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Abandonment of the taken-for-granted attitude of territoriality in the studies of state space has been followed by diverse concerns and competing interpretations with different focuses notably on state–market relations, spatiality of social life, and relativization of scale. Inspired by Lefebvre’s spatial triad, applied textual analysis, and in-depth interview, this study critically evaluates the Chinese practices of setting up National New Areas to reshape the trajectory of urban and regional development using the Liangjiang National New Area (LNNA). Our research foregrounds the relativizing dimensions of state space in which the creation of the LNNA was conceived, perceived, and lived by key stakeholders holding different positions and vested interests. The LNNA is the spatial manifestation of the special vision and mission of China’s national developmental agenda and the adjustment of power relations within an authoritarian Party-state. However, it is a controversial project which requires negotiation, contestation, and reconciliation among grassroots people. This study shows that even in China, there existed pervasive negotiation and resistance from diverse stakeholders from the bottom up. Our research suggests an alternative perspective that goes beyond the popular dichotomy of state–market or society–space relations in the studies of state space and takes seriously the dialectical relations among the forces at work in the (re)production of state space.

In the rapidly growing literature on exploring urban restructuring in reference to the state rescaling, many authors have neglected the relatively fixed and immobile forms of territorial organization. The development of China’s National New Areas (NNAs) provides an opportunity to explore the hybrid and multiscalar processes of state rescaling. From the perspective of rescaling, an analytical framework was established to examine the practice of NNAs and their governance rescaling in China. Every National New Area (NNA) is the result of China’s “state spatial selectivity”, and the central government has guided policies to a specific spatial scale to cope with the development crisis. The rescaling of NNA governance is the process of the functioning of all-level administrative subjects in the functional orientation, spatial zoning, administrative system, and power allocation through rigid or flexible means. In practice, there are significant governance scale differences in territorial spatial organization, administrative systems, and power distribution among the various NNAs, which has led to diverse governance modes. The degree of coupling between the scale of new and existing administrative divisions is the key to the rescaling of NNA governance. Most NNAs are still facing the challenge of unifying their territorial development logic. Discussions of state rescaling in western countries have focused on the super-local level. The case of China clearly shows the role of local embeddedness and diversification in rescaling.

Pen-and-ink line hatching is a non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) image style typically characterized by monochrome, locally near-parallel lines. Our motivation was to generate line hatching images inspired by the Grendel image by Emil Antonucci. Antonucci's images are composed of many cells containing relatively short near-parallel lines. We develop an automatic NPR system that converts a photo into an output image portraying a novel line hatching style. One key characteristic of our approach is its use of conformal mapping to reshape segmented regions into a standardized shape. After drawing the lines on the standardized shape, we then transfer the lines back to the segment region. The transformation automatically distorts the lines to follow the segment region contours. Our process generates line hatching images that have short near-parallel lines, lines that change direction to represent feature boundaries, line density and line width variations to represent tone intensity, edge lines, and line perturbations.I would like to acknowledge my supervisor Professor David Mould. He has been my sounding board, my devil's advocate, and most of all my teacher. Without his direction and inspiration, this thesis would not have been possible. Any problems I encountered, he was my sounding board: What is the problem? What are potential solutions? Who has solved this problem before? His wealth of knowledge consistently got me unstuck. From his experience he exposed me to weird approaches and processes. Without him, I would not know about Barycentric coordinates, Conformal mapping, nor realize there is a difference between classical dithering and ordered dithering. Finally he always pushed for 100 percent in everything we did. I cannot say that I ever achieved this goal, however, I did learn a lot about graphics and myself in the pursuit.Many times I would feel lost or hit a wall. Sometimes I became extremely frustrated, failing to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In these situations Professor Sonia Chiasson, my wife, was there to drag me out of these ruts, to show me that there was an end to this journey, and that it was not as far as I thought. Without all her support, the thesis would not have been completed.Thank you to the defense committee members: Professor Anil Somayaji, Professor Robert Laganiere, and Professor Lianying Zhao. I thank you for spending your precious time reading through my thesis and for providing feedback. Each of you brought a unique perspective and your contributions improved the end result.

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A meso-geometric model of pore network was established to predict the sound absorption performance of porous asphalt mixture.Based on characteristics of the pore structure of porous asphalt mixture, the meso-structure model of porous asphalt mixture was established by using physical geometry principle.For the meso-void structure, the electro-acoustical equivalent circuit was established based on electro--acoustic theory, and the relationship between the sound absorption coefficient and the total impedance was established.The model was verified by image processing technology and standing wave ratio method.DIP image processing technology was used to determine these void structure parameters of porous asphalt mixture specimens, and standing wave tube method was used to test the sound absorption coefficient of specimens.The data predicted by the model was compared with the measured data.The results show that the model of meso-void structure and the model of sound absorption coefficient of porous asphalt mixture based on electro--acoustic theory are feasible and effective.