BACKGROUND Chronic illnesses are a major public health problem in low-income countries. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), few data are available, especially in palliative care. In this context, the present study aimed at describing the patterns of diseases in Kinshasa hospitals as well as risk factors associated with patients' evolving status and length of hospital stay. METHODS ...

Based on a gender equity perspective and within a pluralistic civil society, women should have equal rights for presence in and use of urban open spaces. Despite this, various factors decrease their presence including inappropriate design of space, as well as socio-cultural obstacles. Since women’s major place of presence and activity has traditionally been in or near home, neighborhood open s...

Academics have decried the erosion of public space under neoliberal practices that taken root since 1980s in cities around world. However, it is unclear whether users are concerned about ownership urban spaces they use. To find out, this study surveyed and observed their behaviour three types Liverpool, UK: one entirely private development, public-private partnership, renewal project over by a ...

One key paradigmatic subtext of Naomi Klein’s argument runs in her The Shock Doctrine (London: Penguin, 2008) is how the supposed undemocratic, violent character of ‘‘totalitarian’’ Marxist movements serve to justify repressive measures by the neo-liberal state. In inviting such a repressive response from the state, ‘‘undemocratic’’ revolutionary left movements are presented as causing the eros...

The large variation in the share of land for open space across U.S. urban areas raises some interesting questions: a) what determines the amount of open space in an urban area? b) How does open space affect community characteristics such as housing prices and local property tax rates? and c) are existing amounts of open space across U.S. urban areas socially optimal? In this paper, we conduct t...

From the ecological effect of urban green space system, this paper illustrates the necessity and importance of inter-disciplinary evaluation of the urban green space system from the ecological perspective and analyzes the mechanism of action of urban green space in relieving the heat island effect. The quantitative evaluation approach for the thermal environmental impact of urban green space sy...

Urban green space is an essential form of infrastructure for cities, providing a significant spatial guarantee sustainable urban development, ecological, social, and cultural function, important symbol modernisation civilisation. However, with the development problems are becoming more serious, such as increase in impervious surfaces heat islands decrease liveability. Therefore, this study inte...

not long ago, city gates and entryways had high spatial value and were among the landmarks for marking city boundaries. today with cities having been expanded and developed, such aspect of the entrance concept is lost and entryways are turned to passages for transportation. in fact, the rich spatial value of such entrances has decreased as they are solely spaces for passing through out or into ...

In this paper, an Urban Light Index (ULI) is constructed to facilitate analysis and quantitative evaluation of the process of urbanization and expansion rate by using DMSP/OLS Nighttime Light Data during the years from 1992 to 2010. A unit circle urbanization evaluation model is established to perform a comprehensive analysis of the urbanization process of 34 prefecture-level cities in Northeas...