Gender Attributions by Cisgender and Gender Diverse Listeners Rating Vowels, Reading, and Monologues.

Objectives: To determine if listeners' attributions of speakers' gender vary by linguistic context and/or the listeners' gender identity.

Methods: Seventeen self-identified transgender adults assigned male at birth were audio-recorded prolonging /a/, reading sentences, and saying spontaneous monologues. Eighteen adults (10 cisgender and 8 gender-diverse individuals) listened and used a 1-5 scale (1: very masculine, 2: somewhat masculine, 3: androgynous, 4: somewhat feminine, and 5: very feminine) to rate the gender attribution of each speech sample.

Preterm oral feeding scale to assist in deciding initial oral feeding of preterm infants in neonatal intensive care units.

Background: The inconsistency in decisions to commence oral feeding indicates that health professionals require clearer guidelines to determine when to initiate oral feeding in preterm infants. This study applied the Taiwan version of Preterm Oral Feeding Readiness Assessment Scale (TW-POFRAS) to clinical decision-making, especially for preterm infants with a birth weight less than 1,500 g or gestational age (GA) less than 32 weeks.

Methods: This was a single-center observational cross-sectional study and 81 preterm infants were recruited.

Effectiveness and Feasibility of Telepractice on Voice Therapy for Female Teachers in Elementary Schools with Self-Reported Voice Disorders.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of telepractice in voice intervention for female teachers in elementary schools with self-reported voice disorders.

Methods: Thirty-five female elementary school teachers with self-reported voice disorders volunteered to participate in the study. They were divided into a telepractice voice intervention group (experimental group N=18) and a face-to-face voice intervention group (control group N=17) based on their employment setting.

Clinical Validation of the Preterm Oral Feeding Readiness Assessment Scale in Taiwan.

Purpose: A successful transition from gavage to full oral feeding is a decisive indicator for discharging premature infants from the neonatal intensive care unit. A clinically useful measure of oral feeding readiness would help nurses initiate implementation of the cue-based feeding model in Taiwan. The study aimed to assess the validity and reliability of the Traditional Chinese Preterm Oral Feeding Readiness Assessment Scale (TC-POFRAS).

The Application of the First Year Inventory for ASD Screening in China.

Purpose: The First Year Inventory (FYI) is a parent-report instrument, and is developed to assess behaviors of 12-month-old infants that could suggest risk for an eventual diagnosis of autism. This study was designed to examine the application of the FYI in the Chinese community.

Design And Methods: FYIs were completed at a community health center by 541 families during the child's physical examination at 12 months of age from 2013 to 2015.

Research of cerebral activation in Uygur-speaking and Chinese-speaking participants during verb generation task with functional magnetic resonance imaging.

The aims are to investigate and compare the activated cerebral regions of Uygur-speaking and Chinese-speaking participants during verb generation task.A total of 31 cases of Uygur and 28 cases of Han healthy volunteers were enrolled. They were requested to take verb generation tasks.

Evaluating autism in a Chinese population: the Clinical Autism Diagnostic Scale.

Background: The purpose of this study was to report on the psychometric measures and discriminatory function of a new diagnostic test for autism spectrum disorders, the Clinical Autism Diagnostic Scale (CADS).

Methods: The CADS was used to test 216 children in the study, including 86 with low-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD), 16 children with high-functioning ASD, 16 with pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified, 7 with Asperger syndrome, 65 with typical development, 11 children with language impairments and 15 with intellectual disabilities. Ages ranged from 38-73 months.

Detecting anticipatory effects in speech articulation by means of spectral coefficient analyses.

Few acoustic studies have attempted to examine anticipatory effects in the earliest part of the release of stop consonants. We investigated the ability of spectral coefficients to reveal anticipatory coarticulation in the burst and early aspiration of stops in monosyllables. Twenty American English speakers produced stop (/k,t,p/) - vowel (/æ,i,o/) - stop (/k,t,p/) sequences in two phrase positions.

Treatment of spasmodic dysphonia with homeopathic medicine: a clinical case report.

Botulinum toxin (Botox) injection is the only conventional medical treatment available for patients with spasmodic dysphonia (SD). Some patients are reluctant to receive Botox treatment due to concerns about unknown long-term side effects, expense, and dependence on repeated injections. The purpose of the study was to report the perceptual and physiological changes in the vocal functions of an SD patient treated with classical homeopathy.

Volumetric measurements of vocal tracts for male speakers from different races.

Research examining physiologic and acoustic characteristics of culturally diverse populations is sorely needed, but rarely reported. The major aim of this study was to quantify vocal tract dimensional parameters (oral length, oral volume, pharyngeal length, pharyngeal volume, total vocal tract length and total vocal tract volume) of adult male speakers from three different racial populations (White American, African American, and Chinese). It also attempted to investigate if volumetric differences in the speakers' vocal tracts, like length differences, would contribute to the acoustic characteristics of these speakers from different races.

Changes in the human vocal tract due to aging and the acoustic correlates of speech production: a pilot study.

This investigation used a derivation of acoustic reflection (AR) technology to make cross-sectional measurements of changes due to aging in the oral and pharyngeal lumina of male and female speakers. The purpose of the study was to establish preliminary normative data for such changes and to obtain acoustic measurements of changes due to aging in the formant frequencies of selected spoken vowels and their long-term average spectra (LTAS) analysis. Thirty-eight young men and women and 38 elderly men and women were involved in the study.