Acustics

Cláudia BARROSO-KRAUSE Arq., Prof. UFRJ, Dra. Ècole des Mines de Paris Av. Brigadeiro Marechal Trompowski-Prédio da FAU/sala 433 -Cidade Universitária,IIha do Fundão -Rio de Janeiro/RJ -21941-590 [email protected] [email protected] RESUMO O ambiente hospitalar vive a paradoxal situação de ser ao mesmo tempo um local que exige condições de conforto acústico especiais, com níveis de ruído que atendam às recomendações estabelecidas pelas normas técnicas e, por outro lado, ser também um local com componentes de situações e equipamentos que produzem condições extremamente ruidosas. O presente trabalho desenvolve e apresenta propostas e estratégias de atenuação dos ruídos no ambiente hospitalar a partir de estudos sobre o uso de materiais que possam suplementar as soluções projetuais e que possam representar contribuições de conforto ambiental para o usuário e profissionais dos estabelecimentos de assistência à saúde. A pesquisa para o desenvolvimento do trabalho considerou também as exigências atuais da legislação brasileira -Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas e do Ministério da Saúde -e de outros países que dispõem de regulamentos técnicos para tal. Está considerada também, no desenvolvimento do artigo, a complexidade estabelecida pelas características da constituição molecular dos materiais que possuem boa qualidade de absorção acústica e o contraponto das exigências do controle para higienização e, por conseqüência, o controle e prevenção de infecções hospitalares.

The study of the behavior of a standing wave inside a resonant cavity, such as a closed tube, has always been of great revelation in the manufacture of wind musical instruments, in addition to research carried out on the transfer and absorption of heat, energy and pressure for the acoustic characterization of materials by injecting sound waves at one end of the Kundt's tube. In this work, we did the implementation of two experiments for measure the speed of sound, using a Kundt's tube where also we obtained the bellies and nodes of the sound wave and we verified with a computational code that was written for us in Python, in which we made simulation of the temporal evolution was achieved of the wave that vibrated inside the tube. Also, we show the wave profile for the first four harmonics with computational simulations and we presented the experimental results by two different methods, these were compared with the obtained using the equations modeled by the undulatory theory of physics. Finally, we show in this article, the respective errors obtained from these two experimental configurations, which were made with the purpose of showing university students the importance of being able to visualize the wave phenomenon of sound inside a Kundt's tube. (Kundt's tube, resonant cavity, harmonics, stationary waves, fundamental frequency).

Since 1999, a joint project called ECHOS has started to explore extremely shallow zones of the lagoon of Venice with the help of acoustic techniques. The main aim of ECHOS is to reconstruct the ancient lagoon environment and investigate its evolution and anthropogenic changes. Although this topic has been the subject of many studies, the use of acoustic methods can solve the problem of correlating the levels intersected by precision drilling, and it can reveal buried geological and archaeological structures. After the first in situ trials, during the last three years, an extensive acoustic survey was carried out on geo-archaeologically interesting areas in the central and northern Venice Lagoon. For this purpose, a traditional echosounder was modified for use in very shallow waters. A direct comparison of the acoustic and geological data shows the potential of acoustic methods for archaeological and geological research aimed at the reconstruction of the ancient morphology of the Venice Lagoon. As an example of the encouraging preliminary results that were obtained, we present the discovery of a buried palaeocanal.

Background: The prevalence of mental disorders worldwide is very high. The guideline-oriented care of patients depends on
early diagnosis and regular and valid evaluation of their treatment to be able to quickly intervene should the patient’s mental
health deteriorate. To ensure effective treatment, the level of experience of the physician or therapist is of importance, both in
the initial diagnosis and in the treatment of mental illnesses. Nevertheless, experienced physicians and psychotherapists are not
available in enough numbers everywhere, especially in rural areas or in less developed countries. Human speech can reveal a
speaker’s mental state by altering its noncontent aspects (speech melody, intonations, speech rate, etc). This is noticeable in both
the clinic and everyday life by having prior knowledge of the normal speech patterns of the affected person, and with enough
time spent listening to the patient. However, this time and experience are often unavailable, leaving unused opportunities to
capture linguistic, noncontent information. To improve the care of patients with mental disorders, we have developed a concept
for assessing their most important mental parameters through a noncontent analysis of their active speech. Using speech analysis
for the assessment and tracking of mental health patients opens up the possibility of remote, automatic, and ongoing evaluation
when used with patients’ smartphones, as part of the current trends toward the increasing use of digital and mobile health tools.
Objective: The primary objective of this study is to evaluate measurements of participants' mental state by comparing the
analysis of noncontent speech parameters to the results of several psychological questionnaires (Symptom Checklist-90 [SCL-90],
the Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ], and the Big 5 Test).
Methods: In this paper, we described a case-controlled study (with a case group and one control group). The participants will
be recruited in an outpatient neuropsychiatric treatment center. Inclusion criteria are a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis made
by a specialist, no terminal or life-threatening illnesses, and fluent use of the German language. Exclusion criteria include psychosis,
dementia, speech or language disorders in neurological diseases, addiction history, a suicide attempt recently or in the last 12
months, or insufficient language skills. The measuring instrument will be the VoiceSense digital voice analysis tool, which enables
the analysis of 200 specific speech parameters, and the assessment of findings using psychometric instruments and questionnaires
(SCL-90, PHQ, Big 5 Test).
Results: The study is ongoing as of September 2019, but we have enrolled 254 participants. There have been 161 measurements
completed at timepoint 1, and a total of 62 participants have completed every psychological and speech analysis measurement.
Conclusions: It appears that the tone and modulation of speech are as important, if not more so, than the content, and should
not be underestimated. This is particularly evident in the interpretation of the psychological findings thus far acquired. Therefore,
the application of a software analysis tool could increase the accuracy of finding assessments and improve patient care.