Hasil untuk "Metropolitan areas"

Santosh Kumar Tadakamadla, Sudheer Babu Balla, Jyothi Tadakamadla et al.

Abstract Background Most research on tracking practice locations of health students has focused on medical students, particularly the factors influencing their choice to work in rural and remote areas. However, there is limited research on how rural origin and training in regional or rural settings affect the employment destinations of dental and oral health graduates. This paper explores the practice locations of dentistry and oral health therapy (OHT) graduates from rural backgrounds compared to those from metropolitan areas in Australia. Materials and methods The target population was dental and OHT graduates from La Trobe University’s Rural Health School (Australia) who completed their studies between 2009 and 2023. The graduates’ primary place of practice was sourced from the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) data. The 2019 Modified Monash Model (MMM) was used to categorise the students’ original place of residence by rurality and practice locations. Multivariable analyses were conducted to explore the association between home and practice locations while controlling for the effect of socio-demographic characteristics collected from students at enrolment. Results Data were available for 819 graduates matched to the AHPRA register. Of these, 541 (66.1%) were dentists, and 278 (33.9%) were OHTs. The majority were female (56.7% dentists and 81.7% OHTs), 11.3% (dentists) and 21.6% (OHTs) of the graduates originated from rural and remote areas, 16.6% (dentists) and 18% (OHTs) from regional areas, and 72.1% (dentists) and 60.4% (OHTs) from metropolitan areas. Multinomial logistic regression analyses for dentists and OHTs identified that , having a regional background, or having a rural or remote background were the most significant predictors for regional, rural/remote practice over metropolitan areas. Conclusion Regional background is the strongest predictor for graduate dentists and OHTs practicing in Australia’s regional or rural and remote locations. Similarly, students from rural and remote locations were highly likely to practice in rural/ remote locations. Increasing the recruitment of students with rural backgrounds may positively impact graduates’ decisions to practice in rural areas.

Hanna Vasiutina, Olha Shulika, Michał Bujak et al.

On-demand feeder bus services present an innovative solution to urban mobility challenges, yet their success depends on thorough assessment and strategic planning. Despite their potential, a comprehensive framework for evaluating feasibility and identifying suitable service areas remains underdeveloped. Simulation Framework for Feeder Location Evaluation (SimFLEX) uses spatial, demographic, and transport-specific data to run microsimulations and compute key performance indicators (KPIs), including service attractiveness, waiting time reduction, and added value. SimFLEX employs multiple replications to estimate demand and mode choices and integrates OpenTripPlanner (OTP) for public transport routing and ExMAS for calculating shared trip attributes and KPIs. For each demand scenario, we model the traveler learning process using the method of successive averages (MSA), stabilizing the system. After stabilization, we calculate KPIs for comparative and sensitivity analyzes. We applied SimFLEX to compare two remote urban areas in Krakow, Poland - Bronowice and Skotniki - the candidates for service launch. Our analysis revealed notable differences between analyzed areas: Skotniki exhibited higher service attractiveness (up to 30%) and added value (up to 7%), while Bronowice showed greater potential for reducing waiting times (by nearly 77%). To assess the reliability of our model output, we conducted a sensitivity analysis across a range of alternative-specific constants (ASC). The results consistently confirmed Skotniki as the superior candidate for service implementation. SimFLEX can be instrumental for policymakers to estimate new service performance in the considered area, publicly available and applicable to various use cases. It can integrate alternative models and approaches, making it a versatile tool for policymakers and urban planners to enhance urban mobility.

Claudio Intimayta-Escalante, Gustavo Tapia-Sequeiros, Luis E. Cueva-Cañola

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate sociodemographic inequities related to the coverage and compliance of the two-dose measles vaccination among Peruvian children in 2023. Materials and methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted using data from a Demographic and Health Survey. Mothers aged 15 to 49 with children aged 12 to 59 months were included. Sociodemographic and health characteristics of these mothers were evaluated for inequity analysis using the Concentration Index (CI). This analysis was used to evaluate inequity in vaccination for first and booster doses against measles, and it was complemented with the Erreygers Concentration Index (ECI) and its decomposition. Results: Sixteen thousand, five hundred and twenty-six Peruvian mothers with at least one child aged 12 to 59 months were evaluated. Vaccination coverage was 85.7% and 54.4% for the first and booster doses, respectively. The coverage for both doses was 52.1%, and these figures decreased in people living in rural areas and the Amazon rainforest. In the inequity analysis, mothers with no education or only elementary schooling (ECI: -0.46), those living in the rainforest (ECI: -0.46), and those living in rural areas (ECI: -0.60) exhibited greater inequity in vaccination rates. The ECI was 0.04, and in their decomposition, some conditions, such as high school education, living in rural areas, and having health insurance, have a negative impact on vaccination inequity. Conclusion: Greater inequities in measles vaccination coverage were identified among Peruvian children aged 12-59 months whose mothers reside in rural or non-metropolitan areas of Lima, have lower education levels, and lack health insurance.

Sherri Harms

Providing computer science (CS) offerings in the K-12 education system is often limited by the lack of experienced teachers, especially in small or rural underserved school districts. By helping teachers in underserved areas develop CS curriculum and helping them become certified to teach CS courses, more young people in underserved areas are aware of IT-career opportunities, and prepared for CS education at the university level, which ultimately helps tackle the IT workforce deficit in the United States. This paper discusses a successful implementation of a Google CS4HS grant to a rural underserved area, as well as lessons learned through the implementation of the program. Key elements in the implementation included a face-to-face hands-on workshop, followed by a seven week graduate-level online summer course for the teachers to learn and develop curriculum that covers the CS concepts they will be teaching. The teachers were supported with an online community of practice for the year as they implemented the curriculum.

Ilyas Farhat, Etinosa Ekomwenrenren, John W. Simpson-Porco et al.

A challenge in transmission-distribution coordination is how to quickly and reliably coordinate Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) across large multi-stakeholder Distribution Networks (DNs) to support the Transmission Network (TN), while ensuring operational constraints continue to be met within the DN. Here we propose a hierarchical feedback-based control architecture for coordination of DERs in DNs, enabling the DN to quickly respond to power set-point requests from the Transmission System Operator (TSO) while maintaining local DN constraints. Our scheme allows for multiple independently-managed areas within the DN to optimize their local resources while coordinating to support the TN, and while maintaining data privacy; the only required inter-area communication is between physically adjacent areas within the DN control hierarchy. We conduct a rigorous stability analysis, establishing intuitive conditions for closed-loop stability, and provide detailed tuning recommendations. The proposal is validated via case studies on multiple feeders, including IEEE-123 and IEEE-8500, using a custom MATLAB-based application which integrates with OpenDSS. The simulation results show that the proposed structure is highly scalable and can quickly coordinate DERs in response to TSO commands, while responding to local disturbances within the DN and maintaining DN operational limits.

Ioannis Kavouras, Ioannis Rallis, Nikolaos Doulamis et al.

The environmental hazards and climate change effects causes serious problems in land and coastal areas. A solution to this problem can be the periodic monitoring over critical areas, like coastal region with heavy industrial activity (i.e., ship-buildings) or areas where a disaster (i.e., oil-spill) has occurred. Today there are several Earth and non-Earth Observation data available from several data providers. These data are huge in size and usually it is needed to combine several data from multiple sources (i.e., data with format differences) for a more effective evaluation. For addressing these issues, this work proposes the Ocean-DC framework as a solution in data harmonization and homogenization. A strong advantage of this Data Cube implementation is the generation of a single NetCDF product that contains Earth Observation data of several data types (i.e., Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2). To evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the Ocean-DC implementation, it is examined a case study of an oil-spill in Saronic gulf in September of 2017. The generated 4D Data Cube considers both Landsat-8,9 and Sentinel-2 products for a time-series analysis, before, during, and after the oil-spill event. The Ocean-DC framework successfully generated a NetCDF product, containing all the necessary remote sensing products for monitoring the oil-spill disaster in the Saronic gulf.

Matteo Straccamore, Matteo Bruno, Bernardo Monechi et al.

Abstract Over the years, the growing availability of extensive datasets about registered patents allowed researchers to get a deeper insight into the drivers of technological innovation. In this work, we investigate how patents’ technological contents characterise metropolitan areas’ development and how innovation is related to GDP per capita. Exploiting worldwide data from 1980 to 2014, and through network-based techniques that only use information about patents, we identify coherent distinguished groups of metropolitan areas, either clustered in the same geographical area or similar in terms of their economic features. Moreover, we extend the notion of coherent diversification to patent production and show how it is linked to the economic growth of metropolitan areas. Our findings draw a picture in which technological innovation can play a key role in the economic development of urban areas. We contend that the tools introduced in this paper can be used to further explore the interplay between urban growth and technological innovation.

A. S. Saidu, S. Mohammed, S. G. Adamu et al.

Abstract Cryptosporidium is one of the most important protozoan parasitic pathogens, and it is a common cause of diarrhoea in humans, domestic animals, and wild vertebrates and has serious public health threats. A cross-sectional study was designed to determine the prevalence of Cryptosporidium oocysts in raw-eaten vegetables in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC) and Jere Local Government Areas (LGAs). A total of 400 samples were collected from four (4) different locations, namely Tashan Bama, Gomboru, and Monday Markets (n = 100), while fifty (n = 50) each from 202-Vegetable-Vendors and Unimaid Commercials. A total of 16 visits were conducted in all the sampling areas (twenty-five samples per visit). The Cryptosporidium oocysts were detected using the Modified Ziehl–Neelsen Staining Technique. The locations, sources, and types of raw-eaten vegetables were also assessed. The oocysts were confirmed (100×) as bright pink spherules. Data generated were analyzed using IBM-SPSS V23.0, and p ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Out of the total samples (n = 400) analyzed, cabbage appeared to have the highest number of 10 (12.5%) of Cryptosporidium oocysts detected, while Tomato and garden egg had 9 (11.3%) and 1 (1.2%), respectively. There was a statistically significant association (χ2 = 12.5, P = 0.014) between the presence of Cryptosporidium oocysts in raw-eaten vegetables and vegetable types. Among the sources of the vegetables sampled, Alau had the highest number of Cryptosporidium oocysts, 15 (12.5%), followed by Kilari-Abdullahi and Zabarmari sources with 4 (10.0%) and 4 (5.0%), respectively. However, Jetete appeared to have the least number 2 (2.5%) of oocysts, and there was a statistically significant association (χ2= 10.4, P = 0.034) between the presence of Cryptosporidium oocysts and the sources of vegetables and fruits. The study concludes that the raw-eaten vegetables sampled from Maiduguri Metropolis were contaminated with Cryptosporidium oocysts. The study recommends that all raw-eaten vegetables should be from cleaned sources and washed before consumption. Consumers should be enlightened on the hygienic measures in the food chain in line with the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) principles.

Hongbin Cui, Xiaoxiang Jiao, Xiaowei Xu

There are two significant families of minimal real matrix varieties: determinantal varieties and skew-symmetric determinantal varieties, the later ones are also known as Pfaffian varieties. In 1999, Kerckhove and Lawlor [Duke Math.J. 96(2),401--424,1999] proved that determinantal varieties are area-minimizing except for two families. In this paper we prove that all Pfaffian varieties are area-minimizing with the exception of Pfaffian hypersurfaces.

Beniamin Bogosel

The first main result presented in the paper shows that the perimeters of inner parallel sets of planar shapes having a given constant width are minimal for the Reuleaux triangles. This implies that the areas of inner parallel sets and, consequently, the inverse of the Cheeger constant are also minimal for the Reuleaux triangles. Proofs use elementary geometry arguments and are based on direct comparisons between general constant width shapes and the Reuleaux triangle.

Carmen Crespo-Gonzalez, Sarah Dineen-Griffin, John Rae et al.

The burden of mental health problems continues to grow worldwide. Community pharmacists’, as part of the primary care team, optimise care for people living with mental illness. This study aims to examine the factors that support or hinder the delivery of mental health services delivered in Australian community pharmacies and proposes ideas for improvement. A qualitative study was conducted comprising focus groups with community pharmacists and pharmacy staff across metropolitan, regional, and rural areas of New South Wales, Australia. Data were collected in eight focus groups between December 2020 and June 2021. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. Thirty-three community pharmacists and pharmacy staff participated in an initial round of focus groups. Eleven community pharmacists and pharmacy staff participated in a second round of focus groups. Twenty-four factors that enable or hinder the delivery of mental health services in community pharmacy were identified. Participant’s perception of a lack of recognition and integration of community pharmacy within primary care were identified as major barriers, in addition to consumers’ stigma and lack of awareness regarding service offering. Suggestions for improvement to mental health care delivery in community pharmacy included standardised practice through the use of protocols, remuneration and public awareness. A framework detailing the factors moderating pharmacists, pharmacy staff and consumers’ empowerment in mental health care delivery in community pharmacy is proposed. This study has highlighted that policy and funding support for mental health services is needed that complement and expand integrated models, promote access to services led by or are conducted in collaboration with pharmacists and recognise the professional contribution and competencies of community pharmacists in mental health care. The framework proposed may be a step to strengthening mental health support delivered in community pharmacies.

Andrea Cristina Ramirez Herrera, Sonja Bauer, Victor Peña Guillen

Lima is the second-largest capital of the world located in a desert and already faces water scarcity. Here, more than 30% of the population is supplied by only 2.2% of the national water resources. The urbanization process has an informal nature and occurs at a very accelerated rate. These new settlements lack water infrastructure and access to other services. The objectives of this study are to quantify changes in the urban landscape of Lima Metropolitan Area from 1990 to 2021 to propose a water-sensitive urban plan by detecting changes, urbanization trends and identifying alternative water sources. The trend suggests a future constant increment of the urban areas, diversification of the landscape and more equally distributed land cover. Lima has more disconnected settlements and more complex shapes of urban patches nowadays. The landscape is also more mingled, but cracked. Overall, the trend is to become more disaggregated, demanding small and scattered water solutions. The WSUP includes the implementation of treatment plants in new multi-family buildings, hybrid desalination plants at the coast and parks with fog collectors on the hills. Additionally, these solutions will require the beneficiary community and the local authorities to work together in the planning and maintenance.

Jade Nasrallah, Mohammad Akhoundi, Djamel Haouchine et al.

Background: Amoebiasis is an intestinal and tissue parasitic infection caused by the protozoan Entamoeba histolytica. Despite significant medical importance and worldwide dispersion, little is known about the epidemiology and distinct geographical distribution of various clinical forms of amoebiasis in the world. In this study, we present an amoebiasis case series referred to Avicenne Hospital (Bobigny, France) from 2010 to 2022 followed by an overview of the released literature to explore diverse clinico-pathology of amoebiasis and to update the actual epidemiological situation of this parasitosis worldwide. Methods: The referred patients underwent a combination of clinical and parasitological examinations and imaging. The study was followed by an overview of released literature performed based on PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guideline. Results: A total of 15 patients with amoebiasis were diagnosed with an average age of 48.5 years old at the occurrence time of infection. Men (78%) were the most affected patients. Most of the cases were reported following a trip to endemic regions, such as Mali, India, Nepal, Algeria, Cameroon or Congo. All of the processed patients exhibited a hepatic amoebiasis. Amoebic abscess was observed in all cases with an average size of 6.3 cm. Of these patients, seven cases (46.7%) benefited from drainage following a risk of rupture or superinfection of the abscess. A compilation of findings extracted from 390 scientific publications via seven major medical databases, allowed us to update the main epidemiological and clinical events that has led to the current worldwide expansion of amoebiasis. We presented a clinical and epidemiological overview of the amoebiasis accompanied with a worldwide illustrative map displaying the current distribution of known amoebiasis foci in each geographical ecozone of Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas, and Australia. Conclusions: Although Metropolitan France is not known as an endemic region of amoebiasis, amoebic liver abscess was the most frequent clinical form observed among our 15 patients processed. Most of infected patients had a history of travel to or lived-in endemic areas before arriving in France.

Wenhao Luo, Yee Hui Lee, Abdulkadir C. Yucel et al.

Accurate monitoring of tree roots using ground penetrating radar (GPR) is very useful in assessing the trees health. In high moisture tropical areas such as Singapore, tree fall due to root rot can cause loss of lives and properties. The tropical complex soil characteristics due to the high moisture content tends to affect penetration depth of the signal. This limits the depth range of the GPR. Typically, a wide band signal is used to increase the penetration depth and to improve the resolution of the GPR. However, this broad band frequency tends to be noisy and selective frequency filtering is required for noise reduction. Therefore, in this paper, we adapt the stepped frequency continuous wave (SFCW) GPR and propose the use of a Joint time frequency analysis (JTFA) method called short time Fourier transform (STFT), to reduce noise and enhance tree root detection. The proposed methodology is illustrated and tested with controlled experiments and real tree roots testing. The results show promising prospects of the method for tree roots detection in tropical areas.

Yongjun Lee, Yoola Hwang, Jae Young Ahn et al.

Multipath and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signals are the major causes of poor accuracy of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) in urban areas. Despite the wide usage of the GNSS in populated urban areas, it is difficult to suggest a generalized method because multipath errors are user-specific errors that cannot be eliminated by the DGNSS or a real-time kinematic technique. This paper introduces a real-time multipath estimation and mitigation technique, which considers compensation for the time offset between constellations. It also presents a mode-switching algorithm between the DGNSS and multipath mitigating mode and shows that this technique can be effectively utilized for automobiles in a deep urban environment without any help from sensors other than GNSS. The availability is improved from 64% to 100% and the error RMS is reduced from 11.1 m to 1.2 m on Teheran-ro, Seoul, Korea. Because this method does not require prior information or additional sensor implementation for high-positioning performance in deep urban areas, it is expected to gain wide usage in not only the automotive industry but also future intelligent transportation systems.

Jian Fang, Chaoyang Zhang, Jiayi Fang et al.

The impacts of floods on human society are expected to increase at both global and regional scale in the context of global climate change and increasing human activity in flood-prone areas. However, spatially explicit and dynamic assessments of flood exposure in China are still very limited, which hinders the development of risk-based flood management considering dynamic changes. Therefore, this study explored the spatial-temporal variations of flood exposure in China from 1992 to 2020 through flood susceptibility mapping and using satellite-based nighttime light data. It can be revealed that a significantly high level and rapid increase of flood exposure could be observed in China, especially around some major metropolitan areas in the eastern region. The expansion of flood exposure was mainly distributed in North China and some coastal areas during 1992–2000; while mainly occurring in South China during 2000–2013, especially in middle Yangtze River basin where flood susceptibility is highest. The changes of flood exposure in China were mainly driven by the increase in the number of lit pixels during the early period, and were dominated by the increase in the intensity of lit pixels in the later period. This process continued to the latest period of 2014–2020. This implies that upgrading of existing flood management facilities and efforts for more effective measures are urgently needed in flood-prone urban areas with increasing exposure intensity. In addition, this study demonstrated the advantage of nighttime light data for disaster assessment and monitoring. With the development of more nighttime light products of higher resolution and higher detection ability and the integration with ground-based observation, it is promising to achieve more precise monitoring and analysis of flood exposure at a large scale, and support fine-grained management of flood risk.

Emily Ridgewell, Leigh Clarke, Sarah Anderson et al.

Abstract Background Previous Australian workforce analyses revealed a small orthotist/prosthetist workforce with a low number of practitioners per 100,000 Australians. In recent years, initiatives were implemented to increase relative workforce size, including a government-led change in immigration policy to facilitate entry of experienced internationally trained orthotist/prosthetists into the Australian workforce. Given these changes, this project aimed to compare demographics of the orthotist/prosthetist workforce in Australia and each state/territory between 2007, 2012 and 2019. Methods This quasi-experiment analysed data from the Australian Orthotic Prosthetic Association (AOPA) database of certified orthotist/prosthetists, to compare changes in the absolute number of practitioners and the number of practitioners per 100,000 population, as well as practitioner age, gender and service location (i.e., metropolitan, regional/remote) across three time points, with a breakdown by each Australian state and territory. Results Between 2007 and 2019, the number of orthotist/prosthetists per 100,000 population increased 90%. Average age reduced significantly between 2007 (41.5 years) and 2019 (35 years) (p = 0.001). While the proportion of female practitioners increased significantly between 2007 (30%) and 2019 (49%), and between 2012 (38%) and 2019 (49%) (p < 0.05); only 22% of the female workforce is over 40 years of age. The proportion of practitioners servicing a regional/remote location did not change over time (range 13–14%). Conclusions Between 2007 and 2019, the national orthotist/prosthetist workforce increased at a rate that exceeded Australia’s population growth, became younger, and more female. However, the number of practitioners per 100,000 population remains below international recommendations; particularly in states outside of Victoria and Tasmania, and in regional/remote areas. In addition, low numbers of mid-late career female practitioners suggest challenges to retention of this particular cohort. These data can help inform workforce initiatives to retain a younger and more female workforce, and improve access to orthotic/prosthetic services.

Yu Lan, Elizabeth Delmelle, Eric Delmelle

NDS is an interactive, web-based system, for the visualization of multidimensional neighborhood dynamics across the 50 largest US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) from 1980 to 2010 (http://neighborhooddynamics.dreamhosters.com). Four different visualization tools are developed: (1) an interactive time slider to show neighborhood classification changes for different years; (2) multiple interactive bar charts for each variables of each neighborhood; (3) an animated neighborhood’s trajectory and sequence cluster on a self-organizing map (SOM) output space; and (4) a synchronized visualization tool showing maps for four time stamps at once. The development of this interactive online platform for visualizing dynamics overcomes many of the challenges associated with communicating changes for multiple variables, across multiple time stamps, and for a large geographic area when relying upon static maps. The system enables users to select and dive into details on particular neighborhoods and explore their changes over time.

Guilherme Lopes de Oliveira, Rosangela Helena Loschi, Renato Martins Assunção

The determination of the shapes of mortality curves, the estimation and projection of mortality patterns over time, and the investigation of differences in mortality patterns across different small underdeveloped populations have received special attention in recent years. The challenges involved in this type of problems are the common sparsity and the unstable behavior of observed death counts in small areas (populations). These features impose many dificulties in the estimation of reasonable mortality schedules. In this chapter, we present a discussion about this problem and we introduce the use of relational Bayesian dynamic models for estimating and smoothing mortality schedules by age and sex. Preliminary results are presented, including a comparison with a methodology recently proposed in the literature. The analyzes are based on simulated data as well as mortality data observed in some Brazilian municipalities.

Maria Chiara Nasso, Aljoša Volčič

In this paper we study area-filling curves, i.e. continuous and injective mappings defined on [0,1] whose graph has positive measure. Current literature calls them ``Osgood curves", but their invention is due to H. Lebesgue. Stromberg and Tseng constructed homogeneous area-filling curves and offered an elegant example. We show that an appropriate variant of Knopp's construction attains the same homogeneity result. In Section 4 we discuss briefly the existence of an ``invasive" curve, i.e. a continuous and injective mapping from the half-open interval [0,1[ to the unit square, whose image has measure 1. In the last section we discuss several aspects of the Lance-Thomas curve, connecting it with the other construction due to Stromberg and Tseng.