Deafness Problem Research Articles

Congenital Deafness and Deaf-Mutism: A Historical Perspective.

Hearing loss is the most common sensory deficit and one of the most common congenital abnormalities. The estimated prevalence of moderate and severe hearing loss in a normal newborn is 0.1-0.3%, while the prevalence is 2-4% in newborns admitted to the newborn intensive care unit. Therefore, early detection and prompt treatment are of utmost importance in preventing the unwanted sequel of hearing loss on normal language development. The problem of congenital deafness is today addressed on the one hand with hearing screening at birth, on the other with the early (at around 3 months of age) application of hearing aids or, in case of lack of benefit, by the cochlear implant. Molecular genetics, antibody tests for some viruses, and diagnostic imaging have largely contributed to an effective etiological classification. A correct diagnosis and timely fitting of hearing aids or cochlear implants is useful for deaf children. The association between congenital deafness and "mutism", with all the consequences on/the consideration that deaf mutes have had since ancient times, not only from a social point of view but also from a legislative point of view, continued until the end of the nineteenth century, with the development on one side of new methods for the rehabilitation of language and on the other of sign language. But we need to get to the last decades of the last century to have, on the one hand, the diffusion of "universal newborn hearing screening", the discovery of the genetic causes of over half of congenital deafness, and on the other hand the cochlear implants that have allowed thousands of children born deaf the development of normal speech. Below, we will analyze the evolution of the problem between deafness and deaf-mutism over the centuries, with particular attention to the nineteenth century.

Machine Learning-Based Communication Failure Identification Scheme for Directional Industrial IoT Networks

In industrial systems, massive content, such as high-quality video and a large amount of sensing data, should be exchanged between Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices under strict deadlines. The use of millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies of 28 and 60 GHz can satisfy the requirements of IIoT by providing a high data rate. In the mmWave band, it is necessary to use a directional antenna owing to its short wavelength. Consequently, directional links are vulnerable to adverse effects, such as deafness problems, where a communicating node cannot receive signals from other transmitting nodes. To alleviate the deafness problem, in this article, we propose a machine learning-based communication failure identification scheme for reliable device-to-device (D2D) communication in the mmWave band. The proposed scheme determines the type of network failure (deafness/interference) according to the IIoT device's state parameters. Based on the identification scheme, we additionally propose ML-DMAC to improve the throughput and minimize the deafness duration of D2D communication. The performance evaluation shows that the proposed ML-DMAC outperforms existing schemes in aggregate throughput and deafness duration by approximately 31% and 88%, respectively.

The effect of First Movement cadences to sentence endings at L.V Beethoven's Sonata for Cello and Piano No.3-Op 69 in A Major

Bu çalışmada, bir müzik yapıtını oluşturan müzik cümlelerini duraksatmak ya da noktalandırmak için kullanılan kadansların L. v. Beethoven’ın no.3-op. 69, la majör piyano ve viyolonsel sonatının Allegro ma non tanto başlıklı I. bölümündeki cümle bitişlerine olan etkilerine ve işlevlerine değinilmiştir. Çalışmada, Beethoven’ın piyano ve viyolonsel sonatlarının üçüncüsü olan eserinin bölüm yapıları hakkında bilgi verilmiş, I. bölümün ayrıca form analizi yapılarak, teknik ve müzikal yönden değerlendirilmiştir. Beethoven’ın 1800’lerde başlayan sağırlık sorununa rağmen besteciliğindeki gücün hiç azalmayıp aksine artması bestecinin hayatındaki ‘‘kahramanlık dönemi’’ olarak adlandırılan yıllardaki başarısını kanıtlar niteliktedir. Bin yedi yüz yedi-1808 yıllarında bestelediği la majör piyano ve sonatı da bestecinin orta kahramanlık dönemi yıllarına denk gelerek bu döneme dahildir. 
 Bu çalışma, L. v. Beethoven’ın müzikal üslubunun, no.3-op. 69, la majör piyano ve viyolonsel sonatındaki izlerini, bu sonatın müzikal yapısını, merak edenlere ve çalışmak isteyen müzisyenlere bir yol gösterici olarak düşünülmüştür. Aynı zamanda bir müzik cümlesini sonlandırmak için gerekli olan kadansların klasik dönemdeki yeri hakkında da bilgi verecek bu çalışma, eseri çalışmak isteyenlere eserin stili hakkında bilgi vermeyi amaçlayarak literatüre katkı sağlaması amacıyla çalışılmıştır.

Towards an intelligent personal assistant for hearing impaired people

This work has been focused on the part of the population with hearing impairment who owns a dog and that worries about not listening the dog barks, specially when a risky situation is taking place at home. A survey was carried out on people with deafness problems to find out hazard situations which they are exposed at home. A system prototype was developed to be integrated as a component of ambient intelligence (AmI) for ambient assisted living (AAL) that serves to Hearing Impaired People (HIP). The prototype detects dog barks and notifies users through both a smart mobile app and a visual feedback. It consists of a connection between a Raspberry Pi 3 card and a ReSpeaker Mic Array v2.0 microphone array; a communication module with a smartphone was implemented, which displays written messages or vibrations when receiving notifications. The cylinder-shaped device was designed by the authors and sent it to 3D print with a resin material. The prototype recognized the barking efficiently by using a machine learning model based on Support Vector Machine technique. The prototype was tested with deaf people which were satisfied with precision, signal intensity, and activation of lights.

Reinforcement-Learning-Based Spatial Resource Identification for IoT D2D Communications

The exponential growth of the Internet of Things (IoTs) has led to an increasing demand for intelligent IoT devices (IoTDs), requiring innovative network capacity expansion. Recently, several research has been conducted on the identification of hidden network resources for network capacity expansion. However, the spatial resource identification scheme through the omnidirectional antenna has limitations in terms of frequency efficiency compared to the scheme with the directional antenna. In this article, we propose a directional spatial-resource identification technique for device-to-device (D2D) communication. To find the optimal identification parameters, we design the objective function and apply a reinforcement learning. The training data used for reinforcement learning are collected in each report phase, and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Q$</tex-math></inline-formula> -learning is applied to find the optimal beam set. Furthermore, based on the obtained frequency information, we propose a contention-based D2D communication scheme. The proposed contention-based D2D communication scheme can efficiently solve the deafness problem occurring in a directional D2D communication. Finally, we perform a simulation using optimum network performance (OPNET) to measure the performance and evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. The simulation results show that the proposed schemes realize a better performance than the existing schemes proposed in previous works in terms of energy efficiency, frequency efficiency, aggregate network throughput, and deafness duration.

Whispered Hearing Analyzer — a device for preventive examinations to detect early hearing loss

Introduction. The problem of hearing loss and deafness, due to the general prevalence of hearing loss in different age groups, is significant not only for medicine, but also for the social sphere of society. Nowadays, just as 40 years ago, preventive medical examinations and initial examinations by an otorhinolaryngologist use methods of testing hearing by means of whispered speech, which has its own characteristics for everyone. This leads to diagnostic errors and does not allow to detect hearing loss in its early stages. Purpose of the study—development of a whispered-speech apparatus for early express diagnosis of hearing loss, and study of the effectiveness of the developed apparatus. Materials and methods. The Department of Hygiene at the Izhevsk State Medical Academy, as part of the program "Umnic-2018" a whispered hearing analyzer — a device for early express diagnosis of hearing loss was developed. The device was tested on the basis of otorhinolaryngologist offices in Izhevsk and Tchaikovsky. The study group included 53 patients aged 19 to 76. As part of the testing of the device, the subjects underwent whispered speech hearing tests using acumetric Voyacek word tables; express diagnostics of the hearing level with the whispered hearing analyzer and tonal threshold audiometry using the ITERA II diagnostic audiometer (Otometrics, Denmark). Results. As a result of the testing of the developed device, we found that the use of the whispered hearing analyzer allows you to reduce the time of examination and increase its diagnostic efficiency compared to conventional methods of hearing level examination at medical check-ups. Discussion. The Whispering Hearing Analyzer is designed to quickly and accurately detect hearing loss during medical examinations. The results obtained with this instrument can only tell you that you have a hearing loss, but it is not possible to make a diagnosis. Conclusion. The problem of disabling hearing loss can be solved through preventive measures, one of which is the developed device for early express diagnosis of hearing loss. The use of this device eliminates the occurrence of diagnostic errors associated with the researcher's speech characteristics, thereby making it possible to detect hearing loss at an early stage.

Application of Nursing Theory to Old Age Care

Theory in Nursing is a systematic and organized group of statements associated with questions within the nursing discipline. There has been a rapid increase in the elderly population in India between 1991 and 2001. It has been projected that by the year 2050, the elderly population would rise to about 324 million. To ensure the quality of care of elderly, nursing theories can be applied and a theory which can be explored in common for geriatric clients is the self care deficit theory. This study explains a strategical approach for the application of nursing care in elderly using Orem’s Self care deficit theory. A client with problems of deafness, joint pain and hypertension was selected. She was obese. She was able to perform her daily activities with support. Her care needs were assessed based on the theory and care was provided. The theory was found useful to give care to geriatric clients with self care problems.

A Multi-Channel MAC Protocol With Retrodirective Array Antennas in Flying Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper, we propose a multi-channel medium access control (MMAC) protocol for the exploitation of retro-directive array antennas in Flying Ad Hoc Networks (named FA-MMAC). This FA-MMAC employs multiple channels and retro-directive array antennas to adjacent unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to transmit simultaneously over the same channel without causing interference. The channel utilization characteristic of FA-MMAC increases the spatial reuse of channel and thus improve the system performance. The key idea is that UAVs first exchange control packets in control window to select data channels and to align beams before exchanging data packets in the data window. In this way, the hidden-terminal and deafness problems are reduced. UAVs can reserve channels and align beams through a circular directional transmission of control frames so that the protocol can take advantage of the benefits of retro-directive array antennas of spatial reuse and increased coverage without prior knowledge of the locations. We develop both antenna model and channel model for FA-MMAC protocol. Analysis and simulation results show that our proposed FA-MMAC can offer a significant performance gain for both static and mobile scenarios than the existing MMAC and 802.11-based protocols. Our findings reported in this paper provide some insights into the performance of multi-channel Flying Ad Hoc Networks which might help network researchers to contribute in the development of next generation UAVs.

Cooperation-Based Adaptive and Reliable MAC Design for Multichannel Directional Wireless IoT Networks

Internet of Things (IoT) is the ultimate enabler of modern civilization. Cooperative communication in multichannel directional wireless networks is one of the cutting-edge IoT research themes. Typically, cooperation in wireless networks is the opportunistic relaying of data packets for neighboring nodes by idle nodes. Current IoT-based researches related to multichannel with directional antenna introduce the control channel cooperation. But, the iterative phenomenon of negotiation in control channel results in higher communication delay. Hence, to reduce the data transmission delay, cooperation in data relaying need to be used along with control channel cooperation. In this paper, we propose a Cooperation-based Adaptive and Reliable MAC (CAR MAC) Design for Multichannel Directional Wireless IoT Networks that combines both of these cooperation and multichannel directional concepts of cooperation. Multichannel directional hidden terminal problems and deafness problems in medium access are solved using both concepts of cooperation jointly. Besides, multidirectional data packet relaying in the same data channel enables parallel transmission that increases the bandwidth utilization. Moreover, the proposed protocol uses a smart GPS (Global Positioning System) based neighbor discovery. Therefore, the directional position and distance among the IoT-enabled wireless nodes are smartly determined to make the control channel cooperation more informative. The results of extensive simulations reveal that CAR MAC achieves significant improvement in network performances.

Consequences of Hidden Tinnitus and Hearing Loss

Consequences of Hidden Tinnitus and Hearing Loss

A Dual Channel Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks Based on Directional Antenna

Medium access control (MAC) protocol is an important link for achieving networks function in any wireless networks; an efficient and reliable MAC protocol is crucial for an effective underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). Significant differences between UASNs and terrestrial sensor networks (TSNs) render the traditional MAC protocols applied on land inapplicable underwater. Existing MAC protocols for UASNs use the omnidirectional antenna, which wastes energy, restricts the network’s coverage range, and brings about unnecessary interferences in neighbor nodes. This paper proposes a dual channel MAC protocol for UASNs based on directional antenna (DADC-MAC), which increases the network coverage range, efficiently utilizes space, and reduces node interference compared to the omnidirectional antenna. The DADC-MAC protocol divides the channel into a data transmission channel and busy prompt message channel; the node uses the former to transmit the control frame and DATA package while the sending node and receiving node use the latter channel to inform the neighbor nodes of on-going communications to prevent DATA package collision. A neighbor discovery mechanism and directional network allocation vector are applied to resolve hidden terminal and deafness problems. Simulation results show that the DADC-MAC protocol could improve network throughput and reduce end-to-end delay, is efficient, performs well, and is well suited to both symmetrical and asymmetrical UASNs topology.

Congestion control vs. link failure: TCP behavior in mmWave connected vehicular networks

The millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency band presents a viable communication platform for the exchange of large amount of data and communications of Connected Vehicular Networks (CVNs). Its ability to support multi-gigabit data rates and high spatial reuse is especially crucial because of the large volume of data produced by physical entity each second. However, its susceptibility the deafness problem, blockages, and beam misalignment is a major impediment, especially in highly mobile environment such as CVNs. Especially, CVNs are related to the life of human being, network reliability is one of the most important issue. To resolve this problem, recent studies on mmWaves have focused more on the PHY/MAC Layers, while fewer studies have examined the transport layer. In this paper, we examine the performance of TCP in mmWave based vehicular networks, focusing particularly on the effects of congestion and link failure. In addition, we highlight the problems of using conventional TCP in an mmWave CVNs and propose an real-time wireless TCP (RTW-TCP) implementation such mmWave environment. Finally, we compare the performance of the proposed RTW-TCP and conventional TCP. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme maximizes the total network resources by distinguishing link failure from network congestion in an mmWave CVNs.

Successful awake craniotomy in an aged patient with a\xa0severe hearing impairment using a bone conduction voice amplifier: a case report

BackgroundThe main purposes of awake craniotomy are to minimize postoperative brain dysfunction caused by the surgical procedure and to maximize the tumor resection range. In awake craniotomy, it is important to have a good quality of awakening and to obtain patient’s obedience in the awake phase.Case presentationThe patient was a 75-year-old woman with an advanced hearing impairment who was scheduled for awake craniotomy. We used a bone conduction voice amplifier before and during the awake phase and communicated with the patient smoothly.ConclusionsWe were able to complete awake craniotomy fully, and overcoming the deafness problem might have contributed to the patient’s good outcome. This case report indicates that awake craniotomy can be performed in a patient with an advanced hearing impairment under the condition of careful anesthetic management.

Exploiting frame aggregation and weighted round robin with beamforming smart antennas for directional MAC in MANET environments

The development of Directional Medium Access Control (DMAC) strategies that allow to enhance the limitations due to the use of omnidirectional antennas in Mobile ad Hoc Networks (MANET), introduces several issues that need to be properly addressed such as the Deafness problem. The use of Smart Antenna Systems (SAS) along with Directional Request To Send (DRTS) and Directional Clear To Send (DCTS) could be not sufficient to mitigate the Deafness. In this regard, a sectorized antenna approach together with a frame scheduling mechanism can improve the overall MAC performance while limiting the Deafness; however, the employment of scheduling algorithms without priority such as the Round Robin could limit the network performance especially in terms of Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and fairness. For this reason, we propose two approaches: the A-MSDU (Aggregation MAC Service Data Unit) MAC and a WRR (Weighted Round Robin) MAC that could allow to overcome the limitations of the Round Robin scheme applied at MAC layer in order to have an high efficiency in the overall resource allocation. More specifically, obtained results show that, through the use of frame aggregation, it is possible to considerably reduce issues implied by Round Robin such as time slice and network overhead; WRR approach, instead, is able to enhance the overall network fairness by reducing the number of collisions provided by a directional MAC based on Round Robin scheduling; this aspect translates into higher PDR performance compared to Round Robin approach.

Intelligent Walking Stick for Deaf blind People

Among all the disabilities, blindness and deafness are the most common disabilities across the world. According to latest statistics of World Health Organization, 285 million people are visually impaired whereas 360 million people have disabling hearing loss [1]. Blind and deaf people face many problems in their daily life. And walking safely and confidently without human assistance in unfamiliar environment is very difficult for them. In this paper we propose an advanced blind stick that allows deaf blind people to navigate with ease using advanced technology. The designed blind stick not only detects obstacles like objects, water but also produce vibratory mechanism to aware person holding the stick. In this proposed project, ultrasonic sensors are integrated in stick which detects obstacles ahead using ultrasonic waves. The blind and deaf people can see the obstacles by using the smart walking cane with vibrating mechanism.

Directional Link Scheduling for Real-Time Data Processing in Smart Manufacturing System

Internet of Things (IoT) technology has accelerated various industries through digital transformation. In an edge computing-based smart factory, a significant number of IoT devices generate large volumes of real-time data. This big data requires efficient routing among edge gateways (EGs) and an edge server for real-time data processing. Existing industrial wireless communication systems provide relatively low data rates and network capacity for real-time sensor data and control information over a wireless channel. This calls for the use of the very large bandwidth available at the mmWave spectrum for real-time data transmission. Existing data routing techniques for the mmWave band are based on traditional mobile ad hoc routing techniques and do not reduce the transmission delay for real-time sensory data in smart manufacturing systems. Therefore, to alleviate the real-time data processing requirement, we propose a new directional routing and link scheduling algorithm based on maximum weight independent set (MWIS). The proposed algorithm solves complicated MWIS problems efficiently and computes backhaul link scheduling results in a relatively short time by lowering the deafness problem among EGs. For transmission fairness, we used a Jain’s fairness index method with numerical analysis of the transmission fairness constraint. We measured the efficiency of our proposed scheme in terms of throughput, delay, packet loss rate, and transmission fairness. Our simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms existing mmWave routing techniques. Moreover, we investigated the performance difference between the proposed algorithm and the optimal solution.

The advanced methods of diagnostics and electroacoustic correction of hearing in children with sensoneural hearing loss

The problem of hearing loss and deafness in children is of great social importance due to the increasing incidence of hearing impairments. According to WHO forecasts, by 2020, the number of people with socially significant hearing defects is expected to increase by more than 30%. The article presents the methods of hearing loss diagnostics in preschool children by means of voice-threshold audiometry, tympanometry, acoustic reflexometry and game audiometry, which makes it possible to detect the minimal auditory disorders. Electroacoustic correction of hearing was conducted by means of advanced digital programmable BTE hearing aids (CA), Oticon (Denmark), with customized inserts.

Adaptive Communication Protocols in Flying Ad Hoc Network

The flying ad hoc network (FANET) is a new paradigm of wireless communication that governs the autonomous movement of UAVs and supports UAV-to-UAV communication. A FANET can provide an effective real-time communication solution for the multiple UAV systems considering each flying UAV as a router. However, existing mobile ad hoc protocols cannot meet the needs of FANETs due to high-speed mobility and frequent topology change. In addition, the complicated flight environment and varied flight tasks lead to the traditional built-in-rules protocols no longer meeting the demands of autonomy. Hence, we have proposed adaptive hybrid communication protocols including a novel position-prediction-based directional MAC protocol (PPMAC) and a self-learning routing protocol based on reinforcement learning (RLSRP). The performance results show that the proposed PPMAC overcomes the directional deafness problem with directional antennas, and RLSRP provides an automatically evolving and more effective routing scheme. Our proposed hybrid adaptive communication protocols have the potential to provide an intelligent and highly autonomous communication solution for FANETs, and indicate the main research orientation of FANET protocols.

Comunicação Gerativa: um diálogo com Oliver Sacks

The paper develops a dialogue with Oliver Sacks’ study on deafness. The limit situation created by deafness offers acuity on characteristics of the communication phenomenon. Some assumptions developed in previous texts are presented as angles for dialogue. In Sacks’ book, which addresses the problem of deafness through a variety of viewpoints, the article selects observations and proposals that corroborate those assumptions or present themselves as challenges to reflection. From the dialogue between the basic propositions initially presented and the clues obtained in Sacks study, the text draws inferences relating to the limit situation; and related leads to the phenomenon in a broader perspective.

A Robust Deafness-Free MAC Protocol for Directional Antennas in Ad Hoc Networks

Directional antennas provide many benefits such as high gain and increased transmission range in wireless networks. However, the deafness problem in directional antennas can greatly decrease transmission efficiency. For example, a source node fails to communicate with the intended destination node if the destination node is beamforming in another direction. In this paper, a deafness-free medium access control (DF-MAC) protocol for directional antennas in ad hoc networks is proposed, which is based on a code division multiple access technique. In DF-MAC, two control codes are additionally used not only for handshaking but also for overcoming the deafness problem. The proposed DF-MAC successfully solves all the four types of the deafness problem in ad hoc networks with directional antennas. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first MAC protocol that completely solves all the four types of the deafness problem. Furthermore, unlike other deafness-aware MAC protocols, the proposed DF-MAC supports mobility. Simulation results show that the proposed DF-MAC outperforms the existing deafness-aware MAC protocols in terms of network throughput and control overhead in both static and mobile environments. If the deafness problem occurs frequently, the effectiveness of DF-MAC is dramatically increased.