Gentrification and access to housing in Mexico City during 2000 to 2022.

We conducted a spatial and temporal analysis of housing patterns in Mexico City by utilizing an extensive database of 16,000 prices for flats and houses, covering the period from 2000 to 2022. Our findings reveal a striking trend: The average housing prices have quadrupled over a 20-y period, without considering inflation. In contrast, the per capita labor income of Mexican citizens has declined relative to inflation. As a result, the average family encountered four times greater challenges in accessing housing in 2015 as compared to 2005. Furthermore, our research demonstrates that areas that have undergone significant gentrification or super-gentrification contribute to a widespread increase in land value on neighboring zones, leading to the emergence of clusters of highly expensive neighborhoods.

US foreign aid restrictions and maternal and children's health: Evidence from the "Mexico City Policy".

This paper analyzes the link between foreign aid for family planning services and a broad set of health outcomes. More specifically, it documents the harmful effects of the so-called "Mexico City Policy" (MCP), which restricts US funding for nongovernmental organizations that provide abortion-related services abroad. First enacted in 1985, the MCP is implemented along partisan lines; it is enforced only when a Republican administration is in office and quickly rescinded when a Democrat wins the presidency. Although previous research has shown that MCP causes significant disruption to family planning programs worldwide, its consequences for health outcomes, such as mortality and HIV rates, remain underexplored. The independence of the MCP's implementation from the situation in recipient countries allows us to systematically study its impact. Using country-level data from 134 countries between 1990 and 2015, we first show that the MCP is associated with higher maternal and child mortality and HIV incidence rates. These effects are magnified by dependence on US aid while mitigated by funds from non-US donors. Next, we complement these results using individual-level data from 30 low- and middle-income countries and show that, under the MCP, women have less access to modern contraception and are less exposed to information on family planning and AIDS via in-person channels. Moreover, pregnant women are more likely to report that their pregnancy is not desired. Our findings highlight the importance of mitigating the harmful effects of MCP by redesigning or counteracting this policy.

Satellite mapping of urban built-up heights reveals extreme infrastructure gaps and inequalities in the Global South.

Information on urban built-up infrastructure is essential to understand the role of cities in shaping environmental, economic, and social outcomes. The lack of data on built-up heights over large areas has limited our ability to characterize urban infrastructure and its spatial variations across the world. Here, we developed a global atlas of urban built-up heights circa 2015 at 500-m resolution from the Sentinel-1 Ground Range Detected satellite data. Results show extreme gaps in per capita urban built-up infrastructure in the Global South compared with the global average, and even larger gaps compared with the average levels in the Global North. Per capita urban built-up infrastructures in some countries in the Global North are more than 30 times higher than those in the Global South. The results also show that the built-up infrastructure in 45 countries in the Global North combined, with ∼16% of the global population, is roughly equivalent to that of 114 countries in the Global South, with ∼74% of the global population. The inequality in urban built-up infrastructure, as measured by an inequality index, is large in most countries, but the largest in the Global South compared with the Global North. Our analysis reveals the scale of infrastructure demand in the Global South that is required in order to meet sustainable development goals.

Spatial Analysis of Drug-Susceptible and Multidrug-Resistant Cases of Tuberculosis, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2020-2023.

We characterized the spatial distribution of drug-susceptible (DS) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) cases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a major metropolis in southeastern Asia, and explored demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with local TB burden. Hot spots of DS and MDR TB incidence were observed in the central parts of Ho Chi Minh City, and substantial heterogeneity was observed across wards. Positive spatial autocorrelation was observed for both DS TB and MDR TB. Ward-level TB incidence was associated with HIV prevalence and the male proportion of the population. No ward-level demographic and socioeconomic indicators were associated with MDR TB case count relative to total TB case count. Our findings might inform spatially targeted TB control strategies and provide insights for generating hypotheses about the nature of the relationship between DS and MDR TB in Ho Chi Minh City and the wider southeastern region of Asia.

Disentangling the drivers of urban bird diversity in the non-breeding season: A general synthesis.

Current knowledge about the impacts of urbanisation on bird assemblages is based on evidence from studies partly or wholly undertaken in the breeding season. In comparison, the non-breeding season remains little studied, despite the fact that winter conditions at higher latitudes are changing more rapidly than other seasons. During the non-breeding season, cities may attract or retain bird species because they offer milder conditions or better feeding opportunities than surrounding habitats. However, the range of climatic, ecological and anthropogenic mechanisms shaping different facets of urban bird diversity in the non-breeding season are poorly understood. We explored these mechanisms using structural equation modelling to assess how urbanisation affects the taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity of avian assemblages sampled worldwide in the non-breeding season. We found that minimum temperature, elevation, urban area and city age played a critical role in determining taxonomic diversity while a range of factors-including productivity, precipitation, elevation, distance to coasts and rivers, socio-economic (as a proxy of human facilitation) and road density-each contributed to patterns of phylogenetic and functional diversity. The structure and function of urban bird assemblages appear to be predominantly shaped by temperature, productivity and city age, with effects of these factors differing across seasons. Our results underline the importance of considering multiple hypotheses, including seasonal effects, when evaluating the impacts of urbanisation on biodiversity.

Predictive value of quality of life as measured by KCCQ in heart failure patients: A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Studies on the predictive ability of disease-specific health quality of life (QoL) in patients with heart failure (HF) have produced conflicting results. To address these gaps in knowledge, we conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the predictive value of QoL measured by the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) in patients with HF. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched PubMed, and Embase databases to identify studies investigating the predictive utility of baseline QoL measured by the KCCQ in HF patients. The outcome measures were all-cause mortality and HF hospitalisation. The predictive value of QoL was expressed by pooling the adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the bottom versus the top category of KCCQ score or for per 10-point KCCQ score decrease. RESULTS: Twelve studies reporting on 11 articles with a total of 34,927 HF patients were identified. Comparison of the bottom with the top KCCQ score, the pooled adjusted HR was 2.34 (95% CI 2.10-2.60) and 2.53 (95% CI 2.23-2.88) for all-cause mortality and HF hospitalisation, respectively. Additionally, a 10-point decrease in KCCQ score was associated with a 12% (95% CI 7%-16%) increased risk of all-cause mortality and a 14% (95% CI 13%-15%) increased risk of HF hospitalisation. CONCLUSIONS: Poor health-related QoL as determined by the lower KCCQ score, was associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality and HF hospitalisation in patients with HF. Measuring disease-specific health-related QoL using the KCCQ score may provide valuable predictive information for HF patients.

Methodologies for smellwalks and scentwalks-a critical review.

Olfactory elements of the human environment are essential with respect to culture, society, and heritage, and robust methodological approaches are necessary to identify and describe aspects of this sensory component. To accurately investigate and advance knowledge of olfactory composition of spaces and places, that is, a smellscape-an olfactory contextualized landscape-innovative methodologies such as smellwalks can be employed as part of the research approach. Despite the increasing use of smellwalks, there is no current standard methodology for this investigative method in practice. We identify major themes including variance of group size, participant versus researcher-led walking techniques, reinvention of smellwalking process, and methodological discussion and theory. Limitations and future research potential are suggested, including that of group dynamics, attribute focus, the extension of smellwalk attribute data beyond traditional hedonic attributes, and avenues for development of future processes and protocols for multisensory sensewalks.

Decreasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Municipal Solid Waste Sector in Chinese Cites.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management systems play a crucial role in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in China. Although the government has implemented many policies to improve the MSW management system, the impact of these improvements on city-level GHG emission reduction remains largely unexplored. This study conducted a comprehensive analysis of both direct and downstream GHG emissions from the MSW sector, encompassing sanitary landfill, dump, incineration, and biological treatment, across 352 Chinese cities from 2001 to 2021 by adopting inventory methods recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The results reveal that (1) GHG emissions from the MSW sector in China peaked at 70.6 Tg of CO2 equiv in 2018, followed by a significant decline to 47.6 Tg of CO2 equiv in 2021, (2) cities with the highest GHG emission reduction benefits in the MSW sector were historical emission hotspots over the past 2 decades, and (3) with the potential achievement of zero-landfilling policy by 2030, an additional reduction of 203.7 Tg of CO2 equiv is projected, with the emission reduction focus toward cities in South China (21.9%), Northeast China (17.8%), and Southwest China (17.3%). This study highlights that, even without explicit emission reduction targets for the MSW sector, the improvements of this sector have significantly reduced GHG emissions in China.

Promoting Sustainable Development Goals by Optimizing City-Level Solar Photovoltaic Deployment in China.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, which enable carbon neutrality, are expected to surge in the coming decades. This growth will support sustainable development goals (SDGs) via reductions in power-generation-related environmental emissions and water consumption while generating new jobs. However, where and to what extent PVs should be utilized to support SDGs must be thoroughly addressed. Here, we use multiple PV deployment scenarios to compare the benefits of PVs and related SDGs progress in 366 prefectural-level cities in China. We developed an assessment framework that integrates a PV allocation model, an electricity system optimization model, and a benefit assessment approach. We identify vast differences in PV distribution and electricity transmission and elucidate trade-offs and synergies among the SDGs under various PV implementation scenarios. The water conservation-oriented scenario yields substantial carbon reduction, air pollutant mitigation, and water saving cobenefits, leading to the greatest SDGs improvements. Prioritizing employment creation enhances job-relevant SDGs but inhibits environmental resource benefits. SDGs in less developed cities present greater progress across all scenarios. This study highlights the need to consider spatial heterogeneity and the potential trade-offs between different SDGs and regions when designing energy transition strategies.

Characteristics of reproductive tract infections caused by common pathogens among the outpatients of reproductive medicine center in Putian: retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: This study aims to explore the infection and age distribution of Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) and Herpes simplex virus type II (HSV II) among the outpatients of Reproductive Medicine Center in Putian, Fujian Province to provide a clinical basis for the early diagnosis and treatment of various reproductive tract diseases and infertility in this region. METHODS: A total of 1736 samples of secretions and exfoliated cervical cells were collected from the outpatients of the Reproductive Medicine Center of the Affiliated Hospital of Putian University from December 2021 to April 2023. The infections of UU, CT, NG and HSVII were detected by real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the infection statuses of the patients with different genders, ages and diagnoses were analysed. RESULTS: Among the 1736 patients, 611 were male and 1125 were female. The male patients had higher UU infection rate but lower HSV II infection rate than the female patients. No significant difference in CT and NG infection rates was observed between the genders. The CT infection rate gradually decreased with the increase in the age. The difference in UU, NG and HSV II infection rates among the different age groups was not statistically significant. For UU infection, the male infertile patients had the highest rate of 37.72% (172/456). Meanwhile, the differences in CT, NG and HSV II infection rates among the different diagnosis groups were not statistically significant. Among the male and female infertile patients, the CT infection rate was the highest in the 21-25 years of age group at 11.11% (2/18) and 9.47% (9/95), respectively. No statistically significant difference in UU, CT, NG and HSV II infection rates was observed among the different age groups of patients diagnosed in relation to the family planning guidance and between the male and female patients with other diagnoses results. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that UU was the most frequently identified pathogen in infertile men in Putian, Fujian Province. The CT infection rate was the highest in people under 20 years old, and the infection showed a tendency toward young individuals. Therefore, the publicity of sexual health knowledge must be strengthened, and the prevention and treatment of venereal diseases among young and middle-aged people must be improved. Moreover, the pathogen infection is related to infertility to a certain extent, which is conducive to clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Concentrations of Volatile Methyl Siloxanes in New York City Reflect Emissions from Personal Care and Industrial Use.

Volatile methyl siloxanes (VMS) are a group of organosilicon compounds of interest because of their potential health effects, their ability to form secondary organic aerosols, and their use as tracer compounds. VMS are emitted in the gas-phase from using consumer and personal care products, including deodorants, lotions, and hair conditioners. Because of this emission route, airborne concentrations are expected to increase with population density, although there are few studies in large urban centers. Here, we report summertime concentrations and daily variations of VMS congeners measured in New York City. Median concentrations of the 6 studied congeners, D3 (20 ng m-3), D4 (57 ng m-3), D5 (230 ng m-3), D6 (11 ng m-3), L5 (2.5 ng m-3), and L7 (1.3 ng m-3) are among the highest reported outdoor concentrations in the literature to date. Average congener ratios of D5:D4 and D5:D6 were consistent with previously reported emissions ratios, suggesting that concentrations were dominated by local emissions. Measured concentrations agree with previously published results from a Community Multiscale Air Quality model and support commonly accepted emissions rates for D4, D5, and D6 of 32.8, 135, and 6.1 mg per capita per day. Concentrations of D4, D5, D6, L5, and L7 and total VMS were significantly lower during the day than during the night, consistent with daytime oxidation reactivity. Concentrations of D3 did not show the same diurnal trend but exhibited a strong directional dependence, suggesting that it may be emitted by industrial point sources in the area rather than personal care product use. Concentrations of all congeners had large temporal variations but showed relatively weak relationships with wind speed, temperature, and mixing height.

Underestimation of Thermogenic Methane Emissions in New York City.

Recent studies have shown that methane emissions are underestimated by inventories in many US urban areas. This has important implications for climate change mitigation policy at the city, state, and national levels. Uncertainty in both the spatial distribution and sectoral allocation of urban emissions can limit the ability of policy makers to develop appropriately focused emission reduction strategies. Top-down emission estimates based on atmospheric greenhouse gas measurements can help to improve inventories and inform policy decisions. This study presents a new high-resolution (0.02 × 0.02°) methane emission inventory for New York City and its surrounding area, constructed using the latest activity data, emission factors, and spatial proxies. The new high-resolution inventory estimates of methane emissions for the New York-Newark urban area are 1.3 times larger than those for the gridded Environmental Protection Agency inventory. We used aircraft mole fraction measurements from nine research flights to optimize the high-resolution inventory emissions within a Bayesian inversion. These sectorally optimized emissions show that the high-resolution inventory still significantly underestimates methane emissions within the New York-Newark urban area, primarily because it underestimates emissions from thermogenic sources (by a factor of 2.3). This suggests that there remains a gap in our process-based understanding of urban methane emissions.

Advancing Health Equity through 15-min Cities and Chrono-urbanism.

Implementing the 15-min city and chrono-urbanism aims to improve sustainability and quality of life by ensuring residents' proximity to essential services. The 15-min city model is gaining global traction, with localized adaptations to suit communities' needs. Beyond environmental motivations, 15-min cities can benefit public health through enhanced walkability, social cohesion, and universal accessibility. However, research examining the intersection of health and equity among chrono-urbanism and the 15-min city remains limited. This study aims to develop a framework to integrate health and equity into chrono-urbanism and 15-min city plans. We describe the potential benefits and risks of the 15-min approach for urban planning, daily behaviors, and health outcomes. Potential benefits of 15-min cities for health equity include proximity to destinations, increased physical activity, strengthened social capital, reduced emissions, and traffic calming. Risks that must be mitigated include gentrification, variable proximity definitions, infrastructure upgrades, and inadequate cultural sensitivity. Recommendations to integrate 15-min cities into planning activities include conducting comprehensive baseline assessments, aligning goals with sustainability, economic development, flexible zoning, inclusive public spaces, and diverse community engagement tactics. We recommend interventions targeting marginalized communities and developing standardized measurement tools for comparison, monitoring, and evaluation. A nuanced, equitable approach to implementing 15-min cities can help urban plans support health equity across diverse populations.

Impact of Neighborhood Social Cohesion and Rodent Sightings on Mental Health among Residents of New York City During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety are prevalent globally, and rates are especially high in New York City (NYC) since the COVID-19 pandemic. Neighborhood social and physical environments have been found to influence mental health. We investigated the impact of neighborhood social cohesion and neighborhood rodent sightings (as an indicator of neighborhood cleanliness) on nonspecific serious psychological distress (NSPD) status using 2020 NYC Community Health Survey data from 8781 NYC residents. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationships among social cohesion, rodent sightings, and NSPD adjusted for confounders and complex sampling and weighted to the NYC population. Effect measure modification of rodent sightings on the effect of social cohesion on NSPD was evaluated on the multiplicative scale by adding the interaction term to the multivariable model and, if significant, stratifying on the effect modifier, and on the additive scale using the relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI). Social cohesion was found to decrease the odds of NSPD, and rodent sightings were found to increase the odds of NSPD. We found significant evidence of effect measure modification on the multiplicative scale. In the stratified models, there was a protective effect of social cohesion against NSPD among those not reporting rodent sightings, but no effect among those reporting rodent sightings. Our findings suggest that both neighborhood social cohesion and rodent sightings impact the mental health of New Yorkers and that rodent infestations may diminish the benefit of neighborhood social cohesion.

Assessing New York City's COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Strategy: A Case for Risk-Informed Distribution.

This study reviews the impact of eligibility policies in the early rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine on coverage and probable outcomes, with a focus on New York City. We conducted a retrospective ecological study assessing age 65+, area-level income, vaccination coverage, and COVID-19 mortality rates, using linked Census Bureau data and New York City Health administrative data aggregated at the level of modified zip code tabulation areas (MODZCTA). The population for this study was all individuals in 177 MODZCTA in New York City. Population data were obtained from Census Bureau and New York City Health administrative data. The total mortality rate was examined through an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model, using area-level wealth, the proportion of the population aged 65 and above, and the vaccination rate among this age group as predictors. Low-income areas with high proportions of older people demonstrated lower coverage rates (mean vaccination rate 52.8%; maximum coverage 67.9%) than wealthier areas (mean vaccination rate 74.6%; maximum coverage 99% in the wealthiest quintile) in the first 3 months of vaccine rollout and higher mortality over the year. Despite vaccine shortages, many younger people accessed vaccines ahead of schedule, particularly in high-income areas (mean coverage rate 60% among those 45-64 years in the wealthiest quintile). A vaccine program that prioritized those at greatest risk of COVID-19-associated morbidity and mortality would have prevented more deaths than the strategy that was implemented. When rolling out a new vaccine, policymakers must account for local contexts and conditions of high-risk population groups. If New York had focused limited vaccine supply on low-income areas with high proportions of residents 65 or older, overall mortality might have been lower.

Analysis of 26 STR loci (PowerPlex® Fusion 6C System) in a mestizo population from Mexico city.

BACKGROUND: Short tandem repeats (STRs) are the most widely used genetic markers in forensic genetics. Therefore, it is essential to document genetic population data of new kits designed for human identification purposes to enable laboratories to use these genetic systems to interpret and solve forensic casework. However, in Mexico, there are no studies with the PowerPlex Fusion 6C System, which includes 26 STRs (23 autosomal STRs and 3 Y-STRs). METHODS AND RESULTS: 600 DNA samples from Mexico City were subjected to genotyping using the PowerPlex Fusion 6C System. For autosomal STRs, 312 different alleles were observed. Combined PE and PD were 99.999999809866% and 99.99999999999999999999999818795%, respectively. Genetic distances and AMOVA test showed low but significant differentiation between Mexican populations. CONCLUSIONS: The results reported in this work demonstrate the efficacy of this system for human identification purposes in the population studied and justify its possible application in other Mexican Mestizo populations.

Scaling laws: legal and social complexity in US localities.

Law sets out the rules for society and the economy, particularly important for interactions between strangers. Legal code is a form of non-rival infrastructure, a public good important for investment and innovation. This paper investigates whether legal code complexity scales with population size in US localities. We analyse a corpus of municipal codes from 3259 cities and measure legal complexity using various metrics, including number of words, bytes, and compressed bytes. We find that legal complexity scales geometrically with jurisdiction population, with a scaling parameter of approximately 0.2 and an [Formula: see text] of approximately 0.2. The estimated scaling parameter is similar to gross domestic product per capita, consistent with an interpretation of legal codes as regulating social interactions per capita in cities. This article is part of the theme issue 'A complexity science approach to law and governance'.

Information consumption city and carbon emission efficiency: Evidence from China's quasi-natural experiment.

The transformation of public consumption patterns has become a burning question, but there are few studies on public consumption patterns. Therefore, evaluating the impact of Information consumption city (ICC) policy on carbon emission efficiency holds significant implications. This study settles on 104 pilot cities in China from 2006 to 2020 to assess the impact and the response mechanism of ICC policy on carbon emission efficiency through the time-vary Difference-in-Difference (DID) model. The result shows that: (1) ICC policy significantly promotes the local carbon emission efficiency, which remains robust after a battery of sensitivity tests. (2) It improves carbon emission efficiency through production factors agglomeration effect, industrial structural changing effect, innovation promotion effect, and environmental attention effect; (3) The direct impact of ICC policy on carbon emission efficiency varies across regions with different information consumption and carbon emission base. (4) ICC can improve carbon emission efficiency through the joint implementation of smart city (SC), new urbanization (NU), ecological civilization city construction (EC), Belt and Road Initiative (BR), Broadband China (BC), low-carbon city pilot policy (LCC), and air quality standards (AQS) policy.

An updated status of currently used pesticides in India: Human dietary exposure from an Indian food basket.

Currently used pesticides (CUPs) were introduced to have lower persistence and bioaccumulation, and lesser bioavailability towards non-target species. Nevertheless, CUPs still represent a concern for both human health and the environment. India is an important agricultural country experiencing a conversion from the use of obsolete organochlorine pesticides to a newer generation of phytosanitary products. As for other developing countries, very little is known about the transfer of CUPs to the human diet in India, where systematic monitoring is not in place. In this study, we analyzed ninety four CUPs and detected thirty CUPs in several food products belonging to five types: cereals and pulses, vegetables, fruits, animal-based foods, and water. Samples were taken from markets in Delhi (aggregating food produced all over India) and in the periurban area of Dehradun (northern India) (representing food produced locally and through more traditional practices). Overall, chlorpyrifos and chlorpropham were the most detected CUPs with a detection frequency of 33% and 25%, respectively. Except for vegetables and fruits, the levels of CUPs in all other food types were significantly higher in samples from Delhi (p < 0.05). Exposure dosage of CUPs through different food matrices was calculated, and chlorpropham detected in potatoes had the maximum exposure dosage to humans (2.46 × 10-6 mg/kg/day). Risk analysis based on the hazard quotient technique indicated that chlorpyrifos in rice (2.76 × 10-2) can be a concern.

How does new energy demonstration city pilot policy affect carbon dioxide emissions? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China.

Energy transition policies are of great significance in adjusting the structure of energy supply and demand and coping with climate change. The new energy demonstration city pilot (NEDCP) policy, as an important pilot project in China's energy transition process, lacks a scientific assessment of the carbon reduction effect of the NEDCP policy and an in-depth explanation of the mechanism of the NEDCP. Based on panel data of 209 Chinese cities at the prefectural and higher levels from 2007 to 2019, this study takes the NEDCP policy as a quasi-natural experiment, using a difference-in-differences model combined with firm-level data to identify the impact of the NEDCP policy on urban carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This study analyzes the impact of heterogeneity of urban characteristics on the policy effect from multiple perspectives, and further investigates its mechanism. The conclusions are shown in the following aspects. (1) The implementation of the NEDCP policy decreases urban CO2 emissions significantly. Meanwhile, a series of robustness tests, including the instrumental variables method, propensity score matching difference-in-differences method, placebo test, exclusion of policy interference test, and machine learning method, support this conclusion. (2) The NEDCP policy achieves carbon reduction effects mainly through scale and structure effects. (3) The results of the heterogeneity test show that the NEDCP policy is more effective in cities with higher administrative levels, energy-demanding cities, cities in the southeast of Hu-line, and cities with a higher degree of nationalization. Therefore, the Chinese government should summarize the implementation experience of the NEDCP policy and expand its scope of application. The evaluation of the NEDCP policy in China has important reference value for the energy transition of other developing countries.