Thesis (M.S.) in Spatial Information Science and Engineering--University of Maine, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-112).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 3, 2009) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Northwest Missouri State University, 2009. / The full text of the thesis is included in the pdf file. Title from title screen of full text.pdf file (viewed on April 9, 2010) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Geomatics, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-134)

Thesis (M.Sc.)--York University, 2004. Graduate Programme in Earth and Space Science & Engineering. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-123). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11920

abstract: Regional differences of inventive activity and economic growth are important in economic geography. These differences are generally explained by the theory of localized knowledge spillovers, which argues that geographical proximity among economic actors fosters invention and innovation. However, knowledge production involves an increasing number of actors connecting to non-local partners. The space of knowledge flows is not tightly bounded in a given territory, but functions as a network-based system where knowledge flows circulate around alignments of actors in different and distant places. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the dynamics of network aspects of knowledge flows in American biotechnology. The first research task assesses both spatial and network-based dependencies of biotechnology co-invention across 150 large U.S. metropolitan areas over four decades (1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009). An integrated methodology including both spatial and social network analyses are explicitly applied and compared. Results show that the network-based proximity better defines the U.S. biotechnology co-invention urban system in recent years. Co-patenting relationships of major biotechnology centers has demonstrated national and regional association since the 1990s. Associations retain features of spatial proximity especially in some Midwestern and Northeastern cities, but these are no longer the strongest features affecting co-inventive links. The second research task examines how biotechnology knowledge flows circulate over space by focusing on the structural properties of intermetropolitan co-invention networks. All analyses in this task are conducted using social network analysis. Evidence shows that the architecture of the U.S. co-invention networks reveals a trend toward more organized structures and less fragmentation over the four years of analysis. Metropolitan areas are increasingly interconnected into a large web of networked environment. Knowledge flows are less likely to be controlled by a small number of intermediaries. San Francisco, New York, Boston, and San Diego monopolize the central positions of the intermetropolitan co-invention network as major American biotechnology concentrations. The overall network-based system comes close to a relational core/periphery structure where core metropolitan areas are strongly connected to one another and to some peripheral areas. Peripheral metropolitan areas are loosely connected or even disconnected with each other. This dissertation provides empirical evidence to support the argument that technological collaboration reveals a network-based system associated with different or even distant geographical places, which is somewhat different from the conventional theory of localized knowledge spillovers that once dominated understanding of the role of geography in technological advance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Geography 2011

Um problema que vem se tornando habitual em análise geoestatística é a quantidade crescente de observações. Em tais casos é comum que estimadores usualmente utilizados não possam ser empregados devido a dificuldades numéricas. Esta tese têm por objetivo propor um novo estimador para massivas observações em geoestatística: o estimador subsemble espacial. O estimador subsemble espacial seleciona várias subamostras, espacialmente estruturadas, do conjunto completo de dados. Cada subamostra estima com facilidade os parâmetros do modelo e as estimativas resultantes são ponderadas através de um subconjunto de validação. Em estudos simulados, compara-se a metodologia proposta com outros métodos e os resultados apresentam sua acurácia e rapidez. Além disso, uma aplicação em um banco de dados reais, com 11.000 observações, confirma essas características. / A problem that is becoming common in geostatistical analysis is the growing number of observations. In such cases, common estimators cannot be used due to numerical difficulties. This thesis proposes a new estimator for massive observations in geostatistics: the spatial subsemble estimator. The estimator selects small spatially structured subset of observations. The model parameters are estimated easily with each subsample, and the resulting estimates are weighted by a subset of validation. We compare the spatial subsemble with competing alternatives showing that it is faster and accurate. In addition, we present an application in a real database with 11000 observations.

abstract: Gerrymandering is a central problem for many representative democracies. Formally, gerrymandering is the manipulation of spatial boundaries to provide political advantage to a particular group (Warf, 2006). The term often refers to political district design, where the boundaries of political districts are “unnaturally” manipulated by redistricting officials to generate durable advantages for one group or party. Since free and fair elections are possibly the critical part of representative democracy, it is important for this cresting tide to have scientifically validated tools. This dissertation supports a current wave of reform by developing a general inferential technique to “localize” inferential bias measures, generating a new type of district-level score. The new method relies on the statistical intuition behind jackknife methods to construct relative local indicators. I find that existing statewide indicators of partisan bias can be localized using this technique, providing an estimate of how strongly a district impacts statewide partisan bias over an entire decade. When compared to measures of shape compactness (a common gerrymandering detection statistic), I find that weirdly-shaped districts have no consistent relationship with impact in many states during the 2000 and 2010 redistricting plan. To ensure that this work is valid, I examine existing seats-votes modeling strategies and develop a novel method for constructing seats-votes curves. I find that, while the empirical structure of electoral swing shows significant spatial dependence (even in the face of spatial heterogeneity), existing seats-votes specifications are more robust than anticipated to spatial dependence. Centrally, this dissertation contributes to the much larger social aim to resist electoral manipulation: that individuals & organizations suffer no undue burden on political access from partisan gerrymandering. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2017

Municipalities in Sweden handle and create data which includes GIS/CAD in the form of blueprint and geographic information systems, so-called spatial data. As data is received and established within a municipality, the Data Archiving Act enforces the archival of this information. GIS/CAD files are created in different computer programs and stored according to file format. The Data Archiving act requires data to be available throughout time, which in turn requires both an archivist and technical systems within the archive. Within the industry there are until now no clear guidelines and standards for spatial data. The lack of standardization and the use of proprietary formats is a key issue. The purpose of this research is to find out how municipalities in Sweden handle inbound and spatial data within the municipality. Furthermore, this research aims at finding out how spatial data is preserved in municipalities in Sweden and to reveal any reported problems with the management of spatial data. This research is a case study derived from a survey sent to Sweden's 290 municipalities. These entities are divided into two groups of KLM municipalities (municipal with a land surveyors office) and other townships. The study is limited to investigating only municipalities' work on handling GIS / CAD data. The survey was designed according to the question of open and closed questions, which gave the opportunity to present the results in statistical data, but also to return quotes and to present unique answers from individual municipalities. Thus, the data on which the study results are based are both quantitative and qualitative responses. To interpret the results of this study, the Life-cycle and Records Continuum Model will be employed. The result indicates that municipalities handle spatial data. The results show that there are municipalities that have a functioning strategy for a long term preservation of spatial data. But there are also municipalities experiencing problems in handling spatial data for a long term preservation. / Till kommuner i Sverige inkommer och upprättas handlingar som innefattar GIS/CAD i form av planritningar och geografiska informationssystem, så kalla spatial data. I och med att data inkommer/upprättas till/inom en kommun lyder det under arkivlagen och blir därmed en allmän handling som ska arkiveras. GIS/CAD skapas i olika dataprogram och lagras i olika filformat beroende på vilken programvara som använts vid upprättandet av filen. Vid arkivering av data ställs krav på att datan ska vara tillgängligt över tid vilket i sin tur ställer krav på arkivbildaren och de tekniska systemen inom arkivet. Inom branschen saknas det fram tills nu tydliga riktlinjer och standarder för spatial data. Bristen på standardisering och användningen av proprietära format är ett centralt problem. Syftet med arbetet är att ta reda på hur kommuner i Sverige hanterar inkommande och inom kommunen upprättade spatial data. Vidare syftar arbetet till att ta reda på hur spatial data bevaras inom kommuner i Sverige och om kommuner upplever några problem med hantering av spatial data.  Arbetet är en fallstudie där en enkät skickats ut till Sveriges samtliga 290 kommuner. Kommunerna delades upp i två grupper, KLM-Kommuner (kommunal lantmäterimyndighet) och övriga kommuner. Studien är avgränsad till att enbart undersöka kommuners arbete med hantering av GIS/CAD data. Enkätundersökningen var utformad enligt frågeställningen med öppna och stängda frågor vilket gav möjligheten att presentera resultatet i statistisk data men även återge citat och presentera unika svar från enskilda kommuner. Datat som ligger till grund för studiens resultat är således både kvantitativ och kvalitativ. Det teoretiska ramverket som används för att tolka resultatet är Life cycle- och Records continuum modellen. Resultatet tyder på att kommuner i stor utsträckning hanterar spatial data. Resultatet påvisar att det finns kommuner som har en fungerande strategi för långtidsbevarande av spatial data men att det också finns kommuner som upplever problem vid hanteringen spatial data och dess bevarande.

Um problema que vem se tornando habitual em análise geoestatística é a quantidade crescente de observações. Em tais casos é comum que estimadores usualmente utilizados não possam ser empregados devido a dificuldades numéricas. Esta tese têm por objetivo propor um novo estimador para massivas observações em geoestatística: o estimador subsemble espacial. O estimador subsemble espacial seleciona várias subamostras, espacialmente estruturadas, do conjunto completo de dados. Cada subamostra estima com facilidade os parâmetros do modelo e as estimativas resultantes são ponderadas através de um subconjunto de validação. Em estudos simulados, compara-se a metodologia proposta com outros métodos e os resultados apresentam sua acurácia e rapidez. Além disso, uma aplicação em um banco de dados reais, com 11.000 observações, confirma essas características. / A problem that is becoming common in geostatistical analysis is the growing number of observations. In such cases, common estimators cannot be used due to numerical difficulties. This thesis proposes a new estimator for massive observations in geostatistics: the spatial subsemble estimator. The estimator selects small spatially structured subset of observations. The model parameters are estimated easily with each subsample, and the resulting estimates are weighted by a subset of validation. We compare the spatial subsemble with competing alternatives showing that it is faster and accurate. In addition, we present an application in a real database with 11000 observations.