Effects Of Acoustic Environment Research Articles

Effects of acoustic environment on sleep and mental health in residential regions near railways

Noise is an important environmental risk factor for physical and mental health. Furthermore, long-term noise exposure is burdensome for the mind and body and has become a serious problem. Rail transportation is one of the main methods used to transport goods in China; however, the noise and vibrations generated by freight trains have serious impacts on residents in nearby regions. To further investigate the relationship between railway noise and road noise exposure and changes in sleep duration and mental health scores, a field study in Harbin, China, was conducted and a health risk prediction model was constructed. The results showed that for every 1 dB increase in the Equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level (LAeq), the percentage of deep sleep among residents living near the railway decreased by 0.2 %. Although residents near the railway reported similar sleep evaluations compared to those living farther away, they exhibited poorer mental health. Cox risk modeling indicates that the risk of mental health problems is approximately three times higher for those living near the railway. These findings potentially provide benefits in developing strategies to reduce the risk of mental illness for people residing near railways.

Effect of Acoustic Environment in Wards on Postoperative Rehabilitation in Patients with Oral Cancer: A Retrospective Study.

The increase in patient flow, replacement of medical equipment, and variations in surrounding environments induce increasingly serious acoustic environment problems in hospitals. This study aims to provide additional bases for the formulation of subsequent management plans in clinical practice by analyzing the influence of the acoustic environment in wards and the postoperative rehabilitation effect among patients with oral cancer. The medical records of 210 patients with oral cancer undergoing surgical treatment in Jinan Stomatological Hospital from February 2020 to October 2022 were selected for retrospective analysis. Patients with the acoustic environment in wards >55 and ≤55 dB were classified as groups A and B, respectively, according to the acoustic environment in wards. The effects of the acoustic environment in wards on postoperative blood pressure, blood viscosity, and blood glucose fluctuation (BGF) were observed to further analyze their relationship. No significant difference was observed in indices such as preoperative systolic pressure (SP), diastolic pressure (DP), cardiac output (CO), postoperative CO, total cholesterol, and low- and high-density lipoproteins between the two groups (P > 0.05). The SP, DP, whole blood low-shear viscosity (WBLSV), whole blood middle-shear viscosity (WBMSV), whole blood high-shear viscosity (WBHSV), and BGF in group B were significantly lower than group A (P < 0.05). Correlation results showed that the total mean value of the acoustic environment in wards was positively correlated with SP, DP, WBLSV, WBMSV, WBHSV, and BGF (P < 0.05). The high acoustic environment in wards is significantly positively correlated with postoperative blood pressure, blood viscosity, and BGF in patients with oral cancer. The hospital should focus on and strengthen the management of the acoustic environment in wards, providing additional schemes to promote the postoperative recovery of patients with oral cancer.

Combined effects of the thermal-acoustic environment on subjective evaluations in outdoor public spaces

• We explore the change characteristics of human comfort in the outdoor thermal-acoustic environment. • Acoustic environment and thermal environment are both important factors affecting the subjective comfort. • The thermal environment has a greater impact on human comfort than the acoustic environment. • There are seasonal differences in the degree of acoustic and thermal comfort affecting each other. The public space environment is a complex and comprehensive system composed of multiple factors that are interconnected and can both promote and restrict each other. Thermal environment and acoustic environment are the main factors that affect the overall comfort of urban open spaces. Therefore, this study selects a university campus as a research location for an outdoor public space to explore the change characteristics of human comfort in the thermal-acoustic environment with the object of providing a reference for improving the comfort of the outdoor public space environment. The study results show that the effects of thermal-acoustic environment on the subjective comfort are quite different in autumn and winter; the acoustic environment has a greater impact on subjective comfort in high and low temperature environments, while the effect of acoustic environment on subjective comfort in a thermally neutral environment is not obvious; the overall comfort evaluation is the highest in a 60–70 dB(A) acoustic environment, and an excessively noisy or quiet acoustic environment increases the discomfort; both the acoustic environment and the thermal environment are important factors affecting the subjective comfort of the human body, but the thermal environment is more important than the acoustic environment.

Effects of acoustic environment on design work performance based on multitask visual cognitive performance in office space

The acoustic environment in the office space is a significant factor affecting workers' performance. Whereas existing research focuses mainly on the impact of the acoustic environment on single visual cognitive work performance, this study considers multitask visual cognitive work. Forty-one respondents were selected to participate in the multitask visual cognitive–behavioural cognitive experiment under different acoustic environments. The effects of different typical sound source types, sound pressure levels, and reverberation times on the performance of multitask visual cognition in design offices were examined. The results revealed the following. First, the sound source types have a significant impact on the reaction time of participants' work performance. Compared to the ambient environment (mean = 2.838 s), the reaction time performance is shortest under music sound (mean = 2.560 s). Second, the increase in traffic noise and air-conditioning noise will significantly reduce the memory accuracy of the location. For instance, when the traffic noise increases from 50 dBA to 65 dBA, the memory accuracy of the location is reduced by 4.42%. Third, the increase in the reverberation of speech will effectively shorten the reaction time and increase the memory accuracy of graphics. As the reverberation time of speech increases from 0.3 s to 1.5 s, the reaction time is reduced by 0.274 s. Meanwhile, 2.03% of the memory accuracy of graphics increased. Furthermore, the personal characteristics of the participants also affected visual cognitive work. Therefore, it is expected to improve the visual cognitive work performance of employees for room acoustic design.

Effects of Acoustic Environment on Tinnitus Behavior in Sound-Exposed Rats

Laboratory studies often rely on a damaging sound exposure to induce tinnitus in animal models. Because the time course and ultimate success of the induction process is not known in advance, it is not unusual to maintain sound-exposed animals for months while they are periodically assessed for behavioral indications of the disorder. To demonstrate the importance of acoustic environment during this period of behavioral screening, sound-exposed rats were tested for tinnitus while housed under quiet or constant noise conditions. More than half of the quiet-housed rats developed behavioral indications of the disorder. None of the noise-housed rats exhibited tinnitus behavior during 2months of behavioral screening. It is widely assumed that the "phantom sound" of tinnitus reflects abnormal levels of spontaneous activity in the central auditory pathways that are triggered by cochlear injury. Our results suggest that sustained patterns of noise-driven activity may prevent the injury-induced changes in central auditory processing that lead to this hyperactive state. From the perspective of laboratory studies of tinnitus, housing sound-exposed animals in uncontrolled noise levels may significantly reduce the success of induction procedures. From a broader clinical perspective, an early intervention with sound therapy may reduce the risk of tinnitus in individuals who have experienced an acute cochlear injury.

Effects of acoustic environment on male calling activity and timing in Neotropical forest katydids

Many characteristics of signals can convey information, but the exact timing of the signal often matters as well. The timing of signals is shaped by selective pressures including mate preferences, predation, and competition. In many insect communities, male calling to attract females is persistent and pervasive, and signal timing interactions among individuals are relatively common. In Neotropical forests, many katydid species are represented in the acoustic environment, but calls are usually short (<40 ms) and infrequent (<10 s of sound per individual per night), characteristics that have likely evolved in response to intense predation by insectivorous bats. We test two alternative hypotheses about signal timing in environments where signaling is rare and costly, either that timing is absent due to the unpredictable nature of the signals or that the rarity of signals places a premium on signal timing and attention to the acoustic environment. We tested these hypotheses by broadcasting conspecific calls, heterospecific calls, and silence to eight species of katydids and measuring calling activity and call timing in each playback treatment. All species changed the amount or timing of calling (or both) as a result of the playbacks, but species responded differently to playbacks, with some calling more or less during specific treatments and some showing differences in the timing of calls relative to playbacks. Although short latency signal timing was not observed, this study shows that Neotropical forest katydids are responsive to their acoustic environment despite an exceptionally low rate of signaling. In many species, males produce signals to attract females, and studies show that the timing of these signals relative to other stimuli can play an important role in mate attraction and predator avoidance. Most of these studies have investigated species that are prolific signalers, due to the ease of collecting data. Here, we extend these theories and test them in Neotropical forest katydids, which produce very short and sporadic acoustic signals. We find that these insects do not display the fast competitive interactions seen in more prolific signalers, but still adjust both the timing and amount of calling in response to what they hear. These findings reveal that insects that signal rarely are still attending to the signaling of others and that their behavior can be strongly affected by the signals of other insects, including insects of other species.

P24-2 Effect of acoustic environment on amplitude and stability of EEG rhythms during performing mental tasks

P24-2 Effect of acoustic environment on amplitude and stability of EEG rhythms during performing mental tasks

Effect of Acoustic Environment on EEG during Mental Task

Effect of Acoustic Environment on EEG during Mental Task

Effect of Acoustic Environment on the Sensitivity of Speech Transmission Index to Source Directivity

Source directivity has the potential to affect speech transmission index (STI) measurements. When the source is a model of a human talker, there is a question of how accurate that model needs to be. However, in many acoustic environments source directivity has little effect on STI because other factors dominate. One instance is soundfields in which the direct sound is dominant (e.g., in the quiet outdoors, in the nearfield, or in an anechoic room): directivity will have no effect on STI so long as the direct sound is strong enough. Another instance is soundfields in which the reverberant soundfield is dominant (e.g., in the far field in a room with moderate or more reverberation). This paper examines theoretical situations where source directivity has a substantial influence on STI because of the balance between direct (or early) and reverberant soundfields, as well as the role that background noise can have in increasing the importance of source directivity.

The effects of acoustic environment after traumatic noise exposure on hearing and outer hair cells

Previous studies reported that exposure to non-traumatic level sounds after traumatic noise exposure reduced the degree of noise-induced hearing loss and hair cell stereocilia damage. The current study investigated the effects of a 3-day post-noise acoustic environment on the degree of noise-induced hearing loss and cochlear damage. Female chinchillas were exposed to traumatic continuous noise (4 kHz octave-band noise) at 107 dB SPL for 1 h and then placed in either an augmented acoustic environment (AAE) or deprived acoustic environment (DAE) for 3 days. The AAE group was exposed to a broad-band noise (4–20 kHz) at 80 dB SPL and the DAE animals were fit with conventional earplugs to minimize the level of acoustic stimulation. Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) were recorded before and 3 days after the traumatic noise exposure. The AAE group showed a significantly lower average threshold shift at the frequencies of 4 and 8 kHz ( p < 0.01). Correspondingly, significantly fewer missing and dying outer hair cells (OHCs) were observed in the AAE group than in the DAE group. Although the cochlear reduced and oxidized glutathione levels (GSH and GSSG, respectively) were essentially the same in two groups at day 3, significant correlations were found between GSSG levels and mean ABR threshold shift (1–16 kHz) in the AAE group; as well as GSSG and percentage of total OHC loss in the DAE group. The results suggest that post-noise acoustic environment influenced the degree of hearing loss and OHC deterioration after traumatic noise exposure.

Tolerable hearing aid delays. II. Estimation of limits imposed during speech production.

We used real-time processing in a wearable digital hearing aid to examine the effect of processing delay on normal-hearing participants while speaking. Objective and subjective data were recorded so as to permit analysis of both the production and perception of speech read aloud from a script. We also asked participants to rate the disturbance of the echo introduced by the delay. Thirty-two (16M, 16F) participants were fitted binaurally with behind-the-ear (BTE) aids connected to a digital processor. A 4 mm Libby horn, surrounded by an expanding foam earplug, conducted processed sound into each ear canal. The processor provided either linear processing or three-channel, fast-acting wide dynamic range compression, independently to each ear. Insertion gains were set, using a KEMAR manikin, to be 0 dB over a wide frequency range, for frontally presented speech with a free field level of 65 dB SPL. Additionally, the aids introduced one of four selectable delays (7 to 43 msec) between the BTE microphone and receiver. After a short period of acclimatization, each participant read 16 prose passages of about 500 words in length in each of two similar-sized rooms with markedly different acoustics: reverberant and nonreverberant. For each passage, a subjective rating of the level of disturbance of the perceived echo was recorded, as well as simultaneous recordings from a microphone and a Laryngograph, which directly records glottal pulses. Disturbance ratings generally increased monotonically with increasing delay. Averaged results show that a delay between 25 and 30 msec is rated as "disturbing." Measures were also taken of word production rate, speech level and range of level as well as fundamental frequency and range of fundamental frequency. For these measures of speech production, there was no significant effect until the delay exceeded 30 msec. There was little effect of acoustic environment or aid processing (linear or compression). The acceptability of delays introduced by digital hearing aids is primarily determined by aspects of the perception of self-generated speech. Speech production, on average, is hardly affected unless the processing delay exceeds 30 msec. The permissible limit of 20 to 30 msec is smaller than the delays at which audio-visual integration is disrupted.

Interaction between acoustic environment and landscape--the effect of acoustic environment on perceived landscape and the effect of landscape on perceived acoustic environment

The effect of acoustic environment on the impression of the landscape and the effect of the landscape on the impression of the acoustic environment were investigated by a multivariate technique using a semantic differential method. The resulting five dimensions were interpreted as "Calmness", "Activity", "Naturalness", "Uniqueness", and "Volume (Magnitude)" for both landscape and sound evaluations. These common psychological qualities are considered to be the intermodalities of visual and auditory processing. Further, the consonance phenomenon through the intermodalities, a kind of interaction between auditory and visual processing which changes the psychological qualities to the same direction, was observed when the combination of the acoustic environment and landscape was evaluated to be matched. These results may be the basis of the soundscape design under various kinds of landscape.

Effect of acoustic environment on the burning rate of solid propellants

During unstable combustion of solid propellants, the burning surface is exposed to severe oscillations in the adjoining gas environment, and large changes in burning rate of the propellant result. By using specially designed burners, it was found possible to determine, by interrupting burning, the effect on the propellant burning rate. Because of the standingwave nature of the oscillatory behavior, it was possible to correlate the change in burning rate at each point on the propellant surface with the nature of the acoustic environment. It was observed that burning rate is decreased by acoustic pressure and increased by acoustic velocity (double-base propellants), the two effects being of comparable magnitude. The fluctuations in equilibrium pressure during unstable rocket motor and vented vessel firings were found to be readily explainable in terms of the burning-rate effects obtained from the interrupted burning tests, provided the acoustic behavior during the firings was simple enough to analyze. However, a singular class of behavior was observed under certain conditions; dramatic increases in burning rate occurred at characteristi c times during burning when the frequency of the unstable tangential mode (first mode) was an integral multiple of the frequency of an unstable axial mode.

Effect of acoustic environment upon speaker intelligibility.

No AccessJournal of Speech and Hearing DisordersResearch Article1 Mar 1956Effect Of Acoustic Environment Upon Speaker Intelligibility Robert W. Peters Robert W. Peters Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/jshd.2101.88 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Additional Resources FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited by Richard Luchsinger and Gottfried E. Arnold (1970) Physiologie der Sprachlaute Handbuch der Stimm- und Sprachheilkunde10.1007/978-3-7091-7130-1_11 AUBREY J. YATES (1964) Recent Empirical and Theoretical Approaches to the Experimental Manipulation of Speech in Normal Subjects and in Stammerers Experiments in Behaviour Therapy10.1016/B978-0-08-010054-8.50032-0 Behaviour Research and Therapy1:2-4 (95-119)Recent empirical and theoretical approaches to the experimental manipulation of speech in normal subjects and in stammerersAubrey J. Yates Archiv für Ohren- Nasen- und Kehlkopfheilkunde176:2 (608-614)1 Sep 1960Diskriminationsverlust in Lärm, wenn auch der Sprecher Hörschutz trägtK. Schröder Gottfried E. Arnold (1959) Die Sprache und ihre Störungen Lehrbuch der Stimm- und Sprachheilkunde10.1007/978-3-7091-3462-7_2 Volume 21Issue 1March 1956Pages: 88-93 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in issue: Mar 1, 1956PubMed ID: 13307694 Metrics Topicsasha-topicsasha-article-typesleader-topicsCopyright & PermissionsCopyright © 1956 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationPDF downloadLoading ...