Bulbar dysfunction is a common presentation of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and significantly impacts quality of life of people with ALS (PALS). The current paper reviews measurements of dysarthria and dysphagia specific to ALS to identify efficient and valid assessment measures. Using such assessment measures will lead to improved management of bulbar dysfunction in ALS. Measures reviewed for dysarthria in PALS are organized into three categories: acoustic, kinematic, and strength. A set of criteria are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures' identification of speech impairments, measurement of functional verbal communication, and clinical applicability. Assessments reviewed for dysphagia in PALS are organized into six categories: patient reported outcomes, dietary intake, pulmonary function and airway defense capacity, bulbar function, dysphagia/aspiration screens, and instrumental evaluations. Measurements that have good potential for clinical use are highlighted in both topic areas. Additionally, areas of improvement for clinical practice and research are identified and discussed. In general, no single speech measure fulfilled all the criteria, although a few measures were identified as potential diagnostic tools. Similarly, few objective measures that were validated and replicated with large sample sizes were found for diagnosis of dysphagia in PALS. Importantly, clinical applicability was found to be limited; thus, a collaborative team focused on implementation science would be helpful to improve the clinical uptake of assessments. Overall, the review highlights the need for further development of clinically viable and efficient measurements that use a multidisciplinary approach.

Typical listeners can adjust to the speech of individuals with dysarthria through the process of perceptual learning. Past research has demonstrated that listeners improve in their recognition of both segments and connected speech produced by people with dysarthria. The mechanisms underlying learning of dysarthric speech are still uncertain, though it has been suggested that exposure allows listeners to tune into the segmental characteristics of speech. In the current study, we test this hypothesis by training listeners to identify vowels spoken by an individual with mild dysarthria. We employed a pre-test/post-test design where we first tested listeners on (1) vowel recognition and (2) transcription accuracy of connected speech, trained them, and then tested them again. We found that listeners who were trained on dysarthric vowels demonstrated greater improvements in vowel identification than those in the control condition. Likewise, the listeners who underwent training showed greater improvements in transcription accuracy than those in the control condition. However, the training advantage did not generalize to unfamiliar phrases. Overall, it appears that listeners are able to tune into the segmental characteristics of dysarthric speech after a short training session, which improves their recognition of longer connected speech.

Snow squalls are sudden snow events, lasting less than one hour, characterized by low visibility and gusty winds, which can result in notable societal impacts. This analysis develops a climatology of non-lake effect snow squall events in Southern New England for 1994–2018 and investigates the synoptic environment and mesoscale factors conducive to their formation. National Weather Service surface observations were used to identify events; sea-level pressure maps, composite radar charts, and a cell tracking algorithm were used to determine their organization and movement; and ERA5 hourly reanalysis data were used to analyze the associated synoptic and infer mesoscale features, as well as convective and symmetric instability. One hundred events were identified and categorized into four distinct types based on the direction of movement of the associated radar echoes, which is closely linked to characteristic synoptic structures and mesoscale factors. The four types are Classic (squall movement from the northwest, 72 events), Atlantic (from the southwest, 15 events), Northern (from the north, 9 events), and Special (varying, 4 events). All types have a 500-hPa trough over the Northeast but differ in the structure of the trough and its relation to lower-level flow, which accounts for the differences in movement of the squalls. The snow events occur in shallow, convective squall lines and the ingredients for convection were present in all cases. Both upright and symmetric instability are typically present, all cases had at least one lower tropospheric layer with cyclonic differential vorticity advection, and many cases were also associated with frontogenesis.

A comprehensive understanding of the speech capabilities of speakers with dysarthria requires an examination of speech produced in true interactions. Intelligibility in such interactions may reflect joint contributions of speakers and listeners (Olmstead et al., 2020). In this study, nine people with dysarthria secondary to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) participated in an interactive word-matching task with nine typical individuals. In experiment one, we examined speech produced by the people with dysarthria in the interactive task and compared it to speech produced in two non-interactive tasks (baseline and clear speech). Specifically, we measured F1, F2, and vowel duration of the vowels /æ, ɛ, ɪ, and i/. We found task-related differences such that acoustic contrast was greater in the interactive task than baseline. Notably, speech in the interactive task was similar to clear speech in its spectral but not temporal patterns. In experiment two, we obtained perceptual judgements of these productions from 54 naïve listeners. We found a concordant pattern: the vowels from the matching task were easier for listeners to identify than baseline. Overall, results of these studies indicate that speakers with dysarthria can make speech adjustments in communicative tasks that are beneficial for listeners.