Gaia Desert

Metrics for our questions about homeless

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 21:03:00 +0000

California Department of Public Health Recommended Initial Metrics:

R0: 2-3 (unmitigated) or 0.9-1.5 (mitigated)
Infection fatality ratio: 0.5-1.5%
Hospitalization rate: 5-20%
Doubling time before social distancing: 6-7 days
Current hospitalized patients: county to determine
Social distancing - % reduction: 30%-70%
ICU percent: 1-5%
Ventilated percent: 1-5%
Hospital (non-ICU) length of stay: 7 days
ICU length of stay (in addition to non-ICU length of stay): 9 days
Length of time on a ventilator if intubated: 10 days
Hospital market share: county to determine
Regional population: county to determine
Currently known regional infections: county to determine

Our metrics for the SBD model for homeless

Assumptions:

5760 estimate population
>211 days: We have no intervention for SBD county homeless.
Ro=Rt : 2.20
5% Case fatality rate for homeless increases by a factor of 5 because of their co-morbidities and stressful living situation. It could be up to 50% due to this publication:
23.6% Hospitalization rates: 9/38 (23.6%);ICU rates 5/38 (13.2%); deaths 1/38 (2.6%)
15 days: Average length of stay: No current data on SB, 10-20 day hospitalization average 17.
8 days: Duration patient is infectious, I brought this up to 8 from the 2.9 default value to reflect the homeless lifestyle.

Beds in Clinics in SBD

https://data.chhs.ca.gov/dataset/healthcare-facility-bed-types-and-counts

CHHS Open Data portal:

https://data.chhs.ca.gov/

Model by PENN for homeless:

https://works.bepress.com/dennis_culhane/237/

Supporting research for the above model: http://predictivehealthcare.pennmedicine.org/2020/03/18/compare-chime.html

Imperial College Model:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf

R Shiny model:

https://alhill.shinyapps.io/COVID19seir/

IHME
https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

How to build a RECON model for COVID-19

https://rviews.rstudio.com/2020/03/05/covid-19-epidemiology-with-r/

Olivia Rodriguez

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 16:23:00 +0000

https://publichealth.llu.edu/about/blog/olivia-rodriguez%E2%80%99-fearless-campaign-help-farm-workers-coachella-valley

North Shore california

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 07:39:00 +0000

Here is a satellite time-lapse view of NorthShore California. This shows the community expanding over time. You can also see the Salton Sea shoreline increasing.

Deforestation happening in Cambodia.

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 07:31:00 +0000

The deforestation that is happening in Cambodia. This happened in 2015. Reportedly sold as an agricultural concession in 2015. This represents the demise of a once wildlife sanctuary.

Good bye Boeng Peae.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/89413/cambodias-forests-are-disappearing

The ERMI

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 19:48:00 +0000

https://news.llu.edu/research/researchers-find-mold-contamination-eastern-coachella-valley

The Receding Salton Sea and Dust

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 22:26:00 +0000

The Effect of a Receding Saline Lake (The Salton Sea) on Airborne Particulate Matter Composition: The Effect of a Receding Saline Lake (The Salton Sea) on Airborne Particulate Matter Composition

The Effect of a Receding Saline Lake (The Salton Sea) on Airborne Particulate Matter Composition

Alexander L. Frie†, Justin H. Dingle‡, Samantha C. Ying†‡ , and Roya Bahreini*†‡

† Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States

‡ Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States

Access to sanitation for the 2015 MDGs

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 19:30:00 +0000

Here is a map of Gap-minder for Sanitation and total Population over time. When you click the play button, you see that most countries will "play", you see that most countries will rise up and to the right. The two biggest being India and China. There is one larger county that trends down and to the right. This indicates that as the population increases, the access to sanitation decreases.

Available here on its own: http://bit.ly/2Jnk3Vx

The Salton Sea is shrinking 2.

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 00:32:00 +0000

Here is a new ability of the Google Earth engine. This answers some questions about the Salton Sea that I have had:

The map at the Owens Valley lake is interesting. This shows the red algae during the 1980s and 1990s during the dust storm days. Towards the 2000s you can see the dust mitigation coming in. Imagine having to breath in all of that red algae dust during those 25mph wind storms.

https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse/#v=36.47757,-117.90357,9.96,latLng&t=2.35

The Salton Sea is Shrinking

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Tue, 22 May 2018 18:00:00 +0000

The Salton Sea is shrinking. "There are still insects", birds and fish! Here is a link to a piece by KMIR in the Desert. Its a bit of a Shill because I'm in the piece, and I'm promoting it, but I do think it is important and mostly accurate.

https://kmir.com/2018/05/14/low-tide-the-salton-sea-crisis-health-impact/

Grocery bags?

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Tue, 22 May 2018 17:54:00 +0000

This is a new article that just came out in the Journal of Environmental Health. The main finding is that shoppers should wash their hands after they visit the supermarket.

Nuisance code is criminalized in the ECV

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 01:43:00 +0000

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/14/585122825/some-california-cities-criminalize-nuisance-code-violations

Future Public Health Students!

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 00:18:00 +0000

Here are some future public health students! They are public health in topic and hopefully their careers head in that direction. The title of their poster is:

EFFECTIVENESS OF VARIOUS NANOMATERIALS IN PREVENTION OF BACTERIAL GROWTH IN PEDIATRIC MYRINGOTOMY TUBES.

This is a picture of the students during their poster presentation at the 2017 LLU poster forum for the Summer Internship programs with the LLU Center for Health Disparities. From left to right there is Natalie Wolske, Brittney Springer, and Adam Bennani. Congratulations!

Students at the MWD!

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 01:48:00 +0000

Two of my students were interviewed by Matt Blashaw, the host of DIY network’s Yard Crashers.

The 2 minute video featuring some of our LLU students:

https://youtu.be/ibBQdBkB12g?t=37s

They were funded here:
http://www.mwdh2o.com/inthecommunity/education-programs/Pages/World-Water-Forum.aspx

Thomas Hile was interviewed about his project that investigates microbial contamination in water purifiers.

Rose Mutiso was interviewed about her project poster that discussed using recycled urban runoff.

Click on the link above to see their project proposals.

Congratulations to both Students!

My WASHSPOT assignment

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 22:15:00 +0000

1. Go explore the crowdsourcing website for previous washspots identified around San Bernardino. The site was built by previous ENVH 509 students for the San Bernardino area and is available here: washspot.crowdmap.com. Try to get an idea of previous entries and what these types of entries typically are.

2. Travel to San Bernardino or around your local community and find two potential sites where homeless can access sanitation. You can also post sites where toilets were not used, but I suggest finding the improved sanitation sites. The sites should meet the following criteria:

The site is not reported on by previous participants of washspot.crowdmap.com in the same way. You should not simply repeat an earlier entry; instead, you can validate the entry or update a change.
The site can be geotagged and photographed. Look at the previous entries for ideas of what to add. Remember that not all previous entries are good entries.
The site is accessible to the public without discrimination. If you can’t find the “ideal toilet” or the “perfect public toilet”, please photograph the toilet site and list what the limitations are in the comment section.
Please photograph the toilet first, then add any other relevant site information.

3. Use your own smart phone to take photos that are geo-tagged with a location. If you don't have a smart phone, try to borrow it from a friend or family member. You may have to go into your smart phone and somehow configure the location services. You have to do that so that your smart phone will give your photos a location when you take the picture. If you can't find a smart phone, you can use a normal digital camera to take the photo and then write down the address of the location of the photo.

4. Upload your phone's photo files to your computer. It may be helpful to check that the photos have a location in their properties. You can do this by right clicking on your photos after you upload them to a computer.

Alternatively, you could download the USHAHIDI app for Android (Links to an external site.), Apple or Windows Phones. I haven't been able to find a recent app for Apple or Windows phones. The apps move slowly and it is sometimes better to simply use your phone to take the photo and then go home to upload the photo to the right location. I linked my 2012 blog entry that might help you load this on your phone. (Links to an external site.)

5. Make your entries on washspot.crowdmap.com. Click "submit a report">>Type a descriptive title in the "Report Title">>Type a description in the next textbox>>Choose a category>>Modify the date/time if necessary>>Move the red marker to the site where the contamination occurred. For this assignment, I need to verify who uploaded the entries. Please put the initial of your last name with the full first name (e.g. First Name = "Ryan", Last Name="S" >>Upload your photo of the toilet (you may need to make your file size much smaller before you upload the photo) >>>Click SUBMIT. You will not see your entry on the website until I validate it as an entry from a real person in the class.

6. Submit 2 entries from around San Bernardino or the Inland Empire. If you don't live in Southern California, please perform this task for your own local area. If you live here, but are on "vacation" or a work trip, please do the activity locally and not in a destination that you are not familiar with.

Tips for Success:

· Make sure your phone’s GPS is turned on. In many phones you will have to “enable location services”. Take some test photographs and see if they give correct map information.

· Do not travel to unfamiliar neighborhoods after 5:00 PM. Try to do your washspot in the late morning when the “night owls” are still sleeping.

· Take pictures, but try very hard not to photograph people. If you have to photograph people, please ask their permission first and don’t submit any pictures revealing an individual’s face.

· Your pictures should be descriptive in composition. Photos should show the toilet and any access issues that could affect its use.

· Go to places where you know there may be an active homeless population that needs a public toilet. Some suggested locations are in downtown urban areas, freeways bridges, washes. Why is there many homeless congregating behind the Walmart in Redlands? Please don’t attempt a transect walk through informal homeless camps; instead, look for the adjacent sanitation services that may serve them.

Regime Change for Humanitarian Aid

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 16:47:00 +0000

How to make the humanitarian system more accountable
ow.ly/QhJPk

More of this discussion about the role of NGOs in the US Global Health Response:
http://kff.org/global-health-policy/issue-brief/data-note-role-of-ngos-u-s-global-health-response/

Sand Filter Update

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 18:18:00 +0000

Our Environmental Sampling class students setup the bucket sand filters to evaluate these simple low cost solutions for water filtration. This is a model filter that can be completely built from items supplied from a big box hardware store like Home Depot or Lowe's. A previous blog details this.

http://gaiadesert.blogspot.com/2015/05/simple-sand-filter-construction.html

I've made some videos detailing the setup and construction process.
Video 1

Overall setup.

Bottom has a perforated 1/2" pvc pipe with an elbow up to top
bottom 2 inces has 3/4" gravel
above that is 2 inches of 1/4" gravel
10" above that is 0.3mm sand

Type of sand to use: We sourced our sand and gravel from sepulveda building materials on Waterman street in San Bernardino. The staff there are helpful in selecting the correct grain size of sand and gravel. .

Videos to detail the actual experiments will come in a later vlog / blog.

Trip to GWRS

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Thu, 14 May 2015 02:52:00 +0000

I brought the ENVH 569 students to the Ground Water Replenishment System GWRS in Orange County. Its an impressive facility and would have turned me into a full fledged Civil Engineer if I was any younger. It is refreshing to visit such an advanced approach to our drought in California.

The lab was also impressive. Those folks are progressive with their approach to testing all potential contaminants. The lab was designed with tours in mind and we could easily peer into windows with the lab techs hard at work.

Everything is setup with tours in mind.

We were all invited to taste the final product. Most students had the overwhelmingly surprising response: "It tastes like water".

It is a clean facility that is designed for visitors to nose around on tours.

Our requisite blue helmet shot!

Simple sand filter construction

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Mon, 11 May 2015 20:43:00 +0000

My water quality students in ENVH 568 built these sand filters for a class requirement. They are now up and running in the LLU Environmental Microbiology Research Laboratory. We will use them for some class activities in the ENVH 569 sampling class.

We started with a design and then a trip to the hardware store

We dry-fit the pieces together in the hardware store. This is where the students realized that there are many possible combinations.

Students discovered that there were a few possible combinations of diffuser pipes and spout exit styles. Our class built five filters with varying construction.

All filters had about 2 inches of 3/4" gravel around the pipes with another 2 inches of pea gravel on top of that (1/4" gravel). Those were separated by a cloth to minimize sand going into the gravel and then the bottom diffuser pipe.

Sand was added on top of that until it was about 2" below the spout. Our filters tested varying heights.

There were 5 filters built and are now hooked up to a recirculating water system. They will be tested for arsenic and E.coli removal in our ENVH 569 class.

UAV to deliver aid in Syria

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 04:50:00 +0000

This group uses the same UAV airframe that I bought a year ago from Johnny at team legit.
Its being used for a good use to bring aid into Syria. The BBC video is worth a watch. The group has a non profit called the Syria Airlift Project.

My current project Talon fixed wing has a Pixhawk flight controller, a downward facing Canon sx260, and wing extensions. I'm still deciding if I want to run a large 4s or 3s battery.

The 3D printer in a lab.

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 18:59:00 +0000

Dr. Steve Kurti's TTinvent allowed our lab to borrow his Afinia 3D printer for 2 months. In that time, we printed many useful things for the lab and the ideas keep coming!

Here are a few of the successful prints we made:

Links on Thingiverse:
A clamp for the microscope
A centrifuge tube holder
Pipette rack
Octopus

A clamp to turn a 1967 microscope into a digital microscope!

A centrifuge tube holder!

Finally! A cuvette holder for that old HACH spectrophotometer.

Many pipette holders.

Octopus Surprise Attack!

Global Site for IWRM: Integrated Water Resources Management

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 18:23:00 +0000

The Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWMP) of the Coachella Valley was a complicated process. A single water user would have a hard time jumping in and making sense of it all. There are resources for Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) to use, but most people would require advocates or a third party to interpret all of the "IRWMPese". How can this process be simplified to truly advocate with the DACs?

The IRWMP process offered me a glimpse of the vast landscape we created for our unique drinking water delivery system and wastewater management system in California. The website for the Coachella Valley IRWMP says it all. There are a huge amount of drafts, presentations, participant lists, budgets and maps. Keep in mind that this is for only the Coachella Valley region ( about 5 water districts).

My experience with the IRWMP was summarized in a report on their website: That report is referred to as an appendix and is on page 127 of that appendix PDF. Our report and work contributed to more of the reports in the DAC section. Our work with the "Non-Profits" El Sol and Pueblo Unido is described in that DAC section. Those non-profits are the key to any single water user's understanding of the process and should be the first resource.

The California IRWMP process is large and unnecessarily complicated for the smallest of communities. California isn't alone in the IRWMP tedium. It's a public process that has evolved over time and is internationally known. The World Bank and WHO have sites on it and there is now a global movement to better understand and advocate for the disadvantaged. The Global Water Partnership has a great optimistic definition of the process:

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems.

What we experienced in the Coachella Valley is no different from what goes on internationally. The GWP is a good resource to gain external perspective on our own internal processes. They have a road map of sorts and help us understand this necessary .....process.

Glasses

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 22:31:00 +0000

3D printed glasses from thing 22128. I modded them to say "Career Services"

Prezi on Community Mapping

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 20:11:00 +0000

Here is a link to a prezi that we gave on Community Mapping.
https://prezi.com/pytswfb6py8w/untitled-prezi/

Sanitation

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 20:24:00 +0000

A UN special envoy visited the United States in February 2011. Catarina de Albequerque made several recommendations about access to water and sanitation as a human right. The UN report has many striking paragraphs and sections; typical phrases and descriptions for the developing world, not so typical for our California home.

As usual, the human right to water was the most popular theme. It went to Sacramento and in 2012 was passed as Assembly Bill 685 guaranteeing the human right to water. That was a successful bill,inspired by Dr. Albequerque's visit and a political movement of water access folks.

Despite all the energy around drinking water, there wasn't much ground gained for the human right to sanitation. There are still many California residents who do NOT have access to functioning sanitation. The UN report recommends placing the human rights to water and sanitation equally at the center of policy formulation.

As topics go, water is always more popular than sanitation. The UNMD goal for water is met for most nations while many have not met the sanitation goal. I saw this popularity first hand in the Haiti disaster response where most first responding NGOs focused on water while leaving millions without any place to deposit their feces. Clean water advocates need to keep this trend in mind. Drinking water is important, but drinking water is also contaminated by feces. Sanitation should be addressed before water disinfection.

My reason for writing this note is to focus on one important quote from the UN report:

"In the United States, it is often the poorest and the most marginalized groups that lack access to sanitation. Without proper sanitation, human excreta contaminate drinking water sources, with severe public health implications."

This is true for the Eastern Coachella Valley, some parts of the Western Coachella Valley and other areas with wastewater infrastructure built to accommodate temporary homes and not the multi-family living quarters that use the infrastructure.

http://sacloaves.org/un

This is also true for the homeless of urban California. Tim in Sacramento calls himself the "Sanitation Technician". He maintains rudimentary latrines for homeless people and says that he is motivated by the women. He hauls the sewage himself with his bicycle. I expect a similar situation is here in Loma Linda and San Bernardino. We have a homeless population close to what exists in Sacramento. I wonder if anyone is doing what Tim does.

Balloon Mapping workshop on Loma Linda Campus

noreply@blogger.com (ryangaia) — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 17:22:00 +0000

We had five people participate in the first balloon mapping workshop on Loma Linda Campus. Many people asked "what are you doing?". Nobody seemed to threatened by the process. One major strength that Balloon Mapping has over Aerial Mapping with a quadcopter/RC plane is that balloon mapping is participatory. Everyone has a role in these community mapping workshops. There is a line to hold, a route to scout, photos to take or the public relations required for the many questions. Aerial mapping with an RC powered device is less participatory as much of the technology is considered to be "hands off".

The camera was set for shooting a photo every two seconds for a good 30 minutes. We used a canon 260sx with the KAPUAV lua loaded in the CHDK software. I then used Microsoft ICE to throw a few pictures together. Here is a stitched photo of the LLU Globe (click the photo to zoom in). More will come later.