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In this study we conducted a spatial and temporal environmental noise assessment of an urban downtown, and a residential island community in Portland, Maine to analyze the differences between the winter tourism off-season and the summer tourism on-season. We collected 320 5-min samples of 1-s data, repeated equally across 40 measurement sites, during daytime and nighttime, weekdays, and weekends, and during the off-season and on-season. Changes in transportation use, and population density are known to influence sound levels, but few studies have looked at how fluctuations in seasonal tourism can influence the soundscape. We mapped the acoustical environment at each time interval and use linear mixed-effects models to estimate the differences in sound levels due to tourism. Overall, summer tourism was significantly associated with higher A-weighted sound levels on Peaks Island, Maine. In Downtown Portland, Maine there is evidence of increased sound levels concentrated in the busy Old Port area, but no significant changes throughout the rest of the study area, suggesting that the acoustical environment of Downtown Portland is dominated by transportation noise, that does not change by season. These results emphasize the importance of smart tourism practices, especially in quieter residential areas with a large draw for seasonal tourism. • Summer tourism significantly changed the soundscape of a seasonal tourist attraction. • In contrast, there was no overall difference in seasonal sound levels of a busy city downtown area. • Significant annual noise patterns may negatively influence perception of environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multiclonal methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) outbreak with 91 infections occurred in our Veterans Affairs (VA) community living center over 46 months. Both similar and unique strains were shown by repetitive polymerase chain reaction to contribute to the outbreak, including 1 strain causing infections over a 33-month period. Most infections were soft tissue infections (67%). For 21 months after the initiation of the VA MRSA bundle, no infections were identified, and low rates of infection have been sustained an additional 4 years. The average annual rate of MRSA infection decreased by 62% ( P  < .001) from 0.6 per 1,000 resident days for 4 years prior to the bundle implementation to 0.09 per 1,000 resident days for 4 years after the bundle implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban noise is an increasingly important public health concern, but few studies have characterized drivers of community loudness perception rather than objective measures of sound, which may be an important element of the associated health effects. In this study, we used survey responses from the 2015–2016 Greater Boston Neighborhood Noise Survey (n = 898) to determine the key geospatial determinants of community loudness perception at both the street and neighborhood level. We gathered numerous land use and sociodemographic covariates and used an elastic net selection approach to determine the subset to include in final prediction models. Individual noise sensitivity and proximity to bus stops (<150 m) was associated with perceived loudness at the street and neighborhood level. In addition, at the street level, the restaurant and transportation infrastructure within close proximity (<200 m) of the residence were predictive of perceived loudness. At the neighborhood level, there was a larger and more complex set of predictors in the final prediction model, including multiple commercial/business sources at larger distances (500–1000 m buffers) from the residence. In general, these predictors overlapped with those in existing models predicting objective sound across multiple frequencies (A-weighted sound. low-frequency sound, mid-frequency sound, and high frequency sound), especially for transportation sources, although some predictors of noise perception differed from those for sound measurements. These results emphasize the importance of characterizing both perceived noise and objective sound, with the combined insights helping to develop soundscape maps and determine which urban areas require intervention to improve community public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]