El Nino is a climatic cycle originating in the tropical Pacific Ocean that impacts the weather patterns of many countries in Latin America. It is often associated with water-based infectious disease epidemics, many of which are also poverty-related. The aim of this study was to explore ecosyndemic risk and factors of social vulnerability in Guatemala during the 2015-16 El Nino. Unlike an epidemic, which is centered on one disease, an ecosyndemic is a cluster of several infectious diseases within a population, associated with environmental changes, and often embedded within a wider context of social and economic inequities. Using geographic information systems (GIS) and multivariate analyses, this study examined 5 to 7 infectious diseases reported in Guatemala from 2014 to 2016 and social, economic and health factors of risk at the department-level. Preliminary results and policy implications will be discussed.

The residential and service sectors are responsible for a large portion of the energy demand in modern societies. Therefore, buildings are expected today to be energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. In this context, bioclimatic architecture and related systems seem shows a good way to achieve it. A relevant system in this issue is the Trombe wall, under study in the present work. Although this system has been studied and implemented in cold climates (in heating mode), not so many theoretical and experimental studies have examined its operation in hot climates (in ventilation mode). To collaborate in this regard, an air-ventilation Trombe Wall prototype has been made and analysed both theoretically and experimentally. The size of the protitype is1 m height, 0.6 m width and 0.2 m length and it has an outer glass surface with a hole at the top, an air chamber, and an inner insulating panel with a hole at the bottom. These experiments have been carried out both under controlled conditions in the laboratory, and outside. In this sense, physical and psychrometric behaviour have been obtained. As a conclusion, the system has produced air currents between 0.2 and 0.4 m/s, improving the feeling of comfort by 3 ºC. Thus, it demonstrates its possibilities of use as a passive ventilation system. Additionally, both air temperature and speed data trends have been fitted by mathematical formulation, which allows predicting the behaviour of the Trombe wall under different solar radiation conditions in hot climates.

The reuse of shipping containers in architecture has grown in popularity worldwide. However, few studies focus on understanding its thermodynamic behavior. The present study addresses, through numerical simulations, the transitory behavior of a typical house built with containers under different climates, both cold and warm. From completely naked containers, they are coated with materials of different insulation and thermal inertia, and observing their effect. Additionally, the orientation and other design resources such as height with respect to the ground, shadow elements and the position of the windows are taken into account. With all these multi-parametric studies, quantitative conclusions are obtained that can be taken into account in the design.

Soil lead contamination is an environmental health risk that greatly affects children in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Southside Chattanooga Lead Superfund Site was added to the National Priorities List in late 2018 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has designated the clean-up threshold for soil lead contamination to be equal to or over 360 parts per million. For the EPA to conduct soil testing and proceed with clean-up, a signed access authorization letter from the tenant or property owner must be submitted. As of May 7, 2019, there are still 4371 properties to test with an estimated 1100 expected to be above the remediation threshold. Despite mailing the letters and having several public meetings, the rate of return is approximately thirty percent for access authorization forms. To increase the response rate, local non-profit agencies, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) Lions Club, and the UTC Master’s in Public Health program have been involved in educating the community. Efforts include community health fairs, grant funded community-based blood lead testing for children, and a door-to-door canvassing campaign where residents are informed of the issue, provided with educational materials, and asked to sign and return access authorization letters to the EPA. The impact of community engagement is measured by the number/proportion of residents engaged, the number of signed authorization forms submitted, and the number of children tested for elevated blood lead levels. This poster presentation will discuss lead contamination in Chattanooga, and the results of our engagement work in the community.

Noise pollution is one of the growing issues in our cities. Every day the streets are full of vehicles of all kinds and works using noisy machinery; it seems difficult to find an area that escapes from this acoustic environment. Nowadays, multiple studies are being carried out in the area of engineering in order to be able to attenuate the causes of this noise pollution. Nevertheless, are only cars the cause of the noise in the city? Are there other noise sources that may affect the quality of life of the citizens? What defines a city as heavily polluted or not? Maybe it can be assumed that truck noise is annoyant and that it contributes to noise pollution, while the sound of birds does not and it is pleasant for people. This paper pretends to analyze the physical parameters that allow us to define if any sound causes annoyance, taking into account its acoustic environment. In order to do this, a specific case will be analysed; we will study three locations measured in Andorra La Vella and Escaldes-Engordany. The audio recordings will be studied deeply, and compared one to the other using data from two different days and all day schedule. We will finally evaluate the annoyance of each location, day and time, as well as giving details about the several types of sound labelled in that recordings.