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View article: Unravelling a black box: an open-source methodology for the field calibration of small air quality sensors
Unravelling a black box: an open-source methodology for the field calibration of small air quality sensors Open
The last 2 decades have seen substantial technological advances in the development of low-cost air pollution instruments using small sensors. While their use continues to spread across the field of atmospheric chemistry, the air quality mo…
View article: Is There a Temporal Relationship between COVID-19 Infections among Prison Staff, Incarcerated Persons and the Larger Community in the United States?
Is There a Temporal Relationship between COVID-19 Infections among Prison Staff, Incarcerated Persons and the Larger Community in the United States? Open
Background: Our objective was to examine the temporal relationship between COVID-19 infections among prison staff, incarcerated individuals, and the general population in the county where the prison is located among federal prisons in the …
View article: A Study of SARS-COV-2 Outbreaks in US Federal Prisons: the Linkage Between Staff, Inmate, and Community Transmission
A Study of SARS-COV-2 Outbreaks in US Federal Prisons: the Linkage Between Staff, Inmate, and Community Transmission Open
Background Since the novel coronavirus SARS-COV-2 was first identified to be circulating in the US on January 20, 2020, some of the worst outbreaks have occurred within state and federal prisons. The vulnerability of inmate populations, an…
View article: Unraveling a black box: An open-source methodology for the fieldcalibration of small air quality sensors
Unraveling a black box: An open-source methodology for the fieldcalibration of small air quality sensors Open
The last two decades have seen substantial technological advances in the development of low-cost air pollution instruments using small sensors. While their use continues to spread across the field of atmospheric chemistry, the air quality …
View article: Unraveling a black box: An open-source methodology for the field calibration of small air quality sensors
Unraveling a black box: An open-source methodology for the field calibration of small air quality sensors Open
This repository contains data for the manuscript: "Unraveling a black box: An open-source methodology for the field calibration of small air quality sensors." This includes: Raw data from the low-cost prototype EarthSense Zephyrs, as well …
View article: Unraveling a black box: An open-source methodology for the field calibration of small air quality sensors
Unraveling a black box: An open-source methodology for the field calibration of small air quality sensors Open
This repository contains data for the manuscript: "Unraveling a black box: An open-source methodology for the field calibration of small air quality sensors." This includes: Raw data from the low-cost prototype EarthSense Zephyrs, as well …
View article: How long do people stick to a diet resolution? A digital epidemiological estimation of weight loss diet persistence
How long do people stick to a diet resolution? A digital epidemiological estimation of weight loss diet persistence Open
Objective: To use Internet search data to compare duration of compliance for various diets. Design: Using a passive surveillance digital epidemiological approach, we estimated the average duration of diet compliance by examining monthly In…
View article: Temporal trends in public mass shootings: high-capacity magazines significantly increase fatality counts, and are becoming more prevalent
Temporal trends in public mass shootings: high-capacity magazines significantly increase fatality counts, and are becoming more prevalent Open
Background There has been disagreement in the literature regarding whether public mass shootings are becoming more frequent, or more deadly, and whether high-capacity magazine (HCM) weaponry is associated with increased fatalities. Objecti…
View article: The Rising Prevalence of Weapons in Unsafe Arming Configurations Discovered in American Airports: the Increasing Practice of Storage and Carry of Firearms with a Round Chambered
The Rising Prevalence of Weapons in Unsafe Arming Configurations Discovered in American Airports: the Increasing Practice of Storage and Carry of Firearms with a Round Chambered Open
Background Recent studies have shown that Americans appear to be increasingly owning and carrying firearms for personal protection, and are increasingly storing their firearms loaded. However, the prevalence of firearm carry and/or storage…
View article: Assessing the impact of non-vaccinators: quantifying the average length of infection chains in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease
Assessing the impact of non-vaccinators: quantifying the average length of infection chains in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease Open
Analytical expressions for the basic reproduction number, R0, have been obtained in the past for a wide variety of mathematical models for infectious disease spread, along with expressions for the expected final size of an outbreak. Howeve…
View article: Factors influencing temporal patterns in crime in a large American city: A predictive analytics perspective
Factors influencing temporal patterns in crime in a large American city: A predictive analytics perspective Open
Including holidays, festivals, and school holiday periods in crime predictive analytics software can improve the accuracy and precision of temporal predictions. We also find that including forecasts for temperature may significantly improv…
View article: A precision experiment to investigate long-lived radioactive decays
A precision experiment to investigate long-lived radioactive decays Open
Radioactivity is understood to be described by a Poisson process, yet some\nmeasurements of nuclear decays appear to exhibit unexpected variations.\nGenerally, the isotopes reporting these variations have long half lives, which\nare plague…
View article: Detecting the contagion effect in mass killings; a constructive example of the statistical advantages of unbinned likelihood methods
Detecting the contagion effect in mass killings; a constructive example of the statistical advantages of unbinned likelihood methods Open
When an analysis cannot distinguish between a null and alternate hypothesis, care must be taken to ensure that the analysis methodology itself maximizes the use of information in the data that can distinguish between the two hypotheses. Th…
View article: Quantifying the relative effects of environmental and direct transmission of norovirus
Quantifying the relative effects of environmental and direct transmission of norovirus Open
Norovirus is a common cause of outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis in health- and child-care settings, with serial outbreaks also frequently observed aboard cruise ships. The relative contributions of environmental and direct person-to-pers…
View article: Sunspot activity and influenza pandemics: a statistical assessment of the purported association
Sunspot activity and influenza pandemics: a statistical assessment of the purported association Open
SUMMARY Since 1978, a series of papers in the literature have claimed to find a significant association between sunspot activity and the timing of influenza pandemics. This paper examines these analyses, and attempts to recreate the three …
View article: Quantifying the relative effects of environmental and direct transmission of norovirus
Quantifying the relative effects of environmental and direct transmission of norovirus Open
Background: Norovirus is a common cause of outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis in health- and child-care settings, with serial outbreaks also frequently observed aboard cruise ships. The relative contributions of environmental and direct pe…
View article: The “Ferguson effect”, or too many Guns?
The “Ferguson effect”, or too many Guns? Open
President Trump has threatened to “send in the Feds” to reduce violent crime in the USA's third most populous city. But what might explain the increase? Sherry Towers and Michael D. White assess two hypotheses
View article: Astronomical Alignments of the Sun Temple site in Mesa Verde National Park
Astronomical Alignments of the Sun Temple site in Mesa Verde National Park Open
Summer 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the excavation by J.W. Fewkes of the Sun Temple in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado; an ancient ceremonial complex of unknown purpose, prominently located atop a mesa, constructed by the Pueblo…
View article: Estimate of the reproduction number of the 2015 Zika virus outbreak in Barranquilla, Colombia, and estimation of the relative role of sexual transmission
Estimate of the reproduction number of the 2015 Zika virus outbreak in Barranquilla, Colombia, and estimation of the relative role of sexual transmission Open
Background: In 2015, the Zika arbovirus (ZIKV) began circulating in the Americas, rapidly expanding its global geographic range in explosive outbreaks. Unusual among mosquito-borne diseases, ZIKV has been shown to also be sexually transmit…
View article: Estimate of the reproduction number of the 2015 Zika virus outbreak in Barranquilla, Colombia, and estimation of the relative role of sexual transmission
Estimate of the reproduction number of the 2015 Zika virus outbreak in Barranquilla, Colombia, and estimation of the relative role of sexual transmission Open
Background\nIn 2015, the Zika arbovirus (ZIKV) began circulating in the Americas, rapidly expanding its global geographic range in explosive outbreaks. Unusual among mosquito-borne diseases, ZIKV has been shown to also be sexually transmit…
View article: Fear-related behaviors in situations of mass threat
Fear-related behaviors in situations of mass threat Open
This Disaster Health Briefing focuses on the work of an expanding team of researchers that is exploring the dynamics of fear-related behaviors in situations of mass threat. Fear-related behaviors are individual or collective behaviors and …