Capturing Information on Vessels and Cetaceans: developing a passive monitoring system for Boundary Pass

As marine traffic intensifies in the Salish Sea, cetaceans, and in particular, Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKWs), are continually facing increasing amounts of exposure to noise and other disturbances from movements of vessels. While the majority of large vessel activity can be captured and assessed through the use of Automatic Identification Systems (AIS), the contribution of smaller non-AIS vessels is difficult to quantify and currently largely under assessed. Increasingly, government and industry are required to take operational and strategic mitigation measures to minimise vessel disturbances on cetaceans without reliable, comprehensive data and analysis to inform those decisions. Therefore this work focuses on filling these gaps by collecting information on both non-AIS vessels and the presence of marine mammal (including SRKW) within Boundary Pass) using three passive forms of data collection: an AIS receiver, hydrophones and a land-based camera. This talk describes an outline of the camera work being undertaken, from the design stages to installation. It will highlight some of the initial findings from the early analysis work along with some of the challenges and limitations of this type of data. Additionally, acoustic data on cetaceans in Boundary Pass will also be presented. Unlike the camera this form of passive monitoring is only able to capture the presence of cetaceans when they are vocalizing. Evidence already exists to suggest that some species reduce their rate of vocalization in the presence of vessels (and their associated noise). Therefore, integration of both acoustic and visual data will enable us to build a more complete picture of cetacean habitat use and the relationship between vessels and cetaceans in Boundary Pass. Furthermore, the information obtained through analysis of this data is also particularly important for informing models that aim to assess the level of vessel disturbance cetaceans are subjected to

Data Descriptor: An open resource for transdiagnostic research in pediatric mental health and learning disorders

Technological and methodological innovations are equipping researchers with unprecedented capabilities for detecting and characterizing pathologic processes in the developing human brain. As a result, ambitions to achieve clinically useful tools to assist in the diagnosis and management of mental health and learning disorders are gaining momentum. To this end, it is critical to accrue large-scale multimodal datasets that capture a broad range of commonly encountered clinical psychopathology. The Child Mind Institute has launched the Healthy Brain Network (HBN), an ongoing initiative focused on creating and sharing a biobank of data from 10,000 New York area participants (ages 5–21). The HBN Biobank houses data about psychiatric, behavioral, cognitive, and lifestyle phenotypes, as well as multimodal brain imaging (resting and naturalistic viewing fMRI, diffusion MRI, morphometric MRI), electroencephalography, eyetracking, voice and video recordings, genetics and actigraphy. Here, we present the rationale, design and implementation of HBN protocols. We describe the first data release (n =664) and the potential of the biobank to advance related areas (e.g., biophysical modeling, voice analysis

Quiet time for orcas: noise reduction strategies that can assist orca in their foraging and communication

Masking by underwater noise can decrease prey acquisition rates in southern resident killer whales (SRKWs) by impeding communication and echolocation during foraging. SRKW increase the source level of their vocalizations when broadband underwater noise increases (in correlation with the number of nearby boats), and ship noise extends to higher frequencies of SRKW echolocation. On San Juan Island, WA, along the Haro Strait we operate hydrophones for the long-term measurement of underwater noise and we record all the Automatic Identification System (AIS) reports from passing boats and ships. Since late July, 2017, the NEMES Program at the University of Victoria, has operated a HD camera from the site taking photos of Haro Strait every few seconds. With AIS data from ships and small boat data from the on-site camera, we have developed noise models parameterized with these local data. We evaluate noise reduction strategies using a suite of metrics (decibels weighted and unweighted, communication range, foraging range) and discuss how these strategies impact the percentage of time that SRKWs are exposed to various levels of underwater noise (peak, minima, and quantiles). Noise reduction strategies we assess include: ship source level reductions (e.g. hull cleaning, maintenance, speed limits); small boat speed limits and no-go zones; and vessel scheduling scenarios

Imide Condensation as a Strategy for the Synthesis of Core Diversified G-Quadruplex Ligands with Anti-Cancer and Anti-Parasitic Activity

A facile imide coupling strategy for the one-step preparation of G‑quadruplex ligands with varied core chemistries is described. The G‑quadruplex stabilization, anticancer and antiparasitic activity of a library of nine compounds was examined, identifying a nanomolar inhibitor of T. brucei with 78‑fold selectivity over MRC5 cells, and strong stabilization of G‑quadruplex nucleic acids. </p