Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns.
Timings of human activities are marked by circadian clocks which in turn are entrained to different environmental signals. In an urban environment the presence of artificial lighting and various social cues tend to disrupt the natural entrainment with the sunlight. However, it is not completely unde...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2017-11-01
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| Series: | PLoS Computational Biology |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5697809?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1819117415814922240 |
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| author | Daniel Monsivais Asim Ghosh Kunal Bhattacharya Robin I M Dunbar Kimmo Kaski |
| author_facet | Daniel Monsivais Asim Ghosh Kunal Bhattacharya Robin I M Dunbar Kimmo Kaski |
| author_sort | Daniel Monsivais |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Timings of human activities are marked by circadian clocks which in turn are entrained to different environmental signals. In an urban environment the presence of artificial lighting and various social cues tend to disrupt the natural entrainment with the sunlight. However, it is not completely understood to what extent this is the case. Here we exploit the large-scale data analysis techniques to study the mobile phone calling activity of people in large cities to infer the dynamics of urban daily rhythms. From the calling patterns of about 1,000,000 users spread over different cities but lying inside the same time-zone, we show that the onset and termination of the calling activity synchronizes with the east-west progression of the sun. We also find that the onset and termination of the calling activity of users follows a yearly dynamics, varying across seasons, and that its timings are entrained to solar midnight. Furthermore, we show that the average mid-sleep time of people living in urban areas depends on the age and gender of each cohort as a result of biological and social factors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T05:32:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6ef1de18e2804362bb3e72a97d12a79b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1553-734X 1553-7358 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T05:32:37Z |
| publishDate | 2017-11-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS Computational Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-6ef1de18e2804362bb3e72a97d12a79b2022-12-21T18:37:25ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582017-11-011311e100582410.1371/journal.pcbi.1005824Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns.Daniel MonsivaisAsim GhoshKunal BhattacharyaRobin I M DunbarKimmo KaskiTimings of human activities are marked by circadian clocks which in turn are entrained to different environmental signals. In an urban environment the presence of artificial lighting and various social cues tend to disrupt the natural entrainment with the sunlight. However, it is not completely understood to what extent this is the case. Here we exploit the large-scale data analysis techniques to study the mobile phone calling activity of people in large cities to infer the dynamics of urban daily rhythms. From the calling patterns of about 1,000,000 users spread over different cities but lying inside the same time-zone, we show that the onset and termination of the calling activity synchronizes with the east-west progression of the sun. We also find that the onset and termination of the calling activity of users follows a yearly dynamics, varying across seasons, and that its timings are entrained to solar midnight. Furthermore, we show that the average mid-sleep time of people living in urban areas depends on the age and gender of each cohort as a result of biological and social factors.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5697809?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Daniel Monsivais Asim Ghosh Kunal Bhattacharya Robin I M Dunbar Kimmo Kaski Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns. PLoS Computational Biology |
| title | Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns. |
| title_full | Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns. |
| title_fullStr | Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns. |
| title_short | Tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns. |
| title_sort | tracking urban human activity from mobile phone calling patterns |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5697809?pdf=render |
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