ISSUES : DATA SET Investigating Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Ecologies Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Maruthi Sridhar Balaji Bhaskar 1,* , Jason A. Rosenzweig 2 and Shishir Shishodia2 1Department of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Texas Southern University, 3100, Cleburne Street, Houston, Texas, 77004 2Department of Biology, Texas Southern University, 3100, Cleburne Street, Houston, Texas, 77004 *Corresponding author: Maruthi Sridhar Balaji Bhaskar () Geographic Epidemiology of Chlamydia in Texas THE ECOLOGICAL QUESTION: What are the magnitudes and spatial prevalences of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), such as chlamydia and gonorrhea in Texas? How do the social and economic factors explain the spatial and temporal trends of STD prevalence in Texas? ECOLOGICAL CONTENT: Disease ecology, human ecology and behavior, bacterial infections, spatial and temporal spread of disease, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) WHAT STUDENTS DO: The students explore and analyze data on two Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) - chlamydia and gonorrhea - at the county level. The students download the spatial and temporal datasets of the diseases for the period of over 15 years, from 2000 to 2014, at the county level for the entire state of Texas. The students then process the datasets and import them into Geographic Information Systems (GIS) using ArcGIS software. Spatial and temporal maps of the disease distribution over the entire geographical region are developed for each year. The students use the datasets to develop disease maps for chlamydia and gonorrhea occurrence in Texas for the time period of 2000 to 2014. All the maps developed by the students are put together and discussed at the end of the project. STUDENT-ACTIVE APPROACHES: or , cooperative learning SKILLS: The students become adept in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze and explore health science and biological problems. They analyze the long-term datasets using Microsoft Excel and learn ArcGIS Desktop (Version 10.5) software, including importing tabular data into GIS and create effective maps.
Accessing and Downloading the CDC Data Navigate to the website and then select the “STD” disease you want to map in the step 1 and then select “Tables” in step 2. This will result in transfer to the next window, you will be given the option to choose what type of STD data you want to download in the “option1: Indicator”. The rest of the options are greyed out and you will be prompted to select in each tab and then complete all the five tabs given on the website. In this window, select “Chlamydia” and then hit next. Then, you will be navigated to the other window where you need to select the geographical region in the tab. Select ‘County’ and then ‘Texas’ as State and then click next. In the next window, you are prompted to select the year for which the data should be downloaded. If you have a good and fast internet connection, then click “select all”; otherwise, select 2-3 years at a time and download the data. You must download the data for all the given years. Then, click next. Keep the default option for the “demographic” and then keep the radio button of geography unchecked in the “Group by” tab and then click “Create my Table”. You will see a table where all your data was created and then click “Export” on the top and your data will be downloaded as a .csv file. The downloaded data file will be seen as follows. You will see two columns “Cases” and “Rate” for each year you are downloading. ‘Case’ refers to the total number of chlamydia cases reported in the county for the year and the ‘Rate’ refers to the number of chlamydia cases recorded for 100,000 people. Arrange all the data and make a single excel file with all the Chlamydia data for all the ‘case’ and all the ‘rate’ data. Your excel file should be seen as follows.
being tested. States the methodology, major findings and conclusions. Introduction Strong introduction of research topic, questions and relevant terms. Specific thesis statement. Convey research topic, questions and relevant terms. General thesis statement. Convey research topic, but not questions and relevant terms. Vague thesis statement. Does not adequately convey research topic, questions. Poor thesis statement. 10 points Materials and Methods Describes clearly how the was performed. Gives logical, detailed and easy to follow steps. Most steps are understandable but some are confusing. Most are understandable but some lack details and are confusing. Most steps are not clearly understandable and lack details and are confusing. 10 points Results Results described clearly in narrative as well as in graph or table formats along with captions. Data presented in logical manner to draw conclusions. Missing at least one component of good results. Data is described clearly but have errors in graphs and tables. Missing at least two components of good results. Data is presented in a confusing manner. Missing at least three component of good results. Raw and unprocessed data with no clear presentation 15 points Discussion Well organized discussion Discussion can be understood Discussion can be understood Lacking several characters of 15 points
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