Objective:To observe the acoustic characteristics of glottal stops produced by patients with cleft palate.Methods:Twenty boys with cleft palate who were judged to be glottal-stop-producers and 20 normal peers were included. In their own way, all the children were asked to produce following sounds: /iu/ /pai/ /t′u/, /s/ /k′/ /p′u/ /t′u/, /tA/ /ku/ and /i/ /k′u/ /ti/ /suan/. Then the speech spectroanalysis and the comparison were performed by one investigator.Results:The acoustic characteristics of glottal stops changed a lot when they substitute or accompany with different oral stops, which included the emergence of spikes, changes of voice onset time, the formant transitions and spetroanalysis of spikes. Conclusion:The acoustic changes of glottal stops are complicated. Every single aspects of acoustic analysis should be considered in the identification of the acoustic characteristics.

Objective To explore the application value of diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI) in distinction of skull base chordoma from chondrosarcoma.Methods The clinical data and imaging findings of basicranial tumor confirmed by pathology,including 14 patients with classic chordoma,9 with poorly differentiated chordoma and 18 with chondrosarcoma were analyzed retrospectively.The lesion location,enhancement patterns,signal intensity on T2 WI relative to gray matter,and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were reviewed.The enhancement pattern was scored as 0 (little or non-enhancement),1 (heterogeneous enhancement),or 2 (homogeneous enhancement in ≥90％area).The data were analysed by Kruskal-Wallis test.Results There were significant differences in the mean,minimum and maximum ADC values,the intensity on T2 WI and the enhancement pattern among the three tumor types (P ＜0.05).However,the differences in the score of enhancement pattern and lesion location were not found (P＞0.05).Conclusion DWI may be helpful for the diagnosis of skull base chordoma from chondrosarcoma,and the accuracy rate will be improved when combined with T2WI intensity.

Combined with method of ketoconazole resistance screening, a 7alpha,15alpha-diOH-DHEA high-producing mutant Colletotrichum lini ST-1 was obtained by compound mutation of NTG and low energy N+ ion beam implantation. With the substrate concentration of 10 g/L DHEA, the molar yield of 7alpha,15alpha-diOH-DHEA reached 34.2%, increased by 46.2% than that of the original strain. Then we optimized the medium. First, Plackett-Burman design was used to evaluate the effects of medium components on molar yield of the product. Results show that glucose, yeast extract and MgSO4 x 7H2O were the important parameters for the biotransformation process. Subsequently, the path of steepest ascent was used to approach the optimal levels. To obtain the optimal levels, central composite design and response surface analysis were carried out. The optimal medium was as follows (g/L): glucose 26.34, yeast extract 12.15, corn flour 3.00, FeSO4 x 7H2O 0.015, MgSO4 x 7H2O 0.14, KH2PO4 0.90. Under the optimal conditions, the molar yield of 7alpha,15alpha-diOH-DHEA reached 49.3%, which was 44.2% higher than that of using the medium before optimization.
Biotransformation ; Colletotrichum ; metabolism ; Dehydroepiandrosterone ; chemistry ; Fermentation ; Hydroxylation ; Industrial Microbiology ; Mutation

OBJECTIVETo investigate the correlation between articulation, velopharyngeal function, and surgical age by comparing the changes in articulation after velopharyngeal closure is performed. This study is also conducted to investigate the influencing factors of omission change between pre- and post-operation.

METHODSA total of 48 patients, including 18 males and 30 females, mean age (13.3 ± 5.8) years, with non-syndromic cleft lips and palates were selected from January 2011 to December 2011. Their speech data and articulation between pre- and post-operation were retrospectively analyzed using non-parametric tests. Correlation study was performed to analyze the influencing factors of the changes in articulation. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTSThe difference in articulation after velopharyngeal closure occurred was significant (Z = -3.796, P = 0.000). A negative correlation between the ratio of post-operative normal articulation and surgical age (R = -0.487, P = 0.000) was observed. The change in omission was positively correlated with surgical age (R = 0.589, P = 0.000) and gender (R = 0.404, P = 0.047). By comparison, the change in omission was negatively correlated with follow-up time (R = -0.235, P = 0.040).

CONCLUSIONArticulation and intelligibility are significantly improved after velopharyngeal closure is performed. These parameters are negatively correlated with surgical age to some extent. In addition, the change in omission is positively correlated with surgical age and gender, whereas the change in omission is negatively correlated with follow-up time.

Adolescent ; Articulation Disorders ; Child ; Cleft Lip ; Cleft Palate ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Velopharyngeal Insufficiency ; Young Adult

In order to improve transformation efficiency of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) into 3beta,7alpha,15alpha-trihydroxy-5-androsten-17-one (7alpha,15alpha-diOH-DHEA) by Gibberella intermedia CA3-1, we investigated the strains breeding and their conversion process optimization. G. intermedia CA3-1 strains were treated with 0.12 mg/mL 1-methyl-3-nitro-1-nitroso-guanidin (NTG) for 30 min and chosen by 350 micromol/L minimum inhibitory concentration ketoconazole resistance marker. The high production strain named M-10 with a good genetic stability was selected and the product molar yield achieved to 70.2%, which was 20% higher than that of original strain. Under the improved conversion process with the DHEA concentration of 5 g/L, the product molar yield of the mutant M-10 reached 75.6%, which was improved by 31.3% than that of original strain.
Androstenols ; metabolism ; Biotransformation ; Dehydroepiandrosterone ; metabolism ; Gibberella ; growth & development ; metabolism ; Industrial Microbiology

As the largest research-oriented specialty department in national traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, the Department of Critical Care Medicine in Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine insists on the development mode combined with clinical medicine and scientific research. By taking clinical and basic researches for integrative medicine preventing and treating acute myocardial in-farction and sepsis as a breakthrough, authors explored key problems of Chinese medicine in improving the prognosis related diseases and patients' quality of life. In recent 3 years our department has successively become the principal unit of the national key specialties cooperative group of critical care medicine (awarded by State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine), the key clinical specialties (awarded by National Health and Family Planning Commission), and Guangzhou key laboratory construction unit, and achieved overall lap in clinical medical treatment, personnel training, scientific research, and social service.
Biomedical Research ; China ; Clinical Medicine ; Critical Care ; Hospital Departments ; organization & administration ; Humans ; Integrative Medicine ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional ; Quality of Life

Objective To find out the mechanism of strephenopodia and strephexopodia of children with spastic cerebral palsy by analyzing their gait character.MethodsForty children with spastic cerebral palsy and forty healthy children with normal walking ability were involved in this research.Footscan 7 gait analysis system was used to measure foot initial touchdown part,the ratio of different part touchdown phase to single supporting phase,the degree of strephenopodia and strephexopodia in different part.Two groups' characteristic parameters were analyzed by statistics method.ResultsSignificant differences were found in foot first touchdown part between two groups(P<0.05).The phenomenon that toes or metatarsus or whole foot first touch the earth was found in children with spastic cerebral palsy.The ratio of anterior foot and middle foot touchdown phase to single supporting phase were higher than normal children(P<0.05).In spastic cerebral palsy group the phenomenon of strephexopodia was more serious than strephenopodia during anterior foot touchdown phase.ConclusionLots of children with spastic cerebral palsy are suffering long-time compression pain and strephexopodia with anterior foot,active rectification must be performed during rehabilitation care.

Microbial nitrilases have attracted increasing attention in nitrile hydrolysis for carboxylic acid production in recent years. A bacterium with nitrilase activity was isolated and identified as Pseudomonas putida CGMCC3830 based on its morphology, physiological and biochemical characteristics, as well as 16S rRNA gene sequence. The nitrilase production was optimized by varying culture conditions using the one-factor-at-a-time method and response surface methodology. Glycerol 13.54 g/L, tryptone 11.59 g/L, yeast extract 5.21 g/L, KH2PO4 1 g/L, NaCl 1 g/L, urea 1 g/L, initial pH 6.0 and culture temperature 30 degrees C were proved to be the optimal culture conditions. It resulted in the maximal nitrilase production of 36.12 U/mL from 2.02 U/mL. Investigations on substrate specificity demonstrate P. putida nitrilase preferentially hydrolyze aromatic nitriles. When applied in nicotinic acid synthesis, 2 mg/mL P. putida cells completely hydrolyzed 20.8 g/L 3-cyanopyridine into nicotinic acid in 90 min. The results indicated P. putida CGMCC3830 displayed potential for industrial production of nicotinic acid.
Aminohydrolases ; biosynthesis ; Culture Media ; Hydrolysis ; Niacin ; biosynthesis ; Nitriles ; metabolism ; Pseudomonas putida ; enzymology ; Pyridines ; metabolism ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S ; genetics ; Substrate Specificity ; Temperature

Adult ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; MART-1 Antigen ; metabolism ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Medulloblastoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; Melanocytes ; pathology ; Melanoma ; diagnosis ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Melanoma-Specific Antigens ; metabolism ; Meningeal Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Neoplasms, Multiple Primary ; diagnosis ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Neurilemmoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; Nevus of Ota ; diagnosis ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; S100 Proteins ; metabolism ; Skin Neoplasms ; diagnosis ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Vimentin ; metabolism

Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous ; metabolism ; pathology ; Adult ; Breast Neoplasms ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Breast Neoplasms, Male ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Cadherins ; metabolism ; Carcinoma ; metabolism ; pathology ; surgery ; Carcinoma, Signet Ring Cell ; metabolism ; pathology ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Keratin-5 ; metabolism ; Lymph Node Excision ; Male ; Mastectomy ; methods ; Mucin-1 ; metabolism ; S100 Proteins ; metabolism