Major Highways Research Articles

A population-based cohort study of traffic congestion and term birth weight using vehicle telematics data

Background and Aim: Over 11 million Americans reside within 150 m of a major highway, an area of high air pollution exposure. Traffic congestion further contributes to this problem but has not been evaluated in epidemiological studies to-date. We hypothesize that degraded air quality due to traffic congestion will have an adverse impact on infant birth weight. Methods: Using a population-based birth cohort in 2015-2016 for the State of Texas, we limited our study population to addresses within 1,000 m of a road in this database. We calculated traffic congestion around each geocoded maternal address at delivery for 100 m, 300 m, and 500 m buffer distances. We leveraged novel congestion and vehicle volume measurement data from the Texas Most Congested Roads database, which contains measurements of traffic volume, delay, and emissions from connected vehicle and device data. We used linear regressions to evaluate the association between traffic congestion and term birth weight, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and vehicle volume. Results: Among 580,992 births, we find consistent negative associations between traffic congestion and term birth weight. We observed a 15.8 g reduction in term birth weight (95% CI: -20.5, -11.1) among the highest quintile of delay exposure at 500 m compared to births with no delay exposure in this buffer distance. Results are similar, though attenuated, for truck-specific congestion. When we calculate excess vehicle emissions from congestion, we observe a -17.6 g reduction in term birth weight (95% CI: -21.4, -13.9) when comparing the highest and lowest quintiles. Conclusion: Our study provides important new evidence that traffic congestion is associated with adverse infant health outcomes, in addition to total traffic volumes on nearby roads. Therefore, programs to reduce traffic congestion may have positive co-benefits for infant health with respect to birth weight. Keywords: traffic-related air pollution, infant health, birth weight

Characterization of winter air pollutant gradients near a major highway

Traffic-related air pollutants (TRAP) including nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen oxide (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), ultrafine particles (UFP), black carbon (BC), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were simultaneously measured at near-road sites located at 10 m (NR10) and 150 m (NR150) from the same side of a busy highway to provide insights into the influence of winter time meteorology on exposure to TRAP near major roads. The spatial variabilities of TRAP were examined for ambient temperatures ranging from −11 °C to +19 °C under downwind, upwind, and stagnant air conditions. The downwind TRAP concentrations at NR10 were higher than the upwind concentrations by a factor of 1.4 for CO to 13 for NO. Despite steep downwind reductions of 38 % to 75 % within 150 m, the downwind concentrations at NR150 were still well above upwind concentrations. Near-road concentrations of NOx and UFP increased as ambient temperatures decreased due to elevated emissions of NOx and UFP from vehicles under colder temperatures. Traffic-related PM2.5 sources were identified using hourly PM2.5 chemical components including organic/inorganic aerosol and trace metals at both sites. The downwind concentrations of primary PM2.5 species related to tailpipe and non-tailpipe emissions at NR10 were substantially higher than the upwind concentrations by a factor of 4 and 32, respectively. Traffic-related PM2.5 sources accounted for almost half of total PM2.5 mass under downwind conditions, leading to a rapid change of PM2.5 chemical composition. Under stagnant air conditions, the concentrations of most TRAP and related PM2.5 including tailpipe emissions, secondary nitrate, and organic aerosol were comparable to, or even greater than, the downwind concentrations under windy conditions, especially at NR150. This study demonstrates that stagnant air conditions further widen the traffic-influenced area and people living near major roadways may experience increased risks from elevated exposure to traffic emissions during cold and stagnant winter conditions.

A Computationally Efficient Approach to Resolving Vehicle-Induced Turbulence for Near-Road Air Quality

Abstract Near-road air pollution is a worldwide public health concern, especially in urban areas. Vehicle-induced turbulence (VIT) has a major impact on the initial dispersion of traffic-related pollutants on the roadways, affecting their subsequent near-road impact. The current methods for high-fidelity VIT simulations using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are often computationally expensive or prohibitive. Earlier studies adopted the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) method, which models VIT as a fixed TKE volume source and produces turbulence uniformly in the computational traffic zones. This paper presents two novel methods, namely the force method and the moving force method, to generate VIT implicitly by injecting a force source into the computational domain instead of physical vehicles in the domain explicitly, thus greatly reducing the computational burden. The simulation results were evaluated against experimental data collected in a field study near a major highway in Las Vegas, NV, which included collocated measurements of traffic and wind speed. The TKE method systematically overestimated the turbulence produced on the highway by converting the drag force completely into turbulence. This indicates that the TKE method, currently being used to implicitly model VIT in CFD simulations, requires major improvements. In comparison, the proposed force and moving force methods performed favorably and were able to capture turbulence anisotropicity and fluid convection. The force method was shown to be a computationally efficient way to simulate VIT with adequate accuracy, while the moving force method has the potential to emulate vehicle motion and its impact on fluid flow.

Highway Proneness Appraisal to Landslides along Taiping to Ipoh Segment Malaysia, Using MCDM and GIS Techniques

Landslides are geological hazards that claim lives and affect socio-economic growth. Despite increased slope failure, some constructions, such as road constructions, are still being performed without proper investigation of the susceptibility of slope mass movement. This study researches the susceptibility of landslides in a study area encompassing a major highway that extends from Taiping to Ipoh, Malaysia. After a comprehensive literature review, 10 landslide conditioning factors were considered for this study. As novel research in this study area, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) models such as AHP and fuzzy AHP were used to rank the conditioning factors before generating the final landslide susceptibility mapping using Geographical Information System (GIS) software. The landslide susceptibility map has five classes ranging from very low (9.20%) and (32.97%), low (18.09%) and (25.60%), moderate (24.46%) and (21.36%), high (27.57%) and (13.26%), to very high (20.68%) and (6.81%) susceptibility for the FAHP and AHP models, respectively. It was recorded that the area is mainly covered with moderate to very high landslide risk, which requires proper intervention, especially for subsequent construction or renovation processes. The highway was overlayed on the susceptibility map, which concludes that the highway was constructed on a terrain susceptible to slope instability. Therefore, decision-makers should consider further investigation and landslide susceptibility mapping before construction.

Integrating criticality concepts into road network disruption assessments for volcanic eruptions

Road networks in volcanically active regions can be exposed to various volcanic hazards from multiple volcanoes. Exposure assessments are often used in these environments to prioritise risk management and mitigation efforts towards volcanoes or hazards that present the greatest threat. Typically, road exposure has been assessed by quantifying the amount of road network affected by different hazards and/or hazard intensity. Whilst this approach is computationally efficient, it largely fails to consider the relative importance of road segments within the network (i.e., road criticality). However, road criticality is an important indicator of the disruption that may be caused by an eruption. In this work, we aim to integrate road criticality concepts to enhance typical volcanic eruption road exposure assessments into road disruption assessments. We use three key components to quantify disruption: a) road criticality, b) impact severity, and c) affected road quantity. Two case study eruptions: Merapi 2010 and Kelud 2014, both in Java, Indonesia, are used to demonstrate the usefulness of integrating road criticality into road disruption assessments from volcanic eruptions. We found that disruption of the road network from the Kelud 2014 case study was an order of magnitude greater than the Merapi 2010 case study. This is primarily driven by the more widely dispersed tephra fall from the Kelud 2014 event, which affected nearly 28% of Java’s road network length, compared to Merapi 2010, which affected 1.5%. We also identified potential disruption hotspots that were affected by both of these case study eruptions. At Merapi, roads that carry traffic directly away from the summit, those that cross major valleys, and the major Yogyakarta-Magelang highway were key disruption hotspots, which has implications for moving large volumes of traffic efficiently, such as in an evacuation. The Kelud case study highlighted the potential impacts of widespread tephra falls on socio-economic activity and connectivity of large urban centres. Our approach has been designed such that it can be applied entirely using open-sourced datasets. Therefore, the approach to integrating road criticality in this paper can be used, applied, and adapted to assess road network disruption at any volcano in the world.

A Spatiotemporal Perspective on the 31 May 2013 Tornado Evacuation in the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area

Abstract On 31 May 2013, an extremely large and violent tornado hit near the town of El Reno, Oklahoma, a small town in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The size and intensity of this tornado, coupled with the fact that it was heading toward Oklahoma City, prompted local broadcasters to warn residents to evacuate their homes and head south if they could not shelter belowground. This warning led to a large-scale evacuation of the metropolitan area and massive traffic jams on the interstates and major highways that could have caused casualties in the hundreds if the tornado had not dissipated before reaching Oklahoma City. The focus of this study was to understand the magnitude of the 31 May 2013 evacuation through the evaluation of traffic volume data and to determine how frequently such evacuations occur in Oklahoma City and other metropolitan areas. We found that of the six metropolitan areas tested, only Oklahoma City had mass anomalous traffic reversal (ATR) days (days with a mass evacuation signal) with 31 May 2013 having the largest mass ATR day by far. Despite the rarity of mass ATR days, the potential consequences of a large, violent tornado hitting gridlocked traffic is significant, and we recommend that communicators encourage more local sheltering options. Significance Statement On the evening of 31 May 2013, a large-scale evacuation of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area occurred as a result of a very large and dangerous tornado that had formed near the town of El Reno and was moving east toward Oklahoma City. If the tornado had not dissipated before it reached the city it could have caused hundreds of casualties as it passed over gridlocked roads. We sought to understand the frequency of such mass evacuations and found that no other event in six metropolitan areas studied during 2011–18 could compare. While such evacuations fortunately appear rare, more work should be done to understand why they happen when they do and to connect individuals with better local sheltering options.

Immunological markers of the development of bronchial asthma under conditions of contamination by bio-mediated technogenic chemical factors in children

Introduction. The issue of sanitary safety of the population under the conditions of chronic exposure to environmental anthropogenic chemical factors, which play an etiological and pathogenetic role in the formation of non-communicable diseases, especially in the occurrence of bronchial asthma (BA) in children, is currently becoming particularly relevant. Materials and methods. Sixty six institutions located near major highways were examined. Of these, the observation group consisted of 21 children whose content of manganese, chromium and formaldehyde in biological media significantly exceeded background values (p<0.05). The comparison group consisted of 45 children with the content of haptens in biological media at the level of background indicators. The analysis of biological media for the content of chemical allergens by mass spectrometry, formaldehyde was made with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The study of the immune status of the examined cases included the use of flow cytometry (CD3, CD4, CD25, CD95), enzyme immunoassay (leukotrienes, IL1ß, IL4, IL6, IL8, IL10, INFu, TNFa, IgE total), the Mancini method (radial immunodiffusion) (IgM, IgG, IgA) and allergosorbent testing (specific to allergen metals and formaldehyde IgE). Results. A comparative analysis of the immune and allergological status of the subjects revealed children with atopic bronchial asthma, characterized by excessive contamination with bio-mediated haptens, to show a significant increase in total and formaldehyde- and chromium-specific IgE, leukotrienes, as well as lymphocytes expressing CD25 and CD95 molecules (p<0.05) and a decrease in cytokine expression. Limitations. There were no restrictions on the conduct of research related to reagents and instrumentation. Conclusion. As a result of the performed studies, there were substantiated immunological markers of the effect, reflecting the modification of the immunological response of children with asthma in conditions of elevated contamination of the biological media with chromium, manganese and formaldehyde, which have an adjuvant effect on the body, forming the features of immunological manifestations of asthma (for example, the city of Perm).

Traffic noise reduction attributed to roadside vegetation: ohio case study

This paper reports the findings of a research study which examined the noise reduction associated with roadside vegetation. A case study location along a major freeway in Columbus, Ohio, was utilized. Noise measurements were obtained at two locations in a neighborhood adjacent to the freeway. The neighborhood was partially shielded from the freeway by a stand of bushes and trees typical of roadside vegetation in Ohio. One location with high-density vegetation was completely shielded from the freeway while the second had lower-density vegetation with some direct line-of-sight downstream of the position. Noise measurements at the site were conducted in September 2019 on an average weekday under typical meteorological conditions for the region. Measurements were obtained simultaneously at each position to permit direct comparison of the noise reduction. Analysis indicated that the noise reduction attributed to the vegetation was approximately 3.0 dBA with an additional 1.0 dBA of reduction at the high-density position. Models of the site using FHWA TNM indicated that the modeled noise reduction was lower than what was measured in the field. The results of this case study add the body of knowledge on the topic of traffic noise reduction attributed to the presence of roadside vegetation.

Evaluation of structural properties of Baghdad-Baquba road pavements

Structural evaluation of the road pavements is an essential concept to ensure their efficiency to carry traffic loads and to archive the data for future usage especially in major highways. Baghdad-Baquba is an important interstate highway as it connects the capital of Iraq with Diyala governorate which is one of the biggest governorates in Iraq. In addition, this highway connects Baghdad city with several governorates in the north of Iraq. However, this highway exhibits low serviceability due to poor condition of its pavements. Therefore, the structure of the pavements must be evaluated to specify the causes those lead to the decrease in its serviceability and to propose the suitable rehabilitation methods. This study aims to adopt a field survey to extract a number of samples from selected section in this highway to evaluate the structural properties of the pavements based on laboratory testing. Four cores and one pit with 1×1 m dimensions were extracted from the pavements in the field. Several tests were implemented on these tests based on standard methods. The results of the tests were adopted to evaluate the capacity of the pavement based on AASHTO 1993 method. The results exhibited that the estimated applied traffic load exceeded the calculated allowable traffic load by more than 12 times which reflect the disastrous situation. Therefore, the study proposed to rehabilitate the pavements by reconstruction. The study proposed to construct three layers: asphaltic layer with thickness of 240 mm, granular base with thickness of 250 mm, and granular subbase with a thickness of 250 mm. The study stated that all layers must have superior quality with high elastic modulus to resist the predicated traffic load.

An intercept survey of the use and non-use of footbridges in Ghana

Footbridges reduce pedestrian-vehicular interaction and the incidence of pedestrian crashes. Their use significantly reduce the incidence of pedestrian crashes along major highways in low and middle-income countries like Colombia, Ghana, Jordan, Malaysia, and Nigeria. This study seeks to investigate the usage of footbridges in Ghana. A survey was conducted among pedestrians using and not using footbridges at six and one locations in Greater Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan areas respectively. The pedestrians were intercepted in the vicinity of footbridges as users and non-users from 7:00am-9:00am, 11:00am-1:00 pm and 3:00 pm-5:00 pm daily for seven days. In all, 1852 pedestrians were surveyed. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS v.21 and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The study showed that more prevalence among male non-users than females. Those with secondary education, and those who had been previously involved in a pedestrian crash used footbridges the most. The SEM results revealed that age, gender, training in pedestrian safety, frequency of use, walking distance, how often one crosses the stretch road, and length of stay in an area, affect the use of footbridges. An approach by city managers in low and middle-income countries including Colombia, Ghana, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, and Nigeria is required to improve the use of footbridges to reduce the incidence of pedestrian crashes. Specifically, officials of the National Road Safety Authority, Ghana Highway Authority and Motor Transport and Traffic Department of the Ghana Police Service should consider these factors affecting footbridge usage in addressing pedestrian safety on Ghanaian highways.

The effects of human development, environmental factors, and a major highway on mammalian community composition in the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah, USA

AbstractHuman development and roads threaten wildlife through distinct mechanisms and understanding the influence of these elements can better inform mitigation and conservation strategies. We used camera traps to quantify the effects of major roads, environmental factors, and human development on the mammalian community composition between sites north and south of a major interstate highway in northern Utah, USA. We found no significant differences in species richness nor community similarity across the north–south divide of the highway. Through Bayesian hierarchical modeling, we compared the effects of the distance to the highway, housing and human population density, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and the human footprint index to changes in mammalian community composition and species‐specific habitat usage. Community occupancy response, similarity, and species richness were negatively affected by increased housing and human population densities and positively affected by increased NDVI and decreased human footprint, whereas their response to the highway was more inconclusive. We conclude that mammalian community composition in our study area is influenced by both environmental conditions and human development while the effect of the highway was more nuanced, possibly due to the presence of a newly constructed wildlife overpass. Taken together, the lack of differences in species richness or community composition across the highway suggests that it may not currently exacerbate the effects of other anthropogenic sources of habitat fragmentation and highlights the need for additional research into human–wildlife conflict mitigation strategies.

Identification and Analysis of Industrial Land in China Based on the Point of Interest Data and Random Forest Model

The purpose of this study was to provide a new concept and technical method for the large-scale identification of industrial land and analyze the distribution characteristics of industrial land in China. The following research methods are employed using the point of interest data and random forest model based on data accessibility, this study selected 2015 data on Wuhan and Luoyang as training samples to identify the industrial land of China. Then, the proportion of industrial land in all 334 prefecture-level cities on the Chinese mainland was calculated, and the spatial pattern was analyzed. The results show that: 1) by comparing multiple experiments and robustness analysis, the optimal parameter setting of the random forest model is obtained. According to the test of actual industrial land distribution in Wuhan city and Luoyang city, the identification of industrial land in different scale cities by random forest model is accurate and effective. 2) From the perspective of spatial patterns, industrial land shows a “large aggregation and small scattering” distribution. 3) From the perspective of spatial distribution, the proportion of industrial land in these cities shows spatial aggregation. High–high aggregation areas were mainly distributed in North and Northeast China, and low–low aggregation areas were mainly located in West China. 4) From the perspective of related factors, industrial land was close to rivers, highways, and railway stations and had a relatively low correlation with the distribution of airports. Industrial land was located within approximately 10–60 km distance from the municipal government office. In terms of the proportion of industrial land, the proportion of industrial land is higher in the cities where the industrial land was closer to railway stations. However, when the industrial land in cities was closer to four other types of related factors (waters and lakes, major highways, airports, and municipal government stations), the share of industrial land is lower. In conclusion, the method based on the point of interest data and random forest model can accurately and effectively identify large-scale industrial land.

A Multi-Scale Suitability Analysis of Home-Improvement Retail-Store Site Selection for Ontario, Canada

A multi-scale suitability analysis using big data (4.7 million suitability scores) is presented across a large spatial extent (1.076 million km2) to identify potential locations for new home-improvement retail stores. Suitability scores were generated for individual property parcels using criteria weights derived from surveyed retail-industry experts. To increase capacity for site selection, distributions of suitability scores were generated at census dissemination areas (populations 500-700; n = 19,963) and census metropolitan and agglomeration areas (core populations >10,000; n = 43). Analogues among metropolitan and agglomeration areas were generated and spatial clustering was used to identify groups of highly-suitable parcels within urban areas. Lastly, individual parcels can be interrogated for overall suitability or individual criteria scores. Our approach combines retail methods typically used in isolation (e.g. location quotient, Huff’s model, network analysis) and demonstrates how a simple survey can be used to weight criteria. Results show that survey respondents were in general agreement and that top-line revenues were more critical to perceived location success than development and operational costs. Analysis of suitability scores found analogues and clusters of census metropolitan areas that coincide with store sales as well as clusters of highly suitable parcels predominantly located around major highways. In addition to identifying challenges and solutions to the presented research, we also describe future research directions that extend the presented static analysis to include processes like store closure and openings, competition, and land use change through the use of agent-based modelling.

The effectiveness of rumble strips installations in speed reduction along major highways in Ghana – The case of N1 highway

In response to increasing traffic crashes along highways in Africa, various interventions have been adopted with varied outcomes. Though the specific impacts of various interventions have not been measured, rumble strips appear to be the dominant choice in many countries around Sub-Saharan Africa. Using the Accra-Cape Coast trunk road, a section of the trans-West African highway in Ghana, this study explores the speed reduction effects of rumble strips. In spite of the many traffic-calming interventions introduced on sections of the road, the road is reported to have recorded hundreds of traffic crashes in the last decade. Adopting a quasi-experimental design, thirty-six (36) study sections were delineated, and installed rumble strips were inventoried. Spot speeds were measured on sections “with” and “without” the installed rumble strips, all within communities and known blackspots. Existing data on traffic and road crashes were obtained from secondary sources and reviewed to set the context for effective comparison. The study revealed violations in speed limits at 70% of study locations with only rumble strips installed by 4 km/h. Road traffic crashes tend to cluster with speed ranges of between 54 km/h and 70 km/h. Thus, with the right combinations of interventions, speed and traffic crashes can be substantially reduced along the highway. Policy implications for road safety regulation have also been discussed.

Correlating Traffic Data, Spectral Noise and Air Pollution Measurements: Retrospective Analysis of Simultaneous Measurements near a Highway in The Netherlands

Road traffic simultaneously emits noise and air pollution. This relation is primarily assessed by comparing A-weighted noise levels (LAeq) and various air pollutants. However, despite the common local traffic source, LAeq and the various sets of air pollution show a lower correlation than expected. Prior work, using simultaneous mobile noise and air pollution measurements, shows that the spectral content of the noise explains the complex and highly nonlinear relation between noise and air pollution significantly better. The spectral content distinguishes between traffic volume and traffic dynamics, two relevant modifiers explaining both the variability in noise and air pollution emissions of the local traffic flow. In May 2011, the environmental agency in the Netherlands performed noise and air pollutant measurements near a major highway and included spectral noise. In the resulting report, the analysis of the traffic, the noise and a wide set of air pollutants only showed a strong correlation between noise and NO. In this work, this dataset is re-evaluated using the noise-related covariates, engine noise and cruising noise, defined in prior work. The modeling approach proves valid for most of the measured air pollutants except for the large PM fractions. Conclusion: the prior established methodology explains the complex interaction between traffic dynamics, noise emission and air pollution emissions for a wide variety of air pollutants. The applicability of the ‘noise-as-a-traffic-proxy’ approach is extended.

A Comparison of Daytime and Nighttime Operating Speed on Rural Multi- Lane Highway Sections in Egypt

Traditionally, the 85th percentile of observed speeds is used to represent the operating speed associated with a specific site with certain geometric features. The presence of sunlight enhances the vision of drivers during daytime while visibility usually degrades during nighttime, especially on rural roads where no street lighting exists, and drivers would depend solely on their vehicle headlights. Visibility degradation is a safety concern which is magnified on horizontal curves. The objective of this study, therefore, is to compare operating speed in daytime and nighttime conditions on both tangent sections and horizontal curves. The analysis made use of spot speed data collected on horizontal curves of two major rural multilane highway in Egypt. Spot speed data were collected using speed guns during daytime and nighttime. The spot speed data were used to calculate the mean speed, variance of speed, and the 85th percentile speed. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the speeds in daytime and nighttime. For most cases, it was shown that no significant difference existed in speed for daytime and nighttime. This was mainly attributed to the generous design features of the highway elements (e.g., large radii of horizontal curves, wide lanes, etc.). An attempt was made to develop operating speed models to see which variables impact speed during daytime. The results of operating speed models’ development were deemed inappropriate due to the lack of variability in speeds.

Analysis of effects of prolonged travel delay on public bus operators' profit margin in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria

This study examines the effects of uncertain travel time on public bus operators' monthly returns or profit margin in metropolitan Lagos, Nigeria. Importantly, the study relied on four objectives to achieve its purpose, and these are to; evaluate the demographic profile of public bus drivers; determine the daily cost of operating the buses and the percentage of bus returns spent on bus maintenance; analyze the bus running time and the associated cost attached to prolonged bus operations, and determine the number of trips made and lose daily due to prolonged journey time in metropolitan Lagos. The study relied on a survey research design and the use of primary data, which is derived from a questionnaire instrument administered at the three study locations. Further, the combination of clustered, stratified, and simple random sampling techniques was used while respondents (bus operators/drivers) were selected at different bus stop segments for questionnaire administration. The statistical correlation technique from the SPSS software was used for data relationship analysis, while descriptive tools were utilized for the presentation of the results. Furthermore, the severity of the problems encountered by bus operators shows that loss of daily revenue (52.9%) is the highest, followed by loss of bus trips (35.4%), and constant vehicle breakdown (11.7%). This poses a significant challenge to their business success as it grossly reduces their bus return and monthly profit margin. The study concluded that prolonged bus journey time has a negative socio-economic impact on the Intra-City public bus operators in metropolitan Lagos. Therefore, recommends among others: road highway expansion; provision of extended bus stop lay-bys, BRT corridor extension to other major highways, traffic agents' commitment and patriotism, and intensive enforcement of laws prohibiting bus stop obstructions by public bus drivers.

Covid-19 Dissemination: Late Contact in Local Centers in Southeastern Tocantins

In 2020, the world was overwhelmed by COVID-19, which produced a severe pathology with high mortality rates. National policies to control the pandemic clashed with Brazil’s precarious health structure. While the Brazilian state of Tocantins, along with the rest of the world, saw its main cities suffer from high contamination rates, certain other localities remained free from these dynamics for a much longer period. Thus, this study set out to investigate five municipalities, all located in the southeastern corner of the state, and which were the last to be affected by the pandemic. The aim was to reflect upon the factors that delayed the arrival of the virus. A descriptive analysis was conducted, with a bibliographical review and the use of secondary data from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) database, the State Department of Planning and Budget, epidemiological bulletins from the Department of Health, indices from the agribusiness production chain and the industrial profile, produced by the Tocantins State Federation of Industries. It was concluded that certain factors contributed to this process, such as a low level of influence from urban centers, a lack of major highways and the low purchasing power of the population, which avoided greater flows resulting from the low economic attractiveness.

Extensive public health initiatives drive the elimination of Aedes aegypti (Diptera, Culicidae) from a town in regional Queensland: A case study from Gin Gin, Australia

Aedes aegypti is the primary vector of exotic arboviruses (dengue, chikungunya and Zika) in Australia. Once established across much of Australia, this mosquito species remains prevalent in central and northern Queensland. In 2011, Ae. aegypti was re-discovered in the town of Gin Gin, Queensland, by health authorities during routine larval surveillance. This town is situated on a major highway that provides a distribution pathway into the highly vulnerable and populous region of the state where the species was once common. Following the detection, larval habitat and adult control activities were conducted as a public health intervention to eliminate the Ae. aegypti population and reduce the risk of exotic disease transmission. Importantly, genetic analysis revealed a homogenous cluster and small effective population vulnerable to an elimination strategy. By 2015, adult surveillance revealed the population had expanded throughout the centre of the town. In response, a collaboration between research agencies and local stakeholders activated a second control program in 2016 that included extensive community engagement, enhanced entomologic surveillance and vector control activities including the targeting of key containers, such as unsealed rainwater tanks. Here we describe a model of the public health intervention which successfully reduced the Ae. aegypti population below detection thresholds, using source reduction, insecticides and novel, intensive genetic surveillance methods. This outcome has important implications for future elimination work in small towns in regions sub-optimal for Ae. aegypti presence and reinforces the longstanding benefits of a partnership model for public health-based interventions for invasive urban mosquito species.

The New Deal and Texas History: Saving the Past through Hardship and Turmoil by Ronald E. Goodwin

Reviewed by: The New Deal and Texas History: Saving the Past through Hardship and Turmoil by Ronald E. Goodwin Keith Volanto The New Deal and Texas History: Saving the Past through Hardship and Turmoil. By Ronald E. Goodwin. (Lanham, Md: Lexington Books, 2021. Pp. 200. Notes, bibliography, index.) The Works Progress Administration (WPA) played a key role in the New Deal's attempt to combat the nation's chronic unemployment problem during the Great Depression. While many elements of the agency's efforts are well known—its extensive construction projects that contributed [End Page 527] to the improvement of the nation's landscape and infrastructure, and many non-construction initiatives to provide work for unemployed actors, musician, and visual artists—the WPA also created less publicized work to pay the unemployed to preserve state and local history, as well as to probe communities in order to capture snapshots of Great Depression life for posterity. It is these activities that serve as the focal point of Ronald Goodwin's new book. For this undertaking, Goodwin extensively mines the Federal Writers' Project and Historical Records Survey files among the Texas WPA Records housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. The book is not an administrative history but rather a chronicle with analysis of the workers' collective findings. The most familiar initiatives conducted by the Writers' Project—its travel guides and slave narratives based on interviews with surviving freedpeople—receive extensive coverage, but so do the agency's "life histories" based on interviews with old-timers remembering their years in Texas; "folklore interviews" seeking to preserve stories of local history, customs, and mythology; "military guides" that provided basic military installation histories; and the "automobile tours" in which writers describe treks along country roads and major highways. The efforts of the Historical Records Survey to catalog and preserve valuable local records such as wills, land deeds, old newspapers, church archives, and birth, marriage, and death records also receive adequate treatment. The work does have some organizational, writing, and secondary sourcing issues. Coverage of different aspects of the slave narratives, for example, appear in three separate chapters rather than in a centralized location. Much of this material was originally published in their entirety as essays elsewhere, and readers would have been better served if an attempt had been made to unite the slave narrative information and analysis into a single integrated chapter. Another quibble is with a tendency to provide too many details from many of the files, such as the list of facts provided for the fort histories, instead of simply summarizing their contents. Such analysis would have offered a more efficient use of space. Finally, a perusal of the book's secondary sources reveals a noticeable lack of recent scholarship on the New Deal in Texas. In many instances, newer works should have been cited (and several missing sources should have been included), especially in an early overview chapter on the Depression in Texas. While the basic facts provided in the synopsis are correct, much has been written on the New Deal in Texas since Lionel Patenaude's Texans, Politics, and the New Deal (Garland Publishing, 1983), which Goodwin uses extensively as a source. Other aspects of the New Deal are explained but accompanied by questionable source choices in the endnotes, notably when Goodwin cites T. R. Fehrenbach's Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans (Wings Books, 1991) as a source on the Agricultural Adjustment Administration [End Page 528] in Texas (full disclosure: this reviewer published an entire book on the subject in 2005). Although there has been a relative shortage of New Deal Texas scholarship over the years, the past two decades have witnessed noticeable improvement on this front, and authors now publishing need to demonstrate familiarity with this literature. Despite these issues, this volume adds much to our knowledge of the WPA's efforts in Texas and of the greater New Deal determination to guide the Lone Star State out of the grips of the Great Depression, while, as Goodwin reminds us, documenting Texas culture and preserving its history along the way. Keith Volanto Collin College Copyright © 2022 The...