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Spatio-temporal data have become increasingly prevalent and important for both science and enterprises. Such data are typically embedded in a grid with a resolution larger than the true dimensionality of the underlying system. One major task is to identify the distinct semi-autonomous functional components of the spatio-temporal system and to infer their interconnections. In this thesis, we propose two methods that identify the functional components of a spatio-temporal system. Next, an edge inference process identifies the possibly lagged and weighted connections between the system’s components. The weight of an edge accounts for the magnitude of the interaction between two components; the lag associated with each edge accounts for the temporal ordering of these interactions. The first method, geo-Cluster, infers the spatial components as “areas”; spatially contiguous, non-overlapping, sets of grid cells satisfying a homogeneity constraint in terms of their average pair-wise cross-correlation. However, in real physical systems the underlying physical components might overlap. To this end we also propose δ-MAPS, a method that first identifies the epicenters of activity of the functional components of the system and then creates domains – spatially contiguous, possibly overlapping, sets of grid cells that satisfy the same homogeneity constraint. The proposed framework is applied in climate science and neuroscience. We show how these methods can be used to evaluate cutting edge climate models and identify lagged relationships between different climate regions. In the context of neuroscience, the method successfully identifies well-known “resting state networks” as well as a few areas forming the backbone of the functional cortical network. Finally, we contrast the proposed methods to dimensionality reduction techniques (e.g., clustering PCA/ICA) and show their limitations.

M.Com. (Economics) / In this study the use of distributed lags in the estimation of econometric equations is discussed with special reference to Shirley Almon's model of polinomically distributed lags. In chapter 2 of this study possible reasons for the existence of distributed lags as well as a number of distributed lag models are discussed. In chapter 3 the estimation of Almon lag models with and without the existence of end restrictions is discussed with special mention of the practical problems associated with such estimations. In chapter 4 the estimation of multi-variable Almon lags and the benefit of computer programs in the estimation thereof are discussed. In chapter 5 a procedure is given for the estimation of Almon lag models with examples of the estimation of two fuctions: Investment: Private: Non-Agriculture (IPNL) and Exports Excluding Gold (XSG).

As rural populations decrease and cities expand, the importance of urban ecological research becomes globally significant. Urban ecology seeks to understand the complex relationships between human settlements and their ecological contexts in an attempt to ensure sustainable futures. The discipline of urban ecology is at the forefront of the conflict between human perceptions, economy, and politics. Despite numerous studies conducted in urban areas in South Africa, no one city has yet synthesized all the amassed research conducted within its city limits. A shortage of detailed ecological data, therefore, led to an extensive study of urban open spaces in some cities of the North-West Province encompassing multiple disciplines. Consequently, this study attempts to consolidate and evaluate all the existing urban ecological research in South Africa and specifically, in the city of Potchefstroom. Firstly, a comprehensive overview of South African urban ecological literature discussing the early development, research themes and the future of urban ecology in South Africa was carried out. Three hundred and fourteen publications were reviewed and categorized into the following research themes: physical environment, biodiversity, management, conservation, planning, human needs, sustainability, public participation, ecosystem services, and resilience. Secondly, as researchers have long been interested in studying and explaining patterns of biodiversity in natural and anthropogenic landscapes, many theories have been proposed on the drivers of these patterns and numerous studies compare current land-use effects with biotic assemblages. However, a much-neglected perspective in urban ecological research is the impact of the history of the landscape. Consequently, the second paper investigated the possible time lags in the response of temperate natural grasslands to urbanization and the factors driving these changes. Thirdly, a study of the temporal vegetation dynamics of urban grasslands in Potchefstroom over a 17-year period was carried out. Open grasslands, woody vegetation sites, and vacant lots were resurveyed within the city limits. The potential change in species richness and abundance of species, and the differences in species composition between these three habitat types were compared. Lastly, the fourth paper synthesizes all the relevant existing interdisciplinary research carried out of urban open spaces in Potchefstroom. This is evaluated against municipal governance and management strategies, environmental law, public opinion and the steep spatially organized socio-economic gradient found in Potchefstroom, informing the progress towards a sustainable, liveable city. The results of the literature study indicated that there were various gaps within each theme that need to be addressed in future. In the study on the effects of urbanization history on observed vegetation patterns, the woody vegetation showed important time lags in the response of indigenous species richness to urbanization. The measures altitude and the road network density of natural areas were the most frequent predictors of species richness. Results of the temporal vegetation dynamics of urban grasslands indicated that in the relatively short 17 year period most vegetation diversity indices changed significantly, specifically a significant decrease in indigenous species richness of both grasslands and woody communities were noted. The synthesis of all the studies carried out in Potchefstroom revealed an impressive number of studies carried out, however most of the biodiversity groups were represented by a single investigation only. Evaluating the results with the IDP revealed than much of the known ecological information in Potchefstroom remains undiscovered by municipal policymakers. Moreover, proposed future development is planned for some of the highest biodiversity sites. This synthesis and the subsequent identification of the gaps in our understanding and research themes will allow a purposeful and informed advancement of the science of urban ecology in South Africa and the contribution thereof towards advancing urban ecology globally. In addition, the history of urbanization affects contemporary vegetation assemblages in urban areas indicating potential extinction debts. Moreover, the significant decreases in indigenous species richness of woody and grassland sites have important consequences for urban grassland conservation in South Africa. Subsequently, the knowledge and the identification of research gaps allow decision makers in Potchefstroom to plan for sustainable future solutions and for this city to emerge as a leading role player in the South African urban ecological context. The results of this thesis could be a substantial practical aid in policy and management strategies furthering decision makers in the pursuit of the elusive goal of developing sustainable cities. / PhD (Environmental Sciences), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

As rural populations decrease and cities expand, the importance of urban ecological research becomes globally significant. Urban ecology seeks to understand the complex relationships between human settlements and their ecological contexts in an attempt to ensure sustainable futures. The discipline of urban ecology is at the forefront of the conflict between human perceptions, economy, and politics. Despite numerous studies conducted in urban areas in South Africa, no one city has yet synthesized all the amassed research conducted within its city limits. A shortage of detailed ecological data, therefore, led to an extensive study of urban open spaces in some cities of the North-West Province encompassing multiple disciplines. Consequently, this study attempts to consolidate and evaluate all the existing urban ecological research in South Africa and specifically, in the city of Potchefstroom. Firstly, a comprehensive overview of South African urban ecological literature discussing the early development, research themes and the future of urban ecology in South Africa was carried out. Three hundred and fourteen publications were reviewed and categorized into the following research themes: physical environment, biodiversity, management, conservation, planning, human needs, sustainability, public participation, ecosystem services, and resilience. Secondly, as researchers have long been interested in studying and explaining patterns of biodiversity in natural and anthropogenic landscapes, many theories have been proposed on the drivers of these patterns and numerous studies compare current land-use effects with biotic assemblages. However, a much-neglected perspective in urban ecological research is the impact of the history of the landscape. Consequently, the second paper investigated the possible time lags in the response of temperate natural grasslands to urbanization and the factors driving these changes. Thirdly, a study of the temporal vegetation dynamics of urban grasslands in Potchefstroom over a 17-year period was carried out. Open grasslands, woody vegetation sites, and vacant lots were resurveyed within the city limits. The potential change in species richness and abundance of species, and the differences in species composition between these three habitat types were compared. Lastly, the fourth paper synthesizes all the relevant existing interdisciplinary research carried out of urban open spaces in Potchefstroom. This is evaluated against municipal governance and management strategies, environmental law, public opinion and the steep spatially organized socio-economic gradient found in Potchefstroom, informing the progress towards a sustainable, liveable city. The results of the literature study indicated that there were various gaps within each theme that need to be addressed in future. In the study on the effects of urbanization history on observed vegetation patterns, the woody vegetation showed important time lags in the response of indigenous species richness to urbanization. The measures altitude and the road network density of natural areas were the most frequent predictors of species richness. Results of the temporal vegetation dynamics of urban grasslands indicated that in the relatively short 17 year period most vegetation diversity indices changed significantly, specifically a significant decrease in indigenous species richness of both grasslands and woody communities were noted. The synthesis of all the studies carried out in Potchefstroom revealed an impressive number of studies carried out, however most of the biodiversity groups were represented by a single investigation only. Evaluating the results with the IDP revealed than much of the known ecological information in Potchefstroom remains undiscovered by municipal policymakers. Moreover, proposed future development is planned for some of the highest biodiversity sites. This synthesis and the subsequent identification of the gaps in our understanding and research themes will allow a purposeful and informed advancement of the science of urban ecology in South Africa and the contribution thereof towards advancing urban ecology globally. In addition, the history of urbanization affects contemporary vegetation assemblages in urban areas indicating potential extinction debts. Moreover, the significant decreases in indigenous species richness of woody and grassland sites have important consequences for urban grassland conservation in South Africa. Subsequently, the knowledge and the identification of research gaps allow decision makers in Potchefstroom to plan for sustainable future solutions and for this city to emerge as a leading role player in the South African urban ecological context. The results of this thesis could be a substantial practical aid in policy and management strategies furthering decision makers in the pursuit of the elusive goal of developing sustainable cities. / PhD (Environmental Sciences), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

In spite of many efforts in the past, inference or reverse engineering of regulatory networks from microarray data remains an unsolved problem in the area of systems biology. Such regulatory networks play a critical role in cellular function and organization and are of interest in the study of a variety of disease areas and ecotoxicology to name a few. This dissertation proposes information theoretic methods/algorithms for inferring regulatory networks from microarray data. Most of the algorithms proposed in this dissertation can be implemented both on time series and multifactorial microarray data sets. The work proposed here infers regulatory networks considering the following six factors: (i) computational efficiency to infer genome-scale networks, (ii) incorporation of prior biological knowledge, (iii) choosing the optimal network that minimizes the joint network entropy, (iv) impact of higher order structures (specifically 3-node structures) on network inference (v) effects of the time sensitivity of regulatory interactions and (vi) exploiting the benefits of existing/proposed metrics and algorithms for reverse engineering using the concept of consensus of consensus networks. Specifically, this dissertation presents an approach towards incorporating knock-out data sets. The proposed method for incorporating knock-out data sets is flexible so that it can be easily adapted in existing/new approaches. While most of the information theoretic approaches infer networks based on pair-wise interactions this dissertation discusses inference methods that consider scoring edges from complex structures. A new inference method for building consensus networks based on networks inferred by multiple popular information theoretic approaches is also proposed here. For time-series datasets, new information theoretic metrics were proposed considering the time-lags of regulatory interactions estimated from microarray datasets. Finally, based on the scores predicted for each possible edge in the network, a probabilistic minimum description length based approach was proposed to identify the optimal network (minimizing the joint network entropy). Comparison analysis on in-silico and/or real time data sets have shown that the proposed algorithms achieve better inference accuracy and/or higher computational efficiency as compared with other state-of-the-art schemes such as ARACNE, CLR and Relevance Networks. Most of the methods proposed in this dissertation are generalized and can be easily incorporated into new methods/algorithms for network inference.

Background: This study explored the differences between the seasonal mortality rates (by age and gender) between the two jurisdictions (the Republic of Ireland (RoI) and Northern Ireland (NI)). The study assessed the relationship between cold temperatures and daily mortality, and assessed for effect modification of the cold weather-mortality relationship by age and gender. Methods: Mortality rates were calculated for each cause-specific mortality group during various seasons in both jurisdictions. A time-stratified case-crossover approach was applied to examine the cold weather-mortality relationship, 1984-2007. The daily mortality risk was explored in association with exposure to daily maximum temperatures on the same day and up to 6 weeks preceding death, during the winter months and extended cold period (October-March), using distributed lag models. Model stratification by age and gender assessed for modification of the cold weather-mortality relationship. Results: The winter mortality rates were significantly greater than the summer rates. NI experienced higher mortality from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease and stroke. The impact of cold weather in the winter months persisted up to 35 days in the RoI, with a cumulative mortality increase for all-cause of 6.4% (95%CI: 4.8%-7.9%) with regards to every 1oC drop in the daily maximum temperature with similar associations for cardiovascular disease and stroke with twice as much for respiratory diseases. The associations were less pronounced and less persistent in NI. Conclusions: The study observed excess winter mortality. The cold weather-mortality associations increased with age with some suggestion of gender differences. There were strong cold weather-mortality associations in both jurisdictions, with suggestive differences in associations by age and gender. The findings suggest the potential contribution of societal differences, and require further exploration. These findings will hopefully contribute to the current efforts to modify fuel policy and reduce winter mortality in both jurisdictions.

While the long run productivity of federal highway infrastructure spending has been well researched, their short run effects and effects on income inequality. This dissertation explores those under-researched unconventional effects. In the first chapter, I investigate the effects of federal infrastructure grants on income inequality. I find that grants reduce inequality in both recipient and neighboring states. The reduction is driven by greater income among the bottom three income quintiles. I explore two mechanisms using person level data and find that the reduction in inequality is attributable to higher income for low-skilled workers and workers working in low-skilled industries. In the second chapter, I investigate the role of implementation lags in the ARRA. I find that the employment effects after six months were nearly twice as high in short lag counties compared to long lag counties. However, these effects quickly fade. I find no evidence of implementation lags impacting employment after one year. In the third chapter, I examine the effect of the business cycle on completion times of federally financed transportation infrastructure projects. I find that projects that begin construction during periods of economic slack are completed more quickly, suggesting an alternative mechanism for state dependent fiscal multipliers.

L’objectif de cette thèse est l’étude de la croissance et du développement économique des pays émergents à travers l’Investissement Direct Etranger. Les pays émergents adoptent des stratégies d’attractivité des IDE, lesquels favorisent ensuite l’assimilation des transferts technologiques qu’ils véhiculent. Ces stratégies sont articulées autour de plusieurs points : surcroît de réglementation, instauration d’un système de bonne gouvernance, renforcement de la stabilité macroéconomique et développement des infrastructures et du capital humain. Nous nous intéressons aux pays de la région MENA qui viennent de subir des changements politiques et sociaux profonds. Des pays que l’Europe occidentale gagnerait à accompagner, pour assurer le succès de cette phase transitionnelle. C’est pourquoi, nous prenons exemple sur les pays de la région PECO au lendemain de la chute du mur de Berlin et sur les pays de l’Europe occidentale au lendemain de la seconde guerre mondiale. A partir de la décennie 1980, suite à l’effondrement des cours du pétrole qui a eu des conséquences majeures sur leurs économies fragiles, les pays de la région MENA se sont efforcés de diversifier leur économie. Dans un premier chapitre, nous montrons la nature des canaux, à travers lesquels se concrétisent les effets des IDE sur la croissance des pays émergents. A partir des théories récentes de la croissance économique, les politiques d’attraction des IDE menées par les pays émergents constituent un élément moteur de la croissance, à partir du moment où ces pays possèdent un capital humain capable d’absorber les technologies et le savoir-faire véhiculés par l’IDE. Dans un deuxième chapitre et à travers diverses méthodes empiriques, nous établissons les déterminants des IDE. A l’aide de comparaisons à l’échelle régionale, nous nous focalisons, plus particulièrement, sur les déterminants institutionnels à court terme. En nous appuyant par la suite sur un modèle gravitationnel dans les troisième et quatrième chapitres, nous mettons en évidence les déterminants essentiels de l’IDE dans les pays d'Europe centrale et orientale (PECO), ainsi que les éventuelles différences de comportement des investisseurs étrangers envers l’ancienne UE-15 et les PECO, et ce, dix ans après l’élargissement de la Communauté européenne. Nous montrons ainsi un glissement à la fois dans l’orientation géographique des investisseurs mais aussi dans leurs motivations. Nous n’observons donc pas de rapprochement des déterminants des PECO vers ceux de l’UE-15. En revanche, l’effet de concurrence fiscale tend à se diffuser dans les stratégies des firmes des PECO vers l’ensemble de l’Union européenne. Ceci coïncide avec la survenue de la crise qui a occasionné une plus grande volatilité dans les flux d’IDE. Dans le cinquième chapitre, nous analysons à long terme les déterminants institutionnels des IDE dans la région MENA. Nous mettons en relief une panoplie d’indicateurs institutionnels afin d’identifier leur importance relative sur les flux d’IDE ; et ce, après le contrôle des déterminants macroéconomiques. Nous prenons en considération les effets de retournement de conjoncture économique, dus principalement aux récessions et aux crises économiques. Nos résultats indiquent que les indicateurs institutionnels sont positivement reliés aux IDE. Enfin, dans le sixième chapitre, et pour la même région, nous examinons la relation entre la croissance économique, l’IDE, les exportations, la population active et l’investissement en capital. Ladite relation demeurant l'un des problèmes les plus importants de la littérature économique, elle rencontre un regain d'intérêt, principalement pour les pays de la région MENA, qui souffrent de problèmes sociaux, économiques et de retard technologique. En utilisant l’approche ARDL, nous montrons enfin qu’il existe une relation de cointégration entre ces variables, aussi bien à long terme qu’à court terme. / This thesis aims at studying the growth and the economic development of emerging countries through Foreign Direct Investment. Emerging countries adopt FDI-luring strategies, which subsequently guarantee the assimilation of the technological transfers they convey. Such strategies are built around several axes: increased regulation, the implementation of a good governance system, the invigorating of macroeconomic stability and the development of infrastructure and human resources. We focus on the OECD countries that have just undergone profound political and social changes. Indeed, Western Europe has to support these countries to ensure the success of this transitional phase. It is precisely for this reason that we follow the example of the CEEC countries in the wake of the Berlin Wall fall on the one hand and the Western European countries in the aftermath of WWII on the other. Starting from the 1980s, after the collapse of oil prices- which had tremendous repercussions on fragile economies-, the OECD countries sought to diversify their economy. In the first chapter, we show the nature of the channels that materialize the FDI effects on the emerging countries’ growth. With reference to the latest theories of economic growth, the FDI attraction policies adopted by the emerging countries represent a driving force for growth as long as these countries are endowed with human resources capable of absorbing the technologies and the know-how conveyed by the FDIs. In the second chapter, relying on a variety of empirical methods, we establish the FDI determinants. More particularly, we focus on the short-term institutional determinants at a national comparative scale.Then, in the third and fourth chapters, relying on the gravitational model, we highlight the main FDI determinants in the Central and Eastern Europe countries (CEECs) as well as the possible differences of foreign investors’ behavior towards the former EU-15 and the CEEC, and that is ten years after the extension of the European Community. Thus, we show a fall in the investors’ geographical orientation as well as motivations. Therefore, there is no reconciliation between the CEEC’s determinants and those of the EU-15. However, the tax competition seems to spread among the CEEC firms’ policiestowards the EU as a whole. This concurs with the financial crisis which brought about a bigger volatility in the FDI flows. In the fifth chapter, we analyze the long run institutional FDI determinants in the OECD region. We emphasize a range of institutional indicators in order to identify their relative impact on the FDI flows; and this after having examined the macroeconomic determinants. We take into consideration the effects of economic conjuncture downturns, which are mainly due to recessions and economic crises. Our findings show that the institutional indicators are positively related to FDIs.Finally, in the sixth chapter and for the same region, we investigate the relationship between economic growth, FDI, exportation, workforce and capital investment. Since the so-called relationship is still one of the main problems in the economic literature, it has witnessed renewed interest, mainly for the OECD countries, which are affected by social and economic problems as well as a technological gap. Based on an ARDL approach, we eventually show that there is eventually a cointegration relationship between these variables, both in the long run as well as in the short run.

近年來大量的就業人口都是利用辦公室的生產者，例如美國在70年代有25%的新進工作人員在辦公室進行工作，而至80年代更提高至27%。在此種狀況下，就臺灣地區而言，大型現代化辦公大樓的需求必然會逐漸強烈，尤其在跨國性的旅行、信託（保險）公司、專業服務性公司的不斷地在台灣設立分據點之後，對高品質辦公大樓的需求必然會持續增加，另外在國際性企業大量「進出」台灣後，未來不動產市場的兩大趨勢：一是大型現代化辦公大樓勢將不足，特別是擁有自動化系統的辦公大樓將嚴重缺乏；二是申小型及老舊的辦公市場將會停滯。特別是臺北都會區為臺灣地區的政經中心，具有吸引辦公大樓集中此地的客觀要件。，況且辦公大樓的供需有時間落差，一旦不動產市場景氣有所變化，辦公大樓的供需便產生失調，使得空閒率上升或是供不應求，形成資源浪費，因此制定合理的供需模式，進行都會區的前程規劃，使有限的土地資源得以合理的利用，以維持都會的成長。 　　本論文共有六章，內含二十一節，相關內容如下： 　　第壹章：含研究動機、目的、流程、方法及研究範圍之說明。 　　第貳章：針對辦公大樓與聚集經濟以及國外研究辦公大樓供需模式之相關文獻予收集整理，以為理論分析之基礎。 　　第參章：將辦公大樓市場運作的過程進行模擬，並對影響辦公大樓供需之因子分別加以探討，配合存貨調整模型，解決理想與期望之間的差益。 　　第肆章：將目前台北都會區辦公大樓之實況予清析之描述，使理論與實際狀況互相調整其差益異點。 　　第伍章：由理論模式之觀點截取所須之市場性資料，配合VAR之動態迴歸模型進行辦公大樓的實證分析。 　　第陸章：綜合前文之分析，提出本研究之結論與建議。 / In recent years,many new employees are work in office.For ex ample,in American there are 25% new employees are work in office in 70',and in 80',the office's employment rate became 27% . In T aiwan ,modern office building's demand will become graduate stro ng year for year. Because many international cooperation set bra nches in Taiwan. In future, office building' s development has fa ce tow conditions;the first is modern and large scale office wil l lack of the necessary ,the others is old type office will rebu ilt or depreciation. Especial Taipei is the capital of Taiwan an d lack of land, In these years, real estate's price arise too hi gh. Many manufacturing plant can not offer higher rent so plant move out. This situation make damage to Taiwan's economy develop ment, so the urban planning department need preplanning with oth er land use. In order to get the goal of equal rughts.