Aberdeen Creek Dredge Channel Data Report

Aberdeen Creek is located on the York River in Gloucester County, Virginia (Figure 1). At the narrow confluence of the York and Aberdeen, the creek takes about a 90-degree bend to the north (Figure 2) and widens to about 700 to 800 feet (ft) for about 2,000 ft. The creek then divides into two branches, one continuing north and one going east. These two prongs narrow quickly and become thin meandering tidal channels with adjacent marsh. The land use around the creek is mostly agricultural and wooded with some residential properties along its east side and along the York River shoreline. The west side of the creek is defined by a sand spit vegetated with high and low marsh that widens quickly into a peninsula north of the entrance. This spit has formed over the years of southward transport of eroding bank sediment along the York River. A sandy spit also occurs on the south side of the channel and has moved across a small tidal channel/marsh coming into Aberdeen Creek from the southeast. (...

Hog Island Shore Protection and Habitat Restoration Living Shoreline Project

Hog Island is an emergent estuarine marsh complex that is part of the overall Guinea marshes (Figure 1). These marshes are located at the confluence of Mobjack Bay and the York River in Gloucester County, Virginia. Hog Island is a high wave energy eroding shoreline along its south-face on the York River, and lower wave energy along its west and east flanks that occur on Monday Creek (Figure 2). The marsh consists mainly of grasses such as Spartina alterniflora and Spartina patens. A higher, sandy area along the higher energy shorelines has some scrub shrub. Two small ponds and a small creek occur on the interior of the marsh. The edge of the island is irregularly shaped with exposed peat and peat scarps along the shoreline (Figure 3). Hog Island is critical for several reasons including: (1) Guinea Marsh Islands are important maritime habitats for shorebirds, waterfowl, as well as many important marine species; (2) Guinea Marsh Islands provide a storm surge break to the marsh complex inside Monday Creek and down the Mobjack Bay side towards the Severn, which will soon be marshes owned by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources; (3) Monday Creek has two aquaculture operations inside of the creek and the uplands provide a storm break for growing oysters; and (4) There are many FEMA repetitive loss structures in Guinea. Protecting these islands reduces the amount of storm surge energy entering the creek and thus reduces flood damage. As such, this project took conservation, resiliency, and protection aspects into consideration when assessing Hog Island for shore protection and habitat restoration. To determine management strategy suitability, the site assessment included hydrodynamic, physical, and biotic conditions existing at the site

Timberneck Creek Dredge Channel Data Report

Introduction Timberneck Creek is located in Gloucester County, Virginia (Figure 1). It is a long, but narrow creek that empties into the York River. The mouth is a wide embayment, but farther north, the creek narrows to about 400 ft wide and extends for about 2 miles to its marshy headwaters. The interior of the creek is irregular with many very small lateral creeks/marsh drainages emptying into the Timberneck. Timberneck Creek has never been dredged and a federally-defined channel does not exist at the site. As a new dredging project, the channel design must balance safety, economic, and sustainability requirements. The channel also must be wide and deep enough to safely accommodate vessel traffic but not so large as to require excessive dredging or habitat modification (Figure 2). (...

Data Collection at Fifteen Selected Creeks in Support of Shallow Water Dredging on Virginia’s Middle Peninsula - Methods & Data Report

Federal funding has been historically available for the Army Corps of Engineers for shallow draft navigation projects. However, past and recent subsidies have not provided ample funding at levels to sustain maintenance dredging for the 17 federal navigation channels on the Middle Peninsula. Further, funding for maintenance of non-federal channels has been historically neglected by the Commonwealth of Virginia until the Virginia General Assembly established the Virginia Waterway Maintenance Fund in 2018. For the past decade the Middle Peninsula Chesapeake Bay Public Access Authority, the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission and its member jurisdictions, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science Shoreline Studies Program have worked to advance local solutions and alternatives to address dredging needs in the Commonwealth

Hole in the Wall Dredge Channel Data Report

Hole in the Wall (HITW) is located in Mathews County, Virginia (Figure 1). It is a natural channel between fetch-limited barrier islands that provides access from Chesapeake Bay to Milford Haven and Gwynn Island. Milford Haven is a unique tidal creek watershed occurring between Chesapeake Bay and the Piankatank River and consists of numerous lateral tidal creeks entering from Gwynn Island to the north and others entering from the south including Lanes Creek, Stutts Creek, Billups Creek, Stoakes Creek and Whites Creek (Figure 2). Presently, the barrier between Milford Haven and Chesapeake Bay includes the northern barrier and Rigby Island. Another tidal inlet ebbs and flows between Milford and Hills Bay. This inlet on the western side of Milford Haven is recognized as a federal navigation channel

Dredging Implementation Prioritization and Management for Middle Peninsula Shallow Draft Channels

To develop a regional dredging program for the localities of the Middle Peninsula, a database of 120 creeks and rivers was created of its waterbodies from Tappahannock to West Point. Generally, these waterbodies can be categorized into three basic types of shallow draft channels: federally-defined, non-federal with ATONs (aids to Navigation) and non-federal without ATONs. For the Middle Peninsula there are 13 federal channels, 12 non-federal channels in creeks with ATONs, and 94 in creeks without defined channels or ATONs. Physical parameter data was collected or created for each of these creeks. This data included creek mouth morphology, amount of shoaling in the creek mouth, tide range, number of coastal structures such as piers, marinas, boat ramps, and wharf, the water surface area, mouth width, tidal prism, and cross-sectional area of the mouth (mouth width x average depth). The data collected was used to prioritize dredging needs based on these physical parameters

Enhanced infection prophylaxis reduces mortality in severely immunosuppressed HIV-infected adults and older children initiating antiretroviral therapy in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe: the REALITY trial

Meeting abstract FRAB0101LB from 21st International AIDS Conference 18–22 July 2016, Durban, South Africa. Introduction: Mortality from infections is high in the first 6 months of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among HIV‐infected adults and children with advanced disease in sub‐Saharan Africa. Whether an enhanced package of infection prophylaxis at ART initiation would reduce mortality is unknown. Methods: The REALITY 2×2×2 factorial open‐label trial (ISRCTN43622374) randomized ART‐naïve HIV‐infected adults and children >5 years with CD4 <100 cells/mm3. This randomization compared initiating ART with enhanced prophylaxis (continuous cotrimoxazole plus 12 weeks isoniazid/pyridoxine (anti‐tuberculosis) and fluconazole (anti‐cryptococcal/candida), 5 days azithromycin (anti‐bacterial/protozoal) and single‐dose albendazole (anti‐helminth)), versus standard‐of‐care cotrimoxazole. Isoniazid/pyridoxine/cotrimoxazole was formulated as a scored fixed‐dose combination. Two other randomizations investigated 12‐week adjunctive raltegravir or supplementary food. The primary endpoint was 24‐week mortality. Results: 1805 eligible adults (n = 1733; 96.0%) and children/adolescents (n = 72; 4.0%) (median 36 years; 53.2% male) were randomized to enhanced (n = 906) or standard prophylaxis (n = 899) and followed for 48 weeks (3.8% loss‐to‐follow‐up). Median baseline CD4 was 36 cells/mm3 (IQR: 16–62) but 47.3% were WHO Stage 1/2. 80 (8.9%) enhanced versus 108(12.2%) standard prophylaxis died before 24 weeks (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) = 0.73 (95% CI: 0.54–0.97) p = 0.03; Figure 1) and 98(11.0%) versus 127(14.4%) respectively died before 48 weeks (aHR = 0.75 (0.58–0.98) p = 0.04), with no evidence of interaction with the two other randomizations (p > 0.8). Enhanced prophylaxis significantly reduced incidence of tuberculosis (p = 0.02), cryptococcal disease (p = 0.01), oral/oesophageal candidiasis (p = 0.02), deaths of unknown cause (p = 0.02) and (marginally) hospitalisations (p = 0.06) but not presumed severe bacterial infections (p = 0.38). Serious and grade 4 adverse events were marginally less common with enhanced prophylaxis (p = 0.06). CD4 increases and VL suppression were similar between groups (p > 0.2). Conclusions: Enhanced infection prophylaxis at ART initiation reduces early mortality by 25% among HIV‐infected adults and children with advanced disease. The pill burden did not adversely affect VL suppression. Policy makers should consider adopting and implementing this low‐cost broad infection prevention package which could save 3.3 lives for every 100 individuals treated