Development of a normative database for wide-band acoustic immittance measures

描述（由申请人提供）：这项工作的目的是开发宽带声导抗（阿威）测量作为一种非侵入性的听觉诊断工具，其中阿威是指收集基于功率和基于阻抗的测量，包括吸光度，功率反射率，阻抗和相关的数量。这些措施的潜在用途包括（1）检测新生儿和幼儿耳朵中的液体，其中鼓室压测定法不太成功，（2）识别传导性听力损失的原因（例如，流体、分离的听小骨、固定的听小骨），以及（3）监测由颅内压变化引起的中耳硬度的变化。这里提议的工作将继续进行，并正式确定为阿威措施建立一个规范性数据库，迄今为止，这在很大程度上是临时性的。特别是，建议建立一个数据库，该数据库最初将填充从拟议工作中收集的数据，并最终包括允许其他研究人员提供数据的程序。拟议的工作包括对人类受试者的测量，旨在确定规范的阿威措施如何取决于参数：仪器，年龄，性别和种族。结果将确定是否需要对这些量中的任何一个进行规范性数据参数化。拟议工作的第二个重点是史密斯学院（一所全女子文理学院）本科生的研究型教育。本科工程专业的学生将积极参与拟议工作的所有领域，目的是鼓励他们考虑继续攻读博士学位。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This work aims to develop wideband acoustic immittance (WAI) measures as a noninvasive auditory diagnostic tool, where WAI refers to the collection of both power-based and impedance-based measurements that include absorbance, power reflectance, impedance, and related quantities. Potential use of these measures includes (1) detection of fluid in newborn and young infant ears where tympanometry is less successful, (2) identification of the cause of a conductive hearing loss (e.g., fluid, disarticulated ossicle, fixed ossicle), and (3) monitoring changes in middle-ear stiffness that result from intracranial pressure changes. The work proposed here continues and formalizes the development of a normative database for WAI measures, which to date has been largely ad hoc. In particular, a database is proposed that will initially be populated with data collected from the proposed work and ultimately include procedures to allow for contributions of data from other researchers. The proposed work includes measurements on human subjects that are designed to determine how normative WAI measures depend on the parameters: instrumentation, age, gender, and race. The results will determine whether or not normative data would need to be parameterized for any of these quantities. A second emphasis of the proposed work is the research-based education of undergraduate students at Smith College, an all-women's liberal arts college. Undergraduate engineering students will be actively involved in all areas of the proposed work, with the goal of encouraging them to consider continuing their education toward a Ph.D.