Teachers spend a lot of time finding ‘just right’ picture books for their students. However, much of what is known about a book's difficulty level was developed with native English speakers. More ...needs to be developed with the distinctive characteristics of English Learners (ELs). This study reports on the selection of picture books to teach in an intensive week‐long intervention with Spanish‐speaking ELs in a low SES community in Panama. It applies the concept of tellability rather than readability. Tellability considers who is speaking about what to whom and in what circumstances. Novice teachers who were not fluent in Spanish learned to successfully select and instruct using carefully selected books for teaching English in science‐themed lessons. These teachers considered features of books that matched the ELs’ oral and written English abilities as well as matched specific language teaching strategies for EL beginners.
Our objective was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of an all-in-one protocol of whole-body 18F-FDG PET/CT and integrated 18F-FDG PET/CT mammography with the diagnostic accuracy of a multimodality ...algorithm for initial breast cancer staging.
Forty women (mean age, 58.3 y; range, 30.8-78.4 y; SD, 12 y) with suspected breast cancer were included. For the primary tumor, we compared 18F-FDG PET/CT mammography versus MRI mammography; for axillary lymph node status, 18F-FDG PET/CT versus clinical investigation and ultrasound; and for distant metastases, 18F-FDG PET/CT versus a multimodality staging algorithm. Histopathology and clinical follow-up served as the standard of reference. The Fisher exact test evaluated the significance of differences (P < 0.05). Alterations in patient management caused by 18F-FDG PET/CT were documented.
No significant differences were found in the detection rate of breast cancer lesions (18F-FDG PET/CT, 95%; MRI, 100%; P = 1). 18F-FDG PET/CT correctly classified lesion focality significantly more often than did MRI (18F-FDG PET/CT, 79%; MRI, 73%; P < 0.001). MRI correctly defined the T stage significantly more often than did 18F-FDG PET/CT (MRI, 77%; 18F-FDG PET/CT, 54%; P = 0.001). 18F-FDG PET/CT detected axillary lymph node metastases in 80% of cases; clinical investigation/ultrasound, in 70%. This difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.067). Distant metastases were detected with 18F-FDG PET/CT in 100% of cases, and the multimodality algorithm identified distant metastases in 70%. This difference was not statistically significant (P = 1). Three patients had extraaxillary lymph node metastases that were detected only by PET/CT (cervical, retroperitoneal, mediastinal/internal mammary group). 18F-FDG PET/CT changed patient management in 12.5% of cases.
Our data suggest that a whole-body 18F-FDG PET/CT mammography protocol may be used for staging breast cancer in a single session. This initial assessment of the 18F-FDG PET/CT protocol indicates similar accuracy to MRI for the detection of breast cancer lesions. Although MRI seems to be more accurate when assessing the T stage of the tumor, 18F-FDG PET/CT seems able to more accurately define lesion focality. Although 18F-FDG PET/CT mammography was able to detect axillary lymph node metastases with a high sensitivity, this method cannot soon be expected to replace the combination of clinical examination, ultrasound, and sentinel lymph node biopsy for axillary assessment.
In studies investigating binaural processing in human listeners, relatively long and task-dependent time constants of a binaural window ranging from 10 ms to 250 ms have been observed. Such time ...constants are often thought to reflect “binaural sluggishness.” In this study, the effect of binaural sluggishness on binaural unmasking of speech in stationary speech-shaped noise is investigated in 10 listeners with normal hearing. In order to design a masking signal with temporally varying binaural cues, the interaural phase difference of the noise was modulated sinusoidally with frequencies ranging from 0.25 Hz to 64 Hz. The lowest, that is the best, speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were observed for the lowest modulation frequency. SRTs increased with increasing modulation frequency up to 4 Hz. For higher modulation frequencies, SRTs remained constant in the range of 1 dB to 1.5 dB below the SRT determined in the diotic situation. The outcome of the experiment was simulated using a short-term binaural speech intelligibility model, which combines an equalization–cancellation (EC) model with the speech intelligibility index. This model segments the incoming signal into 23.2-ms time frames in order to predict release from masking in modulated noises. In order to predict the results from this study, the model required a further time constant applied to the EC mechanism representing binaural sluggishness. The best agreement with perceptual data was achieved using a temporal window of 200 ms in the EC mechanism.
Home treatment offered by outpatient care providers is associated with a reduction in inpatient treatment days and impacts quality of life (QoL) of individuals suffering from a severe mental illness ...and their relatives. For the first time, home treatment approaches can now also be offered and reimbursed as so called
(stäB) by psychiatric hospitals. Principles of a structured cross-sectoral collaboration and their implementation were outlined and consented by the most relevant stakeholders. The principles outlined are guided by the patient care needs.
•First validation study of a perceptual model to predict the benefit of spatial unmasking in terms of perceived listening effort.•Unified framework for predicting both speech intelligibility and ...listening effort from the same model output.•No auxiliary information required, i.e., mixed binaural input signals can be used directly to derive model predictions.•Model framework implemented for online processing, making it applicable to speech perception monitoring in close-to-realtime.
Speech perception is strongly affected by noise and reverberation in the listening room, and binaural processing can substantially facilitate speech perception in conditions when target speech and maskers originate from different directions. Most studies and proposed models for predicting spatial unmasking have focused on speech intelligibility. The present study introduces a model framework that predicts both speech intelligibility and perceived listening effort from the same output measure. The framework is based on a combination of a blind binaural processing stage employing a blind equalization cancelation (EC) mechanism, and a blind backend based on phoneme probability classification. Neither frontend nor backend require any additional information, such as the source directions, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or the number of sources, allowing for a fully blind perceptual assessment of binaural input signals consisting of target speech mixed with noise. The model is validated against a recent data set in which speech intelligibility and perceived listening effort were measured for a range of acoustic conditions differing in reverberation and binaural cues Rennies and Kidd (2018), J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 144, 2147-2159. Predictions of the proposed model are compared with a non-blind binaural model consisting of a non-blind EC stage and a backend based on the speech intelligibility index. The analyses indicated that all main trends observed in the experiments were correctly predicted by the blind model. The overall proportion of variance explained by the model (R² = 0.94) for speech intelligibility was slightly worse than for the non-blind model (R² = 0.98). For listening effort predictions, both models showed lower prediction accuracy, but still explained significant proportions of the observed variance (R² = 0.88 and R² = 0.71 for the non-blind and blind model, respectively). Closer inspection showed that the differences between data and predictions were largest for binaural conditions at high SNRs, where the perceived listening effort of human listeners tended to be underestimated by the models, specifically by the blind version.
We present the compact Gravimetric Atom Interferometer (GAIN), based on laser-cooled
87
Rb atoms, and discuss its first measurements of the local gravitational acceleration. In this context, we also ...describe an active vibration isolation system and a tip-tilt stage, which allow for a suppression of vibrational noise and systematic effects like the Coriolis force due to Earth’s rotation.
Regeneration of injured neurons can restore function, but most neurons regenerate poorly or not at all. The failure to regenerate in some cases is due to a lack of activation of cell-intrinsic ...regeneration pathways. These pathways might be targeted for the development of therapies that can restore neuron function after injury or disease. Here, we show that the DLK-1 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway is essential for regeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans motor neurons. Loss of this pathway eliminates regeneration, whereas activating it improves regeneration. Further, these proteins also regulate the later step of growth cone migration. We conclude that after axon injury, activation of this MAP kinase cascade is required to switch the mature neuron from an aplastic state to a state capable of growth.
Women who have had a spontaneous preterm delivery are at greatly increased risk for preterm delivery in subsequent pregnancies. The results of several small trials have suggested that 17 ...alpha-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17P) may reduce the risk of preterm delivery.
We conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving pregnant women with a documented history of spontaneous preterm delivery. Women were enrolled at 19 clinical centers at 16 to 20 weeks of gestation and randomly assigned by a central data center, in a 2:1 ratio, to receive either weekly injections of 250 mg of 17P or weekly injections of an inert oil placebo; injections were continued until delivery or to 36 weeks of gestation. The primary outcome was preterm delivery before 37 weeks of gestation. Analysis was performed according to the intention-to-treat principle.
Base-line characteristics of the 310 women in the progesterone group and the 153 women in the placebo group were similar. Treatment with 17P significantly reduced the risk of delivery at less than 37 weeks of gestation (incidence, 36.3 percent in the progesterone group vs. 54.9 percent in the placebo group; relative risk, 0.66 95 percent confidence interval, 0.54 to 0.81), delivery at less than 35 weeks of gestation (incidence, 20.6 percent vs. 30.7 percent; relative risk, 0.67 95 percent confidence interval, 0.48 to 0.93), and delivery at less than 32 weeks of gestation (11.4 percent vs. 19.6 percent; relative risk, 0.58 95 percent confidence interval, 0.37 to 0.91). Infants of women treated with 17P had significantly lower rates of necrotizing enterocolitis, intraventricular hemorrhage, and need for supplemental oxygen.
Weekly injections of 17P resulted in a substantial reduction in the rate of recurrent preterm delivery among women who were at particularly high risk for preterm delivery and reduced the likelihood of several complications in their infants.
Wavefront aberrations are one of the largest uncertainty factors in present atom interferometers. We present a detailed numerical and experimental analysis of this effect based on measured ...aberrations from optical windows. By placing windows into the Raman beam path of our atomic gravimeter, we verify for the first time the induced bias in very good agreement with theory. Our method can be used to reduce the uncertainty in atomic gravimeters by one order of magnitude, resulting in an error of <3 × 10
−10
g, and it is suitable in a wide variety of atom interferometers with thermal or ultracold atoms. We discuss the limitations of our method, potential improvements, and its role in future generation experiments.
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