Educational Environments and Secondary School Outcomes Among Students Who Are D/deaf and Hard of Hearing in Special Education.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide updated national estimates on the annual number, educational environments, and secondary school outcomes of students who are D/deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) receiving special education (SpEd) and related services in the United States.

Method: We performed a retrospective cross-sectional descriptive analysis of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B, Section 618 data from 2012 to 2018. Participants included students 6-21 years old in SpEd with "hearing impairment" reported as their primary disability.

Performing tympanometry using smartphones.

Background: Tympanometry is used as part of a battery of tests for screening of middle ear function and may help diagnose middle ear disorders, but remains available only on expensive test equipment.

Methods: We report a low-cost smartphone-based tympanometer system that consists of a lightweight and portable attachment to vary air pressure in the ear and measure middle ear function. The smartphone displays a tympanogram and reports peak acoustic admittance in realtime.

Cognitive, Motor, and Language Development of Preschool Children With Craniofacial Microsomia.

Objective: To examine neurodevelopment in preschool-aged children with craniofacial microsomia (CFM) relative to unaffected peers.

Design: Multisite, longitudinal cohort study.

Setting: Tertiary care centers in the United States.

Behavioral Adjustment of Preschool Children With and Without Craniofacial Microsomia.

Objective: The study aim was to assess behavioral adjustment in preschool children with and without craniofacial microsomia (CFM).

Design: Multisite cohort study of preschoolers with CFM ("cases") or without CFM ("controls").

Participants: Mothers (89%), fathers (9%), and other caregivers (2%) of 161 preschoolers.

Reliability of Measuring Insertion Depth in Cochlear Implanted Infants and Children Using Cochlear View Radiography.

Objectives: Cochlear implant depth of insertion affects audiologic outcomes and can be measured in adults using plain films obtained in the "cochlear view." The objective of this study was to assess interrater and intrarater reliability of measuring depth of insertion using cochlear view radiography.

Study Design: Prospective, observational.

Defining Essential Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

COVID-19 is a rapidly growing global pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus. With no vaccine or definitive treatment, public health authorities have recommended a strategy of "social distancing," reducing individual interaction, canceling elective procedures, and limiting nonessential services. Health care providers must determine what procedures are considered "elective," balancing risk of treatment delays with that of coronavirus exposure to patient, family, and providers.

Feasibility of Acupuncture to Induce Sleep for Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response Testing.

Purpose Brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) testing is often performed under general anesthesia for children unable to complete behavioral audiologic evaluation. Alternatively, acupuncture treatment may be considered appropriate for BAER. Reports of acupuncture treatment in pediatric patients are scarce but are needed to demonstrate effectiveness.

Selecting Comparator Sites for Ecological Causal Assessment Based on Expected Biological Similarity.

Sites in poor ecological condition often require causal assessment to determine appropriate follow-up actions. Site-specific causal assessments can be time consuming. To streamline the process, we describe a quantitative method that expedites a key component of causal assessment: identifying a group of ecologically similar (comparator) sites that are used to compare and contrast biological condition and stressor exposure at the site of interest.

Auditory comprehension outcomes in children who receive a cochlear implant before 12 months of age.

Objective: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines for cochlear implantation (CI) include age greater than 12 months.

Methods and Challenges in a Cohort Study of Infants and Toddlers With Craniofacial Microsomia: The Clock Study.

Objective: The Craniofacial microsomia: Longitudinal Outcomes in Children pre-Kindergarten (CLOCK) study is a longitudinal cohort study of neurobehavioral outcomes in infants and toddlers with craniofacial microsomia (CFM). In this article, we review the data collection and methods used to characterize this complex condition and describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of the cohort.

Setting: Craniofacial and otolaryngology clinics at 5 study sites.

Comparison of MRI in pediatric cochlear implant recipients with and without retained magnet.

Objective: To report and compare medical, radiological, and audiological outcomes in pediatric cochlear implant recipients who underwent 1.5 and 3 Tesla strength MRI with and without retained magnet.

Methods: Retrospective chart review at a tertiary care pediatric hospital and review of literature.

Cochlear Implantation in Children with Postlingual Progressive Steeply Sloping High-Frequency Hearing Loss.

Background: Children with steeply sloping sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) lack access to critical high-frequency cues despite the use of advanced hearing aid technology. In addition, their auditory-only aided speech perception abilities often meet Food and Drug Administration criteria for cochlear implantation.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to describe hearing preservation and speech perception outcomes in a group of young children with steeply sloping SNHL who received a cochlear implant (CI).

Response of chlorophyll to total nitrogen and total phosphorus concentrations in lotic ecosystems: a systematic review protocol.

Background: Eutrophication of freshwater ecosystems resulting from nitrogen and phosphorus pollution is a major stressor across the globe. Despite recognition by scientists and stakeholders of the problems of nutrient pollution, rigorous synthesis of scientific evidence is still needed to inform nutrient-related management decisions, especially in streams and rivers. Nutrient stressor-response relationships are complicated by multiple interacting environmental factors, complex and indirect causal pathways involving diverse biotic assemblages and food web compartments, legacy (historic) nutrient sources such as agricultural sediments, and the naturally high spatiotemporal variabilityof lotic ecosystems.

Hearing Loss in Children With Craniofacial Microsomia.

Objective: To evaluate the association between craniofacial phenotype and hearing loss in children with craniofacial microsomia.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Tertiary care children's hospital.

Regional models for sediment toxicity assessment.

The present study describes approaches to improve the performance of empirical models developed from a large nationwide data set to predict sediment toxicity from chemistry for regional applications. The authors developed 4 multiple chemical (PMax ) models selected from individual chemical models developed using 1) a previously published approach applied to the nationwide data set; 2) a broader array of response and explanatory variables (e.g.

Evaluation of a rapid microbiological method with a mixed culture biofilm model.

Unlabelled: During the past decade, rapid microbiological methods (RMMs) have continued to make inroads into the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. This has led to the development of guidelines for the validation of alternative microbiological methods for both quantitative and qualitative applications. Many studies regarding RMMs have focused on testing performed with planktonic microorganisms.

Ophthalmic viscoelastic devices as a cleaning challenge.

Common practice when validating the cleaning of medical devices is to employ clinically relevant test soils as a challenge to the cleaning process. During use, medical devices may come into contact with a variety of materials that are difficult to clean. One example of this is the use of ophthalmic viscoelastic devices (OVDs) in cataract surgery.

Psychoacoustic performance and music and speech perception in prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants.

The number of pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients has increased substantially over the past 10 years, and it has become more important to understand the underlying mechanisms of the variable outcomes in this population. In this study, psychoacoustic measures of spectral-ripple and Schroeder-phase discrimination, the Clinical Assessment of Music Perception, and consonant-nucleus-consonant (CNC) word recognition in quiet and spondee reception threshold (SRT) in noise tests have been presented to 11 prelingually deafened CI users, aged 8-16 years with at least 5 years of CI experience. The children's performance was compared to the previously reported results of postlingually deafened adult CI users.

The effects of mountaintop mines and valley fills on the physicochemical quality of stream ecosystems in the central Appalachians: a review.

This review assesses the state of the science on the effects of mountaintop mines and valley fills (MTM-VF) on the physicochemical characteristics of streams in the central Appalachian coalfields of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee, USA. We focus on the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining, which involves removing all - or some portion - of the top of a mountain or ridge to expose and mine one or more coal seams. Excess overburden is disposed in constructed fills in small valleys adjacent to the mining site.

A new method for evaluation of compatibility of contact lenses and lens cases with contact lens disinfecting solutions.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe new methodology, antimicrobial efficacy endpoint methodology to determine compatibility of contact lens solutions, lens cases and hydrogel lenses for disinfection (AEEMC), to evaluate the effect of a contact lens and a lens case on disinfection efficacy, and to present the ring test used to justify the use of the method in multiple laboratories.

Materials And Methods: A prototype solution containing chlorhexidine as the disinfecting agent and four representative lens types (group I and IV hydrogels and two silicone hydrogels) were used in these ring tests. Five laboratories participated in the chemical and microbiologic analyses.

Congenital cytomegalovirus infection in pediatric hearing loss.

Objectives: To compare the prevalence of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in Washington State in children with hearing loss (HL) and the general population and to compare the characteristics of HL in children with and without congenital CMV infection.

Design: Matched case-control; case cohort.

Setting: Regional pediatric hospital, Washington State Department of Health (WSDOH).

Measuring sound detection and reaction time in infant and toddler cochlear implant recipients using an observer-based procedure: a first report.

Objectives: First, to establish the feasibility of the observer-based psychophysical procedure (OPP) in measuring sound detection in infant and toddler cochlear implant (CI) recipients. Second, to measure the psychometric function for detection (PFD) from individual subjects. Third, to determine whether reaction time (RT) provides information about the auditory sensitivity of young CI users.