Assessing the Potential for Noise Complaints due to Backyard Chickens

2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (1) ◽  
pp. 5106-5113
Author(s):  
Charles Moritz

During the past decade, there has been tremendous growth in the popularity of backyard chickens in urban and suburban locations throughout the United States. While there are many advantages to raising chickens, their introduction has not gone without controversy. Noise has been a common concern during discussions of municipal ordnances and a common complaint against flock owners. There is very little data on the sound levels produced by chickens in the technical literature. What data is published is not appropriate for predicting sound levels at owners' property lines. In addition, the non-technical literature, social media, newspaper stories, etc. abounds with misinformation. To determine the sound power of various chicken breeds, the author has been measuring sound levels from birds in his flock. This data can then be compared to the sound level from other typical back yard sound sources, existing community annoyance prediction models, and records of noise complaints.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie C. Wall ◽  
Samara M. Haver ◽  
Leila T. Hatch ◽  
Jennifer Miksis-Olds ◽  
Rob Bochenek ◽  
...  

Passive acoustic data collection has grown exponentially over the past decade resulting in petabytes of data that document our ocean soundscapes. This effort has resulted in two big data challenges: (1) the curation, management, and global dissemination of passive acoustic datasets and (2) efficiently extracting critical information and comparing it to other datasets in the context of ecosystem-based research and management. To address the former, the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information recently established an archive for passive acoustic data. This fast-growing archive currently contains over 100 TB of passive acoustic audio files mainly collected from stationary recorders throughout waters in the United States. These datasets are documented with standards-based metadata and are freely available to the public. To begin to address the latter, through standardized processing and centralized stewardship and access, we provide a previously unattainable comparison of first order sound level-patterns from archived data collected across three distinctly separate long-term passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) efforts conducted at regional and national scales: NOAA/National Park Service Ocean Noise Reference Station Network, the Atlantic Deepwater Ecosystem Observatory Network, and the Sanctuary Soundscape Monitoring Project. Nine sites were selected from these projects covering the Alaskan Arctic, Northeast and Central Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and Mid and Northwest Atlantic. Sites could generally be categorized into those strongly influenced by anthropogenic noise (e.g., vessel traffic) and those that were not. Higher sound levels, specifically for lower frequencies (<125 Hz), and proximity to densely populated coastal zones were common characteristics of sites influenced by anthropogenic noise. Conversely, sites with lower overall sound levels and away from dense populations resulted in soundscape patterns influenced by biological sources. Seasonal variability in sound levels across selected decidecade bands was apparent for most sites and often represented changes in the presence or behavior of sound-producing species. This first order examination of levels across projects highlights the utility of these initial metrics to identify patterns that can then be examined in more detail. Finally, to help the PAM community collectively and collaboratively move forward, we propose the next frontier for scalable data stewardship, access, and processing flow.


Author(s):  
Yalcin Yildirim ◽  
Diane Jones Allen ◽  
Amy Albright

Experts in diverse fields have investigated sound in cities throughout the United States. This research aims to examine sound levels and determine its contributors at the transit-oriented development (TOD) station and neighborhood levels by studying selected Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) light rail stations. A multilevel analysis was performed to model the likelihood of TOD stations and neighborhoods affecting sound levels, controlling for station amenities, socio-demographics and built environment characteristics. Sound measurements were sampled in three time intervals with 15 min sampling over weekdays and weekends at TOD and non-TOD stations by a type II SPL meter that was mounted on a small camera tripod at a height of 1.5 m, at a distance of 1.5 m from rails and curbs. The research team found that amenities, built environmental characteristics, and neighborhood features have significant implications on sound levels at both the TOD station and the neighborhood level, which affects quality of life (QoL). TOD stations that include more amenities have a greater level of significance on sound levels. Additionally, neighborhoods with a pervasive street grid configuration, public facilities, and built environment densities are significantly associated with a likelihood of high sound levels. Conversely, higher population densities and intersection densities decrease the likelihood of a high sound level environment. These patterns provide an arena for transportation, urban, and environmental planning and policymaking to generate transformative solutions and policies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 263 (1) ◽  
pp. 5792-5803
Author(s):  
Ranny Michalski ◽  
Giovanna Milani Caparroz ◽  
Laís de Gusmão Coutinho

The present work evaluates noise conditions to which people are subject in the central region of São Paulo city. Strategic points were chosen for sound assessment, considering quantitative and qualitative aspects. Different occupancy profiles, height of buildings, constructive density, number of empty spaces, width of the roads and capacity of vehicle flow, were selected. In addition to acoustic measurements, an evaluation of the profile and flow of the vehicles has been made, to serve as input for simulation in a computational model of urban environmental noise and noise mapping of selected areas. The concept of soundscape was approached with the characterization of local sound sources and their sound perception. Questionnaires were applied for subjective assessment and the profile of the interviewees was also characterized. This attitude is important because it leads to an understanding of who exactly is exposed and affected by certain sound levels, and how the same sound level can generate different perceptions. This sensibility while approaching the subject makes people stop being just numbers and more human strategies are adopted for urban planning. At the end, an image was produced to summarize the overall analysis performed.


Author(s):  
Ella Inglebret ◽  
Amy Skinder-Meredith ◽  
Shana Bailey ◽  
Carla Jones ◽  
Ashley France

The authors in this article first identify the extent to which research articles published in three American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) journals included participants, age birth to 18 years, from international backgrounds (i.e., residence outside of the United States), and go on to describe associated publication patterns over the past 12 years. These patterns then provide a context for examining variation in the conceptualization of ethnicity on an international scale. Further, the authors examine terminology and categories used by 11 countries where research participants resided. Each country uses a unique classification system. Thus, it can be expected that descriptions of the ethnic characteristics of international participants involved in research published in ASHA journal articles will widely vary.


Crisis ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Shannon Lange ◽  
Courtney Bagge ◽  
Charlotte Probst ◽  
Jürgen Rehm

Abstract. Background: In recent years, the rate of death by suicide has been increasing disproportionately among females and young adults in the United States. Presumably this trend has been mirrored by the proportion of individuals with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. Aim: We aimed to investigate whether the proportion of individuals in the United States with suicidal ideation who attempted suicide differed by age and/or sex, and whether this proportion has increased over time. Method: Individual-level data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 2008–2017, were used to estimate the year-, age category-, and sex-specific proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide. We then determined whether this proportion differed by age category, sex, and across years using random-effects meta-regression. Overall, age category- and sex-specific proportions across survey years were estimated using random-effects meta-analyses. Results: Although the proportion was found to be significantly higher among females and those aged 18–25 years, it had not significantly increased over the past 10 years. Limitations: Data were self-reported and restricted to past-year suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. Conclusion: The increase in the death by suicide rate in the United States over the past 10 years was not mirrored by the proportion of individuals with past-year suicidal ideation who attempted suicide during this period.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Philip L. Martin

Japan and the United States, the world’s largest economies for most of the past half century, have very different immigration policies. Japan is the G7 economy most closed to immigrants, while the United States is the large economy most open to immigrants. Both Japan and the United States are debating how immigrants are and can con-tribute to the competitiveness of their economies in the 21st centuries. The papers in this special issue review the employment of and impacts of immigrants in some of the key sectors of the Japanese and US economies, including agriculture, health care, science and engineering, and construction and manufacturing. For example, in Japanese agriculture migrant trainees are a fixed cost to farmers during the three years they are in Japan, while US farmers who hire mostly unauthorized migrants hire and lay off workers as needed, making labour a variable cost.


Author(s):  
Pierre Rosanvallon

It's a commonplace occurrence that citizens in Western democracies are disaffected with their political leaders and traditional democratic institutions. But this book argues that this crisis of confidence is partly a crisis of understanding. The book makes the case that the sources of democratic legitimacy have shifted and multiplied over the past thirty years and that we need to comprehend and make better use of these new sources of legitimacy in order to strengthen our political self-belief and commitment to democracy. Drawing on examples from France and the United States, the book notes that there has been a major expansion of independent commissions, NGOs, regulatory authorities, and watchdogs in recent decades. At the same time, constitutional courts have become more willing and able to challenge legislatures. These institutional developments, which serve the democratic values of impartiality and reflexivity, have been accompanied by a new attentiveness to what the book calls the value of proximity, as governing structures have sought to find new spaces for minorities, the particular, and the local. To improve our democracies, we need to use these new sources of legitimacy more effectively and we need to incorporate them into our accounts of democratic government. This book is an original contribution to the vigorous international debate about democratic authority and legitimacy.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo

By identifying two general issues in recent history textbook controversies worldwide (oblivion and inclusion), this article examines understandings of the United States in Mexico's history textbooks (especially those of 1992) as a means to test the limits of historical imagining between U. S. and Mexican historiographies. Drawing lessons from recent European and Indian historiographical debates, the article argues that many of the historical clashes between the nationalist historiographies of Mexico and the United States could be taught as series of unsolved enigmas, ironies, and contradictions in the midst of a central enigma: the persistence of two nationalist historiographies incapable of contemplating their common ground. The article maintains that lo mexicano has been a constant part of the past and present of the US, and lo gringo an intrinsic component of Mexico's history. The di erences in their historical tracks have been made into monumental ontological oppositions, which are in fact two tracks—often overlapping—of the same and shared con ictual and complex experience.


2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-32
Author(s):  
ShiPu Wang

This essay delineates the issues concerning AAPI art exhibitions from a curator’s perspective, particularly in response to the changing racial demographics and economics of the past decades. A discussion of practical, curatorial problems offers the reader an overview of the obstacles and reasons behind the lack of exhibitions of AAPI works in the United States. It is the author’s hope that by understanding the challenges particular to AAPI exhibitions, community leaders, and patrons will direct future financial support to appropriate museum operations, which in turn will encourage more exhibitions and research of the important artistic contribution of AAPI artists to American art.


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