A method for individual identification of echolocation signals in free-ranging finless porpoises carrying data loggers

Echolocation click events of a free-ranging juvenile and an adult finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides) were recorded with an acoustic data logger. Additionally, dive depth and swim speed of the juvenile were recorded with a behavior data logger. Echoes of echolocation signals from the water surface were clearly detected in shallow dives approximately less than 2 m. The delay time between a surface echo and a direct signal corresponded with the two-way transmission time for the animal's depth, indicating that the signals originated from the animal wearing the data loggers. The finless porpoises produced echolocation signals frequently and were thought to be able to detect their depth by listening to echoes from the water surface. (C) 2000 Acoustical Society of America. [S0001-4966(00)01609-X].

语前聋小儿人工耳蜗植入术后的言语康复

An Approach to the Rehabilitation of Prelingually Deaf Children After Cochlear Implantation Zheng Xiujin(Medical Psychology) Directed by Professor Yin WenGang Abstract Objective: To sum up the acquirement rule of speech and language capability which is for the prelingually deaf children after cochlear implantation by listening and language rehabilitation training and to investigate the factors that affect rehabilitation speed. Method: Sixty-four children received a cochlear implant at the age of 2 to 5 years from 2001 to 2005. They begin to be trained under group pattern after switch on 1 month. The whole training program lasted more than 7 months; after that, according to the teacher’s plan the training program was to be continued at home. Result: The period is 108±7.7 days that they can pronounce correctly 50 percent of all of simple-finals and compound-finals, the period is 115.0±7.8 days that they begin auditory repeating, the period is 135.3±10.9 days that they can speech the first specific word independently and the period is 200.3±13.9 days that they can speak 70 words and come into tri-gamut-word and two-word sentence period. The patient that is the group at the age of 2-3 years can take part in normal kindergarten after switch on about 10 months. There are no significant differences in various grades of speech-language development with different age groups and so do with different sex groups. There are significant differences in various grade of speech-language development with various IQ group (P<0.01) and so do with using and not using hearing aids before implantation. Conclusion: From the research we find that the speech and language development sequence is the same level between the prelingually deaf children of 2 to 5 years who received cochlear implant after speech training and normal children and which are stages of uncomplicated sound production, continuous syllabic (babbling), speech sprout, single-word utterances and two-word utterances in proper order. The time is short significantly and the reason is that cognition capability is enhanced along with the increase of age. The intelligence is main factor that affect rehabilitation speed and the speed in the group of high IQ is faster than common IQ. It is not because of the dominance cognition of the senior group that makes the increasing of the rehabilitation, it even makes slowly. The reason of which is that the senior group are exposed the language environment too late to achieve speech and language development. So we should perform an operation and training early. The effectiveness of rehabilitation after cochlear implantation is improved by using hearing aids before implantation. The reason is auditory stimulate can be benefit of to deaf children. The rehabilitation speeds in the children at the age of 2 to 5 years have nothing to do with sex. Key words: cochlear implant; speech therapy; paediatric rehabilitation

记忆年老化与焦虑

It is well established that memory functioning deteriorates with advancing age. However, research indicates that the magnitude of age-related memory deficits varies across different types of memory, and broad individual differences can be observed in the rate and timing of memory aging. The general aim of this study was to investigate the selectivity and variability of memory functioning in relation to anxiety. Firstly, memory effectiveness was assessed in episodic memory tasks with reality monitoring and external source monitoring paradigms, semantic memory tasks referred to general knowledge and word fluency, and perceptual priming task reflected in word completion. According to the scores on trait version of STAI, the high-trait and low-trait anxious subjects were screened respectively from young and old participants matched for educational level. Secondly, based on the results of the first part, concurrent primary and secondary tasks with probe technique assessing spare processing capacity were used to explore the relation between memory efficiency and anxiety. The first main findings were that: (a) there were no age-related differences in semantic memory assessed by general knowledge and PRS, whereas age effects were observed in episodic memory and semantic memory assessed by word fluency with stringent time restraints. (b) Furthermore, comparison of age-related deficits in source and item was not related to the presentation ways and encoding effort for source, but was affected by types of source. Specifically, memory was more sensitive to aging than item memory in external source monitoring processes involved in discriminating two external sources (i.e., female vs. male voices), but not in reality monitoring processes in discriminating between internal and external sources (i.e., acting vs. listening). The second main findings were that: (a) Anxiety had no effects on the effectiveness and efficiency of semantic memory in recall of general knowledge and PRS, but impaired those of semantic memory in word fluency. (b) The effects of anxiety on episodic memory were different between the old and the young. Both the effectiveness and the efficiency of episodic memory of the old were affected adversely by anxiety. More importantly, source recall in external source monitoring processes was observed to be more vulnerable to anxiety than item memory. The effectiveness of episodic memory of the young was relatively unrelated to anxiety, while anxiety might have adverse effect on their memory efficiency. These results indicated that: First, the selectivity of age-related memory deficits existed not only between memory systems, but also within episodic memory system. The tendency to forget the source even when the fact was retained in external source monitoring was suggested to be a specific feature of cognitive aging. Second, anxiety had adverse impact on the individual differences in memory aging, and mediated partial age-related differences in episodic memory performance.