A rectangular floorplan is a partition of a rectangle into smaller rectangles such that no four rectangles meet at a single point. Rectangular floorplans arise naturally in a variety of applications, including VLSI design, architectural layout, and cartography, where efficient and flexible spatial subdivisions are required. A central concept in this domain is that of area-universality: a floorplan (or more generally, a rectangular layout) is area-universal if, for any assignment of target areas to its constituent rectangles, there exists a combinatorially equivalent layout that realizes these areas. In this paper, we investigate the structural conditions under which an outerplanar graph admits an area-universal rectangular layout. We establish a necessary and sufficient condition for area-universality in this setting, thereby providing a complete characterization of admissible outerplanar graphs. Furthermore, we present an algorithmic construction that guarantees that the resulting layout is always area-universal.
In extreme value analysis, tail behavior of a heavy-tailed data distribution is modeled by a Pareto-type distribution in which the so-called extreme value index (EVI) controls the tail behavior. For heavy-tailed data obtained from multiple population subgroups, or areas, this study efficiently predicts the EVIs of all areas using information among areas. For this purpose, we propose a mixed effects model, which is a useful approach in small area estimation. In this model, we represent differences among areas in the EVIs by latent variables called random effects. Using correlated random effects across areas, we incorporate the relations among areas into the model. The obtained model achieves simultaneous prediction of EVIs of all areas. Herein, we describe parameter estimation and random effect prediction in the model, and clarify theoretical properties of the estimator. Additionally, numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. As an application of our model, we provide a risk assessment of heavy rainfall in Japan.
Ekaterina Kalinicheva, Florian Helen, Stéphane Mermoz
et al.
Fine-scale forest monitoring is essential for understanding canopy structure and its dynamics, which are key indicators of carbon stocks, biodiversity, and forest health. Deep learning is particularly effective for this task, as it integrates spectral, temporal, and spatial signals that jointly reflect the canopy structure. To address this need, we introduce THREASURE-Net, a novel end-to-end framework for Tree Height Regression And Super-Resolution. The model is trained on Sentinel-2 time series using reference height metrics derived from LiDAR HD data at multiple spatial resolutions over Metropolitan France to produce annual height maps. We evaluate three model variants, producing tree-height predictions at 2.5 m, 5 m, and 10 m resolution. THREASURE-Net does not rely on any pretrained model nor on reference very high resolution optical imagery to train its super-resolution module; instead, it learns solely from LiDAR-derived height information. Our approach outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods based on Sentinel data and is competitive with methods based on very high resolution imagery. It can be deployed to generate high-precision annual canopy-height maps, achieving mean absolute errors of 2.63 m, 2.70 m, and 2.88 m at 2.5 m, 5 m, and 10 m resolution, respectively. These results highlight the potential of THREASURE-Net for scalable and cost-effective structural monitoring of temperate forests using only freely available satellite data. The source code for THREASURE-Net is available at: https://github.com/Global-Earth-Observation/threasure-net.
<h4>Introduction</h4>The objective of this study was to evaluate the utilization and adherence of onsite clinics and identify the factors influencing them in semiconductor employees at risk of chronic diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia.<h4>Methods</h4>A cross-sectional study was conducted through a retrospective review of electronic medical records from onsite clinics at a South Korean semiconductor company. The study focused on employees who visited the onsite clinics between 2013 and 2016 due to the risk of chronic diseases including hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. Descriptive statistics assessed clinic utilization and adherence, while multivariable logistic regression identified influencing factors, adjusted for age, sex, work type, work shift, workplace, specific onsite clinic, diagnosis, and disease duration.<h4>Results</h4>Out of the 39,073 employees examined, 8,837 sought care at onsite clinics for managing chronic disease risks. The majority of these participants were male (88.2%) and predominantly aged in their 30s and 40s (84.6%). Among these individuals, 33.0% visited the clinics five or more times, and 28.5% filled prescriptions on two or more occasions. Chronic diseases were the second most common reason for onsite clinic visits. The average adherence to prescription as measured by the Proportion of Days Covered (PDC) was 0.61, with 40% of individuals showing a high adherence. Notably, older age and employment at workplaces located outside metropolitan areas were significant factors positively associated with both the utilization of onsite clinic services and adherence to prescribed treatments.<h4>Conclusion</h4>This study found that onsite clinics within a semiconductor company were actively utilized for managing chronic diseases, particularly among older employees and those in workplaces located in areas where medical access is limited compared to metropolitan areas. These findings highlight the potential role of onsite clinics in enhancing chronic disease management. Future research across a broader range of workplaces could further support and expand these insights.
Internal land-use characteristics and structural disparities within urban villages were comprehensively analyzed through an empirical investigation of five representative cases in Guangzhou: Shipai (urban core), Tangxia (inner suburb), Huanxi (transitional zone), Wenchong (outer suburb), and Xiangang (peri-urban fringe). To address the spatial conflicts inherent in China's dual urban-rural land system, this study establishes a functionally driven hierarchical classification framework that categorizes land into four domains: production (subdivided into commercial and industrial activities), living (primarily residential use), ecological, and potential (agricultural/vacant parcels). Quantitative methodologies, including the Weaver-Thomas Combination coefficient, were used to identify dominant functional configurations, a diversification index for measuring structural heterogeneity, and GIS-based hotspot analysis at a 50-m resolution to map economic clusters. This study revealed profound spatial stratification patterns. There was an absolute dominance of living functions across all villages, with residential land occupying 35.87%-69.61% of the total area and exhibiting an inverse correlation between centrality and plot integrity. Central villages exemplify extreme densification: Shipai manifests a residential coverage of 69.61% coupled with severe fragmentation (average plot size: 0.08 ha), whereas peri-urban Xiangang retains 37.96% of its agricultural/potential land with 1.7-fold higher diversification indices. Production functions exhibit distinct spatial gradients: commercial activities cluster linearly along arterial roads, forming economic hotspots that occupy 15%-22% of the core zones. In contrast, 73.2% of high-value commercial nodes are located within 200 m of primary streets. Industrial land virtually disappears in central areas (<5% in Shipai) but persists in the peripheries (12.4% in Xiangang). Structural inertia, rooted in collective land ownership, perpetuates fragmentation, with 28.6 plots per ha in central zones, materially constraining spatial redevelopment potential. These observations delineate a location-filtered evolutionary trajectory: urban-core villages evolve into vertically integrated production-living complexes (quantified as a 1:2.3 ratio of production-to-living space), which adapt to condensed urban demands, whereas peripheral villages maintain horizontally hybridized production-agricultural landscapes (1:1.1 ratio) as transitional buffers for metropolitan expansion. Theoretically, institutional friction is validated because the clash between formal urban land economics and informal rural property regimes catalyzes spatially modulated fragmentation driven by locational gradients. This study proposes calibrated regeneration paradigms: for central villages, three-dimensional mixed-use intensification (embedding commerce within residential towers) to optimize spatial efficiency; for peripheral cases, multifunctional ecological-agricultural reserves preserving productive green buffers; and universally applicable incremental property rights consolidation via land shareholding cooperatives, which demonstrate a 30%-40% cost reduction in redevelopment implementation.
The economic growth and fast urbanization in China have led to a rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Prior research has predominantly concentrated on examining the correlation between social economy, urban structure, and CO2 emissions. However, there has been little comprehensive research that considers the incidental truncation of missing CO2 emission data in underdeveloped cities. Here, we take the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as an example and use the sample selection model to study the spatiotemporal impacts of urban structure and socioeconomic factors on CO2 emissions, based on the unbalanced panel data for the years 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2018. The results show the following: (a) The spatial differentiation of urban structures between cities was obvious, and 4 landscape indices showed significant spatial autocorrelation. (b) CO2 emissions per capita and CO2 emissions per unit of gross domestic product were limited dependent variables and affected by regional development degree, which had incidental truncation. (c) The urbanization rate, complex boundaries, concentration, and expansion of construction land will promote the growth of CO2 emissions, while as the proportion of secondary production and urban fragmentation increases by 1%, CO2 emissions will decline by approximately 0.09% and 1.72%, respectively. (d) Single-centered, highly fragmented models can lead to a surge in CO2 emissions per capita, while continuous urban structures with complex boundaries can reduce CO2 emissions per capita and CO2 emissions per unit of gross domestic product. The research findings emphasize the need to consider urban fragmentation, aggregation, and providing sufficient infrastructures for emission reduction, which establish a foundation for the environmentally friendly design of metropolitan areas.
Cláudio Roberto de JESUS, Welter Peterson da Silva OLIVEIRA
Resumo O artigo pretende problematizar o alcance das políticas sociais instituídas ao longo do século XXI no Brasil e a importância do trabalho e território para compreender seus limites e potencialidades, sendo os conceitos de exclusão e inclusão também discutidos criticamente. Partiu-se da análise da situação de trabalho na produção de castanha-de-caju, a que crianças e adolescentes estão expostos na comunidade do Amarelão em João Câmara, RN. O objetivo do trabalho é entender a condição de exclusão e marginalidade do Amarelão e a persistência do trabalho infantil na comunidade mesmo diante dos programas sociais. A análise baseou-se em revisão bibliográfica, entrevistas com gestores do município e moradores da comunidade, além da observação direta e conversas informais na comunidade.
Chao Fan, Md Jakirul Islam Jony Prothan, Yuanhui Zhu
et al.
This study presents a spatially explicit, multidecadal analysis of how land use and land cover (LULC) change and socio-demographic dynamics have influenced land surface temperature (LST) patterns in the Phoenix metropolitan area between 2001 and 2021. Using Landsat-derived summer LST, socio-demographic indicators, and land cover data, we quantify urban land transformation and socio-demographic changes over two decades. To account for spatial heterogeneity, we apply Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR), which improves upon conventional regression models by allowing for variable-specific spatial scales. Results show that the 2001–2011 period was characterized by rapid suburban expansion and widespread conversion of croplands and open space to higher-intensity development, while 2011–2021 experienced more limited infill development. Correlation analysis reveals that agricultural and open space conversions were linked to population and housing growth, whereas redevelopment of existing urban areas was often associated with socio-demographic decline. MGWR results highlight that agricultural land conversion drives localized warming, while shrub/scrub-to-developed transitions are linked to broader-scale cooling. By combining spatial sampling, area-weighted interpolation, and MGWR, this study offers a fi-ne-grained assessment of urban thermal dynamics in a fast-growing desert region. The findings provide actionable insights for planners and policymakers working toward sustainable and climate-resilient urban development in arid environments.
When estimating area means, direct estimators based on area-specific data, are usually consistent under the sampling design without model assumptions. However, they are inefficient if the area sample size is small. In small area estimation, model assumptions linking the areas are used to "borrow strength" from other areas. The basic area-level model provides design-consistent estimators but error variances are assumed to be known. In practice, they are estimated with the (scarce) area-specific data. These estimators are inefficient, and their error is not accounted for in the associated mean squared error estimators. Unit-level models do not require to know the error variances but do not account for the survey design. Here we describe a unified estimator of an area mean that may be obtained both from an area-level model or a unit-level model and based on consistent estimators of the model error variances as the number of areas increases. We propose bootstrap mean squared error estimators that account for the uncertainty due to the estimation of the error variances. We show a better performance of the new small area estimators and our bootstrap estimators of the mean squared error. We apply the results to education data from Colombia.
COVID-19 significantly has changed the lifestyle in the urban areas. Urban parks reemerged as a savior of leisure activities and social joints under strict social-distancing measures. Thus, there have been significant changes in the thresholds of service distances of urban parks: People have become more willing to visit parks in farther areas. This paper aims to examine the difference between before and after the COVID-19 pandemic by applying a gravity model. We examine variations in the service areas of urban parks, dependig on the accessibility and design components of the park, using a dataset consisting of the park visitor's 'origin (home)' and 'destination (park)'. This LBD (Location-based Big Data) provides the home location of the urban park visitor. The data was constructed by SK Telecom, using individual smartphone signal data on a daily basis. Adjusted coefficients are estimated by OLS(ordinary least squares) with cluster-robust standard errors to compare the difference between 2019 and 2020. Contrary to a common belief, the transit accessibility of the park plays a more significant role than the physical traits of each parks. Accessibility itself determines a lot of the threshold distance of the park visit. While previous studies have identified the factors influencing the reaching distance of park services, this study also attempts to determine how the effects of the factors have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As proven in this study, the marginal effects of those factors vary before and after the pandemic. By identifying the factors that determine the distance to visit in urban parks, it is possible to see which factors should be more focused on in planning small parks for residents in the neighborhood or large parks for more visitors from the entire region.
Greg J. Eisinger, Patrick J. Sylvester, Dheeraj Duggineni
et al.
Abstract. Background. We sought to characterize the impact of critical care training pathways on subsequent employment opportunities.
Methods. A survey assessing the postfellowship work environment and barriers to employment in a preferred setting was electronically distributed on September 16, 2019, to program directors and coordinators at all US adult critical care fellowships with instructions to forward it to the prior year’s graduates.
Results. Data collection was interrupted by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Fifty-nine participants were included, reflecting a low rate of return. Most worked in urban areas (76.6%) at academic hospitals (81.7%). Graduates of internal medicine critical care (IMCC) were more likely than pulmonary critical care (PCC) to report their fellowship as a barrier to employment (50% vs 0%; P < 0.05). Emergency medicine graduates were more likely than internal medicine to report their residency as a barrier to employment (83.3% vs 4.6%; P < 0.05). Inability to find a desired position at an academic center (50% vs 5.9%; P < 0.05) and in the preferred metropolitan setting (37.5% vs 0%; P < 0.05) were more common among IMCC than PCC.
Conclusion. In this survey of critical care graduates, residency in emergency medicine and fellowship in IMCC were associated with increased barriers to finding desired employment.
Medical emergencies. Critical care. Intensive care. First aid
Resumen
Esta investigación parte de la voluntad de detectar y caracterizar los lugares del conflicto urbano que han protagonizado las tres últimas décadas de desarrollo de la ciudad de Tarragona. Para ello, este ensayo parte de la observación sistematizada y crítica del relato mediático de la prensa escrita para identificar, acotar y examinar aquellos ámbitos geográficos donde colidan, con mayor o menor virulencia, las carencias, nostalgia, resistencia al cambio y expectativas de transformación. Son los lugares donde compiten múltiples intereses, a menudo contradictorios, por orientar el devenir urbano, espacios donde toman cuerpo los designios abstractos del mercado inmobiliario y las contestaciones, resistencias y fricciones derivadas. Son también los escenarios del error, el exceso, el infortunio o la obsolescencia y abandono. En todos ellos, el conflicto urbano puede actuar como motor del cambio y principio catalizador de transformación o, por el contrario, como condena a la parálisis eterna. El análisis sistemático de la hemeroteca local y la ponderación de variables como el momento, el grado de impacto, el sentimiento asociado a cada noticia o los ámbitos referentes emerge, pues, como estrategia innovadora para estructurar un hilo argumental de la biografía, geometría y geografía de los principales hechos urbanos de cualquier realidad metropolitana contemporánea.
Abstract
This research is based on the desire to detect and characterize the places of urban conflict that have played the leading roles of the last three decades of development in the city Tarragona. To do so, this essay starts from the systematized and critical observation of the media narrative of the written press to identify, delimit and examine those geographical areas where, with greater or lesser virulence, deficiencies, nostalgia, resistance to change and expectations of transformation collide. They are the places where multiple interests, often contradictory, compete to guide the urban future, spaces where the abstract designs of the real estate market and the resulting disputes, resistances and frictions take shape. They are also scenarios of error, excess, misfortune or obsolescence and abandonment. In all of them, the urban conflict can act as a motor and a catalyst for change or, on the contrary, as a sentence to eternal paralysis. Thus, the systematic analysis of the local newspaper archive and the weighting of variables such as the moment, the impact degree, the sentiment associated with each piece of news or the relevant areas emerges as an innovative strategy to structure a plot line of biography, geometry and geography of the main urban facts of any contemporary metropolitan reality.
Aesthetics of cities. City planning and beautifying
Nora Fagerholm, Karl Samuelsson, Salla Eilola
et al.
Abstract Recent empirical research has confirmed the importance of green infrastructure and outdoor recreation to urban people’s well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, only a few studies provide cross-city analyses. We analyse outdoor recreation behaviour across four Nordic cities ranging from metropolitan areas to a middle-sized city. We collected map-based survey data from residents (n = 469–4992) in spring 2020 and spatially analyse green infrastructure near mapped outdoor recreation sites and respondents’ places of residence. Our statistical examination reveals how the interplay among access to green infrastructure across cities and at respondents’ residential location, together with respondents’ socio-demographic profiles and lockdown policies or pandemic restrictions, affects outdoor recreation behaviour. The results highlight that for pandemic resilience, the history of Nordic spatial planning is important. To support well-being in exceptional situations as well as in the long term, green infrastructure planning should prioritise nature wedges in and close to cities and support small-scale green infrastructure.
Dominik Ziemke, Nico Kuehnel, Carlos Llorca
et al.
Integrated land-use transport models are often accused of being too complex, too coarse or too slow. We tightly couple the microscopic land use model SILO (Simple Integrated Land Use Orchestrator) with the agent-based transport simulation model MATSim (Multi-Agent Transport Simulation). The integration of the two models is person-centric. It means, firstly, that travel demand is generated microscopically. Secondly, SILO agents can query individualized travel information to search for housing or jobs (and to choose among available modes). Consequently, travel time matrices (skim matrices) are not needed anymore. Travel time queries can be done for any time of the day (instead of for one or few time periods), any x/y coordinate (instead of a limited number of zones) and take into account properties of the individual. This way, we avoid aggregation issues (e.g., large zones that disguise local differences) and we can account for individual constraints (e.g., nighttime workers who cannot commute by public transport for lack of service). Therefore, the behavior of agents is represented realistically, which allows us to simulate their reaction to novel policies (e.g., emission-class-based vehicle restrictions) and to extract system-wide effects. The model is applied in two study areas: a toy scenario and the metropolitan region of Munich. We simulate various transport and land use policies to test the model capabilities, including public transport extensions, zones restricted for private cars and land use development regulations. The results demonstrate that the increase of the model resolution and model expressiveness facilitates the simulation of such policies and the interpretation of the results.
Transportation engineering, Transportation and communications
Regional Studies, 2021. This is the last draft version (the version submitted to the journal before acceptance) | We calculate measures of economic complexity for US metropolitan areas for the years 1998-2015 based on employment data. We show that the concept translates well to the regional setting and to local and traded industries. Large cities and the Northeast have the highest complexity, while most traded industries are more complex than most local ones. In cross-section, metropolitan complexity is associated with higher incomes, though to a lesser extent recently than in the past. However, within-city increases in complexity are associated with income decreases. Our findings highlight the need for caution when interpreting the relationship between complexity and socioeconomic outcomes. | https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2021.1884215
To any combinatorial triangulation $T$ of a square, there is an associated polynomial relation $p_T$ among the areas of the triangles of $T$. With the goal of understanding this polynomial, we consider polynomials obtained from $p_T$ by choosing $l$ of its variables and specializing $p_T$ to these variables by zeroing out the remaining variables. We show that for fixed $l$, the set ${\mathcal E}_l$ of integer polynomials that appear as irreducible factors of such specializations is finite. We compute this area encyclopedia ${\mathcal E}_l$ for $l\leq 4$. We also show that in any dissection of a square into $l$ triangles, the areas of the triangles must satisfy a polynomial in ${\mathcal E}_l$. Our results are obtained by studying the rational map that associates to each drawing of $T$ the tuple of areas of the triangles in that drawing. By analyzing the ways of approaching the base locus, we derive restrictions on points of the closure of the image of this map.
Natasha A Lannin, Annie McCluskey, Liana S Cahill
et al.
Objectives Somatosensory loss is common after stroke with one-in-two individuals affected. Although clinical practice guidelines recommend providing somatosensory rehabilitation, this impairment often remains unassessed and untreated. To address the gap between guideline recommendations and clinical practice, this study sought to understand the factors influencing delivery of evidence-based upper limb sensory rehabilitation after stroke.Design Qualitative study involving focus groups and interviews. Data analysis used an inductive approach (thematic analysis) and deductive analysis using implementation theory (the Theoretical Domains Framework and Normalisation Process Theory).Setting Eight healthcare organisations in metropolitan and regional areas of Victoria and New South Wales, Australia.Participants Eighty-seven rehabilitation therapists (79% occupational therapists and 21% physiotherapists) were purposively sampled and participated in a knowledge translation study with staggered recruitment from 2014 to 2018.Results Three types of factors influenced therapists’ delivery of upper limb somatosensory rehabilitation: individual (‘The uncertain, unskilled therapist’), patient (‘Patient understanding and priorities’) and organisational (‘System pressures and resources’). Deductive analysis using implementation theory identified key determinants of practice change, such as opportunities to consolidate new skills, the anticipated benefits of upskilling as a therapy team and the work anticipated by therapists to incorporate a new somatosensory rehabilitation approach.Conclusions Occupational therapists and physiotherapists hold valuable insights towards practice change in somatosensory rehabilitation from the ‘frontline’. Therapists experience barriers to change including a lack of knowledge and skills, lack of resources and organisational pressures. Facilitators for change were identified, including social support and therapists’ perceived legitimacy in using new somatosensory rehabilitation approaches. Results will inform the design of a tailored implementation strategy to increase the use of evidence-based somatosensory rehabilitation in Australia.Trial registration number Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12615000933550).
Víctor Magaña, Eduardo Herrera, Carlos J. Ábrego-Góngora
et al.
The Monterrey Metropolitan Area (MMA) is located in northeastern Mexico in a semi-arid region. As in other areas of the world, prolonged and severe meteorological droughts are recurrent. Meteorological droughts affect the level of dam reservoirs, rivers, and groundwater (aquifers) in the region to the extent they become hydrological droughts which in turn may contribute to socioeconomic droughts. The recent dry event (2011–2013) in northern Mexico severely affected various socioeconomic sectors and may serve as an example of future climatic and hydrologic conditions in this region. Meteorological droughts in northeastern Mexico, mostly induced by anomalously intense subsidence, frequently result in hydrological droughts and intense pressure in the water resources services of the Monterrey Metropolitan Area (MMA), one of the largest cities in Mexico. Landfalling tropical cyclones entering northeastern Mexico historically have alleviated water crises during prolonged droughts. In 2013, the rains from tropical cyclone Ingrid helped to recover water levels in the system of dam reservoirs that provides water to the MMA. However, water management is only one part of a complex socioeconomic system that must respond to the growing demands for water in a region where aquifers are already overexploited. Trends in the atmospheric circulation indicate that droughts in the region may become more severe in the coming decades. Improved water management programs and protocols should be considered in addition to closer reviews of the hydraulic infrastructure. Water transfers from one region to another should be carefully planned because solving a problem in one place may adversely affect another. The use of climate information may be critical to avoidance of water conflicts in the future.
Evan Atlantis, James Rufus John, Paul Patrick Fahey
et al.
<h4>Objective</h4>The Edmonton Obesity Staging System (EOSS) is based on weight related health complications among individuals with overweight and obesity requiring clinical intervention. We aimed to assess the clinical usefulness of a new screening tool based on the EOSS for activating weight management discussions in general practice.<h4>Methods</h4>We enrolled five General Practitioners (GPs) and 25 of their patients located nationwide in metropolitan areas of Australia to test the feasibility, acceptability, and accuracy of the new 'EOSS-2 Risk Tool', using cross-sectional and qualitative study designs. Diagnostic accuracy of the tool for the presence of EOSS ≥2 criteria was based on clinical information collected prospectively. To assess feasibility and applicability, we explored the views of GP and patient participants by thematic analysis of transcribed verbatim and de-identified data collected by semi-structured telephone interviews.<h4>Results</h4>Nineteen (76%) patients were aged ≥45 years, five (20%) were male, and 20 (80%) were classified with obesity. All 25 patients screened positive for EOSS ≥2 criteria by the tool. Interviews with patients continued until data saturation was reached resulting in a total of 23 interviews. Our thematic analysis revealed five themes: GP recognition of obesity as a health priority (GPs expressed strong interest in and understanding of its importance as a health priority); obesity stigma (GPs reported the tool helped them initiate health based and non-judgmental conversations with their patients); patient health literacy (GPs and patients reported increased awareness and understanding of weight related health risks), patient motivation for self-management (GPs and patients reported the tool helped focus on self-management of weight related complications), and applicability and scalability (GPs stated it was easy to use, relevant to a range of their patient groups, and scalable if integrated into existing patient management systems).<h4>Conclusion</h4>The EOSS-2 Risk Tool is potentially clinically useful for activating weight management discussions in general practice. Further research is required to assess feasibility and applicability.
This article investigates social and spatial changes in the Athens metropolitan area between 1991 and 2011. The main question is whether social polarisation—and the contraction of intermediate occupational categories—unevenly developed across the city is related to the changing of segregation patterns during the examined period. We established that the working-class moved towards the middle and the middle-class moved towards the top, but the relative position of both parts did not change in the overall socio-spatial hierarchy. The broad types of socio-spatial change in Athens (driven by professionalisation, proletarianisation or polarisation) were eventually related to different spatial imprints in the city’s social geography. Broad trends identified in other cities, like the centralisation of higher occupations and the peripheralisation of poverty, were not at all present here. In Athens, changes between 1991 and 2011 can be summarised by (1) the relative stability and upward social movement of the traditional working-class and their surrounding areas, accounting for almost half of the city, (2) the expansion of traditional bourgeois strongholds to neighbouring formerly socially mixed areas—25% of the city—and their conversion to more homogeneous middle-class neighbourhoods through professionalisation, (3) the proletarianisation of 10% of the city following a course of perpetual decline in parts of the central municipality and (4) the polarisation and increased social mix of the traditional bourgeois strongholds related to the considerable inflow of poor migrants working for upper-middle-class households.