The main objectives of this study were to investigate vernacular passive cooling techniques and their potential application for improving indoor thermal comfort of naturally ventilated, modern brick terraced houses in Malaysia. Field measurement was conducted in two traditional timber Malay houses and two traditional masonry Chinese shophouses to examine their indoor thermal environments. The r...

Urban areas are becoming increasingly important for wildlife as diminishing natural habitats no longer represent a suitable environment for many species. Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are nowadays common in many cities worldwide, and in recent years they have colonized urban areas in Estonia. We used a public web-based questionnaire approach to evaluate the distribution and behaviour of Estonian ur...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES In the Peruvian Amazon, the dengue vector Aedes aegypti is abundant in large urban centers such as Iquitos. In recent years, it has also been found in a number of neighboring rural communities with similar climatic and socioeconomic conditions. To better understand Ae. aegypti spread, we compared characteristics of communities, houses, and containers in infested and un...

BACKGROUND The demographic transition of populations from rural areas to large urban centers often results in a disordered occupation of forest remnants and increased economic pressure to develop high-income buildings in these areas. Ecological and socioeconomic factors associated with these urban transitions create conditions for the potential transmission of infectious diseases, which was dem...

Cockroach surveys using sticky traps were conducted in urban areas of 14 Thailand provinces. At least 30 houses in each province were randomly sampled for cockroaches. Each house was trapped in three areas: kitchen, bedroom and outside. A total of 2,648 cockroaches was caught by 550 out of 1,542 traps (35.7%), from 337 of the 514 houses (65.6%). Overall, relative density ranged from 2.6 to 9.1 ...

OBJECTIVE Constipation is a major debilitating problem in children. We aimed to assess the serum lead levels of 2-13 year-old children complaining from constipation who referred to our center in Guilan province, Northern Iran. METHODS This cross-sectional study was done on ninety 2-13 year-old children referring to 17(th) Shahrivar Hospital, complaining from constipation (case group) and 90 h...

In the present days, we are watching in Romania, a process of differentiation of urban spaces according to the conditions of living, regardless of size and level of their development. The period of economic transition has changed in worst the drawbacks already existing in slums, which have been mainly marked by economic and social seclusion, absence of any infrastructure, dilapidated overcrowde...

In urban ecosystems, socioeconomics contribute to patterns of biodiversity. The 'luxury effect', in which wealthier neighbourhoods are more biologically diverse, has been observed for plants, birds, bats and lizards. Here, we used data from a survey of indoor arthropod diversity (defined throughout as family-level richness) from 50 urban houses and found that house size, surrounding vegetation,...

Concrete evidence showed that civilization in the old Egypt had flourished due to a number of factors, most importantly geographic factor. Geography greatest effect on facilitating necessary elements establish civilized and prosperous state at political, economic urban levels. Undoubtedly, important element was Nile River, without which would have been desert.The Egyptians created science geome...

BACKGROUND Dengue control programs commonly employ reactive insecticide spraying around houses of reported cases, with the assumption that most dengue virus (DENV) transmission occurs in the home. Focal household transmission has been demonstrated in rural settings, but it is unclear whether this holds true in dense and mobile urban populations. We conducted a prospective study of dengue cluste...