Thursday, March 30, 2017

GTography: Living and Study Spots Relative to Campus


This map displays the various location of apartments in Georgetown with a star rating of 3.0 or above that are within reasonable vicinity of campus. This map, using these apartments, can also provide the subsidiary purpose of showing places that students could investigate in terms of deciding where to live due to their close proximity. Additionally, this map also has a few locations that can provide a study location for students in between class who do not wish to commute from their place of residence to school and back constantly each class day. Using this map, students can have a visual that can help them with present day activities as well as future decisions.

GTography: Locations in Georgetown for Casual Drinking




This map displays the locations of all the places that have an open bar in Georgetown relative to the location of Southwestern. Georgetown is not a young demographic so there is an extremely limited amount of activities for young adults. Majority of the activities are in Round Rock or Austin, but this map hopes to serve the purpose of providing the locations for restaurants and places with bars that could provide a night of casual drinking and excitement for a young audience.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Climate Change and Vector-Borne Diseases Among Canines

In this article, the relationship between climate change and vector-borne diseases are examined. The vector-borne diseases Dirofliaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens are tracked over 15 years in Europe. The purpose of this article is to understand if climate change affects the number of infections among canines.
Climate change is proven to affect animals and people alike in various ways. For example, climate change results in physiologic stress, or injury.  Global climate change has also led to the increase of vector-borne diseases that are a result of haematophagous antropods, which are cold-blooded insects that feed on the blood of animals. The prominence of vector-borne diseases are closely related to climate change because of the fact that they are cold-blooded animals and thrive best in warmer temperatures.   
Dirofilaria is a vector-borne disease that is mainly present in dogs in Europe. Dirofilaria immitits occurs in the pulmonary arteries and right heart chambers and causes heartworm diseases in dogs. Dirofilaria repens mainly occurs in sucotaneous tissue, or under the skin. The hosts and vectors of Dirofilaria are mosquitoes of the Culicidae family. Dirofliaria is present above 14 degrees Celsius which is in the warmer temperatures of summer and predominantly in July, however, temperatures are rising year-round.

Linear Kriging fuction of a Geographical Information System was used to ttrack the amount of Drofilaria generations. The daily temperature was measured over 15 years to conduct the study. The study demonstrated that outbreaks of Dirofliaria peaked in the Summer, between June and September. July also had the highest temperatures that were suitable for Diorfilaria. The increase of climate change may also lead to the spread of vector-borne diseases to from Mediterranean countries toward northern and eastern ones.



 In this article, the relationship between climate change and vector-borne diseases are examined. The vector-borne diseases Dirofliaria immitis and Dirofilaria repens are tracked over 15 years in Europe. The purpose of this article is to understand if climate change affects the number of infections among canines.
Climate change is proven to affect animals and people alike in various ways. For example, climate change results in physiologic stress, or injury.  Global climate change has also led to the increase of vector-borne diseases that are a result of haematophagous antropods, which are cold-blooded insects that feed on the blood of animals. The prominence of vector-borne diseases are closely related to climate change because of the fact that they are cold-blooded animals and thrive best in warmer temperatures.   
Dirofilaria is a vector-borne disease that is mainly present in dogs in Europe. Dirofilaria immitits occurs in the pulmonary arteries and right heart chambers and causes heartworm diseases in dogs. Dirofilaria repens mainly occurs in sucotaneous tissue, or under the skin. The hosts and vectors of Dirofilaria are mosquitoes of the Culicidae family. Dirofliaria is present above 14 degrees Celsius which is in the warmer temperatures of summer and predominantly in July, however, temperatures are rising year-round.


Linear Kriging fuction of a Geographical Information System was used to ttrack the amount of Drofilaria generations. The daily temperature was measured over 15 years to conduct the study. The study demonstrated that outbreaks of Dirofliaria peaked in the Summer, between June and September. July also had the highest temperatures that were suitable for Diorfilaria. The increase of climate change may also lead to the spread of vector-borne diseases to from Mediterranean countries toward northern and eastern ones.





Spatial identification of potential health hazards: a systematic areal search approach


The authors of this study wanted to assess air pollution health hazards that lead to death, studying a specific location in Israel. The authors explained that because there are so many types of pollutants it is difficult to isolate and determine which pollutants are specifically causing harm. 

This study was trying to determine which pollutants were causing high morbidity in the area shown below. 


These images identify locations with high morbidity rates due to Lung (a,c) and non-Hodgkin Lymphoma cancers. Factors such as location in relation to roads and factories, as well as the wind and other meteorological conditions were considered.

The goal of this study was to provide a method which researchers could use to help determine the cause of high morbidity rates around the world. The formulas and methods used can be fairly easily applied to other circumstances and allow for this research to be used again in other locations. Additionally, this GIS model could be used to possibly predict causes of death and morbidity before they become serious issues.

Svechkina, Alina, Marina Zusman, Natalya Rybnikova, and Boris A. Portnov. "Spatial Identification of Potential Health Hazards: A Systematic Areal Search Approach."International Journal of Health Geographics. BioMed Central, 07 Feb. 2017. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.