Augmented Reality Farm MAPPER Development: Lessons Learned from an App Designed to Improve Rural Emergency Response

Fire departments have right-of-entry to most commercial industrial sites and preemptively map them to identify the onsite resources and hazards they need to promptly and safely respond to an emergency event. This is not the case for private farms. Emergency responders are blind to resources and hazards prior to arrival and must spend critical minutes locating them during an emergency response at a farm location. The original 2013 Farm Mapping to Assist, Protect and Prepare Emergency Responders (Farm MAPPER) project was undertaken to develop a method to give emergency responders an up-to-date view of on-farm hazard information to safely and efficiently conduct emergency response activities on private agricultural operations. In 2017, an augmented reality version of Farm MAPPER was developed to combine the technological advantages of geographic information system-based data points with a heads-up display and graphical overlay of superimposed hazard imagery and informative icons. The development and testing of this iOS- and Android-ready prototype uncovered lessons learned applicable to other mobilebased apps targeting farmers, ranchers, and rural populations faced with limited or inconsistent mobile internet connectivity

Blood acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase as biomarkers of cholinesterase depression among pesticide handlers

Agricultural pesticide handlers are at an elevated risk for overexposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides, but symptoms can be difficult to recognize, making biomarkers invaluable for diagnosis. Occupational monitoring programs for cholinesterase depression generally rely on measuring activity of either of two common blood cholinesterases which serve as proxy measurements for nervous-system acetylcholinesterase activity: red blood cell acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). These biomarkers, however, may be affected differentially by some OPs and the relationship between them has not been well characterized. We aim to determine the association between blood acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activity levels and assess whether they produce comparable classifications of clinical cholinesterase depression among organophosphate pesticide handlers

An Investigation of School Socioeconomic Staus on adolescent Athletes\u27 Baseline and Post-Injury Concussion Assessments

Please enjoy Volume 5, Issue 1 of the JSMAHS. In this issue you will find Professional and under graduate research abstracts, case reports, and critically appraised topics. Thank you for viewing this 5th Annual OATA Special Editio

Studying Health Outcomes in Farmworker Populations Exposed to Pesticides

A major goal of studying farmworkers is to better understand how their work environment, including exposure to pesticides, affects their health. Although a number of health conditions have been associated with pesticide exposure, clear linkages have yet to be made between exposure and health effects except in cases of acute pesticide exposure. In this article, we review the most common health end points that have been studied and describe the epidemiologic challenges encountered in studying these health effects of pesticides among farmworkers, including the difficulties in accessing the population and challenges associated with obtaining health end point data. The assessment of neurobehavioral health effects serves as one of the most common and best examples of an approach used to study health outcomes in farmworkers and other populations exposed to pesticides. We review the current limitations in neurobehavioral assessment and strategies to improve these analytical methods. Emerging techniques to improve our assessment of health effects associated with pesticide exposure are reviewed. These techniques, which in most cases have not been applied to farmworker populations, hold promise in our ability to study and understand the relationship between pesticide exposure and a variety of health effects in this population

Augmented Reality Farm MAPPER Development: Lessons Learned from an App Designed to Improve Rural Emergency Response

Fire departments have right-of-entry to most commercial industrial sites and preemptively map them to identify the onsite resources and hazards they need to promptly and safely respond to an emergency event. This is not the case for private farms. Emergency responders are blind to resources and hazards prior to arrival and must spend critical minutes locating them during an emergency response at a farm location. The original 2013 Farm Mapping to Assist, Protect and Prepare Emergency Responders (Farm MAPPER) project was undertaken to develop a method to give emergency responders an up-to-date view of on-farm hazard information to safely and efficiently conduct emergency response activities on private agricultural operations. In 2017, an augmented reality version of Farm MAPPER was developed to combine the technological advantages of geographic information system-based data points with a heads-up display and graphical overlay of superimposed hazard imagery and informative icons. The development and testing of this iOS- and Android-ready prototype uncovered lessons learned applicable to other mobilebased apps targeting farmers, ranchers, and rural populations faced with limited or inconsistent mobile internet connectivity

Mortality among a Cohort of Banana Plantation Workers in Costa Rica

Texto completo del documentoThe nematocide 1,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP), widely used in Costa Rica during the late 1960s and 1970s, causes sterility in men and is a possible carcinogen. Mortality among a cohort of Costa Rican banana plantation workers was investigated. The cohort included 40,959 individuals who worked on banana plantations between 1972 and 1979. Employment records were linked with the Costa Rican Mortality Registry to determine outcomes through 1999. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated for all causes of death. Poisson regression was also used to calculate mortality risk estimates by duration of employment, but provided no additional insight. All-causes SMRs were 0.77 for men (95% CI 0.75-0.80) and 0.90 for women (95% CI 0.80-1.02) relative to national mortality rates. Mortality from septicemia was significantly higher than expected. Nonsignificant increases in mortality were also observed for testicular cancer, penile cancer, Hodgkin's disease, and Parkinson's disease in men, and for cervical cancer and lung cancer in women.El nematocida 1,2-dibromo-3-cloropropano (DBCP), ampliamente utilizado en Costa Rica a finales de los años 60 y 70, provoca esterilidad en los hombres y es un posible carcinógeno. Se investigó la mortalidad entre una cohorte de trabajadores de plantaciones bananeras de Costa Rica. La cohorte incluyó a 40.959 individuos que trabajaron en plantaciones de banano entre 1972 y 1979. Los registros de empleo se vincularon con el Registro de Mortalidad de Costa Rica para determinar los resultados hasta 1999. Se calcularon las razones de mortalidad estandarizadas (SMR) para todas las causas de muerte. También se utilizó la regresión de Poisson para calcular las estimaciones del riesgo de mortalidad según la duración del empleo, pero no proporcionó ninguna información adicional. Las RME por todas las causas fueron de 0,77 para los hombres (IC del 95%: 0,75-0,80) y de 0,90 para las mujeres (IC del 95%: 0,80-1,02) en relación con las tasas de mortalidad nacionales. La mortalidad por septicemia fue significativamente mayor de lo esperado. También se observaron aumentos no significativos de la mortalidad por cáncer testicular, cáncer de pene, enfermedad de Hodgkin y enfermedad de Parkinson en los hombres, y por cáncer de cuello de útero y cáncer de pulmón en las mujeres.Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica.Instituto Regional de Estudios en Sustancias Tóxica

The Use of Audience Response System Technology With Limited-English-Proficiency, Low-Literacy, and Vulnerable Populations

Audience response systems (ARS) have long been used to improve the interactivity of educational activities. Most studies of ARS have addressed education of literate trainees. How well these devices work with low-literacy subjects is not well studied. Information gathering on the training audience is an important use of ARS and helpful in improving the targeting of training information. However, obtaining demographic information from vulnerable populations with reasons to be concerned about divulging information about themselves has not been tested. In addition, a culturally competent method to effectively collect demographic and evaluation data of this growing population is essential. This project investigated the use of ARS to gather information from Hispanic immigrant workers, many of whom are socially vulnerable and have limited English proficiency (LEP) and low-literacy. Workers attended focus groups and were asked to use ARS devices or clickers to respond to questions. Questions were both categorical (multiple choice) and open-ended numerical (text entry), and varied from simple queries to more sensitive points regarding immigration. Most workers answered the one-key response categorical questions with little difficulty. In contrast, some participants struggled when responding to numerical questions, especially when the response required pressing multiple clicker keys. An overwhelming majority of participants reported that the clickers were comfortable and easy to use despite the challenges presented by the more complex responses. The error rate increased as question complexity increased and the trend across three ordered categories of response complexity reached statistical significance. Results suggest that ARS is a viable method for gathering dichotomous or higher-order categorical information from LEP and low-literacy populations in a group setting while assuring anonymity. However, it is recommended that clickers be developed and tested with fewer, bigger, and more widely separated buttons, and less printing on the buttons for these populations. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of using clickers with simplified configurations in the workplace as a tool to collect data for surveys and assessments and to better engage LEP and low-literacy workers in training sessions