<p>The importance of citizen’s psychological need for community, amenities, and the feeling of equitable distribution of the varied impacts from urban change are gaining recognition as important factors in evaluating sustainable urban change. The inclusion of indicators that capture the equitable distribution of urban change impacts are a rare addition to the vast list of sustainability indicator sets available to researchers. Rarer still is the application of Integrated Urban Models (IUMs) and sustainability indicators in assessing the sustainability of land use and transportation policies which impact not only the form and structure of cities, but also the health and wellbeing of the city residents. Using three land use scenarios relevant to the study area: the City of Hamilton, scenarios which simulate alternative residential density patterns, the suburbanization of employment and the closure of elementary and secondary schools are projected into the medium term future using an integrated GIS-based model for simulating the consequences of demographic changes and population ageing on transportation (IMPACT), a sustainability indicator module and a set of indicators measuring the degree to which the urban change is just. The sustainability values generated from the use of IMPACT and SUSTAIN offer valuable insight to the literature related to each scenario. More importantly, the justice indicators add value information as to the impact of urban change on vulnerable population groups. The combination of IMPACT and SUSTAIN offers new avenue and method for future research on the sustainability of urban change.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

no / The paper deals with the problem of predicting the maximum response statistics of Multi-Degree-of-Freedom (MDoF) linear structures subjected to non-stationary non-white noises. The extension of two different censored closures of Gumbel type, originally proposed by the authors for the response of Single-Degree-of-Freedom oscillators, it is presented. The improvement associated with the introduction in the closure of a consistent censorship factor, accounting for the response bandwidth, it is pointed out. Simple and effective step-by-step procedures are formulated and described in details. Numerical applications on a realistic 25-storey moment-resisting frame along with comparisons with classical approximations and Monte Carlo simulations are also included.

A wide range of people are interested in how local factors influence patient choice among hospitals. Administrators need to know why patients are admitted to their hospitals so they can develop more sophisticated marketing of their services in an increasingly competitive environment. Planners concerned with issues of patient accessibility need know the geographic patterns of hospital use To meet these needs, it becomes necessary to develop methods to estimate the probability that patients will be admitted to a particular hospital using models that incorporate location and size of competing hospitals. In this paper, the focus of econometric investigation and prediction is the probability that a patient will select e particular hospital. Four different service areas were delineated and studied in West Virginia to test the Huff Consumer Spatial Behavior model for estimating demand at four hospitals that may be facing closure. It was found that through application of the Huff model that in a small system of hospitals and patients, each patient location (i.e., zip code) will send patients to nearly every hospital. The model predicted sufficient demand for two of the four hospitals studied. Conventional methodologies were then compared to the Huff model. The model did not test for financial feasibility of any of the facilities nor did the model adequately address the issue of how patients select a particular facility. / Master of Science

High levels of Enterococcus are the most frequent reason for beach closures on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and can be made worse by human activities. When beaches close, tourism can decrease, affecting sales. This study aims to 1) analyze the regional economic impact of beach closures at the county level, 2) show empirically how serious the impact of high levels of Enterococcus are compared to other causes of beach closures, and 3) discuss the policy implications for regional economies linked to beach closures. I use a response function approach with beach closure and county-level monthly gross taxable sales data. Results indicate that Enterococcus-related beach closures have significantly negative effects on sales, particularly in the Accommodations and Food Services sector. The effects of bacteria-related beach closures are not much different than effects of other causes of beach closures. The results support policy recommendations for reduced beach grooming and improved sewer infrastructure.

Le contexte général de cette thèse s'inscrit dans le cadre de la modélisation eulérienne instationnaire des écoulements turbulents anisothermes gaz - particules. La modélisation de ces écoulements est cruciale pour de nombreuses applications industrielles et pour la prédiction de certains phénomènes naturels. Par exemple, la combustion diphasique dans les moteurs automobiles et aéronautiques est précédée par l'injection et la dispersion de carburant liquide dans la chambre de combustion. Les phénomènes mis en jeu exigent alors une prédiction locale tenant compte du caractère instationnaire de l'écoulement turbulent et de la présence de géométries complexes. De plus, de nombreuses études expérimentales et numériques récentes ont mis en évidence le rôle prépondérant de l'inertie des particules sur les mécanismes de dispersion et de concentration préférentielle en écoulement turbulent. Ceci rend donc indispensable la prise en compte de ces mécanismes dans la modélisation diphasique. Au cours de ce travail de thèse, une approche eulérienne locale et instantanée a été développée pour prédire les écoulements gaz-particules anisothermes et turbulents. Elle est basée sur l'approche statistique du Formalisme Eulérien Mésoscopique (MEF) introduite par Février et al. (JFM, 2005). Cette approche a été ici étendue aux variables thermiques pour la prise en compte du caractère anisotherme de l'écoulement. Cette approche a été ensuite utilisée dans le cadre de la méthode des moments (Kaufmann et al., JCP, 2008), et un système d'équations locales et instantanées pour la phase dispersée a été proposé. La modélisation au premier ordre exige la fermeture des moments de second ordre apparaissant dans les équations de la quantité de mouvement et de l'énergie. La proposition de telles relations constitutives fait l'objet d'une partie de la thèse. Afin de fournir une méthode capable de prédire le comportement local, instantané et anisotherme de la phase dispersée dans des configurations `a une échelle réaliste, les équations pour la phase dispersée ont été filtrées et une modélisation aux grandes échelles (LES) est effectuée. Cette modélisation étends, par la prise en compte des variables thermiques, le travail de Moreau et al. (FtaC, 2010) sur l'approche LES Euler-Euler en conditions isothermes. L'approche complète est enfin appliquée aux résultats de simulation numérique d'un jet plan turbulent gazeux froid, chargé en particules, dans une turbulence homogène isotrope chaude monophasique. / The aim of this thesis is to provide an Eulerian modeling for the dispersed phase interacting with unsteady non-isothermal turbulent flows. The modeling of these flows is crucial for several industrial applications and for predictions of natural events. Examples are the combustion chambers of areo engines where the combustion is preceded by the injection and dispersion of liquid fuel. The prediction of such phenomena involves a local modeling of the mixture for taking into account the unsteady behavior of the turbulent flow and the presence of complex geometries. Moreover, many experimental and numerical studies have recently highlighted the significant role of the particle inertia on the mechanisms of dispersion and preferential concentration. Accounting for such mechanisms is therefore essential for modeling the particle-laden turbulent flows. In this thesis, a local and instantaneous Eulerian approach able to describe and to predict the local behavior of inertial particles interacting with non-isothermal turbulent flows has been developed. It is based on the statistical approach known as Mesoscopic Eulerian formalism (MEF) introduced by Février et al. (JFM, 2005). The statistical approach has been extended to the thermal quantities in order to account for the non-isothermal conditions into the modeling. This formalism is then used in the framework of the moment approach (Kaufmann et al., JCP, 2008) and a system of local and instantaneous equations for the non-isothermal dispersed phase has been suggested. The first order modeling requires to close second-order moments appearing in momentum and energy equations. The proposal of such constitutive relations makes the object of a part of this study. In order to provide an Eulerian approach usable in real configurations at industrial scale, the equations of the dispersed phase are filtered and the approach developed in the framework of the Large-Eddy Simulations. From the work of Moreau et al. (FTaC, 2010), the Eulerian-Eulerian LES approach is then extended to non-isothermal conditions. The whole modeling is then a priori tested against numerical simulations of a cold planar turbulent particle-laden jet crossing a homogeneous isotropic decaying hot turbulence.

Over 80 rural hospitals have closed in the United States since 2010, representing about half of all hospital closures during this period, and another 600-700 rural hospitals are at risk of closing shortly. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study, which was based on transformational leadership and diffusion of innovation theories, was to gain a common understanding of financial problems and operational inefficiencies that may be impacting rural hospital leaders in the state of Texas. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews with 4 senior healthcare leaders from 3 separate regions in Texas. Data analysis included compiling, sorting, fragmenting, and reassembling of the data into 19 common themes. The 4 most common themes included poor payer mix and uninsured population, inconsistency with evidence-based measures, costs of providing care exceeding reimbursement, and the movement of inpatient procedures to outpatient. The study findings may help advance the practice of leadership in both rural and urban healthcare. This study may contribute to positive social change by creating awareness of how rural hospitals are in danger of closures, and how these closures can affect urban hospitals and overall quality of life for rural Americans.

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) in a flat-plate configuration require a hermetic seal between the fuel and air sides of the electrodes, and this seal must withstand a variety of thermally-induced stresses over the lifetime of the cell. In this study, quantitative microstructure-property relationships are developed to predict optimum seal structures for mechanical properties and thermal expansion coefficient criteria. These relationships are used to create an inverse approach to characterizing the processing method from the desired microstructure. The main focus of the work concentrates on providing tools to enable macroscopic property predictions from the constituent properties using homogenization techniques based on the individual phase properties and microstructure morphology. The microstructure is represented by two-point correlation functions. Statistical continuum mechanics models were then employed and developed to predict the mechanical and thermal properties of the material. The models enable the prediction of elastic modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion of the multi-phase material. The inelastic mechanical behavior was also studied, indicating microstructure dependence. These models will aid in predicting the a proper seal microstructure (with desired elastic stiffness, coefficient of thermal expansion, and viscoelastic behaviors) based on a desired level of crystallization glass-ceramic materials.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université Laval, 1999. / Comprend des réf. bibliogr.

Turbulent dynamics at two sites (C and D) in a hypoxic zone on the Texas- Louisiana continental shelf were studied by investigating turbulence quantities i.e. turbulence kinetic energy (TKE), dissipation rate of TKE (E), Reynolds stress (τ ), dissipation rate of temperature variance (χ), eddy diffusivity of temperature (ν't), and eddy diffusivity of density (ν'p). Numerical models were also applied to test their capability of simulating these turbulence quantities. At site D, TKE, E, and τ were calculated from velocity measurements in the bot- tom boundary layer (BBL), using the Kolmogorov’s -5/3 law in the inertial subrange of energy spectra of vertical velocity fluctuations in each burst measurement. Four second-moment turbulence closure models were applied for turbulence simulations, and modeled turbulence quantities were found to be consistent with those observed. It was found from inter-model comparisons that models with the stability functions of Schumann and Gerz predicted higher values of turbulence quantities than those of Cheng in the mid layer, which might be due to that the former stability functions are not sensitive to buoyancy. At site C, χ, E, v’t, and ν’p were calculated from profile measurements throughout the water column, and showed high turbulence level in the surface boundary layer and BBL, as well as in the mid layer where shear stress was induced by advected non-local water above a hypoxic layer. The relatively high dissolved oxygen in the non-local water resulted in upward and downward turbulent oxygen fluxes, and the bottom hypoxia will deform due to turbulence in 7.11 days. Two of the four models in the study at site D were implemented, and results showed that turbulence energy resulting from the non-local water was not well reproduced. We attribute this to the lack of high-resolution velocity measurements for simulations. Model results agreed with observations only for χ and E simulated from the model with the stability function of Cheng in the BBL. Discrepancies between model and observational results lead to the following conclusions: 1) the stability functions of Schumann and Gerz are too simple to represent the turbulent dynamics in stratified mid layers; 2) detailed velocity profiles measurements are required for models to accurately predict turbulence quantities. Missing such observations would result in underestimation,

Informal mining requires particular attention in the fight against poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, the world's poorest region, more than ten millions of people have depended on it for livelihoods. The aim of this study was to investigate the causes and impacts of the suspension of informal mining in the eastern DRC, between 2010 and 2011, on rural livelihoods in Twangiza. The study being a qualitative case study, both primary and secondary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with a total of 21 respondents and analyzed using thematic methods. This study has found that geopolitical influences upon the DRC government‟s concerns over fraud, corruption, loss of state revenues and the perpetuation of conflicts associated with informal mining activities were the main causes of its suspension in the eastern DRC. In Twangiza however, although informal mining was still practiced until 2010 when it was suspended across the eastern DRC, it had already been illegalized since 2003, following the introduction of BANRO - a Canadian based multinational company – to mine in the area. This happened shortly after DRC‟s adoption of a predominantly neo-liberal driven Mining Code in 2001. This study has also found that the suspension of informal mining worsened the already venerable rural livelihoods in Twangiza as it resulted in increased unemployment, loss of income and food as well school dropouts by both pupils and teachers. To cope with these impacts many people decided to liquidate their assets, including livestock and land. While some of them managed to reemploy themselves by reinvesting in small businesses or migrating outside the community to search jobs, the most vulnerable had no option but to stay at home, resort to theft or prostitution. This study, therefore stresses the livelihood importance of informal mining in Twangiza, which is consistent with previous studies on informal mining and livelihoods among poor communities in developing countries, especially in Africa. It also questions the consistency of DRC‟s mining policy and provides some constructive recommendations on how mining should be used to promote sustainable development in the eastern DRC. / Thesis (M.Dev.Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.