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- Alvarsson, Jesper J., et al.
(författare)
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Aircraft noise and speech intelligibility in an outdoor living space
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. - : Acoustical Society of America (ASA). - 0001-4966 .- 1520-8524. ; 135:6, s. 3455-3462
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)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.
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| 3. |
- Alvarsson, Jesper J.
(författare)
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Perspectives on wanted and unwanted sounds in outdoor environments : Studies of masking, stress recovery, and speech intelligibility
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)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.
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| 4. |
- Alvarsson, Jesper J., et al.
(författare)
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Stress Recovery during Exposure to Nature Sound and Environmental Noise
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - Basel, Schweiz : MDPI Publishing. - 1660-4601 .- 1661-7827. ; 7:3, s. 1036-1046
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)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.
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| 5. |
- Carlsson, J, et al.
(författare)
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Kin-biased distribution in brown trout : an effect of redd location or kin recognition?
- 2004
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Ingår i: Heredity. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0018-067X .- 1365-2540. ; 92:2, s. 53-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A wide range of animals have been reported to show kin-biased behaviours, such as reduced aggressiveness and increased food sharing among relatives. However, less is known about whether wild animals also associate with relatives under natural conditions, which is a prerequisite to facilitate kin-biased behaviours and hence kin selection. We tested, by means of microsatellite polymorphism, correlations between pair-wise relatedness and pair-wise metric distance in wild brown trout ( Salmo trutta L.) under natural conditions in two streams. Our data show that young-of-the-year as well as older trout found close together also had a higher genetic relatedness in one of the two streams, whereas no relationship was found in the other stream. Very few half and full siblings were found in the second stream and under these conditions it is unlikely that kin-biased behaviours will receive positive selection. We discuss the underlying mechanisms for the observed structure and we specifically address the issue of whether the grouping of related individuals could reflect dispersal from the same spawning redds, or if it reflects active association with relatives, possibly conferring kin-selected advantages.
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| 7. |
- Ferreira, Monica E., et al.
(författare)
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WD40 Domain Divergence Is Important for Functional Differences between he Fission Yeast Tup11 and Tup12 Co-Repressor Proteins
- 2010
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 5:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We have previously demonstrated that subsets of Ssn6/Tup target genes ave distinct requirements for the Schizosaccharomyces pombe homologs of he Tup1/Groucho/TLE co-repressor proteins, Tup11 and Tup12. The very igh level of divergence in the histone interacting repression domains f the two proteins suggested that determinants distinguishing Tup11 and up12 might be located in this domain. Here we have combined hylogenetic and structural analysis as well as phenotypic haracterization, under stress conditions that specifically require up12, to identify and characterize the domains involved in up12-specific action. The results indicate that divergence in the epression domain is not generally relevant for Tup12-specific function. nstead, we show that the more highly conserved C-terminal WD40 repeat omain of Tup12 is important for Tup12-specific function. Surface amino cid residues specific for the WD40 repeat domain of Tup12 proteins in ifferent fission yeasts are clustered in blade 3 of the propeller-like tructure that is characteristic of WD40 repeat domains. The Tup11 and up12 proteins in fission yeasts thus provide an excellent model system or studying the functional divergence of WD40 repeat domains.
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| 9. |
- Mårald, Erland, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Forest governance and management across time : developing a new forest social contract
- 2017
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Bok (refereegranskat)abstract
- The influence of the past, and of the future on current-time tradeoffs in the forest arena are particularly relevant given the long-term successions in forest landscapes and the hundred years' rotations in forestry. Historically established path dependencies and conflicts determine our present situation and delimit what is possible to achieve. Similarly, future trends and desires have a large influence on decision making. Nevertheless, decisions about forest governance and management are always made in the present – in the present-time appraisal of the developed situation, future alternatives and in negotiation between different perspectives, interests, and actors.This book explores historic and future outlooks as well as current tradeoffs and methods in forest governance and management. It emphasizes the generality and complexity with empirical data from Sweden and internationally. It first investigates, from a historical perspective, how previous forest policies and discourses have influenced current forest governance and management. Second, it considers methods to explore alternative forest futures and how the results from such investigations may influence the present. Third, it examines current methods of balancing tradeoffs in decision-making among ecosystem services. Based on the findings the authors develop an integrated approach – Reflexive Forestry – to support exchange of knowledge and understandings to enable capacity building and the establishment of common ground. Such societal agreements, or what the authors elaborate as forest social contracts, are sets of relational commitment between involved actors that may generate mutual action and a common directionality to meet contemporary challenges.
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| 10. |
- Nilsson, Mats E., et al.
(författare)
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Auditory masking of wanted and unwanted sounds in a city park
- 2010
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Ingår i: Noise Control Engineering Journal. - : Institute of Noise Control Engineering (INCE). - 0736-2501 .- 2168-8710. ; 58:5, s. 524-531
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Auditory masking of unwanted sounds by wanted sounds has been suggested as a tool for outdoor acoustic design. Anecdotal evidence exists for successful applications, for instance the use of fountain sounds for masking road traffic noise in urban parks. However, basic research on auditory masking of environmental sounds is lacking. Therefore, we conducted two listening experiments, using binaural recordings from a city park in Stockholm exposed to traffic noise from a main road and sound from a large fountain located in the center of the park. In the first experiment, 17 listeners assessed the loudness of the road traffic noise and fountain sounds from recordings at various distances from the road, with or without the fountain turned on. In the second experiment, 16 listeners assessed the loudness of systematic combinations of a singular fountain sound and a singular road traffic noise. The results of the first experiment showed that the fountain sound reduced the loudness of road traffic noise close to the fountain, and that the fountain sound was equally loud or louder than the road traffic noise in a region 20-30 m around the fountain. This suggests that the fountain added to the quality of the city park soundscape by reducing the loudness of the (presumably unwanted) traffic noise. On the other hand, results from the second experiment showed that road traffic noise was harder to mask than fountain sound, and that the partial loudness of both sources was considerably less than expected from a model of energetic masking. This indicates that auditory processes, possibly related to target-masker confusion, may reduce the overall masking effect of environmental sounds.
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