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Air quality, noise and proximity to urban infrastructure can arguably have an important impact on the quality of life. Environmental quality (the price of good health) has become a central tenet for consumer choice in urban locales when deciding on a residential neighbourhood. Unlike the market for most tangible goods, the market for environmental quality does not yield an observable per unit price effect. As no explicit price exists for a unit of environmental quality, this paper aims to use the housing market to derive its implicit price and test whether these constituent elements of health and well-being are indeed capitalised into property prices and thus implicitly priced in the market place.

A considerable number of studies have used hedonic pricing models by incorporating spatial effects to assess the impact of air quality, noise and proximity to noise pollutants on property market pricing. This study presents a spatial analysis of air quality and noise pollution and their association with house prices, using 2,501 sale transactions for the period 2013. To assess the impact of the pollutants, three different spatial modelling approaches are used, namely, ordinary least squares using spatial dummies, a geographically weighted regression (GWR) and a spatial lag model (SLM).

The findings suggest that air quality pollutants have an adverse impact on house prices, which fluctuate across the urban area. The analysis suggests that the noise level does matter, although this varies significantly over the urban setting and varies by source.

Air quality and environmental noise pollution are important concerns for health and well-being. Noise impact seems to depend not only on the noise intensity to which dwellings are exposed but also on the nature of the noise source. This may suggest the presence of other externalities that arouse social aversion. This research presents an original study utilising advanced spatial modelling approaches. The research has value in further understanding the market impact of environmental factors and in providing findings to support local air zone management strategies, noise abatement and management strategies and is of value to the wider urban planning and public health disciplines.

This paper presents the optimization of the design of a railway wheel in terms of the wheel's sound power levels emission, with respect to its geometrical properties. To this end, a simplified finite element method (FEM) model of the wheel was employed, that did not include the interaction of the wheel and rail or the influence of the braking system that is assembled on the wheel. The objective of the optimization method was to find a design of the selected railway wheel, which without the use of damping or tuning devices, emits less vibration/noise compared to the original design. The optimization method used, was based on genetic algorithms (GAs). GAs are a robust optimization method that performs regardless of the optimization problem. The GA‐based optimization method that is presented in this paper, utilized ANSYS running in batch mode for the calculation of the objective function values of the population of each generation.

The vibration of the rails is a significant source of railway rolling noise, often forming the dominant component of noise in the important frequency region between 400 and 2000 Hz. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the influence of the ground profile and the presence of the train body on the sound radiation from the rail.

Two-dimensional boundary element calculations are used, in which the rail vibration is the source. The ground profile and various different shapes of train body are introduced in the model, and results are observed in terms of sound power and sound pressure. Comparisons are also made with vibro-acoustic measurements performed with and without a train present.

The sound radiated by the rail in the absence of the train body is strongly attenuated by shielding due to the ballast shoulder. When the train body is present, the sound from the vertical rail motion is reflected back down toward the track where it is partly absorbed by the ballast. Nevertheless, the sound pressure at the trackside is increased by typically 0–5 dB. For the lateral vibration of the rail, the effects are much smaller. Once the sound power is known, the sound pressure with the train present can be approximated reasonably well with simple line source directivities.

Numerical models used to predict the sound radiation from railway rails have generally neglected the influence of the ground profile and reflections from the underside of the train body on the sound power and directivity of the rail. These effects are studied in a systematic way including comparisons with measurements.

In recent years, in parallel with the increasing air traffic and the number of passengers in air transport, the number of people exposed to aircraft-induced noise has increased significantly. Especially people living in the areas close to the airports are affected by noise emission during the landing, take-off, taxi and ground operations. Negative effects of noise such as sleep disturbance, lack of concentration, anxiety and high blood pressure cardiac diseases were determined directly or indirectly for human health. For this reason, examining the noise effect caused by aircraft and determining the necessary measures to be taken is very important for the sustainable development of aviation. In the International Eskisehir Hasan Polatkan Airport (LTBY), this paper aims to calculate a noise mapping following international standards in line with the directives of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Also, Annex 8, “Airworthiness of Aircrafts” and Annex 16, “Environmental Protection Volume 1 Aircraft Noise”, which were taken at the International Civil Aviation Convention, were proposed to determine the exposure caused by aircraft noise.

In this paper, noise levels for the day (07.00–19.00), evening (19.00–23.00) and night (23.00–07.00) period around LTBY were predicted and calculated by the use of the IMMI software according to the “ECAC Doc. 29-Interim” method for the prediction and computation of the aircraft noise.

According to the calculated/mapped values, in the 24 hours (Lden), the noise level is 65 dB (A) and above. In the day time zone, the noise level is 63 dB (A) and above. When the calculations for the evening time zone are examined, the noise level is above 58 dB (A). When the calculations for the night time frame are examined, it is calculated that there is no dwelling that is affected by the noise level above 53 dB (A).

Along with future improvements, it is recommended to be applied to other civil airports.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no previous research in the literature on aircraft noise mapping of LTBY. Also, unlike the software commonly used in other works in the literature, IMMI software was used in this study. Such investigations should be carried out in other civil airports in the coming years to struggle with noise emissions and noise control. If noise boundary values are exceeded, action plans should be developed for a sustainable aviation concept. Along with future improvements, it is recommended to be applied to other civil airports.

The purpose of this paper is to present an original study of industrial inductors with different air-gap materials in order to reduce the vibration and noise of inductors. Acoustic comfort is an increasingly important factor at the design stage of industrial inductors associated to converters. In addition, power converters in the railway domain are more and more compact and powerful.

Experiments, simulations and test devices were used to determine the main physical phenomena that generate the undesirable audible noise. Electric and vibratory measurements (modal and operational analysis) were compared with the numerical calculations. PWM and sinusoidal supply were taken into account and different prototypes with different materials in the air-gap were built.

This study analyzes and details the origin of the electromagnetic noise due to the vertical mode, in order to reduce the vibration and noise of inductors. A detailed analysis using finite element simulation and experimental measurements of free-free mode or forced mode under electrical excitation was conducted to interpret the vibrations of the structure. In addition, in order to observe trends and the impact of magnetostriction effect, the authors propose a simplified model.

Electric and vibratory measurements (modal and operational analysis) are compared with the numerical calculations.

This paper gives a response about the origin of the noise with different experimental measurements. Changing the air-gap material is beneficial for the deflection of the inductor. However, it has been presented that, following the shape of the inductor, it is beneficial to reduce or increase the stiffness of the material depending on the column height. For a fixed Young’s modulus air-gap, a ratio Column height/air-gap thickness exists, which makes it possible to cancel the deflection.

Noise measurement and social questionnaire surveys in three residential areas around Mehrabad International Airport (Tehran, Iran) were based upon randomly selected dwellings in each area. A total of 193 individuals responded and many are annoyed and dissatisfied with aircraft noise and in consequence they would like to move. Aircraft noise is the strongest negative environmental factor affecting the residents in the vicinity of Mehrabad Airport and it could be a hazard for their health.

High-speed maglev technology can address the issues of adhesion, friction, vibration and high-speed current collection in traditional wheel-rail systems, making it an important direction for the future development of high-speed rail technology.

This paper elaborates on the demand and significance of developing high-speed maglev technology worldwide and examines the current status and technological maturity of several major high-speed maglev systems globally.

This paper summarizes the challenges in the development of high-speed maglev railways in China. Based on this analysis, it puts forward considerations for future research on high-speed maglev railways.

This paper describes the development status and technical maturity of several major high-speed maglev systems in the world for the first time, summarizes the existing problems in the development of China's high-speed maglev railway and on this basis, puts forward the thinking of the next research of China's high-speed maglev railway.

Flight Operational Noise Internationally, noise due to flight operations in the vicinity of airports. Each nation has developed an individual system of assessment and criteria for judging acceptability or probable extents of annoyance arising from the community based on local conditions and experience.

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

While high-quality information is critical in decision-making for environmental issues and assessing the impact of natural disasters, there is a significant lack of research on how environmental information systems (EISs) can be integrated through service-oriented architecture (SOA). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the EISs in South Korea and to propose an SOA to improve the quality of EISs.

This study follows the design science research methodology proposed by Peffers et al. (2007). A pilot test was conducted with Environmental Impact Assessment Support System (EIASS) end users based on the modified DeLone and McLean’s IS success model to discern the moderating effect of SOA readiness.

This study proposed a new SOA for the South Korea EIASS; the work processes among EIASS, nationwide EISs and local EISs are also analyzed. Conceptual and hardware SOA for the EIASS were presented. The finding shows that SOA readiness has a significant moderating effect for EIASS end user benefits.

Supply chain managers can exploit GIS-based environmental information, which can be provided by the new EIASS architecture, to estimate the risk of a natural disaster within the geographical region of their supply chain.

This is one of the few studies in the EIS literature that propose an SOA to improve the quality of EIS. In addition, the study remodeled DeLone and McLean’s IS success model to assess the proposed SOA for EAISS and found that the new SOA would be useful for end users.