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Purpose The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a novel, automated speech-in-noise test viable for widespread in situ and remote screening. Method Vowel–consonant–vowel sounds in a multiple-choice consonant discrimination task were used. Recordings from a professional male native English speaker were used. A novel adaptive staircase procedure was developed, based on the estimated intelligibility of stimuli rather than on theoretical binomial models. Test performance was assessed in a population of 26 young adults (YAs) with normal hearing and in 72 unscreened adults (UAs), including native and nonnative English listeners. Results The proposed test provided accurate estimates of the speech recognition threshold (SRT) compared to a conventional adaptive procedure. Consistent outcomes were observed in YAs in test/retest and in controlled/uncontrolled conditions and in UAs in native and nonnative listeners. The SRT increased with increasing age, hearing loss, and self-reported hearing handicap in UAs. Test duration was similar in YAs and UAs irrespective of age and hearing loss. The test–retest repeatability of SRTs was high (Pearson correlation coefficient = .84), and the pass/fail outcomes of the test were reliable in repeated measures (Cohen's κ = .8). The test was accurate in identifying ears with pure-tone thresholds > 25 dB HL (accuracy = 0.82). Conclusion This study demonstrated the viability of the proposed test in subjects of varying language in terms of accuracy, reliability, and short test time. Further research is needed to validate the test in a larger population across a wider range of languages and hearing loss and to identify optimal classification criteria for screening purposes.

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are common medications within the practice of gastroenterology. These drugs, which act through the irreversible inhibition of the hydrogen/potassium pump (H+/K+-ATPase pump) in the gastric parietal cells, are used in the treatment of several acid-related disorders. PPIs are generally well tolerated but, through the long-term reduction of gastric acid secretion, can increase the risk of an imbalance in gut microbiota composition (i.e., dysbiosis). The gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem in which microbes coexist and interact with the human host. Indeed, the resident gut bacteria are needed for multiple vital functions, such as nutrient and drug metabolism, the production of energy, defense against pathogens, the modulation of the immune system and support of the integrity of the gut mucosal barrier. The bacteria are collected in communities that vary in density and composition within each segment of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Therefore, every change in the gut ecosystem has been connected to an increased susceptibility or exacerbation of various GI disorders. The aim of this review is to summarize the recently available data on PPI-related microbiota alterations in each segment of the GI tract and to analyze the possible involvement of PPIs in the pathogenesis of several specific GI diseases.

Online gambling has dramatically increased over the last decades, thus the study of the underlying physiological mechanisms could be helpful to better understand related disorders. Specifically, physiological arousal is well-known to play a key role in gambling behavior. In the present study, unconventional frequency feature of the electrodermal activity (EDA) was extracted (EDASymp n ) and compared to the most common heart rate variability (HRV) spectral parameters (LF, HF, HF n , LF/HF) to measure arousal during an online gambling session. 46 subjects played online slot machines for 30 minutes, while EDA and ECG were recorded. In the analysis the gaming session was divided into three 10-minutes-long phases. A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance was carried out for each spectral parameter, with the game phases as within-subjects factor. All the calculated parameters showed significant differences between the initial phase of the game and the last two (p n displayed a reciprocal trend with respect to HF n : an initial increase (decrease for HF n ) was followed by a plateau phase. LF exhibited a significant difference also between the second and the third phases. EDA frequency-domain analysis appears to be a promising method for physiological arousal assessment, by showing the same discriminative power of HRV spectral components. Further research is needed to emphasize these findings.Clinical Relevance-This promotes the use of a new and easy-to-implement method to assess sympathetic activity

Eye-tracking technology allows to capture real-time visual behavior information and to provide insights about cognitive processes and autonomic function, by measuring gaze position and pupillary response to delivered stimuli. Over the recent years, the development of easy-to-use devices led to a large increase in the use of eye-tracking in a broad spectrum of applications, e.g. clinical diagnostics and psychological research. Given the lack of extensive material to characterize the performance of different eye-trackers, especially latest generation devices, the present study aimed at comparing a screen-mounted eye-tracker (remote) and a pair of wearable eye-tracking glasses (mobile). Seventeen healthy subjects were asked to look at a moving target on a screen for 90 s, while point of regard (POR) and pupil diameter (PD) were recorded by the two devices with a sampling rate of 30 Hz. First, data were preprocessed to remove artifacts, then correlation coefficients (for both signals) and magnitude-squared coherence (for PD) were calculated to assess signals agreement in time and frequency domain. POR measurements from remote and mobile devices resulted highly comparable (ρ > 0.75). PD showed lower correlation and major dispersion (ρ > 0.50), besides a higher number of invalid samples from the mobile device with respect to the remote one. Results provided evidence that the two instruments do share the same content at the level of information generally used to characterize subjects behavioral and physiological reactions. Future analysis of additional features and devices with higher sampling frequencies will be planned to further support their clinical use.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) derived from standard one-lead electrocardiography (ECG) was compared with HRV computed by a commercial ECG shirt and with the inter-beat-intervals (IBI) measured by a research-grade photoplethysmographic (PPG) wristband. Signals from 8 subjects were recorded in three experimental phases: during sit; in upright position ("stand"); during controlled respiration. HRV and IBI from both the wearables were computed online (i.e. during the experiment) and stored for subsequent analyses, while the standard ECG was processed offline with state-of-the-art methods to obtain a clean reference HRV. Shirt and wristband signals accuracies were assessed, with respect to the reference HRV, through a between-phase and a beat-to-beat analyses. The former considered several time and frequency domain parameters; the latter was carried out through the Bland-Altman method. Time and frequency domain parameters computed from shirt HRV resulted very similar to the ones extracted from the reference HRV and generally more accurate than the parameters computed from wristband IBI. The Bland-Altman analysis showed that wristband IBI is significantly different from ECG-derived HRV, especially during "stand". Therefore, our results support the idea that some care should be paid in the interpretation of online PPG-derived IBI, while HRV measures online-derived from ECG-shirts seem to be more reliable in the analyzed conditions. The high number of missing beats also suggest that the design of wristband devices should be taken into account to reduce the rate of incorrect measurements, by maximizing sensor adhesion to the skin.

For the first time, plant pigments were detected in Roman frescoes. Indeed, only sporadic papers proved the application of natural hues in ancient paintings and none of them relative to Roman art. Therefore, eight differently coloured fragments of Julio-Claudian wall paintings, collected from Terme degli Stucchi Dipinti archaeological site (Rome, Italy), were subjected to GC–MS analysis, obtaining detailed chemical profiles. Vegetal dyes (ie. Indigotin, Neronine, Alizarin) or colourless metabolites ascribable to plant species (ie. Basella rubra, Sesanum radiatum, Lamium purpureum) were detected. Plant waxes, oils (ie. Brassicaceae) and resins (ie. Pinaceae) were found to be preferred as binders or protective coatings instead of animal glues (ie. collagen, egg). Several natural molecules, typically associated to plant organisms (ie. Lamiaceae and Citrus species), were also identified. These data suggest the predominant role of plant extracts in ancient art and increase the knowledge about organic materials of Roman frescoes, facilitating modern restorers’ activities.