Vocal fold scarring: current concepts and management

Scarring of the vocal folds can occur as the result of blunt laryngeal trauma or, more commonly, as the result of surgical, iatrogenic injury after excision or removal of vocal fold lesions. The scarring results in replacement of healthy tissue by fibrous tissue and can irrevocably alter vocal fold function and lead to a decreased or absent vocal fold mucosal wave. The assessment and treatment of persistent dysphonia in patients with vocal fold scarring presents both diagnostic and therapeutic challenges to the voice treatment team. The common causes of vocal fold scarring are described, and prevention of vocal fold injury during removal of vocal fold lesions is stressed. The anatomic and histologic basis for the subsequent alterations in voice production and contemporary modalities for clinical and objective assessment will be discussed. Treatment options will be reviewed, including nonsurgical treatment and voice therapy, collagen injection, fat augmentation, endoscopic laryngoplasty, and Silastic medialization.     

Fast Neutron Dose Measurements for a D–D Neutron Source in Water

The penetration of D–D neutrons in water has been studied through measurements of first collision dose. A relative measurement of first collision dose as a function of distance from the neutron source was made at 0°. At large penetrations the results appear to approach asymptotically the slope predicted by the theoretical calculations of Goldstein et al. [0] for a monoenergetic, isotropic 4.0-Mev neutron source in water. However as expected, the measurements close to the source where the average neutron spectrum is relatively soft indicate a steeper slope than the theoretical calculation. Further calculations will be required to obtain an explicit check of this experiment.     

Expertness, similarity, and perceived counselor competence.

Tested the effects of 2 levels of counselor similarity and expertness and 2 types of clients' problems on perceptions of the counselor's competence in an analog study. The basis for client-counselor similarity was age and student status; the basis for expertness was experience and training. Ss were 311 18-27 yr old undergraduates. They were given 1 of 8 biographical sketches of the counselor's background to read; then they heard a segment of a single taped interview. Counselor competence was assessed by evaluations on a 16-item Likert scale. It was hypothesized that suggestions of client-counselor similarity would facilitate perceptions of competence for affiliative problems, whereas suggestions of counselor expertness would facilitate perceptions of competence for academic problems. Suggestions of expertness led to higher evaluations of counselors for both problems. Findings support the importance of counselor credentials in determining clients' initial impressions of counselors. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the numerical treatment of the Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible fluid

Summary A new approach for the numerical integration of the Navier-Stokes equations is presented. It is based on the perturbation of the Poisson type equation. The system of nonlinear partial differential equations obtained is solved by means of an explicit operator. Some results are presented for the problem of steady flow in a square cavity. They are in good agreement with the calculations made by Greenspan, Fortin, Teman and Peyret, Bourcier and FranÇois and Burgraff. Reynolds numbers up to 400 have been considered.It is concluded that the method is relatively simple and fast in the lower range of Reynolds numbers but the computing time increases very much when higher Reynolds numbers are reached.     

Thermo-mechanical finite-element simulation of the tube sinking process

Thermo-mechanical finite-element model of the tube sinking process is presented in this paper. The model combines the rigid-plastic finite element approach, used to determine the velocity field, with the numerical solution of the convective-diffusion equation which accounts for the thermal events in the deformation zone. The condition of zero normal velocity and zero normal stress on the free inner surface of the tube was used to determine the shape of this surface. Typical results of calculations include the distributions of strain rates, strains, stresses and temperatures in the wall of the tube during the sinking process.     

Effect of intravenous pyridoxine on plasma prolactin in hyperprolactinemic subjects

Intravenous pyridoxine has been reported to lower plasma PRL in normal subjects and in patients with the amenorrhea-galactorrhea syndrome. We tested the effect of pyridoxine (300-mg iv bolus) on plasma PRL in nine patients with hyperprolactinemia due to a variety of causes. There was no effect of pyridoxine on elevated plasma PRL in any of the nine hyperprolactinemic subjects. The potential utility of pyridoxine in the long term treatment of the galactorhea-amenorrhea syndrome will require further study.