This study was an exploration of nonprofit human service volunteer training as related to the retention of volunteers. In their pursuit to fulfill client needs, human service nonprofit organizations often rely heavily on volunteers, which emphasizes the need for a better understanding of the means through which organizations may affect positively the retention rates of volunteers. Training long has been thought to be an effective tool for decreasing attrition and engaging volunteers. By investigating the training experiences of volunteers with a focus on retention, this study hoped to further develop the research community’s understanding of how training helps or hinders volunteer retention and may serve as the basis for further research on the link between training design and retention.

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<div>The control system of the Purdue Biowall (the botanical air filter) prototype has been targeted for replacement to improve the potential for commercialization. This thesis is focused on evaluating and improving the performance of a new control system based on a single board computer, which is slated to replace a much larger and more expensive Building Automation System that is currently being used. This analysis considers size, cost, accuracy of sensors, and data logging.</div><div>The research was conducted in three phases. Initially, an evaluation of an existing control prototype was conducted and several critical hardware failures were identified. Some of the most significant malfunctions were caused by broken wires, incorrect power supply voltage, and a short circuit due to poor soldering. The second phase of work involved improving the hardware and software for the control platform. All the problems found were fixed to make the control system completely operational. Moreover, a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) was designed to replace the breadboard previously used. The third phase of work was evaluating the performance of the new control system. Evaluations at a component level (e.g. individual sensors) and the overall system (e.g. including Biowall control algorithm) were conducted.</div><div>After a complete assessment, it was determined that a cheaper and smaller single board computer control system is able to substitute for the current Building Automation System. The accuracy of the sensors and the data collection were within the values expected. The physical size and cost of the controller was reduced by a factor of 30. The results obtained have identified several areas where further improvement is still needed. An efficient data logging code, replacement of wires, and PCB enhancement are still needed before deploying the new control solution into a building.</div>

Active Shooter events have been on the rise throughout the United States. My research topic was chosen to better understand Just-In-Time Training to identify how it can assist traditional crisis response training in schools. The work has included investigating the background on what information there is on active shooters, length of training, and the methodology behind this research. <br>

This research focused on the evaluation of iris recognition on post-mortem subjects. It was to determine if iris image captures were suitable from post-mortem subjects and if the captures contained the features required to be used in recognition scenarios. One commercially available iris camera was used, the IriShield USB MK2120U. In order to complete this research, it was first necessary to obtain images from subjects that contain the proper features, including sharpness, pupil size, and image quality. The images were captured during three different conditions that would be possible to find under real-world circumstances. The first condition was as the decedent came into the coroner’s office before the vitreous fluid was sampled from the eyes. The second condition was after the vitreous fluid was sampled from the deceased. Sampling vitreous fluid is a common autopsy procedure. This second condition would also be similar to a subject with a punctured eye. The third condition was after replacing the volume of vitreous fluid with saline solution. Replacing the vitreous with saline restored the round shape to the eye. This study found that high quality images can be captured from a post-mortem eye and that matching images across conditions results in positive identification.<br>

Airline maintenance outsourcing is a common practice in the deregulation era of airline industry, and it mainly covers topics across technology, economics, and politics. This dissertation used an explanatory sequential mixed methods research to explore the effect of airline maintenance outsource on aviation safety. The first stage of the research was a quantitative research using a panel data analysis using five models to explore the statistical relationships between the independent variables: amount of outsourced maintenance, airline profitability, and real gross domestic product per capita, and dependent variables: aircraft accident rate and aircraft incident rate for the major U.S. Part 121 passenger air carriers between 1995 and 2019. The second qualitative research was interview with commercial aircraft maintenance professionals, airline manager, civil aviation regulators, and other key stakeholders to seek their interpretation about the first stage research results, opinions and understandings about the current commercial aircraft maintenance practice, and their expectations of the industry. Both stages of research confirmed that airline maintenance outsourcing does not affect aviation safety, and there is a positive relationship between airline financial performance and aviation safety performance. Consequently, airline maintenance outsourcing is not only economically sensible but also conducive to aviation safety if it is done properly. In the second stage research, the researcher found deficiencies in the current oversight system mainly due to lack of funding and personnel which needs to be addressed. The researcher recommended activity-based accounting to solve the funding issues about airline maintenance oversight and the future study can focus on decision-making process for airline maintenance outsourcing/insourcing based on empirical data.

<p>  </p> <p>Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a well-known strategy used to improve business and manufacturing operations. Even with the attractive benefits it can provide, many companies struggle to successfully implement PLM solutions. This study proposes that this is due to a lack of knowledge on the critical barriers that affect the implementation of PLM solutions, and that reliance on the opinions of PLM professionals alone are not enough to create a successful implementation plan. This study addresses these issues with following research questions, what are the barriers to PLM implementation and is there a difference between those identified in literature and those confirmed by professionals, is there a difference between barrier impact rankings, based on professional opinion and those determined utilizing the DEMATEL method, and what are the critical barriers determined using the DEMATEL method supplemented by the MMDE algorithm? To answer these questions a series of two surveys were sent out to professionals in the PLM space with experience working on PLM implementation projects. The first of the two surveys was used to confirm the barriers that exist within the PLM implementation process. The second of the two surveys was used to gather information on the perceived impact of barriers and the causal relationships between barriers in the form of relationship matrices. To analyze these matrices the DEMATEL method supplemented by the MMDE algorithm was used.</p> <p>This study did not intend to provide absolute solutions to the critical barriers identified in this study, rather it intended to increase the success rate of PLM implementations by, confirming the barriers identified in the literature, providing information on the relationships between the barriers to PLM solution implementation and determine which of the barriers can be considered critical. Following these results of this study, the DEMATEL analysis method may supplement existing PLM implementation frameworks allowing companies to identify the critical barriers to implementation, allowing for better allocation of resources and ultimately a more successful PLM implementation. </p>

<p>This study explored the history, present status, and future trends in assistive technologies and innovations in lower limb prosthesis. The study analyzed trends in patent filing and looked into how mainstream technologies such as additive manufacturing, advanced materials and robotic integrate with other enabling technologies such as IoT, AI, sensors etc. to advance technology innovation and improve the quality of life of people with limb impairment.</p> <p><br></p> <p>This research study is significant in helping to understand what is on the horizon for people with lower limb impairment given that this population tend to be neglected and their needs have not been fully addressed in many areas</p>

<p>FDA has long served as the front safeguard to the U.S. citizen public health, is also perceived as one of the world-leading drug regulators. Despite the tremendous efforts and progress have been made to promote the public health, FDA was criticized for putting the agency’s trust icon at stake and was questioned of its ability to serve the agency’s ultimate mission to protect the public. In the wake of the arousing concerns, FDA sought the transformation the oversight model of the medicinal products. One of the actions is to launch quality metrics program. However, this program has been unanimously opposed by the industry. Instead of the current conventional approach, which is constrained by the high dependence on industry cooperation, we try to explore</p><p>the measurement of company and product quality risk with public domain data, try to help in visualizing quality and risk. To that end, we develop conceptual frameworks for both company and product quality, examine some of the factors (education, local authority intensity, historical inspection results, physiochemical, physiological, formulation factors, etc.), further developed a warning letter and product recall prediction model with machine learning method referenced to the data analysis outcome.</p>

The research explores the viability of using a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle equipped with thermal imaging and lowlight camera to assess structural damage to steel girders. Damage assessments following natural disasters are daunting and arduous tasks that are resources intensive and dangerous. Unmanned aerial vehicles with remote sensing technology (UAV-RS) have been used in recent large-scale disaster events such as Hurricanes Katerina, Harvey, Irma, and Maria as well as others. Current assessment methods of structures include; inspectors physically conducting detailed and rapid surveys of damage with or without the assistance of special equipment, use of helicopters, satellite imagery, and new innovative methods using unmanned aerial vehicles with remote sensing technology. <div><br></div><div>The initial experiment utilized the S-BRITE facility at Purdue University. Two steel girders located at S-BRITE were used in the experiment with damages that render them structurally deficient. Experiments were conducted during hours of low visibility.</div><div><br></div><div>Most scientific studies have focused on using UAV-RS during hours of daylight. This research exploresthe use of UAV-RS during low-light conditions (i.e. early evening nautical and astronomical twilight, and night) for detecting global damage to steel girders. The goal is to present evidence for further study in the use of UAV-RS during low-light conditions for inspecting structures to include primary load bearing members. The research concluded that while the UAV-RS can detect global damage in low visibility conditions, further experiments in varying low-light conditions to include3D imaging and semi-autonomous inspectionusing computer vision are important for structural damage assessments.</div>