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Background and Aims: A comprehensive standardized evaluation tool was needed to assess community awareness and preparedness when the pandemic hit the United States. This study aimed to develop and validate a new Coronavirus Awareness and Preparedness Scale (CAPS) through psychometric testing. Methods: This study unfolded in two phases. Phase 1 (conducted in March and April 2020) focused on the development of the scale. Phase 2 (conducted in June and July 2020) measured the reliability and validity of the scale. Psychometric testing, including exploratory factor analysis and reliability testing, was performed with a convenience sample of 1237 faculty, staff, and students at a southern university in the United States. Results: The final CAPS model consists of four factors with 26 items: threat (seven items), confidence (11 items), individual precautions (three items), and public precautions (five items). The scale demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.75). Strong and statistically significant item correlations were observed within the subscales through item analysis. Conclusion: The CAPS is a reliable and valid comprehensive evaluation instrument designed to gauge community awareness and preparedness during the early stages of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Its adaptability makes it suitable for measuring readiness and preparedness concerning any novel airborne disease or future airborne pandemic within a community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the conventional wisdom that urban residents have reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic by fleeing city centres for the suburbs. A conventional panel model of US ZIP code-level data provides mixed evidence in support of a shifting housing preference for more space or neighbourhoods farther from the urban core. Regressions accounting for spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity show strong support of an urban flight within metro areas, but this local phenomenon is uneven across broad regions of the United States. The finding of geographical disparity underscores both the local as well as the regional nature of housing market conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Few studies have critically appraised Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) in immigrants. The purpose of the article is to determine if PSS is adequately developed and properly used with U.S. immigrants. Methods: Searching via PubMed and PsycINFO databases resulted in 10 research papers published between 2009 and 2019 that met the selection criteria and were integrated for this review. Results: Most of the studies do not have adequate theoretical models and do not have proper consideration of socio-cultural factors. Five studies used the PSS translated into different languages but only one study validated the translated version. Six studies reported the reliability of the PSS. The PSS-14 and PSS-10 may be appropriately used in immigrants to measure psychological stress. Conclusions: Some issues, such as the PSS's reliability and validity, need to be addressed in future use in immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on dangerous communicable diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and H1N1 flu, have repeatedly stressed the importance of individuals in disease transmission. Still in its infancy, individual-based modeling faces many challenges. From the perspective of modeling approaches, this article explores (1) the framework of a three-population (daytime, nighttime, and pastime population) and two-scale (local and societal scale) social network; (2) a design that can represent heterogeneous, mobile, interacting individuals and their individualized vulnerability to infection; and (3) a simulation of individuals’ vulnerability to influenza in an urban area in the Northeastern United States to illustrate the proposed framework and design. Simulation results correspond well to the reported epidemic information. The findings offer a valuable platform to devise much-needed spatially and temporally oriented control and intervention strategies for communicable diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study we show that multiangle remote sensing is useful for increasing the accuracy of vegetation community type mapping in desert regions. Using images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Multiangle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR), we compared roles played by Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) model parameters with those played by topographic parameters in improving vegetation community type classifications for the Jornada Experimental Range and the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, USA. The BRDF models used were the Rahman-Pinty-Verstraete (RPV) model and the RossThin-LiSparseReciprocal (RTnLS) model. MISR nadir multispectral reflectance was considered as baseline because nadir observation is the most basic remote sensing observation. The BRDF model parameters and the topographic parameters were considered as additional data. The BRDF model parameters were obtained by inversion of the RPV model and the RTnLS model against the MISR multiangle reflectance data. The results of 32 classification experiments show that the BRDF model parameters are useful for vegetation mapping; they can be used to raise classification accuracies by providing information that is not available in the spectral-nadir domain, or from ancillary topographic parameters. This study suggests that the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and MISR BRDF model parameter data products have great potential to be used as additional information for vegetation mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]