Speech intelligibility and prosody production in children with cochlear implants

Objectives—The purpose of the current study was to examine the relation between speech intelligibility and prosody production in children who use cochlear implants. Methods—The Beginner\u27s Intelligibility Test (BIT) and Prosodic Utterance Production (PUP) task were administered to 15 children who use cochlear implants and 10 children with normal hearing. Adult listeners with normal hearing judged the intelligibility of the words in the BIT sentences, identified the PUP sentences as one of four grammatical or emotional moods (i.e., declarative, interrogative, happy, or sad), and rated the PUP sentences according to how well they thought the child conveyed the designated mood. Results—Percent correct scores were higher for intelligibility than for prosody and higher for children with normal hearing than for children with cochlear implants. Declarative sentences were most readily identified and received the highest ratings by adult listeners; interrogative sentences were least readily identified and received the lowest ratings. Correlations between intelligibility and all mood identification and rating scores except declarative were not significant. Discussion—The findings suggest that the development of speech intelligibility progresses ahead of prosody in both children with cochlear implants and children with normal hearing; however, children with normal hearing still perform better than children with cochlear implants on measures of intelligibility and prosody even after accounting for hearing age. Problems with interrogative intonation may be related to more general restrictions on rising intonation, and th

The Mitigative Potential of Urban Environments and their Microclimates

Cities play a crucial role in climate change: more than 50% of the growing population lives in cities producing most of the global GDP but also 78% of greenhouse gases (GHG) responsible for climate change. Moreover, due to their highly modified land-use and intensive activities, cities are at the forefront of the most rapid environmental and climatic change ever experienced by mankind. Yet, cities’ potential to mitigate both climate change and their own environment is underexploited. This paper explores ideas related to the potential of urban environments to modify their microclimates, reflecting on the overlapping potential between mitigative and adaptive actions. These actions in cities can not only tackle some of the largest contributing factors to global climate change but offer short- to medium-term benefits that could drive more immediate socioeconomic and behavioral changes. This review proposes and discusses a new preliminary definition of urban environments as microclimate modifiers—Mitigative urban Environments and Microclimates (MitEM)—and calls for further research into: (a) inter-connecting the full range of mitigative and adaptive initiatives already being undertaken in many cities and maximizing their input systemically; (b) developing a common and holistic definition of MitEM; (c) promoting its uptake at policy level and amongst the key stakeholders, based on its social and public value beyond the environmental

Resilient urban edges: Adaptive and mitigative design in Chennai

This paper investigates design responses to El Nino-mediated climatic disturbances, using the December 2015 Chennai floods as a test case. The effects of such disturbances are exacerbated by human intervention: urbanisation-led impermeabilisation of soil accentuates the urban heat island, makes water percolation difficult, increasing surface run-off. Using literature, precedents and on-site interviews with residents of a tenement block in severely-flooded Chennai, downstream of the River Adyar, key issues were identified. Additionally, impact of existing morphology on comfort conditions were derived using analytical tools of Envimet, Ladybug and CFD (outdoor) and TAS (indoor). The conclusions informed testing of hypotheses which merged with informal recycling practices of the residents. The paper discusses strategies employing recycled and local materials to build permeable surfaces (water-air-ground interfaces) to be embedded into existing architectural objects (by retrofitting), or utilised to build new experimental floating structures complementing the existing. The design studies show how strategies bring extreme temperatures of 42°C within a comfortable range in indoor and outdoor spaces; whilst contributing to flood mitigation. The paper speculates upon a resilient live-work environment for 2050 employing productive self-build networks to alleviate socio-economic polarisation characterising riverfronts, contributing to urban permeability and responding adaptively to daily, seasonal and extreme event

Stable isotope profiles reveal active production of VOCs from human-associated microbes.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) measured from exhaled breath have great promise for the diagnosis of bacterial infections. However, determining human or microbial origin of VOCs detected in breath remains a great challenge. For example, the microbial fermentation product 2,3-butanedione was recently found in the breath of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) patients; parallel culture-independent metagenomic sequencing of the same samples revealed that Streptococcus and Rothia spp. have the genetic capacity to produce 2,3-butanedione. To investigate whether the genetic capacity found in metagenomes translates to bacterial production of a VOC of interest such as 2,3-butanedione, we fed stable isotopes to three bacterial strains isolated from patients: two gram-positive bacteria, Rothia mucilaginosa and Streptococcus salivarius, and a dominant opportunistic gram-negative pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Culture headspaces were collected and analyzed using a gas chromatographic system to quantify the abundance of VOCs of interest; mass spectroscopy was used to determine whether the stable isotope label had been incorporated. Our results show that R. mucilaginosa and S. salivarius consumed D-Glucose-13C6 to produce labeled 2,3-butanedione. R. mucilaginosa and S. salivarius also produced labeled acetaldehyde and ethanol when grown with 2H2O. Additionally, we find that P. aeruginosa growth and dimethyl sulfide production are increased when exposed to lactic acid in culture. These results highlight the importance VOCs produced by P. aeruginosa, R. mucilaginosa, and S. salivarius as nutrients and signals in microbial communities, and as potential biomarkers in a CF infection

Bioclimatic and Regenerative Design Guidelines for a Circular University Campus in India

To transform the negative impacts of buildings on the environment into a positive footprint, a radical shift from the current, linear ‘make-use-dispose’ practice to a closed-loop ‘make-use-return’ system, associated with a circular economy, is necessary. This research aims to demonstrate the possible shift to a circular construction industry by developing the first practical framework with tangible benchmarks for a ‘Circular University Campus’ based on an exemplary case study project, which is a real project development in India. As a first step, a thorough literature review was undertaken to demonstrate the social, environmental and economic benefits of a circular construction industry. As next step, the guideline for a ‘Circular University Campus’ was developed, and its applicability tested on the case study. As final step, the evolved principles were used to establish ‘Project Specific Circular Building Indicators’ for a student residential block and enhance the proposed design through bioclimatic and regenerative design strategies. The building’s performance was evaluated through computational simulations, whole-life carbon analysis and a circular building assessment tool. The results demonstrated the benefits and feasibility of bioclimatic, regenerative building and neighbourhood design and provided practical prototypical case study and guidelines which can be adapted by architects, planners and governmental institutions to other projects, thereby enabling the shift to a restorative, circular construction industry

Contemporary Passive Shelters: Change of perspective, environmental diversity and contemporary lifestyles.

Currently, buildings use large amounts of their operational energy to counteract the impact of the external environment on their inhabitants. Recent years have seen a progressive attention on these themes due to the great energy saving potential of the sector, moving towards an integrated design approach between the building and its plants. Nevertheless buildings, although more efficient, are still conceived as containers of mechanically controlled microclimates. However, today, technology and new theories of comfort allow a radical rethinking of how buildings are conceived, designed and inhabited. This paper reports on a design research that investigates alternative models of habitable environments, proposing an original concept and role for buildings. The research aims to contribute to the discourse on new highly efficient buildings showing how an innovative design process based on the integration of adaptive comfort theory, building physics and thermodynamic principles, passive strategies and centrality of the user, can not only deliver less energy intensive and more comfortable buildings but also enhance the generative potentials of new forms and spaces towards a more contemporary and sustainable built environment