public health landscape
Patrick Dougherty: Rooted in Nature
Patrick Dougherty’s art career is rooted in his fascination with nature and primitive building techniques.
Born in Oklahoma in 1945 and raised in North Carolina, Dougherty first pursued traditional academics, earning degrees in English and Health Administration. However, his return to North Carolina to study art history and sculpture sparked a desire to create works of art utilizing natural materials, particularly tree saplings. Combining this desire with his carpentry skills, Dougherty began crafting unique, large-scale sculptures that organically blend into their environments.
Jacques Régnière: Budworm to BioSIM
Jacques Régnière, born in Quebec City, has dedicated over four decades to advancing our understanding of forest pests and protecting our global forests. Earning his bachelor’s degree in biology from Laval University and a Ph.D. in insect ecology and biomathematics from North Carolina State University, Régnière began his career at the Canadian Forest Service in 1980, where he served until his retirement in 2024.
Throughout his distinguished career, Régnière focused on pressing issues in forest ecology, notably the population dynamics of the spruce budworm, mountain pine beetle, and spongy moth. His work in quantitative ecology has influenced pest management practices and provided a better understanding of climate change’s impact on invasive species and forest health.
Purdue launches new AI-based global forest mapping project
Purdue University’s Jingjing Liang has received a two-year, $870,000 grant from the World Resources Institute to map global forest carbon accumulation rates.
“To accurately capture the carbon accumulation rates of forested ecosystems across the world has always been a challenging task, mostly because doing so requires lots of ground-sourced data, and currently such data are very limited to the scientific community,” said Liang, an associate professor of quantitative forest ecology and co-director of the Forest Advanced Computing and Artificial Intelligence Lab.
“This task is considerably more challenging than mapping carbon emissions from forest loss,” said Nancy Harris, research director of the Land & Carbon Lab at the World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. “With emissions, there’s a clear signal in satellite imagery when trees are cut, leading to a big drop in forest carbon stocks and a relatively abrupt pulse of emissions to the atmosphere. With sequestration, forests accumulate carbon gradually and nonlinearly.”
Single-Photon Lidar
The Canadian Institute of Forestry in partnership with the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre and other organizations are currently researching the potential of single photon lidar for Ontario’s
Enhanced Forest Resource Inventory (EFI) at the Petawawa Research Forest (PRF).
What is Lidar?
A lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors will emit light pulses that will reflect or bounce off objects, such as standing trees or the ground. This measures the time of return and the distance that each pulse travels. The result is highly detailed 3-D point clouds of the forest environment.
Riley Sims: Colors of Resilience
Riley Sims, a graduate of Ball State University and currently pursuing her graduate studies at Kent State University, combines geometric precision with spontaneous bursts of vibrant color to create a dynamic representation of life’s complexities, healing and resilience.
A key focus of Sims’ art is her intimate exploration of Lyme disease, a condition she has personally battled. However, Sims’ work goes beyond self-expression – her canvases are powerful advocacy tools. Her paintings education viewers about Lyme disease, bringing awareness to the financial and emotional challenges faced by those with the disease.
Dr. Willy Burgdorfer: One Tick at a Time
Dr. Willy Burgdorfer, born on June 27, 1925, in Basel, Switzerland, is known for transforming the understanding of tick-borne illnesses.
Burgdorfer pursued his undergraduate and doctoral studies in parasitology and tropical bacteriology at the University of Basel – where he first developed his fascination with ticks while studying how these arthropods transmitted spirochetes that caused relapsing fever. In 1951, Burgdorfer moved to the United States for a fellowship in Montana at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) – a National Institute of Health biomedical research facility for vector-borne diseases, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease and Q fever.
What Does Lyme Disease Do to Your Body?
What exactly is the connection between a tick bite and lyme disease?
While we’re not sure exactly where and when the disease originated, we do know a lot about how it works, its signs, its symptoms in humans and dogs, how it’s spread and its treatment.
Check out this video by Seeker to learn all about what lyme disease does to your body.
Tick-ing Time Bomb: The Expanding Threat of Tick-Borne Diseases
Urbanization, resistance to pesticides, and, most critically, climate change are creating ideal conditions for global tick proliferation. As these 8-legged bloodsuckers expand their territories, the world should expect a corresponding rise in Lyme disease, spotted fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, tick-borne encephalitis, and other conditions that infect humans, pets, and livestock.
“This is an epidemic in slow motion,” a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tick expert and research, biologist told the Associated Press.
Ticks live on every continent except Antarctica, and while estimates of annual tick populations vary, the scientific community agrees that their numbers are growing. Researchers also are unanimous that arachnids pose an increasing health risk as mild winters and longer summers associated with global warming kill off fewer individuals, give them longer to develop and feed, and make higher elevations and northerly latitudes that previously were too intemperate or elevated more hospitable.
Lyme Disease Quick Facts
Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the country and one of the most difficult to diagnose. Experts in the medical and scientific community, as well as key legislators, have deemed Lyme disease an epidemic … a national public health crisis … and a growing threat.
300,000 people are infected with Lyme disease each yearAt least 300,000 people are infected with Lyme disease each year
New tick-borne diseases are emerging … the number of tick endemic regions is growing … the tick population is increasing … and, the number of people infected with Lyme disease is steadily rising.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that at least 300,000 people are infected with Lyme disease each year in the United States. That’s 25,000 new cases per month. Twenty-five percent of those patients are children, ages 5 to 14.
Information and Infographic obtained from https://danielcameronmd.com/.
Susan Aldworth: Cultivating Art from the Brain
Susan Aldworth, born in 1955, is an artist known for her exploration of consciousness, identity, and the human mind. With a background in philosophy, Aldworth’s exemplifies the blend of art and science and establisher her as a significant figure in the UK’s Art & Science movement since the late 1990s.
Her creative practice utilizes various mediums, including printmaking, drawing, installation, and time-based media, bringing into light the lived experiences of individuals, particularly those related to medical and psychological conditions.
Aldworth’s work is featured in prestigious collections such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and the British Library, and she has exhibited extensively both in the UK and internationally.