The Abbé d'Aubignac's Homer and the Culture of the Street in Seventeenth-Century Paris.

This article interprets the abbé d'Aubignac's 1715 Conjectures académiques, ou, Dissertation sur l'Iliade-the first text to posit the non-existence of Homer-in light of the Parisian literary underground of the mid-seventeenth century. It shows that the city's nascent street culture influenced regimes of authorship and, ultimately, classical scholarship on Homer. In general, it argues for a history of scholarship in dialogue with the architecture of the cities where it took place.

Las epidemias en La Pampa (Argentina), en perspectiva histórica* / The epidemics in La Pampa (Argentina), from a historical perspective

Resumen Este artículo describe el inicio de las preocupaciones sanitarias vinculadas a las epidemias ocurridas durante el siglo XX en La Pampa, provincia argentina. Las epidemias, como las de la viruela, fueron un estímulo para estas políticas que frecuentemente tuvieron origen en Buenos Aires, la capital del país. El contagio de muchas epidemias dependía de carencias de infraestructura: agua, desagüe y desecho adecuado de basuras, de la ausencia de un número suficiente de trabajadores de salud, de la presencia de vectores transmisores de enfermedades como los mosquitos y, en última instancia, de la pobreza. La experiencia histórica descrita en este texto resalta la importancia de analizar el impacto del SARS-CoV-2 más allá de las grandes ciudades.

Abstract This article describes the emergence of health concerns relating to the epidemics that occurred during the twentieth century in La Pampa, a province in Argentina. Epidemics such as smallpox drove such policies, which frequently originated in Buenos Aires, the country's capital. The spread of many epidemics was due to shortages: water, sewage and adequate refuse disposal, an insufficient number of health care workers, the presence of disease transmission vectors such as mosquitos, and, ultimately, poverty. The historical experience described in this text highlights the importance of analyzing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 beyond the big cities.

[The epidemics in La Pampa (Argentina), from a historical perspective]. / Las epidemias en La Pampa (Argentina), en perspectiva histórica.

This article describes the emergence of health concerns relating to the epidemics that occurred during the twentieth century in La Pampa, a province in Argentina. Epidemics such as smallpox drove such policies, which frequently originated in Buenos Aires, the country's capital. The spread of many epidemics was due to shortages: water, sewage and adequate refuse disposal, an insufficient number of health care workers, the presence of disease transmission vectors such as mosquitos, and, ultimately, poverty. The historical experience described in this text highlights the importance of analyzing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 beyond the big cities.

Este artículo describe el inicio de las preocupaciones sanitarias vinculadas a las epidemias ocurridas durante el siglo XX en La Pampa, provincia argentina. Las epidemias, como las de la viruela, fueron un estímulo para estas políticas que frecuentemente tuvieron origen en Buenos Aires, la capital del país. El contagio de muchas epidemias dependía de carencias de infraestructura: agua, desagüe y desecho adecuado de basuras, de la ausencia de un número suficiente de trabajadores de salud, de la presencia de vectores transmisores de enfermedades como los mosquitos y, en última instancia, de la pobreza. La experiencia histórica descrita en este texto resalta la importancia de analizar el impacto del SARS-CoV-2 más allá de las grandes ciudades.

Environmental DNA reveals arboreal cityscapes at the Ancient Maya Center of Tikal.

Tikal, a major city of the ancient Maya world, has been the focus of archaeological research for over a century, yet the interactions between the Maya and the surrounding Neotropical forests remain largely enigmatic. This study aimed to help fill that void by using a powerful new technology, environmental DNA analysis, that enabled us to characterize the site core vegetation growing in association with the artificial reservoirs that provided the city water supply. Because the area has no permanent water sources, such as lakes or rivers, these reservoirs were key to the survival of the city, especially during the population expansion of the Classic period (250-850 CE). In the absence of specific evidence, the nature of the vegetation surrounding the reservoirs has been the subject of scientific hypotheses and artistic renderings for decades. To address these hypotheses we captured homologous sequences of vascular plant DNA extracted from reservoir sediments by using a targeted enrichment approach involving 120-bp genetic probes. Our samples encompassed the time before, during and after the occupation of Tikal (1000 BCE-900 CE). Results indicate that the banks of the ancient reservoirs were primarily fringed with native tropical forest vegetation rather than domesticated species during the Maya occupation.

A Roman provincial city and its contamination legacy from artisanal and daily-life activities.

Roman metal use and related extraction activities resulted in heavy metal pollution and contamination, in particular of Pb near ancient mines and harbors, as well as producing a global atmospheric impact. New evidence from ancient Gerasa (Jerash), Jordan, suggests that small-scale but intense Roman, Byzantine and Umayyad period urban, artisanal, and everyday site activities contributed to substantial heavy metal contamination of the city and its hinterland wadi, even though no metal mining took place and hardly any lead water pipes were used. Distribution of heavy metal contaminants, especially Pb, observed in the urban soils and sediments within this ancient city and its hinterland wadi resulted from aeolian, fluvial, cultural and post-depositional processes. These represent the contamination pathways of an ancient city-hinterland setting and reflect long-term anthropogenic legacies at local and regional scales beginning in the Roman period. Thus, urban use and re-use of heavy metal sources should be factored into understanding historical global-scale contaminant distributions.

Development of spontaneous vegetation on reclaimed land in Singapore measured by NDVI.

Population and economic growth in Asia has led to increased urbanisation. Urbanisation has many detrimental impacts on ecosystems, especially when expansion is unplanned. Singapore is a city-state that has grown rapidly since independence, both in population and land area. However, Singapore aims to develop as a 'City in Nature', and urban greenery is integral to the landscape. While clearing some areas of forest for urban sprawl, Singapore has also reclaimed land from the sea to expand its coastline. Reclaimed land is usually designated for future urban development, but must first be left for many years to stabilise. During the period of stabilisation, pioneer plant species establish, growing into novel forest communities. The rate of this spontaneous vegetation development has not been quantified. This study tracks the temporal trends of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), as a proxy of vegetation maturity, on reclaimed land sensed using LANDSAT images. Google Earth Engine was used to mosaic cloud-free annual LANDSAT images of Singapore from 1988 to 2015. Singapore's median NDVI increased by 0.15 from 0.47 to 0.62 over the study period, while its land area grew by 71 km2. Five reclaimed sites with spontaneous vegetation development showed variable vegetation covers, ranging from 6% to 43% vegetated cover in 2015. On average, spontaneous vegetation takes 16.9 years to develop to a maturity of 0.7 NDVI, but this development is not linear and follows a quadratic trajectory. Patches of spontaneous vegetation on isolated reclaimed lands are unlikely to remain forever since they are in areas slated for future development. In the years that these patches exist, they have potential to increase urban greenery, support biodiversity, and provide a host of ecosystem services. With this knowledge on spontaneous vegetation development trajectories, urban planners can harness the resource when planning future developments.

Measles virus and rinderpest virus divergence dated to the sixth century BCE.

Many infectious diseases are thought to have emerged in humans after the Neolithic revolution. Although it is broadly accepted that this also applies to measles, the exact date of emergence for this disease is controversial. We sequenced the genome of a 1912 measles virus and used selection-aware molecular clock modeling to determine the divergence date of measles virus and rinderpest virus. This divergence date represents the earliest possible date for the establishment of measles in human populations. Our analyses show that the measles virus potentially arose as early as the sixth century BCE, possibly coinciding with the rise of large cities.

Using city gates as a means of estimating ancient traffic flows.

Despite the recent flurry of interest in various aspects of ancient urbanism, we still know little about how much traffic flowed in and out of ancient cities, in part because of problems with using commodities as proxies for trade. This article investigates another approach, which is to estimate these flows from the built environment, concentrating on transport infrastructure such as city gates. To do this, I begin by discussing a new model for how we would expect this kind of infrastructure to expand with population, before investigating the relationship between the populations of sites and the total numbers and widths of city gates, focusing on the Greek and Roman world. The results suggest that there is indeed a systematic relationship between the estimated populations of cities and transport infrastructure, which is entirely consistent with broader theoretical and empirical expectations. This gives us a new way of exploring the connectivity and integration of ancient cities, contributing to a growing body of general theory about how settlements operate across space and time.

Ciudades portuarias en lucha contra la fiebre amarilla (1800-1812) / Port cities fighting yellow fever (1800-1812)

Al tiempo que una expedición filantrópica española distribuye por América y Asia la primera vacuna que conoció la humanidad, la Península Ibérica está bajo un asedio permanente de fiebre amarilla. Una epidemia que la Medicina combate con la ayuda de sudoríficos, enemas, quina y friegas de aceite; con sahumerios de plantas, de vinagre y de azufre y con andanadas de pólvora; con el aislamiento en chozas; con detalladas instrucciones de higiene y medidas de saneamiento para las cárceles. Para la política sanitaria, los indiscutibles cimientos de su lucha contra la epidemia van a ser las cuarentenas de personas y mercancías, sin descuidar la real recomendación de "implorar la misericordia de Dios con oraciones públicas"

While a Spanish philanthropic expedition is placing the first vaccine known by the Mankind among the population of America and Asia, the Iberian Peninsula is living under yellow fever threat. An epidemic that Medicine fights with the help of sudorifics, enemas, quinine and oil rubs; with plants, vinegar or sulfur smokes and volleyfires; with isolation in huts; with hygiene instructions and sanitation measures for prisons. For the Public Health Policy, the indisputable basement of the battle against the epidemics will be placing in quarantine both, people and goods, without forgetting the royal advice, which is "to implore the help of God, with public prayers"

The historical process of the masonry city walls construction in China during 1st to 17th centuries AD.

Masonry city walls were common defense facilities in the cities of the Eurasian before the industrial revolution. However, they were not widespread in China until the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Limited in research methods, previous studies failed to make convincing arguments on this phenomenon. We collected, organized and analyzed relevant historical documents to reconstruct the spatio-temporal process of the construction of masonry walls from 1st to 17th century in China. We conducted a time series analysis primarily based on factors such as wars, garrisons, economy, and natural disasters. Analysis of the correlation among the construction of masonry walls and these factors provides insights into this process. From the 1st to 14th century, only 125 masonry city walls were built in China and the annual average number was below 0.1. While in the Ming Dynasty, a total of 1,493 masonry walls were built, with an annual average of 5.41. The construction activities in 1368-1456 spread throughout the country, but mainly appeared in the high-grade administrative cities and garrisons, as a result of the planned implementation of the central government. The construction activities in 1457-1644 had corresponding cluster areas during different periods, mainly at county-level. We found that the wall construction was stimulated by external factors such as wars and disasters. We believe that the mass construction of masonry walls in the Ming Dynasty is a phenomenon of cultural diffusion. The central government plan, the complex interactions between local governments and community, and the stimulation of external factors worked together to contribute to the diffusion of masonry city walls in the Ming Dynasty.

The Historical Face of Narcotic Revisited: A Chinese City's Fifty-Year Quest for Hygienic Modernity, 1900-49.

For decades, people have viewed narcotics as a devil impeding the modernisation of China, but they have recently been faced with the challenge of declaring that narcotics are harmless in some instances. A deeper understanding of this issue requires historical approaches which show that the demonisation of narcotics has mainly been a political pursuit. In re-examining the drug problem and its correlation to political and socio-economic issues, data statistics based on substantial archives in modern China play a crucial role. Discovered in 2007 in Longquan, a city in southeast China, Judicial Records of Longquan remains the largest judicial record in modern China by far. Data analysis reveals government efforts regarding drug control were not in line with the peak periods of drug-related cases in Longquan. Drawing on previously unexamined documents, it can be shown that anti-drug mobilisation and hygienic conditions have been overstated to legitimise the authority of governments in modern China. However, the knowledge of local residents regarding medicine and health was indirectly promoted in this agenda. Compared with the negative image of drugs constructed under the biopower of government, the role of narcotics was a positive vehicle for accelerating health mobilization during the Republic of China.

A tale of two cities: A comparison of urban and rural trauma in Medieval Denmark.

OBJECTIVE: This study explores the differences in frequency and type of trauma found in two Medieval cemeteries in Denmark, as well as the cultural and community implications of those differences. MATERIALS: We examined 235 skeletons from the cemetery at Tjærby (rural) and 170 skeletons from the cemetery at Randers (urban) for trauma from the Medieval period in Denmark, 1050 to 1536 CE. METHODS: Trauma was assessed through macroscopic examination and odds ratio and relative risk assessments were run to assess the difference in trauma. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the presence of trauma between the rural and urban cemeteries or between males and females. There were some significant differences in relative risk for trauma between the two cemeteries. CONCLUSIONS: The division and variation in trauma between the two cemeteries is most likely related to differences in economy and occupation. SIGNIFICANCE: There are relatively few studies that examine the difference in inherent risk of trauma between rural and urban Medieval communities, especially in Denmark. This research also adds to the growing body of literature in paleopathology that uses epidemiology to explore the parallels between patterns of trauma and community lifeways. LIMITATIONS: The cemeteries are approximately 5 km distance from each other so similarities in the sample could be a result of location. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: A wider sample of Medieval cemeteries in Denmark needs be added to this analysis to provide a more complete picture of trauma patterns during this time period.

Cleveland Versus the Clinic: The 1960s Riots and Community Health Reform.

During the 1960s, cities across the United States erupted with rioting. Subsequent inquiries into its sources revealed long-simmering discontent with systemic deprivation and exploitation in the country's most racially segregated and resource-scarce neighborhoods. Urban medical centers were not exempt from this anger. They were standing symbols of maldistribution, cordoned off to those without sufficient economic means of access. In this article, I examine the travails of the world-famous and prestigious Cleveland Clinic after the 1966 riot in the Hough neighborhood on the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio. After years of unbridled expansion, fueled by federal urban renewal efforts, the riots caught the Clinic's leadership off guard, forcing it to rethink the long-standing insularity between itself and its neighbors. The riots were central to the Clinic's programmatic reorientation, but the concessions only went so far, especially as the political foment from the riots dissipated in the years afterward. The Cleveland experience is part of a larger-and still ongoing-debate on social obligations of medical centers, "town-gown" relations between research institutions and their neighbors, and the role of protest in catalyzing community health reform.

Servicios sociales municipales. Necesidad de una refundación / Municipal social services. The need for a refoundation

Los actuales Servicios Sociales municipales comenzaron a implantarse en los años 80 de la anterior centuria. Herederos en buena medida de la beneficencia pública que las administraciones locales venían haciendo, en la actualidad todavía arrastran influencias de aquella etapa. Existe una confusión en cuanto a su misión y su delimitación con otros ámbitos de las políticas sociales. Hay una sobrecarga de trabajo burocrático y administrativo que limita las actuaciones propias de los profesionales de la Intervención Social. Es necesario realizar una refundación de los Servicios Sociales que prestan los ayuntamientos, que debería de pasar por su reconceptualización e importantes cambios normativos, organizativos y metodológicos

The current municipal social services began to be implemented in the 1980’s. Largely descendants of the public assistance that the local administrations had been providing, they still display influences from that phase today. There is confusion regarding their mission and their delimitation with other areas of social policy. There is an overload of bureaucratic and administrative work that limits the actions of the professionals of social intervention. It is necessary to refound the social services provided by the city councils, a process that should include their reconceptualization as well as important normative, organizational and methodological changes

Fumigating the Hygienic Model City: Bubonic Plague and the Sulfurozador in Early-Twentieth-Century Buenos Aires.

The 1899/1900 arrival of bubonic plague in Argentina had thrown the model status of Buenos Aires as a hygienic city into crisis. Where the idea of foreign threats and imported epidemics had dominated the thinking of Argentina's sanitarians at that time, plague renewed concerns about hidden threats within the fabric of the capital's dense environment; concerns that led to new sanitary measures and unprecedented rat-campaigns supported by the large-scale application of sulphur dioxide. The article tells the story of early twentieth-century urban sanitation in Buenos Aires through the lens of a new industrial disinfection apparatus. The Aparato Marot, also known as Sulfurozador was acquired and integrated in the capital's sanitary administration by the epidemiologist José Penna in 1906 to materialise two key lessons learned from plague. First, the machine was supposed to translate the successful disinfection practices of global maritime sanitation into urban epidemic control in Argentina. Second, the machine's design enabled public health authorities to reinvigorate a traditional hygienic concern for the entirety of the city's terrain. While the Sulfurozador offered effective destruction of rats, it promised also a comprehensive - and utopian - disinfection of the whole city, freeing it from all imaginable pathogens, insects as well as rodents. In 1910, the successful introduction of the Sulfurozador encouraged Argentina's medico-political elite to introduce a new principle of 'general prophylaxis'. This article places the apparatus as a technological modernisation of traditional sanitary practices in the bacteriological age, which preserved the urban environment - 'el terreno' - as a principal site of intervention. Thus, the Sulfurozador allowed the 'higienistas' to sustain a long-standing utopian vision of all-encompassing social, bodily and political hygiene into the twentieth century.

From global scaling to the dynamics of individual cities.

Scaling has been proposed as a powerful tool to analyze the properties of complex systems and in particular for cities where it describes how various properties change with population. The empirical study of scaling on a wide range of urban datasets displays apparent nonlinear behaviors whose statistical validity and meaning were recently the focus of many debates. We discuss here another aspect, which is the implication of such scaling forms on individual cities and how they can be used for predicting the behavior of a city when its population changes. We illustrate this discussion in the case of delay due to traffic congestion with a dataset of 101 US cities in the years 1982-2014. We show that the scaling form obtained by agglomerating all of the available data for different cities and for different years does display a nonlinear behavior, but which appears to be unrelated to the dynamics of individual cities when their population grows. In other words, the congestion-induced delay in a given city does not depend on its population only, but also on its previous history. This strong path dependency prohibits the existence of a simple scaling form valid for all cities and shows that we cannot always agglomerate the data for many different systems. More generally, these results also challenge the use of transversal data for understanding longitudinal series for cities.

Temporal Dynamics of the Driving Factors of Urban Landscape Change of Addis Ababa During the Past Three Decades.

Mapping and quantifying urban landscape dynamics and the underlying driving factors are crucial for devising appropriate policies, especially in cities of developing countries where the change is rapid. This study analyzed three decades (1984-2014) of land use land cover change of Addis Ababa using Landsat imagery and examined the underlying factors and their temporal dynamics through expert interview using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Classification results revealed that urban area increased by 50%, while agricultural land and forest decreased by 34 and 16%, respectively. The driving factors operated differently during the pre and post-1991 period. The year 1991 was chosen because it marked government change in the country resulting in policy change. Policy had the highest influence during the pre-1991 period. Land use change in this period was associated with the housing sector as policies and institutional setups were permissive to this sector. Population growth and in-migration were also important factors. Economic factors played significant role in the post-1991 period. The fact that urban land has a market value, the growth of private investment, and the speculated property market were among the economic factors. Policy reforms since 2003 were also influential to the change. Others such as accessibility, demography, and neighborhood factors were a response to economic factors. All the above-mentioned factors had vital role in shaping the urban pattern of the city. These findings can help planners and policymakers to better understand the dynamic relationship of urban land use and the driving factors to better manage the city.