SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Public Health”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 199 records · Page 11

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS2009

Collaborative Approaches in Developing Environmental and Safety Management Systems for Commercial Space Transportation

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) licenses and permits U.S. commercial space launch and reentry activities, and licenses the operation of non-federal launch and reentry sites. ASTs mission is to ensure the protection of the public, property, and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States during commercial space transportation activities and to encourage, facilitate, and promote U.S. commercial space transportation. AST faces unique challenges of ensuring the protection of public health and safety while facilitating and promoting U.S. commercial space transportation. AST has developed an Environmental Management System (EMS) and a Safety Management System (SMS) to help meet its mission. Although the EMS and SMS were developed independently, the systems share similar elements. Both systems follow a Plan-Do-Act-Check model in identifying potential environmental aspects or public safety hazards, assessing significance in terms of severity and likelihood of occurrence, developing approaches to reduce risk, and verifying that the risk is reduced. This paper will describe the similarities between ASTs EMS and SMS elements and how AST is building a collaborative approach in environmental and safety management to reduce impacts to the environment and risks to the public.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)↗

NASA NTRS2001

Earth: Earth Science and Health

A major new NASA initiative on environmental change and health has been established to promote the application of Earth science remote sensing data, information, observations, and technologies to issues of human health. NASA's Earth Sciences suite of Earth observing instruments are now providing improved observations science, data, and advanced technologies about the Earth's land, atmosphere, and oceans. These new space-based resources are being combined with other agency and university resources, data integration and fusion technologies, geographic information systems (GIS), and the spectrum of tools available from the public health community, making it possible to better understand how the environment and climate are linked to specific diseases, to improve outbreak prediction, and to minimize disease risk. This presentation is an overview of NASA's tools, capabilities, and research advances in this initiative.

Maynard, Nancy G.↗

NASA NTRS2009

Human System Risk Management - Tools of our Trade

The risk of infectious disease to select individuals has historically been difficult to predict in either spaceflight or on Earth with health care efforts relying on broad-based prevention and post-infection treatment. Over the past 10 years, quantitative microbial risk assessment evaluations have evolved to formalize the assessment process and quantify the risk. This process of hazard identification, exposure assessment, dose-response assessment, and risk characterization has been applied by the water and food safety industries to address the public health impacts associated with the occurrence of and human exposure to pathogens in water and food for the development of preventive strategies for microbial disease. NASA is currently investigating the feasibility of using these techniques to better understand the risks to astronauts and refine their microbiological requirements. To assess these techniques, NASA began an evaluation of the potable water system on the International Space Station to determine how the microbial risk from water consumption during flight differed from terrestrial sources, such as municipal water systems. The ultimate goal of this work is to optimize microbial requirements which would minimize unnecessary cargo and use of crew time, while still protecting the health of the crew. Successful demonstration of this risk assessment framework with the water system holds the potential to maximize the use of available resources during spaceflight missions and facilitate investigations into the evaluation of other routes of infection, such as through the spaceflight foods system.

Ott, C. Mark↗

NASA NTRS1987

A PC-Based Free Text DSS for Health Care

A free Decision Support System(DST) has been constructed for health care professional that allows the analysis of complex medical cases and the creation of diagnostic list of potential diseases for clinical evaluation.The system uses a PC-based text management system specifically designed for desktop operation. The texts employed in the decision support package include the Merck Manual (published by Merck Sharpe & Dohme) and Control of Communicable Diseas in Man (published by the American Public Health Association). The background and design of the database are discussed along with a structured analysis procedure for handling free text DSS system. A case study is presented to show the application of this technology and conclusions are drawn in the summary that point to expanded areas of professional intention and new frontiers yet to be explored in this rapidly progressing field.

Grams, Ralph R.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Some problems of human adaptation and ecology under the aspect of general pathology

The main problems of human adaptation at the level of the body and the population in connection with the features of current morbidity of the population and certain demographic processes are analyzed. The concepts of health and adaptation of the individual and human populations are determined. The importance of the anthropo-ecological approach to the investigation of the adaptation process of human populations is demonstrated. Certain features of the etiopathogenesis of diseases are considered in connection with the population-ecological regularities of human adaptation. The importance of research on general pathology aspects of adaptation and the ecology of man for planning, and organization of public health protection is discussed.

Kaznacheyev, V. P.↗

NASA NTRS2022

Spatial and Seasonal Patterns of the Mosquito Community in Central Oklahoma

Mosquitoes (Culicidae) are ubiquitous flying insects that function as vectors for several viruses that cause disease in humans. Mosquito abundance and diversity are influenced by landscape features and environmental factors such as temperature and precipitation and vary across seasons and years. The range and phenology of many mosquito species that vector viruses relevant to human health are changing. We sampled mosquito communities in central Oklahoma for four years at thirteen sites, collecting over 25,000 mosquitoes; among these, we identified 27 different species, including several that transmit human pathogens and were collected in suburban backyards. Community composition differed across the landscape and changed from early season to late season and year to year. This effort to describe mosquito communities in Oklahoma is a first step toward assessing and predicting arbovirus risk, an ongoing and dynamic public health challenge.

David Hoekman↗

NASA NTRS2011

Astronaut Health Participant Summary Application

The Longitudinal Study of Astronaut Health (LSAH) Participant Summary software captures data based on a custom information model designed to gather all relevant, discrete medical events for its study participants. This software provides a summarized view of the study participant s entire medical record. The manual collapsing of all the data in a participant s medical record into a summarized form eliminates redundancy, and allows for the capture of entire medical events. The coding tool could be incorporated into commercial electronic medical record software for use in areas like public health surveillance, hospital systems, clinics, and medical research programs.

Johnson, Kathy↗

NASA NTRS2014

Heat-Related Mortality in a Warming Climate: Projections for 12 U.S. Cities

Heat is among the deadliest weather-related phenomena in the United States, and the number of heat-related deaths may increase under a changing climate, particularly in urban areas. Regional adaptation planning is unfortunately often limited by the lack of quantitative information on potential future health responses. This study presents an assessment of the future impacts of climate change on heat-related mortality in 12 cities using 16 global climate models, driven by two scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions. Although the magnitude of the projected heat effects was found to differ across time, cities, climate models and greenhouse pollution emissions scenarios, climate change was projected to result in increases in heat-related fatalities over time throughout the 21st century in all of the 12 cities included in this study. The increase was more substantial under the high emission pathway, highlighting the potential benefits to public health of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly 200,000 heat-related deaths are projected to occur in the 12 cities by the end of the century due to climate warming, over 22,000 of which could be avoided if we follow a low GHG emission pathway. The presented estimates can be of value to local decision makers and stakeholders interested in developing strategies to reduce these impacts and building climate change resilience.

heat-related mortality↗

NASA NTRS2012

Global Air Quality and Health Co-benefits of Mitigating Near-term Climate Change Through Methane and Black Carbon Emission Controls

Tropospheric ozone and black carbon (BC), a component of fine particulate matter (PM < or = 2.5 microns in aerodynamic diameter; PM2.5), are associated with premature mortality and they disrupt global and regional climate. Objectives: We examined the air quality and health benefits of 14 specific emission control measures targeting BC and methane, an ozone precursor, that were selected because of their potential to reduce the rate of climate change over the next 20-40 years. Methods: We simulated the impacts of mitigation measures on outdoor concentrations of PM2.5 and ozone using two composition-climate models, and calculated associated changes in premature PM2.5‑ and ozone-related deaths using epidemiologically derived concentration-response functions. Results: We estimated that, for PM2.5 and ozone, respectively, fully implementing these measures could reduce global population-weighted average surface concentrations by 23-34% and 7-17% and avoid 0.6-4.4 and 0.04-0.52 million annual premature deaths globally in 2030. More than 80% of the health benefits are estimated to occur in Asia. We estimated that BC mitigation measures would achieve approximately 98% of the deaths that would be avoided if all BC and methane mitigation measures were implemented, due to reduced BC and associated reductions of nonmethane ozone precursor and organic carbon emissions as well as stronger mortality relationships for PM2.5 relative to ozone. Although subject to large uncertainty, these estimates and conclusions are not strongly dependent on assumptions for the concentration-response function. Conclusions: In addition to climate benefits, our findings indicate that the methane and BC emission control measures would have substantial co-benefits for air quality and public health worldwide, potentially reversing trends of increasing air pollution concentrations and mortality in Africa and South, West, and Central Asia. These projected benefits are independent of carbon dioxide mitigation measures. Benefits of BC measures are underestimated because we did not account for benefits from reduced indoor exposures and because outdoor exposure estimates were limited by model spatial resolution.

air quality↗

NASA NTRS2007

Multi Sensor Approach to Address Sustainable Development

The main objectives of Earth Science research are many folds: to understand how does this planet operates, can we model her operation and eventually develop the capability to predict such changes. However, the underlying goals of this work are to eventually serve the humanity in providing societal benefits. This requires continuous, and detailed observations from many sources in situ, airborne and space. By and large, the space observations are the way to comprehend the global phenomena across continental boundaries and provide credible boundary conditions for the mesoscale studies. This requires a multiple sensors, look angles and measurements over the same spot in accurately solving many problems that may be related to air quality, multi hazard disasters, public health, hydrology and more. Therefore, there are many ways to address these issues and develop joint implementation, data sharing and operating strategies for the benefit of the world community. This is because for large geographical areas or regions and a diverse population, some sound observations, scientific facts and analytical models must support the decision making. This is crucial for the sustainability of vital resources of the world and at the same time to protect the inhabitants, endangered species and the ecology. Needless to say, there is no single sensor, which can answer all such questions effectively. Due to multi sensor approach, it puts a tremendous burden on any single implementing entity in terms of information, knowledge, budget, technology readiness and computational power. And, more importantly, the health of planet Earth and its ability to sustain life is not governed by a single country, but in reality, is everyone's business on this planet. Therefore, with this notion, it is becoming an impractical problem by any single organization/country to bear this colossal responsibility. So far, each developed country within their means has proceeded along satisfactorily in implementing their Earth observing needs but it has left a big void in the developing world who have very limited resources to invest in the space measurements. This paper gives some serious thoughts in what options are there in undertaking this tremendous challenge. The problem is multi-dimensional in terms of budget, technology availability, environmental legislations, public awareness, and communication limitations. Some of these issues are introduced, discussed and possible implementation strategies are provided in this paper to move out of this predicament. A strong emphasis is placed on international cooperation and collaboration to see a collective benefit for this effort

Habib, Shahid↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA GEOS Composition Forecast System, GEOS-CF

NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) produces high-resolution analysis and forecasts for weather, aerosols, and air quality. Since 2019, the NASA Global Earth Observing System (GEOS) model provides global near-real-time historical estimates and daily 5-day forecasts of atmospheric composition to the public at unprecedented horizontal resolution of 0.25 degrees (~25 km) from the surface up to the lower mesosphere. This composition forecast system (“GEOS-CF”) combines the operational GEOS weather forecasting model with the state-of-the-science GEOS-Chem chemistry module to deliver detailed analysis of a wide range of air pollutants, including the policy-relevant species such as ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). The GEOS-CF is a tool for scientists and the public health community. This presentation will cover 1) an overview of the GEOS-CF modeling framework and data/visualization access, 2) examples of current and future applications to support NASA missions (e.g., a priori for trace gas retrievals by TEMPO, ground-based instrument teams and field campaigns), and 3) research and development activities as the GEOS-CF system continues to evolve to include multi-constituent data assimilation, near-real time emission adjustment estimates, down-scaling methods to urban-scale, and data access on Google Earth Engine, Amazon Web Services, and other platforms to integrate our state-of-the-science air quality information onto platforms used by stakeholders, air quality managers, and the public.

K. Emma Knowland↗

NASA NTRS2016

Aging Will Amplify the Heat-Related Mortality Risk Under a Changing Climate: Projection for the Elderly in Beijing, China

An aging population could substantially enhance the burden of heat-related health risks in a warming climate because of their higher susceptibility to extreme heat health effects. Here, we project heatrelated mortality for adults 65 years and older in Beijing China across 31 downscaled climate models and 2 representative concentration pathways (RCPs) in the 2020s, 2050s, and 2080s. Under a scenario of medium population and RCP8.5, by the 2080s, Beijing is projected to experience 14,401 heat-related deaths per year for elderly individuals, which is a 264.9% increase compared with the 1980s. These impacts could be moderated through adaptation. In the 2080s, even with the 30% and 50% adaptation rate assumed in our study, the increase in heat-related death is approximately 7.4 times and 1.3 times larger than in the 1980s respectively under a scenario of high population and RCP8.5. These findings could assist countries in establishing public health intervention policies for the dual problems of climate change and aging population. Examples could include ensuring facilities with large elderly populations are protected from extreme heat (for example through back-up power supplies and/or passive cooling) and using databases and community networks to ensure the home-bound elderly are safe during extreme heat events.

age factor↗

NASA NTRS2011

DoD-GEIS Rift Valley Fever Monitoring and Prediction System as a Tool for Defense and US Diplomacy

Over the last 10 years the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center's Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (GEIS) partnering with NASA'S Goddard Space Flight Center and USDA's USDA-Center for Medical, Agricultural & Veterinary Entomology established and have operated the Rift Valley fever Monitoring and Prediction System to monitor, predict and assess the risk of Rift Valley fever outbreaks and other vector-borne diseases over Africa and the Middle East. This system is built on legacy DoD basic research conducted by Walter Reed Army Institute of Research overseas laboratory (US Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya) and the operational satellite environmental monitoring by NASA GSFC. Over the last 10 years of operation the system has predicted outbreaks of Rift Valley fever in the Horn of Africa, Sudan, South Africa and Mauritania. The ability to predict an outbreak several months before it occurs provides early warning to protect deployed forces, enhance public health in concerned countries and is a valuable tool use.d by the State Department in US Diplomacy. At the international level the system has been used by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAD) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to support their monitoring, surveillance and response programs in the livestock sector and human health. This project is a successful testament of leveraging resources of different federal agencies to achieve objectives of force health protection, health and diplomacy.

Anyamba, Assaf↗

NASA NTRS1999

Closing Report for NASA Cooperative Agreement NASA-1-242

Reliable estimates of exposures due to ionizing radiations are of paramount importance in achieving human exploration and development of space, and in several technologically important and scientifically significant areas impacting on industrial and public health. For proper assessment of radiation exposures reliable transport codes are needed. An essential input to the transport codes is the information about the interaction of ions and neutrons with the matter. Most of the information about this interaction is put in by nuclear cross section data. In order to obtain an accurate parameterization of cross sections data, theoretical input is indispensable especially for the processes where there is little or no experimental data available. In the grant period reliable data base was developed and a phenomenological model was developed for the total absorption cross sections valid for any charged/uncharged light, medium and heavy collision pairs valid for the entire energy range. It is gratifying to note the success of the model. The cross sections model has been adopted and is in use in NASA cosmic ray detector development projects, the radiation protection and shielding programs and several DoE laboratories and institutions. A list of the publications based on the work done during the grant period is given below and a sample copy of one of the papers is enclosed with this report.

Maung, Khin Maung↗

NASA NTRS1997

Radiation Transport and Shielding for Space Exploration and High Speed Flight Transportation

Transportation of ions and neutrons in matter is of direct interest in several technologically important and scientific areas, including space radiation, cosmic ray propagation studies in galactic medium, nuclear power plants and radiological effects that impact industrial and public health. For the proper assessment of radiation exposure, both reliable transport codes and accurate data are needed. Nuclear cross section data is one of the essential inputs into the transport codes. In order to obtain an accurate parametrization of cross section data, theoretical input is indispensable especially for processes where there is little or no experimental data available. In this grant period work has been done on the studies of the use of relativistic equations and their one-body limits. The results will be useful in choosing appropriate effective one-body equation for reaction calculations. Work has also been done to improve upon the data base needed for the transport codes used in the studies of radiation transport and shielding for space exploration and high speed flight transportation. A phenomenological model was developed for the total absorption cross sections valid for any system of charged and/or uncharged collision pairs for the entire energy range. The success of the model is gratifying. It is being used by other federal agencies, national labs and universities. A list of publications based on the work during the grant period is given below and copies are enclosed with this report.

Maung, Khin Maung↗

NASA NTRS2021

Peru Health & Air Quality: Land Use Change in the Rapidly Developing Peruvian Amazon and Implications on Zoonotic Disease Incidence

In the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon, forests are being cleared for mining, timber harvesting, road construction, and hydroelectric dam development. These rapid land use changes are increasing human presence in previously sparsely populated areas, disrupting ecosystems and increasing the proximity of human settlement to zoonotic disease vectors. Dengue fever and leishmaniasis are two neglected tropical diseases which are prevalent in Madre de Dios and have been associated with urbanization and road construction. In partnership with the Peruvian Ministries of Health (MINSA) and the Environment (MINAM) and other in-country collaborators, our team examined Land Use Land Cover (LULC) correlations with reported dengue and leishmaniasis incidence in the Madre de Dios region to help partners understand the spatial relationship between land use change and zoonotic disease incidence. We created a LULC classification script using Google Earth Engine with Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager imagery to classify land cover in 2010, 2015, and 2020 and evaluate changes over this time period. We then used the quantified results of the LULC assessment in conjunction with reported disease cases to evaluate correlations between disease incidence and key land cover changes across Madre de Dios’s 11 districts. In the second term, the team will use these products to develop more detailed disease incidence risk maps and models. High risk areas will then be classified, using PeruSat-1 that allow for even higher resolution mapping at less than 3 meters. These products will allow the partners to understand hotspots of land cover change in Peru and the relationship with outbreaks to inform public health decision making and environmental policy.

Elizabeth Stapleton↗

NASA NTRS2022

Guatemala and Panama Urban Development: Evaluating the Effects of Urban Expansion on Social and Environmental Vulnerability in Guatemala and Panama

Central America is experiencing rapid and unregulated urban expansion, which is contributing to an increase in socioeconomic and environmental risks including inequities in infrastructure and housing accessibility, biodiversity loss, vulnerability to natural disasters, and negative health outcomes. NASA DEVELOP, in partnership with NASA SERVIR, Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA), Secretariat of Central American Social Integration (SISCA), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and Centro de Coordinación para la Prevención de los Desastres en América Central y República Dominicana (CEPRENEDAC), examined changes in urban extent, characterized roofing material type, and analyzed vulnerability within urban areas in two Central American cities, Guatemala City and Panama City. The team used land cover imagery from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), and Landsat 9 OLI-2 to map urban extent, and surface reflectance data from Maxar Worldview to identify roofing material types. Socioeconomic and environmental data were used to assess vulnerability. Results depict how the two cities have expanded from 2000 to present day and highlight areas of greatest vulnerability within each urban area. The supervised classification of roofing materials performed well but could be improved with a few enhancements. Findings can help partner organizations improve monitoring of urbanization and inform their planning and decision-making while prioritizing disaster prevention, public health, and environmental integrity. Additionally, these case studies can be used to inform future, similar work elsewhere in Central America to aid in understanding urbanization and its associated challenges.

Jennifer Ruiz↗

NASA NTRS2015

Heat-Related Mortality Projections for Cardiovascular and Respiratory Disease Under the Changing Climate in Beijing, China

Because heat-related health effects tend to become more serious at higher temperatures, there is an urgent need to determine the mortality projection of specific heat-sensitive diseases to provide more detailed information regarding the variation of the sensitivity of such diseases. In this study, the specific mortality of cardiovascular and respiratory disease in Beijing was initially projected under five different global-scale General Circulation Models (GCMs) and two Representative Concentration Pathways scenarios (RCPs) in the 2020s, 2050s, and 2080s compared to the 1980s. Multi-model ensembles indicated cardiovascular mortality could increase by an average percentage of 18.4 percent, 47.8 percent, and 69.0 percent in the 2020s, 2050s, and 2080s under RCP 4.5, respectively, and by 16.6 percent, 73.8 percent and 134 percent in different decades respectively, under RCP 8.5 compared to the baseline range. The same increasing pattern was also observed in respiratory mortality. The heat-related deaths under the RCP 8.5 scenario were found to reach a higher number and to increase more rapidly during the 21st century compared to the RCP4.5 scenario, especially in the 2050s and the 2080s. The projection results show potential trends in cause-specific mortality in the context of climate change, and provide support for public health interventions tailored to specific climate-related future health risks.

health↗