Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain and a seriously debilitating condition, which has been associated with injury, social stigmatisation and in some cases, sudden unexpected and premature death. A sense of profound isolation is felt by many individuals with epilepsy, and this community has expressed an urgent desire for an early warning system to allow them time to prepare for seizure onset. Surveys of dog owners with epilepsy have previously reported that some dogs can predict the onset of a seizure. Therefore, the current study investigated the hypothesis that if pet dogs were exposed to seizure-related odours which apparently emanated from their owners, they would respond by demonstrating attention seeking behaviours. This provides the first empirical test of this phenomenon in dogs that have not previously been trained for seizure alerting. This study, therefore, explores the propensity of pet dogs to anticipate and respond to human epileptic seizure onset in a controlled experimental investigation. Using a repeated measures design of experiment, recordings were made of the reactions of 19 untrained pet dogs to odours from sweat samples provided by three people with epilepsy and two people without epilepsy (controls). The sweat samples were from pre-ictal, ictal and post-ictal phases. Odours from the harvested sweat samples were randomly delivered to individual dogs in a test area, using two bespoke pieces of apparatus called Remote Odour Delivery Mechanisms, (RODMs). Behavioural changes by the dogs on encountering the odour samples were recorded by video for later analysis. Consistent with our hypothesis, seizure-associated odours evoked behavioural changes in the dogs, concordant with attention seeking attempts and thereby supporting the view that seizures are accompanied by a distinctive odour.

Epilepsy is a debilitating and potentially life-threatening neurological condition which affects approximately 65 million people worldwide. There is currently no reliable and simple early warning seizure-onset device available, which means many people with unstable epilepsy live in fear of injury or sudden death and the negative impact of social stigmatization. If anecdotal claims that untrained dogs anticipate seizures are found to be true, they could offer a simple and readily available early warning system. We hypothesized that, given the extraordinary olfactory ability of dogs, a volatile organic compound exhaled by the dog’s epileptic owner may constitute an early warning trigger mechanism to which make dogs react by owner-directed affiliative responses in the pre-seizure period. Using 19 pet dogs with no experience of epilepsy, we exposed them to odours that were deemed to be characteristic of three seizure phases, by using sweat harvested from people with epilepsy. The odours were delivered to a point immediately under a non-epileptic and seated pet dog owner’s thighs. By altering the alternating odours emerging from sweat samples, captured before seizure, during a seizure and after a seizure, and two nonseizure controls, we were able to record the response of the 19 pet dogs. Our findings suggest that seizures are associated with an odour and that dogs detect this odour and demonstrate a marked increase in affiliative behaviour directed at their owners. A characteristic response of all 19 dogs to seizure odour presentation was an intense stare which was statistically significant, (p < 0.0029), across the pre-seizure, seizure and post-seizure phases when compared to control odours of nonseizure origin.

The aqueous search for objects covered by sediment is a common and challenging problem. Here we outline a sequential methodology for the assessment of targets identified by sub-bottom profiling. This comprises desktop study of available data; background hydrological information gathering (bathymetry, sediment cover, water chemistry); acoustic sub-bottom imaging (water-penetrating radar, sonar); geolocation and probing of sub-bottom anomalies; and deployment of suitable scent dogs. This procedure creates a hierarchy of targets for examination by dive teams and thence recovery.

Forensic geology (Geoforensics) comprises a niche area of forensic science, traditionally based on the trace evidence analysis of soils and sediments [1]. Since 2003 [2], this subdiscipline has developed into Geoscience applications in: (i) the Search, (ii) the (crime) Scene, and (iii) the Sample (trace evidence: see [3]), along with related investigations like mining fraud [3], engineering [2, 3], and environmental crime [3]. The tripartite division of Search, Scene, and Sample is helpful, yet how Search and Scene link is not always obvious: specifically, what information is needed to proceed from the noninvasive, wide-area Search to crime Scene excavation stage. This work examines such a transition in scale, prompted by our casework experience, where a well-planned search focuses on a target that remains still too large or ambiguous to excavate as a crime scene. Confessions, eye-witness accounts, data on possible offenders ("intelligence"), use of the Geoforensic Search Strategy [4]-together or alone-may lead to a general area, such as part of a landscape (a valley, an area of specific ground, and a building), but not specific enough to investigate directly. Such descriptions

Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain and a seriously debilitating condition, which has been associated with injury, social stigmatisation and in some cases, sudden unexpected and premature death. A sense of profound isolation is felt by many individuals with epilepsy, and this community has expressed an urgent desire for an early warning system to allow them time to prepare for seizure onset. Surveys of dog owners with epilepsy have previously reported that some dogs can predict the onset of a seizure. The current study used an experimental design to investigate the alleged propensity of untrained pet dogs to react to human epileptic seizures. We hypothesised that seizures are associated with specific volatile organic compounds resulting in detectable odours which are the biomarker that triggers these reported behavioural changes in the dogs. Here we provide details of the first empirical test to demonstrate that pet dogs display several significant behavioural changes when they are exposed to seizure-related odours that apparently emanate from their owners. Using a repeated measures design experiment, recordings were made of the reactions of 19 untrained pet dogs to odours from sweat samples provided by three people with epilepsy and by two people without epilepsy (controls). The seizure-associated sweat samples were captured pre-seizure, during seizure and post-seizure. All samples were randomly delivered to individual dogs in a test area, using two bespoke pieces of apparatus called Remote Odour Delivery Mechanisms (RODM). One RODM delivered only experimental odours, the other delivered only control odours. Behavioural changes by the dogs on encountering the odour samples were recorded by video for later analysis. Consistent with our hypothesis, seizure-associated odours evoked significant behavioural changes in the dogs which were affiliative in nature and directed at their owners.