This study compared the effects from the use of aural and notated exercises as pedagogical procedures for teaching harmonic accuracy to beginning jazz improvisation students. The methods of pedagogy were identified from published pedagogic and historical sources, the results of oral and written traditions of jazz pedagogy. The performance objective was produced from a review of the related literature as a recognized and measurable characteristic of jazz improvisation. The purpose of this study was to compare measurements of harmonic accuracy, following the use of notated and aural exercises as experimental procedures of jazz improvisation pedagogy. A lesson plan, materials, curriculum and outline were developed followed by student recruitment and participation. A total of 20 student volunteers participated in the methods of pedagogy (aural or notation). Data collection consisted of a musical background questionnaire and pre and posttest performance recordings. Student recordings were evaluated by six judges using the “experimental performance evaluation measure.” Statistical analyses were conducted, including comparisons of pre to posttest effects between, and among the methods of pedagogy. Although all student participants performed mostly from notated music prior to this study, students who received the aural method of pedagogy produced greater improvement for all measurement items. While the aural method produced no differences between grade level, the notation method produced significantly lower scores for 9th graders compared to 12th graders; no other significant grade level differences were noted. Conclusions were that although many sources of pedagogy do not include aural exercises as the predominate activity, beginning improvisers who have more experience reading music than playing by ear, learn better from aural, than notated exercises.

Select epithelial regions of the bovine inner ear were established and maintained in cell culture. Marginal cells from the stria vascularis and dark cells from the posterior wall of the utricle were isolated, dissociated and placed in culture medium. Within 24 h, cellular islands of hexagonal-shaped, epithelial-like cells from both the stria vascularis and posterior utricular wall were readily identifiable by inverted light microscopy. Ultrastructural examination of both the cultured stria marginal cells and utricular dark cells revealed that both cell types had numerous microvilli on their apical surfaces and interdigitating infoldings of their basolateral surfaces. Apical tight junctional complexes were present between apposing cells. These findings demonstrate that inner ear bovine epithelial cells can be successfully isolated and maintained in culture, and that such cells retain certain of their in vivo morphological characteristics.

Background: Endoscopic ear surgery has gained acceptance as a complementary tool to microscopic ear surgery, but perhaps not so much as an instrument for exclusive use.With this approach becoming popular, there is scarce data on cholesteatoma recidivism and hearing outcomes, when exclusively used. Objectives: Auditing outcomes of endoscopic ear surgery for the surgical management of cholesteatoma in the Groote Schuur hospital (above13 year age group) and the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s hospital (below 13 year age group) , with a secondary aim of comparing recidivism and hearing outcomes of 4 different surgical techniques for cholesteatoma resection, namely, exclusive endoscopic (EES), microscopic canal wall down (CWD), microscopic canal wall up (CWU) and combined endoscopic-microscopic techniques. Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted at our two tertiary academic referral hospitals in Cape Town, namely, Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and Groote Schuur Hospital from January 2012 to December 2016. Results: A total of 128 cholesteatoma ear surgeries were done; 110 patients were above the age of 13 years and 18 patients were below the age of 13 years. Eight Red Cross patients underwent EES, 7 had CWU, 2 had CWD and 1 had a combined technique. Overall recidivism rate in this population was 33% (6/18), of which 2 were approached exclusively endoscopically, 2 underwent a microscopic CWU, 1 had a CWD and 1 had combined endoscopic-microscopic approach. The mean postoperative hearing in this group was 40dB compared to a preoperative mean of 50,3 decibels (dB). In the Groote Schuur group, 23 underwent an exclusive endoscopic approach; 42 had a CWU, 40 had a CWD and 5 had a combined endoscopic-microscopic approach. Overall recidivism rate for the above 13 year old group was 17% (19/110). Of those, 7 were from the endoscopic group, 8 from the CWU group, 1 from CWD group and 3 from the combined technique group. Mean postoperative hearing was 47,4dB compared to a preoperative hearing of 48,4dB. Conclusions: The CWD technique demonstrated superior outcomes in both the above and below 13 year age groups. In the above 13 year old group, the EES approach had the same recurrence rate as CWU. While paediatric cholesteatomas have much higher recidivism rates compared to adults, our below 13 year old group was too small to conclude any statistical significant differences between the different approaches, and therefore, further studies are required in this age group. Management of cholesteatoma requires a highly individualized approach that takes into account anatomic, clinical and social factors to determine the most appropriate surgical treatment paradigm

The purpose of this study was to investigate the central auditory processing of children who had sustained chronic middle ear problems during their early language-learning years. A 60% compressed recording of the NU-6 speech discrimination word lists was administered to twenty eight and nine year old normal hearing public school children, reported by their parents to have had repeated middle ear problems during their early years, and to twenty control subjects matched for age from the same public school classes. Differences in compressed and uncompressed word discrimination scores between the experimental and control groups were not found to be statistically significant. These results indicate that the experimental subjects' ability to process compressed speech was not impaired by early middle ear difficulties. The alternative was suggested that if these children actually sustained central damage due to distorted or degraded input during their hearing deficit episodes, then such effects may be neutralized by subsequent auditory experience and neurological maturity. A significant difference for both groups of children was noted between scores obtained with NU-6 lists 2A and 3A at 60% compression. While apparently equivalent in the uncompressed form, list 3 was found to be significantly more difficult than list 2 when compressed. Implications for further research are discussed.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Hearing loss and vestibular dysfunction are inner ear disease states that arise from an array of diverse etiologies that interfere with mechanosensory hair cell function, including: congenital syndromes, noise-induced trauma, ototoxic drugs, and aging. The investigation of normal inner ear development and the pathological aberrations that cause inner ear disease has been previously advanced through formation of an easily generated, scalable, accurate in vitro model system that readily facilitates experimental applications. This model utilizes a 3D floating cell culture protocol which guides differentiation of stem cell aggregates into inner ear organoids, which are vesicles containing a sensory epithelium with functioning mechanosensory hair cells. Inner ear organoid formation enables studying the effects of modulating the signaling pathways that guide developing inner ear structure and function. The Notch signaling pathway heavily influences the formation of the inner ear through two major mechanisms: lateral induction of sensory progenitor cells and lateral inhibition to determine which of those progenitors differentiate into mechanosensory hair cells. The effects of inhibiting Notch signaling within the inner ear organoid system were explored through application of the ɣ-secretase inhibitor MDL28170 (MDL) at a concentration of 25μM on day 8 of organoid culture. Aggregates were harvested on day 32, fixed, sectioned, and stained according to a standard immunohistochemistry protocol. Sections were stained for the mechanosensory hair cell markers Myosin7a (Myo7a) and Sox2. MDL-treated aggregates demonstrated statistically significant reductions in the total number of vesicles and the number of vesicles containing hair cells compared to control aggregates. In contrast to control aggregates which demonstrated two distinct organoid variants (protruding and embedded), MDL-treated aggregates only formed the embedded variant. Differences in the expression pattern of Sox2, which is also a marker of stemness and neural progenitor cells were also noted between the two conditions. MDL-treated aggregates demonstrated regions of ‘ectopic’ Sox2 expression whereas Sox2 expression in control aggregates was consistently expressed within Myo7a+ regions.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Loss of the finite cochlear hair cells of the inner ear results in sensorineural deafness. Human cochlear hair cells do not regenerate, and there is no cure for deafness. Our laboratory has established a three-dimensional culture system for deriving functional sensory hair cells from human pluripotent stem cells. A major limitation of this approach is that derived hair cells exhibit a morphological and gene expression phenotype reflective of native vestibular hair cells. Previous studies have shown that establishment of localized domains of gene expression along the dorso-ventral axis of the developing otic vesicle is necessary for proper morphogenesis of both auditory and vestibular inner ear structures. Sonic hedgehog (SHH) signaling has been shown to play a key role in specification of the ventral otic vesicle and subsequent cochlear development. Here, SHH treatment was pursued as a potential strategy for inducing a patterning phenotype permissive to cochlear induction in vitro. Single-cell RNAsequencing analysis revealed that while treatment with the SHH pathway agonist Purmorphamine reduced expression of markers for the vestibular-yielding dorsal otic vesicle, upregulation of ventral otic marker genes was modest. More strikingly, the number of otic progenitors exhibiting a neuroprogenitor phenotype increased in response to Purmorphamine treatment. These results suggest that SHH pathway modulation in early-stage inner ear organoids may bias their differentiation toward a neural lineage at the expense of an epithelial lineage. The present study is the first to evaluate the patterning phenotype of human stem cell derived otic progenitors, and sheds light on the transcriptomic profile at this critical point of inner ear development. This study may also cultivate future efforts to derive cochlear cell types as well as inner ear neural cell types from human pluripotent stem cells, and contribute to the establishment of a more complete in vitro model of inner ear development. / 2021-08-21

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第21295号 / 医博第4384号 / 新制||医||1030(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 影山 龍一郎, 教授 浅野 雅秀, 教授 辻川 明孝 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DAM

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This study dealt with the perception of dissonance by male, female, freshman and senior music majors. A test was devised which would show that there is a significant difference in dissonance perception between freshman versus senior and male versus female music majors, utilizing specific excerpts from the musical repertoire. Test item analysis was also employed to determine if a significant difference occurs in each excerpt. It was found that certain excerpts show a significant difference while the means of the combined groups do not. This phenomenon was because of relative uncertainty in response between dissonant ("four") and extremely dissonant ("five") excerpts. The conclusions of the study based upon the hypotheses were the following: 1. Four years in a university environment makes a significant difference in a music major's perception of dissonant sounds in music. 2. The sex of the music major causes no significant difference in the perception of dissonance. Male responses were consistent with female responses within the same class.