The increasing number of users in oncology units globally, including in Albania, underscores the critical importance of assessing the acoustic environments of such spaces. Despite the significance of acoustic exposure in clinical settings, studies focusing on soundscape evaluations remain scarce, particularly in the Albanian context where no soundscape-based research has been conducted to date. This study extends the Albanian adaptation of perceived affective qualities derived from the SATP project to explore the experiences of two user profiles in oncology hospitals. A total of 97 participants completed surveys, administered both online and on paper, across various spaces in oncology hospitals during daytime hours, including ambulatory chemotherapy rooms, staff rooms, patient rooms, operatory rooms, waiting area, and reception area. Simultaneously, objective sound pressure level metrics and audio recordings were conducted at each location to characterize the acoustic environment. The findings of this study in Albania will offer valuable insights into how users perceive the soundscape of oncology hospitals. These results aim to inform the design of more inclusive and user-centered healthcare environments, addressing the needs and experience of the majority of stakeholders in those critical yet utilitarian environments.

While developments in medical device technology improve clinical monitoring by incorporating more sensitive features, they also lead to high ICU noise levels due to the increased number of alarms. This study seeks to understand the effect of critical alarms from various medical devices, such as patient monitors, infusion pumps, and mechanical ventilators, on overall sound pressure levels and existing noise metrics in the Adult ICU of Erasmus Medical Center. The study was conducted for ten days, during which two patients were admitted, and their usual care routines were maintained. A calibrated class II sound level meter was positioned above the patient’s head to continuously record acoustical data in one of the single-patient ICU rooms. Acoustic parameters, including LAf, LCPeak, LAeq, were measured, and alarm logs were retrieved from the alarm management database. Patient monitor alarms were also analyzed by severity, as different alarms have distinct acoustic characteristics. Initial findings indicate that equivalent sound pressure levels exceed recommended thresholds, however, with only a limited contribution of alarms. Future research should focus on a more comprehensive and human-centered acoustic characterization of this critical environment, so that relevant associations between health outcomes and sound environment can be made.

Soundscape is a recent notion, complementary to environmental noise control. It regards the total auditory experience of the acoustic environment based on descriptors ranging from pleasant to annoying, and from eventful to uneventful. This approach is used outdoors, but indoors too, for example in offices and hospitals. In Intensive Care Units (ICUs) many specific dominant sounds are prevalent; not only permanently active medical equipment such as ventilators, dialysis machines, but also alarms, and conversations by staff members. In such cases a special instance of the soundscape tool is required. The current work focuses on the processing and analysis of 24h long acoustic sets of sound data, collected continuously in the Adult ICU at Erasmus Medical Center. In addition to standard noise metrics like equivalent, peak sound levels and statistical indices, this research explores alternative measures such as restorative periods, fast rises, traffic noise index (TNI) and more metrics based on distributional variables. By adapting metrics from the realm of environmental noise to the ICU context, this work aims to provide a more comprehensive characterization of the acoustic environment. These insights will also facilitate relationships with qualitative soundscape descriptors to be collected in later stages of the project.

This study aims to analyze the principal dimensions of perceptual attributes in indoor public spaces. Healthcare, working, cultural, educational, leisure, worship, and transportation spaces (e.g., bus, train, metro stations) were chosen as public spaces. A listening test was performed with university students and faculty members (n=32), where they were asked to evaluate the 21 binaural recordings of indoor public soundscapes based on 30 adjective pairs. Principal component analysis shows three prominent perceptual dimensions: Pleasantness, Eventfulness and Clarity, explaining respectively 28.3%, 18.9% and 11.5% of the total variance within the data. The findings were consistent with the literature, suggesting that Pleasantness and Eventfulness can generalize to different soundscapes and be used as attribute scales to measure perception. Moreover, the third principal dimension of Clarity was exclusive to this research and indicated that underlying dimensions of indoor soundscapes could differ based on the function of the space.

Basic design is the origin of many design-related fields and covers different concepts such as pattern, colour, texture and relief. Because colour is rarely seen as a uniformly plain element, current research embraces colour and texture as equally important variables. Investigations consider the association of colour and texture in terms of preference. One hundred individuals trained in design, as well as 96 individuals not trained in design, participated in an experiment in a virtual and abstract environment. We chose four primary colours from Natural Colour System colour space (yellow, red, green and blue) with the same saturation and brightness values. They were associated with three different texture types (plain, basket and broken twill), which we obtained by scanning the physical textile samples. In the second part of the experiment, we attempted to find a relationship between colour and one texture variable, in this case texture strength. The results of the study do not verify the existence of a dependency between colour and texture in either sample group. Also, there is no verification that a relationship between colour and texture strength exists. Furthermore, the results show that overall blue is the most preferred colour. Moreover, all participants preferred fine textures to coarse ones. Design-trained participants often associate fine strength level with basket texture whereas the non-design–trained participants more often associate it with plain textures. Lastly, the majority of participants state that blue is their most preferred colour in fine rather than coarse textures.