Anomia in Sesotho: the role of parameters in therapy

South Africa as a multilingual country, offers the opportunity for examining the interaction between aphasic symptomatology and linguistic parameters.  This paper describes an intervention study with two Sesotho speaking individuals with anomia. Words lists were designed using non aphasic participant and three therapeutic cueing techniques for anomia were evaluated over a period of four months. Findings suggested a positive response to the techniques of true phonemic cueing and prosodic cueing, whereas initial phonemic cueing (a technique commonly used for English speaking anomic patients) had no impact. This supports the need for a parametrically- informed approach to aphasia therapy

An Analysis of Informational Content in a Descriptive Narrative Task Completed by People with Aphasia

Speech and language are important tools used for communication. Communication techniques such as narrative story telling skills can be used to build relationships. People with aphasia may lack these effective communication skills. This study provides a close-up interpretation of people with aphasia telling the story of Cinderella. Two different approaches were used to analyze the elements of the participant’s stories. By using these approaches during speech therapy, Speech-Language Pathologists can help people with aphasia to build a more concise and thorough story

Lesions, lemmas and lehapu : anomia in two Sesotho-English bilingual speakers.

Rationale: Aphasia and anomia affect the communication abilities of thousands of South African stroke survivors. Therapy provision in South Africa is a challenging endeavour. Clinicians must provide therapy to clients who speak languages which have rarely, if ever, been the focus of clinical study. Models developed for use with clients who speak English or related languages may not be suitable for speakers of other, parametricallydiverse languages. Bilingualism is widespread in South Africa, yet therapeutic insights on how best to treat bilingual speakers are only beginning to inform clinical research and practice. Time and financial support are also lacking in many clinical settings. Aim: This study represents an attempt to establish which of four treatment conditions (initial phoneme cueing, codeswitch1 cueing, true phonemic cueing and prosodic cueing) is most effective at facilitating improved naming performance in two Sesotho-English bilingual speakers with post-stroke anomia. Methodology: Commercially-available tests of naming ability were found to be statistically invalid since they seemed to assess familiarity with Western culture and artifacts rather than naming ability. Working in conjunction with ten neurologically unimpaired Sesotho speakers living in the Northern Free State, community-referenced words lists were developed for use in this study. Two bilingual Sesotho-English speakers with post-stroke anomia participated in this study. T. was assessed and found to present with classical anomia, while S. presented with output anomia. T.’s word finding difficulties are characterized by pauses, use of vocalizers and part-whole productions, while S. tends to produce semantic paraphasias during anomic moments. 1 In keeping with trends present in research literature (e.g. Auer, 1999), codeswitching will be designated by a single, unhyphenated word. xi Each treatment condition (initial phoneme cueing, codeswitch cueing, true phonemic cueing and prosodic cueing) were allocated a word list. Pre-- and post-intervention scores of naming ability on these treatment lists and four lists of semantically related words were compared. The treatment conditions were evaluated in terms of three constructs commonly employed in anomia literature: potency (the degree to which a technique helps a speaker relearn words directly targeted in therapy), semantic generalizability (the degree to which a technique helps a speaker relearn words semantically related to those directly targeted in therapy) and persistence (the degree to which therapy effects are longlived.). The sign-test was used to determine statistical significance or otherwise. Results and discussion: Neither initial phoneme cueing nor codeswitch cueing were associated with statistically significant potency in either participant. Both true phonemic cueing and prosodic cueing were associated with statistically significant levels of potency in both participants. None of the treatment conditions were associated with statistically significant semantic generalizability in either participant. In the case of S., codeswitch cues appeared lead to an increase in the number and complexity of semantic paraphasias. No significant decrease in any of the gains made during the intervention portion of the study were noted one month after the conclusion of the study. Explanations for these results, informed by cognitive neuropsychology, are provided. Possible refinements to models of lexical retrieval in monolingual and bilingual speakers are postulated. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that speech-language pathologists in South Africa should not rely solely on therapy approaches developed for use with Englishspeakers. Instead, a parametrically informed approach, which draws heavily on cognitive neuropsychological understandings of bilingual functioning, may be helpful in furnishing speech-language pathologists in South Africa with the tools they need to provide services. The local community needs to play a role in developing materials for use in therapy and assessment in challenging environments. New therapy techniques should be weighed against commonly used measures of therapy efficacy to determine the best course of treatment

Conversation as an Outcome of Aphasia Treatment: A Systematic Scoping Review

PURPOSE: Conversation-focused speech-language pathology services are a top priority for people living with aphasia, but little is known about how researchers measure conversation as an outcome of treatment. This scoping review was undertaken to systematically review the evidence regarding the measurement of conversation in aphasia studies and to identify current practices and existing gaps. METHOD: A systematic literature search was conducted for studies published between January 1995 and September 2019 in multiple electronic databases. Covidence software was used to manage search results, study selection, and data charting processes. Data were extracted from each study and then collated and organized to elucidate the breadth of approaches, tools, or procedures oriented to measuring conversation as an outcome and identify gaps in the existing literature. RESULTS: The systematic search of the literature resulted in 1,244 studies. A total of 64 studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The review summarizes the various tools and procedures used to measure conversation as an outcome of aphasia intervention, including variations in data collection and analysis procedures. The review also evaluates the quality of conversation measures in terms of psychometric properties and informal measures of validity. There was a total of 211 measures used across the 64 studies. CONCLUSIONS: While there was no clear measure that was objectively superior, several measures show promise and warrant future exploration. Some of the orientations, conceptualizations, and procedures we have presented can be seen as options that might be included in a future conversation-focused core outcome set. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21514062

Optimizing the noise versus bias trade-off for Illumina whole genome expression BeadChips

Five strategies for pre-processing intensities from Illumina expression BeadChips are assessed from the point of view of precision and bias. The strategies include a popular variance stabilizing transformation and model-based background corrections that either use or ignore the control probes. Four calibration data sets are used to evaluate precision, bias and false discovery rate (FDR). The original algorithms are shown to have operating characteristics that are not easily comparable. Some tend to minimize noise while others minimize bias. Each original algorithm is shown to have an innate intensity offset, by which unlogged intensities are bounded away from zero, and the size of this offset determines its position on the noise–bias spectrum. By adding extra offsets, a continuum of related algorithms with different noise–bias trade-offs is generated, allowing direct comparison of the performance of the strategies on equivalent terms. Adding a positive offset is shown to decrease the FDR of each original algorithm. The potential of each strategy to generate an algorithm with an optimal noise–bias trade-off is explored by finding the offset that minimizes its FDR. The use of control probes as part of the background correction and normalization strategy is shown to achieve the lowest FDR for a given bias

5Gen: A Framework for Prototyping Applications Using Multilinear Maps and Matrix Branching Programs

Secure multilinear maps (mmaps) have been shown to have remarkable applications in cryptography, such as program obfuscation and multi-input functional encryption (MIFE). To date, there has been little evaluation of the performance of these applications. In this paper we initiate a systematic study of mmap-based constructions. We build a general framework, called 5Gen, to experiment with these applications. At the top layer we develop an optimizing compiler that takes in a high-level program and compiles it to an optimized matrix branching program needed for the applications we consider. Next, we optimize and experiment with several obfuscators and MIFE constructions and evaluate their performance. The 5Gen framework is modular and can easily accommodate new mmap constructions as well as new obfuscators and MIFE constructions. 5Gen is an open-source tool that can be used by other research groups to experiment with a variety of mmap-based constructions

Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS) 2010 Science Operations: Operational Approaches and Lessons Learned for Managing Science during Human Planetary Surface Missions

Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS) is a multi-year series of hardware and operations tests carried out annually in the high desert of Arizona on the San Francisco Volcanic Field. These activities are designed to exercise planetary surface hardware and operations in conditions where long-distance, multi-day roving is achievable, and they allow NASA to evaluate different mission concepts and approaches in an environment less costly and more forgiving than space.The results from the RATS tests allows election of potential operational approaches to planetary surface exploration prior to making commitments to specific flight and mission hardware development. In previous RATS operations, the Science Support Room has operated largely in an advisory role, an approach that was driven by the need to provide a loose science mission framework that would underpin the engineering tests. However, the extensive nature of the traverse operations for 2010 expanded the role of the science operations and tested specific operational approaches. Science mission operations approaches from the Apollo and Mars-Phoenix missions were merged to become the baseline for this test. Six days of traverse operations were conducted during each week of the 2-week test, with three traverse days each week conducted with voice and data communications continuously available, and three traverse days conducted with only two 1-hour communications periods per day. Within this framework, the team evaluated integrated science operations management using real-time, tactical science operations to oversee daily crew activities, and strategic level evaluations of science data and daily traverse results during a post-traverse planning shift. During continuous communications, both tactical and strategic teams were employed. On days when communications were reduced to only two communications periods per day, only a strategic team was employed. The Science Operations Team found that, if communications are good and down-linking of science data is ensured, high quality science returns is possible regardless of communications. What is absent from reduced communications is the scientific interaction between the crew on the planet and the scientists on the ground. These scientific interactions were a critical part of the science process and significantly improved mission science return over reduced communications conditions. The test also showed that the quality of science return is not measurable by simple numerical quantities but is, in fact, based on strongly non-quantifiable factors, such as the interactions between the crew and the Science Operations Teams. Although the metric evaluation data suggested some trends, there was not sufficient granularity in the data or specificity in the metrics to allow those trends to be understood on numerical data alone