Transfer function-noise modeling and spatial interpolation to evaluate the risk of extreme (shallow) water-table levels in the Brazilian Cerrados

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Geoprocessing applied to the assessment of environmental noise: a case study in the city of Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil

Noise mapping has been used as an instrument for assessment of environmental noise, helping to support decision making on urban planning. In Brazil, urban noise is not yet recognized as a major environmental problem by the government. Besides, cities that have databases to drive acoustic simulations, making use of advanced noise mapping systems, are rare. This study sought an alternative method of noise mapping through the use of geoprocessing, which is feasible for the Brazilian reality and for other developing countries. The area chosen for the study was the central zone of the city of Sorocaba, located in So Paulo State, Brazil. The proposed method was effective in the spatial evaluation of equivalent sound pressure level. The results showed an urban area with high noise levels that exceed the legal standard, posing a threat to the welfare of the population.

Use of scrap tire rubber in place of SBS in modified asphalt as an environmentally correct alternative for Brazil

Reusing scrap tires has become a worldwide challenge, especially due to the great difficulty in finding ecologically and economically feasible ways to dispose of them. This has led to the creation of specific programs and legislation for reusing scrap tires. Research has shown that a certain percentage of scrap tire rubber can be added to asphalt compositions, and this has become a worldwide practice. This paper describes the properties of four asphalt compositions modified with scrap tire rubber (STR) prepared in the laboratory. These properties are then compared with those of asphalt modified with styrene butadiene styrene (SBS), a synthetic polymer and one of the most common modifiers, to verify the feasibility of using scrap tire rubber as a substitute for SBS. The scope of this study does not include an analysis of how STR affects end-of-life asphalt. The main findings indicate that STR is a potential substitute of SBS in paving material, and although it does not meet some of the standard specifications when compared with SBS, these issues can be overcome by proper care during storage and transportation. The substitution of SBS by STR also showed the potential for about 10% in expenditure savings. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparative Analysis of Objective Distortion Measures for Speech Signals Degraded by Noise

Speech signals degraded by additive noise can affects different applications in telecommunication. The noise may degrades the intelligibility of the speech signals and its waveforms as well. In some applications such as speech coding, both intelligibility and waveform quality are important but only intelligibility has been focused lastly. So, modern speech quality measurement techniques such as PESQ (Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality) have been used and classical distortion measurement techniques such as Cepstral Distance are becoming unused. In this paper it is shown that some classical distortion measures are still important in applications where speech corrupted by additive noise has to be evaluated.

Experimental Investigation into the Characteristics of In-Pipe Leak Noise in Plastic Water Filled Pipes

This paper presents an experimental investigation of the characteristics of leak noise in plastic water-filled pipes. An experimental set-up was designed to identify the physical mechanisms of leak noise generation. Possible mechanisms include cavitation and turbulence. The experiments show that cavitation is not responsible for leak noise generation and clearly indicate that turbulence is the main mechanism, at least in the experiments conducted. An alternative experimental set-up was also designed to identify the characteristics of leak noise spectra and to investigate how the spectra are affected by the leak size and the leak flow velocity. A number of different hole sizes (leaks) starting from 1 mm diameter, increasing progressively every 0.5 mm until a size of 4 mm diameter were tested for different jet velocities and an empirical model that describes this behaviour is proposed.

Acoustic and psychoacoustic analysis of the noise produced by the police force firearms

Police officers are exposed to impact noise coming from firearms, which may cause irreversible injuries to the hearing system.Aim: To evaluate the noise exposure in shooting stands during gunfire exercises, to analyze the acoustic impact of the noise produced by the firearms and to associate it with tonal audiometry results.Study design: Cross-sectional.Materials and methods: To measure noise intensity we used a digital sound level meter, and the acoustic analysis was carried out by means of the oscillations and cochlear response curves provided by the Praat software. 30 police officers were selected (27 males and 3 females).Results: The peak level measured was 113.1 dB(C) from a .40 pistol and 116.8 dB(C) for a .38 revolver. The values obtained for oscillation and Praat was 17.9 +/- 0.3 Barks, corresponding to the rate of 4,120 and 4,580 Hz. Audiometry indicated greater hearing loss at 4,000Hz in 86.7% of the cases.Conclusion: With the acoustic analysis it was possible to show cause and effect between the main areas of energy excitation of the cochlea (Praat cochlear response curve) and the frequencies of low hearing acuity.

Fraction of work-related accidents attributable to occupational noise in the city of Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil

Background: Noise is the most common agent of occupational exposure. It may induce both auditory and extraauditory dysfunction and increase the risk of work accidents. The purpose of this study was to estimate the fraction of accidents attributable to noise occupational exposure in a mid-size city located in southeastern Brazil. Materials and Methods: In this population case-control study, which included 108 cases and 324 controls, the incidence rate ratio of work accidents controlled for several covariables was obtained by classifying occupational noise exposure into three levels, as well as determining the prevalence in each level. Results: Based on these data, the attributable fraction was estimated as 0.6391 (95 CI = 0.2341-0.3676), i.e., 63 of the work accidents that took place in the study site were statistically associated with occupational noise exposure. Discussion: The causes of this association as well as its implications in the prevention of work accidents are discussed.

Edge detection and noise removal by use of a partial differential equation with automatic selection of parameters

This work deals with noise removal by the use of an edge preserving method whose parameters are automatically estimated, for any application, by simply providing information about the standard deviation noise level we wish to eliminate. The desired noiseless image u(x), in a Partial Differential Equation based model, can be viewed as the solution of an evolutionary differential equation u t(x) = F(u xx, u x, u, x, t) which means that the true solution will be reached when t ® ¥. In practical applications we should stop the time ''t'' at some moment during this evolutionary process. This work presents a sufficient condition, related to time t and to the standard deviation s of the noise we desire to remove, which gives a constant T such that u(x, T) is a good approximation of u(x). The approach here focused on edge preservation during the noise elimination process as its main characteristic. The balance between edge points and interior points is carried out by a function g which depends on the initial noisy image u(x, t0), the standard deviation of the noise we want to eliminate and a constant k. The k parameter estimation is also presented in this work therefore making, the proposed model automatic. The model's feasibility and the choice of the optimal time scale is evident through out the various experimental results.

A Decomposition and Noise Removal Method Combining Diffusion Equation and Wave Atoms for Textured Images

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

NOISE and ULTRAVIOLET DIVERGENCES IN SIMULATIONS of GINZBURG-LANDAU-LANGEVIN TYPE of EQUATIONS

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Correlation times in stochastic equations with delayed feedback and multiplicative noise

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Noise and ultraviolet divergences in the dynamics of the chiral condensate in QCD

The time evolution of the matter produced in high energy heavy-ion collisions seems to be well described by relativistic viscous hydrodynamics. In addition to the hydrodynamic degrees of freedom related to energy-momentum conservation, degrees of freedom associated with order parameters of broken continuous symmetries must be considered because they are all coupled to each other. of particular interest is the coupling of degrees of freedom associated with the chiral symmetry of QCD. Quantum and thermal fluctuations of the chiral fields act as noise sources in the classical equations of motion, turning them into stochastic differential equations in the form of Ginzburg-Landau-Langevin (GLL) equations. Analytic solutions of GLL equations are attainable only in very special circumstances and extensive numerical simulations are necessary, usually by discretizing the equations on a spatial lattice. However, a not much appreciated issue in the numerical simulations of GLL equations is that ultraviolet divergences in the form of lattice-spacing dependence plague the solutions. The divergences are related to the well-known Rayleigh-Jeans catastrophe in classical field theory. In the present communication we present a systematic lattice renormalization method to control the catastrophe. We discuss the implementation of the method for a GLL equation derived in the context of a model for the QCD chiral phase transition and consider the nonequilibrium evolution of the chiral condensate during the hydrodynamic flow of the quark-gluon plasma.

Corrosion of the component phases presents in high copper dental amalgams. Application of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and electrochemical noise analysis

The corrosion resistance of three of the constituent phases in high copper dental amalgams has been investigated by electrochemical methods in 0.9% NaCl solution. Polarization curves show corrosion potentials most positive for gamma(1)-Ag2Hg3, followed by Ag-Cu, and gamma-Ag3Sn in agreement with the order of corrosion resistance deduced from the corrosion currents. Complex plane impedance plots at the open circuit potential showed distorted semicircles with diffusional components at low frequency for Ag-Hg and Ag-Cu, while for gamma-Ag3Sn a layer of corrosion products is formed, partially or completely covering the surface of the electrode. Impedance and noise spectra have been compared in the frequency domain, and show good agreement. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Electrochemical noise analysis of chalcopyrite carbon paste electrodes by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans

The electrochemical response of chalcopyrite was studied using electrochemical noise analysis (ENA). The assay was carried out under constant aeration using 30 mL in two electrochemical cells containing iron-free mineral salts solution. These cells were initially monitored for 56 hours, After 72 hours, 7.25x 10(10) cells mL(-1) of A, ferrooxidans strain LR were added in both cells and monitored until 128 h. Subsequent to this period, 0.927 mmol L-1 of silver ions and 400 mmol L-1 of chloride ions were added each one separately. Both conditions were monitored until 168 hours. According to results obtained, it was observed that Cl- ions addition induced an accelerated corrosion process. However, there is a tendency of the system to reach the stationary state due to repassivation of the electrodic surface. In the other side, the Ag+ addition contributed for the maintenance of the oxidant atmosphere, in spite of controversial effect caused by considerable variations in the R-n values, resulting in a instability in the chalcopyrite reactivity.