No description available.

The objectives of this research were to 1) compile a synthesis of information about polyester polymer concrete (PPC) from the literature; 2) conduct a scanning tour to observe PPC construction, inspect in-service PPC overlays, and discuss topics related to PPC; 3) revise the existing Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) PPC specification; 4) document a PPC field demonstration project; and 5) perform laboratory characterization of the material properties of field-mixed PPC. The scope of the research included a scanning tour, field testing, and laboratory experimentation. The objectives of the scanning tour included observation of a PPC overlay placement, inspection of existing overlays, and discussion of selected topics related to PPC. The scanning tour comprised a 3-day visit to California. Items related to material properties, mixture and overlay design, laboratory testing, and construction and field testing were investigated. Several recommendations relevant to Utah bridge deck preservation practice were developed based on the findings and then incorporated into a revised UDOT PPC specification. The objective of the field testing was to evaluate specific aspects of construction, quality assurance, and performance of PPC overlays on concrete bridge decks. The scope of the project included testing of a PPC test section overlay and three PPC bridge deck overlays during and after construction. Hardness tests were performed on the test section placements, and hardness, skid resistance, impact-echo, impedance, and resin content determination tests were performed on each of the bridge deck overlays. The field testing yielded valuable information about PPC overlays. Recommendations regarding hardness testing, skid resistance testing, patching, and surface preparation were developed based on the findings. The objectives of the laboratory experimentation were to characterize several material properties of field-mixed PPC sampled from actual bridge deck overlay placements in Utah and compare them to properties of laboratory-mixed PPC reported in the literature. Laboratory testing was conducted on a typical PPC mixture. Properties that were measured include density, modulus of elasticity, coefficient of thermal expansion, hardness, unconfined compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, rapid chloride permeability, and resin content. Measured properties were consistent with typical ranges cited in the literature.

Research question: What do dive tour operators perceive to be contributing factors for environmental change in coastal zones? Purpose: The aspiration is that the study will advance the understanding of factors impacting coastal zones in order to support achievements for Agenda 2030, Goal 14, Life Below Water. The purpose of the field study is therefore to investigate what aspects impact coastal zones through the case of the coastal zones in Moalboal. The study’s perspective is from workers within dive tour operations.  Method: The study was conducted through a qualitative strategy and an inductive approach. The empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews with dive tour operators. Additionally, observations were used to add further insight into the phenomenon.  Conclusion: This study concluded that dive tour operators have similar perceptions of the impacts on the environment, however, the degree to which each participant mentioned each factor varied. The research resulted in eleven factors that contribute to environmental change in the coastal zones in Moalboal. The conclusion ends by highlighting that environmental change is an important aspect that concerns the dive tour operators.

No description available.

This paper concerns the human rights aspect to tourism, more precisely the tour operator’s impact on human rights. It has become evident that companies within the industry are increasingly expected to also include the negative impacts on people’s human rights in their business. Not only because human rights matter but because the tourism industry is regarded to be next in line for a more careful examination on its negative effects. This study will therefore be an attempt to contribute towards this end by applying a stakeholder approach to the tour operator’s activities. I have chosen to examine the Swedish tour operator Apollo because they are already engaged in the debate and have expressed an ambition to lead the development of responsible tourism. The study shows that the result of their engagement so far is limited in scope because the company has not fully included all participants to their business as stakeholders. And therefore is human rights only partly incorporated in the company’s work toward corporate responsibility.

<p>Land use planning has gained popularity as a travel demand management strategy for the last two decades. Many urban authorities in North America have adopted smart growth policies in order to curb auto use and promote sustainable forms of travel, namely, public transit, bicycle and walking. The purpose of this study is to examine whether someone’s travel behavior is influenced by the characteristics of the built environment where one lives and works. The study area is Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. Two aspects of travel are analyzed for a weekday: total distance travelled by auto and average tour complexity. Separate models are developed for worker and non-worker by applying ordinary least square and spatial lag modeling techniques. The built environment variables are measured near home and workplace and at different geographical scales. The average auto distance and tour complexity are separately regressed against the built environment variables while personal characteristics, household attributes, preferences for residential location and transport mode, and meteorological conditions of survey days are accounted for. The results of auto distance models suggest that people living and working in high accessibility areas with mixed land uses make shorter travel by auto, which supports the claims of smart growth proponents. The built environment variables make significant contribution to the fitness of auto distance models. In case of tour complexity models, built environment variables also appear to be significant but with lower contribution to model <em>R²</em>. The results suggest that non-workers, who live in poor accessibility areas, make more complex tours. Workers living in poorly accessible neighborhoods and working in highly accessible areas make complex commuting and work-based, non-work tours. It means that, workers compensate poor neighborhood accessibility by trip chaining near workplace. The findings would be helpful to evaluate the existing growth strategies in Halifax Regional Municipality. In addition, it makes several contributions to the literature.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

The following study is interested in Dorothy Wordsworth's formation of her unique authorial identity and environmental ethos. I attend to her poetry and prose, specifically her journals written at Grasmere and her Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland (1874) to demonstrate how she shaped her individual voice while navigating her occasionally conflicting roles of sister and writer. My project begins with a chapter providing a selective biographical and critical history of Dorothy Wordsworth and details how my work emerges from current trends in scholarship and continues an ongoing critical conversation about Dorothy Wordsworth's agency and originality. In my analysis of Dorothy's distinct poetic voice, I compare selections of her writing with William's to demonstrate how Dorothy expressed her perspectives regarding nature, community, and her place within her environment. In my chapter on Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, I analyze the ways in which Dorothy's narrative embraces the tenets of the picturesque while simultaneously acknowledging the tradition's limitations. Her environmental perspective was inherently rooted in domesticity; the idea of home and her community connections influenced how she engaged with and then recorded the environments she traveled to and the people she met. My project concludes by demonstrating how Dorothy Wordsworth's environmental ethos relates to the values promoted by modern environmental writers. Dorothy was intimately connected to her home and environment and modern environmental protection and conservation efforts encourage human connection to home and place. I consider how modern environmentalist movements could benefit from embodying the empathy that Dorothy showed for the natural world in their practices today. / Master of Arts / My thesis argues that while Dorothy Wordsworth was intrinsically involved in her brother William's poetic process, she actively created a unique writerly identity that can be detected throughout her journals and poems. My project begins with a chapter detailing how my work emerges from current trends in Dorothy Wordsworth scholarship, including feminist and ecocritical studies. In my analysis of Dorothy's individual poetic voice, I suggest that through her distinctive style and her mingling of poetry and prose, Dorothy was strongly asserting herself and her perspectives even when they conflicted with William's. Dorothy's Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland exemplifies her unique environmental perspective, which was influenced by her community-centered identity; this contributes to what she chooses to recollect in her journal. My project concludes by demonstrating how Dorothy Wordsworth's environmental ethos relates to the values promoted by modern environmental writers. Dorothy was intimately connected to her home and environment and modern environmental protection and conservation efforts encourage human connection to home and place. I consider how modern environmentalist movements could benefit from embodying the empathy that Dorothy showed for the natural world in their practices today.

Taylor Swifts turné ‘The Eras Tour’ har kommit att bli en av de mest omtalade turnéerna i nutid. Hysterin som uppstått kring Swift och ‘The Eras Tour’ väckte intresset att förstå vilka faktorer som gör att turnén blivit så stor som den har blivit. Sociala medier och det digitaliserade samhället vi lever i idag har lett till att innehåll sprids i en fart det aldrig tidigare gjort. Genom att ta del av innehåll från exempelvis konserter skapas en bild av hur konserten är utformad vilket kan leda till att fans får förväntningar. Att fans har förväntningar på ‘The Eras Tour’ är inget undantag och hur dessa ser ut och vilken roll sociala medier spelar för dessa är relativt outforskade. Tidigare forskning undersöker främst fankultur, publikens engagemang, och Taylor Swifts marknadsföringsstrategier (Baym, 2018; Bennet, 2014; Duffet, 2013; Fiske, 1992; Hills, 2003; Ryan Bengtsson &amp; Edlom, 2022). Denna studie syftar därför till att undersöka om det finns något samband mellan Taylor Swifts fans, så kallade 'Swifties', konsumtion av sociala medier och förväntningarna som finns på ‘The Eras Tour’. Studien leds-av-frågeställningen: - Vilken relation har fans konsumtion av sociala medier och förväntningar på konsertkulturen på ‘The Eras Tour’? Utöver studiens frågeställning undersöks också fyra forskningsfrågor som tillsammans lägger en grund för att kunna besvara frågeställningen. Forskningsfrågorna ämnar undersöka fans användarmönster på sociala medier,deras förväntningar på ‘The Eras Tour’, vilka sociala interaktioner fansen har med varandra samt vilka samband som finns mellan användarmönster, grad av fan, förväntningar och engagemang. Studien förankras i betrodda teorier och tidigare forskning vilka bland annat omfattar sociala medier, engagemang, fandom och konsertkultur samt hur dessa samspelar med varandra. Genom en kvantitativ enkätstudie har data från 291 respondenter samlats in genom Survey &amp; report och sedan lagts över i SPSS för att undersökas och analyseras. Enkäten publicerades på plattformarna Instagram, TikTok, Facebook och X. Resultatet av denna studie visar att det finns flera signifikanta samband, och ett av dem är mellan i vilken utsträckning fans har tagit del av videor från ‘The Eras Tour’ och om fans ska klä sig enligt en ‘Era’ samt ta med sig vänskapsarmband till konserten. Det kan antas att fans i och med detta agerar på ett visst sätt för att de på sociala medier har sett videor från konserten där de fått kunskap om hur de ska klä sig och vara. Ett annat resultat av denna studie visar att den största andelen respondenter har varit fans av Swift i 1-3 år, vilket vid studiens genomförande också är då ‘The Eras Tour’ har varit aktuell. Detta resultat visar att spridning på sociala medier också kan generera fler fans vilket kan bidra till den växande framgången som Swift haft under de senaste åren som hon varit aktiv med turnén ‘The Eras Tour’. Då turnén har blossat upp på sociala medier pekar detta resultat på att spridningen av innehåll från turnén har gjort att fans troligtvis därför har förväntningar på den och att det tillkommit nya fans under denna tid. Genom att vara en del av ‘Swiftie’-communityt samt att ta del av videor från konserterna på sociala medier, byggs förväntningar om konsertkulturen upp. Detta är troligtvis anledningen till att en stor majoritet fans känner sig så pass trygga att de kan tänka sig att gå på en konsert ensam vilket också är ett resultat som kommit fram under studiens gång. Slutsatsen som kan dras av denna studie är att det finns en relation mellan konsumtion av sociala medier och fans förväntningar på ‘The Eras Tour’. Den antagna relationen är att förväntningar troligtvis skapas ju mer innehåll från konserten som tas del av på sociala medier. / Taylor Swift's tour 'The Eras Tour' has become one of the most well-known tours in recent times. The hysteria about Swift and 'The Eras Tour' sparked interest in understanding the factors that have made the tour as big as it is. Social media and the digitalized society we live in today have led to content spreading at an unprecedented speed. By consuming content from concerts, for instance, an image of the concert is created, which can lead to fans having expectations. Fans having expectations regarding 'The Eras Tour' is no exception, and how these are formed and the role social media plays is relatively unexplored. Previous research mainly examines fan culture, audience engagement and Taylor Swifts marketing strategies (Baym, 2018; Bennet, 2014; Duffet, 2013; Fiske, 1992; Hills, 2003; Ryan Bengtsson &amp; Edlom, 2022). Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether there is a correlation between Taylor Swift's fans, known as 'Swifties,' their consumption of social media, and the expectations for 'The Eras Tour.' The study is guided by the question: - What is the relationship between fans' social media consumption and expectations for the concert culture at 'The Eras Tour? In addition to the main question, the study examines four research questions that collectively provide a foundation to help answer the main question. The research questions aim to investigate fans' usage patterns on social media, their expectations regarding 'The Eras Tour,' the social interactions fans have with each other, and the correlations between usage patterns, level of fandom, expectations, and engagement. The study is based on trusted theories and previous research, which include social media, engagement, fandom, and concert culture, and how these interact with each other. Through a quantitative survey, data from 291 respondents have been collected through Survey &amp; report and analyzed and examined in SPSS. The survey was published on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X. The results of this study show that there are several significant correlations, one of which is between the extent to which fans have watched videos from 'The Eras Tour' and whether fans plan to dress according to an 'Era' and bring friendship bracelets to the concerts. Consequently, it can be assumed that fans behave in a certain way because they have seen videos from the concert on social media, where they have learned how to dress and act. Another result of this study shows that the largest proportion of respondents have been fans of Swift for 1-3 years, which is also the period when 'The Eras Tour' has been relevant. This result shows that distribution on social media also can generate more fans which can contribute to the ongoing success that Swift have had in recent years since she has been active with the tour ‘The Eras Tour’. As the tour has exploded on social media, this result suggests that the spread of content from the tour has likely led to fans having expectations for it and that new fans have emerged during this time. By being part of the 'Swiftie' community and watching videos from the concerts on social media, expectations regarding the concert culture are made. This is likely why a large majority of fans feel comfortable enough to consider attending a concert alone which also is a result from the study. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that there is a relationship between social media consumption and fans' expectations for 'The Eras Tour.' The assumed relationship is that expectations more likely are created the more content fans consume from the concert on social media.

Forbidden City is a 3D virtual tour of an ancient Chinese architectural masterpiece, first of the world's top five palaces -The Imperial Palace in Beijing, China. This travel guide is designed to give you useful information that will greatly enhance your experience, and it will bring you into an immersive virtual world by using the device of the HTC VIVE rather than static texts and images. This 3D guide integrates cultural and historical information, which is practical and informative. You can get a comprehensive understanding of the palace history, architectural characteristics and Chinese culture through interaction within the immersive experience. Forbidden City travel guide 3D virtual tour provides all the necessary functions and information for planning a visit to the Forbidden Cty palace in the capital of Beijing, China. With the tour guide character "Doctor Guider" within this experience/game, your tour to this Forbidden City will be purposeful and fun. / Master of Fine Arts / This thesis presents the process of designing an immersive virtual reality of Forbidden City using the HTC VIVE. It is a 3-dimensional virtual tour of an ancient Chinese architectural masterpiece, first of the world’s top five palaces -The Imperial Palace in Beijing, China. The history of Forbidden City, the graphic design, 3-dimensional sculptures, 3-dimensional architecture moels and HTC intergrate system are described in detail. This travel guide aims to greatly enhance your experience. Rather than static texts and images, it will bring you into an immersive virtual world by using the device of the HTC VIVE. Forbidden City travel guide 3D virtual tour provides all the necessary functions and information for planning a visit to the Forbidden Cty palace in the capital of Beijing, China. With the tour guide character “Doctor Guider” within this experience / game, your tour to this Forbidden City will be purposeful and fun. You can get a comprehensive understanding of the palace history, architectural characteristics and Chinese culture through interaction within the immersive experience.

Multi-criteria scheduling provides the opportunity to create mathematical optimization models that are applicable to a diverse set of problem domains in the business world. This research addresses two different employee scheduling applications using multi-criteria objectives that present decision makers with trade-offs between global optimality and the level of disruption to current operating resources. Additionally, it investigates a scheduling problem from the product testing domain and proposes a heuristic solution technique for the problem that is shown to produce very high-quality solutions in short amounts of time. Chapter 2 addresses a grant administration workload-to-staff assignment problem that occurs in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at land-grant universities. We identify the optimal workload assignment plan which differs considerably due to multiple reassignments from the current state. To achieve the optimal workload reassignment plan we demonstrate a technique to identify the n best reassignments from the current state that provides the greatest progress toward the utopian solution. Solving this problem over several values of n and plotting the results allows the decision maker to visualize the reassignments and the progress achieved toward the utopian balanced workload solution. Chapter 3 identifies a weekly schedule that seeks the most cost-effective set of coach-to-program assignments in a gymnastics facility. We identify the optimal assignment plan using an integer linear programming model. The optimal assignment plan differs greatly from the status quo; therefore, we utilize a similar approach from Chapter 2 and use a multiple objective optimization technique to identify the n best staff reassignments. Again, the decision maker can visualize the trade-off between the number of reassignments and the resulting progress toward the utopian staffing cost solution and make an informed decision about the best number of reassignments. Chapter 4 focuses on product test scheduling in the presence of in-process and at-completion inspection constraints. Such testing arises in the context of the manufacture of products that must perform reliably in extreme environmental conditions. Each product receives a certification at the successful completion of a predetermined series of tests. Operational efficiency is enhanced by determining the optimal order and start times of tests so as to minimize the make span while ensuring that technicians are available when needed to complete in-process and at-completion inspections We first formulate a mixed-integer programming model (MILP) to identify the optimal solution to this problem using IBM ILOG CPLEX Interactive Optimizer 12.7. We also present a genetic algorithm (GA) solution that is implemented and solved in Microsoft Excel. Computational results are presented demonstrating the relative merits of the MILP and GA solution approaches across a number of scenarios. / Ph. D. / Multi-criteria scheduling provides the opportunity to create mathematical optimization models that are applicable to a diverse set of problem domains in the business world. This research addresses two different employee scheduling applications using multi-criteria objectives that present decision makers with trade-offs between global optimality and the level of disruption to current operating resources. Additionally, it investigates a scheduling problem from the product testing domain and proposes a heuristic solution technique for the problem that is shown to produce very high-quality solutions in short amounts of time. Chapter 2 addresses a grant administration workload-to-staff assignment problem that occurs in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at land-grant universities. Solving this problem and plotting the results allows the decision maker to visualize the number of reassignments and the progress achieved toward the utopian balanced workload solution. Chapter 3 identifies a weekly schedule that seeks the most cost-effective set of coach-to-program assignments in a gymnastics facility. Again, the decision maker can visualize the trade-off between the number of reassignments and the resulting progress toward the utopian staffing cost solution and make an informed decision about the best number of reassignments. Chapter 4 focuses on product test scheduling in the presence of in-process and at-completion inspection constraints. Such testing arises in the context of the manufacture of products that must perform reliably in extreme environmental conditions. Each product receives a certification at the successful completion of a predetermined series of tests. Computational results are presented demonstrating the relative merits of the mixed integer linear programming model and the genetic algorithm solution approaches across a number of scenarios.