In search of a stable urban regime for Montreal: issues and challenges in metropolitan development

As with many major North American urban areas since the 1960s, Montreal has faced contextual changes that have brought to the fore the question of its development. However, because of its history and the uncertainties linked with Quebec's constitutional future, attempts to stimulate its development have required certain compromises, often with unexpected results. In order to evaluate the performance of coalitions formed with the objective of meeting the challenges associated with urban and metropolitan development, we have drawn upon the concept of urban regimes. Focusing specifically on Montreal, we ask whether it is possible to transpose urban regime analyses that consider both structural and cultural factors specific to local organized forces. Revealing though they might be, these analyses nevertheless possess certain limitations, notably the underestimation of the weight and increasing importance of players and forces occurring on a metropolitan scale. This is particularly true in the case of Montreal.     

ISO International Standards—a“toolbox”of Olympic proportions for major sporting,cultural and social events

How are the winners determined in most of the events that make up the Olympic Games? Theyare,of course,the athletes who run or swim faster,jump higher,lift heavier,throw further.But how is their prowess measured? By the SI (Système inter-national) International System of Units,which is     

Tail pinching-induced hindlimb movements are suppressed by clonidine in spinal cord injured mice.

Experiments in completely spinal cord transected (Tx) cats have provided compelling evidence that clonidine combined with tail stimulation can promote locomotor function recovery. However, clonidine has generally failed to induce locomotor activity in other comparable animal models suggesting the existence of species- or condition-specific effects. This study aimed at investigating the effects of clonidine administered (0.25 or 5.0 mg/kg, i.p.) in mice during tail pinching in early (6-7 days post-Tx) or late (41-42 days post-Tx) paraplegic animals (Th9/10 level). Comparisons were made with the effects induced by 8-OH-DPAT (1.0 mg/kg, i.p.), a 5-HT1A/7 receptor agonist known to display prolocomotor effects. Clonidine with or without tail pinching failed to induce hind limb movements and even suppressed the frequency of spontaneously occurring nonlocomotor (NLM) and locomotor-like movements (LM) whereas tail pinching alone (prior to clonidine administration) increased the frequency of spontaneous movements specifically in late chronic animals. In turn, 8-OH-DPAT clearly induced hind limb movements that remained relatively unchanged during tail pinching. Altogether, the results suggest that the prolocomotor effects of clonidine reported elsewhere must depend upon stimuli or factors that remain to be identified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spectral Conformal Parameterization

We present a spectral approach to automatically and efficiently obtain discrete free‐boundary conformal parameterizations of triangle mesh patches, without the common artifacts due to positional constraints on vertices and without undue bias introduced by sampling irregularity. High‐quality parameterizations are computed through a constrained minimization of a discrete weighted conformal energy by finding the largest eigenvalue/eigenvector of a generalized eigenvalue problem involving sparse, symmetric matrices. We demonstrate that this novel and robust approach improves on previous linear techniques both quantitatively and qualitatively.     

Figures in the Distance

The technologies that we have deployed over the past two decades have given us new ability to manage activities at a distance.     

The Theosophists' Bathroom

The story that takes India from the electrical infrastructure of 1966 to a modern infrastructure 40 years later is a parable for the free market.     

Technology-aided participative methods in environmental assessment: An international perspective

Provisions for citizen involvement in the assessment of potential environmental effects of certain plans, programmes and projects are present in current legislation. An international survey revealed that public participation is common practice in European and some other countries worldwide. However, a number of issues are observed to affect public involvement in EIA/SEA processes and expert opinion differs when evaluating the effectiveness of existing participative methods.Results suggest that technology-aided methods can improve traditional participation processes. In particular, GIS has the potential to increase community knowledge and enhance involvement by communicating information more effectively. Variable accessibility to technology and data quality remain issues. Combining technology with more conventional ways of gathering, evaluating and presenting data are seen as offering a solution to the need to promote the integration of public perceptions in environmental assessment procedures. Recommendations to improve current public participation methods and measures for making GIS available to the general public are provided.     

Cellular network configuration with co-channel and adjacent-channel interference constraints

Design of cellular networks has drawn much recent interest from the OR scientific community. A challenging issue is the handling of channel interference constraints. Co-channel interference occurs when the same channel is reused within a threshold distance. Adjacent-channel interference occurs when two channels with adjacent or nearby frequencies are used in the same cell tower. We present a mathematical programming formulation for this channel allocation problem with both types of interference constraints—it also includes decisions on location of cell towers. Our focus is on the special case where a cell tower and/or channel can interfere with at most two other towers/channels. By establishing theoretical properties for channel allocation amongst towers under this circumstance, we develop an efficient solution procedure. An iteration of the procedure uses a heuristic to locate the cell towers, then allocates the channels to the towers using a polynomial-time algorithm, and finally improves this allocation using a simulated annealing procedure. The iterative steps are embedded within an external simulated annealing method. This nested simulated annealing procedure provides encouraging computational results compared to a standard commercial solver like ILOG CPLEX 8.1. The major contribution of the work is the simultaneous consideration of co-channel and adjacent-channel interference constraints.     

A distributed MEMS phase shifter on a low-resistivity silicon substrate

Distributed MEMS phase shifters using CMOS-grade low-resistivity silicon have been successfully developed. Kapton films were utilized as dielectric layers to reduce RF signal attenuation in the lossy silicon substrate. The scattering parameters were evaluated from DC to 26 GHz. The phase shifting reaches 43° and insertion losses are less than 1.4 dB. The manufacturing process is simple and compatible with CMOS and post CMOS processes.     

The feasibility of a mixed reality surgical training environment

The Sheffield knee arthroscopy training system (SKATS) was originally a visual-based virtual environment without haptic feedback, but has been further developed as a mixed reality-training environment through the use of tactile augmentation (or passive haptics). The design of the new system is outlined and then tested. In the first experiment described, the effect of tactile augmentation on performance is considered by comparing novice performance using the original and mixed reality system. In the second experiment the mixed reality system is assessed in terms of construct validity by comparing the performance of users with differing levels of surgical expertise. The results are discussed in terms of the validity of a mixed reality environment for training knee arthroscopy.