RRS Discovery Cruise 368, 15 Jul - 04 Aug 2011. Hydrographic measurements on WOCE line A16N

RRS Discovery Cruise 368 was a repeat occupation of part of the Atlantic hydrographic section designated by the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) as A16N. A total of 29 CTDO (conductivity-temperature-depth-oxygen) stations were occupied. This included one test station, 27 stations between 49N and 23N on the WOCE A16N ‘20W’ line, and one final station near the ESTOC site close to Tenerife. Continuous profile measurements were CTDO and Lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (LADCP). Discrete bottle measurements from a 24-place rosette included salinity and dissolved oxygen analysed on board, and dissolved inorganic nutrients, Dissolved Inorganic Carbon and Total Alkalinity for analysis ashore. Underway measurements included Vessel-Mounted ADCP, surface ocean measurements and surface meteorology. The cruise was a UK contribution to the GO-SHIP sustained hydrography program. It was a partial repeat of the line designated in WOCE as A16N, which was previously occupied as a comprehensive cruise in 2003. In addition, a microbial program was carried out as an opportunistic activity by scientists who would remain on board for the following cruise.This report describes the methods used to acquire and process the data on board the ship during RRS Discovery Cruise 368.<br/

A systematic search for massive young stars in the Galaxy - the RMS survey

We have selected red MSX sources (RMS) that have the colours of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs). Our aim is to generate a large, systematically selected sample to address questions such as their luminosity function, lifetimes, clustering and triggering. Other objects such as UCHIIs, PN, PPN and AGB stars have similar IR colours and a large programme of ground-based follow-up observations is underway to identify and eliminate these from the sample of the red MSX sources. These include radio continuum observations, kinematic distances, ground-based mid-IR imaging, near-IR imaging and spectroscopy to distinguish. We report the progress of these campaigns on the 3000 candidates, with initial indications showing that a substantial fraction are indeed massive YSOs.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures Talk in conference: Milky Way surveys, the structure and evolution of our Galaxy, Boston 200

RRS James Clark Ross Cruise JR306, 10-20 Jan 2015. Hydrographic measurements on WOCE line SR1b

Twentieth complete occupation of the Drake Passage section, established during the World Ocean Circulation Experiment as repeat section SR1b, first occupied in 1993 and re occupied most years since then. Full-depth temperature, salinity, and lowered ADCP velocity profiles were measured at the 30 repeat stations (with the 9 northern stations along 58 W, as from 2009 on). Underway measurements included navigation, VM-ADCP, sea surface temperature and salinity, water depth, and meteorological variables. The objectives were to investigate interannual variability in Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) structure and Transport, the positions of the ACC fronts, and Drake Passage temperature and salinity distributions

Cross-sectional study of the burden of vector-borne and soil-transmitted polyparasitism in rural communities of Coast Province, Kenya.

BACKGROUND: In coastal Kenya, infection of human populations by a variety of parasites often results in co-infection or poly-parasitism. These parasitic infections, separately and in conjunction, are a major cause of chronic clinical and sub-clinical human disease and exert a long-term toll on economic welfare of affected populations. Risk factors for these infections are often shared and overlap in space, resulting in interrelated patterns of transmission that need to be considered at different spatial scales. Integration of novel quantitative tools and qualitative approaches is needed to analyze transmission dynamics and design effective interventions. METHODOLOGY: Our study was focused on detecting spatial and demographic patterns of single- and co-infection in six villages in coastal Kenya. Individual and household level data were acquired using cross-sectional, socio-economic, and entomological surveys. Generalized additive models (GAMs and GAMMs) were applied to determine risk factors for infection and co-infections. Spatial analysis techniques were used to detect local clusters of single and multiple infections. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Of the 5,713 tested individuals, more than 50% were infected with at least one parasite and nearly 20% showed co-infections. Infections with Schistosoma haematobium (26.0%) and hookworm (21.4%) were most common, as was co-infection by both (6.3%). Single and co-infections shared similar environmental and socio-demographic risk factors. The prevalence of single and multiple infections was heterogeneous among and within communities. Clusters of single and co-infections were detected in each village, often spatially overlapped, and were associated with lower SES and household crowding. CONCLUSION: Parasitic infections and co-infections are widespread in coastal Kenya, and their distributions are heterogeneous across landscapes, but inter-related. We highlighted how shared risk factors are associated with high prevalence of single infections and can result in spatial clustering of co-infections. Spatial heterogeneity and synergistic risk factors for polyparasitism need to be considered when designing surveillance and intervention strategies

RRS James Clark Ross Cruise 302, 06 Jun - 21 Jul 2014. The 2015 RAGNARRoC, OSNAP AND Extended Ellett Line cruise report

Cruise JR302 was an NERC-NC funded cruise aiming to complete a full CTD section across the subpolar gyre, from Canada to Greenland to Scotland. The CTD section was located along the OSNAP track (www.ukosnap.org), providing a high quality and high resolution synoptic survey for the start of that programme. The objectives included a full suite of biogeochemistry measurements under the RAGNARRoC programmes. Finally, the eastern part of the section included the 2014 occupation of the Extended Ellett Line (projects.noc.ac.uk/ExtendedEllettLine) between Scotland and Iceland. Additional sections were made around the Cape Farewell region with the objective of measuring transport and the movement of water away from the boundary currents. Additional objectives included deploying eight Met Office Argo floats, and recovering one SAMS glider. Two new instruments were trialled by deploying them on the CTD frame; the IMP and RBR. All objectives were successfully completed

Measuring fitness of Kenyan children with polyparasitic infections using the 20-meter shuttle run test as a morbidity metric.

BACKGROUND: To date, there has been no standardized approach to the assessment of aerobic fitness among children who harbor parasites. In quantifying the disability associated with individual or multiple chronic infections, accurate measures of physical fitness are important metrics. This is because exercise intolerance, as seen with anemia and many other chronic disorders, reflects the body's inability to maintain adequate oxygen supply (VO(2) max) to the motor tissues, which is frequently linked to reduced quality-of-life in terms of physical and job performance. The objective of our study was to examine the associations between polyparasitism, anemia, and reduced fitness in a high risk Kenyan population using novel implementation of the 20-meter shuttle run test (20mSRT), a well-standardized, low-technology physical fitness test. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Four villages in coastal Kenya were surveyed during 2009-2010. Children 5-18 years were tested for infection with Schistosoma haematobium (Sh), malaria, filaria, and geohelminth infections by standard methods. After anthropometric and hemoglobin testing, fitness was assessed with the 20 mSRT. The 20 mSRT proved easy to perform, requiring only minimal staff training. Parasitology revealed high prevalence of single and multiple parasitic infections in all villages, with Sh being the most common (25-62%). Anemia prevalence was 45-58%. Using multiply-adjusted linear modeling that accounted for household clustering, decreased aerobic capacity was significantly associated with anemia, stunting, and wasting, with some gender differences. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The 20 mSRT, which has excellent correlation with VO(2), is a highly feasible fitness test for low-resource settings. Our results indicate impaired fitness is common in areas endemic for parasites, where, at least in part, low fitness scores are likely to result from anemia and stunting associated with chronic infection. The 20 mSRT should be used as a common metric to quantify physical fitness and compare sub-clinical disability across many different disorders and community settings