The Association of Speech/Language Risk With Phonological Awareness, Rapid Naming, and Reading Ability in Children With Cleft Lip and/or Palate.

Children with cleft lip and/or palate were assessed for speech, language, phonological awareness (PA), rapid naming (RN) and reading ability using standardized instruments at baseline (T1; = 142, M = 6.14 years, 51% males) and 2-year follow-up (T2; 89% retention, M = 8.38).

Interdisciplinary Team Care for Children with Facial Differences.

Children who have cleft and craniofacial diagnoses require coordinated, interdisciplinary treatment planning from birth to young adulthood. Teams that adhere to the Parameters of Care and maintain annual review by the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association Commission on Approval of Teams are published at www.acpa-cpf.

Uterine fibroids increase the risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: a prospective cohort study.

Objective: It is unclear whether uterine fibroids are associated with the occurrence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP). Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the association between uterine fibroids and HDP in a prospective cohort.

Methods: Overall, 2404 pregnant women who received antenatal care were enrolled in a prospective cohort in China between 2014 and 2016; 2277 women met the inclusion criteria of this study.

Velopharyngeal Muscle Morphology in Children With Unrepaired Submucous Cleft Palate: An Imaging Study.

Objective: To identify quantitative and qualitative differences in the velopharyngeal musculature and surrounding structures between children with submucous cleft palate (SMCP) and velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) and noncleft controls with normal anatomy and normal speech.

Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging was used to evaluate the velopharyngeal mechanism in 20 children between 4 and 9 years of age; 5 with unrepaired SMCP and VPI. Quantitative and qualitative measures of the velum and levator veli palatini in participants with symptomatic SMCP were compared to noncleft controls with normal velopharyngeal anatomy and normal speech.

The application of meteorological data and search index data in improving the prediction of HFMD: A study of two cities in Guangdong Province, China.

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a public health issue in China, and its incidence in Guangdong Province is higher than the national average. Previous studies have found climatic factors have an influential role in the transmission of HFMD. Internet search technology has been shown to predict some infectious disease epidemics and is a potential resource in tracking epidemics in countries where the use of Internet search index data is prevalent.

Speech Production Skills in Children With Cleft Palate Who Were Internationally Adopted.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of international adoption (IA), age at palatoplasty (PR age), and velopharyngeal sufficiency (VPS) on articulation outcomes.

Design: This was a cross-sectional, prospective, observational study.

Setting: Outpatient hospital clinic.

An electrocardiographic diagnostic model for differentiating left from right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia origin.

Introduction: Although several electrocardiographic (ECG) algorithms have been proposed for differentiating the origins of outflow tract ventricular arrhythmias, the most optimal one has not been agreed on. The purpose of this study was to establish an ECG diagnostic model based on the previous ECG algorithms.

Methods And Results: The following ECG diagnostic model, Y=-1.

Multifocal necrotising leucoencephalopathy following infection in an immunocompetent patient.

Multifocal necrotising leucoencephalopathy is a rare disorder affecting the central nervous system. It is characterised pathologically by microscopic areas of necrosis with pontine predilection but also involvement of extrapontine regions, including the cerebellum, medulla and cerebral hemispheres. It usually occurs on the background of immunosuppression.

Language Development in Children With Cleft Palate With or Without Cleft Lip Adopted From Non-English-Speaking Countries.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether language skills differed between children with cleft palate or cleft lip and palate (CP±CL) who were adopted into an English-speaking home from a non-English-speaking country (late English exposure [LE]) and children with CP±CL raised from birth in an English-speaking home (early English exposure [EE]).

Method: Children (51 LE, 67 EE), ages 3;0 (years;months) to 9;0, completed the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF), Preschool Second Edition or Fourth Edition. Linear regression analysis was used to assess the impact of age of adoption and time in an English-speaking home on language skills, as measured by the CELF-P2 and CELF-4.

Three-dimensional cephalometric study of upper airway space in skeletal class II and III healthy patients.

Because the pharynx and the dentofacial structures have close relationship, a mutual interaction can be expected to occur between them. The literature presents skeletal malocclusion as etiology for airway morphology changes and/or vice versa. The present three-dimensional cephalometric study from computed tomography scans was carried out to investigate upper airway space in normal nasal breathing patients presenting skeletal pattern of classes II and III.

The effects of maxillofacial surgery on speech and velopharyngeal function.

Individuals undergoing conventional maxillary advancement surgery or maxillary distraction should have perceptual and instrumental assessment of speech and velopharyngeal function, pre- and postsurgically. They should be counseled on the risk of deterioration in velopharyngeal function, particularly for those who have repaired cleft palate presenting with characteristics of borderline velopharyngeal function. These individuals should also be counseled that there may be a positive change in speech articulation, with normalization of the maxillary-mandibular relationship, especially for the highly sibilant /s/ and /z/ sounds.

Selective urokinase-type plasminogen activator inhibitors. 4. 1-(7-sulfonamidoisoquinolinyl)guanidines.

1-isoquinolinylguanidines were previously disclosed as potent and selective inhibitors of urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA). Further investigation of this template has revealed that incorporation of a 7-sulfonamide group furnishes a new series of potent and highly selective uPA inhibitors. Potency and selectivity can be achieved with sulfonamides derived from a variety of amines and is further enhanced by the incorporation of sulfonamides derived from amino acids.

Structure-based design and synthesis of novel non-zinc chelating MMP-12 inhibitors.

A new class of MMP-12 inhibitors was discovered and optimized using structure-based drug design methods. Modeling studies using a known MMP-12 crystal structure identified a new interaction mode for these new MMP-12 inhibitors. Further optimization resulted in the discovery of a compound displaying nanomolar activity against MMP-12 and which was co-crystallized with MMP-12.

Crystal structures of novel non-peptidic, non-zinc chelating inhibitors bound to MMP-12.

Human macrophage elastase (MMP-12) plays an important role in inflammatory processes and has been implicated in diseases such as emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It is therefore an attractive target for therapeutic agents. As part of a structure-based drug design programme to find new inhibitors of MMP-12, the crystal structures of the MMP-12 catalytic domain (residues 106-268) complexed to three different non-peptidic small molecule inhibitors have been determined.

Adduct formation between alkali metal ions and divalent metal salicylaldimine complexes having methoxy substituents. A structural investigation.

Sodium, potassium, and cesium salts (iodides, nitrates, acetates, and tetraphenylborates) form 1/1, 1/2 and 2/3 adducts with MLn [M = Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn; n = 1-4; H2L1 = N,N'-(3-methoxysalicyliden)ethane-1,2-diamine; H2L2, H2L3, and H2L4 are the -propane-1,2-diamine, -o-phenylenediamine, and -propane-1,3-diamine analogues of H2L1). Metal salicyladimine, alkali metal, and anion all exert influence on stoichiometry and reactivity. Sodium ions tend to reside within the planes of the salicylaldimine oxygens, as in Na(NO3)(MeOH).

Efficacy of continuous positive airway pressure for treatment of hypernasality.

Objective: To determine whether speech hypernasality in subjects born with cleft palate can be reduced by graded velopharyngeal resistance training against continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).

Design: Pretreatment versus immediate posttreatment comparison study.

Setting: Eight university and hospital speech clinics.

Hemifacial microsomia. Etiology, diagnosis and treatment.

Background: Three percent of all newborns have significant structural anomalies. Hemifacial microsomia, or HFM, is the second most common facial anomaly, second only to cleft lip and palate. New therapeutic and clinical management techniques offer promising interventions that can allow many patients to have more normal childhoods at earlier ages.

Genome of the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae strain R6.

Streptococcus pneumoniae is among the most significant causes of bacterial disease in humans. Here we report the 2,038,615-bp genomic sequence of the gram-positive bacterium S. pneumoniae R6.

Structure of a binary complex of HhaI methyltransferase with S-adenosyl-L-methionine formed in the presence of a short non-specific DNA oligonucleotide.

We have determined a structure for a complex formed between HhaI methyltransferase (M.HhaI) and S-adenosyl-L-methionine (AdoMet) in the presence of a non-specific short oligonucleotide. M.

Mechanism of inhibition of DNA (cytosine C5)-methyltransferases by oligodeoxyribonucleotides containing 5,6-dihydro-5-azacytosine.

A key step in the predicted mechanism of enzymatic transfer of methyl groups from S-adenosyl-l-methionine (AdoMet) to cytosine residues in DNA is the transient formation of a dihydrocytosine intermediate covalently linked to cysteine in the active site of a DNA (cytosine C5)-methyltransferase (DNA C5-MTase). Crystallographic analysis of complexes formed by HhaI methyltransferase (M.HhaI), AdoMet and a target oligodeoxyribonucleotide containing 5-fluorocytosine confirmed the existence of this dihydrocytosine intermediate.

Structures of HhaI methyltransferase complexed with substrates containing mismatches at the target base.

Three structures have been determined for complexes between HhaI methyltransferase (M.HhaI) and oligonucleotides containing a G:A, G:U or G:AP (AP = abasic or apurinic/apyrimidinic) mismatch at the target base pair. The mismatched adenine, uracil and abasic site are all flipped out of the DNA helix and located in the enzyme's active-site pocket, adopting the same conformation as in the flipped-out normal substrate.

Characterization of the Ras binding domain of the RalGDS-related protein, RLF.

The Ras binding domain (RBD) of Rlf, a member of the RalGDS family of proteins, was characterized. Using an ELISA-based technique, the relative binding affinity of Rlf for a variety of mutant Ras proteins was determined. Rlf had significantly different binding characteristics than the Raf-1 RBD.