The Intelligibility of Interrupted Speech: Cochlear Implant Users and Normal Hearing Listeners

Compared with normal-hearing listeners, cochlear implant (CI) users display a loss of intelligibility of speech interrupted by silence or noise, possibly due to reduced ability to integrate and restore speech glimpses across silence or noise intervals. The present study was conducted to establish the extent of the deficit typical CI users have in understanding interrupted high-context sentences as a function of a range of interruption rates (1.5 to 24 Hz) and duty cycles (50 and 75 %). Further, factors such as reduced signal quality of CI signal transmission and advanced age, as well as potentially lower speech intelligibility of CI users even in the lack of interruption manipulation, were explored by presenting young, as well as age-matched, normal-hearing (NH) listeners with full-spectrum and vocoded speech (eight-channel and speech intelligibility baseline performance matched). While the actual CI users had more difficulties in understanding interrupted speech and taking advantage of faster interruption rates and increased duty cycle than the eight-channel noise-band vocoded listeners, their performance was similar to the matched noise-band vocoded listeners. These results suggest that while loss of spectro-temporal resolution indeed plays an important role in reduced intelligibility of interrupted speech, these factors alone cannot entirely explain the deficit. Other factors associated with real CIs, such as aging or failure in transmission of essential speech cues, seem to additionally contribute to poor intelligibility of interrupted speech.     

三维腔镜系统在腹腔镜联合胆道镜胆囊取石术中的运用

目的探讨三维腔镜系统在腹腔镜联合胆道镜胆囊取石术中的优势。方法将2015年4月至10月同济大学附属东方医院肝胆外科行二维腹腔镜联合胆道镜胆囊取石术33例患者(二维组)与同期行三维腹腔镜联合胆道镜胆囊取石术30例患者(三维组)的临床资料进行对照研究,比较两组的手术时间、胆囊缝合时间、术中出血量等有无差异。结果两组手术均成功完成,63例患者中,二维组有3例、三维组有4例中转切胆术式(P0.05),均无中转开腹患者。手术时间、胆囊缝合时间、术中出血量,二维组分别为(31.7±4.8)min、(14.2±3.0)min、(9.1±3.8)ml,三维组分别为(29.4±4.7)min、(11.7±2.4)min、(8.5±3.2)ml;两组的胆囊缝合时间比较,差异有统计学意义(P0.05),手术时间、术中出血量比较,差异无统计学意义(P0.05)。两组患者术后均随访6个月,无结石复发,无再次住院。结论三维腔镜系统在腹腔镜联合胆道镜胆囊取石术中安全、有效,在一定程度上可缩短胆囊缝合时间,提高胆囊缝合质量,降低手术难度,可作为腹腔镜联合胆道镜胆囊取石术的选择。     

miR-15a/16 reduces retinal leukostasis through decreased pro-inflammatory signaling

Background

Hyperglycemia is a significant risk factor for diabetic retinopathy and induces increased inflammatory responses and retinal leukostasis, as well as vascular damage. Although there is an increasing amount of evidence that miRNA may be involved in the regulation in the pathology of diabetic retinopathy, the mechanisms by which miRNA mediate cellular responses to control onset and progression of diabetic retinopathy are still unclear. The purpose of our study was to investigate the hypothesis that miR-15a/16 inhibit pro-inflammatory signaling to reduce retinal leukostasis.

Methods

We generated conditional knockout mice in which miR-15a/16 are eliminated in vascular endothelial cells. For the in vitro work, human retinal endothelial cells (REC) were cultured in normal (5 mM) glucose or transferred to high glucose medium (25 mM) for 3 days. Transfection was performed on REC in high glucose with miRNA mimic (hsa-miR-15a-5p, hsa-miR-16-5p). Statistical analyses were done using unpaired Student t test with two-tailed p value. p?<?0.05 was considered significant. Data are presented as mean?±?SEM.

Results

We demonstrated that high glucose conditions decreased expression of miR-15a/16 in cultured REC. Overexpression of miR-15a/16 with the mimic significantly decreased pro-inflammatory signaling of IL-1β, TNFα, and NF-κB in REC. In vivo data demonstrated that the loss of miR-15a/16 in vascular cells led to increased retinal leukostasis and CD45 levels, together with upregulated levels of IL-1β, TNFα, and NF-κB.

Conclusions

The data indicate that miR-15a/16 play significant roles in reducing retinal leukostasis, potentially through inhibition of inflammatory cellular signaling. Therefore, we suggest that miR-15a/16 offer a novel potential target for the inhibition of inflammatory mediators in diabetic retinopathy.

     

腹腔镜下输卵管手术方式对卵巢储备功能的影响

目的：探讨腹腔镜下输卵管手术方式对卵巢储备功能的影响。方法：126例输卵管积水患者按手术方案分为A、B、C三组：A组     

Statins may ameliorate pulmonary hypertension via RhoA/Rho-kinase signaling pathway

Statins are the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors that function as potent inhibitors of cholesterol biosynthesis and have been used for many years for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. However, accumulating experimental and clinical studies have revealed that the health benefits associated with statins treatment, particularly those conferred on the cardiovascular system, were the cholesterol-independent. Because statins inhibit an early step in the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway, they also inhibit the synthesis of isoprenoids such as farnesylpyrophosphate and geranylgeranylpyrophosphate, which are important postranslational lipid attachments for intracellular signaling molecules such as the Rho GTPases. The isoprenylation of Rho is a prerequisite for Rho activation, facilitating its interaction with the plasma membrane, undergoing GDP-GTP exchange and be activated. Inhibition of RhoA geranylgeranylation by statins decreases membrane GTP-bound active RhoA and subsequent Rho-kinase activity. Activated RhoA via its downstream effector Rho-kinase is involved in a wide range of cellular functions, such as cell migration, proliferation and apoptosis. Recently, rising evidences suggested that RhoA/Rho-kinase pathway was essentially involved in various models of pulmonary hypertension and statins effectively ameliorated pulmonary hypertension. Based on this findings, we hypothesis that statins attenuate pulmonary hypertension via RhoA/Rho-kinase signaling pathway in vivo.     

Polymorphisms in the tumor necrosis factor-alpha gene in Turkish women with pre-eclampsia and eclampsia

The genetic background predisposing pregnant women to pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (PE/E) is still unknown. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether there is an association between the TNF-alpha-308 and 850 polymorphisms and PE or eclampsia. In this study, 40 cases of eclampsia, 113 cases of PE and 80 normotensive control cases were genotyped for the TNF-alpha-G-308A and C-850 polymorphisms. At position 308, the replacement of Guanine with Adenosine was denoted as TNF2. We found a significant difference between the TNF2 allele frequencies of the eclamptic, pre-eclamptic and normotensive controls. TNF2 (AA) polymorphism frequency was significantly higher among the eclamptics and pre-eclamptics (control : 5%, PE : 13.3%, E : 12.9%). A significantly different genotype distribution of C-850T polymorphism was observed between the PE/E and control groups, with the frequency of the variant TT genotype being significantly reduced in the preeclamptics (PE : 17% ; E : 17.5%) when compared with the control group (24.3%). We have demonstrated an association between TNF-alpha polymorphisms and pre-eclampsia susceptibility. However, it is not known whether C-850T polymorphism has a functional effect on the TNF-alpha gene. In addition, it was not possible to determine whether this polymorphism promotes the progression from PE to eclampsia because of no statistically significant difference between eclampsia and the controls.