The middle ear represents the middle component of the human ear. Its function is to transmit sound-waves from the external auditory canal (EAC) to the inner ear via the Tympanic Membrane (TM), the Ossicular Chain (OC), and Oval Window (OW) and at the same time to act as a transformer that produces a pressure gain in the sound wave, usually specified in literature as 27-30 dB. Although a very efficient biomechanical system, the OC has, within the human hearing range, minute vibration amplitudes of only a few nm which brings forward the problem of a reliable measuring technique for such movements The Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV) also known as Laser Doppler Interferonometry (LDI) is a method of measuring such minute vibrations without contact with the anatomical structures. The laser beam can be aimed at chosen points of a structure and the movement will be recorded as a graphical representation. As such, the method has been studied and applied for numerous purposes and experiments over the last decades. The present work aims to present a comprehensive review of these experiments to define LDV as a reliable method for middle ear research and diagnostics.

Review, VARIA

Comparative study on the independent learning activity of young people in the bachelor’s and master’s programs

Antonia I. Trifu, Radu V. Costea, Roxana T. Bejan

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During the late adolescence, it can be reached the highest level of mental operative functions and other intelligent human manifestations. Abstract mental operations can be done at this level: synthesis of syntheses, generalization of generalizations, abstraction of abstractions. Students go through many attempts to find which is their personal style of learning new materials, new contents. The study was conducted on a number of 31 participants. The group was divided into two subgroups: 16 students in the 5th year at Faculty of General Medicine and 15 master students in the second year at University of Sports, Sports Performance program. The used instrument consists of 21 questions (11 questions are about the individual studying process of the participants and 10 are about their beliefs about the teaching process of academics in courses), along with 4 more questions related to personal data. It is an opinion questionnaire. The teaching style of academics differs: those of Faculty of General Medicine are focusing on a lecture type style (75%), and University of Sports on an interactive style (67%). We discovered differences in the process of self-learning: between continuous and discontinuous style. For medical students, there was a longer distribution of the self-taught learning process; instead, University of Sports students organize their learning time in the last part of the semester. University of Sports students are more concerned with on the development and refinement of their personal practical skills, but also of the subjects they work with (kids or athletes), their goal being to accumulate their own experience as rich as possible from working with as many individuals and less to take from the experience of other colleagues. The coach-athlete/sports teacher-pupil relationship is more personalized and longer-lasting than the doctor-patient relationship.