Traffic Noise at Moderate Levels Affects Cognitive Performance: Do Distance-Induced Temporal Changes Matter?

Urbanization leads to an increased demand for urban housing, which can be met by building dwellings closer to streets. Regulations often limit equivalent sound pressure levels which do not account for changes in time structure that occur when decreasing the road distance. This study investigates the effect of such temporal changes on subjective workload and cognitive performance. A group of 42 participants performed a continuous performance test as well as a NASA-TLX workload test under three different sound conditions, i.e., close traffic, far traffic, both with the same equivalent sound pressure level of LAeq ≈ 40 dB, and silence. Additionally, participants answered a questionnaire regarding their preferred acoustic environment for concentrated working. Significant effects of the sound condition on the multivariate workload results as well as on the number of commission errors in the continuous performance test were found. Post hoc tests showed no significant differences between the two noise conditions, but there were significant differences between noise and silence. This indicates that moderate traffic noise levels can influence cognitive performance and perceived workload. If there is a difference in the human response to road traffic noise with constant LAeq but different time structures, the used methods are not suitable to detect them

Measurement, Simulation and Auralization of Indoor Road Traffic Noise

Building new houses in urban areas is often hindered by the presence of road traffic noise. Thereby, it is especially difficult to achieve sufficient fa\ue7ade sound insulation at low frequencies. Current regulations are mostly based on A-weighted levels and hence not only disregard low frequencies but also omit other factors that might influence the amount of disturbance such as time structure, traffic distance, proportion of heavy vehicles, driving speed and background noise. This motivates the need for experiments evaluating the human response to indoor traffic noise in a controlled virtual environment. Thereby, one challenge is to include the incidence angle dependent transfer paths through the fa\ue7ade in the auralization. The method presented in this paper utilises wave field synthesis in order to reproduce the sound field caused by moving sound sources on the outside of a window in a, specifically for this purpose designed, living room lab. In order to evaluate the auralization, a physical model of the source position dependent transfer path from a moving outdoor sound source through a window to an indoor receiver position was developed

Investigating Low Frequency Sound from Traffic in a Living Room Lab

No abstract availabl

Surface-Energy Control and Characterization of Nanoparticle Coatings

Accurate and reproducible measurement of the structure and properties of high-value nanoparticles is extremely important for their commercialization. A significant proportion of engineered nanoparticle systems consist of some form of nominally core\u2013shell structure, whether by design or unintentionally. Often, these do not form an ideal core\u2013shell structure, with typical deviations including polydispersity of the core or shell, uneven or incomplete shells, noncentral cores, and others. Such systems may be created with or without intent, and in either case an understanding of the conditions for formation of such particles is desirable. Precise determination of the structure, composition, size, and shell thickness of such particles can prove challenging without the use of a suitable range of characterization techniques. Here, the authors present two such polymer core\u2013shell nanoparticle systems, consisting of polytetrafluoroethylene cores coated with a range of thicknesses of either polymethylmethacrylate or polystyrene. By consideration of surface energy, it is shown that these particles are expected to possess distinctly differing coating structures, with the polystyrene coating being incomplete. A comprehensive characterization of these systems is demonstrated, using a selection of complementary techniques including scanning electron microscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, dynamic light scattering, differential centrifugal sedimentation, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. By combining the results provided by these techniques, it is possible to achieve superior characterization and understanding of the particle structure than could be obtained by considering results separately

Systems Biology in ELIXIR: modelling in the spotlight

In this white paper, we describe the founding of a new ELIXIR Community - the Systems Biology Community - and its proposed future contributions to both ELIXIR and the broader community of systems biologists in Europe and worldwide. The Community believes that the infrastructure aspects of systems biology - databases, (modelling) tools and standards development, as well as training and access to cloud infrastructure - are not only appropriate components of the ELIXIR infrastructure, but will prove key components of ELIXIR\u27s future support of advanced biological applications and personalised medicine. By way of a series of meetings, the Community identified seven key areas for its future activities, reflecting both future needs and previous and current activities within ELIXIR Platforms and Communities. These are: overcoming barriers to the wider uptake of systems biology; linking new and existing data to systems biology models; interoperability of systems biology resources; further development and embedding of systems medicine; provisioning of modelling as a service; building and coordinating capacity building and training resources; and supporting industrial embedding of systems biology. A set of objectives for the Community has been identified under four main headline areas: Standardisation and Interoperability, Technology, Capacity Building and Training, and Industrial Embedding. These are grouped into short-term (3-year), mid-term (6-year) and long-term (10-year) objectives

Accelerating Drug Discovery Efforts for Trypanosomatidic Infections Using an Integrated Transnational Academic Drug Discovery Platform

According to the World Health Organization, more than 1 billion people are at risk of or are affected by neglected tropical diseases. Examples of such diseases include trypanosomiasis, which causes sleeping sickness; leishmaniasis; and Chagas disease, all of which are prevalent in Africa, South America, and India. Our aim within the New Medicines for Trypanosomatidic Infections project was to use (1) synthetic and natural product libraries, (2) screening, and (3) a preclinical absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion\u2013toxicity (ADME-Tox) profiling platform to identify compounds that can enter the trypanosomatidic drug discovery value chain. The synthetic compound libraries originated from multiple scaffolds with known antiparasitic activity and natural products from the Hypha Discovery MycoDiverse natural products library. Our focus was first to employ target-based screening to identify inhibitors of the protozoan Trypanosoma brucei pteridine reductase 1 (TbPTR1) and second to use a Trypanosoma brucei phenotypic assay that made use of the T. brucei brucei parasite to identify compounds that inhibited cell growth and caused death. Some of the compounds underwent structure-activity relationship expansion and, when appropriate, were evaluated in a preclinical ADME-Tox assay panel. This preclinical platform has led to the identification of lead-like compounds as well as validated hits in the trypanosomatidic drug discovery value chain

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

A note on the coexistence of three species of Pacific monitor lizards in Australia (Sauria, Varanidae, Varanus indicus group)

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Vergn\ufcgen der Augen und des Gem\ufcths : in Vorstellung einer allgemeinen Sammlung von Muscheln und andern Gesch\uf6pfen, welche im Meer gefunden werden

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