Science of Sound -- World wide press room now open

The 159th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) convenes in conjunction with NOISE-CON 2010 next week at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Baltimore, MD. Reporters are invited to visit the ASA World Wide Press Room: http://www.acoustics.org/press

The press room contains news releases and dozens of lay-language papers selected from among the 1340 presentations at the meeting. Lay-language papers are 500-word summaries written for a general audience by the authors of individual presentations and accompanied by graphics and multimedia files. They draw from scientific disciplines as diverse as psychology, physics, animal bioacoustics, medicine, music, noise control, and speech. An index of all the lay-language papers on the ASA World Wide Press Room can be found at http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/lay_lang.html.

Notable lay-language papers include:

CHEERING FOOTBALL FANS DROWN OUT THE QUARTERBACK

"The main goal was to map the crowd noise throughout the entire stadium to show the noisiest locations on the field, and, in turn, the sections of fans who were the loudest contributors. These recordings were/are being used by the [Pennsylvania State University] PSU Nittany Lion football team in their practice facility to prepare for away games where they will be in the presence of loud opposing teams' crowds. Finally, a simple noise model of Beaver Stadium was developed to illustrate which portions of the crowd were contributing the most to the on-field noise."

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/barnard.htm

QUIETING MRI SCANNERS

"The generated high sound pressure levels [of an MRI scanner] can be annoying and potentially unsafe to patients and healthcare workers, especially during lengthy procedures. Active noise control offers an alternative solution to this problem by introducing an anti-phase acoustic wave to create a zone of destructive interference at a particular area in space. The result shows that an overall reduction of almost 20 dB [decibels] can be achieved."

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/mingfeng.htm

DISCOVERY OF SOUND IN THE SEA

"The scientific community and the public have become increasingly aware of, and concerned about, underwater sound. Underlying this interest, however, is a need to provide scientific information at a level appropriate for the general public and for educational and media professionals. The 'Discovery of Sound in the Sea' website (http://www.dosits.org) provides scientific content introducing the physical science of underwater sound and how people and animals use sound to accomplish various tasks."

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/vigness.htm

NEW TOOLS TO PROTECT HEARING OF MINERS

"A study of U.S. western hard-rock miner's noise exposure revealed that 96% of mining machine operators are exposed to noise levels exceeding the Permissible Exposure Level (PEL), with jackleg drill operators having the most rapid noise dose accumulation rate. In this context, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a study to assess the acoustic performance of pneumatic drills and electric drills used in the mining industry."

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/lowe.htm

SPEECH ANALYSIS IN ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION

"The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a Federal agency that investigates major transportation accidents in the United States, determines their probable cause, and makes recommendations to prevent their recurrence. In its investigations, the Safety Board frequently obtains audio recordings and, with the support of the scientific community, has used speech analysis to develop human evidence useful to the investigation. The talk presents two examples [Exxon Valdez and USAir Flight 427]."

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/brenner.htm

COULD EXPLOSIONS GENERATE ELECTRICITY IN THE BRAIN?

"Our research has recently uncovered an unexpected possible mechanism by which a blast wave might affect the brain: electric fields that are created when the skull is impacted by the blast wave, due to a property of bone called piezoelectricity, which may be large enough to have a neurological effect. Because our initial work is primarily theoretical, we cannot yet say for certain whether this mechanism plays a significant role in TBI [traumatic brain injury], but even if not, it may provide a new pathway for measurement and diagnosis of blast-induced brain injuries."

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/johnson.htm

HOW VIOLINISTS EVALUATE VIOLINS

"Although centuries of research have given us much information about the acoustics of the violin and the way in which said acoustics are shaped by violin makers, virtually nothing is known about how violinists' evaluations of violins correlate with their acoustical features. The aim of the project is therefore to better understand how violinists evaluate violins: the most important thing is indeed not whether a violinist likes this or that violin (or whether this violin is good or bad) but rather understanding why he has come to this opinion. From this information, we can finally correlate violinists' evaluations with violins' acoustical properties."

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/cfritz.htm

BETTER HEARING AIDS

"Most hearing aids are designed to amplify weak sounds, so as to make them audible, while not amplifying strong sounds. We have used the 'Cambridge' loudness model to develop methods for the initial fitting of hearing aids, in other words to develop prescription formulae. The methods have been evaluated in a series of clinical trials, and have been shown to give good results, requiring only a small amount of fine tuning after the initial fitting."

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/bmoore.htm

NOISY HOSPITALS

"This study evaluated the impact of adding acoustical absorption to a hospital ward. Specific comparisons between untreated wards and a ward treated with absorbing panels were made. The data presented shows improvements in background noise, noise metrics, and reverberation time. "

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/hsu.htm

SYNTHETIC SPEECH FROM FACIAL MOVEMENTS

"New approaches suggest the possibility of artificially producing speech based on measuring facial movements with either attached facial probes or ultrasound. Such techniques could allow people to communicate through speech in places where it would otherwise be difficult or impossible. In noisy places, their facial motions could be measured, and the corresponding artificial speech could be played on noise-canceling headphones or on speakers in a different, quieter location. In places where a person does not want to be heard, these techniques could allow "silent" speech where words are only mouthed."

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/toth.htm

ULTRASOUND TO DIAGNOSE OSTEOPOROSIS

"At the moment, approximately 200 million people around the world suffer from osteoporosis. A majority of patients with osteoporosis are not diagnosed before low-trauma fractures occur. Therefore, early diagnostics should be rationalized for effective screening of individuals at risk before fractures occur. This would require a cheap, easy-to-use and sensitive technique which could be applied in the primary healthcare level. Our aim is to introduce an answer to this problem by presenting unique dual frequency ultrasound (DFUS) methodology."

Lay-language link:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/jurvelin.htm

MISSISSIPPI CLASSROOMS ARE NOISY

"Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine if a sample of elementary public school classrooms in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi area meet the ANSI [American National Standards Institute] standard for classroom acoustics. Our findings indicate that the classrooms measured in this study are not optimal for learning because none met the ANSI guideline for background noise. "

Lay-language paper:
http://www.acoustics.org/press/159th/goshorn.htm

Provided by American Institute of Physics