Transitions towards car-free cities

As various cities around the world are implementing car-free policy, the need to understand it from a dynamic point of view becomes more pronounced. This paper sheds more light on the reasons to go car-free as forces of change, while further analyzing the inhibitors and dynamics of transitions towards car-free cities. Reasons to drive can be conceptualized as intrinsic and extrinsic, each with its own relevance in the light of transitions. At the same time, the dynamic processes of enabling and implementation are conceptualized in order to move towards a more realistic view of the complexities of these transitions

Muscular Christian Edmonton: The Story of the Edmonton Young Men\u27s Christian Association 1898-1920

From its initial conception as the EYMI in 1898 to its emergence as the Edmonton YMCA through 1920, the institution always had a distinct purpose. The absence of a Muscular Christian agenda in the EYMI, coupled with a purposive refocusing of programming within the YMCA towards what was directed towards the public interest, religion within this institution waned following World War I. Newspapers and executive minute notes demonstrate the EYMI focus on producing the next generation of respectable businessmen. The Edmonton YMCA attempted to fulfill the task of ‘saving’ young men by distracting them from social vices. As a result of the far-reaching social influences of the First World War, the YMCA significantly turned away from its religious practices. Indeed, the YMCA shifted emphasis from its religious-oriented Muscular Christian emphasis towards providing more secular, athletic programs and services to its members

Hacia la eliminación de la discriminación de género en las leyes de nacionalidad

La contribución de la discriminación de género en la generación y perpetuación de la apatridia es considerable, y sigue siendo necesario abordar esta discriminación en las leyes sobre nacionalidad

The Sami in Finland - On EU law, land rights and the preservation of Sami culture

This thesis discusses the influence of minority rights laws created by the European Union and international organisations, such as the UN, on the situation of the Sami in Finland.   The Sami live in four different nation states: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Sweden. Due to their nomadic lifestyle, the land that the Sami traditionally inhabited has been dispossessed by the nation states in the 19thcentury. In all states the Sami are a minority. In this thesis a number of international rules and treaties is discussed that are designed to protect minorities, as well as the effects these rules and treaties have on the situation of the Sami in Finland: i.e. the use of Sami languages in everyday life; Sami claims to land; the preservation of Sami languages and culture.Keywords: Sami, Finland, minority rights, land rights, cultural preservation, European Union, territorialit

Interactive Visualization of Multidimensional Feature Spaces

Image similarity models characterize images as points in high-dimensional feature spaces. Each point is represented by a combination of distinct features, such as brightness, color histograms or texture characteristics of the image, etc. For the design and tuning of features, and thus the effectiveness of the image similarity model, it is important to understand the interrelations of individual features and the implications on the structure of the feature space. In this paper, we discuss an interactive visualization tool for the exploration of multidimensional feature spaces. Our tool uses a graph as an intermediate representation of the points in the feature space. A mass spring algorithm is used to layout the graph in a 2D space in which arrangements of similar images are attracted to each other and dissimilar images are repelled. The emphasis of the visualization tool is on interaction: users may influence the layout by interactively scaling dimensions of the feature space. In this way, the user can explore how a feature behaves in relation to other features

The Grand Experiment: Jerome Dwight Davis and the Young Men’s Christian Association’s War Prisoner Aid Sports Programing for German POWs in Canadian Camps During World War Two

Jerome Davis, head of the Young Men’s Christian Association War Prisoner Aid program, was a devout Congregationalist dedicated to providing for the basic sport and recreation endeavours of German Prisoners of War interned in Canadian POW camps during the Second World War. Having worked with German Prisoners of War in Russia during the First World War, Davis firmly believed that WWII Allies the world over needed to change their generally antagonistic point of view towards German POWs, indeed, a point of view that required “moral revisionism.” Davis believed that the vilification and demeaning status of German POWs was not only wrong, but short-sighted and counterproductive. Davis’ family upbringing reflected a substantial Congregational bearing. His service in WW II continued to reflect the same philosophical/religious principles: principles of religious morality and practical theology that followed three basic steps: (1) the concern for and practical reasoning towards POW life and treatment; (2) the organization and administration needed in the mass provision of sporting goods; and (3) a theological deduction based upon scriptures that facilitated his sporting mission. To Davis, Christ’s commands: “do unto others” and “to the least of my people,” underscored his thought and practice. Salvation of German POW souls was a secondary goal subservient to providing boredom relief, escape prevention, and dissolving hard-line Nazi mistrust of religious organizations in general. Davis’ desire to provide sport equipment and help in sport programming organization for German POWs was a reflection of his life’s direction and commitment to “service.” Jerome Davis desired to reach German POWs through sport and Christian love. Stark statistics conveyed within this dissertation tell merely half of Davis’ story. From 1939-1943 Davis’ energy, vigor, and commitment to cause, communicated a deeper understanding as to why the Canadian YMCA War Prisoner Aid program proved a succes