This study investigates whether age and gender moderate the effects of social network and neighborgocentric social network ocial disorganization ontextual effects eighborhood effects ctivity space oderation hood contexts on adolescent substance use using a spatially embedded, egocentric social network data set comprised of 254 urban adolescents. Results indicate that substance use is enhanced b...

In the current period, followed by the industrial revolution, the damaging effects of the one-dimensional attitude towards the environment caused by human have had countless hazards. To cope with these risks, the respect and protection of environmental values has attracted today's urban human attention once again and the issues about the human right to a decent, safe and healthy environment whi...

This qualitative study explored the motivations, meanings, functions, and consequences of self-harm for young women in urban and suburban contexts. It found that all 6 participants deliberately harmed themselves in response to traumas, family stress, and relationship problems. However, the suburban girls connected their self-harm behaviors to an overall sense of despondency, whereas the urban g...

The continuous integration development trend of China urban agglomerations will not only further promote economic development but also cause the loss of the natural buffer zone which could protect the regional environment, leading to the combined effects of environmental pollution. Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons”, “Prisoner’s Dilemma”, Olson’s “Logic of Collective Action”, and other theoretic...

Reliable GPS positioning in city environment is a key issue: actually, signals are prone to multipath, with poor satellite geometry in many streets. Using a 3D urban model to forecast satellite visibility in urban contexts in order to improve GPS localization is the main topic of the present article. A virtual image processing that detects and eliminates possible faulty measurements is the core...

This paper presents a model for autonomous virtual agents that enables them to display affective behaviours. Our goal is to obtain believable behaviours, i.e. behaviours that are similar to those of human beings, for various simulation contexts in an urban environment. The proposed architecture is based on a principle of conservation and acquisition of resources.

Urban-rural distinctions are particularly challenging in the context of fast growing cities in the developing world. Through an example of the Indian city of Bangalore, we demonstrate the case for development of more continuous approaches of urban representation that are needed in many parts of the world. Thus even some of the oldest areas in Bangalore, which have been part of an urban center f...

Interaction with digitally augmented urban spaces has increasingly relied upon Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) to achieve low-entry levels for the interaction and promote social encounters. In this paper, we discuss two interactive interventions we developed using NUIs for activating two very distinct urban spaces. Despite their highly different contexts and content strategies – one informationa...

Abs t rac t . This paper describes an interdisciplinary research project aimed at developing a prototype system for representing spatial data. The project involves researchers and teachers in urban design, computer aided design and photogrammetry. The paper first highlights the spectrum of information used in urban design contexts that guided the approach we adopted in developing the prototype ...