Simulating city growth by using the cellular automata algorithm

The objective of this thesis is to develop and implement a Cellular Automata (CA) algorithm to simulate urban growth process. It attempts to satisfy the need to predict the future shape of a city, the way land uses sprawl in the surroundings of that city and its population. Salonica city in Greece is selected as a case study to simulate its urban growth. Cellular automaton (CA) based models are increasingly used to investigate cities and urban systems. Sprawling cities may be considered as complex adaptive systems, and this warrants use of methodology that can accommodate the space-time dynamics of many interacting entities. Automata tools are well-suited for representation of such systems. By means of illustrating this point, the development of a model for simulating the sprawl of land uses such as commercial and residential and calculating the population who will reside in the city is discussed

Palestinian 'identities' in Athens : negotiating hybridity, politicisation and citizenship

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Implementing differentiated instruction in the Greek state primary school: Teachers’ attitudes and preferred differentiated strategies

This paper investigates the attitudes of Greek state school teachers of English towards differentiated instruction. A self-report questionnaire has served as a research instrument in this case. The questionnaire was completed by 149 teachers working in Greek state primary schools. The findings demonstrate that the respondents’ overall attitude towards differentiated instruction is positive and that participants have adopted several differentiated strategies. Nevertheless, differentiated instruction cannot be said to have been fully implemented in the context of the Greek state school, due to teachers’ misconceptions of its underlying principles, as well as practical considerations, such as lack of training and resources

Navigating into the realm of Non-Supersymmetric String Theories

For more than two decades, remarkable progress has been made in the construction of supersymmetric Standard Model-like theories from the heterotic string theory. In particular, considerable effort has been invested in studying the abundant phenomenological features of heterotic strings exhibiting N = 1 spacetime supersymmetry. At the same time, their non-supersymmetric counterparts have received little attention on the grounds that strings which do not exhibit spacetime supersymmetry admit large one-loop dilaton tadpoles, and are therefore unstable. Nonetheless, in this epoch of data acquisition from high-luminosity experiments, the observational absence of supersymmetry is striking. Consequently, non-supersymmetric theories receive a profound interest in the particle physics community. In this thesis, a class of non-supersymmetric, tachyon-free, four-dimensional string models is constructed via a string generalisation of Scherk-Schwarz compactification. Such models demonstrate greatly enhanced finiteness and stability properties, and exhibit some general features on their mass spectra, the behaviour of the one-loop cosmological constant and their interpolation properties. Special attention is paid to how from an exponentially suppressed one-loop cosmological constant, and therefore from an almost vanishing dilaton tadpole, finiteness and stability ensue. The existence of such models is characterised by prominent phenomenological features which involve their natural energy scales, particle-charge assignments, and the magnitudes of the associated Yukawa couplings and scalar masses. A radical result is the existence of Standard Model-like theories emerging as the low energy limit of non-supersymmetric strings; there are no light superpartners and supersymmetry is absent at all energy scales

Revisiting diaspora as process: timespace, performative diasporas?

There are tensions between the roots and routes of diaspora, on the one hand stressing fluid, hybrid lives and identities 'on the move' whilst on the other, the constant striving for connectedness with, and belonging to, the homeland (Clifford 1997; Mavroudi 2007a). These dynamic boundary (de)constructions (Brubaker 2005) can be empowering, but also problematic for those in diaspora and serve as a reminder that we need to pay attention to the complex power relations, materiality, ambivalence and potential challenges of living, feeling and belonging in diaspora. For geographers, one of the main concerns has been to flesh out the materialities and emotionalities of diaspora through a grounding of place, and the explorations of spaces and times which affect the diasporic experience. This chapter builds upon these themes by focusing on two cross-cutting and inter-linking themes as a means of further engaging with the notion of diaspora as process: diasporas and timespace and linkages between diasporas, mobilities and non-representational theory or diasporas as performed and negotiated. In doing so, the chapter will also seek to highlight the important role that geographers can play in debating such issues, and in doing so, making theoretical contributions to conceptualising diaspora

Learning to be Palestinian in Athens: constructing national identities in diaspora

In this article I focus on constructions of diasporic national identities and the nation as active and strategic processes using the case study of Palestinians in Athens. I seek, thereby, to contribute to debates on national identity, the nation and long-distance nationalism, particularly in relation to those in diaspora with a collective cause to advocate. I explore how first- and second-generation Palestinians in Athens construct and narrate Palestinian national identities, the homeland and political unity. I argue that the need to ‘choose’ to be Palestinian, often for political reasons, highlights that the nation is not a ‘given’ entity. This can be a difficult process for those in diaspora to deal with, as there may be tensions between constructions of political unity and attachment to the homeland and feelings of ambivalence and in-between-ness that may be seen as politically counterproductive. However, I stress that ‘messy’ and contradictory narratives and spatialities of diasporic national identities that come about as a result of cross-border or transnational (dis)connections do not necessarily lead to apathy and, therefore, can be important