Touchscreen interventions for people with dementia

This project builds on the existing evidence that suggests that art-based interventions can be beneficial for the wellbeing of people with dementia and their carers, and explores whether such interventions can be delivered via a touchscreen tablet device using an application that allows them to view art images. Twelve pairs of volunteers with dementia and their informal carers were recruited through Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Cafés. A quasi-experimental mixed-methods within-subjects study evaluated the impact of art-viewing on wellbeing using visual analogue scales as well as exploring the experiences of participants qualitatively with thematic analysis. Quantitative results showed a significant effect for change in composite wellbeing from viewing session one to session five. Wellbeing subdomain scores showed an impact on wellbeing which tended to increase with the number of sessions. Qualitative findings were reported in relation to shifts in cognition, changes in behaviour, mood and relationships between people with dementia and their carers. These changes tended to be viewed as positive by interviewees. The results suggest that touchscreen based art interventions have the potential to provide an activity people with dementia can engage in with their carers which can benefit their wellbeing. A larger-scale controlled study would help to further determine whether wider dementia care practice implications can be drawn for clinical psychologists and other healthcare providers

Viewing art on a tablet computer: a wellbeing intervention for people with dementia and their caregivers

Background: Art-based interventions have been shown to be beneficial for the wellbeing of people with dementia and their caregivers. This paper explored whether such interventions can be delivered via a touchscreen tablet device displaying art images. Methods: Twelve pairs of volunteers with dementia and informal caregivers were recruited. A quasi-experimental mixed-methods within-subjects study evaluated the wellbeing impacts of art viewing using visual analogue scales and explored participant experiences with thematic analysis. Findings: Quantitative results showed a significant effect for change in composite wellbeing from session one to session five. Wellbeing subdomains showed impact on wellbeing, which generally increased with number of sessions. Qualitative findings included changes in cognition, behaviour, mood and relationships. These changes tended to be viewed positively. Conclusions: The results suggest touchscreen-based art interventions could yield wellbeing benefits for this population. A larger-scale controlled study would help to determine whether wider dementia care practice implications can be drawn

Pollution in the open oceans: 2009-2013

This review of pollution in the open oceans updates a report on this topic prepared by GESAMP five years previously (Reports and Studies No. 79, GESAMP, 2009). The latter report, the first from GESAMP focusing specifically on the oceans beyond the 200 m depth contour, was prepared for purposes of the Assessment of Assessments, the preparatory phase of a regular process for assessing the state of the marine environment, led jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC)

The challenges of analyzing behavioral response study data : an overview of the MOCHA (Multi-study OCean acoustics Human effects Analysis) project

Date of Acceptance:This paper describes the MOCHA project which aims to develop novel approaches for the analysis of data collected during Behavioral Response Studies (BRSs). BRSs are experiments aimed at directly quantifying the effects of controlled dosages of natural or anthropogenic stimuli (typically sound) on marine mammal behavior. These experiments typically result in low sample size, relative to variability, and so we are looking at a number of studies in combination to maximize the gain from each one. We describe a suite of analytical tools applied to BRS data on beaked whales, including a simulation study aimed at informing future experimental design.Postprin

Classification of broadband echoes from prey of a foraging Blainville's beaked whale

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 123 (2008): 1753-1762, doi:10.1121/1.2828210.Blainville's beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) use broadband, ultrasonic echolocation signals with a −10 dB bandwidth from 26 to 51 kHz to search for, localize, and approach prey that generally consist of mid-water and deep-water fishes and squid. Although it is well known that the spectral characteristics of broadband echoes from marine organisms vary as a function of size, shape, orientation, and anatomical group, there is little evidence as to whether or not free-ranging toothed whales use spectral cues in discriminating between prey and nonprey. In order to study the prey-classification process, a stereo acoustic tag was deployed on a Blainville's beaked whale so that emitted clicks and the corresponding echoes from targets in the water could be recorded. A comparison of echoes from targets apparently selected by the whale and those from a sample of scatterers that were not selected suggests that spectral features of the echoes, target strengths, or both may have been used by the whale to discriminate between echoes. Specifically, the whale appears to favor targets with one or more nulls in the echo spectra and to seek prey with higher target strengths at deeper depths.Field work was supported by the U.S. National Oceanographic Partnership Program, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, and the Canary Islands government. Analysis of the data was supported by the Office of the Oceanographer of the U.S. Navy, The Academic Programs Office at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Danish Natural Science Research Council through a Steno scholarship to Peter T. Madsen

A beamforming video recorder for integrated observations of dolphin behavior and vocalizations

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 117 (2005): 1005-1008, doi:10.1121/1.1831284.In this Letter we describe a beamforming video recorder consisting of a video camera at the center of a 16 hydrophone array. A broadband frequency-domain beamforming algorithm is used to estimate the azimuth and elevation of each detected sound. These estimates are used to generate a visual cue indicating the location of the sound source within the video recording, which is synchronized to the acoustic data. The system provided accurate results in both lab calibrations and a field test. The system allows researchers to correlate the acoustic and physical behaviors of marine mammals during studies of social interactions.This research was funded by NSF Ocean Sciences CAREER award 9733391

Whistle characteristics and daytime dive behavior in pantropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) in Hawai‘i measured using digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs)

Funding to support P.L.T. was received from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) and their support is gratefully acknowledged. MASTS is funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.This study characterizes daytime acoustic and dive behavior of pantropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata) in Hawai‘i using 14.58 h of data collected from five deployments of digital acoustic recording tags (DTAG3) in 2013. For each tagged animal, the number of whistles, foraging buzzes, dive profiles, and dive statistics were calculated. Start, end, minimum, and maximum frequencies, number of inflection points and duration were measured from 746 whistles. Whistles ranged in frequency from 9.7 ± 2.8 to 19.8 ± 4.2 kHz, had a mean duration of 0.7 ± 0.5 s and a mean of 1.2 ± 1.2 inflection points. Thirteen foraging buzzes were recorded across all tags. Mean dive depth and duration were 16 ± 9 m and 1.9 ± 1.0 min, respectively. Tagged animals spent the majority of time in the upper 10 m (76.9% ± 16.1%) of the water column. Both whistle frequency characteristics and dive statistics measured here were similar to previously reported values for spotted dolphins in Hawai‘i. Shallow, short dive profiles combined with few foraging buzzes provide evidence that little spotted dolphin feeding behavior occurs during daytime hours. This work represents one of the first successful DTAG3 studies of small pelagic delphinids, providing rare insights into baseline bioacoustics and dive behavior.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Noise level correlates with manatee use of foraging habitats

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 121 (2007): 3011-3020, doi:10.1121/1.2713555.The introduction of anthropogenic sound to coastal waters is a negative side effect of population growth. As noise from boats, marine construction, and coastal dredging increases, environmental and behavioral monitoring is needed to directly assess the effect these phenomena have on marine animals. Acoustic recordings, providing information on ambient noise levels and transient noise sources, were made in two manatee habitats: grassbeds and dredged habitats. Recordings were made over two 6-month periods from April to September in 2003 and 2004. Noise levels were calculated in one-third octave bands at nine center frequencies ranging from 250 Hz to 64 kHz. Manatee habitat usage, as a function of noise level, was examined during four time periods: morning, noon, afternoon, and night. Analysis of sightings data in a variety of grassbeds of equal species composition and density indicate that manatees select grassbeds with lower ambient noise for frequencies below 1 kHz. Additionally, grassbed usage was negatively correlated with concentrated boat presence in the morning hours; no correlation was observed during noon and afternoon hours. This suggests that morning boat presence and its associated noise may affect the use of foraging habitat on a daily time scale.This research was supported by a P.E.O. Scholar Award and National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship awarded to Jennifer Miksis

Why Are Male Social Relationships Complex in the Doubtful Sound Bottlenose Dolphin Population?

Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Estimated communication range and energetic cost of bottlenose dolphin whistles in a tropical habitat

Author Posting. © Acoustical Society of America, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of Acoustical Society of America for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 131 (2012): 582-592, doi:10.1121/1.3662067.Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) depend on frequency-modulated whistles for many aspects of their social behavior, including group cohesion and recognition of familiar individuals. Vocalization amplitude and frequency influences communication range and may be shaped by many ecological and physiological factors including energetic costs. Here, a calibrated GPS-synchronized hydrophone array was used to record the whistles of bottlenose dolphins in a tropical shallow-water environment with high ambient noise levels. Acoustic localization techniques were used to estimate the source levels and energy content of individual whistles. Bottlenose dolphins produced whistles with mean source levels of 146.7±6.2 dB re. 1 μPa(RMS). These were lower than source levels estimated for a population inhabiting the quieter Moray Firth, indicating that dolphins do not necessarily compensate for the high noise levels found in noisy tropical habitats by increasing their source level. Combined with measured transmission loss and noise levels, these source levels provided estimated median communication ranges of 750 m and maximum communication ranges up to 5740 m. Whistles contained less than 17 mJ of acoustic energy, showing that the energetic cost of whistling is small compared to the high metabolic rate of these aquatic mammals, and unlikely to limit the vocal activity of toothed whales.This study received support from the Danish Ph.D. School of Aquatic Sciences (SOAS), Aarhus University, DK, WWF Verdensnaturfonden and Aase & Ejnar Danielsens Foundation, the Siemens Foundation, the Faculty of Science at the University of Aarhus, DK, and the Danish Natural Science Foundation via a Steno scholarship and a logistics grant to PTM