Source Newsroom: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Newswise — There is only one place this summer where the tiger's roar will meet birdsongs; where the voice of the banjo and clarinet will be heard next door to advanced sonar systems; where the echoing din of the urban soundscape meets the smashing falls of Antarctic ice shelves.
These sounds -- and the scientific advances related to them -- will only be found at the Acoustics'08 Paris meeting, to be held Monday June 30 through Friday July 4, 2008 at the Palais des CongrÃ¨s in Paris, France. Scientists and engineers will convene there to present some 3,500 talks and posters related to acoustics.
The science of acoustics is a cross-section of diverse disciplines, including architecture, naval warfare, meteorology, psychology, physics, marine biology, medicine, and music. Acoustics'08 Paris is the world's largest meeting devoted to this range of topics. It incorporates the 155th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), the 5th Forum Acusticum of the European Acoustics Association (EAA), and the 9th CongrÃ¨s FranÃ§ais d'Acoustique of the French Acoustical Society (SFA) integrating the 7th EUROpean conference on NOISE control (euronoise), the 9th European Conference on Underwater Acoustics (ecua) and the 60th Anniversary of the SFA.
Journalists are invited to cover the upcoming meeting either onsite in Paris or online through the meeting's World Wide Press Room. Some preliminary highlights appear below and in the news release that will follow.
Some preliminary program highlights include:
- THE BELLS OF ST. MARY-LE-BOW -- SOUND COMMUNITY OR CULTURE CLASH?
"...The ringing of these bells has for centuries defined London's Cockneys and has been featured in London's folklore and history since the 14th century..."
- IMPROVING HEARING AIDS
"...Within the framework of the HEARCOM EU-research project, a number of signal enhancement techniques have been further developed and evaluated based on a representative set of real-life recordings and physical performance measures... Fifty normal hearing subjects and 100 hearing aid users, according to 2 auditory profiles, took part in this study."
- BASS CLARITY IN POP AND ROCK VENUES
"High levels of bass sound have been shown to stimulate the part of the brain that controls such basic instincts as sexual desire and hunger..." http://www.intellagence.eu/acoustics2008/output_directory/cd1/data/articles/002864.pdf
- VOCALIZATIONS OF THE SPOTTED HYENA
"...Groans constitute a very large category in the spotted hyena repertoire which is not well understood..."
- RESTORATION OF THE 'BENEVENTO' ROMAN THEATRE
"Acoustics as well as the extraordinary architecture are substantial part of the heritage of ancient Greek and Roman theatres..."
- ASSESSING THE BONES
"...This paper discusses the promises and challenges related to bone characterization by ultrasonic guided waves."
- NOISE IN HOSPITALS: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY HARVARD STUDY
"Noise in hospitals and healthcare facilities is a growing concern. Anticipating the wave of aging baby-boomers, the US healthcare industry is committed to significant construction and renovation over the next decade..."
- MONITORING LARGE WHALES AT THE POLES THROUGH ALL SEASONS
"Both Davis Strait, in the Arctic between Canada and Greenland, and Bransfield Strait, in the Antarctic between the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands, are areas that experience extreme inter-seasonal differences in temperature, ice cover and productivity..."
- VARIATIONS OF ICE BREAKING NOISE IN ANTARCTICA
"Several regions along the Antarctic coast associated with certain glaciers and ice tongues were found to persistently be much more active in generating ice noise than other parts of the Antarctic shelf..."
- BRASS INSTRUMENT PERFORMANCE GUESTURES
"...Brass instrument playing requires the musican to control his respiratory gesture and the elastic properties of his lips. This raises the question of musician gesture optimisation and strategy in order to complete a musical exercise..."
- RESPONSE TO WIND TURBINE NOISE IN THE NETHERLANDS
"A cross-sectional study with the objective to explore the impact of wind turbine noise on people living in the vicinity of wind farms was carried out in the Netherlands in 2006..."
- ACOUSTIC PREDICTIONS OF AVALANCHES
"...any movement of the snow cap provides a signal. The rate of repetition of these elementary signals is the indication of an increasing instability..."
- THE SOUND OF WATERFALLS IN SPACE
"...This paper explores two cases of transferring our terrestrial experience off world, to the ice seas of Europa, and to the methane lakes and waterfalls of Titan."
- ACOUSTIC MEASUREMENTS OF NASA SPACE SUITS
"...Data were collected at NASA Johnson Space Center for the current Mark III advanced prototype surface suit during walking, walking with arm motion, and while seated..."
- TIRE/ROAD NOISE REDUCTION
"...The paper provides detailed insight concerning the factors influencing exterior (environmental) and interior (vehicle) tire/road noise reduction and includes recommendations with regard to optimize tire design."
- NOISE CONTROL IN LIGHT AIRCRAFT
"...A current research project is aimed at developing an audio-system for the cabin area of a light jet aircraft which, at the same time, should also function as an effective noise reduction system in order to enhance the cabin comfort as well as the audio quality..." http://www.intellagence.eu/acoustics2008/output_directory/cd1/data/articles/000532.pdf
- THE SOUND OF SILENT OBJECTS
"While much of what we consciously hear is based on sound sources, we also hear properties of objects that are themselves silent..."
- HOW JAPANESE, AMERICANS AND GERMANS PERCEIVE COPY MACHINE NOISE
"...The information gathered will possibly be used to adapt copy machine noise to levels that are comfortable to users in different countries..."
- THE NEED FOR ULTRASOUND THERAPY STANDARDS
"...High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is rapidly gaining widespread clinical use in China, and is undergoing regulatory evaluation in Europe and the US for many target diseases. There is rising concern within the HIFU community that no standards exist for measuring or reporting of HIFU fields, inhibiting broad clinical adoption of HIFU...."
- SOUND AND SKIN
"...High-frequency ultrasound in the 20 MHz range is routinely used in dermatological diagnosis for morphological skin imaging in order to support the identification of suspicious skin lesions and to evaluate the success of therapies. In this presentation, technical developments for the utilization of higher ultrasound frequencies are presented, which allow for high-resolution imaging and assessment of skin structures..."
- LOW NOISE TIRES
"...A series of low noise tires (prototypes) has been developed and tested on a selection of appropriate low noise road surfaces..."
- THE PHYSICS OF THE BANJO
"...a systematic study of the American five-string banjo, which was undertaken in an effort to understand the dynamics of this complex instrument..."
- COMBINED SEISMIC, RADAR, AND INDUCTION SENSOR FOR LANDMINE DETECTION
"...In the experiments, a range of mines and clutter objects were buried at various depths in a sandbox..."
- SLEEP-DEPRIVED SPEECH
"...speech as a marker of sleep-deprivation will be discussed, along with potential applications in public safety and health..."
- THE SOUND OF A BALLOON BURSTING
"...recordings of balloon bursts were systematically acquired for various conditions of balloon diameters, puncture location, and inflation pressure..."
- HOW PRESCHOOL NOISE AFFECTS TEACHERS
"...Noise levels in classrooms with young children are higher than in classrooms with older students, indicating pre-school teachers' voices may be at greater risk..."
- A VENUS NOISETRAP
"...a high gain adaptive signal processor inspired by Venus's-flytrap, an insect eating plant...."
2) WEBSITES OF INTEREST/MORE INFORMATION
- Main meeting web site is http://www.acoustics08-paris.org/.
- Complete meeting program: http://asa.aip.org/paris/program.html.
- Meeting abstract search form: http://www.intellagence.eu/acoustics2008/output_directory/cd1/data/index.html.
- Hotel and other travel information can be found at: http://www.acoustics08-paris.org/venue/accommodation.
3) ADDITIONAL MEETING NEWS RELEASES
Look for a general news release describing other presentations in more detail in May and June. All news releases will be posted to ASA's World Wide Press Room.
4) WORLD-WIDE PRESS ROOM
ASA's World Wide Press Room will contain tips on dozens of stories as well as lay-language papers detailing some of the most newsworthy results at the meeting. Lay-language papers are roughly 500 word summaries written for a general audience by the authors of individual presentations with accompanying graphics and multimedia files. They serve as starting points for journalists who are interested in covering the meeting but cannot attend in person.
Around mid-June, the World Wide Press Room (http://www.acoustics.org/press) will be updated with the new content for the Acoustics'08 meeting in Paris (currently it has content from the previous ASA meeting in New Orleans). A detailed release describing the World Wide Press Room will be sent out in mid-June
4) PRESS REGISTRATION
Journalists in the United States and Europe are welcome to attend the Acoustics '08 conference for free. We will grant free registration to any credentialed full-time journalist or professional freelance journalist working on assignment for a major publication or outlet. If you are a reporter and would like to attend, please follow these steps:
Register at http://www.acoustics08-paris.org/registration/register-now.
- Click "Regular registration";
- Fill out all the boxes in the "Online Registration" window;
- Under "REGISTRATION OPTIONS" select registration as "Non ASA/EAA/SFA/IEEE-EOS member";
- Select "Banquet" if desired (registration for this social event is open to journalists for the regular fee);
- Click VALIDATE
- Download or print the confirmation page for you records.
YOU MUST REQUEST free registration IN ADVANCE by sending an email to
Manell Zakharia (email@example.com) and Jason Bardi (firstname.lastname@example.org).
- Write "Press registration/Acoustics '08" in the subject line;
- In the body of the email, state why you wish to have your registration fee waived;
- Include your name, affiliation, and contact information;
- Include your registration confirmation number and password.
A schedule of press conferences will be made available when it is ready. Meeting staff will be onsite to help you set up interviews with presenters, obtain background information on a story, and provide any other resources you may need
ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Acoustical Society of America is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,500 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America-the world's leading journal on acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books and standards on acoustics. The Society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. For more information about the Society, visit our Web site, http://asa.aip.org.