Infrared pedestrian detection systems struggle with real-time processing performance. Known solutions are limited to either low resolution systems with basic functionality running at full frame rate, or software based techniques featuring higher detection rates with full set of features, however running only in off-line mode for statistical analysis. Here, a comprehensive solution for real-time pedestrian detection is described. This research project includes investigation of possible solutions, design, development and implementation of a pedestrian detection system, processing data from infrared video source in real-time. Design requirements include processing at full frame rate as well as low memory and system resource consumption. The memory utilization is one of the major concerns since high demand for memory resources is a critical aspect in most image processing applications. For the purpose of this task, a number of general purpose image processing techniques were revised, taking into consideration the suitability for infrared pedestrian detection. These tasks include background separation, acquisition noise removal and object detection through connected component labelling. They are discussed and addressed in individual chapters. Various techniques for background segmentation are discussed. A chronological review of popular techniques is provided. The proposed architecture for background subtraction is based on selective running average for adaptive background model, supported by adaptive thresholding based on histogram calculation. In order to remove acquisition noise, a dual decomposed architecture was introduced, based on mathematical morphology and basic set theory de�nitions. It includes both erosion and dilation performed in a pipeline. For the purpose of object detection and feature extraction, a connected component labelling technique was employed, based on a single pass approach to ful�l real-time processing requirement. The system was implemented, veri�ed and tested on XUP FPGA Development Board with Virtex-II Pro XC2VP30 chip from Xilinx. Details and limitation of the speci�c implementation are discussed. An overview of experimental pedestrian detection results is provided. The thesis concludes with system analysis and suggestions for future work.

Der Körnerweg war und ist ein unverzichtbarer Fuß- und Radweg. Ein 650m langer Abschnitt davon befindet sich derzeit in desolatem Zustand. Trotz seltener Einigkeit des gesamten Stadtrats kommt seit Jahren eine Sanierung nicht zustande. Grund dafür sind zähe Abstimmungsprozesse zum Denkmalschutz, zur Statik der Stützmauern und zum Hochwasserschutz sowie Widerstand der Anwohner, die zunehmenden Radverkehr befürchten. Außerdem ist absehbar, dass alle Sanierungsvarianten teuer werden. Der derzeitige Weg ist weder schön noch so alt, wie vielfach angenommen wird. Die heutige äußere Form wurde 1908 angelegt, die Wegeoberfläche ist noch jüngeren Datums: Sie stammt aus dem Jahr 1952. Der ruinenhafte Zustand beeinträchtigt das denkmalgeschützte Erscheinungsbild. Für ältere Menschen, Rollstuhlfahrer und Behinderte ist das Teilstück unpassierbar, gleiches gilt für Kinderwagen. Radfahren ist nur noch sehr schwer möglich. Der ADFC Dresden drängt seit Jahren auf eine Sanierung, die einen fußgänger- und fahrradfreundlichen Zustand wiederherstellt. Wir begrüßen, dass ein erstes Teilstück 2015 in Angriff genommen werden soll. Wir fordern, dass anschließend auch der restliche Abschnitt zügig saniert wird und die dafür nötigen Mittel zeitnah zur Verfügung gestellt werden.:Zusammenfassung Historische Bedeutung Der Körnerweg heute Anwohner Politik Denkmalschutz Statik, Hochwasserschutz, Leitungen Abstimmung Ämter Sanierungsvarianten

The strategic and local road networks are together the United Kingdom’s most valuable infrastructure assets. Roads deteriorate over time as a function of traffic and the environment and must be maintained appropriately to preserve their asset value in order to help support the economy. Furthermore, well maintained roads reduce road user costs via lowering vehicle operating costs, reducing accidents, delays and litigation. Amongst other projections, climate change indicators suggest there will be warmer wetter winters and an increase in extreme weather events such as heavy rains. Increased heavy rainfall events will adversely influence the road infrastructure and place more demands on maintenance. The inherent risks in highway infrastructure assets and those associated with future climate predictions must be better understood and incorporated within decision support models to enable highway engineers and asset managers make better, more informed decisions regarding infrastructure maintenance. By combining the risk management process and drainage network analysis this study explored the risks and their potential impacts within a road network. This resulted in a proposed methodology for the identification of parts of a network to be most at flood risk. Data in respect of the risks and their probability of occurrence, for use within the model was obtained through a questionnaire completed by highway drainage engineers at various locations in the UK.

There has been extensive research and development into the capacity of modern offside priority roundabouts since the 1970’s. Despite this, there remains a major gap in existing knowledge with regards to the factors and variables which affect roundabout entry capacity. This is reflected in the differences and inconsistencies in inputs and methodologies between existing state-of-the-art models. Evaluations with recent data collected from 35 roundabout entry lanes in the field have shown that this limits the accuracy of state-of-the-art models, particularly in their ability to explain site-to-site variation in entry capacities. New empirical models have thus been developed for lane capacity using regression, and benchmarking against neural networks showed that they performed well with the shortlisted explanatory variables. These regression models were based on exponential-in-Qc and linear-in-Qc forms, and outperformed existing state-of-theart models. In the new models, entry-exit separation distance and exiting flows on the same arm were found to be more useful predictor variables (when used in conjunction with other variables) compared to others used in more-established models (e.g. entry radius and entry angle). To investigate the effects of separation distance and exiting flows through microscopic simulation, stochasticity in separation distances was modelled through a novel approach in Vissim involving multiple exit connectors. This was significant as the variability of separation distances had not been explored before, whether through analytical or simulation approaches. The separation distance was found to have a piecewise linear relationship with capacity, while exiting flows had a linear positive relationship which becomes negative as the inhibitory effect increased at low separation distances. The two main mechanisms explaining these effects of exiting flows were the inhibitory mechanism (caused by drivers unable to distinguish between circulating and exiting vehicles), and changes in circulating headways. A revised empirical model incorporating this piecewise relationship performed as well as the exponential-in- Qc and linear-in-Qc models, suggesting that the impacts of exiting flows were modelled reasonably well. By improving our understanding of the impacts of these two variables on capacity, this is an important step towards the improved modelling of roundabout entry capacity.

Satisfaction has consistently been a source of concern to clients, stakeholders and customers in the construction industry globally. In Nigeria, despite the huge financial investments in construction and its associated economic benefits, construction projects are characterized by poor quality in aesthetics, high costs in maintenance and failure to meet or exceed the customers’ quality expectations. An even greater challenge is faced when considering government construction projects as re- occurring issues like on time delivery, operational and aesthetic excellence and even project abandonment continue to resurface. Although previous studies have developed models and frameworks to improve customer satisfaction in product and service organisations, researchers have not treated in detail issues involving customer satisfaction within projects which do not have profits and financial gains as the driving force such as government construction projects. The aim of this research was to develop a framework that would identify particular areas associated with project quality where adequate resources could be channelled in order to enhance customer satisfaction in government road construction projects in Rivers State, Nigeria. Sequel to an extensive literature review, a conceptual framework was developed to establish the relationship between three attributes of project quality namely performance, reliability and aesthetics and two attributes of customer satisfaction measured through contractor re-patronage and referral. 503 road construction practitioners within the Port Harcourt metropolis of Rivers State, Nigeria participated in a quantitative survey and data obtained was subjected to stepwise multiple regression analysis. The results showed that a strong, positive and significant relationship existed between the attributes of project quality and customer satisfaction with project quality explaining 54.8% of the variance in contractor re-patronage and 61.8% of the variance in contractor referral. Performance was however found to have the greatest effect on contractor re-patronage (R2=.550, adjusted R2=.548) while aesthetics had the highest effect on contractor referral (R2=.572, adjusted R2= .571). Reliability was found to have the weakest effect on customer satisfaction and could be attributed to its civil and structural Engineering links which are either unknown or invisible to the customer. 10 structured interviews with construction professionals were used to validate the developed framework and justify the research design. The findings support the framework and suggest that the knowledge and analysis of the construction costs, the use of competent professional experts, the provision of a revised legal framework for road construction, delegation of responsibility for road maintenance, avoidance of project abandonment, identifying and mitigating construction risks, adopting a strategy for project monitoring, enforcing health and safety considerations, provision of innovative excitement factors as well as post project evaluations were essential for enhancing project quality and customer satisfaction from government road construction projects. The study advocates for an adoption of the framework and concludes by making recommendations including the incorporation of government and private construction practitioners and further identifies areas for future study.

Der Körnerweg war und ist ein unverzichtbarer Fuß- und Radweg. Ein 650m langer Abschnitt davon befindet sich derzeit in desolatem Zustand. Trotz seltener Einigkeit des gesamten Stadtrats kommt seit Jahren eine Sanierung nicht zustande. Grund dafür sind zähe Abstimmungsprozesse zum Denkmalschutz, zur Statik der Stützmauern und zum Hochwasserschutz sowie Widerstand der Anwohner, die zunehmenden Radverkehr befürchten. Außerdem ist absehbar, dass alle Sanierungsvarianten teuer werden. Der derzeitige Weg ist weder schön noch so alt, wie vielfach angenommen wird. Die heutige äußere Form wurde 1908 angelegt, die Wegeoberfläche ist noch jüngeren Datums: Sie stammt aus dem Jahr 1952. Der ruinenhafte Zustand beeinträchtigt das denkmalgeschützte Erscheinungsbild. Für ältere Menschen, Rollstuhlfahrer und Behinderte ist das Teilstück unpassierbar, gleiches gilt für Kinderwagen. Radfahren ist nur noch sehr schwer möglich. Der ADFC Dresden drängt seit Jahren auf eine Sanierung, die einen fußgänger- und fahrradfreundlichen Zustand wiederherstellt. Wir begrüßen, dass ein erstes Teilstück 2015 in Angriff genommen werden soll. Wir fordern, dass anschließend auch der restliche Abschnitt zügig saniert wird und die dafür nötigen Mittel zeitnah zur Verfügung gestellt werden.

Une étude expérimentale a été effectuée sur diverses formules de trois familles d’enrobés bitumineux avec des taux de recyclage variables et la présence ou non de régénérant. La composition des mélanges et le procédé de fabrication ont été élaborés afin d’effectuer une étude comparative. L’enrobage produit des variations des paramètres physico-chimiques des liants telles que la consistance, la température de transition vitreuse, les fractions cristallisables, les taux d’aromatiques et d’asphaltènes ; ces variations sont limitées en présence de régénérant. Lorsque le taux d’AE augmente, la compactibilité et l’orniérage des mélanges diminuent et leur rigidité viscoélastique augmente, mais le régénérant limite ces variations. Globalement, les AE produisent une augmentation de la résistance à la fatigue des formules et un aplatissement des droites de Wöhler. Le régénérant améliore le paramètre de fatigue ɛ6 ; les performances en fatigue augmentent avec la TBA et l’indice colloïdal du liant ainsi qu’avec la diminution de la viscosité de l’enrobé. L’impact favorable d’un taux élevé d’AE et du régénérant sur le trafic admissible a été déterminé suite au dimensionnement d’une structure souple tri-couche. À basse température, la détérioration par les AE de la ductilité en traction et de la température de rupture par retrait empêché se trouvent limitées par le régénérant ; un compromis est cependant à trouver avec la résistance à la fatigue. Les formules régénérées mises en œuvre sur la couche de roulement d’une route départementale ont subi une moindre évolution après six ans de service que les mélanges non régénérés. / An experimental programme has been performed on three types of bituminous mixes with variable recycling rates and the possible addition of rejuvenator. The mix composition and the production process have been defined in order to perform a comparative analysis. The coating process modifies the physico-chemical parameters of the binders, like consistency, glassy transition temperature, cristallizable moiety, aromatics and asphaltenes rates; the above variations are limited by using the rejuvenator. As the RAP content increases, the compactibility and the rutting of the mixes decrease and the viscoelastic stiffness increases, but the rejuvenation reduces these variations. Globally, RAP increases the fatigue resistance of the mixes and flattens the Wöhler curve. Rejuvenation enhances ɛ6 fatigue parameter; fatigue performances increase with R&B temperature and colloidal index of the binder and as the viscous component of the mixes decreases. The positive impact of a high rate of RAP and of the rejuvenation on the allowable traffic has been evaluated from the structural design of a threelayered pavement. At low temperature, the deterioration of the tension ductility and of the stress restrained failure temperature produced by the RAP, is limited by the rejuvenation; a compromise with the fatigue resistance has to be found. The rejuvenated mixes laid as surface layers on a provincial road have experienced a smaller evolution that non rejuvenated mixes.