45 research outputs found
Efficient Generation of Geographically Accurate Transit Maps
We present LOOM (Line-Ordering Optimized Maps), a fully automatic generator
of geographically accurate transit maps. The input to LOOM is data about the
lines of a given transit network, namely for each line, the sequence of
stations it serves and the geographical course the vehicles of this line take.
We parse this data from GTFS, the prevailing standard for public transit data.
LOOM proceeds in three stages: (1) construct a so-called line graph, where
edges correspond to segments of the network with the same set of lines
following the same course; (2) construct an ILP that yields a line ordering for
each edge which minimizes the total number of line crossings and line
separations; (3) based on the line graph and the ILP solution, draw the map. As
a naive ILP formulation is too demanding, we derive a new custom-tailored
formulation which requires significantly fewer constraints. Furthermore, we
present engineering techniques which use structural properties of the line
graph to further reduce the ILP size. For the subway network of New York, we
can reduce the number of constraints from 229,000 in the naive ILP formulation
to about 4,500 with our techniques, enabling solution times of less than a
second. Since our maps respect the geography of the transit network, they can
be used for tiles and overlays in typical map services. Previous research work
either did not take the geographical course of the lines into account, or was
concerned with schematic maps without optimizing line crossings or line
separations.Comment: 7 page
Reporting flock patterns
Data representing moving objects is rapidly getting more
available, especially in the area of wildlife GPS tracking. It is
a central belief that information is hidden in large data sets in
the form of interesting patterns. One of the most common
spatio-temporal patterns sought after is flocks. A flock is a
large enough subset of objects moving along paths close to each
other for a certain pre-defined time. We give a new definition
that we argue is more realistic than the previous ones, and by the
use of techniques from computational geometry we present fast
algorithms to detect and report flocks.
The algorithms are analysed both theoretically and experimentally
Co-Clustering Network-Constrained Trajectory Data
Recently, clustering moving object trajectories kept gaining interest from
both the data mining and machine learning communities. This problem, however,
was studied mainly and extensively in the setting where moving objects can move
freely on the euclidean space. In this paper, we study the problem of
clustering trajectories of vehicles whose movement is restricted by the
underlying road network. We model relations between these trajectories and road
segments as a bipartite graph and we try to cluster its vertices. We
demonstrate our approaches on synthetic data and show how it could be useful in
inferring knowledge about the flow dynamics and the behavior of the drivers
using the road network
Validity of mobile electronic data capture in clinical studies: a pilot study in a pediatric population.
BACKGROUND: Clinical studies in children are necessary yet conducting multiple visits at study centers remains challenging. The success of "care-at-home" initiatives and remote clinical trials suggests their potential to facilitate conduct of pediatric studies. This pilot aimed to study the feasibility of remotely collecting valid (i.e. complete and correct) saliva samples and clinical data utilizing mobile technology. METHODS: Single-center, prospective pilot study in children undergoing elective tonsillectomy at the University of Basel Children's Hospital. Data on pain scores and concomitant medication and saliva samples were collected by caregivers on two to four inpatient study days and on three consecutive study days at home. A tailored mobile application developed for this study supported data collection. The primary endpoint was the proportion of complete and correct caregiver-collected data (pain scale) and saliva samples in the at-home setting. Secondary endpoints included the proportion of complete and correct saliva samples in the inpatient setting, subjective feasibility for caregivers, and study cost. RESULTS: A total number of 23 children were included in the study of which 17 children, median age 6.0 years (IQR 5.0, 7.4), completed the study. During the at-home phase, 71.9% [CI = 64.4, 78.6] of all caregiver-collected pain assessments and 53.9% [CI = 44.2, 63.4] of all saliva samples were complete and correct. Overall, 64.7% [CI = 58.7, 70.4] of all data collected by caregivers at home was complete and correct. The predominant reason for incorrectness of data was adherence to the timing of predefined patient actions. Participating caregivers reported high levels of satisfaction and willingness to participate in similar trials in the future. Study costs for a potential sample size of 100 patients were calculated to be 20% lower for the at-home than for a traditional in-patient study setting. CONCLUSIONS: Mobile device supported studies conducted at home may provide a cost-effective approach to facilitate conduct of clinical studies in children. Given findings in this pilot study, data collection at home may focus on electronic data capture rather than biological sampling
1 Delineating Boundaries for Imprecise Regions ∗
In geographic information retrieval, queries often name geographic regions that do not have a well-defined boundary, such as “Southern France. ” We provide two algorithmic approaches to the problem of computing reasonable boundaries of such regions based on data points that have evidence indicating that they lie either inside or outside the region. Our problem formulation leads to a number of subproblems related to red-blue point separation and minimum-perimeter polygons, many of which we solve algorithmically. We give experimental results from our implementation and a comparison of the two approaches.
Delineating boundaries of imprecise regions
In geographic information retrieval users use names of geographic regions that do not have a well-defined boundary, like Southern France. We present two approaches to compute reasonable boundaries of such regions, based on evidence of points that are likely to lie inside or outside this region.