Tree View Research Articles

A tree's view of the terrain: downscaling bioclimate variables to high resolution using a novel multi‐level species distribution model

Fine‐scale spatial climate variation fosters biodiversity and buffers it from climate change, but ecological studies are constrained by the limited accessibility of relevant fine‐scale climate data. In this paper we introduce a novel form of species distribution model that uses species occurrences to predict high‐resolution climate variation. This new category of ‘bioclimate' data, representing micro‐scale climate as experienced by one or more species of interest, is a useful complement to microclimate data from existing approaches. The modeling method, called BISHOP for ‘bioclimate inference from species' high‐resolution occurrence patterns,' uses data on species occurrences, coarse‐scale climate, and fine‐scale physiography (e.g. terrain, soil, vegetation) to triangulate fine‐scale bioclimate patterns. It works by pairing a climate‐downscaling function predicting a latent bioclimate variable, with a niche function predicting species occurrences from bioclimate. BISHOP infers how physiography affects bioclimate, estimates how these effects vary geographically, and produces high‐resolution (10 m) maps of bioclimate over large regions. It also predicts species distributions. After introducing this approach, we apply it in an empirical study focused on topography and trees. Using data on 216 North American tree species, we document the biogeographic patterns that enable BISHOP, estimate how four terrain variables (northness, eastness, windward exposure, and elevational position) each influence three climate variables, and use these results to produce downscaled maps of tree‐specific bioclimate. Model validation demonstrates that inferred bioclimate outperforms macroclimate in predicting distributions of separate species not used during inference, confirming its ecological relevance. Our results show that nearby bioclimates can differ by 5°C in temperature and twofold in moisture, with equator‐facing, east‐facing, windward‐facing, and locally elevated sites exhibiting hotter, drier bioclimates on average. But these effects vary greatly across climate zones, revealing that topographically similar landscapes can differ strongly in their bioclimate variation. These results have important implications for micrometeorology, biodiversity, and climate resilience.

Multiple graphical views for automatically generating SQL for the MycoDiversity DB; making fungal biodiversity studies accessible.

Fungi is a highly diverse group of eukaryotic organisms that live under an extremely wide range of environmental conditions. Nowadays, there is a fundamental focus on observing how biodiversity varies on different spatial scales, in addition to understanding the environmental factors which drive fungal biodiversity. Metabarcoding is a high-throughput DNA sequencing technology that has positively contributed to observing fungal communities in environments. While the DNA sequencing data generated from metabarcoding studies are available in public archives, this valuable data resource is not directly usable for fungal biodiversity investigation. Additionally, due to its fragmented storage and distributed nature, it is not immediately accessible through a single user interface. We developed the MycoDiversity DataBase User Interface (https://mycodiversity.liacs.nl) to provide direct access and retrieval of fungal data that was previously inaccessible in the public domain. The user interface provides multiple graphical views of the data components used to reveal fungal biodiversity. These components include reliable geo-location terms, the reference taxonomic scientific names associated with fungal species and the standard features describing the environment where they occur. Direct observation of the public DNA sequencing data in association with fungi is accessible through SQL search queries created by interactively manipulating topological maps and dynamic hierarchical tree views. The search results are presented in configurable data table views that can be downloaded for further use. With the MycoDiversity DataBase User Interface, we make fungal biodiversity data accessible, assisting researchers and other stakeholders in using metabarcoding studies for assessing fungal biodiversity.

The Positive Role of Trees in Protecting Outdoor Painted and Engraved Rock Sites

ABSTRACT The general view of trees is that they threaten heritage structures, their roots disrupt archaeological features, or that they create microclimates conducive to biodeterioration. The conservator's experience in assessing the impact of trees on various cultural assets highlights the positive role they can play in modifying the outdoor environment to reduce stress mechanisms. Trees intercept sunlight and rain, absorb ground water and stabilise soils. This is particularly beneficial at rock art sites where infrastructure must be kept to a minimum to maintain the spiritual and aesthetic ambience. While focussing on studies demonstrating the protective role of trees, it is critical to make balanced assessments that recognise both positive and negative implications; a tree can both shade an object and increase the risk of mechanical damage from roots and falling branches. Objective assessments consider all implications rather than through intellectual and operational bias. Laboratory studies demonstrate hydrothermal stress to be greater than heating or wetting alone, and freeze–thaw that has been traditionally considered one of the most destructive mechanisms disrupting outdoor stone. Interventive approaches for reducing hydrothermal stresses in stone rely upon chemical treatments to repel water, and consolidation to better resist such stresses. A well-designed tree canopy can substantially reduce thermal expansion and almost completely remove rain from the object through interception, funnelling to the trunk and uptake of groundwater.

The Trees Speak for Themselves

Elif Shafak's 2021 novel The Island of Missing Trees describes fictional events that occur on the real island of Cyprus during the war between the Greek and the Turkish inhabitants of the island. This story is told from multiple points of view at various points in time in both Cyprus and London, where the characters move to and live following the events of the war and their families’ disagreements with their relationship. What is unique about Shafak's storytelling is her use of a fig tree as a primary narrator of events. While the use of non-human narrators is not a new strategy, most of these occurrences involve animal speakers rather than plants or objects. In delivering a fiction narrative from the point of view of a fig tree, Elif Shafak's The Island of Missing Trees introduces readers to multispecies encounters by providing an example of how arboreal figures communicate and experience history alongside humans in an anthropocentric world, and further encourages prosocial behavior between human and non-human species. Based on Shafak's novel, theories of attentiveness and slow-violence, and studies on the effect of non-human narrators on readers, including these "non-living" narrators in widely accessible pieces of fiction not only informs audiences of the multispecies encounters that occur in everyday life, but also opens more avenues of multispecies conservation.

Measuring the Spatial-Temporal Heterogeneity of Helplessness Sentiment and Its Built Environment Determinants during the COVID-19 Quarantines: A Case Study in Shanghai

The COVID-19 outbreak followed by the strict citywide lockdown in Shanghai has sparked negative emotion surges on social media platforms in 2022. This research aims to investigate the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of a unique emotion (helplessness) and its built environment determinants. First, we scraped about twenty thousand Weibo posts and utilized their sentiments with natural language processing (NLP) to extract helplessness emotion and investigated its spatial–temporal variations. Second, we tested whether “helplessness” was related with urban environment attributes when other real estate economic and demographic variables were controlled using the ordinary least squares (OLS) model. Our results confirmed that helplessness emotion peaked in early April when the lockdown started. Second, residents in neighborhoods characterized by higher rents and property management fees, higher population density, lower housing prices, lower plot ratios, or surrounded by less tree view and higher perceived visual complexity, are found to exhibit higher degree of “helplessness”. This study provides an effective data-driven framework to utilize social media data for public sentiments monitoring. The helplessness emotion identified is a unique mental distress under strict quarantine measures, which expands the growing literature of urban governance in the post-pandemic era. Decision makers should pay attention to public opinions and design tailored management measures with reference to civic emotion dynamics to facilitate social sustainability and resilience in face of future crises.

Can we trust our eyes? Interpreting the misperception of road safety from street view images and deep learning

Road safety is a critical concern that impacts both human lives and urban development, drawing significant attention from city managers and researchers. The perception of road safety has gained increasing research interest due to its close connection with the behavior of road users. However, safety isn't always as it appears, and there is a scarcity of studies examining the association and mismatch between road traffic safety and road safety perceptions at the city scale, primarily due to the time-consuming nature of data acquisition. In this study, we applied an advanced deep learning model and street view images to predict and map human perception scores of road safety in Manhattan. We then explored the association and mismatch between these perception scores and traffic crash rates, while also interpreting the influence of the built environment on this disparity. The results showed that there was heterogeneity in the distribution of road safety perception scores. Furthermore, the study found a positive correlation between perception scores and crash rates, indicating that higher perception scores were associated with higher crash rates. In this study, we also concluded four perception patterns: “Safer than it looks”, “Safe as it looks”, “More dangerous than it looks”, and “Dangerous as it looks”. Wall view index, tree view index, building view index, distance to the nearest traffic signals, and street width were found to significantly influence these perception patterns. Notably, our findings underscored the crucial role of traffic lights in the “More dangerous than it looks” pattern. While traffic lights may enhance people's perception of safety, areas in close proximity to traffic lights were identified as potentially accident-prone regions.

Tree View Assessment: Survey of Two Municipalities Located in the Brussels Capital Region

Abstract Background Recent literature has highlighted the importance of visual accessibility to nature to reduce stress, anxiety, or depression amongst others. However, green visual accessibility is yet rarely considered in urban policy implementations. Reasons behind this are manifold, and include the challenges associated with the measurability of green views which require data-intensive pedestrian view computations, and assessment methods are yet to be agreed upon. Methods Two methods, Street View Images (SVI) and semantic classification, and geospatial viewshed analysis, were used to compute street level tree views. All street views contained within 2 municipalities from the Brussels Capital Region (BCR) have been studied. Using the SVI method, 15 green view indicators have been proposed. Using the viewshed analysis, the tree view area ratio (TVar) from each SVI geo-location has been computed. The independence between the indicators was evaluated, and using a random forest model, the principal SVI indicators to describe the TVarhave been studied. Results The variability explained by the random forest model was approximately 60% to 70%. The SVI indicators related to the horizontality of green infrastructure and tree canopy explained most of TVar. The results also reveal the tree canopy differences between both municipalities. Conclusions SVI tree view indicators provide acceptable predictions of the TVarwhich could be particularly useful for municipalities with no access to detailed geospatial data. The 30% to 40% of the unexplained variability, could be related to errors derived from the tree canopy geospatial layer, differences in the data collection dates, or geolocation errors of the SVIs.

Sub-regional to local topographic features shape resources, land use and disturbances determining forest distribution in old-growth grasslands of subtropical South America

What determines the presence (or lack) of trees in grasslands is a long-standing question in ecology. Views of trees in grasslands have shifted from generally considering grasslands as degraded forests that need to be restored, to a more recent perspective on many regions as ancient grassy biomes that have long been neglected and are, according to their climate conditions, maintained as stable biomes by internal feedbacks involving fire and/or herbivory. In addition, there are currently concerns about trends of woody expansion or “encroachment” in grasslands, i.e. potential transitions between grassy and wooded ecosystems driven by local and global changes.In this study, we use high-resolution local databases and generalized additive models (GAMLSS) to analyze the factors that determine forest cover in the Campos grasslands of Uruguay in southeastern South America. We consider climate, local conditions, land use and disturbances to understand what explains the distribution of forests. Forests were associated with areas of steeper slopes, watercourses and higher surface runoff, in deeper soils with higher water availability, along a longitudinal climatic gradient, with less livestock and land-use intensity and higher human presence. We discuss how, in ancient grasslands such as this one, sub-regional geology and local topography can be permanent features that generate spatial heterogeneity in forest cover probability by mediating resource availability and influencing land use and disturbance regimes.

Establishing a link between complex courtyard spaces and thermal comfort: A major advancement in evidence-based design

Amidst climate change, the importance of climate-adaptive design in architecture and landscape design has surged, particularly in residential courtyards, where optimizing the microclimate is paramount to residents' well-being. Traditional spatial indices, however, fall short in accurately characterizing complex courtyards and local spatial features. To overcome these limitations, this study introduces pixel-level spatial indicators that effectively overcome these constraints. These indicators are implemented using computational geometry algorithms such as Ray Tracing, Flood Fill, and A*, enabling simulation of various courtyard spatial indicator maps. We also utilize Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-based rapid thermal comfort simulation technology to generate thermal comfort maps. By applying data mining methods such as Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR), Pearson correlation, and Nearest-neighbor interpolation, we explore the relationships between spatial indicators and thermal comfort, ultimately identifying key indicators and determining the guiding thresholds and influencing trends corresponding to heat discomfort frequency. Six key indicators and th emerge: Building View Factor (BVF), indicating building coverage visibility (prefer above 0.11); Solar Beam Fraction (BEAM), illustrating Summer solstice sun shading condition (prefer below 0.78); Averaged View Factor (AVF), showing overall visibility (prefer below 0.40); Directional Sky View Factor (DSVF(W)), reflecting sky visibility in a specific orientation (prefer below 0.73); Tree View Factor (TVF), denoting tree coverage visibility (prefer above 0.18); and Plan Water Ratio (PWR), signifying water surface proportion (aim for below 0.44). These insights, integrated into design tools, contribute to evidence-based microclimate regulation strategies, thereby enhancing urban residents' thermal comfort and overall well-being.

Identification of Influential Nodes in Social Network: Graph Approach

The identification of nodes that are actually influencing other nodes is one of the core and fundamental research problems in the social network data sciences. There are multiple proven techniques available globally that depict the influence of the root node on the remaining nodes in the given network. Although methods and methodology is already proven and multiple experiments have been carried out in this area, the current research work is an extension of the influential node identification problem with the perspective of graph traversal. To prove the methodology and new approach a tree and AUC (area under the curve) - based analysis method has been proposed, TArank in which the information collected from the breadth-first search tree is used to identify influential nodes. From the obtained results and analysis, the effectiveness of TARank in the identification of influential nodes has been validated. The concentration of data at a particular segment of the plot is observed. Additionally, the tree view of the analysis predicts the root and leaf node thus helping in the identification of the most influential nodes in the online social media network. Keywords: Influential Node, PCC, TARank, Degree Centrality, PCC

Heat vulnerability and street-level outdoor thermal comfort in the city of Houston: Application of google street view image derived SVFs

Heatwaves and urban heat islands disproportionately affect residents of urban areas. Past studies on the heat vulnerability indexes (HVI) to evaluate the heat-related risk have two major limitations: the inability to capture street-level human heat stress and reliance on single meteorological proxies to measure heat exposure. To address these gaps, this study examines the impact of street-level outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) on heat vulnerability in the city of Houston, Texas. OTC refers to an individual's thermal perception of their surroundings. The study estimates the impacts of HVI scores and energy budget (EB) values of OTC on heat-related disease while investigating their spatial distributions and clusters. The results show that the explanatory power of the suggested models on the number of emergency department (ED) visits improved when the street-level OTC had higher HVI scores and more comfortable conditions. A positive bivariate relationship was found between the HVI scores and EB values, showing the highest explanatory power (adj-r2) of around 36%. Chronic disease and heat exposure significantly affected the HVI, whereas tree and sky view factors were crucial determinants of the EB values. These findings provide a new approach to heat vulnerability evaluation at the human scale to effectively address heat-related risk.

Pest Alert Tool-a web-based application for flagging species of concern in metabarcoding datasets.

Advances in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies and their increasing affordability have fueled environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding data generation from freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Research institutions worldwide progressively employ HTS for biodiversity assessments, new species discovery and ecological trendmonitoring. Moreover, even non-scientists can now collect an eDNA sample, send it to a specialized laboratory for analysis and receive in-depth biodiversity record from a sampling site. This offers unprecedented opportunities for biodiversity assessments across wide temporal and spatial scales. The large volume of data produced by metabarcoding also enables incidental detection of species of concern, including non-indigenous and pathogenic organisms. We introduce an online app-Pest Alert Tool-for screening nuclear small subunit 18S ribosomal RNA and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I datasets for marine non-indigenous species as well as unwanted and notifiable marine organisms in New Zealand. The output can be filtered by minimum length of the query sequence and identity match. For putative matches, a phylogenetic tree can be generated through the National Center for Biotechnology Information's BLAST Tree View tool, allowing for additional verification of the species of concern detection. The Pest Alert Tool is publicly available at https://pest-alert-tool-prod.azurewebsites.net/.

Evaluation on the performance of tree view factor in a high-density subtropical city: A case study in Hong Kong

Outdoor thermal comfort is a primary concern when designing urban environments suitable for pedestrian activities. In previous research, urban greenery had been considered as an effective strategy to mitigate the deterioration of the street-level thermal environment. Tree view factor (TVF), a parameter that can estimate the amount of tree cover visible in the overlying hemisphere, was applied in recent thermal environment assessment studies. However, a detailed understanding of TVF's suitability and application in a subtropical high-rise compact metropolis with diversified land uses is still lacking. To fill the knowledge gap, this study used Hong Kong as a study case and conducted ENVI-met simulations to analyse the human thermal comfort at two levels of TVF sites and two weather conditions. Results showed that high TVF (Htvf) sites had a pronounced reduction in mean radiant temperature (TMRT) of at least 15 °C after 12:00 under both typical and extreme weather scenarios. A lower mean physiological equivalent temperature (PET) of below 30 °C and 35 °C remained in the daytime of typical and extreme weather scenarios, respectively. It was also found that low TVF sites inside parks received more solar radiation, while Htvf sites inside parks exhibited a more substantial cooling potential than that inside street canyons. Htvf sites could maintain better pedestrian thermal comfort due to the shading effect. This study also proved that TVF is more suitable than green coverage ratio (GCR) in urban thermal environment assessments and urban green infrastructure design to create a thermally comfortable high-rise and high-density metropolis.

A view of the academic family trees in Brazil

The adviser-advisee relationship, which is characterized as a form of knowledge propagation, has the possible effect of promoting an increase in the scientific production of both. Specifically, in graduate programs, where this relationship is more active, either in the preparation of the thesis or in the derivation of works related to this type of study, where this is the central point of this research. In this study, orientation data extracted from curricula registered in the Lattes Platform are used, with the aim of obtaining, in addition to an overview of the orientation process in Brazil, an analysis of the bibliographic production. As a result, it was possible to observe that some individuals, especially those who work in postgraduate programs, tend to obtain a greater amount of direct guidance and, consequently, family trees with a greater number of generations. It was also verified that the areas of activity of the advisers are determinant for more dense family trees. Therefore, it is concluded that some areas such as Biological Sciences and Human Sciences hold the academic family trees with the highest number of generations and individuals, to the detriment of others such as Exact Sciences and Engineering. Innovative, the study makes genealogy into fifteen levels, a fact that previous studies only reach seven levels of guidance families. It also has a generation of computing technology and metrics to calculate everything and brings together analysis on a single platform. La relación asesor-asesor, caracterizada como una forma de propagación del conocimiento, tiene el posible efecto de promover el aumento de la producción científica de ambos. Específicamente, en los programas de posgrado, donde esta relación es más activa, ya sea en la elaboración de la tesis o en la derivación de trabajos relacionados con este tipo de estudio, donde este es el punto central de esta investigación. En este estudio se utilizan datos de orientación extraídos de los currículos registrados en la Plataforma Lattes, con el objetivo de obtener, además de una visión general del proceso de orientación en Brasil, un análisis de la producción bibliográfica. Como resultado, fue posible observar que algunas personas, especialmente las que trabajan en programas de posgrado, tienden a obtener una mayor cantidad de orientación directa y, consecuentemente, árboles genealógicos con un mayor número de generaciones. También se verificó que las áreas de actuación de los orientadores son determinantes para árboles genealógicos más densos. Por lo tanto, se concluye que algunas áreas como Ciencias Biológicas y Ciencias Humanas poseen los árboles genealógicos académicos con mayor número de generaciones e individuos, en detrimento de otras como Ciencias Exactas e Ingeniería. Innovador, el estudio hace la genealogía en quince niveles, hecho que estudios anteriores sólo alcanzan siete niveles de familias orientadoras. Además, cuenta con una generación de tecnología informática y métrica para calcularlo todo y reúne los análisis en una única plataforma. A relação orientador-orientando, que se caracteriza como uma forma de propagação de conhecimento, tem como possível efeito a promoção de um aumento na produção científica de ambos. Especificamente, nos programas de pós-graduação, onde essa relação é mais ativa, seja na elaboração da tese ou na derivação de trabalhos relacionados a esse tipo de estudo, onde está o ponto central desta pesquisa. Neste estudo, são utilizados dados de orientação extraídos de currículos cadastrados na Plataforma Lattes, com o objetivo de obter, além de um panorama do processo de orientação no Brasil, uma análise da produção bibliográfica. Como resultado, foi possível observar que alguns indivíduos, especialmente aqueles que atuam em programas de pós-graduação, tendem a obter uma maior quantidade de orientações diretas e, consequentemente, árvores genealógicas com um maior número de gerações. Verificou-se também que as áreas de atuação dos orientadores são determinantes para árvores genealógicas mais densas. Conclui-se, portanto, que algumas áreas como Ciências Biológicas e Ciências Humanas detêm as árvores genealógicas acadêmicas com maior número de gerações e indivíduos, em detrimento de outras como Ciências Exatas e Engenharias. Inovador, o estudo faz a genealogia em quinze níveis, facto que estudos anteriores apenas atingem sete níveis de orientação de famílias. Conta ainda com uma geração de tecnologia computacional e métricas para calcular tudo e reúne as análises numa única plataforma.

Understanding Urban Residents’ Perceptions of Street Trees to Develop Sustainable Maintenance Guidelines in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, Korea

Street trees play a crucial role in improving urban environments, and their management depends on the perceptions and preferences of urban residents. This study surveyed 884 urban residents’ preferences and perceptions towards street trees in a metropolitan area in Korea and proposed guidelines for their sustainable management. Urban residents were aware of the presence of street trees based on visual changes and were generally satisfied with their shape, size, and growth. They preferred trees that provide environmental and ecological services, such as offering shade, purifying the air, and preserving the ecosystem, while viewing the generation of debris from street trees as the most significant problem. Urban residents’ perspectives on street tree preference and issues varied based on age, income, and housing type. Although urban residents acknowledged the need for the maintenance and management of street trees, they believed that this was the responsibility of central and local governments, not local residents. Collectively, the residents had a positive view of urban street trees and believed that maintenance and management are necessary to address problems caused by their presence. Our research findings provide valuable information to help city and landscaping experts select street tree species and establish maintenance and management strategies.

Predicting highly dynamic traffic noise using rotating mobile monitoring and machine learning method

Traffic noise, characterized by its highly fluctuating nature, is the second biggest environmental problem in the world. Highly dynamic noise maps are indispensable for managing traffic noise pollution, but two key difficulties exist in generating these maps: the lack of large amounts of fine-scale noise monitoring data and the ability to predict noise levels in the absence of noise monitoring data. This study proposed a new noise monitoring method, the Rotating Mobile Monitoring method, that combines the advantages of stationary and mobile monitoring methods and expands the spatial extent and temporal resolution of noise data. A monitoring campaign was conducted in the Haidian District of Beijing, covering 54.79 km of roads and a total area of 22.15 km2, and gathered 18,213 A-weighted equivalent noise (LAeq) measurements at 1-s intervals from 152 stationary sampling sites. Additionally, street view images, meteorological data and built environment data were collected from all roads and stationary sites. Using computer vision and GIS analysis tools, 49 predictor variables were measured in four categories, including microscopic traffic composition, street form, land use and meteorology. Six machine learning models and linear regression models were trained to predict LAeq, with random forest performing the best (R2 = 0.72, RMSE = 3.28 dB), followed by K-nearest neighbors regression (R2 = 0.66, RMSE = 3.43 dB). The optimal random forest model identified distance to the major road, tree view index, and the maximum field of view index of cars in the last 3 s as the top three contributors. Finally, the model was applied to generate a 9-day traffic noise map of the study area at both the point and street levels. The study is easily replicable and can be extended to a larger spatial scale to obtain highly dynamic noise maps.

Analyzing the effect of view factors on surface heat flux, surface temperature, and vegetation cover.

With the increase in population in cities, economic, social, and environmental problems continue to increase, and it is thought that the microclimatic conditions created by these problems will cause more environmental problems. One of the factors affecting the urban climate in urban areas is urban geometry. The climate of a region changes due to the shape of the land surface, human activities, atmospheric movements, and latent and sensible heat fluxes. Sky view factor (SVF), building view factor (BVF), and tree view factor (TVF) are actively used in the determination of urban geometry. However, studies on how these factors affect the thermal state of the urban environment are insufficient. Determining the land surface changes and thermal condition characteristics (LST, NDVI, SHF, and LHF) depending on urban growth and examining how these properties affect thermal conditions are very important in the construction of sustainable urban planning. In the study, SVF, BVF, TVF, LST, NDVI, SHF, and LHF values of 55 points determined for three different areas with different urban geometries were calculated. How these values affect each other and their situation on urban outdoor thermal comfort is evaluated. In the study, statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between surface temperature, surface heat fluxes, different view factors, and vegetation. As a result of ANOVA analysis, it was determined as very significant (p > 0.01) in all regions. Both SHF and LHF values differ with SVF. The SHF value has a direct relationship with the SVF value. LHF is inversely proportional to the SVF value. The situation is reversed for SHF variation concerning vegetation. LHF and NDVI are directly related. SHF and NDVI are inversely proportional. SVF and NDVI values also vary according to the LST value. It has been observed that LST has a direct relationship with SVF and an inverse relationship with NDVI.

A Dynamic Web-based Application for the Classification of Vascular Anomalies

The International Society for the Study of Vascular Anomalies (ISSVA) released the most recent version of the classification of vascular anomalies in 2018.1 This revision of the 2014 classification expanded the scope of clinical entities and included molecular diagnostics. The 2018 report incorporated recent discoveries in the field and was released as a 20-page PDF file navigable through embedded links. The links lead users through the classification hierarchy, and each page lists anomalies, their corresponding genetic mutations (if known), and other details. Further information is found in five appendices in the last seven pages of the report. The document is comprehensive, but the structure has drawbacks in usability, organization, and sustainability. The format is rigid and difficult to update. The vascular anomaly field is new and ever growing. In just the past few years, there have been significant advances in discovering new clinical entities and uncovering the genetic basis for these conditions. The PDF-based classification cannot be updated routinely without reformatting entirely. Therefore, this format is unsustainable as new discoveries are made. The PDF format classification also limits organization, ease of use, and navigability. It includes a hierarchy of anomalies and categories organized into tables with internal page links that are difficult to navigate. The embedded links guide users to various pages throughout the document, which provides a nonlinear and somewhat confusing user experience. Additionally, the format of each page was unique (to accommodate custom information), and this lack of standardization stifles the user experience because of the inconsistent location of relevant information. Finally, the indices store information that cannot be placed on the appropriate PDF pages (because of space limitations), which makes navigating back and forth tedious. The aim for a new format was to streamline the design and solve the limitations of the current PDF format. We engineered an interactive web app format, which sustainably supports future updates. The classification is organized into a tree, with nested expandable nodes containing the anomalies in a hierarchical structure, similar to that of a file explorer. With this format, a user can expand the tree to view individual anomalies, associated information, and the entire hierarchy in a common location. The visual hierarchy provides a natural organization of the classification for a more intuitive experience. The app has a consistent format throughout, and it is easily modified. Minor additions and changes can be implemented quickly, without altering or compromising the framework of the format. The web app supports including additional anomaly-specific data through the use of popover buttons, which improves organization while providing comprehensive information. Popovers may contain clinical and radiological images (Figure 1), footnotes for unusual or exceptional cases (Figure 2), genomic information, and others if necessary. Additionally, we included search functionality via autocomplete “smart” select boxes (Figure 3). The user can search for a specific term by selecting it from an alphabetical list, or by typing into a free text field that limits selection to specific options dynamically. When searching for a specific anomaly, the web app opens the tree to the selected entry while briefly highlighting the entry itself and its parent nodes. Separate selectable dialog boxes allow the user to search genes and abbreviations without navigating away (Figure 4).Figure 1.: Expanded tree view of vascular anomalies classification hierarchy. Image popover shows clinical image of infantile hemangioma.Figure 2.: Popover with additional information about rapidly involuting congenital hemangioma.Figure 3.: Search function opens the tree to the selectable term (arteriovenous malformation in this case), automatically scrolls down the page, and highlights hierarchy.Figure 4.: Gene Search and Abbreviation Search dialog boxes with option filtering and autofill. The search buttons remain affixed to the bottom for easy look-up even as one scrolls up and down the tree. One can lookup terms without losing one’s place in the tree.The tree is rendered dynamically from a single data structure, which allows for flexible modification and efficiency. When data are changed it is instantly reflected in the classification. This makes minor or major alterations feasible and practical, in contrast to labor-intense reformats of PDF releases. The vascular anomaly field is changing rapidly with the recognition of new clinical entities and the identification of genes responsible for disease. This app format allows for real-time classification updates. The web app was created using React, a JavaScript library. It is a mobile-friendly application currently hosted at https://vascularanomalies.net. A pure client-side program, it can be embedded easily on the ISSVA website and updated to reflect any future changes rapidly.

Nightingale: web components for protein feature visualization.

The visualization of biological data is a fundamental technique that enables researchers to understand and explain biology. Some of these visualizations have become iconic, for instance: tree views for taxonomy, cartoon rendering of 3D protein structures or tracks to represent features in a gene or protein, for instance in a genome browser. Nightingale provides visualizations in the context of proteins and protein features. Nightingale is a library of re-usable data visualization web components that are currently used by UniProt and InterPro, among other projects. The components can be used to display protein sequence features, variants, interaction data, 3D structure, etc. These components are flexible, allowing users to easily view multiple data sources within the same context, as well as compose these components to create a customized view. Nightingale examples and documentation are freely available at https://ebi-webcomponents.github.io/nightingale/. It is distributed under the MIT license, and its source code can be found at https://github.com/ebi-webcomponents/nightingale.

INFLUENCE OF URBAN GREEN SPACES ON ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE LEVELS: - A REVIEW

Abstract. Ninety per cent of urban areas' total noise pollution is caused by traffic. Green areas are a very important factor for noise reduction. They will absorb noise from 5dB (A) to 10 dB (A). Nonetheless, some major concerns can be addressed, such as: how can green areas be established in the urban city?, how trees absorb noise?, what are the equations to calculate noise absorption by trees?, and what are the best survey methods to measure the trees' properties?, and is it possible to visualize trees in three-dimensional (3D) space?. Thirty-five (35) research papers were selected under the subtopics, green spaces and urban forms, noise absorption by green spaces, and green spaces visualization in 3D to find solutions for the above problems. The review has identified how to increase green spaces in urban forms like core, star, satellite, and linear. Next, the leaves are the main possible part to absorb noise, and depend on the leaves' surface area, tree depth, and noise absorption coefficient. These parameters must be considered to formulate an equation to identify sound absorption by leaves. Furthermore, the Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technique can be used for determining the surface area of leaves and tree depth, due to its high resolution of point clouds. The Digital Surface Model (DSM) is not applicable for visualizing green areas, because it represents the only top view of trees, and tree depth cannot be identified properly. Proper visualization of green spaces in 3D will convey a significant point of view to visualize noise absorption accurately in a 3D urban city.