Towards more sustainable urban forms in the city of Benghazi: a study of urban fragmentation at the neighbourhood level

Urban sprawl is a challenge to the sustainability of many cities around the world. Fragmented urban development and vacant land are widespread problems in many Arab cities (UN-Habitat, 2012) which are, according to Ben-Hamouch, mainly a result of inappropriate modern planning and poor land management (2013). This study addresses the problem of urban fragmentation at the neighbourhood level and examines to what extent the concept of compact urban form can contribute to the improvement of social and environmental sustainability in the Libyan city of Benghazi and Arab cities in general. The objectives and scope of the study have justified a morphological approach, where eleven case studies that present different urban typologies in the city have been investigated. The research strategy and selection of case studies were driven by the availability of data and meant to cover the main urban types and important issues defined within this context. This research, which has been conducted to explore and explain the relationships that exist between local urban forms and their performance in terms of sustainability, has produced valuable knowledge and helped to identify measures which target the improvement of people’s quality of life and environmental sustainability of the city. The research draws on the argument that adopting a type of human scale urban form, which is relatively compact and dense, well-connected and comfortably diverse, coupled with concepts of urban greening and flexible development relevant to the local context, would help to create a high quality urban form that is liveable and accessible, while causing minimum damage to the natural environment. This work is an attempt to respond and add to the ongoing debate on sustainable urban form in the developing countries (see: (Jenks, 2000)). The findings have contributed to the understanding of urban fragmentation and highlighted the relevance of the theory of compact city to sustainable development in Benghazi and the South in general. It is anticipated that this work would raise awareness on the impact of urban fragmentation on the sustainability of the built environment within this context and help to advance research on planning theory and practice based on real-life experience and responses to local circumstances.

A review of dynamic Bayesian network techniques with applications in healthcare risk modelling

Coping with an ageing population is a major concern for healthcare organisations around the world. The average cost of hospital care is higher than social care for older and terminally ill patients. Moreover, the average cost of social care increases with the age of the patient. Therefore, it is important to make efficient and fair capacity planning which also incorporates patient centred outcomes. Predictive models can provide predictions which their accuracy can be understood and quantified. Predictive modelling can help patients and carers to get the appropriate support services, and allow clinical decision-makers to improve care quality and reduce the cost of inappropriate hospital and Accident and Emergency admissions. The aim of this study is to provide a review of modelling techniques and frameworks for predictive risk modelling of patients in hospital, based on routinely collected data such as the Hospital Episode Statistics database. A number of sub-problems can be considered such as Length-of-Stay and End-of-Life predictive modelling. The methodologies in the literature are mainly focused on addressing the problems using regression methods and Markov models, and the majority lack generalisability. In some cases, the robustness, accuracy and re-usability of predictive risk models have been shown to be improved using Machine Learning methods. Dynamic Bayesian Network techniques can represent complex correlations models and include small probabilities into the solution. The main focus of this study is to provide a review of major time-varying Dynamic Bayesian Network techniques with applications in healthcare predictive risk modelling.

Sex-specific disruption of murine midbrain astrocytic and dopaminergic developmental trajectories following antenatal GC treatment

The mammalian midbrain dopaminergic systems arising in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) are critical for coping behaviours and are implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders where early life challenges comprise significant risk factors. Here, we aimed to advance our hypothesis that glucocorticoids (GCs), recognised key players in neurobiological programming, target development within these systems, with a novel focus on the astrocytic population. Mice received antenatal GC treatment (AGT) by including the synthetic GC, dexamethasone, in the mothers' drinking water on gestational days 16-19; controls received normal drinking water. Analyses of regional shapes and volumes of the adult SNc and VTA demonstrated that AGT induced long-term, dose-dependent, structural changes that were accompanied by profound effects on astrocytes (doubling/tripling of numbers and/or density). Additionally, AGT induced long-term changes in the population size and distribution of SNc/VTA dopaminergic neurons, confirming and extending our previous observations made in rats. Furthermore, glial/neuronal structural remodelling was sexually dimorphic and depended on the AGT dose and sub-region of the SNc/VTA. Investigations within the neonatal brain revealed that these long-term organisational effects of AGT depend, at least in part, on targeting perinatal processes that determine astrocyte density and programmed cell death in dopaminergic neurons. Collectively, our characterisation of enduring, AGT-induced, sex-specific cytoarchitectural disturbances suggests novel mechanistic links for the strong association between early environmental challenge (inappropriate exposure to excess GCs) and vulnerability to developing aberrant behaviours in later life, with translational implications for dopamine-associated disorders (such as schizophrenia, ADHD, autism, depression), which typically show a sex bias

Collectors, Producers, and Circulators of Tibetan and Chinese Medicines in Sichuan Province

The act of prescribing pharmaceutical drugs to patients is normally the site of judgements about the drug’s efficacy and safety. The success of treatments and the licences for commodities depend on the biochemical identity of the drugs and of their path and transformations inside the body. However, the ‘supply chain’ outside the body is eschewed by such discourse, and its importance for both pharmaceutical brands and physician-centred historiographies is ignored. As this ethnographic fieldwork on Tibetan and Chinese medicines in Sichuan shows, overlooked social actors ensure reliable knowledge about medicinal things and materials long before patients take their medicine. This paper takes a step back from the final products—clearly defined as ‘Tibetan’ or ‘Chinese’—and introduces those who produce and distribute them. Via observations of particular regimes of circulation and processing, the actions of collecting, manufacturing, transporting, and educating appear as the first and foremost acts of efficacy and safety.