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AbstractIn limited-resourced Latin-American cities, adapting urban regulations and capturing value offers great potential for developing affordable land. We explored what counts for the significant variance in local land management implementation within Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region. Analysed municipalities successfully developed high-quality instruments to expand affordable land markets. However, local planning effectiveness does not find limits in the quality of planning itself. Depending on the municipalities’ relative location within the metro area, the national-level pipeline infrastructure plans, the politically driven finance choices, and divergent administration protocols favour or hinder the capacity to implement an effective urban land development strategy at local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are introducing an analysis of the micro and macroeconomic factors associated with the textile industrial decline in the canton of La Maná. Ecuador, unlike similar studies, based on the decline of important industries, we tried to explain the negative factors to execute the Development and Territorial Planning Plan, which aspired for the takeoff of an industry that barely reached 2% participation. We analyzed not considered factors in planning, according to the new data. In the internal component, we particularly observed a management system based on traditional paradigms that did not foster innovation. We concluded about the importance of incorporating into public planning social and cultural programs that promote entrepreneurship, flexibility and the management of social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) is effective for local planning of automated vehicles, especially when there exist dynamical objects and multipe requirements. But it requires many computation resources for numerical optimization, which limits its practical application becase of the limited power of onboard unit. To extend the application range of the NMPC based local planner, the coupled nonlinear vehicle dynamics model is adopted based on the numerical analysis, which conversely requires much more discretization poits for acceptable accuracy. For better computation efficiency, Lagrange polynomials are used to discretize the vehicle dynamics model and objective function with less points and fine numerical accuracy. Furthermore, an adaptive strategy is designed to determine the order of Lagrange polynomials according to running state by numerical analysis of discretization error. Both acceleration effect and performance of the local planner designed by NMPC are validated by experimental tests under scenarios with multiple dynamical obstacles. The test results show that compared with the original one the accuracy and efficiency are improved by 74% and 60%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: On‐demand delivery (<2 h from ordering) of alcohol is relatively new to New Zealand. We aimed to quantify the number of services available and the number of outlets available to purchase from within on‐demand services. We then tested whether access differed by neighbourhood demographics. Methods: We identified six on‐demand alcohol services and quantified access to these in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Eighty‐one addresses were sampled according to three variables: (i) density of physical alcohol outlet tertile; (ii) socio‐economic deprivation tertile; and (iii) areas within the top 20th percentile of Māori within each city. Results: The median number of alcohol outlets to purchase from across all on‐demand delivery services was five, though this was higher in Christchurch. For all three cities combined, and for Wellington, the number of outlets available on‐demand was highest in areas with the highest density of physical outlets. However, the number of outlets available virtually was not associated with physical outlet density in Auckland or Christchurch. There were no significant differences in access observed for neighbourhood socio‐economic deprivation. Discussion and Conclusions: On‐demand delivery services are changing local alcohol environments, and may be increasing overall access to alcohol at a neighbourhood level. On‐demand access patterns do not consistently reflect the physical alcohol environment. The current legislative and policy environment in New Zealand pre‐dates the emergence of on‐demand alcohol services. Local councils need to consider 'virtual' access as well as physical access when developing Local Alcohol Policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comprehensive review focuses on the Autonomous Driving System (ADS), which aims to reduce human errors that are the reason for about 95% of car accidents. The ADS consists of six stages: sensors, perception, localization, assessment, path planning, and control. We explain the main state-of-the-art techniques used in each stage, analyzing 275 papers, with 162 specifically on path planning due to its complexity, NP-hard optimization nature, and pivotal role in ADS. This paper categorizes path planning techniques into three primary groups: traditional (graph-based, sampling-based, gradient-based, optimization-based, interpolation curve algorithms), machine and deep learning, and meta-heuristic optimization, detailing their advantages and drawbacks. Findings show that meta-heuristic optimization methods, representing 23% of our study, are preferred for being general problem solvers capable of handling complex problems. In addition, they have faster convergence and reduced risk of local minima. Machine and deep learning techniques, accounting for 25%, are favored for their learning capabilities and fast responses to known scenarios. The trend towards hybrid algorithms (27%) combines various methods, merging each algorithm's benefits and overcoming the other's drawbacks. Moreover, adaptive parameter tuning is crucial to enhance efficiency, applicability, and balancing the search capability. This review sheds light on the future of path planning in autonomous driving systems, helping to tackle current challenges and unlock the full capabilities of autonomous vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives　National policies to promote physical activity and exercise have been formulated by several ministries and agencies in Japan. This study aimed to examine the formulation and implementation of such policies in municipalities by administrative sector and population size.Methods　After stratifying all municipalities in Japan at the population level, we randomly selected 272 municipalities. We collected 1,632 cases in six sectors (health, sports, education, urban planning, transportation, and environment) within these municipalities.　A questionnaire survey on the status of policy formulation, implementation, and coordination among departments was conducted as a cross-sectional study. Differences between groups of municipalities were statistically analyzed using Fisher's exact test. The survey period was from September 2018 to March 2019.Results　A total of 616 responses were collected (response rate 37.7%). The response rates for health and education were lower than those for the other sectors. The rate of policy formulation to promote physical activity was extremely high in the health and sports sectors, and there was slight variation by population size. In contrast, formulation rates were generally low in the urban planning, transportation, and environment sectors, especially in smaller municipalities. In the sectors mentioned above, physical activity promotion projects mainly involved the development of exercise and sports infrastructures. Health, sports, and education were the primary sectors that used those environments. Regarding interdepartmental coordination in policy implementation, a cooperative relationship existed among the health, sports, and education sectors and between the urban planning and transportation sectors. However, smaller municipalities were found to have fewer opportunities for such collaboration and tended to implement policies independently.Conclusion　This study clarifies the policy formulation and implementation for promoting physical activity in municipalities at the national level in Japan. In addition, their characteristics were identified based on different administrative sectors and population size. These results are expected to be used in future local government policies.

Small islands are important contributors to global and local tourism markets. Compared to the mainlands, resource-poor small islands experience diseconomies of scale because of their limited space and connectivity. Planning for their tourism development remains challenging because of land conflicts, especially from traditional land ownerships and business sectors. This paper draws from the need for understanding differing stakeholders, by examining tourism development of four small islands in the Philippines using the five key sustainability elements: tourism policy and governance; economic performance, investment and competitiveness; decent work; poverty reduction and social inclusion; and natural and cultural environment. All experienced political, environmental, and socio-economic issues, including closure threats due to violations of environmental standards, overcrowding, and transportation-related problems. Data were collected from eight focus groups, 36 experts, 385 tourists, and 672 residents. Our findings show that small islands find themselves at a difficult situation across sustainability goals: 1) ineffective implementation of policies and regulations; 2) residents felt that they are blindsided in the decision-making process, especially those who are poor and vulnerable; 4) tourism workers faced problems relating to workload, just compensation, and work-life balance; 5) tourists felt that there should be improvements in the areas of safety and security, tourism attractions, environmental integrity, accommodation and food, and cultural aspects; and 6) there are evidence of negative impacts to environment and host communities. Taken together, The research findings provide key inputs to planning land uses and related strategies for sustainable tourism development of these small islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]