Publications

@article{buth2025-delaynet,
  abstract = {Within the endeavour of modelling and understanding the propagation of delays in transportation networks, an approach that has attracted increasing interest in the last decade is the creation of functional network representations. These graphs map elements of interest (e.g. airports or stations) as nodes, and derive pairwise propagation patterns from their dynamics through correlation and causality tests. In spite of multiple notable results, this approach still lacks a coherent framework, with decisions related to many fundamental steps being left to the judgement of the researcher. We here provide an introduction to the theory behind functional networks for transportation systems, detailing the main steps and the associated pitfalls. We further introduce a Python package, delaynet, designed to support the researcher in the reconstruction and analysis of such networks. We finally present an analysis of the propagation of delays in the Swiss train system; and discuss future research steps.},
  doi = {10.1016/j.trip.2026.102187},
  pages = {102187},
  volume = {39},
  journal = {Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives},
  year = {2026},
  author = {B{\"u}th, Carlson Moses and Zanin, Massimiliano},
  title = {Functional {{Connectivity Networks}} for {{Transportation Delay Analysis}}: From {{Theory}} to {{Software}}},
}

@article{esteveAirTransportAfrica2026,
  abstract = {Within the last few decades, concepts from statistical physics have been leveraged to shed light on different aspects of air transport, from its connectivity structure to the dynamics of delay propagation. While countless studies have been published for large markets like the US, Europe and China, much less attention has been devoted to Africa, in spite of the relevance of this transportation mode in this continent. We here analyse the African air transport system from three complementary viewpoints: the structure of the airport network; the structure created by delay propagation; and the micro-scale dynamics of delays at individual airports. These three aspects are analysed through time, from 2020 to 2024; and further compared with what is observed in the US system. The resulting scenario is highly heterogeneous, with the US and African systems having important macro-scale differences, but also similarities at a local level. We further discuss the importance of these findings, and how similar scientific endeavours could benefit from higher-quality data.},
  doi = {10.1038/s41598-026-62266-z},
  shortjournal = {Sci Rep},
  journaltitle = {Scientific Reports},
  date = {2026-07-17},
  year = {2026},
  author = {Esteve, Pau and B{\"u}th, Carlson Moses and Zanin, Massimiliano},
  title = {Air Transport in {{Africa}}: A Statistical Physics Approach},
}

@inproceedings{mueller2026-preprocessingeyetracking,
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications},
  abstract = {Preprocessing eye-tracking data is a critical yet challenging step in eye-tracking research, particularly in reading studies. Current practices are characterized by limited standardization, a strong reliance on proprietary or inflexible tools, and heterogeneous documentation routines, which hinder reproducibility, comparability, and data reuse. To systematically assess community practices and needs, we conducted a large-scale survey (N = 108) with a focus on reading research. The survey examined preprocessing workflows, tool usage, perceived challenges, data sharing and documentation strategies, and expectations regarding preprocessing tools and outputs. The findings indicate a strong demand for transparent, interoperable, and well-documented preprocessing workflows, as well as practical guidance such as tutorials and user support. Participants emphasized the importance of standardized terminology, flexible automation, and reusable output structures. These results provide an empirical basis for tool development, methodological guidelines, and infrastructure initiatives aimed at improving transparency, standardization, and long-term reusability in eye-tracking research.},
  doi = {10.1145/3797246.3805480},
  publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
  year = {2026},
  author = {M{\"u}ller, Marie-Luise and B{\"u}th, Carlson Moses and Jakobi, Deborah N. and Krakowczyk, Daniel G. and Pavlinu\v{s}i\'{c} Vilus, Eva and Shaitarova, Anastassia and J{\"a}ger, Lena A.},
  title = {Preprocessing Eye-Tracking Data for Reading: A Community Survey on Practices, Challenges, and Needs},
}

@article{black2025-IdentifyingRobustAreabased,
  abstract = {Area-based conservation remains the principal strategy for preserving biodiversity, yet current planning approaches inadequately consider two critical uncertainties: future trajectories of socio-environmental drivers of environmental degradation and preferences for alternate conservation objectives. This study demonstrates how spatial conservation prioritization can be integrated with scenario-based simulation modelling to systematically evaluate conservation strategies under these uncertainties. We simulated conservation area expansion strategies (e.g. timing and extent of interventions) in Switzerland (2020-2060) using a comprehensive full-factorial design testing approaches across five scenarios of climate change, land-use change, and conservation priorities, with strategy robustness assessed through impacts on ten ecosystem services (ES) characterized across both space and time. Results revealed substantial variation in ES provision under alternative futures, with pronounced spatial shifts in service delivery. Critically, only limited spatial overlap existed between regions displaying the highest ES robustness and areas prioritized for protection based on current ecological value, demonstrating the inadequacy of planning approaches that ignore future uncertainties. The most consistently robust strategy for securing ES provision involved rapidly expanding conservation areas to 30% coverage (aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework target), prioritizing small patches in human-dominated landscapes, and employing mixed management combining both preservation and restoration. However, strategy effectiveness varied across different ES and scenarios, indicating that optimal approaches must account for societal preferences regarding trade-offs between services. This research addresses a recognized gap in conservation planning science and provides both methodological guidance for uncertainty-informed planning and specific recommendations for Switzerland’s pursuit of the 30x30 target under accelerating environmental change.},
  author = {Black, Benjamin Samuel and Adde, Antoine and K{\"u}lling, Nathan and B{\"u}th, Carlson and Kurmann, Manuel and Lehmann, Anthony and Altermatt, Florian and Guisan, Antoine and {Gr{\^e}t-Regamey}, Adrienne},
  doi = {10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.128395},
  year = {2026},
  pages = {128395},
  volume = {398},
  journal = {Journal of Environmental Management},
  title = {Identifying robust area-based conservation strategies to secure ecosystem service provision under uncertainties},
}

@misc{buth2025-delaynet-preprint,
  abstract = {Within the endeavour of modelling and understanding the propagation of delays in transportation networks, an approach that has attracted increasing interest in the last decade is the creation of functional network representations. These graphs map elements of interest (e.g. airports or stations) as nodes, and derive pairwise propagation patterns from their dynamics through correlation and causality tests. In spite of multiple notable results, this approach still lacks a coherent framework, with decisions related to many fundamental steps being left to the judgement of the researcher. We here provide an introduction to the theory behind functional networks for transportation systems, detailing the main steps and the associated pitfalls. We further introduce a Python package, delaynet, designed to support the researcher in the reconstruction and analysis of such networks. We finally present an analysis of the propagation of delays in the Swiss train system; and discuss future research steps.},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2510.05143},
  publisher = {arXiv},
  number = {arXiv:2510.05143},
  year = {2025},
  author = {B{\"u}th, Carlson Moses and Zanin, Massimiliano},
  title = {Functional {{Connectivity Networks}} for {{Transportation Delay Analysis}}: From {{Theory}} to {{Software}}},
}

@misc{black2025-IdentifyingRobustAreabased-preprint,
  doi = {10.2139/ssrn.5447007},
  abstract = {In the 21st century area-based conservation remains the principal strategy for preserving natural habitats. However, planners must contend with uncertainties in both preferences for conservation objectives and the development of drivers of environmental degradation. To this end, this research demonstrates an approach whereby exploratory conservation strategies (e.g.~timing and extent of interventions), are simulated under multiple scenarios specifying trends in major drivers, such as climate and land-use change, alongside alternative conservation priorities. With the robustness of strategies evaluated through their impetus in producing optimal trends in the provision of 10 Ecosystem Services (ES). This approach is applied to the country of Switzerland simulating the impact of conservation strategies between 2020-2060. The results show that the provision of ES will vary in both magnitude and spatial location under alternative future conditions, with regions that displayed the highest robustness not adequately covered by existing conservation prioritizations. Whereas the most robust strategies to secure ES provision were a mix of management to both restore and preserve natural land covers and the expansion of conservation areas to cover 30\% of the country. However, the impact of strategies varied across ES and scenarios indicating that the final appraisal of strategies should take into account societal preferences for, and the criticality of, particular ES.},
  publisher = {Social Science Research Network},
  number = {5447007},
  year = {2025},
  author = {Black, Benjamin Samuel and Adde, Antoine and K{\"u}lling, Nathan and B{\"u}th, Carlson and Kurmann, Manuel and Lehmann, Anthony and Altermatt, Florian and Guisan, Antoine and {Gr{\^e}t-Regamey}, Adrienne},
  title = {Identifying Robust Area-Based Conservation Strategies to Secure Ecosystem Service Provision under Uncertainties},
}

@article{buth2025-synthatdelays,
  abstract = {Within the endeavour of describing and analysing delays and their propagations in air transport, a major limitation is represented by the validation of the obtained results. While this can be overcome through synthetic models, those available in the literature mostly aim at simulating the system in a detailed and realistic way, resulting in high complexity and substantial computational costs. We here present SynthATDelays, a minimalist and modular Python package designed to simulate a virtual customisable air transport system and to provide synthetic delay data under tuneable conditions; it is thus designed to support the validation of data-based studies and pipelines. We describe its internal structure and provide examples about how scenarios can be designed and executed. We further show how it can be used to tackle two relevant questions, i.e., the role of operational buffer times in the absorption of delays and the comparison and optimisation of causality tests to detect the propagation thereof.},
  doi = {10.3390/aerospace12100900},
  number = {900},
  volume = {12},
  journal = {Aerospace},
  year = {2025},
  author = {B{\"u}th, Carlson Moses and Zanin, Massimiliano},
  title = {{{SynthATDelays}}: A Minimalist Python Package for the Generation of Synthetic Air Transport Delay Data},
}

@article{buth2025-infomeasure,
  abstract = {Information theory, i.e. the mathematical analysis of information and of its processing, has become a tenet of modern science; yet, its use in real-world studies is usually hindered by its computational complexity, the lack of coherent software frameworks, and, as a consequence, low reproducibility. We here introduce infomeasure, an open-source Python package designed to provide robust tools for calculating a wide variety of information-theoretic measures, including entropies, mutual information, transfer entropy and divergences. It is designed for both discrete and continuous variables; implements state-of-the-art estimation techniques; and allows the calculation of local measure values, \$p\$-values and \$t\$-scores. By unifying these approaches under one consistent framework, infomeasure aims to mitigate common pitfalls, ensure reproducibility, and simplify the practical implementation of information-theoretic analyses. In this contribution, we explore the motivation and features of infomeasure; its validation, using known analytical solutions; and exemplify its utility in a case study involving the analysis of human brain time series.},
  doi = {10.1038/s41598-025-14053-5},
  publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
  pages = {29323},
  number = {1},
  volume = {15},
  journal = {Scientific Reports},
  year = {2025},
  author = {B{\"u}th, Carlson Moses and Acharya, Kishor and Zanin, Massimiliano},
  title = {infomeasure: {{A Comprehensive Python Package}} for {{Information Theory Measures}} and {{Estimators}}},
}

@misc{buth2025-infomeasure-arxiv,
  abstract = {Information theory, i.e. the mathematical analysis of information and of its processing, has become a tenet of modern science; yet, its use in real-world studies is usually hindered by its computational complexity, the lack of coherent software frameworks, and, as a consequence, low reproducibility. We here introduce infomeasure, an open-source Python package designed to provide robust tools for calculating a wide variety of information-theoretic measures, including entropies, mutual information, transfer entropy and divergences. It is designed for both discrete and continuous variables; implements state-of-the-art estimation techniques; and allows the calculation of local measure values, \$p\$-values and \$t\$-scores. By unifying these approaches under one consistent framework, infomeasure aims to mitigate common pitfalls, ensure reproducibility, and simplify the practical implementation of information-theoretic analyses. In this contribution, we explore the motivation and features of infomeasure; its validation, using known analytical solutions; and exemplify its utility in a case study involving the analysis of human brain time series.},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2505.14696},
  publisher = {arXiv},
  number = {arXiv:2505.14696},
  year = {2025},
  author = {B{\"u}th, Carlson Moses and Acharya, Kishor and Zanin, Massimiliano},
  title = {infomeasure: {{A Comprehensive Python Package}} for {{Information Theory Measures}} and {{Estimators}}},
}

@misc{buth2024-superblockify-arxiv,
  abstract = {superblockify is a Python package for partitioning an urban street network into Superblock-like neighborhoods and for visualizing and analyzing the partition results. A Superblock is a set of adjacent urban blocks where vehicular through traffic is prevented or pacified, giving priority to people walking and cycling. The Superblock blueprints and descriptive statistics generated by superblockify can be used by urban planners as a first step in a data-driven planning pipeline, or by urban data scientists as an efficient computational method to evaluate Superblock partitions. The software is licensed under AGPLv3 and is available at https://superblockify.city.},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2404.15062},
  publisher = {arXiv},
  number = {arXiv:2404.15062},
  year = {2024},
  author = {B{\"u}th, Carlson Moses and Vybornova, Anastassia and Szell, Michael},
  title = {superblockify: {{A Python Package}} for {{Automated Generation}}, {{Visualization}}, and {{Analysis}} of {{Potential Superblocks}} in {{Cities}}},
}

@phdthesis{buth2023master,
  abstract = {This thesis investigates the impact of the spatial order of cities on the performance of presented, data-driven partitioning approaches. The study addresses two research questions: 1. How does the travel time change if all neighborhoods were Low Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs)? 2. What LTN configuration can we suggest for different types of cities? We present a framework to analyze the impact of LTNs on travel time that utilizes Open Street Map (OSM) street data, and GHSL population data to calculate network measures, such as directness, global efficiency, average circuity, street orientation order. Central components of this work are the LTN generation, evaluation, and visualization. The evaluation of 100 global cities and 80 cities in Germany reveals that both a residential-based approach and a betweenness-based approach yield positive results, with minimal travel time increases. This research contributes to the understanding of the impact of LTNs on travel time and provides a framework for the simplified generation and evaluation of LTNs.},
  doi = {10.13140/RG.2.2.26204.36481},
  year = {2023},
  school = {AG Wittkowski @ University of Münster and NERDS @ IT University of
Copenhagen},
  title = {From Gridlocks to Greenways: Analyzing the Network Effects of
Computationally Generated Low Traffic Neighborhoods},
  author = {Büth, Carlson Moses},
}

@article{buth2023,
  altmetric = {https://nature.altmetric.com/details/148986052},
  abstract = {To mitigate the risk of injuries, many countries recommend bicycle helmets. The current paper seeks to examine the effectiveness of bicycle helmets by performing a systematic review focusing on meta-analyses. First, the current paper explores the findings of studies that employ meta-analyses using bicycle crash data. Second, the results are discussed considering the findings from research analyzing bicycle helmet effectiveness in a laboratory using simulation, and then are complemented with key methodological papers that address cycling and the overall factors contributing to the injury severity. The examined literature confirms that wearing a helmet while cycling is beneficial, regardless of age, crash severity, or crash type. The relative benefit is found to be higher in high-risk situations and when cycling on shared roads and particularly preventing severe head injuries. The results from the studies performed in laboratories also suggest that the shape and size of the head itself play a role in the protective effects of helmets. However, concerns regarding the equitability of the test conditions were found as all reviewed studies used a fifty-percentile male head and body forms. Lastly, the paper discusses the literature findings in a broader societal context.},
  doi = {10.1038/s41598-023-35728-x},
  publisher = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  pages = {8540},
  number = {1},
  volume = {13},
  journal = {Scientific Reports},
  year = {2023},
  author = {Büth, Carlson Moses and Barbour, Natalia and {Abdel-Aty}, Mohamed},
  title = {Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmets and Injury Prevention: A Systematic Review of Meta-Analyses},
}