Construction of the Soft Sound Test for Hearing Aid Prescription

The purpose of this study was to design a test of soft sounds that would be beneficial to patients with decreased hearing. Hearing aid fitting strategies concentrate more on hearing conversational speech levels rather than soft sounds. These soft sounds often allow a full auditory experience for the patient. Soundscape stimuli are sound exemplars that are constructed with high quality sound recordings in a specific fashion to create a real-life sounding experience. Soundscapes are a relatively new technology that are used in the field of acoustics. Little use of these stimuli have been utilized in audiology. For this study we made a series of ten one minute long soundscapes to present to participants. They were made with very strict criteria. We established ten themes to construct them and chose a background sound that may be present in the environment we were simulating. For example, one of our topics was camping, and the background sound was a fire crackling. We then proceeded to choose six micro-sounds per theme to present intermittently throughout the background clips. These were sounds that would play within the background for approximately one to five seconds at fifteen second intervals. Each background (ten themes, were repeated twice for a total of twenty), had three of the six designated sounds embedded in them while the other corresponding background sound had the remaining three. The micro-sounds were embedded at specific intensity levels that would be audible only near the sound awareness level for the micro-sound (20 dB). The test procedure should allow those with hearing loss to hear soft sounds with a hearing aid

Exploring Evidence-Based Practice in Curriculum-Based Language Interventions​

Title: Exploring Evidence-Based Practice in Curriculum-Based Language Interventions Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) provide intervention services to 30% of individuals with language and literacy deficits in the school setting (Hoffman, Ireland, Hall-Mills, & Flynn, 2013). According to the evidence-based practice (EBP) triad, school-based SLPs use clinical expertise, client/patient/caregiver perspectives, and external scientific evidence to achieve successful treatment outcomes (“Evidence-Based Practice”, n.d.). Curriculum-based language interventions (CBLIs) make use of the student’s curriculum to provide context for language and literacy interventions. However, not many school-based SLPs use CBLIs due to several barriers (e.g., lack of availability to EBP, few trainings on implementation). The purpose of this survey is to explore Montana (MT) school-based SLPs’ knowledge of EBP, their use of EBP when designing CBLIs, and identify barriers to implementing CBLIs. A Qualtrics survey consisting of 43 questions was shared with MT school-based SLPs and SLPAs via email and Facebook shared posts; 68 responses were gathered over the course of three weeks. Preliminary results indicate between 32-58% of respondents identified are knowledgeable about the areas of EBP. Thirty-nine percent of MT school-based SLPs use EBP when implementing CBLIs. Furthermore, most SLPs stated that the greatest barrier to implementing CBLIs was lack of time to research EBPs. Additional analyses are forthcoming and will be shared. Providing CBLIs is paramount as a means of assuring academic readiness and academic success for individuals with language and literacy deficits

Nanoparticle-infused-biodegradable-microneedles as drug-delivery systems: preparation and characterisation

For almost two decades, scientists were exploring the use of nanoparticles as drug vesicles capable of protecting their cargo and deliver it to the target site while evading detection by the body. However, their translation to clinical use has been slower than expected. To a large degree, this is due to the difficulty to formulate the nanomaterial into a usable form, in which they retain their unique, size-dependent properties without aggregating into a bulk material. In this work, we describe a simple methodology for synthesising novel biodegradable microneedle systems infused with silica nanoparticles (SiNP). SiNP were doped with small library of model anti-cancer drugs or drug surrogates before being characterised and encapsulated into biodegradable microneedles. Detailed preparation and characterisation methods for both the nanoparticles and the microneedles-infused with nanoparticles is presented here. We demonstrated the distribution of the nanoparticles within the microneedle matrix in a uniform, un-aggregated form, which enabled the release of the nanoparticles in a sustained manner. Formulating nanomaterial into biodegradable, hydrogel-like microneedles showed to be effective in preserving their colloidal properties, whilst simultaneously enabling the transdermal delivery of the nanomaterial into the body. Although the concepts of nanoparticles and biodegradable microneedles have been researched individually, the combination of the two, to the best of our knowledge, offers a new pathway to nanomedicine-related applications

Nanomedicines and microneedles: a guide to their analysis and application

The fast-advancing progress in the research of nanomedicine and microneedles application in the past two decades have suggested that the combination of the two concepts could help to overcome some of the challenges we are facing in healthcare. These include poor patient compliance with medication and the lack of appropriate administration forms that enable the optimal dose to reach the target site. Nanoparticles as drug vesicles can protect their cargo and deliver it to the target site, while evading the body’s defence mechanisms. Unfortunately, despite intense research on nanomedicine in the past 20 years, we still haven’t answered some crucial questions, e.g. about their colloidal stability in solution and their optimal formulation, which makes the translation of this exciting technology from lab bench to a viable product difficult. Dissolvable microneedles could be an effective way to maintain and stabilise nano-sized formulations, whilst enhancing the ability of nanoparticles to penetrate the stratum corneum barrier. Both concepts have been individually investigated fairly well and many analytical techniques for tracking the fate of the nanomaterial with their precious cargo, both in vitro and in vivo, have been established. Yet, to the best of our knowledge, a comprehensive overview of the analytical tools encompassing the concepts of microneedles and nanoparticles with specific and successful examples is missing. In this review, we have attempted to briefly analyse the challenges associated with nanomedicine itself but crucially, we provide an easy-to-navigate scheme of methods, suitable for characterisation and imaging the physico-chemical properties of the material matrix

Tate's algorithm and F-theory

The "Tate forms" for elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds are reconsidered in order to determine their general validity. We point out that there were some implicit assumptions made in the original derivation of these "Tate forms" from the Tate algorithm. By a careful analysis of the Tate algorithm itself, we deduce that the "Tate forms" (without any futher divisiblity assumptions) do not hold in some instances and have to be replaced by a new type of ansatz. Furthermore, we give examples in which the existence of a "Tate form" can be globally obstructed, i.e., the change of coordinates does not extend globally to sections of the entire base of the elliptic fibration. These results have implications both for model-building and for the exploration of the landscape of F-theory vacua.Comment: 30 page

More Holography from Conformal Field Theory

We extend the work of [4] to support the conjecture that any conformal field theory with a large N expansion and a large gap in the spectrum of anomalous dimensions has a local bulk dual. We count to O(1/N^2) the solutions to the crossing constraints in conformal field theory for a completely general scalar four-point function and show that, to this order, the counting matches the number of independent interactions in a general scalar theory on Anti-de Sitter space. We introduce parity odd conformal blocks for this purpose.Comment: 19 page

Locating Hinemihi's People

The care of taonga (Maori treasures) outside the Maori community takes place within varying degrees of inter-cultural engagement, in which encounters with the past can be seen to be negotiated through the changing nature of personal and institutional relationships in the present. The desire to develop Hinemihi, the historic Maori meeting house at Clandon Park, as a functioning marae (ceremonial gathering place) has provided a challenge to conventional heritage conservation practice. A response to the conservation of Hinemihi has been to adapt practice developed by the Pouhere Taonga (New Zealand Historic Places Trust) for the conservation of historic marae. The success of this approach relies on the formation of an active and sustaina blemarae community. Therefore, a series of community-based events have been delivered to nurture the developing relationships between Hinemihi and her people, as an essential element of the conservation project. This has questioned the central role of Maori in the long term care of Hinemihi. As a result, the formation of ‘Hinemihi’s People’ is an attempt to develop a sustainable conservation community for Hinemihi at Clandon Park that reflects a spatially and temporally grounded reality, based on lived experiences

Nonlocality vs. complementarity: a conservative approach to the information problem

A proposal for resolution of the information paradox is that "nice slice" states, which have been viewed as providing a sharp argument for information loss, do not in fact do so as they do not give a fully accurate description of the quantum state of a black hole. This however leaves an information *problem*, which is to provide a consistent description of how information escapes when a black hole evaporates. While a rather extreme form of nonlocality has been advocated in the form of complementarity, this paper argues that is not necessary, and more modest nonlocality could solve the information problem. One possible distinguishing characteristic of scenarios is the information retention time. The question of whether such nonlocality implies acausality, and particularly inconsistency, is briefly addressed. The need for such nonlocality, and its apparent tension with our empirical observations of local quantum field theory, may be a critical missing piece in understanding the principles of quantum gravity.Comment: 11 pages of text and figures, + references. v2 minor text. v3 small revisions to match final journal versio