Infection source can determine cost-effective public health interventions. To quantify risk of acquiring Toxoplasma gondii from environmental sources versus from meat, we examined serum from pregnant women in Chile. Because 43% had oocyst-specific antibodies, we conclude that contaminated meat remains the primary source of infection but that environmental sources also pose substantial risk.

INTRODUCTION Investigators in South Carolina and Alabama assessed the availability of data for measuring 31 policy and environmental indicators for heart disease and stroke prevention. The indicators were intended to determine policy and environmental support for adopting heart disease and stroke prevention guidelines and selected risk factors in 4 settings: community, school, work site, and he...

We linked risk estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) to racial and socioeconomic characteristics of census tracts in Maryland (2000 Census) to evaluate disparities in estimated cancer risk from exposure to air toxics by emission source category. In Maryland, the average estimated cancer risk across census tracts was highest from on-road ...

Activity monitoring has received increasing attention due to the strong environmental and public health needs as well as the rapid advances in both hardware and software technologies. In this paper, we review a number of such activity monitoring scenarios and describe the architecture and implementation of the Epi-SPIRE prototype, which is a novel health activity monitoring system that generate...

Studies on Legionella show a continuum from environment to human disease. Legionellosis is caused by Legionella species acquired from environmental sources, principally water sources such as cooling towers, where Legionella grows intracellularly in protozoa within biofilms. Aquatic biofilms, which are widespread not only in nature, but also in medical and dental devices, are ecological niches i...

Environmental safety in multi-district boundary regions has been one of the focuses in China and is mentioned many times in the Environmental Protection Act of 2014. Five types were categorized concerning the risk sources for surface water pollution in the multi-provincial boundary region of the Taihu basin: production enterprises, waste disposal sites, chemical storage sites, agricultural non-...

Environmental concerns dominate the world scene in the XXI century. The petroleum and its derivatives are a major contributor to the non-renewable sources of energy. However, there are forecasts that in a time near the main sources of petroleum may exhaust. Thus, the search for alternative sources of energy, beside environmental necessity is essential to ensure the well being of all. The minera...

In recent decades, due to increasing prices of fossil fuels and environmental pollution resulting from the increased energy demand, researches on renewable energy sources have attracted lots of researcher’s attention. Limited investing sources and environmental issues are important factors effecting electricity generation sector. Minimizing costs and environmental damages are issues being consi...

Environmental sciences studies deal with a large amount of heterogeneous data sources. In each application or scientific study there is a need for a set of tools to manage the data, from the capture, processing to data storage. In particular, in environmental applications there is a need to combine distinct kinds of sensor data from those aboard satellites to those in ground networks. While the...