Rose Island’s role as part of the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport

This paper documents Rose Island\u27s role as part of the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport and was the continuation of Islands of the Narragansett Bay Interdisciplinary Project. As a large portion of Rose Island’s eighteenth and mid-nineteenth century history has been documented, the continuation of documenting Rose Island’s twentieth century history includes its role as part of the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport. After researching the Torpedo Station in Newport, it was discovered that Rose Island played a small but vital role in this large military installation. It was used for ammunition storage, but its role is just as important to document to produce as much of the island’s history as possible.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/ric_research/1003/thumbnail.jp

The association of obesogenic environments with weight status, blood pressure, and blood lipids: A cross-sectional pooled analysis across five cohorts

In this observational cross-sectional study, we investigated the relationship between combined obesogenic neighbourhood characteristics and various cardiovascular disease risk factors in adults, including BMI, systolic blood pressure, and blood lipids, as well as the prevalence of overweight/obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidaemia. We conducted a large-scale pooled analysis, comprising data from five Dutch cohort studies (n = 183,871). Neighbourhood obesogenicity was defined according to the Obesogenic Built-environmental CharacterisTics (OBCT) index. The index was calculated for 1000m circular buffers around participants’ home addresses. For each cohort, the association between the OBCT index and prevalence of overweight/obesity, hypertension and dyslipidaemia was analysed using robust Poisson regression models. Associations with continuous measures of BMI, systolic blood pressure, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, and triglycerides were analysed using linear regression. All models were adjusted for age, sex, education level and area-level socio-economic status. Cohort-specific estimates were pooled using random-effects meta-analyses. The pooled results show that a 10 point higher OBCT index score was significantly associated with a 0.17 higher BMI (95%CI: 0.10 to 0.24), a 0.01 higher LDL-cholesterol (95% CI: 0.01 to 0.02), a 0.01 lower HDL cholesterol (95% CI: −0.02 to −0.01), and non-significantly associated with a 0.36 mmHg higher systolic blood pressure (95%CI: −0.14 to 0.65). A 10 point higher OBCT index score was also associated with a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity (PR = 1.03; 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.05), obesity (PR = 1.04; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.08) and hypertension (PR = 1.02; 95% CI: 1.00 to 1.04), but not with dyslipidaemia. This large-scale pooled analysis of five Dutch cohort studies shows that higher neighbourhood obesogenicity, as measured by the OBCT index, was associated with higher BMI, higher prevalence of overweight/obesity, obesity, and hypertension. These findings highlight the importance of considering the obesogenic environment as a potential determinant of cardiovascular health

Exposome-Wide Association Study of Body Mass Index Using a Novel Meta-Analytical Approach for Random Forest Models

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity impose a considerable individual and social burden, and the urban environments might encompass factors that contribute to obesity. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of research that takes into account the simultaneous interaction of multiple environmental factors. OBJECTIVES: Our objective was to perform an exposome-wide association study of body mass index (BMI) in a multicohort setting of 15 studies. METHODS: Studies were affiliated with the Dutch Geoscience and Health Cohort Consortium (GECCO), had different population sizes (688-141,825), and covered the entire Netherlands. Ten studies contained general population samples, others focused on specific populations including people with diabetes or impaired hearing. BMI was calculated from self-reported or measured height and weight. Associations with 69 residential neighborhood environmental factors (air pollution, noise, temperature, neighborhood socioeconomic and demographic factors, food environment, drivability, and walkability) were explored. Random forest (RF) regression addressed potential nonlinear and nonadditive associations. In the absence of formal methods for multimodel inference for RF, a rank aggregation-based meta-analytic strategy was used to summarize the results across the studies. RESULTS: Six exposures were associated with BMI: five indicating neighborhood economic or social environments (average home values, percentage of high-income residents, average income, livability score, share of single residents) and one indicating the physical activity environment (walkability in formula presented buffer area). Living in high-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods with higher livability scores was associated with lower BMI. Nonlinear associations were observed with neighborhood home values in all studies. Lower neighborhood home values were associated with higher BMI scores but only for values up to formula presented . The directions of associations were less consistent for walkability and share of single residents. DISCUSSION: Rank aggregation made it possible to flexibly combine the results from various studies, although between-study heterogeneity could not be estimated quantitatively based on RF models. Neighborhood social, economic, and physical environments had the strongest associations with BMI. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP13393.</p

Exposome-Wide Association Study of Body Mass Index Using a Novel Meta-Analytical Approach for Random Forest Models

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity impose a considerable individual and social burden, and the urban environments might encompass factors that contribute to obesity. Nevertheless, there is a scarcity of research that takes into account the simultaneous interaction of multiple environmental factors. OBJECTIVES: Our objective was to perform an exposome-wide association study of body mass index (BMI) in a multicohort setting of 15 studies. METHODS: Studies were affiliated with the Dutch Geoscience and Health Cohort Consortium (GECCO), had different population sizes (688-141,825), and covered the entire Netherlands. Ten studies contained general population samples, others focused on specific populations including people with diabetes or impaired hearing. BMI was calculated from self-reported or measured height and weight. Associations with 69 residential neighborhood environmental factors (air pollution, noise, temperature, neighborhood socioeconomic and demographic factors, food environment, drivability, and walkability) were explored. Random forest (RF) regression addressed potential nonlinear and nonadditive associations. In the absence of formal methods for multimodel inference for RF, a rank aggregation-based meta-analytic strategy was used to summarize the results across the studies. RESULTS: Six exposures were associated with BMI: five indicating neighborhood economic or social environments (average home values, percentage of high-income residents, average income, livability score, share of single residents) and one indicating the physical activity environment (walkability in formula presented buffer area). Living in high-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods with higher livability scores was associated with lower BMI. Nonlinear associations were observed with neighborhood home values in all studies. Lower neighborhood home values were associated with higher BMI scores but only for values up to formula presented . The directions of associations were less consistent for walkability and share of single residents. DISCUSSION: Rank aggregation made it possible to flexibly combine the results from various studies, although between-study heterogeneity could not be estimated quantitatively based on RF models. Neighborhood social, economic, and physical environments had the strongest associations with BMI. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP13393.</p

The Sanford Brothers’ Mills: Examples of the Small-scale Nineteenth-century Textile Industry in North Kingstown, Rhode Island

The paper traces the development of two small textile mills in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, during the nineteenth century, and the textile industry in the region. It looks at the people that owned and built the mills, the people that worked in them, and the products they produced

The Sanford Brothers’ Mills: Examples of the Small-scale Nineteenth-century Textile Industry in North Kingstown, Rhode Island

The paper traces the development of two small textile mills in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, during the nineteenth century, and the textile industry in the region. It looks at the people that owned and built the mills, the people that worked in them, and the products they produced

Rose Island’s role as part of the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport

This paper documents Rose Island\u27s role as part of the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport and was the continuation of Islands of the Narragansett Bay Interdisciplinary Project. As a large portion of Rose Island’s eighteenth and mid-nineteenth century history has been documented, the continuation of documenting Rose Island’s twentieth century history includes its role as part of the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport. After researching the Torpedo Station in Newport, it was discovered that Rose Island played a small but vital role in this large military installation. It was used for ammunition storage, but its role is just as important to document to produce as much of the island’s history as possible.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/ric_research/1003/thumbnail.jp

History of Fort Hamilton

Research paper documenting the history of the bomb-proof barracks on Rose Island that were built around 1800, created as part of the Narragansett Bay Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Summer Field Program.https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/ric_research/1000/thumbnail.jp

History of Fort Hamilton

Research paper documenting the history of the bomb-proof barracks on Rose Island that were built around 1800, created as part of the Narragansett Bay Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Summer Field Program

History of Fort Hamilton

Research paper documenting the history of the bomb-proof barracks on Rose Island that were built around 1800, created as part of the Narragansett Bay Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Summer Field Program