Mapping widespread and increasing underwater noise pollution from acoustic deterrent devices.

Acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs) are used in attempts to mitigate pinniped depredation on aquaculture sites through the emission of loud and pervasive noise. This study quantified spatio-temporal changes in underwater ADD noise detections along western Scotland over 11 years. Acoustic point data ('listening events') collected during cetacean line-transect surveys were used to map ADD presence between 2006 and 2016. A total of 19,601 listening events occurred along the Scottish west coast, and ADD presence was recorded during 1371 listening events. Results indicated a steady increase in ADD detections from 2006 (0.05%) to 2016 (6.8%), with the highest number of detections in 2013 (12.6%), as well as substantial geographic expansion. This study demonstrates that ADDs are a significant and chronic source of underwater noise on the Scottish west coast with potential adverse impacts on target (pinniped) and non-target (e.g. cetaceans) species, which requires further study and improved monitoring and regulatory strategies.

Rapid biodiagnostic ex vivo imaging at 1 µm pixel resolution with thermal source FTIR FPA.

A recent upgrade to the optics configuration of a thermal source FTIR microscope equipped with a focal plane array detector has enabled rapid acquisition of high magnification spectrochemical images, in transmission, with an effective geometric pixel size of ∼1 × 1 µm(2) at the sample plane. Examples, including standard imaging targets for scale and accuracy, as well as biomedical tissues and microorganisms, have been imaged with the new system and contrasted with data acquired at normal magnification and with a high magnification multi-beam synchrotron instrument. With this optics upgrade, one can now conduct rapid biodiagnostic ex vivo tissue imaging in-house, with images collected over larger areas, in less time (minutes) and with comparable quality and resolution to the best synchrotron source FTIR imaging capabilities.

Eidemiological aspects of an outbreak of salmonellosis in sheep.

An outbreak of salmonellosis caused by Salmonella typhimurium occurred in a lambing flock where management factors and fostering movements were responsible for spread within the group and to farm personnel and their families. Possible sources of the infection are discussed.