Autonomous underwater gliders monitoring variability at "choke points" in our ocean system: a case study in Western Mediterranean Sea

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Adapting safety plans for autistic adults with involvement from the autism community

Background: Autistic adults are at greater risk of self-harm and suicide than the general population. One promising intervention in the general population is safety planning. We aimed to seek advice from autistic adults and others in the autism community on how to adapt safety plans for autistic adults. Methods: We conducted focus groups with autistic adults (n = 15), family members (n = 5), and service providers (n = 10), about their views of the Autism Adapted Safety Plan (AASP). We also conducted interviews about the acceptability of the AASP with autistic adults who had developed an AASP (n = 8) and with service providers who had supported them (n = 8). We analyzed the focus group and interview transcripts using thematic analysis. Results: Theme 1 highlights conditions needed to make the process of creating the AASP acceptable for autistic adults. This included creating the AASP with someone they could trust and at the right place and time, when they were not in distress or in crisis. Theme 2 describes how safety planning needed to be a creative, flexible, and iterative process. Autistic adults may need help in expressing their emotions and identifying coping strategies, which can be supported through visual resources and suggestions from the service provider. To ensure that the AASP is accessible in times of crisis, it needs to meet the autistic adults' preferences in terms of formatting and how it is stored (i.e., hard copy or electronic). Conclusions: The AASP is a potentially valuable intervention for autistic adults, provided that the process of creating it is flexible and sensitive to individual needs. Further testing of the AASP to assess its clinical effectiveness in reducing suicidal behavior could provide a life-saving intervention for autistic adults

Evolving and sustaining ocean best practices and standards for the next decade

The oceans play a key role in global issues such as climate change, food security, and human health. Given their vast dimensions and internal complexity, efficient monitoring and predicting of the planet’s ocean must be a collaborative effort of both regional and global scale. A first and foremost requirement for such collaborative ocean observing is the need to follow well-defined and reproducible methods across activities: from strategies for structuring observing systems, sensor deployment and usage, and the generation of data and information products, to ethical and governance aspects when executing ocean observing. To meet the urgent, planet-wide challenges we face, methods across all aspects of ocean observing should be broadly adopted by the ocean community and, where appropriate, should evolve into “Ocean Best Practices.” While many groups have created best practices, they are scattered across the Web or buried in local repositories and many have yet to be digitized. To reduce this fragmentation, we introduce a new open access, permanent, digital repository of best practices documentation (oceanbestpractices.org) that is part of the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). The new OBPS provides an opportunity space for the centralized and coordinated improvement of ocean observing methods. The OBPS repository employs user-friendly software to significantly improve discovery and access to methods. The software includes advanced semantic technologies for search capabilities to enhance repository operations. In addition to the repository, the OBPS also includes a peer reviewed journal research topic, a forum for community discussion and a training activity for use of best practices. Together, these components serve to realize a core objective of the OBPS, which is to enable the ocean community to create superior methods for every activity in ocean observing from research to operations to applications that are agreed upon and broadly adopted across communities. Using selected ocean observing examples, we show how the OBPS supports this objective. This paper lays out a future vision of ocean best practices and how OBPS will contribute to improving ocean observing in the decade to come

Managing the Evolution and Sustainability of Best Practices Across Ocean Science

Target audience: All ocean scientists who wish to share or discover best practice documents in their domain. Background: A working group convened under the AtlantOS project and including partners from ODIP, IODE, JCOMM, IEEE, and AWI is currently developing new technologies and approaches for handling best practices (BPs) across ocean science. The goal of the working group is to create a sustained repository for BPs, to ease their propagation and adoption. Goals: After briefly describing its work, the BP working group will engage town hall participants in a discussion on 1) how best to find and centrally archive BPs in participants' disciplines and 2) what capacities a central archive of BPs would need to help participants create, discover, share, and archive their BPs. The participant input gathered will be used to further the development of a multidisciplinary repository for BPs and better harmonise ocean observation

Characterization of changes in Western Intermediate Water properties enabled by an innovative geometry-based detection approach

Hydrographic changes in the western Mediterranean Sea (WMED), which is connected to the North Atlantic through the Strait of Gibraltar, may affect the global ocean thermohaline circulation. The Western Intermediate Water (WIW) is a regional water mass which is formed through winter convection processes in the north WMED. The variations of WIW characteristics are hardly detectable by the conventional criterion as defined in the literature and have been poorly addressed. This study introduces an innovative geometry-based method to properly detect WIW. New insights into changes in WIW properties are obtained by applying this method to glider data in the Ibiza Channel and numerical simulation in the whole WMED. Seasonal and interannual variations as well as positive trends in temperature and salinity leading to negative trend in density are highlighted in the Balearic Sea and Gulf of Lion. The basin-scale simulation also shows the spatio-temporal variability of WIW characteristics in the WMED under the influence of the location of formation site, local and regional atmospheric fluctuations, vertical mixing, horizontal advection and mixing with surrounding waters

Adapted Suicide Safety Plans to Address Self-Harm, Suicidal Ideation and Suicide Behaviours in Autistic Adults: Protocol for a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial

BackgroundSuicide prevention is a national priority for the UK government. Autistic people are at greater risk of experiencing self-harm and suicidal thoughts and behaviours than the general population. Safety plans are widely used in suicide prevention but have not yet been designed with and for autistic people. We developed the first safety plan specifically targeting suicidality in autistic adults: the Autism Adapted Safety Plan (AASP). It consists of a prioritised list of hierarchical steps that can be used prior to or during a crisis to mitigate risk of self-harm and suicidal behaviour. This is a pilot study that aims to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the AASPs and the research processes, including the response rates, potential barriers and reach of AASPs, methods of recruitment, what comprises usual care, and economic evaluation methods/tools.MethodsThis is an external pilot randomised controlled trial of a suicide prevention tool aimed at mitigating the risk of self-harm and suicidal behaviour in autistic adults: AASPs. Participants will be assessed at baseline and followed up 1 month and 6 months later. Assessments include questions about self-harm, suicidality, service use, and their experience of the AASP/taking part in the study. Autistic adults who have a clinical autism diagnosis and self-reported history of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, or suicidal behaviours within the last 6 months will be invited to take part in the study. Informed consent will be obtained. Participants will be recruited via community and third sector services (including community settings, autism charities, and mental health charities). They may also “self-refer” into the study through social media recruitment and word of mouth. Ninety participants will be randomised to either develop an AASP or receive their usual care in a 1:1 ratio.DiscussionThe present study will provide an evaluation of the suitability of the processes that would be undertaken in a larger definitive study, including recruitment, randomisation, methods, questionnaires, outcome measures, treatment, and follow-up assessments.Trial registrationISRCTN70594445, Protocol v4: 8/2/22

Adapted suicide safety plans to address self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicide behaviours in autistic adults: protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial

Background: Suicide prevention is a national priority for the UK government. Autistic people are at greater risk of experiencing self-harm and suicidal thoughts and behaviours than the general population. Safety plans are widely used in suicide prevention but have not yet been designed with and for autistic people. We developed the first safety plan specifically targeting suicidality in autistic adults: the Autism Adapted Safety Plan (AASP). It consists of a prioritised list of hierarchical steps that can be used prior to or during a crisis to mitigate risk of self-harm and suicidal behaviour. This is a pilot study that aims to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the AASPs and the research processes, including the response rates, potential barriers and reach of AASPs, methods of recruitment, what comprises usual care, and economic evaluation methods/tools. Methods: This is an external pilot randomised controlled trial of a suicide prevention tool aimed at mitigating the risk of self-harm and suicidal behaviour in autistic adults: AASPs. Participants will be assessed at baseline and followed up 1 month and 6 months later. Assessments include questions about self-harm, suicidality, service use, and their experience of the AASP/taking part in the study. Autistic adults who have a clinical autism diagnosis and self-reported history of self-harm, suicidal thoughts, or suicidal behaviours within the last 6 months will be invited to take part in the study. Informed consent will be obtained. Participants will be recruited via community and third sector services (including community settings, autism charities, and mental health charities). They may also “self-refer” into the study through social media recruitment and word of mouth. Ninety participants will be randomised to either develop an AASP or receive their usual care in a 1:1 ratio. Discussion: The present study will provide an evaluation of the suitability of the processes that would be undertaken in a larger definitive study, including recruitment, randomisation, methods, questionnaires, outcome measures, treatment, and follow-up assessments. Trial registration: ISRCTN70594445, Protocol v4: 8/2/22