Automated speech analytics in ALS: higher sensitivity of digital articulatory precision over the ALSFRS-R.

: Although studies have shown that digital measures of speech detected ALS speech impairment and correlated with the ALSFRS-R speech item, no study has yet compared their performance in detecting speech changes. In this study, we compared the performances of the ALSFRS-R speech item and an algorithmic speech measure in detecting clinically important changes in speech. Importantly, the study was part of a FDA submission which received the breakthrough device designation for monitoring ALS; we provide this paper as a roadmap for validating other speech measures for monitoring disease progression.

Wav2DDK: Analytical and Clinical Validation of an Automated Diadochokinetic Rate Estimation Algorithm on Remotely Collected Speech.

Purpose: Oral diadochokinesis is a useful task in assessment of speech motor function in the context of neurological disease. Remote collection of speech tasks provides a convenient alternative to in-clinic visits, but scoring these assessments can be a laborious process for clinicians. This work describes Wav2DDK, an automated algorithm for estimating the diadochokinetic (DDK) rate on remotely collected audio from healthy participants and participants with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

A speech-based prognostic model for dysarthria progression in ALS.

: We demonstrated that it was possible to predict ALS patients' degree of future speech impairment based on past data. We used longitudinal data from two ALS studies where participants recorded their speech on a daily or weekly basis and provided ALSFRS-R speech subscores on a weekly or quarterly basis (quarter-annually). : Using their speech recordings, we measured articulatory precision (a measure of the crispness of pronunciation) using an algorithm that analyzed the acoustic signal of each phoneme in the words produced.

Language Analytics for Assessment of Mental Health Status and Functional Competency.

Background And Hypothesis: Automated language analysis is becoming an increasingly popular tool in clinical research involving individuals with mental health disorders. Previous work has largely focused on using high-dimensional language features to develop diagnostic and prognostic models, but less work has been done to use linguistic output to assess downstream functional outcomes, which is critically important for clinical care. In this work, we study the relationship between automated language composites and clinical variables that characterize mental health status and functional competency using predictive modeling.

Investigating the Impact of Speech Compression on the Acoustics of Dysarthric Speech.

Acoustic analysis plays an important role in the assessment of dysarthria. Out of a public health necessity, telepractice has become increasingly adopted as the modality in which clinical care is given. While there are differences in software among telepractice platforms, they all use some form of speech compression to preserve bandwidth, with the most common algorithm being the Opus codec.

Automated semantic relevance as an indicator of cognitive decline: Out-of-sample validation on a large-scale longitudinal dataset.

We developed and evaluated an automatically extracted measure of cognition (semantic relevance) using automated and manual transcripts of audio recordings from healthy and cognitively impaired participants describing the Cookie Theft picture from the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. We describe the rationale and metric validation. We developed the measure on one dataset and evaluated it on a large database (>2000 samples) by comparing accuracy against a manually calculated metric and evaluating its clinical relevance.

Estimation of forced vital capacity using speech acoustics in patients with ALS.

In this study, we present and provide validation data for a tool that predicts forced vital capacity (FVC) from speech acoustics collected remotely via a mobile app without the need for any additional equipment (e.g. a spirometer).

Altered speech patterns in subjects with post-traumatic headache due to mild traumatic brain injury.

Background/objective: Changes in speech can be detected objectively before and during migraine attacks. The goal of this study was to interrogate whether speech changes can be detected in subjects with post-traumatic headache (PTH) attributed to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and whether there are within-subject changes in speech during headaches compared to the headache-free state.

Methods: Using a series of speech elicitation tasks uploaded via a mobile application, PTH subjects and healthy controls (HC) provided speech samples once every 3 days, over a period of 12 weeks.

Explorations of Individual Change Processes and Their Determinants: A Novel Approach and Remaining Challenges.

Over the past 40 years there have been great advances in the analysis of individual change and the analyses of between-person differences in change. While conditional growth models are the dominant approach, exploratory models, such as growth mixture models and structural equation modeling trees, allow for greater flexibility in the modeling of between-person differences in change. We continue to push for greater flexibility in the modeling of individual change and its determinants by combining growth mixture modeling with structural equation modeling trees to evaluate how measured covariates predict class membership using a recursive partitioning algorithm.

Repeatability of Commonly Used Speech and Language Features for Clinical Applications.

Introduction: Changes in speech have the potential to provide important information on the diagnosis and progression of various neurological diseases. Many researchers have relied on open-source speech features to develop algorithms for measuring speech changes in clinical populations as they are convenient and easy to use. However, the repeatability of open-source features in the context of neurological diseases has not been studied.

Early detection and tracking of bulbar changes in ALS via frequent and remote speech analysis.

Bulbar deterioration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating characteristic that impairs patients' ability to communicate, and is linked to shorter survival. The existing clinical instruments for assessing bulbar function lack sensitivity to early changes. In this paper, using a cohort of  = 65 ALS patients who provided regular speech samples for 3-9 months, we demonstrated that it is possible to remotely detect early speech changes and track speech progression in ALS via automated algorithmic assessment of speech collected digitally.

Restoration of prosocial behavior in rats after heroin self-administration via chemogenetic activation of the anterior insular cortex.

The anterior insular cortex (AIC) mediates various social, emotional, and interoceptive components of addiction. We recently demonstrated a disruption of prosocial behavior following heroin self-administration in rats, as assessed by examining the animals' propensity to rescue its cagemate from a plastic restrainer while having simultaneous access to heroin. To examine the possibility that heroin-induced deficits in prosocial function are mediated by the AIC, the present study examined the effects of chemogenetic activation or inhibition of excitatory AIC pyramidal neurons on heroin-induced prosocial deficits.

Xenotransfusion with packed bovine red blood cells to a wildebeest calf (Connochaetes taurinus).

A 4-month-old female blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) was presented for bilateral pelvic limb fracture repair. Clinical examination under anaesthesia revealed a water-hammer pulse and a haematocrit of 0.13.

Modeling change trajectories with count and zero-inflated outcomes: Challenges and recommendations.

The goal of this article is to describe models to examine change over time with an outcome that represents a count, such as the number of alcoholic drinks per day. Common challenges encountered with this type of data are: (1) the outcome is discrete, may have a large number of zeroes, and may be overdispersed, (2) the data are clustered (multiple observations within each individual), (3) the researchers needs to carefully consider and choose an appropriate time metric, and (4) the researcher needs to identify both a proper individual (potentially nonlinear) change model and an appropriate distributional form that captures the properties of the data. In this article, we provide an overview of generalized linear models, generalized estimating equation models, and generalized latent variable (mixed-effects) models for longitudinal count outcomes focusing on the Poisson, negative binomial, zero-inflated, and hurdle distributions.

Effects of heroin on rat prosocial behavior.

Opioid use disorders are characterized in part by impairments in social functioning. Previous research indicates that laboratory rats, which are frequently used as animal models of addiction-related behaviors, are capable of prosocial behavior. For example, under normal conditions, when a 'free' rat is placed in the vicinity of rat trapped in a plastic restrainer, the rat will release or 'rescue' the other rat from confinement.

Recursive Partitioning with Nonlinear Models of Change.

In this article, we introduce nonlinear longitudinal recursive partitioning (nLRP) and the R package longRpart2 to carry out the analysis. This method implements recursive partitioning (also known as decision trees) in order to split data based on individual- (i.e.

ACCURACY OF NONINVASIVE ANESTHETIC MONITORING IN THE ANESTHETIZED GIRAFFE (GIRAFFA CAMELOPARDALIS).

This study evaluated the accuracy of pulse oximetry, capnography, and oscillometric blood pressure during general anesthesia in giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis). Thirty-two giraffes anesthetized for physiologic experiments were instrumented with a pulse oximeter transmittance probe positioned on the tongue and a capnograph sampling line placed at the oral end of the endotracheal tube. A human size 10 blood pressure cuff was placed around the base of the tail, and an indwelling arterial catheter in the auricular artery continuously measured blood pressure.

CONTINUOUS INTRAVENOUS INFUSION ANESTHESIA WITH MEDETOMIDINE, KETAMINE, AND MIDAZOLAM AFTER INDUCTION WITH A COMBINATION OF ETORPHINE, MEDETOMIDINE, AND MIDAZOLAM OR WITH MEDETOMIDINE, KETAMINE, AND BUTORPHANOL IN IMPALA (AEPYCEROS MELAMPUS).

In order to develop a long-term anesthesia for flighty antelope species in field situations, two different protocols for induction and maintenance with an intravenous infusion were evaluated in wild-caught impala ( Aepyceros melampus ). Ten adult female impala were induced with two induction protocols: one consisted of 0.2 mg/kg medetomidine, 4 mg/kg ketamine, and 0.

Long-term surgical anaesthesia with isoflurane in human habituated Nile Crocodiles.

A suitable long-term anaesthetic technique was required for implantation of physiological sensors and telemetric devices in sub-adult Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) to allow the collection of physiological data. Five Nile crocodiles with a median body mass of 24 kg were used. After manual capture, they were blindfolded and 0.

Propofol-medetomidine-ketamine total intravenous anaesthesia in thiafentanil-medetomidine-immobilized impala (Aepyceros melampus).

Objective: To characterize a propofol-medetomidine-ketamine total intravenous anaesthetic in impala (Aepyceros melampus).

Study Design: Prospective clinical study.

Animals: Ten adult female impala.

ETORPHINE-KETAMINE-MEDETOMIDINE TOTAL INTRAVENOUS ANESTHESIA IN WILD IMPALA (AEPYCEROS MELAMPUS) OF 120-MINUTE DURATION.

There is a growing necessity to perform long-term anesthesia in wildlife, especially antelope. The costs and logistics of transporting wildlife to veterinary practices make surgical intervention a high-stakes operation. Thus there is a need for a field-ready total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) infusion to maintain anesthesia in antelope.

Single-Incision Laparoscopic Sterilization of the Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus).

Objective: To describe laparoscopic ovariectomy and salpingectomy in the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) using single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS).

Study Design: Prospective cohort.

Animals: Female cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) (n = 21).

Anaesthetic management of a 10-month-old white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) calf for emergency exploratory celiotomy.

A 10-month-old, 580 kg, hand-reared white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) calf was presented for emergency exploratory celiotomy. Anaesthesia was safely induced with three successive intravenous (IV) boluses of diazepam (10 mg) and ketamine (100 mg) until the trachea could be intubated. Anaesthesia was adequately maintained with isoflurane-inoxygen (mean end-tidal isoflurane concentration of 1.

Preliminary investigation into the ventilatory effects of midazolam in isoflurane-anaesthetised goats.

The ventilatory effects of intravenous midazolam (MDZ) were evaluated in isoflurane- anaesthetised goats. Eight female goats aged 2-3 years were fasted from food and water for 12 h. Anaesthesia was then induced using a face mask with isoflurane in oxygen, whilst the trachea was intubated with a cuffed tracheal tube and anaesthesia maintained with isoflurane at 1.