Acoustic voice analysis in patients with essential tremor

To quantify several acoustic features of the voice in patients with essentialtremor (ET), 28 patients and 28 age- and sex-matched controls were studied. ET severity was assessed with the rating scale for tremor of Fahn, Tolosa, and Marín. The Computerized Speech Lab 4300 program (Kay Elemetrics) was used. Two-second samples of a sustained /a/ and a sentence were captured with a microphone and laryngograph equipment. Measures included fundamental frequency (F₀), frequency perturbation (fitter, Koike algorithm), intensity perturbation (shimmer, Horii algorithm), and harmonic-to-noise ratio (H/N, Yumoto algorithm) of the vowel /a/, and the frequency and intensity variability of the sentence, phonational range, and dynamic range at the natural frequency, maximum phonational time, and s/z ratio. All subjects underwent indirect laryngoscopy and/or laryngeal fibroscopy. When compared with controls, ET patients showed higher jitter, lower H/N ratio (the last one only with laryngographic signal), of the vowel /a/, lower frequency variability in the microphonc signal, lower intensity variability in the laryngographic signal of the sentence, and significantly lower dynamic range at natural frequency of phonation. ET patients reported higher frequency of the presence of high voice intensity, tremor, and struggle. Several acoustic parameters were influenced by the severity of the disease, including shimmer, jitter, H/N ratio, frequency variability of the sentence, and s/z ratio, although neither of the acoustic analysis values or the phonetometric measurements were affected by the presence of voice tremor or by a successful pharmacological treatment of ET.     

Renormalization of non-semisimple gauge models with the background field method

We study the renormalization of non-semisimple gauge models quantized in the 't Hooft-background gauge to all orders. We analyze the normalization conditions for masses and couplings compatible with the Slavnov-Taylor and Ward-Takahashi Identities and with the IR constraints. We take into account both the problem of renormalization of CKM matrix elements and the problem of CP violation and we show that the Background Field Method (BFM) provides proper normalization conditions for fermion, scalar and gauge field mixings. We discuss the hard and the soft anomalies of the Slavnov-Taylor Identities and the conditions under which they are absent.     

Key interaction patterns in proteins revealed by cluster expansion of the partition function

The European Physical Journal E -     

Spin 3/2 Field Equation: Separation and Solution in a Class of Lema?tre–Tolman–Bondi Cosmologies

The spin 3/2 field equation is studied in the general Lema?tre–Tolman–Bondi (LTB) space-time. The equation is separated by variable separation. The angular dependence factors out at the level of the general LTB metric. Due to spherical symmetry the separated angular equations coincide with those, previously integrated, relative to the Robertson–Walker and Schwarzschild metric. Separation of time and radial dependence is possible within a class of LTB cosmological models for which the physical radius is a product of a time and a radial function, the last one being further selected by the consistency condition of the radial equations. The separated time dependence, that can be integrated by series, results essentially unique. Instead the radial dependence can be reduced to two independent second order ordinary differential equations that still depend on an arbitrary radial function that is an integration function of the cosmological model. The generalization of the scheme to arbitrary spin field equation is suggested.     

Extreme statistics in Raman fiber amplifiers: From analytical description to experiments

In this work, we investigate the emergence of rare and intense events during the Raman fiber amplification of a continuous wave. We highlight how dispersive properties and pump depletion can strongly influence the statistical properties of the amplified signal and its optical spectrum. Under certain conditions, the probability density functions of the amplified signal are calculated analytically and compared with the results of the numerical simulations. The conclusions are qualitatively validated by experiments carried out at telecommunication wavelengths.     

The Three-Wave Resonant Interaction Equations: Spectral and Numerical Methods

The spectral theory of the integrable partial differential equations which model the resonant interaction of three waves is considered with the purpose of numerically solving the direct spectral problem for both vanishing and non vanishing boundary values. Methods of computing both the continuum spectrum data and the discrete spectrum eigenvalues are given together with examples of such computations. The explicit spectral representation of the Manley-Rowe invariants is also displayed.     

Changes in cerebral activity after decreased upper-limb hypertonus: an EMG-fMRI study

Objective

Whereas several studies have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate motor recovery, whether therapy to decrease post-stroke hypertonus alters central motor patterns remains unclear. In this study, we used continuous electromyography (EMG)-fMRI to investigate possible changes in movement-related brain activation in patients receiving Botulinum toxin (BoNT-A) for hand-muscle hypertonus after chronic stroke.

Methods

We studied eight stroke patients all of whom had hemiparesis and associated upper-limb hypertonus. All patients underwent an fMRI-EMG recording and clinical-neurological assessment before BoNT-A and 5 weeks thereafter. The handgrip motor task during imaging was fixed across both patients and controls. The movements were metronome paced, movement amplitude and force were controlled with a plastic orthosis, dynamometer and EMG recording. An age-matched control group was recruited from among healthy volunteers underwent the same fMRI-EMG recording.

Results

Before BoNT-A, while patients moved the paretic hand, fMRI detected wide bilateral activation in the sensorymotor areas (SM1), in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and cerebellum. After BoNT-A blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activation decreased in ipsilateral and contralateral motor areas and became more lateralized. BOLD activation decreased also in ipsilateral cerebellar regions and in the SMA.

Conclusion

Changes in peripheral upper-limb hypertonus after BoNT-A were associated to an improvement in active movements and more lateralized and focalized activation of motor areas. The clinical and EMG-fMRI coregistration technique we used to study hand-muscle hypertonus in patients receiving BoNT-A after chronic stroke should be useful in future studies seeking improved strategies for post-stroke neurorehabilitation.