Profilo familiare ed individuale come fattore predittivo delle performances verbo-acustiche pre impianto cocleare: esperienza personale

RAZIONALE L\u2019impianto cocleare \ue8 oramai il trattamento di scelta in tutti quei casi di sordit\ue0 preverbale severa/profonda permettendo di ottenere a distanza di 12 mesi una soglia uditiva amplificata integralmente all\u2019interno dello spettro acustico del parlato. Se ci\uf2 \ue8 dimostrato ampiamente dalla letteratura, \ue8 comunque vero che le aspettative familiari e le performances verbo/acustiche sono altamente variabili. Lo scopo del presente lavoro \ue8 quello di identificare tramite un accurato studio del profilo familiare ed individuale, tutte le possibili variabili in grado di influenzare i risultati. MATERIALI E METODI Le variabili oggetto del presente studio sono state suddivise in familiari ed individuali; tra le prime si \ue8 valutato: numero di familiari, titolo di studio, livello economico, attivit\ue0 lavorativa, aspettativa familiare; tra i fattori individuali: et\ue0 al momento della diagnosi di sordit\ue0, lunghezza della sordit\ue0, patologie associate, utilizzo delle protesi acustiche, terapia riabilitativa (sanitaria/privata), et\ue0 al momento dell\u2019impianto, tipo di impianto, strategia utilizzata, uso quotidiano dell\u2019impianto cocleare, stimolazione mono/bimodale. RISULTATI Le risposte ottenute dai tracciati audiometrici e dai questionari sulle capacit\ue0 percettive verbali messe in relazione con il profilo familiare ed individuale hanno evidenziato una correlazione significativa tra alto livello economico, terapia riabilitativa privata, uso quotidiano dell\u2019impianto cocleare e IT-MAIS, CAP e SIR (p>0.05). Di contro, a queste variabili familiari ed individuali sono corrisposte le aspettative familiari pre-impianto pi\uf9 elevate con il rischio pertanto di \u2018false aspettative\u2019. CONCLUSIONI Lo studio del profilo familiare e le caratteristiche individuali di un candidato all\u2019impianto cocleare possono essere uno strumento in pi\uf9 da utilizzare come fattori predittivi per non creare delle false aspettative in termini di performance uditive e di intelligibilit\ue0 nelle famiglie dei soggetti affetti da ipoacusia neurosensoriale bilaterale severa/profonda e candidati all\u2019impianto cocleare

Interfacing cells with organic transistors: a review of in vitro and in vivo applications

Recently, organic bioelectronics has attracted considerable interest in the scientific community. The impressive growth that it has undergone in the last 10 years has allowed the rise of the completely new field of cellular organic bioelectronics, which has now the chance to compete with consolidated approaches based on devices such as micro-electrode arrays and ISFET-based transducers both inin vitroandin vivoexperimental practice. This review focuses on cellular interfaces based on organic active devices and has the intent of highlighting the recent advances and the most innovative approaches to the ongoing and everlasting challenge of interfacing living matter to the “external world” in order to unveil the hidden mechanisms governing its behavior. Device-wise, three different organic structures will be considered in this work, namely the organic electrochemical transistor (OECT), the solution-gated organic transistor (SGOFET - which is presented here in two possible different versions according to the employed active material, namely: the electrolyte-gated organic transistor - EGOFET, and the solution gated graphene transistor - gSGFET), and the organic charge modulated field effect transistor (OCMFET). Application-wise, this work will mainly focus on cellular-based biosensors employed inin vitroandin vivocellular interfaces, with the aim of offering the reader a comprehensive retrospective of the recent past, an overview of the latest innovations, and a glance at the future prospects of this challenging, yet exciting and still mostly unexplored scientific field

The Pricing Performance of Market Advisory Services in Corn and Soybeans Over 1995-2003: A Non-Technical Summary

The purpose of this research report is to summarize the pricing performance of professional market advisory services for the 1995-2003 corn and soybean crops. First, advisory programs in corn do not consistently beat market benchmarks, but tend to consistently beat the farmer benchmark. Second, advisory programs in soybeans exhibit just the opposite pattern, consistently beating the market benchmarks but not the farmer benchmark. Third, in terms of 50/50 revenue, advisory programs show marginal consistency in beating both the market benchmarks and the farmer benchmark. So, the results provide mixed performance evidence with respect to both the market benchmarks and the farmer benchmark.Agricultural Finance,

E-ABR in patients with cochlear implant: A comparison between patients with malformed cochlea and normal cochlea

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to compare the electrical auditory brainstem response (EABR) following cochlear implant (CI) surgery in pediatric subjects with cochlear malformation and a normal cochlea, in order to assess the sensitivity of EABR and to evaluate the surgery outcome. MATERIALS and METHODS: A total of 26 pediatric subjects who were deaf and scheduled for CI surgery were enrolled into this case control study. Group A (n=20) included subjects with a normo-conformed cochlea. Group B (n=6) included subjects with cochlear malformation. Subjects were evaluated with EABR immediately (T0) and 6 months (T1) post-CI surgery. The EABR Waves III and V average amplitude and latency were compared across time, separately for each group, and across groups, separately for each time. RESULTS: Auditory brainstem response (ABR) could only be recorded in Group A. We were able to record EABR from all subjects at T0 and T1, and waves III and V were present in all the recorded signals. There were no statistically significant differences between T0 and T1 in EABR Waves III and V in terms of average amplitude and latency in neither group. When comparing Groups A and B, the only statistically significant difference was the average amplitude of wave V, both at T0 and T1. CONCLUSION: EABR is a valid tool to measure the auditory nerve integrity after CI surgery in patients with a normal and malformed cochlea, as shown by its ability to measure waves III and V when ABR is absent. The EABR testing should be performed before and after CI surgery, and EABR should be used as a measure of outcome, especially in patients with a malformed cochlea

The Pricing Performance of Market Advisory Services in Corn and Soybeans over 1995-2003

The purpose of this research report is to evaluate the pricing performance of market advisory services for the 1995-2003 corn and soybean crops. Four basic indicators of performance are applied to advisory program prices and revenues over 1995-2003. Test results provide little evidence that advisory programs as a group outperform market benchmarks, particularly after considering risk. The evidence is somewhat more positive with respect to the farmer benchmark, even after taking risk into account. For example, the average advisory return relative to the farmer benchmark is $7 per acre with only a negligible increase in risk. While this return is small it nonetheless represents a non-trivial increase in net farm income per acre for grain farms in Illinois. Test results also suggest that it is difficult to usefully predict the year-to-year pricing performance of advisory programs based on past pricing performance. However, there is some evidence that performance is more predictable over longer time horizons, particularly at the extremes of performance rankings.Marketing,