Air quality monitoring and measurement in an urban airshed: Contextualizing datasets from the Detroit Michigan area from 1952 to 2020.

With urban air quality being a pressing public health concern, community members are becoming increasingly engaged in determining the links between air quality and human health. Although new measurement tools such as low-cost sensors make local data more accessible, a better understanding of gaps in regional datasets is needed to develop effective metropolitan-scale solutions. Using scoping review methodology, we compiled 214 published journal articles and grey literature reports of air quality data from the Detroit, Michigan area from 1952 through 2020. This critical scoping review focuses on air quality datasets, but related topics such as health studies and community-based participatory science studies were examined from the included articles. Most of these publications were peer-reviewed journal articles published after 2001. Particulate matter, nitrous oxides, and sulfur dioxide were the most commonly studied air pollutants, and asthma was the most frequently associated health outcome paired with air pollution datasets. Few publications reported methods for community-based participatory science. This critical scoping review establishes a foundation of historical air quality data for the Detroit metropolitan area and a set of evaluation criteria that can be replicated in other urban centers. This foundation enables future detailed analysis of air quality datasets and showcases strategies for implementing effective community science programs and monitoring efforts.

Early career researchers benefit from inclusive, diverse and international collaborations: Changing how academic institutions utilize the seminar series.

Efforts to make research environments more inclusive and diverse are beneficial for the next generation of Great Lakes researchers. The global COVID-19 pandemic introduced circumstances that forced graduate programs and academic institutions to re-evaluate and promptly pivot research traditions, such as weekly seminar series, which are critical training grounds and networking opportunities for early career researchers (ECRs). While several studies have established that academics with funded grants and robust networks were better able to weather the abrupt changes in research and closures of institutions, ECRs did not. In response, both existing and novel partnerships provided a resilient network to support ECRs at an essential stage of their career development. Considering these challenges, we sought to re-frame the seminar series as a virtual collaboration for ECRs. Two interdisciplinary graduate programs, located in different countries (Windsor, Canada, and Detroit, USA) invested in a year-long partnership to deliver a virtual-only seminar series that intentionally promoted: the co-creation of protocols and co-led roles, the amplification of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion throughout all aspects of organization and representation, engagement and amplification through social media, the integration of social, scientific and cultural research disciplines, all of which collectively showcased the capacity of our ECRs to lead, organize and communicate. This approach has great potential for application across different communities to learn through collaboration and sharing, and to empower the next generation to find new ways of working together.

Erythema multiforme associated with phenytoin and cranial radiation therapy: a report of three patients and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Intracranial malignancies (primary and metastatic) are often complicated by seizure activity. Phenytoin (Dilantin) is typically employed as prophylactic anticonvulsant in this setting. Uncommonly, erythema multiforme (EM) can develop in such patients at the port site during or soon after cranial radiation and can rapidly progress to EM major. Herein, in addition to a comprehensive literature review of this entity, three additional patients are presented. The acronym 'EMPACT' is suggested (E: erythema; M: multiforme; associated with P: phenytoin; A: and; C: cranial, radiation; T: therapy) to best describe this disorder. METHODS: An extensive review of the English medical literature through the National Library of Medicine (PUBMED) was performed to identify patients who had received or continued to receive radiation therapy while on phenytoin. A total of 24 patients were identified and clinical information of varying detail was available in all cases. Clinical and histological information on three additional patients seen at two institutions (Rochester Methodist Hospital, Rochester, MN, and Fairview-University Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN) by the authors were also compiled. RESULTS: The mean age was 44 years (range: 23-67) and no sexual predisposition was noted. All patients had taken phenytoin for variable time periods (range 16-80 days; mean: 40) and were on the medication when the skin lesions first appeared. These lesions developed within the port site during the radiation treatments (11 cases) or soon after (nine cases) its completion (mean: 16 days; range: 2-35). Subsequent disease evolution to EM major occurred in all cases (Stevens-Johnsons syndrome developed in 73% of patients). No relationship was identified between the extent and the severity of the skin lesions with the phenytoin and radiation dosages and with the histologic type and origin of the intracranial malignancy. None of the patients demonstrated the requisite features of the 'Dilantin hypersensitivity syndrome'. Although, a systemic steroid taper was employed in 10 out of the 14 patients before the development of the skin lesions, the subsequent progression of the skin lesions was not influenced by the use of systemic steroid therapy. Complete recovery occurred in all but two patients typically within 1-8 weeks of discontinuation of phenytoin. CONCLUSIONS: The need for prophylactic anticonvulsant therapy especially utilizing phenytoin in patients undergoing cranial radiation therapy should be assessed on a case by case basis. If anticonvulsants are employed, then they must be administered with caution, and all cutaneous reactions developing subsequently within the radiation site must be promptly evaluated with a high index of suspicion for erythema multiforme.