ABSTRACT
The longevity and healthy ageing observed in Blue Zones offer valuable insights for contemporary urban neighbourhood planning and design. This paper reviews the age-friendly features of the built environment in Blue Zones, aiming to translate these insights into actionable strategies for urban neighbourhood development. Employing a systematic literature review and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) analysis of Google Street View imagery, this study assesses the built environments in Blue Zones, including housing, public spaces, and transportation systems. Key findings highlight the presence of adaptable housing, building designs that foster a connection with nature, and semi-public spaces that encourage social interaction and physical activity. A notable emphasis on walkability and limited public transport access was observed. The CNN analysis corroborated these findings, providing a quantitative view of age-friendly features. This research contributes to the academic discourse in urban planning and design by providing practical insights for developing age-friendly neighbourhoods, inspired by Blue Zones. It concludes by offering policy advice and future research directions for creating sustainable and inclusive urban environments conducive to ageing populations.
Subject(s)
Environment Design , Residence Characteristics , Exercise , Housing , Transportation , WalkingABSTRACT
We propose a method to map the conventional optical interferometry setup into quantum circuits. The unknown phase shift inside a Mach-Zehnder interferometer in the presence of photon loss is estimated by simulating the quantum circuits. For this aim, we use the Bayesian approach in which the likelihood functions are needed, and they are obtained by simulating the appropriate quantum circuits. The precision of four different definite photon-number states of light, which all possess six photons, is compared. The measurement scheme that we have considered is counting the number of photons detected after the final beam splitter of the interferometer, and photon loss is modeled by using fictitious beam splitters in the arms of the interferometer. Our results indicate that three of the four definite photon-number states considered can have better precision than the standard interferometry limit whenever the photon loss rate is in a specific range. In addition, the Fisher information for the four definite photon-number states in the setup is also estimated to check the optimality of the chosen measurement scheme.
ABSTRACT
In recent years, studying the central mechanism of itch has gained momentum. However, a proper meta-analysis has not been conducted in this domain. In this study, we tried to respond to this need. A systematic search and a meta-analysis were carried out to estimate the central mechanism of itch. The itch matrix comprises the thalamus and the parietal, secondary somatosensory, insular and cingulate cortices. We have shown that the basal ganglia (BG) play an important role in itch reduction. Finally, we explored itch processing in AD patients and observed that the itch matrix in these patients was different. In conclusion, this is the first meta-analysis on the central mechanisms of itch perception and processing. Our study demonstrated that different modalities of itch induction can produce a common pattern of activity in the brain and provided further insights into understanding the underlying nature of itch central perception.
