Spatial Heterogeneity Association of HIV Incidence with Socio-economic Factors in Zimbabwe

This study examined the spatial heterogeneity association of HIV incidence and socio-economic factors including poverty severity index,permanently employed females and males,unemployed females,percentage of poor households i.e.,poverty prevalence,night lights index,literacy rate,household food security,and Gini index at district level in Zimbabwe.A mix of spatial analysis methods including Poisson model based on original log likelihood ratios(LLR),global Moran’s I,local indicator of spatial association-LISA were employed to determine the HIV hotspots.Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression(GWPR)and semi-parametric GWPR(s-GWPR)were used to determine the spatial association between HIV incidence and socio-economic factors.HIV incidence(number of cases per 1000)ranged from 0.6(Buhera district)to 13.30(Mangwe district).Spatial clustering of HIV incidence was observed(Global Moran’s I=-0.150;Z score 3.038;p-value 0.002).Significant clusters of HIV were observed at district level.HIV incidence and its association with socio-economic factors varied across the districts except percentage of females unemployed.Intervention programmes to reduce HIV incidence should address the identified socio-economic factors at district level.

Exploring associations between streetscape factors and crime behaviors using Google Street View images

Understanding the influencing mechanism of the urban streetscape on crime is fairly important to crime prevention and urban management.Recently,the development of deep learning technology and big data of street view images,makes it possible to quantitatively explore the relationship between streetscape and crime.This study computed eight streetscape indexes of the street built environment using Google Street View images firstly.Then,the association between the eight indexes and recorded crime events was revealed with a poisson regression model and a geographically weighted poisson regression model.An experiment was conducted in downtown and uptown Manhattan,New York.Global regression results show that the influences of Motorization Index on crimes are significant and positive,while the effects of the Light View Index and Green View Index on crimes depend heavily on the socioeconomic factors.From a local perspective,the Pedestrian Space Index,Green View Index,Light View Index and Motorization Index have a significant spatial influence on crimes,while the same visual streetscape factors have different effects on different streets due to the combination differences of socioeconomic,cultural and streetscape elements.The key streetscape elements of a given street that affect a specific criminal activity can be identified according to the strength of the association.The results provide both theoretical and practical implications for crime theories and crime prevention efforts.