This thesis presents an overall picture of demographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as journey to work travel behavior characteristics in Florida. In addition, detailed comparisons of journey to work private vehicle occupancy distribution, travel time distribution, mode choice and departure time distribution by household and individual characteristics are also provided based on three data files: American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Samples data file, Summary File 3 Public Use Microdata Samples 1% and Public Use Microdata Samples 5% data files. Utilizing the three data files, this thesis not only investigates current commuting patterns but also provides more reliable information on current journey to work characteristics and helps to gain knowledge that is useful to identify problems and provide creative solutions on related transportation issues in the state of Florida. In analyzing the data, several socio-economic and journey to work travel behavior characteristics were identified. Interesting findings include the lower utilization of transit, the lower private vehicle occupancies for individuals in Florida, and different journey to work departure time distribution by gender, by young people and by senior citizens from other adult categories. The data analysis shows that the three data files reflect acknowledged demographic trends and capture known changes such as aging of population, smaller household size, and increasing car ownership. The comparison analysis shows that in most cases, ACS PUMS data files approximate SF3 PUMS 1% and 5% data files very well. The detailed comparison of the three data files regarding journey to work travel behavior characteristics in Florida is important to decision makers who will make informed choices when evaluating alternative transportation programs and related policy issues. The knowledge of reliability of data regarding journey to work travel behavior will also help transportation professionals for travel demand modeling, transportation and land use planning and related studies.

健全組織，精簡員額，使職務編制合理，以達成機關目標，不只為人事行政之鵠的，亦為政府多年來的一貫政策。是以，組織職務如何根據機關特性及業務繁簡作適當的配置，並隨著客觀環境的變遷發展，經透過職務普查制度之實施，適時作機動調整適應，以達組織職務配置合理化之理想，為民眾提供最好服務，係為亟待研究檢討之課題。 　　本研究所稱的「職務普查制度」(Position Survey System)，其研究範圍主要係由員額管制角度加以探討－－即指因應內外在環境變遷，並參酌機關目標及任務，透過一套標準化的評量技術，對機關內全部職務的職掌、工作項目、工作量與其人力運用等情形，均予客觀而理性之評估後，從而發現缺失，進而提出具體職務調整的改進辦法，以謀求機關人力合理調配運用。 　　另就系統研究途徑－－即視行政機關組織只是整個社會系統內之一個次級系統，設定組織結構設計與職務普查措施，必受政治、經濟、文化、技術及生態等環境因素之影響，及心理研究途徑著重該制度執行者的意向問題，以二者作為選擇問題及資料的準則，期能增加解釋現象的狀況，有助問題的解決；亦透過文獻研究法、實地觀察法、及深度訪談法等研究方法加以蒐集資料作為研究參者。 　　本研究共分為六章，計二十五五節。各章節安排之目的如下： 第一章是緒論，計有四節，分別說明本文之研究動機、研究目的；另將本文的三個主要概念：行政機關、職務普查及制度加以界定；然後說明研究範圍；並敘述本文的研究方法與限制；最後再建構本文的研究架構。 　　第二章計五節，透過「巨視」(macro)觀點來探討職務普查組織設計層面理論基礎，並就組織如何因應環境變遷的「情境面」(situation side)、以整體組織結構外貌為主的「結構面」(structure side)、及在既定機關組織結構中，其成員如何實際運作為主的「過程面」(process side)等三個要素加以探討，並參酌其重點列入職務普查制度實施之範圍，以資肆應。 　　第三章計三節，首先係透過「微視」(micro)觀點來探討職務普查員額配置層面理論，其涵蓋範疇包括工作分析、職務設置、機關的人力規劃和用人標準等理論；另參酌英國、美國及日本等外國政府行政機關員額管理精神及措施，以為借鏡。 　　第四章是實證狀況分析，計四節，主要在分析討論分類職位普 （抽）查措施之沿革、實施情形及其檢討；另借重組織員額評鑑（行政院）及職位普查 （內政部）之經驗；並就其三者之實施缺失，提出批判性之看法，以作為改進之參考。 　　第五章計六節，是實施職務普查所面臨問題與現象的分析，首先釐清建立職務普查制度所面臨的問題，主要有兩方面：一為該制度執行的步驟為何；另一方面為該制度有無一套具體可行的辦法。並透過愛德華三世(George C. Edward III)之政策執行力模式所論之「溝通」、「資源」、「執行者意向」、「機關結構」四種主要變數；及筆者結合前述組織設計與人事管理等理論而成之「理想化政策」等面向來探討職務普查工作執行應注意面臨之問題。 　　第六章為結論與建議，有三節。第一節為結論，亦即研究之心得及發現。有關研究發現略述如下： 　　一、職務普查結果與組織設計具不可分割性。 　　二、工作分析等理論為職務設置之基礎。 　　三、外國員額管理措施確值職務普查辦理之借鏡。 　　第二、三節為建議，亦即對策的提出。係針對上述問題，嘗試結合有關公共政策及人事管理等理論；另參酌外國行政機關員額管理制度之精神及方法；借重分類職位普（抽）查措施、行政院組織員額評鑑及內政部職位普查之經驗，提出改進建議，並嘗試提出一套具體可行的方案，俾供有司者參者。

All organisms are subjected to the living and non-living influences of their surroundings. They derive their energy and essential materials, such as sunlight and nutrients, from their environment, sharing their world not only with members of their own species but also with members of other species. These interactions are central to the survival of the organism, forming reciprocating and integrated systems with other members of their environment. Paleoecology uses the fossil record to interpret and reconstruct life habits of past organisms and environments. By examining well-preserved fossil populations we can assess the relationship between the organisms and their surrounding environment, their distribution within their environment, and the nature of their interactions. Edrioasteroids, an extinct clade of gregarious, obligate-encrusting echinoderm typical of the Late Ordovician, are rarely encountered in the fossil record as their multi-part skeleton rapidly disarticulates post-mortem. Therefore, the discovery of large pavements encrusted by articulated edrioasteroids indicates that obrution, or a sudden input of sediment that smothers the benthic community, occurred. The near instantaneous nature of obrution allows for the examination of a zero-time-averaged census assemblage rather than a time-averaged death assemblage. This dissertation aims to increase our understanding of the paleoecology and biogeography of Ordovician edrioasteroids in three chapters. The first study examines a carbonate hardground encrusted with four species of isorophid edrioasteroids collected from Upper Ordovician strata near Maysville, Kentucky. Detailed paleoecologic analyses include edrioasteroid age structure, thecal orientation, inter- and intraspecific spatial utilization and settlement patterns, and degree of post-mortem disarticulation. Chapter two examines edrioasteroid paleoecology on Upper Ordovocian shell pavements using a brachiopod shell pavement from Florence, Kentucky and a bivalve shell pavement from Sharonville, Ohio. The results are then compared with those from the Maysville hardground. The final chapter of this dissertation summarizes the paleogeographic distribution patterns of the edrioasteroids during the Ordovician. For this study we collected the geographic distribution data for Ordovician edrioasteroids from published faunal reports and plotted these occurrences on paleogeographic maps with the hope that this information will help better predict localities where additional specimens of Ordovician edrioasteroids may be found.

I denna uppsats har olika metoder för att göra prognoser för ekonomiska tidsserier med säsongsmönster jämförts och utvärderats. Frågan som undersökningen har kretsat kring är: Vilken metod är bäst lämpad för att göra prognoser av tidsserier med säsongsmönster? De metoder som jämförs är säsongsrensningsmetoderna Census II och TRAMO/SEATS, säsongsmodellerna SARIMA och ARIMA med dummyvariabler för säsong samt en metod där medelvärdena från de fyra första metoderna används som prognoser. För att genomföra undersökningen har dessa metoder tillämpats på fyra ekonomiska tidsserier, nämligen: konsumtion, BNP, export samt byggstarter. Resultatet från undersökningen är att säsongsmodellerna är bäst för konsumtionsserien, säsongsrensningsmetoderna är bäst för BNP- och exportserien och den ena säsongsmodellen (SARIMA) är bäst för byggstartsserien medan den andra (ARIMA-dummy) är den sämsta. Val av prognosmetod beror med andra ord på vilken serie som ska prognostiseras.

With the advance of facial recognition technology, many related applications such as the clearance of specific facilities, air port security, video camera surveillance, and personnel recognition. To maximize working efficiency and reduce human resource, the platform used for facial recognition should possess both low cost, multimedia performance, and the ease of use. Among the list of available platforms, a IBM CELL multi-core based platform that features the aforementioned advantages is used to manifest our work. To meet the demand of recognition accuracy, a recognition algorithms using features low error rate and regular data patterns are adopted. These algorithms are carried out in two parts: Modified Census Transform (MCT) and hypotheses of human facial calculation. The multi-point average value required by the MCT is obtained through parallel processing, and potential improvement in recognition efficiency is possible if wider data paths are used. A PlayStation 3 (PS3) platform equipped with the IBM CELL multi-core processor is used in this thesis. The IBM CELL multi-core processor consists of a PowerPC Processor Element (PPE) and 8 Synergistic Processor (SPE), which forms a heterogeneous multi-core system. This system is capable of parallelizing thread-level and data-level data words, which can meet the demand of high data bandwidth and data parallelization. By using this platform to accelerate the processing of facial recognition, simulation results suggest that the execution efficiency is improved by 24 times when compared with a single core SPE. The simulation also reveals that the use of parallelization of processing facial recognition data feasible. In the future, improved algorithms can be applied to improve the accuracy of facial recognition.

This dissertation investigates transportation subsidies as sources of urban sprawl. Apart from tolls, motorists do not pay highway user-fees, but they do pay gasoline taxes. Gasoline tax revenues are insufficient to cover the U.S. highway costs. Government, therefore, uses general tax revenues to cover highway expenditures. Since users do not pay the full cost of their travel, they have an incentive to travel longer commuting distances. Highway subsidies are, therefore, a potential contributor to urban sprawl. A similar argument applies to public transit. To capture the effects of subsidized automobile and public transit travel, we ex-tend the standard urban spatial single-mode model (Brueckner, 1987) to incorporate public subsidies for both one and two modes. Comparative static analysis of both models produces empirically testable hypotheses. Our most important theoretical result is that transit subsidies are inversely related to urban sprawl while auto subsidies are directly related to urban sprawl. The empirical analysis focuses on tests of the two-mode model. For consistency with the monocentric assumption of our models, our sample consists of urbanized areas located within a single county and having only one central city. Spatial size of the urbanized area is the dependent variable. Following our theory, explanatory variables comprise the transit subsidy, the highway subsidy, number of households, agricultural land rent, mean household income, and fixed and variable costs for transit and auto. We find that the spatial size of the urbanized area shrinks with an increase in the transit subsidy. The effect of highway subsidies, however, is ambiguous. We apply both ordinary least squares and two-stage least square regression analyses, and the results are qualitatively the same for both methods of estimation.

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Poster / Soc 397a / 2015 Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop

Poster / Soc 397a / 2015 Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop

Poster / Soc 397a / 2015 Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop