Current military criteria for characterizing soils and unbound pavement structural layers rely on either California bearing ratio (CBR) values or elastic moduli as backcalculated from the falling weight deflectometer (FWD). The primary objective of this investigation was to assess the ability of portable devices such as the GeoGauge, portable falling weight deflectometer (PFWD), and dynamic cone penetrometer (DCP) to accurately characterize subgrade and granular base materials in 16 test areas in terms of CBR or moduli values at Waterways Experiment Station (WES) in Vicksburg, MS, which serves as the headquarters for the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Comparisons of these measurements to those obtained using standard evaluation equipment such as the FWD and field CBR tests were used to rank the usefulness of each device. The rankings were based on statistical analyses through the characterization of repeatability and development of relationships between the portable devices and traditional devices. As a result, the DCP was recommended for soil strength estimation (CBR) for fine-grained materials while the GeoGauge and PFWD are recommended for estimation of the moduli values in coarse-grained materials.

No description available.

The measurement of pain has had a growing importance in animals for both privately owned animals and those animals involved in clinical research. Lameness is considered to be 1 aspect of the pain experience. The ability of a veterinarian to assess lameness during a routine orthopedic examination can be difficult given the short amount of time in which the clinician can observe the animal, and the fact that the animal is in a stressful environment. Thus, the input of the owner concerning the animal's well-being over an extended time period may be extremely useful to the clinician in assessing the degree of lameness of the animal. It was the purpose of this study to establish an instrument that was both repeatable and valid in assessing the degree of lameness. The instrument used was a questionnaire containing 39 questions in a visual analog scale format. A force platform was used as the gold-standard for detecting mechanical lameness. Peak vertical, cranial-caudal, and their associated impulses were forces used to determine lameness, along with maximum slope in some cases. A test-retest measure of repeatability was conducted on a subset of 19 dogs that were confirmed to have less than a 10% change in vertical peak force. Nineteen of the 39 questions were found to be repeatable based on a Spearman rank correlation. These 19 questions were then used as predictor variables in several multiple regression models which predicted force plate measurements. The result was 3 different models each containing 7 independent variables that were thought to be valid representations of the forces measured (vertical peak, vertical impulse, and propulsion peak forces). Each reduced model was found to fit the data as well as the full model containing all 19 of the repeatable questions. The composite of 11 questions from the 3 different models was used to calculate a total score. This total score was found to be significantly correlated with force plate measurements. These 11 questions should be useful to a clinician in detecting the degree of lameness in the dog.

The measurement of pain has had a growing importance in animals for both privately owned animals and those animals involved in clinical research. Lameness is considered to be 1 aspect of the pain experience. The ability of a veterinarian to assess lameness during a routine orthopedic examination can be difficult given the short amount of time in which the clinician can observe the animal, and the fact that the animal is in a stressful environment. Thus, the input of the owner concerning the animal's well-being over an extended time period may be extremely useful to the clinician in assessing the degree of lameness of the animal. It was the purpose of this study to establish an instrument that was both repeatable and valid in assessing the degree of lameness. The instrument used was a questionnaire containing 39 questions in a visual analog scale format. A force platform was used as the gold-standard for detecting mechanical lameness. Peak vertical, cranial-caudal, and their associated impulses were forces used to determine lameness, along with maximum slope in some cases. A test-retest measure of repeatability was conducted on a subset of 19 dogs that were confirmed to have less than a 10% change in vertical peak force. Nineteen of the 39 questions were found to be repeatable based on a Spearman rank correlation. These 19 questions were then used as predictor variables in several multiple regression models which predicted force plate measurements. The result was 3 different models each containing 7 independent variables that were thought to be valid representations of the forces measured (vertical peak, vertical impulse, and propulsion peak forces). Each reduced model was found to fit the data as well as the full model containing all 19 of the repeatable questions. The composite of 11 questions from the 3 different models was used to calculate a total score. This total score was found to be significantly correlated with force plate measurements. These 11 questions should be useful to a clinician in detecting the degree of lameness in the dog.

Feed efficiency and metabolism affect profitability of the various components of the beef industry by modulating distribution and use of nutrients within cattle. Separate studies were conducted to determine the 1) repeatability of feed efficiency measurements over time as beef heifers mature into cows, and 2) whether the production and regulation of glucose in heifers is affected by temperament. The influence of temperament on glucoregulatory hormones was studied in Angus crossbred heifers and Brahman heifers whose temperament was determined at weaning. The 6 most calm and 6 most temperamental heifers of each breed were fitted with jugular cannulas. Blood was collected at cannulation and then via the cannula during a 90-min rest period. Following 90 min, dextrose was infused (0.5 mg/kg BW) and blood samples were collected at specific intervals for 3 h total. In the crossbred heifers cortisol (P = 0.0560) and glucose (P = 0.0485) concentrations during the challenge were higher in temperamental relative to calm crossbred heifers. Insulin concentrations tended (P = 0.0737) to be higher in temperamental crossbred heifers. Cortisol (P = 0.0282) and glucose (P = 0.0011) concentrations were significantly higher in temperamental Brahman heifers. Insulin concentrations tended (P = 0.0793) to be greater for calm Brahman heifers. Temperamental cattle had a greater HPA axis response, which led to greater concentrations of cortisol and glucose, possibly because the glucose was being utilized differently by the temperamental cattle. Mature Brahman cow feed efficiency data was collected over two years, on two different cohorts of cows that had previous residual feed intake data as post-weaning heifers. In 2009 and 2010, 37 and 41 cows, respectively, in their first trimester of gestation were evaluated for RFI via the Calan gate system. Cows were fed 2.6% BW for 70 d with BW recorded weekly. Cows were classified according to their RFI values as either efficient or inefficient. Heifer RFI was not correlated to mature cow RFI based on assessment of the Pearson‟s correlation coefficient (r = -0.06, P = 0.57). This study indicates that establishment of RFI in heifers may not accurately predict their feed efficiency as mature cows.

Body condition is expected to reflect individual quality because high quality individuals should be better at acquiring and using resources, resulting in higher fitness. However, the hypothesis that condition indices are meaningful indicators of individual quality has been questioned. I monitored a population of crimson finches (Neochmia phaeton) for reproductive success and survival over four breeding seasons. My study population is well suited for this research because individuals forage in common areas and do not hold territories such that variation in condition between individuals is not confounded by differences in habitat quality. Because little is known about crimson finches in the wild, I first describe their breeding biology and life-history traits (Chapter I). Next, I sampled them for commonly used condition indices including mass adjusted for body size, muscle and fat scores, packed cell volume, hemoglobin concentration, total plasma protein, and heterophil to lymphocyte ratio. I describe the variation in these indices and find that many vary by sex and breeding stage, and to a lesser extent by year, age and time of day, concluding that these covariates need to be controlled for when examining intraspecific variation in condition (Chapter II). If condition indices reflect inherent individual quality, then condition indices should be (a) repeatable within individuals, and (b) predictors of realized fitness. I test these two predictions in Chapters III and IV, respectively, and I find that condition indices are repeatable within individuals over short, but not long, time periods and that some indices predict reproductive success, while others do not, and that none predict survival. Both findings only partially support the hypothesis that condition indices are meaningful indicators of individual quality, raising concerns over this common interpretation. In Chapter V, I glean insights from the ecological and poultry science literature and discuss further complications with the use of condition indices as proxies for individual quality and fitness. I conclude that condition indices indicate how well an individual is currently acquiring resources as well as its likely physiological state over the next few months, but that they do not reflect individual quality and are not reliable proxies for fitness. / Ph. D.

Road smoothness is one of the most important road functional characteristics because it affects ride quality, operation cost, and vehicle dynamic load. There are many types of devices that measure the road profile, which is often used to compute different smoothness indices. The development of performance-based specifications and pavement warranties that use ride quality as a performance measure has increased the need for accurate measurement of pavement smoothness. For this reason, researchers have compared and evaluated the performance of available profilers and several profiler accuracy criteria have been proposed. However, there is not a definite answer on the ability of available profilers to accurately measure the actual road profile as well as the various smoothness indices. A recent profiler round-up compared the performance of 68 profilers on five test sections at Virginia Smart Road. The equipment evaluated included high-speed, light-weight, and walking-speed profilers, in addition to the reference device (rod and level). The test sites included two sites with traditional hot-mix asphalt (HMA) surfaces, one with a coarse-textured HMA surface, one on a continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP), and one on a jointed plain concrete pavement (JCP). This investigation used a sample of the data collected during the experiment to compare the profiles and International Roughness Index (IRI) measured by each type of equipment with each other and with the reference. These comparisons allowed determination of the accuracy and repeatability capabilities of the existing equipment, evaluation of the appropriateness of various profiler accuracy criteria, and recommendations of usage criteria for different applications. The main conclusion of this investigation is that there are profilers available that can produce the level of accuracy (repeatability and bias) required for construction quality control and assurance. However, the analysis also showed that the accuracy varies significantly even with the same type of device. None of the inertial profilers evaluated met the current IRI bias standard requirements on all five test sites. On average, the profilers evaluated produced more accurate results on the conventional smooth pavement than on the coarse textured pavements. The cross-correlation method appears to have some advantages over the conventional point-to-point statistics method for comparing the measured profiles. On the sites investigated, good cross-correlation among the measured and reference profiles assured acceptable IRI accuracy. Finally, analysis based on Power Spectral Density and gain method showed that the profiler gain errors are nonuniformly distributed and that errors at different wavelengths have variable effects on the IRI bias. / Master of Science

Objectives: Phase 1) Establish echocardiographic reference intervals for measurements of the normal canine right heart. Phase 2) Describe the repeatability of normal right heart echocardiographic measurements. Phase 3) Describe the repeatability of right heart echocardiographic measurements which predict pulmonary artery pressure. Materials and Methods: Phase 1) 45 healthy adult dogs. Dogs underwent one echocardiographic examination by the same operator. Phase 2) 6 randomly selected dogs from the pool of Phase 1 dogs. Dogs underwent repeated echocardiograms by two operators. Phase 3) 4 client-owned dogs. Dogs underwent repeated echocardiographic examination by two operators. Results: Phase 1) The linear relationship between dimension and transformed body weight was highly variable. For linear dimensions, most of the scaling exponents were close to the theoretical value of 1/3. For area measurements, most of the scaling exponents were close to 2/3. Phase 2) Of the 168 within-day, between-day and between-operator coefficients of variation (CV) generated, 154 (91.7%) were below 15% and 135 (80.4%) were less than 10%. Phase 3) Of the 100 within-day, between-day and between-operator CVs generated, 72 (72%) were below 20% and 46 (46%) were below 10%. Conclusions: The right heart can be measured with relatively low repeatability. Measurement of the tricuspid regurgitation velocity should be the first priority when attempting to predict pulmonary artery pressure. If tricuspid regurgitation is not present, the use of transpulmonic acceleration time (AT) and the ratio of transpulmonic acceleration-to-ejection time (AT:ET) to indirectly assess pulmonary artery pressure is recommended. / Master of Science

The purpose of this thesis was to assess the repeatability and reproducibility of two high-speed macrotexture measuring systems. The first portion of the study collected macrotexture measurements using the two high-speed systems on the Virginia Smart Road facility and validated the reproducibility of the mean profile depth (MPD) measurements with reference CT Meter measurements. The various data sets were then compared with each other. The objective was to determine whether the two systems are collecting repeatable and reproducible data. The analysis showed that the two high-speed systems investigated have good repeatability (0.105 mm for the Ames and 0.113 mm for the SCRIM) when measuring the average MPD of the sections investigated. The two systems produce measurements that are highly-correlated (Ames R2 = 0.9591 and SCRIM R2 = 0.9157) with the reference ones obtained with the CT Meter. While the Ames systems, with the data processed using the Virginia Tech filter, measures MPD values that are very close to those of the CT Meter, with a virtually zero systematic bias. The SCRIM obtains slightly lower readings. The differences are thought to be due to the filtering of the raw pavement elevation measurements used by the SCRIM processing software to eliminate dropout and spikes in the laser measurements. / Master of Science / The researched compared two different devices used to record data for a surface property of pavement, macrotexture. The macrotexture is a measure of the spaces in between the particles making up the surface of the asphalt. This property is linked to the level of friction on the roadways affecting safety. The readings from each of the devices were validated through a reference device in order to insure they were obtaining reliable results on the Virginia Smart Road. The repeatability and reproducibility of each of the devices was examined to determine whether the two systems were collecting repeatable and reproducible data. It was determined the two devices had good repeatability and were highly correlated with the reference device. The first device called the Ames system obtained measurements very close to those of the reference device, with a virtually zero systematic bias. The second device called the SCRIM system obtained measurements close to the reference device but slightly lower. Through the comparisons and data analysis, an equation permitting users to convert readings from the SCRIM to Ames system and vice versa was computed. Because one device obtains slightly higher readings than the other, this equation is very important in order to have comparable results.

Presentation given on October 27, 2016 at Data Reproducibility: Integrity and Transparency program as part of Open Access Week 2016. / We describe a study into the extent to which Computer Systems researchers share their code and data. Starting with 601 papers from ACM conferences and journals, we examine the papers whose results were backed by code to see for what fraction of these we would be able to obtain and build the code. Based on the results of this study, we propose a novel sharing specification scheme that requires researchers to specify the level of sharing that reviewers and readers can assume from a paper.