Orange County Research Articles

Hispanic/Latino perspectives about participation in online recruitment registries for research

AbstractBackgroundOnline recruitment registries have emerged as a novel approach for accelerating enrollment of participants in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research. While investigators may benefit from having access to a large research‐ready and often prescreened population, older Hispanic/Latino adults enroll less frequently in online recruitment registries, particularly for AD. Using qualitative data from focus groups, we elicited perspectives from community dwelling older Hispanics/Latinos about barriers and facilitators to participation in online registries that recruit to AD research studies.MethodWe conducted 4 focus groups via Zoom in May 2022 and enrolled a total of 15 older Hispanic/Latino adults aged 50+ years who participated in the University of California, Irvine Consent‐to‐Contact (C2C) registry. The C2C is a local online recruitment registry that enrolls individuals from Orange County (OC), California and collects minimal data for the purpose of better matching participants to recruiting studies. We used a semi‐structured interview guide to assess Hispanic participants’ perceptions and experiences about AD research, motivators and barriers to enrolling into an online recruitment registry and suggestions for framing messages to improve enrollment.ResultHispanic/Latino participants were predominately female (60%), US born (80%), college educated (80%) and had a mean age of 60. Reflexive thematic analysis identified 3 emergent themes: (1) being personally affected by AD as a driving factor in participants’ desire to participate; (2) a lack of digital literacy and access to digital devices as a barrier to enrollment; and (3) framing messages that are culturally tailored and aimed at reducing fear towards research.ConclusionUnderstanding the factors that drive decisions to enroll in online registries among Hispanics/Latinos will be crucial for the development of interventions to improve participation. Our preliminary results highlight key concerns among older Hispanics/ Latinos already in registries. Additional focus groups will include other key stakeolders from Hispanic/Latino communities in OC to compare findings.

Quantifying the linkages between California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) strandings and particulate domoic acid concentrations at piers across Southern California

Domoic acid-producing blooms of the diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia are pervasive in coastal environments globally. Domoic acid, a neurotoxin, accumulates via trophic transfer into marine food webs and is often associated with mass marine mammal mortality and stranding events. In Southern California, California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) are an indicator species for food web impacts of domoic acid because they are abundant secondary consumers, sensitive to domoic acid intoxication, and are actively monitored by stranding networks. However, domoic acid exposure may occur a distance from where a sea lion ultimately strands. This spatiotemporal variation complicates coupling domoic acid observations in water to strandings. Therefore, we sought to quantify whether monitoring data from four pier sites across the region, covering nearly 700 km of coastline from 2015-2019, could be used to predict adult and subadult sea lion strandings along the 68 km Orange County coastline surveyed by the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. We found that increased sea lion strandings were often observed just prior to an increase in particulate domoic acid at the piers, confirming that clusters of subadult and adult sea lion strandings with clinical signs of domoic acid intoxication serve as indicators of bloom events. In addition, domoic acid concentrations at Stearns Wharf, nearly 200 km from stranding locations, best predicted increased total sea lion strandings, and strandings of sea lions with domoic acid intoxication symptoms. Particulate domoic acid concentrations greater than 0.05 μg/L at Stearns Wharf were linked to stranding probabilities in Orange County ranging from 2.2% to 55% per week, and concentrations of 0.25 μg/L resulted in weekly stranding probabilities ranging from 16% to 81% depending on the stranding scenario modeled.

School’s Role in Obesity Prevention

Fast food, advanced transportation, and behind the desk jobs characterize the lifestyle of the majority of Americans. Unfortunately, this lifestyle has resulted in one of America’s worst epidemics: obesity. In 2000, over 15% of Americans aged 6-19 were obese/overweight. In 2020, this statistic grew tremendously, when obesity was prevalent in 22.2% of people aged 12 to 19-years old in America alone (CDC 2022). In an effort to battle obesity, government and societies have turned to schools to be the firsthand prevention for the pandemic. This has been evident in past national and state legislation regarding what students eat at lunch. However, the focus of these actions has been on school food, but the importance of exercise within schools has been overlooked. Using a survey, the aim of this research is to analyze the exercise patterns of high school students in an Orange County Public School. The findings conclude that about 30% of students are getting the recommended amount of exercise through the school each day, but most of these students are doing so through extra-curricular sports. Therefore, the students who are getting enough exercise are doing s because they want to, not because the school is making them. Consequently, schools need to play a bigger role in challenging obesity by requiring more mandatory exercise for students.

Phenotyping the autonomic nervous system in pregnancy using remote sensors: potential for complication prediction.

Objectives: The autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays a central role in dynamic adaptation during pregnancy in accordance with the pregnancy demands which otherwise can lead to various pregnancy complications. Despite the importance of understanding the ANS function during pregnancy, the literature lacks sufficiency in the ANS assessment. In this study, we aimed to identify the heart rate variability (HRV) function during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy and 1 week after childbirth and its relevant predictors in healthy pregnant Latina individuals in Orange County, CA. Materials and methods: N = 16 participants were enrolled into the study from which N = 14 (N = 13 healthy and n = 1 complicated) participants proceeded to the analysis phase. For the analysis, we conducted supervised machine learning modeling including the hierarchical linear model to understand the association between time and HRV and random forest regression to investigate the factors that may affect HRV during pregnancy. A t-test was used for exploratory analysis to compare the complicated case with healthy pregnancies. Results: The results of hierarchical linear model analysis showed a significant positive relationship between time (day) and average HRV (estimated effect = 0.06; p < 0.0001), regardless of being healthy or complicated, indicating that HRV increases during pregnancy significantly. Random forest regression results identified some lifestyle and sociodemographic factors such as activity, sleep, diet, and mental stress as important predictors for HRV changes in addition to time. The findings of the t-test indicated that the average weekly HRV of healthy and non-healthy subjects differed significantly (p < 0.05) during the 17weeks of the study. Conclusion: It is imperative to focus our attention on potential autonomic changes, particularly the possibility of increased parasympathetic activity as pregnancy advances. This observation may challenge the existing literature that often suggests a decline in parasympathetic activity toward the end of pregnancy. Moreover, our findings indicated the complexity of HRV prediction, involving various factors beyond the mere passage of time. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of this dynamic state, future investigations should delve into the intricate relationship between autonomic activity, considering diverse parasympathetic and sympathetic metrics, and the progression of pregnancy.

Safety and Efficacy of Intravenous ExoFlo in the Treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is an extremely painful disorder driven primarily by inflammation. OBJECTIVES: We hypothesized that the immunomodulatory biologic, ExoFloTM, composed of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles, could be safely administered to CRPS patients and alleviate symptoms. STUDY DESIGN: Ten patients received 2 intravenous (IV) infusions, each containing 15 mL ExoFlo, on day one and day 4. A series of tests were performed at baseline (day 0, prior to infusion), week one, and months one, 3, and 6 after the second infusion. SETTING: All patients were treated in one of 2 outpatient pain management clinics in Orange County, CA. METHODS: Testing for clinical improvement included: visual analog scale of pain, brief pain inventory, 36-item short-form questionnaire, range of motion analysis, and jamar dynamometer testing. RESULTS: No serious adverse events related to ExoFlo treatment occurred. Statistically significant improvements in pain and motion assessments occurred across the patient pool. LIMITATIONS: This study was limited by its patient number enrolled (10), it lacked a control arm, and one patient who dropped out of the study. CONCLUSIONS: IV delivery of ExoFlo appears safe in patients with CRPS. In addition, ExoFlo exhibited efficacy in addressing CRPS symptoms. Given the lack of effective and safe treatments available to CRPS patients, these results suggest that further studies are warranted to explore and validate this potential treatment for CRPS. KEY WORDS: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), mesenchymal stem cell, extracellular vesicle, ExoFlo

The Orange County gardeners of COVID‐19: Making breath in landscapes of racial suffocation

AbstractThis article examines Latinx residential gardening in Orange County, California during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The pandemic laid bare how the suburban home is a realm of racial suffocation, where the US white propertied subject is secured through unfettered access to the life, not just labor, of racialized and gendered workers of the domestic economy. Despite disposability, residential gardeners' frontline botanical work foments a practice of making breath that, beyond expanding life in the Southern California suburban ecology of lawns, gardens, and property, also crafts more than human mutuality from the grounds of the suburban home. Thinking beyond the paradigm of gardeners' “mow, blow, and go” labor, I track how their more than human mutuality, despite appearing to be pruned back, tarries on other's property with plants, soil, and trees in ways that reemerges beyond liberal humanist categorizations of labor and the human. In doing so, I demonstrate that, despite racial suffocation, residential gardeners' practices of breathing befuddle the aims of racial capitalist COVID‐19 inequity.

Pharmacogenomics to Predict Asparaginase Premedication-Related Hypersensitivity in Pediatric and Adolescent Young Adults (AYAs) with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or Lymphoma

Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients have had significantly improved outcomes over the last few decades with overall survival (OS) rates exceeding 90%. Several factors, including the incorporation of asparaginase therapy in chemotherapy regimens of pediatric and AYA patients with ALL have played a critical role in improving outcomes. Asparaginase is a bacteria-derived enzyme which depletes the non-essential amino acid asparagine and leads to subsequent apoptosis in lymphoblastic leukemia cells. One of the main limitations of the frontline pegaspargase (PEG) chemotherapy is the development of hypersensitivity reactions and subsequent development of anti-asparaginase neutralizing antibodies that lead to PEG inactivation. When hypersensitivity reactions to PEG occur, patients are often switched to alternative forms of asparaginase, such as that isolated from Erwinia chrysanthemi. A prospective multi-institutional study initiated by Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and conducted at 6 pediatric cancer centers: 1) evaluated the efficacy of premedicating pediatric and AYA patients with B or T-ALL or lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL) receiving PEG with antihistamines (H1 and H2 blockers), and 2) performed therapeutic drug monitoring to better identify patients with true hypersensitivity reactions versus those with non-antibody mediated infusion reactions with the goal of reducing incidences of substitution to Erwinia asparaginase. This study also aimed to characterize the pharmacogenomics which may be driving differences in asparaginase hypersensitivity to better understand which single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are involved in the immunogenicity of PEG and whether certain populations are more at risk for hypersensitivity. Here, we report preliminary evidence showing an association between a combination of 3 SNPs in 3 genes and incidence of hypersensitivity to PEG. The analysis cohort consisted of 126 non-Down syndrome patients premedicated prior to PEG treatment. In this cohort, the median age was 7.7 years, 48 were female (38%) and 78 male (62%), 65 patients identified as Hispanic (52%), 56 as non-Hispanic (44%) and 5 declined to state (4%). Overall, 28 patients had a hypersensitive reaction to PEG within 15 minutes of infusion. Patient characteristics by hypersensitivity incidence are summarized in Fig 1A, with age and National Cancer Institute (NCI) risk groups being the factors that significantly differ by hypersensitivity. DNA from all 126 patients was used to genotype for 6 SNPs in 5 genes involved in pathways implicated in hypersensitivity to PEG. We tested each SNP genotype in 3 modes of inheritance (additive, dominant, and recessive) in all possible combinations of up to two SNPs per model using Cox-proportional hazard models for association with incidences of hypersensitivity post-infusion in 126 patients for whom clinical data was available. We then performed 1000 permutation tests for each model to determine the likelihood of obtaining them falsely. Models were ordered according to their Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) and weight in favor of each model and those with least BIC and a 1000 permutation p&amp;lt;0.05 were selected for development of Asp_PGx3 score. This was defined by adding the genotype scores of 3 SNPs in 3 genes ( ARHGAP28, CNOT3, and NFATC2), accounting for the mode of inheritance and the direction of their association with outcome. This score ranged from -5 to 0, with patients with score &amp;lt;0 stratified as low score and those with scores of 0 as high score groups. A significantly higher proportion of patients in the low Asp_PGx3 score group (29%) had an incidence of PEG hypersensitivity compared to those in the high Asp_PGx3 score group (16%) (Fig 1B). In conclusion, we show a combination of 3 SNPs (in ARHGAP28, CNOT3, and NFATC2) associated with PEG hypersensitivity in a cohort of 126 pediatric and AYA ALL/LBL patients. Instead of a single SNP association approach, identifying combinations of variations in pathway specific genes provides a more robust means to predict drug response. Our preliminary results provide a rationale for identification of genome level variations in this cohort and association analysis to establish clinically relevant pharmacogenomics score to optimize PEG treatment. Funding for this study was provided by CHOC PSF Tithe Grant, CHOC Hyundai Cancer Institute Research Grant, and Servier Pharmaceuticals.

Maternity Care at the Intersections of Language, Ethnicity, and Immigration Status: A Qualitative Study.

Women of color and immigrant women are more likely than US-born White women to report mistreatment and poor quality of care during their reproductive health care. Surprisingly little research exists on how language access may impact immigrant women's experiences of maternity care, particularly by race and ethnicity. We conducted qualitative in-depth, one-on-one semi-structured interviews from August 2018 to August 2019 with 10 Mexican and eight Chinese/Taiwanese women (n=18) living in Los Angeles or Orange County who gave birth within the past 2 years. Interviews were transcribed and translated, and data were initially coded based on the interview guide questions. We identified patterns and themes using thematic analysis methods. Participants described how a lack of translators and language- and cultural-concordant health care providers and staff impeded their access to maternity care services; in particular, they described barriers to communication with receptionists, providers, and ultrasound technicians. Despite Mexican immigrants' ability to access Spanish-language health care, both Mexican and Chinese immigrant women described how lack of understanding medical concepts and terminology resulted in poor quality of care, lack of informed consent for reproductive procedures, and subsequent psychological and emotional distress. Undocumented women were less likely to report using strategies that leveraged social resources to improve language access and quality care. Reproductive autonomy cannot be achieved without access to culturally and linguistically appropriate health care. Health care systems should ensure that comprehensive information is given to women, in a language and manner they can understand, with particular attention toward providing in-language services across multiple ethnicities. Multilingual staff and health care providers are critical in providing care that is responsive to immigrant women.

“Anywhere But Here”: Understanding the Influence of Antihomeless Coalitions on Street-Level Bureaucratic Discretion and Judicial Nullification

A comprehensive understanding of the housing situation in California specifically, and the United States generally, cannot be addressed without close examination of the material conditions of the poor and how the actions of public servants charged with implementing and delivering housing regulations and policy affect them and the law. This research focuses on everyday interactions between street-level bureaucrats and homeless residents to examine how and why discretion—the legal authority of government officials to enforce the law—is exercised. This paper argues that factors involved in triggering enforcement and criminalization are highly influenced by local political dynamics which are shown to play a role in the discretionary decision-making process of those on the frontlines of homelessness in Orange County, California, and ultimately nullifying important precedent aimed at protecting the constitutional rights of the unhoused.

Keeping the Vietnamese language alive

There is a need for Vietnamese language education for the Vietnamese American community in the United States, and the Vietnamese Language Program at Westminster High School (WHS) in Orange County, California, has been able to preserve the Vietnamese language. Students in the program also learn about their heritage and culture to stay connected to their families and community. Author Pauline Phi Nguyên Đồng, a Vietnamese language teacher at the high school, suggests that the WHS Vietnamese Language Program is a model for how heritage language programs can be sustained in schools and communities.

Mexican American Educational History: A Moment of Recognition

Mexican American educational history has become a vibrant field of study since the late 1980s. In the last seven years, however, it is notable that this research has inspired community-based efforts to preserve and publicly commemorate challenges to unequal education. In this commentary, we discuss the archival recovery of the Francisco Maestas et al. v. George Shone et al. case in Alamosa, Colorado; the excavation of El Colegio Altamirano in Hebbronville, Texas; the complexity of memorializing the Mendez v. Westminster case in Orange County, California; and the implications of archival and oral history research connected to the Soria v. Oxnard School Board of Trustees case in Oxnard, California. These examples illuminate the highly contested spaces that public schools held for Mexican Americans and the role scholars and communities can play in acknowledging those moments. We see public schooling as a place where liberation and hope can occur and where scholars and communities can engage together. This is a call to continue to create relationships that lead to the recognition of past struggles and acknowledge the enduring quest for educational equality.

Decision-Making Regarding Elective Child and Adolescent Vaccinations Among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Parents in Orange County.

Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) in aggregate experience greater health burdens than non-Hispanic Whites, such as a higher incidence of cervical cancer and COVID-19. Given the importance of vaccinations in preventing and reducing the severity of diseases, such as the flu, cervical cancer, and COVID-19, the receipt of vaccines during childhood and adolescence is crucial. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to explore the factors associated with NHPI parents' decisions regarding vaccinating their children with these elective vaccinations-that is, vaccinations not required for child care, preschool, or K-12 admissions in California but highly recommended. A total of 15 NHPI parents were recruited through a community-based organization. Semi-structured interviews explored parents' reasons for accepting or denying each vaccine for their child(ren). Results demonstrated variable acceptance of each vaccine, though consistent themes included protection and concerns over side effects. This study also found two general types of parents-those who treat vaccines the same and those with varying opinions about each vaccine. Results from this study demonstrate the family- and community-oriented nature of NHPI communities, suggesting that future interventions target not only parents but also their families and communities to cultivate vaccine acceptance through social networks. Furthermore, addressing all three vaccines during well-child visits may benefit parents who view each vaccine as separate entities with individual pros and cons. Such interventions could contribute toward reducing the burdens of particularly chronic health disparities.

Can TODs Include Affordable Housing?

Problem, research strategy, and findings Inclusion of affordable housing in transit-oriented developments (TODs) is necessary for addressing the mobility and shelter needs of transit-dependent and low-income populations. Affordable housing in TODs, however, remains scarce despite state-level policies, interest group advocacy, and developer enthusiasm. We used a multiple case study method and focused on TOD areas in communities with disadvantaged populations in Southern California to examine barriers to and opportunities for affordable housing. We examined the contents of specific plans adopted by local governments to facilitate TODs around 10 selected transit stations in Los Angeles and Orange counties and conducted interviews with planners, policymakers, and developers involved in achieving affordable housing. Our findings indicated that although TOD specific plans permitted higher-density developments, they neither prioritized affordable housing nor presented a coherent vision for an inclusive transit community that would address the needs of different types of households. Moreover, onerous requirements for securing subsidies, patchwork financing, uncertainties in the approval process, and competition from market-rate housing inhibited affordable housing development. Although we did not analyze community opposition to TODs, it was hinted at by our interviewees. Takeaway for practice Targeting affordable housing in TODs, providing incentives, and strengthening the institutional framework are critical to achieving inclusive transit communities. The development of TODs in a politically fragmented region like Southern California necessitates a lead organization to procure affordable housing investments and strengthen the housing–transportation nexus. We note broader implications of the findings beyond California.

Fitting a stochastic model of intensive care occupancy to noisy hospitalization time series during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Intensive care occupancy is an important indicator of health care stress that has been used to guide policy decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Toward reliable decision-making as a pandemic progresses, estimating the rates at which patients are admitted to and discharged from hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) is crucial. Since individual-level hospital data are rarely available to modelers in each geographic locality of interest, it is important to develop tools for inferring these rates from publicly available daily numbers of hospital and ICU beds occupied. We develop such an estimation approach based on an immigration-death process that models fluctuations of ICU occupancy. Our flexible framework allows for immigration and death rates to depend on covariates, such as hospital bed occupancy and daily SARS-CoV-2 test positivity rate, which may drive changes in hospital ICU operations. We demonstrate via simulation studies that the proposed method performs well on noisy time series data and apply our statistical framework to hospitalization data from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Health and Orange County, California. By introducing a likelihood-based framework where immigration and death rates can vary with covariates, we find, through rigorous model selection, that hospitalization and positivity rates are crucial covariates for modeling ICU stay dynamics and validate our per-patient ICU stay estimates using anonymized patient-level UCI hospital data.

Mitragynine in Orange County DUID Population.

In recent years, mitragynine has been consistently detected in driving under the influence of drug (DUID) cases. In this paper, we evaluate three years (2017-2019) worth of DUID data from arrested drivers in Orange County, CA, USA. From the 25,398 DUID cases received in those three years, there were 60 (0.24%) cases with detectable concentrations, >10 ng/mL, of mitragynine. The majority of the drivers were male (90%), and were stopped during the week (81%), considered Monday 0000 to Friday 1159. The concentration range for all mitragynine cases was 10.5-960 ng/mL, with a mean of 109 ng/mL and a median of 58 ng/mL. Forty-four of the 60 cases were also screened for 7-hydroxymitragynine and 27 (63%) were positive. The police reports and drug recognition expert evaluations were collected and evaluated. No case contained solely mitragynine and the most common drugs detected in combination were central nervous system depressants (ethanol, followed by benzodiazepines), stimulants (methamphetamine and cocaine), and opioids (fentanyl and indication of heroin). Two cases containing only one other psychoactive substance are discussed more thoroughly to attempt to identify the contributions of mitragynine to driving impairment. Collected demographic, toxicological, and field observations are presented for all cases.

Municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) dry weather flows and potential flow sources as assessed by conventional and advanced bacterial analyses

Municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) function in urbanized areas to convey flows during both wet weather (i.e., stormwater) and dry weather (i.e., urban runoff as well as subsurface sources of flow) to receiving waters. While urban stormwater is known to contain microbial and chemical pollutants, MS4 dry weather flows, or non-stormwater discharges (NSWDs), are much less studied, although they are also known to contain pollutants, especially when these flows include raw sewage. In addition, some natural NSWDs (e.g., from groundwater infiltrating MS4 pipes) are critical for aquatic habitat protection. Thus, it is important to distinguish NSWD sources to prevent non-natural flows while retaining natural waters (i.e., groundwater). Here, MS4 dry weather flows were assessed by analyzing water samples from MS4 outfalls across multiple watersheds and water provider service areas in south Orange County, CA; potential NSWD sources including sewage, recycled water, potable water, and groundwater were sampled and analyzed for their likely contributions to overall NSWDs. Geochemical and microbiological water quality indicators, as well as bacterial communities, differed across NSWDs, yet water quality within most locations did not vary significantly diurnally or by sampling date. Meanwhile, NSWD source waters had distinctly different bacterial taxa abundances and specific bacterial genera. Shared geochemical and microbial characteristics of certain sources and outfall flows suggested the contributions of sources to outfall flows. The average proportions by sources contributing to MS4 outfalls were further estimated by SourceTracker and FEAST, respectively. The results of this study highlight the use of multiple tools when assessing chemical and microbiological water quality to predict sources of NSWDs contributing to urban MS4 flows during dry weather. This information can be used to support management actions to reduce unnatural and high risk sources of dry weather drainage while preserving natural sources important to environmental health in downstream receiving waters.

Annette M. Walker, President, City of Hope Orange County.

Annette M. Walker, President, City of Hope Orange County.

Predictors of parental anxiety in a paediatric emergency department

BackgroundChildren experience significant anxiety in the paediatric ED. Although research from preoperative and primary care samples indicates that parents experience anxiety surrounding their children’s medical procedures, less is known about...

Presence of Perfluoroalkyl Substances in Landfill Adjacent Surface Waters in North Carolina.

Landfills pose an important public health risk, especially in historically disenfranchised communities that are disproportionately sited for landfills and in rural areas where private wells may be impacted. Landfills are major sources of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that migrate into the surrounding environment. This study characterized PFAS in surface waters adjacent to two landfills, one in Sampson County (SC) and one in Orange County (OC) in North Carolina. In addition to municipal solid waste and construction and demolition waste, the landfill in SC accepts industrial sludge from a chemical plant that produces proprietary PFAS. Over four months, 35 surface water samples were collected at upstream, landfill-adjacent, and downstream/downgradient sites. Thirty-four PFAS were analyzed using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectroscopy. Of those, six novel and six legacy PFAS were detected. Legacy PFAS were detected in surface water near both landfills, with the highest concentrations adjacent to the landfill. Novel PFAS were only detected in surface water near the SC landfill and showed the highest concentrations adjacent to the landfill, indicating offsite migration of PFAS. These findings support the need for more comprehensive and frequent monitoring of groundwater and surface water wells near landfills and stricter regulation regarding the landfilling of industrial materials.

Detecting School Zones on Florida’s Public Roadways Using Aerial Images and Artificial Intelligence (AI2)

Collecting up-to-date roadway geometry data is essential for transportation agencies so they can undertake planning, maintenance, design, and rehabilitation of roadways. Collection methods can be categorized into two distinct groups: land-based methods (e.g., field inventories, mobile mapping, and image logging); and aerial-based methods (e.g., satellite imagery, drones, and laser scanning). Because using land-based methods for thousands of miles of highways is tedious, costly, and risky for crew members, there is a need to develop better methodologies to collect these data faster, and more safely and cheaply. The increasing availability of high-resolution images and recent advances in computer vision and object detection techniques have enabled the automated extraction of roadway geometry features. This novel study proposes a computer vision-based methodology to detect school zone pavement markings from high-resolution aerial images and determine school zones on Florida’s public roadways. This is critical information for transportation agencies, and they use it for a variety of different purposes: identifying those markings that are old and invisible; comparing the school zone locations with other geometric features such as crosswalks; and analyzing crashes that occur around the zones. Compared with the ground truth data obtained for Leon County, Florida, 94% accuracy was observed at the 90% confidence level. The model was then used to detect school zones in Orange County, Florida, and approximately 500 school zone markings were identified automatically. The road geometry data extracted can be integrated with crash and traffic data to advise policymakers and roadway users.