Injury surveillance in low-resource settings using Geospatial and Social Web technologies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Extensive public health gains have benefited high-income countries in recent decades, however, citizens of low and middle-income countries (LMIC) have largely not enjoyed the same advancements. This is in part due to the fact that public health data - the foundation for public health advances - are rarely collected in many LMIC. Injury data are particularly scarce in many low-resource settings, despite the huge associated burden of morbidity and mortality. Advances in freely-accessible and easy-to-use information and communication (ICT) technology may provide the impetus for increased public health data collection in settings with limited financial and personnel resources.</p> <p>Methods and Results</p> <p>A pilot study was conducted at a hospital in Cape Town, South Africa to assess the utility and feasibility of using free (non-licensed), and easy-to-use Social Web and GeoWeb tools for injury surveillance in low-resource settings. Data entry, geocoding, data exploration, and data visualization were successfully conducted using these technologies, including Google Spreadsheet, Mapalist, BatchGeocode, and Google Earth.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study examined the potential for Social Web and GeoWeb technologies to contribute to public health data collection and analysis in low-resource settings through an injury surveillance pilot study conducted in Cape Town, South Africa. The success of this study illustrates the great potential for these technologies to be leveraged for public health surveillance in resource-constrained environments, given their ease-of-use and low-cost, and the sharing and collaboration capabilities they afford. The possibilities and potential limitations of these technologies are discussed in relation to the study, and to the field of public health in general.</p

Power of Criminal Attractors: Modeling the Pull of Activity Nodes

The spatial distribution of crime has been a long-standing interest in the field of criminology. Research in this area has shown that activity nodes and travel paths are key components that help to define patterns of offending. Little research, however, has considered the influence of activity nodes on the spatial distribution of crimes in crime neutral areas - those where crimes are more haphazardly dispersed. Further, a review of the literature has revealed a lack of research in determining the relative strength of attraction that different types of activity nodes possess based on characteristics of criminal events in their immediate surrounds. In this paper we use offenders' home locations and the locations of their crimes to define directional and distance parameters. Using these parameters we apply mathematical structures to define rules by which different models may behave to investigate the influence of activity nodes on the spatial distribution of crimes in crime neutral areas. The findings suggest an increasing likelihood of crime as a function of geometric angle and distance from an offender's home location to the site of the criminal event. Implications of the results are discussed.Crime Attractor, Directionality of Crime, Mathematical Modeling, Computational Criminology

Pedestrian Injury and the Built Environment: An Environmental Scan of Hotspots

Background: Pedestrian injury frequently results in devastating and costly injuries and accountsfor 11% of all road user fatalities. In the United States in 2006 there were 4,784 fatalities and 61,000&nbsp;injuries from pedestrian injury, and in 2007 there were 4,654 fatalities and 70,000 injuries. In&nbsp;Canada, injury is the leading cause of death for those under 45 years of age and the fourth mostcommon cause of death for all ages Traumatic pedestrian injury results in nearly 4000hospitalizations in Canada annually. These injuries result from the interplay of modifiableenvironmental factors. The objective of this study was to determine links between the built&nbsp;environment and pedestrian injury hotspots in Vancouver.Methods: Data were obtained from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) forthe 6 year period from 2000 to 2005 and combined with pedestrian injury data extracted from theBritish Columbia Trauma Registry (BCTR) for the same period. High incident locations (hotspots)for pedestrian injury in the City of Vancouver were identified and mapped using geographicinformation systems (GIS), and the characteristics of the built environment at each of the hotspot&nbsp;locations were examined by a team of researchers.Results: The analysis highlighted 32 pedestrian injury hotspot locations in Vancouver. 31 of 32hotspots were situated on major roads. Likewise, the majority of hotspots were located ondowntown streets. The \u27downtown eastside\u27 was identified as an area with multiple high-incidentlocations, including the 2 highest ranked pedestrian injury hotspots. Bars were present at 21 of the&nbsp;hotspot locations, with 11 of these locations being judged to have high alcohol establishmentdensity.Conclusion: This study highlighted the disproportionate burden of pedestrian injury centred onthe downtown eastside area of Vancouver. The environmental scan revealed that important passive&nbsp;pedestrian safety countermeasures were only present at a minority of high-incident locations. More&nbsp;importantly, bars were highly associated with risk of pedestrian injury. This study is the basis forpotential public health intervention by clearly indicating optimal locations for signalized pedestrian&nbsp;crosswalks

Spatial and temporal variations in the incidence of dust storms in Saudi Arabia revealed from in situ observations

Monthly meteorological data from 27 observation stations provided by the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) of Saudi Arabia were used to analyze the spatial and temporal distribution of atmospheric dust in Saudi Arabia between 2000 and 2016. These data were used to analyze the effects of environmental forcing on the occurrence of dust storms across Saudi Arabia by considering the relationships between dust storm frequency and temperature, precipitation, and wind variables. We reveal a clear seasonality in the reported incidence of dust storms, with the highest frequency of events during the spring. Our results show significant positive relationships (p < 0.005) between dust storm occurrence and wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation. However, we did not detect a significant relationship with temperature. Our results reveal important spatial patterns, as well as seasonal and inter-annual variations, in the occurrence of dust storms in Saudi Arabia. For instance, the eastern part of the study area experienced an increase in dust storm events over time, especially in the region near Al-Ahsa. Similarly, an increasing trend in dust storms was also observed in the west of the study area near Jeddah. However, the occurrence of dust storm events is decreasing over time in the north, in areas such as Hail and Qaisumah. Overall, the eastern part of Saudi Arabia experiences the highest number of dust storms per year (i.e., 10 to 60 events), followed by the northern region, with the south and the west having fewer dust storm events (i.e., five to 15 events per year). In addition, our results showed that the wind speeds during a dust storm are 15–20 m/s and above, while, on a non-dust day, the wind speeds are approximately 10–15 m/s or lower. Findings of this study provide insight into the relationship between environmental conditions and dust storm occurrence across Saudi Arabia, and a basis for future research into the drivers behind these observed spatio-temporal trends

Do-It-Yourself street views and the urban imaginary of Google Street View

Google Street View (GSV) is the de facto platform for street-level visual representation in most settings; however, its coverage is highly uneven due to a range of political, legal, technological, and economic factors. GSV’s spatiotemporal disparities are most evident within cities, and this advances a distorted urban imaginary of absences, fragments, and obsolescences. This paper traces key developments in 360° imaging poised to expand the production and consumption of street-level imagery, including new actors, platforms, technologies, and data production approaches. Then, engaging with consumer-grade imaging technologies and the notion of do-it-yourself urbanism, this paper develops a DIY street view approach as one new mode of producing street-level imagery. Drawing on the findings of a pilot study, the paper considers key practical issues for street-view production, the benefits and risks of DIY approaches in relation to corporate and crowdsourced imagery initiatives, and the politics of urban representation in 360°. Findings suggest that the DIY approach offers the potential for a more “careful curation” of space in 360° street-level representations; however, there are considerations specific to this “third way” that require further attention

Desert island data: an investigation into researcher positionality

The nature of qualitative research means that the personal values of an individual researcher can and do (unwittingly) shape the way in which they analyse data sets, and the resultant conclusions drawn. However this phenomenon is under-studied in social research: this article seeks to help rectify this. It presents findings from a small research project focused on discourses of class, masculinity, and work among British male comedians from working-class backgrounds, interviewed on the popular BBC Radio 4 radio programme Desert Island Discs. Six different researchers, from varying disciplinary, methodological, and theoretical groundings, as well as from varying personal backgrounds, analysed three interview recordings and transcripts separately. All the researchers wrote up their individual analyses of these interviews and wrote reflexive pieces examining why they thought they approached the data as they did. The researchers then came together as a group to compare and contrast findings and approaches. The results from this study, including the discrepancies and distinctions and final group analysis, are reported alongside a thorough discussion of the project's methodology. We find that the project evidenced how a diverse research team can bring out deeper and richer analyses, and was a refreshing way to try and answer questions of individual and collective positionalit

Intentional injury and violence in Cape Town, South Africa : an epidemiological analysis of trauma admissions data

While violence has been the subject of great study, data remains limited on the impacts and nature of interpersonal injury. Injury continues to be a global health issue, however. Through the analysis of injury surveillance of hospital admissions in South Africa, this study presents evidence-based interventions to reduce the burden of intentional injury. Researchers find a strong link between young males, substance use and violence, and link these trends to the context of increased urban migration and inequality in the Khayelitsha township

A Response to the IPCC Fifth Assessment

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change\u27s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report presented significant data and findings about climate change. But the IPCC\u27s working groups\u27 summaries for policymakers avoid making normative statements about the IPCC\u27s findings. The authors, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative, bridge this gap by identifying the normative claims that stem from the working groups\u27 summaries to spark deeper discussion and help shape the IPCC\u27s sixth assessment

A Response to the IPCC Fifth Assessment

This collection of essays is the initial product of the second meeting of the Environmental Law Collaborative, a group of environmental law scholars that meet to discuss important and timely environmental issues. Here, the group provides an array of perspectives arising from the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Each scholar chose one passage from one of the IPCC’s three Summaries for Policymakers as a jumping-off point for exploring climate change issues and responding directly to the reports. The result is a variety of viewpoints on the future of how law relates to climate change, a result that is the product not only of each scholar’s individual knowledge but also of the group’s robust discussion

A Response to the IPCC Fifth Assessment

This collection of essays is the initial product of the second meeting of the Environmental Law Collaborative, a group of environmental law scholars that meet to discuss important and timely environmental issues. Here, the group provides an array of perspectives arising from the Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Each scholar chose one passage from one of the IPCC’s three Summaries for Policymakers as a jumping-off point for exploring climate change issues and responding directly to the reports. The result is a variety of viewpoints on the future of how law relates to climate change, a result that is the product not only of each scholar’s individual knowledge but also of the group’s robust discussion