Forensic Tournament Management via Computer Program

With the increased emphasis on individual events at college forensic tournaments, both high school and college tournaments have become extremely difficult to manage manually. The shift has been to computer managed tournaments, and the reasons for this are as varied as they are valid

Assessing seasonal and interannual changes in carbonate chemistry across two time-series sites in the North Western Mediterranean Sea

Sustained time-series measurements are crucial to understand changes in oceanic carbonate chemistry. In the North Western Mediterranean Sea, the temporal evolution of the carbonate system is here investigated based on two 10-year time-series (between January 2010 and December 2019) of monthly carbonate parameters measurements at two sampling sites in the Ligurian Sea (ANTARES and DYFAMED). At seasonal timescale, the seawater partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) within the mixed layer is mostly driven by temperature at both sites, and biological processes as stated by the observed relationships between total inorganic carbon (CT), nitrate and temperature. This study suggests also that mixing and water masses advection could play a role in modulating the CT content. At decadal timescale, significant changes in ocean chemistry are observed with increasing trends in CT (+3.2 ± 0.9 µmol.kg−1.a−1 – ANTARES; +1.6 ± 0.8 µmol.kg−1.a−1 – DYFAMED), associated with increasing pCO2 trends and decreasing trends in pH. The magnitude of the increasing trend in CT at DYFAMED is consistent with the increase in atmospheric pCO2 and the anthropogenic carbon transport of water originating from the Atlantic Ocean, while the higher trends observed at the ANTARES site could be related to the hydrological variability induced by the variability of the Northern Current

Report on demo mission and dissemination pathways of obtained data based on different observational platforms

This document describes the deployment of instrumentation in the Eastern tropical Atlantic area and shows the preliminary data acquired

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Stroke genetics informs drug discovery and risk prediction across ancestries

Previous genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of stroke — the second leading cause of death worldwide — were conducted predominantly in populations of European ancestry1,2. Here, in cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analyses of 110,182 patients who have had a stroke (five ancestries, 33% non-European) and 1,503,898 control individuals, we identify association signals for stroke and its subtypes at 89 (61 new) independent loci: 60 in primary inverse-variance-weighted analyses and 29 in secondary meta-regression and multitrait analyses. On the basis of internal cross-ancestry validation and an independent follow-up in 89,084 additional cases of stroke (30% non-European) and 1,013,843 control individuals, 87% of the primary stroke risk loci and 60% of the secondary stroke risk loci were replicated (P < 0.05). Effect sizes were highly correlated across ancestries. Cross-ancestry fine-mapping, in silico mutagenesis analysis3, and transcriptome-wide and proteome-wide association analyses revealed putative causal genes (such as SH3PXD2A and FURIN) and variants (such as at GRK5 and NOS3). Using a three-pronged approach4, we provide genetic evidence for putative drug effects, highlighting F11, KLKB1, PROC, GP1BA, LAMC2 and VCAM1 as possible targets, with drugs already under investigation for stroke for F11 and PROC. A polygenic score integrating cross-ancestry and ancestry-specific stroke GWASs with vascular-risk factor GWASs (integrative polygenic scores) strongly predicted ischaemic stroke in populations of European, East Asian and African ancestry5. Stroke genetic risk scores were predictive of ischaemic stroke independent of clinical risk factors in 52,600 clinical-trial participants with cardiometabolic disease. Our results provide insights to inform biology, reveal potential drug targets and derive genetic risk prediction tools across ancestries

Integration of in situ and satellite multi-platform data (estimation of carbon flux for trop. Atlantic)

This report presents the results of task 7.3 on “Quantification of improvements in carbon flux data for the tropical Atlantic based on the multi-platform and neural network approach”. To better constrain changes in the ocean’s capture and sequestration of CO2 emitted by human activities, in situ measurements are needed. Tropical regions are considered to be mostly sources of CO2 to the atmosphere due to specific circulation features, with large interannual variability mainly controlled by physical drivers (Padin et al., 2010). The tropical Atlantic is the second largest source, after the tropical Pacific, of CO2 to the atmosphere (Landschützer et al., 2014). However, it is not a homogeneous zone, as it is affected by many physical and biogeochemical processes that vary on many time scales and affect surrounding areas (Foltz et al., 2019). The Tropical Atlantic Observing System (TAOS) has progressed substantially over the past two decades. Still, many challenges and uncertainties remain to require further studies into the area’s role in terms of carbon fluxes (Foltz et al., 2019). Monitoring and sustained observations of surface oceanic CO2 are critical for understanding the fate of CO2 as it penetrates the ocean and during its sequestration at depth. This deliverable relies on different observing platforms deployed specifically as part of the EuroSea project (a Saildrone, and 5 pH-equipped BGC-Argo floats) as well as on the platforms as part of the TAOS (CO2-equipped moorings, cruises, models, and data products). It also builds on the work done in D7.1 and D7.2 on the deployment and quality control of pH-equipped BGC-Argo floats and Saildrone data. Indeed, high-quality homogeneously calibrated carbonate variable measurements are mandatory to be able to compute air-sea CO2 fluxes at a basin scale from multiple observing platforms

Réduire la pollution de l’air à Abidjan. De l’ambition scientifique à la fabrique du terrain : la science en train de se faire.

International audienc

Réduire la pollution de l’air à Abidjan. De l’ambition scientifique à la fabrique du terrain : la science en train de se faire.

International audienc

Development of BGCArgo data quality validation based on an integrative multiplatform approach

This report presents the results of Task 7.3 on “Development of BGC-Argo data quality validation based on an integrative multiplatform approach”. Observing changes in ocean conditions on the spatiotemporal scales necessary to constrain carbon uptake is a challenge. Defined as an Essential Ocean Variable (EOV) by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS, e.g., Tanhua et al., 2019), pH is relevant to assess numerous crucial questions regarding the oceanic evolution in response to the current global changes. However, the large spatiotemporal variability of this carbonate system parameter requires sustained observations to decipher trends and punctual events. Within this scope, numerous pH sensors suitable for deployments both on autonomous observing tools and fixed stations have been developed. Nevertheless, as interpreting changes relies on accurate data, and because offsets or drifts in pH data might appear in response to changes in the sensor k0 constant, a consistent and rigorous correction procedure to quality-control and process the data has been implemented. This report presents the application of this method to pH data acquired by BGC-Argo floats launched in the Tropical Atlantic area