Urban Form Resilience: A Comparative Analysis of Traditional, Semi-Planned, and Planned Neighborhoods in Shiraz, Iran

As cities are exposed to a portfolio of risks, the concept of resilience has risen to prominence over the past two decades. Consequently, a large volume of research has been published on different aspects of urban resilience. However, urban form resilience is still relatively understudied. As a step toward filling this gap, this study examines resilience of nine selected neighborhoods from Shiraz, an old Iranian city. The selected cases represent three different urban form patterns, namely, traditional, semi-planned, and planned. Different indicators related to the physical configuration of lots, blocks, open and green spaces, and street networks are used to examine resilience of each neighborhood to three major stressors, namely, earthquakes, extreme heat events, and floods. Additionally, a combination of Shannon entropy and the VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizcija I Kaompromisno Resenje in Serbian) method is used to rank the resilience of each neighborhood to each of the three stressors. Results show that, overall, the physical form of the planned neighborhoods is more conducive to urban resilience. In contrast, the urban form of traditional neighborhoods was found to be less resilient. There were, however, some variations depending on the type of stressor considered. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need to consider social and economic factors in future studies of urban form resilience

Investigating the factors affecting the presence of women in behavioral Settings With an emphasis on environmental perception. Case study: Goldasht Ma'ali Abad neighborhood of Shiraz

Behavioral settings, as areas of urban life, can play an important role in the civic life experience of specific user groups, including women. This study seeks to investigate the factors and components affecting the presence of women with an emphasis on "environmental perception" in behavioral settings. The present research is of applied type and its research method is descriptive-analytical. After formulating the theoretical framework with the help of reviewing previous research, the results have been tested using the "quantitative survey" method and with the help of a questionnaire and using the Likert spectrum. A case study is the Goldasht Ma'ali Abad neighborhood, and in order to survey the status of women's presence in the neighborhood's behavioral settings and the factors influencing it, 376 questionnaires were distributed and collected among women present in the neighborhood spaces. Data were analyzed in SPSS software environment using Friedman tests, correlation and regression. The findings show that the desirability of the behavioral base and the optimal perception of the urban environment have a significant effect on the presence of women in the urban space and there is a significant correlation between the desirability of the behavioral settings and the perception of the environment with strong intensity

Evaluation of bone mineral density in urban girls of Kawar-Fars

Background: Normal bone structure is formed in childhood and adolescence. Any problem of bone formation at these stages will lead to significant osteoporosis and its complications in adulthood. Genetic factors are the most important factors in skeletal development. This study aimed to evaluate the bone mineral density and it's interfering factors in Iranian girls of Kawar of Fars. Materials and Methods: In this cross sectional study 235 healthy girls of Kawar of Fars aged 9-18 years old participated and they underwent Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) scanning of lumbar spine, femoral neck and total body. The LMS method was applied to calculate smoothed BMC, BMD and BMAD for age related centiles. Results: Maximum accretion of BMC and BMD was at ages of 11 to 13 and according to 3rd, 25th, 50th, 75th and 97th percentile, BMC and BMD of all sites were increasing with a rather fixed rate up to the age of 15 and then after it increased very slowly. Conclusion: This study is the first study for normative data of BMC and BMD of Iranian girls and showed that BMC accretion of these girls was slower, but BMD accretion was greater than the girls of the other parts of the world. Absolute amount of bone mineral content in Iranian girls was lower than Indian, Lebanese and Asian girls of USA. Also weight and puberty were the two most important factors efficacious on BMD of the Iranian girls (of Kawar). Further research to evaluate the evolution of bone mineral density in Iranian children and adolescents is needed to identify the reasons for the significant differences in bone density values between our Iranian population and their Asian counterparts

Incidence of Isolation of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis from Blood Samples in Tuberculosis Patients in Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran, Iran

It is estimated that one third of the world's population is latently infected with tuberculosis (TB). The HIV epidemic fuels the TB epidemic by increasing the risk of reactivation of latent TB infection and by facilitating a more rapid progression of TB disease. Although the incidence of TB is constant or decreasing in many regions of the world, rates remain high in developing countries as a consequence of the HIV epidemic. This study was conducted as a collaboration of the Infectious Diseases department of Imam Khomeini Hospital with the Microbiology department of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The hospital dataset of 94 patients admitted with TB during 2003-2005 was reviewed. We aimed to study factors correlating with positive blood culture including age, sex, immune deficiency status, HIV serology and SIRS (Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) status. In this study, we found that positive blood cultures are more frequent in patients less than 45 years old. Positive blood cultures were also more frequent in HIV infected patients and there was a significant correlation between blood culture and SIRS status. Therefore, we recommend that we obtain blood cultures from these high-risk groups in order to increase early detection of TB