Medicare 1971: Changing Attitudes and Changing Legislation

Bone conduction (BC) is the way sound energy is transmitted by the skull bones to the cochlea causing a sound perception. Even if the BC sound transmission involves several pathways including sound pressure induced in the ear canal, inertial forces acting on the middle ear ossicles and cochlear fluids, alteration of the cochlear space, and pressure transmission through the 3rd window of the cochlea, the BC sound ultimately produces a wave motion on the basilar membrane similar to that of air-conducted sound. The efficiency of the BC stimulation is largely dependent on the skull bone where the skull acts as a rigid body at low frequencies and incorporates different types of wave transmission at higher frequencies. The interaural stimulation difference is determined by the difference between contralateral and ipsilateral BC sound transmission: the transcranial BC sound transmission. To benefit from binaural processing, the transcranial transmission should be low, while the same should be high when using BC hearing aids for unilateral deaf subjects. By appropriately positioning the stimulation, high or low transcranial transmission can be achieved.Original Publication: Stefan Stenfelt , Acoustic and physiologic aspects of bone conduction hearing, 2011, Advances in Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, (71), 10-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000323574 Copyright: S. Karger AG http://www.karger.com/</p

Workmen\u27s Compensation and the Social Security Disability Program: A Contrast

Recently, concern has been expressed that the federal disability insurance program may expand and engulf state workmen\u27s compensation systems; legislation aimed at eliminating this possibility has been introduced in Congress. The authors attempt in this article to shed some light on the controversy; after describing the various disability protection programs, they turn to a detailed discussion of the overlap, interrelationship, and differences between the protection offered by the federal social security and state workmen\u27s compensation programs. They conclude by discussing the arguments which can be made both for and against an offset provision in the social security law