The etiology and transmission of bacterial diarrheal pathogens is complex, making evaluating the association between extreme climate and diarrheal illnesses in North America challenging. Changes in climate may impact the survival, reproduction, and distribution of pathogens that cause diarrheal illness. Evidence supports the hypothesis that reproduction, survival, and transmission ability...
Ixodes scapularis (e.g. blacklegged tick) is a hard-bodied tick considered endemic to certain regions within the United States. This species is considered a primary vector of Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi), anaplasmosis (Anaplasma phagocytophilum) and babesiosis (Babesia microti). Each of these tick-borne diseases represent a growing health concern within the nation...
The influence of increasing temperatures on human health has been widely established across multiple health disciplines. Short-term temperature changes are associated with an increased risk of hospitalization and death overall and in a variety of health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease. Even as humans can self-regulate heat stresses, the elderly,...
Jeffrey pine occurs in the mountains of California and adjacent states. In the Klamath Mountains, the northern margin of the range, it is restricted to infertile ultramafic soils, forming very open stands of low density. It occurs predominantly on more fertile soils in the Sierra Nevada and southern portions of...
In this dissertation I will demonstrate a novel application of self-exciting point process models to mass shooting data. I will also introduce two adaptations to the traditional nonparametric Hawkes process modeling framework. One such modification allows for the estimation of the additional productivity introduced by an event that is not...
A blood supply chain (BSC) deals with the collection, processing, storing, and distribution of blood collected from donors and delivered to patients at demand points (DPs) through a network of several temporary mobile blood units (MBUs) and permanent local blood centers (LBCs). In general, the strategic and tactical design of...
Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a primary cause of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer and thus represents a critical public health concern. Skin cancer risk behavior research lacks an instrument designed to assess health beliefs about UV exposure that may increase skin cancer risk by increasing risky UV exposure...
Over the past two decades, the Lean Construction academic and practicing engineering community has used lean practices and tools to help improve the performance of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. Lean practices have led to improved competitiveness of construction companies that have adopted them, by focusing on ways...
N-mixture models provide a structure for making inference about a local population size while accounting for imperfect detection. Using a binomial likelihood, they assume prior distributions on the size parameters and then integrate those parameters out of the full likelihood. For large population sizes, the established frequentist methods have exhibited...
Lead is a ubiquitous environmental toxin known to cause neurological deficits in children. There is no biological need for lead and no safe level of lead in the body has ever been identified. Despite dramatic decline in mean blood lead levels nationwide since the U.S. EPA’s ban on lead-based paint...
