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In rodent models of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), the study of ultrasonic vocalizations has provided the unique opportunity to evaluate social communication and interaction in ethologically-appropriate contexts, behavioral domains relevant to the first core symptom of ASD. In the present review, we selected and evaluated ultrasonic vocalizations' data collected in rodent models of ASD in different experimental settings, either in the neonatal phase or in adulthood. Both quantitative (calling rates) and qualitative (range and shape of the vocal repertoire) abnormalities have been evidenced. The aim of our work was to highlight several promises and a few caveats in the use of ultrasonic vocalizations for behavioral phenotyping of ASD models and give some suggestions to maximize the translational value of these studies.

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Background and objectives: The objective of this study was to contribute to the evaluation of the newborn (NB) cry as a means of communication and diagnosis. Materials and Methods: The study implied the recording of the spontaneous cry of 101 NBs with no intrapartum events (control sample), and of 72 NBs with nuchal cord (study sample) from the "Bega" University Clinic of Obstetrics-Gynecology and Neonatology of Timisoara, Romania. The sound analysis was based upon: Imagistic highlighting methods, descriptive statistics, and data mining techniques. Results: The differences between the cry of NBs with no intrapartum events and that of NBs affected by nuchal cord are statistically significant regarding the volume unit meter (VUM) (p = 0.0021) and the peak point meter (PPM) (p = 0.041). Conclusions: While clinically there are no differences between the two groups, the cry recorded from the study group (nuchal cord group) shows distinctive characteristics compared to the cry recorded from the control group (eventless intrapartum NBs group).

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Analysis of infants cries may help in identifying the needs of infants such as hunger, pain, sickness, etc and thereby develop a tool or possible mobile application that can help the parents in monitoring the needs of their infant. Analysis of cries of infants who are suffering from neurologic disorders and severe diseases, which can later on result in motor and mental handicap, may prove helpful in early diagnosis of pathologies and protect infants from such disorders. The development of an infant cry corpus is necessary for the analysis of infant cries and for the development of infant cry tools. Infant cry database is not available commercially for research, which limits the scope of research in this area. Because the cry characteristics changes with many factors such as reason for crying, infant's health and weight, age, etc, care is required while designing a corpus for a particular research application of infant cry analysis and classification. In this paper, the ideal characteristics of the corpus are proposed along with factors influencing infant cry characteristics, and experiences during data collection are shared. This study may help other researchers to build an infant cry corpus for their specific problem of study. Justification of the proposed characteristics is also given along with suitable examples.

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The /r/ phoneme is variable in manner and place of articulation, and difficult to correct worldwide. Variability could exist within the same language. The objective of this study was to determine whether Egyptian Cairene /r/ was a trill or a tap and, if both forms were present, whether they were affected by word position or adjacent vowels/consonants. The information obtained was intended to improve correction of /r/ in faulty articulation. Spectrographic analysis was done for 50 Cairene subjects, who produced /r/ in different word positions in carrier phrases. Results have shown presence of both forms in the speech of every subject, but taps were more common than trills. Trills were more common in geminated /r/, in word-medial syllable final position, especially when preceded with /e/, /æ/ or /α/, and in word-medial syllable initial position, especially when preceded by non-back consonants.

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AIM: To investigate the protective mechanism of Gingko Biloba extract (EGb761) on the ability of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells to resist light-induced damage in a comparative proteomics study. METHODS: Human RPE cells (ARPE-19) were randomly distributed to one of three groups: normal control (NC group) and light-damaged model without or with EGb761 group (M and ME groups, respectively). The light-damaged model was formed by exposing to white light (2 200±300)lx for 6h. The RPE cells in ME group were conducted with EGb 761 (100µg/mL) before light exposure. The soluble cellular proteins extracting from each groups were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis and stained by silver staining. Different proteins in the profiles of the gels were analyzed by Image Master Software. Two-fold expressing protein spots were identified by Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization tandem time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF/TOF) mass spectrometry. RESULTS: NC, M and ME groups displayed 1 892±71, 2 145±23 and 2 216±85 protein spots, respectively. We identified 33 proteins with different expression levels between the NC and M groups, 25 proteins between the M and ME groups, and 11 proteins between the NC and ME groups. MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry successfully identified 16 proteins, including metabolic enzymes, cytoskeletal proteins, anti-oxidation proteins, and others. CONCLUSION: Differences in some important proteins, such as cathepsin B, heat shock protein, and cytochrome c reductase, indicated that multiple pathways may be induced in light-damaged RPE cells and the protective effect of EGb761.

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Objective To evaluated the application value of two kinds of mass spectrometer(MS)and Vitek MS system in the i-dentification of routinely isolated bacteria in clinic.Methods 149 strains of common bacteria(including 14 genera and 30 species)i-solated from blood,urine,cerebral spinal fluid,secretion and sputum samples in our hospital from March 2012 to January 2013 were collected and simultaneously identified by 2 kinds of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometer (MALD-TOF-MS).The identification results were compared with those identified by the conventional biochemical identification (Vitek2 compact).The strains with the inconsistent results identified by 3 kinds of method were confirmed by 16S rDNA gene se-quencing.Results Among 149 common bacteria,the correct identification rates of genus and species by the Bruker Biotyper MS were 98% and 96% respectively and which by the Vitek MS system were 97% and 95% respectively.There were no misidentified bacterial strains by these two kinds of MS.Conclusion No statistical difference in the identification results was observed between these two kinds of MS system(P >0.05).Both exhibit excellent identification level and are suitable for the routine laboratory iden-tification of clinical microorganism.

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Phonetics is an important function of oral cavity. It has been overlooked quite frequently while fabricating the complete dentures. In this study modification of anterior palatal surface of denture is done and assessed for its impact on phonetics. Purpose is to assess acoustic and speech intelligibility analysis in edentulous patients and also to evaluate the influence of conventional dentures, arbitrary rugae and customized rugae dentures on speech in complete denture wearers. Ten healthy edentulous patients 55-70 years of age were selected for the study. Dentures were fabricated in conventional way for these patients. Recordings were done for intelligibility and acoustic analysis of the speech. Recordings were done without denture, with conventional denture, with arbitrary rugae denture, with customized rugae denture. Each recording was done at an interval of 10 days period. All four recordings were analyzed and comparison was done using paired 't' test. There was significant improvement in frequency peak noise energy for 's', antiformant frequency for 'n' in rugae incorporated dentures. There was relative improvement in frequency peak noise energy for 'sh', frequency proximity burst, voice onset time for 'd', with rugae incorporated dentures. Findings of intelligibility analysis have shown substitution errors with conventional dentures. There was relative improvement of speech with rugae incorporated dentures. Among these, customized rugae dentures showed better results than arbitrary rugae dentures.

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A vocalization of the ringtailed lemur (Lemur catta) was examined for individual differences according to several temporal- and frequency-dependent variables. Vocalizations were tape recorded at the Duke University Primate Center (Durham, NC) and spectrographically analyzed. Significant differences were found in pair-wise comparisons of call structure among the study subjects, thus providing the physical basis for individual discrimination. A separate analysis comparing degree of kinship and vocal similarity revealed a positive but nonsignificant correlation between these two variables. This study represents an initial examination of vocal individuality in prosimian primates.