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This study examined the second language (L2) speech development of a group of Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) college-level learners ( N = 83) and the association between their aptitude, anxiety, and L2 speech development. The performance of the participants' L2 speech, including speech comprehensibility and accentedness, was evaluated using a sentence reading task and a pair of picture description tasks (pre- and post-test). In addition, students completed the LLAMA tests (language learning and aptitude measurement in adults) and the Second Language Speaking Anxiety Scale (SLSAS). The t -test revealed that after one semester of English speaking and pronunciation instruction, the EFL students in the study demonstrated significant gains in their L2 speech performance in terms of accentedness and comprehensibility in both controlled and impromptu tasks. Regression analyses revealed that phonemic coding ability positively predicted gains in comprehensibility but negatively predicted gains in accentedness during sentence reading. In addition, associative memory was positively associated with comprehensibility gains in the picture description task. Anxiety appeared to be a strong predictor of participants' gains in speech comprehensibility and accentedness during the picture description task.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of Philosophy for Children (P4C) activities integrated into Turkish lessons on the speaking skills of gifted students. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through interviews and various scales, employing a mixed-method design. The results indicated that students had positive feelings about P4C, including appreciation, curiosity, surprise, excitement, self-confidence, and empathy. They believed that P4C enhanced their problem-solving, creativity, questioning, effective speaking, and collaboration skills. However, some students also expressed negative views, tough less frequently, citing issues such as nonsense, limited time, the necessity of prior knowledge, and lack of idea diversification. Quantitative data revealed that P4C activities significantly improved the speaking skills of gifted students and notably reduced their speaking anxiety. Additionally, sex and program variables showed no significant effect on speaking skills and speaking anxiety., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Balcı and Eryılmaz.)

This study aimed to investigate the factors that influence the perception of one's own voice, and if there are any differences using voice between speaking and singing. Further the study purported to examine how these attitudes affect individuals' vocal behavior in personal and social contexts. A total of 100 participants completed the survey which comprised 23 questions about demographics, music experience, speaking voice, and singing voice. The quantitative data were analyzed by correlations and paired t test. For qualitative analyses, content analysis was conducted. The results revealed an even distribution among negative, neutral, and positive attitudes regarding singing and speaking voices and their effects on vocal behavior. For their negative/positive perceptions of their voices, participants referenced factors related to vocal attributes, personal features, social or external validation, emotional quality of the voice, etc. Lastly, result showed that one's perception of the speaking voice has some influence on behaviors ranging from the personal (expressing oneself) to social (interacting with people) aspects. The findings of this study implies that one's attitude toward one's own voice substantially impacts one's personal, interpersonal and social-presentation., (Copyright © 2022 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Literate adults are able to produce the same word in different language modalities-for instance, through speaking and writing. Yet how speaking and writing interact is not well understood. The present study takes a new perspective on the question of the co-activation of phonological and orthographic representations in speaking and writing by examining the acquisition of novel words. We tested how novel words get integrated into modality-specific lexicons by biasing novel word acquisition toward speaking or writing and assessing cross-modal transfer at the first stages of learning. Participants learned novel words paired with pictures of novel objects and practiced them overtly through speaking or typing. At test, typed training led to higher recall accuracy than spoken training whether words were recalled through typing or speaking. Performance in typing (RT and durations) benefited more from typed than spoken training. Crucially, performance in speaking did not benefit specifically from spoken training and was similar after spoken or typed training. Results are compatible with an asymmetric integration in the phonological and orthographic lexicons according to the modality of training, with representations created in the orthographic lexicon directly transferring to the phonological lexicon, while the opposite doesn't seem to occur. Cross-modal transfer dynamics are discussed according to the level of lexical activation., (© 2024. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)

With age, the speech system undergoes important changes that render speech production more laborious, slower and often less intelligible. And yet, the neural mechanisms that underlie these age-related changes remain unclear. In this EEG study, we examined two important mechanisms in speech motor control: pre-speech movement-related cortical potential (MRCP), which reflects speech motor planning, and speaking-induced suppression (SIS), which indexes auditory predictions of speech motor commands, in 20 healthy young and 20 healthy older adults. Participants undertook a vowel production task which was followed by passive listening of their own recorded vowels. Our results revealed extensive differences in MRCP in older compared to younger adults. Further, while longer latencies were observed in older adults on N1 and P2, in contrast, the SIS was preserved. The observed reduced MRCP appears as a potential explanatory mechanism for the known age-related slowing of speech production, while preserved SIS suggests intact motor-to-auditory integration., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The functions of eating, drinking, speaking, and breathing demand close coordination of the upper airway musculature which may be challenged by the long-term use of daytime non-invasive ventilation (NIV). This rapid review explores the challenges and practicalities of these interactions in people with neuromuscular disorders., Methods: A search was performed on PubMed (period 2000-2023) using generic terms to refer to eating, drinking, and speaking related to people with neuromuscular disorders on NIV. A narrative approach was used to summarize the available literature., Results: Our review shows only a small number of studies exist exploring the use of NIV on swallowing and speaking in people with neuromuscular disorders. We summarize study findings and provide practical advice on eating, drinking and speaking with NIV., Conclusions: By understanding breathing, NIV mechanics and upper airway interactions, it is possible to optimize swallowing and speaking whilst using NIV. There is a lack of specific guidelines, and concerns regarding aspiration warrant further research and guideline development., (Copyright © 2024 Gaetano Conte Academy - Mediterranean Society of Myology.)

Background: Abusive supervision by the nurse manager significantly influences nurses' withholding voice about patient safety. The role of impression management motivation and speak up-related climate is crucial in understanding their connection. This study aimed to explore the relationship between abusive supervision, impression management motivation, speak up-related climate, and withholding voice about patient safety., Methods: This cross-sectional study employed a convenience sampling method to recruit 419 clinical nurses from Taizhou Hospital, Zhejiang Province, China, between 1 November 2022 and 31 January 2023. The study adhered to the STROBE checklist. Abusive supervision and impression management motivation were assessed using the Chinese versions of the Abusive Supervision Scale and the Impression Management Motivation Scale, respectively. Withholding voice about patient safety and speak up-related climate were identified using the Chinese version of the Speaking Up about Patient Safety Questionnaire., Results: Nurse leaders' abusive supervision (β=0.40, p<0.01) and nurses' impression management motivation (β=0.10, p<0.01) significantly and positively influenced nurses' withholding voice about patient safety. We introduced impression management motivation as a mediating variable, and the effect of abusive supervision on nurses' withholding voice decreased (β from 0.40 to 0.38, p< 0.01). Nurses' speak up-related climate played a moderating role between abusive supervision and impression management motivation (β= 0.24, p<0.05)., Conclusions: Abusive supervision by nursing leaders can result in nurses withholding voice about patient safety out of self-protective impression management motives. This phenomenon inhibits nurses' subjective initiative and undermines their proactive involvement in improving patient safety, and hinders the cultivation of a culture encouraging full participation in patient safety, which should warrant significant attention., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Scholars have argued that comprehensibility (i.e., ease of understanding), not nativelike performance, should be prioritized in second language learning, which inspired numerous studies to explore factors affecting comprehensibility. However, most of these studies did not consider potential interaction effects of these factors, resulting in a limited understanding of comprehensibility and less precise implications. This study investigates how pronunciation and lexicogrammar influences the comprehensibility of Mandarin-accented English. A total of 687 listeners were randomly allocated into six groups and rated (a) one baseline and (b) one of six experimental recordings for comprehensibility on a 9-point scale. The baseline recording, a 60 s spontaneous speech by an L1 English speaker with an American accent, was the same across groups. The six 75-s experimental recordings were the same in content but differed in (a) speakers' degree of foreign accent (American, moderate Mandarin, and heavy Mandarin) and (b) lexicogrammar (with errors vs. without errors). The study found that pronunciation and lexicogrammar interacted to influence comprehensibility. That is, whether pronunciation affected comprehensibility depended on speakers' lexicogrammar, and vice versa. The results have implications for theory-building to refine comprehensibility, as well as for pedagogy and testing priorities.

Introduction: This study employed an explanatory sequential design to examine the impact of utilizing automatic speech recognition technology (ASR) with peer correction on the improvement of second language (L2) pronunciation and speaking skills among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The aim was to assess whether this approach could be an effective tool for enhancing L2 pronunciation and speaking abilities in comparison to traditional teacher-led feedback and instruction., Methods: A total of 61 intermediate-level Chinese EFL learners were randomly assigned to either a control group (CG) or an experimental group (EG). The CG received conventional teacher-led feedback and instruction, while the EG used ASR technology with peer correction. Data collection involved read-aloud tasks, spontaneous conversations, and IELTS speaking tests to evaluate L2 pronunciation and speaking skills. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a subset of the participants to explore their perceptions of the ASR technology and its impact on their language learning experience., Results: The quantitative analysis of the collected data demonstrated that the EG outperformed the CG in all measures of L2 pronunciation, including accentedness and comprehensibility. Furthermore, the EG exhibited significant improvements in global speaking skill compared to the CG. The qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed that the majority of the participants in the EG found the ASR technology to be beneficial in enhancing their L2 pronunciation and speaking abilities., Discussion: The results of this study suggest that the utilization of ASR technology with peer correction can be a potent approach in enhancing L2 pronunciation and speaking skills among EFL learners. The improved performance of the EG compared to the CG in pronunciation and speaking tasks demonstrates the potential of incorporating ASR technology into language learning environments. Additionally, the positive feedback from the participants in the EG underscores the value of using ASR technology as a supportive tool in language learning classrooms., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Sun.)

The development of the central auditory system, including the auditory cortex and other areas involved in processing sound, is shaped by genetic and environmental factors, enabling infants to learn how to speak. Before explaining hearing in humans, a short overview of auditory dysfunction is provided. Environmental factors such as exposure to sound and language can impact the development and function of the auditory system sound processing, including discerning in speech perception, singing, and language processing. Infants can hear before birth, and sound exposure sculpts their developing auditory system structure and functions. Exposing infants to singing and speaking can support their auditory and language development. In aging humans, the hippocampus and auditory nuclear centers are affected by neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, resulting in memory and auditory processing difficulties. As the disease progresses, overt auditory nuclear center damage occurs, leading to problems in processing auditory information. In conclusion, combined memory and auditory processing difficulties significantly impact people's ability to communicate and engage with their societal essence.

Introduction: This mixed-methods national study has a two-fold purpose: (a) to invite Chinese college students to rate their overall difficulties in the eight areas of English learning, i.e., listening, speaking, reading, writing, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and culture; and (b) to invite them to identify their key challenges in learning EFL. Specifically, the following three research questions were asked: (a) what are their overall difficulties in the eight areas of learning EFL? (b) Are there significant differences in rating their overall difficulties in these eight areas across the demographic variables of gender (i.e., male versus female participants) and subject discipline (arts versus sciences versus English subject disciplines participants)? And (c) what are their key challenges in learning EFL?, Methods: The participants included a sample of 1,525 freshmen and sophomore students currently studying at seven universities across China. The instrument was a survey that consisted of a five-point Likert scale self-evaluation form and a major essay question addressing their key challenges. The qualitative data can help to probe deeply into the research setting to obtain in-depth understandings about Chinese college students' English learning; and therefore, they can greatly enhance the quantitative data., Results and Discussion: The quantitative results indicated that listening, speaking, and writing were their three key difficult areas in EFL learning; further, students' subject discipline (arts versus sciences verse English subject disciplines) had significant effects on their perceived learning challenges in English listening and vocabulary. The qualitative results confirmed that listening, speaking, and writing were their three key challenging areas. Their specific learning challenges in each area were examined. Implications for Chinese college English teachers and administrators are discussed in terms of pedagogy and policy making, respectively., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Huang, Li, Shu and Zhang.)

This study assessed the effectiveness of a methodology aimed at developing prospective pharmacists' professionally oriented English lexical competence in reading and speaking during individual study. The methodology considered students' interests and experience, forming lexical skills in reading, speaking, listening, and writing, integration with professional subjects, learning metacognitive, cognitive, and compensatory strategies, enhancing students' autonomy through purposeful forming their reflexive abilities, developing professionally oriented English lexical competence in reading and speaking within three stages, using the suggested system of exercises that consists of corresponding groups (correlating with the stages) and subgroups. The paper also substantiates the criteria for assessing the level of prospective pharmacists in mastering professionally oriented English lexical competence in reading and speaking: the accuracy of understanding, the correctness of guessing a lexical unit's meaning, the adequacy of lexical unit's usage, and lexical concentration. In addition, the paper describes the results of the experiment and validates the data obtained with the help of the multifunctional statistic criterion ∏* - of Fishers angular transformation., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (©2022 JOURNAL of MEDICINE and LIFE.)

Objective: To outline best practices for virtual and hybrid presentation effectiveness., Methods: Retrospective review of recommendations from world experts in how to develop a solid story, design slides that visually communicate, and improve delivery skills that connect with the audience. Virtual and hybrid presenting is not as strongly dependent on all the new technical and software means as supposed. Presentation basics remain critical., Result: Best practice in presentation effectiveness will statistically decrease the incidence of and risk factors for Nodding-off Episodes per Lecture (NOELs)., Conclusion: The future of presenting is here, and it is mostly online. Mastering the presentation basics and understanding the limitations and opportunities for this new virtual/hybrid presentation space will allow presenters the reach and influence their message deserves.

Evaluating candidates' answers in speaking skill is difficult and rarely explored. This task is challenging and can bring inconsistency in the rating quality among raters, especially in speaking assessments. Severe raters will bring more harm than good to the results that candidates receive. Many-faceted Rasch measurement (MFRM) was used to explore the differences in teachers' rating severity based on their rating experience, training experience, and teaching experience. The research uses a quantitative approach and a survey method to enlist 164 English teachers who teach lower secondary school pupils, who were chosen through a multistage clustered sampling procedure. All the facets involving teachers, candidates, items, and domains were calibrated using MFRM. Every teacher scored six candidates' responses in a speaking test consisting of three question items, and they were evaluated across three domains, namely vocabulary, grammar, and communicative competence. Results highlight that the rating quality was different in terms of teachers' rating experience and teaching experience. However, training experience did not bring any difference to teachers' rating quality on speaking test. The evidence from this study suggests that the two main factors of teaching and rating experience must be considered when appointing raters for the speaking test. The quality of training must be improved to produce a rater with good professional judgment. Raters need to be supplied with answer samples with varied levels of candidates' performance to practice before becoming a good rater. Further research might explore any other rater bias that may impact the psychological well-being of certain groups of students., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Mohd Noh and Mohd Matore.)

Background: Despite the advantages of tracheostomy placement in children requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation, vocalization and verbal communication remains limited in this population of children. The lack of these essential elements during a critical period of development can have a negative impact on overall development. In ventilator dependent children, in-line speaking valves (ISV) provide an opportunity for initiating speech and communication. The objective of this study is to examine patient characteristics and risk factors associated with tolerance and success of ISV trials performed with mechanically ventilated children., Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted at a large, tertiary care children's hospital to evaluate the outcomes of ISV trials in ventilator-dependent children with tracheostomies, from 2009 to 2019. The primary endpoints were tolerance of the initial ISV assessment, and successful completion of a trial. We compared demographic and clinical characteristics among children that had a successful ISV trial to those that did not., Results: Eighty-nine patients were included, 56 (62%) were male and 33 (38%) were female. Overall, 76 (85%) patients completed an ISV assessment and trial successfully during their hospitalization. The number of attempts before completing a successful trial varied with 41 (46%) patients succeeding on the first attempt. Children that underwent a tracheostomy for airway obstruction were more likely to fail., Conclusions: Ventilator-dependent children with complex comorbidities demonstrate excellent tolerance of in-line speaking valves. Patients should be selected for ISV trials in a multidisciplinary setting. Airway obstruction as an indication for tracheostomy placement is a significant predictor of failure for ISV trials., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Face masks, which serve as personal protection equipment, have become ubiquitous for combating the ongoing COVID-19. However, conventional electrostatic-based mask filters are disposable and short-term effective with high breathing resistance, causing respiratory ailments and massive consumption (129 billion monthly), intensifying global environmental pollution. In an effort to address these challenges, the introduction of a piezoelectric polymer was adopted to realize the charge-laden melt-blown via the melt-blowing method. The charge-laden melt-blown could be applied to manufacture face masks and to generate charges triggered by mechanical and acoustic energy originated from daily speaking. Through an efficient and scalable industrial melt-blown process, our charge-laden mask is capable of overcoming the inevitable electrostatic attenuation, even in a high-humidity atmosphere by long-wearing (prolonging from 4 to 72 h) and three-cycle common decontamination methods. Combined with outstanding protective properties (PM 2.5 filtration efficiency >99.9%), breathability (differential pressure <17 Pa/cm 2 ), and mechanical strength, the resultant charge-laden mask could enable the decreased replacement of masks, thereby lowering to 94.4% of output masks worldwide (∼122 billion monthly) without substituting the existing structure or assembling process.

The neurobiology of sentence production has been largely understudied compared to the neurobiology of sentence comprehension, due to difficulties with experimental control and motion-related artifacts in neuroimaging. We studied the neural response to constituents of increasing size and specifically focused on the similarities and differences in the production and comprehension of the same stimuli. Participants had to either produce or listen to stimuli in a gradient of constituent size based on a visual prompt. Larger constituent sizes engaged the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and middle temporal gyrus (LMTG) extending to inferior parietal areas in both production and comprehension, confirming that the neural resources for syntactic encoding and decoding are largely overlapping. An ROI analysis in LIFG and LMTG also showed that production elicited larger responses to constituent size than comprehension and that the LMTG was more engaged in comprehension than production, while the LIFG was more engaged in production than comprehension. Finally, increasing constituent size was characterized by later BOLD peaks in comprehension but earlier peaks in production. These results show that syntactic encoding and parsing engage overlapping areas, but there are asymmetries in the engagement of the language network due to the specific requirements of production and comprehension., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Japanese English learners have difficulty speaking Double Object (DO; give B A) than Prepositional Object (PO; give A to B) structures which neural underpinning is unknown. In speaking, syntactic and phonological processing follow semantic encoding, conversion of non-verbal mental representation into a structure suitable for expression. To test whether DO difficulty lies in linguistic or prelinguistic process, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging. Thirty participants described cartoons using DO or PO, or simply named them. Greater reaction times and error rates indicated DO difficulty. DO compared with PO showed parieto-frontal activation including left inferior frontal gyrus, reflecting linguistic process. Psychological priming in PO produced immediately after DO and vice versa compared to after control, indicated shared process between PO and DO. Cross-structural neural repetition suppression was observed in occipito-parietal regions, overlapping the linguistic system in pre-SMA. Thus DO and PO share prelinguistic process, whereas linguistic process imposes overload in DO., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Nakagawa, Koike, Sumiya, Shimada, Makita, Yoshida, Yokokawa and Sadato.)

The main purpose of English learning is to communicate and interact in global contexts. However, in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts as in China, most of the students have limited interactional competence in contrast to their grammatical and structural competence. The reason is that Chinese classrooms mostly lack an interactional climate. This calls for an urgent need to develop interpersonal interaction skills by EFL teachers via appropriate strategies. To this end, this article presents an overview of nine interpersonal communication skills/strategies which are pivotal in L2 education. It also describes their definitions and related theories. Moreover, the outcomes of such strategies in aural skills are also explained. Finally, implications, research gaps, and future avenues for research are provided., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Ding.)

Physical distancing has been an important policy to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in public settings. However, the current 1-2 m physical distancing rule is based on the physics of droplet transport and could not directly translate into infection risk. We therefore revisit the 2-m physical distancing rule by developing an infection-risk-based model for human speaking. The key modeling framework components include viral load, droplets dispersion and evaporation, deposition efficiency, viral dose-response rate and infection risk. The results suggest that the one-size-fits-all 2-m physical distancing rule derived from the pure droplet-physics-based model is not applicable under some realistic indoor settings, and may rather increase transmission probability of diseases. Especially, in thermally stratified environments, the infection risk could exhibit multiple peaks for a long distance beyond 2 m. With Sobol's sensitivity analysis, most variance of the risk is found to be significantly attributable to the variability in temperature gradient, exposure time and breathing height difference. Our study suggests there is no such magic 2 m physical distancing rule for all environments, but it needs to be used alongside other strategies, such as using face cover, reducing exposure time, and controlling the thermal stratification of indoor environment., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

This study examines the effectiveness of using YouTube videos in teaching the speaking skills among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in Jordan. The study sample comprised 80 students attending Oral Skills classes in the English Language and Literature Department at a private university in Jordan. The participants were equally divided into a control group and an experimental group of 40 students each. The experimental group was taught through the use of YouTube videos, while the control group was taught the speaking skills using the traditional approach. A pre-test and a post-test were administered to the two groups. Four TEFL experts were asked to rate the participants' performance using the IELTS speaking band descriptors, which consist of four main categories: fluency & coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range & accuracy, and pronunciation. The findings showed that the performance of the two groups was improved. However, compared to the traditional group, the experimental group demonstrated a relatively better improvement. The results also showed significant progress in the speaking performance of the students subjected to the YouTube experiment. Of all the four constructs under investigation, pronunciation and fluency & coherence were the most noticeably advanced in the performance of the YouTube experimental group. The present study recommends that YouTube videos be embedded into the EFL classroom to improve students' speaking skills., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

In the blocked cyclic naming task, native Mandarin speakers named pictures with disyllabic names in small sets and blocks, with the critical manipulation whether pictures within a block shared an atonal syllable or not. We found the expected facilitation when the overlapping portion of responses was in word-initial position, but we also replicated a recent observation that with 'inconsistent' overlap (shared syllables could be either in first or second word position), form overlap causes interference. Crucially, interference also occurred when phonologically unrelated filler trials or trials which required a nonlinguistic response were interleaved with the critical pictures. The same pattern was found with written responses and orthographic radical overlap. The results are best explained via "competitive incremental learning" between lexical and phonological representations. A computer simulation confirms that this principle generates interference, and that the result is unaffected by filler trials. We conclude that incremental learning constitutes a universal principle in the mapping from semantics to phonology in language production., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Our research aimed to review the potential risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2. We used an excerpt of a data set generated in May 2020 for reviewing the SARS-CoV-2 prevention concept of orchestras, singers and actors. People were sampled for droplet release for one-hour activities using a Grimm spectrometer covering a spectrum of 1 to 32 µm diameter. We estimated the number of "quanta" in the exhaled liquid from viral concentrations of 10 6 to 10 11 /mL, based on the Human Infective Dose 50 of 218 viral particles. We employed the Wells-Riley equation to estimate the risk of infection in typical meeting rooms for a one-hour meeting of 2, 4 and 6 people observing a 2 m distance. The four participating adults released a mean of 1.28 nLm 3 while breathing, 1.68 nL/m 3 while speaking normally, and two adults released a mean of 4.44 nL/m 3 while talking with a raised voice. The combination of 50% breathing, 45% talking normally and 5% speaking with a raised voice increased the risk of infection above 5% for a one-hour meeting of two people. The result is based on 6 quanta released, corresponding to an initial virus concentration of 1000/nL (10 9 /mL) in the fluid of the upper respiratory tract. Our data confirm the importance of using facemasks in combination with other measures to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at the workplace.

Functional neuroimaging studies show an overactivation of speech and language related homologous areas of the right hemisphere in persons who stutter. In this study, we inhibited Broca's homologues using 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and assessed its effects on stuttering severity. The investigated cortical areas included pars opercularis (BA44), anterior and posterior pars triangularis (BA45), mouth area on the primary motor cortex (BA4). We collected reading and speaking samples before and after rTMS sessions and calculated the percentage of syllables stuttered. Only right anterior pars triangularis stimulation induced significant changes in speech fluency. Notably, the effects were differential for reading and speaking conditions. Overall, our results provide supportive evidence that right anterior BA45 may be a critical region for stuttering. The observed differential effects following the inhibition of right anterior BA45 merits further study of contributions of this region on different language domains in persons who stutter., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Misunderstanding exists about what constitutes comprehension-based monitoring in speaking and what it empirically implies. Here, I make clear that the use of the speech comprehension system is the defining property of comprehension-based monitoring rather than conscious and deliberate processing, as maintained by Nozari (2020). Therefore, contrary to what Nozari claims, my arguments in Roelofs (2020) are suitable for addressing her criticisms raised against comprehension-based monitoring. Also, I indicate that Nozari does not correctly describe my view in a review of her paper. Finally, I further clarify what comprehension-based monitoring entails empirically, thereby dealing with Nozari's new criticisms and inaccurate descriptions of empirical findings. I conclude that comprehension-based monitoring remains a viable account of self-monitoring in speaking., Competing Interests: The author has no competing interests to declare., (Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s).)

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) continues to be one of the most common postoperative complications. In our previous study, surgical mask (SM) bioburden was identified to be a potential source of SSI. In the present study, we investigated the factors involved in SM bioburden., Methods: Bioburdens of the disposable SM (A: medical mask; B: medical surgical mask) and newly laundered cloth SM (C) were tested by immediately making an impression of the external surface of the mask on sterile culture media. SM microstructure was observed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Filtering efficiency and airflow resistance were evaluated with TSI Automated Filter Tester 8130 (TSI Incorporated) according to GB/19083-2010. Whether speaking during operation and washing the face pre-operatively affect SM bioburdens was also evaluated. Surgical procedures were performed in a dynamic operation room. Fifty cases of mask use were enrolled in this study., Results: The bioburden of mask A was the highest. The bioburden of mask B was the lowest. Mask C possessed the lowest filtering efficiency and the highest airflow resistance. SM bioburden was higher in the speaking group. SM bioburden showed no significant difference after washing the face, despite the finding that washing could significantly reduce facial bioburden., Conclusions: Multiple factors influence SM bioburdens. Mask B showed the lowest bioburden and best protection effects. Mask C is not recommended to be used, especially considering that surgeons do not wash the cloth masks daily. Unnecessary talking during operation is not recommended, and washing the face before surgery is not strictly necessary., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (2019 Annals of Translational Medicine. All rights reserved.)

Speaking is one of the most complex motor actions that humans can perform, requiring the coordination between linguistic, cognitive, affective and sensorimotor systems. Perhaps counter-intuitively, it is also one of the easiest acts that humans perform, on a daily basis, from a very early age till the end of life, without even thinking about it. With age, however, spoken language production undergoes significant changes, with potential impacts on interpersonal communication and social participation. Unfortunately, the neurobiological mechanisms involved are unclear, which impedes efforts towards the development of clinical interventions, differential diagnosis strategies and even prevention strategies for this population. In the present study, we examined age differences in speech production using a simple diadochokinetic rates task in which phonological and sequential complexity were manipulated. 85 cognitively healthy adults (20-93 years) were recruited from the general population. Cognitive level, hearing and depression symptoms were measured. Participants produced short and long sequences of simple and complex syllables aloud as quickly, steadily and accurately as possible. Performance was assessed in terms of articulation rate, articulation rate stability and accuracy. Results show that, controlling for cognition, hearing and depression, articulation rate stability and accuracy declined significantly with age. The phonological manipulation had more impact on performance than the sequential manipulation. These findings were interpreted as reflecting age-related central disruptions at the level of phonological and motor planning, which provides important new cues into underlying neurobiological mechanisms., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Nurses are involved in the treatment of pain through its evaluation, the collection of data and the administering of prescribed treatments. They often get to see the link with the patient's life history, and the depression and anxiety so frequently associated with chronic pain. In pain consultations, the clinical psychologist forms part of the team work by encouraging patients to express themselves. Expressing the body can serve as a springboard to psychotherapeutic effects as illustrated here by a clinical case., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of writing, reading, and speaking on orbiculari oculi (OO) muscle spasms and on the blink rate in patients with blepharospasm (BSP). Patients with hemifacial spasm (HFS) and healthy subjects (HS) acted as control subjects. Thirty patients with BSP, 20 patients with primary HFS and 20 age-matched healthy subjects were videotaped according to a standardized procedure: at rest with eyes open; while writing a standard sentence on paper; while writing a standard sentence on a blackboard keeping the head straight; during a conversation based on a simple topic (speaking task); and while reading a standard text aloud. Two independent movement disorders specialists reviewed the videotapes and measured the number of OO spasms and blinks in each segment. Writing and reading reduced the number of OO spasms in BSP patients, whereas speaking did not. On the other hand, writing, reading, and speaking did not modify spasms in HFS patients. These tasks modulated the blink rate in all the three groups of subjects (BSP, HFS, and HS). Our hypothesis is that the modulation of OO spasm in BSP during writing and reading depends on influences coming from occipital areas onto the brainstem circuits. Whether cognitive training with reading and writing may be used to improve OO muscle spasms is an issue that warrants further investigation.

For literate individuals, does the spoken production of language involve access to orthographic codes? Previous research has rendered mixed results, with a few positive findings contrasting with a range of null findings. In the current experiments, we chose spoken Mandarin as the target language in order to better dissociate sound from spelling. Mandarin speakers named coloured line drawings of common objects with adjective-noun phrases (e.g., /lan2/ /hua1ping2/, "blue vase"). Adjectives and nouns were semantically and phonologically unrelated on all trials, but on critical trials they shared an orthographic radical. In two experiments, this resulted in a significant facilitatory effect on naming latencies. We interpret these results as strong evidence for the claim that retrieval of phonological codes in spoken production involves the co-activation of orthographic representations.

Speaking is an intentional activity. It is also a complex motor skill; one that exhibits protracted development and the fully automatic character of an overlearned behavior. Together these observations suggest an analogy with skilled behavior in the non-language domain. This analogy is used here to argue for a model of production that is grounded in the activity of speaking and structured during language acquisition. The focus is on the plan that controls the execution of fluent speech; specifically, on the units that are activated during the production of an intonational phrase. These units are schemas: temporally structured sequences of remembered actions and their sensory outcomes. Schemas are activated and inhibited via associated goals, which are linked to specific meanings. Schemas may fuse together over developmental time with repeated use to form larger units, thereby affecting the relative timing of sequential action in participating schemas. In this way, the hierarchical structure of the speech plan and ensuing rhythm patterns of speech are a product of development. Individual schemas may also become differentiated during development, but only if subsequences are associated with meaning. The necessary association of action and meaning gives rise to assumptions about the primacy of certain linguistic forms in the production process. Overall, schema representations connect usage-based theories of language to the action of speaking.

Unlabelled: Vocalizing is a ubiquitous pain behavior. The present study investigated whether it helps alleviate pain and sought to discern potential underlying mechanisms. Participants were asked to immerse one hand in painfully cold water. On separate trials, they said "ow," heard a recording of them saying "ow," heard a recording of another person saying "ow," pressed a button, or sat passively. Compared to sitting passively, saying "ow" increased the duration of hand immersion. Although on average, participants predicted this effect, their expectations were uncorrelated with pain tolerance. Like vocalizing, button pressing increased the duration of hand immersion, and this increase was positively correlated with the vocalizing effect. Hearing one's own or another person's "ow" was not analgesic. Together, these results provide first evidence that vocalizing helps individuals cope with pain. Moreover, they suggest that motor more than other processes contribute to this effect., Perspective: Participants immersed their hand in painfully cold water longer when saying "ow" than when doing nothing. Whereas button pressing had a similar effect, hearing one's own or another person's "ow" did not. Thus, vocalizing in pain is not only communicative. Like other behaviors, it helps cope with pain., (Copyright © 2015 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To systematically review studies measuring the influence of pre-existing disability on the risk of sustaining an injury., Design: Systematic review., Data Sources: Electronic databases searched included Medline (Pubmed), ProQuest, Ovid and EMBASE., Inclusion Criteria: Studies (1990-2010) in international peer-reviewed journals were identified with main inclusion criteria being that the study assessed involvement of injury sustained by persons with and without pre-existing disability., Methods: Studies were collated by design and methods, and evaluation of results., Results: Twenty-two studies met the inclusion criteria of our review. All studies found that persons with disabilities were at a significantly higher risk of sustaining injuries than those without. Persons with disability had a 30-450% increased odds (odds ratio 1.3-5.5) of sustaining injury compared to persons without disability. Among persons with pre-existing disability, the high risk groups of sustaining an injury are children and elderly., Conclusions: People with disabilities experience a higher risk to sustain an injury in comparison to the healthy population. There is a high need for large epidemiological studies of injury among persons with disability, to better address these unique risk profiles in order to prevent additional disability or secondary conditions., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Size distributions of expiratory droplets expelled during coughing and speaking and the velocities of the expiration air jets of healthy volunteers were measured. Droplet size was measured using the interferometric Mie imaging (IMI) technique while the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique was used for measuring air velocity. These techniques allowed measurements in close proximity to the mouth and avoided air sampling losses. The average expiration air velocity was 11.7 m/s for coughing and 3.9 m/s for speaking. Under the experimental setting, evaporation and condensation effects had negligible impact on the measured droplet size. The geometric mean diameter of droplets from coughing was 13.5 μm and it was 16.0 μm for speaking (counting 1-100). The estimated total number of droplets expelled ranged from 947 to 2085 per cough and 112-6720 for speaking. The estimated droplet concentrations for coughing ranged from 2.4 to 5.2 cm -3 per cough and 0.004-0.223 cm -3 for speaking., (Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)