Acquisition of focus by normal hearing and Cochlear implanted children

Two experiments investigated the perception of compound vs. phrasal stress and narrow focus in normally hearing children and children with Cochlear Implants (CI). Additionally, we investigated whether musical experience would predict children’s performance in these tasks. The results showed no difference between CI and normal-hearing (NH) children in either experiment. However, whereas we found no clear effect of age in the children’s stress detection, there was a clear age related trajectory in the ability to recognise (narrow) focus. Moreover, this trend was similar to what has been found previously for English children. Importantly, prior music experience was significantly linked to CI children’s perception of focus.

Diverse pathways for salicin utilization in Shigella sonnei and Escherichia coli carrying an impaired bgl operon

Utilization of the aryl-beta-glucosides salicin or arbutin in most wild-type strains of E. coli is achieved by a single-step mutational activation of the bgl operon. Shigella sonnei, a branch of the diverse E. coli strain tree, requires two sequential mutational steps for achieving salicin utilization as the bglB gene, encoding the phospho-beta-glucosidase B, harbors an inactivating insertion. We show that in a natural isolate of S. sonnei, transcriptional activation of the gene SSO1595, encoding a phospho-beta-glucosidase, enables salicin utilization with the permease function being provided by the activated bgl operon. SSO1595 is absent in most commensal strains of E. coli, but is present in extra-intestinal pathogens as bgcA, a component of the bgc operon that enables beta-glucoside utilization at low temperature. Salicin utilization in an E. coli bglB laboratory strain also requires a two-step activation process leading to expression of BglF, the PTS-associated permease encoded by the bgl operon and AscB, the phospho-beta-glucosidase B encoded by the silent asc operon. BglF function is needed since AscF is unable to transport beta-glucosides as it lacks the IIA domain involved in phopho-relay. Activation of the asc operon in the Sal(+) mutant is by a promoter-up mutation and the activated operon is subject to induction. The pathway to achieve salicin utilization is therefore diverse in these two evolutionarily related organisms; however, both show cooperation between two silent genetic systems to achieve a new metabolic capability under selection.

The Home of Hearing : George Lindbeck's understanding of community

The aim of this thesis was to examine the understanding of community in George Lindbeck s The Nature of Doctrine. Intrinsic to this question was also examining how Lindbeck understands the relation between the text and the world which both meet in a Christian community. Thirdly this study also aimed at understanding what the persuasiveness of this understanding depends on. The method applied for this task was systematic analysis. The study was conducted by first providing an orientation into the nontheological substance of the ND which was assumed useful with respect to the aim of this study. The study then went on to explore Lindbeck in his own context of postliberal theology in order to see how the ND was received. It also attempted to provide a picture of how the ND relates to Lindbeck as a theologian. The third chapter was a descriptive analysis into the cultural-linguistic perspective, which is understood as being directly proportional to his understanding of community. The fourth chapter was an analysis into how the cultural-linguistic perspective sees the relation between the text and the world. When religion is understood from a cultural-linguistic perspective, it presents itself as a cultural-linguistic entity, which Lindbeck understands as a comprehensive interpretive scheme which structures human experience and understanding of oneself and the world in which one lives. When one exists in this entity, it is the entity which shapes the subjectivities of all those who are at home in this entity which makes participation in the life of a cultural linguistic entity a condition for understanding it. Religion is above all an external word that moulds and shapes our religious existence and experience. Understanding faith then as coming from hearing, is something that correlates with the cultural-linguistic depiction of reality. Religion informs us of a religious reality, it does not originate in any way from ourselves. This externality linked to the axiomatic nature of religion is also something that distinguishes Lindbeck sharply from liberalist tendencies, which understand religion as ultimately expressing the prereflective depths of the inner self. Language is the central analogy to understanding the medium in which one moves when inhabiting a cultural-linguistic system because language is the transmitting medium in which the cultural-linguistic system is embodied. The realism entailed in Lindbeck s understanding of a community is that we are fundamentally on the receiving end when it comes to our identities whether cultural or religious. We always witness to something. Its persuasiveness rests on the fact that we never exist in an unpersuaded reality. The language of Christ is a self-sustaining and irreducible cultural-linguistic entity, which is ontologically founded upon Christ. It transmits the reality of a new being. The basic relation to the world for a Christian is that of witnessing salvation in Christ: witnessing Christ as the home of hearing the message of salvation, which is the God-willed way. Following this logic, the relation of the world and the text is one of relating to the world from the text, i.e. In Christ through the word (text) for the world, because it assumes it s logic from the way Christ ontologically relates to us.

Impaired spermatogenesis in Finnish boars and bulls

Maintenance of breeding efficiency and high semen quality is essential for reproductive success in farm animals. Early recognition of possible inheritable factors causing infertility requires constant attention. This thesis focuses on describing different manifestations of impaired spermatogenesis, their impact on fertility and partly also their incidence in populations. The reasons for spermatogenic failure are various. An interruption of germ cell differentiation, spermatogenic arrest, can lead to infertility. The incidence of azoospermia was investigated in the 1996 2005 survey of Finnish AI and farm breeding boars. We focused on the diagnosis, testicular morphometry and the possible reasons for the condition. The incidence of azoospermia was significantly higher in Yorkshire boars than in the Landrace breed. The most common diagnosis in Yorkshire boars was germ cell arrest at the primary spermatocyte level. The second most frequent diagnosis in Yorkshire boars was segmental aplasia of the Wolffian ducts with idiopathic epididymal obstruction. Other reasons for azoospermia were infrequent. In the second study we investigated the incidence of two relatively well-defined specific sperm defects in Finnish Yorkshire and Landrace boars during the same survey, the immotile short-tail sperm (ISTS) defect and the knobbed acrosome (KA) defect. In the Finnish Yorkshire boars the inherited ISTS defect, and the probably inherited KA defect, were important causes of infertility during 1996 2005. The ISTS defect was found in 7.6% and the KA defect in 0.8% of the Yorkshire boars. No Landrace boars were diagnosed with either of these two defects. In the third study we described a new sterilizing sperm defect in an oligoasthenoterazoospermic bull. Because of its morphological characteristics this defect was termed the multinuclear-multiflagellar sperm (MNMFS) defect. The number of Sertoli cells in the seminiferous tubuli was highly increased in the MNMFS bull compared with the number in normal bulls. In the following two studies we used a combined approach of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), flow cytometry and morphometric studies to provide information on the cytogenetic background of macrocephalic bull spermatozoa. We described cellular features of diploid spermatozoa and compared the failures in the first and second meiotic divisions. In the last study we describe how the transplantation of testicular cells was used to determine whether spermatogonia derived from donor animals are able to colonize and produce motile spermatozoa in immune-competent unrelated boars suffering the ISTS defect. Transplantation resulted in complete focal spermatogenesis, indicated by the appearance of motile spermatozoa and confirmed by genotyping.

Phonological Mean Length of Utterance as an indicator of typical and impaired phonological development in children acquiring Finnish

The aim of this study was to examine the applicability of the Phonological Mean Length of Utterance (pMLU) method to the data of children acquiring Finnish, for both typically developing children and children with a Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Study I examined typically developing children at the end of the one-word stage (N=17, mean age 1;8), and Study II analysed children s (N=5) productions in a follow-up study with four assessment points (ages 2;0, 2;6, 3;0, 3;6). Study III was carried out in the form of a review article that examined recent research on the phonological development of children acquiring Finnish and compared the results with general trends and cross-linguistic findings in phonological development. Study IV included children with SLI (N=4, mean age 4;10) and age-matched peers. The analyses in Studies I, II and IV were made using the quantitative pMLU method. In the pMLU method, pMLU values are counted for both the words that the children targeted (so-called target words) and the words produced by the children. When the child s average pMLU value was divided with the average target word pMLU value, it is possible to examine that child s accuracy in producing the words with the Whole-Word Proximity (PWP) value. In addition, the number of entirely correctly produced words is counted to obtain the Whole-Word Correctness (PWC) value. Qualitative analyses were carried out in order to examine how the children s phoneme inventories and deficiencies in phonotactics would explain the observed pMLU, PWP and PWC values. The results showed that the pMLU values for children acquiring Finnish were relatively high already at the end of the one-word stage (Study I). The values were found to reflect the characteristics of the ambient language. Typological features that lead to cross-linguistic differences in pMLU values were also observed in the review article (Study III), which noted that in the course of phonological acquisition there are a large number of language-specific phenomena and processes. Study II indicated that overall the children s phonological development during the follow-up period was reflected in the pMLU, PWP and PWC values, although the method showed limitations in detecting qualitative differences between the children. Correct vowels were not scored in the pMLU counts, which led to some misleadingly high pMLU and PWP results: vowel errors were only reflected in the PWC values. Typically developing children in Study II reached the highest possible pMLU results already around age 3;6. At the same time, the differences between the children with SLI and age-matched peers in the pMLU values were very prominent (Study IV). The values for the children with SLI were similar to the ones reported for two-year-old children. Qualitative analyses revealed that the phonologies of the children with SLI largely resembled the ones of younger, typically developing children. However, unusual errors were also witnessed (e.g., vowel errors, omissions of word-initial stops, consonants added to the initial position in words beginning with a vowel). This dissertation provides an application of a new tool for quantitative phonological assessment and analysis in children acquiring Finnish. The preliminary results suggest that, with some modifications, the pMLU method can be used to assess children s phonological development and that it has some advantages compared to the earlier, segment-oriented approaches. Qualitative analyses complemented the pMLU s observations on the children s phonologies. More research is needed in order to verify the levels of the pMLU, PWP and PWC values in children acquiring Finnish.

Impaired conflict monitoring in Parkinson's disease patients during an oculomotor redirect task

Fallibility is inherent in human cognition and so a system that will monitor performance is indispensable. While behavioral evidence for such a system derives from the finding that subjects slow down after trials that are likely to produce errors, the neural and behavioral characterization that enables such control is incomplete. Here, we report a specific role for dopamine/basal ganglia in response conflict by accessing deficits in performance monitoring in patients with Parkinson's disease. To characterize such a deficit, we used a modification of the oculomotor countermanding task to show that slowing down of responses that generate robust response conflict, and not post-error per se, is deficient in Parkinson's disease patients. Poor performance adjustment could be either due to impaired ability to slow RT subsequent to conflicts or due to impaired response conflict recognition. If the latter hypothesis was true, then PD subjects should show evidence of impaired error detection/correction, which was found to be the case. These results make a strong case for impaired performance monitoring in Parkinson's patients.

Low cost calibrated mechanical noisemaker for hearing screening of neonates in resource constrained settings

Background & objectives: There is a need to develop an affordable and reliable tool for hearing screening of neonates in resource constrained, medically underserved areas of developing nations. This study valuates a strategy of health worker based screening of neonates using a low cost mechanical calibrated noisemaker followed up with parental monitoring of age appropriate auditory milestones for detecting severe-profound hearing impairment in infants by 6 months of age. Methods: A trained health worker under the supervision of a qualified audiologist screened 425 neonates of whom 20 had confirmed severe-profound hearing impairment. Mechanical calibrated noisemakers of 50, 60, 70 and 80 dB (A) were used to elicit the behavioural responses. The parents of screened neonates were instructed to monitor the normal language and auditory milestones till 6 months of age. This strategy was validated against the reference standard consisting of a battery of tests - namely, auditory brain stem response (ABR), otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and behavioural assessment at 2 years of age. Bayesian prevalence weighted measures of screening were calculated. Results: The sensitivity and specificity was high with least false positive referrals for. 70 and 80 dB (A) noisemakers. All the noisemakers had 100 per cent negative predictive value. 70 and 80 dB (A) noisemakers had high positive likelihood ratios of 19 and 34, respectively. The probability differences for pre- and post- test positive was 43 and 58 for 70 and 80 dB (A) noisemakers, respectively. Interpretation & conclusions: In a controlled setting, health workers with primary education can be trained to use a mechanical calibrated noisemaker made of locally available material to reliably screen for severe-profound hearing loss in neonates. The monitoring of auditory responses could be done by informed parents. Multi-centre field trials of this strategy need to be carried out to examine the feasibility of community health care workers using it in resource constrained settings of developing nations to implement an effective national neonatal hearing screening programme.

Non-Syndromic Hearing Impairment in India: High Allelic Heterogeneity among Mutations in TMPRSS3, TMC1, USHIC, CDH23 and TMIE

Mutations in the autosomal genes TMPRSS3, TMC1, USHIC, CDH23 and TMIE are known to cause hereditary hearing loss. To study the contribution of these genes to autosomal recessive, non-syndromic hearing loss (ARNSHL) in India, we examined 374 families with the disorder to identify potential mutations. We found four mutations in TMPRSS3, eight in TMC1, ten in USHIC, eight in CDH23 and three in TMIE. Of the 33 potentially pathogenic variants identified in these genes, 23 were new and the remaining have been previously reported. Collectively, mutations in these five genes contribute to about one-tenth of ARNSHL among the families examined. New mutations detected in this study extend the allelic heterogeneity of the genes and provide several additional variants for structure-function correlation studies. These findings have implications for early DNA-based detection of deafness and genetic counseling of affected families in the Indian subcontinent.