ABSTRACT
The EC has published a Green Paper on noise policy in the EU and has issued a directive on the assessment and reduction of environmental noise. This directive will make noise mapping mandatory for cities with at least 250.000 inhabitants. Due to the development in computer technology it is possible to calculate noise maps for large urban areas using the available data on buildings, ground profile, road and rail traffic. Examples for noise mapping are Birmingham (GB), Linz (A) and various German cities. Based on noise maps and empirical data on the correlation between annoyance and noise levels annoyance maps for different sources (rail, road, aircraft) can be calculated. Under the assumption that the annoyance for the different sources are only weakly correlated, a combined annoyance map can be calculated. In a second step using the distribution of the population the actual number of annoyed people can be evaluated. This analysis can be used, for example, to identify noise hot spots and to assess the impact of major traffic projects - roads, airports- on the noise situation as well as the impact on the population. Furthermore, the combined annoyance maps can be used to investigate on health effects and to check whether or not empirical correlations between annoyance and noise levels are sufficiently correct.
ABSTRACT
Obtaining data relating intestinal mechanical properties and histology is a step towards the next level in the hierarchy of structure of living tissue, and may provide new insight into the mechanisms of intestinal function and disease such as obstruction. Due to lack of methodology, however, such data are currently sparse. Scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) can measure the propagation speed of sound (C) and the acoustic impedance (Z) with micrometer resolution in tissue. By use of elementary theory of elasticity, the elastic stiffness (c11) can be computed from C and Z. We used 5-microm-thick transverse sections of ethanol treated guinea pig small intestine as the experimental model and measured the distribution of C and Z across the intestinal wall using SAM at 500 MHz. The individual layers mucosa, submucosa, and circular and longitudinal muscle were discerned with ease in the images and varied significantly with respect to both C and Z in most cases. The measured values (median values) of C ranged from 1550 to 1669 m s(-1), and Z ranged from 2.10 to 2.60 MPa s m(-1). c11 differed between all layers ranging from 3.25 to 4.27 GPa with the following sequence of magnitude: circular muscle >submucosa>mucosa>longitudinal muscle (p<0.001). In conclusion, we provided the first microscale mechanical data relating to the histological layers of the small intestine.
