Changes In Mobility Patterns Research Articles

Combining Continuous Smartphone Native Sensors Data Capture and Unsupervised Data Mining Techniques for Behavioral Changes Detection: A Case Series of the Evidence-Based Behavior (eB2) Study.

BackgroundThe emergence of smartphones, wearable sensor technologies, and smart homes allows the nonintrusive collection of activity data. Thus, health-related events, such as activities of daily living (ADLs; eg, mobility patterns, feeding, sleeping, ...) can be captured without patients’ active participation. We designed a system to detect changes in the mobility patterns based on the smartphone’s native sensors and advanced machine learning and signal processing techniques.ObjectiveThe principal objective of this work is to assess the feasibility of detecting mobility pattern changes in a sample of outpatients with depression using the smartphone’s sensors. The proposed method processed the data acquired by the smartphone using an unsupervised detection technique.MethodsIn this study, 38 outpatients from the Hospital Fundación Jiménez Díaz Psychiatry Department (Madrid, Spain) participated. The Evidence-Based Behavior (eB2) app was downloaded by patients on the day of recruitment and configured with the assistance of a physician. The app captured the following data: inertial sensors, physical activity, phone calls and message logs, app usage, nearby Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, and location. We applied a change-point detection technique to location data on a sample of 9 outpatients recruited between April 6, 2017 and December 14, 2017. The change-point detection was based only on location information, but the eB2 platform allowed for an easy integration of additional data. The app remained running in the background on patients’ smartphone during the study participation.ResultsThe principal outcome measure was the identification of mobility pattern changes based on an unsupervised detection technique applied to the smartphone’s native sensors data. Here, results from 5 patients’ records are presented as a case series. The eB2 system detected specific mobility pattern changes according to the patients’ activity, which may be used as indicators of behavioral and clinical state changes.ConclusionsThe proposed technique could automatically detect changes in the mobility patterns of outpatients who took part in this study. Assuming these mobility pattern changes correlated with behavioral changes, we have developed a technique that may identify possible relapses or clinical changes. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that the detected changes are not always related to relapses and that some clinical changes cannot be detected by the proposed method.

The analysis of residential sorting trends: Measuring disparities in socio-spatial mobility.

Ethnic and socioeconomic segregation levels vary over time and so do the spatial levels of these segregations. Although a large body of research has focused on how residential mobility patterns produce segregation, little is known about how changing mobility patterns translate into temporal and scale variations in sorting. This article develops a methodological framework designed to explore how changing mobility patterns reflect such trends. It introduces a measure of sorting that reflects the extent of disparities among groups in their socio-spatial mobility. Trends in the direction and the extent of sorting can be exposed by computing sorting measures over consecutive periods. The measure is broken down to capture the relative contributions of residential mobility to sorting at hierarchically nested geographical units, for example cities and their constituent neighbourhoods. An empirical demonstration shows that changes in residential mobility patterns affect the magnitude and spatial level of residential sorting, which vary even over the short term.

Late Pleistocene lithic technology and human adaptation in Northeast China: A case study from Taoshan site

Late Pleistocene witnessed significant changes in lithic technological behaviors, mobility patterns and subsistence strategies in northeastern Eurasia, which are also correlated with paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes. Integrating artifact analysis and paleoenvironmental evidence, Taoshan, a newly excavated archaeological site, provides a crucial case study for evaluating human adaptation in Northeast China. Taoshan site was excavated in 2013–2014, uncovering three prehistoric layers and abundant remains. Here we present the results of a systematic techno-typological analysis of the Late Pleistocene assemblages of the site, and place special emphasis on diachronic cultural developments and underlying dynamics.

Identifying seasonal mobility profiles from anonymized and aggregated mobile phone data. Application in food security.

We propose a framework for the systematic analysis of mobile phone data to identify relevant mobility profiles in a population. The proposed framework allows finding distinct human mobility profiles based on the digital trace of mobile phone users characterized by a Matrix of Individual Trajectories (IT-Matrix). This matrix gathers a consistent and regularized description of individual trajectories that enables multi-scale representations along time and space, which can be used to extract aggregated indicators such as a dynamic multi-scale population count. Unsupervised clustering of individual trajectories generates mobility profiles (clusters of similar individual trajectories) which characterize relevant group behaviors preserving optimal aggregation levels for detailed and privacy-secured mobility characterization. The application of the proposed framework is illustrated by analyzing fully anonymized data on human mobility from mobile phones in Senegal at the arrondissement level over a calendar year. The analysis of monthly mobility patterns at the livelihood zone resolution resulted in the discovery and characterization of seasonal mobility profiles related with economic activities, agricultural calendars and rainfalls. The use of these mobility profiles could support the timely identification of mobility changes in vulnerable populations in response to external shocks (such as natural disasters, civil conflicts or sudden increases of food prices) to monitor food security.

Dynamics of the formal and informal labour in Brazil: occupational and earnings mobility

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss recent dynamics of the Brazilian labour market, by analysing occupational mobility patterns, specially the transitions between formal and informal labour, and verify the earnings mobility resulting from these transitions, separately by gender.Design/methodology/approachThe changes in the mobility patterns are analysed by performing an estimation of the transition probabilities between different occupational status between 2002 and 2012, using a multinomial logit model and the microdata from the Monthly Employment Survey (PME). The earnings mobility is analysed by using quantile regressions.FindingsThe results indicate a high degree of mobility from unemployment to formal employment in the period but suggest the persistence of mobility patterns. Women are better off in the period, but only among individuals with better attributes. The earnings mobility results, for women and men, suggest an increase in valuation of the formal labour relatively to informality (informal salaried employment and self-employment), especially at the bottom of the earnings distribution.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to a better understanding of recent changes in occupational mobility patterns between formal and informal labour and the earnings mobility underlying these patterns, accounting for the differences along the earnings distribution and gender issues. That is, it allows identify which groups of workers benefited more from the formalisation process to infer about trends in formal–informal dynamics over the period and discuss the challenges in conducting policies to promote inclusive and quality employment.

Relapse prediction in schizophrenia through digital phenotyping: a pilot study.

Among individuals diagnosed, hospitalized, and treated for schizophrenia, up to 40% of those discharged may relapse within 1 year even with appropriate treatment. Passively collected smartphone behavioral data present a scalable and at present underutilized opportunity to monitor patients in order to identify possible warning signs of relapse. Seventeen patients with schizophrenia in active treatment at a state mental health clinic in Boston used the Beiwe app on their personal smartphone for up to 3 months. By testing for changes in mobility patterns and social behavior over time as measured through smartphone use, we were able to identify statistically significant anomalies in patient behavior in the days prior to relapse. We found that the rate of behavioral anomalies detected in the 2 weeks prior to relapse was 71% higher than the rate of anomalies during other time periods. Our findings show how passive smartphone data, data collected in the background during regular phone use without active input from the subjects, can provide an unprecedented and detailed view into patient behavior outside the clinic. Real-time detection of behavioral anomalies could signal the need for an intervention before an escalation of symptoms and relapse occur, therefore reducing patient suffering and reducing the cost of care.

Does Residential Mobility Anticipate Urban Growth? The Importance of the Local Socioeconomic Context in a European Metropolitan Region

Urban growth at different spatial scales is analysed using the assumptions that large cities have experienced sequential cycles of urbanization, suburbanization and re-urbanization that reflect complex demographic dynamics. Original approaches, quantitative methodologies and indicators are employed to support analysis of urban growth at different spatial scales. Residential mobility is considered as a proxy measure for spatial dynamics, intensity of urban expansion and socioeconomic development at local and regional scales in Mediterranean Europe. By computing the percent share of the population living in the same municipality five years before the census date in the total resident population at the census date, a spatial analysis of residential mobility and related background context allowed for the identification of specific urban cycles, outlining heterogeneous patterns of growth in the metropolitan region of Athens, Greece, over the last three decades (1981–2011). Results indicate that changes in spatial patterns of residential mobility are associated with multiple factors (directly or indirectly), dependent on demographic dynamics and economic cycles exposing (apparent or latent) variability in the socio-spatial urban structure and functional re-organization processes across larger metropolitan areas. Multiple socioeconomic transitions are identified in the study area, with short-range population movements diverging with urbanization, suburbanization and re-urbanization. Under both economic expansion and recession, spatial patterns of residential mobility reflect differential population dynamics, whose knowledge provides innovative visions for future urban cycles in Europe.

Terminal Pleistocene subsistence strategies and aquatic resource use in southern Greece

In many parts of the Mediterranean Basin, the Late Glacial was a dramatic time in terms of demographic, cultural, and technological change. One region that illustrates this especially well is southern Greece, where Upper Paleolithic lifeways transitioned to the Mesolithic with the onset of the Holocene. Previous archaeological research in this area has documented an intensification of meat resources as foragers widened their diet breadth to include more low-return prey animals, eventually shifting their focus to the Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, we synthesize and expand on these previous analyses by combining new data from Kephalari Cave with two other published sites in the Argolid (Peloponnese), Franchthi Cave and Klissoura Cave 1. These three sites provide an ideal case study for examining changes in meat procurement strategies because they have overlapping Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic chronologies and are located within about 45 km of one another. We consider each of the sites within their local environmental contexts, including the contraction of the coastal plain and moving shorelines after the Last Glacial Maximum. Changes in the composition of ungulate prey track local environmental and ecological conditions. The use of low-return species supports an overall picture of resource intensification in the region over time. At Klissoura, the most inland of the three sites, small terrestrial prey increases over the course of the Upper Paleolithic, particularly in the Late Glacial, and until the site was abandoned in the Mesolithic. At both Franchthi and Kephalari, small game are abundant in all Upper Paleolithic layers, but there is no overall trend. However, fishing appears in the Upper Paleolithic (most likely the Gravettoid phase) of Kephalari and during the Epigravettian at Franchthi. Fishing increases dramatically in later layers at both sites. At Franchthi, this trend culminates in open-water fishing of large-bodied tunny in the Upper Mesolithic. Interestingly, the use of Klissoura declined at about the time that fishing became a critical part of the economy at Franchthi, and possibly Kephalari. These subsistence shifts reflect a combination of factors, including growing human populations on a regional level and local responses that included changes in mobility patterns and site use, and more diverse toolkits, as well as changes in Pleistocene shorelines that brought an additional ecosystem closer to two of the sites. These internal and external factors allowed foragers in southern Greece to successfully move into a new ecological niche at the end of the Pleistocene.

Technological variability at Sibudu Cave: The end of Howiesons Poort and reduced mobility strategies after 62,000 years ago.

We evaluate the cultural variation between the youngest Howiesons Poort layer (GR) and the oldest post-Howiesons Poort layers (RB-YA) of Sibudu Cave (KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). We first conducted a technological analysis, secondly we performed a cladistic study with all the technological traits and, finally, we compare the technological variability with other data from Sibudu (ochre, micromorphology, fauna and plant remains). The synapomorphies of the cladistical analysis show numerous lithic technological changes between the youngest Howiesons Poort and the oldest post-Howiesons Poort layers as previously concluded. However, some technological strategies that are present, yet uncommon, in the Howiesons Poort become abundant in the overlying layers, whereas others that were fundamental to the Howiesons Poort continue, but are poorly represented in the overlying layers. We further show that lithic technological strategies appear and disappear as pulses in the post-Howiesons Poort layers studied. Among the most notable changes in the post-Howiesons Poort layers is the importance of flake production from discoidal knapping methods, the unstandardized retouched pieces and their infrequent representation, and the higher than usual frequency of grindstones. We evaluate various hypotheses to explain the transformation of a Howiesons Poort formal industry to a more ‘expedient’ assemblage. Since no marked environmental changes are contemporary with the technological transformation, a change in residential mobility patterns seems a plausible explanation. This hypothesis is supported by the changes observed in stratigraphy, lithic technology, site management, ochre and firewood collection.

What Leads to Lunch—How Social Practices Impact (Non-)Sustainable Food Consumption/Eating Habits

The field of nutrition will face numerous challenges in coming decades; these arise from global consumption patterns and lead to a high use of resources. Actors in the catering sector face difficulties in promoting their solutions for a more sustainable situation in their field, one of them being the lack of acceptance from consumers. We must ask the question of how to influence consumer behavior and bring forth a transition towards more sustainable food consumption. This paper presents results of a qualitative assessment of eating practices. A group of ten consumers participated in problem-centered interviews and provided data on their eating-out behavior over the course of two weeks. Using the theoretical approach of practice theory, the data gathered in this study were used to form an understanding of the practice of eating out with a focus on the daily routines that influence consumer choices. The results indicate that the practice of eating out is highly dependent on external factors. Busy lifestyles, mobility routines and a perceived lack of time prompt the decision to eat out. Consumers consciously do so to save time and effort and to streamline their schedules. Mobility seems to be an important driver for eating out. Participants try to limit the ways they undertake eating out yet often stop for a meal in-between appointments spontaneously. Findings suggest that nutrition knowledge and sustainable mindsets have little influence on the eating decisions away from home: Participants show a high level of distrust towards quality claims and put their health concerns aside eating out. We can conclude that the act of eating out is strongly influenced by daily routines and those practices that precede or succeed it. Changes in work and mobility patterns are very likely to have an impact on the way consumers eat away from home.

Re-bounding EU citizenship from below: practices of healthcare for ‘(Il)legitimate EU Migrants’ in Italy

ABSTRACTSince multiple crises are currently affecting Europe, interest on changes in intra-EU mobility patterns, policies and EU movers’ strategies of integration has re-emerged in academic debates. What seems to still lack to date is a focus on the chaining actors linking the macro level of policies and the micro level of individual strategies, that is, civil servants who are in charge of implementing national policies in their daily encounters with EU citizens. Through an in-depth qualitative analysis of formal policies and daily practices in the field of healthcare for EU citizens in Piedmont, in the North of Italy, this contribution analyses how EU citizens’ right to free movement and equal access to social protection is officially framed and concretely enacted within the boundaries of the Italian National Healthcare System and the role of health workers as de facto citizenship-makers. It suggests that, along with managerial orientations, different evaluations of the Italian economic and financial situation, and of EU citizens’ root motivations behind their decisions to move across Europe play a crucial role in shaping health workers’ assessments of EU citizens’ deservingness of healthcare.

Screening for tuberculosis in an urban shelter for homeless in Switzerland: a prospective study

BackgroundWhereas high risk groups such as asylum seekers are systematically screened for active tuberculosis (TB) upon entry in Switzerland, this strategy does not apply to homeless persons despite a reported high risk. Geneva health and social authorities implemented an intersectoral project to screen for active TB in homeless persons. We aimed to assess acceptability of this program and prevalence of active TB in this group.MethodsThis prospective study targeted all homeless adults registering for shelter accommodation in Geneva during winter 2015. Applicants were proposed a questionnaire-based screening (www.tb-screen.ch) exploring epidemiological and clinical risk factors for active TB. Participants with a positive score underwent diagnostic procedures at Geneva University Hospital. Enhanced TB surveillance targeting homeless persons in the community was continued 3 months after the study termination.ResultsOverall, 726/832 (87.3%) homeless persons accepted the screening procedure. Most were young male migrants without access to care in Switzerland. Male gender (adjusted OR: 2.14; 95% confidence interval: 1.27–3.62), age below 25 years (aOR: 4.16; 95% CI: 1.27–13.64) and short duration of homelessness (aOR: 1.75; 95% CI: 1.06–2.87) were predictors of acceptance. Thirty (4.1%) had positive screening scores but none of the 24 who underwent further testing had active TB. Post-study surveillance did not identify any incident case in Geneva.ConclusionsActive TB screening targeting highly mobile homeless persons in shelters was well accepted and feasible. The participants’ sociodemographic profile highlighted the heterogeneity of homeless groups in Europe and the null TB prevalence the variability of their active TB risks. These findings underline the feasibility of health programs targeting this hard to reach group and the need for close monitoring of this social group considering the rapid changes in international mobility patterns to tailor preventive and screening strategies to the local context.

Subadult Age at Death and Health Status at Niah Cave, Borneo (1500–200 bc)

AbstractSoutheast Asia's transition to rice agriculture is often used as an exception to the general pattern of health decline at the agricultural transition. Niah Cave is the largest known Southeast Asian Neolithic cemetery, providing valuable information about subadult health during the agricultural transition in this region. This study examines the health status and mortuary treatment of subadult skeletal remains (Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) = 49) from the Neolithic cemetery of Niah Cave, Sarawak, Malaysia (1500–200 bc). This study found that few cases of cribra orbitalia (4.6%) and porotic hyperostosis (14%). However, nonspecific infections may have been a risk factor for subadults as over half (65%) died with active cases of periosteal reactions on their long bones. Differential diagnosis determined that possible factors for this include parasite load, rickets and scurvy. Mortuary practices indicate that subadults may have been treated differently in phases 1 and 2 but were grated similar mortuary treatment in phases 3 and 4. This study suggests that changes in mobility patterns may have placed subadults at risk for increased parasite load and vitamin deficiency, while the role of subadults within the community may have changed over time. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Achados de fala, deglutição e qualidade de vida na mielinólise extrapontina: relato de caso de uma adolescente com germinoma do sistema nervoso central

RESUMO O presente trabalho é um relato de caso que descreve os achados fonoaudiológicos e de qualidade de vida apresentados por uma adolescente com um tumor do sistema nervoso central acometida pela mielinólise extrapontina. A mielinólise extrapontina é uma doença desmielinizante aguda que pode ser causada por variações abruptas na osmolaridade sérica, como o que ocorre na rápida correção da hiponatremia. Os dados foram obtidos a partir da avaliação clínica fonoaudiológica, de questionários pediátricos sobre a qualidade de vida e dados contidos no prontuário médico. A paciente apresentou mutismo, disartria e disfagia decorrentes da mielinólise extrapontina, com impactos significativos na sua comunicação verbal, alimentação e qualidade de vida. Os escores de qualidade de vida após a mielinólise extrapontina apresentaram piora quando comparados aos do período anterior à doença. Recebeu atendimento fonoaudiológico hospitalar e ambulatorial. Foram observadas evoluções nos padrões de fala, deglutição e mobilidade das estruturas orofaciais, com reversão parcial dos déficits neurológicos. A atuação fonoaudiológica, como parte de uma equipe multiprofissional de saúde, é de grande importância na reabilitação funcional dos pacientes acometidos por esta doença.

Restructuring and Changes in Occupational Mobility in U.S.

This study aims to estimate the impact of US restructuring during the late 1990s and the early 2000s on workers’ career trajectories, in terms of changes in patterns of occupational mobility. In this study, I introduce various middle range theories that emphasize specific aspects of restructuring and test whether their predictions regarding the impact of restructuring on workers’ careers accurately account for observed patterns of occupational mobility. Based on estimation from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the result shows that the career trajectory of U.S. workers has significantly changed since 1990 and, more importantly, the profiles of the changes have been remarkably different between internal mobility and external mobility. Most notably, occupational immobility has increased among workers who stayed in the same firm and decreased among workers who switched firms. To conclude, employment restructuring in the U.S. appears to have proceeded in a way that incorporates both functional flexibility and numerical flexibility, creating polarized groups of “organizational insiders” and “organizational outsiders.” As a result, workers’ career trajectories have been significantly transformed both inside and outside organizations.

Assessment of the potential for modal shift to non-motorised transport in a developing context: Case of Lima, Peru

Under the logic of Avoid, Shift, Improve, fostered by donors and NGOs worldwide, cities in the global south are investing emphatically in non-motorised facilities and policies for low-carbon mobility aiming to reduce the adverse environmental impacts of urban mobility. Such is the case of Lima, Peru, our case study. Through the analysis of the potential for integration of non-motorised facilities with current and planned public transport networks, we seek to provide evidence on the planning considerations of non-motorised facilities in Lima with an emphasis on multi-modal travel and integration of non-motorised infrastructure. We develop spatial coverage, capacity and accessibility assessment of the ‘supply side’ of the transport network. In addition, the research studies the local transport system and travel patterns to identify trips with the potential to shift to non-motorised alternatives. Based on these analyses we estimate indicators of potential coverage, changes in mobility patterns and distributional effects of current investments. Our analysis suggests that coverage of high-capacity public transport can potentially increase by up to six times if integrated adequately with cycling facilities. The research provides methodological and empirical contributions to debates related to the capacity of cities in the global south to adopt low-carbon mobility in the foreseeable future.

Contentious mobilities and Cheap(er) Labour: Temporary Foreign Workers in a New Brunswick Seafood Processing Community

Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is highly contentious. Particularly contentious are those parts of the program that have allowed for exploitative labour practices and the replacement of Canadian workers. Mobility for employment has been increasing, and researchers have focused on different types of mobile workers ranging from international (including the TFWP) to intra-provincial migrants, often in isolation from each other. Less research has focused on multiple mobilities within one industry to understand how and why labour force composition and employee mobility patterns change over time. Also under researched is why demand exists for TFWs in areas with high unemployment. This paper uses a case study of the seafood processing industry (both wild and farmed) in a rural region of New Brunswick to explore this industry’s claims about labour shortages and serial reliance on differently mobile labour forces over time. It draws on findings from a review of relevant documents and ethnographic fieldwork including interviews. Using the historical changes in the (im)mobility patterns of processing workers in this region, this paper highlights how the increased use of the TFWP by seafood processing companies is tied to manufactured raced and gendered employer practices.

Lifestyle mobility in China: context, perspective and prospects

A transition in theoretical orientation from migration to mobility in the study of geographical and social movement in contemporary China highlights and resonates with significant political, social and cultural transformations in the past 40 years. Changes in mobility patterns also reveal a shift from production-led peasant worker migration, which has dominated international academic studies on China in the past few decades with a focus on working individuals driven by market forces, to a more individualized and diverse consumption-led mobility. Although the mobilities paradigm has not been an important lens for theoretical investigations of China to date, it provides insights into contemporary social changes that may otherwise be missed. In this paper, we use a focus on lifestyle mobility to investigate changes in mobility systems and new inequalities and dynamics. The analysis shows that the emergence of a new middle class, the arrival of a consumerist society, and traditional Confucian culture have substantially influenced a ‘mobility shift’ in China. However, misalignment still exists between the rapidly growing numbers of lifestyle migrants and the immobile social infrastructures that are not designed to accommodate such lifestyle mobility. A static social and political infrastructure continues to challenge traditional relationships between being at home and away, between individuals, families and communities, and between individuals’ aspirations for life elsewhere and obligations to be fulfilled in their home areas. The examination of middle-class lifestyles can also help in understanding those traditional relationships at a time when consumption-led mobility is becoming increasingly prominent in Chinese society.

IMPLICATIONS OF SPRAWLED AND COMPACT DEVELOPMENT ON MOBILITY PATTERNS: A CASE-STUDY OF BHOPAL, INDIA

Cities across the world are witness to increasing phenomenon of urban sprawl. The paper contends that sprawl affects mobility in terms of increased dependence on private motor vehicle which is high in energy use and carbon emissions. The study is based on primary investigation of three neighbourhoods in Bhopal city (India), the first two lying within the city in varying contexts and the third outside the present city limits which can be classified as a sprawl. The analysis throws significant light on the changes in mobility pattern in areas with more compact development vis-à-vis those that have sprawled with relatively lower densities. It shows that densely populated areas having mixed use has higher share of walk trips and that the average trip length is higher in lower density areas in sprawls. The study further examines the role of land use planning, zoning regulations and urban form in encouraging sustainable mobility.

IMPLICATIONS OF SPRAWLED AND COMPACT DEVELOPMENT ON MOBILITY PATTERNS: A CASE-STUDY OF BHOPAL, INDIA

Cities across the world are witness to increasing phenomenon of urban sprawl. The paper contends that sprawl affects mobility in terms of increased dependence on private motor vehicle which is high in energy use and carbon emissions. The study is based on primary investigation of three neighbourhoods in Bhopal city (India), the first two lying within the city in varying contexts and the third outside the present city limits which can be classified as a sprawl. The analysis throws significant light on the changes in mobility pattern in areas with more compact development vis-Ã -vis those that have sprawled with relatively lower densities. It shows that densely populated areas having mixed use has higher share of walk trips and that the average trip length is higher in lower density areas in sprawls. The study further examines the role of land use planning, zoning regulations and urban form in encouraging sustainable mobility.