The influence of music and stress on musicians’ hearing

Hearing and hearing disorders among classical and rock/jazz musicians was investigated. Pure tone audiometry was done in 140 classical and 139 rock/jazz musicians. The rock/jazz musicians answered a questionnaire concerning hearing disorders and psychosocial exposure. All results were compared to age appropriate reference materials. Hearing thresholds showed a notch configuration in both classical and rock/jazz musicians indicating the inclusion of high sound levels but an overall well-preserved hearing thresholds. Female musicians had significantly better hearing thresholds in the high-frequency area than males. Rock/jazz musicians showed slight worse hearing thresholds as compared to classical musicians. When assessing hearing disorders, a large number of rock/jazz musicians suffered from different hearing disorders (74%). Hearing loss, tinnitus and hyperacusis were the most common disorders and were significantly more frequent in comparison with different reference populations. Among classical musicians, no extended negative progress of the pure tone hearing threshold values was found in spite of the continued 16 years of musical noise exposure. In rock/jazz musicians, there was no relationships between psychosocial factors at work and hearing disorders. The rock/jazz musicians reported low stress and high degree of energy. On the average, the rock/jazz musicians reported higher control, lower stress and higher energy than a reference material of white-collar workers.     

The quadrupole interaction at iodine impurities in a tellurium matrix derived from β-γ TDPAC experiments

Time differential perturbed angular correlation measurements on the implated single crystal system and , using an allowed - cascade, are reported. The information obtained, determines the orientation of the principal axes system of the electric fieldgradient and its value at room temperature. The results are compared with earlier Mössbauer effect measurements and the binding of an iodine impurity in tellurium is discussed.     

Dependence of the TDPAC spectra on teh orientation of the principal axis system of the electric field gradient

Analytical expressions are derived, which give the frequency amplitudes of a time differential perturbed angular correlation pattern, as a function of the orientation angles of the principal axis system of the electric field gradient tensor. We show, that allowed - TDPAC experiments are anisotropic only if the main axis of the electric field gradient forms a unique angle with the crystal symmetry axis or if the multiple crystallographically equivalent directions in a cubic crystal are unequally populated.