Phone Ringing Research Articles

The fear of smartphone notifications and calls among medical students: The phone ring phobia syndrome or telephobia.

Telephobia is a kind of anxiety disorder in which the individual is afraid of either answering or making telephone calls. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of telephobia among medical students and to determine the association of socio-demographic and other factors with this disorder. A total of 320 undergraduate medical students were enrolled at a tertiary medical college in Western India, of which 300 (93.75%) responded to the survey. A stratified sampling strategy with the proportional allocation method was used in which 40 males and 20 females were selected from each year of students, spanning 5 years. A specially designed semi-structured questionnaire was used for the study, consisting of demographic data, purpose of using the internet, gadget used, and a 10-item telephobia questionnaire modified from the Severity Measure for Agoraphobia-Adult (SMA-A) Questionnaire to measure student's avoidance of telephone calling and receiving. The mean age of the study participants was 21.91 (±1.84) years, and most of the students were urban residents (184, 61.3%). The prevalence of mild, moderate, and severe telephobia was 33.0%, 7.67%, and 1.33%, respectively, giving an overall prevalence of 42%. Univariate analysis revealed that male gender (χ2 = 9.822, df = 3, p = 0.0201), higher duration of internet usage (χ2 = 41.15, df = 9, p value < 0.000), and viewing porn (χ2 = 15.94, df = 3, p = 0.0011) had significant association with higher severity of telephobia. Viewing of porn sites was reported by 65 (21.7%) medical students, exclusively among males. A prevalence of 9% moderate to severe telephobia among medical students is much alarming, which may aggravate further as the students move from academic to clinical settings. The phenomenon of telephobia needs further exploration, to find its determinants and predictors, especially among vulnerable populations.

TAO

Translating fine-grained activity detection (e.g., phone ring, talking interspersed with silence and walking) into semantically meaningful and richer contextual information (e.g., on a phone call for 20 minutes while exercising) is essential towards enabling a range of healthcare and human-computer interaction applications. Prior work has proposed building ontologies or temporal analysis of activity patterns with limited success in capturing complex real-world context patterns. We present TAO, a hybrid system that leverages OWL-based ontologies and temporal clustering approaches to detect high-level contexts from human activities. TAO can characterize sequential activities that happen one after the other and activities that are interleaved or occur in parallel to detect a richer set of contexts more accurately than prior work. We evaluate TAO on real-world activity datasets (Casas and Extrasensory) and show that our system achieves, on average, 87% and 80% accuracy for context detection, respectively. We deploy and evaluate TAO in a real-world setting with eight participants using our system for three hours each, demonstrating TAO's ability to capture semantically meaningful contexts in the real world. Finally, to showcase the usefulness of contexts, we prototype wellness applications that assess productivity and stress and show that the wellness metrics calculated using contexts provided by TAO are much closer to the ground truth (on average within 1.1%), as compared to the baseline approach (on average within 30%).

“Into the Widest Imagination”

“Into the Widest Imagination”

Ivo van Hove and Almodóvar: Remixing The Human Voice

Ivo van Hove and Almodóvar: Remixing <i>The Human Voice</i>

Knowledge in critical events: Know-how at work of emerging country firefighters

This study analyses the know-how at work of emerging country firefighters involved in a critical event. The research was a qualitative exploratory study in which 19 firefighters were interviewed. The results show that the firefighter's work is marked by the intense use of sensory perceptions such as hearing, feeling, smelling, and seeing and artifacts such as uniform, siren sound, victims' cell phone ringing, military career, professional's work instruments. The error and failure also appear as artifacts that mobilize knowing-in-practice, and it shows a fragile image of indestructible firefighters. Therefore, the know-how at work of emerging countries' firefighters is performed by present and absent artifacts that mobilize aesthetic judgments and emotions that are different when considering before, during, and after the critical event. The study emerges as a possibility to rethink the organizational training of these professionals.

Eating Behavior and Environments of Severe Alzheimer's Disease Patients With Loss of Language Skills.

Background: As Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progresses, AD patients become more and more dependent on the environment. To prevent the patients from being distracted from eating, it is necessary to pay attention to the environment. Purpose: Five severe AD patients with loss of language skills were observed closely to identify the environments that interfered with their eating behaviors and environments that encouraged them to eat. Methods: The author, a certified care worker, recorded the behaviors of five severe AD patients while providing care for the overall aspects of their daily lives. From these records, the author extracted the situations in which the subjects exhibited self-eating behavior and situations in which they were distracted from eating, and organized the meanings of these environments for the subjects. Results: Eating behavior was interrupted: (1) when staff members started conversations nearby a subject, or when a caregiver attempted to stop a subject’s behavior in order to get her to eat; (2) by physical environmental changes, such as phone ringing and reflection of artificial light on their table. Conclusion: By organizing the meanings of the environments surrounding each individual, we can identify the environments that encourage a patient to start eating and environments that interfere with a patient’s eating behavior.

Perception and task performance under two simulated office background noise conditions

The acoustics of an open-office environment play an important role in people’s working performance. This study was conducted to investigate how task performance is affected by two simulated office noise environments: (1) recorded HVAC noise and (2) a series of intermittent noises, e.g., conversations, phone ringing, etc. These conditions were reproduced over a 32-loudspeaker array in an anechoic chamber to include realistic spatial placement of sound sources. Each subject was seated at the center of the array and asked to perform five cognitive tasks to evaluate effects on memory, reasoning, planning, and attention. The tasks were digit span, grammatical reasoning, tower of London, attention network test, and mental arithmetic. After each noise condition, the participants rated several items including annoyance and perceived performance. Heart rate variability (HRV) was also recorded using ECG sensors as a physiological measure of arousal. Baseline measurements were first obtained in silence, followed by a task training set in silence, and an actual test set in silence. A statistical analysis was used to investigate possible correlations between the acoustic conditions and the cognitive task results, perceptual ratings, and HRV data, respectively. Study details and the findings will be presented.

Phantom Phone Signal: why it should be of interest for psychiatry.

Phantom Phone Signal (PPS) refers to the false perception of a mobile phone ringing, vibrating and blinking, when in fact it did not. A recent literature about PPS is growing, parallel to an increasing interest about its possible psychopathological implications. The present review aims to synthesize the current knowledge about the phenomenon, and to present a conceptual framework that integrates PPS as a putative index of psychopathology. Furthermore, we propose possible directions for further research. The phenomenon seems highly prevalent, irrespective of age and gender, although estimates are still inconsistent. We have analysed possible factors associated to PPS, disentangling them in person-related (i.e. characteristics of individuals who experience PPS) and phone use-related factors (i.e., time spent using the phone, time of the mobile in vibrating mode, the carrying location of the device, average number of call/message in a day, etc). Literature regarding the association between PPS and mental illness is limited, as most of the samples are not clinical and too sectorial. Preliminary data suggest that anxiety/depression and stress-related problems seem to be the psychopathological background favouring the experience of PPS. Despite PPS is a common phenomenon, it usually do not seem to significantly impact the people's quality of life. However, they deserve attention, given the huge diffusion of phone mobiles, particularly in children and adolescents, as it may be an index for emotional or stress-related difficulties. Future studies are needed to better clarify its frequency and its possible impact on everyday life. Studies in clinical samples may further clarify its psychopathological implications.

The effect of distraction on the quality of patient handoff: a randomized study.

The number of patient handoffs has increased in recent years. In addition, technology has advanced in the medical field, leading to most providers carrying smartphones at work. Little is known about the effect of mobile devices and quality of patient handoffs. The objective of this study was to determine whether distraction affects the quality of sign-out among obstetrical providers. A randomized, prospective study was conducted. Hospital. Obstetrical providers listened to a recorded sign-out vignette. Provider groups either were or were not exposed to a distraction while listening to the vignette. All providers had been told that they would be participating in a trial of two methods of sign-out, although in actuality they were all assigned to a single method. In the distraction arm, the participants were exposed to a 'distracting event' (a phone ring, which was answered by the proctor and followed by a brief conversation) that occurred midway through the vignette. Providers answered a 14-question survey testing recall of facts included in the vignette. The results of each group were analyzed using Fisher's exact test and Student's t-test. Eighty-eight providers were randomized, 44 in the distraction group and 44 in the non-distracted group. The average scores on the survey were similar between groups (11.0 and 10.8, P = 0.57). In addition, the average scores for questions that occurred after the distraction did not differ between the distracted and non-distracted groups (6.4 vs 6.2, P = 0.42). We observed that a phone ring and brief response did not affect the obstetrical providers' recall of details of a standardized sign-out. More studies are warranted to determine if more frequent or longer distractions would change results.

The Effect of Distraction on the Quality of Patient Hand-Off [39G

INTRODUCTION: To evaluate whether distraction affects the quality of sign-out among obstetrical providers. If distractions affect the accuracy of information shared at “sign-out,” it could lead to errors in patient management. METHODS: A randomized, prospective study among obstetrical providers who received a recorded sign-out vignette. Provider groups either received a distraction or did not during the vignette. All providers had been told that they would be participating in a trial of two methods of sign out, although in actuality they were all signed out using a single method. In the distraction arm, the participants were exposed to a “distracting event” (a phone ring, followed by a short response) that occurred midway through the vignette. Providers answered a 14-question survey based on the vignette. The results of each group were analyzed using Fisher exact and Student t tests. RESULTS: Eighty-eight providers were randomized, 44 in the distraction group and 44 in the non-distracted group. The score averages on the survey were similar between groups (11.0 and 10.8, P=.57). In addition, the average scores for questions that occurred after the distraction were similar between the distracted and non-distracted groups (6.4 vs 6.2, P=.42). Proximity to the distraction did not affect scores. CONCLUSION: While cell phones often ring in hospital settings, we did not find that a single phone ring and a brief answer to the call affected obstetrical providers’ recall of details of a standardized sign-out. More studies are warranted to determine if more frequent distractions or longer distractions would change results.

Evaluation of Noise Pollution Levels in Hospitals and its Effects on Staff Health in AL - Najaf City in Iraq

The aim of the study was to determine levels and sources of noise pollution in the hospitals and its effects on staff health in AL - Najaf city in Iraq. The study included measure sound levels in all wards in three hospitals (Al-sadr teaching hospital, Al-hakeem general hospital and Al-zahraa’ teaching hospital) using a digital sound level meter. The present work also examined distribution of symptoms caused by noise in employees of three hospitals and main sources of noise in hospitals by using prepared questionnaire through direct interview in the workplace. The results showed that the average measured A-weighted equivalent continuous level (LAeq) in all hospitals and in different shifts was more than recommended level (20 – 35 dB) of World Health Organization (WHO).The study revealed that the main sources of noise in inside the wards rooms of hospitals Al-Sadr Teaching Hospital, Al-Hakeem General Hospital and Al-Zahraa’ Teaching hospital were “staff conversation” (91%); “maneuver-patient treatment” (83%); “doors opening or closing” (77.5%); “mobile phone ringing and conversation” (76.5%).Moreover, it was observed that (32%) of respondents were headache by noise in hospitals . Moreover, the type of noise health effects that most complained among employees were vocal fatigue (31%), dizziness (30.5%), and feeling sick at the end of the workday (28.5%). This study concluded that the noise level in three hospitals was higher than the WHO rating; therefore, this problem causes raising the noise annoyance on of hospital staff.

Smart mobile phone usage pattern by students of professional colleges and it’s dependence: A comparative profile

Background: Mobile phones have become an indispensable part of modern human life. With the ever-increasing utilization of smart phones, several psychological &amp; behavioural problems have emerged. Excessive use of smart phones has also led to poor academic performance among students. Keeping all these points in mind, a study was conducted in professional colleges to obtain base line data. Objectives: To assess the usage pattern of smart mobile phone among students of professional colleges and to evaluate the mobile phone dependence in students of professional colleges.&#x0D; Materials and methods: In Visakhapatnam, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 Medical &amp; 100 Engineering students selected by random sampling technique. Data were collected using a pre-designed&amp; pre-tested questionnaire from October 2018 to November 2018. SAS-SV Scale was used to assess the mobile phone dependence. Collation of data was done using inferential statistical methods.&#x0D; Results: The study population of Medical group consisted of 32% males &amp; 68% females; of these 45% were Day scholars &amp; 55% were residents of hostels. The study population of Engineering group consisted of 63% males&amp; 37% females; of these 76% were Day scholars &amp; 24% were residents of hostels. The majority of students in both the professional groups were of the age group of 19 years. While assessing mobile phone usage pattern, it was found that age of initiation of mobile phone use was above15 years in 88.5 % in both the groups. 75%. of students in both the groups were using mobile phone between 1-6 hours a day. 45% of students were using mobile phone at home while 55%were using while on move. While 32% students had Addiction scale more than SAS-SV: cut off 31; factors like daily life Disturbance, withdrawal, cyber space-orientation relationship, overuse etc. 33% students were in the range of being at risk group (SAS-SV: 20 to 30). Out of 19 % Medical &amp; 32% Engineering students who attended calls while driving, 26% &amp; 25% continued conversation while still driving in both the groups respectively.131students often woke up from their sleep to check whether they had a Notification or a Missed call or SMS (P=&lt;0.01). False perception of mobile phone ringing was present among 12% of Medical and 14% of engineering students.&#x0D; Conclusion: The study showed an increased dependence of mobile phone use among Medical &amp; Engineering students, which imparts a negative effect on physical and mental health &amp; also poor academic performance.

Phantom Phone Signals in youths: Prevalence, correlates and relation to psychopathology.

The term Phantom Phone Signals (PPS) refers to the perception of a mobile phone ringing, vibrating and blinking when in fact it did not. Data in youth are lacking, and controversies exist on whether PPS is related to psychopathology. In the present study, we showed data on the prevalence of PPS in a population (N = 2959) of students aged 10 to 14 years. We also explored the possible association between PPS and emotional or behavioural problems. Our results showed that PPS is a relatively common phenomenon with a prevalence rate of 58.9%, being more frequent in females. In univariate and multivariate analyses, we also found an association between the presence of PPS and emotional problems and temper tantrums, after accounting for relevant covariates. PPS is a relevant phenomenon to be considered in youth. It is common and may be a signal for emotional problems.

Real-Time Detection of Important Sounds with a Wearable Vibration Based Device for Hearing-Impaired People

Hearing-impaired people do not hear indoor and outdoor environment sounds, which are important for them both at home and outside. By means of a wearable device that we have developed, a hearing-impaired person will be informed of important sounds through vibrations, thereby understanding what kind of sound it is. Our system, which operates in real time, can achieve a success rate of 98% when estimating a door bell ringing sound, 99% success identifying an alarm sound, 99% success identifying a phone ringing, 91% success identifying honking, 93% success identifying brake sounds, 96% success identifying dog sounds, 97% success identifying human voice, and 96% success identifying other sounds using the audio fingerprint method. Audio fingerprint is a brief summary of an audio file, perceptively summarizing a piece of audio content. In this study, our wearable device is tested 100 times a day for 100 days on five deaf persons and 50 persons with normal hearing whose ears were covered by earphones that provided wind sounds. This study aims to improve the quality of life of deaf persons, and provide them a more prosperous life. In the questionnaire performed, deaf people rate the clarity of the system at 90%, usefulness at 97%, and the likelihood of using this device again at 100%.

Climate Change and Victorian Studies: Introduction

Climate Change and Victorian Studies: Introduction Elizabeth Carolyn Miller (bio) Frances Ferguson has memorably described “the sharp, sudden consciousness” of climate change as one that “comes upon us like the ominous tones of an intruder bent on murder when the babysitter picks up the telephone receiver in a horror film: ‘I’m in the house’” (33). There is no refuge from this stranger within, nor from the feelings of panic his phone call incites. As I write these words, in the summer of 2018, the phone is ringing off the hook: above the Arctic Circle, record highs of 33°C/92°F were measured in Finland; a new record was set in Oman when the temperature did not drop below 42°C/108°F for twenty-four hours.1 Closer to home, outside my window, California is on fire. Extreme heat and dryness brought an early, vicious start to fire season, and in the Carr Fire near Redding, more than a thousand homes have burned down and seven people have died.2 The sky outside my office is thick and gray, and the air quality is poor—a reminder of these nearby conflagrations and the fiery future they portend. Our climate is changing, but must Victorian studies change too? The real question is, how could it not? For scholarship depends on scholars, and no matter how hard we try to inhabit a detached critical perspective, none of us are writing from Mars. Heatwaves, smoky skies, an incessant phone ringing in the background: these are the conditions in which we work. Sometimes these conditions take on an aspect of cosmic irony; in September 2017, members of the Vcologies working group met at the University of Houston to exchange work-in-progress on Victorian ecologies and ecological thought, and as it turned out, our meeting would take place in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a record-breaking storm that drew its strength from record-high ocean temperatures. Institutional and economic advantages mean, of course, that [End Page 537] many academics have been relatively well protected from the ravages of climate change so far—my office window keeps the smoke outside, the University of Houston did not flood—but five miles north of the university, in a historically Black neighborhood with a high flood risk, house after house was turned inside out: the sodden, wrecked contents of homes were piled in the street, pianos next to baby dolls next to lampshades (fig. 1). Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. Kashmere Gardens, Houston, September 16, 2017. Photograph by Nathan K. Hensley. If these circumstances dictate—and I think they do—that climate change must move into every field of academic debate and every part of the university curriculum, it is equally the case that unique aspects of nineteenth-century Britain and its Empire make our field particularly connected to the topic of climate change. For one thing, the geographies of climate change, including urban flood plain maps, bear a historical relation to European and American imperialism, and in a devastating turn of imperial modernity’s screw, the impacts of climate change are now being borne disproportionately by those least responsible for them and least able to weather them. Thus Upamanyu Pablo Mukherjee begins Natural Disasters and Victorian Empire with a discussion of Hurricane Katrina, arguing that ideas about natural disaster today “grew out, in important ways, of the British imperial experience in nineteenth-century Southeast Asia” (2). Similarly, while it would be too simplistic to say [End Page 538] that Victorian England is answerable for the climate crisis, it would also be an error to discount its unique historical role in cultivating the fossil fuel economy and the resulting surge in greenhouse gas emissions.3 The “workshop of the world,” as Benjamin Disraeli famously referred to industrial England, relied on coal combustion to accelerate production and speed transportation, forever transforming the scope of consumption habits, global trade, and imperial market-making (Disraeli n. p.). Just as the climate has changed, then, our understanding of the past must transform along with it, and indeed, conventional notions of past, present, and future are troubled in any account of anthropogenic climate change...

Effect of masking noise on cognitive performance and annoyance in open plan offices

Even for low noise levels, employees working in open-plan offices declare they are disturbed by different sound sources and especially by intelligible speech. This paper presents two experiments that aim at studying the effects of sound sources on task performance and cognitive load. In the first experiment, thirty-five individuals were assigned a serial memory task in four noise conditions: printers, intelligible speech, non-intelligible speech and phone rings. Noise annoyance was assessed by measuring task performance and cognitive workload (NASA-TLX). Although there was no significant difference between intelligible speech, unintelligible speech and phone ring tone signals in terms of annoyance, the performance in a memory task decreased in the presence of intelligible speech. In the second experiment, the relevance of a new intelligibility index was evaluated. This index was derived from eSII as defined by Rhebergen et al. (2006) to deal with fluctuating noise as speech babble. Fifty-five subjects performed a serial memory task in four STIt (time varying Speech Transmission Index calculated for every 12.5ms in dynamic environment) conditions (from 0.38 to 0.69) while STI values were kept constant (around 0.36). No significant difference appeared between the decreases in performance observed with multiple levels of intelligibility. However, a significant difference between two groups of individuals appeared in performance measurements. The group of better performers seemed to be less affected by the high level of intelligibility condition than the other ones.

High Ringxiety: Attachment Anxiety Predicts Experiences of Phantom Cell Phone Ringing.

Mobile cell phone users have reported experiencing ringing and/or vibrations associated with incoming calls and messages, only to find that no call or message had actually registered. We believe this phenomenon can be understood as a human signal detection issue, with potentially important influences from psychological attributes. We hypothesized that individuals higher in attachment anxiety would report more frequent phantom cell phone experiences, whereas individuals higher in attachment avoidance would report less frequent experiences. If these experiences are primarily psychologically related to attributes of interpersonal relationships, associations with attachment style should be stronger than for general sensation seeking. We also predicted that certain contexts would interact with attachment style to increase or decrease the likelihood of experiencing phantom cell phone calls and messages. Attachment anxiety directly predicted the frequency of phantom ringing and notification experiences, whereas attachment avoidance and sensation seeking did not directly predict frequency. Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance interacted with contextual factors (expectations for a call or message and concerned about an issue that one may be contacted about) in the expected directions for predicting phantom cell phone experiences.

Determination of Noise Level and Its Sources in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Neonatal Ward

Background: In Neonatal intensive care units (NICU) different sound intensities and frequencies are produced from different sources, which may exert undesirable physiological effects on the infants. The aim of this study was to determine the noise level and its sources in the NICU and neonatal ward of Al-Zahra Hospital of Rasht, Iran. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the intensity of the sounds generated by the internal and external sources in the NICU and neonatal ward was measured using a sound level meter device. The sound produced by each of the sources was individually calculated. Data were analyzed performing descriptive and analytical statistics, using SPSS version 19. Results: The mean noise levels in six rooms and a hallway during morning, afternoon and night shifts with the electromechanical devices turned on were 61.67±4.5, 61.32±4.32 and 60.71±4.56 dB, respectively. Moreover, with the devices tuned off the mean noise levels during morning, afternoon and evening shifts were 64.97±2.6, 60.6±1.29 and 57.91±4.73 dB, respectively. The differences between the mean noise levels in the neonatal wards (standard noise level=45 dB) during each shift with the electromechanical devices turned on and off were statistically significant (P=0.002 and P<0.05, respectively). Phone ring tones in a one meter distance and neonatal crying registered the highest values (85 and 81 dB, respectively). Conclusion: According to the obtained results, the highest noise levels were generated by the electromechanical devices inside the NICU and neonatal ward, and there were no significant differences in the noise level with the devices turned on and off. Moreover, personnel’s noise-generating behaviors were the main sources of noise. Therefore, it seems that providing educational preparation for the staff can diminish the ambient noise level.

A low-complex multi-channel methodology for noise detection in phonocardiogram signals.

The phonocardiography (PCG) is an important technique for the diagnosis of several heart conditions. However, the PCG signal is highly prone to noise, which can be an obstacle for the detection and interpretation of physiological heart sounds. Thus, the detection and elimination of noise present in PCG signals is crucial for the accurate analysis of heart sounds, especially in p-health environments. Noise can be introduced by various internal factors (e.g., respiration and laughing) and by external conditions (e.g., phone ringing or door closing). To mention also that the noise frequency components are typically overlapped with the PCG spectrum, increasing the complexity of the analysis. The purpose of the present work consists in the detection of noisy periods willfully introduced during the performance of three different sets of tasks. The developed method returns the classification of the signal content, in a window-by-window analysis and can be divided in two distinct phases. The first step consists in the search for a noise free window using a feature obtained from the PCG time-domain. In the second step, the noise free window is compared with the remaining signal. The classification between clean and contaminated PCG is performed using two features from the frequency domain. The algorithm was able to discriminate clean from contamined PCG sections with an average sensitivity and specificity of 95.59% and 92.68%, respectively.

Remediations of Congolese urban dance music in Kinshasa

Abstract Following the continuing popularity of Congolese rumba music in the 1950s–1970s, I explore the technological spaces in which old songs appear more than 50 years later, and study the agency of those who initiate and actively contribute to the reinsertions of the old music in and on new media formats. By redefining the ‘repurposing’ of the remediations as strategies steered by human intentionality and occurring within social spaces, I investigate the kind of knowledge that an anthropological focus on remediation, repetition and circulation through electronic and digital media can offer about Kinshasa’s society at large. I propose to analyse the various purposes that direct Kinois (the inhabitants of Kinshasa), individual persons, media professionals and international corporations, to copy and insert old (and new) Congolese dance music into a particular media format, such as TV shows, USB sticks or mobile phone ring tones.