Mapping and measuring urban-rural inequalities in accessibility to social infrastructures

Equal access to social infrastructures is a fundamental prerequisite for sustainable development,but has long been a great challenge worldwide.Previous studies have primarily focused on the accessibility to social infras-tructures in urban areas across various scales,with less attention to rural areas,where inequality can be more severe.Particularly,few have investigated the disparities of accessibility to social infrastructures between urban and rural areas.Here,using the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomeration,China,as an example,we investigated the inequality of accessibility in both urban and rural areas,and further compared the urban-rural difference.Accessibility was measured by travel time of residents to infrastructures.We selected four types of social infrastructures including supermarkets,bus stops,primary schools,and health care,which were funda-mentally important to both urban and rural residents.We found large disparities in accessibility between urban and rural areas,ranging from 20 min to 2 h.Rural residents had to spend one to two more hours to bus stops than urban residents,and 20 min more to the other three types of infrastructures.Furthermore,accessibility to multiple infrastructures showed greater urban-rural differences.Rural residents in more than half of the towns had no access to any infrastructure within 15 min,while more than 60%of the urban residents could access to all infrastructures within 15 min.Our results revealed quantitative accessibility gap between urban and rural areas and underscored the necessity of social infrastructures planning to address such disparities.

Spatio-Temporal Trend and Geographic Disparity of Infertility Prevalence in Burkina Faso, 2011 to 2020

Background: Infertility affected 10% to 25% of couples globally, and about half of the infertility cases were reported in sub-Saharan Africa. Infertility poses significant social, cultural, and health challenges, particularly for women who often face stigmatization. However, comprehensive and nationally representative data, including prevalence, temporal trends, and risk factors, are lacking, prompting a study in Burkina Faso to address the need for informed policies and programs in infertility care and management. Objectives: This study aims to better understand the spatiotemporal trend of infertility prevalence in Burkina Faso. Methodology: This is a retrospective population-based study of women infertility from healthcare facilities in Burkina Faso, during January 2011 to December 2020. We calculated the prevalence rates of infertility and two disparity measures, and examined the spatiotemporal trend of infertility. Results: Over the 10-year period (2011 to 2020), 143,421 infertility cases were recorded in Burkina Faso healthcare facilities, resulting of a mean prevalence rate of 3.61‰ among childbearing age women and 17.87‰ among women who consulted healthcare facilities for reproductive issues (except contraception). The findings revealed a significant increase of infertility, with the prevalence rate varied from 2.75‰ in 2011 to 4.62‰ in 2020 among childbearing age women and from 13.38‰ in 2011 to 26.28‰ in 2020 among women who consulted healthcare facilities for reproductive issues, corresponding to an estimate annual percentage change of 8.31% and 9.80% respectively. There were significant temporal and geographic variations in the prevalence of infertility. While relative geographic disparity decreased, absolute geographic disparity showed an increasing trend over time. Conclusion: The study highlights an increasing trend of infertility prevalence and significant geographic variation in Burkina Faso, underscoring the urgent necessity for etiologic research on risk factors, psychosocial implications, and economic consequences to inform effective interventions and mitigate the socioeconomic impact of infertility.

Disparity estimation for multi-scale multi-sensor fusion

The perception module of advanced driver assistance systems plays a vital role.Perception schemes often use a single sensor for data processing and environmental perception or adopt the information processing results of various sensors for the fusion of the detection layer.This paper proposes a multi-scale and multi-sensor data fusion strategy in the front end of perception and accomplishes a multi-sensor function disparity map generation scheme.A binocular stereo vision sensor composed of two cameras and a light deterction and ranging(LiDAR)sensor is used to jointly perceive the environment,and a multi-scale fusion scheme is employed to improve the accuracy of the disparity map.This solution not only has the advantages of dense perception of binocular stereo vision sensors but also considers the perception accuracy of LiDAR sensors.Experiments demonstrate that the multi-scale multi-sensor scheme proposed in this paper significantly improves disparity map estimation.

Spatial Distribution Pattern and Influencing Factors of Bed-and-breakfasts(B&Bs)from the Perspective of Urban-rural Differences:A Case Study of Jiaodong Peninsula,China

There are significant differences between urban and rural bed-and-breakfasts(B&Bs)in terms of customer positioning,economic strength and spatial carrier.Accurately identifying the differences in spatial characteristics and influencing factors of each type,is essential for creating urban and rural B&B agglomeration areas.This study used density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise(DBSCAN)and the multi-scale geographically weighted regression(MGWR)model to explore similarities and differences in the spatial distribution patterns and influencing factors for urban and rural B&Bs on the Jiaodong Peninsula of China from 2010 to 2022.The results showed that:1)both urban and rural B&Bs in Jiaodong Peninsula went through three stages:a slow start from 2010 to 2015,rapid development from 2015 to 2019,and hindered development from 2019 to 2022.However,urban B&Bs demonstrated a higher development speed and agglomeration intensity,leading to an increasingly evident trend of uneven development between the two sectors.2)The clustering scale of both urban and rural B&Bs continued to expand in terms of quantity and volume.Urban B&B clusters characterized by a limited number,but a higher likelihood of transitioning from low-level to high-level clusters.While the number of rural B&B clusters steadily increased over time,their clustering scale was comparatively lower than that of urban B&Bs,and they lacked the presence of high-level clustering.3)In terms of development direction,urban B&B clusters exhibited a relatively stable pattern and evolved into high-level clustering centers within the main urban areas.Conversely,rural B&Bs exhibited a more pronounced spatial diffusion effect,with clusters showing a trend of multi-center development along the coastline.4)Transport emerged as a common influencing factor for both urban and rural B&Bs,with the density of road network having the strongest explanatory power for their spatial distribution.In terms of differences,population agglomeration had a positive impact on the distribution of urban B&Bs and a negative effect on the distribution of rural B&Bs.Rural B&Bs clustering was more influenced by tourism resources compared with urban B&Bs,but increasing tourist stay duration remains an urgent issue to be addressed.The findings of this study could provide a more precise basis for government planning and management of urban and rural B&B agglomeration areas.

Development of Sustainable Urban-Rural Integration:Dongtan Case Study

The environmental impact issues,such as global warming and expansion of the urban zone,seem more serious and have become the biggest defining challenges of the 21st century.Climate change can lead to water shortages,desertification,land degradation,air pollution,rising sea levels,accelerated deforestation,and exacerbated economic pressures.Global urban growth greatly impacts changes in sociability,humanity,and the environment of the Earth.The human presence,especially in cities,seriously affects resource use and waste disposal,and they are consuming natural resources faster than the planet can sustain during urbanization,changing how people live.China,with a population of 1.3 billion,has seen tens of millions of people living in the countryside migrate to cities,especially megacities,since the 1980s.As a result of its decision to industrialize and urbanize to boost the economy,China has become the world’s second-largest consumer of energy.In recent years,China’s government has quickly recognized the lessons of“limits to growth”and has taken action by initiating the construction process in Dongtan,Shanghai,China.They are making efforts to build urban-rural integration communities to promote sustainable development.Based on a literature review focusing on Dongtan,research questions are raised according to the research objective:(1)What are the challenges of sustainable development in urban-rural integration?(2)What practices has Dongtan implemented for sustainable development,or how is sustainable development being applied to Dongtan?(3)What are the social,political,environmental,and economic concerns regarding the sustainable development of Dongtan?The sustainable urban-rural integration concerns the ecological,economic,environmental,and psychological aspects of urban-rural integration design and management.The overall objective is to promote sustainable development in economic,social,ecological,and spatial dimensions.It will be a liveable,complete community that makes economic,environmental,and social sense locally while also contributing to national and global sustainable development.It will serve as a compelling model for how to build sustainable urban-rural integration worldwide.

Gender disparities and woman-specific trends in Barrett’s esophagus in the United States:An 11-year nationwide populationbased study

BACKGROUND Barrett's esophagus(BE)is a known premalignant precursor to esophageal adenocarcinoma(EAC).The prevalence rates continue to rise in the United States,but many patients who are at risk of EAC are not screened.Current practice guidelines include male gender as a predisposing factor for BE and EAC.The population-based clinical evidence regarding female gender remains limited.AIM To study comparative trends of gender disparities in patients with BE in the United States.METHODS A nationwide retrospective study was conducted using the 2009-2019 National Inpatient Sample(NIS)database.Patients with a primary or secondary diagnosis code of BE were identified.The major outcome of interest was determining the gender disparities in patients with BE.Trend analysis for respective outcomes for females was also reported to ascertain any time-based shifts.RESULTS We identified 1204190 patients with BE for the study period.Among the included patients,717439(59.6%)were men and 486751(40.4%)were women.The mean age was higher in women than in men(67.1±0.4 vs 66.6±0.3 years,P<0.001).The rate of BE per 100000 total NIS hospitalizations for males increased from 144.6 in 2009 to 213.4 in 2019(P<0.001).The rate for females increased from 96.8 in 2009 to 148.7 in 2019(P<0.001).There was a higher frequency of obesity among women compared to men(17.4%vs 12.6%,P<0.001).Obesity prevalence among females increased from 12.3%in 2009 to 21.9%in 2019(P<0.001).A lower prevalence of smoking was noted in women than in men(20.8%vs 35.7%,P<0.001).However,trend analysis showed an increasing prevalence of smoking among women,from 12.9%in 2009 to 30.7%in 2019(P<0.001).Additionally,there was a lower prevalence of alcohol abuse,Helicobacter pylori(H.pylori),and diabetes mellitus among females than males(P<0.001).Trend analysis showed an increasing prevalence of alcohol use disorder and a decreasing prevalence of H.pylori and diabetes mellitus among women(P<0.001).CONCLUSION The prevalence of BE among women has steadily increased from 2009 to 2019.The existing knowledge concerning BE development has historically focused on men,but our findings show that the risk in women is not insignificant.

Conservation-minded Urban Green Space System Planning in the Urban-rural Integration

Environmental and ecological problems in the urban-rural integration were analyzed, characteristics of urban green space system introduced, such as excellent landscape eco-structure, distinctive historical and humanistic features, and diversified natural landscape resources, and also challenges pointed out. Evolution, overall spatial structure and conservation concept of conservation-minded urban green space system planning were elaborated, on the basis of which the evaluation system of conservation-minded urban green space system was studied, and it was proposed that mutual relationship between impact factors of compound value and qualitative evaluation factors should be taken into consideration as a whole in evaluating conservation effects of green space system. Quantitative evaluation indexes and qualitative evaluation measures were analyzed, an objective and precise evaluation system for the conservation-minded urban green space system was established by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis to improve ecological environment during the urbanization, and fully show planning concepts of conservation-minded green space system.

DENSE DISPARITY MAP ESTIMATION USING GENETIC ALGORITHMS

An approach to addressing the stereo correspondence problem is presented using genetic algorithms (GAs) to obtain a dense disparity map. Different from previous methods, this approach casts the stereo matching as a multi-extrema optimization problem such that finding the fittest solution from a set of potential disparity maps. Among a wide variety of optimization techniques, GAs are proven to be potentially effective methods for the global optimization problems with large search space. With this idea, each disparity map is viewed as an individual and the disparity values are encoded as chromosomes, so each individual has lots of chromosomes in the approach. Then, several matching constraints are formulated into an objective function, and GAs are used to search the global optimal solution for the problem. Furthermore, the coarse-to-fine strategy has been embedded in the approach so as to reduce the matching ambiguity and the time consumption. Finally, experimental results on synthetic and real images show the performance of the work.

Study on the Modes and Strategies of Integrated Urban-Rural Construction

The connotation of urban-rural integration,its construction courses,construction modes in China and abroad are introduced in this study,the problems emerging from the urban-rural integration practices are analyzed,and strategies for the urban-rural integration in China are proposed.

Review on Practical Models of Urban-Rural Integration in China

Urban-rural integration is important for urbanization and strengthening of urban and rural development in China. Since the third session of the 16th National Committee, the model is still at experimental stage, although with some progress. Hence, it is necessary to make a summary on some typical experience of urban-ru- ral integration, in order to provide references for further exploration.

Pattern Change and Regional Disparity Tendency of Cultivated Land Use in Jiangsu Province

The study has examined the tempo-spatial patterns of cultivated land use change in Jiangsu province. A principal component analysis （PCA） of 18 selected indicators of cultivated land use during the period 1970-2010 identified 2 main pat- terns of change in planting productivity and economic efficiency. A major shift from production-centered pattern to profit-oriented one occurred in 1984, the time of grain yield surplus and the mitigation of population pressure. In response to the impending Opened Market System, there was a notable tendency of higher efficiency and less productivity since 1997, as well as remarkable regional disparity of cultivated land use change spatially. It revealed a relative decrease in grain cropping share, crop- ping scale and cultivation intensity in South Jiangsu, especially in Tai-Lake region, and the reverse in North Jiangsu. Some suggestions for the future were finally dis- cussed from the above findings.

Anomalous and Normal Diffusion of Tracers in Crowded Environments： Effect of Size Disparity between Tracer and Crowders

The dynamics of tracers in crowded matrix is of interest in various areas of physics, such as the diffusion of proteins in living cells. By using two-dimensional （2D） Langevin dynamics simulations, we investigate the diffusive properties of a tracer of a diameter in crowded environments caused by randomly distributed crowders of a diameter. Results show that the emergence of subdiffusion of a tracer at intermediate time scales depends on the size ratio of the tracer to crowders a. If a falls between a lower critical size ratio and a upper one, the anomalous diffusion occurs purely due to the molecular crowding, tqlrther analysis indicates that the physical origin of subdiffusion is the ＂cage effect＂. Moreover, the subdiffusion exponent α decreases with the increasing medium viscosity and the degree of crowding, and gets a minimum αmin=0.75 at δ=1. At long time scales, normal diffusion of a tracer is recovered. For δ≤1, the relative mobility of tracers is independent of the degree of crowding. Meanwhile, it is sensitive to the degree of crowding for δ〉l. Our results are helpful in deepening the understanding of the diffusive properties of biomacromolecules that lie within crowded intracellular environments, such as proteins, DNA and ribosomes.

Regional disparity in the changes of agricultural land use intensity in China during 1980-2002

Based on the cost-benefit data （1980-2002） of farm products and China Agriculture Yearbooks, this paper studies the regional disparity in the changes of the agricultural land use in China during the period 1980-2002 from three aspects such as the degree of intensity, the sown area and the abandoned farmland. The results show that： （1） The degree of intensity of land use in the westena region during 1980-2000 has a strong uptrend, but in the eastern and central regions the degree of intensity descends obviously and has shown a continuous downtrend since 1997. （2） The total sown area shrinks notably in the eastern region, while it enlarges constantly in the western region. （3） The sown area in the eastern, central and western regions has gone through a similar cyclic process： down （1980-1985）-up （1985-1991）-down （1991-1994）-up （1994-1999）-down （1999-2002）. However, there are obvious differences in amplitude variation and tendency among them. The sown area has shrunk in the eastern region and expanded in the central and western regions especially before 1999. （4） The most cases of abandoned farmland are reported in the central region, the second in the eastern region and the least in the western region. The abandonment phenomena chiefly occurred during 1992-1995 in the eastern region, and during 1998-2002 in the central region.

Gastric cancer in Alaska Native people: A cancer health disparity

AIM To evaluate recent trends in gastric cancer incidence, response to treatment, and overall survival among Alaska Native(AN) people. METHODS A retrospective analysis of the Alaska Native Medical Center patient database was performed. Patient history, clinical, pathological, response to treatment and patient outcomes were collected from one-hundred and thirty-two AN gastric cancer patients. The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Result database 18 was used to collect comparison United States non-Hispanic White(NHW) and AN gastric cancer patient data between 2006-2014.RESULTS AN gastric cancer patients have a higher incidence rate, a poorer overall survival, and are diagnosed at a significantly younger age compared to NHW patients. AN patients differ from NHW patients in greater prevalence of non-cardia, diffuse subtype, and signet ring cell carcinomas. AN females were more likely to be diagnosed with later stage cancer, stage IV, compared to AN males. Diminished overall survival was observed among AN patients with increasing stage, O+ blood type, < 15 lymph nodes examined at resection, and no treatment. This study is the first report detailing the clinicopathologic features of gastric cancer in AN people with outcome data.CONCLUSION Our findings confirm the importance of early detection, treatment, and surgical resection for optimizing AN patient outcomes. Further research on early detection markers are warranted.

Characterization of Soil Quality Under Vegetable Production Along an Urban-Rural Gradient

Human activity and urbanization result in urban-rural environmental gradients. Understanding effect of the gradients on soil properties is necessary for management of the soils around urban areas. In this study, soil quality of some vegetable fields was characterized along an urban-rural gradient in Shaoxing County, Zhejiang Province. Fifteen soil physical and chemical properties were evaluated by using principal component analysis.Results showed that there was a great variation in the soil quality along the gradient. From rural to urban zones, soil organic matter, water-stable aggregates, cation exchangeable capacity (CEC), total N and P, and available K increased, whereas soil pH value decreased. In addition, Pb, Cu, Ni, Co, Zn and Cr in the soils tended to be accumulated toward the urban zone. Sequential chemical extraction showed that mobility of all the heavy metals in the soils tended to increase from the rural to the urban zones. The variation of soil properties accounted for by the first principal component was significantly explained by the difference in application rates of municipal wastes.

AN OVERVIEW ON THE URBAN-RURAL INTERACTION IN THE PAST 50 YEARS IN CHINA

China is a country with a long history of agricultural development,the tr adition of bureaucratic administra-tion and economic management system s for the social development.In its t ransition from traditional society to modern soci-ety during the past 50years,the rela tions between rural areas and urban a reas have been kept abnormal if considered from the point of view of the modernized co untries.Today,China still has its more than 70percent of population,bu t limited capital,lower technology and underdeveloped culture,in the rural areas.This unbalance forms not only the o bstacles to China’s modernization of social development,but also the barriers to th e society,economy and environment sustainable devel-opment.This paper focuses on the dis cussion about the coordinate develo pment of the relations between rural and urban in the past 50years,and the authors hold that only has the abnormal relation between the two areas been corrected,could China’s future development of natio nal economy be successful.

Regional Disparity and Convergence of China's Inbound Tourism Economy

Comprehending regional characteristics and influencing factors of China＇s inbound tourism economy is im- portant to make effective policies that will help inbound tourism develop harmoniously and shrink regional disparity. This paper studied the regional disparity and convergence of China＇s inbound tourism economy during 1996-2008 with the methods of a-convergence, club convergence and r-convergence. The results indicate that 1） inbound tourism receipts per capita （ITRPC） of the whole country, the eastern, central and western regions presented the rapid increasing trend; 2） ITRPC of the whole country was characterized by convergence; 3） the eastern region presented club con- vergence, but the central and western regions did not show this trend; 4） the star-hotel levels and investment in fixed assets for the tourism industry per capita had a same trend to growth rates of ITRPC, promoting inbound tourism de- velopment, and there was no difference among the 31 provinces （municipalities） in the mainland of China; 5） but the proportion of employed persons in the tourism industry accounting for total population and the proportion of the terti- ary industry accounting for GDP had a reversal trend to growth rates of ITRPC, shrinking the provincial disparity in inbound tourism economy, and there were differences between the developed provinces and the developing provinces. Based on these analyses, we put forward some suggestions for the developing provinces to speed up inbound tourism economy.

Analyzing Population Density Disparity in China with GIS-automated Regionalization: The Hu Line Revisited

The famous ’Hu Line’, proposed by Hu Huanyong in 1935, divided China into two regions(southeast and northwest) of comparable area size but drastically different in population. However, the classic Hu Line was derived manually in absence of reliable census data and computational technologies of modern days. It has been subject to criticism of lack of scientific rigor and accuracy. This research uses a GIS-automated regionalization method, termed REDCAP(Regionalization with Dynamically Constrained Agglomerative Clustering and Partitioning), to reconstruct the demarcation line based on the 2010 county-level census data in China. The results show that the logarithmic transformation of population density is a better measure of attributive homogeneity in derived regions than density itself, and produces two regions of nearly identical area size and greater contrast in population. Specifically, the revised Hu Line by Hu Huanyong in 1990 had the southeast region with 94.4% of total population and 42.9% of total land, and our delineation line yields a southeast region with 97.4% population and 50.8% land. Therefore, the population density ratio of the two regions is 27.1 by our line, much higher than the ratio of 22.4 by the Hu Line, and thus outperforms the Hu Line in deriving regions of maximum density contrast with comparable area size. Furthermore, more regions are delineated to further advance our understanding of population distribution disparity in China.

PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF GEOGRAPHICAL ENVIRONMENT-INTEGRITY AND DISPARITY,GENERALITY AND INDIVIDUALITY

Integrity and disparity are two of the basic characteristics implied in the scientific connotation of the physical environment as a material system. From a dialectical materialistic point of view the physical character of geographical environment of the earth surface is the unity in diversity. It is on such grounds that the two basic characteristics were put forth by the author in his monograph 'Physical Structure of South American Geographical Environment' as the underlying theme. This holds true for the hierarchy of physical regions. For instance, the physical environment of the earth surface in unity behaves as a huge whole, yet, in differentiation into continents, it displays disparity; each continent differs from others and becomes an integrity in its own right. The same is true of regions of lower levels. In the case of generality and individuality of regional types and their constituent distributive areas in different continents, the same relationship exists among them. Owing to similar origin

Spatial Boundary Definition of Urban-rural Fringe in Beijing City

Through reviewing domestic and overseas literatures about the definition of urban-rural fringe,it can be found that the combination of qualitative and quantitative definition methods has become a dominant one.This paper makes out the principle and basis,uses the data of villages and towns,and establishes an index system from three angles:population,land use and landscape.And then the gravitational model is applied to define the urban-rural fringe with Beijing as an example.