BACKGROUND Bromeliads can be epiphytic, terrestrial or saxicolous and use strategies to allow water to be retained in their leaf axils, where various arthropods can be found. These include mosquitoes, whose larvae are the most abundant and commonly found organisms in the leaf axils. The objective of this study was to look for immature forms of mosquitoes (the larval and pupal stages) in bromeli...

Nowadays the growth of deserts is one the most important problems in Iran. This phenomenon has many reasons such as growth of population, global changes in the climates and many undesirable consequences such as the erosion of agricultural soils and immigration of rural people to urban regions mainly to the capital of Iran, Tehran. Isfahan province is one of the semi-arid and desert regions in t...

Galf n Cranz has a Masters and PhD in sociolog)' from University" of Chicago, where she specialized in the "social use of space." Since then she has taught architecture from a social and cultural point of view at Princeton University and the University' of California at Berkeley. The author of The Politics ofPniii Design (1982), she hecame interested in the problems of sustainable development i...

INTRODUCTION Sustainable park management encompasses the requirement to provide equal opportunities for access and usage of the park, regardless of age, gender or nationality of the visitors. It thereby presents opportunities as well as problems for today’s heterogeneous global cities. The research presented here is part of the project “Sustainable design, management and appropriation of urban ...

HIGHLIGHTS • Vegetation structure and composition were measured in four major green space types • Remnants and golf courses supported highest native plant richness • Residential neighborhoods and urban parks supported highest exotic plant richness • Residential neighborhoods lacked key habitat structures including old trees • Green spaces can achieve complex vegetation with both native and exot...

Anaplasma phagocytophilum DNA was detected by real-time PCR, which targeted the msp2 gene, in 2.9% of questing Ixodes ricinus ticks (adults and nymphs; n = 2,862), collected systematically from selected locations in Bavaria, Germany, in 2006. Prevalence was significantly higher in urban public parks in Munich than in natural forests.

Green infrastructure can improve thermal comfort in outdoor urban spaces in moderate climates. The impact of green spaces on thermal comfort is often exclusively investigated through meteorological variables and human-biometeorological indices. Yet, studies on perceived thermal comfort are scarce. As thermal comfort is a property of human perception of the thermal environment, this knowledge is...