186 research outputs found
Effective beam pattern of the Blainville's beaked whale (Mesoplodon densirostris) and implications for passive acoustic monitoring
No full textThis work was funded by two partners under the National Oceanographic Partnership Program: the Ocean Acoustics Program of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Protected Resources, and the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers Joint Industry Programme on Exploration and Production Sound and Marine Life. Research permits were issued to John Boreman (US NMFS 1121-1900), Peter Tyack (US NMFS 981-1578), and Ian Boyd (Bahamas permit #02/07). M.J. and P.T. are supported by the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland.The presence of beaked whales in mass-strandings coincident with navy maneuvers has prompted the development of methods to detect these cryptic animals. Blainville's beaked whales, Mesoplodon densirostris, produce distinctive echolocation clicks during long foraging dives making passive acoustic detection a possibility. However, performance of passive acoustic monitoring depends upon the source level, beam pattern, and clicking behavior of the whales. In this study, clicks recorded from Digital acoustic Tags (DTags) attached to four M. densirostris were linked to simultaneous recordings from an 82-hydrophone bottom-mounted array to derive the source level and beam pattern of the clicks, as steps towards estimating their detectability. The mean estimated on-axis apparent source level for the four whales was 201 dB(rms97). The mean 3 dB beamwidth and directivity index, estimated from sequences of clicks directed towards the far-field hydrophones, were 13 degrees and 23 dB, respectively. While searching for prey, Blainville's beaked whales scan their heads horizontally at a mean rate of 3.6 degrees/s over an angular range of some +/-10 degrees. Thus, while the DI indicates a narrow beam, the area of ensonification over a complete foraging dive is large given the combined effects of body and head movements associated with foraging. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4776177]Peer reviewe
A risk function for behavioral disruption of Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) from mid-frequency active sonar
No full textThere is increasing concern about the potential effects of noise pollution on marine life in the world’s oceans. For marine mammals, anthropogenic sounds may cause behavioral disruption, and this can be quantified using a risk function that relates sound exposure to a measured behavioral response. Beaked whales are a taxon of deep diving whales that may be particularly susceptible to naval sonar as the species has been associated with sonar-related mass stranding events. Here we derive the first empirical risk function for Blainville’s beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) by combining in situ data from passive acoustic monitoring of animal vocalizations and navy sonar operations with precise ship tracks and sound field modeling. The hydrophone array at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, Bahamas, was used to locate vocalizing groups of Blainville’s beaked whales and identify sonar transmissions before, during, and after Mid-Frequency Active (MFA) sonar operations. Sonar transmission times and source levels were combined with ship tracks using a sound propagation model to estimate the received level (RL) at each hydrophone. A generalized additive model was fitted to data to model the presence or absence of the start of foraging dives in 30-minute periods as a function of the corresponding sonar RL at the hydrophone closest to the center of each group. This model was then used to construct a risk function that can be used to estimate the probability of a behavioral change (cessation of foraging) the individual members of a Blainville’s beaked whale population might experience as a function of sonar RL. The function predicts a 0.5 probability of disturbance at a RL of 150dBrms re µPa (CI: 144 to 155) This is 15dB lower than the level used historically by the US Navy in their risk assessments but 10 dB higher than the current 140 dB step-functionPeer reviewe
Different Dialects - a World Conversation on Work Integrated learning
No full textLisa Ward (University of Huddersfield) and Ron Laird (University of Ulster) will provide conference with an insight to selected themes from recent Work Integrated Learning conferences and symposia. Their dialogue will enable delegates to hear of developments and practice from around the world of co-operative education. Their observations should enable all delegates to evaluate aspects of their own practice within a wider international context and lead to improvement
Sex in the mediaan influence on adolescent development
No full textPlan BThe purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of sex in the television media that adolescents watch and the magazine media targeted at adolescent females. The study was conducted by researcher observation and categorical tallying of sex related instances on various prime time television shows and commercials and in four major magazines. The television shows chosen for analysis were determined by media ratings reports indicating they are popular among adolescents. Targeted audience determined the magazines chosen for analysis. The analysis of the television shows and magazines occurred from January 2002 through April 2002. The adolescent life stage was chosen for analysis because it is a time when individuals are developing their gender identities and sexual attitudes (Durham, 1998). Media can play a large role in this development as a source of information and modeling (Committee of Public Education, 2001; Ward, 1995). Previous research shows that there is a substantial amount of sex and sex related references in the media (Kunkel, Cope, and Biely, 1999). This investigation aimed to identify the sexual content of media specifically targeted for or consumed by adolescents. Upon review of 17 television shows and four magazines, this research found evidence supporting much of the literature. There were many sex related themes on both television and in the magazines. Some of the prominent themes included sexual objectification, sex as competition, and a lack of reference to protection from sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy. The research concludes with recommendations for how to combat the sexual influence of the medi
In, out and after care: Young adults' views on their lives, as children, in a therapeutic residential establishment
No full textChildren who have been severely maltreated may be placed in therapeutic children's homes (also known as residential treatment centres) in order that their often acute emotional and behavioural needs can be addressed. There is little data on process within these settings, especially outside the US. This article contains findings from interviews carried out with 16 young adults who had been placed in a therapeutic children's home in England. These former residents were asked for their views concerning the care they had received. The respondents were, in general, positive about their experiences, particularly in terms of their relationships with staff, life story work, leisure activities and the contact they had with staff after leaving the homes. Some of them were also happy with their experiences in relation to therapy, school, friendships and preparations for leaving the placement but others were less contented in these respects. The evidence from this research is that this highly disadvantaged group of children can be provided with a good quality of care within therapeutic children's homes
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Concurrent planning - report of a scoping exercise carried out for Faith in Families, Nottingham
No full textContext: During 2008 -2009 Faith in Families investigated the possibility of introducing a concurrent planning scheme with 6 local authorities in the East Midlands. Planning for this became quite advanced, and a member of staff was appointed by Faith in Families to carry forward the project. Nottingham Trent University was asked to evaluate the implementation, and funding was secured through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership grant. Following the demise of the Goodman project in Manchester (see below), and internal changes at Faith in Families, the implementation was put on hold and the university was asked to undertake a scoping exercise. This report relates to that exercise
When cross-modal attention fails
No full textThere is now convincing evidence that an involuntary shift of spatial attention to a stimulus in one modality can affect the processing of stimuli in other modalities, but inconsistent findings across different paradigms have led to controversy. Such inconsistencies have important implications for theories of cross-modal attention. The authors investigated why orienting attention to a visual event sometimes influences responses to subsequent sounds and why it sometimes fails to do so. They examined visual-cue-on-auditory-target effects in two paradigms--implicit spatial discrimination (ISD) and orthogonal cuing (OC)--that have yielded conflicting findings in the past. Consistent with previous research, visual cues facilitated responses to same-side auditory targets in the ISD paradigm but not in the OC paradigm. Furthermore, in the ISD paradigm, visual cues facilitated responses to auditory targets only when the targets were presented directly at the cued location, not when they appeared above or below the cued location. This pattern of results confirms recent claims that visual cues fail to influence responses to auditory targets in the OC paradigm because the targets fall outside the focus of attention.Peer reviewedFinal article publishe
Breakthrough: a first-in-class virtual simulator for dose optimization of ACE inhibitors in translational cardiovascular medicine
No full textThe renin–angiotensin–aldosterone-systems (RAAS) play a central role in the pathophysiology of congestive heart failure (CHF), justifying the use of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) in dogs and humans with cardiac diseases. Seminal studies in canine CHF had suggested that the pharmacological action of benazepril was relatively independent of doses greater than 0.25 mg/kg P.O, thereby providing a rationale for the European labeled dose of benazepril in dogs with CHF. However, most of these earlier studies relied on measures of ACE activity, a sub-optimal endpoint to characterize the effect of ACEi on the RAAS. The objectives of this study were (i) to expand on previous mathematical modeling efforts of the dose-exposure–response relationship of benazepril on biomarkers of the RAAS which are relevant to CHF pathophysiology and disease prognosis; and (ii) to develop a software implementation capable of simulating clinical trials in benazepril in dogs bedside dose optimization. Our results suggest that 0.5 mg/kg PO q12h of benazepril produces the most robust reduction in angiotensin II and upregulation of RAAS alternative pathway biomarkers. This model will eventually be expanded to include relevant clinical endpoints, which will be evaluated in an upcoming prospective trial in canine patients with CHF.This article is published as Schneider, Benjamin K., Jessica Ward, Samantha Sotillo, Catherine Garelli-Paar, Emilie Guillot, Marc Prikazsky, and Jonathan P. Mochel. "Breakthrough: a first-in-class virtual simulator for dose optimization of ACE inhibitors in translational cardiovascular medicine." Scientific Reports 13, no. 1 (2023): 3300.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-30453-x.
Copyright 2023 The Author(s).
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Posted with permission
Political power and partisanship: The role and influence of political forces in state higher education funding
No full textThe realm of higher education exists far beyond the classrooms and halls of academia; higher education operates at the intersection of state politics and government forces. States’ public higher education systems have a symbiotic relationship with politics; for their lifeblood, state appropriations, are dependent on the structure and powers of their respective state legislature. Public higher education institutions are embedded within a larger political environment, and it stands to reasons this environment will strongly influence both budgetary and policy actions in postsecondary education in measurable ways.
This study seeks to develop a comprehensive conceptualization of the state political system which impacts the level of state funding support for a public system of higher education. This study specifically focuses on the political attributes and composition of the Oklahoma State Legislature and executive branch to understand what impact, if any, these political forces can explain the trends of state funding for Oklahoma’s public higher education system and what role Republican legislators have on state funding levels for higher education.
This analysis provides strong evidence there is a collective significant effect from state-level political predictor variables for Oklahoma public institutions’ state appropriations levels. This study reveals the affect state political forces, from both the executive and legislative branches, have on Oklahoma’s public higher education system.Restricted to TTU community only. To view, login with your eRaider (top right). Others may request the author grant access exception by clicking on the PDF link to the left
A Systematic Review of Music Therapy Practice and Outcomes with Acute Adult Psychiatric In-Patients
No full textPMCID: PMC3732280This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
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