Twitter influence on UK vaccination and antiviral uptake during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic

Objective: Information exchange via Twitter and other forms of social media make public health communication more complex as citizens play an increasingly influential role in shaping acceptable or desired health behaviors. Taking the case of the 2009–2010 H1N1 pandemic, we explore in detail the dissemination of H1N1-related advice in the UK through Twitter to see how it was used to discourage or encourage vaccine and antiviral uptake. Methods: In three stages we conducted (1) an analysis of general content, retweeting patterns, and URL sharing, (2) a discourse analysis of the public evaluation of press releases and (3) a template analysis of conversations around vaccine and antiviral uptake, using Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) as a way of understanding how the public weighed the costs and benefits. Results: Network analysis of retweets showed that information from official sources predominated. Analysing the spread of significant messages through Twitter showed that most content was descriptive but there was some criticism of health authorities. A detailed analysis of responses to press releases revealed some scepticism over the economic beneficiaries of vaccination, that served to undermine public trust. Finally, the conversational analysis showed the influence of peers when weighing up the risks and benefits of medication. Conclusion: Most tweets linked to reliable sources, however Twitter was used to discuss both individual and health authority motivations to vaccinate. The PMT framework describes the ways individuals assessed the threat of the H1N1 pandemic, weighing this against the perceived cost of taking medication. These findings offer some valuable insights for social media communication practices in future pandemics

The legacy of socialist central planning policy for the long-term development of cities: insights from case studies in East Germany

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses different categories of legacy from socialist central planning policies (SCPP) for urban development. How have city-specific measures by SCPP affected local economic systems, and have there been long-term consequences for cities even after their return to a market economy? Drawing from case studies of four East German cities, we identify several types of socialist policy measures that determine the local economic performance up to now. The impact of some measures was primarily displayed via ‘soft’ factors such as local image and identity and the attitudes of residents, local decision-makers

The legacy of socialist central planning policy for the long-term development of cities: insights from case studies in East Germany

This paper analyses different categories of legacy from socialist central planning policies (SCPP) for urban development. How have city-specific measures by SCPP affected local economic systems, and have there been long-term consequences for cities even after their return to a market economy? Drawing from case studies of four East German cities, we identify several types of socialist policy measures that determine the local economic performance up to now. The impact of some measures was primarily displayed via ‘soft’ factors such as local image and identity and the attitudes of residents, local decision-makers.</p

Dynamics of intra-urban employment geographies: A comparative study of U.S. and German metropolitan areas

In this paper we analyze changes in the intra-urban spatial distribution of employment across six U.S. and German city regions between 2002 and 2015. Our methodological approach allows for a systematic and spatially consistent comparison of urban spatial structures across the two different countries. The empirical results show major national, regional, and sectoral differences in the spatial distribution of employment. In the German case studies traditional core cities play a more important role for the regional labor market than in the U.S. Only relatively small shares of metropolitan employment are concentrated in subcenters. While employment concentrations are spatially less persistent in the U.S. case study regions, we did not find any evidence of common or country-specific trends toward increased polycentricity or employment dispersal. Changes in the spatial concentration of employment seem to be highly context-specific and influenced by the individual geographic and institutional frameworks of the analyzed metropolitan areas

Quantitative assessment and comparison of urban patterns in Germany and the United States

In this paper, we present methods to assess the homogeneity of the settlement landscape and to identify settlement clusters in terms of location and size. Due to various input data, methodologies, and spatial concepts, there are only a few international comparative research studies with quantitative, spatial approaches to date. Existing studies are mostly qualitative and empirically hardly replicable. Here, we introduce two novel methodological approaches to describe urban land patterns in a numerically stable, consistent and globally comparable manner. The first method evaluates the multi-scale homogeneity of the settlements and the respective density distributions in a purely non-parametric approach. The second method transfers the settlement patterns into a Gaussian Mixture Model via hierarchical multi-scale clustering in order to describe each cluster by the parameters of a 2D Gaussian distribution. In order to proof the robustness of both approaches, two different reference units are considered for the interpretation of the results: OECD functional urban areas and standardized subsets of 200 km × 200 km around the same central cities. We show that German urban areas are characterized by a higher heterogeneity within a smaller neighbourhood with an almost symmetric density distribution in comparison to urban areas in the U.S. Furthermore, German urban areas possess an increasing homogeneity with increasing size, i.e., the larger the urban agglomeration, the more uniform it appears. It is the contrary in the U.S. These findings are substantiated by the analysis of individual city centres. In Germany, many clusters of similar size define the urban region, whereas in the U.S. one large dominating cluster exceeds most neighbouring settlements significantly. The study is performed on the Global Urban Footprint Density, which assigns a density value to each urban pixel of about 30 m by 30 m. In this way, the approach is a blueprint to be extended to urban patterns of any spatial unit worldwide

Effects of Exercise and Omega-3-Supplemented, High-Protein Diet on Inflammatory Markers in Serum, on Gene Expression Levels in PBMC, and after Ex Vivo Whole-Blood LPS Stimulation in Old Adults

Inflammaging is related to cell senescence and reflects an erratic immune system, which promotes age-associated diseases. Exercise and nutrition, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, are able to affect inflammation. Therefore, we examined the effects of an 8-week exercise and dietary intervention on the inflammatory response in community-dwelling old adults. All participants received weekly vibration and home-based resistance exercise. Furthermore, participants were randomized to either a control, high-protein (1.2–1.5 g/kg), or high-protein, omega-3-enriched (2.2 g/day) diet. Before and after treatment, inflammatory markers in fasting serum and after whole-blood ex vivo lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation were assessed. Gene expression levels of inflammatory markers were quantified in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Sixty-one participants (age: 70.6 ± 4.7 years; 47% men) completed the study. According to generalized linear mixed models, a high-protein, omega-3-enriched diet decreased circulating anti-inflammatory interleukin (IL-) 10 and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA). Sex-stratified analyses showed also significantly reduced pro-inflammatory markers in men with a high-protein, omega-3-enriched diet. Gene expression of IL-1RA was significantly reduced after both protein-enriched diets compared with controls. In comparison to a high-protein diet, exercise alone showed lower LPS-induced release of c-c motif chemokine ligand-2 (CCL-2), which tended to be more pronounced in men compared with women. Eight weeks of a high-protein, omega-3-enriched diet combined with exercise decreased circulating anti-inflammatory markers, and pro-inflammatory markers in men. A high-protein diet attenuated anti-inflammatory markers on gene expression level in PBMC. Exercise alone resulted in a lower pro-inflammatory response to LPS-exposure in whole-blood cultures

Deriving urban mass concentrations using TanDEM-X and Sentinel-2 data for the assessment of morphological polycentricity

Polycentricity refers to urban regions with more than one center. These additional (sub-) centers, e.g. spatial concentrations of jobs, are characteristic for the transformation of monocentric towards polycentric urban patterns. Frequently assessed with socioeconomic data, the phenomenon is also reflected in the built morphology of urban landscapes. Only recently, a methodology for largescale morphological characterization of built-up structures in urban areas relying on TanDEM-X and Sentinel-2 data has been introduced. Thus, a new way to investigate morphologic polycentricity in and among cities is provided. Relying on this approach, we derive the distribution of urban mass concentrations in four city regions. We identify high urban mass concentrations - proxies for (sub-) centers - using a threshold approach. A comparison between the studied regions reveals that only one city tends to have a polycentric urban structure. Our study highlights a new and promising possibility to study the urban morphologic development at global scales

In the tension between large-scale analysis and accuracy - Identifying and analysing intra-urban (sub-)centre structures comparing official 3D-building models and TanDEM-X nDSMs

Intra-urban polycentricity has often been described by a balanced distribution of jobs/residences outside the traditional core cities in so-called (sub-)centres. Recently, this purely socioeconomic view has changed, so that centres are also increasingly understood as a physical manifestation of spatial development policies. Built-up volumes derived from 3D-building models are therefore frequently used instead of or as complement to employment/population figures when studying intra-urban polycentricity. However, such data are expensive and not available universally and permit only geographically limited investigations to date. To overcome this constraint, we investigate whether globally available and consistent TanDEM-X nDSMs (TDX) provide a valid data base for intra-urban polycentricity research based on built-up volumes. Our study focuses on four urban regions in Germany for which we have obtained official 3D-building models (LoD-1). For each study site, we derive aggregated built-up volumes from the TDX and the LoD-1 data and identify (sub-)centres. We use three centre identification algorithms to account for the diversity of methods and outcomes. We consider the LoD-1 (sub-)centres as reference and the TDX (sub-)centres as the entities to be reviewed. First, we quantify their spatial agreement and compare if polycentricity measures calculated based on both data sets lead to similar results. Second, we explore possible causes for discrepancies between the TDX/LoD-1 (sub-)centres. We find high spatial resemblances between TDX and LoD-1 (sub-)centres. Accordingly, we observe that polycentricity measures display similar trends among the two data sets. Nevertheless, we also show that the agreement between TDX and LoD-1 centres can be affected in uneven terrain, in sparsely built-up areas, and by the algorithms used to identify (sub-)centres. Overall, our results suggest that TDX nDSMs reflect the distribution of built-up structures in sufficient detail so that local-spatial densifications – here equated with (sub-)centres – can be appropriately studied. We therefore conclude that TDX data offer a great potential for the thematic domain of morphological urban analysis at large scale