In this study, the capacitated vehicle routing problem with shift based time constraints is taken into consideration. The study stemmed from an application in a cross dock. The considered cross dock is assumed to feed directly the production lines of its customer. The customer has a just-in-time production system that requires producing only in necessary quantities at the necessary times. This necessitates the arrival of the parts/products collected from different suppliers at the customer at the beginning of each shift of production. The shift times constitute deadlines for the products to be collected from the suppliers and used in each shift. The collection problem then can be seen as the capacitated vehicle routing problem with shift based time constraints. The objective of the collection problem is to minimize the routing costs. For the accomplishment of this objective it is required to decide on products of which shift(s) should be taken from a supplier when a vehicle arrives at that supplier. For the solution of the problem a mathematical model is formulated. Since the dealt problem is NP-Hard, meta-heuristic solution approaches based on variable neighborhood search and simulated annealing are proposed. Computational experimentation is conducted on the test problems which are tailored from the capacitated vehicle routing instances from the literature.

The Adair Park neighborhood in southwest Atlanta was designed as a residential enclave for working class whites that has evolved to what it is today: an area primarily inhabited by low-income minorities. Many of its residents have worked to preserve the area's distinctive architectural heritage. Low housing values and vacancies have attracted affordable housing developers such as the Atlanta affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. In response to specific plans for the development of affordable housing in the area, members of Adair Park organized themselves to petition the City of Atlanta to adopt architectural standards that preserved the existing housing stock, and ensured that any new construction would be compatible with the neighborhood's architectural character. This study explores the tensions between inner-city communities and affordable housing developers in the quest for affordable and architecturally significant neighborhoods. The conclusions from this research suggest that the desire of predominately low-income neighborhoods to preserve the architecture character of historically significant neighborhoods may be firmly rooted in middle class aspirations and values. Moreover, the conclusions from this research also suggest non-profit housing developers should consider these attitudes prior to constructing affordable housing in predominately low-income neighborhoods.

In 2008 the Federal government enacted a Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to address the neighborhood effects of the late-2000s foreclosure crisis. Congress subsequently funded a second and third NSP. This research employs mixed methods to examine the effectiveness of the first round of the NSP in three Florida jurisdictions. The results are analyzed within the larger context of substantive housing theory and federal housing policy. The success of the program is evaluated using a mixed-scanning procedural planning theoretical framework.

Bakgrund: Tillgänglighet till service och resurser i närmiljön har betydelse för människors hälsa och livskvalitet. Äldre människor är särskilt beroende av god tillgänglighet i närområdet då det utgör den huvudsakliga vistelsemiljön för många äldre, samtidigt som åldrandet ofta medför en försämrad rörelseförmåga. Begreppet tillgänglighet innefattar flera faktorer, exempelvis avstånd och antal faciliteter som finns inom ett visst område, hur bekvämt och obehindrat man kan ta sig till faciliteterna och i vilken utsträckning faciliteterna uppfyller invånarnas behov. God tillgänglighet till faciliteter i närmiljön som främjar äldres hälsa och höjer deras livskvalitet förbättrar möjligheterna att uppnå ett gott åldrande. Syfte: Syftet med undersökningen var att beskriva tillgängligheten i närmiljön för äldre som bor i seniorboende samt studera skillnader i tillgänglighet i olika närområden. Studien belyste särskilt tillgängligheten till grönområden, livsmedelsbutiker, sociala mötesplatser för äldre och kollektivtrafik och fokuserades speciellt på faktorer relaterade till ”de fyra hörnpelarna för ett gott åldrande”, d v s fysisk aktivitet, god kosthållning, social gemenskap och stöd samt meningsfullhet och delaktighet. Metod: I studien ingick fyra seniorboenden i Gävle kommun, två belägna i centrala Gävle och två lokaliserade i perifera stadsdelar. Tillgängligheten analyserades med hänsyn till gångavstånd och beskrevs utifrån aspekterna rumslig fördelning, gångvägens beskaffenhet samt faciliteternas individuella kvaliteter. Kartläggningen av tillgängligheten gjordes med hjälp av geografiska informationssystem och fältstudier. Resultat: Tillgängligheten var likartad i de olika närområdena beträffande den rumsliga fördelningen av faciliteter. Samtliga undersökningsområden hade god tillgänglighet till grönområden, livsmedelsbutiker, sociala mötesplatser för äldre och kollektivtrafik med hänsyn till avstånd. Analysen av gångvägars beskaffenhet och faciliteters kvaliteter visade emellertid på vissa skillnader mellan områden. Mest framträdande var hur det mest centralt belägna området skilde sig från de övriga på flera sätt. Slutsatser: Analysen av resultatet visade att närområdena stödjer de fyra hörnpelarna för ett gott åldrande, speciellt vad gäller fysisk aktivitet, social gemenskap och meningsfullhet. Hörnpelaren ”god kosthållning” hade ett sämre stöd i samtliga områden. / Background: Accessibility to services and resources in the neighborhood is important for peoples health and their quality of life. Elderly people are especially dependent on good access in the neighborhood because it is the principal residence environment for many elderly. The concept of accessibility includes several factors such as distance and number of facilities that exist in a given area, how comfortable it is to reach the facilities and how the facilities provide for the residents needs. Good accessibility to facilities in the neighborhood which promote health of the elderly and increases their quality of life improves the chances of healthy ageing. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the accessibility in the neighborhood for elderly living in senior housing. The research focused on accessibility to green open spaces, supermarkets, social venues and public transportation. Method: The study included four senior housings, two in urban areas and two in suburban areas. The accessibility was analyzed with regard to walking distance and was described based on spatial aspects of accessibility, how comfortable it was to reach the facilities and how the facilities provided for the elderly persons needs. The accessibility was analysed by geographical information systems and field studies. Result: The accessibility to the facilities was similar in the neighborhood areas concerning the spatial distribution of facilities. All neighborhoods had good accessibility to green open spaces, supermarkets, social venues and public transportation regarding distance. The analysis of the other aspects of accessibility, however, showed some differences between areas in terms of the areas “walkability” and the quality of facilities. The most remarkable finding was how the most centrally located area differed from the others in several ways. Conclusion: The analysis of results showed that the neighborhoods had the potential to support healthy ageing, especially with regard to physical activity, social support and participation.

This study is the result of my curiosity about what makes urban places special and memorable. I believe that if the various physical components distinguishing urban places are identified and analyzed, we can develop principles and policies to preserve and enhance them. I chose Maillardville as the study area because of my familiarity with area, its historical and cultural significance, and because Maillardville is currently undergoing a physical transformation. Although place images may be an intangible urban quality, they are not difficult to study. Careful observation and resident interviews are efficient and economical tools to discover the various components of the urban image. From there it is possible to develop a visual plan for the preservation and enhancement of a particular place's image. In the course of this investigation I discovered that a direct relationship exists between Maillardville's physical components and the public image and that this public image focuses almost exclusively on the early settlement located in the Laval Square area. Recent changes outside this area are not significant to the residents' perception of the public image. Yet changes, such as the new commercial and multi-family redevelopments, when undertaken in a fashion which reflects Maillardville's cultural and historical context, are recognized by residents as supportive elements and with time will likely become significant to the public image. From this it appears that residents prefer to live in a unique environment that reflects a sense of continuity with the past. It is my hope that this study will contribute to the continuation of Maillardville as a unique place by identifying the image elements and illustrating their importance to the existing place image.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

The main contribution of this thesis, is to define similarity measures between two images with the main focus on content-based image retrieval (CBIR). Each image is considered as a set of visual elements that can be described with a set of visual descriptions (features). The similarity between images is then defined as the nearness between sets of elements based on a tolerance and a fuzzy tolerance relation. A tolerance relation is used to describe the approximate nature of the visual perception. A fuzzy tolerance relation is adopted to eliminate the need for a sharp threshold and hence model the gradual changes in perception of similarities. Three real valued similarity measures as well as a fuzzy valued similarity measure are proposed. All of the methods are then used in two CBIR experiments and the results are compared with classical measures of distance (namely, Kantorovich, Hausdorff and Mahalanobis). The results are compared with other published research papers. An important advantage of the proposed methods is shown to be their effectiveness in an unsupervised setting with no prior information. Eighteen different features (based on color, texture and edge) are used in all the experiments. A feature selection algorithm is also used to train the system in choosing a suboptimal set of visual features.

The purpose of this project has been to develop a neighborhood plan for the Longfellow Neighborhood in Iowa City, Iowa using the "bottoms up" approach. Once adopted and incorporated in the City's Comprehensive Plan, it will be the first neighborhood plan in Iowa City. My official role was to serve as one of the members of the City staff. This creative project is a documentation of the process involved in preparing the plan, and a reflection as to lessons learned from it both for Iowa City and for neighborhood planning generally. The preliminary plan draft was developed based upon goals, objectives, and an implementation strategy created and endorsed by the residents. A second draft was written in accordance with the residents' responses to the original content. Pending neighborhood approval and adoption of the draft, the final document will be developed and voted upon by the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council. The project, to date, has proven to be a successful endeavor that will serve as a precedent for other neighborhoods in Iowa City wishing to pursue the creation of their own neighborhood plans. / Department of Urban Planning

The main contribution of this thesis, is to define similarity measures between two images with the main focus on content-based image retrieval (CBIR). Each image is considered as a set of visual elements that can be described with a set of visual descriptions (features). The similarity between images is then defined as the nearness between sets of elements based on a tolerance and a fuzzy tolerance relation. A tolerance relation is used to describe the approximate nature of the visual perception. A fuzzy tolerance relation is adopted to eliminate the need for a sharp threshold and hence model the gradual changes in perception of similarities. Three real valued similarity measures as well as a fuzzy valued similarity measure are proposed. All of the methods are then used in two CBIR experiments and the results are compared with classical measures of distance (namely, Kantorovich, Hausdorff and Mahalanobis). The results are compared with other published research papers. An important advantage of the proposed methods is shown to be their effectiveness in an unsupervised setting with no prior information. Eighteen different features (based on color, texture and edge) are used in all the experiments. A feature selection algorithm is also used to train the system in choosing a suboptimal set of visual features.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Geography, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-85).