A video-based performance in noise test for measuring audio-visual disability in young school children: test development, with validation by trained teachers, parents and audiometry as relative standards for disability.

BACKGROUND: impaired ability to detect target sounds in noisy surroundings is a particular feature of children with a history of otitis media with effusion (OME). Children with current OME are also likely to experience difficulty in speech reception in classrooms where a high level of background noise has been recorded. No tests are currently available which are feasible in primary care and which objectively measure school-related disabilities. The effects of speech in noise and the extent to which this is offset by speech reading contribute important dimensions to disability. METHODS: a video-based speech reception test has been developed using the same principles in 227 English and 182 Danish 4-8 year-old children. Distribution data was collected for both language versions of the test. The test has been compared with audiometry and teacher and parents assessments to establish its validity. INTERPRETATION: there are no gold standards for audio-visual disability in current clinical use. The poor positive predictive value of audiometry for likely classroom functioning is a cause for concern, particularly in relation to inappropriate referral of children by primary care physicians.

Tabanus arenivagus (diptera: tabanidae) attracted to ultraviolet light suction traps in Israel.

Suction blacklight trappings have been conducted at Bet Dagan since 1978. Tabanus arenivagus has been caught only during 1992-94. Seventy-one specimens, all females, were caught by these traps, demonstrating that females are attracted to the wavelength range of 340-380 nm radiated by the mercury-vapor lamps of these traps. This constitutes a new finding among the Tabanidae species of the Mediterranean region.