Active Living for Sustainable Future: A Model to Measure “Walk Scores” via Geographic Information Systems

AbstractIn 2007 a private firm in Seattle, Washington began to measure and publish walkability maps of cities, neighborhoods, and streets via “walkscore.com”. Although “walkscore” have been criticized for its parameters, no alternative have been provided so far. More over, such maps have been published for developed countries. No such initiative has been undertaken in developing countries. This study aims to introduce and discuss an alternative model to measure walkability on street level via Geographic Information Systems (GIS). About 6500 street segments in nine districts of Izmır, Turkey have been digitized as well as the land use. A walkability score (based on betweenness / centrality scores derived from street network and accessibility scores derived from landuse) for each street segment was measured via GIS and its extension Spatial Design Network Analysis (SDNA)

Obesity, Physical Activity, Spatial Environmental Characteristics in Three Types of Residential Settings

AbstractObesity relates to physical activity and the level of physical activity a person could be involved is influenced by his/her physical environment. This study aims to investigate the relation between these characteristics via an empirical study, in Izmir, Turkey. Randomly selected 676 people completed household surveys and revealed their address, body mass index (BMI) and mean energy consumption for various activities (PA). The study area involved planned and unplanned developments for low, moderate, and high income neighborhoods. Three spatial setting characteristics (SC) were calculated for the streets within 400 meter network distance to each participants’ residence via geographic information systems: (1) destination density, (2) accessibility to destinations and (3) betweenness index. The participants’ mean BMI and PA and the spatial setting characteristics were compared in low, middle and high income neighborhoods. Results, showed no differences

Active Living For Sustainable Future: A model to measure "walk scores" via Geographic Information Systems

In 2007 a private firm in Seattle, Washington began to measure and publish walkability maps of cities, neighborhoods, and streets via "walkscore. com". Although "walkscore" have been criticized for its parameters, no alternative have been provided so far. More over, such maps have been published for developed countries. No such initiative has been undertaken in developing countries. This study aims to introduce and discuss an alternative model to measure walkability on street level via Geographic Information Systems (GIS). About 6500 street segments in nine districts of Izmir, Turkey have been digitized as well as the land use. A walkability score (based on betweenness / centrality scores derived from street network and accessibility scores derived from landuse) for each street segment was measured via GIS and its extension Spatial Design Network Analysis (SDNA). (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

AssembleRL: Learning to Assemble Furniture from Their Point Clouds

The rise of simulation environments has enabled learning-based approaches for assembly planning, which is otherwise a labor-intensive and daunting task. Assembling furniture is especially interesting since furniture are intricate and pose challenges for learning-based approaches. Surprisingly, humans can solve furniture assembly mostly given a 2D snapshot of the assembled product. Although recent years have witnessed promising learning-based approaches for furniture assembly, they assume the availability of correct connection labels for each assembly step, which are expensive to obtain in practice. In this paper, we alleviate this assumption and aim to solve furniture assembly with as little human expertise and supervision as possible. To be specific, we assume the availability of the assembled point cloud, and comparing the point cloud of the current assembly and the point cloud of the target product, obtain a novel reward signal based on two measures: Incorrectness and incompleteness. We show that our novel reward signal can train a deep network to successfully assemble different types of furniture. Code and networks available here: https://github.com/METU-KALFA/AssembleRL

Immediate Effects of Methylphenidate on Vocal Acoustic Parameters in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective: The children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are more talkative and aloud than typical children. Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder might abuse their voice more often than others and this might be a risk factor for childhood dysphonia, and hyperfunctional vocal behaviors negatively influence their communications. The studies about vocal acoustic variables in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are very limited; moreover possible effects of the stimulants on vocal acoustic variables are unknown. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate possible vocal acoustic changes following methylphenidate administration in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Decreasing time between first diagnosis of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and cryoballoon ablation positively affects long-term consequences

Background Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) usually experience a worsening of their AF burden over time. We aimed to investigate timing of pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) by cryoballoon (CB-2) after the first clinical diagnosis of AF on ablation-related outcomes. Methods A total of 132 consecutive patients with paroxysmal AF undergoing PVI by CB-2 were included in the study. The patients were retrospectively sorted into two groups to evaluate differences in AF recurrence risk associated with early ablation (n = 89), defined as within 365 days of first AF diagnosis, and late ablation (n = 365), defined as > 365 days after first AF diagnosis. AF-free survival during follow-up was compared between groups. Results Although mean procedure times were comparable between groups, mean fluoroscopy times were lower in the early ablation group. For the whole study group, median (interquartile range) time from AF diagnosis to first ablation was 4.0 (2.0-11.3) months [3.0 (1.0-4.0) vs 14.0 (12.0-22.5) months in the early and late ablation groups, respectively]. Median follow-up for the whole population was 12.0 (12.0-18.0) months, and after the blanking period, 14 (10.6%) patients had arrhythmia recurrence (2 in the early and 12 in the late ablation groups). In the univariable Cox regression analysis and propensity score adjusted penalized Cox regression analysis, there was a significant association between delay in ablation time and AF recurrence (unadjusted hazard ratio = 7.74, 95% CI 2.26-40.1, p < 0.001, adjusted hazard ratio = 7.50, 95% CI 2.23-38.6, p < 0.001). Conclusion Delays in treatment with CB-2 ablation may negatively affect AF-free survival rates among patients with paroxysmal AF