Nature of orchestral noise

Professional orchestral musicians are at risk of exposure to excessive noise when at work. This is an industry-wide problem that threatens not only the hearing of orchestral musicians but also the way orchestras operate. The research described in this paper recorded noise levels within a professional orchestra over three years in order to provide greater insight to the orchestral noise environment; to guide future research into orchestral noise management and hearing conservation strategies; and to provide a basis for the future education of musicians and their managers. Every rehearsal, performance, and recording from May 2004 to May 2007 was monitored, with the woodwind, brass, and percussion sections monitored in greatest detail. The study recorded dBALEQ and dBC peak data, which are presented in graphical form with accompanying summarized data tables. The findings indicate that the principal trumpet, first and third horns, and principal trombone are at greatest risk of exposure to excessive sustained noise levels and that the percussion and timpani are at greatest risk of exposure to excessive peak noise levels. However, the findings also strongly support the notion that the true nature of orchestral noise is a great deal more complex than this simple statement would imply.     

浅海环境中的时间反转多用户水声通信

在无线电通信中,多用户通信可以采用时分多址(TDMA)、频分多址(FDMA)或者码分多址(CDMA)技术来实现,在水声通信中,信道的多途传播特性带来的空间差异,提供了另外的多用户通信手段。时间反转(或相位共轭)技术,能够实现对空间中指定点的聚焦接收和多途压缩,它为空间位置不同的多个用户提供了相互独立的通信通道,能够很好地克服用户之间的同道干扰(CI)。本文在垂直阵接收的基础上,利用时间反转技术来实现不同用户在同一信道中的同时通信,结合带锁相环的自适应判决反馈均衡技术来消除残余的多途码间干扰,并进行了初步的海上试验,实现了两个不同深度上用户的同时通信。     

Contracting acoustics

This letter covers the subject of the evaluation of tenders for both noise control products, and items with acoustic features which are evaluated at the tender stage of a contract. Examples taken from different fields show that, at the present time, there is a need for manufacturers of noise control products, etc, to understand normal tendering procedure. Such procedures are reviewed in the first part of this note.     

Courtyard acoustics

The acoustic environment of courtyard housing has been studied and the ability of the courtyard to attenuate external noise examined. A scale-model was used to study the effect of the ground treatment, the source and the receiver locations, the depth of the courtyard and the position and arrangement of openings in the walls.Experimental results obtained from the model, together with a simple procedure for predicting the sound pressure levels inside the courtyard, are presented.     

Examination of time-reversal acoustics in shallow water and applications to noncoherent underwater communications

The shallow water acoustic communication channel is characterized by strong signal degradation caused by multipath propagation and high spatial and temporal variability of the channel conditions. At the receiver, multipath propagation causes intersymbol interference and is considered the most important of the channel distortions. This paper examines the application of time-reversal acoustic (TRA) arrays, i.e., phase-conjugated arrays (PCAs), that generate a spatio-temporal focus of acoustic energy at the receiver location, eliminating distortions introduced by channel propagation. This technique is self-adaptive and automatically compensates for environmental effects and array imperfections without the need to explicitly characterize the environment. An attempt is made to characterize the influences of a PCA design on its focusing properties with particular attention given to applications in noncoherent underwater acoustic communication systems. Due to the PCA spatial diversity focusing properties, PC arrays may have an important role in an acoustic local area network. Each array is able to simultaneously transmit different messages that will focus only at the destination receiver node.     

宇称时间对称性声学

对称性是自然界中最基本的物理属性之一。很多物理现象都与对称性相关联。例如,量子力学中描述具备一定对称性微观物理过程采用厄米—哈密顿算符,其中厄米性不仅确保算符本征值为实数,而且使微观过程满足几率守恒。1998年,Bender和Boettcher发现存在一类非厄米—哈密顿算符,它们的本征值也为实数并满足几率守恒。这类非厄米哈密顿算符最为典型的特征是满足宇称时间对称性。由于时变薛定谔方程和近轴波动方程形式具有相似性,故可进一步将宇称时间对称性引入经典波开放体系。文章回顾了量子体系中宇称时间对称破缺的发现过程,介绍了宇称时间对称性声学的理论模型,以及近期发现的一些奇异效应,并展望了宇称时间对称性声学的研究前景。     

计算大气声学

近年来陆续涌现的一批有关大气声传播的数值计算工作,已使“计算大气声学”这一新兴“亚分支”的形成指日可待。本文简明扼要、系统全面地介绍了这一崭新领域的概貌,较为详尽地阐述了其主要对象和方法——特别是其中的抛物方程(PE)法、快速场程序(FFP)和可看成是一种修正的射线寻迹法——Gauss射线束(GB)法。因限于篇辐,未能将各种方法的结果比较列入,这一部分有趣的材料以后有机会另行发表。     

频散、声场干涉结构、波导不变量与消频散变换

针对浅海环境中利用单深度接收信号自相关函数的Warping变换方法测距时易出现的多值性问题, 提出一种双深度Warping变换融合测距方法。该方法将双深度测量场的Warping变换提取结果与具有深度差异的拷贝场本征函数信息融合, 判别简正波干涉项模态, 提高测距的准确度。此外, 针对实际海洋环境中测量场Warping变换特征峰位置难以准确提取的问题, 将Warping变换的频率不变性与图像形态学方法结合以增强特征频率结构, 提高后续测距的稳健性。海试数据处理结果显示, 测距结果与实际距离符合较好, 表明所提方法具有实际可行性。

     

语言声学进展及其应用

本文对语言声学研究的最新进展进行综述。首先介绍了人类的言语的产生和感知以及声学分析方面的近期发展,接着重点阐述了计算机处理人类语音(包括语音识别和合成,发音评估以及演唱评价)的最新研究、成果。同时提及了这些研究成果的相关应用。最后是总结与展望。     

语言声学的进展

本文涉及语言声学的语音学研究、文语转换技术、语音识别技术及自然语言处理等方面，简要介绍了有关汉语在前三方面的进展和发展方向；重点介绍了面向整个自然语言理解处理的新理论一概念层次网络（HNC）理论的主要内容及其进展，试图在理论层面上给出HNC理论的基本概貌。