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Debate on the shift from a monocentric to polycentric urban structure has been extensive. Polycentricity generally refers to the co-existence of several centers in a city. Existing studies regarding China have mainly focused on the morphological characteristics of urban centers, but few recent studies have focused on functional dimensions of urban centers. Emerging big data sources provide new opportunities to explore the morphological and functional perspectives of urban spatial structure. This study uses mobile phone signaling data and develops a new methodology to measure urban centers' functional centrality. The study area focuses on Shenzhen City, which has rapidly transformed from a village into a metropolitan city in the past few decades. As the first economic special zone in China, Shenzhen has adopted a polycentric urban plan since the beginning of the urbanization process. This study explores the spatial employment structure of the city from the morphological and function dimensions. Based on the findings, this study discusses the role of urban planning in forming an urban spatial structure and provides implications for future planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debate on the shift from a monocentric to polycentric urban structure has been extensive. Polycentricity generally refers to the co-existence of several centers in a city. Existing studies regarding China have mainly focused on the morphological characteristics of urban centers, but few recent studies have focused on functional dimensions of urban centers. Emerging big data sources provide new opportunities to explore the morphological and functional perspectives of urban spatial structure. This study uses mobile phone signaling data and develops a new methodology to measure urban centers’ functional centrality. The study area focuses on Shenzhen City, which has rapidly transformed from a village into a metropolitan city in the past few decades. As the first economic special zone in China, Shenzhen has adopted a polycentric urban plan since the beginning of the urbanization process. This study explores the spatial employment structure of the city from the morphological and function dimensions. Based on the findings, this study discusses the role of urban planning in forming an urban spatial structure and provides implications for future planning.

The multiple demand network (MDN) is conceptualized as the core processing system for multitasking. Increasing evidence also provides strong support for the involvement of the MDN in fluid intelligence (gF), that is, the ability to solve new problems. However, the underlying neural mechanisms of declining intelligence in old age are poorly explored, particularly whether maintenance of the functional architecture of the MDN can characterize superior intelligence in successful aging. Here, we used eigenvector centrality (EC) to explore the resting-state functional architecture of the MDN in terms of its communication across the entire brain. We found gF to be negatively associated with age and that the MDN EC competitively mediated age-related decline in gF over the aging lifespan, suggesting that excessive cross-talk from the MDN is deleterious for intelligence. Critically, older individuals with comparable MDN EC as younger individuals exhibited superior gF compared with their age-matched counterparts. Taken together, these data provide support for the maintenance of youth-like functional architecture of the MDN and its implication for superior intelligence in successful aging. • Functional centrality (FC) in the multiple demand network (MDN) increases with age. • FC in the MDN is negatively correlated with fluid intelligence (gF). • Older individuals with comparable FC in the MDN as younger individuals also show comparable gF. • FC in the MDN partially mediates age-related decline in gF over the aging lifespan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the question of the archetypal model of the Islamic city, several oriental researchers and orientalists tried to give some answers, each considering on his part on a specific aspect to the originality of these cities. Some even expressed great skepticism toward the concept of “Islamic city” as an urban ideal of the Muslim world. The purpose of this study is to confront various visions having a theoretical interest on this issue in order to trace the characteristics of the case study. As such, the medina of Tlemcen, capital of central Maghreb for nearly three centuries, is a privileged analysis field to study the type organization of Arab-Muslim cities. Thus, the hypothesis put forth is that this Medina had, in medieval and Ottoman period, a spatial configuration fully aligned with the model of “Islamic cities”; corroborating the idea of the existing common features shared by the historic cities of the Islamic world.

On the question of the archetypal model of the Islamic city, several oriental researchers and orientalists tried to give some answers, each considering on his part on a specific aspect to the originality of these cities. Some even expressed great skepticism toward the concept of "Islamic city" as an urban ideal of the Muslim world. The purpose of this study is to confront various visions having a theoretical interest on this issue in order to trace the characteristics of the case study. As such, the medina of Tlemcen, capital of central Maghreb for nearly three centuries, is a privileged analysis field to study the type organization of Arab-Muslim cities. Thus, the hypothesis put forth is that this Medina had, in medieval and Ottoman period, a spatial configuration fully aligned with the model of "Islamic cities"; corroborating the idea of the existing common features shared by the historic cities of the Islamic world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formation of the functional connectome in early life underpins future learning and behavior. However, our understanding of how the functional organization of brain regions into interconnected hubs (centrality) matures in the early postnatal period is limited, especially in response to factors associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes such as preterm birth. We characterized voxel-wise functional centrality (weighted degree) in 366 neonates from the Developing Human Connectome Project. We tested the hypothesis that functional centrality matures with age at scan in term-born babies and is disrupted by preterm birth. Finally, we asked whether neonatal functional centrality predicts general neurodevelopmental outcomes at 18 months. We report an age-related increase in functional centrality predominantly within visual regions and a decrease within the motor and auditory regions in term-born infants. Preterm-born infants scanned at term equivalent age had higher functional centrality predominantly within visual regions and lower measures in motor regions. Functional centrality was not related to outcome at 18 months old. Thus, preterm birth appears to affect functional centrality in regions undergoing substantial development during the perinatal period. Our work raises the question of whether these alterations are adaptive or disruptive and whether they predict neurodevelopmental characteristics that are more subtle or emerge later in life., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Background: The flux phenotype describes the entirety of biochemical conversions in a cell, which renders it a key characteristic of metabolic function. To quantify the functional relevance of individual biochemical reactions, functional centrality has been introduced based on cooperative game theory and structural modeling. It was shown to be capable to determine metabolic control properties utilizing only structural information. Here, we demonstrate the capability of functional centrality to predict changes in the flux phenotype. Results: We use functional centrality to successfully predict changes of metabolic flux triggered by switches in the environment. The predictions via functional centrality improve upon predictions using control-effective fluxes, another measure aiming at capturing metabolic control using structural information. Conclusions: The predictions of flux changes via functional centrality corroborate the capability of the measure to gain a mechanistic understanding of metabolic control from the structure of metabolic networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]