Suicidal behavior on the subway often involves young people and has a considerable impact on public life, but little is known about factors associated with suicides and suicide attempts in specific subway stations. Between 1979 and 2009, 185 suicides and 107 suicide attempts occurred on the subway in Vienna, Austria. ...

Suicides in prisons are common. There is a pressing need to understand more about the causes and prevention of prisoner suicides. A particularly informative approach is through studying survivors of near-lethal suicide attempts. However, the extent to which this approach is a good proxy for completed suicide requires verification. In ...

Since 2004, suicides in the U.S. military have risen, most notably in the Army National Guard (ARNG). Data used in this study were obtained for suicides occurring from 2007 to 2010 and for a random sample of nonsuicides from the general ARNG population. Of the military-related variables considered, a few ...

Abstract Suicidality has been reported to be common in persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Reports from sub-Saharan countries have been scanty. We surveyed the prevalence of suicidal ideation and attempt among PLWHAs (n=150) and compared them with staff of a local government who acted as controls. Over a third (34.7%) ...

Fatigue resulting from sleep deficit can lead to decreased performance in a variety of cognitive domains and can result in potentially serious accidents. The present study aimed to test whether fatigue leads to increased Einstellung (low levels of cognitive flexibility) in a series of mathematical problem-solving tasks. Many situations involving ...

: The purpose of this study was to examine speech recognition through hearing aids for seven telephone listening conditions. : Speech recognition scores were measured for 20 participants in six wireless routing transmission conditions and one acoustic telephone condition. In the wireless conditions, the speech signal was delivered to both ...

Updated cochlear implant technology and optimized fitting can have a substantial impact on speech perception. The effects of upgrades in processor technology and aided thresholds on word recognition at soft input levels and sentence recognition in noise were examined. We hypothesized that updated speech processors and lower aided thresholds would ...

The purpose of this article was to understand the experience of speech impairment (speech sound disorders) in everyday life as described by children with speech impairment and their communication partners. Interviews were undertaken with 13 preschool children with speech impairment (mild to severe) and 21 significant others (family members and ...

We describe a four-generation family in whom 5 members show the combination of a large head, ptosis, nasal speech that sometimes goes along with a cleft palate, full cheeks, small mouth, and prominent ears, and who also have learning problems. We evaluated three affected members in detail and found them ...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to compare three methods of estimating the audibility of aided speech using the Baha. SUBJECTS: 23 Adult Baha users with primarily bilateral conductive hearing loss were recruited from the Bone Conduction Amplification Program at the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine in ...

PURPOSE: A hallmark listening problem of individuals presenting with auditory processing disorder (APD) is their poor recognition of speech in noise. The underlying perceptual problem of the listening difficulties in unfavorable listening conditions is unknown. The objective of this article was to demonstrate theoretically how to determine whether the speech ...

A new objective measurement system is proposed to predict speech intelligibility in binaural listening conditions for use with hearing aids. Digital processing inside a hearing aid often involves non-linear operations such as clipping, compression, and noise reduction algorithms. Standard objective measures such as the articulation index, the speech intelligibility index ...

Our proposed statistical voice conversion approach to enhancing various types of body-conducted speech detected with Non-Audible Murmur (NAM) microphone is presented in this talk. NAM microphone, one of the body-conductive microphones [Nakajima et al., IEICE Trans. Inf. and Syst., E89-D, 1-8 (2006)], enables us to detect various types of body-conducted ...

The present study used auditory event-related potential (ERP) measures to investigate how the adult brain differentially processes fricative speech sounds with and without the use of a hearing aid. Synthetic stimuli for sa, sha, as, and ash were created to control for the spectral cues in the vowel and consonant ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare real-ear to coupler difference (RECD) values in the right and left ear of hearing aid users. DESIGN: RECDs were obtained from both ears of 16 adults, 17 school-age children, and 11 preschool children using the Audioscan Verifit real-ear microphone system. RESULTS: ...

Often, individuals with hearing loss have difficulties understanding speech in noisy environments. It was the aim of this study to assess the performance of adult individuals with sensorineural hearing loss, associated with speech perception using digital hearing aids with a sound reduction algorithm called Speech Sensitive Processing, on and off, ...

OBJECTIVE: To investigate correlations between preoperative hearing thresholds and postoperative aided thresholds and speech understanding of users of Bone-anchored Hearing Aids (BAHA). Such correlations may be useful to estimate the postoperative outcome with BAHA from preoperative data. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective case review. SETTING: Tertiary referral center. PATIENTS:: Ninety-two adult unilaterally ...

Acquired progressive dysarthria is traditionally assessed, rated, and researched using measures of speech perception and intelligibility. The focus is commonly on the individual with dysarthria and how speech deviates from a normative range. A complementary approach is to consider the features and consequences of dysarthric speech as it is produced ...

BACKGROUND: Deteriorated hearing affects speech perception and speech production, and negatively impacts on social interaction, employment, income, and, as a result, the quality of life of the elderly population. Lack of satisfaction with conventional hearing aids motivated part of them to turn to more sophisticated cochlear device systems. OBJECTIVE: To ...

OBJECTIVE: Cochlear implant (CI) users typically report that speech recognition becomes substantially more difficult in the presence of background noise. This perception is consistent with objective measures of speech recognition showing that CI users require more favorable signal-to-noise ratios than normal-hearing (NH) listeners to achieve equivalent speech recognition. However, recent ...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The aim was to examine short- and long-term efficacy of the bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) on adults with single-sided deafness. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective investigation. METHODS: The outcome measures included the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT), Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB), and Single-Sided Deafness Questionnaire (SSD). The BAHA ...

OBJECTIVES: To assess the extent to which hearing aids improve spatial benefit by restoring the availability of interaural difference cues, the benefit attributable to spatial separation of speech and babble with and without bilateral hearing aids was measured as a function of low-pass cutoff frequency. DESIGN: Twenty-one older adults with ...

Transposition of acoustic information from higher to lower frequencies may help people with severe or profound high-frequency hearing loss, especially when a 'dead region' is present. Previously, we (Robinson et al, 2007 ) evaluated the benefit of an FFT-based transposition algorithm in a laboratory study. Although results were promising, we ...

This paper evaluates speech enhancement in binaural multimicrophone hearing aids by noise reduction algorithms based on the multichannel Wiener filter (MWF) and the MWF with partial noise estimate (MWF-N). Both algorithms are specifically developed to combine noise reduction with the preservation of binaural cues. Objective and perceptual evaluations were performed ...

This paper uses the methodology of conversation analysis (CA) to examine the practice of co-constructed turn and utterance production in impaired communication. An investigation of the conversations between two family dyads, featuring one person with dysarthric speech and one with aphasic language, reveals one way in which single turns and ...

In studies of the cocktail party problem, the number and locations of maskers are typically fixed throughout a block of trials, which leaves out uncertainty that exists in real-world environments. The current experiments examined whether there is (1) improved speech intelligibility and (2) increased spatial release from masking (SRM), as ...

For adults with disabilities who are unable to speak, the literature recommends that intervention include augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to improve communication and interactions with others. Some adults with moderate intellectual disabilities who exhibit limited functional speech are often overlooked as candidates for AAC interventions because they have some ...

It is probable that the majority of the 455 000 strong Aboriginal population of Australia speak some form of Australian Aboriginal English (AAE) at least some of the time and that it is the first (and only) language of many Aboriginal children. This means their language is somewhere on a ...

translation and cross-cultural adaptation of instruments to the Brazilian Portuguese language. in Brazil, in the area of Speech-Language Pathology, there is a significant lack of commercially available formal and objective instruments that have as a purpose the evaluation and diagnosis of different communication disorders. Some researchers have tried to ease ...

This article will focus on light technology augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for people who have recently experienced a stroke with resulting aphasia. The role of the speech therapist and occupational therapist in evaluation, implementation, and training will be addressed. Various AAC options based on level of function will be ...

Effective communication is a crucial requirement in many workplaces to ensure safe and effective operations. Often, critical verbal communications are carried out in noise, which can be very challenging, particularly for individuals with hearing loss. Diagnostic measures of hearing, such as the audiogram, are not adequate to make accurate predictions ...

The benefit of directional processing and binaural listening in terms of speech intelligibility for frontal sound sources has been well documented in recent and past studies. Nevertheless, only the 20% of the situations in real life present a speaker located exactly in the frontal position. Different attempt have been done ...

Research has revealed a number of factors which have a negative impact on voice function (e.g., activity noise, background sound, poor acoustics, long duration of voice usage, speaking distance). In these circumstances vocal loading increases, potentially giving rise to voice disorders. Currently, practical measures within society for the improvement of ...

A 'large n' database was created incorporating demographic information as well as speech-recognition-in-noise measurements from several hundred subjects who participated in field trials with wearable DSP hearing aids. Performance measures were obtained across multiple hearing aid styles (CIC to BTE) with multiple signal processing technologies (multi-channel compression, digital noise reduction, ...

Baskent et al. (ISAAR 2007) showed that simulated undershoot that may happen due to release from hearing-aid compression may reduce phonemic restoration by normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Phonemic restoration was measured as the increase in recognition of interrupted speech when the silent intervals were filled with loud noise bursts. These results ...

When acoustical problems occur in architectural spaces acousticians are often requested to help. The help is often complicated by very different knowledge in acoustics and problems in communication between architect, musicians and acousticians. Auralization of sound sources is considered to be a powerful tool to solve the problem, making acoustic ...

Railways generate noise and vibration as trains pass along the track. It is usually ultimately noise that causes annoyance to those above or alongside the track, but this noise is often generated as a result of vibrations transmitted along and away from the track. Examples of ground-borne vibration at the ...

Communication devices are used more and more often in industrial premises. We have evaluated how the users experience these device in a call center (N=41), in a low noise warehouse (N=67) and in a noisy (L>80 dB) warehouse (N=25). For all subjects the same questionnaire was sent. The questionnaire contained ...

The role of embodiment in communication is attracting an increased interest. This interest is to some extent caused by hypotheses and findings concerning mirror neurons in macaques, that is, neurons that are activated by production as well as perception of, for example, a certain movement of action. Mirror neurons seem ...

We compared two different types of hearing-aid fitting procedures in a double-blind randomized clinical study. Hearing aid fittings based on a purely prescriptive procedure (the NAL-RP formula) were compared to a comparative fitting procedure based on optimizing speech intelligibility scores. Main outcome measures were improvement of speech intelligibility scores in ...

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the consistency and reliability of user adjustments to hearing aid gain and the resulting effects on speech understanding. Sixteen bilaterally aided individuals with hearing loss adjusted their hearing aid gain to optimize listening comfort and speech clarity while listening to speech ...

When people speak, they often insinuate their intent indirectly rather than stating it as a bald proposition. Examples include sexual come-ons, veiled threats, polite requests, and concealed bribes. We propose a three-part theory of indirect speech, based on the idea that human communication involves a mixture of cooperation and conflict. ...

Acoustic feedback is an annoying problem in several audio applications and especially in hearing aids. Adaptive feedback cancellation techniques have attracted recent attention and show great promise in reducing the deleterious effects of feedback. In this paper, we investigated the performance of a class of adaptive feedback cancellation algorithms viz. ...

This article examines the challenges of developing electronic communication aids for individuals with mild-to-moderate aphasia and introduces a new portable aid designed for this population. People with some residual speech are often reluctant to use communication aids that replace their natural speech with synthesized speech or the recorded utterances of ...

BACKGROUND: The inner ear problems of Thai priest at Priest Hospital had never been reported previously, so Department of Ear Nose Throat try to correlate the metebotic disorder with inner ear problems. OBJECTIVES: 1) To study the fasting blood sugar (FBS), total cholesterol (T. Chol), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and ...

Ear wax only becomes a problem if it causes a hearing impairment or other ear-related symptoms. Ear wax is more likely to accumulate and cause a hearing impairment when normal extrusion is prevented--for example, by the use of hearing aids, or by the use of cotton buds to clean the ...

The study describes an effort to evaluate the speech difficulties as perceived by individuals with dysarthria. A self-report questionnaire, Living with Neurologically Based Speech Difficulties (Living with Dysarthria), was answered by 55 individuals with varying types and degrees of dysarthria. Results show that both type and degree of subjectively perceived ...

PURPOSE: To compare the effects of conventional amplification (CA) and digital frequency compression (DFC) amplification on the speech recognition abilities of candidates for a partial-insertion cochlear implant, that is, candidates for combined electric and acoustic stimulation (EAS). METHOD: The participants were 6 patients whose audiometric thresholds at 500 Hz and ...

CONCLUSIONS: Speech understanding is better with the Baha Divino than with the Baha Compact in competing noise from the rear. No difference was found for speech understanding in quiet. Subjectively, overall sound quality and speech understanding were rated better for the Baha Divino. OBJECTIVES: To compare speech understanding in quiet ...

The whale ear, initially designed for hearing in air, became adapted for hearing underwater in less than ten million years of evolution. This study describes the evolution of underwater hearing in cetaceans, focusing on changes in sound transmission mechanisms. Measurements were made on 60 fossils of whole or partial skulls, ...