62 research outputs found
An Aphasia Mentors' Program in Graduate Speech-Language Pathology Education: Perspectives of Mentors with Aphasia
The need for meaningful engagement for people with chronic aphasia has received increasing attention in recent years with a gradual shift from medical to social models of disability for addressing those needs (Hewitt & Byng, 2003; Byng & Duchan, 2005; Simmons-Mackie, & Damico, 2007). In North America, a growing number of community-based and university-based aphasia centers are evidence of this shift in practice. Aphasia centres offer group programs that share a focus on quality of life, participation, and social support, with a variety of services ranging from conversation groups to drama classes (Simmons-Mackie, 2011; Simmons-Mackie & Holland, 2011). An important aspect of service delivery models within a social framework is that they emphasize involvement of participants as equal partners in program development and delivery, in contrast to models that situate professionals as experts
Intersections of Metaphorical and Literal Voice in Aphasia Intervention
The term âvoiceâ in the communication disorders literature has recently been extended to include metaphorical meanings associated with social identity and inclusion versus exclusion. This qualitative case study explores the intersection of metaphorical with literal voice by describing how and why a man with nonfluent aphasia and apraxia, working with a clinician, used SentenceShaperTM to record a specific text for a particular purpose. In addition to offering new insights into figurative meanings of voice, the paper contributes to a growing literature on how the intervention process itself supports, or silences, the voices of people with aphasia
Stroke and Aphasia in Canada
As is the case in many areas of the world, aphasia treatment is far from being a priority within the Canadian healthcare system. This poster represents one part of a larger initiative planned to begin addressing the challenges of aphasia intervention and developing aphasia research capacity in Canada by aligning with the stroke community. While the presentation will focus on the Canadian experience in the area of stroke and aphasia, we hope to stimulate an international exchange of views
Validity analyses of a measure of conversation in dementia
Despite recent advances in our knowledge of the language and communication of individuals with dementia of the Alzheimerâs type (DAT), several questions remain unanswered regarding strategies to minimize language and communication difficulties. The purpose of the current study was to build on previous reliability analyses and to determine the validity properties of an empirically derived 74-item questionnaire on communication and DAT called the Perception of Conversation Index â Dementia of the Alzheimer type (PCI-DAT). Results from 113 family caregivers showed excellent concurrent validity with substantively significant correlations, both positive and negative, with the ABCD, the FLCI and the CAPPCI
Darwinâs wind hypothesis: does it work for plant dispersal in fragmented habitats?
Using the wind-dispersed plant Mycelis muralis, we examined how landscape fragmentation affects variation in seed traits contributing to dispersal.
Inverse terminal velocity (Vtâ1) of field-collected achenes was used as a proxy for individual seed dispersal ability. We related this measure to different metrics of landscape connectivity, at two spatial scales: in a detailed analysis of eight landscapes in Spain and along a latitudinal gradient using 29 landscapes across three European regions.
In the highly patchy Spanish landscapes, seed Vtâ1 increased significantly with increasing connectivity. A common garden experiment suggested that differences in Vtâ1 may be in part genetically based. The Vtâ1 was also found to increase with landscape occupancy, a coarser measure of connectivity, on a much broader (European) scale. Finally, Vtâ1 was found to increase along a southânorth latitudinal gradient.
Our results for M. muralis are consistent with âDarwinâs wind dispersal hypothesisâ that high cost of dispersal may select for lower dispersal ability in fragmented landscapes, as well as with the âleading edge hypothesisâ that most recently colonized populations harbour more dispersive phenotypes.
Integrating aphasia into stroke best practices: A Canadian KTE strategy
This poster reports on the activities to date of the Stroke and Aphasia Canada team including results of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Knowledge Translation (KT) planning grant (grant #290592, 2013)
Parasympathetic nervous system dysfunction, as identified by pupil light reflex, and its possible connection to hearing impairment
Context
Although the pupil light reflex has been widely used as a clinical diagnostic tool for autonomic nervous system dysfunction, there is no systematic review available to summarize the evidence that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive method to detect parasympathetic dysfunction. Meanwhile, the relationship between parasympathetic functioning and hearing impairment is relatively unknown.
Objectives
To 1) review the evidence for the pupil light reflex being a sensitive method to evaluate parasympathetic dysfunction, 2) review the evidence relating hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity and 3) seek evidence of possible connections between hearing impairment and the pupil light reflex.
Methods
Literature searches were performed in five electronic databases. All selected articles were categorized into three sections: pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction, hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity, pupil light reflex and hearing impairment.
Results
Thirty-eight articles were included in this review. Among them, 36 articles addressed the pupil light reflex and parasympathetic dysfunction. We summarized the information in these data according to different types of parasympathetic-related diseases. Most of the studies showed a difference on at least one pupil light reflex parameter between patients and healthy controls. Two articles discussed the relationship between hearing impairment and parasympathetic activity. Both studies reported a reduced parasympathetic activity in the hearing impaired groups. The searches identified no results for pupil light reflex and hearing impairment.
Discussion and Conclusions
As the first systematic review of the evidence, our findings suggest that the pupil light reflex is a sensitive tool to assess the presence of parasympathetic dysfunction. Maximum constriction velocity and relative constriction amplitude appear to be the most sensitive parameters. There are only two studies investigating the relationship between parasympathetic activity and hearing impairment, hence further research is needed. The pupil light reflex could be a candidate measurement tool to achieve this goal
The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts
Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures
such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of
alien species. Existing global databases of speciesâ threat status or population
time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with
broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of
a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of
historical declines and to project â and avert â future declines. We describe and
assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing
over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of
local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic
pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains
measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35)
biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains
more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than
1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups â including flowering
plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans
and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is
therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used
by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database
is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses
of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems â www.predicts.org.uk).
We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database
will be publicly available in 2015
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