Local Coverage Research Articles

Capacity Expansion Optimization of Determined Charging Stations Based on Accessibility Analysis and Improved Discrete Choice Model

Reasonable capacity expansion optimization of determined charging stations is important for the popularization of electric vehicles (EVs). In this article, Gaussian two-step floating catchment area method and temporal clustering are adopted to study the unbalanced spatial and temporal distribution of charging station accessibility, as well as to determine candidate sites for capacity expansion optimization. Then, a two-level optimization model for capacity expansion of determined charging stations is proposed to reduce the computational complexity caused by the non-linearity and non-convexity of choice probability formulas when the discrete choice model is applied to statistically describe and analyze discrete behaviors such as users’ EV purchase preferences and charging station heterogeneity. In the proposed method, the lower-level model is described as a maximal coverage location problem by expressing the error term of the utility function as a linear combination of the random vectors from IID normal distribution and IID Gumbel distribution, which effectively simplifies the computing process. Finally, the two-level model can be transformed into an integer linear programming problem to optimize the capacity of determined charging stations. Experimental results show that the purchase rate of EVs is significantly improved, and the accessibility of charging stations during rush hours is more balanced than before.

Local versus National News about COVID-19 in Spain: Coverage and Public Engagement

ABSTRACT In this study, we evaluated the differences between national and local newspapers coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain using a dataset of 421,438 Facebook posts. We assessed the trends in the interest in COVID-19 of local and national newspapers, measured as the proportion of COVID-19 news; and also, the trends in the interest of their readers, measured as the proportion of interactions related to COVID-19. While the overall interest in COVID-19 in local and national newspapers was similar and high, some differences were observed between several of the pandemic phases. National news media interest was higher during the long central phases of the pandemic, but certain news fatigue was observed by the end of 2021. Local news media interest seemed more constant throughout the pandemic. Surprisingly, the overall interest of national and local newspapers was consistently lower than the interest of their readers. Our study also shows homogenous responses among local newspapers during the key phases of the pandemic and heterogeneous responses in the remaining phases. Finally, we found that in the case of local media, their news and interactions were more correlated with the national epidemiological indicators (i.e., cases and deaths) than with the local indicators.

Shuttering Schools in the Gateway City: School District Viability and Black Community Relations After Mass K-12 School Closures in St. Louis, MO

ABSTRACT Since 1990, over 40% of schools have closed in the St. Louis Public Schools District (SLPSD) because of steep enrollment decline. Tracing educational trends over 30 years, I examine when, where, and why K-12 public schools closed in St. Louis in order to highlight the social conditions and policy decisions that contract contemporary urban education. I ask: What key social factors influence K-12 school closure patterns in St. Louis, Missouri? This mixed methods study summarizes analyses of data from the U.S. Department of Education, the St. Louis Public Schools District, and local news coverage to describe trends, determinants, and consequences of K-12 public school closures in St. Louis, Missouri (1990–2020). Findings demonstrated that closures in the city district were concentrated in majority-Black neighborhoods, with limited evidence of benefits to youth and communities. Findings also indicated that attempts to create educational change through the desegregation transfers program, charter school expansion, and administrative restructuring all triggered waves of closures. Drawing from community relations perspectives, I interpret mass closures as racialized policy practices that strain Black community relations and contract city districts. I argue that recurrent closures undermine youth and community development and disengage Black communities in ways that threaten district viability. Conclusions weigh whether the closure practices in the district have caused irreparable damage to Black community relations or if new policy objectives can foster long-term growth.

Regional Drinking Water Supply in Pakistan: Regional Disparity, Inequality, and Development Pattern

This article explores the regional disparities in water supply coverage in Pakistan in the context of intraregional development patterns. We applied the Gini index, Esteban and Ray index, and Moran’s I to measure regional development patterns in terms of inequality, polarization, and spatial concentration and build an integrated framework combining them with other widely accepted factors to understand regional differences in water coverage quantitatively. Our results show that improved water (tap and pump water) is more widely supplied in Pakistan with lower inequality but higher spatial concentration than tap water supply coverage, although the patterns differ by urban–rural divisions and provinces. Western regions with smaller populations tend to have higher tap water coverage, and eastern regions with large populations are more covered by improved water. The regression models show various mechanisms of improved water and tap water coverage. Both are related to local economic conditions but tap water coverage is more related to local environmental conditions, and improved water is more related to local demographic conditions. Strong and dense population centers decrease improved water coverage but promote tap water coverage. Urban planners and policymakers should address polycentric regional development to fulfill various development targets and improve regional equity of drinking water coverage in terms of accessibility, availability, and quality.

Read all about it: examining newspaper coverage of the local environmental risks posed by the Radford Army Ammunition Plant

This study examines the factors contributing to the inclusion of scientific information in local news coverage of environmental risks. We conducted a content analysis of articles about environmental issues associated with the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, Virginia’s largest point source of toxic chemical releases. We coded 116 articles published between 2000 and 2019 according to three criteria: the inclusion of scientific information, who is making claims, and whether or not explicit risks are identified. Only 35.3% of the articles reviewed include scientific information. Logistic regression indicates that when an article includes claims made by state officials and/or explicitly asserts the existence of environmental risks, it is more likely to include scientific information. Articles that include claims from community activists are less likely to include scientific information. We examine potential explanations for these patterns.

How to Transform a Perforator Propeller Flap into a Keystone Flap in Case of Unsatisfying Perforator Vessel Local Perforator Flap Coverage in Limbs.

Moderate soft-tissue defects need stable coverage, ideally with tissue of similar characteristics and low donor site morbidity. We propose a simple technique for the coverage of moderate skin defects in the limbs. It allows intraoperative transformation of a propeller perforator flap (PPF) into a keystone design perforator flap (KDPF) in cases of unsatisfying perforator vessel or in cases of unpredictable intraoperative events. Between March 2013 and July 2019, nine patients with moderate soft-tissue defects (mean defect size 4.5 × 7.6 cm) in the limbs (two on the upper limbs and seven on the lower limbs) were covered using this technique. We performed four PPFs and five KDPFs. The mean follow-up was 5 months. There was one complication, partial distal tip necrosis in a PPF located in the leg, which healed by secondary intention within 3 weeks. The donor site was closed directly in all cases. No functional impairments were noted regardless of the perforator flap utilized. This technique enables us to employ flexible surgical strategies and allows us to make adjustments based on the patient's vascular anatomy.

Accounting Quality and Household Stock Market Participation

SYNOPSISRecent research documents that there is significant variation in stock market participation by state and suggests that there may be state-specific factors that determine stock market participation of U.S. households. Using household survey data, we examine how state-level, public-company accounting quality affects households’ stock market participation decisions. We find that households residing in states where local public companies have better accounting quality are more likely to invest in stocks. Also, those households invest greater amounts of their wealth in the stock market. Furthermore, we present some evidence that accounting quality affects stock market participation through local press coverage. Additional cross-sectional tests show that the effect of accounting quality on stock market participation is more pronounced among less affluent and less educated households, consistent with prior findings that familiarity with and trust in the stock market are more important for those types of households to make stock investments.JEL Classifications: D14; G11; M41.

Electric Fences for Dockless Bike-Sharing Systems: An Electric Fence-Planning Framework for a Dockless Bike-Sharing System Based on a Land Parcel Subdivision and Regional Coverage Maximization

Dockless bike sharing (DBS) is convenient for bike users because it can solve their last-mile problems. However, dockless bikes that are disorderly parked in public spaces can disturb normal traffic. In planning electric fences for DBS systems, the maximum coverage location problem (MCLP) identifies locations suitable for electric fences. However, the MCLP model ignores the regional boundaries of bike use and causes substantial errors in coverage assessments. In this article, we present a novel framework for planning electric fences, accounting for both trip distribution and area shapes. We first introduce a dynamic land parcel subdivision algorithm, which can reasonably divide the city into fine-scale regions concerning the distributions of spatial parking demands. Then, we formulate the electric fence-planning problem as a regional coverage maximization problem. We develop an accelerated maximum coverage model with complementary coverage (MCMCC) to locate electric fence areas, which can improve solution accuracy and reliability. The DBS data of Shenzhen, China, are used to validate the framework. The study findings indicate that MCMCC produces more robust and accurate results than the MCLP model because the planning solutions are not affected by changes in the shapes and sizes of the regions. The framework can also automatically and accurately determine electric fence capacities and locations.

공공데이터 기반 공영주차장 최적입지 선정을 위한 최대 커버지역 문제(MCLP) 해결 기법

The illegal parking problem is the biggest problem around the world. Seoul and many metorpolitan cities are making great efforts to solve the problem by introducing policies to expand parking supply and curb parking demand. However, in urban areas of metropolitan cities, land prices are high and no site is available for parking lots, a vast budget is spent to make additional parking lots. Therefore, the creation of extra parking lots is extremely limited. Also, it is not easy to obtain parking lots because urban areas have a large floating population, an there is a variation in the floating population over time. In this paper, we present a method for selecting the optimal location for public parking lots through the Maximum Coverage Location Problem (MCLP). It allows policymakers to distribute parking demand in a metropolitan city and reduce parking concentration. Moreover, congestion on nearby roads can be alleviated by reducing queues for parking and wandering time to find a parking lot and reducing social costs to prevent illegal parking.

Empirical Evidence on the Reliability of Lateral Supramalleolar Flap over Reverse Sural Flap for Local Soft Tissue Coverage of Dorsum of the Foot and Ankle Defects.

Background Soft tissue coverage of the distal foot and ankle region has been an area of debate due to the paucity of local flap options. To provide empirical evidence on the reliability of an underreported local alternative for foot and ankle defects, we aim to compare the lateral supramalleolar flap (LSMF) to the reverse sural flap (RSF). Methods During 2016-2019, 48 patients were divided randomly into two equal groups, LSMF and RSF groups respectively. The patients' demographic, surgical, and clinical outcome details were recorded and analyzed. Results Flap necrosis was found in five patients in the group treated with RSF and none in the LSMF group. The mean total number of stages in RSF group was significantly higher than in LSMF group ( p < 0.05). The mean operative time for patients in LSMF group was 85.8 ± 18.5 and 54.2 ± 11.2 in RSF group ( p < 0.05). Five patients in the RSF group needed additional procedures following flap complications. Nine patients in the LSMF group reported satisfaction outcomes to be "excellent," five patients reported "good" whereas, in the RSF group, 14 patients reported "excellent," 5 reported "good," 3 reported "fair," and 2 reported "poor" outcomes. Compared to the RSF (46.4 ± 4.3) group, the LSMF group had significantly better foot function indices (34.03 ± 3.9). Conclusion The lateral supramalleolar flap for foot and ankle defects offers better results, reduced complications as well a lesser number of stages and secondary procedures over the traditionally used reverse sural flap.

An agent-based modeling approach for public charging demand estimation and charging station location optimization at urban scale

As the market penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) increases, the surge of charging demand could potentially overload the power grid and disrupt infrastructure planning. Hence, an efficient deployment strategy of electrical vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) is much needed. This study attempts to address the EVSE problem from a microscopic perspective by formulating the problem in two steps: public charging demand simulation and charging station location optimization. Specifically, we apply agent-based modeling approach to produce high-resolution daily driving profiles within an urban-scale context using MATSim. Subsequently, we perform EV assignment based on socioeconomic attributes to determine EV adopters. Energy consumption model and public charging rule are specified for generating synthetic public charging demand and such demand is validated against real-world public charging records to guarantee the robustness of simulation results. In the second step, we apply a location approach – capacitated maximal coverage location problem (CMCLP) model – to reallocate existing charging stations with the objective of maximizing the coverage of total charging demands generated from the previous step under the budget and load capacity constraints. The entire framework is capable of modeling the spatiotemporal distribution of public charging demand in a bottom-up fashion, and provide practical support for future public EVSE installation.

Perpetuating Perpetrators: News Coverage of Perpetrators and Victims of the Columbine and Parkland Shootings

ABSTRACT Since the Columbine school shootings more than two decades ago, advocates have called for mass shooting coverage at local and national levels to reduce focus on perpetrators and instead increase focus on victims. Given these recommendations, the present study explored the degree to which recent local and national news coverage of the Parkland school shooting is consistent with suggested best practice compared to the precedent-setting Columbine coverage. Newspaper coverage following both shootings was examined, resulting in an analysis of 641 national and local print news articles. Results indicate local Parkland coverage exhibited a greater percentage of articles that referenced the perpetrator by name compared to local Columbine coverage, and references were in more prominent locations, such as the article title and lead paragraph. No other statistical differences were found in perpetrator and victim references between Columbine and Parkland coverage. Findings suggest that despite continued calls to give less focus to perpetrators of mass shootings in local and national news, perpetrators still perpetuate in coverage. Results highlight the need to identify barriers to implementing recommendations for responsible reporting of mass shooting events.

High‐Resolution Nighttime Temperature and Rock Abundance Mapping of the Moon Using the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment With a Model for Topographic Removal

AbstractThe Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been mapping the surface temperatures of the Moon since 5 July 2009. Diviner has since collected over 500 billion radiometric measurements with excellent spatial and local time coverage. However, the most recently published high‐resolution Diviner global maps only use data collected from 2009 to 2016. In this work, we compile ∼13 years of Diviner data to produce improved global maps of nighttime brightness temperature, bolometric temperature, regolith temperature, and rock abundance (RA). Errors in Diviner's pointing have been corrected and past effective field of view modeling has been optimized to improve data georeferencing without spatial interpolation. We estimate an effective resolution of ∼330 m longitudinally and ∼700 m latitudinally at the equator, which corresponds to an improvement of ∼3.5× longitudinally and ∼1.3× latitudinally. In addition, we develop a thermal model that accounts for indirect scattering and emission from surrounding topography. The resulting temperature anomaly maps better highlight variations in temperature caused by thermophysical properties by removing most topographic effects. These improvements allow for the identification of smaller and fainter thermal features than was previously possible. The improved effective resolution of Diviner maps allows for excellent spatial correlation with other high‐resolution data sets. To demonstrate this, we compare Diviner RA to a manual survey of boulders in the Apollo 17 landing site region. We show that Diviner RA correlates well with the areal fraction of rocks larger than ∼1–2 m in diameter visible in LRO Camera imagery.

Negative Pressure Therapy for Treatment of Wounds with Exposed Bone and Dura

Introduction: Previous dogma has rejected that it is safe to apply a wound vacuum dressing directly onto the brain dura without a barrier. This case presents successful wound healing in a patient with previous failed free flap and skin grafting of her frontotemporal craniotomy wound with wound vacuum dressing application. Case Presentation: The patient is a 76-year-old female with a past medical history of an osseous meningioma who has undergone four prior resections (1994, 2002, 2012, 2021). She underwent her last craniotomy and resection with neurosurgery, leaving a large frontotemporal defect. At that time, a local flap was utilized by extending the resection incision pre- and post-auricular in a “face lift” fashion to gain closure of 95% of the defect. After two months, she returned to the OR due to loss of two areas of the local flap, anteriorly over the left forehead and posteriorly near the rotation point just superior to the ear. There was exposed bone and cranioplasty. A bipedicle fasciocutaneous flap was then created from the left frontal hairline to the midline occipital region with supraorbital and left occipital artery vascular supply. A split-thickness skin graft was applied to the posterior area that was still uncovered. She continued to experience complications with necrosis of areas of the skin flap, which included an additional cranioplasty and attempted local flap coverage, as well as a radial forearm free flap. Flap healing was complicated by pseudomonas infection, which caused partial failure with an area of exposed bone and scarred dura. Management and Outcomes: A black sponge wound vacuum dressing with silver impregnated barrier dressing was applied to the area on the non-wound side of the sponge. Over the course of three months, the patient experienced marked reduction in the size of the wound with progressive closure. Discussion: There has been literature on the benefit of wound vacuum assisted closure in complex wounds and reconstructions in various parts of the body with evidence of reduced surgical site infections and wound necrosis. However, evidence of benefit in scalp reconstruction is largely limiterrd to case series and reports. In these described case reports patients had improved outcomes with fewer dressing changes, and increased success with subsequent skin grafts. Similarly, our patient underwent wound vacuum therapy, after recurrent chronic wound infection with bony defect and recurrent flap failure. She had improved wound healing, resolution of infection and decrease of the defect size. Conclusion: In conclusion, there is a potential bernefit to using wound vacuum assisted therapy in scalp defects that have failed previous reconstruction attempts that merits serious consideration. In this case, it has allowed for better wound healing and has allowed the patient an improved quality of life. Corresponding Author: Yitzchok Greenberg, 2799 W Grand Bvd, Detroit, MD 48202; 313-673-7190

Learning from the Czech Republic’s experiences with growing applied behavior analysis services for children with autism

ABSTRACT Prior to 2016 applied behavior analysis (ABA) was relatively unknown in the Czech Republic. However, the region’s ABA community has grown exponentially over the last six years. This growth may be attributed to the work of families and professionals linked to the region’s autistic community. This progress has not been without challenges. Along the way, there have been numerous vocal opponents across various fields. Despite pushback, the headstrong ABA community has managed to: establish ABA professional organizations, hold ABA conferences, train various professionals in ABA, and pass laws surrounding the profession and its practice. Through efforts such as holding free community-based workshops, creating ABA-centric continuing education trainings for other helping professions, recruiting local media coverage, collaborating with other organizations, presenting multiple exemplars of case studies using ABA-based methods across disciplines, and lobbying the government for change, ABA is on its way to becoming a more available option for supporting those with autism in the area. This paper shares the trials and tribulations of the region, hoping that the experiences and actionable points here can help move similar nations towards ABA dissemination and professional establishment.

Distally-based (Reverse) Medial Hemi-flexor Hallucis Brevis Muscle Flap in a Series of High-risk Patients: Retrospective Case Series.

In this case series, an uncontrolled, retrospective review of the medical records was performed, identifying patients with diabetes who underwent an rmFHB muscle flap performed by a single surgeon. Outcomes measured included the need for secondary soft-tissue procedures at the index surgery; complications; percentage and time to wound healing, defined as epithelialization of wound site; and short-term survival rate (12 months). Healing was demonstrated at a mean of 12 weeks, and the preservation of the distal first ray was achieved in 94% of those patients (12/13). One patient went on to first ray amputation and two were deceased before healing. All patients ambulated in shoes with custom molded inserts without complication postoperatively. No recurrence of ulceration was encountered at 12 months follow-up. This study demonstrates that the rmFHB muscle flap may serve as an option for distal first ray soft-tissue defects when local flap coverage is needed due to exposed deep or avascular structures not amenable to skin grafting or conservative wound care techniques. No cases of recurrence of ulceration occurred during this study.

Information flows from local to national: Evidence from 21 major US cities

Local journalism is in decline in the United States. As one way to assess the state of local journalism, this study examines the information flows between local and national media in the online media ecosystem. Focusing on metropolitan journalism, this paper empirically investigates whether and when a city’s local news coverage can influence national news portrayal of the city. This research draws from intermedia agenda setting (IAS) theory and examines a large news data set related to the most populated 21 US cities. The results suggest that local media are not more likely to transfer the salience of their urban issues to the national media agenda than reversely. In addition, a city’s economic power and the scale of its local journalistic infrastructure, especially the traditional media sector, are significantly correlated with its local media’s power to determine how the city is portrayed in the national media.

Random parameters modeling of charging-power demand for the optimal location of electric vehicle charge facilities

Nowadays, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are considered a disruptive technology that will-with time-become dominant over their predecessor. EVs range and cost are closely linked, where users can essentially trade one for the other as the battery is the single largest cost of an EV. Developing countries (e.g., Jordan) face several challenges related to the current supporting environment and infrastructure. Thus, the lack of reliable charging infrastructure is a key obstacle that would slow down the EVs' expansion. This paper aims to understand the feasibility of instigating EV charge facilities based on different parameters including charging technologies, charging-power demand, and potential locations of EV charge facilities. For this purpose, the Maximum Covering Location Model (MCLM) is utilized to optimize the charging demand. This optimization model is based upon the anticipated charging demand (daytime and nighttime). Also, different charging scenarios are selected to deal with different levels of charging technologies classified based on their charging speed and power. Moreover, a random parameters approach is adopted, for the first time, to model the demand for charging power in each district. A linear mixed-integer problem with multiple constraints is also formulated to optimize the charging station location and level of coverage over a relatively large metropolitan area. Thus, the study has a novel input to the prevailing charging demand modeling from coverage and financial feasibility perspectives, as well as guides stockholders and policymakers to improve EVs’ adoption.

Optimized Range-Free Localization Scheme Using Autonomous Groups Particles Swarm Optimization for Anisotropic Wireless Sensor Networks

Location information is a required concern in localization-based service application in the field of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Distance Vector-Hop (DV-Hop) algorithm as the most typical range-free localization scheme is much fitter for large-scaled WSNs. Its localization performance is good in even distributed networks. However, it demonstrated extremely poor accuracy under anisotropic networks. It is an urgent problem that need to be addressed. Accordingly, an optimized DV-Hop localization algorithm is put forward in this study with considering several anisotropic factors. Accumulated hop size error and collinearity are two main reason that led to low accuracy and poor stability. Hence, hop size error of anchors is reduced by introducing distance gap based on anchors. Besides, weighted least square method is adopted to replace the least square method to against anisotropic factors caused by irregular radio patterns. Moreover, an Autonomous Groups Particles Swarm Optimization (AGPSO) is employed to further optimize the obtained coordinate in the first round. It developed a novel method to determine localization coverage. The localization coverage is also added to be one evaluation metric in our study, which makes up for the lack of this evaluation indicator in most of the studies. Simulation results display good localization accuracy and strong stability under anisotropic networks. In addition, it also concluded that metaheuristic optimization algorithm and weighted least square method are more suitable to conquer anisotropic factor. It briefly points out a new direction for the future research work in the localization area under anisotropic networks.

HiCT: Hierarchical Comprehend of Transformer for Weakly Supervised Object Localization

The weakly supervised object localization (WSOL) has always been a very challenging research subject in the field of computer vision, which aims to predict the localization of objects in an image using only an image-level class labeling approach. The traditional convolutional neural network (CNN) based-approaches utilize the local class activation and discrimination for classification guidance, and the biggest drawback of CNN is that it cannot capture the remote feature dependencies between pixels. Recently, the transformer architecture has been deployed in the WSOL, but the transformer cannot well capture local features. To address the above problems, we propose HiCT (Hierarchical comprehend of transformer), a simple and effective visual converter variation method. Moreover, we also propose a discriminative-based attention layer (DAL), which aims to mine the local feature information by utilizing the global token attention graph mechanism. To further improve the coverage of object localization, we introduce the spatial aware digging module (SADM). In addition, a set of complementarity loss calculators to patch hierarchy (CPH) is proposed to improve the sample class aggregation capability of our model. Finally, we conducted experiments on two commonly used datasets of CUB-200-2011 and ILSVRC, so as to verify the effectiveness of our method.