bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Children With Specific Language Impairments Perceive Speech Most Categorically When Tokens Are Natural and Meaningful
Authors: Coady Jeffry A. , Evans Julia L. , Mainela-Arnold Elina , Kluender Keith R. 
Published: May 2007

Purpose
To examine perceptual deficits as a potential underlying cause of specific language impairments (SLI).

Method
Twenty-one children with SLI (8;7–11;11 [years;months]) and 21 age-matched controls participated in categorical perception tasks using four series of syllables for which perceived syllable-initial voicing varied. Series were either words or abstract nonword syllables and either synthesized or high-quality edited natural utterances. Children identified and discriminated (a) digitally edited tokens of naturally spoken “bowl”–“pole”, (b) synthesized renditions of “bowl”–“pole”, (c) natural “ba”–“pa”, and (d) synthetic “ba”–“pa”.

Results
Identification crossover locations were the same for both groups of children, but there was modestly less accuracy on unambiguous endpoints for children with SLI. Planned comparisons revealed these effects to be limited to synthesized speech. Children with SLI showed overall reduced discrimination, but these effects were limited to abstract nonword syllables.

Conclusion
Overall, children with SLI perceived naturally spoken real words comparably to age-matched peers but showed impaired identification and discrimination of synthetic speech and of abstract syllables. Poor performance on speech perception tasks may result from task demands and stimulus properties, not perceptual deficits.
Chest Wall Motion During Speech Production in Patients With Advanced Ankylosing Spondylitis
Authors: Kalliakosta Georgia , Mandros Charalampos , Tzelepis George E. 
Published: May 2007

PurposeTo test the hypothesis that ankylosing spondylitis (AS) alters the pattern of chest wall motion during speech production.MethodThe pattern of chest wall motion during speech was measured with respiratory inductive plethysmography in 6 participants with advanced AS (5 men, 1 woman, age 45±8 years, Schober test 1.45±1.5 cm, Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index [BASFI] score 6±1.7) and 6 healthy volunteers, matched for age and gender. Measurements were made with participants in the upright seated and upright standing body position.ResultsDuring reading in the seated and standing body positions, the rib cage wall volume displacements were smaller and abdominal wall volume displacements were larger in participants with AS than in healthy controls. There were no differences in the overall lung volume displacements recorded during the expiratory limb of reading in either body position. In the participants with AS, the rib cage remained near the end-expiratory level in both the seated and standing body position, differing from that for the control group.ConclusionIn individuals with advanced AS, the abdomen is the primary contributor to volume displacement. In the absence of speech impairment in participants with AS, the data show the capacity of the abdomen to compensate for the decreased compliance of the rib cage.
Internal Versus External: Oral-Motor Performance as a Function of Attentional Focus
Authors: Freedman Skott E. , Maas Edwin , Caligiuri Michael P. , Wulf Gabriele , Robin Donald A. 
Published: May 2007

Purpose
Previous studies (e.g., G. Wulf, M. Höß, & W. Prinz, 1998; G. Wulf, B. Lauterbach, & T. Toole, 1999; for a review, see G. Wulf & W. Prinz, 2001) have reported that limb motor performance is enhanced when individuals adopt an external focus (focusing on the effect of the movement) versus an internal focus of attention (focusing on body parts such as the muscles of the hand). This study tested the hypothesis that the effects of attentional focus on limb performance would also occur in the oral-facial system.

Method
Two groups of 23 participants were administered both hand and tongue impulse force control tasks in which each group was randomly assigned either an internal or an external focus of attention. Participants were required to exert rapid pressure bursts to achieve a target force level of 20% of their maximal strength.

Results
Consistent with limb studies, findings revealed a significant advantage of an external focus (greater accuracy, less variability) for both the hand and tongue control tasks, as opposed to an internal focus of attention.

Conclusions
Results are discussed relative to a constrained-action theory of motor control and future application to speech motor learning.
Conceptual Organization at 6 and 8 Years of Age: Evidence From the Semantic Priming of Object Decisions
Authors: Hashimoto Naomi , McGregor Karla K. , Graham Anne 
Published: May 2007

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine children’s knowledge of semantic relations.

Method
In Experiment 1, the 6-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and adults participated in an object decision task. Participants in the primed group made object decisions in response to primes that were related taxonomically, thematically, or perceptually to the target objects. Those in the unprimed group made decisions about the same stimuli without the benefit of primes. In Experiment 2, the children in the primed group explained the taxonomic and thematic relations between the prime–target pairs used in Experiment 1.

Results
In Experiment 1, the strength of semantic relations did not vary with type or age, as taxonomic priming was as strong as thematic priming and the degree of priming did not reliably differentiate the 3 age groups. Differential priming effects between taxonomic and perceptual conditions, the former hastening and the latter slowing responses, suggested that the relation binding object concepts into taxonomies was not reducible to common physical features. In Experiment 2, the 6-year-olds had more difficulty describing taxonomic than thematic relations, whereas the 8-year-olds described both with ease.

Conclusions
Contrary to the shift hypothesis, taxonomic and thematic relationsstructure concepts in children as young as 6 and into adulthood. In accord with the performance hypothesis, 6-year-olds' representations of taxonomic relations are fragile and vulnerable to high task demands.
The Language Use Inventory for Young Children: A Parent-Report Measure of Pragmatic Language Development for 18- to 47-Month-Old Children
Authors: O’Neill Daniela K. 
Published: May 2007

Purpose
To demonstrate the internal reliability and discriminative validity of the Language Use Inventory for Young Children (LUI; D. K. O’Neill, 2002), a newly developed parent-report measure designed to assess pragmatic language development in 18–47-month-olds.

Method
To examine internal reliability, the LUI was completed by mail by 177 parents recruited from the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Child Studies database, 175 of whom completed the LUI again within 4 weeks to assess test–retest reliability. To examine discriminative validity, 49 parents of children awaiting assessment at a local speech-language clinic and 49 parents of typically developing children recruited from the Centre for Child Studies database and matched in age and sex to the clinic group completed the LUI.

Results
Alpha values for the subscales of the LUI were at or above acceptable levels (.80–.98), and steady growth in children’s pragmatic language development was demonstrated. The study of discriminant validity revealed sensitivity and specificity levels over 95%.

Conclusions
The LUI’s internal reliability and stability were strongly supported and its sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing between typically developing and language-delayed children exceeded even the most stringent criteria of 90% accuracy.
Auditory Speech Recognition and Visual Text Recognition in Younger and Older Adults: Similarities and Differences Between Modalities and the Effects of Presentation Rate
Authors: Humes Larry E. , Burk Matthew H. , Coughlin Maureen P. , Busey Thomas A. , Strauser Lauren E. 
Published: May 2007

Purpose
To examine age-related differences in auditory speech recognition and visual text recognition performance for parallel sets of stimulus materials in the auditory and visual modalities. In addition, the effects of variation in rate of presentation of stimuli in each modality were investigated in each age group.

Method
A mixed-model design was used in which 3 independent groups (13 young adults with normal hearing, 10 elderly adults with normal hearing, and 16 elderly hearing-impaired adults) listened to auditory speech tests (a sentence-in-noise task, time-compressed monosyllables, and a speeded-spelling task) and viewed visual text-based analogs of the auditory tests. All auditory speech materials were presented so that the amplitude of the speech signal was at least 15 dB above threshold through 4000 Hz.

Results
Analyses of the group data revealed that when baseline levels of performance were used as covariates in the group analyses the only significant group difference was that both elderly groups performed worse than the young group on the auditory speeded-speech tasks. Analysis of individual data, using correlations, factor analysis, and linear regression, was generally consistent with the group data and revealed significant, moderate correlations of performance for similar tasks across modalities, but stronger correlations across tasks within a modality. This suggests that performance on these tasks was mediated both by a common underlying factor, such as cognitive processing, as well as modality-specific processing.

Conclusion
Performance on measures of auditory processing of speech examined here was closely associated with performance on parallel measures of the visual processing of text obtained from the same participants. Young and older adults demonstrated comparable abilities in the use of contextual information in each modality, but older adults, regardless of hearing status, had more difficulty with fast presentation of auditory speech stimuli than young adults. There were no differences among the 3 groups with regard to the effects of presentation rate for the visual recognition of text, at least for the rates of presentation used here.
Speech Perception in MRI Scanner Noise by Persons With Aphasia
Authors: Healy Eric W. , Moser Dana C. , Morrow-Odom K. Leigh , Hall Deborah A. , Fridriksson Julius 
Published: May 2007

Purpose
To examine reductions in performance on auditory tasks by aphasic and neurologically intact individuals as a result of concomitant magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner noise.

Method
Four tasks together forming a continuum of linguistic complexity were developed. They included complex-tone pitch discrimination, same–different discrimination of minimal pair syllables, lexical decision, and sentence plausibility. Each task was performed by persons with aphasia (PWA) and by controls. The stimuli were presented in silence and also in the noise recorded from within the bore of a 3 Tesla MRI scanner at 3 signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios.

Results
Across the 4 tasks, the PWA scored lower than the controls, and performance fell as a function of decreased S/N. However, the rate at which performance fell was not different across the 2 listener groups in any task.

Conclusions
Depending on the relative levels of the signals and noise, the intense noise accompanying MRI scanning has the potential to severely disrupt performance. However, PWA are no more susceptible to the disruptive influence of this noise than are unimpaired individuals usually employed as controls. Thus, functional MRI data from aphasic and control individuals may be interpreted without complications associated with large interactions between scanner noise and performance reduction.
Training Effects on Speech Production Using a Hands-Free Electromyographically Controlled Electrolarynx
Authors: Goldstein Ehab A. , Heaton James T. , Stepp Cara E. , Hillman Robert E. 
Published: May 2007

Purpose

The
electrolarynx (EL)
is a widely used device for alaryngeal speech, but it requires manual operation and produces voice that typically has a constant fundamental frequency. An electromyographically controlled EL (EMG-EL) was designed and implemented to provide hands-free control with dynamic pitch modulation.

Method
Three participants who underwent total laryngectomy surgery and 4 participants with normal voice were trained to produce EMG-EL speech through a multiple-baseline, successive-stage protocol. Baseline performance was established through 3 testing probes, followed by multiple hour-long training sessions.

Results
At the end of the training, all participants learned to initiate, sustain, and terminate EMG-EL activation in correspondence with articulation, and most were able to modulate the pitch to produce intonational contrasts. After completing the testing/training protocol, 1 of the 3 participants who underwent total laryngectomy was encouraged to independently use the EMG-EL at his residence. This participant sustained his performance for an additional 6 weeks and also used the EMG-EL successfully to communicate over the phone.

Conclusions
Our findings suggest that some participants with laryngectomies and vocally normal individuals can learn to produce hands-free speech using the EMG-EL device within a few hours and that significant additional gains in device control (particularly pitch modulation) are attainable through subsequent training sessions.
Electropalatographic Assessment of Tongue-to-Palate Contact Patterns and Variability in Children, Adolescents, and Adults
Authors: Cheng Hei Yan , Murdoch Bruce E. , Goozée Justine V. , Scott Dion 
Published: May 2007

PurposeTo investigate the developmental time course of tongue-to-palate contact patterns during speech from childhood to adulthood using electropalatography (EPG) and a comprehensive profile of data analysis.MethodTongue-to-palate contacts were recorded during productions of /t/, /l/, /s/, and /k/ in 48 children, adolescents and adults (aged 6–38 years) using the Reading Electropalatograph system.ResultsA protracted course of development for lingual control was indicated, with significant changes occurring until age 11 years; the adolescent period was in turn characterized by continual refinement of articulatory control. With maturity, a reduction in the amount of palatal contact and an anterior shift in the place of articulation was evident during anterior consonant productions, whereas the tongue-back-to-palate contact pattern became more consistent for the velar stop /k/.ConclusionThese results support that maturation of the speech motor system is nonuniform.
Speed of Processing, Working Memory, and Language Impairment in Children
Authors: Leonard Laurence B. , Ellis Weismer Susan , Miller Carol A. , Francis David J. , Tomblin J. Bruce , Kail Robert V. 
Published: May 2007

Purpose
Children with language impairment (LI) often perform below the level of typically developing peers on measures of both processing speed and working memory. This study examined the relationship between these 2 types of measures and attempted to determine whether such measures can account for the LI itself.

Method
Fourteen-year-old children with LI and their typically developing peers participated in a wide range of processing speed and working memory tasks and were administered a comprehensive language test battery. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to compare 3 nested models designed to examine the dimensionality of the speed and working memory measures. A model that included a general speed factor was also evaluated.

Results
The models meeting our evaluation criteria treated speed and working memory as separable factors. Furthermore, nonverbal as well as verbal processing factors emerged from these analyses. Latent variable regression analyses showed that each of the appropriate models accounted for 62% of the variance in the children’s concurrent composite language test scores, with verbal working memory making the largest contribution.

Conclusions
These findings shed light on the relationship among different types of processing and suggest that processing factors can contribute to the understanding of language disorders.
Loss‐of‐function JAK3 mutations in TMD and AMKL of Down syndrome
Authors: De Vita Serena , Mulligan Claire , McElwaine Suzanne , Dagna‐Bricarelli Franca , Spinelli Monica , Basso Giuseppe , Nizetic Dean , Groet Jürgen 
Published: May 2007

SummaryAcquired mutations activating Janus kinase 3 (jak3) have been reported in Down syndrome (DS) and non‐DS patients with acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia (AMKL). This highlighted jak3‐activation as an important event in the pathogenesis of AMKL, and predicted inhibitors of jak3 as conceptual therapeutics for AMKL. Of 16 DS‐transient myeloproliferative disorder (TMD)/AMKL patients tested, seven showed JAK3 mutations. Three mutations deleted the kinase (JH1) domain, abolishing the main function of jak3. Another patient displayed a mutation identical to a previously reported inherited loss‐of‐function causing severe combined immunodeficiency. Our data suggest that both gain‐, and loss‐of function mutations of jak3 can be acquired in DS‐TMD/AMKL.
Identification of novel molecular prognostic markers for paediatric T‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia
Authors: Gottardo Nicholas G. , Hoffmann Katrin , Beesley Alex H. , Freitas Joseph R. , Firth Martin J. , Perera Kanchana U. , De Klerk Nicolas H. , Baker David L. , Kees Ursula R. 
Published: May 2007

SummaryIn the last four decades the survival of patients with newly diagnosed childhood T‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T‐ALL) has improved dramatically. In sharp contrast, relapsed T‐ALL continues to confer a dismal prognosis. We sought to determine if gene expression profiling could uncover a signature of outcome for children with T‐ALL. Using 12 patient specimens obtained before therapy started, we examined the gene expression profile by oligonucleotide microarrays. We identified three genes, CFLAR, NOTCH2 and BTG3, whose expression at the time of diagnosis accurately distinguished the patients according to disease outcome. These genes are involved in the regulation of apoptosis and cellular proliferation. The prognostic value of the three predictive genes was assessed in an independent cohort of 25 paediatric T‐ALL patients using quantitative real‐time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Patients assigned to the adverse outcome group had a significantly higher cumulative incidence of relapse compared with patients assigned to the favourable outcome group (46% vs. 8%, P = 0·029). Five‐year overall survival was also significantly worse in the patients assigned to the adverse outcome group (P = 0·0039). The independent influence of the 3‐gene predictor was confirmed by multivariate analysis. Our study provides proof of principle that genome‐wide expression profiling can detect novel molecular prognostic markers in paediatric T‐ALL.
Loss of bHLH transcription factor E2A activity in primary effusion lymphoma confers resistance to apoptosis
Authors: Lietz Andreas , Janz Martin , Sigvardsson Mikael , Jundt Franziska , Dörken Bernd , Mathas Stephan 
Published: May 2007

SummarySimilar to classical Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) tumour cells, primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) originates from mature B cells but displays a non‐B cell phenotype, the mechanisms and consequences of which are not yet understood. This study showed that PEL lacked DNA binding activity of the B cell‐determining transcription factors E2A, EBF and Pax5. PEL overexpressed the E2A antagonists ABF‐1 and Id2, which have been described to block the B‐cell differentiation program in classical HL. However, in contrast to HL cells, B lineage‐inappropriate genes were not similarly upregulated in PEL, and reconstitution of B cell‐specific E2A homodimer activity in PEL induced apoptosis. These data demonstrate that lineage infidelity in PEL is not as pronounced as in HL, and that the loss of the B cell‐specific transcription factor E2A in PEL is implicated in apoptosis protection.
Delayed redistribution of CD27, CD40 and CD80 positive B cells and the impaired in vitro immunoglobulin production in patients with non‐Hodgkin lymphoma after rituximab treatment as an adjuvant to autologous stem cell transplantation
Authors: Nishio Mitsufumi , Fujimoto Katsuya , Yamamoto Satoshi , Endo Tomoyuki , Sakai Toshiya , Obara Masato , Kumano Kohki , Yamaguchi Keisuke , Takeda Yukari , Goto Hideki , Sato Norihiro , Koizumi Kazuki , Mukai Masaya , Koike Takao 
Published: May 2007

SummaryRecent studies have indicated that patients who received rituximab as an adjuvant to stem cell transplantation (SCT) demonstrated an increased risk of developing severe hypogammaglobulinaemia, which was found to be a result of delayed recovery of CD27 positive memory B cells and impaired isotype expression. It appears that rituximab influences both the quantity and quality of B‐cell redistribution. Precisely how the B‐cell repertoire regenerates after anti‐CD20‐mediated transient B‐cell depletion in patients with non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) remains to be elucidated. This study performed a phenotypical analysis of B cells in 17 NHL patients who received rituximab as an adjuvant to autologous SCT. The median period after final administration of rituximab was 36 months (range, 12–43 months). Surface antigen expression of CD27, CD40 and CD80 in NHL patients was statistically significantly different from healthy controls (n = 14). Moreover, B cells from NHL patients showed significantly impaired IgG and IgA production upon engagement of surface immunoglobulin receptors in the presence of interleukin (IL)‐2, IL‐10 and CD40 ligand in comparison with samples from healthy controls. The delayed recovery of memory B cells with an abnormal cell marker expression and function demonstrates that naive B cells may fail to differentiate into plasma cells, resulting in hypogammaglobulinaemia after autologous SCT and rituximab therapy.
The number of tumour‐infiltrating TIA‐1+ cytotoxic T cells but not FOXP3+ regulatory T cells predicts outcome in diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma
Authors: Hasselblom Sverker , Sigurdadottir Margret , Hansson Ulrika , Nilsson‐Ehle Herman , Ridell Börje , Andersson Per‐Ola 
Published: May 2007

SummaryThe prognostic significance of tumour‐infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in patients with diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL) remains controversial. Furthermore, the possible impact of regulatory T cells (Tregs) on survival in DLBCL is still unknown. We performed a retrospective study on the immunohistochemical expression of cytotoxic cells and Tregs, and their correlation with survival in 195 DLBCL patients. Patients with a small number of cytotoxic T‐cell intracytoplasmic antigen‐1 (TIA‐1)+ T cells (≤260 cells/mm2 tumour area; n = 52) had significantly better outcome than patients with a large number (>260 cells/mm2; n = 143); progression‐free survival (PFS) at 5 years was 67% vs. 50% (P = 0·03) and overall survival (OS) was 73% vs. 57% (P = 0·03). In multivariate analysis, the low TIA‐1+ group still had a better PFS (relative risk 0·75, 95% confidence interval 0·31–0·99; P = 0·05). The number of forkhead box protein 3 (FOXP3)+ Tregs had no influence on PFS (P = 0·89) or OS (P = 0·75). These results suggest that immunohistochemical analysis of cytotoxic T cells at time of diagnosis could provide additional prognostic information. The lack of correlation between the number of FOXP3+ cells and survival could possibly indicate that tumour‐infiltrating Tregs are of less clinical importance in DLBCL. However, these findings need to be explored in functional studies.