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Background: Few quantitative studies have been conducted on the relationship between society and its languages. Individuals with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to experience social hardships, and a wide range of clinical information about their quality of life has been provided through numerous narrative analyses. However, the narratives of ASD patients have thus far been examined mainly through qualitative approaches.Objectives: In this study, we analyzed adults with ASD to quantitatively examine the relationship between language abilities and ASD severity scores.Methods: We generated phonetic transcriptions of speeches by 16 ASD adults at an ASD workshop, and divided the participants into 2 groups according to their Social Responsiveness Scale(TM), 2nd Edition (SRS(TM)-2) scores (where higher scores represent more severe ASD): Group A comprised high-scoring ASD adults (SRS(TM)-2 score: ≥ 76) and Group B comprised low- and intermediate-scoring ASD adults (SRS(TM)-2 score: < 76). Using natural language processing (NLP)-based analytical methods, the narratives were converted into numerical data according to four language ability indicators, and the relationships between the language ability scores and ASD severity scores were compared.Results and Discussion: Group A showed a marginally negative correlation with the level of Japanese word difficulty (p < .10), while the "social cognition" subscale of the SRS(TM)-2 score showed a significantly negative correlation (p < .05) with word difficulty. When comparing only male participants, Group A demonstrated a significantly lower correlation with word difficulty level than Group B (p < .10).Conclusion: Social communication was found to be strongly associated with the level of word difficulty in speech. The clinical applications of these findings may be available in the near future, and there is a need for further detailed study on language metrics designed for ASD adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1980s, zirconia was introduced for THA with the expectation of lower polyethylene wear and better clinical results. However, several studies have reported poor survivorship of zirconia-polyethylene THA. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of zirconia-polyethylene THA to confirm or refute the theoretical advantages of this combination. Of 163 studies identified by a comprehensive search, seven met our selection criteria. These involved 769 hips of 586 patients with a mean age of 56.8 years and a minimum followup of 60 months (mean, 89.2 months; range, 60-155 months). The consolidated revision rate of zirconia-polyethylene THA at 89.2 months was higher than that of nonzirconia-polyethylene THA by 5% (risk difference, 0.05; 95% confidence interval, 0.02-0.08). Subgroup meta-analysis suggested THAs with zirconia heads from Ceraver had more revision surgery than nonzirconia heads (risk difference, 0.08; 95% confidence interval, 0.03-0.14), whereas zirconia heads from DePuy did not (risk difference, 0.02; 95% confidence interval, -0.01-0.06). The meta-analysis for annual linear polyethylene wear (which did not involve zirconia heads from Ceraver because of insufficient descriptions) showed no difference between zirconia and control groups. Collectively, THAs with high-quality zirconia heads appear to have prosthesis survivorship and polyethylene wear equivalent to those of THAs with traditional materials, but differing quality among zirconia heads could lead to poor survivorship of prostheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is focused on the development of a new technology for the fabrication of high-frequency surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters based on diamond and lithium niobate (LiNbO3) materials. LiNbO3 films are in situ deposited at 490 °C on polycrystalline diamond substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering; a multistep growth process is proposed to deposit oriented LiNbO3 films with a smooth surface. Conventional interdigital transducers are fabricated on top of the piezoelectric LiNbO3 layer by standard optical lithography. We report experimental results for a SAW bandpass filter operating at a frequency above 2.30 GHz. We have observed that Rayleigh SAW modes are excited within this structure, with extremely high phase velocities (up to 12 000 m/s). This latter result illustrates the greatest advantage of using diamond as an acoustic substrate. It allows the fabrication of SAW devices operating in the gigahertz frequency range using standard optical lithography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]