Studies of reproductive health among childbearing age women in rural South India

Reproductive conditions and adverse birth outcomes disproportionately affect women in developing countries. Despite this fact, most research has been conducted with women in the United States and Europe. We sought to determine the burden and risk factors for reproductive outcomes among the 1,226 South Indian women in the Longitudinal Indian Family Health (LIFE) study. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) affected 14.1% (95% confidence interval (CI) 11.9-16.4%) of women in LIFE. When diagnosis by clue cells alone was compared to Nugent’s scoring, clue cell analysis had a sensitivity of 39.8% (95% CI 36.6-43.0%) and specificity of 81.2% (95% CI 78.6-83.8%), with higher sensitivity among non-pregnant women (41.5%; 95% CI 37.8-45.2%) compared to pregnant women (29.4%; 95% CI 22.9-35.9%). Use of clue cells alone for diagnosis was found to be inadequate for screening women for BV and a validated method is recommended for future practice. We investigated several potential risk factors to determine their association with BV. In the model adjusted for religion and water source, Muslim women were more likely to have BV compared to Hindu women, though the increase was not significant (adjusted odds ratio (ORadj) 1.8; 95% CI 0.9-3.6). Women using tap water were also more likely to have BV at baseline compared to those who used purchased water (ORadj 1.4; 95% CI 0.9-2.0), though this increase was also not significant. These potentially at risk groups should be targeted for future screening programs. Consanguineous marriage (CM) occurs in up to 46% of South Indian marriages. Among women in CMs, we found a significant increase in the risk of early (<10 weeks’ gestation) spontaneous abortion (SAB) (adjusted hazards ratio (HRadj) 2.7, 95% CI 1.1-7.0). There was also a trend toward an increase in risk of late SAB (11-22 weeks’ gestation) (HRadj 1.2, 95% CI 0.4-3.7) and all SAB (HRadj 1.9, 95% CI 0.9-3.8). Women in CMs should be identified by health care providers and given counseling prior to conception and throughout pregnancy. This dissertation yields public health significance by identifying high-risk groups who should be targeted for screening and counseling programs by the clinics serving this rural South Indian population

South Skagit Highway realignment: ENVS 493 winter 2013

The existing placement of the South Skagit Highway disconnects the Skagit River from approximately 62 acres of floodplain in the project area alone and has direct impacts on habitat conditions. Approximately, 5.2 acres of wetlands are completely inaccessible to fish due to the current highway alignment. An additional 21.7 acres of slough and wetland habitat have only partial fish access due to restricted hydrologic connectivity with the river. Routine dredging and maintenance is required for the 900 feet of Savage Creek which currently runs in the highway ditch. Savage Slough runs under the highway through an undersized culvert that is often blocked by flooding from Mill Creek. An alluvial fan of Mill Creek runs under an undersized bridge making the channel prone to migration, avulsion, and erosion. The channel has been subject to numerous maintenance projects, including dredging and channelization. Seattle City Light (SCL) purchased approximately 212 acres of property on the Skagit River near Mill and Savage Creeks. A large portion of the acquired property has been deforested and disturbed by the South Skagit Highway, which runs through the Skagit River\u27s floodplain and disconnects a variety of existing tributary and wetland habitats. In order to implement habitat restoration and protect the property for conservation, SCL has been working with Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) and Skagit County to restore the floodplain to its original ecological functionality, providing habitat for several species. Maintenance costs of the current road would also be reduced. The restoration is likely to include demolition, riparian and floodplain plantings, and culvert removals. Possibilities for floodplain restoration were evaluated after an initial scoping procedure. Suggested restoration would either demolish and realign the existing road or install new bridges and culverts on the existing road. The initial scoping and evaluation narrowed the list of feasible projects down to two, mostly due to the Washington State Department of Transportation\u27s (WSDOT) high cost estimate of the other projects. Project funding has come from both SCL and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB, project #091450) and several additional sources

Hydrological summary for the United Kingdom: October 2021

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint UKCEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services

Hydrological summary for the United Kingdom: May 2022

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint UKCEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services

Indicator-to-impact links to help improve agricultural drought preparedness in Thailand

Droughts in Thailand are becoming more severe due to climate change. Developing a reliable Drought Monitoring and Early Warning System (DMEWS) is essential to strengthen a country&rsquo;s resilience to droughts. However, for a DMEWS to be valuable, the drought indicators it provides stakeholders must have relevance to tangible impacts on the ground. Here, we analyse drought indicator-to-impact relationships in Thailand, using a combination of correlation analysis and machine learning techniques (random forest). In the correlation analysis, we study the link between meteorological drought indicators and high-resolution remote sensing vegetation indices used as proxies for crop-yield and forest-growth impacts. Our analysis shows that this link varies depending on land use, season, and region. The random forest models built to estimate regional crop productivity allow a more in-depth analysis of the crop-/region-specific importance of different drought indicators. The results highlight seasonal patterns of drought vulnerability for individual crops, usually linked to their growing season, although the effects are somewhat attenuated in irrigated regions. Integration of the approaches provides new detailed knowledge of crop-/region-specific indicator-to-impact links, which can form the basis of targeted mitigation actions in an improved DMEWS in Thailand, and could be applied in other parts of Southeast Asia and beyond.</p

Linking drought indices to impacts to support drought risk assessment in Liaoning province, China

Drought is a ubiquitous and recurring hazard that has wide-ranging impacts on society, agriculture and the environment. Drought indices are vital for characterising the nature and severity of drought hazards, and there have been extensive efforts to identify the most suitable drought indices for drought monitoring and risk assessment. However, to date, little effort has been made to explore which index (or indices) best represents drought impacts for various sectors in China. This is a critical knowledge gap, as impacts provide important ground truth information for indices used in monitoring activities. The aim of this study is to explore the link between drought indices and drought impacts, using Liaoning province (northeast China) as a case study due to its history of drought occurrence. To achieve this we use independent, but complementary, methods (correlation and random forest analysis) to identify which indices link best to drought impacts for prefectural-level cities in Liaoning province, using a comprehensive database of reported drought impacts in which impacts are classified into a range of categories. The results show that the standardised precipitation evapotranspiration index with a 6-month accumulation (SPEI6) had a strong correlation with all categories of drought impacts, while the standardised precipitation index with a 12-month accumulation (SPI12) had a weak correlation with drought impacts. Of the impact datasets, “drought-suffering area” and “drought impact area” had a strong relationship with all drought indices in Liaoning province, while “population and number of livestock with difficulty in accessing drinking water” had weak correlations with the indices. The results of this study can support drought planning efforts in the region and provide context for the indices used in drought-monitoring applications, so enabling improved preparedness for drought impacts. The study also demonstrates the potential benefits of routine collection of drought impact information on a local scale

A nationally consistent approach to assessing accumulated rainfall rarity

The aim of this report is to identify the most appropriate approach to quantifying return periods of long duration rainfall. The Data and Methods sections describe the data used to test the range of distributions and goodness-of-fit measures. Results are presented which identify the most appropriate distribution for nationally consistent applications, before the key findings are summarised

Developing On-line Materials for Thesis Preparation

This presentation was given at the National Collegiate Honors Council