Moored velocity measurements on the edge of the Gulf-Stream recirculation

Mean velocities, eddy kinetic energies and time series of velocities at several depths are presented from moored current meters for the 15 month period May 1978 to July 1979 as part of the POLYMODE Local Dynamics Experiment, centered at 31N, 69°30\u27W. The mean velocities in the upper one kilometer are toward the southwest at 2.4 to 4.4 cm/s, consistent with Worthington\u27s (1976) description of the mean circulation of the North Atlantic...

Gulf Stream recirculation experiment - Part II

This report presents trajectories and time series of velocity, pressure, and temperature for twelve neutrally-buoyant floats launched during the Gulf Stream Recirculation EXperiment (GUSREX) and two from earlier experiments, that continued to operate after May 1982. These float data were obtained from Autonomous Listening Stations (ALSs) deployed from May 1982 to August 1985.Funding was provided by the national Science Foundation under Grant Numbers OCE 81-09145 and OCE 81-1746

The air-launched autonomous micro observer

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2022. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology 39(4), (2022): 491–502, https://doi.org/10.1175/jtech-d-21-0046.1.The Air-Launched Autonomous Micro Observer (ALAMO) is a versatile profiling float that can be launched from an aircraft to make temperature and salinity observations of the upper ocean for over a year with high temporal sampling. Similar in dimensions and weight to an airborne expendable bathythermograph (AXBT), but with the same capability as Argo profiling floats, ALAMOs can be deployed from an A-sized (sonobuoy) launch tube, the stern ramp of a cargo plane, or the door of a small aircraft. Unlike an AXBT, however, the ALAMO float directly measures pressure, can incorporate additional sensors, and is capable of performing hundreds of ocean profiles compared to the single temperature profile provided by an AXBT. Upon deployment, the float parachutes to the ocean, releases the air-deployment package, and immediately begins profiling. Ocean profile data along with position and engineering information are transmitted via the Iridium satellite network, automatically processed, and then distributed by the Global Telecommunications System for use by the operational forecasting community. The ALAMO profiling mission can be modified using the two-way Iridium communications to change the profiling frequency and depth. Example observations are included to demonstrate the ALAMO’s utility.This work was supported by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration under Grants NA13OAR4830233 (as part of CINAR Sandy Supplemental funding from the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013) and NA14OAR4320158 and by Office of Naval Research under Grants N0001416WX01384, N0001416WX01262, and N000141512293. ALAMO floats are commercially available from MRV Systems, LLC (https://www.mrvsys.com)

Ocean variability contributing to basal melt rate near the ice front of Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 119 (2014): 4214–4233, doi:10.1002/2014JC009792.Basal melting of ice shelves is an important, but poorly understood, cause of Antarctic ice sheet mass loss and freshwater production. We use data from two moorings deployed through Ross Ice Shelf, ∼6 and ∼16 km south of the ice front east of Ross Island, and numerical models to show how the basal melting rate near the ice front depends on sub-ice-shelf ocean variability. The moorings measured water velocity, conductivity, and temperature for ∼2 months starting in late November 2010. About half of the current velocity variance was due to tides, predominantly diurnal components, with the remainder due to subtidal oscillations with periods of a few days. Subtidal variability was dominated by barotropic currents that were large until mid-December and significantly reduced afterward. Subtidal currents were correlated between moorings but uncorrelated with local winds, suggesting the presence of waves or eddies that may be associated with the abrupt change in water column thickness and strong hydrographic gradients at the ice front. Estimated melt rate was ∼1.2 ± 0.5 m a−1 at each site during the deployment period, consistent with measured trends in ice surface elevation from GPS time series. The models predicted similar annual-averaged melt rates with a strong annual cycle related to seasonal provision of warm water to the ice base. These results show that accurately modeling the high spatial and temporal ocean variability close to the ice-shelf front is critical to predicting time-dependent and mean values of meltwater production and ice-shelf thinning.The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) participation in the ANDRILL Coulman High Program was supported by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (NSF ANT-0839108) through a subcontract from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL 25-0550-0004-004). I. Arzeno was supported as a 2011 WHOI Summer Student Fellow through the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates program (OCE- 0649139). L. Padman and S. Springer were supported by NASA grant NNX10AG19G to Earth & Space Research (ESR). M. Williams and C. Stewart were supported by the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmosphere (NIWA) core funding under the National Climate Centre, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (Contract CO5X1001).2015-01-0

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

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

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

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

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