Middle ear implants overcome some of the common problems of conventional hearing aid technology, such as feedback, signal distortion, ear canal occlusion and associated issues. The Otologics MET Carina, Boulder, CO, USA, is a fully implantable hearing prosthesis designed to address the amplification needs of adults (> 18 years of age), with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss and norm...

Intranasal challenge of C57BL/6 mice with Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes 6B, 14, and 23F produced colonization of the middle ear and NP. Intranasal vaccination with ethanol-killed nonencapsulated cells with adjuvant protected both sites. Of four nontoxic adjuvants tested, the cholera toxin B subunit was most effective and least nonspecifically protective.

The main risk factor in the study for general language problems was a family history of language problems, p< .001. However, being male, p= .004, and being shy, p= .001, were the main risk factors for specific delays in speech. The other important risk factors were health problems in early childhood, especially recurrent otitis, p= .012, having a mother with a low educational level, p= .003, an...

Bimodal, auditory-visual neurons in the optic tectum of the barn owl are sharply tuned for sound source location. The auditory receptive fields (RFs) of these neurons are restricted in space primarily as a consequence of their tuning for interaural time differences and interaural level differences across broad ranges of frequencies. In this study, we examined the extent to which frequency-speci...

Frequent blood pressure monitoring is the key to diagnosis and treatments of many severe diseases. However, conventional ambulatory methods require patients carry a (BP) device for 24 h conduct measurement every 10--15 min. Despite their extensive usage, wearing wrist/arm-based BP long time has significant impact on users' daily activities. To address problem, we developed eBP measure from insi...

BACKGROUND Secondary to circulating maternal estrogens, a baby's ear cartilage is unusually plastic during the first few weeks of life, providing an opportunity to correct ear deformities by molding. If molding is initiated during the first days of life with a more rigid molding system than previously described in the literature, the authors hypothesized that treatment time would be reduced and...

Middle ear surgery involves the smallest and the most fragile bones of the human body. Since microsurgical gestures and a submillimetric precision are required in these procedures, the outcome can be potentially improved by robotic assistance. Today, there is no commercially available device in this field. Here, we describe a method to design a teleoperated assistance robotic system dedicated t...

Bone-Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA) has proven performance and advantages for patients with aural atresia or chronic ear drainage who cannot wear air-conduction hearing aids. The BAHA has both cosmetic and acoustic advantages over most conventional hearing aids and hence is becoming increasingly popular. Moreover, BAHA improves the quality of life and has also significantly reduces ear discharge. ...

BACKGROUND We investigate the potential usability of a novel in-the-ear electroencephalography recording device for sleep staging. METHODS In one healthy subject we compare simultaneous earelectroencephalography to standard scalp EEG visually and using power spectrograms. Hypnograms independently derived from the records are compared. RESULTS We find that alpha activity, K complexes, sleep ...

Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, a relatively new diagnostic instrument, is a noninvasive imaging method which, among its many advantages, uses no ionizing radiation. There are a few limitations and contraindications to its use. There may be displacement of intracerebral aneurysm clips and metallic implants, and cardiac pacemakers can be disabled because of the high magnetic field created by...