A new insight into postsurgical objective voice quality evaluation: application to thyroplastic medialization.

This paper aims at providing new objective parameters and plots, easily understandable and usable by clinicians and logopaedicians, in order to assess voice quality recovering after vocal fold surgery. The proposed software tool performs presurgical and postsurgical comparison of main voice characteristics (fundamental frequency, noise, formants) by means of robust analysis tools, specifically devoted to deal with highly degraded speech signals as those under study. Specifically, we address the problem of quantifying voice quality, before and after medialization thyroplasty, for patients affected by glottis incompetence.

On the hydrolysis of the dioxouranium(VI) ion in oxalate solutions.

The complex formation between the dioxouranium (VI) and the oxalate ions has been investigated by measuring the potential of a glass electrode, at 25.00 degrees C, in 1 and 3 M NaClO4, at lower acidities than 10(-4.5) M, in order to favour the formation of (mixed) ternary species.

Objective analysis of the singing voice as a training aid.

A new tool for robust tracking of fundamental frequency is proposed, along with an objective measure of main singing voice parameters, such as vibrato rate, vibrato extent, and vocal intonation. High-resolution Power Spectral Density estimation is implemented, based on AutoRegressive models of suitable order, allowing reliable formant tracking also in vocalizations characterized by highly varying values. The proposed techniques are applied to about 1000 vocalizations, coming from both professional and non-professional singers, and show better performance as compared to classical Fourier-based approaches.

The determinants and consequences of information seeking among cancer patients.

This research was designed to examine information seeking behavior among cancer patients. We present a model which identifies the determinants and consequences of information seeking and, in turn, examines the effects of prior variables on four outcome variables: whether patients discussed with their physicians information that they received from other sources, whether the information they obtained helped them make decisions about treatment or care, whether the patient sought a second opinion about his/her diagnosis or treatment, and changes in self-reported stress levels from diagnosis to the time of interview. The model is estimated separately for three groups: patients who sought information from multiple sources including the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service, patients who sought information from multiple sources but did not call the Cancer Information Service, and patients who did not seek information other than from their physician(s).

Long-term effects (up to 18 months) of a smoking cessation program among women smokers in public health clinics.

Background: We conducted longitudinal analysis of long-term outcomes of a motivational smoking cessation program. The program consisted of clinic-based minimal interventions delivered to women smokers in public health clinics by clinic personnel, a reminder letter, and an optional brief telephone counseling.

Methods: Subjects seen in six intervention (N=541) and six control clinics (N=527) were interviewed by telephone 2, 6, 12, and 18 months later.

Short report: variation in mitochondrial 12S and 16S ribosomal DNA sequences in natural populations of Triatoma infestans (Hemiptera: Reduviidae).

Mitochondrial DNA sequences of the 12S and 16S ribosomal RNA genes were analyzed in five natural populations of the Chagas' disease vector Triatoma infestans from Argentina. DNA sequence comparisons of 878 basepairs (12S plus 16S) revealed 13 haplotypes. A total of 10 private haplotypes were found in four of the populations analyzed, suggesting low current levels of genetic exchange.

Noise reduction for vocal pathologies.

A noise reduction scheme, particularly suited for the correction of vocal pathologies, is proposed. The filter makes use of concepts originated within the theory of dynamical systems and deterministic chaos. In particular, the idea of embedding scalar data in order to reconstruct a phase space is of fundamental importance here.

Non-linear prediction for oesophageal voice analysis.

Herein, non-linear prediction methods are applied to oesophageal voice analysis. The research aims to investigate normal and pathological subjects, in order to improve knowledge of the oesophageal voice behaviour. Analysis is performed in the reconstructed phase space, using both non-linear prediction with local linear approximation and the S-Map method.

Developmental aspects of infant's cry melody and formants.

This paper deals with the analysis of cry melodies (time variations of the fundamental frequency) as well as vocal tract resonance frequencies (formants) from infant cry signals. The increase of complexity of cry melodies is a good indicator for neuro-muscular maturation as well as for the evaluation of pre-speech development. The variation of formant frequencies allows an estimation of articulatory activity during pre-speech vocalization.

Complex formation between phytic acid and divalent metal ions: a solution equilibria and solid state investigation.

An investigation on the complex formation equilibria between divalent metal ions Me (with Me=Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Cd, and Pb) and phytic acid (H(12)L) is presented. Experiments were performed through a potentiometric methodology by measuring, at 25 degrees C, the proton and, in some cases (Cu(2+), Cd(2+), and Pb(2+)), also the metal ion activity at equilibrium in solutions containing, besides the metal and the ligand, 3 M NaClO(4) as the ionic medium. Unhydrolyzed solutions of the metal ion at millimolar concentration levels were titrated with solutions of about 10 mM sodium phytate, until the formation of a solid phase took place (always at pH approximately 2.

Factors influencing medical information seeking among African American cancer patients.

Qualitative research methods were used to explore factors that may affect medical information seeking, treatment engagement, and emotional adjustment among African American cancer patients. Focus group findings suggest that an array of cultural and socioeconomic factors plays important roles in the behavior of African American cancer patients. Participants described a number of important barriers and facilitators of medical information seeking and treatment participation.

A simple subspace approach for speech denoising.

For pathological voices, hoarseness is mainly due to airflow turbulence in the vocal tract and is often referred to as noise. This paper focuses on the enhancement of speech signals that are supposedly degraded by additive white noise. Speech enhancement is performed in the time-domain, by means of a fast and reliable subspace approach.

Courts and health policy: judicial policy making and publicly funded health care in Canada.

The 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provided political actors with the opportunity to make rights-based challenges to public policy decisions. Two challenges launched by providers and consumers of health care illuminate the impact of judicial review on health care policy and the institutional capacity of courts to formulate policy in this field. The significant impact of rights-based claims on cross-jurisdictional policy differences in a federal regime is noted.

Software corrections of vocal disorders.

We discuss how vocal disorders can be post-corrected via a simple nonlinear noise reduction scheme. This work is motivated by the need of a better understanding of voice dysfunctions. This would entail a 2-fold advantage for affected patients: Physicians can perform better surgical interventions and on the other hand researchers can try to build up devices that can help to improve voice quality, i.

Maintenance of a smoking cessation program in public health clinics beyond the experimental evaluation period.

Objectives: As phase 3 of a study to evaluate a smoking cessation program in public health practice, the authors assess the maintenance and impact of the It's Time smoking cessation program in seven public maternal and child health clinics in Chicago.

Methods: The authors interviewed 404 clinic patients in the study's baseline phase (prior to introduction of the It's Time intervention program), and 610 in the program maintenance phase (in the year after experimental evaluation had ended) to assess exposure to smoking cessation interventions offered at the clinic, and smoking cessation outcomes (quit, actions toward quitting, scores on action, motivation, readiness, and confidence scales). The authors controlled for clustering of smokers within clinics, smokers' characteristics prior to clinic visit, and type of clinic service.

Expressive freedom and tobacco advertising: a Canadian perspective.

In 1989, Canada enacted the Tobacco Products Control Act (TPCA), which prohibited tobacco advertising, required health warnings on tobacco packaging, and restricted promotional activities. Canada's tobacco companies challenged the TPCA's constitutionality, arguing that it infringed on freedom of expression. Although it seemed likely that the Canadian Supreme Court would uphold the legislation, in 1995 the court declared the impugned provisions to be unconstitutional.

Skeletal changes of Herbst appliance therapy investigated with more conventional cephalometrics and European norms.

We measured the skeletal effects of Herbst appliance treatment in a retrospective sample of 25 boys (aged 10.7-14.5 years) and 25 girls (aged 10.

Analysis of vocal disorders in a feature space.

This paper provides a way to classify vocal disorders for clinical applications. This goal is achieved by means of geometric signal separation in a feature space. Typical quantities from chaos theory (like entropy, correlation dimension and first lyapunov exponent) and some conventional ones (like autocorrelation and spectral factor) are analysed and evaluated, in order to provide entries for the feature vectors.

Adaptive noise energy estimation in pathological speech signals.

For pathological voices, spectral noise is closely related to the degree of perceived hoarseness. In this paper, noise variations are tracked during an utterance by means of an adaptive version of the normalized noise energy method [1]. A first step is devoted to pitch estimation, which allows defining the varying optimal time window length for noise retrieval, avoiding empty "dip" regions.

A comparative analysis of fundamental frequency estimation methods with application to pathological voices.

One of the basic parameters characterising voiced phonation is the fundamental frequency, named pitch, which is the rate of vibration of the folds. In pathological voices. pitch variations within an utterance are indicative of the patient status.

The effect of a structured smoking cessation program, independent of exposure to existing interventions.

Objectives: This study assessed the effectiveness of a smoking cessation program for women in public health clinics, controlling for reported exposures to 4 common intervention components (provider advice, booklet, video segment, posters) among smokers in the control group.

Methods: After a baseline control period, 10 pair-matched clinics were randomly assigned to study groups. A total of 1042 smokers in the combined baseline and control groups and 454 smokers in the intervention group completed a preintervention questionnaire and a postintervention telephone interview 5 to 8 weeks later.

Minimal smoking cessation interventions in prenatal, family planning, and well-child public health clinics.

Objectives: This study assessed the prevalence and effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions for women of childbearing age in public health clinics.

Methods: Smokers in prenatal, family planning, and well-child services in 10 public health clinics (n = 1021) were interviewed 5 to 8 weeks after a medical visit to assess their exposure to smoking cessation interventions and smoking cessation outcomes.

Results: Depending on clinic service and intervention component (poster, video segment, provider advice, booklet), 16% to 63% of women reported exposure to an intervention component during their visit.

Can the resurgence of malaria be partially attributed to structural adjustment programmes?

Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) (restrictive fiscal and monetary policies and extensive public sector reforms) were implemented in many developing countries during the 1980s. Their socio-economic impact on the poor has been widely discussed. Antimalarial efforts could have been affected by this economic reform process, and the resurgence of malaria during the past twenty years could be partially attributed to the socio-economic hardship generated by these programmes.