It is important to investigate how HIV/AIDS  awareness affects adolescent sexual behavior and how the HIV/AIDS information from the schools and the ABC-program (abstinence, be faithful, condoms) affects the students HIV/AIDS awareness and sexual behavior. The methods used in this study consist of qualitative semi-structured interviews, a quantitative questionnaire and statistical analysis (mainly preformed in R). The purpose of this study is to analyze how sexual behavior can be affected by HIV/AIDS awareness. The results from the interviews and the questionnaire were very different. Especially when it comes to the (age of first intercourse), information from the interviews gave the impression of a younger age at first intercourse than the results from the questionnaire did. No evidence was found that adolescent sexual behavior is affected by HIV/AIDS awareness. In the context of the ABC-program, the students were not found to be abstinent; due to school regulations that consent to the expulsion of sexually active students it is even possible that the students stated a higher (age of first sexual intercourse) than what is really true. One of the informants stated that some students are as young as eight years of age when they have their first sexual experience (informant 7). The majority of the male students answered that the age of first intercourse is about 15 to 16 years of age and the majority of the female students stated 17-18 years of age or older (table 3, question 8). No evidence in this study supports the hypothesis that adolescent sexual behavior is affected by access to condoms. Condom access did not lead to an increase of the occurrence of sexual relationships nor did it seem to cause a lower age of first intercourse. This was the results that derived form four generalized models that were preformed in the statistics program R (table 4). There seemed to be a notion from some of the informants that the most adolescents are sexually active and the schools reluctance against promoting condoms may lead to the spread of STI’s amongst the students and to unwanted teenage pregnancies. Condoms should be provided for free to all students in secondary schools.

Emergency wood shoring towers are utilized by Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) specialists to temporarily stabilize a damaged structure. Standardized designs for wood shoring towers have been developed and are published in manuals for use in US&R operations. These designs have been validated largely through past testing under simplified vertical loading. Research was conducted to provide additional insight into the performance of two common types of shores, the laced post (LP) shore and the plywood laced post (PLP) shore, under non-ideal (other than vertical) loading scenarios. Shores were tested under vertical load only, under lateral load only, and under combined vertical and lateral load. For lateral loading, some shores were tested under monotonic lateral load (lateral load applied in one direction only) and some were tested under cyclic lateral loading. Each specimen was tested to failure, and the documented capacity compared to the FEMA specified shore design capacity. Early warning signs of shore distress known as "fuses" characterized by audible cracking sounds, cupping of the wedges, or cracking of members were also evaluated during testing for their effectiveness and consistency. The performances of the laced post and plywood laced post shores were compared and recommendations made. / text

Ingeniero Civil / El presente trabajo de título tiene como objetivo principal determinar analíticamente el mejor valor para el Factor de Sobrerresistencia (Ωo) a partir de 4 valores de prueba (Ωo=2,3,5 y 10.7). Esto se llevó a cabo mediante la evaluación del desempeño sísmico de una serie de modelos analíticos no lineales que representan a nivel macro los fenómenos ocurridos en edificios de acero con marcos arriostrados concéntricamente. Estos macro-modelos consisten en un sistema de estructura de masa y rigidez concentrada con rótulas plásticas, que permiten introducir la no-linealidad al sistema y modelar la resistencia de las estructuras a partir de la utilización de curvas momento-rotación. Para asegurar la correcta utilización de los macro-modelos, éstos debieron ser calibrados a partir de los modelos realizados para los edificios reales. Se desarrollaron 12 arquetipos con distintas alturas, sobrerresistencias y niveles de ductilidad, siguiendo la metodología de FEMA P695 (llámese Metodología). Cada uno de ellos se sometió a un set de 18 registros sísmicos de alta intensidad ocurridos en Chile utilizando el algoritmo de un Análisis Dinámico Incremental (IDA, por sus iniciales en inglés). Finalmente, se evalúo la aceptabilidad de cada uno de los valores estudiados de Ωo de acuerdo a los requerimientos de la Metodología. Como objetivo secundario se estudió una posible relación entre el factor de sobrerresistencia y la ductilidad del sistema (µT), junto con analizar posibles desventajas al implementar altos factores de sobrerresistencia debido a una potencial reducción de la ductilidad total de la estructura. De los resultados, se recomienda la utilización de Ωo=2.0 para los edificios de acero estudiados con R=5. Además, para los niveles de sobrerresistencia analizados se determinó que, para Ωo>5.0, la potencial reducción de ductilidad podría deteriorar el desempeño sísmico del edificio. Estas conclusiones aplican para edificios dentro del rango de características estudiado, con altura de hasta 21[m].

This project seeks to understand the relationship between visual rhetoric and power structure between FEMA’s Earthquake publications and their audience. Research shows images leave a longer impression on readers than text, causing more studies to focus on visuals rather than just text in technical communication. Author uses Critical Discourse Analysis to analyze the images in relation to text, design, and intended audience to determine what information is being privileged. It is determined that homeowners are being privileged with information over non-homeowners, established through a collection of images and image types. The lack of information for non-homeowners could result in injury or death of potential disaster victims, making it crucial for technical document revision.

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US presidential approval of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding has been the subject of much research that largely has been inconclusive or contradictor as it relates to whether funds may have been distributed in a biased way through the use of presidential discretionary power. The purpose of this study was to explore if or to what degree US presidents acted in a potentially biased manner with the approval of FEMA approvals during election years in election battleground states. This study was an exploration of whether there was presidential political favoritism in approving FEMA funding from 1996-2012. The theoretical constructs for this study were group justification bias and social identity theory. Study data were obtained through freedom of information requests from FEMA for access to every gubernatorial request for FEMA aid from 1995-2012 resulting in 1137 records. Data were analyzed using chi-square as tests of association. By measuring the presidential discretionary choice of approvals or turndowns with other variables highlighted what, if any, associations existed. This enables a reasonable person to form their own perception on whether bias was present, or not, based on the results. A key finding illuminated an association between presidential party affiliation and public assistance (p = .005), 1 type of FEMA aid. The study did not, however, indicate any statistical association between the award of FEMA hazard mitigation funding and presidential bias. The positive social change implication stemming from this study includes information to policy makers regarding how FEMA aid is granted, which could assist in an evaluation of the FEMA aid process and approval in the future.

Wood-frame shear wall structures are widely used for residential and commercial buildings. These buildings are lightweight, have very ductile connections and includes multiple load paths. The main objective of this dissertation is to evaluate the seismic performance of a wide range of wood-frame shear wall building designs under the influence of modeling and analysis parameter variations. The first step towards the broad objective of seismic performance evaluation is to identify the different modeling and analysis parameters that can have a potential influence in the seismic response variations. The major variations considered in this study include level of critical damping, analytical modeling of damping, hysteresis model shape variations, ground motion characteristics, level of gravity loads, and floor acceleration variations. A subset of building model designs that were originally designed for the development of FEMA P-695 methodology is adapted for the numerical evaluations and a baseline for the variations is established. To study the sensitivity of inherent damping in wood-frame shear wall structures, an extensive literature survey is completed to find the experimentally observed damping levels in these buildings. Later, nonlinear dynamic analysis is performed for the range of damping levels using different Rayleigh damping models. Ground motion scaling methods, source-to-site distance, and peak intensity levels are the selected variations in ground characteristic group. To assist with the ground motion scaling procedures, a computational toolkit is created to produce amplitude and spectrum matched ground motions for response history analysis. The particular hysteresis model CASHEW that is used for the wood-frame shear wall system has a specific load-displacement shape which is a function of the shear wall design. Three key parameters of this model are varied in a range of values that were observed during experimental tests and seismic performance responses are computed for this variations. From the performance evaluations it is observed that the seismic response is quite sensitive to several of the modeling parameter variations and analysis variations mentioned above and has a unique response based on the design of the building. The range of performance variations for the different models are outlined in the chapters included in this dissertation. / Ph. D.

Recent advancements in earthquake engineering have caused a movement toward a probabilistic quantification of the behavior of structural systems. Analysis characteristics, such as ground motion records, material properties, and structural component behavior are defined by probabilistic distributions. The response is also characterized probabilistically, with distributions fitted to analysis results at intensity levels ranging from the maximum considered earthquake ground motion to collapse. Despite the progress toward a probabilistic framework, the variability in structural analysis results due to modeling techniques has not been considered. This work investigates the uncertainty associated with modeling geometric nonlinearities and Rayleigh damping models on the response of planar frames at multiple ground motion intensity levels. First, an investigation is presented on geometric nonlinearity approaches for planar frames, followed by a critical review of current damping models. Three frames, a four-story buckling restrained braced frame, a four-story steel moment resisting frame, and an eight-story steel moment resisting frame, are compared using two geometric nonlinearity approaches and five Rayleigh damping models. Static pushover analyses are performed on the models in the geometric nonlinearities study, and incremental dynamic analyses are performed on all models to compare the response at the design based earthquake ground motion (DBE), maximum considered earthquake ground motion (MCE), and collapse intensity levels. The results indicate noticeable differences in the responses at the DBE and MCE levels and significant differences in the responses at the collapse level. Analysis of the sidesway collapse mechanisms indicates a shift in the behavior corresponding to the different modeling assumptions, though the effects were specific to each frame. The FEMA P-695 Methodology provided a framework that defined the static and dynamic analyses performed during the modeling uncertainties studies. However, the Methodology is complex and the analyses are computationally expensive. To expedite the analyses and manage the results, a toolkit was created that streamlines the process using a set of interconnected modules. The toolkit provides a program that organizes data and reduces mistakes for those familiar with the process while providing an educational tool for novices of the Methodology by stepping new users through the intricacies of the process. The collapse margin ratio (CMR), calculated in the Methodology, was used to compare the collapse behavior of the models in the modeling uncertainties study. Though it provides a simple scalar quantity for comparison, calculation of the CMR typically requires determination of the full set of incremental dynamic analysis curves, which require prohibitively large analysis time for complex models. To reduce the computational cost of calculating the CMR, a new parallel computing method, referred to as the fragility search method, was devised that uses approximate collapse fragility curves to quickly converge on the median collapse intensity value. The new method is shown to have favorable attributes compared to other parallel computing methods for determining the CMR. / Ph. D.

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