Sunny Lane, elementary school teacher and self-proclaimed juggernaut, is on a mission to purge the world of fools. Using subterfuge, bullying, and a highly refined skill in the art of rumor, Sunny ruthlessly clears all obstacles in her path to the coveted position of guidance counselor, leaving a wasteland of confounded enemies and ruined reputations in her wake. The most intricate plots are often the most difficult to maintain, however, and as Sunny’s malicious schemes threaten to collapse around her she is forced to reconsider the value of the world and her place within it.

High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes are employed in many cities as a traffic congestion mitigation technique. These lanes are intended to provide a travel time benefit to carpools and buses, thus providing an incentive to form carpools or take transit. The time and frustration involved in finding and using HOV lane access points may act as a deterrent to HOV lane use. Thus, proper planning of HOV lane access may be able to improve convenience for potential users, increasing HOV lane utilization. By optimizing HOV lane volumes, high levels of service and trip reliability are ensured for those who carpool. Congestion is also reduced on General Purpose Lanes (GPLs) due to the diverted traffic. Public approval is tied to HOV lane utilization, which may be affected by access. Thus, HOV lane success may be determined in part by accessibility. This research investigated the possible relationship between the time required to access the HOV lane and travelers' choice of HOV lane as their mode. Additionally, the distance to HOV lane access points and the type of access point used were examined for their influence on HOV lane use rates. It was concluded that neither the type of HOV lane access point, nor the added time necessary to access the HOV lane were significant factors in HOV lane use rates. Instead, the convenience of carpool formation and the convenience of HOV lane access to traveler's origins and destinations were found to be the most important factors in HOV lane use rates. Specifically, the HOV lane use rate for the area 5 to 7 miles from the nearest HOV lane exit, which includes Downtown Houston, was much higher than the use rates for any other area.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1941. / Bibliography: p. 195-201.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Catholic University of America, 1941. / Bibliography: p. 195-201.

Three low-relief banks (Heald Bank, Sabine Bank, Freeport Rocks) in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico were evaluated as lane snapper (Lutjanus synagris Linnaeus, 1758) nursery habitat. Trawl surveys were conducted in three habitat types (inshore mud, shell ridge, offshore mud), designated by side-scan sonar surveys, to determine patterns of distribution and abundance. Heald Bank and Sabine Bank were trawled in 2003 while Freeport Rocks was trawled in 2000 (Freeport A) and 2004 (Freeport B). Density of lane snapper was higher on Sabine Bank (20.8 ± 2.8 ind ha-1) than on Heald Bank (1.1 ± 0.4 ind ha-1), Freeport A (12.7 ± 2.3 ind ha-1) or Freeport B (3.0 ± 1.0 ind ha-1). Habitat-specific differences in density were observed, although patterns were not consistent among banks. Highest densities of lane snapper were found on Heald Bank’s offshore habitat (1.7 ± 1.0 ind ha-1), Sabine Bank’s ridge habitat (26.5 ± 6.9 ind ha-1), and on the inshore habitat of Freeport A and B (17.6 ± 4.9 ind ha-1 and 4.8 ± 3.6, respectively). Otolith microstructure analysis was performed on lane snapper collected in trawl surveys to determine age, hatch-date distribution, growth and mortality of new recruits. Hatch dates ranged from May 1 to August 31, peaking in June for Freeport (A and B) and in July for Heald Bank and Sabine Bank. Growth rates varied from 0.90 mm d-1 at Heald Bank to 1.27 mm d-1 at Sabine Bank, and rates were highest on the ridge habitat of Sabine Bank (1.31 mm d-1). Mortality of post-settlement lane snapper was higher on Sabine Bank (15.2% d-1; Z = 0.165), than on Freeport A (9.2% d- 1; Z = 0.097), and was greatest on the ridge habitat of Sabine Bank (24 % d-1; Z = 0.275). Recruitment potential (G : Z), evaluated on habitats at Sabine Bank, was highest on the offshore habitat, with a value greater than 1.0, indicating higher potential contribution to the adult population. Results indicate Heald Bank, Sabine Bank, and Freeport Rocks all serve as settlement habitat of lane snapper, which appear to be capable of successful settlement across a variety of habitats and banks.

Thesis (M.A.)--Harding Graduate School of Religion, Memphis, Tennessee, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-116).

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute. 1951. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78). Also available via the Internet.

This study describes the experience of homelessness and pregnancy for seven women and their partners in Lane County, Oregon. Homeless pregnant women provide a unique challenge to health care providers and social workers. These women are at increased risk for many negative factors that could affect their pregnancy outcomes. The purpose of the study was to collect information from pregnant women experiencing homelessness in Lane County. Data was analyzed to identify demographic characteristics, service use patterns and recurring themes. It is expected the results will be the basis for further research with homeless pregnant women in Lane County. The project utilized a mostly qualitative research design supported by limited quantitative data. The sources of data included client records, written surveys, and face-to-face personal interviews. Findings indicated that there is a service gap for women less than eight months pregnant with no other children in her custody and that over half of the participants had other children that were not in their current custody. The investigator recommends that further research examine the psychosocial aspects of homelessness and pregnancy. Also, the association between current pregnancy and the previous removal of a child from a mother's custody should be further explored. / Graduation date: 2000

The goal of this thesis is to implement the control and design of an intelligent vehicle based on an embedded DSP platform (eZdspTM F2812). The overall system including steering wheel AC serve motor, brake actuator, throttle driving circuit and the sensors is equipped in a golf car as a platform. Otherwise, digital image processing technology is used to realize the autonomous driving system which can achieve multi-mode of lane-keeping, lane-change and obstacle-avoidance. In the lane-keeping control, the road information can be provided by the vision system. According to the offset and displacement of angle as input signal, a fuzzy controller is used to compute the desired steering wheel angle and let the golf car can cross road safely. In lane-change, a smooth trajectory can be generated by IMU, IMU is used to collect the information data of yaw rate and yaw angle when human-driving. That makes autonomous driving system become more humanlike and to achieve an open-loop lane-change maneuver. In obstacle-avoidance, we use a laser range scanner to detect the distance of a front obstacle. When the distance is lower than safety distance, double lane-change will be activated to avoid the front obstacle. The overall system has been examined on NSYSU campus roads.

Microscopic simulation traffic models are widely used by transportation researchers and practitioners to evaluate and plan for transportation facilities. The intent of these models is to estimate the second-by-second vehicle movements and interactions on such facilities. Due to constraints related to time, budget, and availability of data, these models are typically designed in such a way where the microscopic output is viewed on the macroscopic level. Inherently, this can leave uncertainty to how the model estimates the individual interactions between vehicles on the microscopic level. This thesis utilizes three microsimulation models, INTEGRATION, VISSIM, and CORSIM, to investigate the lane changing behavior as vehicles approach a freeway diverge area. The count of lane changes, lane use distribution, and visual inspection of the simulated lane changing behavior was compared to video data collected at two freeway diverge areas on U.S. 460 in the vicinity of Blacksburg, Virginia during both off-peak and peak periods. It was observed that all three models generally overestimated the number of lane changes near the diverge areas compared to field observations. By modifying the models' lane changing logic, the models were able to closely match field observations in one of the four scenarios. It was found that microsimulation models accurately estimated the lane use distribution. In addition, the INTEGRATION lane use distribution results were found to be more consistent when compared to observed lane use distribution than either VISSIM or CORSIM. / Master of Science