scholarly journals EXAMINING THE VISUAL EFFECT OF TRYPOPHOBIC REPETITIVE PATTERN IN CONTEMPORARY URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: BAHRAIN AS A CASE FOR MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-51
Author(s):  
Fay Alkhalifa ◽  
Arnold Wilkins ◽  
Nehal Almurbati ◽  
Joao Pinelo
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
The Public ◽  
Architectural Elements ◽  
Middle East Countries ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
Neurological Effect ◽  
Public Reaction ◽  
Physiological Reactions

New building materials and design technologies such as design parameterisation allow for the creation of unusual architectural elements composed of spatially repetitive patterns. Images with specific spatial properties, as from repetitive patterns, may cause psychological and physiological reactions, in some cases leading to severe discomfort, headaches or seizures. Clusters of roughly circular shapes, often hollow, are also known to create reactions such as sickness and vomiting in certain individuals. The phenomenon is known as trypophobia. Because trypophobia has only recently been described and is not widely recognised, we undertook a survey of the public reaction to trypophobic images, as well as to patterns that are known to have a neurological effect, viz. patterns of stripes. The study investigates whether the two types of pattern are similarly aversive and examines the extent of the aversion to find out whether trypophobia needs to be considered when designing buildings. We showed a variety of images to 405 members of the public to gauge their reaction. In some instances, the reaction was profound: one person vomited. The findings suggest that reactions to stimuli in the built environment are significant enough to provoke a debate on the role of visual discomfort in architecture and sustainable urbanism. It seems important to further investigate the properties of architectural shapes that induce discomfort so as to avoid a public health concern in contemporary urban environments.

scholarly journals Agro-Environmental Determinants of Leptospirosis: A Retrospective Spatiotemporal Analysis (2004−2014) in Mahasarakham Province (Thailand)

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Jaruwan Viroj ◽  
Julien Claude ◽  
Claire Lajaunie ◽  
Julien Cappelle ◽  
Anamika Kritiyakan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Spatiotemporal Analysis ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Intersectoral Collaboration ◽  
The Public ◽  
Additive Modeling ◽  
The One ◽  
And Control ◽  
Northeastern Thailand

Leptospirosis has been recognized as a major public health concern in Thailand following dramatic outbreaks. We analyzed human leptospirosis incidence between 2004 and 2014 in Mahasarakham province, Northeastern Thailand, in order to identify the agronomical and environmental factors likely to explain incidence at the level of 133 sub-districts and 1,982 villages of the province. We performed general additive modeling (GAM) in order to take the spatial-temporal epidemiological dynamics into account. The results of GAM analyses showed that the average slope, population size, pig density, cow density and flood cover were significantly associated with leptospirosis occurrence in a district. Our results stress the importance of livestock favoring leptospirosis transmission to humans and suggest that prevention and control of leptospirosis need strong intersectoral collaboration between the public health, the livestock department and local communities. More specifically, such collaboration should integrate leptospirosis surveillance in both public and animal health for a better control of diseases in livestock while promoting public health prevention as encouraged by the One Health approach.

scholarly journals Probiotics as a Possible Strategy for the Prevention and Treatment of Allergies. A Narrative Review

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 701
Author(s):  
Aroa Lopez-Santamarina ◽  
Esther Gonzalez Gonzalez ◽  
Alexandre Lamas ◽  
Alicia del Carmen Mondragon ◽  
Patricia Regal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Allergic Diseases ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Probiotic Bacteria ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Cytokine Release ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Opportunistic Bacteria

Allergies are an increasing global public health concern, especially for children and people living in urban environments. Allergies impair the quality of life of those who suffer from them, and for this reason, alternatives for the treatment of allergic diseases or reduction in their symptoms are being sought. The main objective of this study was to compile the studies carried out on probiotics as a possible therapy for allergies. The most studied allergies on which probiotics have been shown to have a beneficial effect are rhinitis, asthma, and atopic dermatitis. Most studies have studied the administration of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium spp. in children and have shown beneficial effects, such as a reduction in hyperreactivity and inflammation caused by allergens and a decrease in cytokine release, among other beneficial effects. In the case of children, no clear beneficial effects were found in several studies, and the potential risk from the use of some opportunistic bacteria, such as probiotics, seems controversial. In the studies that reported beneficial results, these effects were found to make allergy symptoms less aggressive, thus reducing morbidity in allergy sufferers. The different effects of the same probiotic bacteria on different patients seem to reinforce the idea that the efficacy of probiotics is dependent on the microbial species or strain, its derived metabolites and byproducts, and the gut microbiota eubiosis of the patient. This study is relevant in the context of allergic diseases, as it provides a broader understanding of new alternatives for the treatment of allergies, both in children, who are the main sufferers, and adults, showing that probiotics, in some cases, reduce the symptoms and severity of such diseases.

An Examination of Urban Vertical Gated Communities of Nagpur, India

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Wiedmann ◽  
Smita Khan
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Gated Communities ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Urban Dynamics ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
Urban Patterns ◽  
Indian State ◽  
User Groups ◽  
New Type ◽  
Housing Typology

This paper explores a new type of housing in India and resulting urban dynamics in Nagpur, a Grade A city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The accelerating urban growth rate led to a dynamic housing market to accommodate the on-going migration. A new housing typology can be identified as clusters of residential towers, developed as gated communities and marketed as first-class neighbourhoods for emerging higher income groups. This research is a timely effort to address the occurring challenges of future urban patterns produced by this housing typology in India. Various urban qualities are needed to foster sustainable urbanism. Housing patterns have a major impact on how urban environments work efficiently, how they accommodate different user groups and how city images, perceptions and thus lifestyles are affected. The paper investigates these new urban sites in relation to their socio-spatial interactions and the resulting production of urban qualities to foster a new understanding of this particular housing typology and its impact on urbanism in India. Analysing through the lens of three major urban qualities of urban efficiency, diversity and identity the study identifies the complex socio-spatial dynamics fostered by vertical gated communities in Nagpur city. The paper concludes with an outlook on the distinctive roles of architects and urban designers to develop synergies between this urban typology and its surroundings

Public perception of COVID-19 vaccines from the digital footprints left on Twitter: analyzing positive, neutral and negative sentiments of Twitterati

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aasif Ahmad Mir ◽  
Sevukan Rathinam ◽  
Sumeer Gul
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
English Language ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Reaction ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
The Impact

PurposeTwitter is gaining popularity as a microblogging and social networking service to discuss various social issues. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic and is discussed worldwide. Social media is an instant platform to deliberate various dimensions of COVID-19. The purpose of the study is to explore and analyze the public sentiments related to COVID-19 vaccines across the Twitter messages (positive, neutral, and negative) and the impact tweets make across digital social circles.Design/methodology/approachTo fetch the vaccine-related posts, a manual examination of randomly selected 500 tweets was carried out to identify the popular hashtags relevant to the vaccine conversation. It was found that the hashtags “covid19vaccine” and “coronavirusvaccine” were the two popular hashtags used to discuss the communications related to COVID-19 vaccines. 23,575 global tweets available in public domain were retrieved through “Twitter Application Programming Interface” (API), using “Orange Software”, an open-source machine learning, data visualization and data mining toolkit. The study was confined to the tweets posted in English language only. The default data cleaning and preprocessing techniques available in the “Orange Software” were applied to the dataset, which include “transformation”, “tokenization” and “filtering”. The “Valence Aware Dictionary for sEntiment Reasoning” (VADER) tool was used for classification of tweets to determine the tweet sentiments (positive, neutral and negative) as well as the degree of sentiments (compound score also known as sentiment score). To assess the influence/impact of tweets account wise (verified and unverified) and sentiment wise (positive, neutral, and negative), the retweets and likes, which offer a sort of reward or acknowledgment of tweets, were used.FindingsA gradual decline in the number of tweets over the time is observed. Majority (11,205; 47.52%) of tweets express positive sentiments, followed by neutral (7,948; 33.71%) and negative sentiments (4,422; 18.75%), respectively. The study also signifies a substantial difference between the impact of tweets tweeted by verified and unverified users. The tweets related to verified users have a higher impact both in terms of retweets (65.91%) and likes (84.62%) compared to the tweets tweeted by unverified users. Tweets expressing positive sentiments have the highest impact both in terms of likes (mean = 10.48) and retweets (mean = 3.07) compared to those that express neutral or negative sentiments.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation of the study is that the sentiments of the people expressed over one single social platform, that is, Twitter have been studied which cannot generalize the global public perceptions. There can be a variation in the results when the datasets from other social media platforms will be studied.Practical implicationsThe study will help to know the people's sentiments and beliefs toward the COVID-19 vaccines. Sentiments that people hold about the COVID-19 vaccines are studied, which will help health policymakers understand the polarity (positive, negative, and neutral) of the tweets and thus see the public reaction and reflect the types of information people are exposed to about vaccines. The study can aid the health sectors to intensify positive messages and eliminate negative messages for an enhanced vaccination uptake. The research can also help design more operative vaccine-advocating communication by customizing messages using the obtained knowledge from the sentiments and opinions about the vaccines.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on an essential aspect of COVID-19 vaccines and how people express themselves (positively, neutrally and negatively) on Twitter.

scholarly journals Late antique domus in Skelani (Municipium Malvesiatium)

Starinar ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 197-220
Author(s):  
Nadezda Gavrilovic-Vitas ◽  
Bojan Popovic
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Architectural Elements ◽  
The North ◽  
Wall Heating ◽  
North Western ◽  
Main Entrance ◽  
Archaeological Excavations

During June and July 2014, at the site of Zadruzni Dom in Skelani, archaeological investigations of the late antique building were carried out, whose rooms were first discovered in the course of archaeological excavations in 2008. The building has a rectangular base, of a northeast-southwest orientation, with the discovered part measuring 20.90 x 30.90 m. What is distinguishable within the asymmetrical base is an entrance, along with eleven rooms, two of which have apses, and a peristyle, i.e. an inner courtyard with a roofed corridor surrounding it which connects all the rooms of the building. During the archaeological excavations, entrance thresholds and extremely well preserved mortar floors with mortar skirting were noted in most rooms, along with traces of fresco painting on the walls and mosaic floors, executed in the opus tesselatum technique, observed in several rooms, the peristyle and the encompassing corridor. The discovered mosaic fragments are decorated with geometric motifs in the form of a swastika, a Solomon?s knot, a square, a rhomboid, overlapping circles, etc. and floral motifs of ivy and petals, as well as a double braid motif. Small but, unfortunately, fragmented pieces of a mosaic with a figural representation were discovered in the central part of the peristyle, while the mosaic in room K was decorated with a motif portraying the winged head of Medusa. Two construction phases were noted, an older and a younger, with the walls, which were two Roman feet wide and built from dressed stone, and the older mortar floor belonging to the older construction phase, and the second, younger construction phase comprising mosaics, fresco painting, the younger mortar floor and two furnaces. Contemplating the planimetry of the building, one gets the impression of the rooms being divided between two parts - public and private, whereby the public part of the building would be located near the main entrance hall and would comprise rooms A, B, C, D and F, with mortar floors and traces of fresco painting on the walls. The other, possibly private, part of the building would include five rooms G, H, I, J and K and the inner courtyard. Rooms I, J and K had floor and wall heating, while rooms G and H had an arched apse and possibly functioned as a reception hall and/or a stibadium. The hallway with mosaics, which flanks the inner courtyard, was most likely roofed. Traces of burning in the north-western corridor testify to the destruction of the building in a fire. Based on the architectural elements and the traces of fresco painting and mosaics in the building at the site of Zadruzni Dom in Skelani, it can be deduced that this is a late antique building which can roughly be dated to the period between the end of the 3rd and the mid-4th century AD, and whose lavish decoration implies that it was owned by an affluent resident of Skelani from the aforementioned period.

scholarly journals Public space: an exhibition of photography and video

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Franchi
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Space ◽  
General Public ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Unrestricted Access ◽  
Private Corporations ◽  
The Public Sphere

Public Space is a photographic and video project examining the relationship between the public sphere and private corporations. The project explores various sites throughout Toronto and New York that are on private property but have been built with the intention of allowing the general public to have unrestricted access to these areas. These spaces are referred to as Privately Owned Public Space or “POPS”. The goal of the project is to question and document, through photographic and video practice, these spaces within the urban environment and to challenge others to consider whether these spaces are effective in achieving their intended use and if they are truly accessible to the general public. Loss of the public space is an ongoing issue that faces cities and developers often receive concessions to bylaw zoning requirements in exchange for incorporating POPS. This thesis project is a personal exploration of how these spaces are changing the urban environments of North American cities in the twenty first century.

scholarly journals Epidemiological study of dengue fever in District Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahira Qamash ◽  
Johar Jamil ◽  
Faheem Ahmed Khan ◽  
Saira ◽  
Ambareen Sultan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dengue Fever ◽  
Serological Test ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Health Department ◽  
Viral Disease ◽  
Physical Symptoms ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Structural Protein ◽  
The Public

Abstract Dengue is a viral disease which is serious health concern from last few decades and the infection transmitted through mosquito bite into human. This study was conducted to carry out prevalence of dengue fever in District Swabi. A total of 196 blood sample were collected from patients with age ranges (0-80 years) having dengue fever on the basis of physical symptoms from Bacha Khan Medical Complex Swabi during August to October 2017. Serological test were performed for detection of IgM, IgG and NS1 (Non structural protein antigen of virus) against dengue. Out of total 196 confirmed dengue cases the most prone gender was male 123(62%) while 73(38%) were female. Among the age groups; 21-30 years group 62 (31.6%) was found the most predominated age group. The higly affected areas in district Swabi were Topi (40.8%) followed by Main Swabi (27%), Maneri (8.2%), Marghuz (6%), Shawa Ada (5.1%), Shah Mansoor (5.1%), Gohati (4.1%), and Chota Lahore (3.6%). Therefore, the health department should take actions by educating the public about basic cleanliness of the environment. The community should be encouraged to participate in the control of such vector based diseases/infections.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document