Completed Projects
GEM, Software for Geographic Boundary Analysis
Geoffrey Jacquez, BioMedware, Inc., PI
This work was supported by 2 grants from the National Cancer Institute: phase I in 1997 (R43-CA069864) and phase II 1998-2000 (R44-CA069864).
Research Abstract
This Phase II SBIR project completed development of geographic boundary analysis software for the evaluation of spatial relationships among oncogenes, the environment, and cancer. Boundaries are the edges of homogeneous areas or are zones of rapid change in a variable's value, and are of fundamental scientific interest in fields such as population genetics, exposure assessment, and cancer epidemiology. Examples include borders of health, water, and political districts; features such as rivers and roads; edges of pollution plumes; ecotones; and zones of rapid change in health outcomes such as cancer mortality.
During Phase I, investigators developed prototype software (GEM) and User Manual. The prototype was evaluated by a panel of experts and applied to detect zones of rapid change in cancer mortality in Illinois. These results firmly demonstrate project feasibility, and Phase II built on them to accomplish five objectives:
- Refine the software in response to expert panel's critique;
- Conduct applied studies for inclusion in the User Manual;
- Assess the statistical power of boundary statistics;
- Implement fuzzy boundary statistics; and
- Prepare educational materials for university courses.
Accomplishment of these aims will provide the educational foundation and tools needed to explore boundary-generating phenomena.
Software
BioMedware produced a software product that has been commercialized as BoundarySeer by TerraSeer, Inc. TerraSeer also offers training in boundary analysis using BoundarySeer. Check their training schedule for details.
Publications
Jacquez, G.M. and D.A. Greiling. 2003. Geographic boundaries in breast, lung and colorectal cancers in relation to exposure to air toxics in Long Island, New York. International Journal of Health Geographics 2: 4.
M-J. Fortin, G.M. Jacquez, and B. Shipley. 2002. Computer intensive methods. Encyclopedia of Environmentrics. A.H. El-Shaarawi and W.W. Pie John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester.
Hall, K.R., and S.L. Maruca. 2001. Mapping a forest mosaic: a comparison of vegetation and bird distributions using geographic boundary analysis. Plant Ecology 156: 105-20.
Jacquez, G.M., S. L. Maruca, J.-M. Fortin. 2000. From fields to objects: a review of geographic boundary analysis. Journal of Geographical Systems 2: 221-241.
Jacquez, G.M., S. L. Maruca, 1998. Geographic Boundary Detection In Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling (Eds. T. K. Poiker and N. Chrisman) Int. Geographical Union.
Fortin, M.-J., P. Drapeau, and G.M. Jacquez. 1996. Quantification of the spatial co-occurences of ecological boundaries. Oikos 77: 51-60.
Jacquez G.M., 1995. The map comparison problem: Tests for the overlap of geographic boundaries. Statistics in Medicine, 14:2343-2361.