Homiletics

Homiletic

A Pacific University optometry graduate survey

A Pacific University optometry graduate surve

The impact of injury of the chorda tympani nerve during primary stapes surgery or cochlear implantation on taste function, quality of life and food preferences:A study protocol for a double-blind prospective prognostic association study

BACKGROUND: The chorda tympani nerve (CTN) is a mixed nerve, which carries sensory and parasympathetic fibres. The sensory component supplies the taste sensation of the anterior two-thirds of the ipsilateral side of the tongue. During middle ear surgery the CTN is exposed and frequently stretched or sacrificed, because it lacks a bony covering as it passes through the middle ear. Injury may cause hypogeusia, ageusia or altered taste sensation of the ipsilateral side of the tongue. To date, there is no consensus regarding which type of CTN injury (sacrificing or stretching), during middle ear surgery, leads to the least burden for the patient.METHODS: A double-blind prospective prognostic association study was designed in a single medical centre in the Netherlands to determine the effect of CTN injury on postoperative taste disturbance and quality of life. 154 patients, who will undergo primary stapes surgery or cochlear implantation will be included. The taste sensation, food preferences and quality of life of these patients will be evaluated preoperatively and at one week, six weeks and six months postoperatively using the Taste Strip Test, Electrogustometry, supplementary questionnaire on taste disturbance, Macronutrient and Taste Preference Ranking Task, Appetite, Hunger and Sensory Perception questionnaire and Questionnaire of Olfactory Disorders to assess the association of these outcomes with CTN injury. Evaluation of olfactory function will only take place preoperatively and at one week postoperatively using the Sniffin' Sticks. The patient and outcome assessor are blinded to the presence or absence of CTN injury.DISCUSSION: This study is the first to validate and quantify the effect of chorda tympani nerve injury on taste function. The findings of this study may lead to evidence-based proof of the effect of chorda tympani injury on taste function with consequences for surgical strategies.TRIAL REGISTRATION: Netherlands Trial Register NL9791. Registered on 10 October 2021.</p

The peculiar motions of early-type galaxies in two distant regions - V. The Mg-sigma relation, age and metallicity

We have examined the Mg-sigma relation for early-type galaxies in the EFAR sample and its dependence on cluster properties. A comprehensive maximum likelihood treatment of the sample selection and measurement errors gives fits to the global Mg-sigma relation of Mg b^'=0.131 log sigma -0.131 and Mg_2=0.257 log sigma -0.305. The slope of these relations is 25 per cent steeper than that obtained by most other authors owing to the reduced bias of our fitting method. The intrinsic scatter in the global Mg- sigma relation is estimated to be 0.016 mag in Mg b^' and 0.023 mag in Mg_2. The Mg- sigma relation for cD galaxies has a higher zero-point than for E and S0 galaxies, implying that cDs are older and/or more metal-rich than other early-type galaxies with the same velocity dispersion. We investigate the variation in the zero-point of the Mg- sigma relation between clusters. We find that it is consistent with the number of galaxies observed per cluster and the intrinsic scatter between galaxies in the global Mg-sigma relation. We find no significant correlation between the Mg-sigma zero-point and the cluster velocity dispersion, X-ray luminosity or X-ray temperature over a wide range in cluster mass. These results provide constraints for models of the formation of elliptical galaxies. However, the Mg-sigma relation on its own does not place strong limits on systematic errors in Fundamental Plane (FP) distance estimates resulting from stellar population differences between clusters. We compare the intrinsic scatter in the Mg-sigma and Fundamental Plane relations with stellar population models in order to constrain the dispersion in ages, metallicities and M/L ratios for early-type galaxies at fixed velocity dispersion. We find that variations in age or metallicity alone cannot explain the measured intrinsic scatter in both Mg- sigma and the FP. We derive the joint constraints on the dispersion in age and metallicity implied by the scatter in the Mg-sigma and FP relations for a simple Gaussian model. We find upper limits on the dispersions in age and metallicity at fixed velocity dispersion of 32 per cent in delta t/t and 38 per cent in delta Z/Z if the variations in age and metallicity are uncorrelated; only strongly anticorrelated variations lead to significantly higher upper limits. The joint distribution of residuals from the Mg- sigma and FP relations is only marginally consistent with a model having no correlation between age and metallicity, and is better matched by a model in which age and metallicity variations are moderately anticorrelated (delta t/t ~ 40 per cent, delta Z/Z ~ 50 per cent and rho ~ -0.5), with younger galaxies being more metal-rich

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