Participatory geographic mapping and activity space diaries: innovative data collection methods for understanding environmental risk exposures among female sex workers in a low-to middle-income country

Background A common approach for measuring place-based exposure is to use geographically-defined administrative boundaries and to link neighborhood characteristics at this level. This approach, however, may not be feasible in low-to middle-income countries where neighborhood-level data are limited or unavailable, and administrative boundaries are often unstandardized and not proportional to population size. Furthermore, such traditional approaches may not be appropriate for marginalized populations whose environments can be more difficult to study. In this paper, we describe two innovative and feasible methods to generate geospatial data to characterize and assess the role of risk environments on drug use among female sex workers living with HIV in the Dominican Republic. Methods Participatory geographic mapping and daily activity space travel diaries were employed. Results The methods presented in this study were feasible to implement, acceptable by study participants, and yielded rich geospatial data to analyze the impact of contextual factors on risk behaviors of female sex workers in a low-to middle-income country. Conclusion Participatory geographic mapping and activity space diaries are two alternative methods for collecting geospatial data among hard-to-reach populations in resource constrained settings. Moreover, the methods are interactive and educational, allowing study participants to take an active role in the data collection process and potentially allowing for a deeper understanding of place-based effects on health and behavior.

Genetic diversity and geographic mapping of mango in Maranhão

The objective of this study was to map the routes of greater natural occurrence of the mango tree, through the geographic descriptors and to characterize mango accesses in Maranhão. Field trips for the collection of geographic data and fruit harvesting were carried out in the municipalities of Chapadinha, Caxias, Brejo and Matinha, MA in the year 2013. Qualitative biometric studies were conducted to characterize the accesses collected regarding the color of the fruit peel (TFC), fruit pulp color (CPF), firmness (Fir), fruit shape (FF), fruit peel adhesion (ACF), fruit aroma (FF), fruit DF), fruit succulence and embryo (EB).The model of partial distribution of the mango in Maranhão was generated in the Open Modeller program based on the methodology using the algorithm SVM. Three groups were formed by the Tocher grouping method.The accesses of sugar and milk mango were the most similar, while the greatest genetic distance was between the accesses of mango sugar and mango. In the geographic map it was verified that there are areas with high probability of natural occurrence of mango in Maranhão. It was verified that there is genetic variability in the mango accesses collected in Maranhão with desirable agronomic characteristics and sweet fruits, thus contributing to reduce the species' vulnerability that currently exists in large areas of monoclonal crops.

On the Grid: Creativity, the Digital Humanities, Oulipo, and Georges Perec

A study of the origins of the digital humanities and a comparison with several works of Georges Perec as seen through the lens of the digital humanities. A geographic mapping of the memories in Perec's "Je me souviens" is explored and interpreted.

A GEOGRAFIA DO ESPAÇO VIVIDO: a experimentação das categorias geográficas no Colégio Universitário da Universidade Federal do Maranhão

A Geografia se ocupa da análise e compreensão do espaço geográfico, nessa discussão as categorias geográficas Paisagem, Lugar, Território e Região são consideradas, visto que se evidenciam na relação espacial. Dessa forma foi elaborada uma metodologia pedagógica para a compreensão do espaço geográfico por meio de suas categorias, aplicada no Colégio Universitário, localizado no município de São Luís, no Campus da Universidade Federal do Maranhão. O objetivo da atividade foi uma intervenção pedagógica que auxiliasse alunos de uma turma do 3º do Ensino Médio do colégio de aplicação a entenderem as categorias geográficas, sua presença e relações no espaço geográfico a partir da valorização do espaço vivido pelos alunos e graduandos, usando na metodologia e aplicação da intervenção de discussões teóricas aplicação de questionários e do trabalho com fotografias, músicas, vídeo, laboratório com programa de mapeamento geográfico que permite amplitude da análise espacial e da realização de aula de campo em quatro pontos do município de São Luís, totalizando cinco etapas metodológicas levando os alunos a analisarem criticamente o espaço geográfico e suas categorias, resultando em válidas atividades didáticas no que tange a compreensão do espaço geográfico e suas categorias.Palavras-chaveGeografia escolar, Categorias geográficas, Experimentação de ensino e metodologias.THE GEOGRAPHY OF LIVING SPACE: the experimentation of geographical categories in the High School Universty of the University Federal of MaranhãoAbstractThe geography that is concerned with the analysis and understanding of the geographic space, in this discussion the geographical categories Landscape, Place, Territory and Region must be considered, once which are evidenced in the spatial relationship. In this way a pedagogical methodology was developed for the understanding of the geographical space through its categories, applied in the High School University, located in the municipality of São Luís, in Campus da University Federal of Maranhão. The objective of the activity was a pedagogical intervention that would help students of a 3rd grade high school group of the application college to understand the geographic categories, their presence and relations in the geographic space based on the appreciation of the space lived by students and undergraduates, using in the methodology and application of the intervention of theoretical discussions, application of questionnaires and the work with photographs, music, video, laboratory with geographic mapping program that allows amplitude of the spatial analysis and the accomplishment of field class in four points of the municipality of São Luís, totaling in five methodological steps causing the students to critically analyze the geographic space and its categories, resulting in valid didactic activities in reference of the understanding of geographic space and yours categories.KeywordsSchool geography, Geographic categories, Teaching experimentation and methodologies.ISSN: 2236-3904REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE EDUCAÇÃO EM GEOGRAFIA - RBEGwww.revistaedugeo.com.br - [email protected]

Child trafficking in China: Evidence from sentencing documents

Child trafficking has long been internationally recognized as a serious crime. However, due to data scarcity and inconsistent definitions, the scope and nature of such criminal activity are not well understood in China. To fill this gap, this study aims to provide new evidence by digitizing and analyzing sentencing documents on child trafficking in China during 2014-2016.Taking advantage of web scraping techniques, all child trafficking cases were downloaded from the China Judgments Online website. Through geographic mapping and network analysis, we identified four geographic hotspots for trafficking—the central region (Shandong, Henan, and Hebei provinces), the east (Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces), the southeast (Guangdong and Fujian provinces) and the southwest (Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan provinces)—and explored the connection between the hotspots and the gender of victims. We further examined the effect of provincial socioeconomic characteristics on the frequency of trafficking cases, and found that sex ratio at birth and the number of legal adoptions per thousand were positively correlated to the frequency of buying and selling children.

Management of the River Vedi Annual Runoff

The article presents the following tasks for the Vedi river: to study and analyze the main physical and geographical factors determining the runoff; to collect, work out, analyze and estimate the results of factual hydro-meteorological observations of the river basin; to discover and analyze the features of intra-year distribution of the river runoff basin; to study dynamic changes of the river runoff; to create the methods of long-term forecasting of monthly and annual runoff; to create a map of spatial distribution of the river runoff. For these purposes were used the data of hydrological and meteorological stations, points of basin observations and mathematical-statistic, geographic, mapping, analytical and correlation methods.

The digital epidemiology of phenylketonuria, aka folling’s disease: retrospective analysis and geographic mapping via google trends

Background: Phenylketonuria, commonly known as PKU, is an inherited disorder in which there is an abnormally elevated blood level of the amino acid phenylalanine leading to several pathologies affecting multiple organs including the central nervous system and resulting in debilitating intellectual disability and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Phenylalanine is a building block of several critical proteins within the biological systems.Aims and Objective: To assess the digital epidemiology and geographic mapping of Phenylketonuria.Materials and Methods: This study is a retrospective analytic (2013‑2017) of a very large database existing on the surface web known as Google Trends. it aims to extrapolate a statistical inference concerning the digital epidemiology and the geographic mapping of phenylketonuria. The trends database will be explored via thematic keywords specific to the condition of phenylketonuria including “Phenylketonuria [PKU]”, “Phenylalanine”, “Inborn errors of metabolism”, “Tetrahydrobiopterin”, and “Chromosome 12 (human)”.Results: The digital epidemiology is densely clustered in countries from the developed world, eastern Europe, and Latin America. Surface web users from China appears to possess the highest interest in phenylketonuria. The contribution of the Middle Eastern and Arabic countries to the geographic mapping did not exceed 10.51% at its best. Significant changes existed for year-to-year variations of trends. Statistical outliers were also found, the strongest of which was observed during April 2016 for which there’s no plausible explanation.Conclusion: Trends databases operating on the surface web represent potent tools of big data that can be exploited to assess the digital epidemiology and geographic mapping of countless phenomenon including rare genetic diseases and inborn errors of metabolism. There are also enormous potentials for real-time and predictive analytics of these databases when investing the application of automation in data collection and principles of machine learning.Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.9(6) 2018 93-99