Normal-hearing subjects show improved speech understanding when they wear conventional passive hearing protectors in noisy surroundings. In contrast, hearing-impaired subjects are at a disadvantage. Sound attenuation exacerbates the handicap from hearing loss (Abel et al., 1982). Level-dependent (active) hearing protectors which provide limited amplification of sounds below 85 dBA have the oppo...

Cardiac hemodynamic studies during control resting state and isoproterenol infusion were performed on five patients with constrictive pericarditis. During isoproterenol infusion, stroke volume increased by 60%, while there was no significant change in pulmonary wedge and right atrial mean pressures. The relatively fixed filling pressure is the indirect evidence of fixed diastolic size of the he...

A three-dimensional nanoparticle tracking technique using ratiometric total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (R-TIRFM) is presented to experimentally examine the classic theory on the near-wall hindered Brownian diffusive motion. An evanescent wave field from the total internal reflection of a 488-nm bandwidth argon-ion laser is used to provide a thin illumination field on the order ...