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Objective: This study aims to compare the publication rates of audiology master's and doctoral theses completed in 2017 and to investigate the effectiveness of the "publication of theses before graduation" rule applied by some universities. Materials and Methods: The participants' age range, gender, degrees, graduation year, private/state university graduation, institutions where they proceeded to their business life, and publication status of their master's and doctoral theses were questioned using a survey consisting of 16 multiple-choice as well as two open-ended questions. The study comprised 71 participants who completed their master's or doctoral degrees in audiology in 2017 and later. The descriptive statistic and Chi-Squared test were used for statistical analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0. Results: Thirty-five of the 62 (56.45%) master's theses were presented at an international (n=21, 33.87%) or national (n=14, 22.58%) congress as oral/poster presentations. Thirty-three of the 62 (53.22%) master's theses were published as articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, of the 16 doctoral theses, two (12.5%) were presented as oral/posters at a national and five (31.25%) at an international congress. Ten of the 16 theses (62.5%) were published in an international SCI/SCIE journal. Conclusion: The rate of publication of master's and doctoral theses in national journals has decreased while the rate of publication in international journals has more than doubled. It was concluded that the "publishing theses before graduation" rule significantly increased the publication rates in international journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Oticon Medical cochlear implant (CI) systems were evaluated for noise reduction effectiveness using voice track (VT) and adaptive directional microphones to determine the optimum CI fitting parameters, especially in noisy environments. Methods: Ten CI users (3 females, mean age 28.22; 7 males, mean age 36.71) participated in the study. Speech recognition in noise was evaluated in different test conditions with 2-syllable word lists in stationary speech-shaped noise. Five different test conditions were determined for each participant using a combination of software-based VT and directional microphone technology. In the first condition, the omnidirectional microphone (M) was selected and VT was turned off. The fully directional M and strong VT combination were activated in the second condition. In the third condition, the omnidirectional M and strong VT were set. In the fourth condition, automatic adaptive directional M and medium VT were used. Finally, omnidirectional M and medium VT were selected. Results: Speech comprehension scores obtained in a quiet environment were significantly better than those of the other 4 conditions in a noisy environment (P < .01). In addition, the best noise comprehension score (44%) was obtained in the fourth condition, although this was not statistically significant (P < .05). Conclusion: The VT technology was more effective in understanding speech in noise when used in the medium setting and with an automatic adaptive directional microphone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This study evaluated the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the cochlea and auditory efferent system with transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) and contralateral suppression (CS). Objective We aimed to evaluate the pre- and post-COVID-19 TEOAE and CS results in the same participants to reveal the effect of COVID-19 on the efferent auditory system. Study Design The CS measurement was performed twice for each participant before a diagnosis of COVID-19 and after treatment for COVID-19 as a within-subjects study design. All participants exhibited hearing thresholds below 25 dB HL at all frequencies and all participants demonstrated bilateral Type A tympanograms. The tests were performed in the linear mode using a double probe on the Otodynamics ILO292-II device. The CS of the otoacoustic emissions was measured at 65 dB peSPL TEOAE stimulus and 65 dB SPL broadband noise. All parameters including reproducibility, noise, and stability were considered during the measurements. Study Samples The study included 11 patients (eight females and three males) aged between 20 and 35 years (mean age, 26 ± 3.66). Data Collection and Analysis Wilcoxon signed rank test and Spearman's correlation test were used for statistical analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 23.0. Results The Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that there was no significant difference between the pre-and post-COVID-19 TEOAE CS results in all tested frequencies and measurement parameters, 1000 to 4000 Hz, Z = −0.356, −0.089, −0.533, −0.533, −1.156, and p < 0.05. Although not statistically significant, the CS results obtained post-COVID-19 at all frequencies, except 4000 Hz, were lower than those before COVID-19. According to the overall TEOAE results after COVID-19, a statistically significant decrease was observed at 3000 Hz (Z = −2.847, p < 0.01) and 4000 Hz (Z = −2.401, p < 0.05) compared with the premeasurement. Conclusion The study findings show that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 can affect the cochlea and the auditory efferent system in adults. Post-COVID-19 audiological evaluation can also be considered part of a general medical examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]