Search

This preregistered scoping review provides an account of studies which have examined the spatial patterning of emergency reactive police demand (ERPD) as measured by calls for service data. To date, the field has generated a wealth of information about the geographic concentration of calls for service, but the information remains unsynthesised and inaccessible to researchers and practitioners. We code our literature sample (N = 79) according to the types of demand studied, the spatial scales used, the theories adopted, the methods deployed and the findings reported. We find that most studies focus on crime-related call types using meso-level (e.g., neighborhood) spatial scales. Descriptive methods demonstrate the non-random distribution of calls, irrespective of their type, while correlational findings are mixed, providing minimal support for theories such as social disorganization theory. We conclude with suggestions for future research, focusing on how the field can better exploit open data sources to ‘scale-up’ analyses.

Around 1.2 million people are being killed, and more than 50 million people are being injured in road accidents each year around the world. Due to Urbanization and motorization road accident has been increasing dramatically over the last few years. According to the Accident Research Institute (ARI) of BUET, on an average, 20 people are dying every day in Bangladesh. Reckless driving, overloading identified as a significant causes for road accidents. Moreover, motorbikes has a higher number of accidents in Bangladesh. The main objective is to identify the leading causes of road accidents and the spatial distribution of road accidents. The data of accidents were collected from different secondary sources for the last 50 years. Qualitative and semi quantitate methods were used to analyze the statistical data. For spatial distribution of road accidents, the kernel density estimation method is used as well as critical area index for hazardous locations. The critical area index has presented from crash rate and causality rate of the zone as a dangerous area with the score (1–10) where highs score represents the most dangerous region for road accidents. The traffic department and the Government has a crucial role to play in identifying reckless driving, speeding and overloaded vehicles, and the government and citizens have an essential role to play in ensuring road safety as well.

Golf ball sponges are small, sometimes inconspicuous, sponges. They can be found across a range of habitats varying from perturbed and pristine coral reefs to harbours and marine lakes and from the deep sea to shallow waters. They can be difficult to distinguish in the field and have presented some problems with taxonomists lumping and splitting species due to the difficulty in defining clear species boundaries. In the present study, we sampled golf ball sponges from Indo-Pacific and Caribbean locations and used 16S gene amplicon sequencing to study their prokaryotic communities. We show that golf ball sponges harbour a wide variety of prokaryotic communities. Among the most prevalent operational taxonomic units (OTUs), several belonged to a range of taxa, including the bacterial AqS1 and EC94 groups, which have been associated with genes known to facilitate interactions between hosts and microbes. Certain host taxa were enriched with OTUs classified to the SAR202 clade of Chloroflexi. Our findings show that prokaryotic dissimilarity varied as a function of space (geographical distance) and host dissimilitude. The importance of space and host dissimilitude, however, varied depending on the data transformation with host dissimilitude a more important predictor of untransformed data whereas space was a more important predictor of log-transformed data. Given that log-transformation downscales the influence of abundant taxa, we interpret these results by the tendency of closely related host organisms to host similar sets of abundant symbiotic microorganisms; distantly sampled specimens, in contrast, tend to harbour less abundant prokaryotic microorganisms found in the surrounding environment (e.g., seawater or sediment)

Despite numerous studies in the field of dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD), a comprehensive understanding of this devastating disease remains elusive. Bulk transcriptomics have provided insights into the underlying genetic factors at a high level. Subsequent technological advancements have focused on single-cell omics, encompassing techniques such as single-cell RNA sequencing and epigenomics, enabling the capture of RNA transcripts and chromatin states at a single cell or nucleus resolution. Furthermore, the emergence of spatial omics has allowed the study of gene responses in the vicinity of amyloid beta plaques or across various brain regions. With the vast amount of data generated, utilizing gene regulatory networks to comprehensively study this disease has become essential. This review delves into some techniques employed in the field of AD, explores the discoveries made using these techniques, and provides insights into the future of the field.

A large body of literature has examined specificity and transfer of perceptual learning, suggesting a complex picture. Here, we distinguish between transfer over variations in a task-relevant feature (e.g., transfer of a learned orientation task to a different reference orientation) and transfer over a task-irrelevant feature (e.g., transfer of a learned orientation task to a different retinal location or different spatial frequency), and we focus on the mechanism for the latter. Experimentally, we assessed whether learning a judgment of one feature (such as orientation) using one value of an irrelevant feature (e.g., spatial frequency) transfers to another value of the irrelevant feature. Experiment 1 examined whether learning in eight-alternative orientation identification with one or multiple spatial frequencies transfers to stimuli at five different spatial frequencies. Experiment 2 paralleled Experiment 1, examining whether learning in eight-alternative spatial-frequency identification at one or multiple orientations transfers to stimuli with five different orientations. Training the orientation task with a single spatial frequency transferred widely to all other spatial frequencies, with a tendency to specificity when training with the highest spatial frequency. Training the spatial frequency task fully transferred across all orientations. Computationally, we extended the identification integrated reweighting theory (I-IRT) to account for the transfer data (Dosher, Liu, & Lu, 2023; Liu, Dosher, & Lu, 2023). Just as location-invariant representations in the original IRT explain transfer over retinal locations, incorporating feature-invariant representations effectively accounted for the observed transfer. Taken together, we suggest that feature-invariant representations can account for transfer of learning over a task-irrelevant feature.

Global change may introduce fundamental alterations in phytoplankton biomass and community structure that can alter the productivity of northern lakes. In this study, we utilized Swedish and Finnish monitoring data from lakes that are spatially (135 lakes) and temporally (1995-2019, 110 lakes) extensive to assess how phytoplankton biomass (PB) of dominant phytoplankton groups related to changes in water temperature, pH and key nutrients [total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), total organic carbon (TOC), iron (Fe)] along spatial (Fennoscandia) and temporal (25 years) gradients. Using a machine learning approach, we found that TP was the most important determinant of total PB and biomass of a specific species of Raphidophyceae - Gonyostomum semen - and Cyanobacteria (both typically with adverse impacts on food-webs and water quality) in spatial analyses, while Fe and pH were second in importance for G. semen and TN and pH were second and third in importance for Cyanobacteria. However, in temporal analyses, decreasing Fe and increasing pH and TOC were associated with a decrease in G. semen and an increase in Cyanobacteria. In addition, in many lakes increasing TOC seemed to have generated browning to an extent that significantly reduced PB. The identified discrepancy between the spatial and temporal results suggests that substitutions of data for space-for-time may not be adequate to characterize long-term effects of global change on phytoplankton. Further, we found that total PB exhibited contrasting temporal trends (increasing in northern- and decreasing in southern Fennoscandia), with the decline in total PB being more pronounced than the increase. Among phytoplankton, G. semen biomass showed the strongest decline, while cyanobacterial biomass showed the strongest increase over 25 years. Our findings suggest that progressing browning and changes in Fe and pH promote significant temporal changes in PB and shifts in phytoplankton community structures in northern

Increasing population and rapid development of built-up land can cause an increase in land surface temperature. These changes are often associated with many factors, including changes in land use, and surface parameters, economic development, and vegetation. This research aims to analyze the temperature factor as an indicator of indoor thermal comfort to support the learning process in schools in the Banten Province area. This research uses a spatial temporal approach with descriptive statistical analysis. Based on the results, show that the land surface temperature at each school location in Banten province shows conditions that are not constant. The number of schools with uncomfortable conditions varies from 2019 (89.07%), 2020 (42.65%), 2021 (45.66%), 2022 (82.66%), and 2023 (52.44%). This shows that there has been a decrease in uncomfortable conditions for studying by 36.63% in the last 5 years., Meningkatnya jumlah populasi dan pesatnya perkembangan lahan terbangun dapat menyebabkan terjadinya peningkatan Suhu Permukaan Daratan. Perubahan ini sering dikaitkan dengan banyak faktor, termasuk perubahan penggunaan lahan, dan parameter permukaan, perkembangan ekonomi, dan vegetasi. Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis faktor suhu sebagai indikator kenyaman termal dalam ruangan untuk mendukung proses pembelajaran disekolah di wilayah Provinsi Banten. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan spasial temporal dengan analisis statistik deskriptif. Berdasarkan hasil menunjukan suhu permukaan daratan di setiap lokasi sekolah di provinsi Banten menunjukan kondisi yang tidak konstan. Jumlah sekolah dengan kondisi kurang nyaman bervariasi dari 2019 (89.07%), 2020 (42.65%), 2021 (45.66%), 2022 (82.66%), dan 2023 (52.44%). Hal ini menunjukkan terdapat penurunan kondisi kurang nyaman untuk belajar sebesar 36.63% dalam 5 tahun terakhir.

The influence of natural image transformations on receptive field responses is crucial for modelling visual operations in computer vision and biological vision. In this regard, covariance properties with respect to geometric image transformations in the earliest layers of the visual hierarchy are essential for expressing robust image operations, and for formulating invariant visual operations at higher levels. This paper defines and proves a set of joint covariance properties for spatio-temporal receptive fields in terms of spatio-temporal derivative operators applied to spatio-temporally smoothed image data under compositions of spatial scaling transformations, spatial affine transformations, Galilean transformations and temporal scaling transformations. Specifically, the derived relations show how the parameters of the receptive fields need to be transformed, in order to match the output from spatio-temporal receptive fields under composed spatio-temporal image transformations. For this purpose, we also fundamentally extend the notion of scale-normalized derivatives to affine-normalized derivatives, that are computed based on spatial smoothing with affine Gaussian kernels, and analyze the covariance properties of the resulting affine-normalized derivatives for the affine group as well as for important subgroups thereof. We conclude with a geometric analysis, showing how the derived joint covariance properties make it possible to relate or match spatio-temporal receptive field responses, when observing, possibly moving, local surface patches from different views, under locally linearized perspective or projective transformations, as well as when observing different instances of spatio-temporal events, that may occur either faster or slower between different views of similar spatio-temporal events. We do furthermore describe how the parameters in the studied composed spatio-temporal image transformation models directly relate to geometric entities in the image forma, QC 20240709

The influence of natural image transformations on receptive field responses is crucial for modelling visual operations in computer vision and biological vision. In this regard, covariance properties with respect to geometric image transformations in the earliest layers of the visual hierarchy are essential for expressing robust image operations, and for formulating invariant visual operations at higher levels. This paper defines and proves a set of joint covariance properties under compositions of spatial scaling transformations, spatial affine transformations, Galilean transformations and temporal scaling transformations, which make it possible to characterize how different types of image transformations interact with each other and the associated spatio-temporal receptive field responses. In this regard, we also extend the notion of scale-normalized derivatives to affine-normalized derivatives, to be able to obtain true affine-covariant properties of spatial derivatives, that are computed based on spatial smoothing with affine Gaussian kernels. The derived relations show how the parameters of the receptive fields need to be transformed, in order to match the output from spatio-temporal receptive fields under composed spatio-temporal image transformations. As a side effect, the presented proof for the joint covariance property over the integrated combination of the different geometric image transformations also provides specific proofs for the individual transformation properties, which have not previously been fully reported in the literature. We conclude with a geometric analysis, showing how the derived joint covariance properties make it possible to relate or match spatio-temporal receptive field responses, when observing, possibly moving, local surface patches from different views, under locally linearized perspective or projective transformations, as well as when observing different instances of spatio-temporal events that may occur either faster or slower be, QC 20240429, Covariant and invariant deep networks

While the primary sequences of human proteins have been cataloged for over a decade, determining how these are organized into a dynamic collection of multiprotein assemblies, with structures and functions spanning biological scales, is an ongoing venture. Systematic and data-driven analyses of these higher-order structures are emerging, facilitating the discovery and understanding of cellular phenotypes. At present, knowledge of protein localization and function has been primarily derived from manual annotation and curation in resources such as the Gene Ontology, which are biased toward richly annotated genes in the literature. Here, we envision a future powered by data-driven mapping of protein assemblies. These maps can capture and decode cellular functions through the integration of protein expression, localization, and interaction data across length scales and timescales., QC 20240925

Background: In Northern Province, Rwanda, stunting is common among children aged under 5 years. However, previous studies on spatial analysis of childhood stunting in Rwanda did not assess its randomness and clustering, and none were conducted in Northern Province. We conducted a spatial-pattern analysis of childhood undernutrition to identify stunting clusters and hotspots for targeted interventions in Northern Province. Methods: Using a household population-based questionnaire survey of the characteristics and causes of undernutrition in households with biological mothers of children aged 1–36 months, we collected anthropometric measurements of the children and their mothers and captured the coordinates of the households. Descriptive statistics were computed for the sociodemographic characteristics and anthropometric measurements. Spatial patterns of childhood stunting were determined using global and local Moran's I and Getis-Ord Gi* statistics, and the corresponding maps were produced. Results: The z-scores of the three anthropometric measurements were normally distributed, but the z-scores of height-for-age were generally lower than those of weight-for-age and weight-for-height, prompting us to focus on height-for-age for the spatial analysis. The estimated incidence of stunting among 601 children aged 1–36 months was 27.1 %. The sample points were interpolated to the administrative level of the sector. The global Moran's I was positive and significant (Moran's I = 0.403, p < 0.001, z-score = 7.813), indicating clustering of childhood stunting across different sectors of Northern Province. The local Moran's I and hotspot analysis based on the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic showed statistically significant hotspots, which were strongest within Musanze district, followed by Gakenke and Gicumbi districts. Conclusion: Childhood stunting in Northern Province showed statistically significant hotspots in Musanze, Gakenke, and Gicumbi districts. Factors associated with suc

Background: Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of child morbidity and mortality in low and middle-income countries. 23.8% prevalence of diarrhea was found among children under five years of age. Area-based management is required to address and provide specific interventions. Purpose: The study aims to analyze the effect of unsafe toddler feces management and incomplete primary immunization on the incidence of diarrhea using a spatial analysis in East Java, Indonesia. Methods: The data used is the 2018 Basic Health Research data. The measurement of the relationship between region and diarrhea was carried out by studying Moran's I index. Lisa Cluster Map and the Lisa Significance Map were also studied to understand distribution and significance. The regression used is OLS regression, spatial lag, and spatial error. The best model is assessed by comparing various parameters. Data were analyzed using GeoDA. Results: Moran's I result shows an index value of 0.489 with a pseudo-value of 0.001 (p <0.05) and a z-value of 3.7515. Lisa Cluster Map shows seven high-high category areas, five low-low category areas, and one high-low category area. Lisa's Significance Map shows six areas p=0.05, three areas p=0.01, and four areas p=0.001. The unsafe management of toddler feces and incomplete primary immunization related to diarrhea shows a significance of p<0.05. By comparing the R square, log-likelihood, p(sign), and sigma square values, the better model is the spatial lag model. Conclusion: The unsafe toddler feces management and incomplete primary immunization related to diarrhea.

The scarcity of resources is increasing, resulting in the transformation of entire regions. People take a lot of the resources on Earth for granted. This calls for a transition from the current ‘throw-away’-economy to a ‘circular’ economy. The constant circulation of materials and products in this type of system preserves the value of materials. Academics and practitioners are addressing this transition, but they frequently ignore its social and spatial aspects. A socio-spatial framework for reorganizing a district towards a circular system is proposed in this thesis. The solution presented is fundamentally utopian, aiming to challenge established ideas about the current system. In this thesis, the public space’s redesign serves as an entry point to the private and communal spaces. The design location for this thesis is the Indische Buurt. This district is located in east of Amsterdam. With a large proportion of social housing, the area’s primary use is residential. Additionally, there are a few shopping streets nearby. The approach used in this thesis was context-specific. The three main approaches used were literature reviews, field research, and ‘research by design’. According to the analysis, residents are crucial in deciding whether and how to dispose of things. But at the moment, the area doesn’t have many resources supporting circular behavior. The issue of waste disposal in public areas is one of the effects. In addition, the district has a high proportion of minima-households, little greenery, and roadways that are mostly occupied by parked cars. The primary observation about governance analysis is the lack of emphasis on the spatial implications necessary for the shift to a circular system. The district is reorganized using a spatial framework that was constructed using the R-ladder. The R-ladder is a circularity model made up of ten R-strategies for reducing the amount of materials and resources used in product chains. The h, Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences | Urbanism

Chromatin encapsulates not only genomic sequence information but also its structural organization. Chromosome folding patterns may juxtapose distal functional elements of DNA in space and are thought to regulate gene expression. Directly visualizing chromosome architecture to study this grammar of chromosome folding has been but a longstanding ambition in the field of epigenetics. An emergent imaging technology called multiplexed DNA-FISH has made it possible to localize the positions of thousands of genomic loci with nanometer precision inside single cells. Given a cell’s ploidy, deriving chromatin conformations from this data initially assumed detecting a fixed number of bright signals and connecting them in sequential genomic order. But during cell cycle chromosomes copies are subject to change; it is also subject to copy number variations such as amplifications or deletions; it is subjected further still to technical noise such as false positives appearing as true signal, or signal dropout. In my thesis, I sought to develop a different framework that accounts for various sources of noise that have gone unappreciated in multiplexed DNA imaging, to show that by embracing the complexity of noise we can in fact uncover new biology previously unseen. First, I describe spatial genome alignment and its derivative polymer fiber karyotyping, methods for accurately resolving chromatin structures in a copy number agnostic fashion. We apply this method to multiplexed DNA-FISH data of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESC) and the mouse cortex. In dividing mESCs, we provide the first reconstructions of tightly intertwined sister chromatids decondensed in interphase – convoluted structures which previously could not be parsed by computer vision or by human eye. We go on to uncover unusual structures such as replicated homologs interacting in one single chromosome territory, suggestive of mitotic crossover. In the mouse cortex, we uncover tightly paired chromosomes in non-dividing

Objective: Low nutritional status of children may lead to nutritional problems, such as stunting or wasting. Therefore, stunting and wasting management are important to avoid the negative effects on toddlers' growth and to prevent future decreased productivity of the individuals. The Geographically Weighted Bivariate Poisson Regression (GWBGPR), is an effort to support stunting and wasting management by determining the influential factors to assist the governments in improving the community's nutritional status. Method: This non-reactive unobtrusive method applied the secondary data from the Health Agency of Southern-East Sulawesi Province. The data were about the stunting and wasting cases. The unit analyses were the sub-districts in the province, 222 districts. Results: The GWBGPR model obtained 12 regional groups for the stunting cases and 17 regional groups for the wasting case with the most influential factors such as the newly born weight, the percentage of 6-month-old babies with exclusive breast milk, the percentage of toddlers with complete primary immunization, the percentage of toddlers with vitamin A, the percentage of toddlers suffering from acute respiratory syndrome, and the percentage of toddlers suffering from diarrhea which often occurs in the southern region of Southeast Sulawesi Province. Coclusions: The coefficients of the influencing factors explain that every additional 1% will increase the average number of stunting and wasting cases according to the coefficient value of each sub-district area assuming other variables are constant in the sub-district area which is significant.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are a heterogeneous population of cells that facilitate cancer progression. However, our knowledge of the niches of individual TAM subsets and their development and function remain incomplete. Here, we describe a population of lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor-1 (LYVE-1)-expressing TAMs, which form coordinated multi-cellular "nest" structures that are heterogeneously distributed proximal to vasculature in tumors of a spontaneous murine model of breast cancer. We demonstrate that LYVE-1 + TAMs develop in response to IL-6, which induces their expression of the immune-suppressive enzyme heme oxygenase-1 and promotes a CCR5-dependent signaling axis, which guides their nest formation. Blocking the development of LYVE-1 + TAMs or their nest structures, using gene-targeted mice, results in an increase in CD8 + T cell recruitment to the tumor and enhanced response to chemotherapy. This study highlights an unappreciated collaboration of a TAM subset to form a coordinated niche linked to immune exclusion and resistance to anti-cancer therapy.

Australia is one of the most fire-prone countries in the world, with many ecosystems adapted to historical fire regimes. However, fire regimes are shifting, and significant changes to historical patterns of fire are recognised as a considerable threat to biodiversity. Inappropriate fire regimes have been linked to population declines of mammals across Australia. Despite this there are significant knowledge gaps in understanding how different components of the fire regime effect biodiversity, at different levels of biological organisation. This research examined the distribution and ecology of echolocating bat species (commonly referred to as microbats) in a fire-prone region of south-eastern Australia, to answer key questions of wider relevance to other fire-prone ecosystems. I explored the influence of the spatial pattern of different fire histories in the landscape – fire mosaics – on different levels of biological organisation, to draw inference on how fire-generated mosaics might affect the distribution of bat communities, individual species, populations, and genetic diversity. The research aims of this thesis were explored using a landscape scale field study, in the temperate forests and woodlands of south-western Victoria, Australia, which collected two types of microbat data. The first, an acoustic survey by means of passive acoustic detectors of 136 sites, spanning a range of fire histories, conducted over two seasons. The second a genetics study of 146 sites, also with a range of fire histories, over two seasons, which captured 647 individual bats. Passive acoustic detectors are often used to monitor echolocating bat species. However, identification of calls collected at large scales is hindered by substantial variation within and between species, and the considerable time investment needed to manually identify acoustic data. A pilot study designed to confirm the range of species present in the study area, along with the level of sampling needed to address

Studying the spatial distribution of proteins provides the basis for understanding the biology, molecular repertoire, and architecture of every human cell. The Human Protein Atlas (HPA) has grown into one of the world's largest biological databases, and in the most recent version, a major update of the structure of the database was performed. The data has now been organized into 10 different comprehensive sections, each summarizing different aspects of the human proteome and the protein-coding genes. In particular, large datasets with information on the single cell type level have been integrated, refining the tissue and cell type specificity and detailing the expression in cell states with an increased resolution. The multi-modal data constitute an important resource for both basic and translational science, and hold promise for integration with novel emerging technologies at the protein and RNA level.

This doctoral thesis aims to review methods which use high-resolution remote sensing (RS) to evaluate the changes in degraded and restored northern peatlands and to test and develop these topo-hydrological methods. A significant share of peatlands worldwide is degraded and encountered subsidence due to land use and drainage. Recently, activities have been directed increasingly to mitigating environmental impacts and to restoration. Understanding the state and characteristics of degradation, as well as monitoring restoration success, is important in the sustainable management of peatlands. Conventionally, the state of peatlands has been monitored using laborious field surveys that are poorly suited for monitoring larger areas. Monitoring the internal heterogeneity of the site or larger regional, national or international areas requires more applicable methods. This thesis reviews the available remote sensing methods to observe the land cover, water flow routes, and surface soil moisture on peatlands. In addition, the magnitude and impacts of topographical changes on peatland hydrology were demonstrated at eight sites. The analysis showed the subsidence of cultivated peatlands, which have caused a spread of annual river floods by 101–194% over the last 24–51 years. On forestry-drained peatlands, topographic flow accumulation and wetness indices showed that restoration increased the site wetness by 2.9–6.9% and decreased its deviation by 13–15% 1–10 months after the restoration. The methods used emphasized the determinative role of topography in the hydrological conditions of peatlands. RS is well applicable in peatland monitoring, providing advanced large-coverage and/or high-detail monitoring data. Each method, however, includes specific technical challenges and development needs, and field measurements will also be needed in the future to support the remote sensing data and analysis. The production of the data might be laborious and require adjunct resource, Tiivistelmä Tämän väitöskirjan tarkoituksena on koota tarkan resolution kaukokartoitusmenetelmiä soiden kuivatuksesta ja ennallistamisesta aiheutuneiden muutosten arvioimiseen sekä testata ja kehittää valittuja topo-hydrologisia menetelmiä. Merkittävä osuus maailman soista on häiriintynyt, ja maa on painunut maankäytön ja kuivatuksen seurauksena. Toimintaa on alettu suunnata yhä enemmän ympäristövaikutusten lieventämiseen ja ennallistamiseen. Soiden muuttuneen hydrologian ymmärtäminen ja toisaalta toteutettujen toimenpiteiden onnistumisen arviointi ovat soiden tavoitteidenmukaisen ja kestävän käytön edellytys. Perinteisesti soita on seurattu työläillä kenttämenetelmillä. Suon sisäisen vaihtelun kattaviin sekä alueellisiin, kansallisiin ja kansainvälisiin seurantoihin tarvitaan soveltuvampia menetelmiä. Tässä väitöskirjassa kootaan kaukokartoitusmenetelmiä maanpinnan peitteen sekä veden kulkureittien ja suon pintakosteuden tarkastelemiseen. Lisäksi maanpinnan korkeusaseman muutosten vaikutuksia suon hydrologialle demonstroitiin kahdeksalla tutkimuskohteella. Turvepelloilla testattiin menetelmää, joka osoitti turvemaiden painumisen aiheuttaneen viereisen joen vuotuisen tulvan peittämän alueen laajentuneen 101–194 % kuluneiden 24–51 vuoden aikana. Metsätaloutta varten ojitetuilla soilla puolestaan todettiin topografisten virtauskertymien ja märkyysindeksien avulla ennallistamisen lisänneen tutkimusalueiden keskimääräistä märkyyttä 2.9–6.9 % sekä pienentäneen sen vaihteluväliä 13–15 % 1–10 kk aikana ennallistamisen jälkeen. Testatut menetelmät tähdensivät topografian merkitystä hydrologisten olosuhteiden määräytymisessä. Kaukokartoitus soveltuu hyvin soiden tilan seurantaan ja sillä saadaan tuotettua kattavia tarkan resoluution aineistoja. Kuhunkin menetelmään kuitenkin liittyy omat tekniset haasteensa ja kehitystarpeensa, ja kenttämittauksia tarvitaan myös jatkossa kaukokartoitusaineistojen ja -analyysien tukena. Aineistojen tuottaminen voi olla työlästä ja vaatia lisä

Fast and high quality classifications of cells inflicted with malignant mutations is essential for diagnosing patients with different forms of leukemia, to quickly be able give patients the crucial care they need. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can be trained and used for this purpose. This thesis studies CNNs and the application of regularization to create better performing and generalised models, with the purpose of generating highly accurate classifications for nine different forms of malignant white blood cells from the myeloid lineage. This is done to asses what method of dropout regularization is best suited for this type of cell data. To achieve this, three different methods of dropout regularization were studied: Bernoulli dropout; Gaussian dropout; and spatial dropout. This was conducted using a dataset consisting of 106,472 images from 945 patients. The results indicate that models using Gaussian dropout and Bernoulli dropout, respectively, produce the best results, with 87.39\% being the highest accuracy achieved. These two models are also statistically different from a benchmark model not utilizing any form of dropout. This suggests that one of these techniques may be optimal for this type of data. Further studies may be needed to determine which is the best of the two.

The authors estimate the associations between community socioeconomic composition and changes in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination levels in eight large cities at three time points. In March, communities with high socioeconomic status (SES) had significantly higher vaccination rates than low-SES communities. Between March and April, low-SES communities had significantly lower changes in percentage vaccinated than high-SES communities. Between April and May, this difference was not significant. Thus, the large vaccination gap between communities during restricted vaccine eligibility did not narrow when eligibility opened up. The link between COVID-19 vaccination and community disadvantage may lead to a bifurcated recovery whereby advantaged communities move on from the pandemic more quickly while disadvantaged communities continue to suffer.

Introduktion - Detta examensarbete handlar om belysningens påverkan på människorsrumsupplevelse och trygghet i trånga och stängda utrymmen, med särskilt fokus påhissar. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur ljusfördelning och ljusintensitetpåverkar människors upplevelse av hissar och hur ljuset kan skapa en mer behaglig ochtrygg miljö för dessa utrymmen. Metod - Undersökningen utfördes genom en kombination av en enkätundersökning ochett experiment med djupgående intervjuer. Båda delarna av studien innehöll sexbelysningsscenarier med olika ljusfördelningar och intensiteter. Enkätundersökningengenomfördes med 23 deltagare som besvarade frågor gällande upplevd atmosfär, känslaoch trygghet i hissen med hjälp av en semantisk skala. Experimentet utfördes på ettmindre urval deltagare med samma scenarier visade genom ett VR-headset. Resultat och Analys - Den insamlade datan från enkäten och intervjuerna visar attdeltagarna föredrog en jämnare och högre ljusintensitet. Många upplevde en förbättradtrygghet i hissen med ett jämnare ljus, eftersom det tydliggjorde människors ansikten.Den mer varierade ljusfördelningen upplevdes som luminant och ojämn. Resten av deninsamlade datan visar på att deltagarna upplevde scenarierna på väldigt olika sätt. Diskussion - Resultaten bekräftar en del tidigare forskning gällande att högreljusintensiteter bidrar till en ökad trygghet. Men i motsats till tidigare forskning somvisar på att en mer varierad ljusfördelning skapar en positivare atmosfär, visar dennastudie på att en jämnare ljusfördelning bidrar till en bättre atmosfär i hissar. En möjligförklaring till detta resultat kan vara att en jämn ljusfördelning tydliggör ansikten ochskapar en känsla av ökad trygghet. Detta resultat är viktigt att ta hänsyn till förljusdesign i offentliga utrymmen, speciellt i hissar där det är viktigt att skapa en tryggoch bekväm atmosfär. Trots att hissen är ett utrymme som brukas under en kortare tidär det viktigt att den upplevs trygg och behaglig för, Introduction - This thesis investigated the impact of lighting on people's spatialexperience and sense of safety in confined and enclosed spaces, with a particular focuson elevators. The aim of the study was to examine how light distribution and intensityaffect people's experience of elevators and how light can create a more comfortable andsecure environment for these spaces. Method - The study was conducted through a combination of a survey and anexperiment with in-depth interviews. Both parts of the study included six lightingscenarios with varying light distributions and intensities. The survey was conductedwith 23 participants who answered questions about their perceived atmosphere,feelings, and sense of safety in the elevator using a semantic scale. The experiment wasconducted on a smaller sample of people with the same scenarios shown through a VRheadset. Results and Analysis - The collected data from the survey and interviews show thatparticipants preferred a more even and higher light intensity. Many experiencedimproved safety in the elevator with a more even light, as it highlighted people's faces.A more varied light distribution was experienced as luminous and uneven. The rest ofthe collected data shows that participants experienced the scenarios in very differentways. Discussion - The results confirm previous research that higher light intensitiescontribute to increased safety. Contrary to previous research, it showed that a morevaried light distribution creates a more positive atmosphere, this study shows that amore even light distribution contributes to a better atmosphere in elevators. Onepossible explanation for this result could be that an even light distribution highlightsfaces and creates a sense of increased safety. This result is important to consider forlighting design in public spaces, especially in elevators where it is important to createa safe and comfortable atmosphere. Despite being a space used for a short period oftime, it is important f

The effects of domestication on animals’ behaviors and morphology are well known and documented. Changes due to domestication include higher sociability, decreased fearfulness, and increased boldness. These changes have been documented in the chicken breed known as White Leghorn (Gallus gallus domesticus), which is a domesticated relative to the Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus). Though domestication have altered the chicken’s behavior, its effect on the cognitive learning capabilities of the chicken is still unclear, which is the focus of the study. Two tests were conducted in this study: associative learning and spatial learning. The fowls natural desire to remain close to other fowl was used as the main motivation for completing the tests. The associative learning test was performed by testing the two breeds of associating an item with finding their way to their flock. The spatial learning test was performed by measuring the time needed for an individual to return to their flock from behind an obstacle. For the associative learning test, a significant difference between the cognitive learning capability of the two breeds could be found for part 2 (tests 11-20), as well between part 1 and part 2 within the breed White Leghorn. Between the sexes no significant difference could be seen, but within the females, a significant difference was detected between part 1 and part 2. For the spatial learning test, no significant difference could be found between the two breeds nor the sexes. No correlation could be found between associative- and spatial learning test on an individual level. Due to few significant results, further studies should be conducted to confirm the effects of domestication on learning.

The influence of natural image transformations on receptive field responses is crucial for modelling visual operations in computer vision and biological vision. In this regard, covariance properties with respect to geometric image transformations in the earliest layers of the visual hierarchy are essential for expressing robust image operations and for formulating invariant visual operations at higher levels. This paper defines and proves a joint covariance property under compositions of spatial scaling transformations, spatial affine transformations, Galilean transformations and temporal scaling transformations, which makes it possible to characterize how different types of image transformations interact with each other. Specifically, the derived relations show how the receptive field parameters need to be transformed, in order to match the output from spatio-temporal receptive fields with the underlying spatio-temporal image transformations., QC 20231120, Covariant and invariant deep networks

I exhale. In the corner is a pile of cardboard boxes that I had just opened up. Stretched across the floor are many carefully measured lines of white duct tape. On the computer are countless browser tabs - from waves articles to small forums - telling me how to set up my new speakers. Equidistant triangles and other exact angles. All that is left to do is calibrate the volume so that each speaker reaches me equally. You see, I had decided to jump into surround sound. The thought of having a little personal cinema in my apartment to play with was not possible to pass on. I remember then sitting down in front of my digital audio workstation, with speakers surrounding me, and thinking.... Nowwhat? I had no idea what to do with it, what sound was supposed to go where, whether it should move or be still. I experimented with many surround things, never reaching a definite answer. I would go to the cinema to listen to other films - for research - but most of the time the sound never filled the room or left the screen, it is the spatial element of which I was mostly keen. What a waste. In the pursuit of discovering what surround means to me, the intimacy it can bring to a room; why mainstream films use it shyly, or don't use it at all. I discovered a rabbit hole., "Sound/Body" consists of a titular video essay, and "Surround/Body" - a complimentary text essay.

Allen's interval algebra is one of the most well-known calculi in qualitative temporal reasoning with numerous applications in artificial intelligence. Very recently, there has been a surge of improvements in the fine-grained complexity of NP-hard reasoning tasks in this algebra, which has improved the running time from the naive 2^O(n^2) to O*((1.0615n)^n), and even faster algorithms are known for unit intervals and the case when we a bounded number of overlapping intervals. Despite these improvements the best known lower bound is still only 2^o(n) under the exponential-time hypothesis and major improvements in either direction seemingly require fundamental advances in computational complexity. In this paper we propose a novel framework for solving NP-hard qualitative reasoning problems which we refer to as dynamic programming with sublinear partitioning. Using this technique we obtain a major improvement of O*((cn/log(n))^n) for Allen's interval algebra. To demonstrate that the technique is applicable to further problem domains we apply it to a problem in qualitative spatial reasoning, the cardinal direction calculus, and solve it in O*((cn/log(n))^(2n/3)) time. Hence, not only do we significantly advance the state-of-the-art for NP-hard qualitative reasoning problems, but obtain a novel algorithmic technique that is likely applicable to many problems where 2^O(n) time algorithms are unlikely.

Partially ordered models of time occur naturally in applications where agents/processes cannot perfectly communicate with each other, and can be traced back to the seminal work of Lamport. In this paper we consider the problem of deciding if a (likely incomplete) description of a system of events is consistent, the network consistency problem for the point algebra of partially ordered time (POT). While the classical complexity of this problem has been fully settled, comparably little is known of the fine-grained complexity of POT except that it can be solved in O*((0.368n)^n) time by enumerating ordered partitions. We construct a much faster algorithm with a run-time bounded by O*((0.26n)^n), which, e.g., is roughly 1000 times faster than the naive enumeration algorithm in a problem with 20 events. This is achieved by a sophisticated enumeration of structures similar to total orders, which are then greedily expanded toward a solution. While similar ideas have been explored earlier for related problems it turns out that the analysis for POT is non-trivial and requires significant new ideas.

Why does an increasing share of the population live in cities? Why do some cities prosper and grow, while others struggle and decline? What can cities do to improve their prospects, and those of their inhabitants? This dissertation responds to questions of this ilk, building on a body of literature that traces its historical roots to the start of the industrial revolution and the emergence of economics as a social science. At a conceptual level, the contents of this dissertation are united by the desire to better understand the attributes that make some locations more attractive than others. To this end, this dissertation presents the results of research into agglomeration economies – that is, urban economic advantages and disadvantages – and considers how they influence the location choices of people and firms. These are the economic ties that bind us together in cities or, when they fray, split us apart. As well as enriching our understanding of these questions, this dissertation seeks to highlight the implications of these findings for urban policy and research.

The thesis work majorly focuses on the development methodologies of the Internet of Things (IoT). A detailed literature survey is presented for the discussion of various challenges in the development of software and design and deployment of hardware. The thesis work deals with the efficient development methodologies for the deployment of IoT system. Efficient hardware and software development reduces the risk of the system bugs and faults. The optimal placement of the IoT devices is the major challenge for the monitoring application. A Qualitative Spatial Reasoning (QSR) and Qualitative Temporal Reasoning (QTR) methodologies are proposed to build software systems. The proposed hybrid methodology includes the features of QSR, QTR, and traditional databased methodologies. The hybrid methodology is proposed to build the software systems and direct them to the specific goal of obtaining outputs inherent to the process. The hybrid methodology includes the support of tools and is detailed, integrated, and fits the general proposal. This methodology repeats the structure of Spatio-temporal reasoning goals. The object-oriented IoT device placement is the major goal of the proposed work. Segmentation and object detection is used for the division of the region into sub-regions. The coverage and connectivity are maintained by the optimal placement of the IoT devices using RCC8 and TPCC algorithms. Over the years, IoT has offered different solutions in all kinds of areas and contexts. The diversity of these challenges makes it hard to grasp the underlying principles of the different solutions and to design an appropriate custom implementation on the IoT space. One of the major objective of the proposed thesis work is to study numerous production-ready IoT offerings, extract recurring proven solution principles, and classify them into spatial patterns. The method of refinement of the goals is employed so that complex challenges are solved by breaking them down into simple and ac

Ticks and lice are ectoparasites of veterinary importance to UK livestock. Infestation of livestock can result in economic losses for farmers, caused by reduced animal health and productivity, either by direct feeding effects or through the spread of vector-borne pathogens. A detailed understanding of the prevalence, distribution and associated risk factors for infestation and subsequent vector-borne disease is important to allow effective and targeted control measures to be designed and implemented. Despite this, there is limited national data about tick or louse infestation on livestock farms. The aims of this thesis were to assess the prevalence, distribution, and risk of infestation of ticks and lice and associated vector-borne disease on sheep and cattle farms across Great Britain. A retrospective questionnaire survey was sent to a nationally representitative demographic of sheep and cattle farms to collect data on the presence/absence of livestock infestation (Chapter 2). Tick infestation risk is shown to be spatially aggregated, with areas of significantly elevated risk in north Wales, northwest England and western Scotland (Chapter 3). Overall, the prevalence of farms reporting ticks was 13% for sheep farms and 6% for cattle farms, but in ‘hotspot’ clusters prevalence ranged between 48-100%. The prevalence of farms reporting lice was 16% for sheep farms and cattle farms (Chapter 6). ‘Hotspot’ clusters of farms with louse infestation were only identified for sheep farms, in Wales, northwest England and southwest Scotland, with prevalence in these areas ranging from 31-40%. In the future, it is expected that tick and tick-borne disease risk will change, as tick distribution is strongly influenced by climate. However, Europe-wide models lack sensitivity when predicting future tick distributions. A spatial model was built to predict the future risk of ticks on livestock farms under a range of climate-change scenarios (Chapter 4). Both tick hazard and liv

Given the calls to examine accelerators across different regions and contexts, we ask the research question: How do accelerators adapt to institutional, social, and spatial constraints of emerging and established ecosystems? With this research question, we conduct qualitative research to understand how two different accelerators, one located in Skåne, Sweden and another located in Dhaka, Bangladesh, are affected and shaped by their contexts. These cases were deliberately selected to contrast the regional constraints stemming from established and emerging regions (Eisenhardt and Gaebner, 2007). To develop a broader and more nuanced understanding of how accelerators adapt to different regions, we triangulate our data with multiple stakeholders such as accelerator staff, advisors, and start-up founders. The results indicate that there are marked differences in adaptations of accelerators in emerging regions, especially in bridging institutional gaps. We also observed that common practices across both regions include promoting entrepreneurship culture and collaborating with ecosystem stakeholders. Finally, we present a working theory that can be used as a guide for future research on accelerators in emerging and established ecosystems.

Conservation offsets promise more cost-effective conservation of biodiversity, especially under economic and environmental change. This is because they represent a more flexible approach to biodiversity conservation, allowing for the economic development of ecologically valuable land, provided that this is offset by the restoration of economically used land. Increasing flexibility in permitted trades, however, does not only promise cost savings but very likely leads to unintended loss of biodiversity. Given there is often political pressure towards more flexibility in the design of offsets, it is important to understand the ecological and economic consequences of flexibility. The trade-off between economic costs and biodiversity is analysed using an ecological-economic modelling that considers the three main types of flexibility: spatial flexibility, temporal flexibility and flexibility in (ecosystem) type. The influence of ecological and economic conditions on the flexibility trade-off is explored.

Exposure to pesticides may cause adaptation not only in agricultural pests and pathogens, but also in non-target organisms. Previous studies mainly searched for adaptations in non-target organisms in pesticide-polluted sites. However, organisms may propagate heritable pesticide effects, such as increased tolerance, to non-exposed populations through gene flow. We examined the pesticide tolerance—as one of the pre-assumptions of local adaptation—of the freshwater crustacean Gammarus spp. (at genus level reflecting the gammarid community). The pesticide tolerance was quantified in acute toxicity tests using the insecticide imidacloprid. Gammarids were sampled at pesticide-polluted agricultural sites (termed agriculture), least impacted upstream sites (termed refuge) and transitional sites (termed edge) in six small streams of south-west Germany. Furthermore, we examined the population genetic structure of Gammarus fossarum and the energy reserves (here lipid content) of G. fossarum as well as of Gammarus spp. at the three site types (i.e. agriculture, edge and refuge). We found significantly lower imidacloprid tolerance of Gammarus spp. from agricultural sites compared to edge and refuge sites, potentially due to higher environmental stress at agricultural sites, as indicated by a slightly lower lipid content per mg gammarid tissue. We found no differences in pesticide tolerance between edge and refuge populations, indicating no propagation of pesticide effects to edges. The genetic structure among G. fossarum populations showed significant differentiation between streams, but not within a stream across the site types. We suggest that high gene flow within each stream hindered population differentiation and resulted in similar (pre)adaptations to local stress levels between site types, although they exhibited different pesticide pollution. Further studies on target genes (e.g., conferring pesticide tolerance), population structure and fitness of different phenotypes i