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havenguy wrote:Now that we're in the middle of Invitational Season, I have one question: How much focus have you seen on Environmental Quality as a pose to the focus on Food-borne illness last year? Are there a lot of specific questions that have to do with with EQ, or are there more general questions about epidemiology as a whole?

Primarily what I've seen has been based off of food-borne. The few environmental questions I've seen were focused solely on the epidemiological aspect of it- it literally required no specific knowledge of the environmental factor or its effects. That being said, the environmental ones I have seen were primarily involving lead poisoning. I might expect that to be seen, as it has been well-studied.

Willows wrote:

Infinity Flat wrote:

silverheart7 wrote:The topic is Environmental Quality, right? Does anyone know of any good books, websites, or other resources for this year?

Honestly, everything on the soinc page is really excellent. Go through everything there and you will be golden.

No, not really. They haven't updated the page with 2013 info yet.

They have, actually. There are a bunch of new powerpoints and handouts. Well, 2 to be honest. Close enough.

What's the difference between protistan and bacteria?

Cedavis6 wrote:What's the difference between protistan and bacteria?

Try the Microbe Mission Wiki page.

Last year, I had a chart with food bourne illnesses, symptoms, incubation periods, and such, on my notesheet. Because this year's focus has changed, should I remove them? And also, what should I add to be prepared for environmental quality-based disease questions? I'm looking for specifics, such as Asthma, West Nile, and so on.

silverheart7 wrote:Last year, I had a chart with food bourne illnesses, symptoms, incubation periods, and such, on my notesheet. Because this year's focus has changed, should I remove them? And also, what should I add to be prepared for environmental quality-based disease questions? I'm looking for specifics, such as Asthma, West Nile, and so on.

For the chart of diseases, it depends on how many you had. Several tests I've had this year have asked for example diseases in a certain category, such as gastrointestinal, parasitic, or bacterial, so a quick list you can pull diseases from might help. But if you're like me and had every foodbourne illness the CDC listed, (and some they didn't ), then you can probably remove quite a few to save space. In terms of specifically environmental stuff, I've seen specific questions on Scrapie, West Nile, Asthma, and Lead poisoning. The first three were each on a different test, and each test asked extremely specific questions about them - not just symptoms, but famous studies done around them, an air quality index for asthma, etc. Lyme disease, tetanus, and other vectorbourne or parenteral infections will probably feature as well in later tests.
On another note, has anyone read "The Ghost Map"? It's an excellent book about the 1854 London Cholera outbreak with John Snow and Henry Whitehead investigating. Probably not great for the purposes of S.O., but an awesome read.

I competed in Disease last year, when it was Food borne illnesses, I want to compete again this year. But I'm having trouble finding websites to learn about Environmental Quality. Does anyone have any good suggestions?

Ajullie1105 wrote:I competed in Disease last year, when it was Food borne illnesses, I want to compete again this year. But I'm having trouble finding websites to learn about Environmental Quality. Does anyone have any good suggestions?

This year, the environmental quality is yes, the main theme, but the focus is mostly on basic epidemiology and food borne illnesses. You need to know a lot of vocabulary, and there's odds ratios too. Good luck!

Does anyone think there'll be anything about MSDS's since it's Environmental? (Material Safety Data Sheet)

stephritz929 wrote:Does anyone think there'll be anything about MSDS's since it's Environmental? (Material Safety Data Sheet)

I doubt it.

DatScienceKid wrote:

Ajullie1105 wrote:I competed in Disease last year, when it was Food borne illnesses, I want to compete again this year. But I'm having trouble finding websites to learn about Environmental Quality. Does anyone have any good suggestions?

This year, the environmental quality is yes, the main theme, but the focus is mostly on basic epidemiology and food borne illnesses. You need to know a lot of vocabulary, and there's odds ratios too. Good luck!

There really shouldn't be a lot of food-borne, but apparently there is. Lazy event writers recycling old events, methinks.