Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Drivers’ Hazard Avoidance During Vehicle Automation: Impact Of Mental Models And Implications For Training, Ganesh Pai Mangalore

Doctoral Dissertations

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are vehicle automation systems that have become more accessible and prevalent in vehicles in recent years. But the introduction of such technologies introduces new human factors challenges. Past literature suggests that users of vehicle automation lack the necessary and appropriate knowledge about their automation system. This may play a negative role in their hazard avoidance abilities when driving with automation features. Improving mental models and knowledge could generally lead to safer interactions with vehicle automation systems, but any effort to develop hazard avoidance skills when driving with vehicle automation is impeded by the lack of …

Water Resources Planning Under Deep Uncertainty For Physically, Socially, And Politically Complex Systems, Sarah St. George Freeman

Doctoral Dissertations

Water supply systems, particularly those of large cities, are complex systems linking supply, regulatory and distribution infrastructure, and points of use. Despite their physical complexities, it is infrequent that full supply, distribution, end use, and feedbacks therein are considered in an integrated manner. These complex systems-of-systems face large uncertainties related to physical aspects such as degradation of infrastructure, changing demand, and climate variability and change. Though great, such physical uncertainties often pale in comparison to the those related to the human systems in place to manage them and yet uncertainty in the decision-making landscape is often grossly simplified in our …

Extracellular Polymeric Substances In Oxygenic Photogranules: Investigation Of Their Role In Photogranulation In A Hydrostatic Environment, Wenye Camilla Kuo-Dahab

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to assess the critical role of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in the photogranulation of activated sludge, in a hydrostatic environment. The first section evaluates the fate and dynamics of different fractions of EPS in sludge-based photogranulation under hydrostatic conditions. The study shows that during the transformation of activated sludge into a photogranular biomass, sludge’s base-extractable proteins selectively degrade. Strong correlations between base-extracted proteins and the growth of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll a/b ratio suggest that the bioavailability of this organic nitrogen is linked with selection and enrichment of filamentous cyanobacteria under hydrostatic conditions. The …

Modeling Of Electrical Grid Systems To Evaluate Sustainable Electricity Generation In Pakistan, Muhammad Mustafa Amjad

Masters Theses

Pakistan has always had a history of severe energy shortfalls, which rose up to an alarming 33% in 2013. This situation was countered by investments in the energy sector through the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which were unfortunately largely based on brown fuels. Although beneficial in the short term, these investments do not bode well for the climate scenario of Pakistan, with various parts of the country already having experienced temperatures rise of 1-3°C. To ensure that the current situation doesn’t exacerbate and is tackled in a timely manner, this research aims to examine how the untapped potential of …

The Promise Of Vr Headsets: Validation Of A Virtual Reality Headset-Based Driving Simulator For Measuring Drivers’ Hazard Anticipation Performance, Ganesh Pai Mangalore

Masters Theses

The objective of the current study is to evaluate the use of virtual reality (VR) headsets to measure driving performance. This is desirable because they are several orders of magnitude less expensive and, if validated, could greatly extend the powers of simulation. Out of several possible measures of performance that could be considered for evaluating VR headsets, the current study specifically examines drivers’ latent hazard anticipation behavior both because it has been linked to crashes and because it has been shown to be significantly poorer in young drivers compared to their experienced counterparts in traditional driving simulators and in open …

Modeling Performance, Cost, Delivery, And Trip Distribution Of Demand Responsive Transit Systems With Zoning, Mahour Rahimi

Doctoral Dissertations

Demand responsive transit (DRT) services are expensive to operate, so it is crucial to understand the factors that drive the agency costs and be able to investigate and predict the effect of possible changes in specific operating parameters as well as demand and service coverage areas on total costs. In this research, we adopt the concept of the analytical model proposed by Daganzo (1978) to present continuum approximation (CA) models that can estimate important service related factors. As the first step, we propose three analytical models to approximate the operation related variables of DRT services; Fleet Size, Vehicle Hours Traveled …

Decision Analytical Methods For Robust Water Infrastructure Planning Under Deep Uncertainty, Mehmet Umit Taner

Doctoral Dissertations

Deep uncertainties resulting from climate change, demographic pressures, and rapidly evolving socioeconomic conditions are challenging the way that water planners design and operate large-scale infrastructure systems. Conventionally, water infrastructures have been developed using stationary methods, assuming that the underlying uncertainties can be derived from historical data or experience. However, these methods are less useful under deeply uncertain climate and socioeconomic conditions, in which the future can be substantially different from the past and cannot be expressed by well-defined probability distributions. The recognition of deep uncertainties in long-term water resources planning has led to the development of “decision-analytical” frameworks that do …

Multi-Criteria Decision Making When Planning Sustainable Multimodal Transportation Routes In A Linear Corridor, Marie Louis

Doctoral Dissertations

In urban and suburban locations, public transit can be seen as an effective mode of daily transportation. The majority of the time, travelers would seek the cheapest, shortest, and possibly most eco-friendly means of transit. When designing public transit network systems, transportation planners and decision-makers, with input from stakeholders, should strive to optimize transportation services to meet the needs of the population most efficiently and at the lowest cost, that is, providing a transportation system that s the three E's of the sustainability concept: environment, social equity, and economic. Previous studies have focused on sustainability as the primary concern in …

Methods For Incorporating Ecological Impacts With Climate Uncertainty To Support Robust Flood Management Decision-Making, Caitlin M. Spence

Doctoral Dissertations

Modern and historic flood risk management involves accommodating multiple sources of sources of uncertainty and potential impacts across a broad range of interrelated sectors. Sources of uncertainty that affect planning include internal climate variability, anthropogenic changes such as land use and system performance expectations, and more recently changes in climatology that affect the resources supporting the system. Flood management systems potentially impact human settlements within and beyond the systems’ scope of planning, local weather patterns, and associated ecological systems. Federal guidelines across nations have called for greater consideration of uncertainty and impacts of water resources planning projects, but methods for …

Resilience Of Transportation Infrastructure Systems To Climatic Extreme Events, Alexandra C. Testa

Masters Theses

A topology-based approach has been used to measure the resilience of a highway network to climatic events. Civil infrastructure systems are inarguably critical to the everyday functions of society. Because such systems are regionally distributed, their components undergo a wide range of hazard intensities, often dependent on their relative locations. The ability of an infrastructure system to withstand, adapt to, and rapidly recover from extreme events is paramount to its ability to continuously serve users. The topological properties of a network can provide a good means to assess the resilience of the system which is adequate to comprehend the preparedness …

Investigating Teenage Drivers' Driving Behavior Before And After Lag (Less Aggressive Goals) Training Program, Jingyi Zhang

Masters Theses

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death during adolescence, with the fatal crash rate per mile-driven for 16-19 years old drivers being nearly 3 times larger than the rate for drivers age 20 and older. High gravitational events among teenage drivers, such as quick starts, and hard stops, have been shown to be highly correlated with crash rates. The current younger driver training programs developed in the late 1990s, however, do not appear to be especially effective in regard to many skills which are critical to avoiding crashes. With this in mind, a simulator-based training program aimed at …

Development Of A Cost Minimizing Strategy To Mitigate Bird Mortalities In A Wind Farm, Karamvir Singh

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Wind is the second largest renewable energy source after solar. It is one of the fastest growing sources of electricity in the world and currently of wind energy is installed in the United States and an additional is under construction (Office of Energy and Environment Affairs, 2011). For the growth of wind electricity, one of the most prominent environmental concerns relates to the death of birds, bats and other avian species resulting from collision with turbine blades.

This thesis develops a model that provides the optimal strategy of turning the turbines off in a wind farm for certain periods to …

Spatial And Temporal Correlations Of Freeway Link Speeds: An Empirical Study, Piotr J. Rachtan

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Congestion on roadways and high level of uncertainty of traffic conditions are major considerations for trip planning. The purpose of this research is to investigate the characteristics and patterns of spatial and temporal correlations and also to detect other variables that affect correlation in a freeway setting. 5-minute speed aggregates from the Performance Measurement System (PeMS) database are obtained for two directions of an urban freeway – I-10 between Santa Monica and Los Angeles, California. Observations are for all non-holiday weekdays between January 1st and June 30th, 2010. Other variables include traffic flow, ramp locations, number of lanes and the …