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      Monitoring Sound and Its Perception during the Lockdown and De-Escalation of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Spanish Study

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          Abstract

          The lockdown measures in Spain due to the SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic from 13 March to 21 June 2020 had extensive social and environmental implications. This study aims to understand how the measures of lockdown have influenced noise levels, as well as people’s perception of sound quality before and after lockdown, including de-escalation. For this purpose, an online survey was carried out. Moreover, the noise linked to the Global Positioning System (GPS) position of each individual respondent was recorded aiming to correlate the noise level with the result of the survey. An average reduction of over 30 dB was observed compared with the sound pressure level before lockdown. Furthermore, it was found that the loudness parameter, together with the overall level, increased as the country started relaxing restrictions. Additionally, results showed that the perception of noise quality changed depending on the phase of de-escalation ( p < 0.01), the type of property ( p < 0.05), and the outside noise ( p < 0.01). Moreover, noise annoyance was determined considering age ( p < 0.01), gender ( p < 0.05), type of property ( p < 0.001), and home refurbishment ( p < 0.05). It may be concluded that the most important measure to decrease noise levels is the reduction of traffic noise, through using eco-friendly public transportation or bicycles and limiting nightlife hours.

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          Most cited references43

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          COVID-19 lockdown allows researchers to quantify the effects of human activity on wildlife

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            Cardiovascular effects of environmental noise exposure

            The role of noise as an environmental pollutant and its impact on health are being increasingly recognized. Beyond its effects on the auditory system, noise causes annoyance and disturbs sleep, and it impairs cognitive performance. Furthermore, evidence from epidemiologic studies demonstrates that environmental noise is associated with an increased incidence of arterial hypertension, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Both observational and experimental studies indicate that in particular night-time noise can cause disruptions of sleep structure, vegetative arousals (e.g. increases of blood pressure and heart rate) and increases in stress hormone levels and oxidative stress, which in turn may result in endothelial dysfunction and arterial hypertension. This review focuses on the cardiovascular consequences of environmental noise exposure and stresses the importance of noise mitigation strategies for public health.
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              Using Social Media to Mine and Analyze Public Opinion Related to COVID-19 in China

              The outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a grave global public health emergency. Nowadays, social media has become the main channel through which the public can obtain information and express their opinions and feelings. This study explored public opinion in the early stages of COVID-19 in China by analyzing Sina-Weibo (a Twitter-like microblogging system in China) texts in terms of space, time, and content. Temporal changes within one-hour intervals and the spatial distribution of COVID-19-related Weibo texts were analyzed. Based on the latent Dirichlet allocation model and the random forest algorithm, a topic extraction and classification model was developed to hierarchically identify seven COVID-19-relevant topics and 13 sub-topics from Weibo texts. The results indicate that the number of Weibo texts varied over time for different topics and sub-topics corresponding with the different developmental stages of the event. The spatial distribution of COVID-19-relevant Weibo was mainly concentrated in Wuhan, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration. There is a synchronization between frequent daily discussions on Weibo and the trend of the COVID-19 outbreak in the real world. Public response is very sensitive to the epidemic and significant social events, especially in urban agglomerations with convenient transportation and a large population. The timely dissemination and updating of epidemic-related information and the popularization of such information by the government can contribute to stabilizing public sentiments. However, the surge of public demand and the hysteresis of social support demonstrated that the allocation of medical resources was under enormous pressure in the early stage of the epidemic. It is suggested that the government should strengthen the response in terms of public opinion and epidemic prevention and exert control in key epidemic areas, urban agglomerations, and transboundary areas at the province level. In controlling the crisis, accurate response countermeasures should be formulated following public help demands. The findings can help government and emergency agencies to better understand the public opinion and sentiments towards COVID-19, to accelerate emergency responses, and to support post-disaster management.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Int J Environ Res Public Health
                Int J Environ Res Public Health
                ijerph
                International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
                MDPI
                1661-7827
                1660-4601
                25 March 2021
                April 2021
                : 18
                : 7
                : 3392
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Rural Engineering, EPS, Edificio Leonardo da Vinci, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain; ir1cuata@ 123456uco.es
                [2 ]Department of Nursing, Pharmacology and Physiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, Universidad de Córdoba, 14014 Córdoba, Spain; n32apmap@ 123456uco.es
                [3 ]Department of Physical Chemistry and Applied Thermodynamics, EPS, Edificio Leonardo da Vinci, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain; qf1pinps@ 123456uco.es
                [4 ]ALGORITMI Centre, School of Engineering of the University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães, Portugal; parezes@ 123456dps.uminho.pt
                Author notes
                [* ]Correspondence: mdredel@ 123456uco.es
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2940-8697
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1780-2339
                https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9421-9123
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0349-3440
                Article
                ijerph-18-03392
                10.3390/ijerph18073392
                8036401
                33805936
                2e99ca09-e360-47fd-a2ec-c0e01fc947b4
                © 2021 by the authors.

                Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                : 08 February 2021
                : 22 March 2021
                Categories
                Article

                Public health
                covid-19,noise,sound quality
                Public health
                covid-19, noise, sound quality

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