A tecnologia tem estado presente cada vez mais no dia-a-dia e trouxe avanços notáveis para a área de visão computacional. Uma das áreas de visão, a detecção de características humanas, sempre foi importante para tarefas de reconhecimento, vigilância, controle e outras. Há um grande potencial de uso na área de acessibilidade, podendo ser benéfica para um grupo de pessoas com necessidades especiais, para proporcionar uma maior interação com o ambiente e com as pessoas. Uma dessas características, os lábios, é útil para o reconhecimento visual e/ou auditivo da fala e pode ser usada para aplicações em acessibilidade de deficientes auditivos e surdos, como por exemplo para a leitura labial. Com a crescente popularização dos dispositivos móveis e avanços no hardware, além do custo cada vez mais acessível, torna-se possível a implementação de métodos rápidos e eficientes para detecção e seu posterior rastreamento. Assim, é possível o uso em tempo real nos dispositivos móveis. Esta dissertação descreve um sistema desenvolvido para a detecção e rastreamento da região dos lábios nesse contexto. A detecção da região dos lábios é feita pelo algoritmo de Viola-Jones, com o diferencial do uso de conjuntos de imagens sintéticas para o treinamento e geração do detector proposto. O rastreamento é baseado no Camshift com modificações, um método de rastreamento de objeto por kernel. A implementação é descrita em detalhes e são mostrados resultados obtidos por sequências gravadas em um dispositivo móvel. As sequências são capturadas em uma configuração não frontal, o que pode ser útil em aplicações específicas. Métricas baseadas no número de acertos, de erros e de falsos positivos são usadas para avaliar os resultados, além da taxa de quadros por segundo. / Technology has been increasingly present and brought remarkable advances in the computer vision area. One of such areas, the detection and analysis of human behaviour, has been important for tasks of recognition, surveillance, control, and others. There is great potential for use in the area of accessibility, and it may benefit a group of people with special needs, to provide greater interaction with the environment and with people. Facial feature detection plays a central role in this context. One of these features, the lips, is useful for speech recognition and can be used for applications in accessibility of deaf and hearing impaired, such as for lip reading. With the growing popularity of mobile devices and advances in hardware, as well as more affordable costs, it becomes possible to implement rapid and reliable methods for lip detection and subsequent tracking. So it is possible the real-time use of mobile devices. This thesis describes a system developed for the detection and tracking lips region in this context. The detection of the lips region is carried out by the Viola-Jones algorithm, but with the use of sets of synthetic images for the detector training and generation. Tracking is based on Camshift with modifications, a kernel-based object tracking method. The implementation is described in details and results are shown from sequences recorded on a mobile device. The sequences are not captured on a frontal configuration, which may be useful in specific applications. Performance assessment in terms of metrics based on number of hits, errors and false positives are used to evaluate the results, in addition to the frame rate per second.

Adequate public transport infrastructure and services are essential to facilitate access to basic opportunities, such as jobs, healthcare, education, recreation or shopping, especially in low-income cities where the majority of the low-income population have no access to the car. In the context of transport exclusion and urban poverty, access and accessibility metrics can serve as good indicators for the identification of transport-disadvantaged zones or population groups in a city. In Cape Town, accessibility-based planning is being embraced by the authority as a means of addressing the planning defects of the past apartheid regime, which created a city that is spatially fragmented by race and income levels. Among the agenda outlined in its 5-year Integrated Transport Plan of 2013-2018, is the need to develop a highly integrated public transport network in which all households would have equitable access to the public transport system, especially for the majority of the urban poor who reside in the city outskirts far from major economic centres. Although planning efforts are being made to redeem the defects of the past, there is still the need for tools and indicators to understand the current situation, as well as to further aid planning and decision making about land-use and transport. The objective of this research, therefore, is to develop suitable indicators of accessibility, identify possible spatial and socioeconomic drivers of accessibility and evaluate equity in the distribution of accessibility benefits for various population groups in Cape Town. In the study, transport network data of Cape Town are utilised to develop GIS-based indicators of network access and origin accessibility to various opportunities like jobs, healthcare and education, across various modes of travel. An Access Index measures public transport service presence within a zone, based on route and stops availability. The index is used to compare the coverage levels provided by each mode of public transport in the city. Also, an Accessibility Index is proposed, that measures the number of opportunities 'potentially reachable' within a specified 'reasonable’ travel time. A key consideration in measuring accessibility by public transport is the monetary cost of overcoming distance, based on the pricing structure that exists in Cape Town. Equity in accessibility is further evaluated both vertically and horizontally. Vertical equity is evaluated using a proposed Accessibility Loss Index, which analyses the potential implication of affordability and budget restrictions on accessibility, based on the income level of the poor households. GINI type of measures is also proposed to evaluate horizontal equity across the various population groups for various travel modes. To further understand the likely drivers of accessibility, an exploratory OLS regression technique is employed to investigate the relationship between accessibility and a combination of socioeconomic and built environment features of the study area. The study reveals among other things that potential accessibility achievable by car is far higher than that achievable by public transport. The paratransit mode provides the most extensive access coverage, and the highest level of accessibility among all the public transport modes investigated. However, this mode shows to be one of the most expensive options of travel, especially for low-income households who are likely to be restricted by travel monetary budgets. The train turns out to be the most affordable travel option, although the level of accessibility achievable with the train is much lower compared to the paratransit or regular bus. From a vertical equity perspective, the consideration of transport affordability drastically reduces the opportunity space and potential accessibility for the poorest population group compared to the higher income groups. The study further interrogates the distance-based tariff model of public transport services in Cape Town, which it considered to be detrimental to the welfare of poor households, regarding the potential to access essential opportunities. The contribution of this study to the body of research on accessibility is twofold: methodological and contextual. On the methodological dimension, it presents a GIS based approach of modelling accessibility both for the car and for a multimodal public transport system that combines four modes; bus, train, BRT and a minibus taxi (paratransit). It also builds on existing gravity-based potential accessibility measure by incorporating an affordability dimension. The consideration of affordability adds a further layer that enables vertical equity evaluation by judging the potential for destination reachability by the monetary out-of-pocket cost of travel. This approach is considered to be more sensitive to the context of low-income cities like Cape Town, where low-income household’s daily travel decisions are likely to be more guided by monetary cost.

Academic support resources are increasingly available to military-connected youth; however, the military community, in general, tends to under-utilize available resources. The research literature has not clearly identified accessibility to military academic support resources or perceived effectiveness of resources as explanations for under-utilization of adolescent support services. The current research study examines military parents' perceptions of academic resource programs looking at how parents' perception of resource accessibility and resource effectiveness were related to program utilization. Based on qualitative analysis of military parent interviews, utilization was related to both accessibility and effectiveness. This research adds to the literature by identifying the relationship to between accessibility and utilization and reported effectiveness and utilization of academic support resources.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第22829号 / 医博第4668号 / 新制||医||1047(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 遊佐 宏介, 教授 斎藤 通紀, 教授 高橋 淳 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

In developing countries rural communities are normally geographically isolated contributing to both poverty levels and the deficiency in the participation of social and economic activities. Accessibility to education constitutes one of the primordial links between the economic growth of a country and the development of high skilled population. Given South Africa's unique history, divisions throughout the landscape incapacitate inhabitants of rural communities in reaching opportunities and services, therefore, aggravating issues related to social exclusion and inequality. This study aims to determine accessibility levels in South African rural regions by looking at different aspects that entangle the theory behind it, specifically: the zone attractiveness and impedance. With that in mind, the investigations carried out are firstly directed towards accessibility at the provincial level and thereafter a focus area is determined. At the provincial level, it was found that the Northern Cape presented the greatest disadvantages. However, given insufficient resources and data related to this province, the Cape Winelands Municipality District was chosen as the area to extend the investigations. When assessing the focus area, the study deployed a GIS-based analysis wherein potential and real accessibility were determined. Initially using the gravity measure, and subsequently using a survey carried out in the region. The study has revealed that Stellenbosch and Robertson are the towns experiencing high accessibility levels. Notwithstanding, most principal towns still experience critically low accessibility indexes. The findings of this study can, therefore, be useful in indicating areas that need further studies or are experiencing disadvantages regarding accessibility.

The past literature suggest that transportation can impact quality of life (QOL) both directly and indirectly. The first part of this dissertation attempted to comprehensively evaluate the impact of transportation (specifically public transit, and walkability) along with physical built environment, and sociodemographic indicators on community QOL, and overall life satisfaction (OLS) of an individual living in his community. The study used an advanced technique of structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the impact of these factors on community QOL and individual’s OLS. The study results revealed that physical built environment, public transit need for a community, perceived public transit importance for a community, quality of public transit services, quality of walkability conditions, ease of travel in a community (mobility indicator), and sociodemographic indicators significantly impact community QOL, and also individual’s OLS either directly or indirectly through community QOL mediating variable. The literature review suggests that accessibility to important non-work amenities improve people’s QOL. So, it is important to examine social equity in terms of individual’s ability to access non-work amenities that are important for their daily life interests. The second part of dissertation focused on equity analysis in terms of people’s ability to access non-work amenities through public transit, and walk in the US. The non-work amenities considered in this study are: 1) grocery store or supermarket, 2) personal services, 3) other retail shopping, (4) recreation and entertainment, and (5) health care facility. It is concluded that equity in terms of public transit access to non-work amenities is regressive for the older age people, people without driving license, individuals who are covered under Medicare/Medicaid program (elderly, low income, people with disabilities), and non-metro area residents disadvantaged groups. In terms of walk access to non-work amenities, it is concluded that older age people, people without driving license, physically disable people, unemployed and students, people living in non-metro areas, and females face injustice. These groups are already disadvantaged in society because of their financial, and physical health constraints and should be having sufficient and easy public transit and walk access to their daily needs.

Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / Early childhood has been identified as a critical period for providing nutritional intervention, with nutritional adequacy during the first 1000 days having long term implications for human development. South Africa’s policy environment accordingly aims to support the development of all children through providing services supporting care and nutrition of children so that ‘no one is left behind’. However, the reality is that for the economically marginalised who live in poverty, these services are inaccessible and the whereabouts of many children, especially those under 5, remain unknown to the state. This study looks at township childcare facility as a key intervention point for nutrition provision, documents the obstacles and challenges they face in securing food for the children in their care and describes the strategies they use to combat these challenges. Using a mixed method approach, data were gathered on all ECDs operating in two Cape Town townships – Vrygrond, a semi-formal township, and Sweet Home Farm, a deeply informal settlement – and a typology was developed which represented the differentiation between these informal businesses in terms of a continuum of connectedness and disconnectedness with the regulatory environment.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / The fully actuated signal control detects the pedestrian density using sensors and, according to that, it prioritizes pedestrians crossing. One major problem, worldwide, is using fixed time traffic light as a traffic regulator at intersections with high pedestrian and vehicular volume. Lima is no exception, continuing to use this kind of traffic lights completely harms pedestrian accessibility, it increases their waiting and crossing times, it also affects road safety and service levels at the structures. The proposal on this article is to design a fully actuated signal control using logical controls that are able to perceive the pedestrian density on the refuge islands, making everything more accessible. In order to do this, a study to identify the pedestrian and vehicle volume was conducted on the Lima Panamerican highway. There was a total of 7506 pedestrians during rush hour, proving there is a large amount of people at the intersection at that time. Thereby, by using the VisVap module of the Vissim, the study managed to simulate and validate the priority control required. All in all, the results showed a remarkable improvement, the pedestrian crossing time was reduced by 6.84% and the service level of the intersection went from E to D.

The non-homogenous demographic distribution in the northern parts of Sweden complicates the conditions to operate well-functioning public transport. The accessibility varies between bigger cities and smaller towns. Because of the covid-19 outbreak, one may see how the changed travel patterns vary geographically. This thesishas examined how the daily travel with bus in the region of Västerbotten have changed because of the covid-19 pandemic. Six bus lines in the region are examined based on the categories: short-, mid-range- and long travel distances. A comparison in travel volume between these lines are done, one week before the pandemic compared with the same week one year after. The comparison is based on ticket type and travel distance. The study shows that the decrease of travels with bus in the region of Västerbotten is more noticeable on shorter travel distances, where the regular travel volume also is higher. A decrease is in that way clearer in areas with higher population density. At mid-range distances, there is a less prominent decrease in travel volume compared to short and long travel distances. Meanwhile, the change in travels depending on ticket type shows that season tickets have decreased the most. The variation between agesshows that limited travel patterns affect older generations more. The spatial variation of travels in the region highlights eventual future problems with the provision of public transport. Areas where the travel volume were low before the pandemic, now has even lower volumes. This complicates the main role of public transport, to maintain aregional cohesion and provide well-functioning transport service to all citizens.

<p>A literature review covering both the social construct model and medical model of disability followed by an argument of the importance of leisure and social activities, especially the arts, for people with disabilities. Concluding quantitative and qualitative research through focus groups and surveys, the project ends with a guide to implementing accessibility and inclusion efforts when planning online arts events.</p>