Marine animal sound classification

Software was developed to measure characteristics of marine animal sounds (AcouStat). These measurements proved effective for classifying sounds in several contexts: identifying species, quantifying the repertoire of a single species, and identifying individuals. The sound measures included statistics for aggregate bandwidth, intensity, duration, amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, center frequency, and interactions among these variables. Classification analysis based on these measures suggests they adequately characterize the variability of bioacoustic signals for many problems. Correct classification to species was as high as 85%, and correct classification of dolphin whistles to individual was 90%.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research through the Naval Undersea Warfare Center under Contract No. N-00140-90-D-1979

Characterizing acoustic features of marine animal sounds

Software tools were designed to characterize the acoustic features of marine animal sounds. These have resulted in a set of calculated measurements that summarize particular aspects of sound sequences. The specificity of these measurements was enhanced by adjusting calculations to compensate for ambient noise. The sound measures included statistics for Aggregate Bandwidth, Intensity, Duration, Amplitude Modulation, Frequency Modulation, Short-term Bandwidth, Center Frequency, and Amplitude Frequency Interaction. The efficacy of noise compensation was tested for each statistic. Then, the sound measures were tested on a subset of 200 sequences of marine animal sounds, including sequences from 20 species: six baleen whales, 13 toothed species, and one seal. The statistics were reviewed for each species and a graphical comparison of all species was generated using principal components analysis. Preliminary results confirm that such sounds can be classified by means of relatively simple statistical algorithms, and we are encouraged to continue toward a system for automatic classification of marine animal sounds.Funding was provided by NAVSEA under Contract No. N00140-90-D-1979 and a series of contracts and grants by ONR including Grant N00014-91-J-1445 with supplemental support by NOARL and ORINCON/DARPA

SOUND database of marine animal vocalizations : structure and operations

The SOUND database system for marine animal vocalizations has been updated to include changes in the structure and operations that have evolved with use. These include more convenient operations, greater flexibilty in analysis routines, and a revised database structure. The formats for data sorting and indexing, database structure, and analysis routines have developed into a convenient research tool. This report is a revision of the earlier operating manual for the SOUND databases (Watkins, Fristrup, and Daher 1991.) The interactive databases that comprise the SOUND system provide comprehensive means for quantitative analyses and statistical comparisons of marine animal vocalizations. These SOUND databases encompass (1) descriptive text databases cataoging the WHOI collection of underwater sound recordings of marine animals, (2) sets of files of digital sound sequences, (3) text databases organizing the digital sound cuts, and (4) software for analysis, display, playback, and export of selected sound files. The text databases index and sort the information about the sounds, and the digital sound cut files are accessed directly from the text record. From the text database, the sound cut data may be analyzed on screen, listened to, and compared or exported as desired. The objective of this work has been the development of a basic set of tools for the study of marine animal sound. The text databases for cataloging the recordings provide convenient sorting and selection of sounds of interest. Then, as specific sequences are digitized from these recordings, they become part of another database system that manages these acoustic data. Once a digital sound is part of the organized database, several tools are available for interactive spectrographic display, sound playback, statistical feature extraction, and export to other application programs.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research through the Ocean Acoustics Program (code 11250A) under Contract No. N00014-88-K-0273 and No. N00014-91-J-1445 with supplemental support by ORINCON/DARPA and NRL (code 211)

Software tools for acoustic database management

Digital archiving of bioacoustic data provides both curatorial and scientific benefits. To realize these benefits, key system requirements must be satisfied. This report discusses these requirements, and describes the software tools developed by the WHOI bioacoustic laboratory to maintain and utilize an archive of digitized biological sounds. These tools are written in standard C code, and are designed to run on PC-compatible microcomputers. Both the usage and structure of these programs are described in relation to the SOUND database of marine animal sounds. These tools include software for analog-to-digital conversion, text header maintenance, data verification and interactive spectrographic review. Source code listings are supplied.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research through the Ocean Acoustics Program (code 11250) Contract N00014-88-K-0273 and Grant N00014-J-1445 with supplemental support from NOARL (code 211)

Searching for Planets in the Hyades. I. The Keck Radial Velocity Survey

We describe a high-precision radial velocity search for jovian-mass companions to main sequence stars in the Hyades star cluster. The Hyades provides an extremely well controlled sample of stars of the same age, the same metallicity, and a common birth and early dynamical environment. This sample allows us to explore the dependence of the process of planet formation on only a single independent variable: the stellar mass. In this paper we describe the survey and summarize results for the first five years.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; To appear in the July 2002 issue of The Astronomical Journa

Using Pressure- and Temperature-Sensitive Paint for Global Surface Pressure and Temperature Measurements on the Aft-Body of a Capsule Reentry Vehicle

Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) and Temperature Sensitive Paint (TSP) were used to visualize and quantify the surface interactions of reaction control system (RCS) jets on the aft body of capsule reentry vehicle shapes. The first model tested was an Apollo-like configuration and was used to focus primarily on the effects of the forward facing roll and yaw jets. The second model tested was an early Orion Crew Module configuration blowing only out of its forward-most yaw jet, which was expected to have the most intense aerodynamic heating augmentation on the model surface. This paper will present the results from the experiments, which show that with proper system design, both PSP and TSP are effective tools for studying these types of interaction in hypersonic testing environments

Development and preliminary testing of the psychosocial adjustment to hereditary diseases scale

Background: The presence of Lynch syndrome (LS) can bring a lifetime of uncertainty to an entire family as members adjust to living with a high lifetime cancer risk. The research base on how individuals and families adjust to genetic-linked diseases following predictive genetic testing has increased our understanding of short-term impacts but gaps continue to exist in knowledge of important factors that facilitate or impede long-term adjustment. The failure of existing scales to detect psychosocial adjustment challenges in this population has led researchers to question the adequate sensitivity of these instruments. Furthermore, we have limited insight into the role of the family in promoting adjustment. Methods: The purpose of this study was to develop and initially validate the Psychosocial Adjustment to Hereditary Diseases (PAHD) scale. This scale consists of two subscales, the Burden of Knowing (BK) and Family Connectedness (FC). Items for the two subscales were generated from a qualitative data base and tested in a sample of 243 participants from families with LS. Results: The Multitrait/Multi-Item Analysis Program-Revised (MAP-R) was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the PAHD. The findings support the convergent and discriminant validity of the subscales. Construct validity was confirmed by factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha supported a strong internal consistency for BK (0.83) and FC (0.84). Conclusion: Preliminary testing suggests that the PAHD is a psychometrically sound scale capable of assessing psychosocial adjustment. We conclude that the PAHD may be a valuable monitoring tool to identify individuals and families who may require therapeutic interventions

Development of a Pressure Sensitive Paint System for Measuring Global Surface Pressures on Rotorcraft Blades

This paper will describe the results from a proof of concept test to examine the feasibility of using Pressure Sensitive Paint (PSP) to measure global surface pressures on rotorcraft blades in hover. The test was performed using the U.S. Army 2-meter Rotor Test Stand (2MRTS) and 15% scale swept rotor blades. Data were collected from five blades using both the intensity- and lifetime-based approaches. This paper will also outline several modifications and improvements that are underway to develop a system capable of measuring pressure distributions on up to four blades simultaneously at hover and forward flight conditions