Speech News and Research

RSS

World's first audio collection of examples of stammered speech

The world's first audio collection of examples of stammered speech has been set-up by scientists funded by the Wellcome Trust, the UK's biggest biomedical research charity.

9 Aug 2004

E-Text equipment assists visually-impaired students

With numerous book bindings scattered on the floor, the room looked as if there had been a rebellion against literature. But in fact, students were celebrating the new equipment added to Eastern Michigan University’s Center for Adaptive Technology and Education (CATE), that currently serves enrolled students, faculty and staff with a disability.

5 Aug 2004

Scripps Encinitas Program helps brain-injury patients regain living skills

Yvette, a 50-year-old stroke patient, entered the Scripps Encinitas Rehabilitation Center’s Brain Injury Day Treatment Program on March 3 in a wheelchair. On July 9, she walked out on her own with a new outlook on life.

3 Aug 2004

International panel will discuss and recommend changes in the way human beings treat one another

Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich is urging fellow ecologists to join with social scientists to form an international panel that will discuss and recommend changes in the way human beings treat one another and the environment.

2 Aug 2004

New surgical technique for larynx reconstruction

Professor Pierre Delaere (Otorhinolaryngology Department, K.U.Leuven) has in the past decade developed a new surgical technique for larynx reconstruction.

29 Jul 2004

Survey found that only two in ten Americans feel “very prepared” for a catastrophic event

The Red Cross/Wirthlin Worldwide survey found that only two in ten Americans feel “very prepared” for a catastrophic event; only about half of parents polled knew the disaster plans of their child’s school or daycare; the number of people who are familiar with the disaster plan at their workplace is also only about half

26 Jul 2004

New hearing aid with artificial intelligence is the first to mimic the brain's natural ability to automatically detect and optimize speech

Artificial Intelligence is used in many state-of-the-art products - from cameras and computers games to car navigation and communication systems.

21 Jul 2004

Stroke severity is the predominant predictor of discharge destination

An article in the July issue of the Archives of Neurology reports that increasing stroke severity, as measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, increases the likelihood that stroke patients who are treated with the rt-PA clot-dissolving drug will be discharged to rehabilitation or nursing homes, rather than to their own homes.

20 Jul 2004

Levodopa and pramipexole appear to be reasonable options as initial therapy for Parkinson disease

An article in the July issue of the Archives of Neurology reports that the drugs levodopa and pramipexole both appear to be reasonable options as initial therapy for Parkinson disease, but they are associated with different efficacy and adverse effects.

20 Jul 2004

ARICEPT® delays the onset of Alzheimer's among people with mild cognitive impairment

ARICEPT® a popular Alzheimer's drug has been shown to delay the onset of the disease among people with mild cognitive impairment.

19 Jul 2004

Teaching young children the relationships between spellings and sounds - or phonics - makes learning to read easier

By developing a computer model that mimics how children learn to read, two researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford University track the development of a skilled reader, ultimately showing that phonics gives readers an edge, especially early on.

7 Jul 2004

Renowned Chinese surgeon who revealed the SARS cover-up last year is reported to be undergoing brainwashing

Jiang Yanyong a renowned Chinese surgeon who revealed the enormity of the Chinese SARS cover-up last year is reported to be undergoing brainwashing enforced upon him by Chinese Government officials.

6 Jul 2004

Patients being sent abroad for operations that could be performed in the UK

Patients are being sent abroad for operations when they could be treated by doctors in the UK, a film screened at the BMA's annual conference has revealed.

29 Jun 2004

Iraqi doctors and senior nurses learn new techniques in head and neck cancer management

Thirty-two Iraqi Surgeons, Medical Oncologists and Senior Nurses travelled to the King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman, Jordan at the beginning of June to participate in a Seminar on Cancer Management.

29 Jun 2004

Prince Charles has called for more research into the benefits of complementary therapies for cancer patients

His Royal Highness was speaking at a conference hosted by five major charities, including The Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Integrated Health of which he is President.

28 Jun 2004

A shameful record of exploitation throughout the history of the NHS

A shameful record of exploitation throughout the history of the NHS, with the UK reliant on other countries sending us doctors to meet our healthcare needs, was condemned today (Monday 28 June 2004) by the chairman of the British Medical Association, Mr James Johnson.

28 Jun 2004

System to treat patients over the internet via webcam

Physiotherapy is coming to a lounge room near you with a University of Queensland lecturer inventing a system to treat patients over the internet via webcam.

24 Jun 2004

Aggressive treatment of brain blood clots can produce a good outcome for many stroke patients

In the study, published in a recent issue of the journal Neurosurgery, 50 percent of stroke patients had little or no neurological disability one to three months after clot-dissolving medication was delivered directly to the site of the blockages, compared to 39 percent of patients with similarly good outcomes documented in a large national trial of intravenous (IV) drug treatment for stroke.

21 Jun 2004

Local NHS bodies show lack of vision

Primary Care Organisations, responsible for running the NHS at local level, have in some areas failed to grasp the opportunities given to them in the new national GP contract and displayed instead a timid short-termism, GP leader Dr John Chisholm told the annual conference of family doctors today.

17 Jun 2004

Size and shape of synapses among neurons in the cerebral cortex determine long term memory capability

In a study to appear in the June 10 issue of Neuron, neuroscientists at the Picower Center for Learning and Memory at MIT show for the first time that storage of long-term memories depends on the size and shape of synapses among neurons in the outer part of the brain, the cerebral cortex.

14 Jun 2004