Elena Mccarthy

United States Navy

There 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 tha...

Background/Question/Methods Naval exercises using Mid-Frequency Active (MFA) sonar have been implicated in several mass stranding events in which the predominant species were Blainville’s (Mesoplodon densirostris) and Cuvier’s (Ziphius cavirostris) beaked whales. Beaked whales are known to be metronomic divers. Their dives can exceed 1,000 meters...

The number and distribution of vocalizing groups of Blainville's beaked whales (Mesoplodon densirostris) were analyzed before, during, and after multiship mid-frequency active sonar operations at the US Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in the Bahamas. Groups of foraging animals were isolated by detecting their echolocatio...

Beaked whales have mass stranded during some naval sonar exercises, but the cause is unknown. They are difficult to sight but can reliably be detected by listening for echolocation clicks produced during deep foraging dives. Listening for these clicks, we documented Blainville's beaked whales, Mesoplodon densirostris, in a naval underwater range wh...

We present a passive acoustic method for estimating the density of echolocating cetaceans that dive synchronously, based on isolation of dive starts using a field of distributed bottom-mounted hydrophones. The method assumes that all dive starts of the target species within a defined area are detected, and that independent estimates of dive rate an...

The effect of mid-frequency active sonar, has increasingly become an issue with navies worldwide. The U.S. navy ranges have been used to develop passive acoustic algorithms and tools to detect, classify, and localize marine mammal vocalizations which have been applied to an opportunistic passive acoustic study of Blainville's beaked whales. Based o...

The use of satellite-based remote sensing systems for observing marine environments is presented. Satellite observations of the marine environment, including weather, support efforts in economic development, national defense, resource management, and policy making, and contribute to the comfort, health, and safety of the public. Several emerging us...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2003. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-304). Photocopy.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is characterized by recurrent episodes of depression occurring regularly with the onset of winter. The study was a prospective naturalistic follow-up of the emergence of symptoms of seasonal depression with the passage of time and change in seasons. Participants were screened during summer for SAD. Participants wer...

It is commonly accepted that the ocean's ambient noise levels are rising due to increased human activities in coastal and offshore areas. It has been estimated that low-frequency noise levels increased more than 10 dB in many parts of the world between 1950 and 1975. [Ross, Acoustics Bulletin, Jan/Feb (1993)]. Several other sources cite an increase...

This article addresses federal, state, and local regulatory regimes for controlling commercial advertising in coastal waters. It focuses on a new method of outdoor advertising that utilizes a billboard towed by a tug in coastal waters. Specifically, it explores the extent to which legal action to regulate advertising from floating billboards in U.S...

Results are presented from a randomized controlled trial indicating which psychotic symptoms respond to cognitive behaviour therapy. The aim of the study was to investigate whether different types of psychotic symptoms are more or less responsive to cognitive-behaviour therapy compared to treatment received by control groups. Seventy-two patients...

The acoustic characteristics of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) were investigated in order to enhance the performance of mine-hunting sonars in littoral regions. The species of SAV investigated was Zostera marina, commonly known as eelgrass. In situ measurements were carried out in the shallow water eelgrass beds of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Islan...

Outpatient-based treatments for patients suffering from chronic schizophrenia inadvertently exclude a significant proportion of subjects because they are often too poorly motivated to attend for treatment. In addition there are also concerns about whether the skills that are learnt in a hospital setting will generalize to situations when the indivi...

Persistent drug-resistant psychotic symptoms are a pervasive problem in the treatment of schizophrenia. To evaluate the durability of the treatment effects of cognitive-behavioural therapy for chronic schizophrenia one year after treatment termination. A comparison of clinical outcomes was made at one-year follow-up from a randomised trial of cogni...

The limitations of biochemical treatments in reducing the severity of hallucinations and delusions has led to an increased interest in the investigation of psychological treatments for these symptoms. These investigations have spanned the last 4 decades and have covered a range of psychological approaches from psychoanalytically oriented psychother...