Application of geographical sciences and technologies to investigate health problems in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Recent developments in the geographical sciences and technologies, namely geographical epidemiology, geographical information systems, global positioning systems and spatial data analysis brings about a unique opportunity to investigate the role of "place" in human health in a scientific manner. The aim of the present communication is to open a discussion about the application of these advances to study the geography of public health problems within the Eastern Mediterranean Region of the World Health Organization.

Writing place: a comparison of nursing research and health geography.

The concept of 'place', and general references to 'geographies of ...' are making gradual incursions into nursing literature. Although the idea of place in nursing is not new, this recent spatial turn seems to be influenced by the increasing profile of the discipline of health geography, and the broadening of its scope to incorporate smaller and more intimate spatial scales. A wider emphasis within the social sciences on place from a social and cultural perspective, and a wider turn to 'place' across disciplines are probably equally important factors. This trend is raising some interesting questions for nurses, but at the same time contributes some confusion with regard to imputed meanings of 'place'. While it is clear that most nurse clinicians and researchers certainly understand that place of care matters to their practices and patients, many diverse uses of 'place' are found within nursing literature, and contemporary understandings of the term 'place' within nursing are not immediately clear. It is in this context that this article plans to advance the discussion of place. More specifically, the aims of this paper are threefold: to critique 'place' as it appears in nursing literature, to explore the use of 'place' within health geography, whence notions of place and 'geographies of' have originated and, finally, to compare and contrast the use of 'place' in both disciplines. This critique intends to address a deficit in the literature, in this era of growing spatialization in nursing research. The specific questions of interest here are: 'what is "place" in nursing?' and 'how do concepts of place in nursing compare to concepts of place in health geography?'

The world of geography: visualizing a knowledge domain with cartographic means.

From an informed critique of existing methods to the development of original tools, cartographic engagement can provide a unique perspective on knowledge domain visualization. Along with a discussion of some principles underlying a cartographically informed visualization methodology, results of experiments involving several thousand conference abstracts will be sketched and their plausibility reflected on.

The application of GIS in environmental health sciences: opportunities and limitations.

Understanding the complex spatio-temporal relationships between environmental pollution and disease and identifying exposures to environmental hazards in high-risk populations are essential elements of an effective environmental and public health management program. Modern computer technologies, such as geographic information systems (GIS), provide cost-effective tools for evaluating interventions and policies potentially affecting health outcomes. GIS analysis or display of environmental health data is also helpful in explaining disease patterns in terms of relationships with social, institutional, technological, and natural environments. This paper examines major issues related to the application of GIS in environmental health sciences. Specifically, the paper presents and discusses the basic principles, potential benefits, and major limitations of GIS in environmental health research. A real-world example application involving development and implementation of a prototype system called EMPHASIS (EnvironMental and Public Health datA analySIs System) to facilitate management, analysis, display, and presentation of environmental, socio-demographic, and health outcome data in Iowa is described. From the discussions and the example application, it is concluded that GIS can significantly add value to environmental and public health data in areas such as exploratory data analysis, hypotheses generation, confirmatory data analysis, and decision-making. The widespread adoption of GIS in these areas, however, is impeded by issues such as inconsistent spatial scales of the data, data quality and currency, lack of appropriate statistical functions for data analysis and interpretation, and data security and confidentiality.

Incorporaçöes e fusöes: liçöes do mundo corporativo para a agenda da reforma do Estado / Incorporations and mergers: lessons form the corporate world to the State reforma agenda

Sugere um novo, inusitado, porém complementar, encaminhamento dos debates sobre a reforma do Estado: a incorporação e a fusão de municípios. Mostra-se contrário à prática generalizada e dominante de criaçõ de municípios via desmembramento, já que inexistem as causas primeiras que deram origem às unidades municipais, o que contribui para a rigidez, a ineficiência e a não-efetividade da ação governamental.

Criaçäo, divisão e desmembramento de municípios / Creation, division and separate of municipal districts

Procura apresentar uma base para a discussão. Fornece relevo a elementos fundamentais, de uma forma sintética e objetiva. Faz um levantamento preliminar no qual aponta o caminho de questões que merecerão aprofundamento em outros estudos vindouros. Discorre sobre as razões do processo de desmembramento e suas consequências principais. Conclui que o atual caminho tomado pelo país, no sentido de uma multiplicação crescente de municípios, é preocupante e está dimensionado de forma equivocada.