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Time series of traffic flows, extracted from mobile phone origin–destination data, are employed for monitoring people crowding and mobility in areas subject to flooding risk. By applying a vector autoregressive model with exogenous covariates combined with dynamic harmonic regression to such time series, we detected the presence of many extreme events in the residuals, which exhibit heavy-tailed distribution. For this reason, we propose a time series clustering procedure based on tail dependence which is suitable for data characterized by a spatial dimension, since objects' geographical proximity is taken into account. The final aim is to obtain clusters of areas characterized by the common tendency to the manifestation of extreme events, that in this case study are represented by extremely high incoming traffic flows. The proposed method is applied to the Mandolossa, a strongly urbanized area located on the western outskirts of Brescia (northern Italy) which is subject to frequent flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The estimation of spatial heterogeneity within real estate markets holds significant importance in house price modelling. However, employing a single or straightforward distance to measure spatial proximity is probably insufficient in complex urban areas, thereby resulting in an inadequate modelling of spatial heterogeneity. To address this issue, this paper incorporates multiple distance measures within a neural network framework to achieve an optimized measure of spatial proximity (OSP). Consequently, a geographically neural network weighted regression model with optimized measure of spatial proximity (osp-GNNWR) is devised for the purpose of spatially heterogeneous modeling. Trained as a unified model, osp-GNNWR obviates the need for separate pretraining of OSP. This enables OSP to delineate the modeled spatial process through a post hoc calculated value. Through simulation experiments and a real-world case study on house prices, the proposed model reaches more accurate descriptions of diverse spatial processes and exhibits better overall performance. The interpretable results of the case study in Wuhan demonstrate the efficacy of the osp-GNNWR model in addressing spatial heterogeneity within real estate markets, suggesting its potential for modelling and predicting complex geographical phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pb2+ codoping enhances the Tb3+ emission in trivalent terbium-doped zinc sulfide [Zn-(Tb)-S] nanoparticles (NPs). The Tb3+-Pb2+ spatial proximity and a favorable codopant electronic energy level alignment contribute toward this emission brightening. This work tests the performance of the Tb3+ emission in the Zn-(TbPb)S and Zn-(Tb)-S/Pb NPs, where the dopants within parentheses and after slashes indicate their synthetic and postsynthetic doping, respectively. When screened against steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence, photoelectron spectroscopy, zeta potential, and infrared absorption of surface capping ligands, the Zn-(TbPb)S NPs emerge as a superior sensitizer to generate Tb3+ emission. A core dominant Tb3+-Pb2+ interaction in Zn-(TbPb)S NPs prompts a stronger Tb3+ emission when compared to the surface dominant Tb3+-Pb2+ interaction in Zn-(Tb)-S/Pb NPs. This doping strategy guided the NP design principle to control lanthanide emission, which expands the palette of lanthanide-based NP luminophores for practical applications. The Pb2+‑sensitized Tb3+ emission brightening in the ZnS NPs in the precation exchange reaction conditions can find applications in Pb2+ sensing, cellular imaging, and light emitting diodes (LEDs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the importance of spatial proximity in research collaborations, focusing on China's transportation infrastructure advancements. Analyzing academic papers published by Chinese institutions over three decades, we find that collaboration probability is positively correlated with institutions' research output and negatively correlated with geographic distance. When considering other dimensions of proximity, administrative proximity and social network proximity exhibit the most substantial influence. Employing staggered difference-in-differences methods, we then establish causal inferences by investigating the effects of direct flight routes and high-speed rail (HSR) connections. Findings show that both modes of transportation contribute to enhanced academic collaborations. Specifically, the introduction of flight routes leads to an increase in collaborations of at least 10.66%, while the establishment of HSR connections results in an increase by at least 32.65%. Flight routes are advantageous for facilitating collaborations in medium to long distances, while HSR primarily benefits medium to short-distance collaborations. Efficient public transportation connections, by reducing travel time, can significantly enhance collaboration across broader spatial areas within the knowledge production sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, the European Commission has paid great attention to innovation processes and knowledge transfer, stimulating and financing several research and cooperation programs. Recent geopolitical transformations have shifted attention towards the integrations between the European Member States and the Neighboring Countries. Literature produced many contributions over the past two decades with a focus on knowledge sharing, space dimension, and the role played by each actor involved within networks analyzed, but a lack remains in the field of cross-border cooperation. This research gap is addressed in this paper by investigating the main dynamics that led to new partnerships and networks of collaboration. Spatial proximity, social distance, and the individual characteristics are analyzed taking into account the relations that influence the decision to cooperate. Data are collected considering the first call for proposal of the Interreg IPA CBC Italy Albania-Montenegro Programme, analyzing both the effects of social and geographical distance, beyond the effects of individual characteristics of each partner involved. The results suggest that network effects are present; social closeness is significantly associated with partners' choice and this indicates that connections within a network are influenced by the position that each node assumes; consequently, the network effects are more relevant than the spatial one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Hepatitis C virus (HCV) disproportionately affects rural communities, where health services are geographically dispersed. It remains unknown whether proximity to a syringe services program (SSP) is associated with HCV infection among rural people who inject drugs (PWID). Methods Data are from a cross-sectional sample of adults who reported injecting drugs in the past 30 days recruited from rural counties in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts (2018–2019). We calculated the road network distance between each participant’s address and the nearest fixed-site SSP, categorized as ≤ 1 mile, 1–3 miles, 3–10 miles, and > 10 miles. Staff performed HCV antibody tests and a survey assessed past 30-day injection equipment sharing practices: borrowing used syringes, borrowing other used injection equipment, and backloading. Mixed effects modified Poisson regression estimated prevalence ratios (aPR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Analyses were also stratified by means of transportation. Results Among 330 PWID, 25% lived ≤ 1 mile of the nearest SSP, 17% lived 1–3 miles of an SSP, 12% lived 3–10 miles of an SSP, and 46% lived > 10 miles from an SSP. In multivariable models, compared to PWID who lived within 1 mile of an SSP, those who lived 3 to 10 miles away had a higher prevalence of HCV seropositivity (aPR: 1.25, 95% CI 1.06–1.46), borrowing other used injection equipment (aPR: 1.23, 95% CI 1.04–1.46), and backloading (aPR: 1.48, 95% CI 1.17–1.88). Similar results were observed for PWID living > 10 miles from an SSP: aPR [HCV]: 1.19, 95% CI 1.01–1.40; aPR [borrowing other used equipment]:1.45, 95% CI 1.29–1.63; and aPR [backloading]: 1.59, 95% CI 1.13–2.24. Associations between living 1 to 3 miles of an SSP and each outcome did not reach statistical significance. When stratified by means of transportation, associations between distance to SSP and each outcome (except borrowing other used injection equipment) were only observed among PWID who traveled by other means (versus traveled by automobile). Conclusions Among PWID in rural New England, living farther from a fixed-site SSP was associated with a higher prevalence of HCV seropositivity, borrowing other used injection equipment, and backloading, reinforcing the need to increase SSP accessibility in rural areas. Means of transportation may modify this relationship.

Contemporary university curricula increasingly encourage students to develop peer academic support relationships, especially first-year students who are facing the transition from teacher-oriented to self-directed learning. Previous studies have identified spatial layout as a factor impacting peer relationships by comparing the effects of different spatial layout categories. More insights into the quantitative correlation between spatial layout and peer academic support relationships will meaningfully complement the existing findings. This paper therefore uses spatial configuration and spatial proximity as quantitative measures and adopts a quasi-experimental approach to investigate the effects of spatial layout on peer academic support relationships in first-year university students. Data were collected from a sample of first-year students enrolled in the School of Architecture at South China University of Technology. We use longitudinal data to measure and compare the peer academic support relationships as well as the corresponding spatial layout. The results support the importance of the spatial layout of the learning space for the development of peer academic support relationships. In addition, suggestions for university administrators and architects are proposed.

Spatial proximity may facilitate scientific collaboration. We regress its impact within two German research institutions, defining collaboration strength and proximity by the number of joint publications and spatial distance between work places. The methodological focus lies on accounting for (i) the dependency structure in network data and (ii) excess zeros in the sparse target matrix. The former can be addressed by a quadratic assignment procedure (QAP), the second by a hurdle model. To offer a joint solution, we combine the methods to novel parametric and non-parametric hurdle-QAP models. The analysis reveals that proximity can facilitate collaboration, but significant effects get lost within building structures. Outcomes of this study may inform about how to target the promotion of interdisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subtle visual manipulations to the presentation of mathematical notation influence the way that students perceive and solve problems. While there is a consistent impact of perceptual cues on students' problem-solving, other cognitive skills such as inhibitory control may interact with perceptual cues to affect students' arithmetic problem-solving performance. We present an online experiment in which college students completed a version of the Stroop task followed by arithmetic problems in which the spacing between numbers and operators was either congruent (e.g., 2 + 3×4) or incongruent (e.g., 2+3 × 4) to the order of precedence. We found that students were comparably accurate between problem types but might have spent longer responding to problems with congruent than incongruent spacing. There was no main effect of inhibitory control on students' performance on these problems. However, an exploratory analysis on a combined performance measure of accuracy and response time revealed an interaction between problem type and inhibitory control. Students with higher inhibitory control performed better on congruent versus incongruent problems, whereas students with lower inhibitory control performed worse on congruent versus incongruent problems. Together, these results suggest that the relation between inhibitory control and arithmetic performance may not be straightforward. Furthermore, this work advances perceptual learning theory and contributes new findings on the contexts in which perceptual cues, such as spacing, influence arithmetic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As cities expand, residents are experiencing increasing commuting distances and a growing trend of job–housing separation, which is often associated with traffic congestion, inefficiency in commuting, and air pollution. In the process of studying the urban job–housing balance, most scholars focus on exploring socio-economic indicators, overlooking the more fundamental characteristics—the geographical features and barriers of the city. This paper delves into the intricate dynamics of the job–housing balance in urban areas, focusing on the city of Boston, characterized by its unique geographic and demographic tapestry. Through the job–housing distribution data of over 3 million residents in Boston and a measurement of spatial proximity to natural barriers, we explore the impact of geographic barriers on residential and employment distributions. Our findings reveal a pronounced divergence in employees' preferences for job and housing locations, with tracts in the margin areas showing higher aggregation of job distributions and those near geographic barriers exhibiting a low job–housing ratio (JHR) index. Using regression models, our study determined that for every 1% increase in proximity to the Atlantic Ocean on Boston's right side, job opportunities would decrease by 0.102%, and the JHR would experience a reduction of 0.246%. Our findings prove the importance of the effects of natural barriers on the job–housing balance and provide insights into traffic congestion and the uneven distribution of housing supply prices and have significant implications for urban planning and policy formulation, particularly in coastal cities. By exploring the multifaceted nature of urban residency and employment and the role of geographical constraints therein, this paper contributes valuable perspectives for fostering equitable and sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protest events affect public opinion on the issue of interest. However, the extent to which an individual's proximity to protests impacts public opinion is less examined. Does a protest event occurring nearby, i.e., within an individual's neighborhood, impact their opinion? Do protests that happen further away, perhaps in the next county, have the same impact on public opinion? This study analyzes the impact of exposure to protests by focusing on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in 2020 using public opinion data from Iowa merged with protest locations in Iowa. Specifically, we examine public support for BLM and for defunding the police. We evaluate the role of distance through a discrete mileage cut-off and a distance decay function. Our analysis shows that people living closer to protests show greater support for the BLM movement in general and, to a less extent, for defunding the police. The results suggest that protests may affect public opinion, but only within a very narrow range of a few miles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundIn response to the opioid crisis, over the last 10 years substantial strides have been made to increase the availability of evidence-based treatments for opioid use disorder, in particular buprenorphine maintenance, in the United States. Despite these worthwhile efforts, uptake rates of evidence-based treatment remain relatively low. As part of a broader study of opioid misuse, we examined proximity to evidence-based treatment as a potential barrier to treatment access.MethodsIn 2017-2018, we surveyed 218 individuals misusing prescription opioids or using street opioids in three Southern Californian counties. The study calculated driving distance from place of residence to the closest treatment provider offering buprenorphine or methadone treatment for opioid use disorders.ResultsMedian distance to providers was 3.8 km (2.4 miles). Seventy one (33%) participants had received some form of treatment in the last 3 months; however, only 26 (40%) of these had received buprenorphine or methadone maintenance treatment. Participants receiving treatment at the time of their interview were traveling an average 16.8 km (10.4 miles) to reach treatment, indicating that as a group this population was both willing and able to seek and engage with treatment.ConclusionsIn the suburban and exurban communities in which our study was based, our findings suggest that simple physical proximity to providers of evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder is no longer a critical barrier. Other barriers to uptake of buprenorphine or methadone maintenance treatment clearly remain and need to be addressed.DisclaimerFindings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This paper explores the spillover effect of spatial proximity on international tourism in all 195 countries using data from the World Bank. We use a spatial proximity measure to calculate the number of neighbors that each country has and how the neighboring nations' international tourist arrivals "unintentionally" affect each country's international tourism. We define spatial proximity using both the conventional contiguity measure and the minimum-distance measure (MDM) of proximity: the two closest points between countries on their outer boundaries. By constructing spatial lag models (SLM) and spatial error models (SEM), we capture the spillover effects between neighbors. Our findings suggest that a country's international tourism flows over the period of 1995–2019 are strongly influenced by international tourist arrivals to the nation's neighboring countries; ranging from 8.1% to 45.8%, depending on the model used. Particularly, the spillover effect was more prominent for the period from 2015–2019, as compared to 1995–1999, implying increasing dependence among neighboring countries in international tourism, which directly contrasts the common assumption that technology is making geographic distance less relevant. This paper provides several important implications for both scholars and practitioners, although further study is required to determine the effects of historical interactions and spatial relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial proximity may be an artifact of relationships research methodology; however, little work has explored how this feature of research designs influences perceptions of one's relationship, particularly shared reality (i.e., experiencing a commonality of inner states). The present research tested whether spatial proximity would independently contribute to shared reality in couples' daily lives. In 2 daily diary studies, each across 3–4 weeks (N1 = 76 couples, 3694 observations; N2 = 84 couples, 3073 observations), participants indicated whether or not their partner was spatially proximal, and also completed measures of shared reality and relationship satisfaction. Spatial proximity to one's partner resulted in higher shared reality on the day of the survey completion and predicted increases in shared reality from the previous day, but this effect did not spillover into the following day. These findings held controlling for conflict, shared daily experiences (e.g., cooking together), and shared survey experiences (i.e., whether they completed the survey at the same time). In addition, this effect was unique to shared reality, whereby spatial proximity did not predict relationship satisfaction. However, shared reality was associated with increases in relationship satisfaction across the daily diary period. Thus, researchers should consider spatial proximity when developing their research design as it may influence shared reality, which has implications for relationship well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

News outlets are increasingly nationalizing their presentation of news stories, framing and presenting local news in a broad national context. We investigate how supply-side and curation-side factors of the news cycle contribute to the nationalization of news coverage. Through the computational analysis of 1.05 million Google news results on four days in July–August 2020, that corresponded to 1,581 news stories published on the George Floyd protests in Portland, Oregon, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, we examine the relationship between the nationalization of news coverage, stories' search rank in Google News, and the geographic distance between the news event and the stories' reading audience. Further, we explore the role of Google News in curating locally focused news. Our findings help to map the media ecosystem in a digital age, highlighting the influence of algorithmic power in politics and showing that excessive circulation of national news may have a profound negative impact on news diversity and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wearable devices have been introduced for research purposes and especially for environmental monitoring, with the aim of collecting large amounts of data. In a previous study, we addressed the measurement reliability of low-cost thermohygrometers. In this study, we aim to find out how human thermal plume could affect the measurement performance of thermohygrometers. For this purpose, we used a Do-It-Yourself device that can be easily replicated. It consists of 10 iButtons with 3D-printed brackets to position them at different distances from the body. The device was attached to the user's belt in a seated position. We considered two scenarios: a summer scenario with an air temperature of 28 °C and a clothing thermal resistance of 0.5 clo and an autumn scenario with an air temperature of 21 °C and a clothing thermal resistance of 1.0 clo. The results show that the proximity of the measurement station to the body significantly affects the accuracy of the measurements and should be considered when developing new wearable devices to assess thermal comfort. Therefore, we recommend that at least two thermohygrometers be considered in the development of a new wearable device if it is to be worn on a belt, with one positioned as close to the body as possible and the other at least 8 cm away, to determine if and how the standard thermal comfort assessment differs from the user's personal perception and whether spatial proximity might also play a role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrological modeling is an effective tool for predicting the hydrological response of watersheds in order to develop appropriate water resource management strategies. Various modeling techniques are available to simulate rainfall-runoff processes in ungauged basins, including regionalization of hydrologic model parameters. Regionalization by spatial proximity (SP) and physical similarity (PS) were chosen for this study to be used with Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS), which is semi-distributed hydrological model, to evaluate the performance of the model in simulating sub-basin flows as well as the applicability of averaging methods in the case of ungauged sub-basins. Eight sub-basins belonging to the large Cheliff watershed were selected using available data from the period 2007 to 2012. In order to perform a controlled regionalization, one of the eight sub-basins (Wadi Tikzal) was assumed to be ungauged, and five sub-basins were selected to be donors by the (SP) regionalization method and five others by the (PS) regionalization. The results were compared to the original gauged sub-basin series. The performance analysis was carried out through the Nash-Sutclife Efficiency (NSE), the coefficient of determination (R²) and the root mean squared error (RMSE). The results of the simulation are generally satisfactory for wadi Tikzal sub-basin. The model adequately simulated the flows in the other sub-basins, during both calibration and validation phases. The results obtained showed that the regionalization methods used in this study, with the arithmetic mean and the inverse distance weighting (IDW), yielded good results with NSE and R² values exceeding 0.75 and RMSE values were close to 0.20. The arithmetic mean gave higher results compared to the IDW method, the mean of NSE between the two methods is 0.68 for the arithmetic mean and 0.65 for IDW, and R² of 0.69 for the arithmetic mean and 0.65 for IDW. The obtained results demonstrate that the regionalization by spatial proximity and physical similarity, using the HECHMS hydrological model can be effectively used to predict streamflow in ungauged watersheds, leading to effective water resources management, which enriches the literature regarding the flows regionalization, averaging methods and HEC-HMS performance, in ungauged sub-basins and especially in the northern Algerian region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a number of design flood estimation methods routinely used in South Africa. Flood Frequency Analysis (FFA) remains the preferred technique in instances where adequate records of observed data are available. However, in many parts of South Africa, rivers are not gauged for continuous streamflow monitoring. In the case of ungauged catchments, hydrologists and engineers generally make use of methods based on deterministic and empirical approaches for design flood estimation. Due to the limitations and performance of these methods, improved approaches need to be developed for design flood estimation in ungauged catchments. International practice has shown that making use of local information transfer from nearby gauged catchments, also referred to as donor catchments, can improve flood estimation in ungauged catchments. The main considerations for implementing such methods are the type of information transferred and selection of suitable donor catchments. Approaches for donor catchment selection include physical similarity, spatial proximity and integrated similarity. Some studies have also shown that the use of multiple donor catchments can offer further improvements. Thus, a methodology is proposed and evaluated in this paper for using local information transfer in the form of a method and location-specific adjustment factor from gauged donor catchments to improve the performance of selected deterministic and empirical flood estimation methods widely used in South Africa. The pilot study was undertaken at 48 catchments located in the north-eastern part of South Africa, with river flow data provided by the Department of Water and Sanitation. The results show that the degree of improvement for each of the methods is largely dependent on the approach used for donor catchment selection. Even though the best approach for donor catchment selection varied for the different design flood estimation methods, the integrated similarity approach performed consistently well for all methods considered. Similar to the use of single donor catchments, the results obtained from the use of multiple nearest donor catchments also varied for each of the methods used. Due to the general improvements, and the promising results and success of the simple approach used in this study, it is recommended that further refinements of the proposed methodology and approaches to donor catchment selection be considered for future research projects in order for the method to be used by engineers and hydrologists in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Region: The present study was conducted in 24 watersheds located in the region of Galicia, in the northwest of Spain, covering an extension of approximately 13,000 km2.Study focus: This study is focused on the application and evaluation of different schemes for streamflow Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB). The MHIA model (Spanish acronym for Modelo HIdrológico Agregado), is first used to reproduce the observed time series of discharge in several gauged basins. Then, six different regionalisation schemes are applied to transfer the hydrological model parameters to ungauged catchments. For that purpose, we explore and compare two physical similarity, two spatial proximity and two regression-based regionalisation schemes. Output averaging (also known as ensemble modelling) as well as parameter averaging implementations of the physical similarity and spatial proximity methods are analysed.New hydrological insights: The most efficient methods are those based on output averaging, with acceptable success rates (SR) in 88% of the cases. On the other hand, the parameter averaging-based methods have the lowest SR. The methods based on spatial proximity output averaging provide the best performance when the receptor basin has a sufficient number of nearby donor basins. On the other hand, the methods based on physical similarity output averaging show a better performance in areas where there is a low density of donor catchments. The regression-based methods showed the lowest performance in all cases. The existence of correlations between the performance of the regionalisation schemes and the area of the receptor catchments was observed, with higher performances in large basins than in small basins.

IntroductionNew conflict types have arisen in leisure sports activities due to social regulations designed to address COVID-19. We analyze the differences in conflict-inducing factors and coping strategies across various types of leisure sports and levels of spatial proximity.MethodsKorean adults aged between 20 and 60 years, who had participated in leisure sports activities since the COVID-19 outbreak in January 2020, were surveyed, and 508 responses were collected for analysis. The differences in leisure sports conflicts and coping strategies across the types of leisure sports participation and spatial proximity were tested.ResultsThe results show that conflict due to prejudice was higher in typical indoor sports activities, such as Pilates, yoga, and gym workouts, whereas conflict due to competition or not observing etiquette was higher in indoor golf. Second, conflict due to prior expectations and prejudice was high in outdoor sports activities, such as jogging and hiking. Finally, all participants showed avoidance behavior, but it was observed more frequently in outdoor sports than indoor sports.DiscussionThe study reveals how much leisure conflict is induced by various types of leisure sports participation, particularly during outdoor activities, which usually feature a relatively low density of participants. It underscores the necessity of developing structural approaches to resolving leisure conflicts in dangerous spaces or requiring intensive management and creating new leisure sports activities.

Occupying public spaces can be an effective tactic for conveying a semantic message of protest and gaining wider support; however, it may also severely disrupt the everyday lives of non‐participants and causes a backfire. Therefore, it remains unclear whether and how the occupy movements have shifted political attitudes among the general public. Bringing a social‐spatial perspective to the case of the Occupy Central Movement (OCM) in Hong Kong, this study investigates how the attitudinal impact of occupation has varied according to people's spatial proximity to the protest sites. Using two waves of individual‐level panel data collected right before and after the OCM and detailed geo‐information on the respondents' home addresses and the occupied areas, we apply a difference‐in‐differences (DIDs) design to identify the causal link between space and attitudes. In addition, propensity score matching (PSM) methods are used to ensure the comparability of nearby and faraway residents. The results show that after the OCM, residents living near the occupied areas not only maintained their support for the pro‐democracy camp but also became more liberal as compared to faraway residents. This phenomenon can be explained by the "on‐site" effect, which suggests that the direct exposure to protestors' solidarity and the repressive actions of authorities arouse bystanders' sympathy for the protestors and support for their political cause. Such influence appears to be long‐lasting and can be evidenced by the local election results after the protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the loan sources used by rural solar home system adopters to meet their everyday needs, as well as the motivations for using these sources. The findings show that people in rural areas take into account social and economic factors when making a decision regarding where to seek a loan. People borrowed money from individuals with whom they had strong ties, which could be parents, siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, friends, or neighbours, and there was heterogeneity regarding where people situate family members along the weak/strong tie continuum. The results show that people preferred borrowing money from individuals with whom they had relationships based on the principle of reciprocity, suggesting their preference to avoid dependency in favour of equality. The findings also show that spatial and social proximity are intimately interconnected, and that both play an important role in determining where people turn to when in need of a loan. In several cases, the provision of a loan was based on a combination of both dimensions of proximity. Our findings have implications for energy policies that increasingly require households to bear the financial demands of access to basic energy services. • We examine the socio-economic landscape in which SHS adoption is entangled. • Social and economic factors matter when deciding where to seek a loan. • Relationships based on reciprocity are preferred over those based on dependency. • Spatial and social proximity play an important and complementary role in loan provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For tourism to grow sustainably, it is crucial to comprehend communities' opinions regarding tourism's consequences, along with the degree with which they support the growth of tourism in their particular regions. Despite the numerous factors investigated as the predictors of locals' attitudes toward tourism, researchers have yet to confirm whether heritage proximity is applicable in predicting the different domains of tourism "economic, socio-cultural and environmental" impacts including support for developing cultural heritage tourism. The rationale behind undertaking this investigation was to explore the relevance of heritage proximity in affecting tourism impacts including locals' support towards cultural heritage tourism, by employing the "triple bottom line" approach. A survey questionnaire was completed by 485 residents living at selected cultural heritage destinations in Jammu and Kashmir, India. To investigate the data, SEM was carried out. The evidence demonstrates that heritage proximity positively associated with resident perceptions of different domains of tourism impacts. Moreover, findings demonstrate that local support towards CHT results from highly favourable evaluations of the "economic, socio-cultural and environmental" impacts. The current study thus contributes towards CHT literature by highlighting the significance of heritage proximity in explaining tourism impacts and support towards CHT including necessary implications for developing CHT in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials based Brain-Computer Interfaces (SSVEP-based BCIs) systems have been shown as promising technology due to their short response time and ease of use. SSVEP-based BCIs use brain responses to a flickering visual stimulus as an input command to an external application or device, and it can be influenced by stimulus properties, signal recording, and signal processing. We aim to investigate the system performance varying the stimuli spatial proximity (a stimulus property). Material and methods: We performed a comparative analysis of two visual interface designs (named cross and square) for an SSVEP-based BCI. The power spectrum density (PSD) was used as feature extraction and the Support Machine Vector (SVM) as classification method. We also analyzed the effects of five flickering frequencies (6.67, 8.57, 10, 12 e 15 Hz) between and within interfaces. Results: We found higher accuracy rates for the flickering frequencies of 10, 12, and 15 Hz. The stimulus of 10 Hz presented the highest SSVEP amplitude response for both interfaces. The system presented the best performance (highest classification accuracy and information transfer rate) using the cross interface (lower visual angle). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the system has the highest performance in the spatial proximity range from 4° to 13° (visual angle). In addition, we conclude that as the stimulus spatial proximity increases, the interference from other stimuli reduces, and the SSVEP amplitude response decreases, which reduces system accuracy. The inter-stimulus distance is a visual interface parameter that must be chosen carefully to increase the efficiency of an SSVEP-based BCI. • A spatial proximity from 4° to 13° visual angle results in higher BCI performance. • As inter-stimulus distance increases, the SSVEP amplitude response decreases. • A stimulus at 10 Hz presented the highest SSVEP amplitude response. • The BCI performance is higher when the cross interface is adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is currently not known whether mRNAs fulfill structural roles in the cytoplasm. Here, we report the fragile X-related protein 1 (FXR1) network, an mRNA-protein (mRNP) network present throughout the cytoplasm, formed by FXR1-mediated packaging of exceptionally long mRNAs. These mRNAs serve as an underlying condensate scaffold and concentrate FXR1 molecules. The FXR1 network contains multiple protein binding sites and functions as a signaling scaffold for interacting proteins. We show that it is necessary for RhoA signaling-induced actomyosin reorganization to provide spatial proximity between kinases and their substrates. Point mutations in FXR1, found in its homolog FMR1, where they cause fragile X syndrome, disrupt the network. FXR1 network disruption prevents actomyosin remodeling—an essential and ubiquitous process for the regulation of cell shape, migration, and synaptic function. Our findings uncover a structural role for cytoplasmic mRNA and show how the FXR1 RNA-binding protein as part of the FXR1 network acts as an organizer of signaling reactions. [Display omitted] • Long mRNAs and bound FXR1 act as scaffolds of a dynamic cytoplasmic mRNP network • Most of FXR1 is recruited into the network by its multiple protein binding sites • Signaling molecules with multiple weak binding sites for FXR1 are also recruited • The FXR1 network enables signaling reactions by providing proximity between reactants Exceptionally long mRNAs are bound by the RNA-binding protein FXR1 and generate a cytoplasmic mRNA protein condensate network. The long mRNAs have structural roles as scaffolds of the FXR1 network, which enables signaling reactions by providing proximity between reactants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social touch is an important aspect of social relationships and has a major influence on development and health. However, in many species the occurrence and function of social touch is unknown. Pigs have frequent physical contact but this behaviour is largely unexplored. The aim of this study was to investigate the undisturbed variation in physical contact between pigs, and to assess diurnal and seasonal influences. A stable group of ten Puławska sub-adult female pigs was observed for 406 h across four seasons during the day and night, by continuous observations on an individual level (406 h / pig). They were housed indoors (112 m2 pen) on straw bedding. The ethogram distinguished the amount of surface contact between pigs when lying, the orientation to others, social nosing, other non-agonistic social behaviour and agonistic behaviours. Resting location within the pen was recorded 48 times per pig, and dominance relationships were calculated from agonistic interactions. Data were analysed with mixed models accounting for repeated observations. Pigs spent on average 40 % of their time lying in body contact, most often lying with their extremities in contact (71 %), followed by lying in partial body contact (16 %) or full body contact (13 %) and were frequently nosing the head and body of others. The duration of lying in any type of contact, as well as agonistic behaviour, was influenced by season, with the longest durations in autumn. In summer, the duration of partial body contact was lowest, but full body contact was unaffected by season. Nosing behaviour remained constant throughout the year. Pigs lay in contact more during the night, while showing more social behaviours during the day. Pigs mostly lay in nonparallel orientation or head-to-head, but clearly least in the head-to-tail orientation. Season influenced the frequency of lying head-to-head and head-to-tail, but not lying nonparallel. The coefficient of variation of the lying location was influenced by season. Allo-grooming, mounting, and nudging were shown infrequently and mostly by specific individuals. In conclusion, when at a large space allowance, pigs spend nearly half of their time in body contact, even during the higher temperatures in summer. This shows that social touch, including affiliative behaviour, has an important role in pigs' social life, and remains largely unaffected by external influences. [Display omitted] • Social touch was studied in pigs across seasons, during day and night. • Social nosing was mainly affiliative and remained constant throughout the year. • Allo-grooming occurred infrequently and mostly by specific pigs. • Pigs spend 40 % of their time in body contact. • Lying in contact was influenced by seasons, with least contact in summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Chromosomal translocations are products of the erroneous repair of DNA double-strand breaks that result in the illegitimate joining of the two broken chromosomal ends from non-homologous chromosomes. Chromosomal translocations have been linked to aneuploidy, infertility, mental retardation, cancer and other diseases. Here we discuss how chromosomal translocations are formed and explore how different cellular factors contribute to their formation. Chromosomal translocations are products of the illegitimate repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Their formation can bring about significant structural and molecular changes in the cell that can be physiologically and pathologically relevant. The induced changes may lead to serious and life-threatening diseases such as cancer. As a growing body of evidence suggests, the formation of chromosomal translocation is not only affected by the mere close spatial proximity of gene loci as potential translocation partners. Several factors may affect formation of chromosomal translocations, including chromatin motion to the potential sources of DSBs in the cell. While these can be apparently random events, certain chromosomal translocations appear to be cell-type-specific. In this review, we discuss how chromosomal translocations are formed and explore how different cellular factors contribute to their formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective of the study: The subject of the study are participatory budgets - social innovations used by local municipalities to involve citizens in local budgetary decisions with roots in Brazil. The main objective was to determine how being part of a social network affects the decision to introduce participatory budgets made by municipalities in Poland, where a remarkable spread of the innovation has been observed since the early 2010s. Methodology: Spatial autocorrelation tests and visualizations were used to uncover clusters of communes with most similar or dissimilar characteristics. Originality/Relevance: Novelty of the study approach lies in the utilization of an own database - with the intention to overcome the problem of data insufficiency, typical of related research. Main results: The presence of spatial proximity-based peer effects was confirmed in the study. The concentration of innovators has remained spatially uneven, which is to be linked to e.g. the crossregionally diverse forms of social capital. The data-based study design allows to explore participatory budgets as products of social networks and not only individual strategies, as evidenced by numerous case studies in the field. Methodological contributions: The study demonstrates the relevance of collecting longitudinal data for the development of research on participatory budgets. Social/management contributions: Insights from the study are of practical value for recent and future. adopters, wishing to understand the broader relevance of their policies, as well as for higher level policymakers trying to better adapt their legal frameworks to the current and future waves of innovators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The travel time prediction of vehicles is an important part of intelligent expressways. It can not only provide the vehicle distribution trend of each section for the expressway management department to assist the fine management of the expressway, but it can also provide owners with dynamic and accurate travel time prediction services to assist the owners to formulate more reasonable travel plans. However, there are still some problems in the current travel time prediction research (e.g., different types of vehicles are not processed separately, the proximity of the road network is not considered, and the capture of important information in the spatial-temporal perspective is not considered in depth). In this paper, we propose a Multi-View Travel Time Prediction (MVPPT) model. First, the travel times of different types of vehicles of each section in the expressway are analyzed, and the main differences in the travel times of different types of vehicles are obtained. Second, multiple travel time features are constructed, which include a novel spatial proximity feature. On this basis, we use CNN to capture the spatial correlation and the spatial attention mechanism to capture key information, the BiLSTM to capture the time correlation of time series, and the time attention mechanism capture key time information. Experiments on large-scale real traffic data demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal over state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Histological classification is a challenging task due to the diverse appearances, unpredictable variations, and blurry edges of histological tissues. Recently, many approaches based on large networks have achieved satisfactory performance. However, most of these methods rely heavily on substantial computational resources and large high-quality datasets, limiting their practical application. Knowledge Distillation (KD) offers a promising solution by enabling smaller networks to achieve performance comparable to that of larger networks. Nonetheless, KD is hindered by the problem of high-dimensional characteristics, which makes it difficult to capture tiny scattered features and often leads to the loss of edge feature relationships., Methods: A novel cross-domain visual prompting distillation approach is proposed, compelling the teacher network to facilitate the extraction of significant high-dimensional features into low-dimensional feature maps, thereby aiding the student network in achieving superior performance. Additionally, a dynamic learnable temperature module based on novel vector-based spatial proximity is introduced to further encourage the student to imitate the teacher., Results: Experiments conducted on widely accepted histological datasets, NCT-CRC-HE-100K and LC25000, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and validate its robustness on the popular dermoscopic dataset ISIC-2019. Compared to state-of-the-art knowledge distillation methods, the proposed method achieves better performance and greater robustness with optimal domain adaptation., Conclusion: A novel distillation architecture, termed VPSP, tailored for histological classification, is proposed. This architecture achieves superior performance with optimal domain adaptation, enhancing the clinical application of histological classification. The source code will be released at https://github.com/xiaohongji/VPSP., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this article, the Tennessee's Voluntary Prekindergarten (TN-VPK) program in general and the Shelby County Schools' VPK program in particular are analyzed using the policy instruments of regulation, finance, and support services. The geospatial analysis (Geographic Information Systems or "GIS") indicates that many of VPK's site locations are unable to provide access to all qualified applicants. For both TN-VPK and Shelby County Schools, it is useful not only to analyze the varied aspects of state and federally funded public-choice Pre-K programs, but also to evaluate the consequences to equity, freedom of choice, productive efficiency, and social cohesion in a geospatial context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wearable devices have been introduced for research purposes and especially for environmental monitoring, with the aim of collecting large amounts of data. In a previous study, we addressed the measurement reliability of low-cost thermohygrometers. In this study, we aim to find out how human thermal plume could affect the measurement performance of thermohygrometers. For this purpose, we used a Do-It-Yourself device that can be easily replicated. It consists of 10 iButtons with 3D-printed brackets to position them at different distances from the body. The device was attached to the user’s belt in a seated position. We considered two scenarios: a summer scenario with an air temperature of 28 °C and a clothing thermal resistance of 0.5 clo and an autumn scenario with an air temperature of 21 °C and a clothing thermal resistance of 1.0 clo. The results show that the proximity of the measurement station to the body significantly affects the accuracy of the measurements and should be considered when developing new wearable devices to assess thermal comfort. Therefore, we recommend that at least two thermohygrometers be considered in the development of a new wearable device if it is to be worn on a belt, with one positioned as close to the body as possible and the other at least 8 cm away, to determine if and how the standard thermal comfort assessment differs from the user’s personal perception and whether spatial proximity might also play a role.

Landslide Susceptibility Assessment (LSA) is a fundamental component of landslide risk management and a substantial area of geospatial research. Previous researchers have considered the spatial non-stationarity relationship between landslide occurrences and Landslide Conditioning Factors (LCFs) as fixed effects. The fixed effects consider the spatial non-stationarity scale between different LCFs as an average value, which is represented by a single bandwidth in the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model. The present study analyzes the non-stationarity scale effect of the spatial relationship between LCFs and landslides and explains the influence of factor correlation on the LSA. A Principal-Component-Analysis-based Multiscale GWR (PCAMGWR) model is proposed for landslide susceptibility mapping, in which hexagonal neighborhoods express spatial proximity and extract LCFs as the model input. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and other statistical indicators are used to compare the PCAMGWR model with other GWR-based models and global regression models, and the PCAMGWR model has the best prediction effect. Different spatial non-stationarity scales are obtained and improve the prediction accuracy of landslide susceptibility compared to a single spatial non-stationarity scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning about the relationship between distance to landmarks and events and phenomena of interest is a multi-faceted problem, as it may require taking into account multiple dimensions, including: spatial position of landmarks, timing of events taking place over time, and attributes of occurrences and locations. Here I show that tree-based methods are well suited for the study of these questions as they allow exploring the relationship between proximity metrics and outcomes of interest in a non-parametric and data-driven manner. I illustrate the usefulness of tree-based methods vis-à-vis conventional regression methods by examining the association between: (i) distance to border crossings along the US-Mexico border and support for immigration reform, and (ii) distance to mass shootings and support for gun control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]