The failure of traditional traffic noise control for quiet areas

One can consider the acoustic soundscape as consisting of two parts the direct acoustic soundscape and the diffuse acoustic soundscape. This fact has important consequences when attempting to change the acoustic soundscapes. The traditional approach to control traffic noise by means of noise barriers or change of traffic distribution is only valid for the areas directly exposed from sources (direct acoustic soundscape). These areas will experience a certain decrease of sound pressure levels when applying these noise control measures. However there will be a lower limit for reduction due to the presence of a diffuse acoustic soundscape. To control/modify such a diffuse acoustic soundscape has been shown very difficult by traditional means of noise control. Main characteristic of diffuse acoustic soundscapes is the presence of a multitude of sources, distributed over a wide area contributing evenly to the acoustic soundscape in a certain areas. Screening will only lead to a redistribution of sound, however consequences of such a redistribution will not be recognised in a diffuse sound field. Absorption has been identified as a main parameter to control diffuse acoustic soundscapes. Reducing sound pressure levels in shielded areas such as inner-yards can only be achieved by adding acoustically absorbing areas along the transfer path between source and receiver, but especially inside the inner-yard. Redistribution of traffic flow has been shown to have a tremendous effect on the directly exposed side, but only a small effect in shielded areas

Visualisation of traffic noise exposure and health impact in a 3D urban environment

It is becoming increasingly common to work with urban planning using 3D visualisation tools. In the project DemoVirPEN a research team with participation from different research fields cooperated to create a demonstration concept for visualising traffic noise and the associated health impact in a 3D graphics environment. The project included participation from the following fields; 3D modelling and mapping, traffic noise calculation, auralisation, urban planning and architecture and health impact of noise exposure. The final product of the project is summarised in a film clip that illustrates the main results by visualising and auralising traffic in different configurations from different perspectives. A few key points are visualising short time frames (single vehicle passage) versus yearly average (noise map), and impact of changes such as removing or modifying traffic flows and buildings

An urban planning tool demonstrator with auralisation and visualisation of the sound environment

The paper presents findings from a recent project about the development of a demonstrator of an urban planning tool that includes auralised sounds as well as visualisations of sound propagation and facade noise levels linked to health impact. In urban development projects, the sound environment is one of the key elements, but often enters late in the planning process. As a result, even if the noise regulations are fulfilled, the potentially good sound environment may suffer unnecessary quality reductions. In addition, the standard ways of presenting and analysing the situations, using noise levels and noise maps, has potential for improvement, especially considering the transdisciplinary approaches to planning that are increasing in use. The tool aims to simplify the usage also at early stage planning, including scenario analysis, as well as to facilitate the urban planners\u27 understanding of the sound environment and its effects. The paper presents results from the development of the demonstrator, reflecting on auralisation as well as on multiple aspects of visualisation including grid noise maps, health-related facade noise levels and choice of colour scales

Integration of tools for binding archetypes to SNOMED CT

Background The Archetype formalism and the associated Archetype Definition Language have been proposed as an ISO standard for specifying models of components of electronic healthcare records as a means of achieving interoperability between clinical systems. This paper presents an archetype editor with support for manual or semi-automatic creation of bindings between archetypes and terminology systems. Methods Lexical and semantic methods are applied in order to obtain automatic mapping suggestions. Information visualisation methods are also used to assist the user in exploration and selection of mappings. Results An integrated tool for archetype authoring, semi-automatic SNOMED CT terminology binding assistance and terminology visualization was created and released as open source. Conclusion Finding the right terms to bind is a difficult task but the effort to achieve terminology bindings may be reduced with the help of the described approach. The methods and tools presented are general, but here only bindings between SNOMED CT and archetypes based on the openEHR reference model are presented in detail. Background The Archetype formalism and the associated Archetype Definition Language have been proposed as an ISO standard for specifying models of components of electronic healthcare records as a means of achieving interoperability between clinical systems. This paper presents an archetype editor with support for manual or semi-automatic creation of bindings between archetypes and terminology systems. Methods Lexical and semantic methods are applied in order to obtain automatic mapping suggestions. Information visualisation methods are also used to assist the user in exploration and selection of mappings. Results An integrated tool for archetype authoring, semi-automatic SNOMED CT terminology binding assistance and terminology visualization was created and released as open source. Conclusion Finding the right terms to bind is a difficult task but the effort to achieve terminology bindings may be reduced with the help of the described approach. The methods and tools presented are general, but here only bindings between SNOMED CT and archetypes based on the openEHR reference model are presented in detail.Original Publication: Erik Sundvall, Rahil Qamar, Mikael Nyström, Mattias Forss, Håkan Petersson, Hans Åhlfeldt and Alan Rector, Integration of Tools for Binding Archetypes to SNOMED CT, 2008, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, (8), S7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-8-S1-S7 Licensee: BioMed Central http://www.biomedcentral.com/</p

Resurser och hinder i ett bostadsområde för ökad fysisk aktivitet hos barn och ungdomar

Fysisk aktivitet är en viktig del att belysa i bostadsområden då det är där människor lever stora delar av sin dag. Flera faktorer kan hjälpa och ge möjlighet till ökad fysisk aktivitet hos barn och ungdomar samt att det finns motverkande faktorer som påverkar och hindrar fysisk aktivitet. Syftet med studien var att belysa faktorer som ger ökad fysisk aktivitet för barn och ungdomar inom ett bostadsområde samt undersöka vilka motverkande faktorer i ett bostadsområde som leder till att barn och ungdomar inte är fysiskt aktiva. Studien baserades på 11 vetenskapliga artiklar där innehållsanalysen inspirerades av en manifest innehållsanalys. Detta resulterade i två kategorier med vardera fyra respektive två underkategorier: Faktorer till ökad fysisk aktivitet med underkategorierna bostadsområdet, barn och ungdomars aktivitetsplats, exercise games och skillnad mellan pojkar och flickor, samt motverkande faktorer till fysisk aktivitet med underkategorierna teknikens påverkan på fysisk aktivitet och teknik är lättillgängligt. Resultatet visar att bostadsområdet har flera faktorer som ger ökad fysisk aktivitet hos barn och ungdomar, där utformningen av aktiviteter är viktig. Även det estetiska är en viktig faktor för att skapa en positiv känsla för aktivitetsområdet. Teknik som påverkar den fysiska aktiviteten är en riskfaktor då det kan leda till längre stunder av stillasittande beteende som då är associerat med övervikt och fetma. Framför allt framstår tv som en av de främsta motverkande faktorerna till fysisk aktivitet