Off the shortest path: Betweenness on street network level to study pedestrian movement

Betweenness centrality is an important measure in network sciences that reflects the extent a node lies in between any pairs in a graph. The measure has been used by urban studies, to discuss the relationship between urban mobility and the spatial street network of a city, using Dijkstra shortest path betweenness centrality to describe human wayfinding procedures. As in reality, wayfinding is a more complex endeavor, results of studies using both random path or the most optimal shortest path approach might be misleading. In this paper we propose with the exploratory betweenness centrality (EBC) a more realistic set of measures that uses an exploratory path in calculating centrality rather than an optimal path in studying pedestrian movement. In particular we calculate EBC where the agent selects the longest street nearest to the destination (App-EBC) or any random street that is approaching the destination (Ran-EBC). In doing so, we compare how EBC and GBC correlate with aggregate pedestrian movement for two case studies in London. The result shows the EBC measures explains equal or greater variation of aggregate pedestrian movement than the GBC measure for both of the case studies, indicating the potential of using measures of EBC in modeling urban mobility

"...when you’re a Stranger": Evaluating Safety Perceptions of (un)familiar Urban Places

What makes us feel safe when walking around our cities? Previous research has shown that our perception of safety strongly depends on characteristics of the built environment; separately, research has also shown that safety perceptions depend on the people we encounter on the streets. However, it is not clear how the two relate to one another. In this paper, we propose a quantitative method to investigate this relationship. Using an online crowd–sourcing approach, we collected 5452 safety ratings from over 500 users about images showing various combinations of built environment and people inhabiting it. We applied analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to the collected data and found that familiarity of the scene is the single most important predictor of our sense of safety. Controlling for familiarity, we identified then what features of the urban environment increase or decrease our safety perception

"...when you're a stranger":Evaluating safety perceptions of (un)familiar urban places

What makes us feel safe when walking around our cities? Previous research has shown that our perception of safety strongly depends on characteristics of the built environment; separately, research has also shown that safety perceptions depend on the people we encounter on the streets. However, it is not clear how the two relate to one another. In this paper, we propose a quantitative method to investigate this relationship. Using an online crowd–sourcing approach, we collected 5452 safety ratings from over 500 users about images showing various combinations of built environment and people inhabiting it. We applied analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to the collected data and found that familiarity of the scene is the single most important predictor of our sense of safety. Controlling for familiarity, we identified then what features of the urban environment increase or decrease our safety perception

Pain in fibrous dysplasia: relationship with anatomical and clinical features

Background and purpose — Fibrous dysplasia (FD) is a rare bone disorder associated with pain, deformities, and pathological fractures. The pathophysiological mechanism of FD-related pain remains ill-understood. We evaluated the degree of pain and the potential contributory factors in 2 patient cohorts from Austria and the Netherlands. Patients and methods — 197 patients (16–85 years) with FD (Graz n = 105, Leiden n = 92) completed a survey concerning the presence and severity of pain at their FD site. Sex, age, type of FD, and localization of FD lesions were examined for a relationship with the presence and severity of pain. Results — Of 197 patients from the combined cohort (61% female, mean age 49 (SD 16) years, 76% monostotic) who completed the questionnaires, 91 (46%) reported pain at sites of FD lesions. Severity of pain was higher in patients with lesions of the lower extremities and ribs compared with upper extremity or craniofacial lesions. Severe subtypes of FD (polyostotic/McCune–Albright syndrome) were more often associated with pain, often severe. Interpretation — Our data suggest that almost 50% of patients with FD report pain at FD sites, thus representing a major clinical manifestation of the disorder, importantly also in patients with monostotic lesions. Lesions in lower extremities and ribs were more painful