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We investigate the possible presence of ‘long time’ memory in the auto-correlations of biophonic activity of environment sound. The study is based on recordings taken at two sites located in the Parco Nord of Milan (Italy), characterized by a wooded land, rich in biodiversity and exposed to different sources and degrees of anthropogenic disturbances. The audio files correspond to a three-day recording campaign (1-min recording followed by 5-min pause), from (17:00) April 30 to (17:00) May 3, 2019, which have been transformed into ecoacoustic indices time series. The following eight indices have been computed: Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), Acoustic Diversity Index (ADI), Acoustic Evenness Index (AEI), Bio-acoustic Index (BI), Acoustic Entropy Index (H), Acoustic Richness index (AR), Normalized Difference Soundscape Index (NSDI) and Dynamic Spectral Centroid (DSC). We have grouped the indices carrying similar sound information by performing a principal component analysis (PCA). This allows us to reduce the number of variables from eight to three by retaining a large (≳80%) variance of the original variables. The time series corresponding to the reduced set of new variables have been analyzed, and both seasonal and possible long term trend components have been extracted. We find that no trends are present, i.e. the resulting time series are stationary, and the auto-correlations of the three selected PCA dimensions and associated residuals (obtained after extracting the seasonal components) can be determined. The calculations reveal the presence of a “memory” of few (≲5) hours long in the environment sound, for the two sites considered, which is quantified by the Hurst exponent, H. For Site 1, we find an overall effective Hurst exponent, Hdim≃0.88, for all three dimensions, and Hres≃0.75 for the residuals. For Site 2, the exponents are slightly smaller, amounting to 0.80 and 0.60, respectively. We attempt to correlate the Hurst exponents with a quality index obtained

Noise annoyance depends not only on sound energy, but also on other features, such as those in its spectrum (e.g., low frequency and/or tonal components), and, over time, amplitude fluctuations, such as those observed in road, rail, or aircraft noise passages. The larger these fluctuationsthe more annoying a sound is generally perceived. Many algorithms have been implemented to quantify these fluctuations and identify noise events, either by looking at transients in the sound level time history, such as exceedances above a fixed or time adaptive threshold, or focusing on the hearing perception process of such events. In this paper, four criteria to detect sound were applied to the acoustic monitoring data collected in two urban areas, namely Andorra la Vella, Principality of Andorra, and Milan, Italy. At each site, the 1 s A-weighted short LAeq,1s time history, 10 min long, was available for each hour from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The resulting 92-time histories cover a reasonable range of urban environmental noise time patterns. The considered criteria to detect noise events are based on: (i) noise levels exceeding by +3 dB the continuous equivalent level LAeqT referred to the measurement time (T), criteria used in the definition of the Intermittency Ratio (IR) to detect noise events; (ii) noise levels exceeding by +3 dB the running continuous equivalent noise level; (iii) noise levels exceeding by +10 dB the 50th noise level percentile; (iv) progressive positive increments of noise levels greater than 10 dB from the event start time. Algorithms (iii) and (iv) appear suitable for notice-event detection; that is, those that (for their features) are clearly perceived and potentially annoy exposed people. The noise events detected by the above four algorithms were also evaluated by the available anomalous noise event detection (ANED) procedure to classify them as produced by road traffic noise or something else. Moreover, the assessment of the sonic environment by the H

We investigated the statistical properties of the sounds recorded at a site located in the Parco Nord of Milan, Italy, characterized by wooded land rich in biodiversity and exposed to different sources and types of anthropogenic disturbances with the aim of deriving information on its environmental quality in terms of biophonic presence and athropic disturbance. A time series of eco-acosutic indices were determined for 616 audio files recorded from 30 April 2019 (5:00 p.m.) to 3 May 2019 (5:00 a.m.) with a 1-min duration followed by a 5-min pause (10 recordings per hour). In the present study, the following indices were computed: the Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), Acoustic Diversity Index (ADI), Acoustic Evenness Index (AEI), Bio-acoustic Index (BI), Acoustic Entropy Index (H), Normalized Difference Soundscape Index (NSDI) and Dynamic Spectral Centroid (DSC). Cluster analysis performed on the corresponding time series yielded a dimensional reduction from seven down to three. The results show a clear separation of the eco-acoustic indices into two clusters, reflecting the different dynamics and diversity behaviour throughout the recordings. A post-processing aural survey was also performed, aiming at determining biophonic activities (mainly avian vocalization and other animals), the characteristics of technophonies sources (mainly road traffic noise and airplane fly-overs), human presence (voices and steps) and geophonies (rain and wind). The statistical analysis proved to be a robust tool due to the good matching obtained with the aural survey outcomes. The overall quality of the Parco Nord phonic activity was found to be low. Notwithstanding the presence of avian species, highlighted by the characteristic dawn chorus, both clusters revealed low “scores” of NDSI and DSC indices heavily influenced by road traffic sources. This study represents the first step toward the realization of maps of eco-acoustic indices for the long-term monitoring of fragile habitats.

Background: Recent guidelines suggested a wider use of long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAI) than previously, but naturalistic data on the consequences of LAI use in terms of discontinuation rates and associated factors are still sparse, making it hard for clinicians to be informed on plausible treatment courses. Objective: Our objective was to assess, under real-world clinical circumstances, LAI discontinuation rates over a period of 12 months after a first prescription, reasons for discontinuation, and associated factors. Methods: The STAR Network ‘Depot Study’ was a naturalistic, multicentre, observational prospective study that enrolled subjects initiating a LAI without restrictions on diagnosis, clinical severity or setting. Participants from 32 Italian centres were assessed at baseline and at 6 and 12 months of follow-up. Psychopathology, drug attitude and treatment adherence were measured using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Drug Attitude Inventory and the Kemp scale, respectively. Results: The study followed 394 participants for 12 months. The overall discontinuation rate at 12 months was 39.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 34.4–44.3), with paliperidone LAI being the least discontinued LAI (33.9%; 95% CI 25.3–43.5) and olanzapine LAI the most discontinued (62.5%; 95% CI 35.4–84.8). The most frequent reason for discontinuation was onset of adverse events (32.9%; 95% CI 25.6–40.9) followed by participant refusal of the medication (20.6%; 95% CI 14.6–27.9). Medication adherence at baseline was negatively associated with discontinuation risk (hazard ratio [HR] 0.853; 95% CI 0.742–0.981; p = 0.026), whereas being prescribed olanzapine LAI was associated with increased discontinuation risk compared with being prescribed paliperidone LAI (HR 2.156; 95% CI 1.003–4.634; p = 0.049). Conclusions: Clinicians should be aware that LAI discontinuation is a frequent occurrence. LAI choice should be carefully discussed with the patient, tak

A noise monitoring campaign has been performed in an urban park of Milan (Italy) called Parco Nord. The area of study is a large peri-urban park in the northern part of the city, characterized by wooded land rich in biodiversity and exposed to different sources and degrees of anthropogenic disturbances, such as road traffic noise and artificial light. The acoustic environment is rather complex due to the contemporary presence of different noise sources, leading to the difficult task of discriminating them in audio data. Due to these multifactorial characteristics, we evaluated different eco-acoustic indices in the attempt to derive a methodology to evaluate the potential of sound ecology indicators to discriminate the different types of sounds present in medium-large urban parks. Two different sites have been considered with different degree of anthropogenic disturbance. Time series of about two-week recordings have been transformed into eco-acoustics indices and statistically analysed. The results show a redistribution of recordings into two clusters associated with different sound components and different periods of the day. This allowed the identification of different degrees of biophonic and/or anthropogenic activities throughout the day in the two sites.

The paper describes the analysis of noise annoyance complaints submitted by citizens to the Municipality of Milan, Italy, from years 2000 to 2015. These complaints have been organized in a database and analysed according to: i) types of noise sources (technical facilities, music, transport infrastructures, etc.), ii) activities (retail and catering businesses, production, service sector, etc.) and iii) outcomes of the complaints inspection by local authorities. In addition, by means of a Geographic Information System (GIS) software, the spatial distribution of complaints has been determined according to the noise source type and activities, including also a geo-statistical representation by complaints density maps. The results show that, despite the dominant noise source in urban areas is mainly the road traffic, the other noises, such as those from industrial facilities, constructions and social activities (parties, fairs and open air markets, residential noise, etc.), are perceived as more disturbing. Since 2007, the number of noise complaints (about 100-150 complaints/year) is almost constant across the years. However, these complaints are expected to increase due to the growing and spreading of leisure activities, malls, exhibition centres and event venues, observed for the years 2014-2015.

Noise energetic indicators, like Lden, show good correlations with long term annoyance, but should be supplemented by other parameters describing the sound fluctuations, which are very common in urban areas and negatively impact noise annoyance. Thus, in this paper, the hourly values of continuous equivalent level LAeqh and the intermittency ratio (IR) were both considered to describe the urban road traffic noise, monitored in 90 sites in the city of Milan and covering different types of road, from motorways to local roads. The noise data have been processed by clustering methods to detect similarities and to figure out a criterion to classify the urban sites taking into account both equivalent noise levels and road traffic noise events. Two clusters were obtained and, considering the cluster membership of each site, the decimal logarithm of the day-time (06:00-22:00) traffic flow was used to associate each new road with the clusters. In particular, roads with average day-time hourly traffic flow ≥1900 vehicles/hour were associated with the cluster with high traffic flow. The described methodology could be fruitfully applied on road traffic noise data in other cities.

The characterization of environmental quality and the detection of the first sign of environmental stress, with reference to human intrusion, is currently a very important goal to prevent further environmental degradation, and consequently habitat destruction, in order to take appropriate preservation measures. Besides the traditional field observation and satellite remote sensing, geophonic and/or biophonic sounds have been proposed as potential indicators of terrestrial and aquatic settings’ status. In this work, we analyze a series of short audio-recordings taken in urban parks and bushes characterized by the presence of different human-generated-noise and species abundance. This study aims to propose a tool devoted to the investigation of urban and natural environments in a context with different soundscape qualities, such as, for example, those that can be found in urban parks. The analysis shows the ways in which it is possible to distinguish among different habitats by the use of a combination of different acoustic and sound ecology indices.

Noise complaints, expressed by individuals or a group of people, are the outcome of a complex behaviour depending not only on the noise exposure and its evoked annoyance, but also on other factors such as socio-economic ones. Noise annoyance has significant impacts on the quality of life and health of inhabitants, as well as social cohesion. Thus, noise complaints are a very important issue to tackle for national and local policy makers and for all stakeholders involved in planning and management of noise mitigation actions. Within the above framework, the present study describes the analysis of noise complaints submitted by citizens to the municipality of Milan, Italy, from years 2000 to 2015. These complaints have been organized in a database and analyzed considering: i) types of noise source (technical facilities, music, transport infrastructures, etc.); ii) business/leisure activities (retail and catering businesses, production, service sector, etc.) and iii) outcomes of the complaints inspection by local authorities. In addition, by means of a GIS software, the territorial distribution of noise complaints has been determined according to the noise source category and disturbing activity. This analysis includes also a geo-statistical representation by density maps. The results show that, even though road traffic is the dominant noise source in residential and urban areas, the perception of other noises, such as those from industrial facilities, civil construction and social activities (parties, fairs and open air markets, residential noise, etc.), is perceived as more annoying. The results show that since 2007 the number of noise complaints (about 100-150 complaints/year) remains almost constant across the years. However, the spreading of leisure activities, malls, exhibition centers and venues, as observed for the years 2014-2015, would most likely grow them even more. This outcome can assist the local authority in the management of the activities in order to r