Review of article describing an inventory system that was created within the library and to show the cost-effectiveness of using the inventory system compared to the price of reacquiring mis-shelved books.
Mexico City has long been known as one of the world’s largest mega-cities. Although, the city’s growth rates have slowed since the 1980s, this process is not manifested evenly in spatial terms. Peripheral municipalities continue to grow at higher rates, including those municipalities in the southern part of the Federal District that contain its remaining conservation land. This growth is largely, but not exclusively, driven by the ongoing search for housing among lower-income households in the form of irregular settlement. Over time, this incremental pattern of settlement expansion has fragmented conservation land and impaired its ecological functioning. Given their role in land use planning with the reintroduction of elected local governments in the Federal District in 1997, this situation has placed municipalities quite literally at the ‘‘frontlines” of this planning and sustainability challenge. This paper examines the approach for managing land use regularization processes related to irregular settlement in conservation land adopted by the municipality of Xochimilco in its 2005 urban development plan, with reference to the experience of a specific case study community. Based on a series of interviews with residents and planning officials, the paper documents the highly-negotiated nature of ‘‘normative” planning that focuses on mitigating the impact of settlement in the conservation zone rather than stopping it completely. Given the enormous social pressures to access land for housing, the paper concludes that realistic efforts to preserve the remaining conservation land must involve a more comprehensive approach that better integrates environmental and social equity issues within and among municipal and upper-levels of government.
Poster presentation “Graduate students and copyright: informing graduate students about copyright issues in relation to their thesis” by Emma Cross given at the Canadian ETD and Open Repositories Workshop held May 10-11, 2010 at Carleton University. Poster describes a project to promote awareness of copyright issues amongst graduate students at Carleton University Library and the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research.
Several studies have discussed the need for reliable uniform testing of Conducted Energy Weapons (CEWs) independent of the manufacturer. We propose a test proceedure that will enable organizations across Canada to test CEWs in a reliable, repeatable manner. This proceedure includes, but goes beyond, the one proposed by the manufacturer. Test results so obtained will also enable: 1. acceptance and regular validation of function of weapons in inventories of police service; 2. post incident testing to determine whether the weapon was functioning normally; 3. collection of weapons data across Canada to allow research on trends with age of weapon or other factors related to performance. The authors represent a group of subject matter experts who have been involved in research on or testing of CEWs.
In this thesis, we present algorithmic solutions to shortest path queries on polyhedral surfaces and in polygonal domains. The research problems addressed in this thesis and shortest path problems in general are fundamental problems in geographic information systems (GIS) and computational geometry.We present novel algorithms that answer approximate shortest path queries between any pair of points lying on a polyhedral surface P consisting of n positively weighted triangular faces. The cost of a path, denoted by ||π||, in P is defined as ||π| |= Σni=1wi|πi|, where |πi| = π∩fidenotes the Euclidean length of the subpath of π within face fiwhose weight is wi.Our all-pairs query algorithm takes as input an approximation parameter ε ∈ (0,1) and a query time parameter q, in a certain range, and builds a data structure APQ(P, ε; q) for answering ε-approximate distance queries in O(q) time. When the surface P is homeomorphic to a planar domain, we present a space-efficient algorithm which exploits the planarity of P. As a building block of APQ(P, ε; q), we develop a single-source query data structure SSQ(P, ε; a) which answers ε-approximate distance queries from a fixed point a to any query point in P in logarithmic time. These proposed algorithms are important extension, both theoretically and practically, to the extensively studied Euclidean distance case. They are based on a novel graph sparator algorithm which extends and/or generalizes many previously known results.Moreover, we consider queries between arbitrary pairs of objects lying on P, where query objects are points, segments, faces, chains, regions and sets of these. We present generic algorithms which provide approximate solutions.Lastly, we consider shortest path queries in a polygonal domain PD having n vertices and h holes. A skeleton graph is a subgraph of a Voronoi diagram of PD. Our new algorithm utilizes a reduced skeleton graph of PD to compute a tessellation of PD. It builds a data structure of size O(n2) in O(n2log n) time to support distance queries for any pair of query points in PD in O(h log n) time.
While studies have consistently found positive effects of forest amount on bat abundance, the effects of forest fragmentation (breaking apart of forest, independent of amount) are less certain. The purpose of this study was to examine how forest amount and forest fragmentation independently affect bat abundance. I conducted acoustic bat surveys at the centres of 22 landscapes throughout eastern Ontario, where landscapes were chosen to avoid a correlation between forest amount and fragmentation (number of forest patches). I found that the effects of forest amount on bat relative abundance were mixed across species (one positive, two negative), and that forest fragmentation, independent of amount, had a positive effect on the relative abundances of three species. I suggest that the mechanism driving the positive responses to forest fragmentation is higher landscape complementation in more fragmented landscapes; that is, increased access to foraging sites from roosting sites.
The focus of this thesis was to optimize Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) technologies and develop AFLP-based genetic markers to address specific life-history questions related to the damselfly, Nesobasis rufostigma. Optimization of AFLP marker production targeted small (< 0.25 mm3) tissue samples and focussed on several key steps in the process. In order to reduce the number of analyzable markers to a more manageable number, a process was developed and evaluated by which discrete PCR-based markers were obtained from AFLPs. The genetic markers developed in this study were used to assess life-history questions such as relatedness, paternity and mode of reproduction with the damselfly N. rufostigma. Through genotypic comparisons of female adults and their offspring it was established that N. rufostigma reproduces sexually, and not via parthenogenesis, as originally hypothesized. These comparisons also suggested that some broods were sired by multiple males.
The landscape is not natural as we perceive it to be; it is a product of human thought and action. As such manipulation occurs, the very artifact from which Canadians derive their national identity is being lost. Preservation of that identity and history now requires that human-made artifacts no longer act independently of the seemingly natural landscape. Instead, a truly contemporary understanding of our surroundings must engage the opposition between nature and artifice. This thesis investigates how architecture could become a didactic spectator of contemporary surroundings which integrate and announce the relationship between the natural and artificial, while also preserve and reveal memory native to a site.
