Digital Commons Network^™

Traffic Safety Investigations For Local Agencies, Jacob D. Hudson

Master's Theses

National and statewide (California) collision numbers are currently on the

decline; however, the U.S. is declining at a much slower rate than most other

developed countries, and in some aspects is actually regressing in terms of traffic

safety. Although state highway safety is improving, local roadway safety may

actually be regressing. Approximately three-quarters of all U.S. public roadways,

and approximately 80% of all injury accidents fall under the jurisdiction of cities.

However, cities may not be allocating the proper level of resources, or operating

under the proper administrative methodologies to adequately address these

safety issues.

This research finds that on …

Freight Transportation Analysis Comparison Of Short Sea Shipping To Conventional Transportation Modes, Vishwesh Vilas Parkhi

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Pollution due to transportation is one of the biggest concerns today. Freight transportation plays a significant role in this situation. Pollution can be reduced by minimizing the use of transport fuel. This can be achieved by selecting the most economical transport mode for long voyages for which fuel cost is one of the major costs. The model developed in this research helps in comparing the transport modes by evaluating cost per ton-mile. The three transportation modes of trucks, trains and Ro-Ro shipping vessels are considered in the model with very detailed costs associated with them. The major objective of this …

Use Of An Integrated System Dynamics Model For Analyzing Behaviour Of The Social-Economic-Climatic System In Policy Development, Christopher J. Popovich, Slobodan P. Simonovic, Gordon A. Mcbean

Water Resources Research Report

Climate change remains one of the most critical issues that humans and the natural world face today. Yet while a strong body of scientific research has identified the risks if mitigation and adaptation measures are not taken, there still remains a policy lag. This leads researchers to pose several questions: is there an identified need by the policy domain for more or different science? Is the science that is conducted made policyrelevant? If not, are there tools to better link science to policy? This report will explain the process of science-policy communication related to the development of an integrated system …

Freight Sequencing To Improve Hub Operations In The Less-Than-Truckload Freight Transportation Industry, Xiangshang Tong, Kimberly Ellis, Amy Brown Greer

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

In less-than-truckload freight transportation, hub operations affect the service levels that carriers are able to provide their customers. This paper focuses on improving the efficiency of hub operations by reducing freight handling time and cost. Specifically, the freight sequencing problem (FSP) is investigated to determine the freight unloading and loading sequence that minimizes the time for dock workers to transfer shipments from origin trailers to destination trailers. The FSP is modeled as a Rural Postman Problem (RPP) and three algorithms are compared: trailer-at-atime, nearest neighbor, and balance-and-connect. Using five industrial data sets, the results demonstrate the effectiveness, advantages, and disadvantages …

Modeling Acoustic Scattering From The Seabed Using Transport Theory, Jorge Quijano, Lisa M. Zurk

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Radiative Transfer (RT) theory has established itself as an important tool for electromagnetic remote sensing in parallel plane geometries with random distributions of scatterers, and most recently it has also been proposed as a model for the propagation of elastic waves in layered ocean sediments. In this work the capabilities of this model are illustrated, as the RT method is used to predict backscattering strength from laboratory models of random media. The RT model is characterized by its flexibility on accommodating scatterers in a broad variety of sizes, shapes, and acoustic contrast relative to the background media. Additionally, this formulation …

A Roof Runoff Strategy And Model For Augmenting Public Water Supply, Robert Carnahan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water is the essential resource that is becoming extremely scarce worldwide. The 21st century will further stress all available water resources through the growth and expansion of developing nations. It is not only the quantity of cheap water that is being depleted, but the quality of these waters is being endangered. Florida is an example where rapid development and an exploding population are competing for shrinking groundwater resources. Current water use does not address the use of alternative supplies and reuses in the United States.

The objective of this research was to determine a strategy for augmenting existing water supplies …

Enhancement Of Predictive Capability Of Transit Boardings Estimation And Simulation Tool (Tbest) Using Parcel Data: An Exploratory Analysis, Tejsingh Rana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

TBEST is a comprehensive third generation transit demand forecasting model, developed by the FDOT Public Transit Office (PTO) to help transit agencies in completing their Transit Development Plans (TDPs). The on-going project funded by FDOT, related to TBEST, aims at further enhancing the capabilities of the TBEST model based on additional opportunities identified by the research team. The project focuses on enhancing TBEST’s capabilities in following areas: 1) Improving the precision of socio- demographic data by using property appraisal data (parcel data) and, 2) Improving the quality of data regarding trip attraction. Based on the improvement areas, this study aims …

Global Competence: Determination Of Its Importance For Engineers Working In A Global Environment, Gregg M. Warnick

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

We live and work in a world that is even more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. Engineers must now not only develop technical engineering competence, but must also develop additional skills and competencies including global competence to obtain success within a global engineering environment.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether multinational companies considered global competence an important skill in mechanical engineering graduates when making hiring decisions. The study was an exploratory study that utilized an extensive literature review to identify eight global competencies for engineering success within a global environment and also included a survey instrument …

Wireless Sensor Network Approach To Aeronautical Telemetry, Oluwasegun Babatunde Tinubi

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless sensor networks have become a rapidly growing research field in recent years. They are envisioned to have a wide range of applications in military, environmental and many other fields. We examine the performance of wireless sensor network applications to aeronautical telemetry. To date, test ranges have relied on a single telemetry ground station for the reception of packets from all air borne transmitters. We researched an alternate means of achieving this same goal with fewer resources. It is a well known fact that communication power and bandwidth are the most expensive commodities in wireless communications. The telemetry world is …

Department Of Biological Systems Engineering Newsletter, Volume 6, Number 2, July 2010

BSE Department Magazine

No abstract provided.

Post-Project Risk Perception And Systems Management Reaction, Baqer Alali

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this research is to identify whether risk management in projects has any role in risk management in systems. Projects, systems, and risk management are three integral concepts in the management of various enterprises and agencies. Risk management is a common concept in systems and project processes. To avoid failures or crisis during their life cycles, projects and systems managers practice risk management. Projects and systems have well defined life cycles during which the risk is defined, controlled, and managed. Risk management is conducted in each phase of projects and systems. Projects are initiated to close certain operational …

A Predictive Game Theoretic Model To Assess Us - Russian Response To An Islamic Safe-Haven In The Caucasus Region, Christopher Wayne Hartline

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The thesis examines possible US and Russian policy decisions following the establishment of an Islamist safe-haven in Chechnya. Conflicting national policies affect the possibility of a negotiated settlement. Domestic and international political considerations constrain the decision-making of the two nations. The author applies game theory to examine the sequential decision-making of the two nations. The extensive form model draws outcome payoff values from a bounded uniform distribution. This approach naturally models uncertainty; and, it allows repeated probabilistic instantiations of the model. These instantiations produce a range of solutions. The most likely outcome was a negotiated settlement, generally following a tit-for-tat …

A Differential Absorption Model For Remote Sensing Of Atmospheric Pressure, Shivam J. Shah

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The goal of the project is to develop and test a "model based" radar processing strategy that is compatible with the concept of a "cognitive radar". The basic approach will be to develop a cognitive radar algorithm (genetic algorithm) based on the capabilities of an existing commercially available Software Radio. While the focus of this effort is the development of a candidate approach for genetic algorithm, the longer term goal would be to implement the approach using this software radio technology to provide a low cost radar processor. The proposed technology would use differential absorption radar working at the 50-56 …

Navigation On A Great Ellipse, Tseng Wei-Kuo, Lee Hsuan-Shih

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This paper presents contact formulae for the computation of the position, the distance, and the azimuth along a great ellipse. The proposed alternative formulae are to be primarily used for accurate sailing calculations on the ellipsoid in a GIS environment as in ECDIS and other ECS. Among the ECDIS Requirements is the need for a continuous system with a degree of accuracy consistent with the requirements of safe navigation. At present, this requirement is best fulfilled by the Global Positioning System (GPS). The GPS system is referenced to World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS 84) Datum. Using the ellipsoid model for …

Challenges And Opportunities In Developing A Sustainable Biomass Infrastructure, Prabhakar Nair

CO2 Summit: Technology and Opportunity

No abstract provided.

Scale Model Shake Table Testing Of Underground Structures In Soft Clay, Victor A. Crosariol

Master's Theses

Underground structures perform an important role in transportation systems in many seismically active regions around the world, but empirical data regarding the seismic behavior of these structures is limited. This research works towards filling that empirical gap through the use of scale model shake table testing. Underground seismic soil-structure interaction (USSSI) effects were investigated for a stiff rectangular tunnel cross-section embedded within soft clay. San Francisco Young Bay Mud was used as a prototype soil for developing a scale model soil mixture consisting of kaolinite, bentonite, class C fly ash, and water. A single cell Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) …

Knowledge Discovery And Analysis In Manufacturing, Mark Polczynski, Andzrej Kochanski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The quality and reliability requirements for next-generation manufacturing are reviewed, and current approaches are cited. The potential for augmenting current quality/reliability technology is described, and characteristics of potential future directions are postulated. Methods based on knowledge discovery and analysis in manufacturing (KDAM) are reviewed, and related successful applications in business and social fields are discussed. Typical KDAM applications are noted, along with general functions and specific KDAM-related technologies. A systematic knowledge discovery process model is reviewed, and examples of current work are given, including description of successful applications of KDAM to creation of rules for optimizing gas porosity in sand …

Air Piston Approach To Wave Power Generation, Arun Ramadass

Theses

Scientists have calculated that, by tapping just 0.2% of the energy produced by the world's oceans we can provide for all the worlds current energy needs. It is generally accepted that a combination of traditional energy production methods, (oil, coal, gas, nuclear) mixed with a combination of renewable energy production approaches is the future in providing for an increasingly energy hungry world. Wind, solar and biomass have moved into the public arena only in the last few years.

The proposed patented device (US Patent No.: 7,468,563) Ocean Wave Energy Converter harnesses the energy of ocean waves by continually raising and …

Ecotourism And Water Quality: Linking Management, Activities And Sustainability Indicators In The Caribbean, Ken Darrie Thomas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ecotourism from its genesis and founding theories has been set out to conserve and preserve the environment through sustainable operation that includes surrounding communities in efforts to reduce their poverty levels. Over the years ecotourism has been hypothesized to have departed from this ideal with several researchers, through social, qualitative analyses, have said that these non-sustainable ecotourism operations are simply due to poor management. This work sought to test this central hypothesis as a first approach to quantitatively linking ecotourism activities to management with surface water quality as the key indicator of sustainable ecotourism as a complex system through systems …

Assessment Of Liquefaction Susceptibility Of Geological Units In The Area Of Gulf Of Corinth, Greece, George Papathanassiou, Sotiris Valkaniotis, Spyros Pavlides

International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

The coastal area of Gulf of Corinth is characterized as medium to high seismicity zone since devastating earthquakes occurred during a 2500 years period. One of the most characteristic events is the 373 B.C. Eliki earthquake that triggered severe secondary effects including soil liquefaction and large scale landslides. The basic aim of this paper is the compilation of a map regarding the liquefaction susceptibility in the coastal area of Gulf of Corinth, Central Greece. In order to achieve this, we used data regarding the age and depositional process of sediments the value of peak ground acceleration (PGA) and the occurrence …

Landslide Hazard Mapping And Assessment In Himalayas, A. K. Pachauri

International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

Himalayas offer a good opportunity to study landslides in hard terrains. The region is a well established seismic region of Asia where earthquakes are common occurrence. The on going plate motion and its collision with Asian plate is the main triggering factor for landslides, but there are geological factors that make the slopes susceptible for landslides to be triggered during rains. The Yatra routes of Char Dham the four pilgrimage centers where millions of Hindus go each year for salvation and heaven abode have to face road blocks each rainy season. The border road organization the pioneer organization looking after …

Characterization Of The Elastic Displacement Demand: Case Study - Sofia City, Ivanka Paskaleva, Mihaela Kouteva, Franco Vaccari, Giuliano F. Panza

International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

The results of the study on the seismic site response of a part of the metropolitan Sofia are discussed. The neo-deterministic seismic hazard assessment procedure has been used to compute realistic synthetic waveforms considering four earthquake scenarios, with magnitudes M=3.7, M=6.3 and M = 7.0. Source and site specific ground motion time histories are computed along three selected cross sections, making use of the hybrid approach, combining the modal summation technique and the finite differences scheme. Displacement and acceleration response spectra are considered. These results are validated against the design elastic displacement response spectra and displacement demand, recommended in Eurocode …

The Role Of Soil And Site Conditions In The Vulnerability And Risk Assessment Of Lifelines And Infrastructures. The Case Of Thessaloniki (Greece)., Kyriazis Pitilakis, Anastasios Anastasiadis, Kalliopi Kakderi, Maria Alexoudi, Sotiris Argyroudis

International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics

Soil conditions and site effects play an important role in the vulnerability assessment of lifelines and infrastructures under strong seismic excitation. Due to the spatial extent of these networks, they are subjected to non-uniform and incoherent ground motion as a result of the variability of soil and geological conditions; consequently their vulnerability assessment depends entirely on the variability of soil conditions and ground motion, known as site effects, for a given seismic scenario. Fragility functions for the exposed elements at risk, composing the different lifelines and infrastructure systems, play an equally important role. The paper presents some selected results of …

Economics Of Using Biomass Electric Power For Energy Application Of Light Commercial Building, Madan M. Nellore

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Due to increased concern on global warming coupled with dwindling supply of conventional fuels, attention has been focus ed recently on use of renewable energy resources. The energy derived from biomass has a great potential in meeting this challenge by use of the state of art technology in gasifiers. Commercial units recently placed in the market have a potential of using the energy available in the biomass in producing electric power as well as in meeting the other building loads most efficiently, with negligible environmental effect. Woody mass, switch grass, hazzle nut shells and other biomass wastes can be utilized …

A Realistic Mobility Model For Wireless Networks Of Scale-Free Node Connectivity, Sunho Lim, Chansu Yu, Chita R. Das

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Recent studies discovered that many of social, natural and biological networks are characterised by scale-free power-law connectivity distribution. We envision that wireless networks are directly deployed over such real-world networks to facilitate communication among participating entities. This paper proposes Clustered Mobility Model (CMM), in which nodes do not move randomly but are attracted more to more populated areas. Unlike most of prior mobility models, CMM is shown to exhibit scale-free connectivity distribution. Extensive simulation study has been conducted to highlight the difference between Random WayPoint (RWP) and CMM by measuring network capacities at the physical, link and network layers.

Modeling Phosphate Adsorption For South Carolina Soils, Jesse Cannon

All Theses

Eroded sediment and the pollutants it transports are problems in water bodies in South Carolina (SC) and the United States as a whole. Current regulations and engineering practice attempt to remedy this problem by trapping sediment according to settling velocity, and thus, particle size. However, relatively little is known about most eroded soils. In most cases, little experimental data are available to describe a soil's ability to adsorb a pollutant of interest. More-effective design tools are necessary if design engineers and regulators are to be successful in reducing the amount of sediment and sediment-bound pollutants in water bodies. This study …

Developing A Filter Kit System Database: Procedure And Analysis, He Shi

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science and Technology at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Master of Science by He Shi on April 30, 2010.

2010 - The Fifteenth Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Fifteenth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 27, 2010. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Ahp Model For The Container Port Choice In The Multiple-Ports Region, Chien-Chang Chou

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

In this paper, a theoretical analysis of the effect of surface roughness on the lubrication characteristics of inclined stepped composite bearings with micropolar fluid is examined. A generalized form of surface roughness is mathematically modeled by a stochastic random variable with non-zero mean, variance and skewness. The generalized average Reynolds type equation is derived for the rough inclined stepped composite bearings with micropolar fluid. The closed form expressions are obtained for the fluid film pressure, load carrying capacity, frictional force. These expressions can be utilized to obtain the performance characteristics of four different types of bearing system viz; rough plane …

Managing Media Rich Geo-Spatial Annotations For A Map-Based Mobile Application Using Clustering, Khasfariyati Razikin, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh, Ee Peng Lim, Aixin Sun, Yin-Leng Theng, Thi Nhu Quynh Kim, Kalyani Chatterjea, Chew-Hung Chang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the prevalence of mobile devices that are equipped with wireless Internet capabilities and Global Positioning System (GPS) functionality, the creation and access of user-generated content are extended to users on the go. Such content are tied to real world objects, in the form of geospatial annotations, and it is only natural that these annotations are visualized using a map-based approach. However, viewing maps that are filled with annotations could hinder the serendipitous discovery of data, especially on the small screens of mobile devices. This calls for a need to manage the annotations. In this paper, we introduce a mobile …