Millions of Americans experience some degree of hearing loss. The Social Security Administration (SSA) operates programs that provide cash disability benefits to people with permanent impairments like hearing loss, if they can show that their impairments meet stringent SSA criteria and their earnings are below an SSA threshold. The National Research Council convened an expert committee at the request of the SSA to study the issues related to disability determination for people with hearing loss. This volume is the product of that study. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits reviews current knowledge about hearing loss and its measurement and treatment, and provides an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes and criteria. It recommends changes to strengthen the disability determination process and ensure its reliability and fairness. The book addresses criteria for selection of pure tone and speech tests, guidelines for test administration, testing of hearing in noise, special issues related to testing children, and the difficulty of predicting work capacity from clinical hearing test results. It should be useful to audiologists, otolaryngologists, disability advocates, and others who are concerned with people who have hearing loss.

Sound is integral to how we experience the world, in the form of noise as well as music. But what is sound? What is the physical basis of pitch and harmony? And how are sound waves exploited in musical instruments? In this Very Short Introduction Mike Goldsmith looks at the science of sound and explores sound in different contexts, covering the audible and inaudible, sound underground and underwater, accoustic and electric, and hearing in humans and animals. He also considers the problem of sound out of place - noise and its reduction. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Digital sound synthesis has long been approached using standard digital filtering techniques. Newer synthesis strategies, however, make use of physical descriptions of musical instruments, and allow for much more realistic and complex sound production and thereby synthesis becomes a problem of simulation. This book has a special focus on time domain finite difference methods presented within an audio framework. It covers time series and difference operators, and basic tools for the construction and analysis of finite difference schemes, including frequency-domain and energy-based methods, with special attention paid to problems inherent to sound synthesis. Various basic lumped systems and excitation mechanisms are covered, followed by a look at the 1D wave equation, linear bar and string vibration, acoustic tube modelling, and linear membrane and plate vibration. Various advanced topics, such as the nonlinear vibration of strings and plates, are given an elaborate treatment. Key features: Includes a historical overview of digital sound synthesis techniques, highlighting the links between the various physical modelling methodologies. A pedagogical presentation containing over 150 problems and programming exercises, and numerous figures and diagrams, and code fragments in the MATLAB® programming language helps the reader with limited experience of numerical methods reach an understanding of this subject. Offers a complete treatment of all of the major families of musical instruments, including certain audio effects. Numerical Sound Synthesis is suitable for audio and software engineers, and researchers in digital audio, sound synthesis and more general musical acoustics. Graduate students in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering or computer science, working on the more technical side of digital audio and sound synthesis, will also find this book of interest.

Video games open portals to fantastical worlds where imaginative play and enchantment prevail. These virtual settings afford us considerable freedom to act out with relative impunity. Or do they? Sound Play explores the aesthetic, ethical, and sociopolitical stakes of people's creative engagements with gaming's audio phenomena-from sonorous violence to synthesized operas, from democratic music-making to vocal sexual harassment. William Cheng shows how video games empower their designers, composers, players, critics, and scholars to tinker (often transgressively) with practices and discourses of music, noise, speech, and silence. Faced with collisions between utopian and alarmist stereotypes of video games, Sound Play synthesizes insights across musicology, sociology, anthropology, communications, literary theory, philosophy, and additional disciplines. With case studies spanning Final Fantasy VI, Silent Hill, Fallout 3, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Team Fortress 2, this book insists that what we do in there-in the safe, sound spaces of games-can ultimately teach us a great deal about who we are and what we value (musically, culturally, humanly) out here. Foreword by Richard Leppert Video Games Live cover image printed with permission from Tommy Tallarico

Musical Sound, Instruments, and Equipment' offers a basic understanding of sound, musical instruments and music equipment, geared towards a general audience and non-science majors. The book begins with an introduction of the fundamental properties of sound waves, and the perception of the characteristics of sound. The relation between intensity and loudness, and the relation between frequency and pitch are discussed. The basics of propagation of sound waves, and the interaction of sound waves with objects and structures of various sizes are introduced. Standing waves, harmonics and resonance are explained in simple terms, using graphics that provide a visual understanding.

Go to a meeting, seminar or presentation, in business, education, sports, even personal growth. Whats the first thing you hear? Change! Everything is change. And we all have to, need to -- and get to -- change. And whats the very first thing Jesus tells everyone? Change! [Greek metanoeite, Mt. 4:17] So, whats the difference? Whats so special about what Jesus says? Change! is what everybody says. Discover how surprisingly hard it is for Christians and non-Christians alike to hear the gospel -- even if shown the difference and that this difference makes all the difference in the world!

Traffic. A crunchy snack. An argument. What does sound look like to you? Difference Engine is proud to present our first comics anthology, SOUND: A Comics Anthology. Writers and illustrators from all around Southeast Asia were challenged to push the boundaries of depicting the unseen through the medium of visuals and words, while telling stories important to them. Guest editors Budjette Tan and Charis Loke have put together an intriguing list of stories that showcase the creativity of creators across Southeast Asia--both familiar and new names. In a broad range of genres and topics, this collection of stories is an exciting exploration of what the comics medium is capable of.

"An exquisitely beautiful book ...These stories about birds are ultimately reflections on the curious nature of humanity itself" — Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk There is no denying that many people are crazy for birds. Packed with intriguing facts and exquisite and rare artwork, Birdmania showcases an eclectic and fascinating selection of bird devotees who would do anything for their feathered friends. In addition to well-known enthusiasts such as Aristotle, Charles Darwin, and Helen Macdonald, Brunner introduces readers to Karl Russ, the pioneer of "bird rooms", who had difficulty renting lodgings when landlords realized who he was; George Lupton, a wealthy Yorkshire lawyer, who commissioned the theft of uniquely patterned eggs every year for twenty years from the same unfortunate female guillemot who never had a chance to raise a chick; George Archibald, who performed mating dances for an endangered whooping crane called Tex to encourage her to lay; and Mervyn Shorthouse, who posed as a wheelchair-bound invalid to steal an estimated ten thousand eggs from the Natural History Museum in Tring. As this book illustrates, people who love birds, whether they are amateurs or professionals, are as captivating and varied as the birds that give flight to their dreams.

The present series LEARNING ELEMENTARY SCIENCE for Classes 6–8 follows the concept of “Learning without burden” as a guiding principle. Science has to be understood as a lively and growing body of knowledge. The children have to learn the dynamism of science by observing things closely, recording observations, and when drawing inferences from what they observe. Observations are to be made by performing such activities which can be easily performed by the children, often without costly equipment, and even at their homes. When science is learned in this manner, the children would learn the ways of nature and start appreciating it. The salient features of this series are :  It is in strict accordance with the latest N.C.E.R.T. syllabus.  It encourages the learning of science through activities. The activities provide hands-on experience to the learners. All the activities and experiments are class-tested.  The language used is simple and lucid.  It explains the laws and principles of science in a clear and concise way.  The series has updated information along with interesting facts in the form of ‘Did you know?’  Exercises and Activities / Projects are given at the end of each chapter. Exercises contain Multiple Choice Questions, Fill in the Blanks, True and False, Match the Statements, Short Answer Type Questions, etc. Activity / The project contains Activities, Projects, Charts, Models, Class Response, Visit, Quiz, the topic for Seminar/Debate. The assessments develop skills of comprehension of concepts, enhance knowledge and application of what is learned.  Life skills relevant to the chapters are given at the end of the chapters.  Two Model Test Papers are given at appropriate places for Half Yearly Examination and Yearly Examination.  Four Periodic Test Papers are given at appropriate places for Periodic Assessments.  Learning Elementary Science becomes a joyful experience with a number of clearly labeled illustrations and learner-friendly simple language. Goyal Brothers Prakashan

Far from the hushed restraint we associate with the Victorians their world pulsated with sound. This book shows how, in more ways than one, Victorians were hearing things. John Picker draws upon literary and scientific works to recapture the Victorian sense of aural discovery.