Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Psychometrically Equivalent Digital Recordings For Speech Audiometry Testing In Mandarin Chinese: Standard Mandarin Dialect, Lara-Jill Jennings

Theses and Dissertations

The development of digitally recorded speech audiometry materials in Mandarin Chinese has been limited to date. High quality materials proliferate in the English language and have been developed for other languages such as Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Polish, and Russian. The aims of this study were to develop, digitally record, evaluate, and equate words and word lists in Mandarin Chinese to use for speech reception threshold testing and for speech discrimination testing. The words that were evaluated were chosen from a Chinese frequency usage dictionary. One native male and one native female talker recorded the words onto …

Event Related Potentials: A Study Of The Processing Of Gapping Structures In Adolescents, Michelle Miller Nishida

Theses and Dissertations

Many questions remain unanswered regarding the intricacies of the human brain, especially with regard to the complexities of language processing. One essential component of human sentence processing is the ability to detect, decipher, and recover from errors in the interpretation of both verbal and written language. This process of repair of ungrammatical sentences and revision or reinterpretation of ambiguous sentences has been studied extensively in recent years. A variety of tools have been developed, including the use of event-related potentials (ERPs) in order to assess how language is processed and developed, and to help better identify the nature of these …

Effectiveness Of Story Enactments Versus Art Projects In Facilitating Preschool Children's Story Comprehension, Jennifer Ann Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to compare preschool children's comprehension of a story after either enacting the story or participating in an art project, and (b) to qualitatively describe the children's interactions during the more interactive story enactment instruction. Twenty children from two Head Start classrooms were told the stories as a class, and then participated in either an art project (AP) or story enactment (SE) in small groups. The children in each classroom each heard three stories followed by the AP condition, and three followed by the SE condition. The children's comprehension of the story was …

Nursing Education And Service Collaboration: Making A Difference In The Clinical Learning Environment, Sheri P. Palmer, Amy Harmer Cox, Lynn Clark Callister, Vickie Johnsen, Geraldine Matsumura

Faculty Publications

This article focuses on innovative collaborative steps that were identified in recent research conducted by these authors on the relationship between academia and service. These steps are currently being implemented in the hope of improving the important role that the critical environment plays in student nurses' education. Few factors in nursing education are as important as the clinical environment in which students do their training. This article elaborates on these steps and offers practical suggestions for improving the relationship between academia and service.

Acoustic And Spectral Characteristics Of Young Children's Fricative Productions: A Developmental Perspective, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

Scientists have made great strides toward understanding the mechanisms of speech production and perception. However, the complex relationships between the acoustic structures of speech and the resulting psychological percepts have yet to be fully and adequately explained, especially in speech produced by younger children. Thus, this study examined the acoustic structure of voiceless fricatives (/f, θ, s, ʃ/) produced by adults and typically developing children from 3 to 6 years of age in terms of multiple acoustic parameters (durations, normalized amplitude, spectral slope, and spectral moments). It was found the acoustic parameters of spectral slope and variance (commonly excluded from …

Moral Responsiveness And Discontinuity In Therapy: A Qualitative Study, Jason B. Whiting Phd, R. Scott Nebeker, Stephen T. Fife

Faculty Publications

Phenomenological qualitative methods were used to identify and describe moral elements in therapeutic relationships. Using the relational philosophy of E. Levinas (1961/1969, 1979/1987) as a base, data in which therapists and clients identified and described morally responsive experiences in therapy sessions were analyzed. These moments were often unexpected and included categories of surprise, interruption, willingness to change, and clarifications/repairs. Additional moral phenomena related to therapists' attitudes included asymmetrical indebtedness, attitude of serving, and tentativeness of diagnosis. Identified moments of moral responsiveness were frequently associated with clients' progress in therapy. This suggests that conceptually smooth and uninterrupted therapy may be less …

Providing End-Of-Life Care To Patients: Critical Care Nurses' Perceived Obstacles And Supportive Behaviors, Renea L. Beckstrand, Karin T. Kirchhoff

Faculty Publications

• Background Critical care nurses care for dying patients daily. The process of dying in an intensive care unit is complicated, and research on specific obstacles that impede delivery of end-of-life care and/or supportive behaviors that help in delivery of end-of-life care is limited.
• Objective To measure critical care nurses' perceptions of the intensity and frequency of occurrence of (1) obstacles to providing end-of-life care and (2) supportive behaviors that help in providing end-of-life care in the intensive care unit.
• Methods An experimental, posttest-only, control-group design was used. A national, geographically dispersed, random sample of members of the American Association of …

The Effect Of A Lingual Magnet On Fricative Production: An Acoustic Evaluation Of Placement And Adaptation, Andrea Lynn Weaver

Theses and Dissertations

Much of speech kinematics research is conducted by attaching a device to the articulators. However very little research has been conducted to determine what influence these devices may have on the perceptual and acoustic characteristics of speech. This study examined the effect of placing a small magnet on the tongue of ten normal adult speakers while reading a sentence containing /s/ and "sh" in initial, medial and final position. Two different placements of 10 and 15 mm from the tip of the tongue were analyzed. Data were taken before magnet placement, immediately after magnet placement, after 5 minutes of conversation, …

How Individuals With Parkinson's Disease Modify Their Speech In A Repetition For Clarification, Lynn Marie Watkins

Theses and Dissertations

The speech of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) is typically characterized as lacking in proper prosody because of its monopitch and monoloud quality, in addition to its reduced intensity. These qualities make it difficult for others to understand speakers with PD. The purpose of the current study was to identify what individuals with PD would do vocally, if anything at all, to improve speech production following a simulated misunderstanding of what they had just said. The study evaluated the performance of 5 individuals with PD and compared their performance to 5 age- and sex-matched controls. Specifically, measures of vocal intensity …

Exploration Of Lip Shape Measures And Their Association With Tongue Contact Patterns, Jessica Lynn Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

A variety of tools and techniques have been developed to measure the movements of the vocal tract, specifically of the tongue and lips. In recent years, computer technology has allowed for extensive exploration of these precise movements and for the development of speech recognition systems. However, there has been relatively little work on the combination of visible facial movements and internal articulatory activity. In this study, two different technologies were used to explore the internal and external movements of speech production in eight speakers: palatometry quantified tongue contact patterns and computerized video image analysis was used to derive lip shape …

Sex-Related Acoustic Changes In Voiceless English Fricatives, Shawn L. Nissen, Robert Allen Fox

Faculty Publications

This investigation is a comprehensive acoustic study of 4 voiceless fricatives (/f θ s ʃ/) in English produced by adults and pre-and postpubescent children aged 6-14 years. Vowel duration, amplitude, and several different spectral measures (including spectral tilt and spectral moments) were examined. Of specific interest was the pattern of normal development of the acoustic properties of fricatives and the nature of sex-specific patterns of fricative articulation in prepubescent children. Little evidence of amplitude or duration differences was found between speakers that was related to the sex of the speaker. However, significant sex-specific differences in fricative articulation were found in …

The Effects Of Divided Attention On Speech Motor, Verbal Fluency And Manual Motor Task Performance, Erin Hamblin

Theses and Dissertations

Research in dual task performance varies widely in its methodology and results. The present study employed three different types of activity to provide insights into the interference that occurs in dual task performance. Twenty young adults completed a speech task (repeating a sentence), a verbal fluency task (listing words beginning with the same letter), and right- and left-handed motor tasks (placing pegs and washers in a peg board) in isolation and in concurrent conditions. Speech kinematic data revealed that during concurrent performance of manual tasks, lip displacement and peak velocity decreased, while sound pressure level and spatiotemporal variability increased. The …

Auditory And Visual Correlates Of The Processing Of Gapping Structures In Adults, Tara Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare event-related potential (ERP) effects of speech processing and effects in sentence reading elicited by sentences containing gapping structures, or a "missing" verb. N400 and P600 waveforms were collected in 20 adults between 18 and 30 years of age. Two experiments were conducted with each participant. In the two experiments ERP recordings were collected as sentences, some containing gapping structures, were presented to the subjects. In one experiment sentences were presented through headphones in sentences spoken at normal rate and with normal intonation. In the second experiment sentences with the same gapping structures …

Improved Cancer Care Through Increased Basic Cancer Education, Patricia Rushton, Lillian Nail, Sherry Brown

Faculty Publications

Literature shows that nursing care in rural communities improves when the nurse has increased knowledge through continuing education. Specific oncology studies in areas of stress, pain assessment and documentation, and death and dying.(Hedman-1990,Camp-Sorrell-1991,Foglesong-1987,Webber-1991) demonstrate similar results. It is reasonable that continuing education in areas of the cancer process, standard therapies, and methods of symptom control would improve patient care. This project allowed nurses who had limited access to cancer education in rural areas of Utah to receive basic cancer education. The subjects of this education included: 1) the cancer process, 2) chemotherapy, 3)radiation therapy, 4) the use and care of …

Improving The Experience Of Hospitalization For Hawaiian Children On The Mainland Through Cultural Sensitivity To Hawaiian Ways Of Healing, Jane H. Lassetter, Joan H. Baldwin

Faculty Publications

The experience of hospitalization for Hawaiian children on the mainland might be improved through the understanding and development of cultural sensitivity to Hawaiian ways of healing. This article contains a selected review of the literature on meeting the cultural health care needs of Hawaiian children and their families, a discussion of some of the challenges of caring for Hawaiian children in Utah, and suggestions for practice that may improve the experience of hospitalization for Hawaiian children in general.

Performance Intensity Functions For Digitally Recorded Japanese Speech Audiometry Materials, Tanya Crawford Mangum

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop digitally recorded speech audiometry materials in the Japanese language to evaluate Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) and speech discrimination. Trisyllabic words were used to evaluate the SRT and bisyllabic words were used for speech discrimination. Words were recorded by one native female talker and one native male talker who were judged as having standard Japanese dialects. Twenty native Japanese speakers between the ages of 20 and 32 were used as subjects to evaluate 69 trisyllabic words across 13 different intensity levels. The 25 trisyllabic words with the steepest psychometric function (%/dB) were selected …

Female Breast Cancer Incidence And Survival In Utah According To Religious Preference, 1985-1999, Ray M. Merrill, Jeffrey A. Folsom

Faculty Publications

Female breast cancer incidence rates in Utah are among the lowest in the U.S. The influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint (LDS or Mormon) religion on these rates, as well as on disease-specific survival, will be explored for individuals diagnosed with breast cancer in Utah from 1985 through 1999. Methods: Population-based records for incident female breast cancer patients were linked with membership records from the LDS Church to determine religious affiliation and, for LDS Church members, level of religiosity. Incidence rates were age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population using the direct method. Cox proportional hazards …

Biochemical And Molecular Nutrition Blocks As Dietary Supplements In Llamas (Lama Glama) In The Last Third Of The Gestation Period Of The Ceac, Janette Illanes Callejas

Theses and Dissertations

The present work consisted in the use of biochemical and molecular nutrition blocks (BMN) in llamas during the last third of the gestation period, at the Agricultural Experiment Center of Condori (CEAC), located 49 km north of the city of Oruro, and 12 km north of the Caracollo population, in the province of Cercado. For this research work, we used 20 pregnant llamas in the last third of their gestation period, between the ages of 2 and 3 years old, 10 of which belonged to the Khara breed, and 10 to the Thampulli breed. Two corrals of 7 x 7 …

Brucellosis In Alpacas (Lama Pacos) In Communities Of The City Ulla Ulla, Franz Tomayo Province, Department Of La Paz, Macario Suxo Blanco

Theses and Dissertations

This investigation was performed in the Altiplano Altoandino sub-humid region in the Ulla Ulla district, Pelechuco township, Franz Tomayo province, department of La Paz, Bolivia. The objective of this study was to quantify and compare the presence of Brucellosis in male and female alpacas (Lama pacos) at ages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 years. Blood samples were taken from the jugular vein of 500 alpacas from the Hichucollo, Huacuchani, Ucha Ucha, and Ulla Ulla communities. The serum from each sample was separated and a serological diagnosis was performed by rapid agglutination with Rose Bengal chemical stain. In the …

Replacement Of Fish Meal By Meal Worm (Eisenia Foetida) In The Feed Of Broilers As An Alternative Source Of Protein, Carlos ÁNgel Cervantes Cevallos

Theses and Dissertations

This investigation was conducted in the rural community of Cuambo, located in the northeast of Imbabura province, in the Mira river basin of Salina parish, at 1530 meters above sea level and with an average temperature of 19 C. The principal objective of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of four levels of substitution of fish meal for earthworm meal in broiler chicken diets. The fieldwork occurred in two stages over the course of 20 months: A. Creation of the feed: This step lasted from the installation of an earthworm culturing area through the cultivation, harvest, and drying of …