| 1. |
- Bluhm, Gösta, et al.
(author)
-
Buller.
- 2006
-
In: Barns hälsa och miljö i Stockholms län 2006. - : Stockholms läns landsting, Stockholm. - 9163190230 ; , s. 113-126
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Noise is an environmental problem that affects children both at school and home. This chapter summarizes the results on noise disturbances from the “Children’s environment and health survey” conducted in Stockholm County in year 2003. It was found that children were most disturbed by noise at school. Thirty per cent of all 8- and 12 year old children in Stockholm County were annoyed by noise at school, mainly noise from other children. Children in Stockholm County were exposed to more noise in their homes than children in other parts of Sweden. Almost 50 % of children in inner city Stockholm and 20 % in the rest of the County were living in apartments with windows facing a major road, railway or industry. Eighteen per cent of all 8- and 12-year olds were disturbed by noise in their homes. Slightly less than 6 % reports that noise disturbed school homework or speech communication, whereas 4 % reported difficulties in falling asleep due to noise in the home. Approximately three per cent of parents to all 4-, 8- and 12-year old children reported that their children have reduced hearing, and three per cent of 8- and 12-year old children reported that they have tinnitus. It is concluded that noise in dwellings and schools should be reduced in order to provide good and healthy sound environments for children. Furthermore, the sound environment should be considered already at the planning stage, in order to minimize indoor and outdoor noise exposure in future dwellings and schools.
|
|
| 2. |
- Selander, Jenny, et al.
(author)
-
Long-Term Exposure to Road Traffic Noise and Myocardial Infarction
- 2009
-
In: Epidemiology. - : Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc. - 1044-3983 .- 1531-5487. ; 20:2, s. 272-279
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: An association has been reported between long-term exposure to road traffic noise and the risk of myocardial infarction (MI), but the evidence is limited and inconclusive. No previous study has simultaneously analyzed the role of exposure to noise and air pollution from road traffic in the risk of MI. Methods: A population-based case-control study on MI was conducted 1992-1994 in Stockholm County. Participants answered a questionnaire and underwent a physical examination. Residential exposure to noise and air pollution from road traffic between 1970 and 1992-1994 was assessed for 3666 participants (1571 cases of MI and 2095 controls), based on residential history combined with information on traffic intensity and distance to nearby roads. Information was also obtained on factors potentially affecting the relationship between noise exposure and MI, such as noise annoyance. Results: The correlation between long-term individual exposure to noise and air pollution from traffic was high (r = 0.6). The adjusted odds ratio for MI associated with long-term road traffic noise exposure of 50 dBA or higher was 1.12 (95% confidence interval = 0.95-1.33). In a subsample, defined by excluding persons with hearing loss or exposure to noise from other sources, the corresponding odds ratio was 1.38 (1.11-1.71), with a positive exposure-response trend. No strong effect modification was apparent by sex or cardiovascular risk factors, including air pollution from road traffic. Conclusions: The results lend some support to the hypothesis that long-term exposure to road traffic noise increases the risk for MI.
|
|
| 3. |
- Alvarsson, Jesper J., et al.
(author)
-
Aircraft noise and speech intelligibility in an outdoor living space
- 2014
-
In: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. - : Acoustical Society of America (ASA). - 0001-4966 .- 1520-8524. ; 135:6, s. 3455-3462
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Studies of effects on speech intelligibility from aircraft noise in outdoor places are currently lacking. To explore these effects, first-order ambisonic recordings of aircraft noise were reproduced outdoors in a pergola. The average background level was 47 dB L-Aeq. Lists of phonetically balanced words (L-ASmax,L- word = 54 dB) were reproduced simultaneously with aircraft passage noise (L-ASmax,L- noise = 72-84 dB). Twenty individually tested listeners wrote down each presented word while seated in the pergola. The main results were (i) aircraft noise negatively affects speech intelligibility at sound pressure levels that exceed those of the speech sound (signal-to-noise ratio, S/N < 0), and (ii) the simple A-weighted S/N ratio was nearly as good an indicator of speech intelligibility as were two more advanced models, the Speech Intelligibility Index and Glasberg and Moore's [J. Audio Eng. Soc. 53, 906-918 (2005)] partial loudness model. This suggests that any of these indicators is applicable for predicting effects of aircraft noise on speech intelligibility outdoors.
|
|
| 4. |
- Alvarsson, Jesper J.
(author)
-
Perspectives on wanted and unwanted sounds in outdoor environments : Studies of masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility
- 2013
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- An acoustic environment contains sounds from various sound sources, some generally perceived as wanted, others as unwanted. This thesis examines the effects of wanted and unwanted sounds in acoustic environments, with regard to masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility.In urban settings, masking of unwanted sounds by sounds from water structures has been suggested as a way to improve the acoustic environment. However, Study I showed that the unwanted (road traffic) sound was better at masking the wanted (water) sound than vice versa, thus indicating that masking of unwanted sounds with sounds from water structures may prove difficult. Also, predictions by a partial loudness model of the auditory periphery overestimated the effect of masking, indicating that centrally located informational masking processes contribute to the effect. Some environments have also been shown to impair stress recovery; however studies using only auditory stimuli is lacking. Study II showed that a wanted (nature) sound improve stress recovery compared to unwanted (road traffic, ambient) sounds. This suggests that the acoustic environment influences stress recovery and that wanted sounds may facilitate stress recovery compared to unwanted sounds. An additional effect of unwanted sounds is impeded speech communication, commonly measured with speech intelligibility models. Study III showed that speech intelligibility starts to be negatively affected when the unwanted (aircraft sound) masker have equal or higher sound pressure level as the speech sound. Three models of speech intelligibility (speech intelligibility index, partial loudness and signal–to–noise ratio) predicted this effect well, with a slight disadvantage for the signal–to–noise ratio model. Together, Study I and III suggests that the partial loudness model is useful for determining effects of wanted and unwanted sounds in outdoor acoustic environments where variations in sound pressure level are large. But, in environments with large variations in other sound characteristics, models containing predictions of central processes would likely produce better results.The thesis concludes that wanted and unwanted characteristics of sounds in acoustic environments affect masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility, and that auditory perception models can predict these effects.
|
|
| 5. |
- Alvarsson, Jesper J., et al.
(author)
-
Stress Recovery during Exposure to Nature Sound and Environmental Noise
- 2010
-
In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - Basel, Schweiz : MDPI Publishing. - 1660-4601 .- 1661-7827. ; 7:3, s. 1036-1046
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Research suggests that visual impressions of natural compared with urban environments facilitate recovery after psychological stress. To test whether auditory stimulation has similar effects, 40 subjects were exposed to sounds from nature or noisy environments after a stressful mental arithmetic task. Skin conductance level (SCL) was used to index sympathetic activation, and high frequency heart rate variability (HF HRV) was used to index parasympathetic activation. Although HF HRV showed no effects, SCL recovery tended to be faster during natural sound than noisy environments. These results suggest that nature sounds facilitate recovery from sympathetic activation after a psychological stressor.
|
|
| 6. |
- Andéhn, Mikael, et al.
(author)
-
Facets of country image and brand equity : Revisiting the role of product categories in country-of-origin effect research
- 2016
-
In: Journal of Consumer Behaviour. - : Wiley. - 1472-0817 .- 1479-1838. ; 15:3, s. 225-238
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The country-of-origin effect is a topic central to the field of international marketing. Country of origin has been found to exert a particularly potent effect on consumer evaluation in situations where there is a strong link between a country and a particular product category. The present study provides further insight into how this particular effect can be understood. Drawing on a novel conceptualization of how country image and product categories interact, this study tested the relative evaluative relevance of product category with respect to estimates of brand equity across a variety of product categories. The findings suggest that facets of a country's image that are more closely related to the evaluation situation exert a greater influence on the evaluation of brands. This result encourages scholars as well as practitioners to re-evaluate which situations might cause the country of origin effect to hold managerial relevance and paves the way for new paths toward a more comprehensive understanding of the effect.
|
|
| 7. |
- Andéhn, Mikael, 1982-
(author)
-
Place-of-Origin Effects on Brand Equity : Explicating the evaluative pertinence of product categories and association strength
- 2013
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The country-of-origin effect - the alteration of judgment derived from an association to a place, is a much studied phenomenon with great potential implications for brand management and international marketing. However, in light of criticism towards the lack of conceptual development the extant literature, the relevance of the effect has been brought into question.Through an exploration of the psychology of the association between brands and places, the country-of-origin effect is reimagined focusing on the role of association strength as well as how the interplay between place and product categories can shape consumer attitudes.The results of a series of psychometric tests suggest that association strength and the interplay between place and product category constitute antecedent conditions that are crucial for determining if a country-of-origin effect will occur. These findings, and their implications for future research as well as for practice, suggest that a reevaluation of the country-of-origin effect with a widening of the scope to encompass the commercial relevance of place writ large is warranted.
|
|
| 8. |
- Angelov, Angel G., et al.
(author)
-
Four-decision tests for stochastic dominance, with an application to environmental psychophysics
- 2019
-
In: Journal of mathematical psychology (Print). - : Elsevier. - 0022-2496 .- 1096-0880. ; 93
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- If the survival function of a random variable X lies to the right of the survival function of a random variable Y, then X is said to stochastically dominate Y. Inferring stochastic dominance is particularly complicated because comparing survival functions raises four possible hypotheses: identical survival functions, dominance of X over Y, dominance of Y over X, or crossing survival functions. In this paper, we suggest four-decision tests for stochastic dominance suitable for paired samples. The tests are permutation-based and do not rely on distributional assumptions. One-sided Cramér–von Mises and Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistics are employed but the general idea may be utilized with other test statistics. The power to detect dominance and the different types of wrong decisions are investigated in an extensive simulation study. The proposed tests are applied to data from an experiment concerning the individual’s willingness to pay for a given environmental improvement.
|
|
| 9. |
|
|
| 10. |
- Axelsson, Östen, et al.
(author)
-
A field experiment on the impact of sounds from a jet-and-basin fountain on soundscape quality in an urban park
- 2014
-
In: Landscape and Urban Planning. - : Elsevier BV. - 0169-2046 .- 1872-6062. ; 123, s. 49-60
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A field experiment was conducted to explore whether water sounds from a fountain had a positive impact on soundscape quality in a downtown park. In total, 405 visitors were recruited to answer a questionnaire on how they perceived the park, including its acoustic environment. Meanwhile the fountain was turned on or off, at irregular hours. Water sounds from the fountain were not directly associated with ratings of soundscape quality. Rather, the predictors of soundscape quality were the variables “Road-traffic noise” and “Other natural sounds”. The former had a negative and the latter a positive impact. However, water sounds may have had an indirect impact on soundscape quality by affecting the audibility of road-traffic and natural sounds. The present results, obtained in situ, agree with previous results in soundscape research that the sounds perceived—particularly roadtraffic and natural sounds—explain soundscape quality. They also agree with the results from laboratory studies that water sounds may mask road-traffic sounds, but that this is not simple and straight forward. Thus sound should be brought into the design scheme when introducing water features in urban open spaces, and their environmental impact must be thoroughly assessed empirically.
|
|
