The aim of this study was to investigate role of common pollen in Korean school-aged children with allergic rhinitis (AR) in 5 provinces (Incheon Metropolitan City-Gyeonggi Province, Chungcheongbuk-do, Gwangju Metropolitan City, Busan Metropolitan City, and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province), using a questionnaire and skin prick test, and to assess the differences among the residential regio...

In the discourse of local government law, the idea that a mobile populace can “vote with its feet” has long served as a justification for devolution and decentralization. Tracing to Charles Tiebout’s seminal work in public finance, the legal-structural prescription that follows is that a diversity of independent and empowered local governments can best satisfy the varied preferences of resident...

The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics of neonatal and pediatric intensive care units (ICU) and beds in Rio de Janeiro, correlating with population demands in 1997 and 2007. All neonatal and pediatric ICUs were visited, identifying the availability and type of beds. Comparisons were made between: supply and demand using projected need for beds for the population; public...

Beginning with the moral statisticians Guerry and Quetelet and continuing to the present, criminologists have repeatedly shown that serious crime rates vary across geographic units. The most prominent framework for explaining this variation is the macrosocial perspective, which asserts that the crime rate is a reflection of social organization. In this paper, I review research from the past few...

Understanding human dynamics after a major disaster is important to the region’s sustainable development. This study utilized land cover data to examine how Hurricane Katrina has affected the urban growth pattern in the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana. The study analyzed land cover changes from non-urban to urban in three metropolitan areas, Baton Rouge, New Orleans-Metairie, and Hammond, for tw...

OBJECTIVE To use neonatal thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) concentration data to measure the iodine status of the population of the Australian state of Victoria. DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING Retrospective analysis of the results of 368,552 neonatal heel-prick blood tests for TSH concentration in Victoria in the years 2001-2006. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Iodine deficiency as indicated by a ...

The spatial deconcentration of population during the 20th century and the resulting expansion of human settlements has been a significant cause of anthropogenic landscape change in the United States and many other countries. In the seven-state North Central Region, as in other regions of the US, changing human settlement patterns are most prominent at the outlying fringe of metropolitan areas a...

OBJECTIVES This paper compares access to primary and specialty care in three metropolitan regions of France: Ile de France (IDF), Nord-Pas-de-Calais (NPC) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA); and identifies the factors that contribute to disparities in access to care within and among these regions. METHODS To assess access to primary care, we compare variation among residence-based, age-adj...