@article{larsen_yang_reich_rappold_2022, title={A SPATIAL CAUSAL ANALYSIS OF WILDLAND FIRE-CONTRIBUTED PM2.5 USING NUMERICAL MODEL OUTPUT}, volume={16}, ISSN={["1941-7330"]}, DOI={10.1214/22-AOAS1610}, abstractNote={Wildland fire smoke contains hazardous levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a pollutant shown to adversely effect health. Estimating fire attributable PM2.5 concentrations is key to quantifying the impact on air quality and subsequent health burden. This is a challenging problem since only total PM2.5 is measured at monitoring stations and both fire-attributable PM2.5 and PM2.5 from all other sources are correlated in space and time. We propose a framework for estimating fire-contributed PM2.5 and PM2.5 from all other sources using a novel causal inference framework and bias-adjusted chemical model representations of PM2.5 under counterfactual scenarios. The chemical model representation of PM2.5 for this analysis is simulated using Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System (CMAQ), run with and without fire emissions across the contiguous U.S. for the 2008-2012 wildfire seasons. The CMAQ output is calibrated with observations from monitoring sites for the same spatial domain and time period. We use a Bayesian model that accounts for spatial variation to estimate the effect of wildland fires on PM2.5 and state assumptions under which the estimate has a valid causal interpretation. Our results include estimates of the contributions of wildfire smoke to PM2.5 for the contiguous U.S. Additionally, we compute the health burden associated with the PM2.5 attributable to wildfire smoke.}, number={4}, journal={ANNALS OF APPLIED STATISTICS}, author={Larsen, Alexandra and Yang, Shu and Reich, Brian J. and Rappold, Ana G.}, year={2022}, month={Dec}, pages={2714–2731} } @article{giffin_gong_majumder_rappold_reich_yang_2022, title={Estimating intervention effects on infectious disease control: The effect of community mobility reduction on Coronavirus spread}, volume={52}, ISSN={["2211-6753"]}, DOI={10.1016/j.spasta.2022.100711}, abstractNote={Understanding the effects of interventions, such as restrictions on community and large group gatherings, is critical to controlling the spread of COVID-19. Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) models are traditionally used to forecast the infection rates but do not provide insights into the causal effects of interventions. We propose a spatiotemporal model that estimates the causal effect of changes in community mobility (intervention) on infection rates. Using an approximation to the SIR model and incorporating spatiotemporal dependence, the proposed model estimates a direct and indirect (spillover) effect of intervention. Under an interference and treatment ignorability assumption, this model is able to estimate causal intervention effects, and additionally allows for spatial interference between locations. Reductions in community mobility were measured by cell phone movement data. The results suggest that the reductions in mobility decrease Coronavirus cases 4 to 7 weeks after the intervention.}, journal={SPATIAL STATISTICS}, author={Giffin, Andrew and Gong, Wenlong and Majumder, Suman and Rappold, Ana G. and Reich, Brian J. and Yang, Shu}, year={2022}, month={Dec} } @article{majumder_guan_reich_o'neill_rappold_2021, title={Statistical Downscaling with Spatial Misalignment: Application to Wildland Fire PM2.5 Concentration Forecasting}, volume={26}, ISSN={["1537-2693"]}, DOI={10.1007/s13253-020-00420-4}, abstractNote={Fine particulate matter, PM2.5, has been documented to have adverse health effects and wildland fires are a major contributor to PM2.5 air pollution in the US. Forecasters use numerical models to predict PM2.5 concentrations to warn the public of impending health risk. Statistical methods are needed to calibrate the numerical model forecast using monitor data to reduce bias and quantify uncertainty. Typical model calibration techniques do not allow for errors due to misalignment of geographic locations. We propose a spatiotemporal downscaling methodology that uses image registration techniques to identify the spatial misalignment and accounts for and corrects the bias produced by such warping. Our model is fitted in a Bayesian framework to provide uncertainty quantification of the misalignment and other sources of error. We apply this method to different simulated data sets and show enhanced performance of the method in presence of spatial misalignment. Finally, we apply the method to a large fire in Washington state and show that the proposed method provides more realistic uncertainty quantification than standard methods.}, number={1}, journal={JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL STATISTICS}, author={Majumder, Suman and Guan, Yawen and Reich, Brian J. and O'Neill, Susan and Rappold, Ana G.}, year={2021}, month={Mar}, pages={23–44} }