Construction and application of a questionnaire for the social scientific investigation of environmental noise effects

A social psychological questionnair has been developed to study the effects of environmental noise and was applied to 636 people living in 19 different areas of Hamburg. The theoretical foundations and the statistical means employed in its development are described. Four main reactions to noise are isolated statistically, and it is determined that these are moderated by several intervening variables, chief of which are coping capacity for noise, the perceived dangerousness of the noise souce, other daily loads and the individual's liability

Relationships between non-acoustic factors and subjective reactions to floor impact noise in apartment buildings

The aim of this study was to provide an understanding of how residents in apartment buildings perceive and react to impact sounds coming from the upstairs neighbours' dwellings. Based on existing theoretical and empirical studies on environmental noise, a conceptual model was developed to explain relationships among noise annoyance and non-acoustic factors. The model was then tested using structural equation modelling with survey data from residents living in apartment buildings (N = 487). The findings showed that the conceptual model was consistent with other models developed for environmental noises. The results indicated that annoyance induced by floor impact noise was associated with perceived disturbance, coping, and self-reported health complaints. Noise sensitivity had a direct impact on perceived disturbance and an indirect impact on annoyance, and moderating variables affected the non-acoustic factors. Exposure to footstep noises increased the impact size of noise sensitivity to disturbance. Predictability, marital status, and house ownership were found to influence the relationship between attitudes towards authorities and coping. In addition, a negative attitude towards neighbours (i.e., the noise source) moderated the positive relationship between annoyance and coping

Transportation Noise and Blood Pressure in a Population-Based Sample of Adults

Background: There is some evidence for an association between traffic noise and ischemic heart disease; however, associations with blood pressure have been inconsistent, and little is known about health effects of railway noise

Derivation of dual horizon state-based peridynamics formulation based on euler-lagrange equation

The numerical solution of peridynamics equations is usually done by using uniform spatial discretisation. Although implementation of uniform discretisation is straightforward, it can increase computational time significantly for certain problems. Instead, non-uniform discretisation can be utilised and different discretisation sizes can be used at different parts of the solution domain. Moreover, the peridynamic length scale parameter, horizon, can also vary throughout the solution domain. Such a scenario requires extra attention since conservation laws must be satisfied. To deal with these issues, dual-horizon peridynamics was introduced so that both non-uniform discretisation and variable horizon sizes can be utilised. In this study, dual-horizon peridynamics formulation is derived by using Euler–Lagrange equation for state-based peridynamics. Moreover, application of boundary conditions and determination of surface correction factors are also explained. Finally, the current formulation is verified by considering two benchmark problems including plate under tension and vibration of a plate

Judging Time-to-Passage of looming sounds: evidence for the use of distance-based information

Perceptual judgments are an essential mechanism for our everyday interaction with other moving agents or events. For instance, estimation of the time remaining before an object contacts or passes us is essential to act upon or to avoid that object. Previous studies have demonstrated that participants use different cues to estimate the time to contact or the time to passage of approaching visual stimuli. Despite the considerable number of studies on the judgment of approaching auditory stimuli, not much is known about the cues that guide listeners’ performance in an auditory Time-to-Passage (TTP) task. The present study evaluates how accurately participants judge approaching white-noise stimuli in a TTP task that included variable occlusion periods (portion of the presentation time where the stimulus is not audible). Results showed that participants were able to accurately estimate TTP and their performance, in general, was weakly affected by occlusion periods. Moreover, we looked into the psychoacoustic variables provided by the stimuli and analysed how binaural cues related with the performance obtained in the psychophysical task. The binaural temporal difference seems to be the psychoacoustic cue guiding participants’ performance for lower amounts of occlusion, while the binaural loudness difference seems to be the cue guiding performance for higher amounts of occlusion. These results allowed us to explain the perceptual strategies used by participants in a TTP task (maintaining accuracy by shifting the informative cue for TTP estimation), and to demonstrate that the psychoacoustic cue guiding listeners’ performance changes according to the occlusion period.This study was supported by: Bial FoundationGrant 143/14 (https://www.bial.com/en/bial_foundation.11/11th_symposium.219/ fellows_preliminary_results.235/fellows_ preliminary_results.a569.html); FCT PTDC/EEAELC/112137/2009 (https://www.fct.pt/apoios/projectos/consulta/vglobal_projecto?idProjecto=112137&idElemConcurso=3628); and COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Audio-Visual Speech Timing Sensitivity Is Enhanced in Cluttered Conditions

Events encoded in separate sensory modalities, such as audition and vision, can seem to be synchronous across a relatively broad range of physical timing differences. This may suggest that the precision of audio-visual timing judgments is inherently poor. Here we show that this is not necessarily true. We contrast timing sensitivity for isolated streams of audio and visual speech, and for streams of audio and visual speech accompanied by additional, temporally offset, visual speech streams. We find that the precision with which synchronous streams of audio and visual speech are identified is enhanced by the presence of additional streams of asynchronous visual speech. Our data suggest that timing perception is shaped by selective grouping processes, which can result in enhanced precision in temporally cluttered environments. The imprecision suggested by previous studies might therefore be a consequence of examining isolated pairs of audio and visual events. We argue that when an isolated pair of cross-modal events is presented, they tend to group perceptually and to seem synchronous as a consequence. We have revealed greater precision by providing multiple visual signals, possibly allowing a single auditory speech stream to group selectively with the most synchronous visual candidate. The grouping processes we have identified might be important in daily life, such as when we attempt to follow a conversation in a crowded room

KIMA: Noise: A visual sound installation on urban noise

KIMA: Noise is a participatory art piece inviting audiences to explore impact of urban noises interactively. Using specific urban sound sources, the audience experiences noise as spatial soundscapes, responding to it, physically engaging and interacting with it. KIMA: Noise creates awareness for the phenomenon of noise pollution. The paper looks at preeminent research in the field, and draws conclusions of how sound affects us as individuals. The art project KIMA: Noise is introduced technically and conceptually

A Case of Medullary Carcinoma of the Jejunum Combined with the Intestinal Lymphangiectasia Accompanied by the Malabsorption Syndrome

Aim: to present a clinical and morphological observation of an extremely rare combination of medullary carcinoma of the jejunum and intestinal lymphangiectasia in a 33-year-old patient with clinical features of malabsorption syndrome over the 10 years.Key points. An autopsy revealed a tumor formation spreading from the wall of the jejunum to the mesentery, with metastases to the mesenteric lymph nodes. The medullary carcinoma with positive expression of СD117, DOG1, EMA, PanCK, PDL-1, vimentin, mosaic non-intense expression of CA19-9, calretinin, CD10, CDX2, CEA, MUC-5AC, SATB2, and negative reaction to ALK, CD3, CD8, CD20, CD30, CD31, CD34, CD45, CD56, chromogranin, CK7, CK20, desmin. The proliferative index was high: Ki-67 > 80 %. Moreover, during the histological examination of the intestinal wall, intestinal lymphangiectasia complicated by the malabsorption syndrome was revealed.Conclusion. The uniqueness of this clinical and morphological case is in the combination of medullary carcinoma of the jejunum metastasized to the mesenteric lymph nodes with the underlying intestinal lymphangiectasia accompanied by the development of malabsorption syndrome