Murine typhus, an acute febrile illness caused by Rickettsia typhi, is distributed worldwide. Mainly transmitted by the fleas of rodents, it is associated with cities and ports where urban rats (Rattus rattus and Rattus norvegicus) are abundant. In the United States, cases are concentrated in suburban areas of Texas and California. Contrary to the classic rat-flea-rat cycle, the most important ...

A suburban ad-hoc network (SAHN) aims to provide an inexpensive, secure, broadband, cooperative network using wireless technology. There exists a plethora of ad-hoc wireless routing solutions designed to route efficiently in mobile environments. Due to the quasi-static nature of the SAHN, existing solutions may not meet its requirements without proper optimizations. In this paper we have outlin...

Processes of adaptation to urban environments are well described for relatively few avian taxa, mainly passerines, but selective forces responsible for urban colonization in ecologically different groups of birds remain mostly unrecognized. The aim of this article is to identify drivers of recent urban colonization (Łódź, central Poland) by a reed-nesting waterbird, the Eurasian coot Fulica atr...

The urban environment quality is of vital importance as the majority of people now live in cities. Due to the continuous urbanisation and industrialisation in many parts of the world, metals are continuously emitted into the terrestrial environment and pose a great threat on human health. An extensive survey was conducted in the highly urbanised and commercialised Hong Kong Island area (80.3 km...

An analysis of data on the location of Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) recipients in the 100 largest U.S metropolitan areas in 2000 and 2008 finds that: • By 2008 roughly half (49.4 percent) of all HCV recipients lived in suburban areas. That represents a 2.1 percentage point increase in the suburbanization rate of HCV recipients compared to 2000. However, by 2008 HCV recipients remained less subu...

BACKGROUND Prehypertension is common in China and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The present study estimated the current prevalence of prehypertension and its association with clustering of other modifiable cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs) among adults in suburban Beijing. METHODS A cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 19 003 suburban adults ...

OBJECTIVE Confidence in healthcare may influence the patients' utilisation of healthcare resources and perceptions of healthcare quality. We sought to determine whether self-reported confidence in healthcare differed between the UK and the USA, as well as by rurality or urbanicity. DESIGN A secondary analysis of a subset of survey questions regarding self-reported confidence in healthcare fro...

Urban sprawl (US), propelled by rapid population growth leads to the shrinkage of productive agricultural lands and pristine forests in the suburban areas and, in turn, adversely affects the provision of ecosystem services. The quantification of US is thus crucial for effective urban planning and environmental management. Like many megacities in fast growing developing countries, Chennai, the c...

It is widely accepted that the concentration of people living in high-density city centers offers greater operational energy efficiency and lower greenhouse gas emissions than lower-density expanded suburbs. The prevailing assumption is that lower-density suburbs are dominated by larger low-rise buildings that have higher building energy use requirements and greater per-person automobile travel...