Place Rank: Valuing Spatial Interactions

Accessibility measures the potential of opportunities for interaction. This paper proposes and explores a new flow-based measure, 'place rank' using origin-destination information. Both impedance and value of opportunities are embedded in the dataset that includes the origin and destination of each person within the studied region. Individuals contribute to the place rank at their destination (work) zone with a power that depends on the attractiveness of the zone of origin. In this paper we demonstrate this place rank measure for three activities (Jobs, Resident Workers, and Health Services) in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region and Jobs in Montreal, Canada. We compare place rank to traditional measures of accessibility. Since place rank is based on actual choices of origins and destinations it is a measure of realized rather than potential opportunities, and so unlike accessibility measures. Also it does not require the knowledge of travel time between all origins and destinations.Accessibility, Mobility, Gravity Based, Cumulative Opportunity, Land Use, Place Rank

Mapping Accessibility Over Time

The concept of "accessibility" has been coin in the transportation planning field for more than 40 years. Improving accessibility is a common element in the goals section in almost all transportation plans in the US. In this study we compare the changes in levels of accessibility over time in the Minneapolis - St. Paul region using two different modes (auto and transit). The importance of accessibility as a measure of land use and transportation planning performance in the region is revealed by comparing it over time. The longitudinal analysis being conducted shows improvements in most areas in the studied region in terms of the level of accessibility by automobile, and a drop in accessibility by transit over the period 1990 to 2000. The findings are compared to the levels of congestion in the region between the same time periods. This comparison shows the difference between the two measures and strengthens the importance of accessibility measures as a tool for monitoring and evaluating regional land use and transportation planning performance. Journal of Maps (in press).

The Minimum Circuity Frontier and the Journey to Work

In an urban context people travel between places of residence and work destinations via transportation networks. Transportation studies that involve measurements of distances between residence and work locations tend to use Euclidean distances rather than Network distances. This is due to the historic difficulty in calculating network distances and based on assumptions that differences between Euclidean distance and network distance tend to be constant. This assumption is true only when variation in the network is minor and when self-selection is not present. In this paper we use circuity, the ratio of network to Euclidean distance, as a tool to better understand the choice of residential location relative to work. This is done using two methods of defining origins and destinations in the Twin Cities metropolitan region. The first method of selection is based on actual choice of residence and work locations. The second is based on a randomly selected dataset of origins and destinations in the same region. The findings of the study show circuity measured through randomly selected origins and destinations differ from circuity measured from actual origins and destinations. Workers tend to reside in areas where the circuity is lower, applying intelligence to their location decisions. We posit this because locators wish to achieve the largest residential lot at the shortest commute time. This finding reveals an important issue related to resident choice and location theory and how resident workers tend to locate in an urban context.Network structure, travel behavior, transport geography, commuting, circuity

Models of Transportation and Land Use Change: A Guide to the Territory

Modern urban regions are highly complex entities. Despite the difficulty of modeling every relevant aspect of an urban region, researchers have produced a rich variety models dealing with inter-related processes of urban change. The most popular types of models have been those dealing with the relationship between transportation network growth and changes in land use and the location of economic activity, embodied in the concept of accessibility. This paper reviews some of the more common frameworks for modeling transportation and land use change, illustrating each with some examples of operational models that have been applied to real-world settings.Transport, land use, models, review network growth, induced demand, induced supply

The Transportation Needs of Seniors

Over 208,000 residents of Hennepin County, Minnesota are over the age of 55, a number that is sure to rise. This paper examines the transportation needs of the elderly in Hennepin County through a mail out-mail back survey of their existing travel behavior and their unmet needs. The survey had both demographic and attitude questions as well as a travel diary for recording actual trips and desired but untaken trips. We found that 87% of the sampled population feel they are independent travelers. Around 51% of the surveyed population indicated that they are transit users, 25% of them revealed their concerns about difficulties they are facing when using public transit. About 16% of transit users were concerned about waiting time for transit, while only 8% were concerned about the travel time. Only 15% of the surveyed population use paratransit. A large number of comments were received, which add qualitative flavor to the analysis that was conducted. Seniors recognize even if they are currently independent, that will not always be the case, and acknowledge they should plan.Transportation needs, Elderly, Seniors, Disadvantaged Populations, Transportation Disadvantaged, Equity, Distribution, Minnesota

Prediction of Sudden Cardiac Death Using Ensemble Classifiers

Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) is a medical problem that is responsible for over 300,000 deaths per year in the United States and millions worldwide. SCD is defined as death occurring from within one hour of the onset of acute symptoms, an unwitnessed death in the absence of pre-existing progressive circulatory failures or other causes of deaths, or death during attempted resuscitation. Sudden death due to cardiac reasons is a leading cause of death among Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) patients. The use of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems has made a wealth of medical data available for research and analysis. Supervised machine learning methods have been successfully used for medical diagnosis. Ensemble classifiers are known to achieve better prediction accuracy than its constituent base classifiers. In an effort to understand the factors contributing to SCD, data on 2,521 patients were collected for the Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial (SCD-HeFT). The data included 96 features that were gathered over a period of 5 years. The goal of this dissertation was to develop a model that could accurately predict SCD based on available features. The prediction model used the Cox proportional hazards model as a score and then used the ExtraTreesClassifier algorithm as a boosting mechanism to create the ensemble. We tested the system at prediction points of 180 days and 365 days. Our best results were at 180-days with accuracy of 0.9624, specificity of 0.9915, and F1 score of 0.9607

Why Proper Technique Works: An Insight into Scientific Principles that Make Skating Possible

As a figure skater and a premed student, I have found that my understanding of science and interest in the human body has helped me better understand certain aspects of the sport and recommendations by coaches. Recent advancements in figure skating have led to questions about the impacts of quadruple jumps on young female athletes. My project aimed at providing coaches with some science background about concepts related to figure skating and correct technique to not only help them with injury prevention, but also to help foster an interest in science in a unique population. After doing research and interviewing figure skating coaches and exercise science experts, I created a brochure, shown in the video, that highlighted key science topics related to figure skating. I planned to distribute this brochure to local ice rinks, but was unable to do so because of the COVID pandemic. I instead chose to electronically deliver the brochure using club email lists, and will distribute the brochure at a later time. I additionally created a blog post, shown in the video, that can be published on Stem-o-sphere that added some off-ice elements to my content since skaters were confined to this training during the pandemic

Contracted energy flexibility characteristics of communities: Analysis of a control strategy for demand response

Increasing energy system flexibility through demand-side measures will help meet challenges brought by the transition to a low-carbon energy system. Through participation in demand response programmes, buildings can act as sources of contracted flexibility. Contracted flexibility, in this work, is defined as energy flexibility that is supplied to fulfil a set of contractual terms that define when and how demand modifications are delivered and under which incentives or penalties. This paper identifies the factors affecting contracted energy flexibility potential of homes implemented with a model-predictive control strategy designed to deliver a simplified but yet generalisable incentive-based demand response scheme. The control strategy was implemented in centralised and naive-decentralised architectures using co-simulations to observe interaction of the controller with an English community of 30 homes fitted with air-source heat pumps. The results showed that the control strategy was able to deliver sustained demand reductions without violating comfort by preheating the homes prior to demand response periods, if conditions were suitable. Preheating the homes increased overall energy consumption and, in some cases, caused a peak in electricity demand prior to the DR period. Modifying factors of control operation, like the coordination strategy, magnitudes of penalties, control constraints and notice period between call for demand reduction and its delivery, were shown to affect the ability to deliver demand reductions. The contracted flexibility potential of the community was shown to be characterised by the buildings and their systems, the physical and contractual environment, and behaviour and preferences of the occupants

Bike sharing schemes can have a positive impact on nearby house prices.

Homes and neighborhoods are generally more attractive when they are located close to transport links. Is this also the case for bike sharing schemes? In new research which uses Montreal’s Bixi scheme as a case study, Ahmed El-Geneidy, Dea van Lierop, & Rania Wasfi examine the influence of bike sharing stations on the attractiveness of nearby housing. They find that a home which has 12 stations within 800 meters can be expected to sell for nearly 3 percent more compared to those which have no nearby bike sharing stations. They also find that bike sharing stations give municipalities the opportunity to profit from higher property taxes