SCANAM method for the assessment of industrial noise

Work in an industrial environment is often associated with high levels of noise. For measuring and evaluating of noise levels, sometimes it is necessary to use several instruments. These instruments can be very expensive and require qualified personnel. Medium and small-sized firms often lack sufficient financial resources to ensure continuous measurement and assessment of noise levels. For this reason, a new SCANAM method for assessing the levels of noise is designed. This method involves the use of cheap and accurate sound level meter and specially designed software for assessing the effects of noise. Application of this method is very simple. Based on a noise sample in duration of eight hours, the accuracy of the SCANAM method was confirmed. Application of this method is significantly cheaper than an approach based on the use of expensive multi-function devices, or separate devices for measuring and assessing noise at the workplace.     

Horizontal plane sound source localization and auditory enhancement

Accurate sound source localization has advantages for the performance of work by humans. The ability to accurately localize sound sources contributes to perception, decision making and task performance. Two studies were conducted to investigate the prevalence of accurate sound source localization and the enhancement that spatially separated sound source locations can have on speech perception. The first study was conducted to characterize the ability to detect the location of horizontal plane sound sources. A sample of 117 participants with the hearing capacity within the normal limits participated in the study. The results indicated that sound sources located towards the front of the participant were identified more frequently than those sound sources located towards the rear positions. Based on the results found in the first study, a second study was conducted to assess performance within a listening task. Three different spatial configurations were used to assess if similar trends in performance translated to sound sources through headphones. Fifteen research participants performed a Coordinated Response Measure (CRM) task requiring the identification of a speech phrase and its associated information for a diotic configuration and two different spatial sound source configurations. Performance measured for the diotic configuration was significantly (p(0.05) less than for the two spatial configurations. The current studies indicate distinct advantages of utilizing localized sound sources to present auditory signal and speech to listeners.     

The Impact of Sound in Modern Multiline Video Slot Machine Play

Slot machine wins and losses have distinctive, measurable, physiological effects on players. The contributing factors to these effects remain under-explored. We believe that sound is one of these key contributing factors. Sound plays an important role in reinforcement, and thus on arousal level and stress response of players. It is the use of sound for positive reinforcement in particular that we believe influences the player. In the current study, we investigate the role that sound plays in psychophysical responses to slot machine play. A total of 96 gamblers played a slot machine simulator with and without sound being paired with reinforcement. Skin conductance responses and heart rate, as well as subjective judgments about the gambling experience were examined. The results showed that the sound influenced the arousal of participants both psychophysically and psychologically. The sound also influenced players’ preferences, with the majority of players preferring to play slot machines that were accompanied by winning sounds. The sounds also caused players to significantly overestimate the number of times they won while playing the slot machine.     

Impacts of traffic noise on anuran and bird communities

Anurans and birds rely on sound for a number of social behaviors. Species that use roadside habitats are exposed to traffic noise that can mask important social signals and directly affect the community diversity and composition. We evaluate the impact of traffic noise on anuran and bird species richness, species occurrence, and composition in Puerto Rico, where there is a high density of highways and cars that generate high levels of noise pollution. We compared paired forest sites near (100 m, n = 20, dB > 60) and far (>300 m, n = 20, dB < 60) from highways, with similar vegetation structure, but different levels of noise. We found that the anuran community was not affected by traffic noise. In contrast, bird species richness and occurrence were significantly lower in sites near the highway, and bird species composition also varied significantly. Bird species with low-frequency songs were only detected in sites far from highways. The differences in the ecology and communication behavior between anurans and birds could explain these results. Anurans mainly call at night, when traffic activity was low. In contrast, bird singing activity occurs during the day and overlaps with the high levels of traffic noise. In addition, in natural habitats, Puerto Rican anurans occur at high densities and form noisy choruses (>80 dB), which may allow them to tolerate high levels of anthropogenic noise.     

Training for Civic Leadership

In this article, the authors offer social studies educators a way to deepen students' understanding of civil disobedience as a democratic and nonviolent means of instigating social change. The authors explore the concept of civil disobedience from a historical perspective and examine the justifications and ramifications of each historical example. In addition, they provide several examples of events that are often mistakenly categorized as civil disobedience. Through these examples, the authors develop a sound definition of the concept, while explaining its application to contemporary society. In actualizing the significance of civil disobedience in the secondary social studies classroom, the authors use five components: the historical importance of civil disobedience, the concept of civil disobedience, the argument for civil disobedience, the argument against civil disobedience, and teaching about civil disobedience. They also incorporate civil disobedience into a lesson plan.     

Quantitative noise analysis at two marble finishing plants in Olinda, Pernambuco, Brazil

In Olinda there are an estimated 50 marble quarries, 3 of which are members of the stone extraction and finishing industry's state union. The objective here is to quantitatively evaluate the noise present at the workplace in two of Olinda's unionized marble quarries. The data to be analyzed was collected during December 2010, this month representing one of the four busiest months of production. The samples were collected from Tuesdays to Fridays in order to avoid irregular outcomes. Instantaneous readings were taken with the decibel meter to identify points of Noise Pressure Level (NPL) higher than Action Level (AL). Afterwards, the full procedure for the characterization of noise level with the decibel meter in order to compare the Homogeneous Exposure Group (HEG) to those with High Risk Exposure (HRE) was initiated. The noisiest sources came from humid cutting machines, marble saws and polishing equipment. The activities of cutter and polisher became classified as follows: unsafe, in a critical situation and in need of priority control for the work environment with noise level values varying from 95.0 dB(A) to 103.3 dB(A), calling for the use of ear protection during the entire work day.     

创新社会管理背景下的上海社区建设研究

当前上海社会管理面临的主要问题在于:快速城市化和大规模人口流动使社会管理与公共服务的空间布局出现失衡;城市产业升级和转型发展使社会管理与服务的多样化供给压力增大;利益格局急剧变革导致维护社会稳定的压力长期存在;社会急剧分化和人口高度异质性使社会再组织化和社会体制创新的任务更加繁重。上海社区建设必须立足城市发展全局,有效回应城市人口重新分布和复杂社会结构中蕴含的多重矛盾和问题,顺应健全社会管理新格局的基本要求。在承继上海社区建设传统和借鉴国内外经验基础上,从破解城郊社区建设难题、满足多样化社区需求、适应差异性社区类型等方面提升能力,寻求体制创新和活力激发的新突破。     

Invisible Barricades: Civil Society and the Discourse of the WTO

Concerns about the legitimacy and accountability of international institutions have prompted a sizable literature on the potential of civil society to help democratize global economic governance. Attention has primarily focused on the institutional factors impacting civil society participation in global governance. In this article, however, I point to the existence of yet more fundamental barriers operating at the level of discourse. I use critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyze the discourse of the World Trade Organization (WTO), focusing on a key text in which it attempts to engage directly with the concerns of civil society, supported by a broad range of additional data sources, including documentary materials, interviews, and observation. Drawing on the case of the WTO, I argue that the discourse of global governance institutions can itself act as an ‘invisible barricade’, preventing the meaningful inclusion of civil society in policy debates and deliberations.     

An empirical analysis of the use of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in assessing the distribution of electronic gaming machines and its socio-economic implications

Sargent and Holmes (2014) proposed the use of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in assessing the effects of the distribution of electronic gaming machines (EGMs) on expenditure and tax outcomes for local areas. This paper reports empirical analysis on the use of the Herfindahl Hirschman Index (HHI) in this application. Comparative testing of HHI and population-based measures, such as EGM density, was conducted using EGM data from the New South Wales State Government (Australia) for the period 1995 to 2005. The analysis also compares the use of the commonly used Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage, with the Index of Education and Occupation. The socio-economic elements comprising the latter index are acknowledged as being relevant to the assessment of gambling impacts. The results indicate that the use of a concentration measure such as the HHI may augment the use of existing measures in policy development and localized decision-making on distribution of gambling facilities.     

The affective work of sound: the case of Pussy Riot’s noise

In recent years, the anti-Putin content of Pussy Riot’s work has received sustained scholarly attention. The author argues, however, that it is not only in content but also in force – in operationality of noise, in its capacity to act and incite – that Pussy Riot engaged with Russia’s regimes of power. Once Pussy Riot emerged as a feminist collective performing noisy interventions in public spaces and mapping them onto cyberspace, their performances were described as non-musical and aesthetically unpleasant based on negative stereotyping of noise. This article takes the ambiguous feeling of the non-musical as a point of departure and explores how sound was integral to the formation of Pussy Riot’s identity as noisemaker in the face of the Kremlin’s noise-abatement campaign associated with the moral project of silence. It builds on a philosophical framework proposed by Michel Serres and the latest theoretical developments in sound and affect studies to examine the urgency of Pussy Riot’s work in the contemporary political climate.     

Harnessing the reliability of outcome measures

A method is presented for engineering the necessary levels of measurement reliability for evaluating ongoing programs. Two studies of levels of client functioning at a community mental health center (CMHC), in which an outcome measure, the Global Assessment Scale (GAS), did not perform as expected, drew attention to the need for better control of outcome measure reliabilities. Drawing from generalizability theory, a study was conducted of three sources of GAS score variance — clients, raters, and training in the use of the scale. Several estimates of reliability (ERs) were developed, depending on the manner in which the GAS ratings were, or would be, obtained in the CMHC. The differences among these ERs clarified why the GAS had lower reliability when used in our setting. Finally, two hypothetical examples are described to illustrate the utility of applying generalizability theory to achieve higher reliabilities for outcome measures.     

Social movement as civic education: communication activities and understanding of civil disobedience in the Umbrella Movement

Occupy Central, which would later evolve into the Umbrella Movement, was conceived as a civil disobedience campaign when it was first proposed in early 2013. Although the history of civil disobedience in Hong Kong arguably spans decades, the concept was seldom discussed in the public arena, and the practice was not well established in the society's repertoire of contentious actions. The years 2013 and 2014 thus constituted a “critical discourse moment” in which the concept of civil disobedience was intensively discussed and debated. This study seeks to determine whether the Occupy Central campaign and the Umbrella Movement had an educational function that led to increased levels of the public's understanding of civil disobedience. The analysis of the responses to two surveys conducted in September 2013 and October 2014 showed that the public's understanding of civil disobedience increased substantially over the year. After the Umbrella Movement started, attitudinal support for and actual participation in the movement, the political use of social media, and discussions with disagreeing others significantly predicted the understanding of civil disobedience. The theoretical and social implications of the findings are discussed.     

Individual and Organizational Determinants of Wage Disparities in Israel's Local Authorities

Abstract

In this study I compare hypotheses derived from a resource-based view of management with those based on an institutional perspective to test whether wage levels in local authorities are more likely to reflect technical or allocative efficiency measures, the former deriving from “autonomous” revenues from private sources, the latter from policy-based allocation of resources. A focus on wage variations for 5,033 employees from 83 local authorities shows that the level of autonomous revenues lowers the wages for women and Arab employees but not for men and Jewish employees. The results suggest that local authorities use a differential wage allocation, probably indicating increased access to privatized and outsourced employee recruitment. Moreover, the results show that equal opportunity notions, presumably inherent in social policy guidelines, do not ensure interorganizational homogeneity in wages: metropolitan and larger local authorities are more likely to use technical than institutional measures of organizational success. I conclude that neoinstitutional hypotheses that focus both on the competitive and institutional aspects of governance are differentially applied in regard to wages.     

Study on the impact of exposure to noise in professional snipers

Facing an increasing violence level and higher firepower in the hands of criminal organizations (especially those related to drug trafficking), the Military Police of Pernambuco has created, in 1989, the "1a Companhia Independente de Opera??es Especiais" (1st Independent Company of Special Operations), as a tactical last resort of the Police to be used on special, complex situations. The CIOE progressively makes use of Negotiation measures, of less-than-lethal maneuvers, of Precision Shots and Tactical Assaults. When all possibilities are drained, the Precision Shot will bring the crisis perpetrator down. This study had as an objective to assess the level of impact noise suffered by the elite snipers of the 1st CIOE-PE in their training. The working conditions of the snipers were evaluated through the use of a semi-structured questionnaire. Noise measuring was done on four (4) .308 IMBEL AGLC (with ammo from the same lot) rifles. Six (6) shots were fired off each gun, separated by a 30-second pause. In the end, it has been concluded that the noise level the 1st CIOE snipers are submitted to is considered to be normal by Brazilian legislation.     

Sampling refugee groups: The example of Syrians in Turkey

Quantitative surveys among refugees not only advance our scientific understanding of forced migration, but they also provide political and civil society actors with the information they need to take measures to improve their protection and living conditions. These actors often need to acquire such information within a short period of time. However, the methods to access and survey this group to gain valid findings are subject to scientific debates. Based on a survey among Syrian refugees in Turkey, this article demonstrates a study design that generated valid knowledge about this population within a limited amount of time and resources. As a unique feature of the article, we compare our sample with four other sources of information to scrutinize how well it resembles the target population. As we can show, although point estimations differ to some extent, the internal distributions of sample characteristics are comparable across sources confirming the success of our sampling method.     

Psychological vulnerability and problem gambling: an application of Durand Jacobs' general theory of addictions to electronic gaming machine playing in Australia

The aim of this study was to conduct an empirical investigation of the validity of Jacobs' (in J Gambl Behav 2:15-31, 1986) general theory of addictions in relation to gambling problems associated with electronic gaming machines (EGM). Regular EGM gamblers (n?=?190) completed a series of standardised measures relating to psychological and physiological vulnerability, substance use, dissociative experiences, early childhood trauma and abuse and problem gambling (the Problem Gambling Severity Index). Statistical analysis using structural equation modelling revealed clear relationships between childhood trauma and life stressors and psychological vulnerability, dissociative-like experiences and problem gambling. These findings confirm and extend a previous model validated by Gupta and Derevensky (in J Gambl Stud 14: 17-49, 1998) using an adolescent population. The significance of these findings are discussed for existing pathway models of problem gambling, for Jacobs' theory, and for clinicians engaged in assessment and intervention.     

A Comparison of Ambient Casino Sound and Music: Effects on Dissociation and on Perceptions of Elapsed Time While Playing Slot Machines

This research examined the effects of a casino’s auditory character on estimates of elapsed time while gambling. More specifically, this study varied whether the sound heard while gambling was ambient casino sound alone or ambient casino sound accompanied by music. The tempo and volume of both the music and ambient sound were varied to manipulate temporal engagement and introspection. One hundred and sixty (males = 91) individuals played slot machines in groups of 5–8, after which they provided estimates of elapsed time. The findings showed that the typical ambient casino auditive environment, which characterizes the majority of gaming venues, promotes understated estimates of elapsed duration of play. In contrast, when music is introduced into the ambient casino environment, it appears to provide a cue of interval from which players can more accurately reconstruct elapsed duration of play. This is particularly the case when the tempo of the music is slow and the volume is high. Moreover, the confidence with which time estimates are held (as reflected by latency of response) is higher in an auditive environment with music than in an environment that is comprised of ambient casino sounds alone. Implications for casino management are discussed.     

Blue Gum Gaming Machine: An Evaluation of Responsible Gambling Features

Structural characteristics of gaming machines contribute to persistence in play and excessive losses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of five proposed responsible gaming features: responsible gaming messages; a bank meter quarantining winnings until termination of play; alarm clock facilitating setting time-reminders; demo mode allowing play without money; and a charity donation feature where residual amounts can be donated rather than played to zero credits. A series of ten modified gaming machines were located in five Australian gambling venues. The sample comprised 300 patrons attending the venue and who played the gaming machines. Participants completed a structured interview eliciting gambling and socio-demographic data and information on their perceptions and experience of play on the index machines. Results showed that one-quarter of participants considered that these features would contribute to preventing recreational gamblers from developing problems. Just under half of the participants rated these effects to be at least moderate or significant. The promising results suggest that further refinements to several of these features could represent a modest but effective approach to minimising excessive gambling on gaming machines.     

深化农村土地管理制度改革研究

上海要深化农村土地管理制度改革,在农村承包地流转方面:要加强引导,规范农村土地承包权流转;加强扶持,构建完整的政策制度体系;制定规则,形成机制保障。在农村集体建设用地流转方面:要真正实施国有土地与集体土地"同地、同价、同权";要正确处理集体建设用地节约、集约利用与增加农民财产性收入的关系;要制定郊区集体建设用地的各类标准,控制用地总量;要制定集体建设用地使用权流转的配套政策;要建立完善的农民社会保障体系,清除集体建设用地流转的障碍。在农村宅基地置换、退出方面:要建立农民宅基地分配、使用、置换、流转、收回政策体系;要采取限制措施,严控宅基地的新增趋势;要采取滚动发展模式,解决宅基地置换资金缺口大的问题。