i.lect, a pre-graduate education model of implantology.

OBJECTIVE: In 2008, a consensus meeting of the Association for Dental Education in Europe stated that dental implant treatment represents a popular treatment alternative and, therefore, it should be an integral part of dental student pre-graduate education. In 2009, the Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg implemented a voluntary, structured, education program for pre-graduate dental students, called 'i.lect'. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the i.lect program. METHODS: Concurrent to the dental curriculum, the i.lect program provides 200 hours in 3 years of theoretical and practical education on all aspects of modern dental implantology. We recruited dental students in the i.lect program and additionally students from 15 other universities that voluntarily participated in a single, 3-day implantology camp (R = 58). To demonstrate their knowledge on dental implant issues, both student groups completed a written examination that covered 'Basic information and materials of implantology', 'Implant planning' and 'Soft tissue management'. RESULTS: The students in the i.lect program achieved higher scores than students from the implantology camp on questions concerning 'basic implantology' and 'implant planning'. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that the structured i.lect undergraduate curriculum enhanced individual knowledge in the specific field of implantology. This program could have pilot character for use in other universities.

Osseointegration of SLActive implants in diabetic pigs.

OBJECTIVES: Diabetes mellitus is currently classified as a relative contraindication for implant treatment because of microangiopathies with the consequence of impaired bone regeneration and higher rates of implant failure. The study aim was to investigate peri-implant bone formation in a diabetic animal model in comparison to healthy animals and to evaluate the differences between conventional (SLA(®) ) and modified (SLActive(®) ) titanium implant surfaces on osseointegration. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Each six implants were placed in the calvaria of 11 diabetic and 4 healthy domestic pigs. At 30 and 90 days after implant placement, the bone-to-implant contact (BIC) and bone density (BD) were appraised. Additionally, the expression of the bone-matrix proteins collagen type I and osteocalcin was evaluated at both points in time by using immunohistochemical staining methods. RESULTS: Overall, BIC was reduced in the diabetic group at 30 and 90 days. After 90 days, the SLActive(®) implants showed significantly higher BICs compared with the SLA(®) implants in diabetic animals. Peri-implant BD was higher in the SLActive(®) group at 30 and 90 days in healthy and diabetic animals. Collagen type I protein expression was higher using SLA(®) implants in diabetic pigs at 30 days. Values for osteocalcin expression were not consistent. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate the negative effect of untreated diabetes mellitus on early osseointegration of dental implants. The modified SLA(®) surface (SLActive(®) ) elicited an accelerated osseointegration of dental implants, suggesting that a better prognosis for implant treatment of diabetic patients is possible.

The influence of contextual information on the perception of speech by postlingually and prelingually profoundly hearing-impaired Hebrew-speaking adolescents and adults.

OBJECTIVE: To study linguistic context effects on speech perception by prelingually (N = 10) and postlingually (N = 10) hearing-impaired Hebrew-speaking adolescents and adults. DESIGN: Participants were cochlear implant surgery candidates with profound sensorineural hearing loss (95 dB HL+). Four levels of speech perception materials were presented through the auditory-visual modality: monosyllabic nonsense syllables (phonological content), monosyllabic meaningful words (semantic-lexical), sentences without presented topics (semantic-syntactic), and sentences with topics (topical). Data were analyzed via percentage correct recognition and via k andj factors (Boothroyd & Nittrouer, 1988). RESULTS: Both participant groups performed better when speech material having more contextual information was presented, with no significant intergroup differences. CONCLUSIONS: This similar usage of contextual information among prelingually and postlingually hearing-impaired participants is encouraging and suggests the role of factors other than age of onset.

Acoustic and perceptual characteristics of esophageal and tracheoesophageal speech production.

This study comprehensively compared the speech of laryngeal speakers (L), tracheoesophageal speakers (TE), good esophageal speakers (GE), and moderate esophageal speakers (ME) to determine the consequences of TE versus E speech rehabilitation. Twenty speakers (five in each group) were each recorded while reading 16 sentences, and their recordings were analyzed acoustically and perceptually. Acoustic analysis included duration, intensity, fundamental frequency (F0), intonation, and voice onset time measurements. Perceptual analysis included intelligibility and acceptability judgments by naive listeners. The main acoustic results showed that L speakers differ significantly from all alaryngeal speakers in F0 and intonation production. Moderate esophageal speakers differed significantly from all other groups in duration measures. Perceptual results revealed that L speakers were most intelligible and acceptable, whereas ME speakers were least so. Tracheoesophageal speakers were more acceptable than GE speakers but not more intelligible. Significant correlations emerged between F0, duration measures, and acceptability, and between F0 and intelligibility. Also, a significant correlation emerged between acceptability and intelligibility. Findings emphasized the importance of categorizing esophageal speakers into groups based on their speech proficiency level.

The Hebrew vowel system: raw and normalized acoustic data.

It is well known that different languages use different vowel systems in terms of variety and number. The Hebrew vowel system consists of five vowels /i, e, a, o, u/. The present research identified the acoustic features of the vowels produced by Hebrew speakers differing in age and sex. Ninety speakers (men, women, boys, and girls) were recorded. The vowels were presented in a nonword context that was placed in a meaningful Hebrew sentence. The data included measurements of F0, F1, F2, F3, F4, and vowel duration for the five different vowels produced by the four groups of participants. Conversion of the physical frequency measures of formants into a critical band (bark) scale was performed as well. The results indicated that the F2/F1 ratio is a distinctive feature of all five vowels, keeping with the findings of previous research in other languages. Nevertheless, the values of the F2/F1 ratios led to an overlap between different vowels produced by different groups of speakers. Applying the bark transformation as speaker normalization procedure succeeded in reducing speaker differences while increasing vowel differences.

Production of emotions by hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children.

The present study examined the ability of hearing-impaired (HI) individuals compared with normal-hearing (NH) individuals to transmit non-verbal information on emotions and investigated the acoustical characteristics of their expressions of different emotions. Seven HI and five NH children produced one sentence in five different emotions: anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and neutral. The productions were judged by three naive listeners. The results indicated that the NH children's emotional expressions were perceived more accurately than those of the HI children. The accurately perceived productions underwent acoustical analysis. The results indicated significant differences in the fundamental frequency (Fo) range and in the intensity of the NH and HI children's productions. There were no significant intergroup differences in the productions' mean Fo or in the total duration. It was also shown that the five emotions examined differed significantly in all of the measured acoustical parameters among both NH and HI children.

Auditory, visual and auditory-visual identification of emotions by hearing and hearing-impaired adolescents.

This study investigated the identification of non-verbal expressions of emotions by 19 hearing and 24 hearing-impaired adolescents. The participants were presented with video recordings of six emotions: anger, fear, sadness, surprise, happiness and disgust. The emotions were expressed on the same neutral sentence. The expressions were presented in three modes: visual, auditory and combined auditory-visual. The relative contributions of each mode to the identification processes were evaluated for the two research samples. The accuracy in identification of emotions through each of the presentation modes among the hearing-impaired participants was significantly lower than that of the hearing participants. The hearing participants performed better in the auditory-visual mode than in the auditory or the visual modes alone. The hearing-impaired participants performed better in the visual mode than in the auditory mode, and no difference was found between the auditory-visual mode and the visual mode alone. The lower performance of the hearing-impaired group suggested that rehabilitation processes should include training in the area of non-verbal perception. The rank order of the identification of emotions in both research samples was similar. Fear and surprise were the most difficult to identify. Similar order was found for each of the presentation modes as well. Further examination of the stimulus material with different groups of hearing-impaired individuals was recommended.

The effect of listeners' experience on the evaluation of intonation contours produced by hearing-impaired children.

This study investigated the effect of the listener's experience on the evaluation of intonation contours produced by hearing-impaired children. Stimuli included imitations of intonation (based on synthetic speech stimuli) produced by hearing-impaired children. Twenty listeners (10 experienced and 10 naive) evaluated the intonation production by means of two evaluation tools: a rating scale and a forced-choice test. No significant differences were found between the two listener groups using the forced-choice test, either for the falling or for the rising contours. However, a significant difference was found between the two listener groups using the rating scale, with regard to both the rising and the falling contours. Thus, the effect of experience decreased when using the forced-choice procedure. This finding supports the use of the forced-choice method for providing a perceptual measure of speech production performance that is independent of the listener's experience.