OneArgo: a new paradigm for observing the global ocean

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Owens, W., Zilberman, N., Johnson, K., Claustre, H., Scanderbeg, M., Wijffels, S., & Suga, T. OneArgo: a new paradigm for observing the global ocean. Marine Technology Society Journal, 56(3), (2022): 84–90, https://doi.org/10.4031/MTSJ.56.3.8.OneArgo is a major expansion of the Argo program, which has provided two decades of transformative physical data for the upper 2 km of the global ocean. The present Argo array will be expanded in three ways: (1) Global Core: the existing upper ocean measurements will be extended to high latitudes and marginal seas and with enhanced coverage in the tropics and western boundaries of the major ocean basins; (2) Deep: deep ocean measurements will be obtained for the 50% of the global oceans that are below 2,000-m depth; and (3) Biogeochemical: dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrate, chlorophyll, optical backscatter, and irradiance data will be collected to investigate biogeochemical variability of the upper ocean and the processes by which these cycles respond to a changing climate. The technology and infrastructure necessary for this expansion is now being developed through large-scale regional pilots to further refine the floats and sensors and to demonstrate the utility of these measurements. Further innovation is expected to improve the performance of the floats and sensors and to develop the analyses necessary to provide research-quality data. A fully global OneArgo should be operational within 5–10 years.In the United States, the National Science Foundation–funded Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array (GO-BGC; https://go-bgc.org)

Active Trachoma among Children in Mali: Clustering and Environmental Risk Factors

Active trachoma is not uniformly distributed in endemic areas, and local environmental factors influencing its prevalence are not yet adequately understood. Determining whether clustering is a consistent phenomenon may help predict likely modes of transmission and help to determine the appropriate level at which to target control interventions. In this work, we estimated the magnitude of clustering at different levels and investigated the influence of socio-economic factors and environmental features on active trachoma prevalence among children in Mali (1996–1997 nationwide survey). Clustering revealed significant results at the child, caretaker, household, and village levels. Moreover, beyond some well-established individual risk factors (age between 3 and 5, dirty face, and flies on the face), we found that temperature, sunshine fraction, and presence of rainy days were negatively associated with active trachoma prevalence. This study clearly indicates the importance of directing control efforts both at children with active trachoma as well as those with close contact, and at communities. These results support facial cleanliness and environmental improvements as population-health initiatives to combat blinding trachoma

Detecting small low emission radiating sources

The article addresses the possibility of robust detection of geometrically small, low emission sources on a significantly stronger background. This problem is important for homeland security. A technique of detecting such sources using Compton type cameras is developed, which is shown on numerical examples to have high sensitivity and specificity and also allows to assign confidence probabilities of the detection. 2D case is considered in detail

Diabetes mellitus in Egypt: glycaemic control and microvascular and neuropathic complications

We performed a cross-sectional, population-based survey of persons 20 years of age and older living in Cairo and surrounding rural villages. The purpose was to describe glycaemic control and the prevalence of microvascular and neuropathic complications among Egyptians with diagnosed diabetes, previously undiagnosed diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance, and normal glucose tolerance. A total of 6052 households were surveyed. The response rate was 76 % for the household survey and 72 % for the medical examination. Among people with previously diagnosed diabetes, mean haemoglobin A 1c was 9.0 %. Forty-two per cent had retinopathy, 21 % albuminuria, and 22 % neuropathy. Legal blindness was prevalent (5 %) but clinical nephropathy (7 %) and foot ulcers (1 %) were uncommon in persons with diagnosed diabetes. Among people with diagnosed diabetes, microvascular and neuropathic complications were associated with hyperglycaemia. Retinopathy was also associated with duration of diabetes; albuminuria with hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia; and neuropathy with age, female sex, and hypercholesterolaemia. Albuminuria was as common in people with previously undiagnosed diabetes (22 %) as those with diagnosed disease (21 %). Mean haemoglobin A 1c was lower (7.8 %) and retinopathy (16 %) and neuropathy (14 %) were less prevalent in people with previously undiagnosed disease. Ocular conditions, blindness, and neuropathy were prevalent in the non-diabetic population. The microvascular and neuropathic complications of diabetes are a major clinical and public health problem in Egypt. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34940/1/696_ftp.pd

Trachoma Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors in The Gambia and Tanzania: Baseline Results of a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial

Trachoma is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis and is the leading infectious cause of blindness. The World Health Organization's (WHO) control strategy includes antibiotic treatment of all community members, facial cleanliness, and environmental improvements. By determining how prevalent trachoma is, decisions can be made whether control activities need to be put in place. Knowing what factors make people more at risk of having trachoma can help target trachoma control efforts to those most at risk. We looked at the prevalence of active trachoma and C. trachomatis infection in the eyes of children aged 0–5 years in The Gambia and Tanzania. We also measured risk factors associated with having active trachoma or infection. The prevalence of both active trachoma and infection was lower in The Gambia (6.7% and 0.8%, respectively) than in Tanzania (32.3% and 21.9%, respectively). Risk factors for active trachoma were similar in the two countries. For infection, the risk factors in Tanzania were similar to those for TF, whereas in The Gambia, only ocular discharge was associated with infection. These results show that although the prevalence of active trachoma and infection is very different between the two countries, the risk factors for active trachoma are similar but those for infection are different

Program design features that can improve participation in health education interventions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although there have been reported benefits of health education interventions across various health issues, the key to program effectiveness is participation and retention. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to participate in health interventions upon invitation. In fact, health education interventions are vulnerable to low participation rates. The objective of this study was to identify design features that may increase participation in health education interventions and evaluation surveys, and to maximize recruitment and retention efforts in a general ambulatory population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to 175 individuals in waiting rooms of two hospitals diagnostic centres in Toronto, Canada. Subjects were asked about their willingness to participate, in principle, and the extent of their participation (frequency and duration) in health education interventions under various settings and in intervention evaluation surveys using various survey methods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The majority of respondents preferred to participate in one 30–60 minutes education intervention session a year, in hospital either with a group or one-on-one with an educator. Also, the majority of respondents preferred to spend 20–30 minutes each time, completing one to two evaluation surveys per year in hospital or by mail.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>When designing interventions and their evaluation surveys, it is important to consider the preferences for setting, length of participation and survey method of your target population, in order to maximize recruitment and retention efforts. Study respondents preferred short and convenient health education interventions and surveys. Therefore, brevity, convenience and choice appear to be important when designing education interventions and evaluation surveys from the perspective of our target population.</p

Risk Factors for Ocular Chlamydia after Three Mass Azithromycin Distributions

Trachoma, which is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide, is caused by repeated ocular infection with Chlamydia trachomatis. Treatment for trachoma includes mass azithromycin treatments to the entire community. The World Health Organization recommends at least 3 rounds of annual mass antibiotic distributions in areas with trachoma, with further mass treatments based on the prevalence of trachoma. However, there are other options for communities that have received several rounds of treatment. For example, programs could continue antibiotic treatments only in those households most likely to have infected individuals. In this study, we performed trachoma monitoring on children from 12 Ethiopian communities one year after a third mass azithromycin treatment, and conducted a household survey at the same time. We found that children were more likely to be infected with ocular chlamydia if they had ocular inflammatory signs or ocular discharge, or if they had missed the preceding antibiotic treatment, had an infected sibling, or came from a larger community. These risk factors suggest that after mass azithromycin treatments, trachoma programs could consider continuing antibiotic distributions to households that have missed prior antibiotic distributions, in households with children who have the clinical signs of trachoma, and in larger communities

Argo data 1999-2019: two million temperature-salinity profiles and subsurface velocity observations from a global array of profiling floats.

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Wong, A. P. S., Wijffels, S. E., Riser, S. C., Pouliquen, S., Hosoda, S., Roemmich, D., Gilson, J., Johnson, G. C., Martini, K., Murphy, D. J., Scanderbeg, M., Bhaskar, T. V. S. U., Buck, J. J. H., Merceur, F., Carval, T., Maze, G., Cabanes, C., Andre, X., Poffa, N., Yashayaev, I., Barker, P. M., Guinehut, S., Belbeoch, M., Ignaszewski, M., Baringer, M. O., Schmid, C., Lyman, J. M., McTaggart, K. E., Purkey, S. G., Zilberman, N., Alkire, M. B., Swift, D., Owens, W. B., Jayne, S. R., Hersh, C., Robbins, P., West-Mack, D., Bahr, F., Yoshida, S., Sutton, P. J. H., Cancouet, R., Coatanoan, C., Dobbler, D., Juan, A. G., Gourrion, J., Kolodziejczyk, N., Bernard, V., Bourles, B., Claustre, H., D'Ortenzio, F., Le Reste, S., Le Traon, P., Rannou, J., Saout-Grit, C., Speich, S., Thierry, V., Verbrugge, N., Angel-Benavides, I. M., Klein, B., Notarstefano, G., Poulain, P., Velez-Belchi, P., Suga, T., Ando, K., Iwasaska, N., Kobayashi, T., Masuda, S., Oka, E., Sato, K., Nakamura, T., Sato, K., Takatsuki, Y., Yoshida, T., Cowley, R., Lovell, J. L., Oke, P. R., van Wijk, E. M., Carse, F., Donnelly, M., Gould, W. J., Gowers, K., King, B. A., Loch, S. G., Mowat, M., Turton, J., Rama Rao, E. P., Ravichandran, M., Freeland, H. J., Gaboury, I., Gilbert, D., Greenan, B. J. W., Ouellet, M., Ross, T., Tran, A., Dong, M., Liu, Z., Xu, J., Kang, K., Jo, H., Kim, S., & Park, H. Argo data 1999-2019: two million temperature-salinity profiles and subsurface velocity observations from a global array of profiling floats. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, (2020): 700, doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.00700.In the past two decades, the Argo Program has collected, processed, and distributed over two million vertical profiles of temperature and salinity from the upper two kilometers of the global ocean. A similar number of subsurface velocity observations near 1,000 dbar have also been collected. This paper recounts the history of the global Argo Program, from its aspiration arising out of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment, to the development and implementation of its instrumentation and telecommunication systems, and the various technical problems encountered. We describe the Argo data system and its quality control procedures, and the gradual changes in the vertical resolution and spatial coverage of Argo data from 1999 to 2019. The accuracies of the float data have been assessed by comparison with high-quality shipboard measurements, and are concluded to be 0.002°C for temperature, 2.4 dbar for pressure, and 0.01 PSS-78 for salinity, after delayed-mode adjustments. Finally, the challenges faced by the vision of an expanding Argo Program beyond 2020 are discussed.AW, SR, and other scientists at the University of Washington (UW) were supported by the US Argo Program through the NOAA Grant NA15OAR4320063 to the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO) at the UW. SW and other scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) were supported by the US Argo Program through the NOAA Grant NA19OAR4320074 (CINAR/WHOI Argo). The Scripps Institution of Oceanography's role in Argo was supported by the US Argo Program through the NOAA Grant NA15OAR4320071 (CIMEC). Euro-Argo scientists were supported by the Monitoring the Oceans and Climate Change with Argo (MOCCA) project, under the Grant Agreement EASME/EMFF/2015/1.2.1.1/SI2.709624 for the European Commission