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The Importance of Reverberation for the Design of Neonatal Incubators
Low frequency noises are predominant in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Some studies affirm that neonates can perceive noises from 113 Hz, and can therefore be affected by sound sources with high spectral content at low frequencies (e.g., incubator engine, air fan). Other studies suggest that...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8058181/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33898352 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.584736 |
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author | Puyana-Romero, Virginia Núñez-Solano, Daniel Fernández-Zacarías, Francisco Jara-Muñoz, Edgar Hernández-Molina, Ricardo |
author_facet | Puyana-Romero, Virginia Núñez-Solano, Daniel Fernández-Zacarías, Francisco Jara-Muñoz, Edgar Hernández-Molina, Ricardo |
author_sort | Puyana-Romero, Virginia |
collection | PubMed |
description | Low frequency noises are predominant in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Some studies affirm that neonates can perceive noises from 113 Hz, and can therefore be affected by sound sources with high spectral content at low frequencies (e.g., incubator engine, air fan). Other studies suggest that reverberation amplifies noise within incubators. In this paper, the reverberation time (T, T(30)) within an incubator with standard dimensions was measured in one-third octave bands. To get reliable results, the T was measured in 15 positions at the neonate's ear height, in a room with low T values (to reduce the influence of the room in the results), using an impulsive sound method. Results show a heterogeneous T distribution at the neonate's ear height, with maximum average T differences between positions of 1.07 s. The highest average T of all microphone positions is 2.27 s at 125 Hz, an extremely high mean value for such a small space. As the frequency of electrical devices in America is 60 Hz, some harmonics lay within the one-third octave band of 125 Hz, and therefore may create a very reverberant and inappropriate acoustic environment within the audible spectrum of neonates. As the acoustic environment of the incubator and the room are coupled, it is expected that the results are higher in the NICUs than in the room where the measurements were conducted, as NICUs are more reverberant. Therefore, it is recommended that the T will be limited in the international standards, and that incubator designers take it into account. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8058181 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80581812021-04-22 The Importance of Reverberation for the Design of Neonatal Incubators Puyana-Romero, Virginia Núñez-Solano, Daniel Fernández-Zacarías, Francisco Jara-Muñoz, Edgar Hernández-Molina, Ricardo Front Pediatr Pediatrics Low frequency noises are predominant in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Some studies affirm that neonates can perceive noises from 113 Hz, and can therefore be affected by sound sources with high spectral content at low frequencies (e.g., incubator engine, air fan). Other studies suggest that reverberation amplifies noise within incubators. In this paper, the reverberation time (T, T(30)) within an incubator with standard dimensions was measured in one-third octave bands. To get reliable results, the T was measured in 15 positions at the neonate's ear height, in a room with low T values (to reduce the influence of the room in the results), using an impulsive sound method. Results show a heterogeneous T distribution at the neonate's ear height, with maximum average T differences between positions of 1.07 s. The highest average T of all microphone positions is 2.27 s at 125 Hz, an extremely high mean value for such a small space. As the frequency of electrical devices in America is 60 Hz, some harmonics lay within the one-third octave band of 125 Hz, and therefore may create a very reverberant and inappropriate acoustic environment within the audible spectrum of neonates. As the acoustic environment of the incubator and the room are coupled, it is expected that the results are higher in the NICUs than in the room where the measurements were conducted, as NICUs are more reverberant. Therefore, it is recommended that the T will be limited in the international standards, and that incubator designers take it into account. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8058181/ /pubmed/33898352 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.584736 Text en Copyright © 2021 Puyana-Romero, Núñez-Solano, Fernández-Zacarías, Jara-Muñoz and Hernández-Molina. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Pediatrics Puyana-Romero, Virginia Núñez-Solano, Daniel Fernández-Zacarías, Francisco Jara-Muñoz, Edgar Hernández-Molina, Ricardo The Importance of Reverberation for the Design of Neonatal Incubators |
title | The Importance of Reverberation for the Design of Neonatal Incubators |
title_full | The Importance of Reverberation for the Design of Neonatal Incubators |
title_fullStr | The Importance of Reverberation for the Design of Neonatal Incubators |
title_full_unstemmed | The Importance of Reverberation for the Design of Neonatal Incubators |
title_short | The Importance of Reverberation for the Design of Neonatal Incubators |
title_sort | importance of reverberation for the design of neonatal incubators |
topic | Pediatrics |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8058181/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33898352 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fped.2021.584736 |
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