Urban Settings Research Articles

Traumatic injury to the posterior fossa: a secondary analysis and description of case series from the NEXUS head injury dataset

Traumatic brain injuries involving the posterior fossa are rare and case reports indicate they often result in severe outcomes. We seek to describe characteristics and outcomes of traumatic posterior fossa injuries. We performed a planned secondary analysis of all patients with posterior fossa injuries enrolled in the NEXUS head computed tomography (CT) validation study dataset. The dataset includes prospectively collected data on all patients undergoing non-contrast cranial CT following blunt traumatic head injury from April 2006 to December 2015, at four emergency departments comprising community and university sites, as well as urban, suburban and rural settings in California (Antelope Valley Hospital, San Francisco General Hospital, UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, UCSF Fresno Community Regional Medical Center). We classified each patient into one of three injury patterns: Type I-notable traumatic injuries primarily above the tentorium, with minimal posterior fossa involvement; Type II-notable traumatic injuries both above and within the posterior fossa; and Type III-notable traumatic injuries primarily within the posterior fossa. We extracted demographic data for each patient as well as physician assessments of the NEXUS head CT and Canadian Head CT rule clinical criteria, mechanisms of injury, patient outcomes, and the location and types of intracranial injuries sustained. Of 11,770 patients in the database, 184 (1.6%) had posterior fossa injuries on CT imaging. Mean age was 55.4 years (standard deviation 22.5 years, range 2-96 years); 131 (71.2%) were males. We identified 63 patients with Type I injuries, 87 with Type II injuries, and 34 Type III injuries. The most common mechanisms of injury were falls (41%), pedestrian vs automobile (15%), and motor vehicle collisions (13%). On presentation most patients had altered mental status (72%), abnormal behavior (53%), or a neurologic deficit (55%). The majority of individuals, 151 (82%), had clinically important injuries and 111 (60%) required neurosurgical intervention. The dispositions for the subjects included 52 deaths (28%), 49 (27%) patients discharged home, and 48 (26%) discharged to rehabilitation facilities. When compared to individuals with Type I and Type II injuries, patients with Type III injuries had lower mortality (6% vs 30% and 35%) and higher percentage of patients discharged home (60% vs 19% and 21%). Patients with Type I and II injury patterns (those that involve both the posterior fossa and supratentorium) experienced high mortality and disability. Patients with Type III injuries (isolated posterior fossa) had a better prognosis. None.

Spatio-temporal dynamic analysis of greenness base on NDVI equation for change detection from 2004 to 2024 at River Nile State, Atbara City, Sudan by using remote sensing and geographical information system

Urban regions' ability to maintain high environmental standards is largely dependent on their vegetation. A decrease in the amount of vegetated area on land has resulted from city expansion and population growth. An examination of land cover change in urban settings is necessary, particularly for urban regional planning that takes green, open space into account. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in urban vegetation cover in two Medan sub-districts from 2004 to 2014. Change analysis and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were performed in the study. The range of plant diversity in these locations was Observed. The results showed changes in vegetation cover areas in the mentioned years. In 2004, most of the areas were under a highly dense vegetation class while in 2014, they were under a low-density vegetation class with new sub-class. This indicates a decrease in vegetation cover due to changes to non-vegetation cover or land cover areas with less vegetation.

Prevalence of Mental Health and Substance use Problems and Awareness of Need for Services in Lesotho: Results from a Population-Based Survey

AbstractWe conducted a household survey among 6061 adults in Lesotho to (1) assess the prevalence of moderate/severe mental health (MH) and substance use (SU) problems (2) describe the MH and SU service cascades, and (3) assess predictors of MH and SU problem awareness (i.e., awareness of having a MH/SU problem that requires treatment). Moderate/severe MH or SU problems was reported between 0.7% for anxiety in the past 2 weeks to 36.4% for alcohol use in the past 3 months. The awareness and treatment gaps were high for both MH (62% awareness gap; 82% treatment gap) and SU (89% awareness gap; 95% treatment gap). Individuals with higher than the median household wealth had lower MH and SU problem awareness and those living in urban settings had greater SU problem awareness. Research should investigate how to increase population awareness of MH/SU problems to reduce the burden of these conditions in this setting.

Burden of tobacco-related cancers in urban, semi-urban and rural setting of Nepal: Findings from population-based cancer registries 2019.

Nepal is one of the high prevalent countries for tobacco use in Southeast Asia regions. Tobacco related cancer share the major burden since a decade, however, population-based estimates is still lacking. This study provides results from population-based cancer registries on tobacco-related cancer (TRCs) burden in Nepal. The data were collected by population-based cancer registry conducted in nine districts by Nepal Health Research Council. The districts were categorized in urban, semi-urban and rural regions on the basis of geographical locations and facilities available in the regions. Analysis was done to identify tobacco-associated cancer incidence, mortality and patterns along with cumulative risk of having cancer before the age of 75 years. Tobacco-related cancer was 35.3% in men and 17.3% in women. We found that every one in 36 men and one in 65 women developed tobacco-related cancer before age 75 in Nepal. Cancer of lung, mouth, esophagus and larynx were among the five most common tobacco-related cancers in both men and women. The incidence of tobacco-associated cancers was higher in urban region with age adjusted rate 33.6 and 17.0 per 100,000 population for men and women respectively compared to semi-urban and rural regions. Tobacco-associated cancer mortality was significantly higher compared to incidence. The prevalence of tobacco-related cancer found high in Nepal despite of enforcement of tobacco control policy and strategies including WHO framework convention on tobacco control. Concerned authorities should focus towards monitoring of implemented tobacco control policy and strategies.

"If You Plant That Seed, It Will Grow": A Qualitative Study to Improve Linkage to Care among Patients with Methamphetamine Use Disorder in Emergency Department Settings.

Methamphetamine addiction is a serious and difficult-to-treat disorder. Existing treatment options are limited, and patient perspectives on effective strategies are lacking. Emergency departments (EDs) may be a critical entry point for individuals with methamphetamine use disorder (MUD) to be identified and linked to treatment. We aimed to understand patients' perspectives regarding their methamphetamine use and related ED experiences and how to improve linkage to substance treatment. Between July and November 2022, semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with adult patients with MUD in an urban safety-net healthcare setting in Denver, Colorado. Interviews were recorded, summarized, and analyzed using the Rapid Assessment Process. During the interviews, 18 patients shared their experiences. Participants described feeling stigmatized and experiencing a lack of communication from ED staff during their visit. Additionally, participants shared the perception that ED staff often did not take their health concerns seriously once substance use was identified. Participants were uncertain about overdose risk and felt that their psychiatric symptoms complicated treatment. Referrals to treatment were lacking, and participants supported a care navigation intervention that incorporates elements of contingency management. Participants also shared the importance of ED staff recognizing their social needs and being empathetic, trauma-informed, and flexible to meet patients where they are regardless of their readiness to seek treatment. Treatment options and entry points for individuals with MUD are currently limited. The patient perspectives described here are helpful in developing services to support, engage, and link individuals to MUD services after discharge from ED services.

Implementation and Outcomes of Outdoor Science Education in an Urban Setting on Primary and Intermediate Level Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

The term nature deficit disorder describes the “human costs of alienation from nature” (Louv, 2019). While not meant to be a medical diagnosis, Louv argues that the condition has, “profound implications, not only for the health of future generations but for the health of the earth itself” (Louv, 2008). Children most at risk are those who live or go to school in an urban setting, as well as students diagnosed with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD). Students diagnosed with EBD are often kept indoors as their teachers and caretakers are frequently trained in the indoor use only of behavior management techniques (Riden et al., 2022). This means that during professional development training, any that pertain to behavior management techniques, procedure, or protocol are routinely taught inside of a classroom, conference room, or recently home office, using an indoor scenario (classroom, auditorium, cafeteria, etc.) as an example of when and how to use these behavior management tools. Outdoor professional development, equipping students with natural tools that can help improve not only their physical but also their mental health, as well as connecting students with nature in a way that teaches them to advocate for the health of the earth, thus becoming citizen stewards are all themes that are part of the massive, currently dysfunctional system that is outdoor education in schools. This study shows that when students are encouraged to interact with nature on their own terms on-task behaviors and motivation increase. Students also retained lesson information and asked follow-up questions after the lesson when taught outside using hands-on activities.

Relationship Between Substance Abuse and Sexual Violence among Women in Informal Urban Settlements in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Sexual assault is against the law in Kenya. Yet many people, particularly women and girls, continue to experience Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) without receiving much assistance, suggesting that the regulations in place are ineffective. Drug and substance abuse has also become prevalent, especially among persons living within informal urban settings. This with the attendant rise in cases of domestic and SGBV means that there is a growing need for a deeper understanding of the nexus between drug abuse and sexual violence against women, and in particular, within Nairobi's informal urban settlements. Many women in Kenya have experienced sexual or physical assault. The research sought to determine the relationship between substance abuse and sexual violence among women in Nairobi City County's informal urban settlements; The Social Learning Theory guided this research adopting a correlation study design with a target population of 139 women in the groups who have experienced GBV and SGBV. Using stratified selection and proportional sampling approaches, the Yamane formula was utilized to calculate the sample size of 106 respondents. Information was gathered through questionnaires. Descriptive statistics as well as inferential statistics like Pearson moment correlation and chi-square analysis, were used to analyse the data. From the study, it was indicated that both substance abuse and sexual violence have tremendous negative consequences on the health, socioeconomic, emotional, and psychological disposition of a person. The study also demonstrated the rise in drug and substance abuse led to an increase in cases of sexual violence. This shows that efforts to combat drug use and substance abuse have not been successful. Therefore, the study suggests that the government develop more potent methods of combating drug use and substance abuse

Who do we mobilise? Applied transformative mobilities research in a real-world laboratory

ABSTRACT In this paper we reflect on insights concerning participation in and effects of a real-world laboratory designed to disrupt car dependency in everyday practices in an urban setting. After outlining the project and key findings, we critically reflect on design and achievements of this real-world laboratory more generally. In particular, we discuss the following questions: Who is it that we can address through transformative mobilities research in real-world laboratories? Who are the participants and what are their motives for taking part in the research? To contextualize the research findings within a real-world setting and research paradigm we extend the scope to a second set of questions: How can we conceptualise the relationship between participants and researchers and how do we account for opposing rationalities of interruption (research) and maintenance (participants) of the organisation of everyday life? How does this research enable transformative mobilities? And, finally, what can we say about the scope of our findings and reflections? In the thicket of doing transformative research encouraging and accompanying volunteers to become active in transformative mobility research becomes questions of language, educational background and time resources from the involved, but also being aware of institutionalized change actor networks, unchallenged hierarchies of superior “academic” research and being part of political struggles that require to look closely within and outside of the actual real-world-experiment especially in times of multiple crises. To design and research with those who want to contribute to change is legitimate. However, it is necessary to keep this selectivity in mind.

Passive strategies for climate change mitigation in architectural heritage: the case study of Santa Maria in Trastevere Basilica, Rome

ABSTRACT According to the most recent climate projections, urban settings and historic centres will be affected by considerable increases in temperature extremes and heat waves as a result of climate change. For this reason, the issue of energy efficiency and indoor comfort in historic buildings has become a topic of major interest for the significant number of buildings in the national and European territories. The performance redevelopment of architectural heritage, particularly religious buildings, requires accurate design, through a careful assessment of the occupants’ needs and the historic building’s characteristics, to guarantee adequate levels of thermal comfort and ensure an indoor climate suitable for safeguarding the cultural asset. In this regard, the study investigates, through a data-driven approach and building performance analysis, the indoor comfort level of a religious building in the historical centre of Rome that presents phenomena of excessive indoor overheating. The objective is to identify passive cooling strategies, through the optimization of natural ventilation levels and reduction of surface temperatures of the envelope exposed to solar radiation, in order to propose different design scenarios. The results show how a data-driven process in a digital environment can significantly contribute to the identification of optimal and integrated design strategies and solutions.

An examination of urban green spaces usage behaviours and self-perceived mental health benefits: findings from two urban green neighbourhoods in Pakistan

ABSTRACT The present study examined urban green space users’ self-perceived mental health benefits of visiting green spaces in Pakistan – one of South Asia’s rapidly urbanizing countries. By using a quantitative-based cross-sectional survey, 384 participants were surveyed in green urban neighbourhood settings. It was found that most green space users believed that their visits to green spaces have at least some positive effects on the different parameters of their mental health, such as stress or anxiety levels, mood, energy levels, optimism levels, confidence levels, or concentration levels, among others. The study explored that the frequency and duration of green space usage and intensity of activity performed in the green space have an important role in determining the degree of the self-perceived mental health benefits of visiting green spaces, suggesting the importance of green interventions, including physical changes in the environment and social promotion activities to encourage green space usage among urban dwellers. Moreover, the study revealed low green space usage and activity intensity levels among certain sub-population groups compared to others, such as women, young adults, or the elderly, highlighting the need to ensure equity of access to green spaces for all sub-population groups and prioritize them in intervention strategies.

Protocol for the Support Application for Food PAntrieS trial: design, implementation, and evaluation plan for a digital application to promote healthy food access and support food pantry operations

IntroductionFood-insecure households commonly rely on food pantries to supplement their nutritional needs, a challenge that was underscored during the COVID-19 pandemic. Food pantries, and the food banks that supply them, face common challenges in meeting variable client volume and dietary needs under normal and emergency (e.g., pandemic, natural disaster) conditions. A scalable digital strategy that has the capacity to streamline the emergency food distribution system, while promoting healthy food options, managing volunteer recruitment and training, and connecting to emergency management systems in times of need, is urgently required. To address this gap, we are developing a working mobile application (app) called the Support Application for Food PAntrieS (SAFPAS) and will evaluate its feasibility and impact on food pantry staff preparedness, stocking, and client uptake of healthful foods and beverages in two urban United States settings.MethodsThis paper describes the protocol for a randomized controlled trial of the SAFPAS mobile application. We will conduct formative research in Baltimore, Maryland and Detroit, Michigan to develop and refine the SAFPAS app and increase scalability potential to other urban settings. Then we will test the app in 20 food pantries in Baltimore randomized to intervention or comparison. The impact of the app will be evaluated at several levels of the emergency food system, including food pantry clients (n = 360), food pantry staff and volunteers (n = 100), food pantry stock, and city agencies such as the local food bank and Office of Emergency Management. The primary outcome of the SAFPAS trial is to improve the healthfulness of the foods received by food pantry clients, measured using the Food Assessment Scoring Tool (FAST). Post-trial, we will conduct additional formative research in Detroit to prepare the app for scale-up.DiscussionWe anticipate that SAFPAS will improve alignment in the supply and demand for healthy foods among food pantry clients, food pantries, and city agencies which supply food in Baltimore. Real-time, bidirectional communication between entities across the system allows for increased situational awareness at all levels during normal and emergency operations. By conducting formative research in Detroit, we hope to increase the scalability of the SAFPAS app to additional settings nationwide.Clinical trial registrationNCT87654321. https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05880004.

Deep learning based automated estimation of urban green space index from satellite image: A case study

The green area factor model is a crucial tool for conserving and creating urban greenery and ecosystem services within neighborhood land. This model serves as a valuable index, streamlining the planning, assessment, and comparison of local-scale green infrastructures. However, conventional on-site measurements of the green area factor are resource intensive. In response, this study pioneers a computational approach that integrates ecological and social dimensions to estimate the green area factor. Employing satellite remote sensing and advanced deep learning techniques, the methodology utilizes satellite orthophotos of urban areas subjected to semantic segmentation, identifying and categorizing diverse green elements. Ground truths are established through on-site measurements of green area factors and satellite orthophotos from benchmarking sites in Örebro, Sweden. Results reveal an 82.0% average F1-score for semantic segmentations, signifying a favourable correlation between computationally estimated and measured green area factors. The proposed methodology is potential for adapting to various urban settings. In essence, this research introduces a promising, cost-effective solution for assessing urban greenness, particularly beneficial for urban administrators and planners aiming for insightful and comprehensive green strategies in city planning.

Evaluating the effectiveness of the cardiovascular assessment screening program with nurse practitioners and patients: results of a cluster randomised controlled trial

BackgroundThere is inconsistent utilisation of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for cardiovascular disease (CVD) screening and management by healthcare professionals to identify CVD risk factors early and to intervene using current recommendations. To address this issue, the Cardiovascular Assessment Screening Program (CASP) was developed, implemented, and evaluated. This manuscript reports on the second phase of an exploratory sequential mixed methods study that tested the effectiveness of the CASP with nurse practitioners (NPs) and patients in Canada.MethodsA two-armed, non-blinded, cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT) compared the NP-led implementation of CASP with usual care by NPs in community practice clinics across one Canadian province. The NPs were the cluster variable as their screening practices could be affected by their educational training, resources, or other factors. NPs were eligible for inclusion in the study if they were located in different urban and rural community settings and could conduct follow-up visits with patients. NPs recruited and enrolled the patients from their own practices as participants if they were healthy individuals, aged 40–74 years, with no established CVD or vascular disease. Researchers randomly allocated the NPs (n = 10) to the intervention group (IG) or the control group (CG).ResultsEight (8) NPs and 167 patients participated in the cRCT study. Patient participant-level data were analysed by the originally assigned groups IG (n = 68) and CG (n = 99). Utilising GLM (generalized linear modeling) more IG patients (90%; n = 61) received comprehensive CVD screening compared to the CG patients (2%; n = 2), RR = 30.2, 95% CI [8.76, 103.9], p < .0001, controlling for the effect of NP and BP category.ConclusionNP implementation of CASP was effective for comprehensive screening compared to usual care and led to identifying previously unknown CVD risk factors, calculated FRS, heart health priorities and personalised goal-setting.Trial registrationClinicalTrial.gov ID#: NCT03170752, date of registration 2017/05/31.

PTSD, depression, and migration-related experiences among Syrian refugees living in camp vs urban settings.

Despite the increased heterogeneity of living conditions of refugees in recent years, there is a lack of robust epidemiological data about the relationship between refugees' mental health and their living contexts. The current study aims to compare frequencies of pre-migration traumatic events and post-migration difficulties between refugees living in camps and those living in cities; and to identify the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and factors associated with them. A field survey was conducted among 1,470 refugees living in camps and urban settings of Turkey. The survey instruments included a socio-demographic form, the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, the Post-migration Living Difficulties Scale, and the PTSD and depression modules of the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Both PTSD and depression were more common in urban settings than in camps. Both disorders were associated with living context and migration-related experiences. Pre-migration traumas were more frequent among refugees living in cities than in those living in camps, while post-migration difficulties were more common in the refugees living in camps. The living context is potentially a critical determinant of refugee mental health. Camp and urban refugees may have different experiences and needs. In particular, refugees living in some urban settings may be at higher risk for having psychological problems.

A Scoping Review of Nurse-Led Medical-Surgical Knowledge Translation Interventions to Improve In-Hospital Clinical Practice in the WHO Afro Region

The process of placing research knowledge into action and thereby ensuring its dissemination is very important in healthcare currently. Although nurse-led knowledge translation interventions have become an important focus in the high-income countries, the extent of such interventions in the World Health Organization (WHO) Afro Region is not well established. This scoping review aimed to map the evidence of nurse-led knowledge translation interventions in the countries in the WHO Afro Region using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Scoping Review Methodology. A systematic electronic search of articles was carried out in selected electronic data bases using various search engines. All 688 eligible identified articles were imported into the Systematic Reviews Web App (Beta) Rayyan. The selection process included title and abstract screening, and full text article screening. A Prisma flow diagram detailing the procedure was developed. The review process resulted in 21 selected articles. The results showed minimal publications between 2013 and 2019 with a sudden increase in 2020 (n = 5) and 2021 (n = 4). The Eastern WHO Afro Region contributed 48% of the studies, followed by the Western WHO Afro Region with 43%. Ten countries were selected through the process of screening according to where nurse-led medical-surgical knowledge translation interventions were found. Nigeria contributed 33%, followed by Uganda with 19%. The scoping review concluded that studies be appraised for their ability to promote evidence-based knowledge, skills and behaviour in both rural and urban clinical settings. More of these studies need to be conducted in the WHO Afro Region. More focused systematic reviews should be conducted to sum up the best available research on these specific questions, supported by findings by clinical setting, type of intervention, and outcomes.

Assessment of handwashing impact on detection of SARS-CoV-2, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli on hands in rural and urban settings of Côte d'Ivoire during COVID-19 pandemic.

Handwashing is the first line of hygiene measures and one of the oldest methods of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Despite its efficacy in the health system, handwashing is often inadequately practiced by populations. This study aimed to assess the presence of SARS-CoV-2, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) on hands as indicators of lack of hand hygiene during COVID 19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted in rural Taabo and urban Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) from January to September 2021. A total of 384 participants from 384 households were included in the study. The total households were distributed proportionally within various municipalities in the two study areas according to the number of households in each municipality, based on data of the National Institute of Statistics from the 2014 general population census. Hand swabbing of the 384 participants within households (320 in Abidjan and 64 in Taabo) was performed for the enumeration of E. coli and S aureus, using laboratory standard method and for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 by RT-qPCR. A binary logistic regression model was built with the outcome variable presence of Staphylococcus spp. on hands of respondents that was categorized into binary variables, Staphylococcus spp. (1 = presence, 0 = absence) for the Risk Ratio estimation. Place of living, sex, handwashing, education and age group were used to adjust the model to observe the effects of these explanatory variables. No presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected on the hands of respondents in both sites. However, in urban Abidjan, only Staphylococcus spp. (Coagulase Negative Staphylococci) was found on the hands of 233 (72.8%, 95%CI: 67.7-77.4) respondents with the average load of 0.56 CFU/ Cm2 (95% CI, 0.52-0.60). Meanwhile, in rural Taabo, Staphylococcus spp. (Coagulase Negative Staphylococci) and E. coli were found on the hands of 40 (62.5%, 95%CI: 50.3-73.3) and 7 (10.9%, 95%CI: 5.4-20.9) respondents with the respective average load of 0.49 CFU/ Cm2 (95% CI, 0.39-0.59) and 0.08 CFU/ Cm2 (95% CI, 0.03-0.18). Participants living in rural Taabo were less likely to have Staphylococcus spp. on their hands (RR = 0.811; 95%IC: 0.661-0.995) compared to those living in urban Abidjan. No SARS-CoV-2 was detected on the hands of participants in both sites, suggesting that our study did not show direct transmission through hands. No E. coli was found in urban Abidjan while E. coli was found on the hands of participants in rural Taabo indicating poor hand washing and disinfection practices in rural Taabo. Living in urban Abidjan is statistically associated to having Staphylococcus spp. on hands. Further studies are necessary especially to understand to what extent the presence of Staphylococcus spp. on hands indicates a higher infection or fecal colonization rates in the case of E. coli.

The City as an Evolutionary Hothouse—The Search for Rapid Evolution in Urban Settings

Cities are ubiquitous and, though a novel phenomenon by evolutionary standards, provide a home for many species and exert particularly strong and novel selection pressures on them. They thus offer a unique opportunity to study rapid evolutionary processes. We conducted a scoping review of published studies documenting evolutionary processes in urban environments, focusing primarily on more recent work. Unfortunately, cities have not been attractive environments for biological research and thus remain poorly studied, despite slowly growing interest in recent years. Nonetheless, we found studies documenting the effects of mutation, genetic drift, and selection in cities. However, studies show some geographic bias and were not always as conclusive as might be desired. There is even support for incipient urban speciation. Evidence across the board is less abundant and less conclusive than desirable, suggesting the need for more data collection. The urban setting, with its stronger selection, more common intermixing, and abundance of both human and widespread potential non-human zoonosis hosts and human-associated species offers great opportunities to further document evolution in action and explore its conservation implications.

A poetic geography: placing urban literature in two districts of Istanbul, Türkiye

ABSTRACT This article presents a map of a ‘poetic geography’ of short literature that appeared in public in two districts on the Asian side of Istanbul, Türkiye between 2020 and 2023. I use Michel de Certeau’s concept of ‘Walking the City’ from his The Practice of Everyday Life (1984) to link space and time to map the literary material found in Istanbul’s Üsküdar and Kadıköy districts. A poetic geography contrasts with a literal map that reduces all traces to a geometrically consistent two-dimensional surface. Mapping a poetic geography offers the advantages of annotating short verbal expressions in their lived environments without the need to collect, control, and own literary fragments. After an introduction to ‘Walking Istanbul’ through a comparison of short literary fragments found in the Rasimpaşa (Kadıköy) and Mimar Sinan (Üsküdar) neighbourhoods, I offer a definition of short literary genres that includes the material, or space and time of rhetorical figures, topoi and tropes, as embodied practices. Including the material allows for both researchers and residents to annotate examples of short literature that are distributed in diverse materials across unique urban settings.

Utilizing the Urban Education Typology: A Content Analysis of Selected Citations

In the seminal work “But What Is Urban Education?” from 2012, Richard Milner proffered a typology to better represent urban spaces as conceptions of urbanization's evolution. The typology consists of three descriptors, to which each highlights the manner in which population density influences the availability of resources to support culturally diverse learners: urban intensive (large spatially dense cities), urban emergent (large suburbs and mid-sized cities), and urban characteristic (smaller suburbs and some rural areas). In the present study, we used a cited reference search strategy to locate and retrieve 319 articles citing the Milner article. Then, through quantitative content analysis, we characterized the prevalence and utilization of the typology in educational research. Our results indicate that researchers have used Milner's urban typology to frame urban settings and contexts ( n = 227). Moreover, the citation of the typology has consistently increased each year from 2012 to 2020. The majority of authors citing the typology have accepted it as a suitable framework to describe the urban characteristics of their study. Several authors have identified limitations and constraints related to the typology and have adapted, expanded, or rejected the typology. We provide implications to support theory development and empirical evaluation in urban educational spaces.

Case Study for Predicting Failures in Water Supply Networks Using Neural Networks

This study deals with the prediction of recurring failures in water supply networks, a complex and costly task, but essential for the effective maintenance of these vital infrastructures. Using historical failure data provided by Companhia de Água e Esgotos da Paraíba (CAGEPA), the research focuses on predicting the time until the next failure at specific points in the network. The authors divided the failures into two categories: Occurrences of New Faults (ONFs) and Recurrences of Faults (RFs). To perform the predictions, they used predictive models based on machine learning, more specifically on MLP (Multi-Layer Perceptron) neural networks. The investigation unveiled that through the analysis of historical failure data and the consideration of variables including altitude, number of failures on the same street, and days between failures, it is possible to achieve an accuracy greater than 80% in predicting failures within a 90-day interval. This demonstrates the feasibility of using fault history to predict future water supply outages with significant accuracy. These forecasts allow water utilities to plan and optimize their maintenance, minimizing inconvenience and losses. The article contributes significantly to the field of water infrastructure management by proposing the applicability of a data-driven approach in diverse urban settings and across various types of infrastructure networks, including those pertaining to energy or communication. These conclusions underscore the paramount importance of systematic data collection and analysis in both averting failures and optimizing the allocation of resources within water utilities.