The walking distance decay law of amenity selection based on binary logistic model

The current measuring methods of walkability,such as the walk score,consider that walking distance decay laws for all amenities are the same,which is not applicable to typical communities in China with plentiful resources.Therefore,the walking distance decay laws of multi-type and multi-scale facilities are studied.Firstly,based on the residents'amenity selection survey,the walking distance decay law of residents'choice of amenity was studied from three aspects,including the law of all amenities,the laws of different types of amenities and the laws of different scales of amenities.It was proved that the walking distance decay laws of different kinds of amenities showed a significant difference.Secondly,different amenities'acceptable walking distance and optimum walking distance were obtained according to previous studies and the decay curve.Amenities with higher attraction and/or a larger scale showed a longer acceptable walking distance and optimum walking distance.Finally,the binary logistic model was used to describe the relationships between walking distance,amenity type,amenity scale and the probability of one amenity being selected,the prediction accuracy of which reached 80.4%.The calculated probability obtained from the model can be used as the decay coefficient of amenities in the measurement of walkability,providing a reference for the site selection and evaluation of amenities.

Spatial Interaction and Network Structure Evolvement of Cities in Terms of China's Rail Passenger Flows

Cities separated in space are connected together by spatial interaction (SI) between them. But the studies focusing on the SI are relatively few in China mainly because of the scarcity of data. This paper deals with the SI in terms of rail passenger flows, which is an important aspect of the network structure of urban agglomeration. By using a data set consisting of rail O-D (origin-destination) passenger flows among nearly 200 cities, intercity rail distance O-D matrixes, and some other indices, it is found that the attenuating tendency of rail passenger is obvious. And by the analysis on dominant flows and spatial structure of flows, we find that passenger flows have a trend of polarizing to hubs while the linkages between hubs upgrade. However, the gravity model reveals an overall picture of convergence process over time which is not in our expectation of integration process in the framework of globalization and economic integration. Some driven factors for the re-organization process of the structure of urban agglomeration, such as technique advance, globalization, etc. are discussed further based on the results we obtained.

U.S. national parks accessibility and visitation

Accessibility is a factor affecting national park visitation.However,the effect of accessibility on national park visitation is not fully understood.This paper examines the relationship between U.S.national park visitation and accessibility.First,the global and local accessibility indexes of each park unit are computed based on an accessibility model that takes into account the surrounding population and its proximity to the park unit.Integrated in the model is a distance decay coefficient that is derived from U.S.national park visitor surveys and therefore pertinent to the case of study.Then correlation analysis is performed between park visitation and accessibility based on park types,regions,and visitation types.Results show that total visitation is positively related to accessibility in National Memorials,Military Parks and Battlefield Parks/Sites but negatively related to accessibility in national parks and national monuments.However,recreational overnight stay visits are commonly negatively correlated to accessibility for almost all park types.Moreover,local accessibility index displays enhanced correlation coefficients with improved significance levels in many categories of analysis.Results suggest that historical/cultural national parks which often show positive correlations tend to attract more local visitors,but nature-based parks which mainly show negative correlations tend to attract more distant visitors.

Revisiting the death of geography in the era of Big Data:the friction of distance in cyberspace and real space

Many scholars have argued that the importance of geographic proximity in human interactions has been diminished by the use of the Internet,while others disagree with this argument.Studies have noted the distance decay effect in both cyberspace and real space,showing that interactions occur with an inverse relationship between the number of interactions and the distance between the locations of the interactors.However,these studies rarely provide strong evidence to show the influence of distance on interactions in cyberspace,nor do they quantify the differences in the amount of friction of distance between cyberspace and real space.To fill this gap,this study used massive amounts of social media data(Twitter)to compare the influence of distance decay on human interactions between cyberspace and real space in a quantitative manner.To estimate the distance decay effect in both cyberspace and real space,the distance decay function of interactions in each space was modeled.Estimating the distance decay in cyberspace in this study can help predict the degree of information flow across space through social media.Measuring how far ideas can be diffused through social media is useful for users of location-based services,policy advocates,public health officials,and political campaigners.

Epidemic time series similarity is related to geographic distance and age structure

Objective:More similar locations may have similar infectious disease dynamics.There is clear overlap in putative causes for epidemic similarity,such as geographic distance,age structure,and population size.We compare the effects of these potential drivers on epidemic similarity compared to a baseline assumption that differences in the basic reproductive number(R0)will translate to differences in epidemic trajectories.Methods:Using COVID-19 case counts from United States counties,we explore the importance of geographic distance,population size differences,and age structure dissimilarity on resulting epidemic similarity.Results:We find clear effects of geographic space,age structure,population size,and R0 on epidemic similarity,but notably the effect of age structure was stronger than the baseline assumption that differences in R0 would be most related to epidemic similarity.Conclusions:Together,this highlights the role of spatial and demographic processes on SARS-CoV2 epidemics in the United States.

Plant-associated fungal communities in the light of meta’omics

Approaches for the cultivation-independent analysis of microbial communities are summarized as meta’omics,which predominantly includes metagenomic,-transcriptomic,-proteomic and-metabolomic studies.These have shown that endophytic,root-associated and soil fungal communities are strongly shaped by associated plant species.The impact of plant identity on the composition of its litterssociated fungal community remains to be disentangled from the impact of litter chemistry.The composition of the plant community also shapes the fungal community.Most strikingly,adjacent plant species may share mycorrhizal symbionts even if the plants usually have different types of mycorrhizal fungi associated with them(ectomycorrhizal,ericoid and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi).Environmental parameters weakly explain fungal community composition globally,and their effect is inconsistent at local and regional scales.Decrease in similarity among communities with increasing distance(i.e.distance decay)has been reported from local to global scales.This pattern is only exceptionally caused by spatial dispersal limitation of fungal propagules,but mostly due to the inability of the fungi to establish at the particular locality(i.e.environmental filtering or competitive exclusion).Fungal communities usually undergo pronounced seasonal changes and also differ between consecutive years.This indicates that development of the communities is usually not solely cyclic.Meta’omic studies challenge the classical view of plant litter decomposition.They show that mycorrhizal and(previously)endophytic fungi may be involved in plant litter decomposition and only partly support the idea of a succession from an Ascomycota to a Basidiomycota-dominated community.Furthermore,vertical separation of saprotrophic and mycorrhizal species in soil and sequential degradation from easily accessible to‘recalcitrant’plant compounds,such as lignin,can probably not be generalized.The current models of litter decomposition may therefore have to be eventually refined for certain ecosystems and environmental conditions.To gain deeper insights into fungal ecology,a meta’omic study design is outlined which focuses on environmental processes,because fungal communities are usually taxonomically diverse,but functionally redundant.This approach would initially identify dynamics of chemical shifts in the host and/or substrate by metametabolomics.Detected shifts would be subsequently linked to microbial activity by correlation with metatranscriptomic and/or metaproteomic data.A holistic trait-based approach might finally identify factors shaping taxonomic composition in communities against the dynamics of the environmental process(es)they are involved in.