Spring 2014 Seminar Schedule.

Join us every Friday from 12-1pm in BUSM L210.

Date Speaker Seminar Title
January 17 W. Michael Caudle, PhD
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
In Vitro, in Vivo, and Proteomic Approaches to Investigate the Effects of Halogenated Flame Retardants on the Nigrostriatal Dopamine System and Risk of Parkinson’s Disease **presented via AdobeConnect**
January 24 Junenette Peters, ScD
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health
Modeling Complex Relationships: Structural Equation Modeling as a Tool for Assessing Pathways, Abstract Constructs and Cumulative Risk
January 31 Brent Coull, PhD
Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health
Statistical Methods for Quantifying the Health Effects of Multi-Pollutant Mixtures
February 7 Robin Dodson, ScD
Research Scientist, Silent Spring Institute and Visiting Scientist, Harvard School of Public Health
Special time and room: 1 pm in L201
February 14 Laura August, MPH and John Faust, PhD
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, California Environmental Protection Agency
CalEnviroScreen: A Pathway to Address Cumulative Environmental Health Impacts in California through a Geographic Based Screening Tool **presented via AdobeConnect**
February 21 James O’Callaghan, PhD
Health Effects Laboratory Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Stress and METH-Not a Good Combination: Corticosterone Primes the Neuroinflammatory Response to Neurotoxicity
February 28 Jonathan Levy, ScD
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health
Characterizing the Influence of Aircraft Noise and Air Pollution on Cardiovascular Hospital Admissions
March 21 Ema Rodrigues, ScD, MPH
Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health
Biomarkers of Exposure and Genetic Susceptibility to Environmental Contaminants
March 28 No Seminar
April 4 Stefani Penn, MS and Kathryn Crawford, MS
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health
Doctoral Student Research Presentations
April 11 Rebecca Laws, MPH and Michael McClean, ScD
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health
Chronic kidney disease in Central America: The potential role of heat stress and leptospirosis
April 18 Kimberly Sullivan, PhD and Roberta White, PhD
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health
Public health science and government policy: The conflict over Gulf War illness
April 25 Lariah Edwards, BS and Anna Rosofsky, MA
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health
Doctoral Student Research Presentations
Special time: 11 am
May 2 Master’s Student Culminating Experience Presentations

Detailed Schedule

January 17th

In Vitro, in Vivo, and Proteomic Approaches to Investigate the Effects of Halogenated Flame Retardants on the Nigrostriatal Dopamine System and Risk of Parkinson’s Disease

W. Michael Caudle, PhD
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University

Seminar Summary: Research in our lab has focused on investigating the neurological effects of exposure to halogenated compounds, such as insecticides and industrial chemicals, that demonstrate significant levels in our environment as well as human tissue. The majority of these studies have concentrated on the effects of these compounds on the nigrostriatal dopamine system in the context of Parkinson’s disease. We work with multiple experimental systems in order to gain an enriched understanding of the cellular and molecular targets and pathological cascades involved in flame-retardant mediated damage to dopamine neurons. This presentation will highlight our past, present, and future work with these compounds and the dopamine system and how we leverage different experimental models to accomplish these goals.

Readings:

January 24th

Modeling Complex Relationships: Structural Equation Modeling as a Tool for Assessing Pathways, Abstract Constructs and Cumulative Risk

Junenette Peters, ScD
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health

Seminar Summary: Structural equation modeling is a flexible analytical tool which can be used to comprehensively evaluate complex relationships. This seminar will provide examples of how this tool can be used to investigate multiple pathways of action, identify relevant constructs from questionnaire data, and assess cumulative risk of multiple chemical and non-chemical factors.

Reading:

  • Peters JL, Kubzansky LD, Ikeda A, Spiro A, Wright RO, Weisskopf MG, Kim D, Sparrow D, Nie LH, Hu H, Schwartz J. Childhood and adult socioeconomic position, cumulative lead levels, and pessimism in later life: the VA Normative Aging Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2011 Dec 15; 174(12):1345-53.

January 31st

Statistical Methods for Quantifying the Health Effects of Multi-Pollutant Mixtures

Brent Coull, PhD
Professor of Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University School of Public Health

Seminar Summary: It is well accepted that humans are routinely exposed to multiple pollutants simultaneously, but, partially due to lack of flexible statistical methods, most epidemiological studies either focus on pollutants one at a time or apply simple interaction models. In this talk we first review existing statistical methodology that flexibly quantifies the health effects of multi-pollutant mixtures, emphasizing features of the various approaches that handle multi-collinearity among pollutant concentrations, allow for complex non-linear and non-additive effects, and identify harmful components of the mixture. We then propose application of Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) with variable selection as a new approach for studying the health effects of complex mixtures. The method regresses a health outcome on a nonparametric function of a high-dimensional vector of exposure variables that is specified using a kernel function. This approach estimates the health effects of exposure to the mixture in a way that accounts for potentially complex nonlinear and interactive effects, while also selecting which components of the mixture are associated with the outcome. We evaluate the performance of BKMR under realistic conditions through simulation studies, and apply the approach to data from a Harvard Superfund study of metal mixtures and psychomotor development in a cohort of Bangladeshi children. The results provide evidence of nonlinear and non-additive associations of the metal exposures with neurodevelopment scores that would not be automatically detected using a standard analysis.

This is joint work with Jennifer Bobb, Gregory Wellenius, Murray Mittleman, Linda Valeri, Birgit Claus Henn, Maitreyi Mazumdar, David Christiani, and Robert Wright.

February 14th

CalEnviroScreen: A Pathway to Address Cumulative Environmental Health Impacts in California through a Geographic Based Screening Tool

Laura August, MPH and John Faust, PhD
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, California Environmental Protection Agency

Seminar Summary:As part of California’s ongoing effort to integrate environmental justice principles in decision-making, CalEnviroScreen was developed as a screening method to help identify communities that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution. The tool is comprised of 17 statewide indicators of potential pollution, environmental degradation, and population vulnerability. The administration of environmental justice grants, promotion of greater compliance with environmental laws, prioritization of site-cleanup activities, and identification of opportunities for sustainable economic development in heavily impacted neighborhoods are among the ways the tool will be used.

Readings:

February 21st

Stress and METH – Not a Good Combination: Corticosterone Primes the Neuroinflammatory Response to Neurotoxicity

James O’Callaghan, PhD
Health Effects Laboratory Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Seminar Summary: Neuroinflammation, the CNS expression of proinflammatory mediators, is associated with aging, neurodegenerative disease, chemically-induced neurotoxicity, and systemic inflammation. Unexpectedly, prior treatment of experimental animals with the anti-inflammatory stress hormone, corticosterone, exacerbates neuroinflammatory responses to CNS injury and systemic inflammation. These observations suggest that stressors may augment neuroinflammation that occurs after a variety of CNS insults.

Readings:

February 28th

Characterizing the Influence of Aircraft Noise and Air Pollution on Cardiovascular Hospital Admissions

Jonathan Levy, ScD
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health

Seminar Summary: Aircraft operations can contribute to elevated noise and air pollution in communities surrounding airports. Both noise and air pollution have been associated with a variety of cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension, but there has been limited evidence to date on cardiovascular outcomes. We conducted an analysis of the US population of Medicare enrollees to evaluate the association between aircraft-related noise and air pollution and the risk of hospital admission for cardiovascular disease among individuals residing near 89 airports across the US. This seminar will summarize our findings and focus on three key methodological aspects of our work: 1) How can noise exposures be characterized to be aligned with the geographic resolution available for individuals in the Medicare program, and what are the implications for exposure misclassification?; 2) What is hierarchical modeling, and how can it be used to provide insight about average effects and differences in associations across airports?; 3) How can the concept of population attributable fraction be used to better understand the relative contribution of multiple stressors to health outcomes? I will also discuss some of the communication and outreach strategies related to this work.

Readings: