Although unilateral cochlear implants generally provide good speech understanding under quiet conditions, patients with unilateral cochlear implants frequently report difficulty in understanding speech in the presence of background noise and difficulty in localizing the source of sound. Since these two listening functions require binaural hearing in normal hearing individuals, there has been a growing interest in bilateral cochlear implants as intervention type for people with severe-to-profound bilateral hearing loss. This study investigated the outcomes of bilateral cochlear implants in all the adult recipients of the Pretoria Cochlear Implant Program. All the subjects with BCIs were asked to choose a significant other person to participate in the study. All the subjects (i.e. subjects with BCIs and their significant other people) were asked to participate in a semi-structured interview and to fill out a researcher-generated questionnaire. The subjects with BCIs also underwent audiometric testing. The majority of the subjects with BCIs were found to demonstrate improved ability to understand speech in the presence of background noise and, to some extent, in their ability to localize sound sources. As both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to determine the outcomes, it could be demonstrated that the majority of adult bilateral cochlear implant recipients gain from the auditory benefits in everyday listening situations. The majority of subjects and their significant other people conferred that their improved auditory skills allow them to be more participative in social, cultural, and other activities, which add to the quality of their lives. / Dissertation (MCommunication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / Unrestricted

In the years of 2009 and 2010, an observation of chosen quantitative and qualitative measures of several hybrids of corn took place at PS Humpolec and ZD Hosín. Quantitative measures were evaluated based on dissection of individual plants, qualitative measures then through common laboratory methods. In the field experiments at PS Humpolec, an observation of the seeding quantity and nitrogen load took place. The seeding quantity influenced with very high size of effect all agronomical and seed figures, except for the number of rows in the cob, where only high size of effect was observed. The quantity of 85 thousand seeds per hectare seems to be optimal. The nitrogen load influenced with very high size of effect the weight of the cob, with high size of effect the number of cobs and the weight of grains in the cob. Other measures were not affected. The year influenced with very high size of effect the length of the plant, the number of leaves, the weight of the cob; with high size of effect the height of the first cob on the plant and with considerable size of effect the number of cobs on the plant and the length of the cobs. Other observed measures were not affected by the year. Optimal nitrogen load that can be recommended is 110 kilograms per hectare. The best digestibility was noted with 100 thousand seeds per hectare and 110 Kg of nitrogen per hectare, or with 70 thousand seeds per hectare with no nitrogen. In the operational and half-operational experiments at ZD Hosín, differences between chosen hybrids were observed. Based on the results, the best one that can be recommended for these environmental conditions is Karacho, with FAO 260. Hybrid Karacho achieved the highest yield of matter in both years and in the year of 2010 it also achieved the best digestibility.