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BACKGROUND Noise exposures are associated with a host of adverse health effects, yet these exposures remain inadequately characterized in many industrial operations, including paper mills. We assessed noise at four paper mills using three measures: (i) personal noise dosimetry, (ii) area noise measurements, and (iii) questionnaire items addressing several different aspects of perceived noise exposure. METHODS We assessed exposures to noise characterized using the three measures and compared the relationships between them. We also estimated the validity of each of the three measures using a novel application of the Method of Triads, which does not appear to have been used previously in the occupational health literature. RESULTS We collected 209 valid dosimetry measurements and collected perceived noise exposure survey items from 170 workers, along with 100 area measurements. We identified exposures in excess of 85 dBA at all mills. The dosimetry and area noise measurements assigned to individual subjects generally showed good agreement, but for some operations within mill, large differences between the two measures were observed, and a substantial fraction of paired measures differed by >5 dB. Perceived noise exposures varied greatly between the mills, particularly for an item related to difficulty speaking in noise. One perceived noise exposure item related to difficulty hearing due to noise showed strong and significant correlations with both dosimetry and area measurements. The Method of Triads analysis showed that dosimetry measures had the highest estimated validity coefficient (0.70), and that the best performing perceived exposure measure had validity that exceeded that of area measurements (0.48 versus 0.40, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Workers in Swedish pulp mills have the potential for exposures to high levels of noise. Our results suggest that, while dosimetry remains the preferred approach to exposure assessment, perceived noise exposures can be used to evaluate potential exposures to noise in epidemiological studies.

Bu çalışmada, gürültünün insan sağlığı üzerinde oluşturduğu olumsuz etkilerin en aza indirilmesi amacıyla halen kullanılan gürültü izolasyon malzemelerine alternatif olabilecek yeni bir izolasyon malzemesinin oluşturulması amaçlanmıştır. Çalışma gerçekleştirilirken, gündelik yaşantımızda yoğun kullanımlar sonucu oluşan atık niteliği kazanmış kağıtların çevre ve insan sağlığına zararının en aza indirilmesi ve ekonomiye katkı sağlaması esasları dikkate alınmıştır. Bu amaçla, strafor (EPS), atık kâğıt ve pomza taşı tozu kullanılarak altı farklı modifikasyonda izolasyon panelleri üretilmiştir. Üretilen bu panellerde ses geçiş kaybı analizleri 100 – 2.000 Hz frekans aralığında gerçekleştirilmiştir. Sonuç olarak üretilen panel ile 1.000 Hz. frekansta 15,8 desibel gürültü azaltımı sağlanmıştır. Böylece ülkemizde yılda 2 milyon tondan fazla çıkan ancak sadece %50'sini geri dönüştürebildiğimiz atık kâğıdın, izolasyon panelleri için ham madde olarak kullanılabilir olduğu belirlenmiştir. In this study, it was aimed to produce a new isolation material which could be an alternative to the currently used noise isolation materials in order to minimize the negative effects of noise on human health. For this purpose, six different modified insulation panels were produced using styrofoam (EPS), waste paper and pumice powder. In these panels produced, the sound transmission loss analyses were carried out at a frequency range of 100 – 2.000 Hz. As a result, it was determined that the material has the isolation ability up to 15,8 decibels at 1.000 Hz frequency. Thus, it is understood that the waste paper which can be recycked by only 50% of our country, which is more than 2 million tons per year, can be used as raw material for the insulation panels.

Noise optimization for FET low noise amplifiers (LNAs) are demonstrated through insights gained from analytical formulations derived using noise transformation matrix. The invited paper reviews the status of analytical noise optimization of FET LNAs including single-/dual-band FET LNAs with the lossless/lossy input match networks and broadband FET LNAs with the lossless input networks.

Noise is one of the problems that often occur in urban areas due to the traffic condition. Noise in a building design depends on the choice of materials as sound absorbers. The type of sound dampening material that already exists is a porous material, a resonator, and a panel. The material often used as an absorber is porous materials, because it is relatively cheaper and lighter, especially to reduce the noise in the narrow spaces such as housing and offices. Various substitutes are made from cheap materials, such as the use of recycled materials of egg tray paper with the size of 40 x 40 centimeters. This is a quantitative research that will measure the place of egg tray paper in reducing noise, using a Sound Level Meter. The use of the egg tray paper is able to show an adequate acoustic quality as noise absorbers, with the average value of NR 22-26 dB.

This paper presents an analysis of the sensitivity function and complementary sensitivity function for stock consistency process models using Particle Swarm Optimization-(PSO) based conventional Proportional-Integral (PI) and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers. The analysis of these functions is required to test the effect of disturbances, noise, and variation in process dynamics on the process output, i.e., to check the robustness of the controllers. The PI controller has been designed using a fuzzy login-based PSO algorithm. The objective is to determine the optimal controller tuning parameters using a proposed algorithm such that the effect of process variations and disturbances is minimum on the process output. The peak values of sensitivity and complementary sensitivity functions have been obtained through MATLAB along with the closed-loop bandwidth of the proposed control system. Also, the time taken by proposed controllers to suppress the effect of disturbance and noise has also been evaluated. The comparison has been done between PSO–PI and PID controllers on the basis of the above-mentioned criterion. From the comparative analysis, it has been observed that the PSO–PI controller exhibits better robustness as compared to the PSO–PID controller.

There is growing interest in the concepts of listening effort and fatigue associated with hearing loss. However, the theoretical underpinnings and clinical meaning of these concepts are unclear. This lack of clarity reflects both the relative immaturity of the field and the fact that research studies investigating listening effort and fatigue have used a variety of methodologies including self-report, behavioural, and physiological measures.This discussion paper provides working definitions for listening effort and listening-related fatigue. Using these definitions as a framework, methodologies to assess these constructs are reviewed.Although each technique attempts to characterize the same construct (i.e. the clinical presentation of listening effort and fatigue), different assumptions are often made about the nature of these phenomena and their behavioural and physiological manifestations.We suggest that researchers consider these assumptions when interpreting their data and, where possible, make predictions based on current theoretical knowledge to add to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of listening effort and listening-related fatigue.Following recent interest in the cognitive involvement in hearing, the British Society of Audiology (BSA) established a Special Interest Group on Cognition in Hearing in May 2013. In an exploratory group meeting, the ambiguity surrounding listening effort and fatigue was discussed. To address this problem, the group decided to develop a 'white paper' on listening effort and fatigue. This is a discussion document followed by an international set of commentaries from leading researchers in the field. An approach was made to the editor of the International Journal of Audiology who agreed to this suggestion. This paper, and the associated commentaries that follow, are the result.

Background: While hearing aids for a contralateral routing of signals (CROS-HA) and bone conduction devices have been the traditional treatment for single-sided deafness (SSD) and asymmetric hearing loss (AHL), in recent years, cochlear implants (CIs) have increasingly become a viable treatment choice, particularly in countries where regulatory approval and reimbursement schemes are in place. Part of the reason for this shift is that the CI is the only device capable of restoring bilateral input to the auditory system and hence of possibly reinstating binaural hearing. Although several studies have independently shown that the CI is a safe and effective treatment for SSD and AHL, clinical outcome measures in those studies and across CI centers vary greatly. Only with a consistent use of defined and agreed-upon outcome measures across centers can high-level evidence be generated to assess the safety and efficacy of CIs and alternative treatments in recipients with SSD and AHL. Methods: This paper presents a comparative study design and minimum outcome measures for the assessment of current treatment options in patients with SSD/AHL. The protocol was developed, discussed, and eventually agreed upon by expert panels that convened at the 2015 APSCI conference in Beijing, China, and at the CI 2016 conference in Toronto, Canada. Results: A longitudinal study design comparing CROS-HA, BCD, and CI treatments is proposed. The recommended outcome measures include (1) speech in noise testing, using the same set of 3 spatial configurations to compare binaural benefits such as summation, squelch, and head shadow across devices; (2) localization testing, using stimuli that rove in both level and spectral content; (3) questionnaires to collect quality of life measures and the frequency of device use; and (4) questionnaires for assessing the impact of tinnitus before and after treatment, if applicable. Conclusion: A protocol for the assessment of treatment options and outcomes in recipients with SSD and AHL is presented. The proposed set of minimum outcome measures aims at harmonizing assessment methods across centers and thus at generating a growing body of high-level evidence for those treatment options.

This paper gives a review on the various modulation techniques that have been used to eliminate lower-order harmonics in multilevel inverters. The output voltage with high quality can be achieved using multilevel inverters. The selection is based on switching losses, power losses, noise, etc. Many authors proposed different modulation techniques such as sine triangular, selective harmonic selection (SHE), model predictive control techniques, space-vector-based modulation techniques. This paper presents a detailed review of existing harmonic elimination methods as well as concludes with the best method.

Superposition and entanglement, the quintessential characteristics of quantum physics, have been shown to provide communication, computation, and sensing capabilities that go beyond what classical physics will permit. It is natural, therefore, to explore their application to radar, despite the fact that decoherence—caused by the loss and noise encountered in radar sensing—destroys these fragile quantum properties. This paper tells the story of “quantum illumination”, an entanglement-based approach to quantum radar, from its inception to its current understanding. Remarkably, despite loss and noise that destroys its initial entanglement, quantum illumination does offer a target-detection performance improvement over a classical radar of the same transmitted energy. A realistic assessment of that improvement’s utility, however, shows that its value is severely limited. Nevertheless, the fact that entanglement can be of value on an entanglement-breaking channel—the meta-lesson of the quantum illumination story—should spur continued research on quantum radar.

Damage detection and localization in civil engineering constructions using dynamic analysis has become an important topic in recent years. This paper presents a methodology based on non-destructive detection, localization and quantification of multiple damages in simple and continuous beams, and a more complex structure, namely two-dimensional frame structure. The proposed methodology makes used of Firefly Algorithm and Genetic Algorithm as optimization tools and the Coordinate Modal Assurance Criterion as an objective function. The results show that the proposed combination of Coordinate Modal Assurance Criterion and Firefly Algorithm or Genetic Algorithm can be easily used to identify multiple local structural damages in complex structures. However, the convergence rate becomes slower for the case of multiple damages compared to the case of single damage. The effect of noise on the algorithm is further investigated. It is found that the proposed technique is able to detect the damage location and its severity with high accuracy in the presence of noise, although the convergence rate became slower than in the case when no noise is present. It is also found that the convergence rate of Firefly Algorithm is much faster than that of Genetic Algorithm.

International audience; We present a phenomenological model for the real-time simulation of paper tearing and sound. The model uses as input rotations of the hand along with the index and thumb of left and right hands to drive the position and orientation of two regions of a sheet of paper. The motion of the hands produces a cone shaped deformation of the paper and guides the formation and growth of the tear. We create a model for the direction of the tear based on empirical observation, and add detail to the tear with a directed noise model. Furthermore, we present a procedural sound synthesis method to produce tearing sounds during interaction. We show a variety of paper tearing examples and discuss applications and limitations.

Application of image frequency filtering to elimination of the noise in scanned photographs caused by the embossing of the photographic paper is considered.

As the number of cores grow in HPC systems, so does the effect of system noise on applications running on these systems. With the knowledge that future large-scale parallel computer systems, including exascale systems, will operate under an overall power bound, we claim to have found a solution that can counter the effects of noise. We present two methods that estimate the effects of noise on an application and then optimally redistributes power among nodes, such that the effects of noise are "hidden".

The difference between conventional replicator dynamics and pairwise (PW) nonlinear Fermi dynamics can be discerned by studying the evolutionary dynamics of the interactions between the symmetric cyclic structure in the rock–paper–scissors game and inter- and intraspecific competitions. Often, conventional replicator models presume that the payoff difference among species is a linear function (a linear benefit). This study introduces a PW contrast under the properties of the well-known Fermi rule, where species play against one another in pairs. To model a PW nonlinear evolutionary environment (a nonlinear benefit) within this framework, both analytical and numerical approaches are applied. It is determined that the dynamics of the linear and nonlinear benefits can present the same stability conditions at equilibrium. Moreover, it is also demonstrated that, even in an identical equilibrium condition for both dynamics, the numerical result run by a deterministic approach presents a faster stability state for nonlinear benefit dynamics. This study also suggests that introducing mutation as demographic noise can effectively disrupt the phase regions and show the different relationships between linear and nonlinear dynamics. The symmetric bidirectional mutation among all the species reduced to the stable limit cycle by an arbitrary small mutation rate is also explored. Due to the environmental noise, however, linear and nonlinear exhibit the same steady state. Nevertheless, non-linearity illustrates more stable and faster stability situations. Our result suggests that environmental and demographic noise on the evolutionary dynamic framework can serve as a mechanism for supporting PW nonlinear dynamics in multi-species games.