Plasticity in bilateral superior temporal cortex: effects of deafness and cochlear implantation on auditory and visual speech processing

While many individuals can benefit substantially from cochlear implantation, the ability to perceive and understand auditory speech with a cochlear implant (CI) remains highly variable amongst adult recipients. Importantly, auditory performance with a CI cannot be reliably predicted based solely on routinely obtained information regarding clinical characteristics of the CI candidate. This review argues that central factors, notably cortical function and plasticity, should also be considered as important contributors to the observed individual variability in CI outcome. Superior temporal cortex (STC), including auditory association areas, plays a crucial role in the processing of auditory and visual speech information. The current review considers evidence of cortical plasticity within bilateral STC, and how these effects may explain variability in CI outcome. Furthermore, evidence of audio-visual interactions in temporal and occipital cortices is examined, and relation to CI outcome is discussed. To date, longitudinal examination of changes in cortical function and plasticity over the period of rehabilitation with a CI has been restricted by methodological challenges. The application of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in studying cortical function in CI users is becoming increasingly recognised as a potential solution to these problems. Here we suggest that fNIRS offers a powerful neuroimaging tool to elucidate the relationship between audio-visual interactions, cortical plasticity during deafness and following cochlear implantation, and individual variability in auditory performance with a CI

RULE-BASED PARTNER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (PRM) FOR COLLABORATIVE E-BUSINESS

1

HUMAN-RESOURCE MANAGEMENT EXPERT-SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY

This paper provides human resource managers with important guidelines when applying expert systems to human resource domains, by reviewing system characteristics, potential benefits and limitations, and appropriate domains to be selected, based on the literature. Structural and procedural aspects of expert systems development in human resource management (represented by a wheel model) and problem descriptions of each expert system respectively are important research results in this paper We also show semantic networks or semantic nets used for a knowledge representation methodology on such major human resource management activities as human resource planning, recruiting, compensation and labor-management relations. Knowledge representation is a key component in the development stages of expert systems.X116sciescopu