Consideration of Sufficient and Insufficient Benefits in Hearing Aid Fitting.

Background: During hearing aid (HA) fitting, individuals may experience better speech discrimination at normal speech levels and worse discrimination at loud speech levels than without an HA. Therefore, we investigated factors that worsen speech discrimination when the speech sound level increases.

Methods: Speech discrimination was measured in patients aged >20 years who had average hearing thresholds <90 dB on pure-tone audiometry.

Search for the Majorana Nature of Neutrinos in the Inverted Mass Ordering Region with KamLAND-Zen.

The KamLAND-Zen experiment has provided stringent constraints on the neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay half-life in ^{136}Xe using a xenon-loaded liquid scintillator. We report an improved search using an upgraded detector with almost double the amount of xenon and an ultralow radioactivity container, corresponding to an exposure of 970 kg yr of ^{136}Xe. These new data provide valuable insight into backgrounds, especially from cosmic muon spallation of xenon, and have required the use of novel background rejection techniques.

Investigation of hearing aid fitting according to the national acoustic laboratories' prescription for non-linear hearing aids and the desired sensation level methods in Japanese speakers: a crossover-controlled trial.

Objective: Some studies have directly compared the National Acoustic Laboratories' prescription for non-linear hearing aids (HAs) version 2 (NAL-NL2) and Desired Sensation Level for non-linear HAs version 5 (DSLv5), although none were performed in Japan. As the Japanese language is a tonal language that has different linguistic characteristics than those of the studied languages, we compared the outcomes of the NAL-NL2 and DSLv5 in hearing-impaired Japanese participants.

Methods: A crossover-controlled trial was conducted on 18 first-time HA users with bilateral moderate sensorineural hearing loss.

Comparison of real-ear insertion gains in Japanese-speaking individuals wearing hearing aids with DSLv5 and NAL-NL2.

Objective: We used real-ear insertion gain (REIG), with the international speech test signal (ISTS), to evaluate the amplifying characteristics of hearing aids, set for patients who have been wearing such aids for a long time in a stable manner. We further compared this to the target values of the DSLv5 and NAL-NL2 methods.

Methods: The subjects were adults with moderate sensorineural hearing loss.

Mechanisms Underlying Spontaneous Action Potential Generation Induced by Catecholamine in Pulmonary Vein Cardiomyocytes: A Simulation Study.

Cardiomyocytes and myocardial sleeves dissociated from pulmonary veins (PVs) potentially generate ectopic automaticity in response to noradrenaline (NA), and thereby trigger atrial fibrillation. We developed a mathematical model of rat PV cardiomyocytes (PVC) based on experimental data that incorporates the microscopic framework of the local control theory of Ca release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), which can generate rhythmic Ca release (limit cycle revealed by the bifurcation analysis) when total Ca within the cell increased. Ca overload in SR increased resting Ca efflux through the type II inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP) receptors (InsPR) as well as ryanodine receptors (RyRs), which finally triggered massive Ca release through activation of RyRs via local Ca accumulation in the vicinity of RyRs.