Kate Vavra-Musser

Kate Vavra-Musser

PhD Candidate in Population, Health, and Place at the University of Southern California Spatial Sciences Institute

Posts by Collection

portfolio

publications

Life Expectancy in Pleural and Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Published in Lung Cancer International, 2017

Data on 10,258 pleural and 1,229 peritoneal patients from the SEER US national cancer database, 1973–2011, were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards regression model. The major factors related to survival were age, sex, stage, grade, histology, and treatment. Survival improved only modestly over the study period: 0.5% per year for pleural and 2% for peritoneal.

Recommended citation: R Shavelle, K Vavra-Musser, et al. (2017). "Life Expectancy in Pleural and Peritoneal Mesothelioma." Lung Cancer International. https://downloads.hindawi.com/archive/2017/2782590.pdf

Life Expectancy in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Cancer

Published in Clinics and Research in Hepatology and Gastroenterology, 2019

Life expectancies of patients with PNETs may be markedly reduced from normal, but even in the worst cases their prognoses remain significantly better than that of patients with the more common pancreatic adenocarcinomas. In some very favorable cases, the life expectancy is near-normal, especially amongst 1- and 5-year survivors. This information can be used to counsel patients.

Recommended citation: J Brooks, R Shavelle, K Vavra-Musser, et al. (2019). "Life Expectancy in Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Cancer." Clinics and Research in Hepatology and Gastroenterology. 43(1):88-97. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2210740118301517

Effects of Exposure to Flaring from Unconventional Oil Wells on Adverse Birth Outcomes

Published in Environmental Epidemiology, 2019

Preliminary results suggest that compared to the unexposed, women in the third tertile of exposure to flaring within 5km of their residence have a 30% higher odds of preterm birth (OR= 1.3, p <0.05) and pregnancies that are on average 1 day shorter (p < 0.05).

Recommended citation: L Cushing, K Vavra-Musser, et al. (2019). "Effects of Exposure to Flaring from Unconventional Oil Wells on Adverse Birth Outcomes." Environmental Epidemiology. 3(86). https://journals.lww.com/environepidem/Fulltext/2019/10001/Effects_of_exposure_to_flaring_from_unconventional.258.aspx

Flaring from Unconventional Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas

Published in Environmental Health Perspectives, 2020

Exposure to a high number of nightly flare events was associated with a 50% higher odds of preterm birth and shorter gestation compared with no exposure. Effect estimates were slightly reduced after adjustment for the number of wells within 5km. In stratified models these associations were present only among Hispanic women. Flaring and fetal growth outcomes were not significantly associated. Women exposed to a high number of wells vs. no wells within 5km had a higher odds of preterm birth, shorter gestation, and lower average birthweight.

Recommended citation: L Cushing, K Vavra-Musser, K Chau et al. (2020). "Flaring from Unconventional Oil and Gas Development and Birth Outcomes in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas." Environmental Health Perspectives. 128(7). https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP6394

talks

Geospatial Data: Introduction to Data Types, QGIS, and Exploring Census Data in R

Published:

During the inaugural Los Angeles School of Data hosted by Data + Donuts LA I co-taught a ninety-minute introductory workshop on spatial data in R and QGIS with Andy Rutkowski, the visualization specialist with the University of Southern California libraries. The workshop, and School of Data as a whole, was geared toward Los Angeles civic employees with the goal of promoting data literacy and analysis skills.

Spatial Data Applications in Environmental Health

Published:

As part of the opening presentations for the 2019 GIS Day celebrations and events held at the University of Southern California, I presented a talk on applications for spatial data in the environmental health sciences, with a focus on my ongoing work studying the spatial distribution of soil lead levels in urban environments.

Older Popluations and Increased Heat in the United States

Published:

During the 2021 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit I gave a lightening talk with my co-author Emily Serman. Our talk focused on our recent work, carried out with Dr. Jennifer Ailshire of the University of Southern California, on the combined threat of both increasing heat days and increasing older population in the United States. As older populations tend to have a higher risk of adverse health impacts due to heat but also have a different spatial distribution compared to the general population, it is essential to characterize the risk of future extreme heat to this population. In addition, older populations in the United States tend to be clustered in regions associated with high heat and increasing heat.

Soil Lead Source Contribution in a Complex Urban Residential Area

Published:

During the 2021 Los Angeles Geospatial Summit I also presented a poster on my ongoing work exploring the impact of multiple sources of potential lead contamination on soil lead in a complex urban residential area. This work comprised the first component of my doctoral dissertation research and was carried out under the guidance of my dissertation co-advisors Jill Johnston and Dr. An-Min Wu of the University of Southern California.

teaching

Teaching experience 1

Undergraduate course, University 1, Department, 2014

This is a description of a teaching experience. You can use markdown like any other post.