Scalable and privacy-respectful interactive discovery of place semantics from human mobility traces

Mobility diaries of a large number of people are needed for assessing transportation infrastructure and spatial development planning. Acquisition of personal mobility diaries through population surveys is a costly and error-prone endeavour. We examine an alternative approach to obtaining similar information from episodic digital traces of people’s presence in various locations, which appear when people use their mobile devices for making phone calls, accessing the Internet or posting georeferenced contents (texts, photos or videos) in social media. Having episodic traces of a person over a long time period, it is possible to detect significant (repeatedly visited) personal places and identify them as home, work or place of social activities based on temporal patterns of a person’s presence in these places. Such analysis, however, can lead to compromising personal privacy. We have investigated the feasibility of deriving place meanings and reconstructing personal mobility diaries while preserving the privacy of individuals whose data are analysed. We have devised a visual analytics approach and a set of supporting tools making such privacy-preserving analysis possible. The approach was tested in two case studies with publicly available data: simulated tracks from the VAST Challenge 2014 and real traces built from georeferenced Twitter posts.

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The infection tree of global epidemics

Network Science ◽

10.1017/nws.2014.5 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 132-137 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

ANA PASTORE Y PIONTTI ◽

MARCELO FERREIRA DA COSTA GOMES ◽

NICOLE SAMAY ◽

NICOLA PERRA ◽

ALESSANDRO VESPIGNANI

Keyword(s):

Visual Analytics ◽

Information Technologies ◽

Large Scale ◽

Human Mobility ◽

Global Dynamics ◽

The World ◽

Spatially Extended ◽

Long Time ◽

Reduction Methods ◽

The One

The spreading of transmissible infectious diseases is inevitably entangled with the dynamics of human population. Humans are the carrier of the pathogen, and the large-scale travel and commuting patterns that govern the mobility of modern societies are defining how epidemics and pandemics travel across the world. For a long time, the development of quantitative spatially explicit models able to shed light on the global dynamics of pandemic has been limited by the lack of detailed data on human mobility. In the last 10 years, however, these limits have been lifted by the increasing availability of data generated by new information technologies, thus triggering the development of computational (microsimulation) models working at a level of single individuals in spatially extended regions of the world. Microsimulations can provide information at very detailed spatial resolutions and down to the level of single individuals. In addition, computational implementations explicitly account for stochasticity, allowing the study of multiple realizations of epidemics with the same parameters' distribution. While on the one hand these capabilities represent the richness of microsimulation methods, on the other hand they face us with a huge amount of information that requires the use of specific data reduction methods and visual analytics.

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Internet page content analysis of north European Sea ports

Journal of Shipping and Trade ◽

10.1186/s41072-020-00074-y ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Olli-Pekka Hilmola ◽

Andres Tolli ◽

Ain Kiisler

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Environmental Issues ◽

Basic Design ◽

Time Period ◽

Long Time ◽

Sea Ports ◽

Selection Of

Abstract This study analyses 98 Internet pages of sea ports located in Sweden, Finland and Estonia during years 2017–2019. Aim of the study is to find, how website basic design is completed (colours and languages), how slogans, environmental issues, statistics and hinterland transports are reported. Based on the analysis, it appears as rather common that sea ports follow conservative selection of colours in their websites, where blue and white are clearly most popular. Typically, English and Swedish are as the most common used language, followed by Finnish, Russian and Estonian. In some rare cases, websites are offered in Chinese or German. Larger sea ports do have clear “slogans”, where smaller ones are just having lengthy justification for their existence. Environmental issues are increasing concern among sea ports, and these are mostly mentioned in details within Swedish actors. Providing statistics varies among companies, and in some sea ports these are provided from very long time period, where in others from just previous years or then only from last year (or even at all). It is common for companies to report that they have sustainable hinterland access, railway available.

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Gonad morphology and gametogenesis in the deep-sea jellyfish Atolla wyvillei and Periphylla periphylla (Scyphozoa: Coronatae) collected from Cape Hatteras and the Gulf of Mexico

Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom ◽

10.1017/s0025315409000824 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 90 (6) ◽

pp. 1095-1104 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Cathy H. Lucas ◽

Adam J. Reed

Keyword(s):

Gulf Of Mexico ◽

Gonad Development ◽

Bell Diameter ◽

Western Atlantic ◽

Gonad Morphology ◽

Time Period ◽

Cape Hatteras ◽

Literature Evidence ◽

Long Time ◽

North Western

Observations on gonad morphology and the structure of ovaries and testes of the coronate scyphozoans Atolla wyvillei and Periphylla periphylla are described based on samples collected from the Gulf of Mexico and Cape Hatteras (north-western Atlantic). In A. wyvillei, gonads of distinguishable sex were observed in medusae as small as 17 mm bell diameter (BD). Spermatogenesis occurred within follicles (average 366 × 254 μm) that were evenly distributed throughout the gonad. Oocytes in different stages of development were observed in all the females with gonads. Oocytes arise from the gastrodermis and migrate into the mesoglea to develop from early-mid to late vitellogenic oocytes characterized by a large nucleus and granular (organic-rich) cytoplasm. The largest oocytes measured were 543 μm and 263 μm from the Gulf of Mexico and Cape Hatteras respectively. Possible reasons for this difference are discussed. In P. periphylla gonads were also initially observed in medusae 17 mm BD, although not all larger medusae had obvious gonads. Unlike A. wyvillei sperm follicles were arranged in long convoluted rows normally only one follicle thick. The organization of ooytes in female P. periphylla was very similar to A. wyvillei, although the gonads were small and the number of oocytes present in each gonad very low (<22). The largest oocyte measured was 777 μm in a 53 mm BD medusa. Although medusae were collected from one time period only (September) in this study, our findings appear to be in agreement with literature evidence indicating that coronate jellyfish produce few eggs continuously over a long time period. Aspects of gonad development and gametogenesis are discussed with respect to potential differences in site productivity and species identification.

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A Revised Radiocarbon Chronology of the Aceramic Shell Midden of Ra’s Al-Hamra 6 (Muscat, Sultanate of Oman): Implication For Occupational Sequence, Marine Reservoir Age, and Human Mobility

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/rdc.2016.3 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 383-395 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Antoine Zazzo ◽

Olivia Munoz ◽

Emilie Badel ◽

Irène Béguier ◽

Francesco Genchi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Human Mobility ◽

Human Bone ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Sultanate Of Oman ◽

Shell Midden ◽

Time Period ◽

Entire Sequence ◽

Radiocarbon Chronology ◽

Reservoir Age ◽

Bone Apatite

AbstractRa’s al-Hamra 6 (RH-6) is one of the earliest stratified archaeological sites along the eastern littoral of the Arabian Peninsula. This shell midden was radiocarbon dated to the 6th–5th millennium cal BC, but the majority of the dates were obtained before the advent of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating and suffer from large uncertainties. In addition, most of these dates were obtained on marine and mangrove shells and required correction for local variations from the global average marine 14C reservoir age (MRA). This proved difficult because no consensus value exists for this period in the area. Recent excavations at RH-6 offered the opportunity to redate this important site in order to precisely determine its occupation history and later use as a graveyard, and establish the marine reservoir effect for this time period. Thirty-eight samples of charcoal, shells, and human bone apatite were selected for 14C dating. Bayesian modeling of the 14C dates suggests that the formation of the shell midden spanned ~1 millennium, between the mid-6th and the mid-5th millennium cal BC. Positive and consistent ΔR values were calculated throughout the entire sequence, ranging from 99±27 to 207±43 14C yr. At the beginning of the 4th millennium cal BC, RH-6 was used as a graveyard, as suggested by the 14C dating of a shell in strict association with an individual buried at the surface of the site. 14C dating of human bone apatite allowed us to calculate that 89% of this individual’s diet derived from marine resources. This finding confirms previous observations showing the overwhelming presence of marine and mangrove-dwelling species in the faunal and charcoal assemblage, and implies a low mobility, or mobility restricted to the coast for this population during the 4th millennium cal BC.

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Development of COVID-19 vaccines utilizing gene therapy technology

International Immunology ◽

10.1093/intimm/dxab013 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hironori Nakagami

Keyword(s):

Viral Vectors ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Genetic Disorders ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Adenovirus Vector ◽

Phase 3 ◽

Double Blind ◽

Time Period ◽

Short Period ◽

Long Time

Abstract There is currently an outbreak of respiratory disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2. Individuals with COVID-19 have symptoms that are usually asymptomatic or mild in most initial cases. However, in some cases, moderate and severe symptoms have been observed with pneumonia. Many companies are developing COVID-19 vaccine candidates using different technologies that are classified into four groups (intact target viruses, proteins, viral vectors and nucleic acids). For rapid development, RNA vaccines and adenovirus vector vaccines have been urgently approved, and their injection has already started across the world. These types of vaccine technologies have been developed over more than 20 years using translational research for use against cancer or diseases caused by genetic disorders but the COVID-19 vaccines are the first licensed drugs to prevent infectious diseases using RNA vaccine technology. Although these vaccines are highly effective in preventing COVID-19 for a short period, safety and efficiency evaluations should be continuously monitored over a long time period. As the time of writing, more than 10 projects are now in phase 3 to evaluate the prevention of infection in double-blind studies. Hopefully, several projects may be approved to ensure high-efficiency and safe vaccines.

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Comparison of the spatial patterns of schistosomiasis in Zimbabwe at two points in time, spaced twenty-nine years apart: is climate variability of importance?

Geospatial health ◽

10.4081/gh.2017.505 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ulrik B. Pedersen ◽

Dimitrios-Alexios Karagiannis-Voules ◽

Nicholas Midzi ◽

Tkafira Mduluza ◽

Samson Mukaratirwa ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Geographical Distribution ◽

Predictive Accuracy ◽

Weather Data ◽

Geostatistical Model ◽

Prevalence Data ◽

Time Period ◽

Long Time ◽

Potential Risk Factors ◽

The Impact

Temperature, precipitation and humidity are known to be important factors for the development of schistosome parasites as well as their intermediate snail hosts. Climate therefore plays an important role in determining the geographical distribution of schistosomiasis and it is expected that climate change will alter distribution and transmission patterns. Reliable predictions of distribution changes and likely transmission scenarios are key to efficient schistosomiasis intervention-planning. However, it is often difficult to assess the direction and magnitude of the impact on schistosomiasis induced by climate change, as well as the temporal transferability and predictive accuracy of the models, as prevalence data is often only available from one point in time. We evaluated potential climate-induced changes on the geographical distribution of schistosomiasis in Zimbabwe using prevalence data from two points in time, 29 years apart; to our knowledge, this is the first study investigating this over such a long time period. We applied historical weather data and matched prevalence data of two schistosome species (<em>Schistosoma haematobium</em> and <em>S. mansoni</em>). For each time period studied, a Bayesian geostatistical model was fitted to a range of climatic, environmental and other potential risk factors to identify significant predictors that could help us to obtain spatially explicit schistosomiasis risk estimates for Zimbabwe. The observed general downward trend in schistosomiasis prevalence for Zimbabwe from 1981 and the period preceding a survey and control campaign in 2010 parallels a shift towards a drier and warmer climate. However, a statistically significant relationship between climate change and the change in prevalence could not be established.

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Local Differential Privacy for Evolving Data

Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality ◽

10.29012/jpc.718 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Joseph ◽

Aaron Roth ◽

Jonathan Ullman ◽

Bo Waggoner

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Differential Privacy ◽

Statistical Information ◽

Underlying Distribution ◽

Specific Distribution ◽

Time Period ◽

Long Time ◽

Heavy Hitter ◽

Single Use ◽

A New Technique

There are now several large scale deployments of differential privacy used to collect statistical information about users. However, these deployments periodically recollect the data and recompute the statistics using algorithms designed for a single use. As a result, these systems do not provide meaningful privacy guarantees over long time scales. Moreover, existing techniques to mitigate this effect do not apply in the “local model” of differential privacy that these systems use. In this paper, we introduce a new technique for local differential privacy that makes it possible to maintain up-to-date statistics over time, with privacy guarantees that degrade only in the number of changes in the underlying distribution rather than the number of collection periods. We use our technique for tracking a changing statistic in the setting where users are partitioned into an unknown collection of groups, and at every time period each user draws a single bit from a common (but changing) group-specific distribution. We also provide an application to frequency and heavy-hitter estimation.

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History of earthquake studies in Russia

Annals of Geophysics ◽

10.4401/ag-3336 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 47 (2-3) ◽

Author(s):

R. Tatevossian

Keyword(s):

Seismic Hazard Assessment ◽

Historical Seismicity ◽

Primary Sources ◽

Original Form ◽

Correct Identification ◽

Tectonic Earthquake ◽

Time Period ◽

Long Time ◽

History Of ◽

Modern Knowledge

To evaluate the completeness of modern knowledge on historical seismicity it is necessary to know the general geopolitical and socio-cultural background in the country. It determines the possibility to record the evidence of an earthquake and conserve the record in original form for a long time-period. The potential duration of historical earthquake study in Russia is assessed based on these considerations. Certain stages of earthquake study in Russia have been detected. Specific problems of seismicity studies of low active areas are discussed as an example of Russian platform. The value of each (even moderate magnitude) event becomes crucial for seismic hazard assessment in such territories. A correct identification of event nature (tectonic earthquake or exogenous phenomena - landslides, karsts, etc.) is practically impossible without using primary sources with detailed descriptions. Occurrence of modern earthquakes can be used to assess the accuracy of historical seismicity knowledge.

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Career Complexity No Longer on the Rise: Comparing Early- and Mid-Career Complexity Across the 1930s thru 1980s Birth Cohorts in Sweden

10.31235/osf.io/md4t3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Johan Westerman ◽

Dirk Witteveen ◽

Erik Bihagen ◽

Roujman Shahbazian

Keyword(s):

State Of The Art ◽

Working Hours ◽

Early Career ◽

Initial Increase ◽

Birth Cohorts ◽

Work Lives ◽

Average Complexity ◽

Time Period ◽

Long Time ◽

Gender Convergence

There is a wide-spread idea that contemporary careers continue to become ever more complex. Pioneering research of full-career complexity has shown that work lives have indeed become more complex, yet at modest increasing pace. This paper examines whether career complexity continues to increase using Swedish registry data across an exceptionally long time period, including younger cohorts than in previous research: up to those born in 1983. The full early- and midcareers of selected birth cohorts cover several macroeconomic booms and downturns, a long period of upskilling of the Swedish labor force, as well as the convergence of working hours of women and men. The following conclusions are drawn using state-of-the-art methods of measuring career complexity. For early-careers, an increasing complexity trend is evident between the 1950s and 1960s birth cohorts, yet complexity fluctuates around a stable trend for the 1970s birth cohorts and onward. For mid-careers, which are considerably more stable on average, complexity has decreased among women born between the 1930s and the early-1950s. However, the opposite trend holds true for men, resulting in gender convergence of complexity. We observe a standstill of the mid-career complexity trend across both genders, followed by a modest decline for the last observed cohorts. Subsequent analyses point to educational expansion as an important driver of the initial increase of early-career complexity. Taken together, our analysis affirms an initial shift to more career complexity in the 20th century, yet we find no unidirectional trend toward more career complexity over the last decades.

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The Optimization of Some Peanuts (Arachis Hypogaea L.) Technology Sequences on the Irrigated Ash Deposits

Bulletin of University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca Agriculture ◽

10.15835/buasvmcn-agr:4004 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 66 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Emilia CONSTANTINESCU ◽

Dorina BONEA ◽

M. STEFAN ◽

Luminita SANDU ◽

M. GIORGOTA

Keyword(s):

Arachis Hypogaea ◽

Water Permeability ◽

Plant Density ◽

Vegetation Period ◽

High Water ◽

Environment Pollution ◽

Surface Unit ◽

Time Period ◽

Arachis Hypogaea L ◽

Long Time

Of the analysis of the soil and clime conditions that are characteristic for the ash deposits as well as from the observations on the behavior of an enriched array of species, on these terrains there was observed the possibility of obtaining good results with the peanuts crop on the terrains covered by powerplant ash. There was chosen the Arachis hypogaea L. due to its capacity to capitalize the ash covered terrains, as well as by protecting by its vegetal mass a long time period of the vegetation period, decreasing the ash drift and the reduction of the environment pollution that is near the ash deposits. In supporting this species there was considered the thermic favorable regime of the zone, the high sunshine, the light texture, high water permeability of the deposited material, the plant density to the surface unit and the covering degree of the terrain by vegetal mass, that are favorable features in controlling the ash drift and environment pollution.

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