A Multimodal Investigation of Listening Effort in Single-Sided Deafness.

Purpose: For patients with single-sided deafness (SSD), choosing between bone conduction devices (BCDs) and contralateral routing of signal hearing aids (CROS) is challenging due to mixed evidence on their benefits. The lack of clear guidelines complicates clinical decision making. This study explores whether realistic spatial listening measures can reveal a clinically valid benefit and if the optimal choice varies among patients.

Challenges and Opportunities with at-Home Blood Collection for HIV-1 Viral Load Monitoring among Sexual Minoritized Men who use Stimulants.

Sexually minoritized men (SMM) with HIV who use stimulants experience difficulties achieving and maintaining an undetectable viral load (VL). Home-based VL monitoring could augment HIV care by supporting interim, early identification of detectable VL. We describe implementation challenges associated with a home-collection device for laboratory-based VL testing among SMM with HIV who use stimulants.

Assessing the multidimensional comfort of earplugs in virtual industrial noise environments.

Earplugs' comfort is primarily evaluated through cost-effective laboratory evaluations, yet these evaluations often inadequately capture the multidimensional comfort aspects due to design limitations that do not replicate real-world conditions. This paper introduces a novel laboratory method for comprehensive assessment of the multidimensional comfort aspects of earplugs, combining questionnaire-based evaluations and objective perceptual tests within virtual industrial sound environments replicating in-situ noise exposure. Objective perceptual results confirm that the sound environment affect participants' ability to detect alarms in a noisy environment and comprehend speech-in-noise while wearing earplugs.

Haplotype-resolved genome assembly and implementation of VitExpress, an open interactive transcriptomic platform for grapevine.

Haplotype-resolved genome assemblies were produced for Chasselas and Ugni Blanc, two heterozygous cultivars by combining high-fidelity long-read sequencing and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C). The telomere-to-telomere full coverage of the chromosomes allowed us to assemble separately the two haplo-genomes of both cultivars and revealed structural variations between the two haplotypes of a given cultivar. The deletions/insertions, inversions, translocations, and duplications provide insight into the evolutionary history and parental relationship among grape varieties.

Integrating Emotion Perception in Rehabilitation Programs for Cochlear Implant Users: A Call for a More Comprehensive Approach.

Purpose: Postoperative rehabilitation programs for cochlear implant (CI) recipients primarily emphasize enhancing speech perception. However, effective communication in everyday social interactions necessitates consideration of diverse verbal social cues to facilitate language comprehension. Failure to discern emotional expressions may lead to maladjusted social behavior, underscoring the importance of integrating social cues perception into rehabilitation initiatives to enhance CI users' well-being.

Feasibility and Acceptability Pilot Test of Connecting Latinos en Parejas: A Couples-Based HIV Prevention Intervention for Latino Male Couples.

Despite recent emphasis on couples-based HIV prevention interventions, efficacious interventions for Latino male couples have yet to be tested. The study examined the feasibility and acceptability of the Connecting Latinos en Pareja (CLP) intervention, a couples-based HIV prevention intervention for Latino male couples. This pilot demonstrated high feasibility, meeting targets for recruitment, retention, and intervention completion.

More than just oral PrEP: exploring interest in rectal douche, dissolvable implant, removable implant and injection HIV prevention approaches among racially diverse men who have sex with men in the Northeast Corridor.

Objectives: HIV scholars and practitioners have worked to expand strategies for prevention among marginalised populations who are disproportionately impacted by the epidemic, such as racial minority men who have sex with men (MSM). Given this urgency, the objective of this study was to assess interest in biomedical prevention strategies.

Methods: This exploratory and cross-sectional study investigated interest in four biomedical prevention tools-rectal douche, dissolvable implant, removable implant and injection-among a racially diverse sample of MSM from the Northeast Corridor region between Philadelphia and Trenton.

Perceptual validation of sound environment reproduction inside an aircraft mock-up.

Auditory comfort evaluations are garnering increased attention in engineering and particularly in the context of air transportation. Being able to produce sound environments corresponding to various flight conditions in aircraft mock-ups would be a valuable tool to investigate acoustic comfort inside aircrafts in controlled environments. Before using such mock-ups, they must be developed and validated in physical and perceptual terms.

Custom-Fitted In- and Around-the-Ear Sensors for Unobtrusive and On-the-Go EEG Acquisitions: Development and Validation.

Objectives: This paper aims to validate the performance and physical design of a wearable, unobtrusive ear-centered electroencephalography (EEG) device, dubbed "EARtrodes", using early and late auditory evoked responses. Results would also offer a proof-of-concept for the device to be used as a concealed brain-computer interface (BCI).

Design: The device is composed of a custom-fitted earpiece and an ergonomic behind-the-ear piece with embedded electrodes made of a soft and flexible combination of silicone rubber and carbon fibers.

Validation and Benchmarking of a Wearable EEG Acquisition Platform for Real-World Applications.

This paper presents the experimental validation of a readout circuit for the acquisition, amplification, and transmission of extremely weak biopotentials with a focus on electroencephalography (EEG) signals. The device, dubbed CochlEEG, benefits from a low-power design for long-term power autonomy and provides configurable gain and sampling rates to suit the needs of various EEG applications. CochlEEG features high sampling rates, up to 4 kHz, low-noise signal acquisitions, support for active electrodes, and a potential for Wi-Fi data transmission.

Dynamics of cholera epidemics from Benin to Mauritania.

Background: The countries of West Africa are largely portrayed as cholera endemic, although the dynamics of outbreaks in this region of Africa remain largely unclear.

Methodology/principal Findings: To understand the dynamics of cholera in a major portion of West Africa, we analyzed cholera epidemics from 2009 to 2015 from Benin to Mauritania. We conducted a series of field visits as well as multilocus variable tandem repeat analysis and whole-genome sequencing analysis of V.

A couple-based HIV prevention intervention for Latino men who have sex with men: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) experienced a 13% increase in HIV diagnoses from 2010 to 2014, more than any other racial/ethnic subgroup of MSM in the United States. If current HIV diagnoses rates persist, about one in four Latino MSM in the United States will be diagnosed with HIV during their lifetime. Although some efficacious HIV prevention interventions for Latino MSM exist, none have focused on couples.

Using auditory steady-state responses for measuring hearing protector occlusion effect.

Introduction: The currently available methods for measuring the occlusion effect (OE) of hearing protection devices (HPDs) have limitations. Objective microphonic measurements do not assess bone-conducted sounds directly transmitted to the cochlea. Psychophysical measurements at threshold are biased due to the low-frequency masking effects from test participants' physiological noise and the variability of measurements based on subjective responses.

Using Auditory Steady-State Responses for Measuring Hearing Protector Attenuation.

Introduction: Present methods of measuring the attenuation of hearing protection devices (HPDs) have limitations. Objective measurements such as field microphone in real-ear do not assess bone-conducted sound. Psychophysical measurements such as real-ear attenuation at threshold (REAT) are biased due to the low frequency masking effects from test subjects' physiological noise and the variability of measurements based on subjective responses.

Topographic recordings of auditory evoked potentials to speech: subcortical and cortical responses.

Topographies of speech auditory brainstem response (speech ABR), a fine electrophysiological marker of speech encoding, have never been described. Yet, they could provide useful information to assess speech ABR generators and better characterize populations of interest (e.g.

Frequency and variability of genomic rearrangements on MSH2 in Spanish Lynch Syndrome families.

Large genomic rearrangements (LGRs) in DNA-mismatch-repair (MMR) genes, particularly among MSH2 gene, are frequently involved in the etiology of Lynch syndrome (LS). The Multiplex Ligation and Probe Amplification assay (MLPA) is commonly used to identify such alterations. However, in most cases, the MLPA-identified alteration is not characterized at the molecular level, which might be important to identify recurrent alterations and to analyze the molecular mechanisms underlying these mutational events.