Development of Voice Onset Time in Arabic

The research investigated development of voice onset time (VOT) contrasts in children who spoke Jordanian Arabic. The factors investigated were: (1) the age at which VOT contrast is acquired; and (2) the role of place of articulation and emphasis on VOT development. One hundred and twenty children (60 males, 60 females; age range 2;0–7;11) produced word-initial plosives. Linear Mixed Model (LMM), Bonferroni post hoc and t test analyses were conducted on the data. Results revealed that age, place of articulation, and emphasis had significant effects on VOT. In addition, Arabic appeared to follow the general trend of VOT development reported for other voicing languages

Severity of Droughts in Arid Regions

The increasing water shortage in Jordan threatens the environment and badly affects most of the scoi-economic activities. In central Jordan, where major agricultural and water storage projects are located, the October – May rainy season precipitation for two gauging sites; namely Amman Airport and Madaba, is used in the present study to investigate the occurrence of extreme droughts. The extreme regional dry year occurs when the precipitation in that year falls under the threshold of 1 Standard Deviation below the long-term mean at site. Historical precipitation data, 1938 – 2005, are used to simulate 50000 precipitation data using multivariate stochastic simulation model of order 1, MAR(1). Drought analysis using the historical precipitation shows that extreme droughts fall out as individual years, while using generated precipitation droughts is distributed as 1 year events mostly, and as 2 and 3 years duration although less. This study also presents a theoretical model to estimate the return period of extreme droughts. The estimated return period of the 1 year extreme drought in central Jordan is around 10 years, whereas it is 160 years or more for droughts of longer durations. The probability that an extreme drought occurs at least once in a planning period of 25 years, defined as the risk, is found to be more than 90% for drought of 1 year duration, while it is found to be 15% or less for events of 2 years or more

Guided Discovery Modules for Statics and Dynamics

Students struggle to conceptualize Engineering Mechanics (i.e. Newtonian Physics, Statics, and Dynamics) fundamentals because they cannot successfully visualize the effects of external loads on physical systems and/or do not intuitively comprehend the static or dynamic response. Traditionally, Engineering Mechanics courses like Statics and Dynamics have been primarily lecture-based with little experimentation. The authors contend that through the use of inquirybased, multimodal activities, lower-division engineering students can more effectively interpret Engineering Mechanics concepts. Instructors must place emphasis on engendering properly conceived engineering intuition and contextualizing concepts and fundamentals. The authors hypothesize that by utilizing often simple, multimodal, inquiry-based exercises, instructors can better overcome misconceptions. A novel methodology termed “guided discovery” is presented herein. It borrows aspects of challenge-based and discovery learning. The method, however, is optimized for short in-class activities and homework assignments. Several modules are presented to illustrate the processes used and some preliminary results are included

Auditory electrophysiological assessments of Alzheimer\u27s disease and preclinical stages: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Introduction Investigating auditory functions in populations at risk of developing Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) using auditory neurophysiological measurements can potentially identify a crucial and sensitive diagnostic window of opportunity in preclinical AD. Auditory electrophysiological assessments have gained interest as possible tools for early diagnosis of AD. This paper outlines the protocol that will be used to systematically review the published literature currently available on auditory electrophysiological assessments that have been used to assess the auditory functions of adults over the age of 60 years diagnosed with AD or its preclinical stages. Methods and analysis All full-length peer-reviewed publications of original data that use auditory electrophysiological assessments in AD and its preclinical stages (subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI)) will be considered in this review. The search will be performed on major electronic databases (Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus and CINAHL Plus) using keywords alone or in combination with Medical Subject Headings divided into two domains; (i) auditory tests and (ii) AD. The database search will be conducted on the 7 th of May 2019. Data analysis will be completed and reported in the full review. A random effects meta-analysis will also be conducted using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software, V.3. This review will describe which auditory electrophysiological tests have been found to be useful in assessing the auditory function in cognitively impaired adults (MCI and AD) or adults with serious complaints about their cognition (SCD). This review will also identify and describe which auditory electrophysiological test demonstrates the most sensitivity in differentiating people at different stages of cognitive decline. Ethics and dissemination This systematic review focusses on analysing already available literature. Therefore, there will be no requirement for ethical approval. The systematic review findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication as well as relevant media platforms, for example, conferences. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42019133553

Understanding the relationship between age-related hearing loss and Alzheimer\u27s disease: A narrative review

Evidence suggests that hearing loss (HL), even at mild levels, increases the long-term risk of cognitive decline and incident dementia. Hearing loss is one of the modifiable risk factors for dementia, with approximately 4 million of the 50 million cases of dementia worldwide possibly attributed to untreated HL. This paper describes four possible mechanisms that have been suggested for the relationship between age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD), which is the most common form of dementia. The first mechanism suggests mitochondrial dysfunction and altered signal pathways due to aging as a possible link between ARHL and AD. The second mechanism proposes that sensory degradation in hearing impaired people could explain the relationship between ARHL and AD. The occupation of cognitive resource (third) mechanism indicates that the association between ARHL and AD is a result of increased cognitive processing that is required to compensate for the degraded sensory input. The fourth mechanism is an expansion of the third mechanism, i.e., the function and structure interaction involves both cognitive resource occupation (neural activity) and AD pathology as the link between ARHL and AD. Exploring the specific mechanisms that provide the link between ARHL and AD has the potential to lead to innovative ideas for the diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of AD. This paper also provides insight into the current evidence for the use of hearing treatments as a possible treatment/prevention for AD, and if auditory assessments could provide an avenue for early detection of cognitive impairment associated with AD

Comparison of auditory steady-state responses with conventional audiometry in older adults

Behavioral measures, such as pure-tone audiometry (PTA), are commonly used to determine hearing thresholds, however, PTA does not always provide reliable hearing information in difficult to test individuals. Therefore, objective measures of hearing sensitivity that require little-to-no active participation from an individual are needed to facilitate the detection and treatment of hearing loss in difficult to test people. Investigation of the reliability of the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) for measuring hearing thresholds in older adults is limited. This study aimed to investigate if ASSR can be a reliable, objective measure of frequency specific hearing thresholds in older adults. Hearing thresholds were tested at 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, and 4000 Hz in 50 participants aged between 60 and 85 years old, using automated PTA and ASSR. Hearing thresholds obtained from PTA and ASSR were found to be significantly correlated (p \u3c .001) in a cohort consisting of participants with normal hearing or mild hearing loss. ASSR thresholds were significantly higher as compared to PTA thresholds, but for the majority of cases the difference remained within the clinically acceptable range (15 dB). This study provides some evidence to suggest that ASSR can be a valuable tool for estimating objective frequency-specific hearing thresholds in older adults and indicate that ASSR could be useful in creating hearing treatment plans for older adults who are unable to complete behavioral PTA. Further research on older adults is required to improve the methodological features of ASSR to increase consistency and reliability, as well as minimize some of the limitations associated with this technique

Systematic review protocol for assessing central auditory functions of Alzheimer\u27s disease and its preclinical stages

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Introduction A number of studies have reported an association between peripheral hearing impairment, central auditory processing and Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) and its preclinical stages. Both peripheral hearing impairment and central auditory processing disorders are observed many years prior to the clinical manifestation of AD symptoms, hence, providing a long window of opportunity to investigate potential interventions against neurodegenerative processes. This paper outlines the protocol for a systematic review of studies examining the central auditory processing functions in AD and its preclinical stages, investigated through behavioural (clinical assessments that require active participation) central auditory processing tests. Methods and analysis We will use the keywords and Medical Subject Heading terms to search the following electronic databases: MEDLINE, PsychINFO, PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE and CINAHL Plus. Studies including assessments of central auditory function in adults diagnosed with dementia, AD and its preclinical stages that were published before 8 May 2019 will be reviewed. This review protocol will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols guidelines. Data analysis and search results will be reported in the full review. This manuscript has designed the protocols for a systematic review that will identify the behavioural clinical central auditory processing measures that are sensitive to the changes in auditory function in adults with AD and its preclinical stages. Such assessments may subsequently help to design studies to examine the potential impact of hearing and communication rehabilitation of individuals at risk of AD. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is not required as this manuscript only reports the protocols for conducting a systematic review as primary data will only be reviewed and not be collected. The results of this systematic review will be disseminated through publication and in scientific conferences. PROSPERO registration number CRD42017078272

Case Report Central Venous Line Insertion Revealing Partial Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return: Diagnosis and Management

Central venous line malposition is a well-known complication of line insertion. Rarely, it can be mal-positioned in an anomalous pulmonary vein. We present an unusual case of a 56-year-old woman that was found to have partial anomalous pulmonary venous return on central venous line insertion. In this report, we describe a systematic approach to diagnosis and management of this unusual situation

An Analysis of Pedestrian Waiting Time at Uncontrolled Crosswalks Using Discrete Choice Model

A study of pedestrians crossing behavior is conducted at an uncontrolled mid-block crosswalk in Istanbul Turkey, to model the pedestrians waiting time, related to their behavior for making the crossing decision. This article focused on the issues encountered in the modeling of the operational behavior of pedestrians. The discrete choice framework is used because of its capacity to deal with individuals’ choice behavior. Pedestrians waiting time is classified into three levels, including low, medium, and high levels based on the level of service of pedestrians waiting time. The pedestrians’ behavior prediction has been improved by analyzing, taking into account three levels for pedestrian behavior