Objectives: 1) Measure sentence recognition in co-located and spatially separated target and masker configurations in school-aged children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) and with normal hearing (NH). 2) Compare self-reported hearing-related quality of life (QoL) scores in school-aged children with UHL and NH. Design: Listeners were school-aged children (6-12 yrs) with permanent UHL (n = 41) or NH (n = 35) and adults with NH (n = 23). Sentence reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured using HINT-C sentences in quiet and in the presence of 2-talker child babble or a speech-shaped noise masker in target/masker spatial configurations: 0/0, 0/−60, 0/+60, or 0/±60 degrees azimuth. Maskers were presented at a fixed level of 55 dBA, while the level of the target sentences varied adaptively to estimate the SRT. Hearing-related QoL was measured using the Hearing Environments and Reflection on Quality of Life (HEAR-QL-26) questionnaire for child subjects. Results: As a group, subjects with unaided UHL had higher (poorer) SRTs than age-matched peers with NH in all listening conditions. Effects of age, masker type, and spatial configuration of target and masker signals were found. Spatial release from masking was significantly reduced in conditions where the masker was directed toward UHL subjects' normal-hearing ear. Hearingrelated QoL scores were significantly poorer in subjects with UHL compared to those with NH. Degree of UHL, as measured by four-frequency pure-tone average (PTA), was significantly correlated with SRTs only in the 2 conditions where the masker was directed towards subjects' normal-hearing ear, although the unaided Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) at 65 dB SPL was significantly correlated with SRTs in 4 conditions, some of which directed the masker to the impaired ear or both ears. Neither PTA nor unaided SII was correlated with QoL scores.

4. Laryngoscope, 2619-2624, 2018.

Contamination truncates risk estimates of child maltreatment and controlling it can strengthen overall conclusions about the effects of child maltreatment on female health.

This study investigated the role of natural periodic temporal fine structure in helping listeners take advantage of temporal valleys in amplitude-modulated masking noise when listening to speech. Young normal-hearing participants listened to natural, whispered, and/or vocoded nonsense sentences in a variety of masking conditions. Whispering alters normal waveform temporal fine structure dramatically but, unlike vocoding, does not degrade spectral details created by vocal tract resonances. The improvement in intelligibility, or masking release, due to introducing 16-Hz square-wave amplitude modulations in an otherwise steady speech-spectrum noise was reduced substantially with vocoded sentences relative to natural speech, but was not reduced for whispered sentences. In contrast to natural speech, masking release for whispered sentences was observed even at positive signal-to-noise ratios. Whispered speech has a different short-term amplitude distribution relative to natural speech, and this appeared to explain the robust masking release for whispered speech at high signal-to-noise ratios. Recognition of whispered speech was not disproportionately affected by unpredictable modulations created by a speech-envelope modulated noise masker. Overall, the presence or absence of periodic temporal fine structure did not have a major influence on the degree of benefit obtained from imposing temporal fluctuations on a noise masker.