Towards a Generic Framework for Smart Cities

Cities are formidable drivers of economic, social and cultural development but face a rising multitude of challenges: urban sprawl, transportation problems and climate change to mention but a few. Evolving concepts such as smart cities, sustainable communities and low carbon cities have been employed to formulate initiatives to tackle these challenges. Smart cities appear to address efficiency in reducing time, cost, and energy in delivering services-smart transportation, intelligent buildings, and green infrastructure with a view to reaching low carbon city development and eventually sustainability. This article attempts to construct a general framework for smart cities. First, the overall smart city system is depicted. Second, the dynamics of urban sector drivers in smart and low carbon cities are elucidated. Third, the performance of smart cities is measured in relation to low carbon development. By applying the smart city framework to the cities of Vienna, London, New York and Tokyo, the model proved robust and flexible. The investigation is concluded with policies to realign city plan and development policies

Dataset normalization for low carbon cities in a multi-criteria evaluation model

Data in this article are related to a paper entitled “Towards a Generic Multi-criteria Evaluation Model for Low Carbon Cities”. This paper sets out a framework for data normalization in a multi-criteria evaluation model that was tested and validated in 15 cities. Data deals with measurable indicators such as GDP per capita, CO2 emissions per capita and public buses per capita. In addition to published papers, selected World Bank and Siemens reports were useful to operationalize and identify low carbon cities. Keywords: Data normalization, Low carbon city, Scoring, Multi-criteria evaluation, Carbon emission

A Strategy-Based Model for Low Carbon Cities

Low carbon cities are increasingly forming a distinct strand of sustainability literature. Models have been developed to measure the performance of low carbon cities. The purpose of this paper is to formulate a strategy-based model to evaluate current performance and predict future conditions of low carbon cities. It examines the dynamic interrelationships between key performance indicators (KPIs), induces changes to city plan targets, and then instantly predicts the outcome of these changes. Designed to be generic and flexible, the proposed model shows how low carbon targets could be used to guide the transformation of low carbon cities under four strategies: (1) Passive intervention, (2) problem solving, (3) trend modifying, and (4) opportunity seeking. Further, the model has been applied to 17 cities and then tested on five cities: London, New York, Barcelona, Dubai, and Istanbul. The paper concludes with policy implications to realign city plans and support low carbon innovation

Molecular Epidemiology of Respiratory Viruses in Febrile Infants Under 90 Days Attending Pediatric Emergency Department "Molecular Epidemiology of Respiratory Viruses in Febrile Infants Under 90 Days Attending Pediatric Emergency Department

Abstract Fever is one of the most common presenting complaints in paediatric emergency departments (ED). Acute viral respiratory infection is the most common findings. The aim of this study is to define types of respiratory viruses among febrile infants under 90 days attending to emergency department. Methods: In addition to sepsis workup, nasopharyngeal aspirates were collected from 265 febrile infants without an apparent source of infection. A multiplex PCR assay was used to detect 15 human viral species and subtypes. Results: Overall, 154/265 (58.1%) NPA specimens from febrile infants were positive for at least one human virus. Viral types detected were as follows: (60/265,22.6%) rhinovirus, (50/265,18.9%) respiratory syncytial virus, (28/265,10.6%) parainfluenza virus, (11/265,4.2%) influenza virus, (12/265,4.5%) coronavirus, (10/265,3.8%) metapneumo, (8/265,3%) adenovirus, (2/265,0.75%) enterovirus, and (2/265,0.75%) bocavirus. Co-detection of two viruses or more was also observed. Positive bacterial cultures were reported in 16.5%, 3.5%, and 2.8% of urine, blood and CSF samples respectively. Conclusion: Viral infections are frequent in febrile infants without an apparent source. Testing NPA for molecular identification of viruses in addition to the routine sepsis workup may help more accurate management of febrile infants. This could also limit the unnecessary use of antibiotics, and nosocomial spread of viruses, however, this needs to be further investigated

Knowledge about the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Visiting the Outpatient Clinics at Tertiary Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: One of the primary goals of diabetes management is to prevent cardiovascular events. The rate of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is significantly high in the diabetic population. Inadequate knowledge of CVDs risk in diabetes may result in the failure of its early prevention, causing increased morbidity and mortality. The objectives of this study were to assess the CVD risk knowledge and determine the predictors of the knowledge among adults with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the study objectives. Convenience sampling was used to recruit adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) who visited the King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC) outpatient clinics. Data were collected using the Heart Disease Fact Questionnaire. SPSS software (version 24.0) was used for data analysis. Results: A total of 383 patients were recruited. The level of CVD risk knowledge was high among all participants (19.04 ± 3.47). There were significant differences in knowledge scores between different groups, including age (p = 0.01), marital status (p = 0.01), and type of residence (p = 0.04). Participants who were older than 40 years, married, and lived in traditional houses had higher knowledge scores. Conclusion: The study findings indicated a high level of CVD risk knowledge in our study population. The presence of multidisciplinary intensive education programmes targeting type 2 DM patients, such as that conducted at KSUMC, might be responsible for the higher levels of knowledge among our study population. Thus, increasing the efforts towards the education of patients will improve the level of knowledge, including CVD risk knowledge