Academic literature on the topic 'End sound'

Wireless acoustic sensor networks (WASNs) and intelligent microsystems are crucial components of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. In various IoT applications, small, lightweight, and low-power microsystems are essential to enable autonomous edge computing and networked cooperative work. This study presents an innovative intelligent microsystem with wireless networking capabilities, sound sensing, and sound event recognition. The microsystem is designed with optimized sensing, energy supply, processing, and transceiver modules to achieve small size and low power consumption. Additionally, a low-computational sound event recognition algorithm based on a Convolutional Neural Network has been designed and integrated into the microsystem. Multiple microsystems are connected using low-power Bluetooth Mesh wireless networking technology to form a meshed WASN, which is easily accessible, flexible to expand, and straightforward to manage with smartphones. The microsystem is 7.36 cm3 in size and weighs 8 g without housing. The microsystem can accurately recognize sound events in both trained and untrained data tests, achieving an average accuracy of over 92.50% for alarm sounds above 70 dB and water flow sounds above 55 dB. The microsystems can communicate wirelessly with a direct range of 5 m. It can be applied in the field of home IoT and border security.

Heart sounds play an important role in the initial screening of heart diseases. However, the accurate diagnosis with heart sound signals requires doctors to have many years of clinical experience and relevant professional knowledge. In this study, we proposed an end-to-end lightweight neural network model that does not require heart sound segmentation and has very few parameters. We segmented the original heart sound signal and performed a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) to obtain the frequency domain features. These features were sent to the improved two-dimensional convolutional neural network (CNN) model for features learning and classification. Considering the imbalance of positive and negative samples, we introduced FocalLoss as the loss function, verified our network model with multiple random verifications, and, hence, obtained a better classification result. Our main purpose is to design a lightweight network structure that is easy for hardware implementation. Compared with the results of the latest literature, our model only uses 4.29 K parameters, which is 1/10 of the size of the state-of-the-art work.

When we ask what noise is, we would do well to remember that no single definition can function timelessly - this may well be the case with many terms, but one of the arguments of this essay is that noise is that which always fails to come into definition. Generally speaking, noise is taken to be a problem: unwanted sound, unorganised sound, excessively loud sound. Metaphorically, when we hear of noise being generated, we understand it to be something extraneous. Historically, though, noise has just as often signalled music, or pleasing sound, as its opposite. In the twentieth century, the notion of a clear line between elements suitable for compositional use (i.e. notes, created on instruments) and the world of noises was broken down. Russolo's ‘noisy machines’, Varèse and Satie's use of ostensibly non-musical machines to generate sounds, musique concrète, Cage's rethinking of sound, noise, music, silence . . .

The train horn sound is an active audible warning signal used for warning commuters and railway employees of the oncoming train(s), assuring a smooth operation and traffic safety, especially at barrier-free crossings. This work studies deep learning-based approaches to develop a system providing the early detection of train arrival based on the recognition of train horn sounds from the traffic soundscape. A custom dataset of train horn sounds, car horn sounds, and traffic noises is developed to conduct experiments and analysis. We propose a novel two-stream end-to-end CNN model (i.e., THD-RawNet), which combines two approaches of feature extraction from raw audio waveforms, for audio classification in train horn detection (THD). Besides a stream with a sequential one-dimensional CNN (1D-CNN) as in existing sound classification works, we propose to utilize multiple 1D-CNN branches to process raw waves in different temporal resolutions to extract an image-like representation for the 2D-CNN classification part. Our experiment results and comparative analysis have proved the effectiveness of the proposed two-stream network and the method of combining features extracted in multiple temporal resolutions. The THD-RawNet obtained better accuracies and robustness compared to those of baseline models trained on either raw audio or handcrafted features, in which at the input size of one second the network yielded an accuracy of 95.11% for testing data in normal traffic conditions and remained above a 93% accuracy for the considerable noisy condition of-10 dB SNR. The proposed THD system can be integrated into the smart railway crossing systems, private cars, and self-driving cars to improve railway transit safety.

Bird sounds have obvious characteristics per species, and they are an important way for birds to communicate and transmit information. However, the recorded bird sounds in the field are usually mixed, which making it challenging to identify different bird species and to perform associated tasks. In this study, based on the supervised learning framework, we propose a bird sound separation network, a dual-path tiny transformer network, to directly perform end-to-end mixed species bird sound separation in the time-domain. This separation network is mainly composed of the dual-path network and the simplified transformer structure, which greatly reduces the computational resources required of the network. Experimental results show that our proposed separation network has good separation performance (SI-SNRi reaches 19.3 dB and SDRi reaches 20.1 dB), but compared with DPRNN and DPTNet, its parameters and floating point operations are greatly reduced, which means a higher separation efficiency and faster separation speed. The good separation performance and high separation efficiency indicate that our proposed separation network is valuable for distinguishing individual birds and studying the interaction between individual birds, as well as for realizing the automatic identification of bird species on a variety of mobile devices or edge computing devices.

the article reveals a chord consisting of 3 sounds arranged in thirds. The sounds that make up a triad have their own names: the lower sound is prima or base, the middle is third or end sound, the upper is fifth or fifth sound. If the sounds of a triad are arranged in thirds, this is the main type of triad. A seventh chord is a chord consisting of four sounds that are or can be arranged in thirds. The interval between the two extreme sounds of a seventh chord is equal to a seventh, hence its name. When treating chords, composers did not specifically use thirds or fifths in order to diversify their music.

Sound field reproduction, which attempts to create a virtual acoustic environment, is a fundamental technology in the achievement of virtual reality. In sound field reproduction, the driving signals of the loudspeakers are calculated by considering the signals collected by the microphones and working environment of the reproduction system. In this paper, an end-to-end reproduction method based on deep learning is proposed. The inputs and outputs of this system are the sound-pressure signals recorded by microphones and the driving signals of loudspeakers, respectively. A convolutional autoencoder network with skip connections in the frequency domain is used. Furthermore, sparse layers are applied to capture the sparse features of the sound field. Simulation results show that the reproduction errors of the proposed method are lower than those generated by the conventional pressure matching and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator methods, especially at high frequencies. Experiments were performed under conditions of single and multiple primary sources. The results in both cases demonstrate that the proposed method achieves better high-frequency performance than the conventional methods.

Listening skills are language skills that affect the development of language learning, especially for second language learners. In the learning process of listening skills, mistakes often occur. This can happen because of the influence of the first language on the second language learning process. This study aims to describe the sound errors by observing beginner BIPA learners from China who do not use the alphabet in their first language. This research is a text analysis research which analyzes the sound errors by listening to BIPA students' writing. Based on the analysis that has been done, it can be concluded that there are three categories of sound errors, namely changes in the sound at the beginning of the word, the middle of the word, and the end of the word. Each of these categories has changes, omissions, and even added sounds. (1) In the mistakes at the beginning of words, learners make many mistakes in bilabial, dental, and velar inhibitory sounds. (2) For errors in the middle of a word, learners made many mistakes in inhibiting, nasal, vibrating, and lateral sounds, as well as removing nasal sounds and adding vibrating consonants. (3) In the error at the end of the word, the learner removes the final consonants of the inhibiting and fricative sounds, as well as changing the nasal sound, the fricative sound becomes a vibration, and the glotal fricative sound becomes a dental plosive sound.

The article analyses both the book of American philosopher Christoph Cox “Sonic Flux: Sound, Art and Metaphysics” and a wide range of critical publications dedicated to this book. The project “Sonic Flux” belongs to sonic materialism (a branch of “New Materialism’) also known as “Deleuzian sound studies”. For Cox this means a development of “immanent metaphysics” launched by G. Deleuze. But while continuing the project of Deleuze, Cox inherits his predicaments. Their range is as broad as the specter of Cox’s sources covering philosophy, arts, theory of perception. Debates around the project “Sonic Flux” highlighted such problems as the way Cox understands materialism and how he understands access to reality. Cox’s correlation of finite and infinite; particularity and universality, and anti-historicism are highly problematic for critics. Since Cox claims to develop a theory of sound art we assess his ideas from this perspective. This allows us to focus on modernism, anonymity and anti-humanism, central to Cox’s project but not to its criticism. A less important aspect – resentiment in Cox’s style – turned out to be helpful in drawing conclusions that the whole project “Sonic Flux” is built upon a range of assumptions. Cox himself names some of them while we indicated some others. The main conclusion of the article is the idea that the project “Sonic Flux” cannot provide an adequate theory of sound art nor contribute to sound studies because it is too embedded in the worst kind of modernism and structuralism. Such important notions of sonic materialism as autonomy and anonymity of sounds perfectly fit the tradition of Modernism while being completely alien to the sound studies.

A number of companies have developed a variety of network approaches to the transfer of audio and MIDI data. By doing this, they have addressed the configuration complications that were present when using direct patching for analogue audio, digital audio, word clock, and control connections. Along with their approaches, controlling software, usually running on a PC, is used to set up and manage audio routings from the outputs to the inputs of devices. However one of the advantages of direct patching is the conceptual simplicity it provides for a user in connecting plugs of devices, the ability to connect from the host plug of one device to the host plug of another. The connection management or routing applications of the current audio networks do not allow for such a capability, and instead employ what is referred to as a two-step approach to connection management. This two-step approach requires that devices be first configured at the transport layer of the network for input and output routings, after which the transmit and receive plugs of devices are manually configured to transmit or receive data. From a user’s point of view, it is desirable for the connection management or audio routing applications of the current audio networks to be able to establish routings directly between the host plugs of devices, and not the audio channels exposed by a network’s transport, as is currently the case. The main goal of this work has been to retain the conceptual simplicity of point-to-point connection management within digital audio networks, while gaining all the benefits that digital audio networking can offer.

Dans le domaine de l'audio, la majorité des systèmes d'apprentissage automatique se concentrent sur la reconnaissance d'un nombre restreint d'événements sonores. Cependant, lorsqu'une machine est en interaction avec des données réelles, elle doit pouvoir traiter des situations beaucoup plus variées et complexes. Pour traiter ce problème, les annotateurs ont recours au langage naturel, qui permet de résumer n'importe quelle information sonore. La Description Textuelle Automatique de l'Audio (DTAA ou Automated Audio Captioning en anglais) a été introduite récemment afin de développer des systèmes capables de produire automatiquement une description de tout type de son sous forme de texte. Cette tâche concerne toutes sortes d'événements sonores comme des sons environnementaux, urbains, domestiques, des bruitages, de la musique ou de parole. Ce type de système pourrait être utilisé par des personnes sourdes ou malentendantes, et pourrait améliorer l'indexation de grandes bases de données audio. Dans la première partie de cette thèse, nous présentons l'état de l'art de la tâche de DTAA au travers d'une description globale des jeux de données publics, méthodes d'apprentissage, architectures et métriques d'évaluation. À l'aide de ces connaissances, nous présentons ensuite l'architecture de notre premier système de DTAA, qui obtient des scores encourageants sur la principale métrique de DTAA nommée SPIDEr : 24,7 % sur le corpus Clotho et 40,1 % sur le corpus AudioCaps. Dans une seconde partie, nous explorons de nombreux aspects des systèmes de DTAA. Nous nous focalisons en premier lieu sur les méthodes d'évaluations au travers de l'étude de SPIDEr. Pour cela, nous proposons une variante nommée SPIDEr-max, qui considère plusieurs candidats pour chaque fichier audio, et qui montre que la métrique SPIDEr est très sensible aux mots prédits. Puis, nous améliorons notre système de référence en explorant différentes architectures et de nombreux hyper-paramètres pour dépasser l'état de l'art sur AudioCaps (SPIDEr de 49,5 %). Ensuite, nous explorons une méthode d'apprentissage multitâche visant à améliorer la sémantique des phrases générées par notre système. Enfin, nous construisons un système de DTAA généraliste et sans biais nommé CONETTE, pouvant générer différents types de descriptions qui se rapprochent de celles des jeux de données cibles. Dans la troisième et dernière partie, nous proposons d'étudier les capacités d'un système de DTAA pour rechercher automatiquement du contenu audio dans une base de données. Notre approche obtient des scores comparables aux systèmes dédiés à cette tâche, alors que nous utilisons moins de paramètres. Nous introduisons également des méthodes semi-supervisées afin d'améliorer notre système à l'aide de nouvelles données audio non annotées, et nous montrons comment la génération de pseudo-étiquettes peut impacter un modèle de DTAA. Enfin, nous avons étudié les systèmes de DTAA dans d'autres langues que l'anglais : français, espagnol et allemand. De plus, nous proposons un système capable de produire les quatre langues en même temps, et nous le comparons avec les systèmes spécialisés dans chaque langue<br>In the audio research field, the majority of machine learning systems focus on recognizing a limited number of sound events. However, when a machine interacts with real data, it must be able to handle much more varied and complex situations. To tackle this problem, annotators use natural language, which allows any sound information to be summarized. Automated Audio Captioning (AAC) was introduced recently to develop systems capable of automatically producing a description of any type of sound in text form. This task concerns all kinds of sound events such as environmental, urban, domestic sounds, sound effects, music or speech. This type of system could be used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and could improve the indexing of large audio databases. In the first part of this thesis, we present the state of the art of the AAC task through a global description of public datasets, learning methods, architectures and evaluation metrics. Using this knowledge, we then present the architecture of our first AAC system, which obtains encouraging scores on the main AAC metric named SPIDEr: 24.7% on the Clotho corpus and 40.1% on the AudioCaps corpus. Then, subsequently, we explore many aspects of AAC systems in the second part. We first focus on evaluation methods through the study of SPIDEr. For this, we propose a variant called SPIDEr-max, which considers several candidates for each audio file, and which shows that the SPIDEr metric is very sensitive to the predicted words. Then, we improve our reference system by exploring different architectures and numerous hyper-parameters to exceed the state of the art on AudioCaps (SPIDEr of 49.5%). Next, we explore a multi-task learning method aimed at improving the semantics of sentences generated by our system. Finally, we build a general and unbiased AAC system called CONETTE, which can generate different types of descriptions that approximate those of the target datasets. In the third and last part, we propose to study the capabilities of a AAC system to automatically search for audio content in a database. Our approach obtains competitive scores to systems dedicated to this task, while using fewer parameters. We also introduce semi-supervised methods to improve our system using new unlabeled audio data, and we show how pseudo-label generation can impact a AAC model. Finally, we studied the AAC systems in languages other than English: French, Spanish and German. In addition, we propose a system capable of producing all four languages at the same time, and we compare it with systems specialized in each language

Sound quality analysis is a tool designed to help determine customer preferences, which can be used to help the designer improve product quality. Many industries desire to know how the consuming public perceives their product, as this affects the product life and success. This research investigates which of the six sewing machines provided by Viking Sewing Machine Group (VSM group) consumers find most acoustically appealing. The sound quality analysis methods used include both jury based listening tests and quantitative sound quality metrics from empirical equations. The results from both methods are completely independent and are shown to have a very strong correlation. The procedures and results of both methods, jury listening tests and mathematical metrics, are presented. Near field sound intensity scans identified acoustic hot spots and give direction for possible design modifications to improve the acoustic signature of the two top tier machines, the Designer 1 and Creative 2144 (Husqvarna Viking and Pfaff respectively). This research determined that the entry level Pfaff Select 1530 has the most acoustically appealing sound of the six machines evaluated. In addition, it was also determined that a reduction in the higher frequency sounds produced by the machines is preferred over a reduction in the lower frequency sounds. Further investigations, including an evaluation of machine isolation and startup sounds, were also performed. The machine isolation results are highly dependant on the individual machine being evaluated and would require independent evaluation. In the machine startup sound assessment, it was discovered that again the Pfaff Select 1530 has the preferred sound. Near field acoustic intensity scans provide additional information on locations of strong acoustic radiation. The near field scans provided valuable design information. The acoustic "hot" spots were discovered to exist in the lower portions of the machines near the main stepper motor in the Designer 1, and radiating from the bottom plate of the machine in the Pfaff Creative 2144. This analysis has led to various design modifications that could be implemented to improve the sound quality of the machines, specifically the Designer 1 and the Creative 2144.

Currently there are millions of Android cell phone users. Whenever a user changes location, he/she should manually modify the sound mode (ring, vibrate, silent). So, it’s slightly inconvenient to constantly monitor whether the phone is in general or silent mode. Sometimes user might forget to switch the mobile mode and may create a disturbance in the classroom or in the work area. To overcome this problem “Sound Mode Application” is an Android application that allows a user to automatically change the sound mode depending on his/her GPS location. Additionally, the user may activate or deactivate the application whenever need be, and user can add as many locations as required based on their daily life.

AbstractBioacoustics combines the fields of biology and acoustics to answer questions about hearing, sound production and sound communication in animals. Marine mammals have specialised hearing abilities and use sounds in different ways underwater. How do whales and seals use sound for communication and to find prey? How are they affected by human-made sounds from ships, oil exploration and windfarms? To answer such questions, you need to study marine mammals, be well-trained in natural sciences and know about animal anatomy, physiology and behaviour. You also need a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of acoustics, maths and physics. Bioacoustics is a truly interdisciplinary research field involving biologists, physicists and engineers trying to understand the world of biological sound, how sounds are produced and used by animals. Additionally, underwater acoustic recordings can reveal which areas animals use during different seasons. Bioacoustics can also be used to improve wildlife protection by regulating damaging sound sources in marine mammal habitats. Using the exercises at the end of this chapter, students learn about frequencies, decibels and their own hearing abilities, as well as how to build their own underwater microphone.

AbstractIdentifying a Markov decision process’s maximal end components is a prerequisite for applying sound probabilistic model checking algorithms. In this paper, we present the first mechanized correctness proof of a maximal end component decomposition algorithm, which is an important algorithm in model checking, using the Isabelle/HOL theorem prover. We iteratively refine the high-level algorithm and proof into an imperative LLVM bytecode implementation that we integrate into the Modest Toolset ’s existing model checker. We bring the benefits of interactive theorem proving into practice by reducing the trusted code base of a popular probabilistic model checker and we experimentally show that our new verified maximal end component decomposition in performs on par with the tool’s previous unverified implementation.

AbstractThis chapter examines the causal links between welfare state policies and individual-level outcomes. To this end, common theoretical premises, mechanisms and hypotheses are summarised and systematised. This is done by linking specific functions of the welfare state to specific groups of dependent variables, leading to a proposal for deriving theoretically sound indicators.

Abstract Much more steel must be produced from scrap to meet emissions targets, and utilizing this growing resource is a sound economic strategy. However, the presence of contaminating elements restricts the applications in which end-of-life scrap can replace primary steel. The use of low alloyed quenching and tempering steel grade such as 39MnCrB6-2 to reach high mechanical characteristics (around 1000 MPa) obliges often to apply low tempering temperatures for which tempering embrittlement may be observed. In this paper, it is proposed to reduce the hold time and to increase the temperature during conventional tempering to (1) reduce the embrittlement because of segregation of elements like copper, (2) to change the fracture mechanism with finer martensite sub-grains and (3) to promote θ particles with smaller dimensions but higher density.

To design a sound-absorbing panel, it is important to identify factors that affect the maximum sound absorption of low, middle and high frequency sounds. Perforation effect is very important for the noise-reducing and noiseabsorbing panels. Perforations are often used for sound reduction. Experimental data shows that the perforation is very effective to absorb low-frequency noise. In the presented study, influence of perforation coefficient of noise reduction was analyzed with theoretical and experimental methods. The experiments were conducted in noise reduction chamber using an perforated construction with glass wool filler. Sound reductions index of 15 dB indicates good acoustic properties of the panel.

As the climate changes over the 21st century, the Puget Sound region's urban forest will be impacted by changing temperatures and precipitation regimes, leading to implications for the people who depend on its ecosystem services. This report summarizes climate change projections for the Puget Sound region and provides an assessment of tree species vulnerability in the region. We used projected shifts in plant hardiness and heat zones to understand how tree species of interest are projected to tolerate future conditions. We also assessed the adaptability of planted trees to stressors such as drought, flooding, wind damage, and air pollution, as well as environmental conditions such as shade, soils, and restricted rooting using "modification factors"--an adaptability scoring system for planted environments. The region has been warming at a rate of about 0.4°F per decade since 1960, and the average temperature is projected to increase by 5.0°F to 8.6°F by the end of the century compared with the 1971-2000 historical average. Precipitation in the region has been increasing by over 0.5 inches per decade since 1960 and is projected to increase by 2.1 to 3.2 inches by the end of the century compared with the 1971-2000 historical average. By the end of the century, the Puget Sound region is projected to shift from hardiness zones 8-9 to zone 9 completely, and from heat zone 2 to heat zone 3 (RCP4.5) or 6 (RCP8.5), depending on the climate change scenario. Of the evaluated tree species, 27% were rated as having high adaptability, 59% were rated as having medium adaptability, and 14% were rated as having low adaptability. Given that the hardiness zone range is projected to remain within the historical (1980-2009) range, we considered both heat zones alone as well as heat and hardiness zones. Considering heat zones only, most of the assessed tree species fell into the low-moderate vulnerability category (57%), followed by low vulnerability (26%) and moderate vulnerability (17%) under both low and high climate change scenarios. The vulnerability ratings remain the same between low and high climate change scenarios because all assessed tree species are considered suitable under both sets (low and high) of heat zone projections through the end of the century. Considering both heat and hardiness zones, most of the assessed tree species fell into the moderate-high vulnerability category (34%), followed by low-moderate (25%), moderate (18%), low (14%), and high (9%). The vulnerability ratings are the same between low and high climate change scenarios because the projected hardiness zone is the same under both scenarios through the end of the century. The vulnerability of individual species is not the only factor to consider when making urban forestry decisions, and this assessment also contains species diversity and human health as additional factors. These projected changes in climate and their associated impacts and vulnerabilities will have important implications for urban forest management, including the planting and maintenance of street and park trees, equity and environmental justice efforts, and long-term planning from partnerships to green infrastructure.

Statistical distributions of urban noise levels are influenced by many complex phenomena, including spatial and temporal variations in the source level, multisource mixtures, propagation losses, and random fading from multipath reflections. This article provides a broad perspective on the varying impacts of these phenomena. Distributions incorporating random fading and averaging (e.g., gamma and noncentral Erlang) tend to be negatively skewed on logarithmic (decibel) axes but can be positively skewed if the fading process is strongly modulated by source power variations (e.g., compound gamma). In contrast, distributions incorporating randomly positioned sources and explicit geometric spreading [e.g., exponentially modified Gaussian (EMG)] tend to be positively skewed with exponential tails on logarithmic axes. To evaluate the suitability of the various distributions, one-third octave band sound-level data were measured at 37 locations in the North End of Boston, MA. Based on the Kullback-Leibler divergence as calculated across all of the locations and frequencies, the EMG provides the most consistently good agreement with the data, which were generally positively skewed. The compound gamma also fits the data well and even outperforms the EMG for the small minority of cases exhibiting negative skew. The lognormal provides a suitable fit in cases in which particular non-traffic noise sources dominate.

The Knowledge, Evidence and Learning for Development (K4D) Programme, which started in 2016, comes to an end in September 2022. K4D is a programme funded by and for the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (initially with the Department for International Development, DFID, which was merged with the FCO in 2020). To reflect on the processes and approaches of learning that K4D enabled over the years, a special Working Paper series will be published. One important pillar of the programme was to facilitate learning processes through learning journeys. A total of 33 learning journeys took place during K4D. This summary looks back at the K4D concept, the learning journeys, the learning processes it supported, and the outcomes enabled. The paper finds that there is evidence that K4D learning journeys have helped enable sound, informed decision-making through collective understanding of issues and options, and through internal consensus on directions. Effective learning spaces were created and the methods used (including online tools for participation) were able to capture and share internal learning, foster internal connections, present external evidence and bring in other perspectives. However, success in enabling external alliances for decisions and change was more constrained, since most learning journeys engaged only in limited ways with external organisations. Further challenges were encountered when staff were redeployed to respond to political (Brexit) or international development (COVID-19, Ukraine) priorities.

Nesta edição da revista, a presente seção conta com cinco resenhas de livros (também chamadas de book reviews). E há uma novidade: as duas primeiras resenhas foram escritas pelos próprios autores dos livros. As outras três resenhas ficaram a cargo dos editores do número 53. Outra novidade é que todas elas estão também disponíveis em língua inglesa (elas começam na página 7). Lembramos que as resenhas são escritas de forma abreviada e concisa, de modo a resumir o conteúdo dos livros (em assuntos relacionados com as diversas ciências que envolvem acústica, vibrações e áudio) e trazer informações acerca dos autores (para contextualizar ainda mais as obras). Para este número trazemos as resenhas dos seguintes livros: Sound-Politics in São Paulo Autor: Leonardo Cardoso | Oxford Press, 2019 Dinâmica Aplicada Autor: Roberto A. Tenenbaum | Editora Manole, 2016 (4 ed.) Acústica nos Edifícios Autor: Jorge Patrício | Publindústria, 2018 (7 ed.) Understanding Acoustics: An Experimentalist’s View of Sound and Vibration Autor: Steven L. Garret | Springer, 2020 Spatial Hearing: The Psychophysics of Human Sound Localization Autor: Jens Blauert | MIT Press, 1996 (Rev. Ed.). Leonardo Cardoso, professor na Texas A&amp;M University, apresenta seu livro sobre política sonora em São Paulo. Roberto Tenenbaum, professor da UFSM, apresenta a quarta edição de sua obra importante na compreensão de Acústica e Vibrações. Em seguida, é apresentado um dos livros de Jorge Patrício, referência portuguesa em Acústica de Edificações. O quarto livro é o “Entendendo a acústica”, de autoria de Steven Garret. Por último, o livro clássico do prof. alemão Jens Blauert, “Áudio espacial”, é apresentado. Esperamos que a leitura das resenhas ofereça as primeiras compreensões/impressões sobre as obras e desperte vontade de conhecê-las por inteiro: uma excelente maneira de ampliar o conhecimento e de se manter atualizado.

The aims of this research are to analyse the films directed by Akira Kurosawa in the narrative structure, the patterns of plot and the model of binary oppositions of structuralism; to analyse their contents based on the quest model and the semiotic square, to study the film language regarding point of view, the mise-en scene, the montage, the use of sound effect, and the narrative system in relation to the media, the types of the story and the auteurship. The results of the research finds that the plots reflect social problems. The contents are mostly represented by mise-en scene, motage, sound effect and music. The outstanding element is the mise en scene. The images presented represent the feeling and the emotions of the dramatic personal. Most themes and plots of those Films are not complicating, but straight forwardly presented. The stories the mostly about lower class in social. Their themes tend to inl/olve with some of beliefs, values, and preaches, such as "Rewards for goodness and punishment for badness" "to know your own respon sibilities" There are three main kinds of conflicts found in the plot: conflict between man and man, between man and society, and between man and nature.

Seton Lake is a freshwater fiord located in southwestern British Columbia, roughly 4 km west of Lillooet and 250 km north-northeast of Vancouver. Located in the Coast Mountains, it is an alpine lake about 22-km long and roughly 1-1.5 km wide. It is separated from nearby Anderson Lake, located to the west, by a large pre-historic rock avalanche deposit at Seton Portage. The lake stands at about 243 m above sea level and is up to about 150 m deep (BC gov., 1953). Water level is controlled by a hydroelectric dam (i.e., Seton dam) located at the eastern end of the lake. Here, the lake drains east into Seton Canal, a 5 km diversion of the flow of the Seton River, which begins at the Seton dam. The Seton Canal pushes water to the Seton Powerhouse, a hydroelectric generating station at the Fraser River, just south of the community of Sekw'el'was and confluence of the Seton River, which drains into the Fraser River at Lillooet. Seton Portage, Shalatlh, South Shalatlh, Tsal'alh (Shalath), Sekw'el'was (Cayoosh Creek), and T'it'q'et (Lillooet) are communities that surround the lake. Surrounded by mountainous terrain, the lake is flanked at mid-slope by glacial and colluvial sediments deposited during the last glacial and deglacial periods (Clague, 1989; Jakob, 2018). The bedrock consists mainly of mafic to ultramafic volcanic rocks with minor carbonate and argillite from the Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic periods (Journeay and Monger, 1994). As part of the Public Safety Geoscience Program at the Geological Survey of Canada (Natural Resources Canada), our goal is to provide baseline geoscience information to nearby communities, stakeholders and decision-makers. Our objective was to see what kind of sediments were deposited and specifically if we could identify underwater landslide deposits. Thus, we surveyed the lake using a Pinger SBP sub bottom profiler made by Knudsen Engineering Ltd., with dual 3.5 / 200 kHz transducers mounted to a small boat (see photo). This instrument transmits sound energy down through the water column that reflects off the lake bottom surface and underlying sediment layers. At the lake surface, the reflected sound energy is received by the profiler, recorded on a laptop computer, and integrated with GPS data. These data are processed to generate a two-dimensional image (or profile) showing the character of the lake bottom and underlying sediments along the route that the boat passed over. Our survey in 2022 recorded 98 profiles along Seton Lake. The red transect lines show the locations of the 20 profiles displayed on the poster. The types of sediments observed are mostly fine-grained glaciolacustrine sediments that are horizontally bedded with a subtle transition between glaciolacustrine to lacustrine (e.g., profiles A-A'; C-C'; F-F'; S-S'). Profile S-S' displays this transition zone. The glaciolacustrine sediments probably were deposited as the Cordilleran Ice Sheet retreated from the local area (~13,000-11,000 years ago; Clague, 2017) and the lacustrine sediments, after the ice receded to present-day conditions. Some of the parallel reflections are interrupted, suggesting abrupt sedimentation by deposits that are not horizontally bedded; these are interpreted as landslide deposits (see pink or blue deposits on profiles). The deposits that show disturbance in the sedimentation found within the horizontal beds are thought to be older landslides (e.g., blue arrows/deposits in profiles C-C'; E-E'; F-F'; G-G'; I-I'; J-J'; K-K'; N-N'; P-P'; Q-Q'; R-R'; T-T'; U-U'), but the ones that are found on top of the horizontally laminated sediments (red arrows/pink deposits), and close to the lake wall, are interpreted to be younger (e.g., profiles B-B'; C-C'; H-H'; K-K'; M-M'; O-O'; P-P'; Q-Q'). At the fan delta just west of Seton dam, where there was no acoustic signal penetration, it is interpreted that the delta failed and brought down coarser deposits at the bottom of the lake (e.g., profiles H-H'; M-M'; and perhaps K-K'). However, these could be glacial deposits, bedrock, or other coarser deposits. Some of the deposits that reflect poor penetration of the acoustic signal, below the glaciolacustrine sediments, could represent glacial deposits, old landslide deposits, or perhaps the presence of gas (orange arrows; e.g, B-B'; D-D'; J-J'; O-O', T-T'). The preliminary results from sub bottom profiling reveal that there are underwater landslides deposits of widely varying ages buried in the bottom of the lake. However, the exact timing of these is not known. Hence our preliminary survey gives an overview of the distribution of landslides where there seems to be a larger number of landslides recorded in the narrower eastern portion of the lake.

El objetivo de esta publicación es proporcionar orientación sobre los objetivos y principios subyacentes relativos a aspectos de la iluminación del paisaje nocturno urbano. Se tratan los elementos visuales, organizativos, ambientales y técnicos de estos aspectos de la planificación urbana. Esta guía identifica los criterios de planificación del alumbrado que deben tenerse en cuenta a la hora de tomar iniciativas en relación con el alumbrado nuevo o existente en zonas urbanas, o en aglomeraciones urbanas de nueva planificación. Se ofrecen orientaciones tanto sobre los aspectos funcionales como sobre los aspectos expresivos del alumbrado. Esta publicación está destinada a apoyar a los responsables de la toma de decisiones que deben iniciar, promover y gestionar la imagen nocturna de su ciudad, y que necesitan tener un plan director que proporcione una base sólida para el desarrollo de la iluminación a largo plazo. The purpose of this publication is to provide guidance about the objectives and underlying principles relating to the lighting aspects of the urban nightscape. It deals with the visual, organizational, environmental, and technical elements of these aspects of urban planning. This guide identifies the lighting planning criteria that should be considered when initiatives are being taken in relation to new or existing lighting in urban areas or newly planned conurbations. Guidance is provided to both the functional and expressive aspects of lighting. This publication is intended to support those decision makers who are required to initiate, promote, and manage the night-time image of their city and who require a masterplan to provide a sound basis for long term lighting developments.

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3

The National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) is the research arm of Wildlife Services (WS), a program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). NWRC’s researchers are dedicated to finding biologically sound, practical, and effective solutions to resolving wildlife damage management issues. They seek these solutions using a multiyear, multidisciplinary project management system. NWRC identifies and prioritizes projects based on feedback from WS program leaders, managers, and stakeholders concerning their most pressing wildlife damage management needs. During 2014, five research projects reached the end of their 5-year life cycle. At the final project reviews, project leaders and their staff presented and discussed each project’s accomplishments, challenges, and findings.