This thesis presents a critical reading of the multilayeredness in contemporary cities through the case of Divanyolu, main road of the historical istanbul. The ground in this case displays the fragmented character, so in order to follow the discontinuities in the morphological, economical, cultural and also hypothetic structures / this study will concentrate on the confrontation of layers within the framework of modernization process in the city. Beyond many possible discussions questioning the multiplicity of Istanbul, this study aims to encompass the specific character of the modernization process observed in Divanyolu. Furthermore, the information derived from the evaluation can suggest an exemplary framework for the new grounds in the multilayered sites, which is actually the other aim of the study. Within this framework, Divanyolu is chosen as a major urban case to discuss the complexity of the stratified ground. It was an example of a stratified ground being the main thoroughfare of the Ottoman Capital, which formed the important network from the Topkapi Palace to the Edirne Gate. The road has been the stage for the modernization process beginning from the 19th century to the present. With the different stage modernization process, the ground displayed the fragmented character. In this thesis, the main dynamics of this partial transformation will be evaluated.

This study concentrates on the fragmentation process of the city centers. The study suggests that it is not necessarily the planning decisions or the lack of a rigorous planning framework that brings about the fragmentation process. Local and global economic and social circumstances may also give way to fragmentation of the city center. These processes take place through the countenance of developers, city authorities and central government. In this context, the study focuses on the fragmentation process of the city center functions with specific attention to the retail decentralization. The issue is considered within the dilemma between the investor and urban development. The main concern of the study is to put forward the fragmentation process of the city center of Ankara, as a consequence of the changing economic structure and the decision making processes under certain economic conditions, concentrated on decentralization of organized retail. Within this framework three different methods are used to display the fragmentation process. The first one consider the changes in the urban space / the second one focus on the processes of location and relocation of public buildings / and the third one consider the impacts of the organized retailing on the fragmentation of the center through Armada Shopping Center. The first two methods, which are historical and geographical, demonstrate how this process was formed and the final empirical method quantitatively illustrates the fragmentation process. Doing this, the fragmentation process and the changes in the city center analyzed through the entrepreneurs and the major representatives of the central government and local administrations under the given economic and social structure.

An ecological approach to land-use planning is essential to maintain the long-term sustainability of ecosystem benefits, services, and resources. Concern about environmental quality and the long-term livability of urban areas is now a driving force in urban planning and design. The interrelated issues of growth management, smart growth, sustainable development, and new urbanism are topics in the most vibrant discussions at all levels of planning and landscape architecture. Within this context, this study starts from the interest in the ecological planning and management in urban areas, especially related to the issue of local development regulation and guidelines. Landscape regulations have come into existence recently in communities across the nation and these regulations vary from one region to another and from one community to another. The aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between ecological landscape structure and local development regulations over time. Comparison analysis was conducted between two areas that had similar pre-development ecological conditions but were developed under vastly different regulatory environments. The Woodlands (regulated to protect ecological condition) and the North Houston area (which followed traditional subdivision regulations) were examined at three different developmental time periods: predevelopment, early development (after 10 years), and matured development (after 30 years). Aerial photos of each site from the three time periods were classified into forested and non-forested classes and the landscape structure was quantified with a number of landscape metrics related to fragmentation??an indicator of habitat degradation. Two factors, the ecological approach to landscape planning and the adoption of more restrictive landscape regulations and guidelines, are discussed on the premise that they exert influence in developing and maintaining the long-term sustainability of ecosystems. In conclusion, this study provides the quantified landscape configuration and composition of the effects of development regulations on landscape structure. The ecologically planned community shows a less fragmented forest pattern and more restrictive development guidelines result in more ecologically structured environments. Understanding how elements of local development regulations affect ecological landscape patterns is important for landscape architects, planners, and administrators because it can lead to better strategies for planning and designing sustainable communities.

This paper aims to use intra-industry trade (IIT) indices from 2000 to 2007 years to analyze whether and how the bilateral trade structure between Taiwan and China has changed and developed in recent years and predict the trend in the future. In order to treat the division of labor, we analyze further the horizontal or the vertical IIT is oriented by using relative unit values of imports and exports to identify differences in the quality of products that are traded between Taiwan and China. Besides, we add several independent variables and find out the influence factors of the whole IIT are market size, demand similarity, and trade imbalance by using Ordinary Least Squares method. Also, the influence factors of IT industry are foreign direct investment and barriers to trade. The empirical results show that, in general, the number of industries that engage in IIT and the level of IIT have increased. We also find that the majority of IIT is belonged to vertical differences, and the pattern of expansion is dominated by VIIT as well. Productions that are imported to China from Taiwan are generally of a higher quality than products imported to Taiwan from China, however, this paper also notes that in some industries the reverse is true.

This dissertation contributes to the definition of an analytical framework for the study of optimal jurisdictional size for local service delivery. We argue that the standard economics framework for the analysis of optimal jurisdictional size importantly neglects individual preferences for political accountability. Our theoretical model shows that once we take into account such preferences, the optimal jurisdictional size for the provision of local public goods is smaller than in the standard model. We obtain empirical evidence to support our hypothesis from a sample of 197 countries. Our results show that, in fact, demand for political accountability leads to higher jurisdictional fragmentation both in terms of greater number of jurisdictions and smaller average population per jurisdiction. In addition, a meta-analysis of the empirical contributions to the study of economies of scale in the provision of local services shows that the economies of scale expected from service provision to larger jurisdictional sizes may not be present except for a handful of local services, and limited to relatively small population sizes. The results of the meta-analysis signal moderately increasing to constant returns to scale in the provision of traditional local services. In light of these results, we argue that forced jurisdictional consolidation programs across the world justified by perceptions of excessive jurisdictional fragmentation, or by the expectation of large expenditure savings due to economies of scale may have been, thus, erroneously designed. From a policy perspective, multi-layered institutional frameworks for service delivery (including cooperation and privatization among other options) may allow targeting available efficiency gains more efficiently than consolidation.

Nous étudions certains processus de fragmentation qui sont liés à des processus de coalescence. Nous nous intéressons en premier lieu au coalescent de Bolthausen et Sznitman qui, retourné dans le temps, devient un processus de fragmentation inhomogène en temps. Nous décrivons alors sa mesure de dislocation instantanée en fonction de lois de Poisson-Dirichlet et en déduisons des asymptotiques sur la taille des blocs en temps grands et petits. Nous étudions aussi une classe de coalescents additifs après retournement de temps en tant que processus de fragmentation. Nous montrons alors que les lois de tous ces coalescents additifs sont absolument continues les unes par rapport aux autres et nous explicitons cette densité. Enfin, nous caractérisons la loi des fragmentations d'intervalle en la mettant en bijection avec les fragmentations de partitions ordonnées.

Reproduction de : Thèse de doctorat : Sciences des matériaux : Lille 1 : 2006. / N° d'ordre (Lille 1) : 3947. Résumé en français et en anglais. Titre provenant de la page de titre du document numérisé. Bibliogr. à la suite de chaque chapitre.

As suburban and exurban residential developments continue to multiply in urban areas, they encroach on wildlife habitats leading to increased human-wildlife interactions. The animals involved in direct conflict with homeowners are often relocated or exterminated by the homeowners. Often the homeowners contact state licensed wildlife trappers to eliminate the problem animal. In this study I examined how landscape, ecological, and social factors influence the incidence of human-wildlife conflict of thirty two residential areas in the Tampa, Florida metropolitan area. These residential areas, totaling over 300 km2, are part of the urban development gradient representing a range of urban land use from the urban core to exurban residential areas. This study consisted of four phases. In the first three phases, I investigated which landscape, ecological, and social factors contribute to homeowner conflict with wild animals on their property. In the last phase, I combine the significant factors contributing to human-wildlife conflict from the first three phases to build a more complete model. A spatial analysis of the locations of human-wildlife conflict events recorded by licensed wildlife trappers showed the most significant development and landscape factors affecting human-wildlife conflict reporting in a residential area were human population density and total area of natural habitat immediately adjacent to the residential area. A survey of the relative abundance of conflict prone animals living near and in remnant patches of habitat in suburban residential areas revealed that greater abundance was not correlated with the reported conflict of that species within that residential area. Species that were social, omnivorous, and had some flexibility in home range size were involved most often in conflict in highly urbanized environments. Species that were less social, and were not omnivorous, were not significantly involved in human-wildlife conflict in highly urbanized residential areas. These species tended to be restricted to intermediately urbanized areas like suburban and exurban residential areas. Several social factors were also significant contributors to human-wildlife conflict as revealed through personal interviews with suburban homeowners in Hillsborough and Pasco counties. Interviews confirmed that most people have positive attitudes toward wildlife, but some form of conflict was reported by thirty four percent of suburban residents, although only seventeen percent of those perceived it as a problem worth spending money to solve. Analysis of the attitudes of residents who reported having experienced problems associated with wildlife on their property, revealed significant negative correlations with statements of environmental concern and concern for the treatment of animals. Using all the significant variables from the physical landscape, ecological evaluation, and the human attitude study in the suburbs, I developed a statistical model of human-wildlife conflict across the urbanization gradient. While the model has marginal success in terms of practical application for prediction, it is quite valuable for defining the importance of these variables in relation to conflict with certain types of species across the gradient. This set of papers collectively defines relationships between variables existing in urban, suburban, and exurban residential areas and human-wildlife conflict. These factors should be considered when planning new residential areas to minimize human-wildlife conflict while maximizing the residents’ enjoyment of natural areas and species within the residential area.

Habitat degradation by humans has been the main reason for the decline in numbers of P. floridanus, the only mammal indigenous to the state of Florida, in the past century. The mouse inhabits what remains of scrub and sandhill associations, which are characterized by patches of sandy soils within a more mesic landscape. It has long been accepted that small populations are more prone to decline and extinction than are larger ones as a result of environmental fluctuations. I hypothesized that the demography of a population of P. floridanus would be affected by a restriction in numbers through habitat patch size in a deterministic way, even without any environmental effects. I also examined dispersal and looked for evidence of metapopulation dynamics. Mark-recapture data were collected from ten scrub fragments in Lake Wales Ridge State Forest, Polk County, FL, ranging in size from 0.5 to 170 ha. Program MARK was used to model survival, recruitment and population growth rate of P. floridanus as a function of habitat patch size and to evaluate temporary migration patterns. Recruitment was positively associated with patch size, but contrary to expectations survival and population growth were negatively associated with patch size. Results suggested that survival was negatively affected by ear tagging, although this effect was temporary. Evidence of migration was found, but would probably have been greater if trapping had been continued until after peak reproduction, when juveniles tend to disperse in search of resources. The degree of interbreeding among patches can only be determined with the help of genetic analyses. Microsatellites have become useful in analyses at the population level because of their high degree of variability. Future research including genetic analyses is recommended to evaluate the importance of gene flow among subgroups to demography and the viability of the study population.

The design, synthesis and characterization of novel conjugated polymers are described. Using a coupling reaction recently developed within our labs, polymers were constructed through triazene linkages generated by joining N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) with organic azides. This triazene reaction produced polymer of sufficiently high molecular weight as to be spin-coated and rendered conductive upon doping with iodine. The reaction also has potential for executing post-polymerization modifications. This was evidenced through rapid functionalization of poly(4-methylazido-styrene) via triazene formation using a commercially available N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC). A formal anion metathesis of benzobis(imidazolium)s was used to transform neutral block copolymers into block ionomers. Further investigation of the block ionomers revealed their solvent mediated self assembly. The gradual change of organic to aqueous media caused the adoption of a three-dimensional micelle conformation as determined by transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering. Through the exploitation of carbene-carbon disulfide adducts, new chain transfer agents were generated. After 2-dithiocarboxylate-imidazolium adduct formation, alkylation was performed with benzyl bromide. The resulting charged chain transfer agent was tested for its ability to moderate radical addition fragmentation (RAFT) polymerizations of styrene. A considerable increase in transfer kinetics as compared to that of commonly used RAFT agents was observed whilst retaining low polydispersity and molecular weight control. The rate enhancement is presumably due to the electron withdrawing imidazolium activating the thionyl towards the nucleophilic radical while retaining effective fragmentation. Ion coordinating macrocycles were affixed to a poly(methacrylate) scaffold for employment as electrolyte extractants. Polymer bound calix[4]pyrrole was found to complex fluoride and chloride with sufficient strength as to extract tetrabutylammonium salts from water. Enhanced extraction abilities were observed when calix[4]pyrrole was used in conjunction with benzo-15-crown-5. Methacrylate polymers containing both macrocycles affected the removal of aqueous potassium fluoride from a biphasic water/dichloromethane mixture. To provide evidence for the presence of potassium fluoride within the dichloromethane layer, ¹⁹F NMR and flame emission spectroscopy were used. / text