Monthly Archives: April 2009
Children and teenagers at risk for noise-induced hearing loss, warn America’s ENT doctors
A recent survey by the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (AAO – HNS), which represents ear, nose and throat doctors, found that 4 in 5 Americans are concerned about hearing loss due to ear buds. The survey showed that hearing loss is a top medical concern among parents, higher than concerns about asthma, food allergies, or exposure to tobacco smoke. More than 90 percent of parents are very concerned about hearing loss in their children.
from EurekAlert.org
Research finds photos more useful than words
(Boston) – Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have found that pictures allow patients with very mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to better recognize and identify a subject as compared to using just words. In addition, the researchers found that these patients can rely on a general sense of knowing or familiarity but not recollection to support successful recognition. These findings appear in the current issue of the journal Neuropsychologia.
from EurekAlert.org
Learning disabilities prompt author to offer aid to others
When Quinn Bradlee was born 26 years ago, doctors detected a heart murmur, and he had open-heart surgery at three months. Then he began to have seizures, sometimes several a week. He had repeated infections, a hernia, a prolapsed lung, an allergic reaction to a bee sting: “It was always something,” he says. Meanwhile, he developed speech problems and a range of learning disabilities. One teacher told his parents, Washington Post veterans Benjamin Bradlee and Sally Quinn, that they should never expect Quinn to function as a normal adult.
His parents, like his doctors, were flummoxed by his multiple problems. It wasn’t until he was 14 that the explanation was found: Quinn Bradlee has velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS), a disorder resulting from a tiny, random variation of DNA on chromosome 22. The syndrome is not uncommon, though little understood.
from Newsday.com
Language Disorder
If you are a healthy English-speaking adult aged 25 to 85 who is right handed and has no immediate family member who is left handed, you may qualify for this study.
The research site is in Boston, Mass.
More information
Please see http://www.centerwatch.com/clinical-trials/listings/studylist.aspx?CatID=361.
from Healthfinder.gov
2009 Student Research Grant in Audiology
Size of Award
A single grant of $2,000 will be awarded in 2009.
Eligibility
The competition is for support of research to be initiated in the area of clinical and/or
rehabilitative audiology. It is open to doctoral (research or clinical) degree students enrolled in,
or accepted for, graduate study in audiology or hearing science at an academic program in the
United States. Student candidates pursuing an entry level clinical doctorate in audiology must be
in a program accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-
Language Pathology of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
The student must be enrolled for full-time study for the full academic year.
from ScanGrants.com
2009 Student Research Grant in Early Childhood Language Development
Size of Award
A single grant of $2,000 will be awarded in 2009.
Eligibility
The competition is for support of research to be initiated in the area of early childhood language
development. It is open to master’s or doctoral degree students enrolled in, or accepted for,
graduate study in speech-language pathology or speech-language science at an academic
program in the United States. Master’s degree candidates must be in a program accredited by the
Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) of the
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
The student must be enrolled for full-time study for the full academic year.
from ScanGrants.com
Response to Intervention and English-Language Learners: Instructional and Assessment Considerations
This article presents issues associated with the implementation of a three-tier response to intervention (RTI) approach with English-language learners (ELLs). Instructional and assessment considerations are discussed particularly as they pertain to issues of language and literacy development. Opportunities for collaboration among bilingual education, English as a second language, and general education teachers, and speech-language pathologists are identified. In addition to effective Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions, prerequisites to the success of RTI approaches for ELLs are discussed, including school climate and effective instruction.
Speech-Language Pathologists as Primary Contributors to Response to Intervention at the Secondary Level
Response to intervention (RTI) is currently receiving attention at the middle and high school levels. Although many academic and behavioral needs in secondary schools may warrant an RTI initiative, lack of literacy skills in adolescents is among the most important because language and literacy are foundational to curriculum learning. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have much to offer secondary RTI initiatives, given their expertise in language and literacy. Therefore, they need to become primary contributors. This article addresses several important conditions necessary to bring SLPs into the forefront with RTI at the secondary level by discussing (1) having a common understanding of RTI that is being implemented differently across the country; (2) understanding the rationale for adopting RTI at the secondary level; (3) defining unique contributions of SLPs that add value to RTI initiatives in middle and high schools; (4) exploring what it takes for SLPs to become involved, including attention to curriculum and literacy, changing the perceptions of others regarding the roles of SLPs, restructuring of delivery models, and replacing a caseload approach to service delivery with a workload approach; (5) establishing productive working relationships among professionals in secondary schools; and (6) exerting leadership to move forward in RTI involvement.
International Noise Awareness Day – 29th April 09, UK
With International Noise Awareness Day (29th April) approaching, the RNID has released shocking statistics showing that 90 percent of people have experienced the first signs of serious hearing damage after just ONE night out. There are 9 million people in the UK that suffer from hearing damage from excessive noise and another 4 million at risk. ACS (Advanced Communication Solutions) a dedicated hearing conservation company and Ministry of Sound has come up with a unique way to reach out to people and help prevent this.
Peer-mediated teaching and augmentative and alternative communication for preschool-aged children with autism
Conclusion These results provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of combining peer-mediated naturalistic teaching with the use of SGDs for preschool-aged children with autism. Suggestions for improving the maintenance of intervention effects are provided.
Alternate Splicing of Interleukin-1 Receptor Type II (IL1R2) In Vitro Correlates with Clinical Glucocorticoid Responsiveness in Patients with AIED
Autoimmune Inner Ear Disease (AIED) is poorly characterized clinically, with no definitive laboratory test. All patients suspected of having AIED are given glucocorticoids during periods of acute hearing loss, however, only half initially respond, and still fewer respond over time.
We hypothesized that AIED is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by dysfunctional peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) responses to a unique cochlear antigen(s). To test this hypothesis, we examined end-stage AIED patients undergoing cochlear implant surgery and compared autologous perilymph stimulated PBMC from AIED patients to controls. We determined that autologous perilymph from AIED patients was unable to induce expression of a long membrane-bound Interleukin-1 Receptor Type II (mIL1R2) transcript in PBMC as compared with controls, despite similar expression of the short soluble IL1R2 (sIL1R2) transcript (p<0.05). IL1R2 is a molecular decoy that traps interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and does not initiate subsequent signaling events, thereby suppressing an inflammatory response. IL1R2 transcript length is regulated by alternate splicing, and the major inhibitory function is attributed to the full-length mIL1R2. In addition, IL1R2 expression is induced by dexamethasone.
Separately, we prospectively examined patients with newer onset glucocorticoid-responsive AIED. Immediately prior to clinical treatment for acute deterioration of hearing thresholds, their PBMC demonstrated a robust induction of mIL1R2 in PBMC in response to dexamethasone in vitro that correlated with a clinical response to prednisone in vivo (p<0.0001) as measured by hearing restoration. In contrast, clinically steroid unresponsive patients demonstrated high basal levels of mIL1R2 in their PBMC and only minimally augmented expression in response to dexamethasone. Thus, induced expression of mIL1R2 appears to be a protective mechanism in hearing homeostasis and warrants further investigation in a large prospective clinical trial to determine if IL1R2 can be used as a specific biomarker for AIED.
from PLoS ONE.org
Modeling Statistical Properties of Written Text
Written text is one of the fundamental manifestations of human language, and the study of its universal regularities can give clues about how our brains process information and how we, as a society, organize and share it. Among these regularities, only Zipf’s law has been explored in depth. Other basic properties, such as the existence of bursts of rare words in specific documents, have only been studied independently of each other and mainly by descriptive models. As a consequence, there is a lack of understanding of linguistic processes as complex emergent phenomena. Beyond Zipf’s law for word frequencies, here we focus on burstiness, Heaps’ law describing the sublinear growth of vocabulary size with the length of a document, and the topicality of document collections, which encode correlations within and across documents absent in random null models. We introduce and validate a generative model that explains the simultaneous emergence of all these patterns from simple rules. As a result, we find a connection between the bursty nature of rare words and the topical organization of texts and identify dynamic word ranking and memory across documents as key mechanisms explaining the non trivial organization of written text. Our research can have broad implications and practical applications in computer science, cognitive science and linguistics.
from PLoS ONE.org
Brain processes written words as unique ‘objects,’ GUMC neuroscientists say
In ‘brain dictionary,’ each whole word is processed by its own set of neurons, a finding that may provide insights for reading disorders
from EurekAlert.org
Human brain contains neurons with a preference for whole real words
A new study provides direct experimental evidence that a brain region important for reading and word recognition contains neurons that are highly selective for individual real words. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 30th issue of the journal Neuron, provides important insight into brain mechanisms associated with reading and may lead to a better understanding of reading disabilities.
from EurekAlert.org
Medial or medio-lateral graft tympanoplasty for repair of tympanic membrane perforation
Conclusion
The medial graft tympanoplasty works well for posterior TM perforation. The medio-lateral graft method is an excellent method for the reconstruction of large anterior or subtotal TM perforation. This new method should help otologic surgeons to improve outcome of tympanoplasty for anterior or subtotal TM perforation.
from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
