VOT or quantity: What matters more for the voicing contrast in German regional varieties? Results from apparent-time analyses

Publication date: November 2018

Source: Journal of Phonetics, Volume 71

Author(s): Felicitas Kleber

Abstract

Standard German distinguishes voiced (short-lag) and voiceless (long-lag) stops in domain-initial and -medial position with VOT being the most important cue. This phonemic distinction has been neutralized in many dialects but the merger appears to have been reversed in the corresponding regional accents probably due to the increasing influence of the standard language. This apparent-time study investigates the emerging importance of VOT and VCratio (a combined measure of proportional vowel and closure duration) in Bavarian and Saxon, two German regional varieties prone to reverse the merger. To this end we analyzed acoustically minimal pairs with stops in medial and initial position and investigated the integrated effects of VOT and VCratio in perception. VOT is becoming more important in younger speakers and dialectal traces are more pronounced in older participants. While a trading relation between VOT and VCratio was present in the perception of all groups it has only emerged in younger Bavarians' production (possibly reinforced by a greater amount of schwa deletion in this group). The findings are discussed within a usage-based model.

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Editorial Board

Publication date: December 2018

Source: Autoimmunity Reviews, Volume 17, Issue 12

Author(s):

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Mathematical thinking in children with Developmental Language Disorder: The roles of pattern skills and verbal working memory

Publication date: Available online 15 November 2018

Source: Journal of Communication Disorders

Author(s): Emily R. Fyfe, Lauren Eisenband Matz, Kayla M. Hunt, Martha W. Alibali

Abstract

Previous research suggests that children with language disorders often have difficulties in mathematical tasks. In the current study, we investigated two relevant factors – working memory and pattern skills – that may underlie children's poor mathematics performance. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD, n = 18, ages 6 to 13) and age-matched typically-developing children (n = 18) completed three math tasks that tapped calculation skill and knowledge of concepts. Children also completed a visual pattern extension task and a verbal working memory task. There were four key findings: (1) children with DLD exhibited poorer mathematical knowledge than typically-developing children, both in calculation and on key math concepts, (2) children with DLD performed similarly to typically-developing children on the visual pattern extension task, (3) children with DLD had lower verbal working memory scores than typically-developing children, and these differences in working memory accounted in part for their poorer calculation performance, and (4) children's pattern extension scores predicted their arithmetic calculation scores, but not their concept scores.

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Synthesising visual speech using dynamic visemes and deep learning architectures

Publication date: Available online 16 November 2018

Source: Computer Speech & Language

Author(s): Ausdang Thangthai, Ben Milner, Sarah Taylor

Abstract

This paper proposes and compares a range of methods to improve the naturalness of visual speech synthesis. A feedforward deep neural network (DNN) and many-to-one and many-to-many recurrent neural networks (RNNs) using long short-term memory (LSTM) are considered. Rather than using acoustically derived units of speech, such as phonemes, viseme representations are considered and we propose using dynamic visemes together with a deep learning framework. The input feature representation to the models is also investigated and we determine that including wide phoneme and viseme contexts is crucial for predicting realistic lip motions that are sufficiently smooth but not under-articulated. A detailed objective evaluation across a range of system configurations shows that a combined dynamic viseme-phoneme speech unit combined with a many-to-many encoder-decoder architecture models visual co-articulations effectively. Subjective preference tests reveal there to be no significant difference between animations produced using this system and using ground truth facial motion taken from the original video. Furthermore, the dynamic viseme system also outperforms significantly conventional phoneme-driven speech animation systems.

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Upregulation of proteins of the NLRP3 inflammasome in patients with periodontitis and uncontrolled type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Objectives

To evaluate the expression of proteins related to activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in patients with chronic periodontitis (CP) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D), and to determine whether the exacerbated periodontal pathological process observed in diabetic patients is related to its upregulation.

Materials and Methods

We performed an observational, analytical, cross‐sectional study in three study groups: individuals systemically and orally healthy, and patients with CP with and without T2D. Gingival biopsies were taken from the three study groups. The expression of mRNAs for CASP1, NLRP3, and ASC was detected using real‐time PCR, the expression of NLRP3 and ASC proteins was determined by immunohistochemistry. The quantification of IL‐18 and IL‐1β was determined in the gingival crevicular fluid using ELISA. The results were analyzed by ANOVA followed by Tukey's test to compare differences between individual groups.

Results

Patients with CP and uncontrolled T2D presented severe periodontal disease and inflammation (PPD, p= 0.0072; CAL, p = 0.0480; bone loss, p = 0.0088), higher levels of CASP1 mRNA expression (p = 0.0026), a stronger pattern of staining for NLRP3 and ASC proteins in the epithelium and connective tissues, and significantly higher production of IL‐18 (p = 0.0063) and IL‐1β (p = 0.0018) in comparison with healthy or CP subjects.

Conclusion

The upregulation of genes and proteins involved in the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome components in patients with periodontitis and uncontrolled T2D suggests a possible role in the more severe pathological processes leading to destruction of periodontal tissues observed in these patients.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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Analysis of 24‐hour surgical cancellations in an academic rhinology and skull base surgery practice

Background

Late cancellations within 24 hours of surgery lead to decreased utilization of operating room time with loss of productivity, decreased access to care, and inconvenience to patients and staff. To date, no studies have analyzed 24‐hour cancellations in a tertiary rhinology practice.

Methods

All procedures performed at a tertiary rhinology/skull base practice from January 2016 to December 2017 were reviewed. Twenty‐four‐hour cancellations were analyzed by procedure type and reason for cancellation. Avoidable cancellations were late cancellations that could have been prevented by review of medical records or communication by hospital staff with the patient before surgery. Univariate analysis was performed to determine predictive factors for cancellations.

Results

A total of 39 of 640 surgical cases were cancelled (6.1%) within 24 hours of surgery. Of these, 69.2% were inflammatory and 30.8% were skull base cases. The mean number of operating room minutes lost was 151 (60 of 210) for inflammatory and 263 (102 of 480) for skull base cases. Avoidable cancellations were seen in 25 of 35 (71.4%) cases. Patients undergoing inpatient or skull base surgery were more likely to have medical cancellations than patients undergoing outpatient or inflammatory surgery (91.7% vs 43.5%, p = 0.01; 83.3% vs 47.8%, p = 0.07).

Conclusion

This is the first study to analyze 24‐hour cancellations in tertiary rhinology/skull base surgery. The results suggest that a majority of late cancellations are avoidable and that skull base and inpatient surgeries are more likely to be canceled for medical reasons. Further studies are required to better characterize surgical cancellations in rhinology and identify strategies to try to prevent them.

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In vitro characteristics of an airway barrier‐disrupting factor secreted by Staphylococcus aureus

Background

Staphylococcus aureus is a major contributor to the pathophysiology of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Previous research has shown that S. aureus–secreted products disrupt the airway barrier.

Methods

S. aureus ATCC 13565 and 25923 strains were grown at exponential, postexponential, and stationary phases. Microbial conditioned media (CM) was collected from the cultures and ultrafiltered (UF). Liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC‐ESI‐MS/MS) was performed on the UF‐CM. UF‐CM was subjected to heat and protease treatment, size fractionation, and ultracentrifugation (UC) separation. Human nasal epithelial cells grown at air‐liquid interface (HNEC‐ALI) cultures were exposed to purified alpha hemolysin (Hla), staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA), lipoteichoic acid (LTA), and UF‐CM. Barrier function outcomes were measured by transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) and apparent permeability (Papp). UC fraction exposed cultures were subjected to immunofluorescence microscopy for tight junction (TJ) protein zonula occludens‐1 (ZO‐1).

Results

LC‐ESI‐MS/MS identified 107 proteins, with Hla being most abundant. Hla, SEA, and LTA did not alter the HNEC‐ALI barrier as measured by TEER or Papp. Barrier disruption caused by UF‐CM peaked in the postexponential phase, was sensitive to heat and protease treatment, >30‐kDa in size, and enriched in the UC fraction. HNEC‐ALI exposed to UF‐CM and UC demonstrated loss of ZO‐1 localization.

Conclusion

These results suggest that the S. aureus factor responsible for TJ disruption in HNEC‐ALI cultures is either a protein‐macromolecule or a combination of secreted factors. The product is enriched in the UC fraction, suggesting it is associated with large structures such as membrane components or vesicles.

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