coxiella burnetii is the etiological agent of coxiellosis in animals and q fever (a zoonotic disease) in humans. cattle, sheep and goats are the main reservoirs of infection for humans. this serological survey was conducted to determine the seroprevalence of coxiellosis in sheep and goat populations in khorasan razavi province, iran. four hundred and sixty animals (255 sheep from 29 herds in 12...

A scientific definition of the type of mountain area and an exploration of the spatial correlation between different types of mountain areas and regional land use at the county level are important for reasonable land resource utilization and regional sustainable development. Here, a geographic information system was used to analyze digital elevation model data and to define the extent of mounta...

OBJECTIVE We examined the existence of disparities in receipt of appropriate diabetes care among California's fee-for-service Medicaid beneficiaries and the effectiveness of a telephonic-based disease management program delivered by a disease management vendor on the reduction of racial/ethnic disparities in diabetes care. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted an intervention-control cohor...

BACKGROUND The maternal mortality rate (MMR) markedly decreased in China, but there has been a significant imbalance among different geographic regions (east, central and west regions), and the mortality in the western region remains high. This study aims to examine how much disparity in the health system and MMR between ethnic minority and non-minority counties exists in Sichuan province of we...

BACKGROUND Evidence of health risks associated with ambient airborne fine particles in nonurban populations is extremely limited. OBJECTIVE We estimated the risk of hospitalization associated with short-term exposures to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in urban and nonurban counties with population ≥ 50,000. METHODS We utilized a database of daily cardiovasc...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether limited occurrence data for highly threatened species can provide useful spatial information to inform conservation. The study was conducted across central and southern China. We developed a habitat suitability model for the Critically Endangered Chinese giant salamander (Andrias davidianus) based on one biotic and three abiotic parameters from...

Introduction: We examined whether spatial clusters of county-level diagnosed diabetes prevalence exist in the United States and whether socioeconomic and diabetes risk factors were associated with these clusters. Materials and Methods: We used estimated county-level age-adjusted data on diagnosed diabetes prevalence for adults in 3109 counties in the United States (2007 data). We identified fou...

Population growth will result in a significant anthropogenic environmental change worldwide through increases in developed land (DL) consumption. DL consumption is an important environmental and socioeconomic process affecting humans and ecosystems. Attention has been given to DL modeling inside highly populated cities. However, modeling DL consumption should expand to non-metropolitan areas wh...

There are substantial differences in the relative size of tax bases across counties in Georgia. These differences mean that the ability or capacity to raise revenue differs across the State. For example, counties with large property tax bases per capita, i.e., those with large manufacturing facilities or power plants, have greater revenue raising potential than purely agricultural counties. Thi...