Jack Chen

Suffolk University

Emissions from wildfires are a significant source of air pollution, which can adversely impact air quality and ecosystems thousands of kilometers downwind. These emissions can be estimated by a bottom-up approach, using inputs such fuel type, burned area, and standardized emission factors. Emissions are also commonly derived with a top-down approac...

Wildfire impacts on air quality and climate are expected to be exacerbated by climate change with the most pronounced impacts in the boreal biome. Despite the large geographic coverage, there is limited information on boreal forest wildfire emissions, particularly for organic compounds, which are critical inputs for air quality model predictions of...

Wildfire impacts on air quality and climate are expected to be exacerbated by climate change with the most pronounced impacts in the boreal biome. Despite the large geographic coverage, there is a lack of information on boreal forest wildfire emissions, particularly for organic compounds, which are critical inputs for air quality model predictions...

The photolysis module in Environment and Climate Change Canada's online chemical transport model GEM-MACH (GEM: Global Environmental Multi-scale – MACH: Modelling Air quality and Chemistry) was improved to make use of the online size and composition-resolved representation of atmospheric aerosols and relative humidity in GEM-MACH, to account for ae...

Smoke from wildfires is a significant source of air pollution, which can adversely impact air quality and ecosystems downwind. With the recently increasing intensity and severity of wildfires, the threat to air quality is expected to increase. Satellite-derived biomass burning emissions can fill in gaps in the absence of aircraft or ground-based me...

Smoke from wildfires is a significant source of air pollution, which can adversely impact air quality and ecosystems downwind. With the recently increasing intensity and severity of wildfires, the threat to air quality is expected to increase. Satellite-derived biomass burning emissions can fill in gaps in the absence of aircraft or ground-based me...

Background : Primary care providers manage most patients with chronic pain. Pain is a complex problem, particularly in underserved populations. A technology-enabled, point-of-care decision support tool may improve pain management outcomes. Methods : We created an electronic health record (EHR)-based decision support tool, the Pain Management Suppo...

The photolysis module in Environment and Climate Change Canada’s on-line chemical transport model GEM-MACH (GEM: Global Environmental Multi-scale – MACH: Modelling Air quality and Chemistry) was improved, to make use of the on-line size and composition-resolved representation of atmospheric aerosols and relative humidity in GEM-MACH, to account for...

Cancer is common among older Chinese American immigrants. Psychological distress may be associated with cancer pain, yet prior studies have not examined this relationship. We conducted a secondary analysis of 514 Chinese Americans with cancer-related pain. Patients completed validated questionnaires, including the Chinese Health Questionnaire-12 (C...

Background First-generation Chinese American patients have low engagement in advance care planning (ACP). Among the causes may be clinician uncertainty about traditional cultural values. Aim Based on a survey identifying barriers to ACP among older ethnic Chinese American patients, we created a toolkit to support clinicians in culturally relevant...

The influence of both anthropogenic and forest fire emissions, and their and subsequent chemical and physical processing, on the accuracy of weather and air-quality forecasts, was studied using a high resolution, fully coupled air-quality model. Simulations were carried out for the period 4 July through 5 August 2019, at 2.5-km horizontal grid cell...

Context Many in the rapidly-growing Chinese-American population are non-English-speaking and medically-underserved, and few engage in advance care planning (ACP). Evaluating culturally-determined factors that may inhibit ACP can inform programs designed to increase ACP engagement. Objectives To describe attitudes and beliefs concerning ACP in olde...

Before the launch of the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), only two other satellite instruments were able to observe aerosol plume heights globally, the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP). The TROPOMI aerosol layer height is a potential game changer, since it has da...

Experimental air-quality forecasts for the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan have been carried out since 2012, using a 10 km/2.5 km nested resolution version of Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Global Environmental Multiscale-Modelling Air-quality and Chemistry (GEM-MACH) on-line air-quality model. We describe here some of the m...

The GEM-MACH-Global model is a global online meteorology-chemistry system currently being developed at the Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). The model is an extension of the Department’s operational, regional GEM-MACH numerical weather and air quality prediction system. The objectives for its development are to improve our...

Abstract. Before the launch of TROPOMI, only two other satellite instruments were able to observe aerosol plume heights globally, MISR and CALIOP. The TROPOMI aerosol layer height is a potential game changer, since it has daily global coverage and the aerosol layer height retrieval is available in near-real time. The aerosol layer height can be use...

Background: Institutional Special Needs Plans (I-SNPs) in nursing homes could impact hospice use by residents with advanced illness. Little is known about their relationship. Objective: To determine whether I-SNP availability has been associated with changes in hospice utilization. Design: Federal data from 2011 and 2013 were extracted from th...

Background: Novel models that improve generalist-level palliative care for cystic fibrosis (CF) are needed to address the burden of this illness. A screening-and-triage model has the potential to identify clinical problems requiring immediate follow-up by CF professionals. This study describes such a model and its immediate impact on care delivery...

Biomass burning activities can produce large quantities of smoke and result in adverse air quality conditions in regional environments. In Canada, the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) operational FireWork (v1.0) air quality forecast system incorporates near-real-time biomass burning emissions to forecast smoke plumes from fire events. T...

Biomass burning activities can produce large quantities of smoke and result in adverse air quality conditions in regional environments. In Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada's (ECCC) operational FireWork air quality forecast system incorporates near-real-time biomass burning emissions to forecast smoke plumes from fire events. The system...

In May 2016, the Horse River wildfire led to the evacuation of ∼ 88 000 people from Fort McMurray and surrounding areas and consumed ∼ 590 000 ha of land in Northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Within the plume, satellite instruments measured elevated values of CO, NH3, and NO2. CO was measured by two Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometers (IA...

A first regional assessment of the impact of shipping emissions on air pollution in the Canadian Arctic and northern regions was conducted in this study. Model simulations were carried out on a limited-area domain (at 15 km horizontal resolution) centred over the Canadian Arctic, using the Environment and Climate Change Canada's on-line air quality...

In May 2016, the Horse River wildfire led to the evacuation of ~88,000 people from Fort McMurray and surrounding areas and consumed ~590,000ha of land in Northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Within the plume, satellite instruments measured elevated values of CO, NH3 and NO2: CO was measured by two Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometers (IASI-A...

Objective Numerous studies have characterized the pain reported by patients with advanced illness in terms of descriptors such as severity, but few have measured pain-related distress. Distress may be important in the clinical approach to pain. To evaluate pain-related distress among adult patients with advanced illness and pain following enrollmen...

A first regional assessment of the impact of shipping emissions on air pollution in the Canadian Arctic and northern regions was conducted in this study. Model simulations were carried out on a limited-area domain (at 15-km horizontal resolution) centred over the Canadian Arctic, using the Environment and Climate Change Canada's on-line air quality...

Although pain can be a powerful influence on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in cancer populations, culturally-based beliefs and behaviors may directly impact HQRL or modify the association between pain and HQRL. Studies of well-defined ethnic groups may clarify these relationships and inform culturally competent clinical practices intended t...

Objectives Little is known about the experience of family caregivers of adults with cystic fibrosis (CF). This information is important for the identification of caregivers at risk for burden. Methods This was a longitudinal analysis of survey data obtained from caregivers of adult CF patients participating in an early intervention palliative care...

FireWork is an on-line, one-way coupled meteorology–chemistry model based on near-real-time wildfire emissions. It was developed by Environment and Climate Change Canada to deliver operational real-time forecasts of biomass-burning pollutants, in particular fine particulate matter (PM2.5), over North America. Such forecasts provide guidance for ear...

Context: Community-based palliative care programs are appearing in the U.S. Many of these programs, particularly those in large cities, serve highly diverse populations. Information about the sources of variation in the conditions that drive illness burden, like symptom distress, may be useful in program planning. Objectives: To characterize var...

Environment and Climate Change Canada have been running a comprehensive operational air quality forecast system with biomass-burning emissions, known as FireWork, since spring 2016. This system is the result of many years of development in collaboration with Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service. Wildland fires are major contributors t...

Objective: Previous research suggests that race/ethnicity predicts health-related quality of life (HRQL) in chronic pain populations but has not examined this in community settings. This study evaluated this association in 522 community-dwelling patients with chronic pain treated at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Design: Cross-secti...

Context: In the United States, palliative care programs improve access to hospice through enhanced communication and efficiencies in hospice eligibility review and enrollment. For community-based programs, this task may begin with telephone contact. Objectives: To evaluate the incidence and predictors of hospice enrollment following telephonic o...

Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) North American air quality (AQ) forecast system with near-real-time (NRT) wildfire emissions, named FireWork, was developed in 2012. From 2013 to 2015, the system was run in experimental mode at the Canadian Centre for Meteorological and Environmental Prediction (CCMEP), where FireWork forecasts were m...

A Unified Regional Air-quality Modelling System, AURAMS, was expanded to predict six toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) within a continental domain and two nested domains covering eastern and western Canada. The model predictions were evaluated against Environment Canada’s National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS) data set to assess the predi...

Context: Community-based palliative care may support seriously-ill homebound patients. Programs vary widely, and few studies have described the heterogeneity of the populations served or service delivery models. Objectives: To evaluate a diverse population served by an interdisciplinary model of community-based specialist palliative care and the...

Context: Referral to community-based palliative care may increase the likelihood of hospice enrollment. Objectives: This retrospective cohort study evaluated the incidence, timing, and predictors of hospice enrollment after referral to a community-based palliative care program. Methods: Data from 1505 homebound patients referred to community-b...

Implications: Smoke from wildfires can have a large impact on regional air quality (AQ) and can expose populations to elevated pollution levels. Environment and Climate Change Canada has been producing operational air quality forecasts for all of Canada since 2009 and is now working to include near-real-time wildfire emissions (NRTWE) in its opera...

Air quality model simulations were carried out for the 2010 northern shipping season over a regional Arctic domain. Preliminary evaluation of the base model simulation shows that the model is able to capture the general trends of the observed ambient ozone and PM2.5 in the northern region. Analysis on relative contributions from North American wild...

Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) causes high illness burden. Screening may identify patients who could potentially benefit from interventions for symptoms or other sources of distress. We evaluated the feasibility of a web-based system for routine monitoring. Methods: Adult CF patients enrolled in a study of palliative care service delivery comp...

Context: Evaluating religious/spiritual influences in the growing Chinese-American population may inform the development of culturally relevant palliative care interventions. Objectives: We assessed the psychometric properties and acceptability of the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale-Chinese (DSES-C) in Chinese Americans with cancer-related pai...

BACKGROUND Cancer is prevalent in the rapidly growing Chinese American community, yet little is known about the symptom experience to guide comprehensive treatment planning. This study evaluated symptom prevalence and patient subgroups with symptom distress in a large sample of Chinese American cancer patients.METHODS Patients were consecutively re...

Little is known about the experience of chronic pain and the occurrence of illicit drug use behaviors in the population enrolled in methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programs. This is a secondary analysis of longitudinal data from two MMT samples enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of hepatitis care coordination. Patients completed pain,...

27 Background: Cancer is prevalent in the rapidly-growing Chinese-American community, yet little is known about symptom burden to guide comprehensive treatment planning. We evaluated symptom distress and symptom clusters in a large sample of Chinese-American patients with cancer. Methods: Patients were consecutively recruited from four oncology pra...

An emissions processing system has been developed to incorporate near-real-time emissions from wildfires and large prescribed burns into Environment Canada’s real-time GEM-MACH air quality (AQ) forecast system. Since the GEM-MACH forecast domain covers Canada and most of the USA, including Alaska, fire location information is needed for both of the...

In Canada, air toxic pollutants are regulated under Schedule 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act-1999. As part of the Canadian government’s Clean Air Regulatory Agenda (CARA), Environment Canada is working with Health Canada to develop air quality modelling capabilities to support assessments of health and environmental impacts from mobi...

Regulatory requirements for renewable content in diesel fuel have been adopted in Canada. Fatty acid alkyl esters, i.e., biodiesel, will likely be used to meet the regulations. However, the impacts on ambient atmospheric pollutant concentrations and human health outcomes associated with the use of biodiesel fuel blends in heavy duty diesel vehicles...

An emissions processing system has been developed to incorporate near-real-time emissions from wildfires and large prescribed burns into Environment Canada’s real-time GEM-MACH air quality (AQ) forecast system. Since the GEM-MACH forecast domain covers Canada and most of the USA, including Alaska, fire location information is needed for both of the...

Objectives: Smoking is associated with chronic pain and pain-related functional impairment. Some studies suggest that pain activates smoking urges and others suggest that smoking is analgesic. We evaluated these associations using ecological momentary assessment, a method for real-time measurement of health-related phenomena. Methods: For 1 week...

106 Background: Chinese Americans are the largest Asian subgroup in the U.S., and many are recent immigrants with high rates of cancer, a leading cause of death for this population. Although Chinese American patients frequently present with advanced illness and poorly controlled pain, information on symptom burden in this population is very limited...

132 Background: Chinese Americans, the largest Asian subgroup, have high cancer rates. Many are recent immigrants who are economically disadvantaged. Patients often present with advanced illness and poorly controlled pain. Although quality improvement (QI) methodologies, such as rapid-cycle QI, may improve clinical practice and patient outcomes, fe...

Little is known about cancer pain in Chinese Americans. The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiology of pain in this population. This information is needed to identify and address unmet clinical needs for culturally relevant interventions targeting pain and its consequences. A consecutive sample of underserved ethnic Chinese patient...

The Air Quality Modeling and Application Section of Environment Canada (EC) is transitioning its policy modeling platform from base year 2002 to base year 2006, The motivation behind this transition is to lake into account the latest technological and scientific information upon which sound advice can be given to policy management. The latest data...