Different Types Of Communities Research Articles

Welcoming New Entrants into European Electricity Markets

In this review paper, we select four important waves of new entrants that knocked on the door of European electricity markets to illustrate how market rules need to be continuously adapted to allow new entrants to come in and push innovation forward. The new entrants that we selected are utilities venturing into neighbouring markets after establishing a strong position in their home market, utility-scale renewables project developers, asset-light software companies aggregating smaller consumers and producers, and different types of communities. We show that well-intentioned rules designed for certain types of market participants can (unintentionally) become obstacles for new entrants. We conclude that the evolution of market rules illustrates the importance of dynamic regulation. At the start of the liberalisation process the view was that we would deregulate or re-regulate the sector after which the role of regulators could be reduced. However, their role has only increased. New players tend to improve the sustainability of the electricity sector in environmental, social, or economic terms but might also present new risks that require intervention by regulators.

A new analysis and prediction model of road traffic based on open community

This paper aims to optimize the road network structure of open residential areas in China. Firstly, the nonlinear coefficient R0 = t3/T is used to study the road condition, using Matlab programming to calculate road network saturation LOS, establish a reasonable evaluation index system of community opening. Then the theoretical model of road resistance function is established, the influence coefficient η of each factor is determined, the traffic influence degree model is established, and the vehicle passing model is obtained. Finally, three different types of community A, B and C are constructed, and then traffic simulation is carried out according to Vissim software. The conclusion is that the degree of road traffic pressure relief is the largest in one type of community, and the least degree in type B community.

Human- and infrastructure-associated bacteria in greywater.

Greywater, the wastewater from sinks, showers and laundry, is an understudied environment for bacterial communities. Most greywater studies focus on quantifying pathogens, often via proxies used in other wastewater, like faecal indicator bacteria; there is a need to identify more greywater-appropriate surrogates, like Staphylococcus sp. Sequencing-based studies have revealed distinct communities in different types of greywater as well as in different parts of greywater infrastructure, including biofilms on pipes, holding tanks and filtration systems. The use of metagenomic sequencing provides high resolution on both the taxa and genes present, which may be of interest in cases like identifying pathogens and surrogates relevant to different matrices, monitoring antibiotic resistance genes and understanding metabolic processes occurring in the system. Here, we review what is known about bacterial communities in different types of greywater and its infrastructure. We suggest that wider adoption of environmental sequencing in greywater research is important because it can describe the entire bacterial community along with its metabolic capabilities, including pathways for removal of nutrients and organic materials. We briefly describe a metagenomic dataset comparing different types of greywater samples in a college dormitory building to highlight the type of questions these methods can address. Metagenomic sequencing can help further the understanding of greywater treatment for reuse because it allows for identification of new pathogens or genes of concern.

Spatiotemporal Modeling of Coniferous Forests Dynamics along the Southern Edge of Their Range in the Central Russian Plain

Forests with predominance of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) within the hemiboreal zone are considered as secondary communities formed under long-term human activity (logging, plowing, fires and silviculture). This study raises the question—how stable is current state of coniferous forests on the southern border of their natural distribution in the center of Eastern Europe using the example of the Moscow region (MR)? The object of the study are spruce and pine forests in different periods of Soviet and post-Soviet history within the Moscow Region (MR). The current proportion of spruce forests is 21.7%, and the proportion of pine forests is 18.5% from total forest area according to our estimates. The direction and rate of forest succession were analyzed based on current composition of populations of the main forest-forming species (spruce, pine, birch, aspen, oak, linden, and ash) based on ground-based research materials collected in 2006–2019. This allowed to develop the dynamic model (DM) of forest communities with the participation of Norway spruce and Scots pine for several decades. Assessment of the spatial distribution of coniferous communities is based on field data and spatial modeling using remote sensing data—Landsat 8 mosaic for 2020. In parallel, a retrospective model (RM) of the spatial-temporal organization of spruce and pine forests for a 30-year period was developed using two Landsat 5 mosaics. For this, nine different algorithms were tested and the best one for this task was found—random forest. Geobotanical relevés were used as a training sample combined with the 2006–2012 mosaic; the obtained spectral signatures were used for modeling based on the 1984–1990 mosaic. Thus, two multi-temporal spatial models of coniferous formations have been developed. Detailed analysis of the structure of spruce and pine forests based on field data made it possible to track trends of successional dynamics for the first time, considering the origin of communities and the ecological conditions of habitats. As a result, ideas about the viability of spruce and pine cenopopulations in different types of communities were formulated, which made possible to develop a dynamic model (DM) of changes in forest communities for future. Comparison of the areas and nature of changes in the spatial structure of coniferous formations made possible to develop the RM. Comparison of two different-time models of succession dynamics (DM and RM) makes possible to correct the main trends in the transformation of coniferous forests of natural and artificial origin under the existing regime of forestry. A set of features was identified that indicates risk factors for coniferous forests in the region. A further decrease of the spruce and pine plantations and increase of the spruce-small-leaved and deciduous formations are expected in the study area. The proportion of pine-spruce forests does not exceed 3% of the area and can be considered as the most vulnerable type of forest.

LOPDF: a framework for extracting and producing open data of scientific documents for smart digital libraries.

BackgroundResults of scientific experiments and research work, either conducted by individuals or organizations, are published and shared with scientific community in different types of scientific publications such as books, chapters, journals, articles, reference works and reference works entries. One aspect of these documents is their contents and the other is metadata. Metadata of scientific documents could be used to increase mutual cooperation, find people with common interest and research work, and to find scientific documents in the matching domains. The major issue in getting these benefits from metadata of scientific publications is availability of these data in unstructured (or semi-structured) format so that it can not be used to ask smart queries that can help in computing and performing different types of analysis on scientific publications data. Also, acquisition and smart processing of publications data is a complicated as well as time and resource consuming task.MethodsTo address this problem we have developed a generic framework named as Linked Open Publications Data Framework (LOPDF). The LOPDF framework can be used to crawl, process, extract and produce machine understandable data (i.e., LOD) about scientific publications from different publisher specific sources such as portals, XML export and websites. In this paper we present the architecture, process and algorithm that we developed to process textual publications data and to produce semantically enriched data as RDF datasets (i.e., open data).ResultsThe resulting datasets can be used to make smart queries by making use of SPARQL protocol. We also present the quantitative as well as qualitative analysis of our resulting datasets which ultimately can be used to compute the research behavior of organizations in rapidly growing knowledge society. Finally, we present the potential usage of producing and processing such open data of scientific publications and how results of performing smart queries on resulting open datasets can be used to compute the impact and perform different types of analysis on scientific publications data.

Urban-rural differences in the prevalence and correlates of mild cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults in Taiwan: The EMCIT study

Taiwan is a rapidly aging society. The elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have increased risk of dementia, and this is a population-based report using standard neuropsychological tests and expert consensus diagnosis to assess the MCI prevalence and its associated factors in Taiwan. The Epidemiology of Mild Cognitive Impairment study in Taiwan (EMCIT) is a community-based, prospective cohort study. Independently-living individuals aged ≧60 years in a rural area (n=122) and in an urban area (n=348) of New Taipei City, Taiwan, completed detailed neuropsychological tests at the cohort baseline. Diagnosis of MCI was ascertained through expert consensus based on 2011 NIA-AA criteria. Of 470 participants recruited between 2017 and 2019 (mean age 71.2±5.4 years), the prevalence of MCI was higher in the rural area than in the urban area (25.1% vs. 10.8%, p<0.001) after standardized for age, gender, and level of education. Having lower education and having depression symptoms were consistently associated with increased risk of MCI in both urban and rural areas (p<0.05). Being male and diabetes were additionally associated with MCI prevalence in urban areas. In this community-based prospective cohort study in Taiwan, the prevalence of MCI in the rural community was much higher than that in the urban community. Different strategies may be needed to targeted different types of communities.

Using the predictive functional profiling of microbial communities to assess the ecological quality of reclaimed waters

The use of proxies for ecosystem function in biomonitoring is desirable to move towards more holistic strategies. Next-generation sequencing of environmental DNA can clearly contribute to these advances. This research is part of a project aimed to use constructed wetlands (CWs), managed by the company Global Omnium (https://www.globalomnium.com/Group/Home/) and having the University of Valencia in charge of the scientific research, in order to improve the ecological quality of already treated wastewaters before being poured into natural environments. The rationale is that, although wastewaters treated by classical methods can meet the standards required by law, transitional constructed ecosystems, as the CWs, can promote ancillary benefits that contribute to the maintenance of the ecological health of receiving natural ecosystems. We propose that some functional traits of the microbial community can be used to outline the process of water renaturation. To assess this, the prokaryotic communities of different types of CWs were profiled by the MiSeq sequencing of the V4 region of the 16S rRNA. Using the sequences obtained, a prediction of the functional capabilities of these communities was made with the bioinformatic package PICRUSt2 (Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States; https://github.com/picrust/picrust2), assuming that phylogeny and function are effectively related attributes. Predictions on the occurrence of functional marker genes, particularly those involved in the biogeochemical cycling of main nutrients (C, N, S, P), were then made. The PICRUSt2 predictions were based in the annotated genes catalog of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database (https://www.genome.jp/kegg/). In general, results indicated a decline in the CWs effluents of microbial functions typical from wastewater in favor of those more suited for the receiving environment. An enhancement of aerobic metabolism was predicted to occur based on the increase of the gene encoding the cytochrome-c oxidase compared to fermentation pathways. Accordingly, both the denitrification and the dissimilatory reduction of sulfate, that are predominant in the anaerobic environments, also decreased in the effluents of the CWs to lower levels more similar to those observed in natural environments, showing a shift towards reactions at higher redox potentials. On the other hand, a development of metabolic skills for degrading plant materials (e.g., xylose, vanillin, syringate, protocatechuate) was also predicted, which was likely related to a parallel transformation of the organic matter pool in the CWs (more unreactive and natural). Additionally, increases observed in pathways for the synthesis of some cell structural compounds (e.g., mycolic acids) and coenzymes (e.g., F420 cofactor, NAD+) can be related with an enhancement of colonization and competitive potentials of the natural microbial community, as well as with changes in the actual availability of nutrients in the environment. Based on these findings, we raise the possibility of considering these functional surveys made on marker genes as a complementary strategy on the biomonitoring procedures, not only for CWs, but for the general study of freshwater ecosystem potentially affected by wastewater pollution.

Running in everyday life and festive culture of the Renaissance and the Modern Age

The subject of this research is determination of the peculiarities of running as a type of activity in the sociocultural situation of the Renaissance and the Modern Age of the Old and New World. The relevance of studying the socially important aspects of running in everyday life and festive, carnival culture of the XV &amp;ndash; XIX centuries is substantiated by the fact that namely this period marks the onset of mental requests and revival of physical practices, which in 1896 would become the heart of the First Olympic Games, the beginning and culmination of which were the athletic competitions. The ancient ideal of kalokagathia at this time is instilled with the ideas of self-sufficiency and self-projectivity of a person, whose creative aspirations equally captivate the spirit and the body. Running develops physical and mental qualities that broaden human capabilities, being that instrument for existential growth through overcoming the boundaries of physical and spiritual &amp;ldquo;normality&amp;rdquo;, conditioned by the stereotypes and norms of everyday life. The author views running from the perspective of culturological concepts of &amp;ldquo;everyday life&amp;rdquo;, &amp;ldquo;festivity&amp;rdquo;, &amp;ldquo;carnival&amp;rdquo;, as well as the binary opposition sacred/profane. The fields of application of the acquired results include social philosophy, philosophical anthropology, and philosophy of sports. The novelty of this research consists in the interpretation of endurance running as an existential measurement of everyday life, the method of communication between different types of communities and population groups, and formation of the prototype of a &amp;ldquo;cultural body&amp;rdquo; of that time. Running is examined as a type of activity that is characteristic mostly to the lower, marginal social classes. Participation in the city festival in the format of a &amp;ldquo;carnival&amp;rdquo; running was a way to integrate into society, a manifestation of collective solidarity. Their buffoonery running distracted the audience from the everyday routine, becoming its counterpoint. The author also determines the contribution of the upper social classes to the development of running practices d: economic (funding of professional runners and material reward for the non-professional winners of the city festivals); practical (amateur running or other athletic practices as a component of a gentleman's everyday life); ideological (Renaissance humanists assumed that physical activity is a non-religious way to overcome time through maintaining physical well-being).

Study of Bacterial Communities in Different Types of Leachates and Their Impact on Solanum lycopersicum Production in Greenhouses

The objective of this research was to know the bacterial communities of leachates fed with cow manure and pig slurry, stored for 120 days and to see the effect on development and growth in the tomato plant. In this study, Illumina Mi-Seq sequencing was used to study the structure of the bacterial communities in the leachates produced in the vermicomposting process using pig slurry (PVL) and cow manure (CVL) as substrate for earthworms (Eisenia fetida), and the effect of leachates on greenhouse tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) production. The results showed variations in the bacterial communities of the leachates used (PVL and CVL), where the phylum Proteobacteria (36.8%) and Cyanobacteria (19.2%) prevailed in PVL, whereas Proteobacteria (46.6%) and Cloroflexi (9.9%) were the most abundant in CVL. Various bacterial groups have been identified with multiple attributes that promote plant growth and where fruit yield is maximized by the absorption of nutrients into the plants by inoculation of bacteria. Leachates from animal waste such as CVL and PVL are good promoters of the growth of S. lycopersicum and the quality of its fruit, due to the bacterial load they contain after processing by vermicomposting and treatment of leachates.

Macrospatial structure and biodiversity of bat communities (Chiroptera) of the European fauna in the forest-steppe habitat

Twelve bat species of seven genera of the family Vespertilionidae were studied in conditions of the Central Forest-steppe of Ukraine (Myotis nattereri, M. daubentonii, M. dasycnemе, Barbastella barbastellus, Plecotus auritus, Pl. аustriacus, Pipistrellus pуgmaeus, P. kuhlii, P. nathusii, Nyctalus noctula, N. leisleri, Vespertilio murinus, and Eptesicus serotinus). The data were collected during decade-long surveys (2007–2016) in the Central Forest-Steppe (Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, and Kyiv Oblasts, Ukraine) at 23 localities. The census route included 680 km walked along the surveyed territory. The species composition of different habitats was determined during faunal and indoor surveys, when a certain type of landscape changes to another, and also by comparing the species composition of communities in different types of habitats. For species diversity comparison, five types of habitats were selected: forest (W), towns and villages (A-W), wood lines and fields (F-W), wetland areas (A-W), and fores parks (W-P). The analysis of record localities of bats and the character of their biotopic distribution shows that most species prefer floodplains with trees (wetland areas (A-W) and forest parks (W-P)), where the maximum number of species was noted. Quite high diversity was also noted for settlements (T-W). Based on abundance, a noticeable decrease of the diversity index occurs during the transfer from the area of wetland types to fields and wood lines. Due to the character of differences between groups of local bat species, relative to spatial distribution of species on topical and trophic levels, the performed analyses helped us to outline four groups of species. The first group includes species united by open type habitats (N. noctula and N. leisleri). The second group comprises V. murinus, E. serotinus, P. pуgmaeus, and P. kuhlii, which are very hard to relate to a separate type of locality. The third group includes species that prefer closed habitats: M. nattereri, M. daubentonii, Pl. auritus, P. nathusii, and B. barbastellus. The fourth group comprises M. dasycnemе, a species that is relatively rare in the studied territory and is related to lakes and slow flowing water bodies.

Variation in diet and activity of river otters (Lontra canadensis) by season and aquatic community

Abstract Keystone predators can impact many prey species, including those that are endangered. A requisite to assess the impact predators have on different prey populations is to identify the species being consumed in different types of communities, while accounting for possible seasonal variation in consumption. Here we used analysis of North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) scat to assess the impact river otters have on their prey populations, particularly endangered salmonids and migrating birds. We analyzed the prey composition of 1,411 river otter scats collected from 10 sites in Humboldt County, California, between 2011 and 2012. Analysis of prey items in scat placed study sites into four distinct clusters based on diet. Fish, mostly from the families Gasterosteidae, Cottidae, and Pholidae, formed the primary prey component, and crustaceans, birds, amphibians, and insects, also were important components of river otter diet. Salmonids constituted &amp;lt; 5% of overall diet, but river otters consumed the largest percentage of salmon during salmon spawning season at the inland cluster where salmonids spawn. Scat marking intensity varied between clusters and seasons, with the most scats collected in the autumn and the fewest in the winter/spring, except at the inland cluster where the pattern of marking activity was reversed. River otters may be responding to seasonal migrations of endangered and threatened salmonids. Diet surveys of this type are useful for monitoring resource use by top predators in aquatic ecosystems.

Heat risk of residents in different types of communities from urban heat-exposed areas

Heat risk assessment is important due to serious health problems caused by heat waves. The complexity and diversity of socio-ecological characteristics in urban areas that lead to heat risk are more serious in heat-exposed areas, while risk assessments and determinant based on individuals in heat-exposed areas have been neglected in previous studies. This study pursues a new idea of combining questionnaire surveys and remote sensing analysis to identify urban heat-exposed areas and assess heat risk in heat-exposed areas of Beijing, China. Morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) was used to identify large and continuous hotspot regions as urban heat-exposed areas based on summer surface temperature from 2011 to 2017. A total of 1484 valid questionnaires were completed by residents of heat-exposed areas. The majority of respondents (96.4%) indicated that they perceived heat risk. Moreover, the residents without a local “hukou” were a potentially vulnerable group (note: hukou refers to the population registration management system.). This study further analysed the diversity of community types within the heat-exposed areas. There were significant differences in heat risk among the different community types of multi-story residential districts, Hutong (a traditional architectural form) residential districts and city villages. In particular, the degree of heat risk perceived by residents living in these the community types was determined by whether they had pre-existing medical conditions; however, age only played a decisive role in city villages. This study not only enriches the current understanding of health risks affected by heat waves but also explores the determinants contributing to the severity of heat risk. The output provides important information for future development of heat mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Species and Trophic Structure of Macrozoobenthos Community in Different Types of Littoral Zones in a Mesotrophic Lake

This article presents the results of a study of the species and trophic structure of the macrozoobenthos community in the littoral zone of mesotrophic Lake Obsterno (Republic of Belarus) having different macrophyte beds (Chara, reeds, and lily). The results of ANOVA have shown the influence of studied biotopes on the number of species and Shannon index. The number of species increased from summer to autumn, but the Shannon index was minimal in the middle of summer. Significant differences in species abundance between biotopes have been obtained for oligochaetes, chironomids, active filter feeders, and predators. There are no differences for Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera. The mean values of species similarity for the studied period are 68.9, 74.1, and 70.0% for reeds, lily, and Chara, respectively. The trophic similarity between groups were 66.3, 54.1, and 69.7%. Significant differences between species and trophic similarity are noted only for the lily beds. The values of variability of species structure during the period are higher than trophic structure; i.e., trophic structure is more stable when compared with species structure.

Mikhail Kondratyev: When There is Only a Name on a Card

The article is dedicated to the memory of an outstanding scientist, founder and dean of the Faculty of Social Psychology at the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education (MSUPE). Mikhail Yurievich Kondratyev was a well-known researcher and practitioner in the field of social psychology, including the problems of closed social groups, status structuring of communities of different types, relations of interpersonal significance, phenomena of power and authority, to mention just a few. He was also the author of over 300 educational, scientific and methodological publications on social, penitentiary, developmental and educational psychology.

Secrecy, Community and Counter-History in Arundhati Roy’s 'The God of Small Things' (1997)

This article explores the different types of communities and the role of secrecy and counter-history in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997), a novel in which secrecy plays a crucial role and in which the most genuine human relations are characterized by a desire to participate in otherness. This article examines Roy’s subversion of the operative community by considering: (a) the different communitarian organizations in The God of Small Things, from the most organic (the caste system, patriarchy, religious institutions, communism and the commodification of culture) to the least organic (the community of Others and the community of lovers); (b) the connection between alterity, finitude and secrecy as preventing the unworked community from organicist fusion; (c) the link between alterity, finitude, secrecy and counter-history. Although ingrained within a deeply organicist community, the main characters in Roy’s novel prove to have a vigorous capacity to trespass communitarian boundaries and to expose themselves to otherness.

Food Acquisition Practices, Body Mass Index, and Dietary Outcomes by Level of Rurality.

Rural residents are more likely to be obese than urban residents. Research on how people navigate their local food environments through food acquisition behaviors, such as food shopping and restaurant use, in different types of communities may help to create a deeper understanding of the multilevel determinants of obesity. Data are from a national sample of US adults ages 18-75. Respondents were recruited from an online survey panel in 2015 and asked about food shopping, restaurant use, diet and weight (N = 3,883). Comparisons were made by level of rurality as assessed by Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) and self-reported rurality of the area around their home. Food acquisition behaviors varied minimally by RUCC-defined level of rurality, with the exceptions of type and distance to primary food store. Rural residents drove further and were more likely to shop at small grocery stores and supercenters than were residents of semiurban or urban counties. In contrast, all of the food acquisition behaviors varied by self-reported rurality of residential areas. Respondents living in rural areas shopped for groceries less frequently, drove further, more commonly shopped at small grocery stores and supercenters, and used restaurants less frequently. In multivariable analyses, rural, small town, and suburban areas were each significantly associated with BMI and fruit and vegetable intake, but not percent energy from fat. Findings show that self-reported rurality of residential area is associated with food acquisition behaviors and may partly explain rural-urban differences in obesity and diet quality.

Temporal stability of cavity‐nesting bee and wasp communities in different types of reforestation in southeastern Amazonia

Global initiatives to recover degraded areas have intensified in recent years. However, the effectiveness of different reforestation practices in restoring habitat stability and essential resources for species over time is poorly known. We tested the degree of temporal stability of bee and wasp communities reestablishiment in different types of forest regeneration compared to intact primary forest in southern Amazonia. Using trap‐nest sampling, we collected, during 12 months, information about the nesting species in six different types of treatments: pastures, teak reforestation, fig and mixed native species, natural regeneration forest, and forest primary. We observed that in all reforested treatments, the abundance and richness of both bees and wasps were greater than in pasture sites. However, not all reforestation strategies had the same degree of effectiveness in maintaining the stability of bee and wasp communities over time than observed in primary forest communities. The high temporal variation in teak structure promoted high instability in bee and wasp communities over time. In contrast, reforestation using perennial species, such as fig or mixed species, resulted in a greater temporal stability of bee and wasp communities, although dissimilarity to primary forest remained high. Communities in natural regeneration were the most similar to primary forest, with high similarity of species composition and high temporal stability across seasons. Our findings suggest that reforestation strategies that promote increased complexity of vegetation structure, and better resemble “natural” forests in the provision of habitat resources throughout the year, will better restore and maintain communities through time.

Different types of agricultural land use drive distinct soil bacterial communities

Biogeographic patterns in soil bacterial communities and their responses to environmental variables are well established, yet little is known about how different types of agricultural land use affect bacterial communities at large spatial scales. We report the variation in bacterial community structures in greenhouse, orchard, paddy, and upland soils collected from 853 sites across the Republic of Korea using 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing analysis. Bacterial diversities and community structures were significantly differentiated by agricultural land-use types. Paddy soils, which are intentionally flooded for several months during rice cultivation, had the highest bacterial richness and diversity, with low community variation. Soil chemical properties were dependent on agricultural management practices and correlated with variation in bacterial communities in different types of agricultural land use, while the effects of spatial components were little. Firmicutes, Chloroflexi, and Acidobacteria were enriched in greenhouse, paddy, and orchard soils, respectively. Members of these bacterial phyla are indicator taxa that are relatively abundant in specific agricultural land-use types. A relatively large number of taxa were associated with the microbial network of paddy soils with multiple modules, while the microbial network of orchard and upland soils had fewer taxa with close mutual interactions. These results suggest that anthropogenic agricultural management can create soil disturbances that determine bacterial community structures, specific bacterial taxa, and their relationships with soil chemical parameters. These quantitative changes can be used as potential biological indicators for monitoring the impact of agricultural management on the soil environment.

The effectiveness of alternative transportation programs in reducing impaired driving: A literature review and synthesis

Introduction: Studies have shown that approximately half of arrested intoxicated drivers had their last alcoholic drink at a licensed bar or restaurant. Current efforts to prevent intoxicated patrons from leaving licensed establishments and driving home have been only partially successful. Since a high proportion of drinkers drive to their drinking destination, promoting the use of alternative transportation (AT) – including safe ride shuttles, free or subsidized taxi and ridesharing services, voluntary or paid designated driver programs, and more accessible public transportation – is an important strategy for preventing impaired driving. The primary goal of this study was to review and synthesize the findings of research studies designed to test the effectiveness of AT programs in reducing alcohol-impaired driving. A secondary goal was to report if using AT has led to any unintended consequences, in particular greater alcohol consumption. Method: We identified relevant academic articles, new articles, government reports, and other documents (English only) through the University of Chicago library, Google Scholar, and Google Search. We also included published articles recommended by peers. Key search terms included: alternative transportation; safe rides; designated driver; alcohol-impaired driving; alcohol consumption, cost effectiveness; and reduce drunk driving. Initially, we identified 168 potentially relevant sources, of which only 57 were academic articles. After a thorough review, we narrowed down the number of relevant articles to 125 including some background articles and government reports. Results: Some AT programs produced reductions in one or more of the following outcomes: (1) impaired driving; (2) impaired driving crashes; (3) driving under the influence (DUI) arrests; and (4) traffic crashes in general, but others were not shown to be effective. A few programs resulted in greater self-reported alcohol use, but there were no significant findings indicating that drinking when using AT led to an increase in alcohol-related harms such as public intoxication, assaults, or other alcohol-related crime. Of the studies that conducted a cost-benefit analysis, most showed that AT programs yielded a positive benefit, but these studies did not include a sufficient number of variables to be considered true cost-benefit analyses. Conclusions: There is mixed evidence regarding the effectiveness of AT programs. Evaluations with more rigorous quasi-experimental and experimental designs are needed to identify which types of AT programs work best for different types of communities and target groups. Practical Applications: The literature review and synthesis revealed that the most successful AT programs typically have some of these attributes: (1) social acceptance; (2) high level of public awareness; (3) low cost; (4) year-round availability; (5) provide rides to and from drinking venues; (6) several sponsors that provide funding); (7) user convenience; and (8) perceived safety.

Commentary: Discharging the Homeless - A Daily Issue in Acute Care.

There are complex issues surrounding hospital discharge planning for people experiencing homelessness. The issue involves the disconnection across policy areas of housing, income supports and mental health, and later health generally. Different models for different types of communities (large urban, mid-size, small and rural areas) likely need to be developed as well as for different types of conditions and different housing histories. The quality of data needs improvement including accuracy. Housing items need to be part of admission processes so that the need for post-discharge housing can be quickly flagged and more accurate data can be made available. System improvements need to include all levels of government, people with lived experience, and health as well as housing/homeless sectors. The income support sector also needs to be included. Discharge planning often assumes there is a fixed address after discharge. This clearly misses the needs of people who have lost their housing.