Sensing Sound And Space:Auditory And Visual Spatial ImpressionIn Three Auditoria

In some contexts, the experience of sound and space are often considered as two unrelated experiences. In an auditorium, the senses of hearing and seeing are not necessary unrelated. This thesis proposes that there is a sensorial relationship between sound and space in the context of symphonic concert halls. Through a study of three auditoria, this thesis explores the relationship, and the degree of correspondence and interaction between auditory and visual spatial impression. It begins by exploring the concepts of auditory and visual spatial impression in relation with auditorium acoustics and architectural design. In auditorium acoustics, a number of terms are used to describe auditory spatial impression, such as 'spaciousness,' 'envelopment,' and 'intimacy.' These terms have connotations beyond the auditory. The thesis suggests that they may also be used to describe visual spatial impression in auditoria. Through textual analyses, the thesis finds that the auditory and visual terms do not always relate to the same physical characteristics of auditoria and can conflict with one another. Hence, it is apparent that further subjective analyses of auditory and spatial impression are needed. Three chapters in this thesis are devoted to auditory and visual subjective experiments. Their purpose is to explore the degree of correspondence or contrast, and interaction between auditory and visual spatial impression. The degree of correspondence and contrast between auditory and visual spatial impression appear to vary between auditoria and within auditoria. The relationship between auditory and visual spatial impression appear to be both necessary and arbitrary, and the degree of interaction between them appear to be strong in some cases and weak in other. From the findings, this thesis suggests that the degree of correspondence or contrast, and interaction between auditory and visual spatial impression could be used to create an audiovisual experience that suit specific musical events. Concert auditoria are culturally and artistically unique spaces. Hence, consideration must be taken to understand the relationships between, and intentions of the acoustical and architectural designs, music and architecture, for a successful and creative collaboration between designers - since the ultimate goal is to create an extraordinary audiovisual experience in a concert hall

Bacteriological quality and intake of acidified drinking water in Wistar rats is pH-dependent

The effects of acidification of drinking water on bacteriological quality and water intake in adult, male Wistar rats. was studied in 2 consecutive experiments. HCl was used to aeidify water to pH 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5. Control groups received untreatedtap or demineralized water. Acidification of water with HCl to pH 2.5 effectively prevented growth of aerobic bacteria in the drinking water bottles after a number of days, but also caused a reproducible decline in water intake when compared to untreated water. A reduced water intake may indicate disturbed wellbeing and may interfere with experimental results. Acidification to pH 3.0 also kept bacteriological counts low and did not reduce water intake when compared to rats drinkingnon-acidified water. Acidification to pH 3.5 led to high bacteriological counts after a few days. On the basis of these 2 experiments, acidification of drinking water with 1101 to pH 3.0 is advised

Are Electronic Editions Inherently Obsolete?

This paper looks at some of the theoretical background behind technologies being developed at the Australian Scholarly Editions Centre for a new form of resource for the study of historical works of literature. Some of the unique features of these technologies are that they support conflicting points of view (including conflicting structural markup) and also allow simultaneous, parallel development by multiple researchers on the same parts of the work. Archivists talk about maintaining digital assets through use rather than preservation so that demand for the asset will ensure its propagation long-term. To achieve this end a digital asset must be as versatile as possible so as to meet all requirements for those who might want to use it. If it does not do this it will be superseded by something that does meet those needs creating new witness states in the record and confusion for future literary researchers. The word "edition" is a term from the print paradigm and implies a fixed publication with features proscribed by the medium. Technical and feature obsolescence will eventually cause these "electronic editions" to be either superseded or lost from the human record. A better type of resource is one that can be continually developed by its multiple users, while maintaining its textual authenticity, thereby ensuring its continued maintenance long after its original creator is gone. This paper looks at the reasoning behind the need for a new paradigm for creating and maintaining text-based digital assets and provides examples of a work in progress that solves some of the inherent limitations of the print-based "edition" paradigm.Hosted by the Scholarly Text and Imaging Service (SETIS), the University of Sydney Library, and the Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (RIHSS), the University of Sydney

The Gold Standard Publication Checklist (GSPC) for improved design, reporting and scientific quality of animal studies GSPC versus ARRIVE guidelines

Contains fulltext : 97414.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access

Adaptation period of laboratory animals after transport: a review

Transporting animals leads to a temporary disturbance of normal physiology (homeostasis). After an adaptation period in the new laboratory, the animals must have returned to their normal physiological state. A literature survey was performedin order to establish the minimum necessary length of the adaptation period of mice, rats and rabbits after transport. The minimum length of the period for adaptation that was considered necessary varied from none to 78 weeks; in most studies an adaptation period of 7 days was considered sufficient. However, in most studies no proper experimental setup had been used: either the controls were housed at a different location, or they were sampled at different time points, as compared to the transported animals. Besides transport per see additional factors like a shift in the light-dark rythm, will also disturb the homeostasis. The separate supply of food and water sources during transport is recommended. More research into the effects of transport stress per se is needed, as well as into the interaction of transport stress with other environmental factors occurring simultaneously

Assessing and Improving Positional Accuracy and its Effects on Areal Estimation at Coleambally Irrigation Area

If management decisions are made with geospatial data that have not been assessed for positional accuracy, then debate about both methodologies of measurement and management decisions can occur. This debate, in part, can be avoided by assessing the positional accuracy of geospatial data, leading to increased confidence (decreased uncertainty) in both the data and the decisions made from the data. In this study, we assessed the positional accuracy of two Geographic Information System (GIS) baseline datasets at the Coleambally Irrigation Area (CIA); high-resolution digital aerial photography acquired in January 2000, and the Digital Topographic Data Base (DTDB) roads data. We also assessed areal error of paddock measurements from an improved accuracy version of the high-resolution digital aerial photography. Positional accuracies were assessed by comparing well-defined features from both baseline datasets (original aerial photography and DTDB roads) to high-level accuracy Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) data for the same features. This assessment showed that neither baseline dataset met the National Mapping Council of Australia’s standards of map accuracy. Consequently, we processed the original digital photography to create an improved dataset, which was over 2.5 times more accurate than the original photography, and over 4 times more accurate than the DTDB data. The improved dataset also met the map accuracy standard for Australia. We also assessed areal error by comparing paddock boundaries delineated from the improved dataset to those delineated from a DGPS associated with paddock soil surveys. The 90% confidence interval measured from the improved data for any individual paddock is approximately at the ± 5% target error set by Coleambally Irrigation Limited (CIL). The 95% confidence interval is roughly ± 6%. Overall areal error of multiple paddocks is much lower than the individual case with the 95% confidence interval for 2 paddocks being from about ± 4% error reducing to less than ± 2% for 8 or more paddocks. Knowledge of both positional and areal accuracies of the improved high-resolution digital aerial photography provides a means to more effectively manage environmental compliance of rice farmers at CIA and gives the CIL justification for making management decisions from this spatial data

A search filter for increasing the retrieval of animal studies in Embase

Collecting and analysing all available literature before starting a new animal experiment is important and it is indispensable when writing systematic reviews of animal research. In practice, finding all animal studies relevant to a specific research question turns out to be anything but simple. In order to facilitate this search process, we previously developed a search filter for retrieving animal studies in the most often used biomedical database, PubMed. It is a general requirement for systematic reviews, however, that at least two databases are searched. In this report, we therefore present a similar search filter for a second important database, namely Embase. We show that our filter retrieves more animal studies than (a combination of) the options currently available in Embase. Our search filters for PubMed and Embase therefore represent valuable tools for improving the quality of (systematic) reviews and thereby of new animal experiments

Clinical relevance assessment of animal preclinical research (RAA) tool: development and explanation.

Only a small proportion of preclinical research (research performed in animal models prior to clinical trials in humans) translates into clinical benefit in humans. Possible reasons for the lack of translation of the results observed in preclinical research into human clinical benefit include the design, conduct, and reporting of preclinical studies. There is currently no formal domain-based assessment of the clinical relevance of preclinical research. To address this issue, we have developed a tool for the assessment of the clinical relevance of preclinical studies, with the intention of assessing the likelihood that therapeutic preclinical findings can be translated into improvement in the management of human diseases. We searched the EQUATOR network for guidelines that describe the design, conduct, and reporting of preclinical research. We searched the references of these guidelines to identify further relevant publications and developed a set of domains and signalling questions. We then conducted a modified Delphi-consensus to refine and develop the tool. The Delphi panel members included specialists in evidence-based (preclinical) medicine specialists, methodologists, preclinical animal researchers, a veterinarian, and clinical researchers. A total of 20 Delphi-panel members completed the first round and 17 members from five countries completed all three rounds. This tool has eight domains (construct validity, external validity, risk of bias, experimental design and data analysis plan, reproducibility and replicability of methods and results in the same model, research integrity, and research transparency) and a total of 28 signalling questions and provides a framework for researchers, journal editors, grant funders, and regulatory authorities to assess the potential clinical relevance of preclinical animal research. We have developed a tool to assess the clinical relevance of preclinical studies. This tool is currently being piloted

A step-by-step guide to systematically identify all relevant animal studies

Before starting a new animal experiment, thorough analysis of previously performed experiments is essential from a scientific as well as from an ethical point of view. The method that is most suitable to carry out such a thorough analysis of the literature is a systematic review (SR). An essential first step in an SR is to search and find all potentially relevant studies. It is important to include all available evidence in an SR to minimize bias and reduce hampered interpretation of experimental outcomes. Despite the recent development of search filters to find animal studies in PubMed and EMBASE, searching for all available animal studies remains a challenge. Available guidelines from the clinical field cannot be copied directly to the situation within animal research, and although there are plenty of books and courses on searching the literature, there is no compact guide available to search and find relevant animal studies. Therefore, in order to facilitate a structured, thorough and transparent search for animal studies (in both preclinical and fundamental science), an easy-to-use, step-by-step guide was prepared and optimized using feedback from scientists in the field of animal experimentation. The step-by-step guide will assist scientists in performing a comprehensive literature search and, consequently, improve the scientific quality of the resulting review and prevent unnecessary animal use in the future

Clinical relevance assessment of animal preclinical research (RAA) tool: development and explanation

Background Only a small proportion of preclinical research (research performed in animal models prior to clinical trials in humans) translates into clinical benefit in humans. Possible reasons for the lack of translation of the results observed in preclinical research into human clinical benefit include the design, conduct, and reporting of preclinical studies. There is currently no formal domain-based assessment of the clinical relevance of preclinical research. To address this issue, we have developed a tool for the assessment of the clinical relevance of preclinical studies, with the intention of assessing the likelihood that therapeutic preclinical findings can be translated into improvement in the management of human diseases. / Methods We searched the EQUATOR network for guidelines that describe the design, conduct, and reporting of preclinical research. We searched the references of these guidelines to identify further relevant publications and developed a set of domains and signalling questions. We then conducted a modified Delphi-consensus to refine and develop the tool. The Delphi panel members included specialists in evidence-based (preclinical) medicine specialists, methodologists, preclinical animal researchers, a veterinarian, and clinical researchers. A total of 20 Delphi-panel members completed the first round and 17 members from five countries completed all three rounds. / Results This tool has eight domains (construct validity, external validity, risk of bias, experimental design and data analysis plan, reproducibility and replicability of methods and results in the same model, research integrity, and research transparency) and a total of 28 signalling questions and provides a framework for researchers, journal editors, grant funders, and regulatory authorities to assess the potential clinical relevance of preclinical animal research. / Conclusion We have developed a tool to assess the clinical relevance of preclinical studies. This tool is currently being piloted