scholarly journals Prospective Spatial-Temporal Clusters of COVID-19 in Local Communities: Case Study of Kansas City, Missouri, United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadeel AlQadi

Just in the United States (U.S.), the COVID-19 cases reached over 37 million as of August 2021. Kansas City in Missouri State has become one of the major U.S. hot spots for COVID-19 due to an increase in the rate of positive COVID-19 test results. Despite the large numbers of COVID-19 cases in Kansas City, the Spatio-temporal analysis of data has been less investigated. In this study, we conducted a prospective Poisson spatial-temporal analysis of Kansas City, MO, COVID-19 data at the zip code level. The analysis focused on daily COVID-19 cases in four equal periods of three months. We detected temporal patterns of emerging and reemerging space-time clusters between March 2020 and February 202. The statistical results were communicated with local health officials and provided the necessary guidance for decision-making and the allocation of resources.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant E. Rosensteel ◽  
Elizabeth C. Lee ◽  
Vittoria Colizza ◽  
Shweta Bansal

AbstractThe prediction, prevention, and management of infectious diseases in the United States is either geographically homogeneous or is coordinated through ad-hoc administrative regions, ignoring the intense spatio-temporal heterogeneity displayed by most outbreaks. Using influenza as a case study, we characterize a regionalization of the United States. Based on influenza time series constructed from fine-scale insurance claims data from 2002-2009, we apply a complex network approach to characterize regions of the U.S. which experience comparable influenza dynamics. Our results identify three to five epidemiologically distinct regions for each flu season, with all locations within each region experiencing synchronous epidemics, and with an average of a two week delay in peak timing between regions. We find that there is significant heterogeneity across seasons in the identity of the regions and the relative timing across regions, making predictability from one season to the next challenging. Within a given season, however, our approach shows the potential to inform on the shaping of regions over time, to improve resources mobilization and targeted communication. Our epidemiologically-driven regionalization approach could allow for disease monitoring and control based on epidemiological risk rather than geopolitical boundaries, and provides a tractable public health approach to account for vast heterogeneity that exists in respiratory disease dynamics.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhijuan Song ◽  
Xiaocan Jia ◽  
Junzhe Bao ◽  
Yongli Yang ◽  
Huili Zhu ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction: About 8% of Americans get influenza during an average season from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. It is necessary to strengthen the early warning of influenza and the prediction of public health. Methods In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of Influenza-like Illness (ILI) by Geographic Information System and SARIMA model, respectively. Spatio-temporal cluster analysis detected 23 clusters of ILI during the study period. Results The highest incidence of ILI was mainly concentrated in the states of Louisiana, District of Columbia and Virginia. The Local spatial autocorrelation analysis revealed the High-High cluster was mainly located in Louisiana and Mississippi. This means that if the influenza incidence is high in Louisiana and Mississippi, the neighboring states will also have higher influenza incidence rates. The regression model SARIMA(1, 0, 0)(1, 1, 0)52 with statistical significance was obtained to forecast the ILI incidence of Mississippi. Conclusions The study showed, the ILI incidence will begin to increase in the 45th week 2020 and peak in the 6th week 2021. To conclude, notable epidemiological differences were observed across states, indicating that some states should pay more attention to prevent and control respiratory infectious diseases.


Author(s):  
Francesco Vincenzo Surano ◽  
Maurizio Porfiri ◽  
Alessandro Rizzo

AbstractContainment measures have been applied throughout the world to halt the COVID-19 pandemic. In the United States, several forms of lockdown have been adopted in different parts of the country, leading to heterogeneous epidemiological, social, and economic effects. Here, we present a spatio-temporal analysis of a Twitter dataset comprising 1.3 million geo-localized Tweets about lockdown, from January to May 2020. Through sentiment analysis, we classified Tweets as expressing positive or negative emotions about lockdown, demonstrating a change in perception during the course of the pandemic modulated by socio-economic factors. A transfer entropy analysis of the time series of Tweets unveiled that the emotions in different parts of the country did not evolve independently. Rather, they were mediated by spatial interactions, which were also related to socio-ecomomic factors and, arguably, to political orientations. This study constitutes a first, necessary step toward isolating the mechanisms underlying the acceptance of public health interventions from highly resolved online datasets.


Author(s):  
Zhijuan Song ◽  
Xiaocan Jia ◽  
Junzhe Bao ◽  
Yongli Yang ◽  
Huili Zhu ◽  
...  

About 8% of the Americans contract influenza during an average season according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. It is necessary to strengthen the early warning for influenza and the prediction of public health. In this study, Spatial autocorrelation analysis and spatial scanning analysis were used to identify the spatiotemporal patterns of influenza-like illness (ILI) prevalence in the United States, during the 2011–2020 transmission seasons. A seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) model was constructed to predict the influenza incidence of high-risk states. We found the highest incidence of ILI was mainly concentrated in the states of Louisiana, District of Columbia and Virginia. Mississippi was a high-risk state with a higher influenza incidence, and exhibited a high-high cluster with neighboring states. A SARIMA (1, 0, 0) (1, 1, 0)52 model was suitable for forecasting the ILI incidence of Mississippi. The relative errors between actual values and predicted values indicated that the predicted values matched the actual values well. Influenza is still an important health problem in the United States. The spread of ILI varies by season and geographical region. The peak season of influenza was the winter and spring, and the states with higher influenza rates are concentrated in the southeast. Increased surveillance in high-risk states could help control the spread of the influenza.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Scheibelhofer

This paper focuses on gendered mobilities of highly skilled researchers working abroad. It is based on an empirical qualitative study that explored the mobility aspirations of Austrian scientists who were working in the United States at the time they were interviewed. Supported by a case study, the paper demonstrates how a qualitative research strategy including graphic drawings sketched by the interviewed persons can help us gain a better understanding of the gendered importance of social relations for the future mobility aspirations of scientists working abroad.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-183
Author(s):  
Paul Taylor

John Rae, a Scottish antiquarian collector and spirit merchant, played a highly prominent role in the local natural history societies and exhibitions of nineteenth-century Aberdeen. While he modestly described his collection of archaeological lithics and other artefacts, principally drawn from Aberdeenshire but including some items from as far afield as the United States, as a mere ‘routh o’ auld nick-nackets' (abundance of old knick-knacks), a contemporary singled it out as ‘the best known in private hands' (Daily Free Press 4/5/91). After Rae's death, Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland, the University of Aberdeen Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, as well as numerous individual private collectors, purchased items from the collection. Making use of historical and archive materials to explore the individual biography of Rae and his collection, this article examines how Rae's collecting and other antiquarian activities represent and mirror wider developments in both the ‘amateur’ antiquarianism carried out by Rae and his fellow collectors for reasons of self-improvement and moral education, and the ‘professional’ antiquarianism of the museums which purchased his artefacts. Considered in its wider nineteenth-century context, this is a representative case study of the early development of archaeology in the wider intellectual, scientific and social context of the era.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document