Duration of deafness impacts auditory performance after cochlear implantation: A meta‐analysis

Objective: Hearing loss is a highly disabling condition. Cochlear implantation is an established remedy if conventional hearing aids have failed to alleviate the level of disability. Unfortunately, cochlear implant (CI) performance varies dramatically. This study aims to examine the effects of duration of deafness (DoD) prior to cochlear implantation and the postoperative duration of implant experience with resulting hearing performance in postlingually deaf patients. Methods: A systematic literature review and two meta-analyses were conducted using the search terms cochlear implant AND duration deafness. Included studies evaluate the correlation between the DoD and auditory performance after cochlear implantation using monosyllabic and sentence tests. Correlation coefficients were determined using Pearson's correlation and Spearman rho. Results: A total of 36 studies were identified and included data on cochlear implantations following postlingual deafness and postoperative speech testing of hearing outcomes for 1802 patients. The mean age ranged from 44 to 68 years with a DoD of 0.1 to 77 years. Cochlear implant use varied from 3 months to 14 years of age. Speech perception, which was assessed by sentence and monosyllabic word perception, was negatively correlated with DoD. Subgroup analyses revealed worse outcomes for longer DoD and shorter postoperative follow-up. Conclusion: DoD is one of the most important factors to predict speech perception after cochlear implantation in postlingually deaf patients. The meta-analyses revealed a negative correlation between length of auditory deprivation and postoperative sentence and monosyllabic speech perception. Longer DoD seems to lead to worse CI performance, whereas more experience with CI mitigates the effect

On the Complex Network Structure of Musical Pieces: Analysis of Some Use Cases from Different Music Genres

This paper focuses on the modeling of musical melodies as networks. Notes of a melody can be treated as nodes of a network. Connections are created whenever notes are played in sequence. We analyze some main tracks coming from different music genres, with melodies played using different musical instruments. We find out that the considered networks are, in general, scale free networks and exhibit the small world property. We measure the main metrics and assess whether these networks can be considered as formed by sub-communities. Outcomes confirm that peculiar features of the tracks can be extracted from this analysis methodology. This approach can have an impact in several multimedia applications such as music didactics, multimedia entertainment, and digital music generation.Comment: accepted to Multimedia Tools and Applications, Springe

On providing semantic alignment and unified access to music library metadata

A variety of digital data sources—including insti- tutional and formal digital libraries, crowd-sourced commu- nity resources, and data feeds provided by media organisa- tions such as the BBC—expose information of musicological interest, describing works, composers, performers, and wider historical and cultural contexts. Aggregated access across such datasets is desirable as these sources provide comple- mentary information on shared real-world entities. Where datasets do not share identifiers, an alignment process is required, but this process is fraught with ambiguity and difficult to automate, whereas manual alignment may be time-consuming and error-prone. We address this problem through the application of a Linked Data model and frame- work to assist domain experts in this process. Candidate alignment suggestions are generated automatically based on textual and on contextual similarity. The latter is determined according to user-configurable weighted graph traversals. Match decisions confirming or disputing the candidate sug- gestions are obtained in conjunction with user insight and expertise. These decisions are integrated into the knowledge base, enabling further iterative alignment, and simplifying the creation of unified viewing interfaces. Provenance of the musicologist’s judgement is captured and published, support- ing scholarly discourse and counter-proposals. We present our implementation and evaluation of this framework, con- ducting a user study with eight musicologists. We further demonstrate the value of our approach through a case study providing aligned access to catalogue metadata and digitised score images from the British Library and other sources, and broadcast data from the BBC Radio 3 Early Music Show

Neck-Dissection in der Laryngektomie - Argumente für die Reduktion des Ausmaßes

Einleitung: Über das konkrete Ausmaß einer Neck-Dissection während der totalen Laryngektomie gibt es weder national noch international einen offiziellen Konsens in Form von Leitlinien. Dies hat einen individuellen und nicht-standardisierten Therapieplan in der chirurgischen Therapie des Halses beim fortgeschrittenen Larynxkarzinom zur Folge. Methoden: Wir untersuchten retrospektiv die Verläufe von 58 konsekutiven Patienten, die sich an der Charité wegen eines fortgeschrittenen Plattenepithelkarzinoms des Larynx einer totalen Laryngektomie mit beidseitiger Neck-Dissection unterzogen. Hierbei wurde zum einen das Nodal Yield des ipsilateralen Halses bzgl. Auswirkung auf Overall und Disease-free Survival untersucht. Zum anderen etablierten wir ein Klassifikationsschema des CT-basierten Mittelllinienbezugs des Primärtumors (Typ A "clear", B "involved", C "exceeded" und D "bilateral") und untersuchten die Relation zu kontralateraler Halslymphknoten-Metastasierung. Ergebnisse: Uni- und multivariate Regresssionsanalysen zeigten keinen signifikanten Einfluss des ipsilateralen Nodal Yields auf Overall- und Disease-free Survival (p < 0.05). Ein pN+-Hals zeigte einen negativen prognostischen Wert (OS: hazard ratio [HR] 0.179; p=0,013). In 10,3% zeigte sich ein p2Nc-Hals. Typ-D-tumoren haben eine Wahrscheinlichkeit von 23,5% kontralateral zu metastasieren. Typ-A-Tumoren unterliegen einer Risiko-Reduktion von 100% für kontralaterale Metastasierung. Schlussfolgerungen: Das ipsilaterale Nodal Yield einer Neck-Dissection in der Laryngektomie hat keinen Einfluss auf das Outcome. Bei Typ-A-Tumoren und klinisch unauffälligem kontralateralen Hals (<= cN2b) scheint eine kontralaterale Neck-Dissection nicht indiziert, was zur Reduktion von OP-Zeit und Komplikationsraten beitragen kann.Der Erstautor gibt keinen Interessenkonflikt an