Developing a Health Equity and Criminal Justice Concentration for a Master of Public Health (MPH) Program: Results From a Needs Assessment Among Community Partners and Potential Employers

The United States has experienced a 4-fold increase in jail and prison populations over the last 40 years, disproportionately burdening African American and Hispanic/Latinx communities. Mass incarceration threatens the health of individuals, families, and communities, and requires a public health response. The Master of Public Health (MPH) Program at Touro University California (TUC) trains students to become skillful, socially-conscious public health professionals. We are developing a concentration focused on the public health impacts of incarceration. Along with the core public health curriculum, students of this new Health Equity and Criminal Justice (HECJ) concentration will receive training in criminal justice, reentry, reintegration, recidivism, restorative justice, structural racism, and social and community impacts of incarceration. Our study gauges interest in an HECJ concentration in our local community, including potential employers. We surveyed a cross-section of community partners including public health departments, other governmental agencies, California correctional facilities, county jails, community groups, health clinics, and hospitals. A majority (89%) of respondents consider mass incarceration a public health problem and 86% believe specialized training would make graduates employable by criminal justice related organizations. The HECJ track will fill a gap in the field and train a future generation of public health professionals to address the epidemic of mass incarceration

Public Health Surveillance of Toxic Cyanobacteria in Freshwater Systems Using Remote Detection Methods

Cyanotoxins, the group of toxic chemicals produced by the blue-green algae or cyanobacteria that can proliferate in fresh and salt-water, cause a range of harmful health effects including skin rashes, flu-like symptoms, nausea, diarrhea, tingling and nerve damage, liver damage, tumors, and death ([1, 2]). Although cyanobacteria are one of the oldest organisms on the planet, anthropogenic development (e.g. dams, water diversions, nutrient rich runoff from intensive agriculture, decreased impervious area from urbanization, etc.) has caused many watersheds to lose substantial water volume, suffer tremendous inputs of nutrients and other organic and inorganic pollutants, increase in temperature and overall become more suitable for the proliferation of harmful blooms of cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria blooms are now increasingly prevalent in freshwaters as eutrophication becomes ever more common with human stressors, and climate change is likely to only further exacerbate this problem. Public health professionals are dependant upon early and dependable information on the presence, concentration, and location of cyanobacteria blooms in order to inform the public and reduce potential exposure. This research project evaluated the efficacy of remote sensing data to provide this kind of surveillance and early detection for characterizing the presence of toxic algae in freshwater systems. It explored the relevance of specific remote sensing techniques to freshwater cyanobacteria bloom identification. The various remote sensing platforms available for this kind of research vary in cost, swath coverage, spatial scale and spectral resolution. For this study, three different remote imagery platforms were compared in terms of their ability to identify surface blooms and to distinguish gradients in cell density or bloom intensity. This exploration of the application of remote sensing used a hyperspectral airborne sensor with high spatial resolution (SpecTIR), a multispectral satellite image also with high spatial resolution (IKONOS), and a lower spatial resolution multispectral satellite image (Landsat). Water sampling data (algal pigment concentrations, turbidity, transparency, and temperature) from known blue-green algae blooms dominated by microcystis aeruginosa on the Iron Gate and Copco Reservoirs on the Klamath River were used to evaluate and classify these different images.This research successfully used both satellite and airborne remotely sensed data to visualize where the medium or high density sections of the bloom were located, to quantify the intensity of the bloom in terms of area impacted, and to compare the intensity of the bloom at different dates in time. Remote sensing can provide a synoptic overview of the entire system, making it possible to truly assess relative bloom intensity. Furthermore the results indicate that when given the choice, the investment in higher spectral resolution should be chosen over higher spatial resolution as the former appears to provide more benefits in cyanobacteria detection

Crowley Lake, Mono County : nutrient loading and eutrophication

After being classified as eutrophic by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1975, Crowley Lake has been the subject of studies and restoration efforts to manage the nutrient load and subsequent cyanobacterial blooms. Our research project used data from the Landsat satellite images to evaluate the restoration effort implemented in 2000 along Owens River to reduce nutrient loading to Crowley Lake. We focused on the presence of cyanobacteria blooms as an indicator of the eutrophic status and nutrient concentrations in the lake. The results showed strong evidence for continued algal growth on the lake’s surface in 2002, two years after the remediation was completed, however the reflectance from the satellite data is not specific and could reflect the presence of macrophytes rather than surface algae. The size of the algal bloom in 2002 however was reduced from that observed via satellite in 2000. Additional data from other years is necessary to determine whether this is actually a trend or simply a result of aberrant climate or conditions unique to 2002

Size and Shape Constraints of (486958) Arrokoth from Stellar Occultations

International audienceWe present the results from four stellar occultations by (486958) Arrokoth, the flyby target of the New Horizons extended mission. Three of the four efforts led to positive detections of the body, and all constrained the presence of rings and other debris, finding none. Twenty-five mobile stations were deployed for 2017 June 3 and augmented by fixed telescopes. There were no positive detections from this effort. The event on 2017 July 10 was observed by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy with one very short chord. Twenty-four deployed stations on 2017 July 17 resulted in five chords that clearly showed a complicated shape consistent with a contact binary with rough dimensions of 20 by 30 km for the overall outline. A visible albedo of 10% was derived from these data. Twenty-two systems were deployed for the fourth event on 2018 August 4 and resulted in two chords. The combination of the occultation data and the flyby results provides a significant refinement of the rotation period, now estimated to be 15.9380 ± 0.0005 hr. The occultation data also provided high-precision astrometric constraints on the position of the object that were crucial for supporting the navigation for the New Horizons flyby. This work demonstrates an effective method for obtaining detailed size and shape information and probing for rings and dust on distant Kuiper Belt objects as well as being an important source of positional data that can aid in spacecraft navigation that is particularly useful for small and distant bodies