This paper presents a novel fuzzy energy minimization method for simultaneous segmentation and bias field estimation of medical images. We first define an objective function based on a localized fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering for the image intensities in a neighborhood around each point. Then, this objective function is integrated with respect to the neighborhood center over the entire image do...

Youth living in urban environments of pervasive violence are exposed to a variety of violence-related stressors. This qualitative descriptive study sought to ascertain how community-dwelling youth perceived exposure to violence and how these youth identified and used available resources. The intent of this community-based participatory research study was to help inform the design of a youth vio...

The dataset described in this article, and made available as an accompanying spreadsheet, was used in the study entitled, "Neighborhood diversity and the creative class in Chicago," to assess the spatial associations between neighborhood diversity and the creative class at the neighborhood (i.e., census tract) scale in Chicago [1]. In this study, we found a significant positive association betw...

sustainable transportation with the aim of urban sustainable development aims to improve the environmental quality and the socio-economic condition. one of the most important strategies for achieving sustainable transportation is planning and designing for walking, or in other words increasing urban walkability. therefore, increased walkability has become a key issue in urban planning. understa...

Spatial and temporal aberration detection methods for disease outbreaks in syndromic surveillance systems Dongmei Chen a , John Cunningham b , Kieran Moore c & Jie Tian d a Department of Geography, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada b Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit, ON, Canada c Department of Family Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada d Department of Geology & G...

Greater Hazelwood, a neighborhood located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, saw decline residents, businesses, and services at the of steel industry. Residents, philanthropic organizations, advocates, health centers, schools, universities, community-based organizations continue to collaborate revitalize Hazelwood neighborhood. Duquesne University Center for Integrative Health was engaged by place-ba...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To test associations and interactions between racial identification, neighborhood risk, and low birth weight disparities between infants born to African-American and white adolescent mothers. DESIGN Retrospective cross-sectional study. Birth cases were geocoded and linked to census tract information from the 2010 US Census and the 2007-2011 American Community Survey. A "neighb...

We are presenting in this volume selected, peer-reviewed, short papers that were presented at the 3rd International Conference on Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS’14) which took place in Djerba, Tunisia, during October 8-11, 2014.

Available online 31 July 2008