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ANALYIS OF AIRBORNE MICROWAVE POLARIMETRIC RADIOMETER MEASUREMENTS IN THE PRESENCE OF DYNAMIC PLATFORM ATTITUDE ERRORS
Title
ANALYIS OF AIRBORNE MICROWAVE POLARIMETRIC RADIOMETER MEASUREMENTS IN THE PRESENCE OF DYNAMIC PLATFORM ATTITUDE ERRORS.
Creator
Kabore, Jean Yves, Jones, Linwood, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
There are numerous applications for airborne imaging systems in remote sensing, and this thesis deals with a new microwave polarimetric radiometer technique for inferring ocean surface wind direction [3, 5, 7]. This technique is based upon the anisotropy of the polarized ocean blackbody emissions at microwave frequencies relative to the azimuth angle between the microwave radiometer antenna "look" direction and the direction of the wind. Because of the weak wind direction signature, it is...
Show moreThere are numerous applications for airborne imaging systems in remote sensing, and this thesis deals with a new microwave polarimetric radiometer technique for inferring ocean surface wind direction [3, 5, 7]. This technique is based upon the anisotropy of the polarized ocean blackbody emissions at microwave frequencies relative to the azimuth angle between the microwave radiometer antenna "look" direction and the direction of the wind. Because of the weak wind direction signature, it is important that all systematic brightness temperature (Tb) errors be eliminated, especially those that vary with the radiometer antenna scan position (look direction). This can be accomplished either in hardware implementation or through data processing corrections. Unfortunately, the misalignment of the axis of rotation for a conical-scanning imager can introduce such azimuthally dependent errors of significant magnitude. As the title suggests, the analysis of the resulting Tb errors caused by static and dynamic time-varying aircraft attitude errors is the main thrust of this thesis. In this thesis, we present analytical models developed to account for platform attitude changes on measured ocean microwave brightness temperature collected by a conically scanning radiometer. Data processing procedures for removing unwanted variations in ocean brightness temperatures are outlined. The analytical models are validated by making comparisons between modelled and measured Tb's obtained by the Conically Scanning Two-Look Airborne Radiometer (C-STAR). Results demonstrated that the analytical Tb model can accurately predict the measured polarized Tb's under actual flight conditions.
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Date Issued
2006
Identifier
CFE0000926, ucf:46748
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000926
SIMULATION AND CONTINUANCE OF OPERATION FOR THE USE OF TRANSIT (LYNX) TO BE USED IN EMERGENCY EVACUATION INCIDENTS
Title
SIMULATION AND CONTINUANCE OF OPERATION FOR THE USE OF TRANSIT (LYNX) TO BE USED IN EMERGENCY EVACUATION INCIDENTS.
Creator
Elmitiny, Noor, Radwan, Essam, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The evacuation planning has become an important issue addressed by many research studies and publications aiming to improve the security of the daily life for our public inside the United States of America. The main objective of this research was to address the growing need for evacuation planning using traffic simulation. With increased interests and awareness in emergency evacuation and first responder access to emergencies in public locations (airports, transit stations, ports or stadiums)...
Show moreThe evacuation planning has become an important issue addressed by many research studies and publications aiming to improve the security of the daily life for our public inside the United States of America. The main objective of this research was to address the growing need for evacuation planning using traffic simulation. With increased interests and awareness in emergency evacuation and first responder access to emergencies in public locations (airports, transit stations, ports or stadiums), the traffic simulation can be helpful in orchestrating the traffic flow during emergencies. Related to this issue, Federal Transit Administration has issued a large number of publications and guidelines concerning emergency preparedness and incident management. These guidelines are used to develop a simulation-based activity to evaluate the current plan and alternative plans for the deployment of transit during an emergency situation. A major task for this project is to study the effect of evacuation on the surrounding traffic network and help the local transit company (LYNX) to evaluate their evacuation plan and consider different possibilities without the risk and cost of actual evacuation drills. A set of different scenarios and alternatives for each scenario were simulated and studied to reach the best possible evacuation strategy. The main findings were evacuation as pedestrians have less impact on traffic network and rerouting decreases the congestion resulting from the evacuation process.
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Date Issued
2006
Identifier
CFE0001188, ucf:46870
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001188
Analysis and Simulation for Homogeneous and Heterogeneous SIR Models
Title
Analysis and Simulation for Homogeneous and Heterogeneous SIR Models.
Creator
Wilda, Joseph, Shuai, Zhisheng, Brennan, Joseph, Nevai, A, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
In mathematical epidemiology, disease transmission is commonly assumed to behave in accordance with the law of mass action; however, other disease incidence terms also exist in the literature. A homogeneous Susceptible-Infectious-Removed (SIR) model with a generalized incidence term is presented along with analytic and numerical results concerning effects of the generalization on the global disease dynamics. The spatial heterogeneity of the metapopulation with nonrandom directed movement...
Show moreIn mathematical epidemiology, disease transmission is commonly assumed to behave in accordance with the law of mass action; however, other disease incidence terms also exist in the literature. A homogeneous Susceptible-Infectious-Removed (SIR) model with a generalized incidence term is presented along with analytic and numerical results concerning effects of the generalization on the global disease dynamics. The spatial heterogeneity of the metapopulation with nonrandom directed movement between populations is incorporated into a heterogeneous SIR model with nonlinear incidence. The analysis of the combined effects of the spatial heterogeneity and nonlinear incidence on the disease dynamics of our model is presented along with supporting simulations. New global stability results are established for the heterogeneous model utilizing a graph-theoretic approach and Lyapunov functions. Numerical simulations confirm nonlinear incidence gives raise to rich dynamics such as synchronization and phase-lock oscillations.
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Date Issued
2015
Identifier
CFE0005906, ucf:50872
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005906
DOES SAFETY CULTURE PREDICT CLINICAL OUTCOMES?
Title
DOES SAFETY CULTURE PREDICT CLINICAL OUTCOMES?.
Creator
Wilson, Katherine, Salas, Eduardo, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Patient safety in healthcare has become a national objective. Healthcare organizations are striving to improve patient safety and have turned to high reliability organizations as those in which to model. One initiative taken on by healthcare is improving patient safety culture--shifting from one of a 'no harm, no foul' to a culture of learning that encourages the reporting of errors, even those in which patient harm does not occur. Lacking from the literature, however, is an...
Show morePatient safety in healthcare has become a national objective. Healthcare organizations are striving to improve patient safety and have turned to high reliability organizations as those in which to model. One initiative taken on by healthcare is improving patient safety culture--shifting from one of a 'no harm, no foul' to a culture of learning that encourages the reporting of errors, even those in which patient harm does not occur. Lacking from the literature, however, is an understanding of how safety culture impacts outcomes. While there has been some research done in this area, and safety culture is argued to have an impact, the findings are not very diagnostic. In other words, safety culture has been studied such that an overall safety culture rating is provided and it is shown that a positive safety culture improves outcomes. However, this method does little to tell an organization what aspects of safety culture impact outcomes. Therefore, this dissertation sought to answer that question but analyzing safety culture from multiple dimensions. The results found as a part of this effort support previous work in other domains suggesting that hospital management and supervisor support does lead to improved perceptions of safety. The link between this support and outcomes, such as incidents and incident reporting, is more difficult to determine. The data suggests that employees are willing to report errors when they occur, but the low occurrence of such reportable events in healthcare precludes them from doing so. When a closer look was taken at the type of incidents that were reported, a positive relationship was found between support for patient safety and medication incidents. These results initially seem counterintuitive. To suggest a positive relationship between safety culture and medication incidents on the surface detracts from the research in other domains suggesting the opposite. It could be the case that an increase in incidents leads an organization to implement additional patient safety efforts, and therefore employees perceive a more positive safety culture. Clearly more research is needed in this area. Suggestions for future research and practical implications of this study are provided.
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Date Issued
2007
Identifier
CFE0001924, ucf:47472
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001924
A Study of Perceptions on Incident Response Exercises, Information Sharing, Situational Awareness, and Incident Response Planning in Power Grid Utilities
Title
A Study of Perceptions on Incident Response Exercises, Information Sharing, Situational Awareness, and Incident Response Planning in Power Grid Utilities.
Creator
Garmon, Joseph, Karwowski, Waldemar, Hancock, Peter, Elshennawy, Ahmad, Wan, Thomas, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The power grid is facing increasing risks from a cybersecurity attack. Attacks that shut off electricity in Ukraine have already occurred, and successful compromises of the power grid that did not shut off electricity to customers have been privately disclosed in North America. The objective of this study is to identify how perceptions of various factors emphasized in the electric sector affect incident response planning. Methods used include a survey of 229 power grid personnel and the use...
Show moreThe power grid is facing increasing risks from a cybersecurity attack. Attacks that shut off electricity in Ukraine have already occurred, and successful compromises of the power grid that did not shut off electricity to customers have been privately disclosed in North America. The objective of this study is to identify how perceptions of various factors emphasized in the electric sector affect incident response planning. Methods used include a survey of 229 power grid personnel and the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling to identify causal relationships. This study reveals the relationships between perceptions by personnel responsible for cybersecurity, regarding incident response exercises, information sharing, and situational awareness, and incident response planning. The results confirm that the efforts by the industry on these topics have advanced planning for a potential attack.
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Date Issued
2019
Identifier
CFE0007805, ucf:52349
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007805
A STUDY OF FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO SELF-REPORTED ANOMALIES IN CIVIL AVIATION
Title
A STUDY OF FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO SELF-REPORTED ANOMALIES IN CIVIL AVIATION.
Creator
Andrzejczak, Chris, Karwowski, Waldemar, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
A study investigating what factors are present leading to pilots submitting voluntary anomaly reports regarding their flight performance was conducted. The study employed statistical methods, text mining, clustering, and dimensional reduction techniques in an effort to determine relationships between factors and anomalies. A review of the literature was conducted to determine what factors are contributing to these anomalous incidents, as well as what research exists on human error, its causes...
Show moreA study investigating what factors are present leading to pilots submitting voluntary anomaly reports regarding their flight performance was conducted. The study employed statistical methods, text mining, clustering, and dimensional reduction techniques in an effort to determine relationships between factors and anomalies. A review of the literature was conducted to determine what factors are contributing to these anomalous incidents, as well as what research exists on human error, its causes, and its management. Data from the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) was analyzed using traditional statistical methods such as frequencies and multinomial logistic regression. Recently formalized approaches in text mining such as Knowledge Based Discovery (KBD) and Literature Based Discovery (LBD) were employed to create associations between factors and anomalies. These methods were also used to generate predictive models. Finally, advances in dimensional reduction techniques identified concepts or keywords within records, thus creating a framework for an unsupervised document classification system. Findings from this study reinforced established views on contributing factors to civil aviation anomalies. New associations between previously unrelated factors and conditions were also found. Dimensionality reduction also demonstrated the possibility of identifying salient factors from unstructured text records, and was able to classify these records using these identified features.
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Date Issued
2010
Identifier
CFE0003463, ucf:48382
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003463
RESPONSE SENSITIVITY OF HIGHWAY BRIDGES TO RANDOM MULTI-COMPONENT EARTHQUAKE EXCITATION
Title
RESPONSE SENSITIVITY OF HIGHWAY BRIDGES TO RANDOM MULTI-COMPONENT EARTHQUAKE EXCITATION.
Creator
Cronin, Kyle, Mackie, Kevin, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Highway bridges provide a critical lifeline during extreme seismic events and must maintain serviceability under a large range of earthquake intensities. Consequently, the advent of more computational power has allowed more advanced analysis approaches for predicting performance and vulnerability of highway bridges under these seismic loads. In traditional two-dimensional finite element analyses, it has been demonstrated that the incidence angle of the ground motion can play a significant...
Show moreHighway bridges provide a critical lifeline during extreme seismic events and must maintain serviceability under a large range of earthquake intensities. Consequently, the advent of more computational power has allowed more advanced analysis approaches for predicting performance and vulnerability of highway bridges under these seismic loads. In traditional two-dimensional finite element analyses, it has been demonstrated that the incidence angle of the ground motion can play a significant role in structural response. As three-dimensional nonlinear time history analyses are used more frequently in practice, ground motions are still usually applied along a single bridge axis. It is unknown how three orthogonal components of ground motion excitation should be applied to the structure to best represent the true response. In this study, the fundamental behavior of three-dimensional ground motion was studied using single-degree-of-freedom elastic spectra. Mean spectra computed from various orientation techniques were found indistinguishable when the orthogonal components were combined. The effect of incidence angle on the nonlinear structural response of highway bridges was then investigated through extensive statistical simulation. Three different bridge models were employed for this study implementing a suite of 180 multi-component ground motion records of various magnitude-distance-soil bins. Probabilistic seismic demand models for various response parameters are presented comparing the effects of random incidence angle to that of recorded directions. Although there are instances where the angle of incidence can significantly amplify response, results indicated that incidence angle had negligible effect on average ensemble response. This is consistent with results from the spectral analysis, although existing literature has emphasized incidence angle as a significant parameter of multi-component analysis.
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Date Issued
2009
Identifier
CFE0002933, ucf:47973
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002933
Respresentation of Hispanic Students in High Incidence Categories in Exceptional Student Education Programs and Educational Environments in K-12 Schools Across the State of Florida
Title
Respresentation of Hispanic Students in High Incidence Categories in Exceptional Student Education Programs and Educational Environments in K-12 Schools Across the State of Florida.
Creator
Miller, Douglas, Murray, Kenneth, Murray, Barbara, Doherty, Walter, Vasquez, Eleazar, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was first passed in 1975 and requires states to have policies in place to prevent misidentification and overrepresentation, and to monitor disproportionate representation by race/ethnicity and disability category. The fundamental premise of this legislation is to ensure that students with disabilities are afforded a free and appropriate education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Even with the passage of IDEA, the...
Show moreThe Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was first passed in 1975 and requires states to have policies in place to prevent misidentification and overrepresentation, and to monitor disproportionate representation by race/ethnicity and disability category. The fundamental premise of this legislation is to ensure that students with disabilities are afforded a free and appropriate education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Even with the passage of IDEA, the disproportionate representation of minority students continues to be a national issue.The disproportionate placement of minority students in Exceptional Student Education (ESE) began to receive attention prior to IDEA and has been well documented by researchers ever since. Hispanic disproportionality has received less attention in professional literature and has shown to vary depending upon the level of data being analyzed. Early studies analyzing national level data indicate that Hispanic students tend to be underrepresented in many ESE categories, while studies disaggregating state and district level data found that Hispanic students are overrepresented in the high incidence categories. The goals of this study were to determine (a) if a disproportionate representation of Hispanic students existed in the three high incidence categories of Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities (EBD), Specific Learning Disabled (SLD), and Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and(b) if Hispanic students already identified for Exceptional Student Education services were disproportionately represented, compared to all other students, in more restrictive educational placements in each of the 67 counties in the state of Florida. Three separate measures were employed to make this determination: the composition index (CI), the risk index (RI), and the risk ratio (RR). An analysis of the data revealed that in several of the school districts Hispanic students were both overrepresented and underrepresented across all high incidence categories. The data also indicated that Hispanic students already identified for ESE services were both overrepresented and underrepresented in several school districts across all educational environments. Also, differences in disproportionality were noted depending upon the measure being utilized for both research questions. Implications for practice and recommendations for further research are presented.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0004720, ucf:49838
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004720
OPTIMIZING THE PERFORMANCE OF AS-MANUFACTURED GRAZING INCIDENCE X-RAY TELESCOPES USING MOSAIC DETECTOR ARRAYS
Title
OPTIMIZING THE PERFORMANCE OF AS-MANUFACTURED GRAZING INCIDENCE X-RAY TELESCOPES USING MOSAIC DETECTOR ARRAYS.
Creator
Atanassova, Martina, Harvey, James, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The field of X-ray astronomy is only forty (43) years old, and grazing incidence X-ray telescopes have only been conceived and designed for a little over fifty (50) years. The Wolter Type I design is particularly well suited for stellar astronomical telescopes (very small field-of-view). The first orbiting X-ray observatory, HEAO-1 was launched in 1977, a mere twenty-eight (28) years ago. Since that time large nested Wolter Type I X-ray telescopes have been designed, build, and launched by...
Show moreThe field of X-ray astronomy is only forty (43) years old, and grazing incidence X-ray telescopes have only been conceived and designed for a little over fifty (50) years. The Wolter Type I design is particularly well suited for stellar astronomical telescopes (very small field-of-view). The first orbiting X-ray observatory, HEAO-1 was launched in 1977, a mere twenty-eight (28) years ago. Since that time large nested Wolter Type I X-ray telescopes have been designed, build, and launched by the European Space Agency (ROSAT) and NASA (the Chandra Observatory). Several smaller grazing incidence telescopes have been launched for making solar observations (SOHO, HESP, SXI). These grazing incidence designs tend to suffer from severe aberrations and at these very short wavelengths scattering effects from residual optical fabrication errors are another major source of image degradation. The fabrication of precision optical surfaces for grazing incidence X-ray telescopes thus poses a great technological challenge. Both the residual "figure" errors and the residual microroughness or "finish" of the manufactured mirrors must be precisely measured, and the image degradation due to these fabrication errors must be accurately modeled in order to predict the final optical performance of the as manufactured telescope. The fabrication process thus consists of a series of polishing and testing cycles with the predictions from the metrology data of each cycle indicating the strategy for the next polishing cycle. Most commercially available optical design and analysis software analyzes the image degradation effects of diffraction and aberrations, but does not adequately model the image degradation effects of surface scatter or the effects of state-of-the-art mosaic detectors. The work presented in this dissertation is in support of the Solar X-ray Imager (SXI) program. We have developed a rigorous procedure by which to analyze detector effects in systems which exhibit severe field-dependent aberrations (conventional transfer function analysis is not applicable). Furthermore, we developed a technique to balance detector effects with geometrical aberrations, during the design process, for wide-field applications. We then included these detector effects in a complete systems engineering analysis (including the effects of diffraction, geometrical aberrations, surface scatter effects, the mirror manufacturer error budget tree, and detector effects) of image quality for the five SXI telescopes being fabricated for NOAA's next generation GOES weather satellites. In addition we have re-optimized the remaining optical design parameters after the grazing incidence SXI mirrors have been imperfectly fabricated. This ability depends critically upon the adoption of an image quality criterion, or merit function, appropriate for the specific application. In particular, we discuss in detail how the focal plane position can be adjusted to optimize the optical performance of the telescope to best compensate for optical figure and/or finish errors resulting from the optical fabrication process. Our systems engineering analysis was then used to predict the increase in performance achieved by the re-optimization procedure. The image quality predictions are also compared with real X-ray test data from the SXI program to experimentally validate our system engineering analysis capability.
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Date Issued
2005
Identifier
CFE0000428, ucf:46387
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000428
INFLUENCE MAP METHODOLOGY FOR EVALUATING SYSTEMIC SAFETY ISSUES
Title
INFLUENCE MAP METHODOLOGY FOR EVALUATING SYSTEMIC SAFETY ISSUES.
Creator
Barth, Timothy, Pet-Armacost, Julia, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
"Raising the bar" in safety performance is a critical challenge for many organizations. Contributing factor taxonomies organize information on why accidents occur. Therefore, they are essential elements of accident investigations and safety reporting systems. Organizations must balance efforts to identify causes of specific accidents with efforts to evaluate systemic safety issues in order to become more proactive about improving safety. This research successfully addressed two problems: (1)...
Show more"Raising the bar" in safety performance is a critical challenge for many organizations. Contributing factor taxonomies organize information on why accidents occur. Therefore, they are essential elements of accident investigations and safety reporting systems. Organizations must balance efforts to identify causes of specific accidents with efforts to evaluate systemic safety issues in order to become more proactive about improving safety. This research successfully addressed two problems: (1) limited methods and metrics exist to support the design of effective taxonomies, and (2) influence relationships between contributing factors are not explicitly modeled within a taxonomy. The primary result of the taxonomic relationship modeling efforts was an innovative "dual role" contributing factor taxonomy with significant improvements in comprehensiveness and diagnosticity over existing taxonomies. The influence map methodology was the result of a unique graphical and analytical combination of the dual role taxonomy and influence relationship models. Influence maps were developed for several safety incidents at Kennedy Space Center. An independent assessment was conducted by a team of experts using the new dual role taxonomy and influence chain methodology to evaluate the accuracy and completeness of contributing factors identified during the formal incident investigations. One hundred and sixteen contributing factors were identified using the influence map methodology. Only 16% of these contributing factors were accurately identified with traditional tools, and over half of the 116 contributing factors were completely unaddressed by the findings and recommendations of the formal incident reports. The new methodology is being applied to improve spaceport operations and enhance designs of future NASA launch systems.
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Date Issued
2006
Identifier
CFE0001274, ucf:46928
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001274
THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF WARRANTLESS CELL PHONE SEARCHES INCIDENT TO ARREST
Title
THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF WARRANTLESS CELL PHONE SEARCHES INCIDENT TO ARREST.
Creator
Brown, Kylie, Bast, Carol, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
As technology has developed, Americans have come to carry their most private information around with them in their pockets in digital form on their cell phones. A cell phone has immense storage capacity and can contain a wide variety of communicative information about its owner. In the past, there had been a disagreement among the lower courts as to whether police officers could search the contents of an arrestee's cell phone when making an arrest. The United States Supreme Court settled this...
Show moreAs technology has developed, Americans have come to carry their most private information around with them in their pockets in digital form on their cell phones. A cell phone has immense storage capacity and can contain a wide variety of communicative information about its owner. In the past, there had been a disagreement among the lower courts as to whether police officers could search the contents of an arrestee's cell phone when making an arrest. The United States Supreme Court settled this disagreement in Riley v. California; in that case, the Court held that the warrantless search of a cell phone incident to arrest violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This thesis discusses case law that preceded the United States Supreme Court case Riley v. California, that decision, and possible ramifications of that decision.
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Date Issued
2014
Identifier
CFH0004698, ucf:45237
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004698
A Framework for Assessing Sustainability Impacts of Truck Routing Strategies
Title
A Framework for Assessing Sustainability Impacts of Truck Routing Strategies.
Creator
Laman, Haluk, Abdel-Aty, Mohamed, Tatari, Omer, Ahmed, Mohamed, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The impact of freight on our transportation system is further accentuated by the fact that trucks consume greater roadway capacity and therefore cause more significant problems including traffic congestion, delay, crashes, air pollution, fuel consumption, and pavement damage. Assessing the actual effects of truck traffic is a growing need to support the ability to safely and efficiently move goods and people in areas where roadway expansion is not the best option. On one hand, trucks need to...
Show moreThe impact of freight on our transportation system is further accentuated by the fact that trucks consume greater roadway capacity and therefore cause more significant problems including traffic congestion, delay, crashes, air pollution, fuel consumption, and pavement damage. Assessing the actual effects of truck traffic is a growing need to support the ability to safely and efficiently move goods and people in areas where roadway expansion is not the best option. On one hand, trucks need to efficiently serve commerce and industry, while at the same time their activities need not contribute to a decline in the quality or public safety. In the current practice, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no framework methodology for real-time management of traffic, specifically on truck routes, to reduce travel duration and avoid truck travel delays due to non-recurring congestion (i.e. traffic incidents) and to estimate impacts on traffic flows, economy, and environment. The objective of this study is to develop a truck routing strategy and to quantify its' impacts on travel time, emissions and consequently assess the effects on the economy and environment. In order to estimate non-recurrent congestion based travel delay and fuel consumption by real-time truck routing simulation models, significant corridors with high truck percentages were selected. Furthermore, tailpipe emissions (on-site) due to traveled distance and idling are estimated via MOVES emissions simulator software. Economic Input Output-Life Cycle Assessment Model is utilized to gather fuel consumption related upstream (off-site) emissions. Simulation results of various scenarios indicated that potential annual value of time savings can reach up to $1.67 million per selected corridor. Consistently, fuel costs and emission values are lower, even though extra miles are traveled on the alternative route. In conclusion, our study confirms that truck routing strategies in incident conditions have high economic and environmental impacts.
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Date Issued
2018
Identifier
CFE0007577, ucf:52570
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007577
Political, Economic, and Health Determinants of Tuberculosis Incidence
Title
Political, Economic, and Health Determinants of Tuberculosis Incidence.
Creator
Rutherford, Ashley, Unruh, Lynn, Rohde, Kyle, Wan, Thomas, Nobles, Matt, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The epidemiologic transition has shifted major causes of mortality from infectious disease to chronic disease; however, infectious diseases are again re-emerging as a major global concern (Diamond, 1997; Karlen, 1995; McNeil, 1976). This research aimed to identify potential areas of infectious disease influence that are not health-related in order to help governments and policymakers establish new policies, correct current policies, or further address these issues in order to effectively...
Show moreThe epidemiologic transition has shifted major causes of mortality from infectious disease to chronic disease; however, infectious diseases are again re-emerging as a major global concern (Diamond, 1997; Karlen, 1995; McNeil, 1976). This research aimed to identify potential areas of infectious disease influence that are not health-related in order to help governments and policymakers establish new policies, correct current policies, or further address these issues in order to effectively prevent and combat infectious disease. This study employed a retrospective, cross-sectional, non-experimental design via structural equation modeling (SEM) and examined tuberculosis incidence rates at the country-level. Secondary data from open-source, international databases like World Bank's World Development Indicators, World Governance Indicators, and World Health Organization for the year 2014 was utilized. Results revealed that the latent constructs of political stability, health system indicators, and detection policies directly affected tuberculosis incidence rates; they also exhibited an indirect effect due to covariation. Economic stability did not direct affect tuberculosis incidence, but it indirectly influenced incidence through the covariation of political stability, health system indicators, and detection policies. As a country's political stability increased, tuberculosis incidence decreased. As positive health system indicators increased, tuberculosis incidence decreased. Countries with more Xpert detection policies in place experienced an apparent increase in tuberculosis incidence.
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Date Issued
2016
Identifier
CFE0006842, ucf:51798
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006842
Pre-Service Elementary Teachers' Self-Efficacy Beliefs About Science Using Critical Incident Technique: A Case Study Approach.
Title
Pre-Service Elementary Teachers' Self-Efficacy Beliefs About Science Using Critical Incident Technique: A Case Study Approach.
Creator
Ravikumar, Meera, Jeanpierre, Bobby, Everett, Robert, Hopp, Carolyn, Dieker, Lisa, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The primary goal of this case study using qualitative and quantitative methods was to investigate pre-service elementary teachers' initial self-efficacy beliefs about science and science teaching by exploring the K-12 science experiences of these prospective elementary teachers. Of the 108 participants who completed the science teaching efficacy belief survey (STEBI-B) (Enochs (&) Riggs, 1990), 12 participants were selected to be interviewed using Flanagan's (1954) critical incident technique...
Show moreThe primary goal of this case study using qualitative and quantitative methods was to investigate pre-service elementary teachers' initial self-efficacy beliefs about science and science teaching by exploring the K-12 science experiences of these prospective elementary teachers. Of the 108 participants who completed the science teaching efficacy belief survey (STEBI-B) (Enochs (&) Riggs, 1990), 12 participants were selected to be interviewed using Flanagan's (1954) critical incident technique. Participants were asked to share their past positive and negative incidents during their K-12 years with science and science teachers. They were also asked to report how past incidents affected them at present and how they believed they would impact them as future teachers of science in elementary schools.The past positive and negative incidents were analyzed using Bandura's (1977) four sources of self-efficacy (mastery, vicarious, social persuasion, and physiological/emotional) and by school level; and the impact of the past science incidents on the subjects' present and future beliefs as science teachers were categorized. The results of this study revealed that pre-service elementary teachers' self-efficacy and beliefs were largely influenced by their past experiences with science in the K-12 years, and mastery experiences dominated as a source of self-efficacy. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research were made based on the findings of the study.
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Date Issued
2013
Identifier
CFE0004916, ucf:49632
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004916
THE EFFECTS OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED REPEATED READINGS ON THE READING PERFORMANCE OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH MILD INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES
Title
THE EFFECTS OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED REPEATED READINGS ON THE READING PERFORMANCE OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH MILD INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES.
Creator
Cerasale, Mark, Martin, Suzanne, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has mandated that all public school students will be reading at grade level by the 2013-2014 school year. Florida has embarked on an agenda to ensure that the kindergarten through high school student population is reading at or above grade level by 2014. Many of Florida's low-performing student population, including middle school students with high incidence disabilities, are reading below grade level. Using a multiple baseline across subjects design,...
Show moreThe No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has mandated that all public school students will be reading at grade level by the 2013-2014 school year. Florida has embarked on an agenda to ensure that the kindergarten through high school student population is reading at or above grade level by 2014. Many of Florida's low-performing student population, including middle school students with high incidence disabilities, are reading below grade level. Using a multiple baseline across subjects design, this study examined the impact of computer-assisted repeated readings on the reading performance of three middle school students with mild intellectual disabilities over the course of 67 days. Results showed an improvement in reading fluency rate using instructional level text. The study was evaluated using quality indicators of single-subject research in special education. Future research is advocated to replicate this study across different grades and exceptionalities.
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Date Issued
2009
Identifier
CFE0002855, ucf:48055
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002855