Children with septo-optic dysplasia - musical interests, abilities and provision: The results of a parental survey.

This paper reports the results of an exploratory survey of 32 families of children with septo-optic dysplasia and 32 families of children without visual impairment or any specific health problems (who served as a comparison group). The focus of the research was to explore the children’s musical interests and abilities, the musical provision that was made for them, and the ways in which music might impact upon their wider development and education. The reports of the parents and carers provided a substantial amount of information and while the data may have been subject to certain biases, the findings nevertheless serve as an important signpost for future research. The main conclusions relate to the fact that, despite reportedly high levels of musical interest and ability among children with septo-optic dysplasia – consistently higher than in the case of their fully-sighted counterparts – few had access to appropriate music-educational or therapeutic support, compared to many of the comparison group who were able to take advantage of a wide range of musical opportunities. Within the group with septo-optic dysplasia, the educationally blind children often displayed significantly different characteristics from those who were partially sighted, and level of vision seemed to be a more important factor in influencing musical development than the presence of the septo-optic dysplasia syndrome itself. It was evident that further research is needed to explore the levels of musical interest and ability in visually impaired children with a range of other eye conditions and syndromes, and to investigate in more detail the important role that music may play in the promoting their wider development

Evaluating the effectiveness of therapy based around Shape Coding to develop the use of regular past tense morphemes in two children with language impairments

It has been suggested that difficulties with tense and agreement marking are a core feature of language impairment. Hence, studies are required that analyse the effectiveness of intervention in this area, including consideration of whether changes seen in therapy sessions generalize to spontaneous speech. This study assessed the effectiveness of therapy based around Shape Coding in developing the use of the regular past tense morpheme -ed in two school-aged children with language impairments. It also considered whether participants benefited from additional generalization therapy in order to start using target forms in their spontaneous speech. The former was assessed using a sentence completion task and the latter by a conversational task with blind assessors. One participant improved markedly in sentence completion but did not gain in the conversation task until after the generalization therapy. The other made more modest gains on the sentence completion task and seemed to generalize to the conversation task without recourse to the generalization therapy. Larger studies are required to confirm these interpretations and to determine whether they are applicable to the wider population of children with language impairments

Accessibility of 3D Game Environments for People with Aphasia: An Exploratory Study

People with aphasia experience difficulties with all aspects of language and this can mean that their access to technology is substantially reduced. We report a study undertaken to investigate the issues that confront people with aphasia when interacting with technology, specifically 3D game environments. Five people with aphasia were observed and interviewed in twelve workshop sessions. We report the key themes that emerged from the study, such as the importance of direct mappings between users’ interactions and actions in a virtual environment. The results of the study provide some insight into the challenges, but also the opportunities, these mainstream technologies offer to people with aphasia. We discuss how these technologies could be more supportive and inclusive for people with language and communication difficulties

Micron- to nano-scale intergrowths among members of the cuprobismutite series and paderaite: HRTEM and microanalytical evidence

Copyright © 2004 The Mineralogical SocietyCoherent intergrowths, at the lattice scale, between cuprobismutite (N = 2) and structurally related padraite along both major axes (15 Åand 17 Årepeats) of the two minerals are reported within skarn from Ocna de Fier, Romania. The structural subunit, DTD, 3 layers of padraite, is involved at interfaces of the two minerals along the 15 Årepeat, as well as in transposition of 1 padraite unit to 2 cuprobismutite units along the 17 Årepeat in slip defects. Lattice images obtained by HRTEM across intervals of 200 -400 nm show short- to long-range stacking sequences of cuprobismutite and padraite ribbons. Such nanoscale slabs mimic µm-scale intergrowths observed in back-scattered electron images at three orders of magnitude greater. These slabs are compositionally equivalent to intermediaries in the cuprobismutite-padraite range encountered during microanalysis. Hodrushite (N = 1.5) is identified in the µm-scale intergrowths, but its absence in the lattice images indicates that, in this case, formation of polysomes between structurally related phases is favoured instead of stacking disorder among cuprobismutite homologues. The tendency for short-range ordering and semi-periodic occurrence of polysomes suggests they are the result of an oscillatory chemical signal with periodicity varying from one to three repeats of 15 Å, rather than simple 'accidents' or irregular structural defects. Lead distribution along the polysomes is modelled as an output signal modulated by the periodicity of stacking sequences, with Pb carried within the D units of padraite. This type of modulator acts as a patterning operator activated by chemical waves with amplitudes that encompass the chemical difference between the minerals. Conversion of the padraite structural subunit DTD to the C unit of cuprobismutite, conserving interval width, emphasizes that polysomatic modularity also assists interference of chemical signals with opposite amplitudes. Observed coarsening of lattice-scale intergrowths up to the µm-scale implies coupling between diffusion-controlled structural modulation, and rhythmic precipitation at the skarn front during crystallization.C.L. Ciobanu, A. Pring and N.J. Coo

A Case Study of Rock-Fluid Interaction in the Enhanced Geothermal System in Cooper Basin, South Australia

This study was undertaken to observe mineral dissolution with replacing circulating fluid with fresh water every 24 hours. This was an attempt to accelerate the dissolution rate and to mimic the condition of a geothermal site when fresh water or treated water from a precipitation tank is reinjected to the fracture. The experiments were carried out in a titanium flow through cell for 1, 7, and 28 days at 250°C and 40 bars. Water analysis was performed using ICP-MS, and rock analyses were conducted using SEM, XRD and XRF. The experimental results revealed a linear correlation of mineral (element) dissolution at the early stages of the experiment. However at later stages, the mineral dissolution proceeds at a slower rate. This may have been caused by the exhaustion of a more soluble mineral phase in the sample. Therefore, this may cause the pore size in the fracture path size to enlarge. SEM observations showed evidence of etching of the mineral surfaces consistent with partial dissolution. SEM backscattered images reveals that mostly quartz phase (SiO₂) remains after 28 days of circulation. XRD results complement these finding, that quartz was stable throughout the experiment, and that the albite-feldspar (NaAlSi₃O₈) and microcline (KALSi₃O₈) in the rock had partially dissolved. As well, ICP-MS analysis of water samples confirmed that some mineral dissolution occurred. XRF study was used to generate an elemental mass balance. Determination of the dissolution kinetics of the various minerals phase is being undertaken.Gideon Kuncoro, Yung Ngothai, Brian O'Neill, Allan Pring, Joël Bruggerhttp://www.chemeca2010.com/abstract/270.as

The efficacy of speech intervention using electopalatography with an 18 year old deaf client: A single case study

This single case study explored the use of EPG as a therapeutic tool for treating inaccurate articulation of the voiceless alveolar plosive /t/. The participant (M) is an 18-year-old deaf adult who consistently uses hearing aids, and who communicates using a combination of English, Sign Supported English and British Sign Language (BSL). M received traditional phonological therapy targeting his production of /t/ prior to EPG therapy, but without success. He requested further therapy and EPG was offered as an alternative approach. Pre-EPG therapy, M made tongue placement errors for both /t/ and the voiced alveolar plosive /d/. Based on perceptual analysis by M’s speech and language therapist, the first author, his productions were inconsistent, though generally perceived as voiceless and voiced velar plosives respectively. The EPG therapy consisted of 6 bi-weekly therapy sessions, each lasting for one hour, targeting M’s production of /t/ in familiar words, using the visual feedback from the EPG display. Trained and untrained listeners perceptually analysed audio recordings of words and sentences collected at 3 assessment points. Improvements, both over the course of the EPG therapy and during the follow-up period, were found to be statistically significant. Significantly, M was able to generalise his production skills to untaught words containing both /t/ and /d/. Equally significant was the lack of change in M’s production of a control sound, the voiceless dental fricative /θ/. More globally, an improvement was observed in ratings of M’s intelligibility in sentences and in his voice quality (assessed impressionistically)

A large volume cell for in situ neutron diffraction studies of hydrothermal crystallizations

A hydrothermal cell with 320 ml internal volume has been designed and constructed for in situneutron diffraction studies of hydrothermal crystallizations. The cell design adopts a dumbbell configuration assembled with standard commercial stainless steel components and a zero-scattering Ti–Zr alloy sample compartment. The fluid movement and heat transfer are simply driven by natural convection due to the natural temperature gradient along the fluid path, so that the temperature at the sample compartment can be stably sustained by heating the fluid in the bottom fluid reservoir. The cell can operate at temperatures up to 300 °C and pressures up to 90 bars and is suitable for studying reactions requiring a large volume of hydrothermal fluid to damp out the negative effect from the change of fluid composition during the course of the reactions. The capability of the cell was demonstrated by a hydrothermal phase transformation investigation from leucite (KAlSi2O6) to analcime (NaAlSi2O6⋅H2O) at 210 °C on the high intensity powder diffractometer Wombat in ANSTO. The kinetics of the transformation has been resolved by collecting diffraction patterns every 10 min followed by Rietveld quantitative phase analysis. The classical Avrami/Arrhenius analysis gives an activation energy of 82.3±1.1 kJ mol−1. Estimations of the reaction rate under natural environments by extrapolations agree well with petrological observations

Mineral transformations in gold-(silver) tellurides in the presence of fluids: nature and experiment

Gold–(silver) telluride minerals constitute a major part of the gold endowment at a number of important deposits across the globe. A brief overview of the chemistry and structure of the main gold and silver telluride minerals is presented, focusing on the relationships between calaverite, krennerite, and sylvanite, which have overlapping compositions. These three minerals are replaced by gold–silver alloys when subjected to the actions of hydrothermal fluids under mild hydrothermal conditions (≤220 °C). An overview of the product textures, reaction mechanisms, and kinetics of the oxidative leaching of tellurium from gold–(silver) tellurides is presented. For calaverite and krennerite, the replacement reactions are relatively simple interface-coupled dissolution-reprecipitation reactions. In these reactions, the telluride minerals dissolve at the reaction interface and gold immediately precipitates and grows as gold filaments; the tellurium is oxidized to Te(IV) and is lost to the bulk solution. The replacement of sylvanite is more complex and involves two competing pathways leading to either a gold spongy alloy or a mixture of calaverite, hessite, and petzite. This work highlights the substantial progress that has been made in recent years towards understanding the mineralization processes of natural gold–(silver) telluride minerals and mustard gold under hydrothermal conditions. The results of these studies have potential implications for the industrial treatment of gold-bearing telluride minerals.Jing Zhao and Allan Prin