Environmental change plays a large role in the emergence of infectious disease. The construction of a new road in a previously roadless area of northern coastal Ecuador provides a valuable natural experiment to examine how changes in the social and natural environment, mediated by road construction, affect the epidemiology of diarrheal diseases. Twenty-one villages were randomly selected to cap...

This paper examines how the quality of exports depends on relative country size and its remoteness. Specific transportation cost is the key variable in our analysis as it gives rise to the Alchian-Allen effect. In the model, we allow for endogenous quality choice by a producer serving many international locations. Higher quality comes at higher marginal cost of production, but can be delivered ...

OBJECTIVE To analyse rural-urban and intra-rural disparities in health status in Canada and to compare Canada with Australia with respect to such disparities. DESIGN Four indicators were used to show rural-urban and intra-rural differences in health status: (i) mortality due to circulatory diseases, (ii) mortality due to cancer, (iii) injury-related mortality; and (iv) all-cause mortality. Ru...

Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in UK, placing huge burden on individuals and society. This study explores how mental health outcomes relate to living more geographically remote neighbourhoods role neighbourhood-level social character. Administrative, census databases were linked for a 5% sample those aged 23-68 (n= 114,428) Scotland, between years 2009-2014. Self-reported pre...

The time scale of hippocampal involvement in retrieving memories, particularly those more remote, is still a matter of debate. Some propose that the hippocampus is not involved in the retrieval of remote memories, whereas others assert that it is necessary for memory retrieval in perpetuity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine the effect of remoteness on the neural basis o...

The incidence of cryptosporidiosis is highest in children <5 years, yet little is known about disease patterns across urban and rural areas of Australia. In this study, we examine whether the risk of reported cryptosporidiosis in children <5 years varies across an urban-rural gradient, after controlling for season and gender. Using Australian data on reported cryptosporidiosis from 2001 to 2012...

The linear ordering problem consists in finding a linear order at minimum remoteness from a weighted tournament T, the remoteness being the sum of the weights of the arcs that we must reverse in T to transform it into a linear order. This problem, also known as the search of a median order, or of a maximum acyclic subdigraph, or of a maximum consistent set, or of a minimum feedback arc set, is ...

Minimally invasive aortic valve replacement (MICSAVR) has traditionally been performed through forechest approaches, including partial sternotomy, parasternal thoracotomy, or anterior inter-costal thoracotomy (1-3). Proximity to the ascending aorta and aortic valve seems to be advantageous in these approaches. Fore-chest skin incisions are not necessarily ideal, as minimally invasive surgery ma...