides the first meta-analysis on auditory pitch perception in ASD and demonstrates the existence of different developmental trajectories between autistic individuals and neurotypicals. In addition to age, nonverbal ability is found to be a significant contributor to the lower level/local processing bias in ASD. We highlight the need for further investigation of pitch perception in ASD under challenging listening conditions. Future neurophysiological and brain imaging studies with a longitudinal design are also needed to better understand the underlying neural mechanisms of atypical pitch processing in ASD and to help guide auditory-based interventions for improving language and social functioning.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21614271.

Neurocognitive Dynamics of Prosodic Salience over Semantics during Explicit and Implicit Processing of Basic Emotions in Spoken Words

How language mediates emotional perception and experience is poorly understood. The present event-related potential (ERP) study examined the explicit and implicit processing of emotional speech to differentiate the relative influences of communication channel, emotion category and task type in the prosodic salience effect. Thirty participants (15 women) were presented with spoken words denoting happiness, sadness and neutrality in either the prosodic or semantic channel. They were asked to judge the emotional content (explicit task) and speakers' gender (implicit task) of the stimuli. Results indicated that emotional prosody (relative to semantics) triggered larger N100, P200 and N400 amplitudes with greater delta, theta and alpha inter-trial phase coherence (ITPC) and event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) values in the corresponding early time windows, and continued to produce larger LPC amplitudes and faster responses during late stages of higher-order cognitive processing. The relative salience of prosodic and semantics was modulated by emotion and task, though such modulatory effects varied across different processing stages. The prosodic salience effect was reduced for sadness processing and in the implicit task during early auditory processing and decision-making but reduced for happiness processing in the explicit task during conscious emotion processing. Additionally, across-trial synchronization of delta, theta and alpha bands predicted the ERP components with higher ITPC and ERSP values significantly associated with stronger N100, P200, N400 and LPC enhancement. These findings reveal the neurocognitive dynamics of emotional speech processing with prosodic salience tied to stage-dependent emotion- and task-specific effects, which can reveal insights into understanding language and emotion processing from cross-linguistic/cultural and clinical perspectives.

Glucose supplementation improves intestinal amino acid transport and muscle amino acid pool in pigs during chronic cold exposure

Mammals in northern regions chronically suffer from low temperatures during autumn-winter seasons. The aim of this study was to investigate the response of intestinal amino acid transport and the amino acid pool in muscle to chronic cold exposure via Min pig models (cold adaptation) and Yorkshire pig models (non-cold adaptation). Furthermore, this study explored the beneficial effects of glucose supplementation on small intestinal amino acid transport and amino acid pool in muscle of cold-exposed Yorkshire pigs. Min pigs (Exp. 1) and Yorkshire pigs (Exp. 2) were divided into a control group (17 °C, n = 6) and chronic cold exposure group (7 °C, n = 6), respectively. Twelve Yorkshire pigs (Exp. 3) were divided into a cold control group and cold glucose supplementation group (8 °C). The results showed that chronic cold exposure inhibited peptide transporter protein 1 (PepT1) and excitatory amino acid transporter 3 (EAAT3) expression in ileal mucosa and cationic amino acid transporter-1 (CAT-1) in the jejunal mucosa of Yorkshire pigs (P < 0.05). In contrast, CAT-1, PepT1 and EAAT3 expression was enhanced in the duodenal mucosa of Min pigs (P < 0.05). Branched amino acids (BCAA) in the muscle of Yorkshire pigs were consumed by chronic cold exposure, accompanied by increased muscle RING-finger protein-1 (MuRF1) and muscle atrophy F-box (atrogin-1) expression (P < 0.05). More importantly, reduced concentrations of dystrophin were detected in the muscle of Yorkshire pigs (P < 0.05). However, glycine concentration in the muscle of Min pigs was raised (P < 0.05). In the absence of interaction between chronic cold exposure and glucose supplementation, glucose supplementation improved CAT-1 expression in the jejunal mucosa and PepT1 expression in the ileal mucosa of cold-exposed Yorkshire pigs (P < 0.05). It also improved BCAA and inhibited MuRF1 and atrogin-1 expression in muscle (P < 0.05). Moreover, dystrophin concentration was improved by glucose supplementation (P < 0.05). In summary, chronic cold exposure inhibits amino acid absorption in the small intestine, depletes BCAA and promotes protein degradation in muscle. Glucose supplementation ameliorates the negative effects of chronic cold exposure on amino acid transport and the amino acid pool in muscle.

Orthogonal pinhole-imaging-based learning salp swarm algorithm with self-adaptive structure for global optimization

Salp swarm algorithm (SSA) is a simple and effective bio-inspired algorithm that is gaining popularity in global optimization problems. In this paper, first, based on the pinhole imaging phenomenon and opposition-based learning mechanism, a new strategy called pinhole-imaging-based learning (PIBL) is proposed. Then, the PIBL strategy is combined with orthogonal experimental design (OED) to propose an OPIBL mechanism that helps the algorithm to jump out of the local optimum. Second, a novel effective adaptive conversion parameter method is designed to enhance the balance between exploration and exploitation ability. To validate the performance of OPLSSA, comparative experiments are conducted based on 23 widely used benchmark functions and 30 IEEE CEC2017 benchmark problems. Compared with some well-established algorithms, OPLSSA performs better in most of the benchmark problems.

Phonological Awareness and Working Memory in Mandarin-Speaking Preschool-Aged Children With Cochlear Implants

PURPOSE

Cochlear implants (CIs) provide significant benefits for profoundly deaf children in their language and cognitive development. However, it remains unclear whether Mandarin-speaking young children with early implantation can develop age-equivalent phonological awareness (PA) skill and working memory (WM) capacity as their normal hearing (NH) peers. The aim of this study was to investigate PA and WM in preschool-aged children with or without hearing loss and to examine the relationship between the two basic skills.

METHOD

The data were collected from 16 Mandarin-speaking preschoolers with CIs and 16 age-matched children with NH. All preschool participants were instructed to complete four phonological detection tasks and four digit span tasks. Linear mixed-effects modeling was performed to evaluate PA and WM performances between two groups across different tasks.

RESULTS

CI preschoolers showed comparable performances on par with NH controls in phonological detections and visual digit spans. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between phonological detections and auditory digit spans in preschool-aged children with CIs.

CONCLUSION

With early implantation, the congenitally deaf children were capable of developing age-appropriate PA skill and WM capacity, which have practical implications for aural rehabilitation in this special pediatric population.

Recognition of affective prosody in bipolar and depressive conditions: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Inconsistent results have been reported about the affective prosody recognition (APR) ability in patients with bipolar (BD) and depressive (DD) disorders. We aimed to (i) evaluate the magnitude of APR dysfunction in BD and DD patients, (ii) identify moderators for heterogeneous results, and (iii) highlight research trends in this field.

METHODS

A computerized literature search was conducted in five electronic databases from the inception to May 9th, 2022 to identify behavioural experiments that studied APR in BD or DD patients. Effect sizes were calculated using a random-effect model and recalculated after removing outliers and adjusting publication bias.

RESULTS

Twelve eligible articles totalling 16 studies were included in the meta-analysis, aggregating 612 patients and 809 healthy controls. Individual r² ranged from 0.008 to 0.355, six of which reached a medium-to-large association strength. A medium-to-large pooled effect size (Hedges g = -0.58, 95 % CI -0.75 to -0.40, p < 0.001) for overall APR impairment in BD and DD patients was obtained. The Beck Depression Inventory score and answer option number were significant moderators. Neuropsychological mechanisms, multi-modal interaction and comorbidity effects have become primary research concerns.

LIMITATIONS

Extant statistics were insufficient for disorder-specific analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

Current findings demonstrate deficits of overall APR in BD and DD patients at a medium-to-large magnitude. APR can clinically serve for early screening and prognosis, but the depression severity, task complexity and confounding variables influence patients' APR performance. Future studies should incorporate neuroimaging approaches and investigate the effects of tonal language stimuli and clinical interventions.

442 A Comparison of Short-Term Outcomes in Robotic and Laparoscopic Distal Pancreatectomy

Aim

Technical limitations of laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (LDP) may translate to high conversion postoperative complications rates. Robotic distal pancreatectomy (RDP) can potentially allow for better visualisation and greater freedom of movement, improving surgical outcomes. The aim of this retrospective observational study is to compare short term outcomes between RDP and LDP.

Method

We retrospectively analysed all RDP and LDP procedures performed at our centre by a single surgeon between December 2009 and July 2021. We recorded demographic data for 62 consecutive LDP cases and 27 RDP cases and compared the perioperative outcomes, 90-day morbidity and mortality.

Results

Both groups were comparable with respect to baseline characteristics. The conversion to open rate was significantly higher in the laparoscopic group (21.0% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.04). Operative time (176.5 min RDP vs. 156.8 min LDP, p = 0.503) and number of operations with clinically significant estimated blood loss (&gt; 500ml) (1 RDP vs. 3 LDP, p = 0.998) was comparable in both groups. For the benign conditions, the spleen preservation rate showed no significant difference between the two groups (14.8 vs. 11.3%, p = 0.729). In both groups, three patients were readmitted within 90 days. There was no 90-day mortality in either group.

Conclusions

According to our results, RDP was equivalent to LDP in nearly all short-term operative outcomes and safety but significantly reduced the risk of conversion to open resection. However, the evidence is limited, and larger multi-centre randomised trials are needed to investigate the long-term outcomes.

The effect of aging on identification of Mandarin consonants in normal and whisper registers

Consonant perception in older adults has been widely explored in recent years. However, how aging affects the identification of Mandarin consonants, especially in whispered condition, are under studied. Mandarin consonants and whispering speech have unique features, which may result in different identification difficulties for older adults. The current study investigated older adults' identification of Mandarin consonants in phonated and whispered conditions in comparison with the performance of younger adults. It was found that in phonated condition, older adults showed the lowest accuracy for affricatives and fricatives owing to their insensitivity to high-frequency information. The lower accuracy of affricatives and plosives was largely attributed to the difficulty in recognizing articulatory places. Identifying aspirated plosives was much more difficult than unaspirated counterparts for older adults. In whispered condition, the recognition of voiced consonants and aspirated-unaspirated distinction became challenging, especially for older adults. Contrary to the expectation, some consonants became easier to be recognized in the whispered condition, i.e., /p^h, tɕ^h, x/. These findings enrich our understanding of how aging affects consonant identification in different languages and less ideal conditions. It also suggests that the listener's ability, language uniqueness, and characteristics of distorted speech should be all taken into consideration when investigating speech perception in adverse conditions.