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NIEHS Dashboard Data Sources

tschuetz

GitHub Repository

“To empower additional modeling efforts, the complete time series of all daily PVI scores and data are available at https://github.com/COVID19PVI/data. “

12 Key Indicators

“[The authors] assembled U.S. county- and state-level datasets into 12 key indicators across four major domains: current infection rates (infection prevalence, rate of increase), baseline population concentration (daytime density/traffic, residential density), current interventions (social distancing, testing rates), and health and environmental vulnerabilities (susceptible populations, air pollution, age distribution, comorbidities, health disparities, and hospital beds).”

Three types of modeling

“Our modeling efforts directly address the discussion in [6], by contextualizing factors such as racial differences with corrections for socioeconomic factors, health resource allocation, and co-morbidities, plus highlighting place- based risks and resource deficits that might explain spatial distributions. Specifically, three types of modeling efforts were performed and are regularly updated. First, epidemiological modeling on cumulative case- and death-related outcomes provides insights into the epidemiology of the pandemic. Second, dynamic time-dependent modeling provides similar outcome estimates as national-level models, but with county-level resolution. Finally, a Bayesian machine learning approach provides data-driven, short-term forecasts. “

Blackness and PM 2.5

“With respect to factors affecting COVID-19 related mortality, we find that the proportion of Black residents and the PM2.5 index of small-particulate air pollution are the most significant predictors among those included, reinforcing conclusions from previous reports[7]. An increase of one percentage point of Black residents is associated with a 3.3% increase in the COVID-19 death rate. The effect of a 1 g/m3 increase in PM2.5 is associated with an approximately 16% increase in the COVID-19 death rate, a value at the high end of a previously reported confidence interval from a report in late April 2020[7] when deaths had reached 38% of the current total.”

Machine learning and prediction

“To accurately predict future cases and mortality, it is necessary to account for the fluid nature of the data. Accordingly, we developed a Bayesian spatiotemporal random-effects model that jointly describes the log-observed and log-death counts to build local forecasts. Log-observed cases for a given day are predicted using known covariates (e.g., population density, social distancing metrics), a spatiotemporal random-effect smoothing component, and the time- weighted average number of cases for these counts. This smoothed time-weighted average is related to a Euler approximation of a differential equation; it provides modeling flexibility while approximating potential mechanistic models of disease spread. The smoothed case estimates are used in a similar spatiotemporal model predicting future log-death counts based on a geometric mean estimate of the estimated number of observed cases for the previous seven days as well as the other data streams. The resulting county-level predictions and corresponding confidence intervals are shown (Fig. 1)."

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343642027_The_COVID-19_Pandemi…

US NIEHS Dashboard Creators and Curators

tschuetz

Skylar W. Marvel1, John S. House2, Matthew Wheeler2, Kuncheng Song1, Yihui Zhou1, Fred A. Wright1,3, Weihsueh A. Chiu4, Ivan Rusyn4, Alison Motsinger-Reif2*, David M. Reif1*

Affiliations:

1 Bioinformatics Research Center, Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.

2 Biostatistics and Computational Biology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, USA.

3 Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA

4 Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77845, USA.

US NIEHS Dashboard Types of Data

tschuetz

“Data sources in the current model (version 11.2.1) include the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for emergency response and hazard mitigation planning (Horney et al. 2017), testing rates from the COVID Tracking Project (Atlantic Monthly Group 2020), social distancing metrics from mobile device data ( https://www.unacast.com/covid19/social-distancing-scoreboard), and dynamic measures of disease spread and case numbers ( https://usafacts.org/issues/coronavirus/). Methodological details concerning the integration of data streams—plus the complete, daily time series of all source data since February 2020 and resultant PVI scores—are maintained on the public Github project page (COVID19PVI 2020). Over this period, the PVI has been strongly associated with key vulnerability-related outcome metrics (by rank-correlation), with updates of its performance assessment posted with model updates alongside data at the Github project page (COVID19PVI 2020).”

Source: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP8690

US NIEHS Dashboard Motivations

tschuetz

Empowering local actoors

“We present the PVI Dashboard as a dynamic container for contextualizing these disparities. It is a modular tool that will evolve to incorporate new data sources and analytics as they emerge (e.g., concurrent flu infections, school and business reopening statistics, heterogeneous public health practices). This flexibility positions it well as a resource for integrated prioritization of eventual vaccine distribution and monitoring its local impact. The PVI Dashboard can empower local and state officials to take informed action to combat the pandemic by communicating interactive, visual profiles of vulnerability atop an underlying statistical framework that enables the comparison of counties and the evaluation of the PVI’s component data.”

US NIEHS Dashboard Visualization

tschuetz

Built with toxicology knowledge

“The software used to generate PVI scores and profiles from these data is freely available at https://toxpi.org

General visualization capabilities

“The interactive visualization within the PVI Dashboard is intended to communicate factors underlying vulnerability and empower community action [...] The visualization and quantification of county-level vulnerability indicators are displayed by a radar chart, where each of the 12 indicators comprises a “slice” of the overall PVI profile. On loading, the Dashboard displays the top 250 PVI profiles (by rank) for the current day. The data, PVI scores, and predictions are updated daily, and users can scroll through historical PVI and county outcome data. Individual profiles are an interactive map layer with numerous display options/filters that include sorting by overall score, filtering by combinations of slice scores, clustering by profile similarity (i.e. vulnerability “shape”), and searching for counties by name or state (Additional functionality is detailed in the Supplement). User selection of any county overlays the summary Scorecard and populates surrounding panels with county- specific information (Figure 1). The scrollable panels at left include plots of vulnerability drivers relative to the nation-wide distribution across all U.S. counties, with the location of the selected county delineated. The panels across the bottom of the Dashboard report cumulative county numbers of cases and deaths; timelines of cumulative cases, deaths, PVI score, and PVI rank; daily changes in cases and deaths for the most recent 14-day period (commonly used in reopening guidelines[6]; and predicted cases and deaths for a 7-day forecast horizon.”

Visualizing comparison and "peer counties"

“the multi-criteria filtering capabilities in the Dashboard were used to find a “peer county” for comparison. “

Source: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP8690 and https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343642027_The_COVID-19_Pandemi…

Taiwanese environmental film festival: shifting from nuclear to climate fossil fuels

tschuetz

From Naomi Goddard (News Lens, March 10, 2023)

"Originally launched in 2013 under the name Nuclear Film Festival (核電影), the biannual event was created to draw attention to the organizers, Green Citizens’ Action Alliance (GCAA)’s concerns about nuclear energy. In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, the festival showcased films advocating for a nuclear-free world and addressing energy-related issues.

However, over the years the festival has expanded its focus to include films about climate change and the fossil fuel industry. As the urgency of the climate crisis has become increasingly pressing, the festival has evolved alongside it. This year, the festival has been renamed to Climate Tipping Point Film Festival to reflect its broader focus on global heating and the need for systemic change to mitigate its effects."

What were the methods, tools and/or data used to produce the claims or arguments made in the article or report?

annlejan7

This text builds from earlier conceptions of the term “land dispossession” and “land grab”. As defined by the 2011 International Land Coalition, land grabbing specifically refers to large scale land acquisitions that are “ in violation of human rights, without prior consent of the preexisting land users, and with no consideration of social and environmental impacts”. Characterization of land grabs and their resulting harms most commonly considers the effect of physical displacement and harms within the articulated “grabbed” area (Nyantakyi-Frimpong, 2017;Ogwand, 2018;  huaserman, 2018). Li and Pan seek to expand the frame of analysis for land grabs beyond the site of grabbed land to consider the full extent of harms associated with land grabs both geographically (via pollution spillover to areas outside of “grabbed land”) and temporally (via latent “expulsion by pollution). 

 

What two (or more) quotes capture the message of the article or report?

annlejan7

 “While the villagers are not passive victims and have adopted various resistance strategies, the space for them to struggle and achieve success is confined and shaped by the existing power asymmetry in which local villagers, capital and local government are embedded.”  (Li and Pan, 2021, p 418). 

 

“...this framing of land dispossession is problematic in two aspects. Firstly, it obscures an invisible form of land dispossession in which people still maintain control of their land but its use value is damaged by pollution. This kind of indirect land dispossession could lead to expulsion, not due to the direct loss of control over land but by it being rendered useless by pollution.” Li and Pan, 2021, p 409). 

 

What are the main findings or arguments presented in the article?

annlejan7

 This text employs a case study approach to characterize how villagers in a village in China have been displaced “in-place” as a result of new industrial activities within the area  (all specific details have been hidden within the publication, wherein the names of villager groups and the site of study itself is referenced only by coded letters). The scale of analysis primarily centers at the village level, though analysis of the case study itself extends towards the country level specifically when analysis of state actors are involved.