The primary purpose of the experiments presented in this report was to study systematically the geographic site-name, associative memory of male and female college students (predominantly White and middle class) for locations that varied in distance: local, national, and international sites. In the first experiment, participants were to match listed names of campus buildings and local cities with their marked locations on maps. In the second experiment, under a site-name memory, a site-name/map-aid memory, and a map-aid/name-aid memory (site-name associative memory) condition, participants were to recall or match as many of the 50 US states and the 25 largest US cities as they could. In the third experiment, the participants were to match a listed grouping of the world's largest bodies of water and continents, a set of countries, and the world's largest cities, with their marked locations on maps. In the first experiment, men matched significantly more local cities than did women; in the second experiment, men recalled significantly more of the cities under the site-name/map-aid and the map-aid/name-aid memory conditions than did women; and in the third experiment, men matched significantly more sites on all three maps than did women. The absence of gender differences for campus buildings and states may have been a product of the participants having had extensive opportunities to learn these sites. That men displayed greater knowledge of cities and international sites suggests that they have a greater interest in geography than do women. Because of the limitations of the methodology used, the gender differences favoring men could not be interpreted as primarily a product of nature or of nurture, and thus it was concluded that they were a joint product of nature and nurture.

Some computer users employ large displays, 6 or more monitors, in order to view a large amount of data on a single desktop at one time.  This layout can be useful when the user is performing tasks in which they must view several different information sources at a time.  For example, a user may be writing a paper in which they may be simultaneously typing a document, reading another paper, and view a spreadsheet.  After the task is completed, the user may close all of the windows, however sometime later they may want to view a document associated with that task.  A possible scenario is for the user to know that they were viewing an important document in their top left monitor, but they cannot remember which document.  SpatialHistory looks to allow a user to recall which windows and documents were open at a certain time spatially.  The user may query a particular region of a large display and SpatialHistory will report the windows that were open in that area.  Through a user study, we conclude that i) some users organize their large displays in a spatial manner placing certain types of documents and windows in certain places and that ii) our tool has the potential to help users recall previously viewed windows based on a spatial memory of their desktop. / Master of Science

This thesis is concerned with the prostitution in Pompeii with a focus on the physical space in which this social phenomenon was enacted. Despite the negative attitudes by much of Roman society towards prostitutes, the sex trade in Pompeii thrived, with numerous venues offering the sale of sex. Prostitutes stationed themselves throughout the town and solicited customers inside buildings or out on the street in whatever limited privacy could be managed. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the manner in which prostitution was present in Pompeii through the spatial analysis of venues of prostitution in the town. Among other structures including, taverns and baths, I will make a close examination of the one known purpose-built brothel, its location and layout, in order to analyze the manner in which prostitute and client could interact in such a setting. The artwork and the graffiti found within the brothel will also be useful for this examination, and will provide further insights to the customer experience in the brothel. Although prostitutes themselves were disapproved of for their lifestyle and profession, society accepted the presence of prostitution as a whole. Customers readily paid for the services of prostitutes in various venues that each offered a different environment and thus a different experience. The enjoyment had by customers during their interactions with prostitutes ensured their return business and promoted the success of the sex trade in the service industry at Pompeii. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Spatial disorientation is the singular most common factor in human-error aviation accidents, and over ninety percent of those accidents are fatal. Despite advances in aviation over the past one hundred years in both technology and training, spatial disorientation mishaps continue at a steady pace, even though other incidents declining in frequency. Because spatial disorientation is a highly complex phenomena that involves the vestibular system, the visual system, and cognitive factors such as workload and attention, predicting spatial disorientation is extremely difficult. Likewise, exactly replicating spatial disorientation for training purposes is challenging as well as extremely dangerous and costly. The goal of this study was twofold: to understand if innate abilities can predict propensity for spatial disorientation, and to investigate the efficacy of using story-based vignettes – narratives – to train spatial disorientation to increase schematic learning in pilots. Results demonstrated that performance on a spatial orientation task such as the Direction Orientation Task (DOT) is not a reliable predictor for spatial disorientation recognition based on self-report spatial disorientation frequency. In addition, though story-based vignettes demonstrated potential for increased cue recognition over a control training event, significant differences were not found in novel spatial disorientation recognition, critical cue identification, or confidence. These findings indicate that spatial disorientation could be a completely perceptual (bottom-up) task rather than one that is both top-down and bottom-up and implies future research into the ways we describe and measure spatial disorientation in order to understand it as well as train for it.

Computer-aided architectural design (CAAD) programs represent architectural design at a low level of spatial abstraction. While this representation model allows CAAD programs to capture the precise spatial characteristics of a design, it means that CAAD programs lack the underlying computational apparatus necessary to reason about design at a conceptual level. This thesis is a first step towards building a framework that bridges the gap between the conceptual aspects of a design and its low level CAAD-based spatial representation. Specifically, this thesis presents a new framework, referred to as the Conceptual Requirements Reasoner (CRR), which provides an architect with a framework to validate conceptual design requirements. The CRR will demonstrate how qualitative spatial representation and reasoning techniques can be used as the link between a design's conceptual requirements and its underlying quantitative spatial representation. A museum case study is presented to demonstrate the application of the CRR in a real world design context. It introduces a set of museum design requirements identified in research and shows how these requirements can be validated using the CRR. The results of the case study shows that the CRR is an effective tool for conceptual requirements reasoning.

<p> An important aspect in spatial analysis is a digital separation technique. There are several techniques possible, but trend-residual techniques and filtering techniques are emphasized in this report. The areas studied were a 9.6 km^2 gridded area in the Mammoth Cave region in Kentucky and the Lewisburg region in West Virginia. The basic geology and surface patterns are described. Although they are similar in respect to geology, the doline distribution is much smaller and more dense in Kentucky than in West Virginia. Both areas appear stable and subsidence dolines appear dominantly. The two doline development models are presented and the evidence cited tends to support the MDCP model. The predicted clustering of daughters about uniform/randomly distributed parents is found in Kentucky, no study was found for West Virginia. Both areas show that doline long axis are oriented parallel to regional joint sets.</p> <p> A uniformly dense grid proves accurate and unbiased when the elevation data are contoured. The Surface II Graphics package proves more than adequate in producing all the maps needed for this study despite the lack of flexibility in some areas.</p> <p> A trend-residual analysis was conducted to the fourth order for both the Kentucky and West Virginia areas. Despite minor technical problems, the results are positive. The method clearly separates the local doline variance from the regional trend, but there does appear to be a consistent bias towards nearby ridges. It also appears that there is an enhancement-suppression effect from the residual analysis such that certain doline forms are enhanced while others are suppressed as the trend order progresses from the first to the fourth order.</p> <p> The filtering technique also shows some excellent results from the digital separation method. Several filter types are discussed and the theory of their design is also presented. Very successful results were achieved by a zero summed filter as well as a 3 x 3 moving average filter. Several maps are produced from the analyses and are computer generated and these are also presented. There are several conclusions given at the end.</p> / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

No Abstract Provided. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

As everyone knows, cancer is one of the greatest health enemies of mankind and became a major public health problem all over the world. Moreover, lung cancer is the most common global cancer leading to more than 1.3 million estimated deaths annually worldwide. Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the 2nd leading cause of death from in women in the US, Canada, and China. Therefore an instrument for the early diagnosis and monitoring of cancers in areas such as lung and breast is immensely important and necessary. The cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) semiconductor is a kind of novel radiation detector that can provide detailed information about spatial position. Also, the energy resulting from interactions between the radiation and the CZT material can also be assessed giving this type of detector added value in disease evaluation. A great deal of work on CZT detectors has been done for breast CT scanning. Furthermore, the CZT detector is also a potential solution for problems in lung cancer CT evaluation where the lack of energy information and high radiation exposure are less than ideal. Since sub-millimetre spatial resolution is required for post-contrast thoracic CT assessment, and $100~\mu m$ or better is critical for breast CT, the investigation of spatial resolution for CZT detectors is essential. In this thesis, the interactions within CZT detectors were analyzed. The influence of different configurations, including adjustment of anode size, gap size, detector thickness and bias voltage, were discussed. Next the methods to evaluate two kinds of signals (collected and transit signals), are provided in Chapter~2. In Chapter~3, an intensity difference method and an intensity ratio method for estimating the sub-pitch spatial resolution were described in detail. Finally, a detector spatial resolution between $10~\mu m$ and $20~\mu m$ was achieved using the collecting signal intensities ratio method and a $4~mm$ thick CZT detector with gap size of $g=50~\mu m$ and bias voltage of $V=300V$. Future work should focus on the contributions from characteristic X-rays emitted from cadmium and tellurium atoms. Also, the work presented was only on pixelated arrays and further assessment of cross-strip electrode detectors could also be of benefit. Lastly based on simulations done in this thesis all photons were assumed to strike the cathode at 90 degrees. Future work should also include non-orthogonal directions for photons. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Bayesian model selection is a useful tool for identifying an appropriate model class, dependence structure, and valuable predictors for a wide variety of applications. In this work we consider objective Bayesian model selection where no subjective information is available to inform priors on model parameters a priori, specifically in the case of hierarchical models for spatial data, which can have complex dependence structures. We develop an approach using trained priors via fractional Bayes factors where standard Bayesian model selection methods fail to produce valid probabilities under improper reference priors. This enables researchers to concurrently determine whether spatial dependence between observations is apparent and identify important predictors for modeling the response. In addition to model selection with objective priors on model parameters, we also consider the case where the priors on the model space are used to penalize individual predictors a priori based on their costs. We propose a flexible approach that introduces a tuning parameter to cost-penalizing model priors that allows researchers to control the level of cost penalization to meet budget constraints and accommodate increasing sample sizes. / Doctor of Philosophy / Spatial data, such as data collected over a geographic region, is relevant in many fields. Spatial data can require complex models to study, but use of these models can impose unnecessary computations and increased difficulty for interpretation when spatial dependence is weak or not present. We develop a method to simultaneously determine whether a spatial model is necessary to understand the data and choose important variables associated with the outcome of interest. Within a class of simpler, linear models, we propose a technique to identify important variables associated with an outcome when there exists a budget or general desire to minimize the cost of collecting the variables.

Whether humans form cognitive maps is controversial. One view is that the ability to generate detours and shortcuts demonstrates retention of direction and distance information integrated within a common frame of reference. Another view is that spatial representations are not Euclidean, given findings of biases, distortions, and lack of recognition of impossible spaces in VR. A compromise comes from an individual-differences perspective, suggesting that some people in some environments may integrate across routes. We created Virtual Copetown to examine within-route knowledge, integration between routes with experienced connections, and integration between routes requiring inference. We also examined cognitive correlates of the ability to make these judgments. Our results indicated that some people were more accurate across all kinds of pointing judgments including inferred relations, along with ability to construct an overall map of Copetown. A second group of people were less accurate overall, and less accurate for between-route relations than within-route relations; they also had worse mapping scores. Variability was related to self-reports of navigation strategy use. / Psychology