Native Hakka speakers' identification of Cantonese tones: A comparative analysis / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective To investigate the features of native Hakka speakers' ability to identify Cantonese tones.Methods Twenty native Cantonese speakers and 12 native Hakka speakers were given the Hongkong Cantonese tone identification test.Results Neither group was troubled by similar vowel and consonant sounds.The Cantonese group could identify all tones well except distinguishing tones 5 and 2 (89％) and tones 4 and 6 (89％).The Hakkas had the most difficulty distinguishing tones 3 and 6 (70.0％),but significant differences were observed between the two groups in the identification of tones 2 and 5 and 2 and 4.Conclusion A native Hakka speaker's ability to identify Cantonese tones may be closely related to the tone's pitch,tonal patterns as well as the Hakka tone system.

Validation of the Chinese system for cardiac operative risk evaluation (SinoSCORE): the experience from Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

Objective To validate of the Chinese system for cardiac operative risk evaluation (SinoSCORE) in Cantonese surgery patients. Methods Data from Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute in the period January 2004 through December 2008 were analyzed on 2462 Cantonese heart surgery patients. First, compared risk factors of this series and database of SinoSCORE, and then calculated the additive score of each patients and evaluate the discrimination and calibration of sinoSCORE in Cantonese patients. Results There were some differences between the risk factors of patients from two groups. The gender,smoking, diabetes, hyperlipemia, hypertension, chronic pulmonary diseases, stroke, cardiovascular surgery history, left main disease, atrial fibrillation/atrial flutter, pulmonary arterial hypertension, concomitant coronary surgery and concomitant valve surgery in Cantonese patients were different between two groups. However, The SinoSCORE was able to predict the in-hospital mortality of senior patients with good discrimination ( Hosmer-Lemeshow test, P = 0. 34 ) and calibration ( the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.84, P ＜ 0.01 ). Conclusion SinoSCORE was able to predict the in-hospital mortality of Cantonese heart surgery patients.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms of TLR4 locus in Chinese Cantonese population / 中国病理生理杂志

AIM: Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) was an important pathogen recognition receptor in the innate immune system. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of TLR4 polymorphisms in the general population of China. METHODS: Peripheral blood samples were collected from 191 unrelated healthy Chinese Cantonese individuals. The functional regions of TLR4 locus,including promoter region and all three exons with their surrounding intronic regions were amplified using polymerase chain reaction. After purified,the amplified products were directly sequenced on both strands. RESULTS: A total of eight single nucleotides polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected,five of which were novel. The most common SNP were -1607 C/T with the minor allele frequency of 0.283. Two nonsynonymous substitutions Asp299Gly and Thr399Ile,which were common in Caucasus,were not detected in Cantonese. Neutrality test revealed that TLR4 in Chinese Cantonese was not significantly deviated from the neutral model. CONCLUSION: This is the new finding on the distribution of TLR4 SNPs in the general population of China. It provides several ethnic specific SNPs for further disease association studies of TLR4 polymorphisms in Chinese populations.