Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) vocalizations and call classification from the eastern Beaufort Sea population

Funding was provided by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management under InterAgency Agreement M09PG00016. E.C.G. was supported by a National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences) Postdoctoral Fellowship.Beluga whales, Delphinapterus leucas, have a graded call system; call types exist on a continuum making classification challenging. A description of vocalizations from the eastern Beaufort Sea beluga population during its spring migration are presented here, using both a non-parametric clas- sification tree analysis (CART), and a Random Forest analysis. Twelve frequency and duration measurements were made on 1019 calls recorded over 14 days off Icy Cape, Alaska, resulting in 34 identifiable call types with 83% agreement in classification for both CART and Random Forest analyses. This high level of agreement in classification, with an initial subjective classification of calls into 36 categories, demonstrates that the methods applied here provide a quantitative analysis of a graded call dataset. Further, as calls cannot be attributed to individuals using single sensor pas- sive acoustic monitoring efforts, these methods provide a comprehensive analysis of data where the influence of pseudo-replication of calls from individuals is unknown. This study is the first to describe the vocal repertoire of a beluga population using a robust and repeatable methodology. A baseline eastern Beaufort Sea beluga population repertoire is presented here, against which the call repertoire of other seasonally sympatric Alaskan beluga populations can be compared.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Sistemas docentes en Medicina del Trabajo

El Espacio Europeo de Educación incluye la enseñanza de grado y posgrado, así como un marco psico-pedagógico. Las estrategias de aprendizaje de los estudiantes en medicina del trabajo, tal como las conocen los docentes, se fundamentan en mejorar el ambiente de aprendizaje. El objetivo del presente estudio es evaluar los perfiles y estrategias de aprendizaje en módulos de medicina del trabajo. Una muestra de 53 estudiantes de pregrado inscritos en temas de salud ocupacional participaron en el estudio. Cumplimentaron el Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F). Las estrategias utilizadas por los estudiantes se relacionaron con la evaluación realizada al final del periodo de enseñanza. Los estudiantes expresaron un uso significativamente mayor de estrategias profundas (16±4) que de estrategias superficiales (14±2). En relación con el desempeño, hubo una relación directa entre la puntuación de las estrategias profundas y los resultados de la evaluación. Los hallazgos apoyan que en medicina del trabajo el conocimiento del perfil de estrategias de aprendizaje ayudará a mejorar la educación. Para incrementar los estándares de enseñanza, se recomienda aplicar sistemas de evaluación para adaptar los métodos de enseñanza a los perfiles de los estudiante

Hábitos alimentarios de los siglos XVI y XVII a través de la obra de Cervantes: relación con la morbi-mortalidad de la época

En la actualidad es constatable el creciente interés por el estudio de la Alimentación como ciencia, enmarcada no sólo en su vertiente bromatológica y nutricional, sino también en lo que se ha dado en llamar el conocimiento de los "usos y costumbres" cotidianos de una población. Con este trabajo, hemos pretendido desentrañar la evolución histórica en los hábitos alimentarios de la población, en el Siglo de Oro Español, teniendo como base la aportación literaria de Miguel de Cervantes y diversos ensayos históricos, médicos y bromatológicos de la época. En alimentación, los hábitos y formas no son casuales ni coyunturales a un momento histórico determinado; sino que, por el contrario, presentan raíces ancestrales justificadamente marcadas por diferentes factores. La memoria de este trabajo está estructurada en varios apartados diferenciados. En primer lugar se establecen las bases de los hábitos alimentarios y de sus factores condicionantes - medioambientales, religiosos, tecnológicos, culturales, etc. y se da a conocer el estado actual de las investigaciones históricas sobre la alimentación. Con ello comprendemos que la manera de alimentarse constituye parte de la identidad de un pueblo y que no cambia de forma brusca sino que evoluciona lenta y pausadamente. Esta reflexión nos abocó a un segundo apartado sobre el conocimiento social de estos siglos, con el fin de poder ahondar sobre la cotidianeidad y gastronomía de los españoles renacentistas. Una vez marcados los fundamentos que definen nuestros hábitos alimentarios, la memoria se encaminó al estudio de la diferente alimentación entre clases sociales de la época, y se complementa con la observación de la influencia religiosa en todos los aspectos de la vida cotidiana. El verdadero fin de esta memoria es el de evaluar el estado nutricional del español renacentista y, a su vez, establecer las causas y consecuencias de éste. Para ello, y una vez conocidos los platos consumidos en las mesas cervantinas, fue conveniente investigar sobre el saber científico del médico del Siglo XVI, para comprender así su conocimiento nutricional. Por último, esta memoria aplicó los conocimientos científicos actuales, para justificar el estado nutricional de los coetáneos de Cervantes en base al efecto de factores como hábitos de vida, enfermedades de la época, así como métodos de preparación culinaria, utensilios usados, higiene alimentaria. Para ello se establece una comparación entre las pirámides nutricionales recomendadas en la actualidad con las que entendemos regían la época renacentista. Dividiendo estas últimas en dos para atender a la bipolaridad entre ricos y pobres existente en este periodo histórico. Paralelamente, tabulamos bajo diferentes grupos de alimentos, las viandas que aparecen relacionadas en la obra cervantina, así como un listado incompleto, pero significativo de cada uno de los grupos de enfermedades más relevantes que se entrelazan en los textos del autor alcalaíno. Con todo ello, se pretende contribuir a establecer las relaciones causales entre alimentación y la salud de la España cervantina

Hábitos alimentarios de los siglos XVI y XVII a través de la obra de Cervantes: relación con la morbi-mortalidad de la época

En la actualidad es constatable el creciente interés por el estudio de la Alimentación como ciencia, enmarcada no sólo en su vertiente bromatológica y nutricional, sino también en lo que se ha dado en llamar el conocimiento de los "usos y costumbres" cotidianos de una población. Con este trabajo, hemos pretendido desentrañar la evolución histórica en los hábitos alimentarios de la población, en el Siglo de Oro Español, teniendo como base la aportación literaria de Miguel de Cervantes y diversos ensayos históricos, médicos y bromatológicos de la época. En alimentación, los hábitos y formas no son casuales ni coyunturales a un momento histórico determinado; sino que, por el contrario, presentan raíces ancestrales justificadamente marcadas por diferentes factores. La memoria de este trabajo está estructurada en varios apartados diferenciados. En primer lugar se establecen las bases de los hábitos alimentarios y de sus factores condicionantes - medioambientales, religiosos, tecnológicos, culturales, etc. y se da a conocer el estado actual de las investigaciones históricas sobre la alimentación. Con ello comprendemos que la manera de alimentarse constituye parte de la identidad de un pueblo y que no cambia de forma brusca sino que evoluciona lenta y pausadamente. Esta reflexión nos abocó a un segundo apartado sobre el conocimiento social de estos siglos, con el fin de poder ahondar sobre la cotidianeidad y gastronomía de los españoles renacentistas. Una vez marcados los fundamentos que definen nuestros hábitos alimentarios, la memoria se encaminó al estudio de la diferente alimentación entre clases sociales de la época, y se complementa con la observación de la influencia religiosa en todos los aspectos de la vida cotidiana. El verdadero fin de esta memoria es el de evaluar el estado nutricional del español renacentista y, a su vez, establecer las causas y consecuencias de éste. Para ello, y una vez conocidos los platos consumidos en las mesas cervantinas, fue conveniente investigar sobre el saber científico del médico del Siglo XVI, para comprender así su conocimiento nutricional. Por último, esta memoria aplicó los conocimientos científicos actuales, para justificar el estado nutricional de los coetáneos de Cervantes en base al efecto de factores como hábitos de vida, enfermedades de la época, así como métodos de preparación culinaria, utensilios usados, higiene alimentaria. Para ello se establece una comparación entre las pirámides nutricionales recomendadas en la actualidad con las que entendemos regían la época renacentista. Dividiendo estas últimas en dos para atender a la bipolaridad entre ricos y pobres existente en este periodo histórico. Paralelamente, tabulamos bajo diferentes grupos de alimentos, las viandas que aparecen relacionadas en la obra cervantina, así como un listado incompleto, pero significativo de cada uno de los grupos de enfermedades más relevantes que se entrelazan en los textos del autor alcalaíno. Con todo ello, se pretende contribuir a establecer las relaciones causales entre alimentación y la salud de la España cervantina

Kinematic and kinetic patterns related to free-walking in parkinson’s disease

The aim of this study is to compare the properties of free-walking at a natural pace between mild Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients during the ON-clinical status and two control groups. In-shoe pressure-sensitive insoles were used to quantify the temporal and force characteristics of a 5-min free-walking in 11 PD patients, in 16 young healthy controls, and in 12 age-matched healthy controls. Inferential statistics analyses were performed on the kinematic and kinetic parameters to compare groups’ performances, whereas feature selection analyses and automatic classification were used to identify the signature of parkinsonian gait and to assess the performance of group classification, respectively. Compared to healthy subjects, the PD patients’ gait pattern presented significant differences in kinematic parameters associated with bilateral coordination but not in kinetics. Specifically, patients showed an increased variability in double support time, greater gait asymmetry and phase deviation, and also poorer phase coordination. Feature selection analyses based on the ReliefF algorithm on the differential parameters in PD patients revealed an effect of the clinical status, especially true in double support time variability and gait asymmetry. Automatic classification of PD patients, young and senior subjects confirmed that kinematic predictors produced a slightly better classification performance than kinetic predictors. Overall, classification accuracy of groups with a linear discriminant model which included the whole set of features (i.e., demographics and parameters extracted from the sensors) was 64.1%

Variation in hearing within a wild population of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas)

Author Posting. © The Company of Biologists, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of The Company of Biologists for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental Biology 221 (2018): jeb171959, doi:10.1242/jeb.171959.Documenting hearing abilities is vital to understanding a species’ acoustic ecology and for predicting the impacts of increasing anthropogenic noise. Cetaceans use sound for essential biological functions such as foraging, navigation and communication; hearing is considered to be their primary sensory modality. Yet, we know little regarding the hearing of most, if not all, cetacean populations, which limits our understanding of their sensory ecology, population level variability and the potential impacts of increasing anthropogenic noise. We obtained audiograms (5.6–150 kHz) of 26 wild beluga whales to measure hearing thresholds during capture–release events in Bristol Bay, AK, USA, using auditory evoked potential methods. The goal was to establish the baseline population audiogram, incidences of hearing loss and general variability in wild beluga whales. In general, belugas showed sensitive hearing with low thresholds (<80 dB) from 16 to 100 kHz, and most individuals (76%) responded to at least 120 kHz. Despite belugas often showing sensitive hearing, thresholds were usually above or approached the low ambient noise levels measured in the area, suggesting that a quiet environment may be associated with hearing sensitivity and that hearing thresholds in the most sensitive animals may have been masked. Although this is just one wild population, the success of the method suggests that it should be applied to other populations and species to better assess potential differences. Bristol Bay beluga audiograms showed substantial (30–70 dB) variation among individuals; this variation increased at higher frequencies. Differences among individual belugas reflect that testing multiple individuals of a population is necessary to best describe maximum sensitivity and population variance. The results of this study quadruple the number of individual beluga whales for which audiograms have been conducted and provide the first auditory data for a population of healthy wild odontocetes.Project funding and field support were provided by multiple institutions, including Georgia Aquarium, the Marine Mammal Laboratory of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (MML/AFSC), and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Arctic Research Initiative, Ocean Life Institute and Marine Mammal Center). Field work was also supported by National Marine Fisheries Service Alaska Regional Office (NMFS AKR), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bristol Bay Native Association and Bristol Bay Marine Mammal Council, Alaska SeaLife Center, Shedd Aquarium and Mystic Aquarium. Audiogram analyses were initially funded by the Office of Naval Research award number N000141210203.2019-05-0

Kinematic and kinetic patterns related to free-walking in Parkinson's disease

The aim of this study is to compare the properties of free-walking at a natural pace between mild Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients during the ON-clinical status and two control groups. In-shoe pressure-sensitive insoles were used to quantify the temporal and force characteristics of a 5-min free-walking in 11 PD patients, in 16 young healthy controls, and in 12 age-matched healthy controls. Inferential statistics analyses were performed on the kinematic and kinetic parameters to compare groups’ performances, whereas feature selection analyses and automatic classification were used to identify the signature of parkinsonian gait and to assess the performance of group classification, respectively. Compared to healthy subjects, the PD patients’ gait pattern presented significant differences in kinematic parameters associated with bilateral coordination but not in kinetics. Specifically, patients showed an increased variability in double support time, greater gait asymmetry and phase deviation, and also poorer phase coordination. Feature selection analyses based on the ReliefF algorithm on the differential parameters in PD patients revealed an effect of the clinical status, especially true in double support time variability and gait asymmetry. Automatic classification of PD patients, young and senior subjects confirmed that kinematic predictors produced a slightly better classification performance than kinetic predictors. Overall, classification accuracy of groups with a linear discriminant model which included the whole set of features (i.e., demographics and parameters extracted from the sensors) was 64.1

Baseline hearing abilities and variability in wild beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas)

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Company of Biologists for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental Biology 217 (2014):1682-1691, doi:10.1242/​jeb.093252.While hearing is the primary sensory modality for odontocetes, there are few data addressing variation within a natural population. This work describes the hearing ranges (4-150 kHz) and sensitivities of seven apparently healthy, wild beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) during a population health assessment project that captured and released belugas in Bristol Bay, Alaska. The baseline hearing abilities and subsequent variations are addressed. Hearing was measured using auditory evoked potentials (AEPs). All audiograms showed a typical cetacean U-shape; substantial variation (>30 dB) was found between most and least sensitive thresholds. All animals heard well, up to at least 128 kHz. Two heard up to 150 kHz. Lowest auditory thresholds, 35-45 dB, were identified in the range 45-80 kHz. Greatest differences in hearing abilities occurred at both the high end of the auditory range and at frequencies of maximum sensitivity. In general, wild beluga hearing was quite sensitive. Hearing abilities were similar to belugas measured in zoological settings, reinforcing the comparative importance of both settings. The relative degree of variability across the wild belugas suggests that audiograms from multiple individuals are needed to properly describe the maximum sensitivity and population variance for odontocetes. Hearing measures were easily incorporated into field-based settings. This detailed examination of hearing abilities in wild Bristol Bay belugas provides a basis for a better understanding of the potential impact of anthropogenic noise on a noise-sensitive species. Such information may help design noise limiting mitigation measures that could be applied to areas heavily influenced and inhabited by endangered belugas.Project funding and field support provided by Georgia Aquarium and the National Marine Mammal Laboratory of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (NMML/AFSC). Field work also supported by National Marine Fisheries Service Alaska Regional Office (NMFS AKR), WHOI Arctic Research Initiative, WHOI Ocean Life Institute, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bristol Bay Native Association, Alaska SeaLife Center, Shedd Aquarium and Mystic Aquarium. Audiogram analyses were funded by the Office of Naval Research award number N000141210203 (from Michael Weise).2015-05-1

Exploring the potential of NIRS technology for the in situ prediction of amygdalin content and classification by bitterness of in-shell and shelled intact almonds

Amygdalin is a cyanogenic compound found in almonds which gives them their bitter taste. For the almond industry, it is important to prevent the presence of bitter almonds in batches of sweet almond that can affect their commercialization and even consumer safety. This study sought to ascertain the viability of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), as a fast and reliable candidate for non-destructive and in situ quantification of amygdalin levels and for classification of almonds by bitterness, when analysed in bulk. With that purpose, in-shell and shelled sweet and bitter almonds were analysed in dynamic mode using two new handheld NIRS instruments. As a first step, the amygdalin levels in in-shell and shelled almonds were determined using modified partial least squares (MPLS) and local regression algorithms. Next, classification models for bitterness were made using partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). For the discrimination between sweet and bitter almonds, two strategies to set up the optimum threshold were studied: the mean value of the discriminant variables and the value calculated using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. The results for measuring amygdalin in shelled almonds showed that NIRS technology, using both regression algorithms, is a robust technology for inspection purpose at an industrial level. Additionally, excellent performances were obtained for the classification models of the two in-shell and shelled almond groups analysed in bulk with both instruments, with better results when the threshold values obtained from the ROC curves were applied

A comparative study of aesthetic perceptions of malocclusion among general practice dentists, orthodontists and the public using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the IOTN-AC

Perception of malocclusion varies among individuals and among patients and practitioners. Although several indices that tend to coincide in many aspects and unify criteria, no single index has been recognised as the most suitable for assessing orthodontic treatment need. Moreover, orthodontists are not always aware of the differences in perception of malocclusion between patients and practitioners. To examine the perception of dental anaesthetics amongst dentists, orthodontists and the general population, study the relationship between the perception of dental aesthetics and the severity of the malocclusion, using the visual analogue scale and the IOTN-AC, and investigate relationships among the resulting data. Frontal intraoral photographs of 24 cases were classified by the severity of their malocclusion according to the DAI index. The photographs were examined by 150 individuals (30 orthodontists, 30 general dental practitioners and 90 members of the general population), who assessed them on a visual analogue scale and according to the IOTN-AC. The orthodontists gave the lowest scores on the visual analogue scale, although the differences between the three groups were not significant. For DAI grades 1, 3 and 4, significant differences were found in the IOTN-AC assessments. Here too, the orthodontist group was the most critical. In general, in all three groups, both the visual analogue scale and IOTN-AC scores increased or decreased in line with the severity of the malocclusion according to the DAI. However, the correlation between these scores was low. The orthodontists scored the malocclusions more critically than the general dentists or the general population with the IOTN-AC, but this difference was not found with the visual analogue scale