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Roadway crashes related to vision obstruction due to fog/smoke (FS) conditions constitute a challenge for traffic engineers. Previous research efforts mostly concentrated on the snow and rain related crashes. Statistics show that Florida is among the top three states in terms of crashes due to vision obstruction by FS. This research culminated in a comprehensive study of fog and smoke related crashes in the state of Florida. The analysis took into account the crashes that occurred between 2003 and 2007 on Florida state roads. Spatial analysis and injury severity analysis have been conducted and significant results have been identified. The spatial analysis by GIS examines the locations of high trends of FS related crashes on state roads in the State of Florida. Statistical features of the GIS tool, which is used efficiently in traffic safety research, has been used to find the crash clusters for the particular types of crashes that occur due to vision obstruction by FS. Several segmentation processes have been used, and the best segmentation for this study was found to be dividing the state roads into 1 mile segments, keeping the roadway characteristics uniform. Taking into account the entire state road network, ten distinct clusters were found that can be clearly associated with these types of crashes. However, no clear pattern in terms of area was observed, as it was seen that the percentage of FS related crashes in rural and urban areas are close. The general characteristics of FS related crashes have been investigated in detail. For the comparison to clear visibility conditions, simple odds ratios (in terms of crash frequencies) have been introduced. The morning hours in the months of December to February are found to be the prevalent time for fog related crashes, while for the smoke related crashes the dangerous time was found to be morning to midday in the month of May. Compared to crashes under clear-visibility conditions, the fog crashes tend to result in more severe injuries and involve more vehicles. Head-on and rear-end crashes are the two most common crash types in terms of crash frequency and severe crashes. For the injury severity analysis, a random effect ordered logistic model was used. The model in brief illustrates that the head-on and rear-end crash types are the two most prevalent crash types in FS conditions. Moreover, these severe crashes mainly occurred at higher speeds. Also they mostly took place on undivided roads, roadways without any sidewalk and two-lane rural roads. Increase of average daily traffic decrease the severity of FS related crashes. Overall, this study provides the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) with specific information on where improvements could be made to have better safety conditions in terms of vision obstruction due to FS in the state roads of Florida. Also it suggests the times and seasons that the safety precautions must be taken or the FS warning systems to be installed, and the controlling roadway geometries that can be improved or modified to reduce injury severity of a crash due to FS related vision obstruction.

Two different sludge pretreatments were investigated in an attempt to improve the management and performance of processes for the co-digestion of biosolids with fats, oils, and grease (FOG). The mechanisms of long chain fatty acids (LCFA) degradation in thermal hydrolysis pretreatment and the influence of pH on LCFA degradation in two-phase co-digestion systems were studied. LCFA thermal hydrolysis was investigated at different temperatures (90-250 °C) and reaction times (30 minutes and 8 hours). Approximately 1% of saturated fatty acids were degraded to shorter chain fatty acids at 140 and 160 °C (8-hr thermal hydrolysis). Only 1% or less of unsaturated fatty acids were degraded from 90 to 160 °C (8-hr thermal hydrolysis). Little degradation (< 1%) of both saturated and unsaturated LCFAs was observed at a 30-min reaction time. Both groups of LCFAs were stable up to 250 °C (30-min hydrolysis). The use of chemical-thermal treatments was also investigated. Only unsaturated LCFAs, C18:1 and C18:2, were degraded when thermally hydrolyzed with hydrogen peroxide coupled with activated carbon or copper sulfate. Semi-continuous, acid-phase digesters (APDs) under different pH conditions were studied in order to understand the effects of pH on FOG degradation. Increases in soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) were observed in all APDs. However, the APDs with pH adjustment appeared to perform better than the controls in terms of solubilizing organic compounds. Approximately 38% and 29% of total COD (TCOD) was solubilized, and maximum volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations of 10,700 and 7,500 mg/L TCOD were achieved at pH 6 and 7, respectively; It is useful to note that the feed sludge had a VFA concentration of 2,700 mg/L COD. Higher pH (6.0-7.0) showed less accumulation of LCFA materials and more soluble LCFAs in the APDs. This indicates that the lower pH in the APDs was most likely the cause of precipitation and accumulation of LCFAs due to saturation of unsaturated LCFAs. / Master of Science

With the dramatic growth of vehicles around the world, Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) have been proposed as a solution to advance road safety, improve transportation efficiency, and satisfy road users. In the VANET environment, vehicles communicate with each other and with road infrastructure in an ad-hoc manner. This communication may be safety-related or non-safety-related and may often include vehicle information (e.g., location, direction, speed, and control), road conditions, and events. A key component in assessing the veracity of the information is the trustworthiness of the information source. Thus, trust evaluation is one of the main requirements of VANET design. In this work, we investigate performance improvements in the trust evaluation framework of VANETs. First, we propose a risk-based trust evaluation model (RTEAM) to estimate the risk of taking action or refraining from action regarding a reported event (in case of receiving conflicting messages about the event's existence). Some trust metrics such as direct trust, hop-based trust values, proximity to the event, and consequences of acting on a wrong decision are used to estimate the risk of the vehicle’s actions. Vehicles make individual decisions by seeking the action with the lowest risk. Second, we propose a fog-based reputation evaluation model (FREM) to support trust management framework. We promote fog computing as a new paradigm since it can provide several services to users in the edge layer. In our work, Fog supports the decision-making process in the reputation evaluation framework. Fog nodes play a key role in collecting vehicles' reputation records and cooperating with the roadside units (RSUs) to update these records. We propose the use of Digital Trustworthiness Cards (DTC), where the latest reputation evaluation of a vehicle automatically appears on its card. The benefits of the DTC are twofold: 1) the communication load on vehicles is reduced, and 2) historical trust records are established for each vehicle. We also take advantage of fog’s familiarity and greater knowledge of the vehicles that frequently visit its zones; with more intimate knowledge, fog can smartly employ vehicles to perform specific tasks based on their experiences. Further, we implement a strategy for establishing trust based on specific task categories. This permits a nuanced evaluation of the vehicle best suited for the task at hand and has the further benefit of preventing malicious vehicles from being naively trusted based on successful completion of unimportant or non-safety-related tasks. Finally, we expand the role of the fog in the decision-making process when vehicles need to ensure the existence of serious events. We propose a fog-based event validation model (FEVM) to validate the event’s existence through cooperation between vehicles and fog nodes. The vehicles are used as mobile fog nodes, which compute their confidence in events based on the available information. Fog nodes then validate the event after combining vehicles’ confidence values by applying the Extended Dempster-Shafer (EDS) theory of evidence. To test our proposed models, we conduct many experiments to investigate their performance and compare them with other existing models.

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Yes / The proliferation of inter-connected devices in critical industries, such as healthcare and power grid, is changing the perception of what constitutes critical infrastructure. The rising interconnectedness of new critical industries is driven by the growing demand for seamless access to information as the world becomes more mobile and connected and as the Internet of Things (IoT) grows. Critical industries are essential to the foundation of today’s society, and interruption of service in any of these sectors can reverberate through other sectors and even around the globe. In today’s hyper-connected world, the critical infrastructure is more vulnerable than ever to cyber threats, whether state sponsored, criminal groups or individuals. As the number of interconnected devices increases, the number of potential access points for hackers to disrupt critical infrastructure grows. This new attack surface emerges from fundamental changes in the critical infrastructure of organizations technology systems. This paper aims to improve understanding the challenges to secure future digital infrastructure while it is still evolving. After introducing the infrastructure generating big data, the functionality-based fog architecture is defined. In addition, a comprehensive review of security requirements in fog-enabled IoT systems is presented. Then, an in-depth analysis of the fog computing security challenges and big data privacy and trust concerns in relation to fog-enabled IoT are given. We also discuss blockchain as a key enabler to address many security related issues in IoT and consider closely the complementary interrelationships between blockchain and fog computing. In this context, this work formalizes the task of securing big data and its scope, provides a taxonomy to categories threats to fog-based IoT systems, presents a comprehensive comparison of state-of-the-art contributions in the field according to their security service and recommends promising research directions for future investigations.

The evolution of cloud computing has finally started to affect robotics. Indeed, there have been several real-time cloud applications making their way into robotics as of late. Inherent benefits of cloud robotics include providing virtually infinite computational power and enabling collaboration of a multitude of connected devices. However, its drawbacks include higher latency and overall higher energy consumption. Moreover, local devices in proximity incur higher latency when communicating among themselves via the cloud. At the same time, the cloud is a single point of failure in the network. Fog Computing is an extension of the cloud computing paradigm providing data, compute, storage and application services to end-users on a so-called edge layer. Distinguishing characteristics are its support for mobility and dense geographical distribution. We propose to study the implications of applying fog computing concepts in robotics by developing a middle-ware solution for Robotic Fog Computing Cluster solution for enabling adaptive distributed computation in heterogeneous multi-robot systems interacting with the Internet of Things (IoT). The developed middle-ware has a modular plug-in architecture based on micro-services and facilitates communication of IOT devices with the multi-robot systems. In addition, the developed middle-ware solutions support different load balancing or task allocation algorithms. In particular, we establish that we can enhance the performance of distributed system by decreasing overall system latency by using already established multi-criteria decision-making algorithms like TOPSIS and TODIM with naive Q-learning and with Neural Network based Q-learning. / Master of Science / Technologies like robotics are advancing at a rapid pace and have started affecting various aspects of human lives. A lot more focus is now on collaborative robotics which focuses on robots designed to work with each other. A swarm/fleet of robots has unique use cases like disaster rescue missions. In this thesis, we explore various ways to enable efficient and effective communication between robots in a multi-robot environment. We also compare different methods a robot can communicate and share its workload with other robots in a collaborative environment. Finally, we propose a new approach to reducing robots communication cost and optimizing process through which it shares its workload with other robots in real time using machine learning techniques.

Entre outubro de 2009 e dezembro de 2012, foi realizado estudo no Laboratório de Hidrologia Florestal Walter Emmerich (L.H.F.W.E.), para avaliar o potencial hidrológico dos nevoeiros e a precipitação oculta em ambiente de Floresta Ombrófila Densa Montana, na Serra do Mar, em Cunha, a leste do Estado de São Paulo. Os objetivos específicos da pesquisa foram: 1) avaliar o desempenho de coletores de água de nevoeiro; 2) verificar o potencial de coleta de água de nevoeiro no laboratório; 3) analisar o potencial de coleta de água de nevoeiro em três setores da microbacia experimental D; 4) averiguar a distribuição espacial e temporal de ocorrência dos nevoeiros na microbacia D e 5) estimar a contribuição da precipitação oculta na floresta da microbacia D. Para alcançar os três primeiros objetivos foram usados coletores passivos tipo harpa, nas formas cilíndrica e plana. Para estudar a distribuição de nevoeiros, foram feitas observações diárias de três referências visuais situadas a distâncias conhecidas no interior da microbacia D. O método da medição da precipitação efetiva foi empregado para estimar a precipitação oculta na floresta. Sobre a distribuição espacial e temporal da ocorrência de nevoeiros na microbacia D, os resultados mostraram que os episódios de nevoeiro foram mais comuns à tarde, como decorrência da brisa marítima proveniente do Oceano Atlântico. Para 61,3% do tempo, em média, foi observada a presença de nevoeiro em algum setor da microbacia, com a ocorrência dos nevoeiros diminuindo de montante para jusante da área. No que concerne ao desempenho dos equipamentos, a média de coleta diferiu de coletor para coletor, exceto entre o coletor cilíndrico descoberto e o coletor plano, que interceptaram mais água que os coletores cilíndricos cobertos. O coletor plano foi o único a interceptar água em todos os episódios amostrados. Sobre o potencial de coleta de água de nevoeiros no laboratório, concluiu-se que é reduzido e resulta da combinação de três fatores: a grande ocorrência de nevoeiros de radiação, a curta duração dos ix episódios dos nevoeiros orográficos e a baixa intensidade dos ventos na região. No que concerne ao potencial de coleta de água de nevoeiro em três setores da microbacia D, árvores localizadas próximas aos coletores funcionaram como obstáculo à livre circulação dos nevoeiros orográficos, induzindo os coletores a interceptar exíguos volumes de água. Considerando apenas os eventos de nevoeiro sem chuva, a precipitação oculta foi de 2,3 mm, correspondendo a 0,12% da precipitação pluviométrica anual. Para os eventos de chuva com a presença de nevoeiro, a precipitação oculta gerou um total de 5,1 mm de água adicional ao piso da floresta, correspondendo a 0,27% da precipitação pluviométrica. Concluiu-se que a precipitação oculta na floresta não é um processo importante para a entrada de água na microbacia D. / Between October 2009 and December 2012 a study was conducted at the Walter Emmerich Hydrologic Laboratory (LHFWE) to assess the hydrological potential of fog and occult precipitation in the Montane Dense Ombrophilous Forest environment located in the Parque Estadual da Serra do Mar - Núcleo Cunha, east of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The specific multiple objectives of the research were: 1) evaluate the performance of passive fog collectors, 2) evaluate the potential for collecting fog water in the laboratory, 3) evaluate the potential of collecting fog water in three sectors of experimental catchment \"D\", 4) determine the spatial and temporal distributions of fog occurrence in catchment \"D\", 5) estimate the contribution of occult precipitation in the rainforest in catchment \"D\". To achieve the first three objectives, cylindrical and flat harp collectors were used. To study the spatial and temporal distributions of fog occurrence, we made daily observations of three visual references located at known distances within the catchment. Net precipitation was measured and used to estimate the occult precipitation in the rainforest. Regarding the spatial and temporal distributions of fog occurrence, the results showed that episodes of fog were more common in the afternoon as a result of the sea breeze from the Atlantic Ocean. For 61.3% of the time on average, we observed the presence of fog in some sector of the catchment, with its occurrence decreasing in areas located from upstream to downstream. Concerning the comparison of the performance of the collectors, the average volume of water collected differed from collector to collector, except between cylindrical collector uncovered and flat collector, which captured more water than the cylindrical collectors covered to prevent rainwater input. The flat collector was the only gauge to intercept water in all episodes. The high incidence of fog radiation, the short duration of orographic fog, and the low intensity of winds combined to reduce the potential for harvesting fog water in the laboratory. Regarding the potential for collecting fog water in three sectors of the catchment \"D\", xi trees located next to collectors operated as an obstacle to the free movement of orographic fog inducing gauges to intercept exiguous volumes of water. Considering only fog, but no rain, occult precipitation was 2.3 mm, corresponding to 0.12% of annual rainfall. For rainfall events with the presence of fog, occult precipitation generated a total of 5.1 mm of additional water to the floor of the forest, equivalent to 0.27% of the rainfall. It was therefore concluded that occult precipitation in rainforest did not significantly contribute to water entering catchment \"D\".

Avec plus de 100 milliards de globules rouges produits chaque jour, le lignage érythroïde présente la plus grande capacité de production cellulaire chez le mammifère adulte. Cette production requiert une balance fine entre la prolifération cellulaire, régulée principalement par la voie de signalisation érythropoïétine (Epo)/PI3K/Akt, et la différenciation érythroïde induite par le couple de facteurs de transcription GATA-1/FOG-1. Des interconnexions entre ces deux grands systèmes ont été décrites dans le laboratoire : 1) le facteur de transcription GATA-1 est phosphorylé par Akt en réponse à l’Epo et cette phosphorylation semble avoir un rôle dans la différenciation érythroïde ; 2) GATA-1 est capable d’interagir avec la protéine du rétinoblastome pRb, impliquée dans la régulation du cycle cellulaire, et le complexe formé est nécessaire à l’érythropoïèse terminale.L'objectif de ma thèse était d’étudier les mécanismes moléculaires impliqués dans la balance prolifération/différenciation cellulaire au cours de l’érythropoïèse, et en particulier de déterminer le rôle moléculaire et physiologique de la phosphorylation de GATA-1 par Akt en réponse à l’Epo. Nos travaux ont montré que cette phosphorylation est une des clefs de la dynamique de l’érythropoïèse. Dans sa forme non phosphorylée, GATA-1 ralentit le cycle cellulaire via le complexe GATA-1/pRb/E2F. Cette étape préliminaire est nécessaire à la mise en place de la différenciation érythroïde terminale. La phosphorylation de GATA-1 induit d’une part la dissociation de GATA-1/pRb/E2F favorisant l’expansion cellulaire, et d’autre part la formation du complexe GATA-1/FOG-1 nécessaire à l’activation des gènes érythroïdes. Ce modèle apporte une explication moléculaire au blocage de la différenciation érythroïde terminale induite par le mutant GATA-1V205G qui n’interagit pas avec FOG-1. Ainsi, la phosphorylation constitutive de GATA-1V205G et l’augmentation de la quantité relative de FOG-1 permettent de restaurer la différenciation érythroïde induite par ce mutant in vitro. Enfin, l’étude d’un modèle murin exprimant une protéine GATA-1 non phosphorylable par Akt montre l’apparition d’une anémie létale lorsque la voie IGF-1 est inhibée. Cela démontre l’importance de la dynamique moléculaire induite par la phosphorylation de GATA-1, et met en évidence le rôle majeur de l’IGF-1 dans l’érythropoïèse in vivo.En conclusion, nous proposons un nouveau modèle moléculaire de la régulation de la balance prolifération/différenciation érythroïde dans lequel la phosphorylation de GATA-1 par Akt coordonne la distribution de GATA-1 dans deux complexes protéiques fonctionnels différents : GATA-1/pRb/E2F versus GATA-1/FOG-1. Nous mettons également en évidence l’IGF-1 comme acteur central de la compensation mise en place in vivo pour pallier à l’absence de phosphorylation de GATA-1. / With more than 100 billion red blood cells generated every day, the erythroid lineage has the largest output of cell production in adult mammals. This production requires a tight balance between cell proliferation, mainly controlled by erythropoietin (Epo)/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, and erythroid differentiation induced by GATA-1 and FOG-1 transcription factors. Various links between these two processes have been previously demonstrated in the laboratory: 1) Epo-activated Akt directly phosphorylates GATA-1 transcription factors, and this phosphorylation seems to be involved in erythroid differentiation; 2) GATA-1 binds to the cell cycle regulator retinoblastoma protein (pRb), and the resulting complex is essential for terminal erythropoiesis.We investigated the molecular mechanisms involved in the cell proliferation/differentiation balance during terminal erythropoiesis; in particular, we studied the molecular and physiological role of Epo-induced GATA-1 phosphorylation. Our findings suggest that this phosphorylation is one of the key processes in erythropoiesis dynamics. In its unphosphorylated form, GATA-1 can break cell cycle progression via GATA-1/pRb/E2F complex. This preliminary step is necessary for terminal erythroid differentiation. GATA-1 phosphorylation promotes GATA-1/pRb/E2F dissociation, allowing cell cycle progression, and GATA-1/FOG-1 binding, necessary to activate erythroid genes. Our model provides a molecular explanation for the arrest of terminal erythroid differentiation observed in the non-FOG-1-binding mutant GATA-1V205G. We show that the constitutive phosphorylation of GATA-1V205G and the increase of FOG-1 protein amount rescue erythroid differentiation in vitro. Finally, knock-in expression of unphosphorylatable GATA-1 in mice leads to lethal anemia when the IGF-1 signaling pathway is inhibited. This shows the importance of the molecular dynamics of GATA-1 phosphorylation, and highlights the major role of IGF-1 in erythropoiesis, in vivo.In conclusion, we propose a new molecular model for the control of the balance between proliferation and erythroid differentiation. GATA-1 phosphorylation by Akt coordinates the involvement of GATA-1 in two different functional protein complexes: GATA-1/pRb/E2F and GATA-1/FOG-1. We also highlight the major role of IGF-1 in compensating for the lack of GATA-1 phosphorylation in vivo.