Background: Johnson and Dillon (2011) provided a model-based comparison of current generic hearing aid prescriptive methods for adults with hearing loss based on the attributes of speech intelligibility, loudness, and bandwidth. Purpose: This study compared the National Acoustic Laboratories-Non-linear 2 (NAL-NL2) and Cambridge Method for Loudness Equalization 2-High-Frequency (CAM2) prescriptive methods using adult participants with less high-frequency hearing loss than Johnson and Dillon (2011). Of study interest was quantification of prescribed audibility, speech intelligibility, and loudness. The preferences of participants for either NAL-NL2 or CAM2 and preferred deviations from prescribed settings are also reported. Research Design: Using a single-blind, counter-balanced, randomized design, preference judgments for the prescriptive methods with regard to sound quality of speech and music stimuli were obtained. Preferred gain adjustments from the prescription within the 4-10 kHz frequency range were also obtained from each participant. Speech intelligibility and loudness model calculations were completed on the prescribed and adjusted amplification. Study Sample: Fourteen male Veterans, whose average age was 65 yr and whose hearing sensitivity averaged normal to borderline normal through 1000 Hz sloping to a moderately severe sensorineural loss, served as participants. Data Collection and Analysis: Following a brief listening time (∼10 min), typical of an initial fitting visit, the participants made paired comparison of sound quality between the NAL-NL2 and CAM2 prescriptive settings. Participants were also asked to modify each prescription in the range of 4-10 kHz using an overall gain control and make subsequent comparisons of sound quality preference between prescriptive and adjusted settings. Participant preferences were examined with respect to quantitative analysis of loudness modeling, speech intelligibility modeling, and measured high-frequency bandwidth audibility. Results: Consistent with the lack of difference in predicted speech intelligibility between the two prescriptions, sound quality preferences on the basis of clarity were split across participants while some participants did not have a discernable preference. Considering sound quality judgments of pleasantness, the majority of participants preferred the sound quality of the NAL-NL2 (8 of 14) prescription instead of the CAM2 prescription (2 of 14). Four of the 14 participants showed no preference on the basis of pleasantness for either prescription. Individual subject preferences were supported by loudness modeling that indicated NAL-NL2 was the softer of the two prescriptions and CAM2 was the louder. CAM2 did provide more audibility to the higher frequencies (5-8 kHz) than NAL-NL2. Participants turned the 4-10 kHz gain recommendation of CAM2 lower, on average, by a significant amount of 4 dB when making adjustments while no significant adjustment was made to the initial NAL-NL2 recommendation. Conclusions: NAL-NL2 prescribed gains were more often preferred at the initial fitting by the majority of participating veterans. For those patients with preference for a louder fitting than NAL-NL2, CAM2 is a good alternative. When the participant adjustment from the prescription between 4 and 10 kHz exceeded 4 dB from either NAL-NL2 (2 of 14) or CAM2 (11 of 14), the participants demonstrated a later preference for that adjustment 69% of the time. These findings are viewed as limited evidence that some individuals may have a preference for high-frequency gain that differs from the starting prescription.

Objective: This study examined the influence of prescription on hearing aid (HA) fitting characteristics and 5-year developmental outcomes of children. Design: A randomised controlled trial implemented as part of a population-based study on Longitudinal Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI). Study sample: Two-hundred and thirty-two children that were fit according to either the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) or Desired Sensation Level (DSL) prescription. Results: Deviation from targets and root-mean-square error in HA fitting revealed no significant difference between fitting prescriptions. Aided audibility quantified by using the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) model showed that DSL provided higher audibility than NAL at low and medium input levels but not at high input level. After allowing for hearing loss desensitisation, differences in audibility between prescription groups were significant only at low input level. The randomised trial of prescription that was implemented for 163 children revealed no significant between-group differences in speech production, perception, and language; but parent-rated functional performance was higher for the DSL than for the NAL group. Conclusions: Proximity to prescriptive targets was similar between fitting prescriptions. The randomised trial revealed differences in aided audibility at low input level between prescription groups, but no significant differences in speech and language abilities.

No description available.

In this dissertation, a variety of multiband communication device antennas using the coupling-feed mechanism are presented. The coupling feed contributes additional capacitance to the antenna¡¦s input impedance which shows a high inductive component for the traditional case of using a direct feed. In the first and second antenna designs, with the coupling feed, the high input inductance of the antenna is effectively compensated. This behavior leads to a dual-resonance excitation for the lower band of the antenna. Two wide operating bands are achieved, allowing the antenna¡¦s lower and upper bands to easily cover GSM850/900 and GSM1800/1900/UMTS operation. For the last two antenna designs, owing to the coupling feed, the very large input impedance seen at antenna¡¦s lower band is greatly decreased and results in successful excitation of the one-eighth wavelength (£f/8) mode of the antenna. The specific absorption rate and hearing aid compatibility results for these mobile phone antennas are also analyzed. The effects of presence of the user¡¦s hand on the laptop computer antenna performance are also studied in this dissertation.

An internal eight-band LTE/WWAN handset antenna integrated with a USB connector is presented. The proposed antenna comprises an antenna ground which faces a protruded ground extended from the main ground of the handset to accommodate a USB connector. The antenna ground is used as a shorting portion to short-circuit the antenna to ground such that the coupling between the antenna ground and the protruded ground is effectively suppressed. In this case, the proposed antenna can be integrated with a USB connector mounted on the protruded ground, leading to compact integration of the antenna inside the handset. Good radiation characteristics of the antenna are also obtained, and the proposed antenna occupies 60 ¡Ñ 12 ¡Ñ 4.8 mm3 (about 3.4 cm3) only. Effects of the user¡¦s head and hand on the proposed antenna are studied, and the simulated SAR and HAC results are also analyzed in this thesis.

In this thesis, two types of handset antenna design respectively for dual-band GSM850/1900 operation and seven¡Vband LTE/WWAN operation are presented. The proposed antennas can achieve decreased antenna size and enhanced operating bandwidth by shaping the system ground plane of the handset. The seven-band LTE/WWAN antenna is printed on the system circuit board with good radiation characteristics and occupies a small size of 24.5 x 10 mm2. At first, we propose a half-loop antenna structure which integrates its facing edge of the system ground plane as the resonant path of the antenna. In this case, the required length of the half-loop antenna structure is only about a half compared with the traditional loop antenna. Next, to enhance the operating bandwidth of the antenna, a parasitic shorted monopole strip is added and a shaped system circuit board is used. The shaped system circuit board can integrate the battery with the circuit board to help reduce the thickness of handset. Also, much enhanced operating bandwidth for the lower band can be obtained, owing to the enhanced surface current excitation in the system ground plane resulting from properly shaping the system circuit board. Effects of the user¡¦s head and hand on the proposed antenna are studied, and the simulated SAR and HAC results are also analyzed for bio-compatibility issue.

In this dissertation, novel printed multiband antennas for slim mobile communication devices are presented. The design techniques on achieving decreased antenna size and enhanced operating bandwidth in different shaped system ground planes with the antennas printed thereon are proposed. At first, a WWAN antenna integrated with a U-shaped ground plane is presented. Two techniques are applied to achieve WWAN operation with a small antenna size. The first technique is to embed load a proper chip inductor at a proper position in the shorted strip monopole of the antenna. The second one is to use a band-stop matching circuit disposed on the main circuit board of the handset. For the second and third antenna designs, owing to the C-shaped ground plane, much enhanced operating bandwidth for their lower band can be obtained. The second antenna design can cover the LTE/WWAN eight-band operation without increasing the size of the antenna by using a reconfigurable circuit element. The third antenna design integrated with a battery element and a metal midplate for practical application to help reduce the thickness and enhance the robustness of handset. The antenna can cover seven-band LTE/WWAN operation with good radiation characteristics and occupy a small size of 35 x 8 mm2. Finally, the simulated SAR and HAC results are analyzed for bio-compatibility consideration.

The long-term outcomes of subjects fitted with a bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) for a unilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss (UPSHL) are still evolving. Previous studies have focused on the comparison between shortterm outcomes obtained with hard-wired contralateral routing of signal (CROS) hearing aids and those obtained with BAHA devices. Published results on subjects who have worn their BAHA devices for UPSHL for more than twelve months are limited. This study explored the long-term outcomes of adults fitted with a BAHA for UPSHL. The aims were firstly to examine subjects' pre-operative and postoperative speech perception in quiet and noise, as well as administer two standardised questionnaires, the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Benefit (APHAB) and the Glasgow Hearing Aid Benefit Profile (GHABP). The second aim was to evaluate the responses of implanted subjects following the preoperative test protocols using a supplementary questionnaire, the Single Sided Deafness Questionnaire (SSDQ). The third aim was to monitor the subjects' implant or repair issues. In addition, questionnaire results were compared to subjects who underwent pre-operative assessment but were not implanted. All subjects had a UPSHL resulting from various aetiologies including vestibular schwannoma or other skull base tumour removal, viral infections, cochlear trauma, idiopathic sudden hearing loss, and Meniere's disease. There was a significant difference between the implanted groups' pre- and post-operative outcomes measures, indicating a treatment effect from the fitting of the BAHA device. No significant changes were found with the non-implanted groups' longterm outcome measures in regards to their perceived hearing difficulties. No significant correlations were found between outcome measures and gender, age of fitting, length of deafness, or ear affected for either group.

In order to meet the needs of people with hearing loss today hearing aids are custom designed. Increasingly accurate 3-D scanning technology has contributed to the transition from conventional production scenarios to software based processes. Nonetheless, there is a tremendous amount of manual work involved to transform an input 3-D surface mesh of the outer ear into a final hearing aid shape. This manual work is often cumbersome and requires lots of experience which is why automatic solutions are of high practical relevance. This work is concerned with the recognition of 3-D surface meshes of ear implants. In particular we present a semantic part-labeling framework which significantly outperforms existing approaches for this task. We make at least three contributions which may also be found useful for other classes of 3-D meshes. Firstly, we validate the discriminative performance of several local descriptors and show that the majority of them performs poorly on our data except for 3-D shape contexts. The reason for this is that many local descriptor schemas are not rich enough to capture subtle variations in form of bends which is typical for organic shapes. Secondly, based on the observation that the left and the right outer ear of an individual look very similar we raised the question how similar the ear shapes among arbitrary individuals are? In this work, we define a notion of distance between ear shapes as building block of a non-parametric shape model of the ear to better handle the anatomical variability in ear implant labeling. Thirdly, we introduce a conditional random field model with a variety of label priors to facilitate the semantic part-labeling of 3-D meshes of ear implants. In particular we introduce the concept of a global parametric transition prior to enforce transition boundaries between adjacent object parts with an a priori known parametric form. In this way we were able to overcome the issue of inadequate geometric cues (e.g., ridges, bumps, concavities) as natural indicators for the presence of part boundaries. The last part of this work offers an outlook to possible extensions of our methods, in particular the development of 3-D descriptors that are fast to compute whilst at the same time rich enough to capture the characteristic differences between objects residing in the same class.

The main goal of this doctoral thesis was to measure differences in speech intelligibility between older and younger hearing-impaired people and to establish the factors influencing the effectiveness of the use of hearing aids in the elderly. We focused on three related areas: 1/ To measure how the magnitude of difference of hearing and speech intelligibility in silence differs between younger and older populations, with a similar degree of hearing loss, in terms of word audiometry. 2/ To establish how speech intelligibility in competitive noise differs between younger and older populations with a similar degree of auditory defect, in terms of the Czech Test of Sentence Intelligibility in Babble Noise. 3/ To establish which factors affect the effectiveness of hearing aids for seniors, the motivation for the acquisition and regular use of hearing aids, and whether these factors correlate with age or lifestyle. Methodology 1/ A group of 143 hearing aid users was divided into young (N = 60, mean age 15,9 y.) and seniors (N = 83, mean age 83,6 y.). For these two age groups we compared the differences between SRT values (understanding in word audiometry in silence, in the free field) and PTA values (hearing threshold in pure tone audiometry). 2/ A group of 423 persons, examined using the Test of...