Effects Of Environmental Noise Research Articles

Coherence and entropy squeezing in the spin-boson model under non-Markovian environment

We study the dynamical behavior of the coherence and squeezing for a two-level system immersed in an environment modeled by a spin degree of freedom in a magnetic field coupled linearly to an oscillator bath with non-Markovian environment. The dependence of the coherence and squeezing on the system and reservoir parameters shows that these quantities could be greatly controlled and manipulated with the assistance of the reservoir cutoff frequency, system oscillator frequency, and reservoir temperature. Moreover, we show that the proper choice of the external control field can make further control on the coherence and squeezing of the atomic system under the effect of environmental noises. The results show new interest features that are usefully utilized in controlling the physical quantities and show how the enhancement and preservation of coherence and squeezing can greatly benefit from the combination of the all physical parameters.

Adaptive network fuzzy inference system based navigation controller for mobile robot

Autonomous navigation of a mobile robot in an unknown environment with highly cluttered obstacles is a fundamental issue in mobile robotics research. We propose an adaptive network fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based navigation controller for a differential drive mobile robot in an unknown environment with cluttered obstacles. Ultrasonic sensors are used to capture the environmental information around the mobile robot. A training data set required to train the ANFIS controller has been obtained by designing a fuzzy logic based navigation controller. Additive white Gaussian noise has been added to the sensor readings and fed to the trained ANFIS controller during mobile robot navigation, to account for the effect of environmental noise on sensor readings. The robustness of the proposed navigation controller has been evaluated by navigating the mobile robot in three different environments. The performance of the proposed controller has been verified by comparing the travelled path length/efficiency and bending energy obtained by the proposed method with reference mobile robot navigation controllers, such as neural network, fuzzy logic, and ANFIS. Simulation results presented in this paper show that the proposed controller has better performance compared with reference controllers and can successfully navigate in different environments without any collision with obstacles.

Dynamical behaviors of a stochastic malaria model: A case study for Yunnan, China

In this paper, we investigate dynamical behaviors for a stochastic malaria model by introducing the effect of environmental white noise on transmission dynamics of malaria. Firstly, the distance between stochastic solutions and the disease-free equilibrium of the corresponding deterministic model is estimated in the time mean sense by constructing stochastic Lyapunov functions. Particularly, by the comparison theorem of stochastic differential equations and the law of large numbers, sufficient conditions for the extinction of the disease are obtained in the special case. Next, the existence of the unique ergodic stationary distribution is proved by constructing a suitable Lyapunov function. Finally, the model is used to simulate the human malaria data in Yunnan province and predict the trend of malaria in Yunnan.

The Effects of Stochasticity on Pattern Formation in a Space- and Time-Discrete Predator-Prey System with Strong Allee Effect in the Prey.

The effects of demographic and environmental noise on the vital dynamics and spatial pattern formation are studied for a predator-prey system with strong Allee effect in the prey species. Time and space are taken discrete. It is shown that noise can promote extinction depending on the growth and interaction parameters as well as the noise type and amplitude. The extinction risk increases with the noise amplitude; however, the environmental and demographic noise can have different effects on the risk of extinction. In space, the spatial structures obtained are blurred versions of the deterministic ones in most scenarios. In particular, the complex spatial structures that appear in the parameter domains where the deterministic local dynamics leads to extinction are robust to the density-dependent stochastic fluctuations but are disrupted with environmental noise.

The Effect of Irrelevant Environmental Noise on the Performance of Visual-to-Auditory Sensory Substitution Devices Used by Blind Adults.

Visual-to-auditory Sensory Substitution Devices (SSDs) are a family of non-invasive devices for visual rehabilitation aiming at conveying whole-scene visual information through the intact auditory modality. Although proven effective in lab environments, the use of SSDs has yet to be systematically tested in real-life situations. To start filling this gap, in the present work we tested the ability of expert SSD users to filter out irrelevant background noise while focusing on the relevant audio information. Specifically, nine blind expert users of the EyeMusic visual-to-auditory SSD performed a series of identification tasks via SSDs (i.e., shape, color, and conjunction of the two features). Their performance was compared in two separate conditions: silent baseline, and with irrelevant background sounds from real-life situations, using the same stimuli in a pseudo-random balanced design. Although the participants described the background noise as disturbing, no significant performance differences emerged between the two conditions (i.e., noisy; silent) for any of the tasks. In the conjunction task (shape and color) we found a non-significant trend for a disturbing effect of the background noise on performance. These findings suggest that visual-to-auditory SSDs can indeed be successfully used in noisy environments and that users can still focus on relevant auditory information while inhibiting irrelevant sounds. Our findings take a step towards the actual use of SSDs in real-life situations while potentially impacting rehabilitation of sensory deprived individuals.

Wind Turbine Incident/Complaint Reports in Ontario, Canada: A Review—Why Are They Important?

Background: The introduction of industrial wind turbines into quiet rural environments in Ontario, Canada has resulted in complaints about environmental noise and adverse health effects. Ontario has a process whereby residents can report noise to government. Official government records of Incident Reports/Complaints submitted by residents living near operating wind turbine installations were obtained through a Freedom of Information request. This article presents an evaluation of this process while commenting on the significance of Incident Reports/Complaints. Methods: Government records of Incident Reports/Complaints were analysed. Peer reviewed publications, conference presentations, judicial proceedings, government resources, and other sources were evaluated and considered in context with the topic under discussion. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to present the role and significance of Incident Reports/Complaints and discuss the value of these when assessing outcomes related to the introduction of wind turbines into a quiet rural environment. Results: Government records document 4574 Incident Reports/Complaints received by Ontario’s hotline (2006- 2016). There was no ministry response to over 50% of more than 3000 submitted formal complaints (2006-2014). Another 30% were noted as “deferred” response. Only 1% of the reports received a priority response. Provincial Officers noted in summary reports that people were reporting health effects such as: headache, sleep deprivation, annoyance, and ringing or pressure sensation in the head and ears. Health effects were reported many times including those occurring among children. Discussion: In the case of wind power installations, Incident Reports/Complaints are an important source of information for evaluating outcomes of introducing a new noise source into a quiet rural environment and are a form of public health surveillance. These reports can highlight risks to a healthy community living environment, act as an early warning system, and aid in evaluation of government policy initiatives. They may also be used before legal tribunals in public or private actions.

A model of HBV infection with intervention strategies: dynamics analysis and numerical simulations.

In this paper, we analyze the effect of environment noise on the transmission dynamics of a stochastic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection model with intervention strategies. By using the Markov semigroups theory, we define the stochastic basic reproduction number and find it can be used to govern disease extinction or persistence. When it is less than one, under a mild extra condition, the stochastic system has a disease-free equilibrium and the disease is predicted to die out with probability one. When it is greater than one, under mild extra conditions, the model admits a stationary distribution which means the persistence of the disease. Thus, we observe that larger intensity of noise (resulting in a smaller stochastic basic reproduction number) can suppress the emergence of hepatitis B outbreak. Numerical simulations are also carried out to investigate the influence of information intervention strategies that may change individual behavior and protect the susceptible from infection. Our analysis shows that the environmental noise can greatly a ect the long-term behavior of the system, highlighting the importance of the role of intervention strategies in the control of hepatitis B.

Noise-induced sleep disruption increases weight gain and decreases energy metabolism in female rats.

Background/objectives:Inadequate sleep increases obesity and environmental noise contributes to poor sleep. However, women may be more vulnerable to noise and hence more susceptible to sleep disruption-induced weight gain than men. In male rats, exposure to environmental (i.e. ambient) noise disrupts sleep and increases feeding and weight gain. However, the effects of environmental noise on sleep and weight gain in female rats are unknown. Thus, this study was designed to determine whether noise exposure would disturb sleep, increase feeding and weight gain and alter the length of the estrous cycle in female rats.Subjects/methods:Female rats (12-weeks old) were exposed to noise for 17d (8h/d during the light period) to determine the effects of noise on weight gain and food intake. In a separate set of females, estrous cycle phase and length, EEG, EMG, spontaneous physical activity and energy expenditure were recorded continuously for 27d during baseline (control, 9d), noise exposure (8h/d, 9d) and recovery (9d) from sleep disruption.Results:Noise exposure significantly increased weight gain and food intake compared to females that slept undisturbed. Noise also significantly increased wakefulness, reduced sleep and resulted in rebound sleep during the recovery period. Total energy expenditure was significantly lower during both noise exposure and recovery due to lower energy expenditure during spontaneous physical activity and sleep. Notably, noise did not alter the estrous cycle length.Conclusions:As previously observed in male rats, noise exposure disrupted sleep and increased weight gain in females but did not alter the length of the estrous cycle. This is the first demonstration of weight gain in female rats during sleep disruption. We conclude that the sleep disruption caused by exposure to environmental noise is a significant tool for determining how sleep loss contributes to obesity in females.

Extinction and persistence of a stochastic Gilpin–Ayala model under regime switching on patches

The present study is designed to examine the effect of environmental noises in the asymptotic properties of a stochastic Gilpin–Ayala model on patches under regime switching. The Gilpin–Ayala parameter is also allowed to switch. Sufficient conditions for extinction and persistence of species are established.

Global dynamics of deterministic and stochastic epidemic systems with nonmonotone incidence rate

This paper is devoted to studying the dynamics of a susceptible-infective-latent-infective (SILI) epidemic model that is subject to the combined effects of environmental noise and intervention strategy. We extend the classical SILI epidemic model from a deterministic framework to a stochastic one. For the deterministic case, the global stability analysis of the solution is carried out in terms of the basic reproduction number. For the stochastic case, sufficient conditions for the extinction of diseases are obtained. Then, the existence of stationary distribution and asymptotic behavior of the solution are further studied to illustrate the cycling phenomena of recurrent diseases. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify these analytical results. It is shown that both stochastic noise and intervention strategy contribute to the control of diseases.

WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region: A Systematic Review on Environmental Noise and Quality of Life, Wellbeing and Mental Health.

This systematic review assesses the quality of the evidence across studies on the effect of environmental noise (road traffic noise, aircraft noise, railway noise, wind-turbine noise) on quality of life, wellbeing and mental health. Quantitative studies of noise effects on children and adults published from January 2005 up to October 2015 were reviewed. A total of 29 papers were identified. 90% of the papers were of cross-sectional design, with fewer studies of longitudinal or intervention design. Outcomes included depression and anxiety, medication use and childhood emotional problems. The quality of the evidence across the studies for each individual noise source was assessed using an adaptation of the GRADE methodology. Overall, given the predominance of cross-sectional studies, most evidence was rated as very low quality, with evidence of effects only being observed for some noise sources and outcomes. These ratings reflect inconsistent findings across studies, the small number of studies and a lack of methodological robustness within some domains. Overall, there are few studies of clinically significant mental health outcomes; few studies of railway noise exposure; and studies of large samples are needed. The lack of evidence for noise effects across studies for many of the quality of life, wellbeing and mental health domains examined does not necessarily mean that there are no effects: rather, that they have not yet been studied robustly for different noise sources.

Cumulative exposure to nighttime environmental noise and the incidence of peptic ulcer

BackgroundExposure to noise poses auditory and non-auditory effects on health. The gastrointestinal tract is considered as the site of adverse reactions to noise-induced stress; little attention has been paid to a potential link between noise and peptic ulcers. ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to investigate whether cumulative exposure to environmental noise affects the incidence of peptic ulcer in adults. MethodsWe analyzed the data from the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (2002−2013). The final study sample comprised 217,308 adults assessed for gastric ulcer and 249,514 adults assessed for duodenal ulcer. The diagnosis of gastric (ICD-10: K25) and duodenal (ICD-10: K26) ulcers during an 8-year follow-up (2006–2013). Environmental noise data was obtained from the National Noise Information System, a nationwide monitors system of noise. ResultsDuring the follow-up period, gastric ulcers occurred in 32.1% subjects and duodenal ulcers occurred in 10.7% subjects. The rate of diagnosis for gastric and duodenal ulcers was increased with the increases in cumulative mean levels of nighttime environmental noise. With increases in the increase in interquartile range (IQR) of nighttime noise, the hazard ratio (HR) was significantly increased by 12% (HR = 1.12; 95% CI, 1.10–1.13) for gastric ulcer and 17% (HR = 1.17; 95% CI, 1.15–1.20) for duodenal ulcer based on the fully adjusted model. ConclusionOur finding supports previous reports on the damaging effect of environmental noise on the gastrointestinal tract and suggests that cumulative exposure to environmental nighttime noise affects the development of peptic ulcers.

Long-Term Residential Exposure to Environmental Noise and Cardiovascular Disease Onset: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Introduction: Cardiovascular effects of environmental noise are a growing concern. However, the evidence remains largely limited to the association between road traffic noise and hypertension and ischemic diseases especially myocardial infarction (MI).Objective: To examine associations between long-term residential exposure to total environmental noise and the onset of cardiovascular MI and strokes in adults of the Island of Montreal.Methods: An open cohort of 1,087,806 adults aged ≥ 45 years, free of MI and strokes before entering the cohort was created for the years 2000 to 2014 with the Quebec Integrated Chronic Disease Surveillance System, a systematic surveillance system from the second most populous province in Canada starting in 1996. The exposure to total environmental noise (LAeq24h) at cohort entry was estimated with a Land Use Regression (LUR) model. Onsets of MI and strokes were based on one hospital admission. Cox models were used to estimate associations.Results: We found positive associations between Laeq24h estimated and the occurrence of MI and strokes; hazard ratios adjusted for age, sex, year of entry, social and material deprivation indexes and traffic-related air pollutant (nitrogen dioxide) were respectively 1.10 (95% CI: 1.07-1.13) and 1.06 (95% CI: 1.03-1.09) per 10 dBA.Conclusion: These results suggest that total environmental noise is associated with the onset of MI and strokes. Future work should clarify if associations vary by noise sources, and if pre-existing diseases (e.g. hypertension) mediate such effects.

Adaptive Cancellation of Localised Environmental Noise

Noise cancellation systems are useful in applications such as speech and speaker recognition systems where the effects of environmental noise have to be taken into considerations. A robust method for the cancellation of localised noise in noisy speech signals using subband decomposition and adaptive filtering is presented and described in this paper. The subband decomposition technique is based on low complexity octave filters that split the noisy speech input into subsidiary bands. A thresholding technique is then applied to the subbands to determine the presence or absence of environmental noise. This is used to control an adaptive filter which only responds to the noisy parts of the speech spectrum hence localising the adaptation process only on these segments. The Normalised Least Mean Squares algorithm (NLMS) is used for the adaptation process. A comparison with a similar system without localising the environmental noise shows the superior performance of the proposed system. It has been shown to perform better in terms of computational costs and convergence rate when compared to a system that does not take advantage of the information regarding the presence or absence of noise in a specific part of the speech spectrum. More than 35 dB of noise has been eliminated in less iterations than in conventional approach which needs longer time to reach steady state.

Eco-evolutionary dynamics of a population with randomly switching carrying capacity.

Environmental variability greatly influences the eco-evolutionary dynamics of a population, i.e. it affects how its size and composition evolve. Here, we study a well-mixed population of finite and fluctuating size whose growth is limited by a randomly switching carrying capacity. This models the environmental fluctuations between states of resources abundance and scarcity. The population consists of two strains, one growing slightly faster than the other, competing under two scenarios: one in which competition is solely for resources, and one in which the slow (cooperating) strain produces a public good (PG) that benefits also the fast (free-riding) strain. We investigate how the coupling of demographic and environmental (external) noise affects the population's eco-evolutionary dynamics. By analytical and computational means, we study the correlations between the population size and its composition, and discuss the social-dilemma-like 'eco-evolutionary game' characterizing the PG production. We determine in what conditions it is best to produce a PG; when cooperating is beneficial but outcompeted by free riding, and when the PG production is detrimental for cooperators. Within a linear noise approximation to populations of varying size, we also accurately analyse the coupled effects of demographic and environmental noise on the size distribution.

Aircraft Noise and Psychological Ill-Health: The Results of a Cross-Sectional Study in France.

Background: The effects of aircraft noise on psychological ill-health have not been largely investigated and remain to be discussed. No study has been performed in France on the health effects of aircraft noise. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between aircraft noise in dB and in terms of annoyance and psychological ill-health in populations living near airports in France. Methods: A total of 1244 individuals older than 18 and living near three French airports (Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Lyon–Saint-Exupéry and Toulouse–Blagnac) were randomly selected to participate in the study. Information about their personal medical history and socioeconomic and lifestyle factors was collected by means of a face-to-face questionnaire performed at their place of residence by an interviewer. Psychological ill-health was evaluated with the 12-item version of the General Heath Questionnaire (GHQ-12). For each participant, outdoor aircraft noise exposure in dB was estimated by linking their home address to noise maps. Objective noise exposure in dB was considered to be the primary exposure of interest. Four noise indicators referring to three different periods of the day were derived and used for the statistical analyses: Lden, LAeq,24hr, LAeq,6hr–22hr, and Lnight. Noise annoyance and noise sensitivity were the secondary risk factors of interest. Logistic regression models were used with adjustment for potential confounders. Results: The participation rate in the study was 30%. Approximately 22% of the participants were considered to have psychological ill-health according to the GHQ-12. No direct association was found between exposure to aircraft noise in dB and psychological ill-health. However, annoyance due to aircraft noise and noise sensitivity were both significantly associated with psychological ill-health. Moreover, a gradient was evidenced between annoyance and psychological ill-health, with increasing ORs from 1.79 (95% CI 1.06–3.03) for people who were not all annoyed to 4.00 (95% CI 1.67–9.55) for extremely annoyed people. Conclusions: These findings confirm the results of previous studies, suggesting there is no direct association between aircraft noise exposure in dB and psychological ill-health, but there is a significant relationship between noise sensitivity or annoyance due to aircraft noise and psychological ill-health. This supports the hypothesis that psychological aspects, such as noise annoyance and noise sensitivity, play important roles in the association between environmental noise and adverse effects on health. However, further studies are necessary in order to better understand the links between these variables.

Evaluation of sound quality features on environmental noise effects – a case study applied to road traffic noise

Evaluation of sound quality features on environmental noise effects – a case study applied to road traffic noise

Nontrivial periodic solution for a stochastic brucellosis model with application to Xinjiang, China

Brucellosis is a kind of zoonotic disease caused by Gram-negative bacteria of the genus Brucella. In this paper, we propose a stochastic periodic brucellosis model by introducing the effect of environmental white noise on transmission dynamics of brucellosis. By Has’minskii theory of periodic solution and constructing a novel combination of Lyapunov functions, we establish the existence of nontrivial positive periodic solution if the condition R0S>1 holds. Based on the reported data of newly acute human brucellosis cases for each season from 2010 to 2014 in Xinjiang, numerical simulations have been performed to support our result and indicate that brucellosis in Xinjiang takes on the feature of long-term prevalence and cyclical fluctuation.

Reduction in the noise pollution within residential environments - what has been achieved so far?

Surveys show that noise in its various forms is among the most severe environmental burdens. According to estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), there is aloss of one million healthy life years per year in Europe due to the effects of environmental noise. This paper discusses the harmful effects of noise with the example of traffic noise, for which the highest number of environmental noise effect studies are available. An increasing number of studies show associations between traffic noise and vascular, metabolic and psychic diseases. Too little is still known about the causal mechanisms, even though a number of explanatory models are available. However, it is clear that today it is no longer a question of whether noise is responsible for extra-aural diseases, but under what conditions and to what extent are the risks.The high degree of noise nuisance shows that more action is needed with regard to noise control policy.Over the past few years, federal, regional and local governments have taken countless initiatives on traffic noise control - for instance, within the framework of action plans. Especially notable are the innovative measures, instruments and programs regarding railway noise. In the most important source of nuisance, road traffic noise, less progress has been made. In air traffic noise, too, the revision and development of important laws are still lacking. To promote inner urban development, the level of protection against industrial and sports noise has been reduced.Significant health-related reductions in noise pollution (except regarding the railways), therefore, cannot be expected in the near future.

Deep Learning for Environmentally Robust Speech Recognition

Eliminating the negative effect of non-stationary environmental noise is a long-standing research topic for automatic speech recognition but still remains an important challenge. Data-driven supervised approaches, especially the ones based on deep neural networks, have recently emerged as potential alternatives to traditional unsupervised approaches and with sufficient training, can alleviate the shortcomings of the unsupervised methods in various real-life acoustic environments. In this light, we review recently developed, representative deep learning approaches for tackling non-stationary additive and convolutional degradation of speech with the aim of providing guidelines for those involved in the development of environmentally robust speech recognition systems. We separately discuss single- and multi-channel techniques developed for the front-end and back-end of speech recognition systems, as well as joint front-end and back-end training frameworks. In the meanwhile, we discuss the pros and cons of these approaches and provide their experimental results on benchmark databases. We expect that this overview can facilitate the development of the robustness of speech recognition systems in acoustic noisy environments.