Associations between the objective and perceived food environment and eating behavior in relation to socioeconomic status among adults in peri-urban settings: results from the CIVISANO study in Flanders, Belgium.

Obesity, a significant public health concern, disproportionately affects people with lower socioeconomic status (SES). Food environments have been identified as part of the causal chain of this disparity. This study investigated variations in the food environment across groups with different SES profiles residing in peri-urban municipal settings. In addition, it examined the association of the perceived and objective food environments with eating behaviour and assessed if these associations were moderated by SES. Utilizing GIS and survey data (n = 497, aged 25-65), results showed differences in the objective and perceived food environments based on SES. Respondents with higher SES perceived their food environments as better but resided farther from all food outlets compared to respondents with lower SES. However, there was no difference in outlet density or mRFEI between SES groups. SES moderated associations between the objective and perceived food environments and most eating behavior outcomes except fast food consumption frequency. For fruits and vegetables, SES moderated the association between neighborhood availability and consumption frequency (ß0.23,CI0.03;0.49). Stratified analysis revealed a positive association for both lower (ß0.15, CI0.03;0.27) and higher (ß0.37, CI 0.12;0.63) SES groups. For snack foods, SES moderated the association between healthy outlet density and consumption frequency (ß-0.60, CI-0.94; -0.23), showing statistical significance only for respondents with higher SES (ß0.36,CI 0.18;0.55). Similarly, for sugar-sweetened beverages, a statistically significant interaction was observed between unhealthy outlet density in the 1000m buffer and consumption frequency (ß 0.06, CI 0.02; 0.11). However, this association was only statistically significant for respondents with higher SES (ß-0.02,CI -0.05;-0.0002). These results emphasize the significance of SES as a crucial element in comprehending the connection between the food environment and eating behaviour. Indicating the need for policymakers to take SES into account when implementing food environment interventions, particularly when focusing on the neighborhood food environment without considering residents' SES and their perceptions.

The applicability of human mobility scaling laws on animals-A Herring Gull case study.

With the development of sensors, recording and availability of high-resolution movement data from animals and humans, two disciplines have rapidly developed: human mobility and movement ecology. Addressing methodological gaps between these two mobility fields could improve the understanding of movement processes and has been defined as the Integrated Science of Movement. We apply well-known human mobility metrics and data processing methods to Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking data of European Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) to test the usefulness of these methods for explaining animal mobility behavior. We use stop detection, spatial aggregation, and for the first time on animal movement data, two approaches to temporal aggregation (Next Time-Bin and Next Place). We also calculate from this data a set of movement statistics (visitation frequency, distinct locations over time, and radius of gyration). Furthermore, we analyze and compare the gull and human data from the perspective of scaling laws commonly used for human mobility. The results confirm those of previous studies and indicate differences in movement parameters between the breeding season and other parts of the year. This paper also shows that methods used in human mobility analysis have the potential to improve our understanding of animal behavior.

When driving becomes risky: Micro-scale variants of the lane-changing maneuver in highway traffic.

Objective: Vehicular lane-changing is one of the riskiest driving maneuvers. Since vehicular automation is quickly becoming a reality, it is crucial to be able to identify when such a maneuver can turn into a risky situation. Recently, it has been shown that a qualitative approach: the Point Descriptor Precedence (PDP) representation, is able to do so. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether the PDP representation can detect hazardous micro movements during lane-changing maneuvers in a situation of structural congestion in the morning and/or evening.Method: The approach involves analyzing a large real-world traffic dataset using the PDP representation and adding safety distance points to distinguish subtle movement patterns.Results: Based on these subtleties, we label four out of seven and five out of nine lane-change maneuvers as risky during the selected peak and the off-peak traffic hours respectively.Conclusions: The results show that the approach can identify risky movement patterns in traffic. The PDP representation can be used to check whether certain adjustments (e.g., changing the maximum speed) have a significant impact on the number of dangerous behaviors, which is important for improving road safety. This approach has practical applications in penalizing traffic violations, improving traffic flow, and providing valuable information for policymakers and transport experts. It can also be used to train autonomous vehicles in risky driving situations.

The role of the perceived environment for recreational walking among adults in socioeconomically disadvantaged situations: A study using walk-along interviews.

Background: Persons in socioeconomically disadvantaged situations (PSEDS) are generally less likely to engage in recreational walking (RW) compared to higher socioeconomic groups and are often more dependent on their local environment. Studies on RW have primarily focused on the role of the built environment for the general adult population and the older population in urban areas. The aim of this study is to qualitatively identify the perceived environmental factors affecting RW among PSEDS in peri-urban areas. Methods: In two peri-urban municipalities in Belgium, walk-along interviews were conducted until data saturation with a purposeful convenience sampling of 38 PSEDS (25-65y/o) to identify local environmental factors affecting RW. A subsample of 22 participants joined a focus group (n = 4) to categorize the identified factors into environmental types (physical, sociocultural, political, and economic) of the Analysis Grid for Environments Linked to Obesity (ANGELO) framework. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically using Maxqda 2022.0. Results: The information environment (dissemination, retrieving and understanding of information) was added to the ANGELO framework, highlighting the importance of digital literacy. Availability and accessibility of well-maintained walking surfaces, toilets, street lighting and seating options (physical environment), social support, dog-ownership, stigmatization, social isolation, and a sense of belonging (sociocultural environment) and indirect costs (economic environment) were identified as important environmental factors in RW among PSEDS. The identified political and economic factors are intertwined with the other environments. Conclusions: Perceived environmental factors affect RW among PSEDS and peri-urban settings offer specific challenges. Local governments should incorporate citizen perception into decision-making processes to create supportive environments that have the potential to promote RW among PSEDS in a peri-urban setting.

The CIVISANO protocol: a mixed-method study about the role of objective and perceived environmental factors on physical activity and eating behavior among socioeconomically disadvantaged adults.

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity have a strong socioeconomic profile. Unhealthy behaviors like insufficient physical activity and an unbalanced diet, which are causal factors of overweight and obesity, tend to be more pronounced in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in high income countries. The CIVISANO project aims to identify objective and perceived environmental factors among different socioeconomic population groups that impede or facilitate physical activity and healthy eating behavior in the local context of two peri-urban Flemish municipalities in Belgium. We also aim to identify and discuss possible local interventions and evaluate the participatory processes of the project. METHODS: This study (2020-2023) will use community-based participatory tools, involving collaborative partnerships with civic and stakeholder members of the community and regular exchanges among all partners to bridge knowledge development and health promotion for socioeconomically disadvantaged citizens. Furthermore, a mixed-methods approach will be used. A population survey and geographic analysis will explore potential associations between the physical activity and eating behaviors of socioeconomically disadvantaged adults (25-65 years old) and both their perceived and objective physical, food and social environments. Profound perceptive context information will be gathered from socioeconomically disadvantaged adults by using participatory methods like photovoice, walk-along, individual map creation and group model building. An evaluation of the participatory process will be conducted simultaneously. DISCUSSION: The CIVISANO project will identify factors in the local environment that might provoke inequities in adopting a healthy lifestyle. The combination of perceived and objective measures using validated strategies will provide a robust assessment of the municipality environment. Through this analysis, the project will investigate to what extent community engagement can be a useful strategy to reduce health inequities. The strong knowledge exchange and capacity-building in a local setting is expected to contribute to our understanding of how to maximize research impact in this field and generate evidence about potential linkages between a health enhancing lifestyle among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups and their physical, food and social environments.

Qualitative Team Formation Analysis in Football: A Case Study of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

In this paper, we explore the use of the Static Qualitative Trajectory Calculus (QTCS), a qualitative spatiotemporal method based on the QTC, for the analysis of team formations in football. While methods for team formation analysis in sports are predominantly quantitative in nature, QTCS enables the comparison of team formations by describing the relative positions between players in a qualitative manner, which is more related to the way players position themselves on the field. QTCS has the potential to allow to monitor to what extent a football team plays according to a coach's predetermined formation. When applied to multiple matches of one team, the method can contribute to the definition of the playing style of a team. We present an experiment aimed at identifying the team formation played by Belgian national football team during the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in France.

Using open data and open-source software to develop spatial indicators of urban design and transport features for achieving healthy and sustainable cities.

Benchmarking and monitoring of urban design and transport features is crucial to achieving local and international health and sustainability goals. However, most urban indicator frameworks use coarse spatial scales that either only allow between-city comparisons, or require expensive, technical, local spatial analyses for within-city comparisons. This study developed a reusable, open-source urban indicator computational framework using open data to enable consistent local and global comparative analyses. We show this framework by calculating spatial indicators-for 25 diverse cities in 19 countries-of urban design and transport features that support health and sustainability. We link these indicators to cities' policy contexts, and identify populations living above and below critical thresholds for physical activity through walking. Efforts to broaden participation in crowdsourcing data and to calculate globally consistent indicators are essential for planning evidence-informed urban interventions, monitoring policy effects, and learning lessons from peer cities to achieve health, equity, and sustainability goals.

Spatial movement pattern recognition in soccer based on relative player movements.

Knowledge of spatial movement patterns in soccer occurring on a regular basis can give a soccer coach, analyst or reporter insights in the playing style or tactics of a group of players or team. Furthermore, it can support a coach to better prepare for a soccer match by analysing (trained) movement patterns of both his own as well as opponent players. We explore the use of the Qualitative Trajectory Calculus (QTC), a spatiotemporal qualitative calculus describing the relative movement between objects, for spatial movement pattern recognition of players movements in soccer. The proposed method allows for the recognition of spatial movement patterns that occur on different parts of the field and/or at different spatial scales. Furthermore, the Levenshtein distance metric supports the recognition of similar movements that occur at different speeds and enables the comparison of movements that have different temporal lengths. We first present the basics of the calculus, and subsequently illustrate its applicability with a real soccer case. To that end, we present a situation where a user chooses the movements of two players during 20 seconds of a real soccer match of a 2016-2017 professional soccer competition as a reference fragment. Following a pattern matching procedure, we describe all other fragments with QTC and calculate their distance with the QTC representation of the reference fragment. The top-k most similar fragments of the same match are presented and validated by means of a duo-trio test. The analyses show the potential of QTC for spatial movement pattern recognition in soccer.

Comparing written and photo-based indoor wayfinding instructions through eye fixation measures and user ratings as mental effort assessments.

The use of mobile pedestrian wayfinding applications is gaining importance indoors. However, compared to outdoors, much less research has been conducted with respect to the most adequate ways to convey indoor wayfinding information to a user. An explorative study was conducted to compare two pedestrian indoor wayfinding applications, one text-based (SoleWay) and one image-based (Eyedog), in terms of mental effort. To do this, eye tracking data and mental effort ratings were collected from 29 participants during two routes in an indoor environment. The results show that both textual instructions and photographs can enable a navigator to find his/her way while experiencing no or very little cognitive effort or difficulties. However, these instructions must be in line with a user's expectations of the route, which are based on his/her interpretation of the indoor environment at decision points. In this case, textual instructions offer the advantage that specific information can be explicitly and concisely shared with the user. Furthermore, the study drew attention to potential usability issues of the wayfinding aids (e.g. the incentive to swipe) and, as such, demonstrated the value of eye tracking and mental effort assessments in usability research.

Unsupervised Hierarchical Clustering Approach for Tourism Market Segmentation Based on Crowdsourced Mobile Phone Data.

Understanding tourism related behavior and traveling patterns is an essential element of transportation system planning and tourism management at tourism destinations. Traditionally, tourism market segmentation is conducted to recognize tourist's profiles for which personalized services can be provided. Today, the availability of wearable sensors, such as smartphones, holds the potential to tackle data collection problems of paper-based surveys and deliver relevant mobility data in a timely and cost-effective way. In this paper, we develop and implement a hierarchical clustering approach for smartphone geo-localized data to detect meaningful tourism related market segments. For these segments, we provide detailed insights into their characteristics and related mobility behavior. The applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated on a use case in the Province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. We collected data from 1505 users during five months using the Zeeland app. The proposed approach resulted in two major clusters and four sub-clusters which we were able to interpret based on their spatio-temporal patterns and the recurrence of their visiting patterns to the region.

Differences in physical environmental characteristics between adolescents' actual and shortest cycling routes: a study using a Google Street View-based audit.

BACKGROUND: The objective evaluation of the physical environmental characteristics (e.g. speed limit, cycling infrastructure) along adolescents' actual cycling routes remains understudied, although it may provide important insights into why adolescents prefer one cycling route over another. The present study aims to gain insight into the physical environmental characteristics determining the route choice of adolescent cyclists by comparing differences in physical environmental characteristics between their actual cycling routes and the shortest possible cycling routes. METHODS: Adolescents (n = 204; 46.5% boys; 14.4 ± 1.2 years) recruited at secondary schools in and around Ghent (city in Flanders, northern part of Belgium) were instructed to wear a Global Positioning System device in order to identify cycling trips. For all identified cycling trips, the shortest possible route that could have been taken was calculated. Actual cycling routes that were not the shortest possible cycling routes were divided into street segments. Segments were audited with a Google Street View-based tool to assess physical environmental characteristics along actual and shortest cycling routes. RESULTS: Out of 160 actual cycling trips, 73.1% did not differ from the shortest possible cycling route. For actual cycling routes that were not the shortest cycling route, a speed limit of 30 km/h, roads having few buildings with windows on the street side and roads without cycle lane were more frequently present compared to the shortest possible cycling routes. A mixed land use, roads with commercial destinations, arterial roads, cycle lanes separated from traffic by white lines, small cycle lanes and cycle lanes covered by lighting were less frequently present along actual cycling routes compared to the shortest possible cycling routes. CONCLUSIONS: Results showed that distance mainly determines the route along which adolescents cycle. In addition, adolescents cycled more along residential streets (even if no cycle lane was present) and less along busy, arterial roads. Local authorities should provide shortcuts free from motorised traffic to meet adolescents' preference to cycle along the shortest route and to avoid cycling along arterial roads.

Factors related with public open space use among adolescents: a study using GPS and accelerometers.

BACKGROUND: Low physical activity levels and high levels of sedentary time among adolescents call for population wide interventions. Public open spaces can be important locations for adolescents' physical activity. This study aimed to describe the prevalence, frequency and context of public open space visitation and to gain insight into the individual, social and physical environmental factors associated with public open space use among 12- to 16-year-old Flemish (Belgian) adolescents. METHODS: Global positioning system devices, accelerometers and one-on-one interviews were used to measure location-specific activity levels, time spent at, reasons for using and accompaniment at public open spaces among 173 adolescents. Multilevel hurdle and gamma models were used to estimate the associations between the independent variables (age, gender, ethnicity, education, sport club membership and accompaniment) and the amount of time, sedentary time, light-, moderate- to vigorous- and vigorous-intensity physical activity at public open spaces. RESULTS: Three out of four participants had visited a public open space (for recreational purposes) and participants were most often accompanied by friends/classmates. Mainly public transportation stops/stations were used, and subsequently the most reported reason for public open space use was "to wait for something or someone". Furthermore, boys, younger adolescents, non-western-European adolescents and lower educated adolescents were more likely to use public open spaces. Additionally, boys and younger adolescents were more likely to accumulate physical activity at public open spaces. The only social environmental variable associated with time spent at public open spaces was accompaniment by siblings: adolescents spent more time at public open spaces when accompanied by their siblings. CONCLUSIONS: Public open spaces may be effective areas to promote physical activity among groups at risk for physical inactivity (i.e. low educated and non-western-European adolescents). Additionally, girls and older adolescents were less likely to visit and be physically active at public open spaces. Therefore, urban planners should consider adding attractive features, in order to encourage physical activity among girls and older adolescents at public open spaces. Furthermore, creating public open spaces that are attractive for youth of all ages could contribute to adolescents visiting public open spaces accompanied by siblings.

Associations between time spent in green areas and physical activity among late middle-aged adults.

Physical activity is an important facilitator for health and wellbeing, especially for late middle-aged adults, who are more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases. Physical activity performed in green areas is supposed to be particularly beneficial, so we studied whether late middle- aged adults are more active in green areas than in non-green areas and how this is influenced by individual characteristics and the level of neighbourhood greenness. We tracked 180 late middle-aged (58 to 65 years) adults using global positioning system and accelerometer data to know whether and where they were sedentary or active. These data were combined with information on land use to obtain information on the greenness of sedentary and active hotspots. We found that late middle-aged adults are more physically active when spending more time in green areas than in non-green areas. Spending more time at home and in non-green areas was found to be associated with more sedentary behaviour. Time spent in non-green areas was found to be related to more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for males and to less MVPA for females. The positive association between time spent in green areas and MVPA was the strongest for highly educated people and for those living in a green neighbourhood. This study shows that the combined use of global positioning system and accelerometer data facilitates understanding of where people are sedentary or physically active, which can help policy makers encourage activity in this age cohort.

Which environmental factors most strongly influence a street's appeal for bicycle transport among adults? A conjoint study using manipulated photographs.

BACKGROUND: Micro-environmental factors (specific features within a streetscape), instead of macro-environmental factors (urban planning features), are more feasible to modify in existing neighborhoods and thus more practical to target for environmental interventions. Because it is often not possible to change the whole micro-environment at once, the current study aims to determine which micro-environmental factors should get the priority to target in physical environmental interventions increasing bicycle transport. Additionally, interaction effects among micro-environmental factors on the street's appeal for bicycle transport will be determined. METHODS: In total, 1950 middle-aged adults completed a web-based questionnaire consisting of a set of 12 randomly assigned choice tasks with manipulated photographs. Seven micro-environmental factors (type of cycle path, speed limit, speed bump, vegetation, evenness of the cycle path surface, general upkeep and traffic density) were manipulated in each photograph. Conjoint analysis was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Providing streets with a cycle path separated from motorized traffic seems to be the best strategy to increase the street's appeal for adults' bicycle transport. If this adjustment is not practically feasible, micro-environmental factors related to safety (i.e. speed limit, traffic density) may be more effective in promoting bicycle transport than micro-environmental factors related to comfort (i.e. evenness of the cycle path surface) or aesthetic (i.e. vegetation, general upkeep). On the other hand, when a more separated cycle path is already provided, micro-environmental factors related to comfort or aesthetic appeared to become more prominent. CONCLUSIONS: Findings obtained from this research could provide advice to physical environmental interventions about which environmental factors should get priority to modify in different environmental situations. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Ghent University Hospital. TRIAL REGISTRATION: B670201318588. Registered at 04/10/2013. http://www.ugent.be/ge/nl/faculteit/raden/ec.

Differences in environmental preferences towards cycling for transport among adults: a latent class analysis.

BACKGROUND: Increasing cycling for transport can contribute to improve public health among adults. Micro-environmental factors (i.e. small-scaled street-setting features) may play an important role in affecting the street's appeal to cycle for transport. Understanding about the interplay between individuals and their physical environment is important to establish tailored environmental interventions. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine whether specific subgroups exist based on similarities in micro-environmental preferences to cycle for transport. METHODS: Responses of 1950 middle-aged adults (45-65 years) on a series of choice tasks depicting potential cycling routes with manipulated photographs yielded three subgroups with different micro-environmental preferences using latent class analysis. RESULTS: Although latent class analysis revealed three different subgroups in the middle-aged adult population based on their environmental preferences, results indicated that cycle path type (i.e. a good separated cycle path) is the most important environmental factor for all participants and certainly for individuals who did not cycle for transport. Furthermore, only negligible differences were found between the importances of the other micro-environmental factors (i.e. traffic density, evenness of the cycle path, maintenance, vegetation and speed limits) regarding the two at risk subgroups and that providing a speed bump obviously has the least impact on the street's appeal to cycle for transport. CONCLUSIONS: Results from the current study indicate that only negligible differences were found between the three subgroups. Therefore, it might be suggested that tailored environmental interventions are not required in this research context.

Interactions between Neighborhood Social Environment and Walkability to Explain Belgian Older Adults' Physical Activity and Sedentary Time.

This study examined associations between neighborhood social factors and physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) in older adults. Furthermore, possible moderating effects of neighborhood walkability were explored. Data from 431 community-dwelling Belgian older adults (≥65 years) were analyzed. Neighborhood social factors included measures of neighboring, social trust and cohesion and social diversity. Neighborhood walkability was measured objectively. Outcome measures were self-reported weekly minutes of domain-specific walking and TV viewing, and accelerometer-assessed weekly minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and overall SB. A higher frequency of talking to neighbors was associated with higher levels of self-reported walking for transport and for recreation. Moderation analyses showed that only in highly-walkable neighborhoods, higher social diversity of the neighborhood environment was associated with more transport walking; and talking to neighbors and social interactions among neighbors were negatively associated with overall SB and television viewing, respectively. Findings suggest that a combination of a favorable neighborhood social and physical environment are important to promote older adults' PA and limit SB.

Dynamic assessment of exposure to air pollution using mobile phone data.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to air pollution can have major health impacts, such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Traditionally, only the air pollution concentration at the home location is taken into account in health impact assessments and epidemiological studies. Neglecting individual travel patterns can lead to a bias in air pollution exposure assessments. METHODS: In this work, we present a novel approach to calculate the daily exposure to air pollution using mobile phone data of approximately 5 million mobile phone users living in Belgium. At present, this data is collected and stored by telecom operators mainly for management of the mobile network. Yet it represents a major source of information in the study of human mobility. We calculate the exposure to NO2 using two approaches: assuming people stay at home the entire day (traditional static approach), and incorporating individual travel patterns using their location inferred from their use of the mobile phone network (dynamic approach). RESULTS: The mean exposure to NO2 increases with 1.27 µg/m(3) (4.3%) during the week and with 0.12 µg/m(3) (0.4%) during the weekend when incorporating individual travel patterns. During the week, mostly people living in municipalities surrounding larger cities experience the highest increase in NO2 exposure when incorporating their travel patterns, probably because most of them work in these larger cities with higher NO2 concentrations. CONCLUSIONS: It is relevant for health impact assessments and epidemiological studies to incorporate individual travel patterns in estimating air pollution exposure. Mobile phone data is a promising data source to determine individual travel patterns, because of the advantages (e.g. low costs, large sample size, passive data collection) compared to travel surveys, GPS, and smartphone data (i.e. data captured by applications on smartphones).

The Association between Belgian Older Adults' Physical Functioning and Physical Activity: What Is the Moderating Role of the Physical Environment?

BACKGROUND: Better physical functioning in the elderly may be associated with higher physical activity levels. Since older adults spend a substantial part of the day in their residential neighborhood, the neighborhood physical environment may moderate associations between functioning and older adults' physical activity. The present study investigated the moderating role of the objective and perceived physical environment on associations between Belgian older adults' physical functioning and transport walking, recreational walking, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. METHODS: Data from 438 older adults were included. Objective physical functioning was assessed using the Short Physical Performance Battery. Potential moderators included objective neighborhood walkability and perceptions of land use mix diversity, access to recreational facilities, access to services, street connectivity, physical barriers for walking, aesthetics, crime-related safety, traffic speeding-related safety, and walking infrastructure. Transport and recreational walking were self-reported, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was assessed through accelerometers. Multi-level regression analyses were conducted using MLwiN to examine two-way interactions between functioning and the environment on both walking outcomes. Based on a previous study where environment x neighborhood income associations were found for Belgian older adults' moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, three-way functioning x environment x income interactions were examined for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. RESULTS: Objectively-measured walkability moderated the association between functioning and transport walking; this positive association was only present in high-walkable neighborhoods. Moreover, a three-way interaction was observed for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Only in high-income, high-walkable neighborhoods, there was a positive association between functioning and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. No functioning x walkability interactions were observed for recreational walking, and none of the perceived environmental variables moderated the positive association between physical functioning and the physical activity outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: For older adults with better physical functioning, living in a high-walkable neighborhood could be beneficial to engage in more transport walking. Living in high-income, high-walkable neighborhoods and having better functioning might also be beneficial for more engagement in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. This might suggest a protective role of neighborhood walkability for preventing declining physical functioning and consequently decreasing physical activity levels in older adults. However, given the cross-sectional design of the present study, this suggestion needs to be confirmed through longitudinal assessment investigating over-time changes in the observed associations.

Does the Effect of Micro-Environmental Factors on a Street's Appeal for Adults' Bicycle Transport Vary across Different Macro-Environments? An Experimental Study.

BACKGROUND: Characteristics of the physical environment can be classified into two broad categories: macro- ("raw" urban planning features influenced on a regional level) and micro- (features specifically within a streetscape influenced on a neighborhood level) environmental factors. In urban planning applications, it is more feasible to modify conditions at the neighborhood level than at the regional level. Yet for the promotion of bicycle transport we need to know whether relationships between micro-environmental factors and bicycle transport depend on different types of macro-environments. This study aimed to identify whether the effect of three micro-environmental factors (i.e., evenness of the cycle path surface, speed limits and type of separation between cycle path and motorized traffic) on the street's appeal for adults' bicycle transport varied across three different macro-environments (i.e., low, medium and high residential density street). METHODS: In total, 389 middle-aged adults completed a web-based questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic characteristics and a series of choice tasks with manipulated photographs, depicting two possible routes to cycle along. Conjoint analysis was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Although the magnitude of the overall effects differed, in each macro-environment (i.e., low, medium and high residential density), middle-aged adults preferred a speed limit of 30 km/h, an even cycle path surface and a hedge as separation between motorized traffic and the cycle path compared to a speed limit of 50 or 70 km/h, a slightly uneven or uneven cycle path surface and a curb as separation or no separation between motorized traffic and the cycle path. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that irrespective of the macro-environment, the same micro-environmental factors are preferred in middle-aged adults concerning the street's appeal for bicycle transport. The controlled environment simulations in the experimental choice task have the potential to inform real life environmental interventions and suggest that micro-environmental changes can have similar results in different macro-environments.

Exploring Dance Movement Data Using Sequence Alignment Methods.

Despite the abundance of research on knowledge discovery from moving object databases, only a limited number of studies have examined the interaction between moving point objects in space over time. This paper describes a novel approach for measuring similarity in the interaction between moving objects. The proposed approach consists of three steps. First, we transform movement data into sequences of successive qualitative relations based on the Qualitative Trajectory Calculus (QTC). Second, sequence alignment methods are applied to measure the similarity between movement sequences. Finally, movement sequences are grouped based on similarity by means of an agglomerative hierarchical clustering method. The applicability of this approach is tested using movement data from samba and tango dancers.