Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 55). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

While American cities are growing in size and population, they are losing one important group of people: children. Young people are essential to the vitality and social fabric of cities, yet cities are becoming increasingly unfriendly to young people and their families. Housing in cities is expensive, streets are devoted more to vehicles than pedestrians or bikes, and recreational space is not frequently convenient or adequate for the needs of children. While working to address any one of these needs would create greater equality for children, this report examines the impact of green recreational space for children. Adding green space to a city not only provides children with opportunities to play, which is vital to social, physical, and emotional development, but it also creates healthier communities with lower levels of crime and higher levels of community engagement. Creating spaces that are child-friendly and cherished by the community is not difficult, and can be achieved through deliberate planning and engagement with children. Due to recent downtown development initiatives, Austin has a unique opportunity to create green places for the community where children can play freely downtown. / text

This study seeks to examine how children utilize spatial ability to deal with spatial objects, such as reading pictures, building toy blocks and dealing with the relationship between objects. The main focus of this study is to understand how children utilize spatial ability to complete different spatial tasks. The study comprises of two contrasting cases of two 10 years old children. Each case encompasses to basic components namely: i) the perspective skills tasks, and ii) the small-scale space tasks. In each component task-based clinical interviews were used as the primary data collection instrument. The interviews were video-recorded and analyzed The small-scale space tasks required the children to build an experimental SimCity consisting six objects. The subjects were asked to complete the task twice, one as an identical mapping and once as a 1800 mirror image. In the first experiment, the children were asked to place the objects on a piece of grid paper in exactly the same position as they saw the objects in the SimCity. In the second experiment, the children were asked to place the objects on a piece of grid paper at exactly 1800 to what they observed the objects in the SimCity. The results showed that if the child neglected any one of the skills, they would make errors. This was best illustrated in the case where the children handled the L-shaped block. Child 2 made mistakes in recognizing the block in both in the first and second small-scale space tasks. These errors were related to the understanding of the spatial relation and the visual form constancy. The results showed that for placing the L-shaped block in the right position and direction, visual form constancy plays an important role. The results also showed that without using the orientation ability in which the skills include the spatial determination, spatial recognition, spatial form constancy and spatial relationship, it would also affect how the children deal with the small-scale space task. The result showed that the children need to relate to the visualization and orientation ability so as to deal with the relationship between themselves and the objects, among objects; and the objects and the environment. As a conclusion when the children were dealing with the task, basically they would use the skill of visual discrimination to determine every object. The evidence indicated that both children could make use of these skills. In addition, the using of object- to- object frame of reference and the child’s reasoning behind her/his spatial action also play an important role for successful performance of the small-scale space tasks. The study makes a contribution to theory by the originality of the design of the instrument. Furthermore, the findings unfolding the children spatial understanding provides insights for developing further topics in the school curriculum for enhancing students’ spatial sense. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

Drawing from Michel de Certeau’s notion of the production of space as a practice, this dissertation examines the production of space in Pang Ho-Cheung’s Love in a Puff (2010) and Love in the Buff (2012) in three aspects: 1) smoking in daily life, 2) Hong Kong-mainland co-productions in the film industry, and 3) the affective space produced in “non-place.” First, in Love in a Puff, the spatial practice of smokers smoking in back alleys produces a space for them to deflect the power of Hong Kong’s Smoking Ordinance, which can be interpreted as a form of victory of ordinary people over an oppressive system. This mode of resistance can be read allegorically as a tactic of Hong Kong filmmakers working in the space of co-production between Hong Kong and Mainland China, as illustrated by an analysis of the film Love in the Buff. Third, both films are set in globalized urban cities that are full of “non-places” of consumption and transportation. This “non-place”ful space of ambivalence and detachment is in juxtaposition with the protagonists’ practice to develop relationships, generate emotions and resolve their interpersonal problems. Space production opens up alternative ways to understand the world and our daily life. This dissertation attempts to offer an interpretation of the two films in light of de Certeau’s spatial theories. / published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This dissertation peruses the question of alienation through two short stories by the local writer Hon Lai-chu. The first objective is to delineate the exact form and content that the phenomenon of alienation assumes, its particularity in specific spatio-temporal settings, and the necessary relation of it to space and people within the contexts. At the centre of my materialist analysis lies a deprivation of what I call the right to space, and concomitant resistance by the narrators. The clarification of the specificity of alienation helps an understanding of it in and beyond any (con) text: It is but one form of an exploitative logic, of man imposed on man. Thus the urgent task now is as much to trace the various major ramifications of human exploitation, in different cultures across different periods, through which the nature of human condition can be gauged, as to pave a way to articulation of localisms instead of Localism, with respect to the situation of Hong Kong. The second objective so registers a refusal of a reductive and totalizing rubric of describing our city. I instead seek to ascribe the validity of this description to the average person. It is through their actions and voices in everyday life that they regain, however briefly, the right to space, and therewith constitute personal resistance which I give the name localisms. / published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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The Kodama state is unique in being an exact solution to all the constraints of quantum gravity that also has a well defined semi-classical interpretation as the quantum version of a classical spacetime, namely de Sitter or anti-de sitter space. Despite this, the state fails to pass some of the key tests of a physically realistic quantum state. In an attempt to resolve this problem, we track down the root of the problem to a choice for a particular parameter: the Immirzi parameter. The Kodama state takes this parameter to be complex, whereas modern formulations of canonical quantum gravity require that the parameter is real. We generalize the Kodama state to real values of the Immirzi parameter, and find that the generalization opens up a large Hilbert space of states, one of which can be directly interpreted as particular slicing of de Sitter space. We then show that these states resolve, or are expected to resolve many of the problems associated with the original version of Kodama state. In order to resolve the interpretation of the multitude of states, we develop a new model of covariant classical and quantum gravity where the full Lorentz group is retained as a local symmetry group, and the canonical evolution generated by the constraints has a close relation to a larger group: that de Sitter group. This formalism gives strong evidence that the multitude of generalized Kodama states can be unified into a single quantum state that is quantum de Sitter space. / text

The objectives of this research were to develop a reconstruction capability using the Program to Optimize Simulated Trajectories II (POST2), apply this capability to reconstruct the Huygens Titan probe entry, descent, and landing (EDL) trajectory, evaluate the newly developed POST2 reconstruction module, analyze the reconstructed trajectory, and assess the pre-flight simulation models used for Huygens EDL simulation. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) module was developed and integrated into POST2 to enable trajectory reconstruction (especially when using POST2-based mission specific simulations). Several validation cases, ranging from a single, constant parameter estimate to multivariable estimation cases similar to an actual mission flight, were executed to test the POST2 reconstruction module. Trajectory reconstruction of the Huygens entry probe at Titan was accomplished using accelerometer measurements taken during flight to adjust an estimated state (e.g., position, velocity, parachute drag, wind velocity, etc.) in a POST2-based simulation developed to support EDL analyses and design prior to entry. Although the main emphasis of the trajectory reconstruction was to evaluate models used in the NASA pre-entry trajectory simulation, the resulting reconstructed trajectory was also assessed to provide an independent evaluation of the ESA result. Major findings from this analysis include: Altitude profiles from this analysis agree well with other NASA and ESA results but not with Radar data, whereas a scale factor of about 0.93 would bring the radar measurements into compliance with these results; entry capsule aerodynamics predictions (axial component only) were well within 3-[sigma] bounds established pre-flight for most of the entry when compared to reconstructed values; Main parachute drag of 9% to 19% above ESA model was determined from the reconstructed trajectory; based on the tilt sensor and accelerometer data, the conclusion from this assessment was that the probe was tilted about 10 degrees during the Drogue parachute phase.

Focusing on the architecture of carceral space, ‘impression management’ strategies, and masculinity performances within incarceration, this study examines the extent to which carceral space impacts the identity and behaviour of inmates throughout their interactions, both within the prison system and the inner-city. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten men who experienced periods of incarceration in Manitoba. Their narratives indicate that alternative spatial theorizing is needed to conceptualize the prison space—in terms of the prison as a ‘place,’ as well as ‘social,’ and ‘carceral’ space—and that there is a significant amount of impression and emotional management needed when interacting with other inmates. Recidivism, finding meaningful employment, and building positive social networks with family and friends on the outside remain persistent obstacles for community reintegration. Examining the intersections of spatiality, masculinity, and identity allows us to explore alternative processes to restore (former) inmates into their communities moving forward. / October 2015