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Producing word-initial /s/-stop clusters can be a challenge for English-speaking pre-schoolers. For children with hearing loss (HL), fricatives can be also difficult to perceive, raising questions about their production and representation of /s/-stop clusters. The goal of this study was therefore to determine if pre-schoolers with HL can produce and represent the /s/ in word-initial /s/-stop clusters, and to compare this to their normal hearing (NH) peers. Based on both acoustic and perceptual analysis, we found that children with HL had little /s/-omission, suggesting that their phonological representation of these clusters closely aligns with that of their NH peers.

Children as young as five have some ability to produce contrastive focus [Wells et al. (2004) J. Child Lang. 31, 749–778]. However, adult listeners' ability to identify the location of contrastive focus depends on whether the speech came from a 4-, 7-, or 11-year-old [Patel and Brayton (2009) J. Speech. Lang. Hear. Res. 52, 790–801]. Recent acoustic studies have also reported the use of F0 vs duration in contrastive focus productions by American English–speaking 2-year-olds [Thorson and Morgan (2021) J. Child Lang. 48, 541–568] and 4-year-olds [Wonnacott and Watson (2008) Cognition 107, 1093–1101], respectively. This study, therefore, evaluated the extent to which older 6-year-olds, with more language experience, used F0 and/or duration when producing contrastive focus, and compared this to adult speech. Monosyllabic and disyllabic adjective + noun targets (e.g., green ball) in utterance medial and final position were elicited from 20 Australian English–speaking 6-year-olds and 14 adults in adjective focus and noun focus conditions. Although both adults and children used high F0, only adults consistently used word and stressed syllable duration as well. This suggests that children may master the different acoustic cues to contrastive focus at different stages of development, with late cue integration.

Contrastive focus, conveyed by prosodic cues, marks important information. Studies have shown that 6-year-olds learning English and Japanese can use contrastive focus during online sentence comprehension: focus used in a

Learning to use word versus phrase level prosody to identify compounds from lists is thought to be a protracted process, only acquired by 11 years (Vogel & Raimy, 2002). However, a recent study has shown that 5-year-olds can use prosodic cues other than stress for these two structures in production, at least for early-acquired noun-noun compounds (Yuen et al., 2021). This raises the question of whether children this age can also use naturally-produced prosody to identify noun-noun compounds from their list forms in comprehension. The results show that 5-6-year-olds (N = 28) can only identify compounds. Unlike adults, children as a group could not use boundary cues to identify lists and were significantly slower in their processing compared to adults. This suggests that the acquisition of word level prosody may precede the acquisition of phrase level prosody, i.e., some higher-level aspects of phrasal prosody may take longer to acquire.

While voicing contrasts in word-onset position are acquired relatively early, much less is known about how and when they are acquired in word-coda position, where accurate production of these contrasts is also critical for distinguishing words (e.g., dog vs. dock). This study examined how the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts are realized in the speech of 4-year-old Australian English-speaking children. The results showed that children used similar acoustic cues to those of adults, including longer vowel duration and more frequent voice bar for voiced stops, and longer closure and burst durations for voiceless stops along with more frequent irregular pitch periods. This suggests that 4-year-olds have acquired productive use of the acoustic cues to coda voicing contrasts, though implementations are not yet fully adult-like. The findings have implications for understanding the development of phonological contrasts in populations for whom these may be challenging, such as children with hearing loss.

Voicing contrasts are lexically important for differentiating words in many languages (e.g., "bear" vs "pear"). Temporal differences in the voice onset time (VOT) and closure duration (CD) contribute to the voicing contrast in word-onset position. However, little is known about the acoustic realization of these voicing contrasts in Australian English-speaking children. This is essential for understanding the challenges faced by those with language delay. Therefore, the present study examined the VOT and CD values for word-initial stops as produced by 20 Australian English-speaking 4-5-year-olds. As anticipated, these children produced a systematic distinction between voiced and voiceless stops at all places of articulation (PoAs). However, although the children's VOT values for voiced stops were similar to those of adults, their VOTs for voiceless stops were longer. Like adults, the children also had different CD values for voiced and voiceless categories; however, these were systematically longer than those of adults. Even after adjusting for temporal differences by computing proportional ratios for the VOT and CD, children's voicing contrasts were not yet adultlike. These results suggest that children of this age are still developing appropriate timing and articulatory adjustments for voicing contrasts in the word-initial position.

Although previous research has indicated that five-year-olds can use acoustic cues to disambiguate compounds (N1 + N2) from lists (N1, N2) (e.g., ‘ice-cream’ vs. ‘ice, cream’) (Yoshida & Katz, 2004, 2006), their productions are not yet fully adult-like (Wells, Peppé & Goulandris, 2004). The goal of this study was to examine this issue in Australian English-speaking children, with a focus on their use of F0, word duration, and pauses. Twenty-four five-year-olds and 20 adults participated in an elicited production experiment. Like adults, children produced distinct F0 patterns for the two structures. They also used longer word durations and more pauses in lists compared to compounds, indicating the presence of a boundary in lists. However, unlike adults, they also inappropriately inserted more pauses within the compound, suggesting the presence of a boundary in compounds as well. The implications for understanding children's developing knowledge of how to map acoustic cues to prosodic structures are discussed.

Purpose: Children with hearing loss (HL), including those with hearing aids (HAs) and cochlear implants (CIs), often have difficulties contrasting words like “ b each ” versus “ p each ” and “ do g ” versus “ do ck ” due to challenges producing systematic voicing contrasts. Even when acoustic contrasts are present, these may not be perceived as such by others. This can cause miscommunication, leading to poor self-esteem and social isolation. Acoustic evidence is therefore needed to determine if these children have established distinct voicing categories before entering school and if misperceptions are due to a lack of phonological representations or due to a still-maturing implementation system. The findings should help inform more effective early intervention. Method: Participants included 14 children with HL (eight HA users, five CI users, and one bimodal) and 20 with normal hearing, all English-speaking preschoolers. In an elicited imitation task, they produced consonant–vowel–consonant minimal pair words that contrasted voicing in word-initial (onset) or word-final (coda) position at all three places of articulation (PoAs). Results: Overall, children with HL showed acoustically distinct voicing categories for both onsets and codas at all three PoAs. Contrasts were less systematic for codas than for onsets, as also confirmed by adults' perceptual ratings. Conclusions: Preschoolers with HL produce acoustic differences for voiced versus voiceless onsets and codas, indicating distinct phonological representations for both. Nonetheless, codas were less accurately perceived by adult raters, especially when produced by CI users. This suggests a protracted development of the phonetic implementation of codas, where CI users, in particular, may benefit from targeted intervention.

Objectives Children with cochlear implants (CIs) face challenges in acquiring tones, since CIs do not transmit pitch information effectively. It has been suggested that longer CI experience provides additional benefits for children implanted early, enabling them to achieve language abilities similar to that of normal-hearing (NH) children (Colletti 2009). Mandarin is a tonal language with four lexical tones and a neutral tone (T0), characterized by distinct pitch and durational patterns. It has been suggested that early implantation (i.e., before 2 years) greatly benefits the acquisition of Mandarin tones by children with CIs (Tang et al. 2019c). In this study, we extend those findings to investigate the effect of CI experience on the acquisition of Mandarin tones for children implanted early. We asked the extent to which they were able to produce distinct pitch and durational patterns of both lexical tones and T0 as a function of CI experience, and the extent to which their tonal productions were acoustically like that of NH children. Design Forty-four NH 3-year olds and 28 children implanted with CIs between 1 and 2 years, aged 3 to 7, were recruited. The children with CIs were grouped according to the length of CI experience: 3 to 6 years, 2 to 3 years, and 1 to 2 years. Lexical tone and T0 productions were elicited using a picture-naming task. Tonal productions from the children with CIs were acoustically analyzed and compared with those from the NH children. Results Children with 3 to 6 years of CI experience were able to produce distinct pitch and durational patterns for both lexical tones and T0, with NH-like acoustic realizations. Children with 2 to 3 years of CI experience were also able to produce the expected tonal patterns, although their productions were not yet NH-like. Those with only 1 to 2 years of CI experience, however, were not yet able to produce the distinct acoustic patterns for either lexical tones or T0. Conclusions These results provide acoustic evidence demonstrating that, when Mandarin-speaking children are implanted before the age of 2, only those with 3 to 6 years of experience were able to produce NH-like tones, including both lexical tone and T0. Children with shorter CI experience (less than 3 years) were unable to produce distinct acoustic patterns for the different tones. This suggests that at least 3 years of CI experience is still needed for early implanted children to acquire tonal distinctions similar to those of NH 3-year olds.

Phonological processes can pose a learning challenge for children, where the surface form for an underlying contrast may vary as a function of the phonological environment. Mandarin tone sandhi is a complex phonological process that requires knowledge about both the tonal and the prosodic context in which it applies. The present study explored the productive knowledge of tone sandhi processes by 108 3- to 5-year-old Mandarin-speaking children and 33 adults. Participants were asked to produce novel tone sandhi compounds in different tonal contexts and prosodic structures. Acoustic analysis showed that 3-year-olds have abstracted the tone sandhi process and can productively apply it to novel disyllabic words across tonal contexts. However, even 5-year-olds still differed from adults in applying tone sandhi in response to the trisyllabic prosodic structure. The results are discussed in terms of the factors that influence how tone sandhi processes, and phonological alternations more generally, are acquired.

Weak syllables in Germanic and Romance languages have been reported to be challenging for young children, with syllable omission and/or incomplete reduction persisting till age five. In Mandarin Chinese, neutral tone (T0) involves a weak syllable with varied pitch realizations across (preceding) tonal contexts and short duration. The present study examined how and when T0 was acquired by 108 Beijing Mandarin-speaking children (3–5 years) relative to 33 adult controls. Lexicalized (familiar) and non-lexicalized (unfamiliar) T0 words were elicited in different preceding tonal contexts. Unlike previous reports, the present study revealed that children as young as three years have already developed a phonological category for T0, exhibiting contextually conditioned tonal realizations of T0 for both familiar and unfamiliar items. However, mastery of adult-like pitch and duration implementation of T0 is a protracted process not completed until age five. The implications for the acquisition of weak syllables more generally are discussed.

Mandarin lexical tones are modified in both infant-directed speech (IDS) and Lombard speech, resulting in tone hyperarticulation. However, it is unclear if these registers also alter contextual tones (neutral tone and tone sandhi) and if such phonetic modification might affect acquisition of these tones. This study therefore examined how neutral tone and tone sandhi are realized in IDS, and how their acoustic manifestations compare with those in Lombard speech, where the communicative needs of listeners differ. Neutral tone and tone sandhi productions were elicited from 15 Mandarin-speaking mothers during (1) interactions with their 12-month-old infants (IDS), (2) in conversation with a Mandarin-speaking adult in a noisy environment (Lombard speech), and (3) in conversation with a Mandarin-speaking adult in a quiet environment (adult-directed speech). The results showed that, although both contextual tones were modified in IDS and Lombard speech, their key tone features were maintained. In addition, IDS and Lombard speech modified these tones differently: IDS increased pitch height and modified pitch contour, while Lombard speech increased pitch height only. The realization of neutral tone and tone sandhi across registers is discussed with reference to listeners' different communicative needs.

Purpose Non-rhotic varieties of English often use /ɹ/ insertion as a connected speech process to separate heterosyllabic V 1 .V 2 hiatus contexts. However, there has been little research on children's development of this strategy. This study investigated whether children use /ɹ/ insertion and, if so, whether hiatus-breaking /ɹ/ can be considered planned, as evidenced by F3 lowering on V 1 . Method Thirteen Australian English–speaking children (7 girls, 6 boys; mean age 6;1 [years;months]) participated in an elicited production task. The stimuli included carrier sentences containing 4 test words (linking /ɹ/ context: door, floor ; intrusive /ɹ/ context: paw, claw ) followed by of (e.g., “This is the paw of the cat”). After familiarization containing auditory and picture prompts, children produced test sentences upon presentation of picture prompts alone. Results Eight children produced /ɹ/ insertion; the others used (some) glottalization. The incidence of /ɹ/ did not vary across linking or intrusive contexts, and inserted /ɹ/ was associated with F3 lowering at V 1 onset relative to control items without /ɹ/. Conclusion Six-year-old Australian English–speaking children who use /ɹ/ insertion show evidence of planning ahead and inserting /ɹ/ as a segment. The implications for the development of speech-planning processes and phonological and lexical representations are discussed.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study is to assess the use of discourse strategies and the production of prosody by prelingually deaf adolescent users of cochlear implants (CIs) when participating in a referential communication task. We predict that CI users will issue more directives (DIRs) and make less use of information requests (IRs) in completing the task than their normally hearing (NH) peers. We also predict that in signaling these IRs and DIRs, the CI users will produce F0 rises of lesser magnitude than the NH speakers. DESIGN Eight prelingually deaf adolescent CI users and 8 NH adolescents completed a referential communication task, where participants were required to direct their interlocutor around a map. Participants were aged from 12.0 to 14.2 years. The mean age at implantation for the CI group was 2.1 years (SD 0.9). The use of IRs, DIRs, acknowledgments, and comments was compared between the two groups. The use and magnitude of fundamental frequency (F0) rises on IRs and DIRs was also compared. RESULTS The CI users differed from the NH speakers in how they resolved communication breakdown. The CI users showed a preference for repeating DIRs, rather than seeking information as did the NH speakers. A nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test indicated that the CI users issued more DIRs (U = 8, p = 0.01), produced fewer IRs (U = 13, p = 0.05) and fewer acknowledgments (U = 5, p = 0.003) than their NH counterparts. The CI users also differed in how they used F0 rises as a prosodic cue to signal IRs and DIRs. The CI users produced larger F0 rises on DIRs than on IRs, a pattern opposite to that displayed by the NH speakers. An independent samples t-test revealed that the CI users produced smaller rises on IRs compared with those produced by the NH speakers [t(12) = -2.762, p = 0.02]. CONCLUSIONS The CI users differed from the NH speakers in how they resolved communication breakdown. The CI users showed a preference for repeating DIRs, rather than seeking information to understand their interlocutor's point of view. Their use of prosody to signal discourse function also differed from their NH peers. These differences may indicate a lack of understanding of how prosody is used to signal discourse modality by the CI users. This study highlights the need for further research focused on the interaction of prosody, discourse, and language comprehension.

Phonological processes result in surface variants of the same words across phonological contexts, posing potential word learning challenges for children. Mandarin tone sandhi is a tonal process changing Tone 3 (T3) in different tonal and syntactic contexts, resulting in allophonic variants of T3 in connected speech. Previous studies found that Mandarin-learning 3-year-olds were able to productively apply tone sandhi processes in novel compounds, correctly using the allophonic variants of T3 in appropriate tone sandhi contexts (Tang et al., 2018, 2019). However, it remains unclear how these variants are represented in children's mental lexicon. This study, therefore, examined Mandarin-learning children's perceptual representation of allophonic variants of T3. Ninety-four 3- to 5-year-olds and 29 adults were tested. Sensitivity to allophonic mispronunciations of T3 syllables in novel tone sandhi compounds was measured using a visual fixation procedure. The results showed that children, like adults, treated tone sandhi mispronunciations as target-like. Thus, in recognizing novel tone sandhi words, Mandarin-speaking children exhibit flexibility in accommodating the allophonic variants of T3, suggesting that they have developed an abstract T3 category in their mental lexicon. The findings reveal the effect of phonological processes in shaping children's phonological representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Purpose Children with cochlear implants (CIs) face challenges in acquiring tonal languages, as CIs do not efficiently code pitch information. Mandarin is a tonal language with lexical tones and tonal processes such as neutral tone and tone sandhi, exhibiting contextually conditioned tonal realizations. Previous studies suggest that early implantation and long CI experience facilitate the acquisition of lexical tones by children with CIs. However, there is lack of acoustic evidence on children's tonal productions demonstrating that this is the case, and it is unclear whether and how children with CIs are able to acquire contextual tones. This study therefore examined the acoustic realization of both lexical tones and contextual tones as produced by children fitted with CIs, exploring the potential effects of age at implantation and length of CI experience on their acquisition of the Mandarin tonal system. Method Seventy-two Mandarin-learning preschoolers with CIs, varying in age at implantation (13–42 months) and length of CI experience (2–49 months), and 44 normal hearing 3-year-old controls were recruited. Tonal productions were elicited from both groups using picture-naming tasks and acoustically compared. Results Only the early implanted group (i.e., implanted before the age of 2 years) produced normal-like lexical tones and generally had contextual tones approximating those of the normal-hearing children. The other children, including those with longer CI experience, did not have typical tonal productions; their pitch patterns for lexical tones tended to be flatter, and contextual tone productions were unchanged across tonal contexts. Conclusion Children with CIs face challenges in acquiring Mandarin tones, but early implantation may help them to develop normal-like lexical tone categories, which further facilitates their implementation of contextual tones. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8038889

Dihydromyricetin (DMY) a flavonoid derived from medicinal plant Ampelopsis grossedentata, possesses anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects in vitro, however, the in vivo anti-inflammatory action of DMY remains unknown. In the current study, carrageenan-induced paw edema in rat, an acute inflammation model, and RAW264.7 macrophages activated by LPS were employed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory potency of DMY in vivo and in vitro. Results showed that DMY significantly attenuated rat paw edema induced by carrageenan. Also, DMY markedly inhibited NO secretion, iNOS, and COX-2 protein expression, as well as p65 phosphorylation via suppression of IKKβ activity and IKKα/β phosphorylation in RAW264.7 cells. And using high resolution Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), we also proved that DMY prevented morphological change and membrane alterations of RAW 264.7 macrophages caused by LPS stimulation. As activation of macrophages is one of major factors in carrageenan-induced paw edema of rats, the anti-inflammatory action of DMY is suggested to be closely associated with suppression of macrophage activation. These findings indicate that DMY is valuable of being further investigated as a candidate new agent for treating inflammatory conditions, and suggest that AFM could be a powerful nanotool for anti-inflammatory investigations. SCANNING 38:901-912, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study is to assess the use of prosodic and contextual cues to focus by prelingually deaf adolescent users of cochlear implants (CIs) when identifying target phonemes. We predict that CI users will have slower reaction times to target phonemes compared with a group of normally-hearing (NH) peers. We also predict that reaction times will be faster when both prosodic and contextual (semantic) cues are provided. DESIGN Eight prelingually deaf adolescent users of CIs and 8 adolescents with NH completed 2 phoneme-monitoring experiments. Participants were aged between 13 and 18 years. The mean age at implantation for the CI group was 1.8 years (SD: 1.0). In the prosodic condition, reaction times to a target phoneme in a linguistically focused (i.e., stressed) word were compared between the two groups. The semantic condition compared reaction time with target phonemes when contextual cues to focus were provided in addition to prosodic cues. RESULTS Reaction times of the CI group were slower than those of the NH group in both the prosodic and semantic conditions. A linear mixed model was used to compare reaction times using Group as a fixed factor and Phoneme and Subject as random factors. When only prosodic cues (prosodic condition) to focus location were provided, the mean reaction time of the CI group was 512 msec compared with 317 msec for the NH group, and this difference was significant (p < 0.001). The provision of contextual cues speeded reaction times for both groups (semantic condition), indicating that top-down processing aided both groups in their search for a focused item. However, even with both prosodic and contextual cues, the CI users' processing times remained slower, compared with the NH group, with mean reaction times of 385 msec for the CI users but 232 msec for the NH listeners (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Prelingually deaf CI users' processing of prosodic cues is less efficient than that of their NH peers, as evidenced by slower reaction times to targets in phoneme monitoring. The provision of contextual cues speeded reaction times for both NH and CI groups, although the CI users were slower in responding than the NH group. These findings contribute to our understanding of how CI users employ/integrate prosodic and semantic cues in speech processing.

English has a word-minimality requirement that all open-class lexical items must contain at least two moras of structure, forming a bimoraic foot (Hayes, 1995).Thus, a word with either a long vowel, or a short vowel and a coda consonant, satisfies this requirement. This raises the question of when and how young children might learn this language-specific constraint, and if they would use coda consonants earlier and more reliably after short vowels compared to long vowels. To evaluate this possibility we conducted an elicited imitation experiment with 15 two-year-old Australian English-speaking children, using both perceptual and acoustic analysis. As predicted, the children produced codas more often when preceded by short vowels. The findings suggest that English-speaking two-year-olds are sensitive to language-specific lexical constraints, and are more likely to use coda consonants when prosodically required.

Speech units are reported to be hyperarticulated in both infant-directed speech (IDS) and Lombard speech. Since these two registers have typically been studied separately, it is unclear if the same speech units are hyperarticulated in the same manner between these registers. The aim of the present study is to compare the effect of register on vowel and tone modification in the tonal language Mandarin Chinese. Vowel and tone productions were produced by 15 Mandarin-speaking mothers during interactions with their 12-month-old infants during a play session (IDS), in conversation with a Mandarin-speaking adult in a 70 dBA eight-talker babble noise environment (Lombard speech), and in a quiet environment (adult-directed speech). Vowel space expansion was observed in IDS and Lombard speech, however, the patterns of vowel-shift were different between the two registers. IDS displayed tone space expansion only in the utterance-final position, whereas there was no tone space expansion in Lombard speech. The overall pitch increased for all tones in both registers. The tone-bearing vowel duration also increased in both registers, but only in utterance-final position. The difference in speech modifications between these two registers is discussed in light of speakers' different communicative needs.

Partial body weight-supported treadmill training has been shown to be effective in gait training for patients with neurological disorders such as spinal cord injuries and stroke. Recent applications on children with cerebral palsy were reported, mostly on spastic cerebral palsy with single subject design. There is lack of evidence on the effectiveness of such training for nonspastic cerebral palsy, particularly those who are low functioning with limited intellectual capacity.This study evaluated the effectiveness of partial body weight-supported treadmill training for improving gross motor skills among these clients.A two-period randomized crossover design with repeated measures.A crossover design following an A-B versus a B-A pattern was adopted. The two training periods consisted of 12-week partial body weight-supported treadmill training (Training A) and 12-week conventional gait training (Training B) with a 10-week washout in between. Ten school-age participants with nonspastic cerebral palsy and severe mental retardation were recruited. The Gross Motor Function Measure-66 was administered immediately before and after each training period.Significant improvements in dimensions D and E of the Gross Motor Function Measure-66 and the Gross Motor Ability Estimator were obtained.Our findings revealed that the partial body weight-supported treadmill training was effective in improving gross motor skills for low-functioning children and adolescents with nonspastic cerebral palsy. .

Background: Chronic low back pain (LBP) is a common secondary musculoskeletal problem among adults with cerebral palsy (CP). This study investigated the feasibility of incorporating backpack carriage with daily production activities for relieving chronic LBP among adults with CP. Objectives: The effects of backpack carriage in relieving chronic LBP for adults with CP. Study Design: A multiple bivariate approach with convenience sampling. Methods: Nine adults with CP suffering from chronic LBP were scheduled to carry a 4 lb backpack at work for 60 minutes on weekdays for four consecutive weeks. The pain level was rated by the participants on an 11-point scale. Muscle activity of erector spinae was measured by surface electromyography. Results: Significant improvement in back pain was found immediately after the backpack carriage with no adverse effect reported. It was accompanied with significantly reduced erector spinae activity. Although the overall change in pain ratings across the study period was not significant, a decreasing trend with time was observed. Conclusions: The loaded backpack has the potential to serve as an ‘orthosis’ for immediate back pain relief among adults with CP. Its underlying mechanism can be attributed to a reduction in back muscle tension during the load carriage.

Emerging neurophysiologic evidence indicates that motor systems are activated during the perception of speech, but whether this activity reflects basic processes underlying speech perception remains a matter of considerable debate. Our contribution to this debate is to report direct behavioral evidence that specific articulatory commands are activated automatically and involuntarily during speech perception. We used electropalatography to measure whether motor information activated from spoken distractors would yield specific distortions on the articulation of printed target syllables. Participants produced target syllables beginning with /k/ or /s/ while listening to the same syllables or to incongruent rhyming syllables beginning with /t/. Tongue–palate contact for target productions was measured during the articulatory closure of /k/ and during the frication of /s/. Results revealed “traces” of the incongruent distractors on target productions, with the incongruent /t/-initial distractors inducing greater alveolar contact in the articulation of /k/ and /s/ than the congruent distractors. Two further experiments established that ( i ) the nature of this interference effect is dependent specifically on the articulatory properties of the spoken distractors; and ( ii ) this interference effect is unique to spoken distractors and does not arise when distractors are presented in printed form. Results are discussed in terms of a broader emerging framework concerning the relationship between perception and action, whereby the perception of action entails activation of the motor system.

Although previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of using electropalatography (EPG) for treating therapy-resistant articulation errors associated with cleft palate, until recently access to this form of treatment has been limited. For the past 10 years, however, the CLEFTNET Scotland project has provided individuals with cleft palate access to EPG therapy. CLEFTNET Scotland represented a novel form of EPG service delivery—it linked the cleft palate centres throughout Scotland to Queen Margaret University College (QMUC) in Edinburgh through an electronic network. EPG data collected in the centres were sent to QMUC, where experts conducted detailed analysis leading to a precise diagnosis of each individual's specific articulation difficulty and suggested therapy guidelines to the specialist speech-language therapists based on their analysis. This form of service delivery has recently extended to include England, Wales and Northern Ireland to form CLEFTNET UK. This paper describes the CLEFTNET projec...

Young children's first attempts at CVC words are often realized with the final consonant being heavily aspirated or followed by an epenthetic vowel (e.g. cat /kæt/ realized as [kæth] or [kætə]). This has led some to propose that young children represent word-final (coda) consonants as an onset-nucleus sequence (CV.Cv) (e.g. Goad & Brannen, 2003), raising questions about the syllabic status of the final consonant. To address this issue, we conducted an acoustic analysis of a child's early production of CVC, CVCh, and CVCV words between the ages of 1;3 and 1;5. Aside from aspiration, the results showed that there were no significant acoustic differences between the CVC and CVCh forms. In contrast, there were systematic acoustic differences in C2 closure duration between the CVC/CVCh and CVCV target words, suggesting that at least some children learning English have early coda representations for monosyllabic CVC words, whether heavily aspirated or not.

Durational contrasts are used not only to signal phrasal boundaries and focused constituents, but also to make phonemic distinctions. Boundary and focus effects can therefore interact with phonemic length contrasts, presenting a challenge for learners. Boundary effects are most clearly seen in the syllable rhyme, where the nucleus and coda are longer in utterance-final compared to utterance-medial position, the magnitude of lengthening diminishing leftward from the end of the word. In the case of focus, where the nucleus and coda are also lengthened, the magnitude of lengthening diminishes rightwards toward the end of the word. The goal of this paper was therefore to compare productions of the phonemic vowel length contrast /ɐː/ vs /ɐ/ in adults and 3-yr-old children learning Australian English in the face of competing demands from boundary and focus lengthening. The results showed that the children maintain the /ɐː/ vs /ɐ/ contrast across prosodic contexts. They are also able to implement an adult-like pattern of boundary-related lengthening, but are still developing focus-related lengthening. The findings suggest that these 3-yr-olds have good command of the phonemic vowel length contrast, but are still fine-tuning language-specific aspects of temporal organization (i.e., the vowel-coda trading relationship) within the rhyme.

Tea and kudingcha (bitter tea) are the two most popular beverages consumed in China. Tea derived from the leaves of Camellia sinensis has been well studied for its various health benefits, but there are very limited data on the biological activities of bitter tea derived from the leaves of Ligustrum purpurascens (LP). The present study was carried out to characterize the antioxidants present in the bitter tea brewed from the leaves of LP. It was found that the crude glycoside fraction possessed strong protection against oxidation of human low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The column chromatographic separation led to the isolatation of five phenylethanoid glycosides, namely, acteoside, ligupurpuroside A, cis-ligupurpuroside B, trans-ligupurpuroside B, and osmanthuside B. When acteoside was heated in the boiling water, it was isomerized to form isoacteoside. Acteoside, isoacteoside, and ligupurpuroside A purified from LP were protective, whereas cis-ligupurpuroside B, trans-ligupurpuroside B, and osmanthuside B exhibited no protection to human LDL from Cu(2+)-medicated oxidation. Acteoside, isoacteoside, and ligupurpuroside A were also effective in preventing the peroxyl free radical-induced oxidation of alpha-tocopherol in human LDL. The antioxidant activities of acteoside, isoacteoside, and ligupurpuroside A were comparable to that observed for a green tea antioxidant, (-)-epicatechin gallate. The inhibitory effect of these three phenylethanoid glycosides on oxidation of human LDL and alpha-tocopherol was dose-dependent at concentrations of 5-40 microM. The present results suggest that the bitter tea beverage derived from LP contains effective antioxidants that may have an equal benefit as a green tea beverage.

The present study describes the effects of an extract obtained from the leaves of Ligstrum purpurascens and acteoside purified from the extract on the contractile response to various agonists in rat isolated aortic rings. L. purpurascens extract relaxed 9,11-dideoxy-11 alpha,9 alpha-epoxymethanoprostaglandin F2 alpha (U46619)-preconstricted rings in a concentration-dependent manner (IC50: 0.14 +/- 0.01 mg/ml with endothelium and 0.16 +/- 0.01 mg/ml without endothelium). The extract also reduced contraction induced by 35 mM K+ or by 1 microM phorbol 12,13-diacetate (PDA) in endothelium-intact rings. The extract (0.1-0.3 mg/ml) reduced the concentration-response to U46619 in normal Krebs solution or to CaCl2 in 35 mM K(+)-containing solution. Acteoside accounts for 2.05% of total L. purpurascens extract in weight. Acteoside induced relaxation of rings preconstricted by U46619 (IC50: 0.22 +/- 0.01 mg/ml) but it caused an increase in 35 mM K(+)-induced tone. Removal of endothelium enhanced the relaxing effect of acteoside. Besides, pretreatment with acteoside inhibited endothelium/nitric oxide-mediated relaxation induced by acetylcholine. These results indicate that acteoside is unlikely the major ingredient responsible for the vasodilator effect of L. purpurascens extract. The extract relaxed the preconstricted aortic rings probably through multiple mechanisms by acting on smooth muscle cells. The inhibitory effect on endothelial nitric oxide-mediated relaxation suggests that acteoside could also act on the endothelial cells to reduce nitric oxide release.

Back pain and ambulation deterioration among ambulatory individuals with cerebral palsy (CP) are common as they grow older and walking aids are often prescribed to improve stability and promote maximal weight-bear on lower limbs during gait.To investigate the effects of walking aids on back muscle activity and whole body kinematics among adolescents with spastic diplegia.A repeated-measures design was adopted with participants tested under different walking conditions.Ten participants were recruited and Lofstrand forearm crutches were selected. Both the activity of lumbar erector spinae and the kinematics of head, trunk, pelvis and lower limbs during walking were monitored using telemetric electromyography and motion analysis system respectively.Comparisons between walking unaided and walking with unilateral and bilateral crutch(es) were made. Significant decreases in speed, cadence, erector spinae activity and lower trunk extension were observed during crutch walking together with significantly increased stride time and anterior pelvic tilt.These findings suggested that Lofstrand crutch(es) reduced muscular demands and lumbar lordosis with increased lower back mobility. The results shed light on the prescription of walking aid in the management and prevention of chronic back pain for ambulatory individuals with CP from a life span perspective.

This article shares the experiences of one acute care hospital as it made a concerted effort through a corporate initiative to improve patient throughput and quality of care despite competing demands and constrained resources. Organizational structures and specialized resources were employed to collect, analyze and use data in order to improve flow and access to care. The successes and lessons learned from this corporate initiative are summarized and may provide useful insights.

Objective Previous research using electropalatography has revealed that high vowels are vulnerable to articulation errors in cleft palate speech. The error involves complete tongue-palate contact, which obstructs normal airflow through the mouth and increases nasal airflow. This study used electropalatography to provide a more detailed description of typical tongue-palate contact for high vowels than currently exists. Design Electropalatography and acoustic data were recorded for multiple repetitions of monophthongs /i/, /u/, and /a/ and diphthongs /ai/, /oi/, and /au/. Participants Ten typical English-speaking adults. Measures Two measures were taken from electropalatography data during vowels; one identified electropalatography patterns with complete tongue-palate contact and a second calculated percentage of contact at five time points. Results None of the vowels had electropalatography patterns with complete tongue-palate contact. The amount of contact varied for the different vowels at the five time points throughout the vowels and also between speakers. When contact occurred, it was located in the posterior, lateral regions of the palate, forming a central groove that was free of contact. Conclusion Complete tongue-palate contact during vowels is not a feature of typical English speech and can be considered an error pattern. The normative date provided in this study will be useful to speech-language pathologists who use electropalatography in their clinical work. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the assessment of vowels in cleft palate speech.

Background Ginseng is the most popular herb used for treatment of ischemic heart diseases in Chinese community; ginsenosides are considered to be the major active ingredients. However, whether ginsenosides can enhance the coronary artery flow of ischemic heart and, if so, by what mechanisms they do this, remains unclear. Methods Isolated rat hearts with ischemia/reperfusion injury in Langendorff system were employed for examining the effect of total ginsenosides (TGS) on coronary perfusion flow (CPF). In addition, human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) were used for mechanistic study. Levels of various vasodilative molecules, intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i), and expressions and activation of proteins involving regulation of nitric oxide (NO) signaling pathways in heart tissues and HAECs were determined. Results TGS dose-dependently and significantly increased CPF and improved systolic and diastolic function of the ischemia/reperfused rat heart, while inhibitors of NO synthase (NOS), soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), heme oxygenase (HO), cyclooxygenase (COX), and potassium channel abolished the vasodilation effect of TGS. Positive control verapamil was effective only in increasing CPF. TGS elevated levels of NO and 6-keto-prostaglandin F1α, a stable hydrolytic product of prostacyclin I2 (PGI2), in both coronary effluents and supernatants of HAECs culturing medium, and augmented [Ca2+]i in HAECs. TGS significantly up-regulated expression of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) and phosphorylations of Akt and endothelial NOS (eNOS) as well. Conclusions TGS significantly increased CPF of ischemia/reperfused rat hearts through elevation of NO production via activation of PI3K/Akt-eNOS signaling. In addition, PGI2, EDHF and CO pathways also partially participated in vasodilation induced by TGS.

Objective: To report perceptual and dynamic articulatory electropalatography data on clicks produced as compensatory articulations by two adolescents (S1 and S2) with velocardiofacial syndrome and velopharyngeal dysfunction. Results: The perceptual analysis showed that both speakers produced click substitutions for English targets /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, and S2 additionally produced clicks for /p/, /b/, and /t∫/, / d3/. The adolescents produced a range of clicks, which varied in placement (bilabial, dental, alveolar, palatal), voicing (voiced, voiceless), and nasality (nasal, nonnasal). Measurements from the electropalatography data for lingual clicks revealed two articulatory closures, one in the anterior and another in the posterior region of the hard palate. The data revealed how the two closures were timed precisely to produce the click sound. The clicks involved a complex and highly coordinated sequence of tongue maneuvers similar to clicks in some southern African languages. Conclusions: Clicks are interpreted as compensatory articulations enabling some speakers with velopharyngeal dysfunction to produce plosive and affricate sounds with perceptually salient acoustic bursts in the oral cavity. Clicks as compensatory articulations merit further systematic investigation, and the procedures reported in this study are considered appropriate for such research.

Objective: Previous research using electropalatography (EPG) identified a compensatory articulation called bilabial-lingual double articulations. These double articulations were produced for bilabials by some speakers with cleft palate and involved closure at the lips occurring simultaneously with complete tongue-palate constriction. However, no normative English EPG data exist to confirm the abnormal status of these double articulations. Design: This study reports normative data for EPG contact during bilabial closure. Acoustic and EPG data were recorded for bilabials in different vowel contexts. Participants: Eight normal English-speaking adults. Measures: One measure identified complete tongue-palate constriction, and a second measure calculated percent contact. Results: There were no instances of complete tongue-palate constriction, though some EPG contact occurred in the lateral regions of the palate. The vowel context significantly affected the amount of contact present, with /i/ having the most and /a/ having the least amount of contact. Conclusion: Complete tongue-palate constriction during bilabials of the type found in bilabial-lingual double articulations is not a feature of normal English speech and can therefore be considered an abnormal articulation pattern. Speech-language pathologists who use EPG in their clinical work should be aware that some lateral contact during bilabial closure is normal.

This study compared tongue palate contact patterns for oral stops (/t/, /d/) with those for the nasal stop /n/ in order to provide normative data for diagnosing and treating individuals with speech disorders. Electropalatographic (EPG) data were recorded from fifteen English speaking adults for word initial /t/, /d/ and /n/ in a high and a low vowel context. EPG frames were classified according to three criteria: (1) anterior constriction; (2) bilateral constriction; and (3) zero posterior central contact. Total amount of contact and variability were also measured. The results showed that almost all (99%) stops met criteria 1 and 3, with fewer articulations (88% of /t/; 83% of /d/ and 55% of /n/) meeting criterion 2. Although all stops had similar spatial patterns, /t/ and /d/ had more contact and were more likely to have bilateral constriction than /n/. There were no differences in variability between /t/, /d/ and /n/, however. The clinical implications of the results for the management of individuals with speech disorders are discussed.

The present study examined the antioxidants present in bitter tea (Ligustrum pedunculare). It was found that the crude glycoside fraction strongly protected human low-density lipoprotein (LDL) from oxidation. Further column chromatography led to purification of eight phenylethanoid or monoterpene glycosides: lipedoside A-I, lipedoside A-II, lipedoside B-I, lipedoside B-III, lipedoside B-V, lipedoside B-VI, osmanthuside B, and anatolioside. It was found that lipedoside A-I, lipedoside A-II, lipedoside B-V, and lipedoside B-VI were protective, whereas the other four compounds did not protect human LDL from Cu(2+)-medicated oxidation. Lipedoside A-I, lipedoside A-II, lipedoside B-V, and lipedoside B-VI also had a scavenging effect on 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical (DPPH), comparable to that of alpha-tocopherol. The inhibitory effect of these four phenylethanoid or monoterpene glycosides on oxidation of human LDL and alpha-tocopherol was dose-dependent at concentrations of 5-40 microM. The present results demonstrate that bitter tea as a beverage contains effective antioxidants that may have benefits similar to those of green tea in terms of antioxidant activity.