Aerodynamic and Acoustic Characteristics of Voice in Prader-Willi Syndrome

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a multisystem disorder caused by DNA abnormalities involving chromosome 15. Major characteristics are infant hypotonia, hypogonadism, mental retardation, a short stature, atypical facial appearance, and the onset of obesity due to insatiable hunger in early childhood. Also, speech and language abnormalities have been reported including voice disorders. These have seldom been studied in detail, however. This paper reports the results of an acoustic and aerodynamic investigation of the voice in 22 individuals with PWS. Two age groups were distinguished, a group of children [chronological age (CA) 6 years, 7 months through 11 years, 7 months; total intelligence quotient (TIQ) 40-88] and a group of adolescents and adults (CA 17 years, 1 month through 29 years, 5 months; TIQ 41-94). Both aerodynamic and acoustic parameters were obtained and compared with normative data from the Belgian Study Group on Voice Disorders. It was found that voice difficulties do commonly occur in individuals with PWS including impairment of frequency levels, voice quality, and poor aerodynamic capabilities.     

Complexation of divalent metal ions with diols in the presence of anion auxiliary ligands: zinc-induced oxidation of ethylene glycol to glycolaldehyde by consecutive hydride ion and proton shifts

Ternary complexes of the type AH???M(2+)???L(-) (AH?=?diol, including diethylene and triethylene glycol, M?=?Ca, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn and auxiliary anion ligand L(-) =?CH(3)COO(-), HCOO(-) and Cl(-)) have been generated in the gas phase by MALDI and ESI, and their dissociation characteristics have been obtained. Use of the auxiliary ligands enables the complexation of AH with the divalent metal ion without AH becoming deprotonated, although A(-)???M(2+) is often also generated in the ion source or after MS/MS. For M?=?Ca, dissociation occurs to AH?+?M(2+)???L(-) and/or to A(-)???M(2+) + LH, the latter being produced from the H-shifted isomer A(-) ???M(2+)???LH. For a given ligand L(-), the intensity ratio of these processes can be interpreted (barring reverse energy barriers) in terms of the quantity PA(A(-)) - Ca(aff) (A(-)), where PA is the proton affinity and Ca(aff) is the calcium ion affinity. Deuterium labeling shows that the complex ion HOCH(2)CH(2) OH???Zn(2+)???(-)OOCCH(3), in addition to losing acetic acid (60 Da), also eliminates glycolaldehyde (HOCH(2)CH=O, also 60 Da); it is proposed that these reactions commence with a hydride ion shift to produce the ion-dipole complex HOCH(2)CHOH(+)??? HZnOOCCH(3), which then undergoes proton transfer and dissociation to HOCH(2)CH=O?+?HZn(+)???O?=?C(OH)CH(3). In this reaction, ethylene glycol is oxidized by consecutive hydride ion and proton shifts. A minor process leads to loss of the isomeric species HOCH=CHOH.     

Path integrals for diffusion processes in Riemannian spaces

The Onsager-Machlup lagrangian for general continuous Markov processes in curved spaces will be derived invoking (i) continuous and differentiable trajectories, (ii) a Fourier series analysis of stochastic paths and (iii) the principle of general covariance. No discretization rule will be required in order to put the continuous action on a lattice.     

Light‐Controlled Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) Inhibitors: Towards Photopharmacological Chemotherapy

Cancer treatment suffers from limitations that have a major impact on the patient’s quality of life and survival. In the case of chemotherapy, the systemic distribution of cytotoxic drugs reduces their efficacy and causes severe side effects due to nonselective toxicity. Photopharmacology allows a novel approach to address these problems because it employs external, local activation of chemotherapeutic agents by using light. The development of photoswitchable histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors as potential antitumor agents is reported herein. Analogues of the clinically used chemotherapeutic agents vorinostat, panobinostat, and belinostat were designed with a photoswitchable azobenzene moiety incorporated into their structure. The most promising compound exhibits high inhibitory potency in the thermodynamically less stable cis form and a significantly lower activity for the trans form, both in terms of HDAC activity and proliferation of HeLa cells. This approach offers a clear prospect towards local photoactivation of HDAC inhibition to avoid severe side effects in chemotherapy.     

Surface-charge-governed ion transport in nanofluidic channels

A study of ion transport in aqueous-filled silica channels as thin as 70 nm reveals a remarkable degree of conduction at low salt concentrations that departs strongly from bulk behavior: In the dilute limit, the electrical conductances of channels saturate at a value that is independent of both the salt concentration and the channel height. Our data are well described by an electrokinetic model parametrized only by the surface-charge density. Using chemical surface modifications, we further demonstrate that at low salt concentrations, ion transport in nanochannels is governed by the surface charge.     

Unstable state dynamics: A systematic evaluation of the master equation

The master equation for diffusion in a bistable potential is evaluated systematically in terms of the small-noise parameter for the case where the system is initially at the unstable state. The expansion is valid for all times, that is in the initial and intermediate as well as in the final regime. The theory does not involve free fitting parameters and is easily generalized to more complicated processes.     

A necessary condition forBSI-stability

This paper gives a negative result onBSI-stability for the Lobatto IIIC-methods with more than two stages. We also give a necessary condition forBSI-stability.     

Error bounds for the solution to the algebraic equations in Runge-Kutta methods

In the implementation of implicit Runge-Kutta methods inaccuracies are introduced due to the solution of the implicit equations. It is shown that these errors can be bounded independently of the stiffness of the differential equation considered if a certain condition is satisfied. This condition is also sufficient for the existence and uniqueness of a solution to the algebraic equations. TheBSI-andBS-stability properties of several classes of implicit methods are established.