Comprehension of natural and synthetic speech: effects of predictability on the verification of sentences controlled for intelligibility.

A sentence verification task (SVT) was used to study the effects of sentence predictability on comprehension of natural speech and synthetic speech that was controlled for intelligibility. Sentences generated using synthetic speech were matched on intelligibility with natural speech using results obtained from a separate sentence transcription task. In the main experiment, the sentence verification task included both true and false sentences that varied in predictability.

Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis: the diagnosis by segmental lavage.

Histologic findings from segmental lavage material via the fiberoptic bronchoscope were evaluated as a means of diagnosing pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. Active cases of alveolar proteinosis yielded grossly opaque and/or milky effluents. The unique histologic findings in alveolar proteinosis included: (1) very few alveolar macrophages (2) large acellular eosinophilic bodies in a diffuse background of eosinophilic granules, and (3) periodic acid-Schiff staining of the proteinaceous material with a lack of significant alcian blue staining.