Inferring land use from mobile phone activity

Understanding the spatiotemporal distribution of people within a city is crucial to many planning applications. Obtaining data to create required knowledge, currently involves costly survey methods. At the same time ubiquitous mobile sensors from personal GPS devices to mobile phones are collecting massive amounts of data on urban systems. The locations, communications, and activities of millions of people are recorded and stored by new information technologies. This work utilizes novel dynamic data, generated by mobile phone users, to measure spatiotemporal changes in population. In the process, we identify the relationship between land use and dynamic population over the course of a typical week. A machine learning classification algorithm is used to identify clusters of locations with similar zoned uses and mobile phone activity patterns. It is shown that the mobile phone data is capable of delivering useful information on actual land use that supplements zoning regulations.Comment: To be presented at ACM UrbComp201

Paper Session I-A - Neutral Particle Beam Overview

The goal of the Neutral Particle Beam (NPB) technology program is to develop a multimission directed energy weapon (DEW) system which can function as an effective component in a Strategic Defense System. The NPB has the capability to be used as both a weapon and discriminator platform. It can kill missiles and reentry vehicles in the boost, post-boost, and mid-course portion of an ICBM trajectory as well as discriminated objects during the midcourse phase. Objects from those boosters and buses not engaged in the boost and post boost phase would be engaged once the reentry vehicles and decoys have been deployed, i.e. during the midcourse phase of the trajectory. The NPB can be used to provide a passive, active, and interactive discrimination capability against these targets. Passive discrimination is accomplished by viewing visible, ultraviolet (UV) and/or infrared (IR) emissions from targets and decoys using on-board acquisition sensors. Active discrimination is accomplished by illuminating targets and decoys with a laser tracker on-board the NPB; while Interactive discrimination is accomplished by illuminating the target with the NPB which results in the emission of X-rays and neutrons which are proportional to the mass of the target. These emitted particles are measured by a free flying detector to determine the mass of the objects. During the discrimination process target state vectors (position and velocity) can be determined which can be handed over to space-based or ground-based interceptors. All the sensors are on the same platform. This reduces data processing since sensor-to-sensor correlation is not required

Task and environmental uncertainty and adoption of technological innovations by home builders

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-146).by Thomas Michael Toole.Ph.D

Strategic issues in stresskin foam panels for residential construction

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1990.Title as it appears in the M.I.T. Graduate List, June 1990: A method for analyzing prefabricated residential systems.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-203).by Thomas Michael Toole.M.S

Moored observations of the Deep Western Boundary Current in the NW Atlantic: 2004–2014

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 122 (2017): 7488–7505, doi:10.1002/2017JC012984.A moored array spanning the continental slope southeast of Cape Cod sampled the equatorward-flowing Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) for a 10 year period: May 2004 to May 2014. Daily profiles of subinertial velocity, temperature, salinity, and neutral density are constructed for each mooring site and cross-line DWBC transport time series are derived for specified water mass layers. Time-averaged transports based on daily estimates of the flow and density fields in Stream coordinates are contrasted with those derived from the Eulerian-mean flow field, modes of DWBC transport variability are investigated through compositing, and comparisons are made to transport estimates for other latitudes. Integrating the daily velocity estimates over the neutral density range of 27.8–28.125 kg/m3 (encompassing Labrador Sea and Overflow Water layers), a mean equatorward DWBC transport of 22.8 × 106 ± 1.9 × 106 m3/s is obtained. Notably, a statistically significant trend of decreasing equatorward transport is observed in several of the DWBC components as well as the current as a whole. The largest linear change (a 4% decrease per year) is seen in the layer of Labrador Sea Water that was renewed by deep convection in the early 1990s whose transport fell from 9.0 × 106 m3/s at the beginning of the field program to 5.8 × 106 m3/s at its end. The corresponding linear fit to the combined Labrador Sea and Overflow Water DWBC transport decreases from 26.4 × 106 to 19.1 × 106 m3/s. In contrast, no long-term trend is observed in upper ocean Slope Water transport. These trends are discussed in the context of decadal observations of the North Atlantic circulation, and subpolar air-sea interaction/water mass transformation.G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; US National Science Foundation2018-03-1

Reconstructing Tuberculosis Services after Major Conflict: Experiences and Lessons Learned in East Timor

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in developing countries. Following the disruption to health services in East Timor due to violent political conflict in 1999, the National Tuberculosis Control Program was established, with a local non-government organisation as the lead agency. Within a few months, the TB program was operational in all districts. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using the East Timor TB program as a case study, we have examined the enabling factors for the implementation of this type of communicable disease control program in a post-conflict setting. Stakeholder analysis was undertaken, and semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2003 with 24 key local and international stakeholders. Coordination, cooperation, and collaboration were identified as major contributors to the success of the TB program. The existing local structure and experience of the local non-government organisation, the commitment among local personnel and international advisors to establishing an effective program, and the willingness of international advisers and local counterparts to be flexible in their approach were also important factors. This success was achieved despite major impediments, including mass population displacement, lack of infrastructure, and the competing interests of organisations working in the health sector. CONCLUSIONS: Five years after the conflict, the TB program continues to operate in all districts with high notification rates, although the lack of a feeling of ownership by government health workers remains a challenge. Lessons learned in East Timor may be applicable to other post-conflict settings where TB is highly prevalent, and may have relevance to other disease control programs

Sea surface pCO2 and O2 dynamics in the partially ice-covered Arctic Ocean

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 122 (2017): 1425–1438, doi:10.1002/2016JC012162.Understanding the physical and biogeochemical processes that control CO2 and dissolved oxygen (DO) dynamics in the Arctic Ocean (AO) is crucial for predicting future air-sea CO2 fluxes and ocean acidification. Past studies have primarily been conducted on the AO continental shelves during low-ice periods and we lack information on gas dynamics in the deep AO basins where ice typically inhibits contact with the atmosphere. To study these gas dynamics, in situ time-series data have been collected in the Canada Basin during late summer to autumn of 2012. Partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2), DO concentration, temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll-a fluorescence (Chl-a) were measured in the upper ocean in a range of sea ice states by two drifting instrument systems. Although the two systems were on average only 222 km apart, they experienced considerably different ice cover and external forcings during the 40–50 day periods when data were collected. The pCO2 levels at both locations were well below atmospheric saturation whereas DO was almost always slightly supersaturated. Modeling results suggest that air-sea gas exchange, net community production (NCP), and horizontal gradients were the main sources of pCO2 and DO variability in the sparsely ice-covered AO. In areas more densely covered by sea ice, horizontal gradients were the dominant source of variability, with no significant NCP in the surface mixed layer. If the AO reaches equilibrium with atmospheric CO2 as ice cover continues to decrease, aragonite saturation will drop from a present mean of 1.00 ± 0.02 to 0.86 ± 0.01.U.S. National Science Foundation Arctic Observing Network Grant Number: ARC-1107346 and ARC-08564792017-08-2