Neighbors In Order Research Articles

The price for subway access: spatial econometric modelling of office rental rates in London

ABSTRACTThe relative location of commercial properties as the distance to the metro station as well as its absolute location as the address in the Central Business District (CBD) is expected to influence its valuation. We apply the advanced spatial econometric methodology, based on micro geo-located data, to the office rental transaction data from London in 2015. We use different spatial information on the local and global neighbourhood in order to estimate the spatial hedonic valuation model and test the strength of spatial spillovers and location effects on office fees. For offices in London in 2015, geographical factors may raise the price by 50%, as every next 100 m to the metro cost an additional 0.7 ₤ per ft2 per year and the CBD location raises the cost for ca. 20 ₤ per ft2 per year.

Urban Housing Problems And Learning Among Off-Campus Students Of Nasarawa State University, Keffi

Against theoretical evidence postulating a positive relationship between campus residency and collegiate outcomes, prior research has not established a causal link. This study undertook a socio-criminological analysis of Urban Housing problems and learning among off-campus students of Nasarawa State University, Keffi with particular reference to Angwan Lambu Area. The objective of this research was to evaluate the learning implications of off-campus accommodation students. The prevalence of social vices among students living off-campus and their preferences for off-campus accommodation was also examined. Social structure and Anomie theory was used as theoretical justification. The study employed the survey research design. A sample of 214 was drawn from a student population of 25380 using the questionnaire as data collection instrument. Data were collated, analyzed and presented through graphs and charts. Findings revealed that overcrowding, filth and slum-nieghborhoods are the poor living conditions of off-campus Angwan Lambu residences. Cultism, drug dealing and prostitution are some of the social vices common in the area. The study therefore calls on stakeholders by way of recommendations to invest more on students’ accommodation. Security should also be strengthened around off-campus residences that are within the University neighborhood in order to monitor and contain any untoward behavior. The study concludes that learning can be improved and social vices resulting from, and affecting off-campus students can be curtailed where students are provided accommodation and a conducive learning environment by the University Authority either on-campus and/or through private estate developers.

Neighborhood “Choice Architecture”: A New Strategy for Lower-Emissions Urban Planning?

Recent advances in the field of behavioral economics offer intriguing insights into the ways that consumer decisions are influenced and may be influenced more deliberately to better meet community-wide and democratic goals. We demonstrate that these insights open a door to urban planners who may thereby develop strategies to alter urban-scale consumption behaviors that may significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per capita. We first hypothesize that it is possible, through feasible changes in neighborhood structure, to alter the “choice architecture” of neighborhoods in order to achieve meaningful GHG reductions. We then formulate a number of elements of “choice architecture” that may be applied as tools at the neighborhood scale. We examine several neighborhoods that demonstrate variations in these elements, and from known inventories, we generate a preliminary assessment of the possible magnitude of GHG reductions that may be available. Although we acknowledge many remaining challenges, we conclude that “neighborhood choice architecture” offers a promising new strategy meriting further research and development.

Efficient approximate core transform and its reconfigurable architectures for HEVC

This paper describes a new approximate transform for the high efficiency video coding (HEVC). A 8 × 8 discrete cosine transform (DCT) approximation is proposed and then down-sampled or expanded to generate the 4 × 4, 16 × 16, and 32 × 32 approximate matrices. The proposed 8 × 8 approximation is carried out in part by neighbourhood in order to take the advantage of adjacent pixels correlation of natural images. Hence, rather than approximating the odd basis vectors of DCT kernel by referring to their intrinsic values, we choose to quantize that by taking into account their signs and positions. The proposed approximation matrices respect the properties of transform matrices prescribed by HEVC like orthogonality and bit-length of the basis vector elements. Furthermore, they have nearly the same arithmetic complexity and hardware requirement as those of recently proposed related methods, but involve significantly less error energy. Moreover, a reconfigurable design based on the 8 × 8 approximation transform is proposed in order to allow the simultaneous computation of eight 4-, four 8-, two 16-, or one 32-point approximate DCTs. It is found that the reconfigurable design can involve nearly 26% less area-delay product (ADP) when compared with the separate non-reconfigurable designs. Experimental results obtained from FPGA prototype and HM simulations have demonstrated the advantages of the proposed transforms.

Collisionless Boltzmann equation approach for the study of stellar discs within barred galaxies

We have studied the kinematics of stellar disc populations within the solar neighbourhood in order to find the imprints of the Galactic bar. We carried out the analysis by developing a numerical resolution of the 2D2V (two-dimensional in the physical space, 2D, and two-dimensional in the velocity motion, 2V) collisionless Boltzmann equation and modelling the stellar motions within the plane of the Galaxy within the solar neighbourhood. We recover similar results to those obtained by other authors using N-body simulations, but we are also able to numerically identify faint structures thanks to the cancelling of the Poisson noise. We find that the ratio of the bar pattern speed to the local circular frequency is in the range ΩB∕Ω = 1.77 to 1.91. If the Galactic bar angle orientation is within the range from 24 to 45 degrees, the bar pattern speed is between 46 and 49 km s−1 kpc−1.

Parallel Technique for the Metaheuristic Algorithms Using Devoted Local Search and Manipulating the Solutions Space

The increasing exploration of alternative methods for solving optimization problems causes that parallelization and modification of the existing algorithms are necessary. Obtaining the right solution using the meta-heuristic algorithm may require long operating time or a large number of iterations or individuals in a population. The higher the number, the longer the operation time. In order to minimize not only the time, but also the value of the parameters we suggest three proposition to increase the efficiency of classical methods. The first one is to use the method of searching through the neighborhood in order to minimize the solution space exploration. Moreover, task distribution between threads and CPU cores can affect the speed of the algorithm and therefore make it work more efficiently. The second proposition involves manipulating the solutions space to minimize the number of calculations. In addition, the third proposition is the combination of the previous two. All propositions has been described, tested and analyzed due to the use of various test functions. Experimental research results show that the proposed methodology for parallelization and manipulation of solution space is efficient (increasing the accuracy of solutions and reducing performance time) and it is possible to apply it also to other optimization methods.

La fundación de un barrio: herramienta para pensar las bases antropológicas de la comunicación popular

El artículo desglosa categorías que buscan explicar el proceso de fundación de un barrio (para el caso, El Renacer, ubicado en la periferia oeste de Maracaibo, estado Zulia, al occidente de Venezuela) con el fin de aportar elementos para pensar la comunicación desde una perspectiva antropológica. Revisa los orígenes del barrio, el sentido y el sentimiento de comunidad que tienen sus habitantes, la naturaleza de los conflictos que se presentan, las formas de apropiación de la tierra, de la vivienda y de los servicios y, finalmente, su consolidación. Los conceptos desde la teoría consultada buscan responder a la pregunta: ¿cómo se funda un barrio? En la respuesta se conjugan las definiciones de migración, ocupación de la tierra, organización para el asentamiento, la autogestión de los servicios, la autoconstrucción y en especial, la participación preponderante y crucial de la mujer. A ello se suman los problemas que se derivan de la nacionalidad, específicamente colombiana y la condición étnica wayuu. Las conclusiones describen formas de comunicación que hacen posible la sobrevivencia, la organización y la vida comunitaria.

Distributional factors in Telugu sibilant production

Telugu is one of a small set of languages described as exhibiting three or more place contrasts among sibilant fricatives (less than 4% of languages in UPSID; Maddieson and Precoda, 1990). In a pilot study of alveolar, palatal, and retroflex sibilant productions in VCV sequences, Telugu speakers were found to show consistent inter-speaker variation in the production of the palatal sibilant, with half showing evidence (in production and perception) of a complete merger with the alveolar, and the other half showing evidence of a merger with the retroflex, and no clear demographic differences underlying the delineation of the two groups. Following up on this result, we present acoustic data from native speakers of Telugu recorded in Hyderabad producing words with the three sibilants in multiple vowel contexts, positions (CV, VC), and lexical neighborhood structures (with vs. without sibilant competitors in a second order neighborhood), focusing in the acoustics in particular on formant transition cues to palatal and retroflex places. This data are presented both to clarify the present state of the Telugu sibilant system and to explore what effect the lexical distribution of these sounds has on the acoustic feature mapping of the contrast.

Reclaiming streets for outdoor play: A process and impact evaluation of "Juega en tu Barrio" (Play in your Neighborhood), an intervention to increase physical activity and opportunities for play.

BackgroundNew strategies are required to create supportive physical and social environments for children and promote active free-play. Juega en tu Barrio (JETB; Play in your Neighborhood) was designed and implemented to explore the effectiveness of closing a street in a low-to-middle income neighborhood in order to increase children’s outside play and physical activity.MethodsA pretest-posttest design with control group was employed to investigate the intervention effects in a subsample of 100 children, 51 from the intervention neighborhood and 49 from the control neighborhood. The children wore pedometers for one week, and their parents completed questionnaires at two time points: before the intervention began and during the last two weeks of the intervention. JETB was conducted in the intervention neighborhood from 17:30 to 20:30, twice a week, from September to December 2014. Stewards ensured that the children were safe. Children and adults were assessed using systematic observation.ResultsThe intervention and control neighborhoods included 177 and 116 children respectively. The average attendance per event was 60 children (SD = 22, reach 34%). In the intervention neighborhood, a significant increase between baseline and final assessment was observed in after-school outdoor playtime (p = 0.02), steps during the 3-hour intervention (p = 0.004), and daily steps Monday to Sunday (p = 0.006). Meanwhile, no changes were observed in the control neighborhood for the same variables. The proportion of children who met recommended daily step counts increased from 27.5% to 53.0% in the intervention neighborhood (p = 0.007), while for control neighborhood no difference was observed (49.0% to 53.0% p = 0.804).ConclusionsJETB showed high community engagement while offering opportunities for increased outdoor play in children. The intervention showed a significant effect on the number of children meeting the daily pedometer-derived physical activity recommendations.

Being Poorer Than the Rest of the Neighborhood: Relative Deprivation and Problem Behavior of Youth

According to the neighborhood effects hypothesis, there is a negative relation between neighborhood wealth and youth’s problem behavior. It is often assumed that there are more problems in deprived neighborhoods, but there are also reports of higher rates of behavioral problems in more affluent neighborhoods. Much of this literature does not take into account relative wealth. Our central question was whether the economic position of adolescents’ families, relative to the neighborhood in which they lived, was related to adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. We used longitudinal data for youth between 12–16 and 16–20 years of age, combined with population register data (N = 926; 55% females). We employ between-within models to account for time-invariant confounders, including parental background characteristics. Our findings show that, for adolescents, moving to a more affluent neighborhood was related to increased levels of depression, social phobia, aggression, and conflict with fathers and mothers. This could be indirect evidence for the relative deprivation mechanism, but we could not confirm this, and we did not find any gender differences. The results do suggest that future research should further investigate the role of individuals’ relative position in their neighborhood in order not to overgeneralize neighborhood effects and to find out for whom neighborhoods matter.

Soundscape design guidelines through noise mapping methodologies: An application to medium urban agglomerations

Abstract In the framework of the European Directive 2002/49/EC, from 2012 to 2016, several cities in Greece have completed noise strategic maps with noise action plans that usually define the main strategies to reduce the noise residents are exposed to and introduce and preserve “quiet zones”. Several medium urban agglomerations in Greece (Volos, Larissa, Chania, Heraklion, Corfu, Agrinio, Thessaloniki) have been chosen to also analyse the sound qualities of the soundscapes of specific urban neighbourhoods in order to generate recommendations for the urban design of the soundscapes of these agglomerations in a manner that complements conventional noise mitigation measures. The general principle of this approach is to relate quantitative data (e.g., from measurements, acoustic simulations, urban forms, topography, and traffic model) with qualitative data (e.g., from type of sources, interviews, reports on environmental noise perception) by creating quantitative and qualitative maps. The aim of this study is to propose possible action tools to the relevant authorities aiming at diminishing noise levels in affected areas and also to provide solutions towards a sustainable sound environment both in space and time. This paper presents the main current methodology, selected important results proposed for the urban agglomerations of a typical Southeast Mediterranean country such as Greece.

Neighborhood Design, Physical Activity, and Wellbeing: Applying the Walkability Model.

Neighborhood design affects lifestyle physical activity, and ultimately human wellbeing. There are, however, a limited number of studies that examine neighborhood design types. In this research, we examine four types of neighborhood designs: traditional development, suburban development, enclosed community, and cluster housing development, and assess their level of walkability and their effects on physical activity and wellbeing. We examine significant associations through a questionnaire (n = 486) distributed in Tucson, Arizona using the Walkability Model. Among the tested neighborhood design types, traditional development showed significant associations and the highest value for walkability, as well as for each of the two types of walking (recreation and transportation) representing physical activity. Suburban development showed significant associations and the highest mean values for mental health and wellbeing. Cluster housing showed significant associations and the highest mean value for social interactions with neighbors and for perceived safety from crime. Enclosed community did not obtain the highest means for any wellbeing benefit. The Walkability Model proved useful in identifying the walkability categories associated with physical activity and perceived crime. For example, the experience category was strongly and inversely associated with perceived crime. This study provides empirical evidence of the importance of including vegetation, particularly trees, throughout neighborhoods in order to increase physical activity and wellbeing. Likewise, the results suggest that regular maintenance is an important strategy to improve mental health and overall wellbeing in cities.

Mundane and Everyday Politics for and from the Neighborhood

Social movement scholars and activists have recognized the difficulties of mobilizing people for the long haul, moving from the exuberance of the protest to the dull and ordinary work necessary to produce sustainable change. Drawing on ethnographic work in La Juanita, in Greater Buenos Aires, we look at local actions for and from the neighborhood in order to resist political domination, taken by people who have been unemployed for long periods of time. We identified concrete and local practices and interventions—which we call mundane and everyday politics – that are embedded in a territory and go beyond the typical practices of social movements and the expected infrapolitical activity in allowing the disfranchised to engage in the political process.

Sketching Model and Higher Order Neighborhood Markov Random Field-Based SAR Image Segmentation

The Markov random field (MRF) model has been successfully applied to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image segmentation because of its excellent ability of capturing the local contextual information in the prior model. However, the geometric structures of the SAR image are always ignored when capturing the contextual information in the prior model. Therefore, this letter presents a new SAR image segmentation method based on the sketching model and higher order neighborhood MRF. In this approach, the sketching model is utilized to represent the geometric structures of the SAR image. Meanwhile, a higher order neighborhood is constructed to capture the complex priors. Then, according to the structure fluctuation in the higher order neighborhood, the homogeneous and heterogeneous neighborhoods are distinguished. Finally, the local energy function in the prior model is constructed in the higher order neighborhood with different characteristics. Specifically, the energy functions considering the labeling consistency and focusing on the structure preservations are designed for the homogeneous and heterogeneous neighborhoods, respectively. In this way, the ability of the prior model is improved by adding the geometric structures into the energy functions. Experiments on the real SAR images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in labeling consistency and structure preservations.

Legacies of a Contested Campus: Urban Renewal, Community Resistance, and the Origins of Gentrification in Denver

ABSTRACTThe postwar urban renewal experience varied among US cities according to the result of local social contests pitting those imposing their power to transform urban space against those resisting it. In this paper, we examine the role of one such contest in shaping urban renewal outcomes in Denver, using the case of the late 1960s Auraria project. The project sought to remove a poor, Hispanic neighborhood in order to build a new downtown college campus, generating community opposition from the inner city neighborhood residents, leaders of the city’s Chicano Movement, and historic preservation activists. We demonstrate how resistance actively shaped the ultimate form and character of the project, and how the legacies of this urban renewal contest extended—in unforeseen ways—beyond the immediate struggles of the time. We argue that these legacies provide the essential context for understanding planning practice, redevelopment strategies, and gentrification dynamics in the city today.

Distributed model based event-triggered control for synchronization of multi-agent systems

This paper investigates the problem of event-triggered control for the synchronization of networks of nonlinear dynamical agents; distributed model-based approaches able to guarantee the synchronization of the overall system are derived. In these control schemes all the agents use a model of their neighbourhood in order to generate triggering instants in which the local controller is updated and, if needed, local information based on the adopted control input is broadcasted to neighbouring agents. Synchronization of the network is proved and the existence of Zeno behaviour is excluded; an event-triggered strategy able to guarantee the existence of a minimum lower bound between inter-event times for broadcasted information and for control signal updating is proposed, thus allowing applications where both the communication bandwidth and the maximum updating frequency of actuators are critical. This idea is further extended in an asynchronous periodic event-triggered schemes where the agents check a trigger condition via a periodic distributed communication without requiring a model based computation.

The Inside-Out Museum/The Inside-Out University

From their origins, the University of California, Berkeley and The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) were established in different geographical, cultural, and political contexts. In a course sponsored by the Global Urban Humanities Initiative, artist, designer and Landscape Architecture Professor Walter Hood asks students to examine the museum and its neighborhoods in order to come up with proposals for change. He works on projects ranging from city-scale master plans to site plans to art installations and is known for his focus on the human element in design. UC Berkeley Associate Vice Chancellor for the Arts and Design, Shannon Jackson, recently spoke with Walter Hood at his Oakland studio about how the arts and humanities and design can work together to illuminate urban experience. This is the accounting of the conversation.

Being a transnational mother while staying at home. Migrants’ wives in Mexico City1

Unlike other studies of ‘distance maternity’ in transnational families, this article will examine the situation of mothers who stay with their children in the absence of their partners involved in long-distance migration. It seeks to understand how the experience of being a mother is transformed by reviewing various dimensions: models of maternity, practices, representations of self. It focuses on Mexican families living in working class neighbourhoods in order to analyze the impact in urban areas. Based on an ethnographic study carried out in Mexico with indigenous families, the article highlights several factors in the shifting parental roles within the couple and the family: intergenerational conflicts relating to the definition of norms of maternity, involvement of individuals in ethnic social relationships, geographic dispersal of the family and diversity of characteristic areas of socialization in the city.

Application of Sustainable Habitat: What is the Appropriation and Utilisation of Equipment After Energy‐Saving Renovations in Social Housing?

AbstractTo reduce energy consumption, technical equipment alone is not sufficient. Adjustment of behaviours so that equipment is used appropriately is also necessary. Numerous studies have shown how difficult it is to change behaviours and how many factors are involved. The aim of this study is to identify the psychosocial factors facilitating or inhibiting energy‐saving behaviours in the appropriation of energy‐saving equipment by residents. Forty‐one semi‐directive interviews were conducted with tenants of terraced houses (12 people) and flats (29 people) located in the same residential area in a French city. The blocks of flats and terraced houses are managed by a proprietor of social housing. The results of a categorical content analysis highlight the importance of the relationship between tenants and proprietor and tenants' low motivation concerning the energy‐saving renovations. Consequently, we argue for the importance of favouring active participation by tenants in order to promote acceptance and appropriation of the new equipment. Furthermore, both the social and physical contexts of residents must be taken into account and energy saving must be integrated into other types of environmental behaviours in the neighbourhood in order to improve coherence and credibility. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KEJADIAN CACAT PADA ANAK USIA 24 - 59 BULAN DAN FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG BERKAITAN, RISKESDAS 2010

The objective of the analysis is to determine the factors that associated with Down Syndrome (DS), Cerebral Palsy (CP) and other disabilities (blind, deaf, speech impaired, physically disabled, ormentally disabled). The data that used in this analysis were from Basic National Health Survey (Riskesdas) 2010. Subjects were children aged 24-59 months and their birth mother (11.115 children). Nine defect children had been found from West Java Province in 2010 were verified by visiting to their home. In Indonesia, the prevalence of DS, CP and other defects were respectively 0,07%; 0,05%; and 0,39%. Mothers who gave birth above 35 years old have risk of having a DS child 4,8 times (CI: 1,225 to 20,265; p=0,034) than mothers who gave birth at and below 35 years old. Mothers who live in a slum area have risk of having other defect children 2,1 times(CI: 1,225 to 4,109; p=0,021) than mothers who not live in slum area. Maternal age at delivery is associated with DS. Living environment is associated with other defects. Counseling to pregnant women aged ≥ 35 years old and living in a rundown neighborhood in order to antenal care every month so that the incidence of DS and other defects can be prevented.