Dataset Information

Identifying the appropriate spatial resolution for the analysis of crime patterns.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A key issue in the analysis of many spatial processes is the choice of an appropriate scale for the analysis. Smaller geographical units are generally preferable for the study of human phenomena because they are less likely to cause heterogeneous groups to be conflated. However, it can be harder to obtain data for small units and small-number problems can frustrate quantitative analysis. This research presents a new approach that can be used to estimate the most appropriate scale at which to aggregate point data to areas.

Data and methods

The proposed method works by creating a number of regular grids with iteratively smaller cell sizes (increasing grid resolution) and estimating the similarity between two realisations of the point pattern at each resolution. The method is applied first to simulated point patterns and then to real publicly available crime data from the city of Vancouver, Canada. The crime types tested are residential burglary, commercial burglary, theft from vehicle and theft of bike.

Findings

The results provide evidence for the size of spatial unit that is the most appropriate for the different types of crime studied. Importantly, the results are dependent on both the number of events in the data and the degree of spatial clustering, so a single 'appropriate' scale is not identified. The method is nevertheless useful as a means of better estimating what spatial scale might be appropriate for a particular piece of analysis.

SUBMITTER: Malleson N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6594600 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Identifying the appropriate spatial resolution for the analysis of crime patterns.

Malleson Nick N Steenbeek Wouter W Andresen Martin A MA

PloS one 20190626 6

<h4>Background</h4>A key issue in the analysis of many spatial processes is the choice of an appropriate scale for the analysis. Smaller geographical units are generally preferable for the study of human phenomena because they are less likely to cause heterogeneous groups to be conflated. However, it can be harder to obtain data for small units and small-number problems can frustrate quantitative analysis. This research presents a new approach that can be used to estimate the most appropriate sc ...[more]

PMID: 31242224

Similar Datasets

Project description:Background:Predictive policing and crime analytics with a spatiotemporal focus get increasing attention among a variety of scientific communities and are already being implemented as effective policing tools. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview and evaluation of the state of the art in spatial crime forecasting focusing on study design and technical aspects. Methods:We follow the PRISMA guidelines for reporting this systematic literature review and we analyse 32 papers from 2000 to 2018 that were selected from 786 papers that entered the screening phase and a total of 193 papers that went through the eligibility phase. The eligibility phase included several criteria that were grouped into: (a) the publication type, (b) relevance to research scope, and (c) study characteristics. Results:The most predominant type of forecasting inference is the hotspots (i.e. binary classification) method. Traditional machine learning methods were mostly used, but also kernel density estimation based approaches, and less frequently point process and deep learning approaches. The top measures of evaluation performance are the Prediction Accuracy, followed by the Prediction Accuracy Index, and the F1-Score. Finally, the most common validation approach was the train-test split while other approaches include the cross-validation, the leave one out, and the rolling horizon. Limitations:Current studies often lack a clear reporting of study experiments, feature engineering procedures, and are using inconsistent terminology to address similar problems. Conclusions:There is a remarkable growth in spatial crime forecasting studies as a result of interdisciplinary technical work done by scholars of various backgrounds. These studies address the societal need to understand and combat crime as well as the law enforcement interest in almost real-time prediction. Implications:Although we identified several opportunities and strengths there are also some weaknesses and threats for which we provide suggestions. Future studies should not neglect the juxtaposition of (existing) algorithms, of which the number is constantly increasing (we enlisted 66). To allow comparison and reproducibility of studies we outline the need for a protocol or standardization of spatial forecasting approaches and suggest the reporting of a study's key data items.

Project description:The function of mammalian cells is largely influenced by their tissue microenvironment and by inter- celllular interactions. Advances in spatial transcriptomics open the way for studying these important determinants of cellular function, by enabling a transcriptome wide evaluation of gene expression in-situ. A critical limitation of the current technologies, however, is that their resolution is limited to regions (spots) of sizes well beyond that of a single cell, thus providing measurements for cell-aggregates which may mask critical interactions between neighboring cells of different types. While joint analysis with single cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) can be leveraged to alleviate this problem, current analyzes are limited to a discrete view of cell type proportion inside every spot. This limitation becomes critical in the common case where, even within a cell type, there is a continuum of cell states, which can not be clearly demarcated and may reflect important differences in the cells’ function and interaction with their surrounding. To address this, we developed Deconvolution of Spatial Transcriptomics profiles using Variational Inference (DestVI), a probabilistic method for multi- resolution analysis for spatial transcriptomics, which explicitly models continuous variation within cell types. Using simulations, we demonstrate that DestVI is capable of providing higher resolution compared to the existing methods, and that it is also the first method to enable an estimate of gene expression by every cell type inside every spot. We then introduce an automated pipeline for analysis of a tissue, as well as comparison between tissues. We apply DestVI and this pipeline to study the response of lymph nodes to a pathogen and to explore the spatial organization of a mouse tumor model. In both cases, we demonstrate that DestVI can provide a reliable view of the organization of these tissues, and that it is capable of identifying important cell-type specific changes in gene expression - between different tissue regions or between conditions. DestVI is available as an open-source software in the scvi-tools codebase (https://scvi-tools.org).

Project description:Recently, there has been interest in using the short message service (SMS or text messaging), to gather frequent information on the clinical course of individual patients. One possible role for identifying clinical course patterns is to assist in exploring clinically important subgroups in the outcomes of research studies. Two previous studies have investigated detailed clinical course patterns in SMS data obtained from people seeking care for low back pain. One used a visual analysis approach and the other performed a cluster analysis of SMS data that had first been transformed by spline analysis. However, cluster analysis of SMS data in its original untransformed form may be simpler and offer other advantages. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine whether cluster analysis could be used for identifying clinical course patterns distinct from the pattern of the whole group, by including all SMS time points in their original form. It was a 'proof of concept' study to explore the potential, clinical relevance, strengths and weakness of such an approach.This was a secondary analysis of longitudinal SMS data collected in two randomised controlled trials conducted simultaneously from a single clinical population (n?=?322). Fortnightly SMS data collected over a year on 'days of problematic low back pain' and on 'days of sick leave' were analysed using Two-Step (probabilistic) Cluster Analysis.Clinical course patterns were identified that were clinically interpretable and different from those of the whole group. Similar patterns were obtained when the number of SMS time points was reduced to monthly. The advantages and disadvantages of this method were contrasted to that of first transforming SMS data by spline analysis.This study showed that clinical course patterns can be identified by cluster analysis using all SMS time points as cluster variables. This method is simple, intuitive and does not require a high level of statistical skill. However, there are alternative ways of managing SMS data and many different methods of cluster analysis. More research is needed, especially head-to-head studies, to identify which technique is best to use under what circumstances.

Dataset Information

Identifying the appropriate spatial resolution for the analysis of crime patterns.

Background

Data and methods

Findings

Publications

Identifying the appropriate spatial resolution for the analysis of crime patterns.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets