Opportunistic viral surveillance confirms the ongoing disease threat grey squirrels pose to sympatric red squirrel populations in the UK.

Background: Red Squirrels United was a UK landscape-scale grey squirrel management programme undertaken between 2016 and 2020.

Methods: A total of 11034 grey squirrels were removed by culling, with 1506 necropsied and 1405 suitable for adenovirus (AdV) or squirrelpox virus (SQPV) quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis. Spleen, lip or hair were extracted, and DNA was isolated, with samples tested in duplicate by qPCR.

"Black People Like Me": A virtual conference series to engage underserved patients with asthma in patient centered outcomes research.

Background: In response to racial inequity in asthma, asthma-related research among diverse patients is vital. However, people from historically marginalized groups are underrepresented in clinical and patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). The "Black People Like Me" (BPLM) virtual conference series was developed to: (1) engage Black patients with asthma and their caregivers in education and discussions about asthma, and (2) encourage involvement in PCOR.

Effects of Messaging and Communication Strategy Training on Interaction in Teams With Deaf and Hearing College Students.

The study investigated effects of computer-based messaging and training in communication strategies on interactions of deaf and typically hearing (TH) teammates in completing decision-making tasks without interpreter support. Fifteen teams, two deaf and two TH college students each, completed three decision-making tasks, one without messaging, one with messaging, and one with messaging and training in communication strategies. Each interaction was coded for (a) communication method, (b) to whom the interaction was directed, and (c) the function of the interaction.

Effects of Schema-Enriched Communication in Teams With Diverse Hearing Status.

This study examined the effects of (a) schema-enriched communication and (b) computer-based messaging on the sharing of knowledge and problem solving in teams with deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and typical hearing (TH) postsecondary students. Four-member teams comprising either all DHH, all TH, or two DHH and two TH postsecondary students solved a complex problem. Measures consisted of (a) shared written information, (b) creation of a matrix with information for solving the problem, (c) recognition of information shared by team members, and (d) quality of the team's problem solution.

Wind turbine low frequency and infrasound propagation and sound pressure level calculations at dwellings.

This study was developed to estimate wind turbine low frequency and infrasound levels at 1238 dwellings in Health Canada's Community Noise and Health Study. In field measurements, spectral peaks were identifiable for distances up to 10 km away from wind turbines at frequencies from 0.5 to 70 Hz.

Effects of expanded and standard captions on deaf college students' comprehension of educational videos.

Twenty-two college students who were deaf viewed one instructional video with standard captions and a second with expanded captions, in which key terms were expanded in the form of vocabulary definitions, labeled illustrations, or concept maps. The students performed better on a posttest after viewing either type of caption than on a pretest; however, there was no difference in comprehension between standard and expanded captions. Camtasia recording software enabled examination of the extent to which the students accessed the expanded captions.

Deaf/hard-of-hearing and other postsecondary learners' retention of STEM content with tablet computer-based notes.

Four groups of postsecondary students, 25 who were deaf/hard of hearing (D/HH), 25 with a learning disability, 25 who were English language learners (ELLs), and 25 without an identified disability studied notes that included text and graphical information based on a physics or a marine biology lecture. The latter 3 groups were normally hearing. All groups had higher scores on post- than on pretests for each lecture, with each group showing generally similar gains in amount of material learned from the pretest to the posttest.

Validity and reliability of the classroom participation questionnaire with deaf and hard of hearing students in public schools.

The Classroom Participation Questionnaire (CPQ) was administered to 136 deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) students attending general education classrooms in Grades 4-10. The CPQ is a student-rated measure that yields scores for Understanding Teachers, Understanding Students, Positive Affect, and Negative Affect. Validity and reliability of a long (28-item) and a short (16-item) form are reported.

Benefits of sign language interpreting and text alternatives for deaf students' classroom learning.

Four experiments examined the utility of real-time text in supporting deaf students' learning from lectures in postsecondary (Experiments 1 and 2) and secondary classrooms (Experiments 3 and 4). Experiment 1 compared the effects on learning of sign language interpreting, real-time text (C-Print), and both. Real-time text alone led to significantly higher performance by deaf students than the other two conditions, but performance by deaf students in all conditions was significantly below that of hearing peers who saw lectures without any support services.

Comparison of an analytic horn equation approach and a boundary element method for the calculation of sound fields in the human ear canal.

The sound field inside a model human ear canal has been computed, to show both longitudinal variations along the canal length and transverse variations through cross-sectional slices. Two methods of computation were used. A modified horn equation approach parametrizes the sound field with a single coordinate, the position along a curved center axis-this approach can accommodate the curvature and varying cross-sectional area of the ear canal but cannot compute transverse variations of the sound field.

Airflow noise in telephone handsets and methods for its reduction.

The noise in a telephone handset produced by the bursts of airflow that accompany plosive sounds such as a "p" or "t" has been investigated. Measurements have been made on a series of modified handsets, using various arrangements of ports and tubes between microphone and the exterior of the telephone mouthpiece. A narrow stream of air was used to probe the mouthpiece and the signal picked up by the microphone recorded.

Developing Membership in the Education of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in Inclusive Settings.

This article discusses the importance of membership in the inclusive education of deaf/hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students. Membership refers to being an integral part of the classroom and school communities. Membership is a key philosophical concept in inclusion that may influence how classroom teachers and teachers of D/HH students share their expertise and how they work with students and each other.

Social processes and outcomes of in-school contact between deaf and hearing peers.

Studies of social processes and outcomes of the placement of deaf students with hearing peers cannot be easily summarized, but can be grouped into a least four major categories of focus: social skills, interaction and participation, sociometric status and acceptance, and affective functioning. We review 33 studies available since 1980 in which a mainstreamed or included deaf sample was compared to another group. Studies indicated (1) that hearing students were more socially mature than deaf students in public schools, (2) that deaf students interacted with deaf classmates more than hearing ones, (3) that deaf students were somewhat accepted by their hearing classmates, and (4) that self-esteem was not related to extent of mainstreaming.

Effect of handset proximity on hearing aid feedback.

The increased sensitivity of hearing aids to feedback as a telephone handset is brought near has been studied experimentally and numerically. For the measurements, three different hearing aids were modified so that the open-loop transfer function could be measured. They were mounted in the pinna of a mannikin and the change in open-loop transfer function determined as a function of handset proximity.

Experimental and numerical study of air-coupled surface waves generated above strips of finite impedance.

A series of laboratory experiments are described in which air coupled surface waves are generated from a point source in the frequency range between 800 and 1700 Hz above a surface composed of a lattice of small cavities. Since the sound pressure near the lattice of cavities can be greater than if the surface was rigid, passive amplification is obtained. Moreover, directional receivers can be designed by restricting the lattice of cavities to a strip of finite width.

Microphone array measurement system for analysis of directional and spatial variations of sound fields.

A measurement system has been developed that is capable of analyzing the directional and spatial variations in a reverberant sound field. A spherical, 32-element array of microphones is used to generate a narrow beam that is steered in 60 directions. Using an omnidirectional loudspeaker as excitation, the sound pressure arriving from each steering direction is measured as a function of time, in the form of pressure impulse responses.

Scattering from impedance gratings and surface wave formation.

The scattering problem of acoustic plane waves from comb-like impedance gratings on a rigid surface has been investigated in this paper. A rigorous analytic approach for homogeneous plane-wave incidence is presented based on the periodicity of the grating structure, in which the problem was solved as a mixed boundary value problem and the scattered field was represented by the tangent velocity difference across a partition wall of the grating. A singular integral equation has been derived for the tangent velocity difference, which can directly be solved with the Gauss-Chebyshev procedure.