Roundabout installations are becoming common practice among DOTs and other local governments due to their superior safety attributes compared to other conventional at-grade intersections, especially stop-control and uncontrolled intersections. Current U.S. national guidelines for roundabout illumination recommend systematic illumination for all roundabouts. This recommendation might become a potential hindrance to desired widespread installations due to implied financial costs, especially in rural areas because the competing stop-control and uncontrolled intersections can be kept unlit. Interestingly rural roundabouts in most countries around the world are not illuminated as indicated by a recent survey of international roundabout illumination policies and standards from 45 countries. Also, review of intersection safety literature does not identify any publication that supports a systematic illumination policy of U.S. roundabouts. In fact, despite this recommendation there is no quantitative research on influence of illumination levels on nighttime safety at roundabouts and little on conventional intersections. Conversely, the literature shows a significant number of published studies which have indicated that currently recommended illumination levels on roadways can be reduced without compromising nighttime safety. This dissertation evaluates the link between roundabout crashes and different illumination levels. At the beginning of this dissertation research, there was no available repository of quantitative intersection illumination levels which could be used in highway safety research. Also, existing protocols for measurement require expensive light meters and are extremely time consuming to follow, making them impractical to use to study a large number of intersections. Consequently, this dissertation first evaluates the relationship with the best available data. The best available intersection illumination data was obtained from the Minnesota data contained in the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS). Minnesota crash and illumination data from 2003 to 2010 were analyzed. This illumination data was a qualitative description of intersection illuminating schemes and/or luminaire arrangement. Therefore, this dissertation also developed a cost-effective, accurate, and rapid method for measurement of quantitative intersection illumination data, and applied the developed protocol to a case study in Georgia. The measured intersection illumination was analyzed together with crash data obtained from GDOT for 2009 to 2014. The results of a naive analysis on the best available data indicated among other findings that the presence of lighting can provide approximately 61 percent lower total nighttime crash rate compared to the unlit condition. Also, providing illumination to the roundabout circle alone can yield about 80 percent of the benefits (55 percent reduction from unlit condition) of illuminating both the roundabout circle and approaches (66 percent reduction from unlit condition). Field test results for the camera calibration indicate that the average intersection illuminance derived from the protocol is within 4 percent difference of the actual average intersection illumination estimated from following the existing protocols. Next, despite limited roundabout data and potential issues of selection bias which could not be addressed in this dissertation, a cautious roundabout illumination specific crash modification factor was estimated with a negative binomial regression model. The model results showed that an increase of 1 lux in average roundabout illuminance will result in a 4.72 percent reduction in expected number nighttime crashes. The results of this work are useful in creating a sound framework for DOTs and other transportation agencies to determine the most appropriate level of illumination for roundabouts. This study also makes a number of significant contributions to highway safety research. First, this work is the first quantitative study on the impact of illumination on safety at roundabouts. The status-quo for highway safety research regarding the impacts of illumination had been to treat road lighting as a binary (Lit/Unlit) variable. However, even in most places without purposely-built road lighting there is usually ambient lighting from abutting facilities such as a gas stations or a store. Second, this dissertation is the first documented application of the photographic method to roundabouts. It is also the first documented application of the photographic method’s camera specific constant calibration approach to transportation field measurements. Previous documented application of the photographic method to transportation field measurements used an exposure specific calibration approach. Unlike the camera specific constant calibration approach, the exposure specific approach is rigid and field measurements must always be done at the exposure settings used in calibrating the camera. Thirdly, this work demonstrates the first developed procedure to developing uniformity (contour) plots from the photographic method. Next, this work can serve as the basis for initial efforts to create an illumination specific quantitative crash modification factor. Currently, the Highway Safety Manual is lacking in this important safety parameter. Last, but not the least this work offers procedures for collecting luminance data from the field and also documents a database of intersection illumination levels and intersection characteristics which can be used by future research.

Background: Childhood obesity is epidemic, and Hispanic children bear a particularly high health burden because of it. Evidence suggests that obesity prevention is a better option than intervention. Because schools have decreased the amount of time spent in physical education classes, leisure time has become the time to engage in physical activity, which may prevent obesity. Social ecology theory posits that a person’s interaction with the environment has a strong influence on health promoting behavior. Further, this theory suggests that cultural values also play a role. The extant literature points to the sedentary nature of Hispanic children. However, it does not provide a description of the activities that children engage in during their leisure time, or how they are influenced by their family, culture, and community’s environment. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe and provide an understanding of how leisure time is viewed by Hispanic families, and how family and culture influences Hispanic children’s participation in leisure time activity. Two broad research questions were addressed: 1) How do Hispanic families describe leisure time activities? and 2) How do culture, family and the community environment influence a Hispanic child’s participation in leisure time activities? Methods: This ethnographic study incorporated photographs taken by English-speaking Hispanic mothers of children between 6 and 10 years old (n=10) as they engaged in leisure activities for one week. The participants engaged in photo-elicited interviews, describing the children’s activities and performed initial data analysis by sorting the photos in the categories of activities. Findings: Girls were more sedentary, engaging in intellectually stimulating and creative play activities inside, with family members or alone. Boys were more active, engaging in unstructured play activities outside with family members or friends. The children engaged in these activities to promote their health, prepare for their adult lives, and for fun. Cultural tensions experienced by the children’s parents had a profound influence on their leisure time choices and decisions. Activities were used to prepare the children for a better life, and to teach them to balance work and fun. Ultimately, the participants wanted their children to live a balanced life; one that is happy, healthy, and successful. Relevance: The children engaged in purposefully planned leisure activities aimed to ensure their health, happiness, and success in the U.S. The participants acknowledged that to achieve a better life, the children must become expert multicultural navigators. While many of the activities were sedentary, they had important implications for the children’s future. Health care providers must consider how patients view leisure time, and enlist their ideas in order to make children’s activities more physically active.

A importância dada aos parâmetros de qualidade da água, principalmente nas últimas décadas justifica a realização desse trabalho, que investiga a relação de alguns parâmetros turbulentos com o coeficiente de reaeração, 'K IND.2', através de duas técnicas distintas de medida: o método ótico e a técnica fotográfica. O método ótico relaciona a intensidade de luz recebida por um diodo imerso na água com a velocidade vertical no ponto onde é realizada a medida; os dados coletados pelo método ótico constituem um sinal elétrico que contém a informação da deformação da superfície. A partir desse sinal determinam-se os seguintes parâmetros: valor RMS da tensão, função de autocorrelação, macroescala e espectro. Os resultados obtidos por esse método são funções temporais. O método fotográfico consiste em obter fotografias de partículas iluminadas sobre a superfície livre da água, com tempo de exposição conhecido. O método foi melhorado pela adição de dois disparos de flash, para permitir a determinação da variação da velocidade. As fotos são digitalizadas em um software gráfico e os valores obtidos são interpolados através do método Kriging de interpolação. O método fotográfico é uma função espacial. A partir do método fotográfico são determinados os seguintes parâmetros: valor RMS, função de autocorrelação e espectro. Os resultados obtidos permitem a comparação quantitativa entre as funções de autocorrelação e espectros, e a relação entre o coeficiente de reaeração, 'K IND.2' e o valor RMS obtidos pela sonda e pela foto / The importance given to the parameters of quality of the water, mainly in the last decades, it justifies the accomplishment of this work, that it investigates the relation of some turbulent parameters with the re-aeration coefficient, 'K IND.2', through two different techniques of measure: the optic method and the photographic technique. The optic method relates the intensity of the light received by a immersed diode in the water with the vertical speed at the point where the measure is accomplished; the data collected by the optic method are electric signs that contains the information of the deformation of the surface. Thereafter this signs, the following parameters are determined: RMS value of tension, self-correlation function, macro-scale and spectrum. The results obtained for this method they are temporal functions. The photographic method consists of obtaining pictures of illuminated particles on the free surface of the water, with time of exhibition known. The method was improved by addition of two shots of flashes, to allow the determination of the variation of the speed. The pictures, then, are digitized in a graphic software and the values obtained are interpolated through the Kriging interpolation method. The photographic method is a spatial function. With the photographic method may be determined the following parameters: RMS value, self-correlation function and spectrum. The results obtained may provide the quantitative comparison between the self-correlation function and spectrum; and also the relation between the re-aeration coefficient, 'K IND.2', and the RMS value, that are obtained through the probe and the picture

A importância dada aos parâmetros de qualidade da água, principalmente nas últimas décadas justifica a realização desse trabalho, que investiga a relação de alguns parâmetros turbulentos com o coeficiente de reaeração, 'K IND.2', através de duas técnicas distintas de medida: o método ótico e a técnica fotográfica. O método ótico relaciona a intensidade de luz recebida por um diodo imerso na água com a velocidade vertical no ponto onde é realizada a medida; os dados coletados pelo método ótico constituem um sinal elétrico que contém a informação da deformação da superfície. A partir desse sinal determinam-se os seguintes parâmetros: valor RMS da tensão, função de autocorrelação, macroescala e espectro. Os resultados obtidos por esse método são funções temporais. O método fotográfico consiste em obter fotografias de partículas iluminadas sobre a superfície livre da água, com tempo de exposição conhecido. O método foi melhorado pela adição de dois disparos de flash, para permitir a determinação da variação da velocidade. As fotos são digitalizadas em um software gráfico e os valores obtidos são interpolados através do método Kriging de interpolação. O método fotográfico é uma função espacial. A partir do método fotográfico são determinados os seguintes parâmetros: valor RMS, função de autocorrelação e espectro. Os resultados obtidos permitem a comparação quantitativa entre as funções de autocorrelação e espectros, e a relação entre o coeficiente de reaeração, 'K IND.2' e o valor RMS obtidos pela sonda e pela foto / The importance given to the parameters of quality of the water, mainly in the last decades, it justifies the accomplishment of this work, that it investigates the relation of some turbulent parameters with the re-aeration coefficient, 'K IND.2', through two different techniques of measure: the optic method and the photographic technique. The optic method relates the intensity of the light received by a immersed diode in the water with the vertical speed at the point where the measure is accomplished; the data collected by the optic method are electric signs that contains the information of the deformation of the surface. Thereafter this signs, the following parameters are determined: RMS value of tension, self-correlation function, macro-scale and spectrum. The results obtained for this method they are temporal functions. The photographic method consists of obtaining pictures of illuminated particles on the free surface of the water, with time of exhibition known. The method was improved by addition of two shots of flashes, to allow the determination of the variation of the speed. The pictures, then, are digitized in a graphic software and the values obtained are interpolated through the Kriging interpolation method. The photographic method is a spatial function. With the photographic method may be determined the following parameters: RMS value, self-correlation function and spectrum. The results obtained may provide the quantitative comparison between the self-correlation function and spectrum; and also the relation between the re-aeration coefficient, 'K IND.2', and the RMS value, that are obtained through the probe and the picture

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