Speech-language therapy for treatment of dysphagia and dysphonia in systemic granulomatous diseases: granulomatous diseases: dysphagia and dysphonia treatments

The granulomatous lesions are frequently founded in infectious diseases and can involve the larynx and pharynx and can cause varying degrees of dysphonia and dysphagia. There is still no systematic review that analyzes effectiveness of speech therapy in systemic granulomatous diseases. Research strategy: A systematic review was performed according to Cochrane guideline considering the inclusion of RCTs and quasi-RCTs about the effectiveness of speech-language therapy to treat dysphagia and dysphonia symptoms in systemic granulomatous diseases of the larynx and pharynx. Selection criteria: The outcome planned to be measured in this review were: swallowing impairment, frequency of chest infections and voice and swallowing symptoms. Data analysis: We identified 1,140 citations from all electronic databases. After an initial shift we only selected 9 titles to be retrieved in full-text. After full reading, there was no RCT found in this review and therefore, we only described the existing 2 case series studies. Results: There were no randomized controlled trials found in the literature. Therefore, two studies were selected to be included only for narratively analysis as they were case series. Conclusion: There is no evidence from high quality studies about the effectiveness of speech-language therapy in patients with granulomatous diseases of the larynx and pharynx. The investigators could rely in the outcomes suggested in this review to design their own clinical trials.

Effects of hearing protector devices on speech intelligibility

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of hearing protection devices (HPDs) on the understanding of speech in young adults with normal hearing, both in a silent situation and in the presence of ambient noise. The experimental research was carried out with the following variables: five different conditions of HPD use (without protectors, with two earplugs and with two earmuffs); a type of noise (pink noise); 4 test levels (60, 70, 80 and 90 dB[A]); 6 signal/noise ratios (without noise, + 5, + 10, zero, - 5 and - 10 dB); 5 repetitions for each case, totalling 600 tests with 10 monosyllables in each one. The variable measure was the percentage of correctly heard words (monosyllabic) in the test. The results revealed that, at the lowest levels (60 and 70 dB), the protectors reduced the intelligibility of speech (compared to the tests without protectors) while, in the presence of ambient noise levels of 80 and 90 dB and unfavourable signal/noise ratios (0, -5 and -10 dB), the HPDs improved the intelligibility. A comparison of the effectiveness of earplugs versus earmuffs showed that the former offer greater efficiency in respect to the recognition of speech, providing a 30% improvement over situations in which no protection is used. As might be expected, this study confirmed that the protectors' influence on speech intelligibility is related directly to the spectral curve of the protector's attenuation. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparative Analysis of Objective Distortion Measures for Speech Signals Degraded by Noise

Speech signals degraded by additive noise can affects different applications in telecommunication. The noise may degrades the intelligibility of the speech signals and its waveforms as well. In some applications such as speech coding, both intelligibility and waveform quality are important but only intelligibility has been focused lastly. So, modern speech quality measurement techniques such as PESQ (Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality) have been used and classical distortion measurement techniques such as Cepstral Distance are becoming unused. In this paper it is shown that some classical distortion measures are still important in applications where speech corrupted by additive noise has to be evaluated.

Analysis of speech fluency in Williams syndrome

Williams syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder, often referred as being characterized by dissociation between verbal and non-verbal abilities, although the number of studies disputing this proposal is emerging. Indeed, although they have been traditionally reported as displaying increased speech fluency, this topic has not been fully addressed in research. In previous studies carried out with a small group of individuals with WS, we reported speech breakdowns during conversational and autobiographical narratives suggestive of language difficulties. In the current study, we characterized the speech fluency profile using an ecologically based measure - a narrative task (story generation) was collected from a group of individuals with WS (n = 30) and typically developing group (n = 39) matched in mental age. Oral narratives were elicited using a picture stimulus - the cookie theft picture from Boston Diagnosis Aphasia Test. All narratives were analyzed according to typology and frequency of fluency breakdowns (non-stuttered and stuttered disfluencies). Oral narratives in WS group differed from typically developing group, mainly due to a significant increase in the frequency of disfluencies, particularly in terms of hesitations, repetitions and pauses. This is the first evidence of disfluencies in WS using an ecologically based task (oral narrative task), suggesting that these speech disfluencies may represent a significant marker of language problems in WS. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Residual signal auto-correlation to evaluate speech in Parkinson's disease patients

Objective: To evaluate the maximum residual signal auto-correlation also known as pitch amplitude (PA) values in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Method. The signals of 21 Parkinson's patients were compared with 15 healthy individuals, divided according age and gender. Results: Statistical difference was seen between groups for PA, 0.39 for controls and 0.25 for PD. Normal value threshold was set as 0.3; (p <= 0.001). In the Parkinson's group 80.77%, and in the control group only 12.28%, had a PA < 0.3 demonstrating an association between these variables. The dispersion diagram for age and PA for PD individuals showed p=0.01 and r=0.54. There was no significant difference in relation to gender and PA between groups: Conclusion: the significant differences in pitch's amplitude between PD patients and healthy individuals demonstrate the methods specificity.-The results showed the need of prospective controlled studies,to improve the use and indications of residual signal auto-correlation to evaluate speech in PD patients.

Noise reduction in speech signals using a TMS320C31 digital signal processor

This paper describes a speech enhancement system (SES) based on a TMS320C31 digital signal processor (DSP) for real-time application. The SES algorithm is based on a modified spectral subtraction method and a new speech activity detector (SAD) is used. The system presents a medium computational load and a sampling rate up to 18 kHz can be used. The goal is load and a sampling rate up to 18 kHz can be used. The goal is to use it to reduce noise in an analog telephone line.

Molecular modeling databases: A new way in the search of protein targets for drug development

DBMODELING is a relational database of annotated comparative protein structure models and their metabolic, pathway characterization. It is focused on enzymes identified in the genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Xylella fastidiosa. The main goal of the present database is to provide structural models to be used in docking simulations and drug design. However, since the accuracy of structural models is highly dependent on sequence identity between template and target, it is necessary to make clear to the user that only models which show high structural quality should be used in such efforts. Molecular modeling of these genomes generated a database, in which all structural models were built using alignments presenting more than 30% of sequence identity, generating models with medium and high accuracy. All models in the database are publicly accessible at http://www.biocristalografia.df.ibilce.unesp.br/tools. DBMODELING user interface provides users friendly menus, so that all information can be printed in one stop from any web browser. Furthermore, DBMODELING also provides a docking interface, which allows the user to carry out geometric docking simulation, against the molecular models available in the database. There are three other important homology model databases: MODBASE, SWISSMODEL, and GTOP. The main applications of these databases are described in the present article. © 2007 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.

Architecture for peer-to-peer databases with routing queries using ant colony algorithm and semantic support

In a peer-to-peer network, the nodes interact with each other by sharing resources, services and information. Many applications have been developed using such networks, being a class of such applications are peer-to-peer databases. The peer-to-peer databases systems allow the sharing of unstructured data, being able to integrate data from several sources, without the need of large investments, because they are used existing repositories. However, the high flexibility and dynamicity of networks the network, as well as the absence of a centralized management of information, becomes complex the process of locating information among various participants in the network. In this context, this paper presents original contributions by a proposed architecture for a routing system that uses the Ant Colony algorithm to optimize the search for desired information supported by ontologies to add semantics to shared data, enabling integration among heterogeneous databases and the while seeking to reduce the message traffic on the network without causing losses in the amount of responses, confirmed by the improve of 22.5% in this amount. © 2011 IEEE.

Multi-relational algorithm for mining association rules in large databases

Multi-relational data mining enables pattern mining from multiple tables. The existing multi-relational mining association rules algorithms are not able to process large volumes of data, because the amount of memory required exceeds the amount available. The proposed algorithm MRRadix presents a framework that promotes the optimization of memory usage. It also uses the concept of partitioning to handle large volumes of data. The original contribution of this proposal is enable a superior performance when compared to other related algorithms and moreover successfully concludes the task of mining association rules in large databases, bypass the problem of available memory. One of the tests showed that the MR-Radix presents fourteen times less memory usage than the GFP-growth. © 2011 IEEE.

SED-brachydactyly and distinctive speech: Report of a new familial case

Background: Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia-brachydactyly and distinctive speech (SED-BDS) is a syndrome characterized by short stature, disproportionately short limbs, peculiar face, thick and abundant hair, high-pitched and coarse voice, small epiphyses, brachymetacarpalia, brachymetatarsalia and brachy-phalangia of fingers and toes, small pelvis and delayed carpal bone age, among other features. Case Report: We report a Brazilian patient with father, brother and sister presenting with the same typical features of the syndrome. Clinically, he showed disproportionately short stature, rhizo-meso-acromelic shortness of the extremities, short hands and feet, a peculiar distinctive high-pitched voice, peculiar facies, and other features already reported as characteristic of this syndrome. Radiographic fndings included shape anomalies of the vertebral bodies such as cuboid-shaped vertebral bodies, mild scoliosis, short and broad tubular bones, brachymetacarpalia, brachymetatarsalia, and brachy-dactyly, lumbar hyperlordosis, generalized osteopenia, and hypoplastic iliac wings. Conclusions: Few cases have been described, as this is a rare skeletal dysplasia. This paper describes a new familial case of SED-BDS. © The American Journal of Case Reports.

Speech therapy intervention before dental management in patients with special needs: A case report

Fragile X syndrome is a cytogenetic abnormality related to chromosomal X. This syndrome is frequently associated to intellectual disability, psychological problems, as well as heart, skeletal and join alterations. Intraoral anomalies include malloclusion, ogival palate, cleft palate, presence of mesiodens, dental hypomineralization and abrasion of the occlusal surfaces and incisai edges. The study of characteristics of this syndrome is important for the dentist in order to guide dental treatment and prevention. The aim of this study is to present a myofunctional therapy protocol, evaluated by surface electromyography. A case of a 21 year-old young man who attended the Training Program in Dentistry for Persons with Disabilities, School of Dentistry of São José dos Campos/UNESP is reported. He underwent myofunctional therapy before dental treatment and the masticatory muscles were evaluated by surface electromyography. The exercises of myofunctional therapy consisted of active and passive simple movements of opening and closing the mouth, tongue protrusion and retrusion, digital manipulation and also by using an electric massager on intraoral and perioral region of the masseter, buccinator and orbicularis oris. Action potentials of the masticatory muscles decreased in almost all the muscles and values for the bite force and mandibular opening capacity increased. This study showed that brief and immediate myofunctional therapy optimized clinical practice with positive repercussion on dental care.

O ethos na linguagem da criança: um caminho para a identidade enunciativa

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Linguagem narrativa e fluência na síndrome de down: uma revisão

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Egocentric speech in the works of Vygotsky and Piaget: educational implications and representations by teachers

This paper presents an applied qualitative and quantitative study and seeks to understand egocentric speech according to Vygotsky and Piaget and, through a literature review, the educational implications of Vygotsky and Piaget’s ideas. Additionally, the representations of these ideas by fifteen teachers of basic education are investigated. It is important to understand egocentric speech in Vygotsky and Piaget. Despite the differences in how they conceive its nature, functions and implications, for both, egocentric speech is intrinsically linked to and facilitates our understanding of child development. Regarding the representation of teachers who criticized children who used egocentric language, when teachers established any negative consequences of such language, they attributed it to the affective and moral aspects as well as to cognition. However, their approach was more practically oriented than those found in the psychological theories addressed. Therefore, this study aids in understanding the limits and scope of teacher-training courses.

A brief look at the least-squares approach as a classifier applied to restricted-vocabulary speech recognition

In this letter, a speech recognition algorithm based on the least-squares method is presented. Particularly, the intention is to exemplify how such a traditional numerical technique can be applied to solve a signal processing problem that is usually treated by using more elaborated formulations.