Inherited Pathogenic Variant Associated With a Mild Neurodevelopmental Disorder.

Objectives: Purine-rich element-binding protein alpha (PURA) regulates gene expression and is ubiquitously expressed with an enrichment in neural tissues. Pathogenic variants in cause the neurodevelopmental disorder PURA syndrome that has a variable phenotype but typically comprises moderate-to-severe global developmental delay, intellectual disability, early-onset hypotonia and hypothermia, epilepsy, feeding difficulties, movement disorders, and subtle facial dysmorphism. Speech is reportedly absent in most, but the specific linguistic phenotype is not well described.

Recovery From Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Association With Cardiovascular Disease Risk.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) disease severity and recovery.

Method: A retrospective medical chart review was performed on 90 patients ( = 48 men; = 59.8 years, = 15.

Approaches Used to Construct Antibiograms for Dogs in a Veterinary Teaching Hospital in the United States.

Non-judicious antimicrobial use (AMU) is a major driver of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In human hospitals, cumulative antibiograms are often used by clinicians to evaluate local susceptibility rates and to select the most appropriate empiric therapy with the aim of minimizing inappropriate AMU. However, the use of cumulative antibiograms to guide empiric antimicrobial therapy in veterinary hospitals in the United States is limited, and there are no specific guidelines or standardized methods available for the construction of antibiograms in veterinary clinical settings.

Consistent hearing aid use is associated with lower fall prevalence and risk in older adults with hearing loss.

Background: Falls and their sequelae cost more than $50 billion every year. Older adults with hearing loss are at 2.4 times greater risk of falls than their normal hearing peers.

Relationship of cardiovascular disease risk and hearing loss in a clinical population.

Hearing loss has been associated with individual cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and, to a lesser extent, CVD risk metrics. However, these relationships are understudied in clinical populations. We conducted a retrospective study of electronic health records to evaluate the relationship between hearing loss and CVD risk burden.

Pharmacokinetics of thiamine (vitamin B1) in adult horses after administration of three single intravenous doses.

Thiamine is a vital co-factor for several anti-inflammatory and antioxidant processes that are critical for mitigation of sepsis-associated inflammation, but pharmacokinetic (PK) analysis has not been reported in horses. We hypothesized that IV thiamine hydrochloride (TH) at increasing dosages would result in corresponding increases in plasma thiamine concentrations without causing adverse effects. A randomized cross-over study was performed in 9 healthy horses that each received TH at 5, 10, and 20 mg/kg IV.

A comparison of speech intelligibility and subjective quality with hearing-aid processing in older adults with hearing loss.

Objective: This study characterised the relationship between speech intelligibility and quality in listeners with hearing loss for a range of hearing-aid processing settings and acoustic conditions.

Design: Binaural speech intelligibility scores and quality ratings were measured for sentences presented in babble noise and processed through a hearing-aid simulation. The intelligibility-quality relationship was investigated by (1) assessing the effects of experimental conditions on each task; (2) directly comparing intelligibility scores and quality ratings for each participant across the range of conditions; and (3) comparing the association between signal envelope fidelity (represented by a cepstral correlation metric) and intelligibility and quality.

The Type of Noise Influences Quality Ratings for Noisy Speech in Hearing Aid Users.

Purpose The overall goal of the current study was to determine whether noise type plays a role in perceptual quality ratings. We compared quality ratings using various noise types and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ranges using hearing aid simulations to consider the effects of hearing aid processing features. Method Ten older adults with bilateral mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss rated the sound quality of sentences processed through a hearing aid simulation and presented in the presence of five different noise types (six-talker babble, three-talker conversation, street traffic, kitchen, and fast-food restaurant) at four SNRs (3, 8, 12, and 20 dB).

Do Patients Benefit From a Cochlear Implant When They Qualify Only in the Presence of Background Noise?

Objective: To compare the difference in pre- to postoperative speech performance of patients qualifying for a cochlear implant (CI) in quiet, +10 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and +5 dB SNR.

Study Design: Retrospective.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Effects of administration of ascorbic acid and low-dose hydrocortisone after infusion of sublethal doses of lipopolysaccharide to horses.

Background: Sepsis is associated with ascorbic acid (AA) depletion and critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI) in humans.

Hypotheses: Intravenous infusion of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) would (a) decrease endogneous AA concentrations, (b) induce CIRCI and (c) administration of a combination of AA and hydrocortisone (HC) would have decreased indices of inflammation compared to either drug alone.

Animals: Thirty-two healthy horses.

Quantifying the Range of Signal Modification in Clinically Fit Hearing Aids.

Objectives: Hearing aids provide various signal processing techniques with a range of parameters to improve the listening experience for a hearing-impaired individual. In previous studies, we reported significant differences in signal modification for mild versus strong signal processing in commercially available hearing aids. In this study, the authors extend this work to clinically prescribed hearing aid fittings based on best-practice guidelines.

Understanding Variability in Individual Response to Hearing Aid Signal Processing in Wearable Hearing Aids.

Objectives: Previous work has suggested that individual characteristics, including amount of hearing loss, age, and working memory ability, may affect response to hearing aid signal processing. The present study aims to extend work using metrics to quantify cumulative signal modifications under simulated conditions to real hearing aids worn in everyday listening environments. Specifically, the goal was to determine whether individual factors such as working memory, age, and degree of hearing loss play a role in explaining how listeners respond to signal modifications caused by signal processing in real hearing aids, worn in the listener's everyday environment, over a period of time.

The use of self-report measures to examine changes in perception in response to fittings using different signal processing parameters.

Clinicians have long used self-report methods to assess hearing aid benefit. However, there are fewer data as to whether self-report instruments can be used to compare differences between signal processing settings. This study examined how self-perceived performance varied as a function of modifications in signal processing using two self-report measures.

Using Objective Metrics to Measure Hearing Aid Performance.

Objectives: The performance of hearing aids is generally characterized by a small set of standardized measurements. The primary goals of these procedures are to measure basic aspects of the hearing aid performance and to ascertain that the device is operating properly. A more general need exists for objective metrics that can predict hearing aid outcomes.

Survey of Current Practice in the Fitting and Fine-Tuning of Common Signal-Processing Features in Hearing Aids for Adults.

Background: Current guidelines for adult hearing aid fittings recommend the use of a prescriptive fitting rationale with real-ear verification that considers the audiogram for the determination of frequency-specific gain and ratios for wide dynamic range compression. However, the guidelines lack recommendations for how other common signal-processing features (e.g.

Using Cognitive Screening Tests in Audiology.

Purpose: The population of the United States is aging. Those older adults are living longer than ever and have an increased desire for social participation. As a result, audiologists are likely to see an increased demand for service by older clients whose communication difficulty is caused by a combination of hearing loss and cognitive impairment.

Chosen Listening Levels for Music With and Without the Use of Hearing Aids.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to describe chosen listening levels (CLLs) for recorded music for listeners with hearing loss in aided and unaided conditions.

Method: The study used a within-subject, repeated-measures design with 13 adult hearing-aid users. The music included rock and classical samples with different amounts of audio-industry compression limiting.

Long-Term Outcome Data in Patients following One Year's Use of a Fully Implantable Active Middle Ear Implant.

This study examined the safety and efficacy of a fully implantable active middle ear (AMEI) system. Outcome measures assessed AMEI performance compared with an optimally fitted conventional hearing aid (CHA). Fifty adults with stable, symmetric moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss were implanted at 9 ambulatory settings.

Working memory and intelligibility of hearing-aid processed speech.

Previous work suggested that individuals with low working memory capacity may be at a disadvantage in adverse listening environments, including situations with background noise or substantial modification of the acoustic signal. This study explored the relationship between patient factors (including working memory capacity) and intelligibility and quality of modified speech for older individuals with sensorineural hearing loss. The modification was created using a combination of hearing aid processing [wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC) and frequency compression (FC)] applied to sentences in multitalker babble.

Rural adolescents' access to adolescent friendly health services.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to assess rural North Dakota adolescents' experiences in accessing adolescent-friendly health services and to examine the relationship between rural adolescents' communication with health care providers and risk behaviors.

Methods: Data are from the Rural Adolescent Health Survey (RAHS), an anonymous survey of 14- to 19-year-olds (n = 322) attending secondary schools in four frontier counties of North Dakota. Descriptive statistics were used to assess participants' access to adolescent-friendly health services characterized as accessible, acceptable, and appropriate.

The effects of noise vocoding on speech quality perception.

Speech perception depends on access to spectral and temporal acoustic cues. Temporal cues include slowly varying amplitude changes (i.e.

Determining perceived sound quality in a simulated hearing aid using the international speech test signal.

Objectives: Based on speech segments from female talkers of different languages, the International Speech Test Signal (ISTS) has speech-like acoustic properties but is not intelligible. This study investigated whether sound quality ratings for the ISTS are similar to ratings obtained for linguistically meaningful speech.

Design: A simulated hearing aid was used to process the ISTS for a variety of noise, nonlinear, linear, and combined nonlinear and linear processing conditions.

Effects of noise, nonlinear processing, and linear filtering on perceived music quality.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the relative impact of different forms of hearing aid signal processing on quality ratings of music.

Design: Music quality was assessed using a rating scale for three types of music: orchestral classical music, jazz instrumental, and a female vocalist. The music stimuli were subjected to a wide range of simulated hearing aid processing conditions including, (1) noise and nonlinear processing, (2) linear filtering, and (3) combinations of noise, nonlinear, and linear filtering.

Effects of noise, nonlinear processing, and linear filtering on perceived speech quality.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to measure subjective quality ratings in listeners with normal hearing and listeners with hearing loss for speech subjected to a wide range of processing conditions that are representative of real hearing aids.

Design: Speech quality was assessed using a rating scale in a group of 14 listeners with normal hearing and 15 listeners with mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss. Controlled simulations of hearing aid processing were used to process speech that included speech subjected to (1) noise and nonlinear processing, (2) linear filtering, and (3) combinations of noise, nonlinear processing, and linear filtering.