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Full-Text Articles in Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering

Systems Analysis For Urban Water Infrastructure Expansion With Global Change Impact Under Uncertainties, Cheng Qi Jan 2012

Systems Analysis For Urban Water Infrastructure Expansion With Global Change Impact Under Uncertainties, Cheng Qi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decades, cost-effectiveness principle or cost-benefit analysis has been employed oftentimes as a typical assessment tool for the expansion of drinking water utility. With changing public awareness of the inherent linkages between climate change, population growth and economic development, the addition of global change impact in the assessment regime has altered the landscape of traditional evaluation matrix. Nowadays, urban drinking water infrastructure requires careful long-term expansion planning to reduce the risk from global change impact with respect to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, economic boom and recession, as well as water demand variation associated with population growth and migration. …


A Retrospective Analysis And Field Study Of Nanotechnology Related Ergonomic Risk In Industries Utilizing Nanomaterials, Wanda Greaves-Holmes Jan 2012

A Retrospective Analysis And Field Study Of Nanotechnology Related Ergonomic Risk In Industries Utilizing Nanomaterials, Wanda Greaves-Holmes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The National Science Foundation estimates that two million skilled nanotechnology workers will be needed world wide by 2015 – one million of them in the United States (2001). In the absence of scientific clarity about the potential health effects of occupational exposure to nanoparticles, guidance in decision making about hazards, risk, and controls takes on new importance. Currently, guiding principles on personal protective equipment for workers who come in contact with nanomaterials have not been standardized universally. Utilizing the NASATLX, this dissertation investigates the adequacy and shortcomings of research efforts that seek to determine whether or not occupational exposure to …


Critical Success Factors For Evolutionary Acquisition Implementation, Brig J. Bjorn Jan 2012

Critical Success Factors For Evolutionary Acquisition Implementation, Brig J. Bjorn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to extensive challenges to the efficient development and fielding of operationally effective and affordable weapon systems, the U.S. employs a complex management framework to govern defense acquisition programs. The Department of Defense and Congress recently modified this process to improve the levels of knowledge available at key decision points in order to reduce lifecycle cost, schedule, and technical risk to programs. This exploratory research study employed multiple methods to examine the impact of systems engineering reviews, competitive prototyping, and the application of a Modular Open Systems Approach on knowledge and risk prior to funding system implementation and production. In-depth …


An Approach For Measuring The Confidentiality Of Data Assured By The Confidentiality Of Information Security Systems In Healthcare Organizations, Shawn Michael Gallaher Jan 2012

An Approach For Measuring The Confidentiality Of Data Assured By The Confidentiality Of Information Security Systems In Healthcare Organizations, Shawn Michael Gallaher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Because of the expansion in health information technology and the continued migration toward digital patient records as a foundation for the delivery of healthcare services, healthcare organizations face significant challenges in their efforts to determine how well they are protecting electronic health information from unauthorized disclosure. The disclosure of one’s personal medical information to unauthorized parties or individuals can have broad-reaching and long-term impacts to both healthcare providers and consumers. Although several classes and types of methodologies exist for measuring information security in general, a number of overarching issues have been identified which prevent their adaptation to the problem of …


Multi-Vehicle Dispatching And Routing With Time Window Constraints And Limited Dock Capacity, Ahmed El-Nashar Jan 2012

Multi-Vehicle Dispatching And Routing With Time Window Constraints And Limited Dock Capacity, Ahmed El-Nashar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) is an important and computationally hard optimization problem frequently encountered in Scheduling and logistics. The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) can be described as the problem of designing the most efficient and economical routes from one depot to a set of customers using a limited number of vehicles. This research addresses the VRPTW under the following additional complicating features that are often encountered in practical problems: 1. Customers have strict time windows for receiving a vehicle, i.e., vehicles are not allowed to arrive at the customer’s location earlier than the lower limit of …


Multiobjective Design Optimization Of Gas Turbine Blade With Emphasis On Internal Cooling, Narasimha Nagaiah Jan 2012

Multiobjective Design Optimization Of Gas Turbine Blade With Emphasis On Internal Cooling, Narasimha Nagaiah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the design of mechanical components, numerical simulations and experimental methods are commonly used for design creation (or modification) and design optimization. However, a major challenge of using simulation and experimental methods is that they are timeconsuming and often cost-prohibitive for the designer. In addition, the simultaneous interactions between aerodynamic, thermodynamic and mechanical integrity objectives for a particular component or set of components are difficult to accurately characterize, even with the existing simulation tools and experimental methods. The current research and practice of using numerical simulations and experimental methods do little to address the simultaneous “satisficing” of multiple and often …


Evaluating Human-Robot Implicit Communication Through Human-Human Implicit Communication, Andrew Xenos Richardson Jan 2012

Evaluating Human-Robot Implicit Communication Through Human-Human Implicit Communication, Andrew Xenos Richardson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research is examining ways to make human-robot (HR) communication more natural. Incorporating natural communication techniques is expected to make HR communication seamless and more natural for humans. Humans naturally incorporate implicit levels of communication, and including implicit communication in HR communication should provide tremendous benefit. The aim for this work was to evaluate a model for humanrobot implicit communication. Specifically, the primary goal for this research was to determine whether humans can assign meanings to implicit cues received from autonomous robots as they do for identical implicit cues received from humans. An experiment was designed to allow …


An Index To Measure Efficiency Of Hospital Networks For Mass Casualty Disasters, Maria Bull Torres Jan 2012

An Index To Measure Efficiency Of Hospital Networks For Mass Casualty Disasters, Maria Bull Torres

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Disaster events have emphasized the importance of healthcare response activities due to the large number of victims. For instance, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, in 2005, and the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, left thousands of wounded people. In those disasters, although hospitals had disaster plans established for more than a decade, their plans were not efficient enough to handle the chaos produced by the hurricane and terrorist attacks. Thus, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) suggested collaborative planning among hospitals that provide services to a contiguous geographic area …