This paper develops ideas on moving “soundscapes” into the mainstream of activity of environmental noise. Such a move has value in introducing a new dimension aimed at catching political attention and the engagement of other professions in acoustic management of outdoor environments. “Quiet Areas” the EU Directive on Environmental Noise requires “preserving environmental noise quality where it ...

This paper provides estimates for ambient noise levels that may be generated by future unmanned air traffic in low-altitude uncontrolled urban airspace. It is motivated by the need to assess the aural impact on communities from such large-scale close proximity unmanned aircraft operations. We simulate unmanned traffic over urban areas and estimate the noise footprint generated over a day. We co...

Long-term-average spectrum (LTAS) is an efficient method for voice analysis, revealing both voice source and formant characteristics. However, the LTAS contour is non-uniformly affected by vocal loudness. This variation was analyzed in 15 male and 16 female untrained voices reading a text 7 times at different degrees of vocal loudness, mean change in overall equivalent sound level (Leq) amounti...

One of the most important sources of noise pollution in urban areas is traffic noise. The aim of the present study was to determine noise pollution in the different parts of Yazd city in 2010 and to compare them with current standard levels. In total, 135 samples were obtained from both residential and commercial areas according to the ISO 1996-2002 method in order to measure noise pressure lev...

Sound exposures of Canadian Opera Company orchestra players were measured to assess the risk of hearing loss of players in orchestra pits. This was done during 18 sessions that included rehearsals, dress rehearsals and actual performances of two operas. Seventy-three noise exposures of musicians were measured using five dosimeters for the entire duration (3 h) of each event. The measured estima...

BACKGROUND The objective of the research work is to assess day time traffic noise level at curbside open-air microenvironment of Kolkata city, India under heterogeneous environmental conditions. RESULTS Prevailing traffic noise level in terms of A-weighted equivalent noise level (Leq) at the microenvironment was in excess of 12.6 ± 2.1 dB(A) from the day time standard of 65 dB(A) for commerci...

This study compared the effects of Voice Massage (VM) and a voice hygiene lecture (VHL) on 60 female teachers. VM is a Finnish massage method which treats muscles related to voice production. All subjects attended the VHL (3 h). Half of them were randomly assigned to the VM group, the other half received only VHL. VM was given 5 times in 1-hour sessions at intervals of 1-2 weeks. At the beginni...