Toward Cyborg PPGIS: exploring socio-technical requirements for the use of web-based PPGIS in two municipal planning cases, Stockholm region, Sweden

Web-based Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) are increasingly used for surveying place values and informing municipal planning in contexts of urban densification. However, research is lagging behind the rapid deployment of PPGIS applications. Some of the main opportunities and challenges for the uptake and implementation of web-based PPGIS are derived from a literature review and two case studies dealing with municipal planning for urban densification in the Stockholm region, Sweden. A simple clustering analysis identified three interconnected themes that together determine the performance of PPGIS: (i) tool design and affordances; (ii) organisational capacity; and (iii) governance. The results of the case studies augment existing literature regarding the connections between the different socio-technical dimensions for the design, implementation and evaluation of PPGIS applications in municipal planning. A cyborg approach to PPGIS is then proposed to improve the theoretical basis for addressing these dimensions together

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Compact sprawl : Exploring public open space and contradictions in urban density

Twentieth century urbanization has left a tremendous footprint on the globe. It is generally speaking a spread out fragmented suburban and exurban landscape continuously growing according to what has been called sprawl-like development, increasing energy and automobile dependency, challenging urban sustainability. Recently urban growth has also turned inwards because of economic and political change. Thus one of the main challenges for future urban design will be to ‘compact sprawl’. This thesis, set in the field of urban morphology, explores the spatial conditions for suburban densification by looking at administrative and user-related measures of density, public open space, and pedestrian accessibility. If we consider useful open space, it would not decrease density, but rather increase spatial compactness. So would also a well-connected street network, if we consider accessibility as part of density. The thesis’ first four papers explore new measures that contradict ordinary notions of density and the last three papers examine densification scenarios on different urban scales in collaboration with urban planners in practice. The paper Place syntax explores a possibility to combine the space syntax description of cognitive accessibility, axial line distance, with place attraction into a combined attraction-accessibility analysis model. Empirical investigation shows that place syntax analysis captures pedestrian movement and can be used for new types of location density analyses. Sociotope mapping describes the theoretical body of a new urban planning tool called the “sociotope map” (sociotopkarta) developed in Stockholm planning practice. The map emphasizes that the same public open space can have different direct use values for different people and thereby assesses qualitative open space area. Exploring Ambiterritory investigates the notion of (sub)urban no-man’s-land. Densification most often means increased open space use, which naturally leads to an increase of potential conflicting territorial interests. However, the reduction of vague user space and unclear legal territories by densification can increase the size of useful open space. More green space in a denser city investigates whether little public green space means low accessibility. User questionnaires and GIS-analyses in ten city districts in Stockholm correlate and show that it is possible to have more accessible green space in a denser city. Strategic exurban landscape densification investigates different municipal location strategies and development rates in the municipality of Kungälv. Results show that location strategies create the biggest landscape impact and not development rates. Greening metropolitan growth analyzes the density landscape in Stockholm county region and finds some correlations with health and socioeconomic variables. Growth scenarios in the regional plan for 2030 show decreasing compactness and spaciousness in inner suburbia. Compact sprawl experiments use the measures developed in the former papers on four densification scenarios in two suburbs in Stockholm. The results show how it is possible to efficiently compact modernist sprawl, particularly the inner suburbs. It is likely that we will be more dependent on walking, bicycling, and public transportation in the future. Street networks and public open spaces are then key issues today just as they were at the end of the nineteenthcentury, creating compact, sustainable, liveable, equitable, and more competitive cities. In fact, many compact urban cores such as in Stockholm, London, and Manhattan have through the 20th century persistently stood up to the competition against more sprawling cities. The thesis shows that compacting inner suburbia seems to be the new frontier many cities and planners are facing. In fact, this is a vast unexplored field that needs further attention in urban studies and urban morphology in particular.QC 20100913Stadsform och hållbar utvecklin

Mer park i tätare stad

The prevailing urban planning strategy in the 21st century in many European cities is urbanisa-tion by densification. The strategy, which has obvious consequences for green and open space, has commonly been described as “Compact city” or “Smart growth”. Densification has mainly been initiated by large building companies, often in conflict with local lobby groups with strong social capital. This has frequently led to deadlocks in planning, especially concerning green space exploitation. This paper suggests new tools for understanding and measuring how urban structuring affects open space accessibility, not only because urban structure distributes open space to people, it also creates users and stakeholders. Since the 1950:s Swedish urban planning has been led by normative open space guidelines developed by research and national ministries, guidelines that are still present but has lost in power. Generally these guidelines are based on either density, i.e. sqm green space/person within a defined area, or range, i.e. maximum metric distance to a minimum park size. Planning practice has essentially dealt with size and qualities, often confusing, in micro economic terms, use value and non-use value (e.g. the “ecological”). This paper introduces new ways of integrating use value (sociotop) and orientation (axial lines) into new measures of open space accessibility. A new GIS-application “The Place Syntax Tool” (PST), developed within the research project, makes it possible to calculate the ‘topological’ open space accessibility from every place (address or plot) in an urban area, current or planned. ‘Topological’ accessibility analyses handles the “modified area unit problem” (MAUP) discussed in geography. A questionnaire from 2001 (TEMO) states that, citizens in some dense inner-city-districts experience higher park and nature accessibility than in some low-density “green” sub-urbs in Stockholm. This peculiar result was the starting point of testing old and new measures in ten different city districts, using PST. The conclusion is that a new measure, which take range, orientation, green space size and number of use values into account, correlates consid-erably better to the questionnaire (R2=0,75 p&lt;0,001), than any conventional measures. It shows that the 19th century “deformed” inner city grid with defined urban parks connected by green boulevards more effectively distributes open space to many citizens compared with the “interrupted” grid and segregated green structure of the post war “modernist” suburbs. Another finding is that axial lines seem to capture movement to and within open space better than any metric measure. Correlation was found when comparing observed pedes-trian flow and calculated population accessibility (Södermalm dij=3, R2=0,682, p&lt;0,001; Hög-dalen dij=6, R2=0,442, p&lt;0,001). Correlation was also found when comparing a questionnaire asking “How often do you go to your favourite green area?” (USK 2002) and axial line distance between all addresses in the study areas and the closest green area (R2=0,77, p=0,018). These results can also be explained by the Space syntax integration analysis which shows that the green spaces in the inner city grid is much more integrated than in the post war suburbs. This means that orientation plays a big part in determining if, and how often people visit open spaces. Consequently, better measures could promote understanding of open space planning as an asset to city development, help overcome the deadlock in densification planning and change the common opinion of open space and “green” from a static to a dynamic urban entity.QC 2010122

More green space in a denser city : Critical relations between user experience and urban form

This article suggests new tools for understanding and measuring how urban design affects green space accessibility: how urban structure distributes open space to people and how it creates users and stakeholders. Two similar questionnaires from 2001 and 2004 reveal that citizens in some dense inner city districts experience higher green space accessibility than citizens in some low-density ‘green’ suburbs in Stockholm. This peculiar result was the starting point of testing old and new measures in 10 different city districts using a new GIS-application ‘The Place Syntax Tool’ (PST). PST makes it possible to calculate the open space accessibility from every address point in an urban area. A new measure, which considers range (1000 m), orientation (axial line distance), green space size (sqm) and number of use values, correlated considerably better to the questionnaires (R2=0.74, P&lt;0.001) than any of the conventional measures. Correlation was also found when comparing another questionnaire that asked participants how often they go to their favorite green area and axial line accessibility to green areas (R2=0.77, P=0.018). Consequently, cognitive anthropocentric measures of accessibility and attraction can change the common opinion of open space and ‘green’ from a static to a dynamic urban entity.QC 2012021

Classification of similar concepts based on textual descriptions

Mūsdienās aizvien populārākas kļūst rekomendāciju sistēmas. Tomēr, lai rekomendācijas sistēma spētu dot pienācīgus rezultātus, ir jāpatērē daudz laika un resursu statistikas iegūšanai, ko nevar atļauties, piemēram, tikko atvērtie interneta veikali. Tāpēc būtu vajadzīgs alternatīvs veids, kā noteikt līdzību starp dažādiem jēdzieniem, uz kā varētu balstīt rekomendāciju vietnes apmeklētājiem. Šī darba mērķis ir tieši izveidot tādu modeli, kas nebūtu atkarīgs ne no lietotāju atsauksmēm, ne no noteikta jēdziena tipa – tātad būtu pietiekami universāls, lai derētu dažādiem jēdzienu tipiem. Rezultātā tika iegūta strādājoša sistēma, kuras sniegumu arī tika mēģināts novērtēt balstoties uz teorētiskiem likumiem, ko var piemērot līdzīgiem objektiem un salīdzinājumu ar eksistējošām dažāda darbības principa klasificēšanas sistēmām.Nowadays product and service recommendation systems are becoming more and more popular. However, much time and resources are spent on gathering statistical information that is needed for a recommendation system to produce proper results. And it is an unacceptable solution for some websites, like newly opened internet shops. Therefore, an alternate solution is needed, how to classify similar concepts to recommend them to visitors. The purpose of this work is to create a similar concept classification model, which will not rely on user feedback or on different features of concept. In other words, it must be universal enough to apply to different concept types. As a result of this work, a working system was created, which performance, it was attempted to evaluate using theoretical laws, which can be applied to similarities and result comparison with existing classification systems