Ten questions on the soundscapes of the built environment

Soundscape research represents a paradigm shift from noise control policies towards a new multidisciplinary approach as it involves not only physical measurements but also the cooperation of humanity and social sciences to account for the diversity of soundscapes across countries and cultures, with more focus on how people actually experience the acoustic environments; and it considers environmental sounds as a ‘resource’ rather than a ‘waste’. The ten questions presented in this paper range from the very basic definitions underlying the emerging soundscape ‘science’, to more applied topics about how to use soundscape as a design approach for the planning and management of the built environments. Although significant research activity has been conducted so far, there is still a need to systematically provide the underpinning science and practical guidance in soundscaping. Thus, the last question aims to identify the most crucial gaps in soundscape research and set the agenda for future advancements in the field

The southern photometric local universe survey (S-PLUS): Improved SEDs, morphologies, and redshifts with 12 optical filters

The Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS) is imaging ~9300 deg2 of the celestial sphere in 12 optical bands using a dedicated 0.8mrobotic telescope, the T80-South, at the Cerro Tololo Inter-american Observatory, Chile. The telescope is equipped with a 9.2k × 9.2k e2v detector with 10 μm pixels, resulting in a field of view of 2 deg2 with a plate scale of 0.55 arcsec pixel-1. The survey consists of four main subfields, which include two non-contiguous fields at high Galactic latitudes (|b| > 30° , 8000 deg2) and two areas of the Galactic Disc and Bulge (for an additional 1300 deg2). S-PLUS uses the Javalambre 12-band magnitude system, which includes the 5 ugriz broad-band filters and 7 narrow-band filters centred on prominent stellar spectral features: the Balmer jump/[OII], Ca H + K, Hd, G band, Mg b triplet, Hα, and the Ca triplet. S-PLUS delivers accurate photometric redshifts (δz/(1 + z) = 0.02 or better) for galaxies with r < 19.7 AB mag and z < 0.4, thus producing a 3D map of the local Universe over a volume of more than 1 (Gpc/h)3. The final S-PLUS catalogue will also enable the study of star formation and stellar populations in and around the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, as well as searches for quasars, variable sources, and low-metallicity stars. In this paper we introduce the main characteristics of the survey, illustrated with science verification data highlighting the unique capabilities of S-PLUS. We also present the first public data release of ~336 deg2 of the Stripe 82 area, in 12 bands, to a limiting magnitude of r = 21, available at datalab.noao.edu/splus.Fil: De Oliveira, C. Mendes. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Ribeiro, T.. Universidade Federal de Sergipe; Brasil. National Optical Astronomy Observatory; Estados UnidosFil: Schoenell, W.. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Kanaan, A.. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; BrasilFil: Overzier, R.A.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; Brasil. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação e Comunicações. Observatório Nacional; BrasilFil: Molino, A.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Sampedro, L.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Coelho, P.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Barbosa, C.E.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Cortesi, A.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Costa Duarte, M.V.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Herpich, F.R.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; Brasil. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; BrasilFil: Hernandez Jimenez, J.A.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Placco, V.M.. University of Notre Dame; Estados Unidos. JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements ; Estados UnidosFil: Xavier, H.S.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Abramo, L.R.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Saito, R.K.. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; BrasilFil: Chies Santos, A.L.. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Ederoclite, A.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; Brasil. Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmo de Aragon; EspañaFil: De Oliveira, R. Lopes. Universidade Federal de Sergipe; Brasil. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação e Comunicações. Observatório Nacional; Brasil. University of Maryland; Estados UnidosFil: Goncalves, D.R.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Akras, S.. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação e Comunicações. Observatório Nacional; Brasil. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Almeida, L.A.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; Brasil. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte; BrasilFil: Almeida Fernandes, F.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; Brasil. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Beers, T.C.. University of Notre Dame; Estados Unidos. JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements ; Estados UnidosFil: Bonatto, C.. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Bonoli, S.. Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmo de Aragon; EspañaFil: Cypriano, E.S.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Vinicius Lima, E.. Universidade do Sao Paulo. Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas; BrasilFil: Smith Castelli, Analia Viviana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; Argentin

Fitting the integrated Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies

Fitting the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies is an almost universally used technique that has matured significantly in the last decade. Model predictions and fitting procedures have improved significantly over this time, attempting to keep up with the vastly increased volume and quality of available data. We review here the field of SED fitting, describing the modelling of ultraviolet to infrared galaxy SEDs, the creation of multiwavelength data sets, and the methods used to fit model SEDs to observed galaxy data sets. We touch upon the achievements and challenges in the major ingredients of SED fitting, with a special emphasis on describing the interplay between the quality of the available data, the quality of the available models, and the best fitting technique to use in order to obtain a realistic measurement as well as realistic uncertainties. We conclude that SED fitting can be used effectively to derive a range of physical properties of galaxies, such as redshift, stellar masses, star formation rates, dust masses, and metallicities, with care taken not to over-interpret the available data. Yet there still exist many issues such as estimating the age of the oldest stars in a galaxy, finer details ofdust properties and dust-star geometry, and the influences of poorly understood, luminous stellar types and phases. The challenge for the coming years will be to improve both the models and the observational data sets to resolve these uncertainties. The present review will be made available on an interactive, moderated web page (sedfitting.org), where the community can access and change the text. The intention is to expand the text and keep it up to date over the coming years.Comment: 54 pages, 26 figures, Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Scienc