IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Splinter, a beaver and unofficial mascot of Riparia, and the fabulous Miss Squirrel are dressed up for Valentine’s Day to show their love of wetlands.
GOOD NEWS
• MGIS student Nate Wanner published his capstone project in The Ohio Journal of Science. “Background Concentrations of Arsenic in Ohio Soils: Sources and Influencing Factors”
• Angela Rogers was admitted into the doctoral program in Workforce Education and Development at Penn State starting fall 2018.
COFFEE HOUR
Coffee Hour: with Dennis Whigham: Linking watersheds, wetlands, headwater streams and juvenile salmon—Kenai Lowlands, Alaska
Alaska is known for salmon and the linkage between returning salmon and nutrients cycling in streams and riparian habitats has been demonstrated and is known as “marine derived nutrients.” This interdisciplinary project focusses on linkages between watersheds and first order streams that are upstream of the areas influenced by returning salmon carcasses.
- 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.: Refreshments are offered in 319 Walker Building at 3:30 p.m.; the lecture begins in 112 Walker Building at 4:00 p.m.
- Due to a technical problem, last week’s Coffee Hour was not recorded. A Mediasite link will be shared when the problem is resolved and we can again record and webcast the lecture.
NEWS
Institute for CyberScience to hold data visualization workshops
The Institute for CyberScience (ICS) will be holding a series of monthly workshops on creating static and interactive data visualizations. The first workshop will be held at 4–5:30 p.m. on Feb. 26 in 101 Althouse Laboratory.
These free workshops are open to researchers and students who wish to create their own graphics from a variety of data sources. Discussions will typically focus on making projects with D3.js, an open-source JavaScript library for data visualization, or general best practices in visualization design.
Penn State alumnus to help oversee athlete, visitor safety during Olympics
A Penn State World Campus alumnus will head to the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, this month to help oversee the safety of athletes, spectators and visitors.
Parrish Henderson is the lead of the FBI’s geospatial team, which will provide real-time situation awareness using mapping and other interactive tools.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
The potential contributions of geographic information science to the study of social determinants of health in Iran
Hamidreza Rabiei-Dastjerdi, Stephen A Matthews
Journal of Education and Health Promotion
DOI: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_106_17
Recent interest in the social determinants of health (SDOH) and the effects of neighborhood contexts on individual health and well-being has grown exponentially. In this brief communication, we describe recent developments in both analytical perspectives and methods that have opened up new opportunities for researchers interested in exploring neighborhoods and health research within a SDOH framework. We focus specifically on recent advances in geographic information science, statistical methods, and spatial analytical tools. We close with a discussion of how these recent developments have the potential to enhance SDOH research in Iran.