scholarly journals Reducing Indoor Noise Levels Using People’s Perception on Greenery

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 19-27
Author(s):  
Christina E. Mediastika ◽  
Floriberta Binarti
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Indoor Environment ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
People’S Perception ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Insignificant Difference ◽  
Lower Noise

Abstract Employees working in cubicles of open-plan offices in Indonesia were studied in regard to their perception on the ability of indoor greenery to reduce noise levels. Sansevieria trifasciata and Scindapsus sp were used. Each was placed in the cubicle and noise levels were measured without plants, with Sansevieria, and with Scindapsus in place. The meters showed very insignificant difference. However, responses to surveys indicated a perception of lower noise in the presence of greenery. This seemed to be supported by prior knowledge and preconception and may be useful in creating a “quieter” indoor environment.

A Report on The Acoustic Conditions of IEQ Laboratory Using ISO 3382-3

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Jason Obadiah
Keyword(s):  
Indoor Environment ◽  
Environment Quality ◽  
Indoor Environment Quality ◽  
The Future ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Acoustic Conditions

Recently, many facilities have completed new laboratories that may be used to assess various measures of Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) in office spaces. Also recently, a new standard, ISO 3382-3, was released for assessing the effects of speech on IEQ in open plan offices. The aim of this report is to assess one room of the IEQ lab using the ISO 3382-3 standard. It is expected that the data gained will be of help to researchers using the facility in the future. Keywords: ISO 3382-3, Indoor Environment Quality, Acoustics

Open Plan Office Design Features Affecting Staff’s Health and Well-being Status

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arezou Shafaghat ◽  
Ali Keyvanfar ◽  
Hasanuddin Lamit ◽  
Seyed Ali Mousavi ◽  
Mohd Zaimi Abd Majid
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
Indoor Environment ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Environment Design ◽  
Effect Analysis ◽  
Office Design ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Cause And Effect Analysis ◽  
Physical And Psychological Health ◽  
Health And Well Being

Sustainable office building indoor environment design is a challengeable issue for professionals in thermal comfort, satisfaction, health, and energy fields of research. The professionals intensively need a comprehensive list of office indoor environment design features to promote the level of performance and productivity of staff. One of the most effective factors dealing with staff performance and productivity is physical and psychological health which has not yet been investigated in depth is open-plan office design. In this regard, the current research aimed at establishing a comprehensive list of Open Plan Offices Design (OPOD) features affecting physical and psychological health and well-being of the staff at office buildings. Research methodology engaged two phases corresponding to two objectives. Phase one was to investigate OPOD features and sub-features through a critical literature review using fishbone cause-and-effect analysis technique. Phase one has clustered the OPOD features into two; positive and negative classes. The cause-and-effect analysis determined 3 positive features and 5 negative features involved in the positive and negative classes, respectively. The Efficient Workflow and Performance, Flexible Design, and Cost Efficient were identified as positive OPOD features which involves a number of sub-features. The Distraction, Decreasing Work Feedback, Job Dissatisfaction, Illness, and stress have been determined as OPOD features which impact negatively on staff’s health. The second phase conducted a content analysis on reviewed literatures to indicate the popularity of citation of each OPOD feature in previous studies. The content analysis determined in the Positive cluster, the sub-feature “Facilitate Communication”, under Efficient Workflow & Performance was investigated more than other sub-features. In addition, in the Negative cluster, the sub-feature Auditory Distraction under Distraction was highly investigated. The research asserts that undertaking the research outputs will promote performance and productivity of staff in office buildings. Architects, facility managers, design consultants, and authority may use the output as a decision support checklist for future office design and/or renovations.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Sound Levels in Open Plan Versus Pods in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 30-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlie Ramm ◽  
Trudi Mannix ◽  
Yvonne Parry ◽  
Mary P. (Caroline) Gaffney
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Sound Levels ◽  
Open Plan ◽  
Average Noise Level

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the noise levels recorded in two different neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) settings: a pod and an open plan NICU located in the same hospital. Background: The NICU is a busy environment with ambient noise levels that often exceed established recommendations. This noise deleteriously affects the physiological stability and developmental outcomes of sick and preterm infants. Pods have reduced numbers of cots (in this case, 6) compared to open plan NICUs (in this case, 11), yet the noise levels in pods have not been reported. Method: This study compared real-time decibel (dB) levels in an A-weighted scale, captured continuously by sound dosimeters mounted in both NICU settings for a period of 4 weeks: a pod setting and an open plan NICU. Researchers also collected observational data. Results: The average noise level recorded in the pod was 3 dBs less than in the open plan NICU. This result was statistically significant. However, dB recordings in both areas were over the recommended limits by 4–6 dBs, with isolated peaks between 74.5 dBs (NICU) and 75.9 dBs (pod). Observational data confirmed this correlation. Conclusions: Further research to evaluate interventions to decrease the noise levels in both settings are needed, especially during times of peak activity. Staff working in these settings need to be more aware that control of acoustic levels is important in the neuroprotection of neonates. Coupling this with careful consideration to structural components and evidence-based design planning may contribute to lowering dB levels in the NICU environment.

Classroom Noise and Teachers' Voice Production

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 1397-1406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leena M. Rantala ◽  
Suvi Hakala ◽  
Sofia Holmqvist ◽  
Eeva Sala
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Ambient Noise ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Working Environments ◽  
Objective Metrics ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Working Day ◽  
Sound Spectrum ◽  
Voice Use ◽  
Lower Noise

Purpose The aim of this study was to research the associations between noise (ambient and activity noise) and objective metrics of teachers' voices in real working environments (i.e., classrooms). Method Thirty-two female and 8 male teachers from 14 elementary schools were randomly selected for the study. Ambient noise was measured during breaks in unoccupied classrooms and, likewise, the noise caused by pupils' activity during lessons. Voice samples were recorded before and after a working day. Voice variables measured were sound pressure level (voice SPL), fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, and the tilt of the sound spectrum slope (alpha ratio). Results The ambient noise correlated most often with the fundamental frequency of men and voice SPL, whereas activity noise correlated with the alpha ratio and perturbation values. Teachers working in louder ambient noise spoke more loudly before work than those working in lower noise levels. Voice variables generally changed less during work among teachers working in loud activity noise than among those working in lower noise levels. Conclusions Ambient and activity noises affect teachers' voice use. Under loud ambient noise teachers seem to speak habitually loudly, and under loud activity noise teachers' ability to react to loading deteriorates.

scholarly journals An Efficient Image Denoising Scheme for Higher Noise Levels Using Spatial Domain Filters

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 625-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anchal Anchal ◽  
Sumit Budhiraja ◽  
Bhawna Goyal ◽  
Ayush Dogra ◽  
Sunil Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
Image Denoising ◽  
Analog Circuits ◽  
Anisotropic Diffusion ◽  
Additive White Gaussian Noise ◽  
Bilateral Filter ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Edge Information ◽  
Diffusion Filtering ◽  
Lower Noise

Image denoising is one of the fundamental image processing problem. Images are corrupted with additive white Gaussian noise during image acquisition and transmission over analog circuits. In medical images the prevalence of noise can be perceived as tumours or artefacts and can lead to first diagnosis. Similarly in satellite images the visibility of images is significantly degraded due to noise, hence the image denoising is of vital importance. There are many denoising mechanisms given in literature are able to work well on lower noise levels but their performance degrades with increasing noise levels. If higher amount of filtering is applied it leads to degradation or removal of edges from the image and hence significant information. In this paper, we proposed an algorithm in which we are able to address the problem of image denoising at higher noise levels while preserving the edge information. The standard bilateral filter does not provides good results at higher noise levels. Hence we proposed to combine robust bilateral filtering with anisotropic diffusion filtering as the anisotropic diffusion perform the smoothing of homogenous regions without blurring the edges. Experimental results show that the proposed method works better for higher Nosie levels in terms of PSNR values and Visual quality.

scholarly journals Photometric Properties of the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensors

2000 ◽  
Vol 176 ◽  
pp. 82-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Zwintz ◽  
R. Kuschnig ◽  
W. W. Weiss ◽  
A. Witeschnik
Keyword(s):  
Hubble Space Telescope ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Space Telescope ◽  
Systematic Effects ◽  
Lower Noise

AbstractTo reach lower noise levels with the Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) the photometric properties as well as the systematic effects affecting the data have been investigated.

Noise assessment of taxibotted versus conventional taxiing operations using a phased microphone array

2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (5) ◽  
pp. 1152-1163
Author(s):  
Bieke von den Hoff ◽  
Mirjam Snellen ◽  
Dick G. Simons
Keyword(s):  
Noise Source ◽  
Microphone Array ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Noise Sources ◽  
Operational Testing ◽  
Electric Aircraft ◽  
Noise Source Identification ◽  
Noise Measurements ◽  
Noise Assessment ◽  
Lower Noise

In sustainable aviation the focus is mostly applied to the greenhouse gas emissions during flight. However airports have an increasing interest in reducing emissions during ground operations such as taxiing for example to improve the local air quality. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol started a pilot for sustainable taxiing with a pilot-controlled hybrid-electric aircraft towing vehicle called TaxiBot in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity for extensive operational testing on a near-empty airport. Due to the low background noise levels in this situation, also a noise assessment of taxiing with the TaxiBot versus conventional two-engine taxiing was performed. This assessment can be used to evaluate the noise levels to which ground workers or neighbouring communities are exposed due to TaxiBot operations. For the noise measurements a phased microphone array was used, which allowed not only for a noise level and directionality assessment, but also for noise source identification. This paper compares the noise emissions and noise sources between a taxibotted and conventional taxiing operation. The results show that a taxibotted taxiing operation produces significantly lower noise levels. Additionally, acoustic imaging shows that the TaxiBot engine is the main noise source for a taxibotted pass-by manoeuvre.

scholarly journals Acoustic Assessment of a Precast Factory in Kolkata, India

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 142
Author(s):  
Rohan S. Wilkho ◽  
Himadri Guha
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Limit Set ◽  
Loud Noise ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
3D Simulation Model ◽  
Infrastructure Project ◽  
Lower Noise

Sustainable development has various indicators like transport system, economy, land use etc. Quality of life is one of them and protection from noise, especially at workplace plays a prime role in determining it.Numerous literature surveys have revealed that the construction industry ranks second in terms of thestaff being exposed to loud noise and its consequent hazards. A similar situation was observed in a major infrastructure project in Kolkata, India. A questionnaire survey among the workers and a 3D simulation model was created to assess the noise levels. The results revealed that the perceived noise levels were significantly high and exceeded the limits set by concerned authorities. This warranted actions to reduce noise levels. To achieve this, two alternate simulation models were created with altered acoustic properties. The results of these simulations reduced noise to identical levels, which were lower than the limit set. And hence, it was concluded that lower noise levels could not be achieved and was proposed that adopting either of the two would fit the purpose.

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