Integrating Soft Computing, Complex Systems methods, and GIS for modeling urban land-use change

The Logic Scoring of Preference (LSP) method is a part of general multicriteria decision making approach that has origins in the soft computing. The method can model simultaneity, replaceability, and a wide range of other aggregators to suit various evaluation objectives. As soft computing method, LSP is based on fuzzy reasoning and can aggregate an unlimited amount of inputs without loss of significance. The main objective of this research is to develop and test integrated methods that use LSP, complex systems theory and geographic information systems (GIS) to model urban land-use change. In this research study LSP is integrated into a GIS to determine land-use suitability and is integrated into both cellular automata (CA) and agent-based models (ABMs) to simulate urban growth at both regional and local spatial scales. LSP approaches were implemented with geospatial datasets for Metro Vancouver, Canada and several scenarios of land-use change have been created

Changes in a periodic market system

Comparative study of the weekly market places and weekly market place system of a portion of the Andean Highlands of Colombia between 1962-64 and in 1980. Focus is on the changes that have occurred during the past twenty years

The Horizontal Loop EM Response of a Thin Vertical Conductor in a Conducting Half-Space

Included in Research as Applied Geophysics No. 19, Geophysics Laboratory, University of Toronto. Errata included as separate file.The frequency domain electromagnetic response of a thin vertical tabular plate in a conductive two-layer earth can be obtained by solving the electric field integral equation using the method of point collocation with global test functions. When it is assumed that the components of the scatter current perpendicular to the plate edges vanish at the plate edges, and when test functions are chosen which satisfy this condition, EM responses can usually be obtained for plates ranging from the resistive to the inductive limits. For highly resistive host media, numerical failure occurs when the plate conductivity is high enough that magnetic effects predominate. The solution is valid over a sufficiently wide range of parameters as to permit the computation of horizontal loop (Slingram) profiles over a plate in a layered earth. Suites of horizontal loop Argand diagrams are presented which illustrate the peak (in-phase and quadrature) anomaly values for a plate imbedded in a conductive earth. The suites show anomaly enhancement and phase rotation due to the conductive host and can be used to obtain, from field surveys, estimates of conductor depth and conductivity-thickness which are independent of the prospecting frequency.Ph.D

Electrical conduction in nylon fibre and cellulosic capacitor tissue

The experiments described in this work are divided into two main parts. The first is concerned with electrical properties of a single filament of nylon held between two tungsten hook-electrodes. Currents were observed in atmospheres of different relative humidities and attempts were made to determine the voltage distribution along the filament. The voltage measurements were made using a high-impedence electrostatic null detector with a potentiometer system for balancing. The results were not highly reproducible and no definite conclusions could be made. The second part deals with currents through capacitor tissue in a metal- insulation- metal sandwich arrangement. A time-dependent polarization was observed and is discussed along with methods for determining an acceptable value for the steady-state current. Some attempts are made to apply Poole-Frenkel theory since there is a certain quantitative agreement with experiment. Current-temperature observations indicated that the activation energy is about 1 ev. Conclusions concerning the mechanism of conduction are suggested on the basis of available theory