In the last 50 years the shape of cities has changed dramatically. People have started to migrate from rural areas, attracted by the opportunities created by a more dynamic economy and by the apparent easier life within the cities. This trend has been observed in Europe during the whole 20th century, but has now considerably slowed down, to the benefit of smaller urban centres, which have grown...

Perspectives Tudor Hart's inverse care law, set out in an article in The Lancet in 1971, states that the availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need of the population served. 1 Referring to the national health service (NHS) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the author argued that the state must play a role in ensuring the health and well-be...

The founding myth of rural sociology established an opposition between countryside and cities, classifying these notions as separate spatial and social realities. In the last two decades, an idyllic and divinized image of the rural has been constructed, especially in countries from the European Union. What reasons have conspired to foster this new appreciation of the rural? Is there a mutually ...

Cities may expose wild animals to new types of selection pressures, potentially leading to differentiation among urban and rural populations. One cellular mechanism likely important in determining the viability of vertebrate populations is resistance to oxidative stress, as tissue degradation resulting from oxidative stress may decrease reproductive performance and survival. We hypothesized tha...

The paper aims to examine the population ageing as a new phenomenon effecting rural areas in Iran. Population ageing is going up throughout the country especially in the rural areas by 6.8 percent. fertility decline, increase in the youth migration to cities, and coming back to rural areas after retiring are the major factors which involve in rural ageing. This may jeopardize the communities. f...

Over the past decade there has been an evident shift in the attitudes of Pacific peoples, governments and donors to the continued urbanisation of the region and the serious challenges emerging as a result. While not denying the obvious needs of rural development, and the connection rural poverty has with the pace and character of urban development, the region’s cities are clearly, and belatedly...

Urban heat island (UHI) is one major anthropogenic modification to the Earth system that transcends its physical boundary. Using MODIS data from 2003 to 2012, we showed that the UHI effect decayed exponentially toward rural areas for majority of the 32 Chinese cities. We found an obvious urban/rural temperature "cliff", and estimated that the footprint of UHI effect (FP, including urban area) w...

During the rainy season of 2001, the incidence of the dengue vectors Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus was examined in different habitats of two cities (Rio de Janeiro and Nova Iguaçu) in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, and in two cities (Palm Beach and Boca Raton) in Florida. Oviposition trap collections were performed in urban, suburban, and rural habitats in both areas. Our hypothesis that the ...

We summarize the characteristics of 1,006 cases of human plague occurring in the United States over 113 years, beginning with the first documented case in 1900. Three distinct eras can be identified on the basis of the frequency, nature, and geographic distribution of cases. During 1900-1925, outbreaks were common but were restricted to populous port cities. During 1926-1964, the geographic ran...

OBJECTIVE To examine if economic development in China correlates with physical growth among Chinese children and adolescents. METHODS The height, body weight and physical activity level of children and adolescents aged 18 years and under, as well as dietary data, were obtained from seven large surveys conducted in China between 1975 and 2010. Chinese economic development indicators were obtai...