This work aims at validating a new statistical index (Weighted Pressure Comfort Loss, WPCL) for seat comfort assessment. The validation is carried out by deepening the relationship between subjective comfort evaluations and objective measures of seat comfort and comparing, from an engineering standpoint, the new index with the pressure peak which is currently one of the most used indexes for se...

In this paper, I examine the charge that Gopnik and Meltzoff's 'Child as Scientist' program, outlined and defended in their 1997 book Words, Thoughts and Theories is vitiated by a form of 'cognitive individualism' about science. Although this charge has often been leveled at Gopnik and Meltzoff's work, it has rarely been developed in any detail. I suggest that we should distinguish between two ...

Correspondence to: D. Levinson (e-mail: [email protected]) Abstract. This paper examines the full costs, defined as the sum of private and social costs, of a high-speed rail system proposed for a corridor connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco in California. The full costs include infrastructure, fleet capital and operating expenses, the time users spend on the system, and the soc...

The objective of this study is to contribute the discussion on impact dwelling satisfaction aspects (size, standard, layout, appearance/aesthetics, well-being, cost and area/neighbourhood) perceived indoor environmental quality (thermal comfort, air quality, with daylight acoustic comfort) occupants’ overall satisfaction. This article uses data from Swedish National Survey, BETSI (2007/08). res...

Warning signals generated by sirens of authorized emergency vehicles should be audible and recognizable to all road users. Currently, there is no legislation in Poland defining sound pressure levels (SPLs) of audible warning signals generated by sirens of authorized emergency vehicles. Measured A-weighted SPLs of those signals range between 104 and 108 dB. While for road users, an audible warni...

Maximising the natural ventilation of a building can be beneficial in terms of comfort and reduced reliance on air conditioning. In noisy urban areas this can conflict with the need to reduce the ingress of external noise. In this study the effect of building exposure to noise on natural ventilation potential is investigated. The occurrence of window openings on a building façade was adjusted a...

The development of hearing aids incorporates two aspects, namely, the audiological and the technical point of view. The former focuses on items like the recruitment phenomenon, the speech intelligibility of hearing-impaired persons, or just on the question of hearing comfort. Concerning these subjects, different algorithms intending to improve the hearing ability are presented in this paper. Th...

In recent years, need to increase the convenience of trips in railway vehicles causes that train operators and manufacturers focus on reducing the noise level which is sensed by passengers. In this paper, first the state of modeling acoustic noise in cab train is discussed and natural frequencies and acoustic mode shapes are derived and then formulation of acoustic pressure in the cab will be o...