Physical Planning Strategies of National High-Technology Industrial Development Zones in China

Over the last two decades, High-Technology Industrial Development Zone (HIDZ) has become an important strategy for urban development in China. Modeled on earlier examples in the US and Asia, they have developed in unique ways in China because of the rapid urbanization, large-scale sites, and trend toward high-technology-based new townships or technopoles. While the 84 current national HIDZs widely use planning strategies in their government-guided development and construction, the impact of these planning strategies remains is not well understood. This dissertation explores how and to what extent planning and management strategies impact the outcomes of HIDZs. It examines closely four case examples (Beijing Zhongguancun Science Park, Shanghai Zhangjiang High-Technology Park, Suzhou Industrial Park, and Shenzhen High-Technology Industrial Park). The study reveals the diverse and sometimes competing purposes of national HIDZs, ranging from stimulating innovation and improvement of products, to serving as an economic anchor and a tool for attracting international firms. The research demonstrates the importance of adopting a sustainable strategy for development of HIDZs that it guides place-making, regulates the land development process, improves the quality of the environment, facilitates cooperation among various sectors, and attracts investment. It explores the versatility of planning approaches, identifies a series of key factors that shape planning strategies, and provides suggestions for tailoring the approach to planning to local resources and conditions

Achieving the Heisenberg limit in quantum metrology using quantum error correction

Quantum metrology has many important applications in science and technology, ranging from frequency spectroscopy to gravitational wave detection. Quantum mechanics imposes a fundamental limit on measurement precision, called the Heisenberg limit, which can be achieved for noiseless quantum systems, but is not achievable in general for systems subject to noise. Here we study how measurement precision can be enhanced through quantum error correction, a general method for protecting a quantum system from the damaging effects of noise. We find a necessary and sufficient condition for achieving the Heisenberg limit using quantum probes subject to Markovian noise, assuming that noiseless ancilla systems are available, and that fast, accurate quantum processing can be performed. When the sufficient condition is satisfied, a quantum error-correcting code can be constructed which suppresses the noise without obscuring the signal; the optimal code, achieving the best possible precision, can be found by solving a semidefinite program.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, see also arXiv:1704.0628

The continuity equation for Hermitian metrics: Calabi estimates, Chern scalar curvature and Oeljeklaus-Toma manifolds

We prove local Calabi and higher order estimates for solutions to the continuity equation introduced by La Nave-Tian and extended to Hermitian metrics by Sherman-Weinkove. We apply the estimates to show that on a compact complex manifold the Chern scalar curvature of a solution must blow up at a finite-time singularity. Additionally, starting from certain classes of initial data on Oeljeklaus-Toma manifolds we prove Gromov-Hausdorff and smooth convergence of the metric to a particular non-negative $(1,1)$-form as $t\to\infty$.Comment: 20 page

Eliciting Drivers of Community Perceptions of Mining Projects through Effective Community Engagement

Sustainable mining has received much attention in recent years as a consequence of the negative impacts of mining and public awareness. The aim of this paper is to provide mining companies guidance on improving the sustainability of their sites through effective community engagement based on recent advances in the literature. It begins with a review of the literature on sustainable development and its relationship to stakeholder engagement. It then uses the literature to determine the dominant factors that affect community perceptions of mining projects. These factors are classified into five categories: environmental, economic, social, governance and demographic factors. Then, we propose a new two-stage method based on discrete choice theory and the classification that can improve stakeholder engagement and be cost-effective. Further work is required to validate the proposed method, although it shows potential to overcome some of the challenges plaguing current approaches