bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Ethyl pyruvate protects against lipopolysaccharide‐induced white matter injury in the developing rat brain
Authors: Yingyan Wang , Ping Yin , Shanying Huang , Jiwen Wang , Ruopeng Sun 
Published: December 2012

AbstractThe neuroprotective effects of ethyl pyruvate (EP) have been proved in several brain injury models, yet very little is known about its action on neonatal white matter injury. To investigate the effect of EP on white matte damage, a stereotactic intracerebral injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 1 mg/kg) was performed on postnatal day 5 Sprague–Dawley rat pups, and EP was administrated intraperitoneally at a dose of 40 mg/kg immediately, 1 h and 12 h after LPS exposure. Significantly, treatment with EP reduced LPS‐induced ventricle dilation, loss of O4+ and O1+ oligodendrocytes, apoptosis of oligodendrocytes, and hypomyelination. The protective effect of EP was associated with suppressed inflammatory responses, indicated by the inhibition of activation of microglia and astrocytes, as well as the decreased expression of tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐α) and interleukin‐1beta (IL‐1β) in rat brains. Also, EP prevented the elevation of cleaved caspase‐3 in periventricular white matter tissue after LPS insult. Taken together, these results suggest that EP confers potent protection against LPS‐induced white matter injury via its anti‐inflammatory and anti‐apoptotic properties.
A composite risk assessment model to screen for gestational diabetes mellitus among Mediterranean women
Authors: Savona‐Ventura Charles , Vassallo Josanne , Marre Michel , Karamanos Basil G. 
Published: December 2012

AbstractObjectiveTo determine whether clinical risk assessment for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) may preclude the need for universal screening with an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in situations of economic restraint.MethodsWomen with either GDM (n = 119) or normal glucose tolerance (n = 1249) were recruited from centers among 11 Mediterranean countries between August 1, 2010, and May 31, 2011. Outcome measures included anthropomorphic and biological data, obstetric outcomes, and infant outcomes.ResultsSignificant risk factors for GDM included maternal age of 30 years or more; elevated body mass index (BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters); elevated diastolic blood pressure; previous history of macrosomia; and family history of diabetes mellitus. These factors each had high specificity but low sensitivity for predicting GDM; however, when used in combination, sensitivity increased but specificity fell. Fasting blood glucose (FBG) level had high sensitivity (73.9%) and specificity (90.2%) for predicting GDM. Sensitivity was further increased by combining FBG measurement with maternal age and BMI (96.6%).ConclusionUse of a composite model to prescreen women for GDM risk may reduce the need for universal screening with the OGTT among centers facing health‐cost pressures.
Compliance with follow‐up in an inner‐city population treated with intramuscular methotrexate for suspected ectopic pregnancy
Authors: Dueñas‐Garcia Omar F. , Young Constance , Mikhail Magdy , Salafia Carolyn 
Published: December 2012

AbstractObjectiveTo evaluate compliance with follow‐up among inner‐city patients with ectopic pregnancy treated with methotrexate, in addition to assessing outcome.MethodsRetrospective analysis of all patients evaluated for first‐trimester bleeding and diagnosed with ectopic pregnancy at the Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center, New York, USA, from October 2007 to March 2011. Compliance and complications were evaluated for all patients who received medical treatment with methotrexate.ResultsNinety‐nine patients with hemodynamically stable ectopic pregnancies were identified. Therapy with methotrexate was effective in 87 (87.9%) cases. Only 10 (10.1%) patients were fully compliant during follow‐up after methotrexate administration. There were no differences according to ethnicity. Number of follow‐up visits after treatment significantly affected compliance.ConclusionImprovements in selection criteria for therapy and simplification of follow‐up for patients with medically managed ectopic pregnancy are required.
Glucose abnormalities in hepatitis C virus infection
Authors: Huang Jee‐Fu , Yu Ming‐Lung , Dai Chia‐Yen , Chuang Wan‐Long 
Published: December 2012

AbstractHepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the most important causes of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma and has a tremendous impact on public health worldwide. HCV is both hepatotropic and lymphotropic. Replication of HCV in diseased extrahepatic organs and tissues may either trigger latent autoimmunity or induce autoimmune disorders. In addition to established liver injury, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is an important feature of extrahepatic metabolic disorders which is attributed to HCV infection. It also has some impact on the disease activity, disease course, clinical outcomes, and treatment efficacy of antiviral therapy. Previous experimental and clinical findings have highly suggested that HCV per se is diabetogenic. The cause–effect interaction between a common endocrine disorder and an infectious disease is an important issue to elucidate. Although the precise mechanisms whereby HCV infection leads to insulin resistance (IR) and glucose abnormalities are not entirely clear, it differs from the usual pathogenesis of T2DM in those with non‐HCV liver diseases. This review initially highlights epidemiological and pathophysiological studies addressing the mutual link between chronic HCV infection (CHC) and T2DM. The characteristics of glucose abnormalities in this special population are depicted from the current evidence. The mutual roles of IR and CHC with respect to the prediction of treatment efficacy, how treatment response affects IR, and the role of pancreatic beta cell function in the entire suite are discussed. With the rapid progression of antiviral therapy for CHC in the past decade, we have also listed some points of future perspective in this issue.
Impact of Language Abilities on Exact and Approximate Number Skills Development: Evidence From Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Nys Julie , Content Alain , Leybaert Jacqueline 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
Counting and exact arithmetic rely on language-based representations, whereas number comparison and approximate arithmetic involve approximate quantity-based representations that are available early in life, before the first stages of language acquisition. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of language abilities on the later development of exact and approximate number skills.

Method
Twenty-eight 7- to 14-year-old children with specific language impairment (SLI) completed exact and approximate number tasks involving quantities presented symbolically and nonsymbolically. They were compared with age-matched (AM) and vocabulary-matched (VM) children.

Results
In the exact arithmetic task, the accuracy of children with SLI was lower than that of AM and VM controls and related to phonological measures. In the symbolic approximate tasks, children with SLI were less accurate than AM controls, but the difference vanished when their cognitive skills were considered or when they were compared with younger VM controls. In the nonsymbolic approximate tasks, children with SLI did not differ significantly from controls. Further, accuracy in the approximate number tasks was unrelated to language measures.

Conclusions
Language impairment is related to reduced exact arithmetic skills, whereas it does not intrinsically affect the development of approximate number skills in children with SLI.
Phonetically Trained and Untrained Adults' Transcription of Place of Articulation for Intervocalic Lingual Stops With Intermediate Acoustic Cues
Authors: Mayo Catherine , Gibbon Fiona , Clark Robert A. J. 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
In this study, the authors aimed to investigate how listener training and the presence of intermediate acoustic cues influence transcription variability for conflicting cue speech stimuli.

Method
Twenty listeners with training in transcribing disordered speech, and 26 untrained listeners, were asked to make forced-choice labeling decisions for synthetic vowel–consonant–vowel (VCV) sequences “a doe” (/ədo/) and “a go” (/əgo/). Both the VC and CV transitions in these stimuli ranged through intermediate positions, from appropriate for /d/ to appropriate for /g/.

Results
Both trained and untrained listeners gave more weight to the CV transitions than to the VC transitions. However, listener behavior was not uniform: The results showed a high level of inter- and intratranscriber inconsistency, with untrained listeners showing a nonsignificant tendency to be more influenced than trained listeners by CV transitions.

Conclusions
Listeners do not assign consistent categorical labels to the type of intermediate, conflicting transitional cues that were present in the stimuli used in the current study and that are also present in disordered articulations. Although listener inconsistency in assigning labels to intermediate productions is not increased as a result of phonetic training, neither is it reduced by such training.
Gaze Patterns and Audiovisual Speech Enhancement
Authors: Yi Astrid , Wong Willy , Eizenman Moshe 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
In this study, the authors sought to quantify the relationships between speech intelligibility (perception) and gaze patterns under different auditory–visual conditions.

Method
Eleven subjects listened to low-context sentences spoken by a single talker while viewing the face of one or more talkers on a computer display. Subjects either maintained their gaze at a specific distance (0°, 2.5°, 5°, 10°, and 15°) from the center of the talker's mouth (CTM) or moved their eyes freely on the computer display. Eye movements were monitored with an eye-tracking system, and speech intelligibility was evaluated by the mean percentage of correctly perceived words.

Results
With a single talker and a fixed point of gaze, speech intelligibility was similar for all fixations within 10° of the CTM. With visual cues from two talker faces and a speech signal from one of the talkers, speech intelligibility was similar to that of a single talker for fixations within 2.5° of the CTM. With natural viewing of a single talker, gaze strategy changed with speech-signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For low speech-SNR, a strategy that brought the point of gaze directly to within 2.5° of the CTM was used in approximately 80% of trials, whereas in high speech-SNR it was used in only approximately 50% of trials.

Conclusions
With natural viewing of a single talker and high speech-SNR, subjects can shift their gaze between points on the talker's face without compromising speech intelligibility. With low-speech SNR, subjects change their gaze patterns to fixate primarily on points that are in close proximity to the talker's mouth. The latter strategy is essential to optimize speech intelligibility in situations where there are simultaneous visual cues from multiple talkers (i.e., when some of the visual cues are distracters).
Intervention Efficacy and Intensity for Children With Speech Sound Disorder
Authors: Allen Melissa M. 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
Clinicians do not have an evidence base they can use to recommend optimum intervention intensity for preschool children who present with speech sound disorder (SSD). This study examined the effect of dose frequency on phonological performance and the efficacy of the multiple oppositions approach.

Method
Fifty-four preschool children with SSD were randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions. Two intervention conditions received the multiple oppositions approach either 3 times per week for 8 weeks (P3) or once weekly for 24 weeks (P1). A control (C) condition received a storybook intervention. Percentage of consonants correct (PCC) was evaluated at 8 weeks and after 24 sessions. PCC gain was examined after a 6-week maintenance period.

Results
The P3 condition had a significantly better phonological outcome than the P1 and C conditions at 8 weeks and than the P1 condition after 24 weeks. There were no significant differences between the P1 and C conditions. There was no significant difference between the P1 and P3 conditions in PCC gain during the maintenance period.

Conclusion
Preschool children with SSD who received the multiple oppositions approach made significantly greater gains when they were provided with a more intensive dose frequency and when cumulative intervention intensity was held constant.
Vocalization Development in Toddlers With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Authors: Plumb Allison M. , Wetherby Amy M. 
Published: December 2012

PurposeIn this study, the authors aimed to examine the vocalizations of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the second year of life and their relationship to other areas of development.MethodVocalizations were examined in 125 children between ages 18 and 24 months: 50 later diagnosed with ASD, 25 with developmental delays (DD) in which ASD was ruled out, and 50 with typical development (TD). Precise measures of vocalizations were obtained through coding of video-recorded behavior samples from the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile (Wetherby & Prizant, 2002b).ResultsThe ASD group used a significantly lower proportion of vocalizations with speech sounds and a significantly higher proportion of atypical vocalizations than children with TD. The ASD group used a significantly higher proportion of distress vocalizations than the TD and DD groups. For the ASD group, the frequency of vocalizations with speech sounds correlated significantly with developmental levels both concurrently and predictively. In the ASD group, communicative vocalizations late in the second year were found to uniquely predict expressive language outcome at age 3 years above noncommunicative vocalizations.ConclusionsFurther examination of distress vocalizations as a potential early indicator of ASD is recommended. In addition, the importance of early communicative vocalizations for later language development is highlighted.
Gesturing by Speakers With Aphasia: How Does It Compare?
Authors: Mol Lisette , Krahmer Emiel , van de Sandt-Koenderman Mieke 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
To study the independence of gesture and verbal language production. The authors assessed whether gesture can be semantically compensatory in cases of verbal language impairment and whether speakers with aphasia and control participants use similar depiction techniques in gesture.

Method
The informativeness of gesture was assessed in 3 forced-choice studies, in which raters assessed the topic of the speaker's message in video clips of 13 speakers with moderate aphasia and 12 speakers with severe aphasia, who were performing a communication test (the Scenario Test). Both groups were compared and contrasted with 17 control participants, who either were or were not allowed to communicate verbally. In addition, the representation techniques used in gesture were analyzed.

Results
Gestures produced by speakers with more severe aphasia were less informative than those by speakers with moderate aphasia, yet they were not necessarily uninformative. Speakers with more severe aphasia also tended to use fewer representation techniques (mostly relying on outlining gestures) in co-speech gesture than control participants, who were asked to use gesture instead of speech. It is important to note that limb apraxia may be a mediating factor here.

Conclusions
These results suggest that in aphasia, gesture tends to degrade with verbal language. This may imply that the processes underlying verbal language and co-speech gesture production, although partly separate, are closely linked.
Investigating the Relationship Between Nonword Repetition Performance and Syllabic Structure in Typical and Atypical Language Development
Authors: Tamburelli Marco , Jones Gary 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
In this study, the authors examined the role of syllabic structure in nonword repetition performance in typically developing (TD) children and children with specific language impairment (SLI).

Method
Eighteen children with SLI (5;7–6;7 [years;months]) and 18 TD children matched for chronological age were tested on their ability to repeat phonemes in different positions within syllable structure (onset, nucleus, coda). The test involved 2 separate nonword repetition tasks differing in lexicality (high vs. low). High-lexicality nonwords contained subparts that are morphemes of the language (i.e., subparts were “lexical”), whereas nonlexical nonwords did not.

Results
Repetition performance across the 3 syllabic positions showed a significant effect for both populations and on both tasks. However, although on the high-lexicality task the direction of the effect revealed the onset as the most error-prone constituent (onset > coda > nucleus), on the low-lexicality task, it was the coda that attracted most errors (coda > onset > nucleus).

Conclusions
Results suggest that the procedures involved in computing syllabic structure are qualitatively similar in the 2 populations. We take these results to support the view that different syllabic positions involve different levels of phonological complexity and that tests that control for lexicality are crucial in illuminating these differences.
Age-Related Changes to Spectral Voice Characteristics Affect Judgments of Prosodic, Segmental, and Talker Attributes for Child and Adult Speech
Authors: Dilley Laura C. , Wieland Elizabeth A. , Gamache Jessica L. , McAuley J. Devin , Redford Melissa A. 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
As children mature, changes in voice spectral characteristics co-vary with changes in speech, language, and behavior. In this study, spectral characteristics were manipulated to alter the perceived ages of talkers' voices while leaving critical acoustic–prosodic correlates intact, to determine whether perceived age differences were associated with differences in judgments of prosodic, segmental, and talker attributes.

Method
Speech was modified by lowering formants and fundamental frequency, for 5-year-old children’s utterances, or raising them, for adult caregivers' utterances. Next, participants differing in awareness of the manipulation (Experiment 1A) or amount of speech-language training (Experiment 1B) made judgments of prosodic, segmental, and talker attributes. Experiment 2 investigated the effects of spectral modification on intelligibility. Finally, in Experiment 3, trained analysts used formal prosody coding to assess prosodic characteristics of spectrally modified and unmodified speech.

Results
Differences in perceived age were associated with differences in ratings of speech rate, fluency, intelligibility, likeability, anxiety, cognitive impairment, and speech-language disorder/delay; effects of training and awareness of the manipulation on ratings were limited. There were no significant effects of the manipulation on intelligibility or formally coded prosody judgments.

Conclusion
Age-related voice characteristics can greatly affect judgments of speech and talker characteristics, raising cautionary notes for developmental research and clinical work.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6170393
Beyond Decoding: Adults With Dyslexia Have Trouble Forming Unified Lexical Representations Across Pseudoword Learning Episodes
Authors: Howland Karole A. , Liederman Jacqueline 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
To examine how adults with dyslexia versus adults with typical reading form lexical representations during pseudoword learning.

Method
Twenty adults with dyslexia and 20 adults with typical reading learned meanings, spellings, and pronunciations of 16 pictured pseudowords, (half with regular and half with irregular grapheme-phoneme correspondences) presented first in 1 modality (spoken or written) and then the 2nd modality. Dependent measures included picture naming and identification, episodic recognition, a rhyme task, and a categorization task.

Results
Adults with dyslexia learned pseudowords more slowly than those with typical reading and were disproportionately poor in learning irregularly spelled pseudowords after changing from written to spoken modality. Adults with dyslexia recognized fewer pseudoword forms than adults with typical reading and verified fewer pseudoword rhymes. Adults with typical reading were more accurate with categorizing regular versus irregular pseudowords. Adults with dyslexia did not show this regularity advantage.

Conclusions
Adults with dyslexia, compared with adults with typical reading, failed to (a) encode and retrieve detailed information about pseudoword forms, (b) efficiently form cross-modal associations between written and spoken encounters with pseudowords, and (c) effectively modify their representations following the change in modality. The authors discuss implications relative to common theories of dyslexia.
Lexical Development in Korean: Vocabulary Size, Lexical Composition, and Late Talking
Authors: Rescorla Leslie , Lee Youn Min Cathy , Oh Kyung Ja , Kim Young Ah 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
In this study, the authors aimed to compare vocabulary size, lexical composition, and late talking in large samples of Korean and U.S. children ages 18–35 months.

Method
Data for 2,191 Korean children (211 children recruited “offline” through preschools, and 1,980 recruited “online” via the Internet) and 274 U.S. children were obtained using the Language Development Survey (LDS).

Results

Mean vocabulary size was slightly larger in the offline than the online group, but the groups were acquiring almost identical words. Mean vocabulary size did not differ by country; girls and older children had larger vocabularies in both countries. The Korean–U.S.
Q
correlations for percentage use of LDS words (.53 and .56) indicated considerable concordance across countries in lexical composition. Noun dominance was as large in Korean lexicons as in U.S. lexicons. About half of the most commonly reported words for the Korean and U.S. children were identical. Lexicons of late talkers resembled those of typically developing younger children in the same sample.

Conclusions
Despite linguistic and discourse differences between Korean and English, LDS findings indicated considerable cross-linguistic similarity with respect to vocabulary size, lexical composition, and late talking.
Tongue–Palate Contact Pressure, Oral Air Pressure, and Acoustics of Clear Speech
Authors: Searl Jeff , Evitts Paul M. 
Published: December 2012

Purpose
The authors compared articulatory contact pressure (ACP), oral air pressure (Po), and speech acoustics for conversational versus clear speech. They also assessed the relationship of these measures to listener perception.

Method
Twelve adults with normal speech produced monosyllables in a phrase using conversational and clear speech. Target phonemes were /t, d, s, z, l, n/. ACP was measured at a point of articulatory contact; Po was sensed by a catheter open in the posterior oral cavity.

Results
ACP was increased to a greater extent in clear speech for /t, d, z/. Po was increased to a greater extent for /t, d/. Acoustic changes also occurred in terms of segment durations, speaking rate, and CV dB ratio. Regression analysis indicated that segment duration was the strongest predictor of listener ratings of speech clarity, followed by an index of articulatory effort and speaking rate.

Conclusion
Articulatory effort, as indexed by ACP, Po, and CV dB ratio, was increased to varying degrees depending on the consonant. Greatest changes occurred for /t, d/. Durational measures at both the segment and the phrase level were also important for predicting listener ratings of speech clarity.