Integrating spatial and temporal approaches for explaining bicycle crashes in high-risk areas in Antwerp (Belgium)

The majority of bicycle crash studies aim at determining risk factors and estimating crash risks by employing statistics. Accordingly, the goal of this paper is to evaluate bicycle-motor vehicle crashes by using spatial and temporal approaches to statistical data. The spatial approach (a weighted kernel density estimation approach) preliminarily estimates crash risks at the macro level, thereby avoiding the expensive work of collecting traffic counts; meanwhile, the temporal approach (negative binomial regression approach) focuses on crash data that occurred on urban arterials and includes traffic exposure at the micro level. The crash risk and risk factors of arterial roads associated with bicycle facilities and road environments were assessed using a database built from field surveys and five government agencies. This study analysed 4120 geocoded bicycle crashes in the city of Antwerp (CA, Belgium). The data sets covered five years (2014 to 2018), including all bicycle-motorized vehicle (BMV) crashes from police reports. Urban arterials were highlighted as high-risk areas through the spatial approach. This was as expected given that, due to heavy traffic and limited road space, bicycle facilities on arterial roads face many design problems. Through spatial and temporal approaches, the environmental characteristics of bicycle crashes on arterial roads were analysed at the micro level. Finally, this paper provides an insight that can be used by both the geography and transport fields to improve cycling safety on urban arterial roads

Monitoring Electoral Violence through Social Media: A Machine Learning Approach

No abstract available

Multimodal Classification of Urban Micro-Events

In this paper we seek methods to effectively detect urban micro-events. Urban micro-events are events which occur in cities, have limited geographical coverage and typically affect only a small group of citizens. Because of their scale these are difficult to identify in most data sources. However, by using citizen sensing to gather data, detecting them becomes feasible. The data gathered by citizen sensing is often multimodal and, as a consequence, the information required to detect urban micro-events is distributed over multiple modalities. This makes it essential to have a classifier capable of combining them. In this paper we explore several methods of creating such a classifier, including early, late, hybrid fusion and representation learning using multimodal graphs. We evaluate performance on a real world dataset obtained from a live citizen reporting system. We show that a multimodal approach yields higher performance than unimodal alternatives. Furthermore, we demonstrate that our hybrid combination of early and late fusion with multimodal embeddings performs best in classification of urban micro-events

Engaging through social media. Part 1 social media explained

This guide is designed for youth project managers, and has the following aims "To explain social media technologies and functions using simple language. To provide you with the tools to increase interest and attendance at your project by working with young people and promoting your activities through social media.

Assessing village food needs following a natural disaster in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea is vulnerable to natural disasters, including drought and frost associated with El Niño weather events and excessive rainfall associated with La Niña events. Drought, frost and excessive rainfall can cause major disruptions to village food supplies. Drought also reduces villagers’ access to clean drinking water, which in turn has a negative impact on peoples’ health and the capacity of schools and hospitals to operate. There are often other impacts — damage to crops and property by wildfires, out-migration and an increased death rate. In 1997–98, and again in 2015–16, a major El Niño event caused significant disruption to drinking water and food supply for many Papua New Guinean villagers. Staff of many agencies, including those working through the Church Partnership Program El Niño Drought Response Program, were involved in assessing the impact and providing relief in 2015–16. This publication brings together the experiences of those working on the Church Partnership Program response to the 2015–16 El Niño event and serves as a guide for assessing future food shortages and to help those in need.Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT

Los Medios Sociales como una herramienta estratégica para la Comunicación Corporativa

Companies around the globe are embracing and adapting social media for many different intentions: customer service, marketing, internal communications, public relations or corporate social responsibility, etc. It is now a reality that social media is channging the way stakeholders and companies communicate daily, providing opportunities for collaboration, participation, interactivity, and engagement. Therefore, social media is conceived today in the corporate world as a strategic communication partner, driving new and unique possibilities for organizations to engage stakeholders in conversations. We are witnesses of a new digital era where consumers are becoming active users rather than passive individuals, changing dramatically how society operates. But these useful technological tools are employed widely and precisely by corporations in order to facilitate and improve communications? This research aims to discover the usage of different social media platforms by Puerto Rican companies. A content analysis was performed to the Facebook and Twitter official profiles of the top 400 locally owned Puerto Rican companies of 2009. The principal objective was to find if social media sites were mainly used as a strategic tool for corporate communication that can enhance stakeholder participation and engagement. Results showed that Puerto Rican companies are not employing social media platforms for improving communications with different stakeholders, failing to take advantage of the enormous possibilities that social media has for communication.Instituto de Investigación en Relaciones Pública

The New News: Journalism We Want and Need

Economic pressures on one hand and continuing democratization of news on the other have already changed the news picture in Chicago, as elsewhere in the U.S. The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times are in bankruptcy, and local broadcast news programs also face economic pressures. Meanwhile, it seems every week brings a new local news entrepreneur from Gapers Block to Beachwood Reporter to Chi-Town Daily News to Windy Citizen to The Printed Blog.In response to these changes, the Knight Foundation is actively supporting a national effort to explore innovations in how information, especially at the local community level, is collected and disseminated to ensure that people find the information they need to make informed decisions about their community's future. The Chicago Community Trust is fortunate to have been selected as a partner working with the Knight Foundation in this effort through the Knight Community Information Challenge. For 94 years, the Trust has united donors to create charitable resources that respond to the changing needs of our community -- meeting basic needs, enriching lives and encouraging innovative ways to improve our neighborhoods and communities.Understanding how online information and communications are meeting, or not, the needs of the community is crucial to the Trust's project supported by the Knight Foundation. To this end, the Trust commissioned the Community Media Workshop to produce The New News: Journalism We Want and Need. We believe this report is a first of its kind resource offering an inventory and assessment of local news coverage for the region by utilizing the interactive power of the internet. Essays in this report also provide insightful perspectives on the opportunities and challenges

The Farmland Wildlife Survey – raising awareness of wildlife habitats

End of project reportThe Farmland Wildlife Survey involved a short visit (about 3 hours) to 19 REPS demonstration farms, and an identification of habitats and wildlife on each farm, with an emphasis on common farmland habitats such as hedgerows, ponds, watercourses, field margins, woodland, plant species and other areas of wildlife value. The survey results were provided to the farmer and Teagasc REPS advisor as a report with colour pictures of representative habitats, and an explanation of why these habitats were important for wildlife.The Heritage Council

Oral History: Memories Transcribed

Oral history began as oral tradition, the passing down of information from generation to generation. Now we commit most everything to paper. However, there are still places in the world where the passing of history is truly an oral tradition. Within our own families, oral tradition is the main way most of us retain our favorite family stories. Unfortunately, by not recording these stories, they frequently undergo changes as they pass from parent to child, also, with the advent of technology and the decline of the extended family, these family stories are becoming lost