Prevalence and characteristics of tinnitus after leisure noise exposure in young adults

The main goal of this study was to assess the prevalence and characteristics of tinnitus among students after exposure to leisure noise. In addition, the effects of tinnitus on otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) in participants suffering from chronic tinnitus were evaluated. The study consisted of two parts. First, a questionnaire regarding leisure noise exposure and tinnitus was completed. Second, the hearing status of the subjects suffering from chronic tinnitus was evaluated and compared with a matched control group (CG). Furthermore, the psychoacoustical characteristics of their tinnitus in the chronic tinnitus group (TG) were established. The questionnaire was answered by 151 respondents. Seven persons suffering from chronic tinnitus were examined further in the second part of the study. Transient tinnitus was observed in 73.5% of the respondents after leisure noise exposure and 6.6% experienced chronic tinnitus. Transient and chronic tinnitus had similar characteristics, as established by the questionnaire. The amplitude of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions and distortion product otoacoustic emissions was reduced and the amount of efferent suppression was smaller in the TG as compared with the CG. Tinnitus induced by leisure noise is observed frequently in young adults. The characteristics of tinnitus cannot predict whether it will have a transient or rather a chronic nature. In subjects suffering from tinnitus, subclinical damage that cannot be detected by audiometry can be demonstrated by measuring OAEs. These findings underpin the importance of educating youth about the risks of noise exposure during leisure activities

Epidemiology and risk factors for leisure noise-induced hearing damage in Flemish young adults

Context: Young people regularly expose themselves to leisure noise and are at risk for acquiring hearing damage. Aims: The objective of this study was to compare young adults' hearing status in relation to sociodemographic variables, leisure noise exposure and attitudes and beliefs towards noise. Settings and Design: A self-administered questionnaire regarding hearing, the amount of leisure noise exposure and attitudes towards noise and hearing protection as well as an audiological test battery were completed. Five hundred and seventeen subjects between 18 and 30 years were included. Subject and Methods: Hearing was evaluated using conventional audiometry, transient evoked and distortion product otoacoustic emissions. On the basis of their hearing status, participants were categorised into normal hearing, sub-clinical or clinical hearing loss. Statistical Analysis Used: Independent samples t-tests, chi-square tests and multiple regression models were used to evaluate the relation between groups based on hearing status, sociodemographics, leisure noise and attitudes towards noise. Results: Age was significantly related to hearing status. Although, the subjects in this study frequently participated in leisure activities, no significant associations between leisure noise exposure and hearing status could be detected. No relation with subjects' attitudes or the use of hearing protection devices was found. Conclusions: This study could not demonstrate clinically significant leisure noise-induced hearing damage, which may lead to more non-protective behaviour. However, the effects of leisure noise may become noticeable over a long-term use since age was found to be related with sub-clinical hearing loss. Longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate the long-term effects of noise exposure

Ruthenium versus platinum: interactions of anticancer metallodrugs with duplex oligonucleotides characterised by electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry

The binding of the ruthenium-based anticancer drug candidates KP1019, NAMI-A and RAPTA-T towards different double-stranded oligonucleotides was probed by electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry and compared with that of the widely used platinum-based chemotherapeutics cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin. It was found that the extent of adduct formation decreased in the following order: cisplatin>oxaliplatin>NAMI-A>RAPTA-T>carboplatin>KP1019. In addition to the characterisation of the adducts formed with the DNA models, the binding sites of the metallodrugs on the oligonucleotides were elucidated employing top-down tandem mass spectrometry and were found to be similar for all the metallodrugs studied, irrespective of the sequence of the oligonucleotide. A strong preference for guanine residues was establishe

Fragmentation methods on the balance: unambiguous top-down mass spectrometric characterization of oxaliplatin-ubiquitin binding sites

The interaction between oxaliplatin and the model protein ubiquitin (Ub) was investigated in a top-down approach by means of high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) using diverse tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) techniques, including collision-induced dissociation (CID), higher-energy C-trap dissociation (HCD), and electron transfer dissociation (ETD). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that metallodrug-protein adducts were analyzed for the metal-binding site by ETD-MS/MS, which outperformed both CID and HCD in terms of number of identified metallated peptide fragments in the mass spectra and the localization of the binding sites. Only ETD allowed the simultaneous and exact determination of Met1 and His68 residues as binding partners for oxaliplatin. CID-MS/MS experiments were carried out on orbitrap and ion cyclotron resonance (ICR)-FT mass spectrometers and both instruments yielded similar results with respect to number of metallated fragments and the localization of the binding sites. A comparison of the protein secondary structure with the intensities of peptide fragments generated by collisional activation of the [Ub + Pt-(chxn)] adduct [chxn = (1R,2R)-cyclohexanediamine] revealed a correlation with cleavages in solution phase random coil areas, indicating that the N-terminal β-hairpin and α-helix structures are retained in the gas phase. Figure CID, HCD and ETD were used to determine the binding site of the anticancer agent oxaliplatin on ubiquitin in a top-down approac

The effects of anchor-based semantic priming on judgmental anchoring

This dissertation proposes a unified conceptualization of a set of seemingly distinct judgmental anchoring effects (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974), including numeric effects (Wilson, Houston, Etling, & Brekke, 1996), semantic effects (e.g., Strack & Mussweiler, 1997) as well as implausible anchoring effects (e.g., Mussweiler & Strack, 2001a). These effects are viewed as special cases of a general, anchor-based, semantic priming mechanism. Specifically, during comparisons between the judgmental target and the anchor, judges are hypothesized to be primed with general semantic notions directly related to the anchor value. These anchor-based semantics, in turn, are hypothesized to mediate anchoring effects. Study 1 supported the hypothesis that anchor-based semantics may be responsible for producing anchoring effects by showing that considerations of implausible (vs. plausible) anchors are associated with higher levels of lexical activation of anchor-related words (measured in a lexical decision task). This finding maps on to a larger anchoring effect obtained in the implausible vs. plausible anchoring condition. In study 2, participants were primed directly with anchor related words, resulting in a 'mimicked' anchoring effect. Study 3 showed that associatively activated concepts, primed via a conditional rule, produce anchoring effects when the target and dimension of the judgment change between the comparative and absolute questions. Study 4 failed to support the prediction that a target change between a comparative task and related absolute numerical estimate, involving the same content domain, inhibits anchoring. Study 5 varied the typical anchoring paradigm by holding the numerical anchor constant and varying the target of the comparative question, producing a purely semantic anchoring effect. Finally, study 6 replicated and extended the findings obtained in study 5, providing additional evidence (from a lexical decision task) that anchor-based semantic notions produce anchoring effects. General discussion focuses on distinctions between the present theory and the existing models of anchoring within the social judgment literature