Developing an Appropriate Digital Hearing Aid for Low-Resource Countries: A Case Study

This paper reviews the development process and discusses the key findings which resulted from our multidisciplinary research team’s effort to develop an alternative digital hearing suitable for low-resource countries such as Thailand. A cost-effective, fully programmable digital hearing aid, with its specifications benchmarking against WHO’s recommendations, was systematically designed, engineered, and tested. Clinically it had undergone a full clinical trial that employed the outcome measurement protocol adopted from the APHAB, the first time implemented in Thai language. Results indicated that using the hearing aid improves user’s satisfaction in terms of ease of communication, background noises, and reverberation, with clear benefit after 3 and 6 months, confirming its efficacy. In terms of engineering, the hearing aid also proved to be robust, passing all the designated tests. As the technology has successfully been transferred to a local company for the production phase, we also discuss other challenges that may arise before the device can be introduced into the market.

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Seismic Strengthening of Low Strength Concrete Columns using High Ductile Metal Strap Confinement: A Case Study of Kindergarten School in Northern Thailand

Walailak Journal of Science and Technology (WJST) ◽

10.48048/wjst.2020.10738 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (12) ◽

pp. 1335-1347

Author(s):

Thanongsak IMJAI ◽

Monthian SETKIT ◽

Reyes GARCIA ◽

Piti SUKONTASUKKUL ◽

Suchart LIMKATANYU

Keyword(s):

Cost Effective ◽

Concrete Columns ◽

Design Guidelines ◽

Initial Assessment ◽

Seismic Strengthening ◽

Construction Time ◽

Post Tension ◽

Strengthening Technique ◽

First Time

The 2014 Chaing Rai earthquake (Thailand) caused extensive damage in many reinforced concrete (RC) buildings built before the introduction of modern seismic design guidelines. Much of the damage on these buildings was attributed to the inadequate capacity and/or ductility of columns. As a result, suitable and cost-effective strengthening techniques for such substandard elements are necessary. This article presents a case study on the seismic strengthening of a one-story RC kindergarten school located in Ampor Pan, Chaing Rai province. The building was partially damaged during the afore-mentioned earthquake, which led to cracking in walls, columns, and beam-column joints. As part of the initial assessment, innovative repair solutions were sought to minimize construction time, labor, and material cost. Accordingly, an innovative strengthening technique that uses Post-tension Metal Strapping (PTMS) was proposed to strengthen the damaged RC elements. This article presents details of the structural assessment performed on the building, as well as details of the PTMS strengthening strategy, which was applied for the first time in a real full-scale structure. This article contributes towards the validation and application of the PTMS strengthening on real structures, which had not been possible until now.

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Ties to the outside: An exploration of faculty interactions with external organizations

Higher Education Politics & Economics ◽

10.32674/hepe.v4i1.9 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 295-313 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Karley A Riffe

Keyword(s):

Study Design ◽

Financial Constraints ◽

Academic Discipline ◽

Faculty Members ◽

Faculty Work ◽

Case Study Design ◽

Low Resource ◽

Faculty Interactions ◽

Embedded Case Study

Faculty work now includes market-like behaviors that create research, teaching, and service opportunities. This study employs an embedded case study design to evaluate the extent to which faculty members interact with external organizations to mitigate financial constraints and how those relationships vary by academic discipline. The findings show a similar number of ties among faculty members in high- and low-resource disciplines, reciprocity between faculty members and external organizations, and an expanded conceptualization of faculty work.

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Islamic and Jewish Religious Feminists Tackle Islamic and Jewish Oral Law: Maintenance and Rebellion of Wives

Comparative Islamic Studies ◽

10.1558/cis.31497 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 35-63

Author(s):

Ruth Roded

Keyword(s):

State Policy ◽

Political System ◽

Daily Life ◽

The State ◽

The Political ◽

Jewish Law ◽

Modern Times ◽

Parallel Case ◽

First Time

Beginning in the early 1970s, Jewish and Muslim feminists, tackled “oral law”—Mishna and Talmud, in Judaism, and the parallel Hadith and Fiqh in Islam, and several analogous methodologies were devised. A parallel case study of maintenance and rebellion of wives —mezonoteha, moredet al ba?ala; nafaqa al-mar?a and nush?z—in classical Jewish and Islamic oral law demonstrates similarities in content and discourse. Differences between the two, however, were found in the application of oral law to daily life, as reflected in “responsa”—piskei halacha and fatwas. In modern times, as the state became more involved in regulating maintenance and disobedience, and Jewish law was backed for the first time in history by a state, state policy and implementation were influenced by the political system and socioeconomic circumstances of the country. Despite their similar origin in oral law, maintenance and rebellion have divergent relevance to modern Jews and Muslims.

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Green Synthesis and Spectroscopic Studies of Ag-rGO Nanocomposites for Highly Selective Mercury (II) Sensing

Nanoscience &Nanotechnology-Asia ◽

10.2174/2210681207666170705143629 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 101-108 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shubhangi J. Mane-Gavade ◽

Sandip R. Sabale ◽

Xiao-Ying Yu ◽

Gurunath H. Nikam ◽

Bhaskar V. Tamhankar

Keyword(s):

Green Synthesis ◽

Color Change ◽

Limit Of Detection ◽

Aqueous Media ◽

Suitable Condition ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Spectroscopic Studies ◽

Calibration Plot ◽

First Time

Introduction: Herein we report the green synthesis and characterization of silverreduced graphene oxide nanocomposites (Ag-rGO) using Acacia nilotica gum for the first time. Experimental: We demonstrate the Hg2+ ions sensing ability of the Ag-rGO nanocomposites form aqueous medium. The developed colorimetric sensor method is simple, fast and selective for the detection of Hg2+ ions in aqueous media in presence of other associated ions. A significant color change was noticed with naked eye upon Hg2+ addition. The color change was not observed for cations including Sr2+, Ni2+, Cd2+, Pb2+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Fe2+, Ba2+ and Mn2+indicating that only Hg2+ shows a strong interaction with Ag-rGO nanocomposites. Under the most suitable condition, the calibration plot (A0-A) against concentration of Hg2+ was linear in the range of 0.1-1.0 ppm with a correlation coefficient (R2) value 0.9998. Results & Conclusion The concentration of Hg2+ was quantitatively determined with the Limit of Detection (LOD) of 0.85 ppm. Also, this method shows excellent selectivity towards Hg2+ over nine other cations tested. Moreover, the method offers a new cost effective, rapid and simple approach for the detection of Hg2+ in water samples.

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Smart Phones As a Viable Data Collection Tool in Low-resource Settings: Case Study of Rwandan Community Health Workers

Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering ◽

10.2174/2213385204666160711155116 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 132-139 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Suzana Brown ◽

Alan Mickelson

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Community Health ◽

Community Health Workers ◽

Health Workers ◽

Smart Phones ◽

Data Collection Tool ◽

Low Resource Settings ◽

Low Resource

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Performance Improvement of Digital Hearing Aid Systems

Journal of Communications Technology Electronics and Computer Science ◽

10.22385/jctecs.v1i0.15 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 27

Author(s):

Isiaka Ajewale Alimi

Keyword(s):

Noise Reduction ◽

Hearing Aids ◽

Digital Signal Processor ◽

Speech Intelligibility ◽

Communication Systems ◽

Hearing Aid ◽

Spectral Subtraction ◽

Residual Spectrum ◽

Digital Hearing Aids ◽

Digital Hearing Aid

Digital hearing aids addresses the issues of noise and speech intelligibility that is associated with the analogue types. One of the main functions of the digital signal processor (DSP) of digital hearing aid systems is noise reduction which can be achieved by speech enhancement algorithms which in turn improve system performance and flexibility. However, studies have shown that the quality of experience (QoE) with some of the current hearing aids is not up to expectation in a noisy environment due to interfering sound, background noise and reverberation. It is also suggested that noise reduction features of the DSP can be further improved accordingly. Recently, we proposed an adaptive spectral subtraction algorithm to enhance the performance of communication systems and address the issue of associated musical noise generated by the conventional spectral subtraction algorithm. The effectiveness of the algorithm has been confirmed by different objective and subjective evaluations. In this study, an adaptive spectral subtraction algorithm is implemented using the noise-estimation algorithm for highly non-stationary noisy environments instead of the voice activity detection (VAD) employed in our previous work due to its effectiveness. Also, signal to residual spectrum ratio (SR) is implemented in order to control the amplification distortion for speech intelligibility improvement. The results show that the proposed scheme gives comparatively better performance and can be easily employed in digital hearing aid system for improving speech quality and intelligibility.

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Innovating on Inhaled Bioequivalence: A Critical Analysis of the Current Limitations, Potential Solutions and Stakeholders of the Process

Pharmaceutics ◽

10.3390/pharmaceutics13071051 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 1051

Author(s):

Jonattan Gallegos-Catalán ◽

Zachary Warnken ◽

Tania F. Bahamondez-Canas ◽

Daniel Moraga-Espinoza

Keyword(s):

New Technologies ◽

Innovation Process ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Regulatory Agencies ◽

Drug Products ◽

Effective Strategies ◽

Rate Analysis ◽

Orally Inhaled Drug Products ◽

Next Generation Impactor ◽

First Time

Orally inhaled drug products (OIDPs) are an important group of medicines traditionally used to treat pulmonary diseases. Over the past decade, this trend has broadened, increasing their use in other conditions such as diabetes, expanding the interest in this administration route. Thus, the bioequivalence of OIDPs is more important than ever, aiming to increase access to affordable, safe and effective medicines, which translates into better public health policies. However, regulatory agencies leading the bioequivalence process are still deciding the best approach for ensuring a proposed inhalable product is bioequivalent. This lack of agreement translates into less cost-effective strategies to determine bioequivalence, discouraging innovation in this field. The Next-Generation Impactor (NGI) is an example of the slow pace at which the inhalation field evolves. The NGI was officially implemented in 2003, being the last equipment innovation for OIDP characterization. Even though it was a breakthrough in the field, it did not solve other deficiencies of the BE process such as dissolution rate analysis on physiologically relevant conditions, being the last attempt of transferring technology into the field. This review aims to reveal the steps required for innovation in the regulations defining the bioequivalence of OIDPs, elucidating the pitfalls of implementing new technologies in the current standards. To do so, we collected the opinion of experts from the literature to explain these trends, showing, for the first time, the stakeholders of the OIDP market. This review analyzes the stakeholders involved in the development, improvement and implementation of methodologies that can help assess bioequivalence between OIDPs. Additionally, it presents a list of methods potentially useful to overcome some of the current limitations of the bioequivalence standard methodologies. Finally, we review one of the most revolutionary approaches, the inhaled Biopharmaceutical Classification System (IBCs), which can help establish priorities and order in both the innovation process and in regulations for OIDPs.

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The socio-spatial politics of royalties and their distribution: A case study of the Surat Basin, Queensland

Environment and Planning A Economy and Space ◽

10.1177/0308518x211026656 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 0308518X2110266

Author(s):

Neil Argent ◽

Sean Markey ◽

Greg Halseth ◽

Laura Ryser ◽

Fiona Haslam-McKenzie

Keyword(s):

Cost Effective ◽

Indigenous Communities ◽

Energy Extraction ◽

Grant Application ◽

Coal Seam Gas ◽

Spatial Politics ◽

Developmental Needs ◽

Development Fund ◽

Effective Use

This paper is concerned with the socio-spatial and ethical politics of redistribution, specifically the allocation of natural resources rents from political and economic cores to the economic and geographical peripheries whence the resource originated. Based on a case study of the coal seam gas sector in Queensland's Surat Basin, this paper focuses on the operation of the Queensland State Government's regional development fund for mining and energy extraction-affected regions. Employing an environmental justice framework, we critically explore the operation of these funds in ostensibly helping constituent communities in becoming resilient to the worst effects of the ‘staples trap’. Drawing on secondary demographic and housing data for the region, as well as primary information collected from key respondents from mid-2018 to early 2019, we show that funds were distributed across all of the local government areas, and allocated to projects and places primarily on a perceived economic needs basis. However, concerns were raised with the probity of the funds’ administration. In terms of recognition justice, the participation of smaller and more remote towns and local Indigenous communities was hampered by their structural marginalisation. Procedurally, the funds were criticised for the lack of local consultation taken in the development and approval of projects. While spatially concentrated expenditure may be the most cost-effective use of public monies, we argue that grant application processes should be open, transparent and inclusive, and the outcomes cognisant of the developmental needs of smaller communities, together with the need to foster regional solidarity and coherence.

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Counseling during Real Ear Measurements: The Clients' Perspective

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology ◽

10.1055/s-0040-1718930 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Angela Ryall ◽

Lorienne M. Jenstad ◽

John Pumford ◽

Tami Howe ◽

Garnet Grosjean

Keyword(s):

Focus Groups ◽

Hearing Aids ◽

Visual Information ◽

Best Practice ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Hearing Aid ◽

Added Value ◽

Centered Care ◽

Prior Literature ◽

First Time

Abstract Background When dispensing hearing aids, audiologists must follow validated fitting and verification procedures to ensure that the hearing aids are properly fitted to the client's hearing. Real ear measurements (REMs) are best practice for verifying hearing aids. Prior literature regarding REMs has mainly focused on the clinicians' perspective. Purpose This study investigated informational counseling throughout REMs by gathering perspectives of first-time hearing aid users regarding the content and format of counseling. Research Design The study used an interpretive description approach with focus groups. Study Sample There were 16 adult participants (4 males, 12 females) who were first-time hearing aid users and who all had memory of REMs occurring during their own hearing aid verification. Intervention We investigated the addition of informational counseling during REM verification. Data Collection and Analysis Four focus groups were conducted to elicit feedback on a demonstration of informational counseling during REM hearing aid verification. The data from the focus groups were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results Analysis revealed positive aspects, negative aspects, and suggested changes in relation to the verbal and visual information presented during the REM verification demonstration. These data fell into two broad categories: the interaction and transaction of informational counseling. Conclusion Most clients were interested in learning more about REMs if the information was accessible. Results provide recommendations for clinical audiologists and REM system manufacturers to make the information presented during informational counseling more client-friendly and individualized for client-centered care. To continue exploring this new inquiry, further experimental research is required to determine if there is any added value of incorporating informational counseling during REMs.

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