Dabner, Carol P. Legal Compliance in Guardianship Cases. An Exploratory Study: Investigating Denton County Probate Court Visitors' Program Success with Legal Compliance in Guardianship Cases. Doctor of Philosophy (Applied Gerontology), December 2016, 140 pp., 18 tables, references, 20 titles. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of the legal compliance of the Denton County Probate Court Visitor's program in the year 2013. Rationale: Guardianship case management success is based on the presence of legal compliance of both guardians and the Court. When a guardian is legally compliant, a ward is receiving the statutorily minimum standards of care. Legal compliance equates (evidence of) the Ward receiving legally sufficient care. Research has not been vast; it has been consistent as to necessity of guardianship training, monitoring, and narrow focus of research. Evidence based research will assist in defining and developing appropriate court monitoring programs, which can add to the quality of care for elderly and disabled adults. Methods: 1,300 guardianship cases in the probate court. Of these cases, 910 had annual reports of the person filed, which 304 were reviewed using the Legal Compliance Audit. Eight (8) factors of compliance were reviewed with three (3) being Court actions and five (5) being guardian actions. Results: Exploratory study provides evidence based research of the necessary changes to develop the Denton County Probate Court Visitor's program. The guardians are more legal compliant than the Court.

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This thesis presents a new method for Condition Based Ultrasonic Monitoring to be applied in conjunction with a lubrication distribution controller. As part of this thesis, algorithms were developed using ultrasonic sensors to control the application of lubrication to machinery. The controller sensors detect an ultrasonic signal from rolling or sliding machine elements. This signal then alerts the controller to dispense the proper amount of lubrication when needed, as opposed to a time schedule based on average performance or history. The work from this thesis will be used to help reduce equipment downtime and maintenance cost when utilized in an industrial environment.

Traditional methods of blood glucose monitoring involve obtaining samples for measurement via laboratory methodology or point of care devices and require invasive collection techniques such as capillary stick, venipuncture, or the placement of intravenous catheters. Limitations of traditional methods include the limited information provided by intermittent testing and the stress associated with restraint and discomfort experienced by patients. The snapshot nature of the provided information restricts a clinician's ability to truly monitor trends in glucose concentrations over an extended period of time, influencing clinical decision making. The stress of invasive sampling can cause stress hyperglycemia in many veterinary species, complicating interpretation. Continuous interstitial glucose monitoring technology is widely used in the human medical field due to the expansive information provided in a minimally invasive manner. In recent years, the device technology has advanced and cost has improved, prompting application of these devices into the veterinary sector. Studies have shown good agreement between newer glucose monitoring systems and traditional methods in small animal patients with diabetes mellitus, allowing veterinarians to obtain comprehensive glucose data with minimal stress and discomfort to the patient. However, information regarding the use of this new technology in equine medicine is limited. The following study describes the evaluation of two widely available glucose monitoring systems, the Dexcom G6 and the FreeStyle Libre, in healthy adult horses. / Master of Science / Monitoring of glucose concentrations is essential for the diagnosis and monitoring of a variety of disorders within equine medicine. Traditional methods of obtaining samples for testing include capillary stick, venipuncture, or the placement of intravenous catheters, which can cause stress and discomfort to equine patients. The information obtained by this testing methodology only allows for intermittent assessment of glucose concentrations, limiting the amount of information available for clinicians to make clinical decisions. The use of continuous glucose monitoring systems in the human medical field have allowed clinicians to obtain continuous or near-continuous glucose concentrations, improving interpretation. These devices have nearly eliminated the need for blood sampling for glucose concentrations, instead relying on interstitial glucose concentrations which have been shown to compare favorably to blood concentrations. Studies in small animal veterinary species, such as dogs and cats, have shown good agreement between newer glucose monitoring systems and traditional methods in small animal patients with diabetes mellitus, allowing veterinarians to obtain comprehensive glucose data with minimal stress and discomfort to the patient. However, information regarding the use of this new technology in horses is limited. The study described in the manuscript following evaluates the use of two widely available glucose monitoring systems, the Dexcom G6 and the FreeStyle Libre, in healthy adult horse.

Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) refers to an additive manufacturing (AM) process in which a high-intensity laser source melts powders in a layer-by-layer manner to fabricate parts based on a computer-aided design (CAD) model without almost any geometrical limitations. The development of the L-PBF process has provided an outstanding opportunity to manufacture unique parts which are practically impossible to be produced by conventional manufacturing methods. The L-PBF process also does not require intricate build tools and assembly processes. However, quality issues such as non-uniform microstructure or mechanical properties, porosities, and surface roughness deteriorate the quality of the parts fabricated by the L-PBF process. Therefore, the reliability and the repeatability of the process are required to be addressed. This study deals with improving the quality of the part fabricated by the L-PBF process and making the process more reliable and repeatable. The control approach was employed to elevate the quality of the final part from three different aspects. First, making the microstructure and microhardness of the part uniform through a control approach was investigated. Three controllers, namely, proportional (P), adaptive P, and quasi sliding mode, were developed to control the melt pool temperature for the Inconel 625 superalloy. An analytical-experimental model was presented to evaluate the performance of controllers via simulation. A monitoring system consisting of a two-color pyrometer was utilized off-axially to monitor the melt pool temperature for use by the controllers as a feedback signal. The results indicated that the control approach led to microhardness and microstructure uniformity, resulting from the reduced variation in the primary dendrite arm spacing compared to the case with constant process parameters. Second, the control approach was utilized to produce optimum parts instead of using the energy density criterion. Temperature domains corresponding to the most common porosities, namely, lack of fusion (LOF), lack of penetration (LOP), and keyhole, were determined in a range of process parameters using a thermal imaging system. A safe zone was introduced by defining a lower and an upper limit based on the critical temperatures causing transitions from LOP to defect-free and from defect-free to keyhole zones, respectively. A proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller was used to maintain the melt pool temperature within the safe zone during the L-PBF process for Inconel 625 and avoid the formation of porosities, regardless of the initial condition selected and the scanning speed employed. In all cases, a short settling time in the order of the printing time for a few layers was required to reach the steady-state condition at which defect-free parts could be obtained. Finally, minimizing the top surface roughness of the parts manufactured by the L-PBF process by deploying a Feedforward plus Feedback control system was targeted in this study. The most common factors affecting the surface quality, namely, balling, lack of inter-track overlap, overlapping curvature of laser scan tracks, and spatters, were investigated through a monitoring system consisting of a high-speed camera, a zooming lens, and a short pass filter. The desired melt pool width and the critical value for the level of spatters were determined using the imaging system and subsequent image processing. An experimental model was developed, and the control system was designed accordingly. Both simulations and experimental results showed excellent transient performance of the control system to reach the desired melt pool width only after printing a few layers. Also, the control system was evaluated at different scanning speeds and with different geometries. The results obtained from this study indicated that controlling the geometry of the melt pool can mitigate significant defects occurring during the process and minimize the top surface roughness. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Accurately examining animal endocrine profiles pose unique challenges due to possible human interaction influencing basal values. Standard methods of gathering information about an animal’s endocrine status are often dependent upon restraint and use of invasive methodologies. However to accurately monitor the influence management practices, blood sampling sometimes requires that hormone measurements be observed from animals in a relaxed state. To this end, methods for non-invasive monitoring (NIM) are greatly needed to obtain basal endocrine measurements. Such methods include fecal collections followed by hormone extraction, and remote sampling technologies for obtaining blood samples without handling. The overall objective of this study was to use NIM techniques to effectively collect and monitor hormone profiles from domestic and non-domestic species in an effort to more completely understand stress responses and reproductive cyclicity in animals in which handling may not be possible or desired.

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Non-motorized (i.e., bicycle and pedestrian) traffic patterns are an understudied but important part of transportation systems. A key need for transportation planners is traffic monitoring programs similar to motorized traffic. Count campaigns can help estimate mode choice, measure infrastructure performance, track changes in volume, prioritize projects, analyze travel patterns (e.g., annual average daily traffic [AADT] and miles traveled [MT]), and conduct safety analysis (e.g., crash, injury and collision). However, unlike for motorized traffic, non-motorized traffic has not been comprehensively monitored in communities throughout the U.S. and is generally performed in an ad hoc fashion. My thesis explores how to (1) best count bicycles and pedestrians on the entire transportation network, rather than only focus on off-street trail systems or specific transportation corridors and (2) estimate AADT of bicycles and pedestrians in a small college town (i.e., Blacksburg, VA). I used a previously developed count campaign in Blacksburg, VA to collect bicycle and pedestrian counts using existing monitoring technologies (e.g., pneumatic tubes, passive infrared, and RadioBeam). I then summarized those counts to (1) identify seasonal, daily, and hourly patterns of non-motorized traffic and (2) develop scaling factors (analogous to those used in motor vehicle count programs) derived from the continuous reference sites to estimate long-term averages (i.e., AADT) for short-duration count sites. I collected ~40,000 hours of bicycle and pedestrian counts from early September 2014 to January 2016. The count campaign included 4 continuous reference sites (~ full year-2015 counts) and 97 short-duration sites (≥ 1-week counts) that covered different road and trail types (i.e., major road, local road, and off-street trails). I used 25 commercially available counters (i.e., 12 MetroCount MC 5600 Vehicle Classifier System [pneumatic tube counters], 10 Eco-counter 'Pyro' [passive infrared counters], and 3 Chambers RadioBeam Bicycle-People Counter [radiobeam counters]) to conduct the traffic count campaign. Three MetroCount, 4 Eco-counter, and 1 RadioBeam counter were installed at the 4 continuous reference sites; the remaining counters were rotated on a weekly basis at the short-duration count sites. I validated automated counts with field-based manual counts for all counters (210 total hours of validation counts). The validation counts were used to adjust automated counts due to systematic counter errors (e.g., occlusion) by developing correction equations for each type of counter. All automated counters were well correlated with the manual counts (MetroCount R2 [absolute error]: 0.90 [38%]; Eco-counter: 0.97 [24%]; RadioBeam bicycle: 0.92 [19%], RadioBeam pedestrian: 0.92 [22%]). I compared three bicycle-based classification schemes provided by MetroCount (i.e., ARX Cycle, BOCO and Bicycle 15). Based on the validation counts the BOCO (Boulder County, CO) classification scheme (hourly counts) had similar R2 using a polynomial correction equation (0.898) as compared to ARX Cycle (0.895) and Bicycle 15 (0.897). Using a linear fit, the slope was smallest for BOCO (1.26) as compared to ARX Cycle (1.29) and Bicycle 15 (1.31). Therefore, I used the BOCO classification scheme to adjust the automated hourly bicycle counts from MetroCount. To ensure a valid count dataset was used for further analysis, I conducted quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) protocols to the raw dataset. Overall, the continuous reference sites demonstrated good temporal coverage during the period the counters were deployed (bicycles: 96%; pedestrians: 87%) and for the calendar year-2015 (bicycles: 75%; pedestrians: 87%). For short-duration sites, 98% and 94% of sites had at least 7 days of monitoring for bicycles and pedestrians, respectively; no sites experienced 5 days or less of counts. I analyzed the traffic patterns and estimated AADT for all monitoring sites. I calculated average daily traffic, mode share, weekend to weekday ratio and hourly traffic curves to assess monthly, daily, and hourly patterns of bicycle and pedestrian traffic at the continuous reference sites. I then classified short-duration count sites into factor groups (i.e., commute [28%], recreation [11%], and mixed [61%]). These factor groups are normally used for corresponding continuous reference sites with the same patterns to apply scaling factors. However, due to limitations of the number (n=4) of continuous reference sites, the factor groups were only used as supplemental information in this analysis. To impute missing days at the 4 continuous reference sites to build a full year-2015 (i.e., 365 days) dataset, I built 8 site-specific negative binomial regression models (4 for bicycles and 4 for pedestrians) using temporal and weather variables (i.e., daily max temperature, daily temperature variation compared to the normal 30-year averages [1980-2010], precipitation, wind speed, weekend, and university in session). In general, the goodness-of-fit for the models was better for the bicycle traffic models (validation R2 = ~0.70) as compared to the pedestrian traffic models (validation R2 = ~0.30). The selected variables were correlated with bicycle and pedestrian traffic and cyclists are more sensitive to weather conditions than pedestrians. Adding model-generated estimates of missing days into the existing observed reference site counts allowed for calculating AADT for each continuous reference site (bicycles volumes ranged from 21 to 179; pedestrian volumes ranged from 98 to 4,232). Since a full year-2015 dataset was not available at the short-duration sites, I developed day-of-year scaling factors from the 4 continuous reference sites to apply to the short-duration counts. The scaling factors were used to estimate site-specific AADT for each day of the short-duration count sites (~7 days of counts per location). I explored the spatial relationships among bicycle and pedestrian AADT, road and trail types, and bike facility (i.e., bike lane). The results indicated that bicycle AADT is significantly higher (p < 0.01) on roads with a bike lane (mean: 72) as compared to roads without (mean: 30); bicycle AADT is significantly higher (p < 0.01) on off-street trails (mean: 72) as compared to major roads (mean: 33). Pedestrian AADT is significantly higher (p < 0.01) on local roads (mean: 693) as compared to off-street trails (mean: 111); this finding is likely owing to the fact that most roads on the Virginia Tech campus are classified as local roads. In Chapter 5, I conclude with (1) recommendations for implementation (e.g., counter installation and data analysis), (2) key findings of bicycle and pedestrian traffic analysis in Blacksburg and (3) strengths, limitations, and directions for future research. This research has the potential to influence urban planning; for example, offering guidance on developing routine non-motorized traffic monitoring, estimating bicycle and pedestrian AADT, prioritizing projects and measuring performance. However, this work could be expanded in several ways; for example, deploying more continuous reference sites, exploring ways to monitor or estimate pedestrians where no sidewalks exist and incorporating other spatial variables (e.g., land use variables) to study pedestrian volumes in future research. The overarching goal of my research is to yield guidance for jurisdictions that seek to implement systematic bicycle and pedestrian monitoring campaigns and to help decision making to encourage healthy, safe, and harmonious communities. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning