Listening Events Research Articles

Modality-Dependent Brain Activation Changes Induced by Acquiring a Second Language Abroad.

The dynamic nature of cortical activation changes during language acquisition, including second-language learning, has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we administered two sets of reading and listening tests (Pre and Post) to participants who had begun to learn Japanese abroad. The two sets were separated by an interval of about 2 months of Japanese language training. We compared the results of longitudinal functional MRI experiments between the two time-points and obtained the following major findings. First, the left-dominant language areas, as well as bilateral visual and auditory areas, were activated, demonstrating the synergistic effects of multiple modalities. There was also significant activation in the bilateral hippocampi, indicating the expected involvement of memory-related processes. Second, consistent with the behavioral improvements from Pre to Post, the brain activations decreased in the left inferior and middle frontal gyri during the listening tests, as well as in the visual areas (the bilateral inferior and superior parietal lobules, and left inferior and middle occipital gyri) during the reading tests, while activations in the right superior and middle temporal gyri increased during the listening tests. These modality-dependent activation changes could not be explained by domain-general cognitive factors, such as habituation or familiarization, because we used completely different test sets for Pre and Post. Third, the posterior hippocampus showed a main effect of the hemisphere, whereas the anterior hippocampus showed a significant main effect of the event (i.e., specific to first listening events), reflecting initial encoding of auditory information alone. In summary, activation changes from Pre to Post indicate functional changes in modality-dependent networks over a short period of staying abroad, which would enable effective acquisition of a second language.

Real-World Benefits of Hearing Aids Beyond Better Speech Understanding

Real-World Benefits of Hearing Aids Beyond Better Speech Understanding

Considering Durations and Replays to Improve Music Recommender Systems

The consumption of music has its specificities in comparison with other media, especially in relation to listening durations and replays. Music recommendation can take these properties into account in order to predict the behaviours of the users. Their impact is investigated in this paper. A large database was thus created using logs collected on a streaming platform, notably collecting the listening times. The proposed study shows that a high proportion of the listening events implies a skip action, which may indicate that the user did not appreciate the track listened. Implicit like and dislike can be deduced from this information of durations and replays and can be taken into account for music recommendation and for the evaluation of music recommendation engines. A quantitative study as usually found in the literature confirms that neighborhood-based systems considering binary data give the best results in terms of MAP@k. However, a more qualitative evaluation of the recommended tracks shows that many tracks recommended, usually evaluated in a positive way, lead to skips or thus are actually not appreciated. We propose the consideration of implicit like/dislike as recommendation engine inputs. Evaluations show that neighbourhood-based engines remain the most precise, but filtering inputs according to durations and/or replays have a significant positive impact on the objective of the recommendation engine. The recommendation process can thus be improved by taking account of listening durations and replays. We also study the possibility of post-filtering a list of recommended tracks so as to limit the number of tracks that will be unpleasantly listened (skip and implicit dislike) and to increase the proportion of tracks appreciated (implicit like). Several simple algorithms show that this post-filtering operation leads to an improvement of the quality of the music recommendations.

Oral Histories as Critical Qualitative Inquiry in Community Health Assessment.

Qualitative methods such as focus groups and interviews are common methodologies employed in participatory approaches to community health assessment to develop effective community health improvement plans. Oral histories are a rarely used form of qualitative inquiry that can enhance community health assessment in multiple ways. Oral histories center residents' lived experiences, which often reveal more complex social and health phenomena than conventional qualitative inquiry. This article examines an oral history research component of the Little Village Community Health Assessment, a collaborative research effort to promote health equity in an urban, Mexican ethnic enclave. We collected of 32 oral histories from residents to provide deeper, more grounded insight on community needs and assets. We initially used thematic data analysis. After analytic peer debriefings with the analysis team, we found the process inadvertently reductionist and instead opted for community listening events for participatory data analysis, knowledge translation, and dissemination of findings. Oral histories were most meaningful in their original audio form, adding to a holistic understanding of health by giving voice to complex problems while also naming and describing concepts that were culturally unique. Moreover, the oral histories collectively articulated a counternarrative that celebrated community cultural wealth and opposed the mainstream narrative of the community as deprived. We argue for the recognition and practice of oral histories as a more routine form of qualitative inquiry in community health assessment. In the pursuit of health equity and collaboratively working toward social justice, oral histories can push the boundaries of community health assessment research and practice.

Investigating country-specific music preferences and music recommendation algorithms with the LFM-1b dataset

Recently, the LFM-1b dataset has been proposed to foster research and evaluation in music retrieval and music recommender systems, Schedl (Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Multimedia Retrieval (ICMR). New York, 2016). It contains more than one billion music listening events created by more than 120,000 users of Last.fm. Each listening event is characterized by artist, album, and track name, and further includes a timestamp. Basic demographic information and a selection of more elaborate listener-specific descriptors are included as well, for anonymized users. In this article, we reveal information about LFM-1b’s acquisition and content and we compare it to existing datasets. We furthermore provide an extensive statistical analysis of the dataset, including basic properties of the item sets, demographic coverage, distribution of listening events (e.g., over artists and users), and aspects related to music preference and consumption behavior (e.g., temporal features and mainstreaminess of listeners). Exploiting country information of users and genre tags of artists, we also create taste profiles for populations and determine similar and dissimilar countries in terms of their populations’ music preferences. Finally, we illustrate the dataset’s usage in a simple artist recommendation task, whose results are intended to serve as baseline against which more elaborate techniques can be assessed.

Authentic Listening Resource Pack: Bridging the Gap to Real-World Listening

Despite the fact that thanks to the internet it has never been easier to get materials for listening practice, getting better at listening continues to be a tough task for most learners. The problem is, perhaps, that an abundance of materials does not automatically translate into an improvement in listening. In fact, if it were just a question of quantity, there would actually be no need for resource books like the Authentic Listening Resource Pack . The key, then, lies in quality rather than quantity, and in particular in the quality of learner training rather than of the recordings themselves. That is to say, it is not so much how much listening a learner manages to do, as what happens before, during, and even after the listening events themselves. The warning flags in this respect were clearly put up back in the 1980s ( Sheerin 1987 ), with early answers to the issue of effective listening being offered by John Field in his proposal for a new methodology ( Field 1998 ). Ten years later, Field (2008) provided us with a fully elaborated response to the teaching-versus-testing dilemma in his now highly regarded, and hopefully widely read, handbook on listening. More recently, Vandergrift and Goh (2012) have shone a valuable light on the role of metacognitive awareness for improved listening, and Cauldwell (2013) has taken us elegantly into the relationship between pronunciation and listening.

Discussing End-of-Life Issues in Mexico With Older People and Family Caregivers

Older persons often lack the assurance that their needs, wishes, and preferences will be respected. This is the first project in Mexico to involve older adults and family caregivers in end-of-life care discussions. The aim is to better understand concerns around end-of-life issues. This qualitative, phenomenological study used listening events held in 6 culturally, socially, and geographically diverse areas to discuss end-of-life issues with older adults and family caregivers. Framework analysis was used to classify and organize data according to key themes, concepts, and emergent categories. Data were reviewed and discussed until consensus was reached. A total of 121 persons participated. Six major themes were expressed: (1) lack of knowledge of advance directives, (2) little concern regarding pain management and do-not-resuscitate orders and opposition to euthanasia, (3) need for home care training, (4) male caregivers, (5) importance of religious faith, and (6) preferences of dying. Important information was obtained about preferences and concerns of older adults and their caregivers, and a discussion forum was provided. Participants wanted respect from the health care team, to be accompanied by family and religious leaders, and to have a pleasant environment in their final days. Caregivers coped using reciprocity, a work-oriented attitude, pride in caregiving, and faith.

Speech Recognition Using Dynamic Grammar and Parallel Listening Events

Speech Recognition Using Dynamic Grammar and Parallel Listening Events

Interprofessional aspects of the dignity in care program in Wales

Wales is one of constituent countries of the UK and a Dignity in Care Program was launched in 2007. In this retrospective thematic review paper, interprofessional aspects are considered in the 6 training events, 3 listening events and 22 small projects delivered within the program. While there was good professional engagement with the program, the actual impact on health and social care service provision is difficult to evidence. One of the future challenges in Wales might be to develop a prospective performance management system for dignity in care which measures impact rather than proxy measures of engagement.

College to debate 'matron' role'.

The changing role of senior charge nurses in Scotland will come under scrutiny during a series of RCN 'listening events'.

A Grateful Dead analysis: The relationship between concert and listening behavior analysis

The Grateful Dead was an American band born out of the 1960s San Francisco, California psychedelic movement, that played music together from 1965 to 1995. Despite relatively little popular radio airtime, while on tour the Grateful Dead enjoyed a cult-like following from a fan base that numbered in the millions. Still today, some ten years after dissolution, the band remains popular according to online music services, such as last.fm. This article presents a comparative analysis between 1,590 of the Grateful Dead's live concert set lists from 1972 to 1995 and 2,616,990 Grateful Dead listening events by last.fm users from August 2005 to October 2007. While there is a strong correlation between how songs were played in concert and how they were listened to by last.fm members, the outlying songs in this trend identify interesting aspects of the band and their present-day fans.

‘We are not blaming anyone, but if we don't know about amenities, we cannot seek them out’: black and minority older people's views on the quality of local health and personal social services in England

ABSTRACTImproving access to culturally-appropriate services and enhancing responses to the needs of older people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds were among the aims of theNational Service Framework for Older People(NSFOP) that was introduced in England in 2001. Progress in meeting the aims of the NSFOP was evaluated by a mid-term independent review led by the Healthcare Commission, the body responsible for regulating health-care services in England. This paper reports the consultation with older people that underpinned the evaluation. It focuses on the views and experiences of older people from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups and of the staff that work in BME voluntary organisations. A rapid appraisal approach was used in 10 purposively selected local councils, and plural methods were used, including public listening events, nominal groups and individual interviews. In total 1,839 older people participated in the consultations and 1,280 (70%) completed a monitoring form. Some 30 per cent defined themselves as of a minority ethnic background. The concerns were more about the low recognition of culturally-specific and language needs than for the development of services exclusively for BME older people.

Four years on: The impact of the National Service Framework for Older People on the experiences, expectations and views of older people

Evaluation of the impact of the National Service Framework for Older People (NSFOP) on the experiences and expectations of older people, 4 years into its 10 year programme. the NSFOP is a comprehensive strategy designed to promote fair, high quality, integrated health and social care services for older people in England. It emphasises (i) the need for services to support independence and promote health, (ii) the specialisation of services for key conditions (stroke, falls and mental illness) and (iii) advocates a cultural change in services so that the older people and their carers are treated with respect, dignity and fairness. It has a 10-year timetable for implementation, starting in 2001. A mixed methods approach to evaluation was taken in ten purposively selected localities in England. A portfolio of methods (listening events, nominal groups and interviews) was used with older people and carers to focus on processes as well as on outcomes and to allow for the possibility of conflicting or differing judgements about service quality. One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine people participated in public listening events, 1,639 took part in nominal groups and 120 were interviewed individually. The existence of the NSFOP was not widely known beyond the NSFOP local implementation teams and voluntary sector activists. Many, but not all older people, identified themselves as members of a group that was subject to age prejudice that altered the quality and standard of their care. This identity included a role as carer for others, but there was less emphasis on the rights of older people. Positive changes in primary care services were offset by difficulties in accessing general practice and a sense that services were becoming impersonal. The quality of social care at home varied from sensitive and personal to fragmentary, hurried and impersonal. Hospitals treatment was perceived as improved in speed and quality in most places, but hospitals were also seen as risky and insufficiently caring, with discharge sometimes being unprepared, over-zealous and disorganised. If asked, older people do not perceive improvements as the result of a NSFOP, but nonetheless they do perceive improvements in systems. It is difficult to attribute any of the changes in experiences that we identified to the NSFOP itself, but we can see that other change processes run contrary to some aspects of the NSFOP whilst some trends are congruent with the aspirations of the NSFOP. Government initiatives face the difficulty of distinguishing experiences that may be attributable to multiple causes. They are influenced nonetheless by the outcome of public consultation since these provide relatively rapid means of feedback and commentary by citizens and regulators on the performance of services.

Acoustics of a planetarium

Brigham Young University has recently constructed a planetarium with a 38-ft.-diameter dome. The facility also serves as a classroom. Since planetariums typically have poor acoustics due to their domed ceiling structures, acoustical recommendations were requested before its construction. The recommendations were made in an attempt to create an acceptable listening environment for lectures and other listening events. They were based in part on computer models and auralizations intended to predict the effectiveness of several acoustical treatments on the outer walls and on the dome itself. The recommendations were accepted and the planetarium was completed accordingly. A series of acoustical measurements was subsequently made in the room and the resulting acoustical parameters were mapped over the floor plan. This paper discusses these results and compares them with the predictions of the computer models.

Homonymous hemianopia in multiple sclerosis.

<h3>Background</h3> Hospice Isle of Man (IoM) is celebrating its 35th anniversary. To thank the community and to inform the next five-year strategy, the hospice conducted a series of community listening events with the theme of ‘What matters to you, matters to us’. <h3>Aims</h3> To understand what the public knew about Hospice and learn about their experience; to find out what matters most when confronted with end of life; and to ask how the hospice can best serve the IoM. <h3>Methods</h3> Hospice staff approached members of the public at supermarkets and community events at seven locations. Events took place between January and February 2018 during business hours. Demographic data were collected on age and sex. Interviewers recorded responses that were analysed using thematic analysis according to the aims. <h3>Results</h3> A total of 278 persons from a population of 83 000 provided comments. The majority were female (63%) and over 55 (68%), 32% had used services, and 74% had general awareness of hospice. Respondents were aware of specialist skills and services and/or were supporters. However, only 5% knew about the range of services and there were misconceptions about who the hospice serves. Others preferred ‘not to think about it’ or felt there was ‘one way out’. Overall, experience with Hospice was positive and many felt it was ‘for families’. What mattered to people included: kind, compassionate and effective care, emotional support, person-centred care, equity, the environment, open access, good communication, honesty and helping others talk about death. Hospice can best serve by making services available ‘to all who need it’, ensure sustainability, by supporting families, friends/co-workers, schools and by improving transparency of its accounts. <h3>Conclusions</h3> Hospice needs to raise awareness of its services. Hospice care is valued and needs to be provided at the right time and place for all who need it.