The Ear and Hearing LossThe ear is the organ of hearing and balance in vertebrates. The earconverts sound waves in the air, to nerve impulses which are sent to the brain,where the brain interprets them as sounds instead of vibrations. The innermostpart of the ear maintains equilibrium or balance. The vestibular apparatuscontains semicircular canals which in turn balance you. Any movement by thehead, and this apparatus sends a signal to the brain so that your reflex actionis to move your foot to balance you.
The ear in humans consist three parts: The outer, the middle, and theinner portions. The outer ear, or pinna, is the structure that we call the ear.
It is the skin covered flap of elastic cartilage, that sticks out from the sideof the head. It acts like a funnel catching sound and sending it to the middleportion of the ear. The middle portion contains the ear drum and the connectionbetween the pharynx and the drum, the Eustachian tube. The inner ear containsthe sensory receptors for hearing which are enclosed in a fluid filled chambercalled the cochlea. The outer and middle ears purposes are only to receive andamplify sound. Those parts ofd the ear are only present in amphibians andmammals, but the inner ear is present in all vertebrates.
The ear can hear in several different ways. They are volume, pitch, andtone. Pitch is related to the frequency of the sound wave. The volume dependson the amplitude or intensity of the sound wave. The greater the frequency, thehigher the pitch. Humans can hear about 30 and 20,000 waves or cycles persecond. High pitch sounds produce more of a trebly sound, while low pitchsounds produce a rumbling bass sound.
When a person loses these abilities to comprehend sound, it is referredto as deafness. It can be caused by disease, toxic drugs, trauma, or aninherited disorder. Those causes can be classified as conductive, sensorineural,or both.
A conductive hearing loss results from damage to those parts of the earwhich transmit sound vibrations in the air to the fluids of the inner ear. Thistype of damage is usually to the eardrum or small bones known as ossicles.
Ossicles conduct sound from the eardrum to the cochlea. They cannot performsuch an action if the eardrum is perforated, if the middle ear cavity is filledwith fluid, or if the bones become separated, are destroyed by disease, or areovergrown by a spongy bone ( a disorder called otosclerosis). In conductivehearing loss, sound intensity is reduced, but sound isn’t distorted.
Sensorineural hearing loss is more resistant to therapy because itinvolves damage to the delicate sensory cells of the organ of Corti, which islocated in the cochlea. Sensorineural hearing loss has to do with bothdistortion of sound and loss of sound intensity. The closer the damaged tissueis to the auditory cortex, the more complex and subtle are the types ofdistortions. The hair cells of the organ of Corti cannot grow once they aredamaged. Sensorineural hearing loss is rarely reversible.
The hearing losses caused by salicylates such as asprin and the earlystages of Meniere’s Disease are reversible, however. The latter condition ischaracterized by an imbalance of fluid pressures within the inner ear. If thisimbalance is correct soon enough, before hair cell destruction has occurred,hearing will return to its normal level. Sensorineural hearing loss is oftenaccompanied by ear noise, or tinnitus, which is a high-pitched ringing heardonly by the patient. Because the inner ear has no pain fibers, damage is notaccompanied by pain.
Hearing loss is usually measured by an instrument called an audiometerwhich measures the weakest intensity at which a person can hear at mostfrequencies in the range of human hearing. The instrument is calibrated againstthe lowest intensity heard by normal humans at each frequency, according to aninternational standard. Audiometry can determine the amount of hearing loss-whether it is conductive or sensorineural in nature, and how much of each typeof damage has occurred.
Rehabilitation is available for patients with hearing losses. There arelots of programs and resources for these people. Most are special schools. Oneexample might be Cleary’s School for the Deaf. These schools try to provide anenvironment that is as close to a normal classroom as possible. As a matter offact, sometimes they use regular classroom’s but they provide special teachingassistants to help individual student’s.
The next step away from a normal classroom is the special schools. Thismay be a day school or a residential institution. Day schools are organizedfor one or more typed of handicap. Such schools also exist in all parts of theworld. There are, for example schools for the blind, deaf, and mentallyretarded in nearly every state in the US.
For children who cannot obtain the schooling they require in their owncommunities, there are residential schools with dormitories and dining hallsthat enroll children on a 24 hour a day basis. These schools are designed toserve children who do not have access to normal services or whose handicap makesit difficult to for them to adapt to a regular school. Residential schools arethe most common although occasionally there may be a school in a hospital.
Hearing devices are also available. Hearing Aids operate on battery.
They amplify the sound waves that the ear would normally receive. They rangefrom $500 to $6000.
INTERVIEWQuestion: How did you become about this disability? Answer: I was born with ahearing disabilityQ: When we talk, what exactly do you hear? A: The sound volume is lower but nodistortionQ: Would you consider yourself hard on hearing? A: No, and I say no because Ican hear when I pay attention but when I am not paying attention, it is like Iam in my own world. Also, sometimes, I can see their lips moving which signalsme to listen closely.
Q: Did you ever go for any treatment? A: No, I didn’t feel that it was necessarysince it was just a matter of paying attention.
Q: Do you wear any hearing devices? A: No, (same reason as last question)Q: Was it hard at all to communicate either as a child or as an adult? A: Allthe time I face the problem of someone talking to me and I don’t even know it.
Once someone mistakenly accused me of ignoring them.
Q: Do you know what your overall score was on an audiometer? A: No, I was nevertested
The Integrated Pest Management
Integrated Pest ManagementIntegrated pest management (IPM) is a recently developed technology for pestcontrol that is aimed at achieving the desired control while reducing the use ofpesticides. To accomplish this, various combinations of chemical, biological,and physical controls are employed. In the past, pesticides were all too oftenapplied routinely whether needed or not. With IPM, pest populations as well asbeneficial parasite and predator populations are monitored to determine whetherthe pests actually present a serious problem that needs to be treated. Ifproperly and extensively employed, IPM might reduce pesticide use by as much as50 percent, while at the same time improving pest control. If this goal wereachieved, the environmental problems would be minimized, and significantbenefits would result for farmers and society as a whole.
IPM coordinates economically and environmentally acceptable methods of pestcontrol with judicious and minimal use of toxic pesticides. IPM programs assesslocal conditions, including climate, crop characteristics, the biology of thepest species, and soil quality, to determine the best method of pest control. Tactics employed include better tillage to prevent soil erosion and introductionof beneficial insects that eat harmful species. Many pests that are attached tocrop residues can be eliminated by plowing them underground. Simple paper orplastic barriers placed around fruit trees deter insects, which can also beattracted to light traps and destroyed. Weeds can be controlled by spreadinggrass, leaf, or black plastic mulch. Weeds also may be pulled or hoed from thesoil.
Many biological controls are also effective. Such insect pests as the Europeancorn borer, and the Japanese beetle, have been controlled by introducing theirpredators and parasites. Wasps that prey on fruit-boring insect larvae are nowbeing commercially bred and released in California orchards. The many hundredsof species of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and nematodes that parasitizepest insects and weeds are now being investigated as selective control agents. Another area of biological control is breeding host plants to be pest resistant,making them less prone to attack by fungi and insects.
The use of sex pheromonesis an effective measure for luring and trapping insects. Pheromones have beensynthesized for the Mediterranean fruit fly, the melon fly, and the Orientalfruit fly. Another promising pest-control method is the release of sterilizedmale insects into wild pest populations, causing females to bear infertile eggs. Of these techniques, breeding host-plant resistance and using beneficialparasites and predators are the most effective. Interestingly, the combined useof biological and physical controls accounts for more pest control than chemicalpesticides. And with that, I conclude this report with saying that we should pay moreattention to Integrated Pest Management to help achieve a better future for ourgeneration and the next generation to come.
Personal Relationships
I don’t think that anything brings people together more than mutual hatred, except mutual hatred for each other. I suppose that is why my ex-boyfriends and I still talk to each other, or, I should say, one of my ex-boyfriends, Rob. The other one, Andrew, and I don’t talk at all. I suppose that means we must really hate each other. But the reason we don’t talk is that it still hurts, and that wound runs very deep, I doubt if it will ever heal. The “blues” is losing someone you love and not having enough money to immerse yourself in drink. And so when I had lost Andrew, Cupid sent Rob along, and he paid for the tab. In short, I am convinced that Andrew is heartless and devoid of having any conviction or remorse for his wickedness.
And as for Rob, I am honored to be able to say that, yes, he is my friend, and one of the most amazing people I have ever met. Rob was a Marine. Andrew was in the Army. Their temperaments were just as opposite as the branches of the military they served. Rob was an introverted kind of guy, completely content to sit and read a novel or sit quietly in a theatre.
He wasn’t the kind of guy that liked to be the center of attention or draw the spotlight to himself. Andrew, on the other hand, was the most extraverted person I have ever seen. He was the life of the party, always out and about socializing, and loved all the attention than anyone would be willing to give him. Andrew was aggressive, Rob was passive. Even though they were different, they were a lot alike. Which is why, I suppose, I was attracted to both of them. They both had strong leadership skills and the ability to always make me smile when I was sad, console me when I cried, and amuse me with their humor when I needed to be 03cheered.
On my nineteenth birthday, Andrew called at 12:00AM to sing “happy birthday” to me in a Frank Sinatra style, and Rob telephoned to leave The Beatles “so they say it’s your birthday” at 2:07AM on my voice mail. They each had their differences, but even their similarities had their own flavor. Physically, I would have to say that both Rob and Andrew were enough to put Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp out of business. Rob was tan due to spending so much time on the Florida beaches, with dark hair and big brown eyes and tall.
Andrew was slightly taller than Rob, with dark blonde hair and blue eyes the color of the sea. Being military guys, they could make any girl swoon in their uniforms, and both spent a good deal of time doing PT (that’s Physical Training to civilians) and were in top notch physical condition. As for their relationship skills, I would have to say that Rob had Andrew beat hands down. Andrew was neglectful, would often promise to call, and I would be left sitting by the telephone waiting on a phone call that would never come. Rob was punctual. If he said he was going to call at a certain time, he would. Andrew was often running ten minutes late. Rob was always ten minutes early. When I was sad, Rob was always more tolerant to listen to my complaints. He would sit there quietly listening and then offer his advice. Andrew was less patient. He would sigh, tell me to stop being immature and quickly change the subject. Andrew was one of the most self-centered, conceited, egotistical, heartless people that I have ever met. Rob was benevolent, self-sacrificing, and generous. Andrew lied to me often. Rob was always honest.
Now that I look back on all of it, I wonder why I was ever attracted to Andrew. I suppose maybe at seventeen, I was flattered when someone took an interest in me. By eighteen, my tastes had changed, and I was looking for something more tangible, and for someone that wouldn’t lie to me and cheat on me. And I found Rob, or, he found me. Having attempted romance with both of them and having failed.
I find that now, we are often brought together to occasionally wonder what would have happened if we had done things differently. I know what would have happened. I would have been miserable. I would have been miserable with Andrew because he would have continued to lie to me, to cheat on me, to neglect and ignore me. I would have been miserable with Rob because we were too much alike, both quiet and introverted people, completely content to listen to the other talk.
That is why Rob and I remain friends. We both care about each other, and we both still consider the other to be one of our closest friends and someone that we can love that won’t hurt us. Andrew and I will always be antagonists. Always we will be there to point the finger at the other and point out what we did wrong, and how we’ve hurt one another. But, never do anything by half. If you’re going to love someone, love the person completely; and if you’re going to hate them, hate them until it hurts.