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published_or_final_version / Law / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

We present new approaches to define and analyze geometric graphs. The region-counting distances, introduced by Demaine, Iacono and Langerman, associate to any pair of points (p,q) the number of items of a dataset S contained in a region R(p,q) surrounding (p,q). We define region-counting disks and circles, and study the complexity of these objects. Algorithms to compute epsilon-approximations of region-counting distances and approximations of region-counting circles are presented. We propose a definition of the locality for properties of geometric graphs. We measure the local density of graphs using the region-counting distances between pairs of vertices, and we use this density to define local properties of classes of graphs. We illustrate the locality by introducing the local diameter of geometric graphs: we define it as the upper bound on the size of the shortest path between any pair of vertices, expressed as a function of the density of the graph around those vertices. We determine the local diameter of several well-studied graphs such as the Theta-graph, the Ordered Theta-graph and the Skip List Spanner. We also show that various operations, such as path and point queries using geometric graphs as data structures, have complexities which can be expressed as local properties. A family of proximity graphs, called Empty Region Graphs (ERG) is presented. The vertices of an ERG are points in the plane, and two points are connected if their neighborhood, defined by a region, does not contain any other point. The region defining the neighborhood of two points is a parameter of the graph. This family of graphs includes several known proximity graphs such as Nearest Neighbor Graphs, Beta-Skeletons or Theta-Graphs. We concentrate on ERGs that are invariant under translations, rotations and uniform scaling of the vertices. We give conditions on the region defining an ERG to ensure a number of properties that might be desirable in applications, such as planarity, connectivity, triangle-freeness, cycle-freeness, bipartiteness and bounded degree. These conditions take the form of what we call tight regions: maximal or minimal regions that a region must contain or be contained in to make the graph satisfy a given property. We show that every monotone property has at least one corresponding tight region; we discuss possibilities and limitations of this general model for constructing a graph from a point set. We introduce and analyze sigma-local graphs, based on a definition of locality by Erickson, to illustrate efficient construction algorithm on a subclass of ERGs.

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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / Presently ice extent forecast models such as the U.S. Navy Polar Ice Prediction System (PIPS) neglect or treat small-scale thermodynamic processes and entrainment unrealistically. Incorporating better algorithms that include more complete physics of the mixed layer dynamics will allow for improved prediction of ice thickness and distribution, open water boundaries, polynyas, and deep-water formation in the polar seas. A one-dimensional mixed layer turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget model based on Garwood's NPS mixed layer model for deep convection (Garwood, 1991) was written in MATLAB. The model consisted of a system of ten equations derived by vertically integrating the budgets for heat, momentum, salinity, and turbulent kinetic energy between the sea-ice-air interface and the base of the turbulent mixed layer. The NPS mixed layer model was tested using atmospheric forcing and ocean profiles collected at the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean Experiment (SHEBA) site. Sensitivity studies using ocean profiles of the Greenland Sea were also conducted to address thermodynamics and ocean profiles that enhance thermohaline circulation. Findings and results as well as recommendations for further study are addressed to extend the relationships determined from small 1-D scales to the larger 3-D scales suitable for improvements to current ice models. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

This thesis explores whether and how the substantive representation of women has been enabled or constrained by specific features of the gendered institutional context during domestic abuse policy development in two new regional legislatures, in Wales and in Tuscany. The thesis uses a sociological institutionalist approach to explore the involvement of civil society women’s organisations in the everyday processes of domestic abuse policy development across the case study regions. Both regions are structured by uniquely advanced formal rules committing to the inclusion of civil society organisations and to the value of gender equality. A critical discourse analytic approach is used to investigate how pre-existing informal norms and discursive frames interact with these formal rules in shaping actors’ behaviour and the policy solutions proposed to tackle domestic abuse. Feminist political science scholars have hypothesised that changes in the political environment across the European Union, including decentralisation and the devolution of power to the sub-national level, have generated new institutions which may provide greater opportunities for actors making claims for women to participate in the policy process and to influence its outputs, thus improving the substantive representation of women. However, this thesis argues that in the case of domestic abuse policy development, new formal rules making a symbolic commitment to the inclusion of new actors in governing processes were often undermined by tenacious informal norms. Women’s organisations that were better equipped to play by pre-existing informal rules were more likely to be included. This thesis makes a contribution to theory-building in the field of feminist political science through an exploration of the nuanced effects of new governing structures on the participation of value-driven women’s organisations in policy development. It shows how gendered, culturally dominant discursive frames and wider, pre-existing norms shaping perceptions of appropriate behaviour can affect women’s organisations’ opportunities for action in the policy process, and their capacity to influence outputs.