Neighborhood Influences Research Articles

Predicting snag fall in an old-growth forest after fire

BackgroundSnags, standing dead trees, are becoming more abundant in forests as tree mortality rates continue to increase due to fire, drought, and bark beetles. Snags provide habitat for birds and small mammals, and when they fall to the ground, the resulting logs provide additional wildlife habitat and affect nutrient cycling, fuel loads, and fire behavior. Predicting how long snags will remain standing after fire is essential for managing habitat, understanding chemical cycling in forests, and modeling forest succession and fuels. Few studies, however, have quantified how fire changes snag fall dynamics.ResultsWe compared post-fire fall rates of snags that existed pre-fire (n = 2013) and snags created during or after the fire (n = 8222), using 3 years of pre-fire and 5 years of post-fire data from an annually monitored, 25.6-ha spatially explicit plot in an old-growth Abies concolor–Pinus lambertiana forest in the Sierra Nevada, CA, USA. The plot burned at low to moderate severity in the Rim Fire of 2013. We used random forest models to (1) identify predictors of post-fire snag fall for pre-existing and new snags and (2) assess the influence of spatial neighborhood and local fire severity on snag fall after fire. Fall rates of pre-existing snags increased 3 years after fire. Five years after fire, pre-existing snags were twice as likely to fall as new snags. Pre-existing snags were most likely to persist 5 years after fire if they were > 50 cm in diameter, > 20 m tall, and charred on the bole to heights above 3.7 m. New snags were also more likely to persist 5 years after fire if they were > 20 m tall. Spatial neighborhood (e.g., tree density) and local fire severity (e.g., fire-caused crown injury) within 15 m of each snag barely improved predictions of snag fall after fire.ConclusionsLand managers should expect fall rates of pre-existing snags to exceed fall rates of new snags within 5 years after fire, an important habitat consideration because pre-existing snags represent a wider range of size and decay classes.

Influence of Childhood Adversity on Students’ Delinquent Activities: Interplay with Neighborhood Context and Delinquent Peer Association

Juvenile delinquency is often linked with various proximal family and environmental factors during a child’s upbringing. Richard Jessor’s problem behavior theory (PBT) emphasizes that a combined interplay of these factors may explain this phenomenon appropriately. This study employed the PBT framework to investigate the impact of family on students’ delinquency, considering the influence of neighborhood and delinquent peer association. A model was developed for analyzing the variables by structural equation modeling (SEM). Data were collected through interviews with 1026 students aged between 12 and 18 years from a child development center and eight educational institutes in Bangladesh. The findings revealed that family-level factors (adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and family deprivation) can significantly predict students’ delinquency directly and through the moderation effect of neighborhood-level variables (neighborhood social capital and neighborhood disorganization). Delinquent peer association exhibited a significant mediating role in the model. It could directly predict delinquency as well. The research has notable theoretical and practical implications for understanding the complex dynamics of family, neighborhood, and delinquent peer association in explaining students’ delinquency.

Spectral Patterns of Pixels and Objects of the Forest Phytophysiognomies in the Anauá National Forest, Roraima State, Brazil

Forest phytophysiognomies have specific spatial patterns that can be mapped or translated into spectral patterns of vegetation. Regions of spectral similarity can be classified by reference to color, tonality or intensity of brightness, reflectance, texture, size, shape, neighborhood influence, etc. We evaluated the power of accuracy of supervised classification algorithms via per-pixel (maximum likelihood) and geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) for distinguishing spectral patterns of the vegetation in the northern Brazilian Amazon. A total of 280 training samples (70%) and 120 validation samples (30%) of each of the 11 vegetation cover and land-use classes (N = 4400) were classified based on differences in their visible (RGB), near-infrared (NIR), and medium infrared (SWIR 1 or MIR) Landsat 8 (OLI) bands. Classification by pixels achieved a greater accuracy (Kappa = 0.75%) than GEOBIA (Kappa = 0.72%). GEOBIA, however, offers a greater plasticity and the possibility of calibrating the spectral rules associated with vegetation indices and spatial parameters. We conclude that both methods enabled precision spectral separations (0.45–1.65 μm), contributing to the distinctions between forest phytophysiognomies and land uses—strategic factors in the planning and management of natural resources in protected areas in the Amazon region.

From smoke to sustainability: the role of socioeconomic factors in the continuous use of clean cooking technologies in Uganda

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the influence of specific socioeconomic factors, namely neighborhood, gender roles and affordability, on the continuous use of clean cooking technologies (CCTs) in households, using evidence from Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted an explanatory quantitative design. A questionnaire survey with 379 clean household responses was conducted. The data were analyzed using the Smart Partial Least Squares (PLS) software.FindingsThe results indicate that the sustained use of clean cooking technologies in households in Uganda is significantly associated with neighborhood influence, shared gender roles and affordability, collectively accounting for 27.7% of the variance.Research limitations/implicationsThe three dimensions of socioeconomic factors under study partially explain the sustained use of CCTs in Uganda. The study does not delve into other socioeconomic factors that could probably account for 72.2% of the variance not explained. The quantitative design may have overlooked the social reality perspectives inherent in qualitative studies that other researchers may endeavor to exploit.Originality/valueThe authors integrated three dimensions of socioeconomic factors – neighborhood influence, gender roles and affordability – with the diffusion of innovation theory (DIT) using Smart PLS to explain the continuous use of CCTs within households.

How does the neighbourhood environment influence migrants' subjective well‐being in urban China?

AbstractThis study investigates the role of sense of place (SoP) in the relationship between the neighbourhood environment (NE) and subjective well‐being (SWB), focusing on Chinese migrants who face spatial and cultural displacement. Beyond previous research, we further consider the influence of residential length. Surveying 716 migrants in Wuhan in 2018, we explore the dynamic place mechanisms underlying the association between the NE and SWB. Our findings reveal that the physical and social aspects of the NE, particularly walkability and social integration, significantly impact migrants' SWB. Moreover, SoP mediates the relationship between the NE and SWB, highlighting the social production function of people and places in communities. Long‐term residence does not directly affect migrants' SWB, yet just indirectly influence SWB through SoP. This underscores the ongoing pertinence and significance of SoP, connecting residential stability to positive social implications. This study concludes that the place mechanism underlying the association between the NE and migrants' SWB operates both through migrants' emotional connections to a specific place (SoP) and the reinforcement of place experience resulting from a longer duration of residence. To establish inclusive communities, we propose planning and governance measures that enhance space quality, empower neighbourhoods to foster SoP, strengthen residential stability, and improve migrants' SWB.

Association of census-tract level gentrification and income inequality with 6-year incidence of metabolic syndrome in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, an epidemiologic cohort study

BackgroundMetabolic syndrome varies by socio-demographic characteristics, with younger (18–29 years) and older (50–69 years) Hispanic/Latino having higher prevalence compared to other groups. While there is substantial research on neighborhood influences on cardiometabolic health, there are mixed findings regarding the effects of gentrification and few studies have included Hispanic/Latinos. The role of neighborhood income inequality on metabolic health remains poorly understood. ObjectivesExamined associations of neighborhood gentrification and income inequality with metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) using data from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). Design, Setting and ParticipantsThe HCHS/SOL is a community-based cohort of adults of Hispanic/Latinos (aged 18–74). Analyses included 6710 adults who did not meet criteria for MetsS at baseline (2008–2011) and completed the visit 2 examination (2014–2017). Poisson regressions estimated odds ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for neighborhood gentrification and change in income inequality with MetSyn incidence. Main outcome and exposure measuresGentrification was measured with an index that included changes (2000 to 2006–2010) in education, poverty, and income. Change in neighborhood income inequality (2005–2009 to 2012–2016) was measured using the Gini coefficient of income distribution. MetSyn was defined using National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. ResultsAmong 6647 Hispanic/Latino adults, 23% (N = 1530) had incident MetSyn. In models adjusted for socio-demographic, health insurance status, and neighborhood characteristics, gentrification (IRR, 1.00, 95%CI, 0.96–1.03) and income inequality change (IRR, 1.00, 95%CI, 0.99–1.00) were not associated with MetSyn at visit 2. There was no association between cross-sectional income inequality (2005–2009) and MetSyn at visit 2 (IRR, 0.97, 95%CI, 0.82–1.15). ConclusionNeighborhood gentrification and income inequality change were not associated with incidence of MetSyn over 6 years among Hispanic/Latino adults. This study demonstrated that income-based residential changes alone may not be sufficient to explain neighborhood influences on health outcomes among this population.

SLGC: Identifying influential nodes in complex networks from the perspectives of self-centrality, local centrality, and global centrality

Identifying influential nodes in complex networks and ranking their importance plays an important role in many fields such as public opinion analysis, marketing, epidemic prevention and control. To solve the issue of the existing node centrality measure only considering the specific statistical feature of a single dimension, a SLGC model is proposed that combines a node’s self-influence, its local neighborhood influence, and global influence to identify influential nodes in the network. The exponential function of e is introduced to measure the node’s self-influence; in the local neighborhood, the node’s one-hop neighboring nodes and two-hop neighboring nodes are considered, while the information entropy is introduced to measure the node’s local influence; the topological position of the node in the network and the shortest path between nodes are considered to measure the node’s global influence. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model, extensive comparison experiments are conducted with eight existing node centrality measures on six real network data sets using node differentiation ability experiments, susceptible–infected–recovered (SIR) model and network efficiency as evaluation criteria. The experimental results show that the method can identify influential nodes in complex networks more accurately.

Union formation of the children of immigrants: Does the ethnic composition of the childhood neighbourhood matter?

AbstractThis paper examines whether first union formation behaviour of children of immigrants varies according to the ethnic composition of the neighbourhood in which they grew up. Growing up surrounded by large shares of majority‐group members may influence union formation behaviour of children of immigrants in later life. However, the local residential contexts during childhood have been overlooked in previous studies. Using full‐population data from Dutch registers, we estimate multinomial event‐history models to examine the timing and type of first union (direct marriage or unmarried cohabitation) as a function of the proportion of majority‐group residents in the neighbourhood at age 15. We focus on Turkish, Moroccan, and Surinamese second‐generation individuals born in the Netherlands between 1986 and 1990, follow their union formation into young adulthood and compare it to that of their Dutch peers. We find limited support for the influence of the childhood neighbourhood's ethnic composition on union formation; moreover, this influence seems to vary across origin groups.

The role of social support on midwestern farmers’ willingness to grow perennial bioenergy crops

The lack of farmers' willingness to grow perennial bioenergy crops (PBCs) presents a critical barrier to the emergence of cellulosic biofuel production. The willingness relies on a complex network of economic, environmental, and social drivers, among which the influence of social factors (e.g., the influence of neighborhood, community, and communication) is less understood. This study addresses this knowledge gap via a survey analysis of midwestern farmers. The survey data are analyzed through ordinary least square regression and structural equation model, which together investigate the individual and interactive impacts of multiple factors on farmers' decisions to adopt PBCs. Based on a farm-scale analysis, six statistically significant predictors of farmer willingness to grow PBCs are identified: perception of PBCs' environment benefits, education level, willingness to take risks, familiarity with PBCs, portion of peers already growing PBCs, and support of biorefineries locating in the local community. Among these, the latter three predictors are social support variables. It is found that familiarity with the crops is the most significant predictor of willingness; familiarity is also an important intermediate variable that mediates the influence of many other predictors. In addition, peer adoption can both directly and indirectly affect willingness via its influence on familiarity. These findings suggest that it is a pressing need to improve farmers’ knowledge of PBCs to promote the adoption of such crops.

Association between neighborhood disadvantage and children's oral health outcomes in urban families in the Chicago area.

The prevalence of childhood caries in urban Chicago, compared with national and state data, indicates that neighborhood context influences oral health. Our objective was to delineate the influence of a child's neighborhood on oral health outcomes that are predictive of caries (toothbrushing frequency and plaque levels). Our study population represents urban, Medicaid-enrolled families in the metropolitan Chicago area. Data were obtained from a cohort of participants (child-parent dyads) who participated in the Coordinated Oral Health Promotion (CO-OP) trial at 12 months of study participation (N = 362). Oral health outcomes included toothbrushing frequency and plaque levels. Participants' neighborhood resource levels were measured by the Area Deprivation Index (ADI). Linear and logistic regression models were used to measure the influence of ADI on plaque scores and toothbrushing frequency, respectively. Data from 362 child-parent dyads were analyzed. The mean child age was 33.6 months (SD 6.8). The majority of children were reported to brush at least twice daily (n = 228, 63%), but the mean plaque score was 1.9 (SD 0.7), classified as "poor." In covariate-adjusted analyses, ADI was not associated with brushing frequency (0.94, 95% CI 0.84-1.06). ADI was associated with plaque scores (0.05, 95% CI 0.01-0.09, p value = 0.007). Findings support the hypothesis that neighborhood-level factors influence children's plaque levels. Because excessive plaque places a child at high risk for cavities, we recommend the inclusion of neighborhood context in interventions and policies to reduce children's oral health disparities. Existing programs and clinics that serve disadvantaged communities are well-positioned to support caregivers of young children in maintaining recommended oral health behaviors.

The influence of neighborhood built environment on school-age children's outdoor leisure activities and obesity: a case study of Shanghai central city in China.

The aim of this study was to examine the influencing pathways of the neighborhood built environment on children's outdoor leisure activities and obesity. A total of 378 elementary school students from 10 schools in central Shanghai were selected by a convenient sampling method for questionnaire survey and accelerometer tracking. 1) The neighborhood built environment could affect children's obesity not only through direct effect (β = 0.15, p < 0.05), but also through the mediating effect of outdoor leisure activities (β = 0.19, p < 0.05). 2) For boys, the neighborhood built environment could affect children's obesity not only through direct effect (β = 0.17, p < 0.05), but also through the mediating effect of outdoor leisure activities (β = 0.26, p < 0.05). For girls, the neighborhood built environment could affect children's obesity only through the mediating effect of outdoor leisure activities (β = 0.13, p < 0.05). The neighborhood built environment and outdoor leisure activities are important influencing factors in children's obesity. The neighborhood built environment and outdoor leisure activities could have direct and indirect effects on children's obesity, while there are gender differences in the influencing pathways of the neighborhood built environment on children's obesity. This study suggests that improving the neighborhood built environment and promoting outdoor leisure activities in children have important value for influencing children's obesity.

Neighbourhood effects on loneliness among adolescents.

Loneliness is a growing public health concern, but little is known about how place affects loneliness, especially during adolescence. This is the first study to examine the influence of neighbourhoods on loneliness in early-to-mid adolescence. Baseline data from the #BeeWell cohort study in Greater Manchester (England), including 36141 adolescents (aged 12-15years) across 1590 neighbourhoods, were linked to neighbourhood characteristics using administrative data at the level of lower super output areas and analysed using multilevel regression. Neighbourhood differences explained 1.18% of the variation in loneliness. Ethnic, gender and sexual orientation inequalities in loneliness varied across neighbourhoods. Several neighbourhood characteristics predicted loneliness at the individual level, including skills deprivation among children and young people, lower population density and perceptions of the local area (feeling safe; trust in local people; feeling supported by local people; seeing neighbours as helpful; the availability of good places to spend free time). Finally, a longer distance from home to school was associated with significantly higher loneliness. Neighbourhoods account for a small but significant proportion of the variation in adolescent loneliness, with some neighbourhood characteristics predicting loneliness at the individual level, and loneliness disparities for some groups differing across neighbourhoods.

Examining the influence of neighborhood and street-level built environment on fitness jogging in Chengdu, China: A massive GPS trajectory data analysis

Few studies have investigated the influences of the multilevel built environment (BE) factors on jogging, compared with walking or cycling. This study explored neighborhood and street-level BE factors' associations with fitness jogging via multi-source urban data. Empirical analysis of Chengdu, China showed the following: (1) BE factors, including sky view factor, bus stop density, presence of waterscapes, and geographic location significantly, impact jogging activity. (2) The significance and effect of BE factors vary across time. Jogging activities are more sensitive to BE on weekends than on weekdays. (3) Jogging trips are more closely related to BE factors in urban areas than in the suburbs. Jogging activities are mainly affected by the artificial environment in urban areas and the natural environment in suburban areas. Moreover, the effects of multiple BE factors become obvious as trip distance increases. These findings call for urban planning and infrastructure provision strategies to promote jogging activities.

Cell Features Reconstruction from Gene Association Network of Single Cell.

Gene expression as an unstable form of cell characterization has been widely used for single-cell analyses. Although there are cell-specific networks (CSN) to explore stable gene associations within a single cell, the amount of information in CSN is huge and there is no method to measure the interaction level between genes. Therefore, this paper presents a two-level approach to reconstructing single-cell features, which transforms the original gene expression feature into the gene ontology feature and gene interaction feature. Specifically, we first squeeze all CSNs into a cell network feature matrix (CNFM) by fusing the global position and neighborhood influence of genes. Next, we propose a computational method of gene gravitation based on CNFM to quantify the extent of gene-gene interaction, and we can construct a gene gravitation network for single cells. Finally, we further design a novel index of gene gravitation entropy to quantitatively evaluate the level of single-cell differentiation. The experiments on eight different scRNA-seq datasets show the effectiveness and broad application prospects of our method.

Memory-Enhanced Transformer for Representation Learning on Temporal Heterogeneous Graphs

Temporal heterogeneous graphs can model lots of complex systems in the real world, such as social networks and e-commerce applications, which are naturally time-varying and heterogeneous. As most existing graph representation learning methods cannot efficiently handle both of these characteristics, we propose a Transformer-like representation learning model, named THAN, to learn low-dimensional node embeddings preserving the topological structure features, heterogeneous semantics, and dynamic patterns of temporal heterogeneous graphs, simultaneously. Specifically, THAN first samples heterogeneous neighbors with temporal constraints and projects node features into the same vector space, then encodes time information and aggregates the neighborhood influence in different weights via type-aware self-attention. To capture long-term dependencies and evolutionary patterns, we design an optional memory module for storing and evolving dynamic node representations. Experiments on three real-world datasets demonstrate that THAN outperforms the state-of-the-arts in terms of effectiveness with respect to the temporal link prediction task.

Neighborhood and racial influences on triple negative breast cancer: evidence from Northeast Ohio.

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer (BC) with higher recurrence rates and poorer prognoses and most prevalent among non-Hispanic Black women. Studies of multiple health conditions and care processes suggest that neighborhood socioeconomic position is a key driver of health disparities. We examined roles of patients' neighborhood-level characteristics and race on prevalence, stage at diagnosis, and mortality among patients diagnosed with BC at a large safety-net healthcare system in Northeast Ohio. We used tumor registry to identify BC cases from 2007 to 2020 and electronic health records and American Community Survey for individual- and area-level factors. We performed multivariable regression analyses to estimate associations between neighborhood-level characteristics, measured by the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), race and comparative TNBC prevalence, stage at diagnosis, and total mortality. TNBC was more common among non-Hispanic Black (53.7%) vs. non-Hispanic white patients (46.4%). Race and ADI were individually significant predictors of TNBC prevalence, stage at diagnosis, and total mortality. Race remained significantly associated with TNBC subtype, adjusting for covariates. Accounting for TNBC status, a more disadvantaged neighborhood was significantly associated with a worse stage at diagnosis and higher death rates. Our findings suggest that both neighborhood socioeconomic position and race are strongly associated with TNBC vs. other BC subtypes. The burden of TNBC appears to be highest among Black women in the most socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Our study suggests a complex interplay of social conditions and biological disease characteristics contributing to racial disparities in BC outcomes.

Analysis of the factors influencing multiple uses of crime guns: An exploratory study

PurposeA broad body of literature has explored the topic of gun violence in the United States. The characteristics of communities, victims, and offenders have each been used to explain variation in gun crime. Less attention has been given to covariates of repeat use of crime guns. We examine the influence of neighborhood and initial incident characteristics on the odds that crime guns will be used in multiple incidents. MethodsWe apply binary logistic regression to a sample of 309 crime guns used in offenses in a city in the Southeastern U.S. to examine how neighborhood and initial incident characteristics influence the likelihood that a crime gun will be used in multiple incidents. ResultsWe find that neighborhood levels of disadvantage and violence, gang involvement during the initial incident, and time in circulation following initial use in a known crime impact the odds that crime guns will be used in more than one offense. ConclusionsTaken together, the findings lead to clear policy implications in terms of improved police-community relations, reconceptualization of case closures, and prioritization of crime gun seizures.

Does the Internet Moderate the Neighborhood Effect? Internet Use, Neighborhoods, and Mental Health among Older Adults in Shanghai.

Internet use may reduce the impact of the neighborhood on residents' well-being by helping people utilize resources beyond their immediate neighborhoods or strengthen neighborhood influences by widening the digital divide across neighborhoods. This study investigates how internet use moderates neighborhood effects on mental health among older adults in Shanghai. Using data from the Shanghai Urban Neighborhood Survey (SUNS) and population census, hierarchical linear models reveal that older adults who more frequently use the internet report lower levels of mental distress. Internet use attenuates the negative effects of living in low-socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods. We also examine the roles of three types of internet use: social networking, leisure, and information seeking. The results show that only social networking and leisure internet use are significantly associated with improved mental health among older adults. The results suggest that social programs are needed to increase internet literacy among older adults to promote active aging, and priority should be given to relatively disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Dissemination of the Family Health Strategy: explanatory factors of the adhesion of municipalities in São Paulo, Brazil, in the coercive context of induction by the federal government

The scope of this paper is to analyze the adhesion of municipalities in São Paulo to the Family Health Strategy (FHS). The adhesion data in SP showed that it did not occur unanimously, immediately or uniformly. The theory of policy diffusion was used, with the objective of studying the process of adoption and implementation of public policies by subnational entities, in contexts where coercion occurs in the federal sphere. From the discussions related to the diffusion mechanism called coercion, the following question was answered: what explains the diffusion of the FHS in the municipalities of SP, in the coercive context of vertical influence? The survival analysis technique was applied to identify explanatory factors for the diffusion of the FHS, considering political and party variables of institutional design, neighborhood influence, internal needs, and structural factors. The results reveal that horizontal interactions between both ideological and regional subnational governments, as well as the local social, economic and political issues are relevant to understand the research questions. This finding enables us to reflect on the limits of vertical influence in the promotion of initiatives for subnational governments.

Social Media Food Ads Hype and Adolescent Obesity Upsurge in Nigeria

The devastating effect of obesity on humanity transcends race, regional barriers and national developmental status. This has become a global dilemma; as nations figures-out better ways of ensuring safe consumption pattern amongst all age brackets. The situation has become very complex due to the expanding effect of non-regulated social media ads on availability of all forms of eatable items in all facets of human endeavour. The aim of this research is to evaluate the pernicious effect of social media ads hype on obesity increase amongst adolescents and adults in in three (3) selected districts in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The underlying issues to be unravelled by this study includes: the prevailing effect of un-regulated social network activities, the changing urban lifestyle of obese persons and the increased availability of low cost processed foods occasioned by global competitiveness and economic liberalization. The study covered a period of four years (2017-2021) by selecting medical centres from each of the three districts under study in which, relevant information was obtained to affirm obese person; We observed a steady annual percentage increase of (2018-2019 -20%, 2019 – 2020- 37% and 2020 -2021 – 32%), based om average Body Mass Index(BMI) of each individual that is above 30kg/m2. The conceptual framework adopted for the study is a combination of how social interaction affect consumption behavior through the interchange between; Personal consumption decision, interpersonal consumption decision, institutional influence on consumption pattern, neighborhood influence, and health regulatory processes/procedures. The study adopted descriptive research technique whereby questionnaires were administered to identify respondents, and comprehensive interviews were also conducted to obtain detail facts from respondents on areas that was not fully covered by the questionnaire, based on Systematic review of literature. The outcome revealed a significance interrelationship between the variables of the construct. The outcome of the study revealed an interrelationship between social media ads on food items and obesity amongst adolescence and adults in study area. The implication of the study, creates a pathway for future research to expand the age bracket to include children, and encourage health regulatory authorities to step up the process of control on unwholesome food advertising. The study recommended a policy framework that will regulate social food item to mitigate the health effect of obesity amongst the categories of persons under study.