A new method for the estimation of the reverberation time from measured room impulse responses with application to Italian opera houses

The Schroeder's backward integration method is the most used method to extract the decay curve of an acoustic impulse response and to calculate the reverberation time from this curve. In the literature the limits and the possible improvements of this method are widely discussed. In this work a new method is proposed for the evaluation of the energy decay curve. The new method has been implemented in a Matlab toolbox. Its performance has been tested versus the most accredited literature method. The values of EDT and reverberation time extracted from the energy decay curves calculated with both methods have been compared in terms of the values themselves and in terms of their statistical representativeness. The main case study consists of nine Italian historical theatres in which acoustical measurements were performed. The comparison of the two extraction methods has also been applied to a critical case, i.e. the structural impulse responses of some building elements. The comparison underlines that both methods return a comparable value of the T30. Decreasing the range of evaluation, they reveal increasing differences; in particular, the main differences are in the first part of the decay, where the EDT is evaluated. This is a consequence of the fact that the new method returns a “locally" defined energy decay curve, whereas the Schroeder's method accumulates energy from the tail to the beginning of the impulse response. Another characteristic of the new method for the energy decay extraction curve is its independence on the background noise estimation. Finally, a statistical analysis is performed on the T30 and EDT values calculated from the impulse responses measurements in the Italian historical theatres. The aim of this evaluation is to know whether a subset of measurements could be considered representative for a complete characterization of these opera houses

Overall Indoor Quality of a Non-renewed Secondary-school Building

This work is the result of a field study about overall comfort aspects performed in a secondary-school building in the surroundings of Bologna during the winter season. The campaign aimed at describing overall comfort aspects of the school both from an objective and a subjective point of view, thus a questionnaire was administered to pupils during ongoing lessons to compare physical measurements and subjective responses. The monitored attributes and items concerned typical indoor quality aspects: acoustical, thermal, indoor air, and visual quality. As weak points emerged from the data analysis, possible solutions are illustrated, focusing on acoustics and optimizing effectiveness and cost

Development and validation of the ID-EC - The ITALIAN version of the identify chronic migraine

Background: Case-finding tools, such as the Identify Chronic Migraine (ID-CM) questionnaire, can improve detection of CM and alleviate its significant societal burden. We aimed to develop and validate the Italian version of the ID-CM (ID-EC) in paper and as a smart app version in a headache clinic-based setting. Methods: The study investigators translated and adapted to the Italian language the original ID-CM questionnaire (ID-EC) and further implemented it as a smart app. The ID-EC was tested in its paper and electronic version in consecutive patients referring to 9 Italian tertiary headache centers for their first in-person visit. The scoring algorithm of the ID-EC paper version was applied by the study investigators (case-finding) and by patients (self-diagnosis), while the smart app provided to patients automatically the diagnosis. Diagnostic accuracy of the ID-EC was assessed by matching the questionnaire results with the interview-based diagnoses performed by the headache specialists during the visit according to the criteria of International Classification of Headache Disorders, III edition, beta version. Results: We enrolled 531 patients in the test of the paper version of ID-EC and 427 in the validation study of the smart app. According to the clinical diagnosis 209 patients had CM in the paper version study and 202 had CM in the smart app study. 79.5% of patients returned valid paper questionnaires, while 100% of patients returned valid and complete smart app questionnaires. The paper questionnaire had a 81.5% sensitivity and a 81.1% specificity for case-finding and a 30.7% sensitivity and 90.7% specificity for self-diagnosis, while the smart app had a 64.9% sensitivity and 90.2% specificity. Conclusions: Our data suggest that the ID-EC, developed and validated in tertiary headache centers, is a valid case-finding tool for CM, with sensitivity and specificity values above 80% in paper form, while the ID-EC smart app is more useful to exclude CM diagnosis in case of a negative result. Further studies are warranted to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the ID-EC in general practice and population-based settings

Architettura e acustica del cinema Jolly di Vinicio Vecchi in Bologna

Negli anni Cinquanta del 20° secolo il cinema assume la sua indipendenza tipologica dal teatro, divenendo un soggetto acusticamente identificabile. In Italia in questo periodo vennero realizzate numerose sale cinematografiche che sono testimonianza delle conquiste tecniche e tecnologiche acquisite in ambito acustico. In questo lavoro è studiato il cinema Jolly di Bologna, progettato da Vinicio Vecchi nel 1956, che presenta volumetria e soluzioni architettoniche originali. Nel 2002 sono stati effettuati interventi sui rivestimenti interni al fine di rendere la sala più simile ai cinema di oggi, allontanandola definitivamente dalla concezione “teatrale”. Grazie ad una campagna dettagliata di misurazioni di risposte all’impulso, è stato possibile valutare analogie e differenze tra caratterizzazione acustica dei cinema e normativa ISO 3382. Sono state inoltre realizzate auralizzazioni MIMO volte a riprodurre le condizioni di ascolto in diverse posizioni della sala per consentire un confronto percettivo con i parametri classici estratti dai segnali acquisiti

Notes about the early to late transition in Italian theatres

In some classical room acoustic criteria (e.g. C80, LG, IACC0,x, LF, JLF, JLFC) it is a standard practice to use a fixed temporal interval to quantify the weight of the early reflections versus the late reverberation. A value of 80 ms has been proposed in the literature also for opera houses. This paper, using the same approach of the previous literature, studies the temporal limit of integration in several Italian historical theatres. Early-to-late energy ratio and interaural cross correlation are tested and a new integration limit is proposed

The acoustics of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus

The role of the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in the development of the modern opera house is well known. In spite of the prestige of the Festspielhaus, the values of its room acoustics criteria have been analyzed and reported in few works. A measurement campaign has been recently made in the theatre, placing directional and omnidirectional sources on the stage and in the orchestra pit. Monaural and binaural impulse responses have been recorded on a dense mesh of receivers. Normal factors have been extracted and subjective scale values have been estimated taking into account the peculiarity of the Wagnerian opera

La misura della trasmissione laterale nelle strutture in legno: problematiche e metodologie a confronto

Il presente contributo presenta il confronto fra differenti tecniche di misura utilizzate per la valutazione della trasmissione laterale su giunti per strutture in cross laminated timber (CLT). La campagna di misure, voluta e finanziata da Rotho Blaas srl, \ue8 stata condotta in osservanza della normativa EN ISO 10848 [1] al fine di misurare i valori di indice di riduzione delle vibrazioni Kij utilizzabile per stimare in maniera predittiva il potere fonoisolante apparente secondo la normativa EN 12354 [2]. Scelta una configurazione di misura standard per un giunto parete-solaio, sono state effettuate misurazioni dei livelli di velocit\ue0 e di riverberazione strutturale con diversi metodi. In entrambi i casi, i pannelli sono stati eccitati con una sorgente elettrodinamica fissata alla parete e con il martello strumentato, dotato di tre punte a coprire gli intervalli di frequenze di interesse. Nel presente articolo sono dapprima illustrate le specifiche della catena di misura e l\u2019analisi del segnale utilizzata per l\u2019estrazione dei risultati. Poi sono riportati e discussi i risultati, in particolare con riferimento all'incidenza che ogni componente ha sul risultato finale. Le metodologie di calcolo adottate seguono in maniera dettagliata le indicazioni della norma ISO 10848 [1] con lo scopo di confrontare i risultati di diverse metodologie di misura per valutare quale sia la pi\uf9 affidabile

Caratterizzazione acustica del teatro civico di Schio dopo i lavori di recupero

Il restauro del Teatro Civico di Schio rappresenta un caso singolare nell\u2019ambito della riqualificazione di uno spazio per lo spettacolo. L\u2019intervento ha accolto le proposte del progetto partecipato \u201cLotto Zero\u201d del 2005 in cui attori, tecnici e cittadini hanno sintetizzato mediante questionari giudizi e orientamenti sul recupero di questo spazio storico. Il presente studio sintetizza i risultati delle misure di qualit\ue0 acustica dello spazio restituito e sono state svolte in condizioni analoghe a quelle in cui sono stati raccolti i questionari del \u201cLotto Zero\u201d. Il teatro presenta alcune peculiarit\ue0 negli arredi e negli allestimenti che sono confermate dai descrittori acustici indagati

Erythromycin-Resistant Pharyngeal Isolates of Streptococcus pyogenes Recovered in Italy

Three classes of macrolide resistance phenotypes and three different erythromycin resistance determinants were found among 127 erythromycin-resistant group A streptococcal (GAS) isolates recovered from 355 (35.8%) pediatric pharyngitis patients in Rome, Italy. According to emm and sof sequence typing results, erythromycin-resistant isolates comprised 11 different clonal types. Remarkably, 126 of the 127 macrolide-resistant isolates were serum opacity factor (sof) gene positive. These data suggest a strong association between macrolide resistance and the presence of sof among GAS isolates recovered from Italian pediatric pharyngitis patients

Peculiar Subcellular Localization of Fas Antigen in Human and Mouse Spermatozoa

The highly polarized structure and function of mammalian spermatozoa dictate that these cells compartmentalize specific metabolic and signaling pathways to regions where they are needed. Fas was initially identified as membrane receptor for pro-apoptotic signals, has been recently recognized as a molecule with pleiotropic functions. In this article, we provide evidence of a peculiar Fas localization: it is closely associated to the perinucleus, mainly at the level of the inner acrosomal membrane, as well as in the inner compartment of mitochondria. Immunoelectron microscopy and Western blot analysis indicated that intracellular Fas was associated with mitochondria in mouse epididymal spermatozoa. Accordingly, also in human ejaculated sperm, immunofluorescence analysis showed Fas localized in the middle piece of sperm flagellum where mitochondria are grouped. The potential functional implications of these findings are discussed. Microsc. Res. Tech. 72:573-579, 2009. (C) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc