Using rapid assessment of marine pollution (RAMP) techniques to assess the quality of marine sediments

We formulated the principles of designing bioluminescent enzyme tests for assessing the quality of complex media which consist in providing the maximum sensitivity to potentially toxic chemicals at a minimal impact of uncontaminated complex media. The developed principles served as a basis for designing a new bioluminescent method for an integrated rapid assessment of chemical safety of fruits and vegetables which is based on using the luminescent bacterium enzymes (NAD(P)H:FMN oxidoreductase and luciferase) as a test system.

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Population-based rapid assessment of avoidable blindness survey in Sohag governorate in Egypt

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2019-036337 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. e036337

Author(s):

Heba AlSawahli ◽

Ian McCormick ◽

Caleb D Mpyet ◽

Gamal Ezzelarab ◽

Mohammad Shalaby

Keyword(s):

Cataract Surgery ◽

Census Data ◽

Rapid Assessment ◽

Population Based ◽

Vision Impairment ◽

Health System Strengthening ◽

Secondary Outcome ◽

Institutional Setting ◽

Financial Barriers

ObjectivesTo determine the prevalence and causes of blindness and vision impairment, and the coverage and quality of cataract surgical services, among population aged 50 years and older in Sohag governorate in Egypt.DesignA population-based cross-sectional survey using two-stage cluster random sampling following the rapid assessment of avoidable blindness methodology.SettingA community-based survey conducted by six teams of ophthalmologists, assistants and local guides. Enrolment and examination were door-to-door in selected clusters.ParticipantsUsing 2016 census data, 68 population units were randomly selected as clusters (of 60 people) with probability proportionate to population size. Anyone aged 50 years and older, residing in a non-institutional setting in a cluster for at least 6 months, was eligible to participate.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe prevalence and causes of blindness and vision impairment. Secondary outcomes were CSC and effectiveness and participant-reported barriers to cataract surgery.ResultsOf 4078 participants enrolled, 4033 (98.9%) were examined. The age-adjusted and sex-adjusted prevalence of blindness, severe vision impairment and moderate vision impairment were 5.9% (95% CI 4.8% to 6.9%), 4.7% (95% CI 3.8% to 5.7%) and 18.9% (95% CI 16.8% to 21.0%), respectively. Cataract caused most of blindness (41.6%), followed by non-trachomatous corneal opacity (15.7%) and posterior segment diseases (14.5%). Cataract surgical coverage (CSC) for persons for visual acuity <3/60 was 86.8%, the proportion of cataract surgeries with poor visual outcome was 29.5% and effective CSC (eCSC) was 44.9%. eCSC was lower in women than men. The most frequently reported barrier to surgery was cost (51.5%).ConclusionsThe prevalence of blindness in Sohag governorate is higher than districts in other middle-income countries in the region. CSC was high; however, women suffer worse quality-corrected CSC than men. The quality of cataract surgery needs to be addressed, while health system strengthening across government and private settings could alleviate financial barriers.

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Online Assessment of Cognitive Functioning: A Reliable Alternative to Laboratory Testing?

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.1917 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 576-577

Author(s):

Maximilian Haas ◽

Sascha Zuber ◽

David Framorando ◽

Elissa El Khawli ◽

Susanne Scheibe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Functioning ◽

Cognitive Abilities ◽

Rapid Assessment ◽

Cognitive Disorders ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Adult Lifespan ◽

Face To Face ◽

Age Related ◽

Online Tools

Abstract As the population ages, risks for cognitive decline threaten independence and quality of life for older adults. Classically, psychological assessment tools to evaluate cognitive functioning are administered in face-to-face laboratory sessions, which is time- and resource-consuming. With the aim of reducing such costs, the present study set out to develop and validate two new online tools, allowing a rapid assessment of general cognitive abilities and of prospective memory. We collected data from 250 participants equally spread across the adult lifespan (aged 18 – 86). Results suggest that performance assessed via these newly developed online tools is comparable to performance in face-to-face laboratory settings. Our findings thereby indicate that these online tools can reliably measure cognitive functioning across the lifespan at a reduced cost, which may help detect individuals at risk of developing age-related cognitive disorders.

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Regional Network in Marine Science and Technology f for the Caribbean: Know – Why Network

10.31219/osf.io/e3e33 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Chris Corbin ◽

Antonio Villasol Núñez ◽

William James Senior ◽

Arístide Márquez ◽

Ivis Fermín ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Quality ◽

Financial Support ◽

Marine Pollution ◽

Marine Ecosystems ◽

Caribbean Region ◽

Regional Network ◽

Development Agency ◽

Regional Project ◽

The Caribbean

The Marine Sciences and Technologies Regional Project for the Wider Caribbean Region, knownas ”Know Why Network”, came into being as part of the financial support provided by theSwedish Development Agency (SIDA) and is administered and directed by the AMEP subprogramme(Evaluation and Management of Marine Pollution) of the Caribbean EnvironmentalProgramme (CEP). The general aim of this project is the exchange of capacities between countries with theobjectives of implementing the Pollution from Land-based Sources Protocol (LBS) andimproving knowledge about the environmental quality of the marine ecosystems and theirresources in the Wider Caribbean Region (WRC).

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Improving the method of conflict situations

The Baltic Journal of Road and Bridge Engineering ◽

10.3846/bjrbe.2014.38 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 317-324 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Denis Kapski ◽

Lina Bertulienė

Keyword(s):

Road Safety ◽

Rapid Assessment ◽

Signalized Intersections ◽

Annual Number ◽

Safety Measures ◽

Accident Prediction ◽

Conflict Situations ◽

Traffic Conflict ◽

Speed Humps

The paper presents the results of research to develop methodology for a rapid assessment of the effect of measures used to improve road safety. The research includes the improvement of the method of determining traffic conflict situations and the development of accident prediction in conflict situations. A method of conflict situations is one of the most advanced and effective methods for predicting accidents at conflict sites since this method is based on the dependency of the number of accidents on the number of conflict situations. Having determined at the study site the number of conflict situations it is possible to calculate a predictable annual number of accidents at that site. The research implemented gave a possibility to increase the accuracy of accident prediction according to the method of conflict situations making it suitable to be used in practice for assessing the quality of road safety measures at the conflict sites – signalized intersections and pedestrian crossings, in the zone of which the artificial speed humps have been installed, such as a “sleeping policeman”.

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PhaseME: Automatic rapid assessment of phasing quality and phasing improvement

GigaScience ◽

10.1093/gigascience/giaa078 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (7) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sina Majidian ◽

Fritz J Sedlazeck

Keyword(s):

Rapid Assessment ◽

Linkage Data ◽

Universal Method ◽

High Quality ◽

Sequencing Technologies ◽

Long Reads ◽

Oxford Nanopore ◽

Linkage Information ◽

Quality Assessments

Abstract Background The detection of which mutations are occurring on the same DNA molecule is essential to predict their consequences. This can be achieved by phasing the genomic variations. Nevertheless, state-of-the-art haplotype phasing is currently a black box in which the accuracy and quality of the reconstructed haplotypes are hard to assess. Findings Here we present PhaseME, a versatile method to provide insights into and improvement of sample phasing results based on linkage data. We showcase the performance and the importance of PhaseME by comparing phasing information obtained from Pacific Biosciences including both continuous long reads and high-quality consensus reads, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, 10x Genomics, and Illumina sequencing technologies. We found that 10x Genomics and Oxford Nanopore phasing can be significantly improved while retaining a high N50 and completeness of phase blocks. PhaseME generates reports and summary plots to provide insights into phasing performance and correctness. We observed unique phasing issues for each of the sequencing technologies, highlighting the necessity of quality assessments. PhaseME is able to decrease the Hamming error rate significantly by 22.4% on average across all 5 technologies. Additionally, a significant improvement is obtained in the reduction of long switch errors. Especially for high-quality consensus reads, the improvement is 54.6% in return for only a 5% decrease in phase block N50 length. Conclusions PhaseME is a universal method to assess the phasing quality and accuracy and improves the quality of phasing using linkage information. The package is freely available at https://github.com/smajidian/phaseme.

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A rapid assessment of the quality of neonatal healthcare in Kilimanjaro region, northeast Tanzania

BMC Pediatrics ◽

10.1186/1471-2431-12-182 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Bernard Mbwele ◽

Elizabeth Reddy ◽

Hugh Reyburn

Keyword(s):

Rapid Assessment ◽

Kilimanjaro Region

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Analysis of Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii De Wild) Bark by Near Infrared Spectroscopy

Holzforschung ◽

10.1515/hf.2003.078 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 57 (5) ◽

pp. 527-532 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

L. R. Schimleck ◽

Y. Yazaki

Keyword(s):

Near Infrared ◽

Rapid Assessment ◽

Nir Spectroscopy ◽

Hot Water ◽

Soluble Solids ◽

Tannin Content ◽

Acacia Mearnsii ◽

Considerable Potential ◽

Black Wattle

Summary The analysis of two sets of Acacia mearnsii De Wild (Black Wattle) samples by near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is reported. Set 1 samples were characterised in terms of hot water extractives, Stiasny value and polyflavanoid content. Set 2 samples were characterised by nine different parameters, including tannin content. NIR spectra were obtained from the milled bark of all samples and calibrations developed for each parameter. Calibrations developed for hot water extractives and polyflavanoid content (set 1) gave very good coefficients of determination (R2) and performed well in prediction. Set 2 calibrations were generally good with total and soluble solids, tannin content, Stiasny value-2 and UV-2, all having R2 greater than 0.8. Owing to the small number of set 2 samples, no predictions were made using the calibrations. The strong relationships obtained for many parameters in this study indicates that NIR spectroscopy has considerable potential for the rapid assessment of the quality of extractives in A. mearnsii bark.

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Rapid Assessment of Water Quality in Teluk Lake by Using Macroinvertebrates (A Family Level Biotic Index)

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/20186804006 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 68 ◽

pp. 04006

Author(s):

Siswanta Kaban ◽

M. Edi Armanto ◽

M. Rasyid Ridho ◽

Poedji L. Hariani

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Anthropogenic Activities ◽

Rapid Assessment ◽

Working Party ◽

Biotic Index ◽

Average Score ◽

Running Water ◽

Three Stages ◽

Polluted Waters

In this study the water quality of Teluk Lake, Jambi Province by biological indices using macroobenthic during December 2017 to March 2018 were evaluated. Macro obenthic have been the most commonly indicator of running water quality to rapidly detect water quality changes. The methodology consisted on three stages: 1) macro invertebrates sampling and and sorting of the organisms in laboratory, 2) taxonomic identification of organisms and 3) determination and scoring with the Biological Monitoring Working Party -Average Score per Taxon (BMWP-ASPT) index. Result of water quality of Teluk Lake based on the diversity of macroinvertebrates was degraded with BMWP-ASPT index below 4. Based on the BMWP-ASPT score of the macroinvertebrates, both of sampling 1 and 2 were polluted with the category of medium and heavily polluted. In general, the decreasing of water quality of Teluk Lake was due to anthropogenic activities, so that the intolerant macro invertebrates could not survive in polluted waters while the tolerant ones can adapt well to the polluted aquatic environment.

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Assessment of the chemical quality of drinking water in Cambodia

Journal of Water and Health ◽

10.2166/wh.2006.048 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 101-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Peter R. Feldman ◽

Jan-Willem Rosenboom ◽

Mao Saray ◽

Chea Samnang ◽

Peng Navuth ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Drinking Water ◽

Water Supply ◽

Ground Water ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Rapid Assessment ◽

Water Sources ◽

Health Concern ◽

Chemical Quality ◽

Drinking Water Sources

Most water supply programmes in Cambodia have focused on providing access to bacteriologically safe water, an approach which has led to an increasing reliance on ground water, especially in rural areas. However, there have been very few data collected on the chemical quality of the nation's drinking water sources, and few water supply programmes have the capacity to assess chemical quality. The study was designed to address this data gap by conducting a low-cost, rapid assessment of drinking water sources nationwide to determine whether there were any chemicals of concern in Cambodian water supply sources. Results of the assessment confirm that there are several parameters of health and aesthetic concern; dissolved arsenic is the most significant. Elevated arsenic levels (some exceeding 500 μg l-1) were detected in aquifers of moderate depth in several highly populated areas, confirming that further investigation of the occurrence of arsenic contamination in Cambodia is warranted. Other chemicals of health concern include nitrate, nitrite, fluoride and manganese. Additionally, many ground water sources are negatively impacted by parameters of aesthetic concern, such as iron, manganese, hardness and total dissolved solids. Elevated levels of these parameters have caused consumers to reject newly installed water supplies, often in favour of surface water sources that are bacteriologically unsafe.

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