More random images

As the US-based team make their final preparations to depart Nepal, we leave you with yet another collection of random images taken during our time here. We again sincerely thank the Jirel community for their wonderful support for making this project a huge success. We also thank you for your interest. We'll be in touch soon with more blog updates. Until then...

Mascot: Team JES.

Issues with the slit lamp.

Months of the year, written and numbered.

A slit lamp being borrowed from the Jiri Community Eye Center (CEC).

View from the clinic between centrifuge spins.

Jiri school bus.

Lunch dining area.

Sarangi: a folk Nepalese bowed string instrument.

Sunset, from the clinic.

The front gates to the clinic.

Snow capped mountains, in the background.

More of the snow capped mountains, on the drive back to Kathmandu.

A full moon peaking over the Jiri landscape.

Time to get more of this...

The Jiri Eye Study: By the numbers

While every field trip to collect data is a busy, intense period, this trip has been a little busier than usual. In addition to collecting data, the investigative team have also submitted a couple of grant applications to the NIH (National Institutes of Health), worked on a couple of abstracts that will soon be submitted for presentation at the 2019 ARVO (Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology) annual meeting, and worked on revising a manuscript (after reviewer comments) that reports the genetics of glycated serum protein, a potential biomarker for glycemia, in the Jirel pedigree. Therefore, we'll have time to report on some of the interesting eye pathology observed on this trip in the coming weeks.

As the sun here in Jiri is set to rise, the research team are starting to make their final preparations for the road trip back to Kathmandu. In the meantime, we thought we'd give you a breakdown of the data collection activities here in Jiri;

3: The number of slit lamps used.
4: The number of years taken to collect the data.
8: The number of field trips to Jiri.
12: The number of sampling days per field trip.
16: The number of weeks spent in Jiri.
21: The average number of Jirels seen per day, per field trip.
96: The total number of sampling days.
255: The average number of Jirels seen per field trip.
510: The average number of Jirels seen per year.
1,123: The approximate number of Jirel females (~55%) recruited into the study.
2,042: The total number of Jirels recruited into the Jiri Eye Study - that's 102.1% of our recruitment target!
4,000: The approximate number of transfer pipettes used.
44,924: The approximate number of pages of data scanned.
180,016: Approximate number of miles traveled by the US-based team.
290,944: Approximate number of kilometers traveled by the US-based team.

SAMPLE SIZE: n = 2,000!!

Today marked a major milestone for the Jiri Eye Study; we reached our recruitment goal of 2,000 members of the Jirel population! In fact, we finished the day at 2,003 individuals and we still have two more days of sampling to go.

This milestone is a major achievement, and is testament to the hard working and dedicated members of the field work team from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, Miami University, and Wright State University.

On behalf of the research team, we sincerely thank the Jirel people for their cooperation with this important project – investigating the genetic epidemiology of ocular health and disease. Additionally, we thank the Jirel people for their continued support on all the research projects that have been conducted in the region over the past 30 years.

The Jiri Eye Study field work team and the 2,000th research participant and his wife, the 2,001st participant
The photo was taken with the permission of both participants.

Hello, Jiri, it's been a while...

In fact, it's been a while for all, actually. While the team has been busy with grant applications, we are now back in Jiri and looking forward to another successful field trip to collect more data and continue to improve the ocular health of the Jirel community. On this trip we expect to pass another great milestone so stay tuned for more in the coming days. In the meantime, here's a couple of pictures of home for the next couple of weeks...