Increased exposure and phonetic context help listeners recognize allophonic variants.

This study examines the influence of increased exposure and phonetic context on the recognition of words that are produced with nasal flaps in American English (e.g., the word center produced as cenner).

A retrospective comparison of the management of recalcitrant lateral elbow tendinosis: platelet-rich plasma injections versus surgery.

Background: The aim of this study is to compare the outcomes of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections to surgical release and decortication for lateral elbow tendinosis within a similar patient population.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on two groups of patients, receiving either PRP injections (n = 28) or surgery (n = 50). Patient demographics, clinical presentation, pain score, worker's compensation status, and previous steroid injections were recorded.

Quantitative analysis of the functionalization of gallium phosphide with organic azides.

Gallium phosphide (GaP) surfaces were functionalized with two different molecules that contain an azide moiety at their terminus. Compound 4-azidophenacyl bromide (4AB) is an aryl azide with a bromine group at its opposite terminus that provides easy identification of the molecule's presence on the surface with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). O-(2-aminoethyl)-O'-(2-azidoethyl)pentaethylene glycol (AAP) is a small poly(ethylene glycol) molecule with an amine group at its opposite terminus.

Listen carefully: the risk of error in spoken medication orders.

Clinicians and patients often confuse drug names that sound alike. We conducted auditory perception experiments in the United States to assess the impact of similarity, familiarity, background noise and other factors on clinicians' (physicians, family pharmacists, nurses) and laypersons' ability to identify spoken drug names. We found that accuracy increased significantly as the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio increased, as subjective familiarity with the name increased and as the national prescribing frequency of the name increased.

Increasing pap smear utilization among Samoan women: results from a community based participatory randomized trial.

Background: We tested the effectiveness of a theory-guided, culturally tailored cervical cancer education program designed to increase Pap smear use among Samoan women residing in the U.S. Territory of American Samoa.

Does perceptual learning in speech reflect changes in phonetic category representation or decision bias?

Recent studies show that perceptual boundaries between phonetic categories are changeable with training (Norris, McQueen, & Cutler, 2003). For example, Kraljic and Samuel (2005) exposed listeners in a lexical decision task to ambiguous /s-integral/ sounds in either s-word contexts (e.g.

Results of a randomized trial to increase mammogram usage among Samoan women.

Background: There are no effective breast cancer education programs targeting Samoan women. We tested the effectiveness of a theory-guided, culturally appropriate breast cancer education program (the intervention) designed to increase mammography use among Samoan women.

Methods: This community-based participatory cluster-randomized controlled intervention trial used a parallel two-group design.

Mammography screening and Pacific Islanders: role of cultural and psychosocial factors.

Background: There is little information on the associations between cultural and psychosocial factors and not receiving a mammogram by Samoan women.

Methods: Survey of 809 Samoan women aged 42 years and older.

Results: The likelihood of nonreceipt was lower for women who had higher perceptions of severity, agreement with a mammogram's efficacy, higher group norms, higher self-efficacy, and those who placed greater importance on the breast.

Legacy of the Pacific Islander cancer control network.

The groundwork for the Pacific Islander cancer control network (PICCN) began in the early 1990s with a study of the cancer control needs of American Samoans. The necessity for similar studies among other Pacific Islander populations led to the development of PICCN. The project's principal objectives were to increase cancer awareness and to enhance cancer control research among American Samoans, Tongans, and Chamorros.

Do postonset segments define a lexical neighborhood?

Previous research has demonstrated that the number and frequency of lexical neighbors affects the perception of individual sounds within a nonword in a phoneme identification task. In the present research, the issue of what items should be considered part of a word's neighborhood was explored. These experiments, in which both lexical decision and phoneme identification tasks were used, demonstrate that lexical neighborhood effects are not limited to words that match the target item syllable initially (the cohort).

Representational specificity of within-category phonetic variation in the long-term mental lexicon.

This study examines the potential encoding in long-term memory of subphonemic, within-category variation in voice onset time (VOT) and the degree to which this encoding of subtle variation is mediated by lexical competition. In 4 long-term repetition-priming experiments, magnitude of priming was examined as a function of variation in VOT in words with voiced counterparts (cape-gape) and without (cow-*gow) and words whose counterparts were high frequency (pest-best) or low frequency (pile-bile). The results showed that within-category variation was indeed encoded in memory and could have demonstrable effects on priming.

Representation of lexical form: evidence from studies of sublexical ambiguity.

The authors examined the role of intermediate, sublexical representations in spoken word perception. In particular, they tested whether flaps, which are neutralized allophones of intervocalic /t/s and /d/s, map onto their underlying phonemic counterparts. In 2 shadowing tasks, the authors found that flaps primed their carefully articulated counterparts, and vice versa.

Addressing the cancer control needs of Pacific Islanders: experience of the Pacific Islander Cancer Control Network.

Purpose: This paper describes the accomplishments of the Pacific Islander Cancer Control Network (PICCN). PICCN's objectives fall under two broad categories: increasing cancer awareness and enhancing cancer control research among Samoans, Tongans, and Chamorros.

Methods: PICCN established an infrastructure for addressing the goals that include the University of California, Irvine; the UCI Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; and community-based organizations (CBOs) in areas where large numbers of Pacific Islanders live.

Evaluation of transition services for young people with cystic fibrosis in Southeast London.

We report a project being launched to evaluate transition services for young people with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) living in Southeast London, UK, and attending either King's College Hospital (KCH) or University Hospital Lewisham (UHL).

Exploring beliefs about cancer among American Samoans: focus group findings.

Objective: To evaluate answers to the following questions among American Samoans: What is cancer? What causes cancer? And what can you do to prevent cancer?

Design: Focus groups (four with women and four with men).

Settings: Pago Pago and the Manu'a islands, American Samoa; Honolulu, Hawaii; Los Angeles, California.

Participants: 80 self-reported Samoan men and women over the age of 18 years, selected through non-probability purposive sampling with help from Samoan community-based organizations.

Prevalence and predictors of smoking behavior among Samoans in three geographical regions.

Objectives: Provide comprehensive data on smoking behavior among Samoans.

Design: Cross-sectional, using systematic random sampling procedures, and in-person interviews.

Setting: US Territory of American Samoa, Hawaii, and Los Angeles, California.

Retrospective evaluation of cardio-pulmonary fibrotic side effects in symptomatic patients from a group of 234 Parkinson's disease patients treated with cabergoline.

Background: Cardiac valvulopathy has been recently associated with the use of the ergot dopamine agonist (EDA) pergolide in Parkinson's disease (PD). Cabergoline a widely used, well-tolerated EDA which has also been recently implicated in relation to fibrotic side effects although the evidence base for this is not sound.

Aims: In PD patients on chronic cabergoline therapy, do symptoms suggestive of serosal/cardiac fibrosis imply underlying fibrotic lesions?

Methods: A retrospective data review of 234 PD cases from three UK centres, on chronic cabergoline monotherapy or adjunctive treatment to identify symptoms suggestive of pleuro-pulmonary, cardiac or retroperitoneal fibrosis.

Examining the time course of indexical specificity effects in spoken word recognition.

Variability in talker identity and speaking rate, commonly referred to as indexical variation, has demonstrable effects on the speed and accuracy of spoken word recognition. The present study examines the time course of indexical specificity effects to evaluate the hypothesis that such effects occur relatively late in the perceptual processing of spoken words. In 3 long-term repetition priming experiments, the authors examined reaction times to targets that were primed by stimuli that matched or mismatched on the indexical variable of interest (either talker identity or speaking rate).

A web-based interface to calculate phonotactic probability for words and nonwords in English.

Phonotactic probability refers to the frequency with which phonological segments and sequences of phonological segments occur in words in a given language. We describe one method of estimating phonotactic probabilities based on words in American English. These estimates of phonotactic probability have been used in a number of previous studies and are now being made available to other researchers via a Web-based interface.

Technology for community health alliances.

A community health alliance brings together divergent interests within a community for the betterment of personal and population health. In this report we describe how a community responsive strategy in Chicago is facilitating the improvement of healthcare by providing local information of what needs to be done, supporting change at the practice level to meet these needs, and initiating community-wide approaches to manage prevalent and important needs without waiting for direct involvement of health professionals.

The Pacific Islander Cancer Control Network's role in cancer awareness, research and training.

Purpose: The Pacific Islander Cancer Control Network (PICCN) is one of the 18 Special Populations Networks recently established by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to address the cancer control needs of America's medically under-served populations. The PICCN focuses on three Pacific Islander groups: Samoans, Guamanians/Chamorros, and Tongan Americans. The program provides an infrastructure for collaboration between an academic institution, the University of California, Irvine; an NCI designated cancer center, the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; community-based organizations; and other agencies concerned with the health of Pacific Islanders.

Falling on sensitive ears: constraints on bilingual lexical activation.

Spoken word recognition is characterized by multiple activation of sound patterns that are consistent with the acoustic-phonetic input. Recently, an extreme form of multiple activation was observed: Bilingual listeners activated words from both languages that were consistent with the input. We explored the degree to which bilingual multiple activation may be constrained by fine-grained acoustic-phonetic information.

Predictors of indigenous healer use among Samoans.

Objective: To determine the utilization of alternative modalities of care (i.e., indigenous healers or fofo) by Samoans, the indigenous peoples of the US Territory of American Samoa and examine predictors (i.