/npsi/ctrl?lang=en http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?lang=fr Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/jsp/nparc_cp.jsp?lang=en NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRCThis publication could be one of several versions: author's original, accepted manuscript or the publisher's version. / La version de cette publication peut être l'une des suivantes : la version prépublication de l'auteur, la version acceptée du manuscrit ou la version de l'éditeur. For the publisher's version, please access the DOI link below./ Pour consulter la version de l'éditeur, utilisez le lien DOI ci-dessous.http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.1570439 America, 113, 6, pp. 3233-3244, 2003-06-01 On the importance of early reflections for speech in rooms Bradley, J. S.; Sato, H.; Picard, M. Journal of the Acoustical Society of On the importance of early reflections for speech in roomsBradley, J.S.; Sato, H.; Picard, M. Lochner and Burger's results suggest that speech energy in early arriving reflections is more or less equivalent to similar amounts of direct speech energy in terms of increasing speech intelligibility scores. They developed the concept of useful-to-detrimental sound ratios in which 'useful' is defined as the sum of the direct and early-reflected speech energy and 'detrimental' is the sum of the later-arriving speech reflections and the ambient noise. This concept has been shown to be well correlated with speech intelligibility test scores in a wide range of rooms [5][6][7] and to be strongly correlated [8] with the newer speech transmission index (STI) concept. NRCC-45431 A version of this document is published in / Une Early reflections for speech -3However, Bess [9] has recently claimed that the benefits of early reflections are not experienced by impaired listeners. This is in contradiction with the results of Náb lek and Robinette [10] that indicated normal hearing and impaired listeners benefited equally from a single added early reflection. In addition, the importance of early reflections in rooms is apparently not well appreciated in conventional room acoustics design which is usually based primarily on obtaining a particular preferred reverberation time [11]. A lack of appreciation of the importance of early reflections is no doubt responsible for some recommendations for very short reverberation times for rooms for speech. There is often a misconception that reverberation time must be minimized rather than optimised.Of course, very short reverberation times require increased absorption on room surfaces which is likely to lead to reduced early reflection energy and hence to reduced speech intelligibility.There are many situations in speech communication in rooms where early reflections would appear to be particularly important such as a teacher talking to students from somewhere in the middle of a classroom or an actor on a thrust stage. Students behind the teacher would receive muc...

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Daily occupational noise exposures >or= 100 dBA and noise-induced hearing losses-even when just barely noticeable-may interfere with the safe operation of motor vehicles.

PurposeFinancial market‐related crimes seem to continually increase in number as well as in the amount of illicit profits. This emerging situation has obliged governments and self‐regulated bodies to act aggressively on the issue. This paper provides a snapshot of the evolution timeline of financial crimes and discussion in support of the fight against this plague.Design/methodology/approachBased on financial crime literature and field work.FindingsImprovement in the expertise and degree of refinement employed by both organized crime and criminal businessmen.Research limitations/implicationsSome information originates from confidential sources and consequently could not be further developed.Originality/valueContemporary picture of the current situation. Some recommendations were submitted to regulatory authorities who are examining and adjusting their actions accordingly.

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