The nuclear power plant has given new direction to power generation. It offers a new source of heat. The heat can now come from the fission of atomic fuel and not from the burning of fossil fuel. Safety and protection from the possible hazards of radioactivity generated by nuclear power plants is a completely new and untested area. Emergency systems and over designed construction are only part of what has to be done to make absolutely certain such accidents, if they occur, will be contained allowing no harmful radioactivity to reach the environment. Handling of radioactive wastes is very critical in a nuclear power plant. These wastes have to be stored in protective containers and transported to predetermined storage sites. At these sites the containers of radioactive wastes are lowered into large salt mines. Licensing and regulation of nuclear power plants during construction and operation is the responsibility of the Atomic Energy Commission. The five member federal panel has issues strict requirements that must be met in each step in the process of obtaining permits and licenses, construction, and generation.

Traffic conflicts associated to signalized intersections are one of the major contributing factors to crash occurrences. Driver behavior plays an important role in the safety concerns related to signalized intersections. In this research effort, dynamics of driver behavior in relation to the traffic conflicts occurring at the onset of yellow is investigated. The area ahead of intersections in which drivers encounter a dilemma to pass through or stop when the yellow light commences is called Dilemma Zone (DZ). Several DZ-protection algorithms and advance signal settings have been developed to accommodate the DZ-related safety concerns. The focus of this study is on drivers' decision dynamics, human learning, and choice behavior in DZ, and DZ-related safety measures. First, influential factors to drivers' decision in DZ were determined using a driver behavior survey. This information was applied to design an adaptive experiment in a driving simulator study. Scenarios in the experimental design are aimed at capturing drivers learning process while experiencing safe and unsafe signal settings. The result of the experiment revealed that drivers do learn from some of their experience. However, this learning process led into a higher level of risk aversion behavior. Therefore, DZ-protection algorithms, independent of their approach, should not have any concerns regarding drivers learning effect on their protection procedure. Next, the possibility of predicting drivers' decision in different time frames using different datasets was examined. The results showed a promising prediction model if the data collection period is assumed 3 seconds after yellow. The prediction model serves advance signal protection algorithms to make more intelligent decisions. In the next step, a novel Surrogate Safety Number (SSN) was introduced based on the concept of time to collision. This measure is applicable to evaluate different DZ-protection algorithms regardless of their embedded methodology, and it has the potential to be used in developing new DZ-protection algorithms. Last, an agent-based human learning model was developed integrating machine learning and human learning techniques. An abstracted model of human memory and cognitive structure was used to model agent's behavior and learning. The model was applied to DZ decision making process, and agents were trained using the driver simulator data. The human learning model resulted in lower and faster-merging errors in mimicking drivers' behavior comparing to a pure machine learning technique. / Ph. D.

<p dir="ltr">In 2021, the U.S. experienced over 45,000 road accident fatalities and approximately two million injuries, resulting in both emotional trauma and tangible economic impact. Road safety management traditionally depends on crash data, which though invaluable, is reactive, takes a long time to aggregate and has certain limitations. Traffic conflicts, the most used surrogate measure, promises to enhance road safety estimation without the drawbacks of crash data using a short amount of data collection.</p><p dir="ltr">After decades of debate, a definition for traffic conflicts that can be practically applied (Tarko, 2018, 2021) and a bridge method to estimate number of crashes given conflicts (Tarko, 2018) have emerged. The predictive validity of the bridge method has been successfully demonstrated for naturalistic driving data using a framework to extract conflicts (Tarko & Lizarazo, 2021). The only hurdle remaining for adoption of traffic conflicts to estimate safety at a given location is a means to record trajectories of all road users at that location.</p><p dir="ltr">Traditionally, video cameras and associated image processing techniques have been used to track road users at a given location. Cameras capture a 2D projection of the 3D world, therefore incur a loss of information and cameras are sensitive to ambient light conditions.</p><p dir="ltr">Over the past decade, LiDARs have emerged as an alternative to cameras for tracking road users. The advantage of LiDARs is that they record 3D information directly and are insensitive to ambient light conditions. Furthermore, they are less affected by adverse weather conditions than cameras. Spurred by the adoption by autonomous vehicle manufacturers, LiDAR sensors are projected to achieve cost parity with cameras over the next several years.</p><p dir="ltr">This dissertation explores the various aspects of LiDAR based tracking starting with sensor selection. The simulation work done shows the advantage of a multi-LiDAR setup in effectively covering an intersection. A novel self-aligning procedure to achieve spatial congruity proposed is shown to outperform the state of the art.</p><p dir="ltr">New methods for identifying and removing background points that work even under moderate congestion have been proposed. New methods for clustering the non-background points and estimating a bounding box with proper orientation are proposed. The results of the experiments show that they work better than the corresponding state of the art methods. The rest of the processing follows the framework introduced by (Bandaru, 2016).</p><p dir="ltr">A thorough evaluation of positional accuracy, orientation accuracy and accuracy of estimated vehicle dimensions has been undertaken using data from an instrumented vehicle acting as ground truth to prove that the trajectories generated are of sufficient quality to identify traffic conflicts.</p><p dir="ltr">Further, the framework proposed by (Lizarazo, 2020) has been adopted to identify traffic encounters from the trajectories obtained. A new method to select an alternative trajectory for a vehicle exhibiting an evasive maneuver, used in the counterfactual analysis to estimate time to collision is proposed. Data collected at three different intersections using a LiDAR are processed to extract trajectories and the framework is applied to identify safety relevant events. The spatial distribution of the identified events is compared against the spatial distribution of crashes.</p><p dir="ltr">While the spatial distribution shows promise, the actual number of claimed conflicts was too low. The rare nature of failure caused traffic conflict that can be linked to crashes could be a reason. A more permanent installation is suggested to ascertain the duration required to observe sufficient number of traffic conflicts, that could be used to reliably estimate crashes.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>References:</b></p><p dir="ltr">Bandaru, V. K. (2016). Algorithms for LiDAR Based Traffic Tracking: Development and Demonstration. <i>Open Access Theses</i>. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_theses/922</p><p dir="ltr">Lizarazo, C. (2020). <i>Identification Of Failure-Caused Traffic Conflicts in Tracking Systems: A General Framework</i> [PhD Thesis]. Purdue University.</p><p dir="ltr">Tarko, A. (2018). Estimating the expected number of crashes with traffic conflicts and the Lomax Distribution–A theoretical and numerical exploration. <i>Accident Analysis & Prevention</i>, <i>113</i>, 63–73.</p><p dir="ltr">Tarko, A. (2021). A unifying view on traffic conflicts and their connection with crashes. <i>Accident Analysis & Prevention</i>, <i>158</i>, 106187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2021.106187</p><p dir="ltr">Tarko, A., & Lizarazo, C. (2021). Validity of failure-caused traffic conflicts as surrogates of rear-end collisions in naturalistic driving studies. <i>Accident Analysis & Prevention</i>, <i>149</i>, 105863.</p>

Orientador: Fernando Andrade Fernandes / Banca: Antonio Milton de Barros / Banca: Marisa Helena D'Arbo Alves de Freitas / Resumo: São deveres do Estado, no contexto do ato do portador de anomalia psíquica que entra em contradição com o ordenamento jurídico pátrio, proteger a sociedade de novas lesões de bens jurídicos penalmente relevantes, proporcionar ao indivíduo adequado tratamento terapêutico, reinseri-lo no convívio social, e, não por último, respeitar e fomentar sua dignidade humana. O presente trabalho investiga as potencialidades da desinternação progressiva na efetivação das finalidades político-criminais das medidas de segurança, finalidades essas que se constituem verdadeira obrigação do Estado Social e Democrático de Direito Material. Ao lado do quadro teórico a respeito de tais finalidades e dos princípios constitucionais aplicáveis à medida de segurança, este trabalho apresenta dados a respeito de sua execução tradicional no Brasil, que apontam para a urgente necessidade de sua reestruturação. O trabalho também expõe dados empíricos relacionados à desinternação progressiva, colhidos no Hospital de Custódia e Tratamento Psiquiátrico II de Franco da Rocha, local em que a experiência inovadora se dá. Revela seus objetivos, características e critérios de funcionamento, assim como desvela os resultados já obtidos e patenteia as imperfeições encontradas. Por fim, evidencia em que medida a desinternação progressiva permite o atingimento das finalidades político-criminais das medidas de segurança e o que deve ser feito para aumentar-lhe a eficácia / Abstract: Protecting the society from attempts against interests protected by criminal legal rules, providing the patients a proper therapeutical treatment, embedding the patients in the social conviviality, and also respecting and promoting their human dignity, are obligations of the Brazilian State considering the mental ill's act against legal rules. This paper investigates the potentiality of progressive disinternment on accomplishing the politic-criminal purposes of the Safety Measures. Such purposes are stablished as real obligations of the actual Democratic Welfare Legal State. Besides theoretics on these purposes and applicable constitucional principles related to Safety Measures, the research presents information about their usual execution in Brazil, whose qualifications bring up the need of urgent reorganization. It also presents empirical data about progressive disinternment, collected from the Franco da Rocha Custody and Psychiatric Treatment Second Hospital, establishment in which this innovative experience occurs. It discloses the objectives, characteristics and operational criteria of this experience as well as it studies the results obtained and points the imperfections revealed. Finally, it highlights how progressive disinternment is able to provide the achievement of the politic-criminal purposes related to the Safety Measures and what should be done in order to increase its effectiveness / Mestre

<p>Avian Influenza (AI) is a contagious viral zoonotic disease with great public health implications and negative socioeconomic impact (WHO, 2006a). The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) infection is transmitted from birds to man mostly through contact with contaminated poultry and objects (INFOSAN, 2005), hence people who come in contact with birds such as live bird sellers (LBS) are the more vulnerable population (WHO, 2006a). Inadequate knowledge of AI health risks and poor practice of AI preventive measures amongst LBS increases the risk of spread of the infection in both humans and animals.The aim of this study was to describe and quantify the knowledge and practice of LBS with regards to avian influenza health risks and preventive activities in Agege, an urban area in Lagos State, Nigeria.</p>

<p>Avian Influenza (AI) is a contagious viral zoonotic disease with great public health implications and negative socioeconomic impact (WHO, 2006a). The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) infection is transmitted from birds to man mostly through contact with contaminated poultry and objects (INFOSAN, 2005), hence people who come in contact with birds such as live bird sellers (LBS) are the more vulnerable population (WHO, 2006a). Inadequate knowledge of AI health risks and poor practice of AI preventive measures amongst LBS increases the risk of spread of the infection in both humans and animals.The aim of this study was to describe and quantify the knowledge and practice of LBS with regards to avian influenza health risks and preventive activities in Agege, an urban area in Lagos State, Nigeria.</p>

The identification of roadway sections with a higher than expected number of crashes is usually based on long term crash frequency data. In situations where historical crash data are limited or not available, surrogate safety measures, based on characteristics such as road geometries, traffic volume, and speed variation are often considered. Most of existing crash prediction models relate safety to speed variation at a specific point on the roadway. However, such point-specific explanatory variables do not capture the effect of speed consistency along the roadway. This study developed several measures based on the speed profiles along road segments to estimate the crash frequency on urban streets. To collect speed profile data, second-by-second speed data were obtained from more than 460 GPS-equipped vehicles participating in the Commute Atlanta Study over the 2004 calendar year. A series of speed data filters have been developed to identify likely free-flow speed data. The quantified relationships between surrogate measures and crash frequency are developed using regression tree and generalized linear modeling (GLM) approaches. The results indicate that safety characteristics of roadways are likely a function of the roadway classification. Two crash prediction models with different set of explanatory variables were developed for higher and lower classification roadways. The findings support the potential use of the profile-based measures to evaluate the safety of road network as the deployment of GPS-equipped vehicles become more prevalent.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-07-08Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:20:25Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 cia_m_me_fran.pdf: 1413817 bytes, checksum: 68d44c988b7aaa47e3e45e2c8e0562ec (MD5) / São deveres do Estado, no contexto do ato do portador de anomalia psíquica que entra em contradição com o ordenamento jurídico pátrio, proteger a sociedade de novas lesões de bens jurídicos penalmente relevantes, proporcionar ao indivíduo adequado tratamento terapêutico, reinseri-lo no convívio social, e, não por último, respeitar e fomentar sua dignidade humana. O presente trabalho investiga as potencialidades da desinternação progressiva na efetivação das finalidades político-criminais das medidas de segurança, finalidades essas que se constituem verdadeira obrigação do Estado Social e Democrático de Direito Material. Ao lado do quadro teórico a respeito de tais finalidades e dos princípios constitucionais aplicáveis à medida de segurança, este trabalho apresenta dados a respeito de sua execução tradicional no Brasil, que apontam para a urgente necessidade de sua reestruturação. O trabalho também expõe dados empíricos relacionados à desinternação progressiva, colhidos no Hospital de Custódia e Tratamento Psiquiátrico II de Franco da Rocha, local em que a experiência inovadora se dá. Revela seus objetivos, características e critérios de funcionamento, assim como desvela os resultados já obtidos e patenteia as imperfeições encontradas. Por fim, evidencia em que medida a desinternação progressiva permite o atingimento das finalidades político-criminais das medidas de segurança e o que deve ser feito para aumentar-lhe a eficácia / Protecting the society from attempts against interests protected by criminal legal rules, providing the patients a proper therapeutical treatment, embedding the patients in the social conviviality, and also respecting and promoting their human dignity, are obligations of the Brazilian State considering the mental ill’s act against legal rules. This paper investigates the potentiality of progressive disinternment on accomplishing the politic-criminal purposes of the Safety Measures. Such purposes are stablished as real obligations of the actual Democratic Welfare Legal State. Besides theoretics on these purposes and applicable constitucional principles related to Safety Measures, the research presents information about their usual execution in Brazil, whose qualifications bring up the need of urgent reorganization. It also presents empirical data about progressive disinternment, collected from the Franco da Rocha Custody and Psychiatric Treatment Second Hospital, establishment in which this innovative experience occurs. It discloses the objectives, characteristics and operational criteria of this experience as well as it studies the results obtained and points the imperfections revealed. Finally, it highlights how progressive disinternment is able to provide the achievement of the politic-criminal purposes related to the Safety Measures and what should be done in order to increase its effectiveness

Magister Public Health - MPH / Avian Influenza (AI) is a contagious viral zoonotic disease with great public health implications and negative socioeconomic impact (WHO, 2006a). The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) infection is transmitted from birds to man mostly through contact with contaminated poultry and objects (INFOSAN, 2005), hence people who come in contact with birds such as live bird sellers (LBS) are the more vulnerable population (WHO, 2006a). Inadequate knowledge of AI health risks and poor practice of AI preventive measures amongst LBS increases the risk of spread of the infection in both humans and animals.The aim of this study was to describe and quantify the knowledge and practice of LBS with regards to avian influenza health risks and preventive activities in Agege, an urban area in Lagos State, Nigeria. / South Africa

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:42:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 COSTA_Lucio_2014.pdf: 1495926 bytes, checksum: 332ea16b46bc849d4aa06c806a74efaa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-25 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / - / A presente dissertação tem como foco central os aspectos da proteção e dos direitos das pessoas com transtorno mental em conflito com a lei. Marcada pelo binômio crime/loucura, esta população vem sendo mantida apartada do novo regramento legal que dispõe sobre as garantias e o modelo de atenção psicossocial no País: a Lei Nº 10.216/2001, mais conhecida como Lei da Reforma Psiquiátrica Brasileira. Essa legislação orienta em suas diretrizes uma terapêutica contrária à lógica de asilamento e de segregação, apontando o processo de desinstitucionalização como o mecanismo que deve pautar as políticas públicas na área. Entretanto, milhares de brasileiros marcados pelo estigma da loucura e da criminalidade permanecem esquecidos em espaços de confinamento penal e internação psiquiátrica. Uma experiência inovadora conduzida pelo estado de Goiás vem mudando esse paradigma: o Programa de Atenção ao Louco Infrator (PAILI). Pautado pelas diretrizes estabelecidas pela Reforma Psiquiátrica Brasileira, o projeto tem alcançado índices de reincidência que o distingue sobremaneira dos demais modelos operados na área, constituindo uma possibilidade real de transformação na perspectiva do lidar com o binômio loucura/crime. A partir de um trabalho de campo orientado por entrevistas, além de pesquisa histórica e diálogo com algumas das principais linhas teóricas na área, procuramos situar o PAILI no contexto da desinstitucionalização psiquiátrica e dos desafios ainda presentes à plena efetivação dos direitos dessa população.