Ten simple rules to host an inclusive conference.

Conferences are spaces to meet and network within and across academic and technical fields, learn about new advances, and share our work. They can help define career paths and create long-lasting collaborations and opportunities. However, these opportunities are not equal for all. This article introduces 10 simple rules to host an inclusive conference based on the authors' recent experience organizing the 2021 edition of the useR! statistical computing conference, which attracted a broad range of participants from academia, industry, government, and the nonprofit sector. Coming from different backgrounds, career stages, and even continents, we embraced the challenge of organizing a high-quality virtual conference in the context of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and making it a kind, inclusive, and accessible experience for as many people as possible. The rules result from our lessons learned before, during, and after the organization of the conference. They have been written mainly for potential organizers and selection committees of conferences and contain multiple practical tips to help a variety of events become more accessible and inclusive. We see this as a starting point for conversations and efforts towards building more inclusive conferences across the world. * Translated versions of the English abstract and the list of rules are available in 10 languages in S1 Text: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, and Thai.

Assessment of Environmental Hazards to Public Health in Temperate Urban Argentina.

Human health risk in urban areas depends on multiple environmental features. We performed a year-round survey in a highly urbanized district located in temperate Argentina (General San Martín, Buenos Aires) to establish baseline information about environmental hazards associated with health risks. Sampling was stratified into low and high hazardous zones according to estimated indexes previously developed for the area for four hazards: drinking water and air pollution, and mosquito and rodent infestation. Water from wells showed lower concentrations of aluminum, manganese and iron, and higher values of arsenic than tap samples, with the latter showing records above the maximum permitted for arsenic, aluminum and chromium. Benzene concentration in air was higher in summer than in winter, and in areas close to dumps and landfills, gas stations, high traffic pathways and industries with respect to low hazard areas. Adult mosquito collections were more abundant in high hazardous areas, three species from the genus Culex dominated the captures and the proportion of individuals from each species was variable seasonally and spatially. Rodent activity was recorded inside and outside dwellings, and its observed values did not differ between low and high hazardous areas. In the comparison between field data and estimated hazard maps, high accuracy was obtained for air pollution maps, intermediate accuracy for water pollution and mosquito infestation, and poor accuracy for rodent infestation. How to improve field surveys and estimated maps are both discussed, highlighting the need for dynamic feedback between GIS-based models and environmental monitoring.

An interdisciplinary approach to assess human health risk in an urban environment: A case study in temperate Argentina.

Unplanned urbanization increases the exposure of people to environmental hazards. Within a landscape ecology framework, this study is a diagnosis of human health risk in San Martín, an urban district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Risk was estimated by combining four hazard indexes (water and air pollution, and mosquito and rodent infestation) and a vulnerability index. Each index was obtained by integrating environmental and socio-demographic layers in a Geographic Information System. Spatial autocorrelation was assessed for each hazard, vulnerability and risk indexes using Moran's tests. Also, spatial associations between pairs of variables were addressed by means of Geographically Weighted Regressions. The robustness of hazard and vulnerability indexes was checked by a sensitivity analysis. In General San Martín district, 83.3% of the population is exposed to relatively high levels of at least one hazard; 7.4% is exposed to relatively high levels of all hazards (11.5% of the total area) and only 16.7% lives in areas of relatively low levels of all hazards (15.4% of the total area). Areas where hazard intensity was relatively high corresponded to those areas where the most vulnerable population lives, enhancing human health risk. The models for hazards and vulnerability were reasonably robust to changes in the weights of the variables considered. Our results highlight the spatially heterogeneous nature of human health risk in an urban landscape, and reveal the location of critical risk hotspots where reduction or mitigation actions should be focused.