IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks :: Browsing by Author "Wilson, Jeffrey"

Browsing by Author "Wilson, Jeffrey"

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Analyzing Chlamydia and Gonorrhea Health Disparities from Health Information Systems: A Closer Examination Using Spatial Statistics and Geographical Information Systems
(2022-05) Lai, Patrick T. S.; Jones, Josette; Dixon, Brian E.; Wilson, Jeffrey; Wu, Huanmei; Shih, Patrick
The emergence and development of electronic health records have contributed to an abundance of patient data that can greatly be used and analyzed to promote health outcomes and even eliminate health disparities. However, challenges exist in the data received with factors such as data inconsistencies, accuracy issues, and unstructured formatting being evident. Furthermore, the current electronic health records and clinical information systems that are present do not contain the social determinants of health that may enhance our understanding of the characteristics and mechanisms of disease risk and transmission as well as health disparities research. Linkage to external population health databases to incorporate these social determinants of health is often necessary. This study provides an opportunity to identify and analyze health disparities using geographical information systems on two important sexually transmitted diseases in chlamydia and gonorrhea using Marion County, Indiana as the geographical location of interest. Population health data from the Social Assets and Vulnerabilities Indicators community information system and electronic health record data from the Indiana Network for Patient Care will be merged to measure the distribution and variability of greatest chlamydia and gonorrhea risk and to determine where the greatest areas of health disparities exist. A series of both statistical and spatial statistical methods such as a longitudinal measurement of health disparity through the Gini index, a hot-spot and cluster analysis, and a geographically weighted regression will be conducted in this study. The outcome and broader impact of this research will contribute to enhanced surveillance and increased effective strategies in identifying the level of health disparities for sexually transmitted diseases in vulnerable localities and high-risk communities. Additionally, the findings from this study will lead to improved standardization and accuracy in data collection to facilitate subsequent studies involving multiple disparate data sources. Finally, this study will likely introduce ideas for potential social determinants of health to be incorporated into electronic health records and clinical information systems.
Applications of geospatial analysis techniques for public health
(2016-05-02) Stanforth, Austin Curran; Filippelli, Gabriel; Johnson, Daniel P.; Wang, Lixin; Wilson, Jeffrey; Moreno-Madriñán, Max J.; Jacinthe, Pierre-André
Geospatial analysis is a generic term describing several technologies or methods of computational analysis using the Earth as a living laboratory. These methods can be implemented to assess risk and study preventative mitigation practices for Public Health. Through the incorporation Geographic Information Science and Remote Sensing tools, data collection can be conducted at a larger scale, more frequent, and less expensive that traditional in situ methods. These techniques can be extrapolated to be used to study a variety of topics. Application of these tools and techniques were demonstrated through Public Health research. Although it is understand resolution, or scale, of a research project can impact a study’s results; further research is needed to understand the extent of the result’s bias. Extreme heat vulnerability analysis was studied to validate previously identified socioeconomic and environmental variables influential for mitigation studies, and how the variability of resolution impacts the results of the methodology. Heat was also investigated for the implication of spatial and temporal resolution, or aggregation, influence on results. Methods studying the physical and socioeconomic environments of Dengue Fever outbreaks were also studied to identify patters of vector emergence.
From Hometown to Practice: Mapping and Analyzing the Medical Student Pipeline at the Indiana University School of Medicine
(2019-10) Fancher, Laurie Michelle; Wilson, Jeffrey; Kochhar, Komal; Lulla, Vijay
Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) teaches approximately 350 medical students each year. These students come from varied backgrounds and eventually end up practicing in a vast array of clinical specialties and settings. It is extremely important to monitor specialties and practice locations to understand exactly how IUSM is fulfilling physician workforce needs. This knowledge can help policymakers and school administrators shape programs and policies to better fulfill physician workforce needs. Geographic information technologies provide a framework to organize, analyze and visualize medical student data. Maps are a convenient and easily understandable method of conveying information with a location-based component. This project represents a step towards creating a coherent student database visualized with maps. Using data about the graduating classes from 2011-2018, a database was created that linked together geographic information of students from the various segments of their medical education such as residency, fellowship, and practice location. ArcGIS 10.5 was used to produce maps visualizing segments of this database. These maps also served to answer questions about the medical student graduates at IUSM, such as how many came from an in-state location and how many practice in-state. SPSS 25 was also used to compare results of various segments of the medical education pipeline. The database proves to be an incredibly necessary tool for keeping track of all IUSM graduates. Coherent, clean, and complete data is necessary for researchers at all levels as well as administrators. Keeping data up to date and centralized is essential and this project provides an easily updateable and useable format. The maps created from this database are also useful in showing trends across the graduates of IUSM, such as the Indiana counties that the graduates are most likely to practice in or the likelihood of practicing in specific shortage areas.
Onion Cultivation System and Spatial Distribution Centers in Tahoua Region/Niger
(2019-01) Mallam, Abass A.; Bein, Frederick L.; Lulla, Vijay; Banerjee, Rudy; Wilson, Jeffrey
Onion farming is the main irrigated crop that contributes to the economy of the Tahoua region, Niger. There are two factors that promote the outstanding potentialities of onion cultivation in Niger: the best productive variety “Violet Galmi”, and it is well adapted to storage. It is produced during both growing seasons which creates a permanent local supply of onions all year. Much of the producing areas are not accessible by road, which inhibits the marketing network. Farmers are in need of an improved transportation system in order to further develop onion production. The Violet of Galmi is grown by all the onion producers of Niger. This onion has a major importance in the socio-economic life of the Nigerien population. The consumers appreciate its cooking qualities and spicy taste. It also has a commercial advantage in the local and the sub-regional markets.
Quantifying the Biogeochemical Impact of Land Plant Expansion in the Mid Devonian and Implications in Marine Anoxic Events
(2022-12) Smart, Matthew Stephen; Filippelli, Gabriel; Gilhooly, William III; Barth, Andrew; Wilson, Jeffrey
The evolution of land plant root systems occurred stepwise throughout the Devonian, with the first evidence of complex root systems appearing in the mid-Givetian. This biological innovation provided an enhanced pathway for the transfer of terrestrial phosphorus (P) to the marine system via weathering and erosion. This enhancement is consistent with paleosol records and has led to hypotheses about the causes of marine eutrophication and mass extinctions during the Devonian. To gain insight into the transport of P between terrestrial and marine domains, presented here are geochemical records from a survey of Middle and Late Devonian lacustrine and near lacustrine sequences that span some of these key marine extinction intervals. Root innovation is hypothesized to have enhanced P delivery and results from multiple Devonian sequences from Euramerica show evidence of a net loss of P from terrestrial sources coincident with the appearance of early progymnosperms. Evidence from multiple Middle to Late Devonian sites (from Greenland and northern Scotland/Orkney), reveal a near-identical net loss of P. Nitrogen and Carbon isotopes from a subset of these lakes confirm elevated input of terrestrial plant material concurrent with P perturbations. Terrestrial P input appears to be episodic in nature, suggesting land plant expansion was driven by an external catalyst in the study region. All sites analyzed are temporally proximal to significant marine extinctions, including precise correlation with the Kačák extinction event and the two pulses associated with the Frasnian-Famennian (F/F) mass extinction. The episodic expansion of terrestrial plants appears to be tied to variations in regional and global climate, and in the case of the F/F extinction, also to atmospheric changes associated with large scale volcanism. Using P data presented here as an input into an Earth system model of the coupled C-N-P-O2-S biogeochemical cycles shows that globally scaled riverine phosphorus export during the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction generates widespread marine anoxia consistent with the geologic record. While timing precludes land plants as an initiating mechanism in the F/F extinction, these results suggest they are implicated in every marine extinction event in the Mid to Late Devonian.
Reconstructing Holocene Indian Summer Monsoon Variability Using High Resolution Sediments from the Southeastern Tibet
(2020-12) Perello, Melanie Marie; Bird, Broxton; Gilhooly, William; Filippelli, Gabriel; Wang, Lixin; Wilson, Jeffrey
The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) is the dominant hydrometeorological phenomenon that provides the majority of precipitation to southern Asia and southeastern Tibet specifically. Reliable projections of ISM rainfall are critical for water management and hinge on our understanding of the drivers of the monsoon system and how these drivers will be impacted by climate change. Because instrumental climate records are limited in space and time, natural climate archives are required to understand how the ISM varied in the past in response to changes in climatic boundary climate conditions. Lake sediments are high-resolution natural paleoclimate archive that are widely distributed across the Tibetan Plateau, making them useful for investigating long-term precipitation trends and their response to climatic boundary conditions. To investigate changes in monsoon intensity during the Holocene, three lakes were sampled along an east-west transect in southeastern Tibet: Galang Co, Nir’Pa Co, and Cuobu. Paleoclimate records from each lake were developed using isotopic (leaf wax hydrogen isotopes; δ2H), sedimentological, and geochemical proxies of precipitation and lake levels. Sediments were sampled at high temporal frequencies, with most proxies resolved at decadal scales, to capture multi-decadal to millennial-scale variability in monsoon intensity and local hydroclimate conditions. The ISM was strongest in the early Holocene as evidenced by leaf-wax n-alkane δ2H at both Cuobu and Galang Co corresponding with Cuobu’s higher lake levels and effective moisture. Monsoon intensity declined at Cuobu and Galang Co around 6 ka which corresponds to reduced riverine sediment influxes at Cuobu and deeper lake levels at Galang Co. The antiphase relationship between lake levels and monsoon intensity at Galang Co is attributed to air temperatures and effective moisture, with a warmer and drier local hydroclimate driving early Holocene low lake levels. The late Holocene ISM was more variable with wet and dry periods, as seen in the Nir’Pa Co lake level and leaf wax n-alkane δ2H record. These records demonstrate coherent drivers of synoptic and local hydroclimate that account for Holocene ISM expression across the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, indicating possible drivers of future monsoon expression under climate change.
Ryan White: A Geospatial Analysis of his Correspondence
(2020-05) Shaeffer, Haley Lynn; Johnson, Daniel; Wilson, Jeffrey; Lulla, Vijay
The letters Ryan White received over the course of his diagnosis, illness, and eventual death show a spatial distribution that reflected the United States’ response to Ryan’s condition. Ryan was diagnosed with AIDS in December of 1984 at the height of the epidemic, and the panic that surrounded it. In 2000, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis accessioned a selection of letters sent to Ryan White and his mother, from 1980 to 1993. The expanded incorporation of these letters into the museum’s “Power of Children” gallery will introduce museum visitors to the public view on Ryan and the role he played in developing the public perception and awareness of AIDS in the 1980’s. Originally, it was anticipated that the distribution and number of letters Ryan received directly related to the concentration and spread of AIDS cases around the US. This research assumed that the AIDS community would have been more supportive and empathetic of Ryan’s diagnosis, resulting in those populations sending a higher number of letters. This assumption was also informed by the fact that the highest number of AIDS cases were in areas with large populations such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. Yet findings showed relatively few letters were coming from the populated coasts where AIDS was more prevalent, and many more letters than expected came from areas with lower populations across the US. Ryan was one of the first children to go public with his AIDS diagnosis, which sparked strong reactions among people throughout the United States. Ryan’s correspondence and the outpouring of support he received allows insight into the multifaceted reaction to the AIDS crisis, especially from young people. Before Ryan became associated with the AIDS epidemic, this disease was seen primarily as an urban, gay, and drug-user related issue. The goal of this research is to gain further understanding of society’s shifting response to Ryan and AIDS during the 1980’s, by placing these letters in their social and geographic context.
A Stable Isotope Approach to Investigative Ecohydrological Processes in Namibia
(2018-12) Kaseke, Kudzai Farai; Wang, Lixin; Jacinthe, Pierre Andre; Gilhooly, William P.; Wilson, Jeffrey; Soderberg, Keir
Drylands cover 40% of the earth’s terrestrial surface supporting over 2 billion people, the majority of whom reside in developing nations characterised by high population growth rates. This imposes pressure on the already limited water resources and in some dryland regions such as southern Africa, the origins and dynamics of rainfall are not well understood. Research has also tended to focus on factors limiting (e.g., rainfall) than sustaining productivity in drylands. However, non-rainfall water (NRW) e.g., fog and dew can supplement and/or exceed rainfall in these environments and could potentially be exploited as potable water resources. Much remains unknown in terms of NRW formation mechanisms, origins, evolution, potability and potential impact of global climate change on these NRW dependent ecosystems. Using Namibia as a proxy for drylands and developing nations, this dissertation applies stable isotopes of water (δ2H, δ18O, δ17O and d-excess), cokriging and trajectory analysis methods to understand ecohydrological processes. Results suggest that locally generated NRW may be a regular occurrence even in coastal areas such as the Namib Desert, and that what may appear as a single fog event may consist of different fog types co-occurring. These results are important because NRW responses to global climate change is dependent on the source, groundwater vs. ocean, and being able to distinguish the two will allow for more accurate modelling. I also demonstrate, that fog and dew formation are controlled by different fractionation processes, paving the way for plant water use strategy studies and modelling responses to global climate change. The study also suggests that current NRW harvesting technologies could be improved and that the potability of this water could raise some public health concerns related to trace metal and biological contamination. At the same time, the dissertation concludes that global precipitation isoscapes do not capture local isotope variations in Namibia, suggesting caution when applied to drylands and developing nations. Finally, the dissertation also reports for the first time, δ17O precipitation results for Namibia, novel isotope methods to differentiate synoptic from local droughts and suggests non-negligible moisture contributions from the Atlantic Ocean due to a possible sub-tropical Atlantic Ocean dipole.
Understanding the Role of Social Infrastructure for Older Adult Engagement Across Geographic Contexts
(Oxford University Press, 2022-12-20) Latham-Mintus, Kenzie; Montgomery, Lucas; Wilson, Jeffrey; Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
Using semi-structured interviews of older adults, living alone or with a partner in the community, this research explores themes related to aging in place, social infrastructure, and community engagement across geographic contexts in Indiana. In particular, we are interested in understanding how older adults experience and use the existing social infrastructure in their communities and how these experiences vary across the rural-suburban-urban continuum. Additionally, we examine how social interactions supported by social infrastructure influence the maintenance of social relationships including weak social ties. Because COVID-19 has significantly changed patterns of community engagement among older adults, respondents were asked to discuss their behavior pre- and post-COVID-19. Applying a thematic analysis approach to the data, we explore the interconnections among social infrastructure, community engagement, social relationships, and geographic settings with an emphasis on older adults’ experiences and perceptions.

Browsing by Author "Wilson, Jeffrey"

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