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Understanding Crisis Communication And Mobility Resilience During Disasters From Social Media, Kamol Roy
Understanding Crisis Communication And Mobility Resilience During Disasters From Social Media, Kamol Roy
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Rapid communication during extreme events is one of the critical aspects of successful disaster management strategies. Due to their ubiquitous nature, social media platforms offer a unique opportunity for crisis communication. Moreover, social media usage on GPS enabled devices such as smartphones allow us to collect human movement data which can help understanding mobility during a disaster. This study leverages social media (Twitter) data to understand the effectiveness of social media-based communication and the resilience of human mobility during a disaster. This thesis has two major contributions. First, about 52.5 million tweets related to hurricane Sandy are analyzed to assess …
Seismic Response Of Moment Resisting Frames Coupled With Rocking Walls, Mehrdad Aghagholizadeh
Seismic Response Of Moment Resisting Frames Coupled With Rocking Walls, Mehrdad Aghagholizadeh
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This study investigates the inelastic response of yielding structures coupled with rocking walls. This topic is of major significance in the design of tall moment-resisting buildings, since during recent major earthquakes several tall, moment-resisting frames that had been designed in an accordance to the existing seismic code provisions, exhibited a weak-story failure. Utilization of this structural system can help reducing maximum story drifts, prevents weak story failure and minimize residual deformation of the structure. This study first examines different configurations of both stepping rocking walls and pinned rocking walls that have been reported in the literature. Next, effect of additional …
Optimal Sintering Temperature Of Ceria-Doped Scandia Stabilized Zirconia For Use In Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Amanda K. Assuncao
Optimal Sintering Temperature Of Ceria-Doped Scandia Stabilized Zirconia For Use In Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Amanda K. Assuncao
Honors Undergraduate Theses
Carbon emissions are known to cause decay of the Ozone layer in addition to creating pollutant, poisonous air. This has become a growing concern among scientists and engineers across the globe; if this issue is not addressed, it is likely that the Earth will suffer catastrophic consequences. One of the main culprits of these harmful carbon emissions is fuel combustion. Between vehicles, power plants, airplanes, and ships, the world consumes an extraordinary amount of oil and fuel which all contributes to the emissions problem. Therefore, it is crucial to develop alternative energy sources that minimize the impact on the environment. …
Investigation Of Factors Contributing To Fog-Related Single Vehicle Crashes, Jiazheng Zhu
Investigation Of Factors Contributing To Fog-Related Single Vehicle Crashes, Jiazheng Zhu
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Fog-related crashes continue to be one of the most serious traffic safety problems in Florida. Based on the historical crash data, we found that single-vehicle crashes have the highest severity among all types of crashes under fog conditions. This study first analyzed the contributing factors of the fog-related single-vehicle crashes' (i.e., off road/rollover/other) severity in Florida from 2011 to 2014 using association rules mining. The results show that lane departure distracted driving, wet road surface, and dark without road light are the main contributing factors to severe fog-related single vehicle crashes. Some suggested countermeasures were also provided to reduce the …
Development Of Soil Compressibility Prediction Models, Scott Kirts
Development Of Soil Compressibility Prediction Models, Scott Kirts
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The magnitude of the overall settlement depends on several variables such as the Compression Index, Cc, and Recompression Index, Cr, which are determined by a consolidation test; however, the test is time consuming and labor intensive. Correlations have been developed to approximate these compressibility indexes. In this study, a data driven approach has been employed in order to estimate Cc and Cr. Support Vector Machines classification is used to determine the number of distinct models to be developed. The statistical models are built through a forward selection stepwise regression procedure. Ten variables were used, including the moisture content (w), initial …
Disinfection By-Product Reduction Study Of A Small Central Florida Public Water System, Paul Staubus
Disinfection By-Product Reduction Study Of A Small Central Florida Public Water System, Paul Staubus
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The disinfection of water for potabilization has proven to be one of the most significant public achievements of the 20th century. Although chemical disinfectants are successfully utilized to inactivate acute pathogenic organisms, they may react with natural organic matter (NOM) to produce potentially-harmful disinfection by-products (DBPs). As a result, the United States Environmental Protection Agency regulates DBPs such as total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). The research herein is focused on the formation, removal, and control of TTHMs and HAAs in a small public water system (PWS) in Polk County, Florida (County). Pilot-scale tests were implemented to determine the …
Evaluating Hydrologic Fluxes Through Stormwater Treatment Systems: Implication To Freshwater Springs In A Karst Environment, Nyle Rice
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In recent years, concentrations of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus have increased in surface and groundwater resources, due in part to non-point source pollution associated with stormwater runoff. The elevated nutrient concentrations found in stormwater runoff have prompted the design of best management practices (BMP's) to mitigate the problem. The overall objective within this thesis is to analyze the performance of innovative surface BMPs and investigate connections between the BMPs and groundwater flows to freshwater springs within a karst environment. The performance of two stormwater BMPs, blanket filters and vertical reactors containing Bio-sorption Activated Media (BAM), are assessed in …