Association of Oral Disease with 12 Selected Variables: II. Edentulism

Twelve variables of a group of edentulous subjects were compared with those of dentulous subjects in a probability sample of 408 persons, ages ≥20 years, living in Tecumseh, Michigan. Bronchitis and heart disease were also considered in relation to edentulism and to the 12 variables in question.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66501/2/10.1177_00220345680470041401.pd

Constitutional and environmental factors related to serum lipid and lipoprotein levels

Serum lipoproteins and lipids in 657 human males correlated to multiple constitutional and environmental variable

Collecting and mapping soundscape data across the 15 UK National Parks

The soundscape approach, as understood by the ISO 12913 series, is most applied in urban settings, aiming beyond noise control in order to holistically employ its quantitative and qualitative facets. On the other side, the current understanding of the soundscape concept in bioacoustics and acoustic ecology is less focused on perception. There is generally a lot of public interest in how to preserve the opportunity for people to experience the “natural quiet” and “the sounds of nature”, and the need to balance that with the protection of the natural areas and national parks from the noise that the visitors themselves generate while on site. However, specific investigations in these environments are scarce in the United Kingdom. Moreover, while there might be acoustic environments and sound sources that people identify with national parks, they are not systematically documented nor implemented in the national parks' management plans. Therefore, we propose a framework starting with a quasi-crowd-sourced acquisition of soundscape data and mapping those to a freely accessible GIS platform such as Google Earth, leading towards identifying soundscape conservation targets and management tools for the UK national parks, further raising the awareness of the value of sound as a resource

Increases in noise complaints during the COVID-19 lockdown in Spring 2020: A case study in Greater London, UK

Many cities around the world have claimed that the enforcement of lockdown measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 and the corresponding limitations of human activities led to reduced environmental noise levels. However, noise complaints reported by many local authorities were on the rise soon after the local lockdowns came into force. This research took Greater London in the UK as a case study. The overall aim was examining how noise complaints changed during the first stages of the lockdown implementation, during Spring 2020, both locally and at city scale, and how urban factors may have been influencing them. Noise complaint and urban factor datasets from the Government's publicly available data warehouse were used. The results show that during the COVID-19 lockdown the number of noise complaints increased by 48%, compared with the same period during Spring 2019. In terms of noise sources, complaints about construction (36%) and neighbourhood (50%) noise showed significant increases. Urban factors, including housing and demographic factors, played a more significant role than the actual noise exposure to road and rail traffic noise, as derived from the London noise maps. In detail, the change rate of noise complaints was higher in areas with higher unemployment rates, more residents with no qualifications, and lower house price. It is expected that this study could help government with allocating resources more effectively and achieve a better urban environment

Ecological Validity of Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) Techniques for the Perception of Urban Sound Environments

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) is a simulated technology used to deliver multisensory information to people under different environmental conditions. When IVR is generally applied in urban planning and soundscape research, it reveals attractive possibilities for the assessment of urban sound environments with higher immersion for human participation. In virtual sound environments, various topics and measures are designed to collect subjective responses from participants under simulated laboratory conditions. Soundscape or noise assessment studies during virtual experiences adopt an evaluation approach similar to in situ methods. This paper aims to review the approaches that are utilized to assess the ecological validity of IVR for the perception of urban sound environments and the necessary technologies during audio–visual reproduction to establish a dynamic IVR experience that ensures ecological validity. The review shows that, through the use of laboratory tests including subjective response surveys, cognitive performance tests and physiological responses, the ecological validity of IVR can be assessed for the perception of urban sound environments. The reproduction system with head-tracking functions synchronizing spatial audio and visual stimuli (e.g., head-mounted displays (HMDs) with first-order Ambisonics (FOA)-tracked binaural playback) represents the prevailing trend to achieve high ecological validity. These studies potentially contribute to the outcomes of a normalized evaluation framework for subjective soundscape and noise assessments in virtual environment

Acoustic Design Criteria in Naturally Ventilated Residential Buildings: New Research Perspectives by Applying the Indoor Soundscape Approach

The indoor-outdoor connection provided by ventilation openings has been so far a limiting factor in the use of natural ventilation (NV), due to the apparent conflict between ventilation needs and the intrusion of external noise. This limiting factor impedes naturally ventilated buildings meeting the acoustic criteria set by standards and rating protocols, which are reviewed in this paper for residential buildings. The criteria reflect a general effort to minimize noise annoyance by reducing indoor sound levels, typically without a distinction based on a ventilation strategy. Research has developed a number of solutions, discussed here, that try to guarantee ventilation without compromising façade noise insulation, but, currently, none have been adopted on a large scale. This concept paper highlights the main limits of the current approach. First, a fragmented view towards indoor environmental quality has not included consideration of the following acoustic criteria: (i) how buildings are designed and operated to meet multiple needs other than acoustical ones (e.g., ventilation, visual, and cooling needs) and (ii) how people respond to multiple simultaneous environmental factors. Secondly, the lack of a perceptual perspective has led acoustic criteria to neglect the multiple cognitive and behavioral factors impinging on comfort in naturally ventilated houses. Indeed, factors such as the connection with the outside and the sense of control over one’s environment may induce “adaptive acoustic comfort” opportunities that are worth investigating. The mere use of different sound level limits would not be enough to define criteria tailored to the complex user–building interaction that occurs under NV conditions. More holistic and human-centered approaches are required to guarantee not only neutrally but even positively perceived indoor acoustic environments. For this reason, this paper considers this apparent conflict from a soundscape viewpoint, in order to expose still unexplored lines of research. By underpinning a perceptual perspective and by contextualizing it, the indoor soundscape approach provides a framework capable of overcoming the limits of the traditional noise control approach. This could provide the opportunity to foster a wider adoption of NV as a passive design strategy that enhances user health and well-being, while enabling low-cost, and low-energy cooling and ventilation, thereby contributing to current climate change challenge

Associations between indoor soundscapes, building services and window opening behaviour during the COVID-19 lockdown

Results of an online survey conducted during the COVID-19 lockdown among 848 home workers living in London (United Kingdom) and in Italy are reported with a focus on (1) the impacts of building services on the perception of the acoustic environment while working and relaxing at home and (2) the factors associated with window opening behaviour. The analyses showed no significant difference in soundscape appropriateness for relaxation depending on the heating, ventilation and cooling system typologies, and in soundscape appropriateness for working from home (WFH) based on the ventilation strategy. Higher soundscape appropriateness for WFH was associated with houses equipped only with radiant floors for heating in Italy and with air-cooling systems in London. In London, air systems resulted in higher perceived dominance of noise from building services compared to other systems. Overall, rooms with less dominant sounds from building services were evaluated as more appropriate for working and relaxing. The dominance of sky or buildings from the window view, outdoor noisiness, noise sensitivity, age and gender were not significantly associated with participants’ window opening behaviour while WFH. Differently, participants viewing more vegetation from windows in Italy were more likely (odds ratio: 1.279) to keep the window open while WFH

Analysing the Changes in Physiological Response to Different Soundscape Scenarios

Noise pollution is one of the key environmental stressors leading to multiple health impacts for people and communities. Exposure to high noise levels may also be responsible for sudden emotional and physiological changes in humans. The experiment examines the change in Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) signals during exposure to pre-recorded soundscape scenarios. These scenarios were recorded in New Delhi, India and London, UK, using a binaural microphone set. The listening experiment was conducted in a laboratory, where 27 healthy individuals without any hearing impairment or any psychological issues participated. A total of 30 soundscape scenarios were presented to each participant in a randomised order. The continuous decomposition analysis is conducted to decompose that data into tonic and phasic components. The phasic component of the signal is used for the analysis. It is observed that skin conductance response increases with changes in eventfulness of the signal (P<0.05). The pleasantness of the signals has not shown a statistically significant relationship with the change in skin conductance response