Quantifying urban attractiveness from the distribution and density of digital footprints

In the past, sensors networks in cities have been limited to fixed sensors, embedded in particular locations, under centralised control. Today, new applications can leverage wireless devices and use them as sensors to create aggregated information. In this paper, we show that the emerging patterns unveiled through the analysis of large sets of aggregated digital footprints can provide novel insights into how people experience the city and into some of the drivers behind these emerging patterns. We particularly explore the capacity to quantify the evolution of the attractiveness of urban space with a case study of in the area of the New York City Waterfalls, a public art project of four man-made waterfalls rising from the New York Harbor. Methods to study the impact of an event of this nature are traditionally based on the collection of static information such as surveys and ticket-based people counts, which allow to generate estimates about visitors’ presence in specific areas over time. In contrast, our contribution makes use of the dynamic data that visitors generate, such as the density and distribution of aggregate phone calls and photos taken in different areas of interest and over time. Our analysis provides novel ways to quantify the impact of a public event on the distribution of visitors and on the evolution of the attractiveness of the points of interest in proximity. This information has potential uses for local authorities, researchers, as well as service providers such as mobile network operators.

Feasibility of replacing multiple ADSL connections with Multi-Dwelling Access

This final project was made for the Broadband/Implementation department of TeliaSonera Finland. The question to be examined is if the operator should replace multiple ADSL connections implemented over a leased line with Multi-Dwelling access based on an Ethernet/Optical Fibre access network. The project starts with describing the technology related to these access network solu-tions and presents the technology that is used in TeliaSonera Finland's access network. It continues from the technology to describe the problem with some of the ADSL implemen-tations of TeliaSonera. The problem is the implementations done over a leased line that can cost TeliaSonera over years as much as a possible investment to extend network when there is several lines leased to the same building. The project proposes a Multi-Dwelling access as a solution to this problem and defines the circumstances when to use it. After a satisfactory solution has found the project takes a view how implementation of the solution might alter the network and a new problem is found. When used commonly to replace need of ADSL implementation Multi-Dwelling access would significantly increase optical cable congestion near operators POP. As a final deed this project also proposes a technical change to existing way to implement multi-dwelling access with EPON technology.

Towards Integrated Governance of Landscape Development : The Swiss Model of Regional Nature Parks

Coherent regulation of landscape as a resource is a major challenge. How can the development interests of some actors (eg cable car operators and property developers) be reconciled with those of others (agriculture, forestry) and with conservation of biodiversity and scenic value? To help understand how the newly introduced Regional Nature Parks (RNPs) can improve the coherence of the regulation regime in Switzerland, we highlight current direct mechanisms for regulation of landscape as a resource (bans, inventories, subsidies) as well as indirect mechanisms (taking place through the regulation of the physical basis of landscapes, eg forest, land, and water planning policies). We show that RNPs are fundamentally innovative because they make it possible to manage and coordinate indirect strategies for appropriate regulation of resources at a landscape scale. In other words, RNPs enable organization of governance of landscape as a resource in a perimeter that is not necessarily restricted to administrative boundaries.

Evaluation of Virtual Reality Snowplow Simulator Training: A Literature Review, September 2006

Each winter, the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) maintenance operators are primarily responsible for plowing snow off federal and state roads. Drivers typically work long shifts under treacherous conditions. In addition to properly navigating the vehicle, drivers are required to operate several plowing mechanisms simultaneously, such as plow controls and salt sprayers. However, operators have few opportunities during the year to practice and refine their skills. An ideal training program would provide operators with the opportunity to practice these skills under realistic yet safe conditions, as well as provide basic training to novice or less-experienced operators. Recent technological advancements have made driving simulators a desirable training and research tool. This literature review discusses much of the recent research establishing simulator fidelity and espousing its applicability. Additionally, this report provides a summary of behavioral and eye tracking research involving driving simulators. Other research topics include comparisons between novice and expert drivers’ behavioral patterns, methods for avoiding cybersickness in virtual environments, and a synopsis of current personality measures with respect to job performance and driving performance. This literature review coincides with a study designed to examine the effectiveness of virtual reality snowplow simulator training for current maintenance operators, using the TranSim VS III truck and snowplow simulator recently purchased by the Iowa DOT.

Allelic proportions of 16 STR loci-including the new European Standard Set (ESS) loci-in a Swiss population sample.

Allele frequencies and forensically relevant population statistics of 16 STR loci, including the new European Standard Set (ESS) loci, were estimated from 668 unrelated individuals of Caucasian appearance living in different parts of Switzerland. The samples were amplified with a combination of the following three kits: AmpFlSTR® NGM SElect?, PowerPlex® ESI17 and PowerPlex® ESX 17. All loci were highly polymorphic and no significant departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and linkage equilibrium was detected after correction for sampling.

Difficulties of familes in caring for children and adolescents with mental disorders: an integrative review

Objective To identify the difficulties of families with children and/or adolescents with mental disorder. Method This is an integrative review. In December 2013, an electronic search was performed on Latin American Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences databases (LILACS) and on Electronic Medicus Index of the National Library of Medicine (MEDLINE) indexed in the Health Virtual Library (BVS) using a combination of descriptors and boolean operators as follows: mental disorders and child or adolescent and caregivers and/not health staff. Results 557 studies were identified, of which 15 were selected for this study. The findings indicated difficulties related to the care for or to interaction with children/adolescents with mental disorder. Conclusion The studies revealed difficulties related to everyday practices of care and feelings expressed during care practices, as well as in relationships with children or adolescents with mental disorder.



Evaluation of Virtual Reality Snowplow Simulator Training, January 2007

Each winter, Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) maintenance operators are responsible for plowing snow off federal and state roads in Iowa. Drivers typically work long shifts under treacherous conditions. In addition to properly navigating the vehicle, drivers are required to operate several plowing mechanisms simultaneously, such as plow controls and salt spreaders. There is little opportunity for practicing these skills in real-world situations. A virtual reality training program would provide operators with the opportunity to practice these skills under realistic yet safe conditions, as well as provide basic training to novice or less-experienced operators. In order to provide such training to snowplow operators in Iowa, the Iowa DOT purchased a snowplow simulator. The Iowa DOT commissioned a study through Iowa State University designed to (1) assess the use of this simulator as a training tool and (2) examine personality and other characteristics associated with being an experienced snowplow operator. The results of this study suggest that Iowa DOT operators of all ages and levels of experience enjoyed and seemed to benefit from virtual reality snowplow simulator training. Simulator sickness ratings were relatively low, implying that the simulator is appropriate for training a wide range of Iowa DOT operators. Many reported that simulator training was the most useful aspect of training for them.

Determinants of organizational form: Transaction costs and institutions in the European trucking industry

We explain why European trucking carriers are much smaller and rely more heavily on owner-operators(as opposed to employee drivers) than their US counterparts. Our analysis begins by ruling outdifferences in technology as the source of those disparities and confirms that standard hypothesesin organizational economics, which have been shown to explain the choice of organizational form inUS industry, also apply in Europe. We then argue that the preference for subcontracting oververtical integration in Europe is the result of European institutions particularly, labor regulationand tax laws that increase the costs of vertical integration.

Quasi-integration in less-than-truckload trucking

This work studies the organization of less-than-truckload trucking from a contractual point of view. We show that the huge number of owner-operators working in the industry hides a much less fragmented reality. Most of those owner-operators are quasi-integrated in higher organizational structures. This hybrid form is generally more efficient than vertical integration because, in the Spanish institutional environment, it lessens serious moral hazard problems, related mainly to the use of the vehicles, and makes it possible to reach economies of scale and density. Empirical evidence suggests that what leads organizations to vertically integrate is not the presence of such economies but hold-up problems, related to the existence of specific assets. Finally, an international comparison hints that institutional constraints are able to explain differences in the evolution of vertical integration across countries.

Splitting rivers at their seams: bifurcations and avulsion

River bifurcations are critical but poorly understood elements of many geomorphological systems. They are integral elements of alluvial fans, braided rivers, fluvial lowland plains, and deltas and control the partitioning of water and sediment through these systems. Bifurcations are commonly unstable but their lifespan varies greatly. In braided rivers bars and channels migrate, split and merge at annual or shorter timescales, thereby creating and abandoning bifurcations. This behaviour has been studied mainly by geomorphologists and fluid dynamicists. Bifurcations also exist during avulsion, the process of a river changing course on a floodplain or in a delta, which may take 102103 years and has been studied mainly by sedimentologists. This review synthesizes our current understanding of bifurcations and brings together insights from different research communities and different environmental settings. We consider the causes and initiation of bifurcations and avulsion, the physical mechanisms controlling bifurcation and avulsion evolution, mathematical and numerical modelling of these processes, and the possibility of stable bifurcations. We end the review with some open questions. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Genome-wide association study of major recurrent depression in the U.K. population.

OBJECTIVE: Studies of major depression in twins and families have shown moderate to high heritability, but extensive molecular studies have failed to identify susceptibility genes convincingly. To detect genetic variants contributing to major depression, the authors performed a genome-wide association study using 1,636 cases of depression ascertained in the U.K. and 1,594 comparison subjects screened negative for psychiatric disorders. METHOD: Cases were collected from 1) a case-control study of recurrent depression (the Depression Case Control [DeCC] study; N=1346), 2) an affected sibling pair linkage study of recurrent depression (probands from the Depression Network [DeNT] study; N=332), and 3) a pharmacogenetic study (the Genome-Based Therapeutic Drugs for Depression [GENDEP] study; N=88). Depression cases and comparison subjects were genotyped at Centre National de Génotypage on the Illumina Human610-Quad BeadChip. After applying stringent quality control criteria for missing genotypes, departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, and low minor allele frequency, the authors tested for association to depression using logistic regression, correcting for population ancestry. RESULTS: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in BICC1 achieved suggestive evidence for association, which strengthened after imputation of ungenotyped markers, and in analysis of female depression cases. A meta-analysis of U.K. data with previously published results from studies in Munich and Lausanne showed some evidence for association near neuroligin 1 (NLGN1) on chromosome 3, but did not support findings at BICC1. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies several signals for association worthy of further investigation but, as in previous genome-wide studies, suggests that individual gene contributions to depression are likely to have only minor effects, and very large pooled analyses will be required to identify them.

Driver scheduling problem modelling

The Drivers Scheduling Problem (DSP) consists of selecting a set of duties for vehicle drivers, for example buses, trains, plane or boat drivers or pilots, for the transportation of passengers or goods. This is a complex problem because it involves several constraints related to labour and company rules and can also present different evaluation criteria and objectives. Being able to develop an adequate model for this problem that can represent the real problem as close as possible is an important research area.The main objective of this research work is to present new mathematical models to the DSP problem that represent all the complexity of the drivers scheduling problem, and also demonstrate that the solutions of these models can be easily implemented in real situations. This issue has been recognized by several authors and as important problem in Public Transportation. The most well-known and general formulation for the DSP is a Set Partition/Set Covering Model (SPP/SCP). However, to a large extend these models simplify some of the specific business aspects and issues of real problems. This makes it difficult to use these models as automatic planning systems because the schedules obtained must be modified manually to be implemented in real situations. Based on extensive passenger transportation experience in bus companies in Portugal, we propose new alternative models to formulate the DSP problem. These models are also based on Set Partitioning/Covering Models; however, they take into account the bus operator issues and the perspective opinions and environment of the user.We follow the steps of the Operations Research Methodology which consist of: Identify the Problem; Understand the System; Formulate a Mathematical Model; Verify the Model; Select the Best Alternative; Present the Results of theAnalysis and Implement and Evaluate. All the processes are done with close participation and involvement of the final users from different transportation companies. The planner s opinion and main criticisms are used to improve the proposed model in a continuous enrichment process. The final objective is to have a model that can be incorporated into an information system to be used as an automatic tool to produce driver schedules. Therefore, the criteria for evaluating the models is the capacity to generate real and useful schedules that can be implemented without many manual adjustments or modifications. We have considered the following as measures of the quality of the model: simplicity, solution quality and applicability. We tested the alternative models with a set of real data obtained from several different transportation companies and analyzed the optimal schedules obtained with respect to the applicability of the solution to the real situation. To do this, the schedules were analyzed by the planners to determine their quality and applicability. The main result of this work is the proposition of new mathematical models for the DSP that better represent the realities of the passenger transportation operators and lead to better schedules that can be implemented directly in real situations.

Mini-STRs em genética forense

A análise do ADN baseada nos STRs (Short Tandem Repeats) tem provado ser uma ferramenta extremamente útil em estudos forenses. A aplicação dos multiplex de STRs resulta em perfis genéticos completos, para a maior parte das amostras, desde que contenham uma quantidade apreciável de ADN. Contudo, em amostras com ADN degradado, a análise tornase mais complicada, uma vez que os STRs com maior peso molecular (acima dos 250 pb), podem não ser amplificados nestas condições. Como a metodologia de Mini-STRs não estava, ainda, implementada nos Laboratórios Forenses portugueses, o objectivo principal deste estudo consistiu na aplicação de um multiplex, designado por Mini-SGM, que contém os marcadores TH01, FGA, D18S51, D16S359, D2S1338 e a Amelogenina, para implementação na prática forense, tendo os resultados sido comparados com a metodologia de rotina. O trabalho experimental teve início com um estudo populacional, que compreendeu uma amostra de 110 indivíduos de origem portuguesa, não relacionados e uma amostra de 52 indivíduos, não relacionados, oriundos de Cabo Verde, encontrando-se, ambas as populações, em Equilíbrio de Hardy-Weinberg, excepto para o locus D18S51, na população portuguesa e o locus D2S1338 na população de origem africana. Em relação aos parâmetros estatísticos forenses, este estudo demonstrou que o poder de discriminação varia entre 0,903 e 0,959, para a população portuguesa, e entre 0,908 e 0,958, para a população de Cabo Verde. Após o estudo populacional, foram analisados 39 casos forenses, devidamente anonimizados, da casuística do Serviço de Genética e Biologia Forense da Delegação de Lisboa do INML, com diferentes tipos de vestígios biológicos, como sangue, ossos, pulmão, coração, tecidos embrionários, tecidos inclusos em parafina, fígado, rim e dentes, de modo a ilustrar a utilidade desta nova metodologia nos casos forenses. No estudo de amostras degradadas, o uso da metodologia de rotina pode,

On the receiver pays principle

This paper extends the theory of network competition betweentelecommunications operators by allowing receivers to derive a surplusfrom receiving calls (call externality) and to affect the volume ofcommunications by hanging up (receiver sovereignty). We investigate theextent to which receiver charges can lead to an internalization of thecalling externality. When the receiver charge and the termination(access) charge are both regulated, there exists an e±cient equilibrium.Effciency requires a termination discount. When reception charges aremarket determined, it is optimal for each operator to set the prices foremission and reception at their off-net costs. For an appropriately chosentermination charge, the symmetric equilibrium is again effcient. Lastly,we show that network-based price discrimination creates strong incentivesfor connectivity breakdowns, even between equal networks.

An experimental study of discharge partitioning and flow structure at symmetrical bifurcations

Recent research has examined the factors controlling the geometrical configuration of bifurcations, determined the range of stability conditions for a number of bifurcation types and assessed the impact of perturbations on bifurcation evolution. However, the flow division process and the parameters that influence flow and sediment partitioning are still poorly characterized. To identify and isolate these parameters, three-dimensional velocities were measured at 11 cross-sections in a fixed-walled experimental bifurcation. Water surface gradients were controlled, and systematically varied, using a weir in each distributary. As may be expected, the steepest distributary conveyed the most discharge ( was dominant) while the mildest distributary conveyed the least discharge ( was subordinate). A zone of water surface super-elevation was co-located with the bifurcation in symmetric cases or displaced into the subordinate branch in asymmetric cases. Downstream of a relatively acute-angled bifurcation, primary velocity cores were near to the water surface and against the inner banks, with near-bed zones of lower primary velocity at the outer banks. Downstream of an obtuse-angled bifurcation, velocity cores were initially at the outer banks, with near-bed zones of lower velocities at the inner banks, but patterns soon reverted to match the acute-angled case. A single secondary flow cell was generated in each distributary, with water flowing inwards at the water surface and outwards at the bed. Circulation was relatively enhanced within the subordinate branch, which may help explain why subordinate distributaries remain open, may play a role in determining the size of commonly-observed topographic features, and may thus exert some control on the stability of asymmetric bifurcations. Further, because larger values of circulation result from larger gradient disadvantages, the length of confluence-diffluence units in braided rivers or between diffluences within delta distributary networks may vary depending upon flow structures inherited from upstream and whether, and how, they are fed by dominant or subordinate distributaries. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.