Trudności diagnostyczne dotyczące chorych na padaczkę - opis przypadku

Przedstawiono 33-letniego chorego, z rozpoznaną w 21. roku życia padaczką, której przyczyną po 12 latach leczenia farmakologicznego był glejak prawej okolicy skroniowej. Autorka podkreśla konieczność wnikliwej diagnostyki, łącznie z badaniami obrazowymi u chorych na padaczkę

Person reference as a trouble source in dysarthric talk-in-interaction

This chapter provides an analysis of talk between people with acquired motor speech disorders (dysarthria) and family members. Using conversation analytical principles it focuses on how person references are treated as trouble sources in everyday interaction, how they arise and are collaboratively managed. Following a review of relevant literature we present a detailed examination of person references produced by people with dysarthria in conversation with family members. We will show that person references are vulnerable to becoming trouble sources given their potential ambiguity or relatively weak relationship to immediately prior talk

Detection of Bulbar Dysfunction in ALS Patients Based on Running Speech Test

This paper deals with detection of speech changes due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – fatal neurological disease with no cure. The detection process is based on analysis of running speech test. However, in contrast to conventional frame-based classification (in which whole signal is analyzed) we proposed to use selected vowels extracted from the test signal. It is shown that similarity of spectral envelopes of different vowels and formant frequencies are crucial features for bulbar ALS detection. Applying the proposed features to classifier base on linear discriminant analysis (LDA) the detection accuracy of 84.8% is achieved

Normative Values for Heart Rate Variability Parameters in School-Aged Children: Simple Approach Considering Differences in Average Heart Rate

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is a clinical tool frequently used to characterize cardiac autonomic status. The aim of this study was to establish normative values for short-term HRV parameters by considering their main determinants in school-aged children.Methods: Five-minute electrocardiograms were taken from 312 non-athlete children (153 boys) at age of 6 to 13 years for computation of conventional time- and frequency-domain HRV parameters. Heart rate (HR), respiratory rate, age, body mass index, and sex were considered as their potential determinants. Multiple regression analysis revealed that HR was the principal predictor of all standard HRV indices. To develop their universal normative limits, standard HRV parameters were corrected for prevailing HR.Results: The HRV correction for HR yielded the parameters which became independent on both sex and HR, and only poorly dependent on age (with small effect size). Normal ranges were calculated for both time- and frequency-domain indices (the latter computed with either fast Fourier transform and autoregressive method). To facilitate recalculation of standard HRV parameters into corrected ones, a calculator was created and attached as a Supplementary Material that can be downloaded and used for both research and clinical purposes.Conclusion: This study provides HRV normative values for school-aged children which have been developed independently of their major determinants. The calculator accessible in the Supplementary Material can considerably simplify determination if HRV parameters accommodate within normal limits

Understanding students’ learning experience on a cultural school trip: findings from Eastern Indonesia

Despite the current increase of studies on school trips and experiential learning, questions remain about what aspects of school trips best contribute to students and how it affects students’ learning experience. This study attempts to explore students’ learning experience participating in 1-day cultural school trips in Papua, eastern Indonesia. Conducting trips to two cultural venues (a cultural museum and cultural village) and integrating topics in secondary schools’ curriculum (Papuan local content and Papuan art and culture), we evaluated student learning experiences against Bloom et al.’s (1956)taxonomy of educational objectives. The study found several emergent categories: students’ previous experiences, emotional experiences, impressions on seeing new perspective, reidentifying cultural identity, cultural awareness, personal effect, and framing and comparing learning strategy. The results provide insight into the effectiveness of school trip in the cultural setting in less developed countries and suggest areas for further study

Protecting Electricity Networks from Natural Hazards

This handbook supports OSCE participating States in better protecting critical electrical energy infrastructure from natural hazards. By providing risk management options, tools and case studies, it is designed as a guide for policy-makers, state authorities, transmission networks operators and regulators in charge of protecting energy networks. In recent years the risk of supra-national power blackouts in the OSCE area causing significant economic losses has increased. One contributing factor is that extreme weather conditions occur more frequently. Another is an increased connectivity of power and telecommunication infrastructures and a higher technical complexity of the grid due to a changing energy mix, leaving industrial and commercial companies, the public and the private sector at risk