Environmental Health calls for papers / meetings & conferences

Call for Papers: Historical and Contemporary Studies of Disasters

Placing Chernobyl, 9/11, Katrina, Deepwater Horizon, Fukushima and Other Events in Historical and Comparative Perspective

Co-Sponsored by the SHOT Prometheans (Engineering) SIG / SHOT Asia Network / Teach 3.11

and held during the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting Sunday, 7 October 2012 Copenhagen, Denmark

For this year’s Prometheans / SHOT Asia Network SIG workshop (with co-sponsorship from Teach 3.11, a project of the Forum for the History of Science in Asia), we would like to focus on historical and contemporary studies of both natural and anthropogenic disasters. Inspired by discussions about Fukushima and the greater East Japan Earthquake (Tohoku-chiho Taiheiyo Oki Shishin) and tsunami during the SHOT/4S/HSS co-located meeting in Cleveland last year, an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars from these three societies decided to create an open forum for academic discussions about disasters and the opportunity to place them in historical and comparative perspective. This year’s SIG session will be one gathering of this forum, with a focus on analyzing the sociotechnical dimensions of disasters from historical and other disciplinary perspectives.

This workshop will take place during the Sunday morning* special-interest-group (SIG) time slot at the SHOT annual meeting in Copenhagen. (*This event may be 1/2 day or full day depending on the level of interest.) Offered in an interactive workshop format, the event will be directed primarily towards historical and contemporary studies of disasters of different scales. A portion of the program may also be dedicated to interpreting the events surrounding the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the East Japan Earthquake through comparison with other disasters. While we anticipate that historians may comprise a significant portion of the membership because the event will take place at SHOT, scholars of all academic disciplines are invited to contribute and to attend.

Among the kinds of papers that we are interested in seeing are the following:

Historical or contemporary studies of any disaster of natural or anthropogenic origin. Especially papers that focus on the organizational, technological, and/or sociotechnical dimensions of the disaster, and how this contributed to or exacerbated a particular disaster or the responses that followed the disaster.

An examination of the cultural, political, or economic dimensions of a particular industry, such as nuclear energy, oil extraction, or civil engineering and construction, and their contributions to the disaster.

Historical and contemporary studies of environmental movements and environmental organizations and their relationship to disasters and disaster response.

Any comparative study of disasters, and specific dimensions of disasters.

The workshop format will consist of pre-circulated papers (1000-1800 words in length) and prepared responses; open discussions around predetermined themes during the workshop; and written responses and reflections submitted following the workshop. Members of the Prometheans, SHOT Asia Network, and Teach 3.11 will serve as the program committee for this event, and will work organize the papers received into coherent sessions. Works-in-progress, and submissions by graduate students as well as senior scholars, from any nation, are actively encouraged.

We ask those who are interested to signal your interest by sending us an email, with proposed title, at your earliest convenience so we are able to make an early decision about the scope of the workshop. The applications process will be open until June 1st, by which point we will need a firm commitment to attend and a 300-word abstract from all participants. Pre-circulated papers will be due on September 1st. Those presenting material during the main SHOT conference are still welcome to participate in the workshop with the same (or different) material, and are encouraged to do so (please indicate, for planning purposes, that this will be the case).

Please send emails signaling your interest with a proposed title for your paper to the SIG Workshop Program Committee chair, Atsushi Akera at akeraa@rpi.edu.

Call for Papers for a Panel on Climate Change (2011-2014) at the International Seminar on Population Dynamics and the Human Dimensions of Climate Change

Canberra, Australia, 27-29 November 2012

Organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change, in collaboration with the Australian National University

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 25 May 2012

A strong consensus has emerged among natural scientists during the last 20 years that contemporary climate change is in large part anthropogenic. There is a need now for social scientists to contribute more to our understanding of the human causes and consequences of climate change if more effective policy responses are to eventuate. Demographers have an important contribution to make; in fact their contribution is arguably pivotal to a broad interdisciplinary understanding of the issues since the concept of “population” is basic both to social scientists working on mitigation and adaptation and to ecologists and other Earth scientists.

The primary aim of this seminar is to bring together researchers who are working in the new field of population dynamics and climate change so we can take stock of what scientific progress has been made to date, share and consolidate our understanding of on-going research, strengthen and expand professional networks, and discuss priorities for future research and collaboration. A secondary and derived aim is to examine the extent to which a population perspective can help integrate insights into the human dimensions of climate change from across a number of social sciences.

The Panel seeks papers which add to our understanding of the links between population dynamics and the causes and consequences of climate change, which operate at various scales: global, regional, national, and local. We are looking for a mix of theoretical, methodological and policy-relevant papers. Issues of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

The way demographic factors and processes such as population growth, urbanization, ageing, changing household size, increasing human capital, and social mobility contribute to the drivers of greenhouse gas emissions;

The way demographic factors and processes influence the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of social groups;

The way demographic factors and processes need to be incorporated in effective mitigation and adaptation strategies;

Population-related obstacles (or advantages) to the development of effective policy; and

Conceptual analysis leading to improved integration of demographic insights regarding climate change with insights from other social sciences and the Earth sciences.

Submissions
The IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change invites researchers in the field to submit online by 25 May 2012 a 200-word abstract and an extended abstract (2-4 pages including tables). Applications will be notified whether their paper has been accepted by 25 June. If the paper is accepted the completed paper must be uploaded on the IUSSP website by 10 October 2012.

If the paper is co-authored, please indicate on the abstract the names and affiliations of co-authors; submission should be made by the author who will attend the seminar.

The working language of the seminar will be English. Abstracts, extended abstracts and final papers should therefore be submitted and presented in English. Papers submitted should be unpublished and based on original research. Seminar organizers will explore possibilities to publish a selection of accepted papers.

Seminar organizers are still negotiating additional funding to that already committed. We hope to have sufficient funds to cover travel expenses for all invited participants who require support. If funding is available it will be contingent upon submission of a complete paper of acceptable quality by the deadline for papers.

For further information please contact Adrian C Hayes (adrian_hayes84@yahoo.com).

IUSSP Scientific Panel on Climate Change:
Chair: Adrian C Hayes
Members: Susana Adamo, Leiwen Jiang, Wolfgang Lutz.

Call for Abstracts: International Society for Disease Surveillance Annual Conference

The ISDS Annual Conference is the premier event dedicated to the advancement of the science and practice of biosurveillance. This year’s theme, Expanding Collaborations to Chart a New Course in Public Health Surveillance, will highlight the importance of working together across agencies, sectors, and disciplines to improve surveillance methods and population health outcomes. The conference will be held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina in San Diego, CA, December 4-5, 2012, with Pre-Conference Workshops on December 3rd.

The ISDS Conference draws professionals from a broad range of disciplines— epidemiology and computer science to mathematical modeling and health policy—to learn and contribute the latest achievements, methodologies, best practices, conceptual frameworks, and technical innovations in the rapidly evolving field of biosurveillance. This year's conference will provide fertile ground for cultivating new ideas and partnerships with roundtable discussions, panels and other opportunities to collaborate.

The scope of this conference includes all of the components, policies, methods, practices, infrastructure, research and evaluation related to timely surveillance of communicable diseases, chronic diseases and injuries. This includes notifiable conditions, adverse events and emerging/novel threats; biological, chemical, and radiological health threats; plant, animal, and food surveillance; and environmental monitoring.

Questions regarding the Call for Abstracts may be sent to Tera Reynolds, ISDS Program Manager.

Submission deadline: September 6, 2012 (11:59pm Eastern Daylight Time)

Authors notified of acceptance: October 3, 2012

Pre-Conference Workshops: December 3, 2012

Annual Conference: December 4-5, 2012

Submission Types

Note: All abstracts for the ISDS Conference will be submitted using ScholarOne. There is a limit of 4810 characters for the text of your submission. The character count includes spaces. The character count WILL include title, authors, institutions, tables, and images, but WILL NOT include presenting author brief biographical summaries (bios) or the abstract summary that will be used in the conference program.

Oral

All abstracts submitted for oral presentation are automatically considered for poster presentation as well. Include the following components when submitting an abstract for oral presentation:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Methods

· Results

· Conclusions

· Acknowledgements

· References

· Names and affiliations of authors

· Brief bio of lead author/intended presenter (450 characters/75 words)

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of submission to be used in conference program

Poster

Include the following components when submitting an abstract for poster presentation:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Methods

· Results

· Conclusions

· Acknowledgements

· References

· Names and affiliations of authors

· Brief bio of lead author/intended presenter (450 characters/75 words)

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of submission (for potential inclusion in conference program)

Panel *New for 2012*

Panel topics should be a specific aspect of design, theory, application, or experience pertaining to the science or practice of biosurveillance. Suggested panels should be comprised of no more than four participants and a moderator. A typical panel session will consist of four 15 minute presentations, each followed by 5 minutes of questions, with 10 minutes for closing discussion (presentation lengths will be subject to change based on final agenda). When submitting an abstract for a panel, include the following components:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Panel description

· How the moderator intends to engage the audience in discussions on the panel topic

· Names of panel presenters, moderator and affiliations

· Brief bios for each panel presenter and moderator (450 characters/75 words each) for abstract reviewers to assess appropriateness to serve on the panel for the described topic

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of panel to be used in conference program

Roundtable *New for 2012*

Roundtables can have up to three facilitators to briefly introduce the topic of interest and facilitate active discussion among attendees. Roundtables must be discussion-oriented rather than didactic, lecture-driven sessions. Roundtable discussions will be 60-90 minutes (depending on final agenda). When submitting an abstract for a roundtable, include the following components:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Roundtable description

· How the facilitator intends to engage the audience in the roundtable discussion, including sample questions

· Names of facilitators and affiliations

· Brief bios for each facilitator (450 characters/75 words each) for abstract reviewers to assess appropriateness to lead a discussion on the described topic

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of roundtable to be used in conference program

System Showcase Demonstrations *New for 2012*

System showcase demonstrations will be presented during the evening poster session on the first day of the conference. A typical demonstration will illustrate one or more aspects of an innovative population/public health surveillance system that is in use or under development. Demonstrations of open source and/or free products are strongly encouraged. System showcase demonstrations are not intended to be marketing or sales presentations and such submissions will be rejected; those interested in supporting the ISDS conference with an exhibit booth should contact Tera Reynolds at ISDS for more information. When submitting an abstract for a system showcase demonstration, include the following components:

· Title (85 characters MAX)

· Objective

· Introduction

· Description, highlighting benefits to public/population health surveillance and how this demonstration will be a unique addition to the ISDS conference

· Conclusions, including lessons learned and design principles from this demonstration that attendees can take away, even if not using or intending to use the system demonstrated

· Names of demonstrators and affiliations

· Brief summary (600 characters/100 words) of showcase to be used in conference program

Track Descriptions

I. Analytical Methods

a. Analytical Methods: Applied

b. Analytical Methods: Research & Development

This theme is focused on important and novel advances in the field of surveillance methodologies and analytical approaches. Abstracts in the Applied sub-track should describe methods or processes routinely used in a production-type environment. Abstracts in the Research and Development sub-track should describe methods and processes still under development or tested within a research or pilot setting. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

· Analytic evaluation of surveillance components

· Decision support

· Estimating morbidity and impact

· Evaluation of algorithms and systems through epidemic simulation

· Geospatial analysis

· Innovative use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology

· Integrating evidence from multiple sources

· Integration of mathematical modeling and statistical analyses

· New algorithms and evaluation of existing algorithms for cluster and event detection

· Pattern recognition algorithms

· Predictive disease modeling/predictive analytics

· Spatial cluster detection

· Statistical methods and tools for analyzing and interpreting data

· Time series analysis

II. Informatics

a. Informatics: Applied

b. Informatics: Research & Development

Abstracts in the Applied sub-track should describe methods or processes routinely used in a production-type environment. Abstracts in the Research and Development sub-track should describe methods and processes still under development or tested within a research or pilot setting. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

· Advances in methods for classifying data

· Approaches to building interoperable surveillance systems and components

· Borderless data exchange models (e.g. federated information sharing approaches)

· Cloud computing for public health surveillance

· Data integration – acquiring, moving, storing, processing, coding, normalizing, and preparing data for analysis between systems

· Data quality

· Data visualization methods

· Electronic health records and public health surveillance

· Health information exchange

· How clinical information systems can support public health surveillance efforts

· How public health information systems can support clinical efforts

· Informatics lessons learned

· Information and knowledge exchange

· Innovations in public health informatics

· Mobile technologies for public health

· Natural language processing

· Standards and Interoperability Framework (Public Health Reporting Initiative)

· Standards used in public health surveillance

· System architectures for limited connectivity environments and disaster surveillance

· System architectures for surveillance in low-resource environments

· System architectures to leverage HIE for public health surveillance

· System descriptions of real-world solutions to challenging integration problems

· Workforce requirements and training

· Use of social media for biosurveillance

III. Policy (at local, state, federal, international levels)

This theme is focused on sharing successes, challenges or approaches leveraged in the use or development of policy which affects biosurveillance operations and activities. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

· Creating successful surveillance partnerships

· Data sharing policies

· Federal policy agendas

· Funding strategies for surveillance

· How public health surveillance data have been used to inform policy

· International Health Regulations

· Legal/ethical/security/privacy issues in surveillance

· Meaningful Use responses by public health departments

· Policies around social media/leveraging social networks for risk communication, etc.

· Research collaborations to expand evidence-based health policy

· Workforce

IV. Public/Population health surveillance

a. Public/Population Health Surveillance: Practice

b. Public/Population Health Surveillance: Research

c. Public/Population Health Surveillance: Evaluation

This theme is focused on improving the daily processes of timely public/population health surveillance, including detection, signal validation, event characterization, investigation, and response. Abstracts in the Practice sub-track should describe practices routinely used in a production environment and/or deployed in field by public health departments or other agencies. Abstracts in the Research sub-track should describe research related to surveillance, health systems, etc. Abstracts in the Evaluation sub-track should describe evaluations of public/population health surveillance systems, workflows, protocols, etc. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

· Adverse drug events and pharmacovigilance

· Case studies

· Chronic disease surveillance

· Collaboration success stories

· Contact tracing and network analysis

· Disaster/event surveillance

· Disparities surveillance

· Evaluation of surveillance systems

· Infectious disease surveillance

· Influenza-like illness surveillance

· Injury surveillance

· Innovations in biosurveillance

· Integrating surveillance across multiple data sources

· Integrating surveillance systems, e.g. syndromic and reportable diseases

· Linking response with frontline health workers

· Meaningful Use and how it’s changing/not changing surveillance practice

· Measuring vaccine efficacy, coverage, etc.

· Messaging/risk communication (what to say to the public, politicians and media about syndromic systems alerts)

· Mobile technologies for public health

· Novel approaches to communicable diseases surveillance and reporting (e.g., notifiable conditions, MRSA, nosocomial infections)

· OneHealth

· Outbreak detection, characterization and outbreak management

· School and university surveillance

· Situational awareness

· Social media and surveillance

· Surveillance across borders

· Surveillance for refugees and recent immigrants

· Surveillance in resource-limited settings

· Surveillance using ambulatory care data

· Surveillance using inpatient data

· Vaccine-preventable disease surveillance

Call for Papers for a Session on Health, Disease, and Physical Culture at the Northeast Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (NEPCA) is soliciting papers for topics in the area of Health, Disease and Culture for its annual meeting, which will be held October 26-26 on the campus of St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York.

Topics in Health, Disease and Culture may include such themes as below: Mass media images of health and disease in popular culture--print, film, television, etc.

Portrayals of health institutions (e.g., hospitals, clinics, medical homes, pharmacies) and health professionals in history, literature or mass media

Portrayals of Prescription Drugs (E.G., Development, Marketing, Advertising, Consumption, Role in Treatment of Chronic Illnesses

Representations of the body in discourses of health and illness

Narratives of illness from patient and health practitioner perspectives in novels, short stories, memoirs, graphic comics, etc., discussed in larger sociocultural (ethnicity, race, gender, class), and political (health care system) contexts

Disability discourses in history, literature, and public policy

Outbreak narratives of infectious diseases (e.g., endemic, epidemic, pandemic) in popular media and literature; infectious diseases in history and public policy

Historical and contemporary perspectives on the promotion of health through diet, exercise, personal or domestic hygiene, cosmetic procedures, public health campaigns (e.g., smoking, obesity).

Focuses on Public Health: The Built Environment, Global Health, Emergency Preparedness, Occupational Health, Surveillance and Public Health

Creative Writing and Health Care Presentations from patient, caregiver, health professional or medical humanities practitioners, etc.

We invite both individual papers and proposals for complete panels (please include titles and abstracts for each panelist). Please send a 1-2 page paper proposal and a one-page vita to both the Program Chair Tim Madigan tmadigan@sjfc.edu and to the Area Chair for Health, Disease and Culture, Jennifer Tebbe-Grossman jennifer.tebbe-grossman@mcphs.edu. The deadline for submission is June 1, 2012.

Jennifer Tebbe-Grossman
Professor of Political Science and American Studies
School of Arts and Sciences
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences-Boston
179 Longwood Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Phone: 617-732-2904
Email: jennifer.tebbe-grossman@mcphs.edu

Call for Abstracts: World Health Summit

The M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centres and Medical Universities is pleased to invite submission of abstracts for presentation at its upcoming 4th World Health Summit. The World Health Summit is one of the world’s foremost gatherings of leaders from academia, politics, industry and civil society to develop joint strategies and take action to address key challenges in medical research, global health and health care delivery with the aim of shaping the political, academic and social agendas. This year´s World Health Summit “Research for Health and Sustainable Development” will be held in Berlin from October 21st to 24th, 2012.

The M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centres and Medical Universities was officially founded in 2009, as a medical and scientific forum of excellence on the occasion of the 1st World Health Summit in Berlin. It is composed of a network of prestigious medical institutions dealing with scientific, political, and economic issues related to medicine and global health. The M8 Alliance acts as a permanent platform for framing future considerations of global medical development and health challenges. It is the M8’s vision to harness academic excellence to improve global health.

The New Voices in Global Health (NVGH) is a competitive abstract submission and selection programme designed to highlight important research, policy and advocacy initiatives of new and future leaders in global health, and empower participants with global health advocacy skills.

Selected participants will have the opportunity to make a presentation at the World Health Summit 2012. The accepted researchers will participate in either the NVGH forum session or the NVGH poster presentation session. Selected abstracts will be published in a special booklet available at the World Health Summit and on The Lancet´s website.

Issues addressed must be relevant, reflect current challenges, show originality and will spark the interest of conference participants and the readers of The Lancet. Topics of particular interest would be those linked to the summit’s main themes:

“Research for Health and Sustainable Development”

Educating Health Professionals
• Brain Drain in Medical Professions
• Educating Health Professionals for the 21st Century

Translating Research into Policy
• Integrating Research into Health Policies and Health Systems
• Minimizing Waste of Research
• Translating Genomic Research into Global Health Gains

Financing Health
• Economic Crisis and Health Impact
• Sustainable Health Systems Financing and Universal Coverage

Diseases of Modern Environments
• The Epidemic of Chronic Diseases
• The Future of Maternal and Reproductive Health
• Urban Development and Mental Health

Research using qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods may be submitted. Abstracts should be submitted online no later than June 15, 2012. An expert committee composed of M8 Alliance members and Lancet editors will review the abstracts after peer review. Participants will be informed of the acceptance of their abstracts for presentation at the World Health Summit at the end of July 2012. (Authors of selected abstracts should submit a 10-minute-presentation / or poster by email no later than September 30, 2012. Deadlines will be strictly adhered to.)

• The New Voices in Global Health Forum is open to all. Abstracts should address current issues with a special focus on the main themes of this year’s World Health Summit.
• Abstracts must be free of commercial bias or promotion.
• Only one abstract per person is permitted.
• All abstracts must be submitted online.

Call for Papers: Workshop on Natural Disaster and the City--Historical Perspectives from Southeast Asia and Japan, 1945-2010

16-17 January 2013

Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University will be holding a workshop on Natural Disasters and the City: Historical Perspectives from Southeast Asia and Japan.

This workshop invites papers that undertake inter-disciplinary and transnational approaches to the study of natural disasters. It aims to historically contextualise the causes and consequences of disasters and to compare them across societies. The focus is on cities in Southeast Asia and Japan after World War Two, as expressed along three general lines of inquiry.

First, the workshop will explore how the vulnerability of urban populations was influenced by new or accelerated human processes that were most manifest in cities in the postwar period, such as population growth, urbanisation, migration, national integration, economic development, and environmental degradation. Below the macro, the workshop considers how urban communities have coped with hazardous living, how far responses have been fractured by various forms of social stratification and whether local perspectives and agency have diverged from state and international approaches to disaster prevention and rehabilitation. Finally, the workshop examines why some disasters have not merely been events occurring at the tail end of long-term processes, but have themselves become catalysts for historic change in the postwar period.

Relevant themes include:

• Historical factors affecting the risk faced by urban populations.
• Cities as sites of risk, response and rehabilitation.
• Cultures of disaster and coping mechanisms of urban communities.
• Micro-histories, ethnographies and memories of urban disasters.
• Disasters as catalysts for historical change.

The session welcomes contributions from historians, geographers, sociologists, and anthropologists, among others, and from both established scholars and PhD students at an advanced stage of their research. Papers can examine individual cities or compare different cities.

Pls submit a 500-word abstract and a copy of your CV to Loh Kah Seng lkshis@cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp by 30 June 2012.

Convenors:
Professor Yoko Hayami
Dr Loh Kah Seng

Mario Lopez Assistant Professor
Center for Southeast Asian Studies,
Kyoto University
46 Shimoadachi-cho Yoshida, Sakyoku
Kyoto 606-8501, Japan

Call for Abstracts for a Session on Architecture and the Body: Science and Culture at the Society of Architectural Historians 66th Annual Conference

SAH is now accepting abstracts for its 66th Annual Conference in Buffalo, NY, April 10-14, 2013. Please submit abstracts for papers no later than June 1st for the thematic sessions or open session.

From the Vitruvian Man to Le Corbusier’s Modulor, the human body has served as both measure and metaphor in architectural design. In scholarly considerations of this relationship, it is often architecture which is seen to change while the status of the body remains static, a biological constant unaffected by historical time. This session is devoted to research which takes both buildings and bodies to be in dynamic and reciprocal evolution. It poses one overarching question: how does a period’s understanding of the body as a cultural subject or object of scientia impinge upon architectural thought or design? For instance, historians often observe that Gothic architecture appealed to the senses, but how had the understanding of the senses evolved at that time, and how was this knowledge framed culturally and then translated into new demands on space? How were traditions in mortuary architecture or places of execution affected by human dissections as early as the thirteenth century? How did the inscription of cultural values on the body help shape architectural form or organization? Whereas Barbara Stafford in Body Criticism brilliantly analyzed new relationships between aesthetic and medical practices in the Enlightenment – all made possible by the visibility of formerly unseeable parts of the world – this session emphasizes pre-Enlightenment cultures and science. Misconceptions of various “dark” ages or “dark” geographies can still blind historians to unlikely inspirations for architectural form in so-called pre-scientific societies. Theoretically adventurous submissions are welcome, as are those arguing for the full inclusion of the pre-modern era within research on sexed, medical, and architectural bodies as well as spaces and behaviors. Proposals on modern topics will be considered, provided they establish a transformation of a pre-modern condition. Session chair: Kim Sexton, Associate Professor, University of Arkansas; ksexton@uark.edu

Call for Papers: Fourth Conference on Environment and Health

2013 American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting

January 6-10, 2013 Austin, Texas

The abstract submission deadline is: 1 August 2012

The overarching theme for the 2013 AMS Annual Meeting is “Taking Predictions to the Next Level: Expanding Beyond Today’s Weather and Climate Forecasts and Projections.” Over the past 60 years the meteorological community has made tremendous strides in making prediction a fundamental part of its scientific and operational/service heritage through the development and application of complex numerical models involving the atmosphere, ocean, land, and cryosphere components of the Earth System. Applying our predictive capabilities into a broader domain including public health, food security, air and water quality, alternative energy and responses to climate trends, is a central objective of this meeting.

In the context of this overarching theme, the goal of 4Health is to go in-depth into Earth’s influence on human health and well-being. In doing so, we seek to better understand how the atmospheric and oceanic systems exert measurable (positive or negative) impacts; moreover, we are interested in how planetary information feeds into surveillance and preparedness (including adaptation) models and decisions.

We are especially interested in public health and medical factors such as:

Asthma
Cardio and Respiratory Diseases
Foodborne Diseases and Nutrition
Vectorborne and Zoonotic Diseases
Waterborne Illnesses
Infectious Diseases
Mental Health
Food Securtiy
Heat and Extreme Weather-related Mortality and Morbity
Physical Safety

The sessions are arranged to help us explore these topics (and possibly others) in the context of hydro-meteorological and oceanographic factors so that our community understands how our science and technologies are utilized (or could be applied) for health. Thus, papers from the environment, health, and medical disciplines that explore this approach through the following subjects: integrated modeling; climate, ocean, weather and water forecasts; in-situ and satellite monitoring and observations; communication tools and technologies; and, inter-disciplinary coordination are encouraged.

Of specific interest are papers that address end-to-end science and management approaches of the aforementioned health concerns in the context of these environmental factors:

1) Ocean and coastal–related human health risks

2) Dust transport, transformation, and consequence

3) Extreme temperatures, including attendant influences on drought and wildfires

4) Examples of adaptation risks and solutions at local, regional, and international levels

5) Disaster risk reduction for healthcare delivery services (e.g., EMT) and infrastructure (e.g., hospitals), including its systems of dependency (e.g., utility grids, water, sanitation)

Achieving the 4Health goal requires participation and engagement from colleagues in the public health, medical, hydro-meteorological, and oceanic disciplines.

Papers and posters from graduate and undergraduate students are welcome.

For overall questions:

Sue Estes, NASA (email: sue.m.estes@nasa.gov; tel : 256-961-7961)

Wendy Marie Thomas (e-mail: wthomas@ametsoc.org, tel: 202-355-9820);

For Extreme Temperatures/Drought/Wildfires Topics

Glenn McGregor (e-mail: g.mcgregor@auckland.ac.nz, tel: 64 9 3737599 ext 85280)

Paul English, CA Dept of Health (email: Paul.English@cdph.ca.gov; tel: 510-620-3684)

For Health-Specific Topics

Kris Ebi, IPCC/Stanford (email: krisebi@ipcc-wg2.gov)

Paul English, CA Dept of Health (email: Paul.English@cdph.ca.gov; tel: 510-620-3684)

For Climate-Related Topics

Eileen Shea, NOAA (email: eileen.shea@noaa.gov; tel: 828-271-4384)

For Dust-Related Topics

Bill Sprigg, Univ of AZ/NASA (email: wsprigg@u.arizona.edu; tel: 520-621-6834)

For Oceans and Human Health Topics

Juli Trtanj, NOAA (email: juli.trtanj@noaa.gov)

Call for Papers: Disrupting Pathways: Endocrine Disruptors and the Public Expertise of Health and Environmental Problems

We are pleased to invite you to submit a paper for the international research workshop "Disrupting pathways: Endocrine disruptors and the public expertise of health and environmental problems".

The workshop will be held in Paris the 14th and 15th of December 2012 and will gather both US and European participants. It will be organized around three main themes: a) the 70s and 80s early qualification of pesticides, PCB's, Dioxins or drugs as endocrine disruptors; b) the convergence between medical and environmental problems taking place in the 1990s; c) the regulatory initiatives from the late 1990s onward.

Travel and accommodation costs will be covered.

Please send proposals to the organizers Nathalie Jas (jas@ivry.inra.fr<mailto:jas@ivry.inra.fr>) and Jean-Paul Gaudilliere
(gaudilli@vjf.cnrs.fr<mailto:gaudilli@vjf.cnrs.fr>) by the 30th of June 2012.

In the past twenty years endocrine disurptors, the category as well as specific substances, have acquired a peculiar visibility both as targets for research and as objects of political debates. Issues like the impact of pesticides on the health of farmers, consumers and wild animals, the long term effect of persistant pollutants like PCBs which seems impossible to eliminate, the relations of xenostrogens to declining fertility and reproductive cancer incidence in humans, or the peculiar sensitivity of fetuses and developing organisms to chemicals mimicking the structures and roles of hormones are now discussed through an increasing number of publications and affairs perfectly illlustrated with the current debates on the need for a complete ban of Bisphenol A.

The processes, which have led to this situation and the recognition of what may be called an endocrine disruptors paradigm linking in unprecedented ways research, expertise, regulation, and social mobilizations - producing knowledge at the crossroad of reproductive medicine, toxicology, ecology, epidemiology and the social sciences - are complex and far from self-evident.

In the mid 1990s, the importance of man-made and man-realesed chemicals and pollutants modifying endocrine/reproductive functions in animals and humans was a motive of serious concern in small circles of experts, often associated with environmental, feminist or public health activism. It was a US phenomenon in the first place. A quarter of century later it is no longer possible to locate in such a precise manner the actors of endocrine disruptors networks. They are in laboratories, conservatories, and hospital services but also in the medias, health or environmental regulatory agencies, as well as in political institutions. They are present in the United States, Europe and the so-called emerging countries. In parallel with its diffusion, its contested but significant acceptance, the endocrine disruptor paradigm has crystalized a body of knowledge challenging traditional toxicology and views of adverse effects; a body focusing on low doses, multiple exposure, cumulative effects and sensibility of development periods.

The role of the proposed seminar is to explore the advent of this endocrine disruptors paradigm from the 70s onward, i.e. to understand how specific problems and substances have been redefined to become manifestation of endocrine disruption, to understand the dynamics of social movements and their role in the public expertise of these processes, to understand the transformation of regulation, to explore the impact the debates on endocrine disruptions have had on specific fields and disciplines in scientific research.

This seminar is an element in a more general research project of the trajectory of endocrine disruptors as scientific and political entities, which seeks to address both their generalization and the deep differences in their modes of existence in Europe, especially in France, and in the United States.

The workshop will take place in Paris. It will gather both US and European participants. It will be organized around three main themes: a) the 70s and 80s early qualification of pesticides, PCB's, Dioxins or drugs as endocrine disruptors; b) the convergence between medical and environmental problems taking place in the 1990s; c) the regulatory initiatives from the late 1990s onward.

Nathalie Jas
Research Fellow
RiTME Research Unit - INRA
65 Bd de Brandebourg
94205 Ivry-sur-Seine
France

Tel: + 33 (0)1 49 59 69 81

Call for Papers: International Conference on Hazards & Disasters 2012

20-21 September 2012 Negombo, Sri Lanka

Paper abstracts, single spaced and no longer than 200 words, must be submitted electronically as Microsoft Word email attachments, before 31 May 2012.

Institute for Global Change Adaptation Science (ICAS), Ibaraki University
ICRD International Center for Research and Development (ICRD)

The ICRD/ ICAS joint Conference on Hazards & Disasters 2012 offers a valuable opportunity to network with colleagues from many countries who share the same goals. Scientists and experts in hazards and disaster risk management are invited to participate in this International Conference on Hazards & Disasters 2012

Session themes for the conference cover a rich and diverse range of research topics. We hope these sessions will bring researchers from across the globe together to discuss broad questions of common interest and provide a platform to establish relationships with new colleagues. You will be enlightened with innovative ideas and solutions at Hazards & Disasters 2012 and take initiatives to forge better solutions to reduce future risks and threats of hazards.

A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard (e.g., flood, tornado, hurricane, volcanic eruption, earthquake, heat wave, or landslide). It leads to financial, environmental or human losses. The resulting loss depends on the vulnerability of the affected population to resist the hazard, also called their resilience.

Risks in a changing and global world are complex and interconnected, even more so in a globalized world consisting of many societies at very different levels of development. The frequency and severity of natural disasters have increased markedly worldwide. Economic losses associated with natural hazards are increasing exponentially in developing countries.

Social science research conducted since the late 1970s has contributed greatly to the society's ability to mitigate and adapt to natural, technological, and willful (man-made) disasters. However, as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States and other recent events, hazards and disaster research and its application could be improved greatly.

In particular, more studies should be pursued that compare how the characteristics of different types of events—including predictability, forewarning, magnitude, and duration of impact—affect societal vulnerability and response.

In that context we are seeking papers on topics of original research that address these issues and other issues at local, national and international levels.

Therefore, Hazards & Disasters 2012 offers a valuable opportunity to network with colleagues from many countries who share the same goals. You will be enlightened with innovative ideas and solutions at Hazards & Disasters 2012 and take initiatives to forge better solutions to reduce future risks and threats of hazards.

Main Sessions

The proposed major session themes of the 2012 Conference are:

1. Disaster Preparedness & Response
2. Urban Risks / Megacities
3. Climate Change & DRR
4. Risk Management
5. Social issues & impact
6. Disasters & adaptation
7. Environmental & Ecological Risks
8. Traditional knowledge & Risk reduction
9. Resilience & Vulnerability
10. Health Impacts & emergency medicine
11. Economics of Disasters
12. Communication & Outreach in DRR
13. Education, Research & Capacity Building

Sub topics

1. Tsunami (Indian ocean/Japanese)
2. Landslides
3. Floods
4. Cyclone
5. Earthquakes
6. Volcanic eruption
7. Lightning
8. Forest Fires
9. Tornados
10. Heat Waves/ Cold Waves
11. Nuclear Crisis

The target audience for the conference

• Researchers
• Scientists
• Educators
• Policy makers
• Planners
• DRR experts
• Risk experts
• Emergency managers
• PhD students

Why Attend to Hazards & Disasters 2012

The International Conference on Hazards and Disasters 2012 is providing you with the

• Opportunity to present your research to a global audience
• Establish peer to peer collaboration around the world
• Exchange ideas on important issues
• Gain a global perspective on disaster issues.

Contact Us

Send your registration form to – registration@globaldisasters.org

Send your abstract to – abstract@globaldisasters.org

Contact conference convener – prabhath@theicrd.org

Event Manager
Mr.Isanka Gamage - isanka@leapbis.info
+94 715 589 870
Skype: ip.gamage

Conference Secretariat
Hazards & Disasters 2012, #858/6, Kaduwela Road, Thalangama North, Sri Lanka.
Tel/Fax: +94 112 744306
Hotline : +94 777 799915
Email: info@theicrd.org
URL: www.theicrd.org