Driver distraction contributes to approximately 43% of motor-vehicle crashes and 27% of near-crashes. Rapidly developing in-vehicle technology and electronic devices place additional demands on drivers, which might lead to distraction and diminished capacity to perform driving tasks. This situation threatens safe driving. Technology that can detect and mitigate distraction by alerting drivers could play a central role in maintaining safety. Correctly identifying driver distraction in real time is a critical challenge in developing distraction mitigation systems, and this function has not been well developed. Moreover, the greatest benefit may be from real-time distraction detection in advance of dangerous breakdowns in driver performance. Based on driver performance, two types of distraction - visual and cognitive - are identified. These types of distraction have very different effects on visual behavior and driving performance; therefore, they require different algorithms for detection. Distraction detection algorithms typically rely on either eye measures or driver performance measures because the effect of distraction on the coordination of measures has not been established. Combining both eye glance and vehicle data could enhance the ability of algorithms to detect and differentiate visual and cognitive distraction. The goal of this research is to examine whether poor coordination between visual behavior and vehicle control can identify diminished attention to driving in advance of breakdowns in lane keeping. The primary hypothesis of this dissertation is that detection of changes in eye-steering relationship caused by distraction could provide a prospective indication of vehicle state changes. Three specific aims are pursued to test this hypothesis. The first aim examines the effect of distracting activity on eye and steering movements to assess the degree to which the correlation parameters are indicative of distraction. The second aim applies a control-theoretic system identification approach to the eye movement and steering data to distinguish between distracted and non-distracted conditions. The third aim examines whether changes of eye-steering coordination associated with distraction provide a prospective indication of breakdowns in driver performance, i.e., lane departures. Together, the three aims show how that a combination of visual and steering behavior, i.e., eye-steering model, can differentiate between non-distracted and distracted state. This model revealed sensitivity to distraction associated with off-road glances. The models derived for different drivers have similar structure and fit to data from other drivers reasonably well. In addition, the differences in model order and model coefficients indicate the variability in driving behavior: some people generate more complex behavior than others. As was expected, eye-steering correlation on straight roads is not as strong as observed on curvy roads. However, eye-steering correlation measured through correlation coefficient and time delay between two movements is sensitive to different types of distraction. Time delay mediates changes in lane position and the eye-steering system predicts breakdowns in lane keeping. This dissertation contributes to developing a distraction detection system that integrates visual and steering behavior. More broadly, these results suggest that integrating eye and steering data can be helpful in detecting and mitigating impairments beyond distraction, such as those associated with alcohol, fatigue, and aging.

abstract: Contemporary research has examined the relationship between determinate sentencing reforms and unwarranted punishment disparities in states and the federal criminal justice system. Recent investigations suggest that legal developments in federal sentencing—namely, the High Court’s rulings in U.S. v. Booker (2005) and Gall/Kimbrough v. U.S. (2007) which rendered and subsequently reaffirmed the federal guidelines as advisory—have not altered disparities associated with imprisonment outcomes. Punishment disparities following Booker and Gall, particularly racial and ethnic disparities, have been linked to Assistant U.S. Attorneys’ (AUSAs) use of substantial assistance departures. What remains unanswered in the literature is whether the changes in AUSAs’ decision making following the landmark cases has enduring effects and whether the effects are conditioned by defendants’ race/ethnicity and the type of case (guidelines cases or mandatory minimum cases), and whether the use of substantial assistance varies across U.S. District Courts. Accordingly, these questions are examined using sentencing data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, coupled with data from the National Judicial Center, U.S. Census Bureau, Uniform Crime Reports, and Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research. This study looks at 465,476 defendants convicted from fiscal year 2001 to fiscal year 2010 across 89 federal districts. A series of multilevel discontinuity regression models are estimated to assess the short-term and long-term effects of the Booker and Gall/Kimbrough decisions on AUSAs’ use of substantial assistance departures, accounting for contextual differences between federal district courts. The results show that AUSAs are less likely to seek motions for substantial assistance immediately and in the long term in the post-Booker period but are more likely to seek substantial assistance in the long term in the post-Gall/Kimbrough period. These effects, however, are restricted to the models that include all cases and guidelines cases. The interaction models show that Hispanic defendants facing a mandatory minimum sentence are less likely to receive a substantial assistance departure immediately and in the long term following the Court’s Booker decision. Moreover, the use of substantial assistance varies across federal districts. The results are discussed in relation to their implications for theory, courts and sentencing policy, and future research on punishment outcomes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Criminology and Criminal Justice 2015

The correct model of a liquid financial market is one of the most important matter for a management of all financial market activities including for example a stock or bond porfolio management or an asset pricing. Clear random walk models, which consider a market price/yield development on liquid financial markets to be a random walk within the meaning of a symmetric normal (gaussian) distribution, is very useful to explain quite accurately many financial market effects. If we study financial markets more closely, we recognize that such development can be partly causal and a clear random walk is only a special case of it. Dynamic Financial Market Model considers feedback processes on financial markets which cause an dependence in a probability of next price/yield step direction and also expects mix of random processes as a final result. Both effects cause not gaussian (normal) observations in probability distributions of finacial instruments and this is why the model is also able to explain for example effects like thin or fat tails and other deformations in the probability distribution. S&P500 index or Euro Bund futures probability distribution on daily basis are good examples of the diversion from normality.

The thesis specialize on the logistic activities, regarding using of the controlling in the sphere of logistics. The goal is to analyze what role should subserve the controlling of the company theoretically and compare this teoretical view in the company Intersnack Inc., the logistics department and according to the following facts suggest possible improvements in the department.

Les déplacements collectifs se manifestent souvent de façon spectaculaire et intriguent tant les amateurs de la nature que les chercheurs. Comment émergent ces formes spectaculaires et comment la cohésion des groupes est elle assurée ? Si de nombreux travaux ont été consacrés à l'identification des règles permettant la cohésion dans les groupes en mouvement, plus rares sont ceux consacrés aux transitions entre les états d'arrêt et de déplacement. Cette thèse traite des mécanismes comportementaux impliqués dans les prises de décisions collectives et la dynamique de transition de tels évènements chez le mouton Merinos (Ovis aries). Nous proposons de nouvelles hypothèses sur la modulation des interactions entre individus par des effets spatiaux dans des groupes de grande taille. Nous proposons un modèle spatio-temporel reproduisant nos résultats expérimentaux sur les départs, les déplacements collectifs et les arrêts de groupes de taille croissante et permettant d'explorer les décisions collectives dans des conditions nouvelles. Les résultats expérimentaux et théoriques per- mettent d'améliorer la compréhension des mécanismes individuels à l'origine des décision collectives permettant de maintenir ou non la cohésion des groupes. / Collective movements often involve very spectacular displays that fascinate nature lovers and researchers. How do such amazing patterns appear and how group cohesion can be maintained ? If many studies were carried out to decipher the rules underlying cohesion for groups in movement, there is a lack of works adressing the transitions involved in collective movements : departures and stops. This thesis adresses the behavioural mechanisms involved in the collective decision-making processes oc- curing in such transitions in Merino sheep (Ovis aries) groups. We propose some new kinds of spatial hypotheses that can account for the way interactions between individuals are locally modulated in large groups where individuals cannot have an access to the global information of all individuals. We developed a novel spatiotemporal model of sheep collective motion that reproduces the experimental observations and allows to explore the outcomes of collective decisions in various conditions. The experimental and theoretical results increase the understanding of the individual mechanisms that produce collective decisions allowing to maintain group cohesion.

This thesis focuses on the design and assessment of the supporting steel structure of departures hall for international airport Pardubice. The design is processed in two variants, one of which is selected and further elaborated. The hall contains one-story built for office and comercial use. To obtain the internal forces in the structure, modelling of the hall in the FEM computermodeling software was selected. The thesis includes manual assessment of selected elements and details, the assessment of elements in computational software, drawings and bill of material.