Phonological-Lexical Feedback during Early Abstract Encoding: The Case of Deaf Readers

by Manuel Perea, Ana Marcet, Marta Vergara-Martínez

In the masked priming technique, physical identity between prime and target enjoys an advantage over nominal identity in nonwords (GEDA-GEDA faster than geda-GEDA). However, nominal identity overrides physical identity in words (e.g., REAL-REAL similar to real-REAL). Here we tested whether the lack of an advantage of the physical identity condition for words was due to top-down feedback from phonological-lexical information. We examined this issue with deaf readers, as their phonological representations are not as fully developed as in hearing readers. Results revealed that physical identity enjoyed a processing advantage over nominal identity not only in nonwords but also in words (GEDA-GEDA faster than geda-GEDA; REAL-REAL faster than real-REAL). This suggests the existence of fundamental differences in the early stages of visual word recognition of hearing and deaf readers, possibly related to the amount of feedback from higher levels of information.

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Monothermal Caloric Screening to Improve Healthcare Value.

Objectives: To evaluate whether monothermal caloric screening can reduce the number of caloric irrigations required in the vestibular testing battery while maintaining diagnostic accuracy. Design: Prospective controlled cohort study. Three hundred and ninety patients referred for vestibular testing at this tertiary referral health system over a 1-year period were evaluated; 24 patients met exclusion or failure criteria and 366 patients were included in the study. Population was 35.6% male; average age was 50.4 years old. Each patient underwent caloric testing using either warm or cool water irrigation initially and this data was used for monothermal screening data. All patients then completed bithermal binaural caloric testing to obtain the "gold standard" bithermal data for comparison. The sensitivity and specificity of monothermal cool or monothermal warm caloric tests were calculated using a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: Using a monothermal interear difference threshold of 25%, warm monothermal screening had sensitivity of 98.0%, specificity of 91.3%, false negative rate of 2%, and false positive rate of 8.7%. Cool monothermal screening also had excellent sensitivity (92.3%) and specificity (95.3)%, with a false negative rate of 7.7%, and a false positive rate of 4.7%. The diagnosis associated with the single false negative warm monothermal caloric test was compensated vestibular paresis. In the study population, 71.9% had a -negative monothermal screen; if the monothermal data were accepted, 2 fewer irrigations would have been performed resulting in an average saving of $264 (typical Medicare reimbursement for 2 irrigations) billed per patient screened as well as shortening the average testing battery by about 15 min. Conclusions: Warm monothermal caloric screening can reduce time and cost of vestibular testing while nearly matching the diagnostic accuracy of bithermal testing. Copyright (C) 2016 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Monothermal Caloric Screening to Improve Healthcare Value.

Objectives: To evaluate whether monothermal caloric screening can reduce the number of caloric irrigations required in the vestibular testing battery while maintaining diagnostic accuracy. Design: Prospective controlled cohort study. Three hundred and ninety patients referred for vestibular testing at this tertiary referral health system over a 1-year period were evaluated; 24 patients met exclusion or failure criteria and 366 patients were included in the study. Population was 35.6% male; average age was 50.4 years old. Each patient underwent caloric testing using either warm or cool water irrigation initially and this data was used for monothermal screening data. All patients then completed bithermal binaural caloric testing to obtain the "gold standard" bithermal data for comparison. The sensitivity and specificity of monothermal cool or monothermal warm caloric tests were calculated using a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: Using a monothermal interear difference threshold of 25%, warm monothermal screening had sensitivity of 98.0%, specificity of 91.3%, false negative rate of 2%, and false positive rate of 8.7%. Cool monothermal screening also had excellent sensitivity (92.3%) and specificity (95.3)%, with a false negative rate of 7.7%, and a false positive rate of 4.7%. The diagnosis associated with the single false negative warm monothermal caloric test was compensated vestibular paresis. In the study population, 71.9% had a -negative monothermal screen; if the monothermal data were accepted, 2 fewer irrigations would have been performed resulting in an average saving of $264 (typical Medicare reimbursement for 2 irrigations) billed per patient screened as well as shortening the average testing battery by about 15 min. Conclusions: Warm monothermal caloric screening can reduce time and cost of vestibular testing while nearly matching the diagnostic accuracy of bithermal testing. Copyright (C) 2016 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Monothermal Caloric Screening to Improve Healthcare Value.

Objectives: To evaluate whether monothermal caloric screening can reduce the number of caloric irrigations required in the vestibular testing battery while maintaining diagnostic accuracy. Design: Prospective controlled cohort study. Three hundred and ninety patients referred for vestibular testing at this tertiary referral health system over a 1-year period were evaluated; 24 patients met exclusion or failure criteria and 366 patients were included in the study. Population was 35.6% male; average age was 50.4 years old. Each patient underwent caloric testing using either warm or cool water irrigation initially and this data was used for monothermal screening data. All patients then completed bithermal binaural caloric testing to obtain the "gold standard" bithermal data for comparison. The sensitivity and specificity of monothermal cool or monothermal warm caloric tests were calculated using a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: Using a monothermal interear difference threshold of 25%, warm monothermal screening had sensitivity of 98.0%, specificity of 91.3%, false negative rate of 2%, and false positive rate of 8.7%. Cool monothermal screening also had excellent sensitivity (92.3%) and specificity (95.3)%, with a false negative rate of 7.7%, and a false positive rate of 4.7%. The diagnosis associated with the single false negative warm monothermal caloric test was compensated vestibular paresis. In the study population, 71.9% had a -negative monothermal screen; if the monothermal data were accepted, 2 fewer irrigations would have been performed resulting in an average saving of $264 (typical Medicare reimbursement for 2 irrigations) billed per patient screened as well as shortening the average testing battery by about 15 min. Conclusions: Warm monothermal caloric screening can reduce time and cost of vestibular testing while nearly matching the diagnostic accuracy of bithermal testing. Copyright (C) 2016 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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A Role of Medial Olivocochlear Reflex as a Protection Mechanism from Noise-Induced Hearing Loss Revealed in Short-Practicing Violinists

by Sho Otsuka, Minoru Tsuzaki, Junko Sonoda, Satomi Tanaka, Shigeto Furukawa

Previous studies have indicated that extended exposure to a high level of sound might increase the risk of hearing loss among professional symphony orchestra musicians. One of the major problems associated with musicians’ hearing loss is difficulty in estimating its risk simply on the basis of the physical amount of exposure, i.e. the exposure level and duration. The aim of this study was to examine whether the measurement of the medial olivocochlear reflex (MOCR), which is assumed to protect the cochlear from acoustic damage, could enable us to assess the risk of hearing loss among musicians. To test this, we compared the MOCR strength and the hearing deterioration caused by one-hour instrument practice. The participants in the study were music university students who are majoring in the violin, whose left ear is exposed to intense violin sounds (broadband sounds containing a significant number of high-frequency components) during their regular instrument practice. Audiogram and click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (CEOAEs) were measured before and after a one-hour violin practice. There was a larger exposure to the left ear than to the right ear, and we observed a left-ear specific temporary threshold shift (TTS) after the violin practice. Left-ear CEOAEs decreased proportionally to the TTS. The exposure level, however, could not entirely explain the inter-individual variation in the TTS and the decrease in CEOAE. On the other hand, the MOCR strength could predict the size of the TTS and CEOAE decrease. Our findings imply that, among other factors, the MOCR is a promising measure for assessing the risk of hearing loss among musicians.

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ACOUSTICAL NEWS–USA

Abstract not available.

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Development of a standing wave apparatus for calibrating acoustic vector sensors and hydrophones

An apparatus was developed to calibrate acoustic hydrophones and vector sensors between 25 and 2000 Hz. A standing wave field is established inside a vertically oriented, water-filled, elastic-walled waveguide by a piston velocity source at the bottom and a pressure-release boundary condition at the air/water interface. A computer-controlled linear positioning system allows a device under test to be precisely located in the water column while the acoustic response is measured. Some of the challenges of calibratinghydrophones and vector sensors in such an apparatus are discussed, including designing the waveguide to mitigate dispersion, understanding the impact of waveguide structural resonances on the acoustic field, and developing algorithms to post-process calibrationmeasurement data performed in a standing wave field. Data from waveguide characterization experiments and calibrationmeasurements are presented and calibrationuncertainty is reported.

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Resonance scattering by fish schools: A comparison of two models

The effective medium method is used to investigate resonancescattering from schools of fish with gas-filled swim bladders, as a function of frequency and azimuth. Calculations are also performed with a coupled differential equationmodel, which incorporates both multiple scattering between fish and wave interference interactions of their scattered fields [Feuillade, Nero, and Love, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 99, 196–208 (1996)]. A theoretical comparison of the models for idealized spherical schools shows good agreement over the entire resonance region in the forward direction, where interference interactions have a minimal effect. Good agreement is also seen in back scattering at low frequencies, where the wavelength , and s is the average nearest neighbor fish separation. If , the models diverge in back scattering, and the effective medium method fails. This can be critically important when migrations of schools to deeper water cause the collective resonance frequency to increase. Multiple scattering interactions are negligible when , where n is the fish number density, is the individual fish scattering amplitude, and . A comparison with forward scattering data shows very good agreement for both models, and indicates a method for estimating fish abundance. For back scattering data, the effective medium method diverges strongly when .

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Hyperarticulation in Lombard speech: Global coordination of the jaw, lips and the tongue

Over the last century, researchers have collected a considerable amount of data reflecting the properties of Lombard speech, i.e., speech in a noisy environment. The documented phenomena predominately report effects on the speech signal produced in ambient noise. In comparison, relatively little is known about the underlying articulatory patterns of Lombard speech, in particular for lingual articulation. Here the authors present an analysis of articulatory recordings of speech material in babble noise of different intensity levels and in hypoarticulated speech and report quantitative differences in relative expansion of movement of different articulatory subsystems (the jaw, the lips and the tongue) as well as in relative expansion of utterance duration. The trajectory modifications for one articulator can be relatively reliably predicted by those for another one, but subsystems differ in a degree of continuity in trajectory expansion elicited across different noise levels. Regression analysis of articulatory modifications against durational expansion shows further qualitative differences between the subsystems, namely, the jaw and the tongue. The findings are discussed in terms of possible influences of a combination of prosodic, segmental, and physiological factors. In addition, the Lombard effect is put forward as a viable methodology for eliciting global articulatory variation in a controlled manner.

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A semi-numerical model for near-critical angle scattering

Numerous phenomena in the fields of physics and mathematics as seemingly different as seismology, ultrasonics, crystallography, photonics, relativistic quantum mechanics, and analytical number theory are described by integrals with oscillating integrands that contain three coalescing criticalities, a branch point, stationary phase point, and pole as well as accumulation points at which the speed of integrand oscillation is infinite. Evaluating such integrals is a challenge addressed in this paper. A fast and efficient numerical scheme based on the regularized composite Simpson's rule is proposed, and its efficacy is demonstrated by revisiting the scattering of an elastic plane wave by a stress-free half-plane crack embedded in an isotropic and homogeneous solid. In this canonical problem, the head wave, edge diffractedwave, and reflected (or compensating) wave each can be viewed as a respective contribution of a branch point, stationary phase point, and pole. The proposed scheme allows for a description of the non-classical diffraction effects near the “critical” rays (rays that separate regions irradiated by the head waves from their respective shadow zones). The effects include the spikes present in diffraction coefficients at the critical angles in the far field as well as related interference ripples in the near field.

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Molecular aging of the mammalian vestibular system.

Molecular aging of the mammalian vestibular system.

Ageing Res Rev. 2015 Dec 28;

Authors: Brosel S, Laub C, Averdam A, Bender A, Elstner M

Abstract
Dizziness and imbalance frequently affect the elderly and contribute to falls and frailty. In many geriatric patients, clinical testing uncovers a dysfunction of the vestibular system, but no specific etiology can be identified. Neuropathological studies have demonstrated age-related degeneration of peripheral and central vestibular neurons, but the molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. In contrast, recent studies into age-related hearing loss strongly implicate mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and apoptotic cell death of cochlear hair cells. While some data suggest that analogous biological pathomechanisms may underlie vestibular dysfunction, actual proof is missing. In this review, we summarize the available data on the molecular causes of vestibular dysfunction.

PMID: 26739358 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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Molecular aging of the mammalian vestibular system.

Molecular aging of the mammalian vestibular system.

Ageing Res Rev. 2015 Dec 28;

Authors: Brosel S, Laub C, Averdam A, Bender A, Elstner M

Abstract
Dizziness and imbalance frequently affect the elderly and contribute to falls and frailty. In many geriatric patients, clinical testing uncovers a dysfunction of the vestibular system, but no specific etiology can be identified. Neuropathological studies have demonstrated age-related degeneration of peripheral and central vestibular neurons, but the molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. In contrast, recent studies into age-related hearing loss strongly implicate mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and apoptotic cell death of cochlear hair cells. While some data suggest that analogous biological pathomechanisms may underlie vestibular dysfunction, actual proof is missing. In this review, we summarize the available data on the molecular causes of vestibular dysfunction.

PMID: 26739358 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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A marker placement laser device for improving repeatability in 3D-foot motion analysis

Publication date: February 2016
Source:Gait & Posture, Volume 44
Author(s): Eva Kalkum, Stefan van Drongelen, Johannes Mussler, Sebastian I. Wolf, Benita Kuni
BackgroundIn 3D gait analysis, the repeated positioning of markers is associated with a high error rate, particularly when using a complex foot model with many markers. Therefore, a marker placement laser device was developed that ensures a reliable repositioning of markers. We report the development and reliability of this device for the foot at different tape conditions.MethodsIn 38 subjects, markers were placed at the foot according to the Heidelberg foot measurement method. Subjects were tested barefoot and barefoot with three different tape conditions. For all conditions, a static standing trial was captured. We analyzed differences in distances between markers and the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC).ResultsSmall differences between the conditions (0.03–3.28mm) and excellent ICCs (0.91–0.97mm) were found for all parameters.ConclusionThe laser marker placement device appeared to be a reliable method to place markers on a tape at previously palpated positions and ensures an exact position. The device could find a wide application in different clinical research fields.



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A marker placement laser device for improving repeatability in 3D-foot motion analysis

Publication date: February 2016
Source:Gait & Posture, Volume 44
Author(s): Eva Kalkum, Stefan van Drongelen, Johannes Mussler, Sebastian I. Wolf, Benita Kuni
BackgroundIn 3D gait analysis, the repeated positioning of markers is associated with a high error rate, particularly when using a complex foot model with many markers. Therefore, a marker placement laser device was developed that ensures a reliable repositioning of markers. We report the development and reliability of this device for the foot at different tape conditions.MethodsIn 38 subjects, markers were placed at the foot according to the Heidelberg foot measurement method. Subjects were tested barefoot and barefoot with three different tape conditions. For all conditions, a static standing trial was captured. We analyzed differences in distances between markers and the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC).ResultsSmall differences between the conditions (0.03–3.28mm) and excellent ICCs (0.91–0.97mm) were found for all parameters.ConclusionThe laser marker placement device appeared to be a reliable method to place markers on a tape at previously palpated positions and ensures an exact position. The device could find a wide application in different clinical research fields.



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A marker placement laser device for improving repeatability in 3D-foot motion analysis

Publication date: February 2016
Source:Gait & Posture, Volume 44
Author(s): Eva Kalkum, Stefan van Drongelen, Johannes Mussler, Sebastian I. Wolf, Benita Kuni
BackgroundIn 3D gait analysis, the repeated positioning of markers is associated with a high error rate, particularly when using a complex foot model with many markers. Therefore, a marker placement laser device was developed that ensures a reliable repositioning of markers. We report the development and reliability of this device for the foot at different tape conditions.MethodsIn 38 subjects, markers were placed at the foot according to the Heidelberg foot measurement method. Subjects were tested barefoot and barefoot with three different tape conditions. For all conditions, a static standing trial was captured. We analyzed differences in distances between markers and the intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC).ResultsSmall differences between the conditions (0.03–3.28mm) and excellent ICCs (0.91–0.97mm) were found for all parameters.ConclusionThe laser marker placement device appeared to be a reliable method to place markers on a tape at previously palpated positions and ensures an exact position. The device could find a wide application in different clinical research fields.



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POGZ truncating alleles cause syndromic intellectual disability.

POGZ truncating alleles cause syndromic intellectual disability.

Genome Med. 2016;8(1):3

Authors: White J, Beck CR, Harel T, Posey JE, Jhangiani SN, Tang S, Farwell KD, Powis Z, Mendelsohn NJ, Baker JA, Pollack L, Mason KJ, Wierenga KJ, Arrington DK, Hall M, Psychogios A, Fairbrother L, Walkiewicz M, Person RE, Niu Z, Zhang J, Rosenfeld JA, Muzny DM, Eng C, Beaudet AL, Lupski JR, Boerwinkle E, Gibbs RA, Yang Y, Xia F, Sutton VR

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Large-scale cohort-based whole exome sequencing of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) has identified numerous novel candidate disease genes; however, detailed phenotypic information is often lacking in such studies. De novo mutations in pogo transposable element with zinc finger domain (POGZ) have been identified in six independent and diverse cohorts of individuals with NDDs ranging from autism spectrum disorder to developmental delay.
METHODS: Whole exome sequencing was performed on five unrelated individuals. Sanger sequencing was used to validate variants and segregate mutations with the phenotype in available family members.
RESULTS: We identified heterozygous truncating mutations in POGZ in five unrelated individuals, which were confirmed to be de novo or not present in available parental samples. Careful review of the phenotypes revealed shared features that included developmental delay, intellectual disability, hypotonia, behavioral abnormalities, and similar facial characteristics. Variable features included short stature, microcephaly, strabismus and hearing loss.
CONCLUSIONS: While POGZ has been associated with neurodevelopmental disorders in large cohort studies, our data suggest that loss of function variants in POGZ lead to an identifiable syndrome of NDD with specific phenotypic traits. This study exemplifies the era of human reverse clinical genomics ushered in by large disease-directed cohort studies; first defining a new syndrome molecularly and, only subsequently, phenotypically.

PMID: 26739615 [PubMed - in process]

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