It is suggested that a long-term and moderate Mg-deficient diet increases age-induced arterial thickness and stiffness in rats, and thus increases the cardiovascular risks incurred by aging.

Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) recently completed construction of a new 42<th>000-sq. ft. school for deaf children. High priority was placed upon designing and building a facility that would provide ideal acoustic environments that fostered learning and auditory/oral communication for students wearing powerful hearing aids or cochlear implants and teachers. A team composed of scientists, architects, and acoustical engineers was assigned the task of designing and building a school that would provide classroom environmental levels at or below the NC 20 contour, interclassroom attenuation exceeding 50 dB, reverberation times on the order of 0.4 s, and sound reinforcement for teachers’ voices when facing the blackboard. In group spaces and in the hallways, higher noise levels and longer reverberation times were sought to provide students with experiences more like those faced in the real world. Challenges included a site bounded by a busy interstate highway and a medical center heliport. The team developed and implemented numerous unique acoustic treatments for the facility which are reviewed in the presentation. Although designed as a school for the deaf, the approaches are useful for designing any educational classroom environment. The school opened on 10 January 2000 and met all acoustic criteria.

In a world where noise never stops, hearing threats bombard us every day. Take a tour of some of America’s noisiest environments—and bring your earplugs.

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