Estimation of real-time travel times on arterial streets has been a challenging task due to the intersection control delay as well as bottleneck delay from the downstream link. Therefore, few transportation professionals have conducted research at utilizing the dynamic flow methods to estimate travel times on arterial street networks. This thesis is to develop dynamic flow algorithms that estimates the real-time travel time on an arterial street network by utilizing the traffic information obtained from detectors. A modified method to the one adopted in HCM2000 in computing the intersection control delay is developed and utilized to estimate the real-time travel time for a short-time interval update under non-incident and incident situations. Simulation model is developed in CORSIM to validate developed algorithms under different traffic situations. / Master of Science

The high cost of land in large urban centers and increasing energy costs have prompted the revival of an old method of construction. Joint occupancy is the sharing of land for different combinations of uses. There are many concerns in our cities where land costs are exorbitant and many users compete for the available ground. In the case of public schools, high construction costs, difficult and expensive credit, and even the loss of revenue when schools are removed from the tax rolls, all contribute to the taxpayers unwillingness to pay for new schools. The United States' increasing dependence on foreign oil and ever-increasing energy costs have resulted in government incentives for building insulation and the development of solar energy. There are a few larger scale projects but mostly the use of solar energy has been at the residential scale. This thesis attempts to provide one solution to a set of cumulative problems. / Master of Architecture

With the advent of modern sensor technologies, significant opportunities have opened up to help conserve energy in residential and commercial buildings. Moreover, the rapid urbanization we are witnessing requires optimized energy distribution. This dissertation focuses on two sub-problems in improving energy conservation; energy disaggregation and occupancy prediction. Energy disaggregation attempts to separate the energy usage of each circuit or each electric device in a building using only aggregate electricity usage information from the meter for the whole house. The second problem of occupancy prediction can be accomplished using non-invasive indoor activity tracking to predict the locations of people inside a building. We cast both problems as temporal mining problems. We exploit motif mining with constraints to distinguish devices with multiple states, which helps tackle the energy disaggregation problem. Our results reveal that motif mining is adept at distinguishing devices with multiple power levels and at disentangling the combinatorial operation of devices. For the second problem we propose time-gap constrained episode mining to detect activity patterns followed by the use of a mixture of episode generating HMM (EGH) models to predict home occupancy. Finally, we demonstrate that the mixture EGH model can also help predict the location of a person to address non-invasive indoor activities tracking. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering)--University of California, Davis, 2007. / Text document in PDF format. Title from PDF title page (viewed on August 28, 2009). "Received by ITS-Davis: November 2007"--Publication detail webpage. Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-115).

This study examines the Single Room Occupancy Housing (SRO) stock of the City of Toronto and of the City of Vancouver. The term SROs refers to residential hotels and rooming houses. Rooming houses located in converted single family dwellings constitute the primary SRO form of Toronto. Residential hotels constitute the primary SRO form in Vancouver. This study examines the historical evolution of the SRO stock, the characteristics of the units, the socioeconomic characteristics of the residents, and the provincial and municipal policy relating to the SRO stock. SROs were the first form of accommodation for many immigrants and transient male workers. SRO units in rooming houses also housed couples and families during the first decades of the 1900's in both Toronto and Vancouver. A dire shortage of affordable rental housing forced families to live in overcrowded conditions in single rooms. SROs today house primarily two three of population. Those who live in single rooms permanently, those who live in single rooms because they cannot afford to rent an apartment, and those who live in single rooms temporarily. Contrary to what has been commonly assumed, residents of SROs are not transient. SRO residents, although they might move frequently, they do so because they continually face displacement. Evictions are common because of real estate market pressures. Many SRO units are being converted to other residential uses or demolished. The main group of SRO residents still consists of single older men, however, the percentage of women and of young men has increased among the SRO residents in recent years, especially in the case of the rooming houses of Toronto. The majority of SRO residents live on incomes which are well below of the poverty line (approximately, 50% of the poverty line). These residents pay 50% to 75% of their income on housing. SRO housing is an important component of the rental housing market of Vancouver and Toronto. SROs constitute the last housing resort before homelessness. However, with the exception of SRO units in social housing projects, SROs existing today in Toronto and Vancouver do not constitute an adequate form of accommodation. In most cases, the physical condition of the units is substandard and the rents are still very high for the average SRO resident. In Vancouver, SRO units are not fully recognized as part of the rental housing stock because they are not protected by provincial landlord and tenant regulation. The continued availability of SRO accommodation looks more optimistic in Ontario than it does in British Columbia. The main focuss of the housing policy of Ontario and Toronto towards the SRO stock has been to rehabilitate, to improve and to expand the SRO stock. In addition, Ontario has recently drafted legislation which protects the rental housing stock from demolition and conversion and it has extended security of tenure rights to the residents of rooming houses. On the other hand, the main thrust of the housing policy of the province of British Columbia and of the City of Vancouver towards the SRO stock has been to relocate SRO tenants in social housing units / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Despite being a top carnivore, there is relatively scant information on pumas (<i>Puma concolor</i>) in the neotropics especially compared to the more well-studied jaguar (<i>Panthera onca</i>). Understanding long-term puma distribution can affect land management decisions such as appropriate size of buffer zones around protected areas since pumas influence, and are influenced by, sympatric carnivore populations, lower trophic levels, and habitat. We used single-species, single-season and multi-season occupancy modeling to explore factors influencing distribution and persistence of pumas across the country of Belize. We used camera trapping data from 7 protected areas over 20 years with 2,198 camera stations covering ~5,000 km2. For both approaches, detection was mostly affected by distance to roads, enhanced vegetation index (EVI), and elevation, with variable directionality depending on site. In single season modeling, Occupancy increased at lower elevations and intermediate EVI in one site, and closer to water sources at another, while in multi-season modeling, intermediate EVI and canopy cover influenced occupancy. Biotic covariates were highly variable across sites and methods, but detection and occupancy were generally positively associated with prey, jaguar and ocelot trap rates, canopy cover, and elevation, while human trap rates negatively affected occupancy at one site. Colonization was positively affected by deer (<i>Odocoileus virginianus</i> and <i>Mazama americana</i>) trap rates while extinction had no supported covariates. Puma occupancy ranged from 0.41-0.96 in single season models and 0.55-0.90 in multi-season models across all site/years. Compared to other single-season studies, Belize generally had higher occupancy, even in areas of selective logging, however there are no other multi-season studies to compare. While sites with heavy human impacts had lowest occupancy, these areas are still used and likely serve as steppingstones between protected areas of higher occupancy. Such areas could be targets for protection to preserve landscape connectivity. Additionally, due to high occupancy and colonization across varying habitat and biotic factors the jaguar is likely an effective umbrella species for puma space use, however more analysis on other species is needed to ensure efficiency for more than just pumas. / Master of Science / The neotropics is an important global zone known for high biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Felids (wild cats) play an important role in maintaining biodiversity and structure in ecosystems, however, they are facing threats to their survival due to habitat loss and fragmentation, and negative human-wildlife conflict. To protect ecosystem health, managers often employ the umbrella species concept, meaning if they protect the jaguar with its large spatial requirements, other wildlife species that fall within that area will also be protected. However, there have been few studies on the effectiveness of this strategy, especially for species like the puma, that might be competitive with jaguars. Occupancy modeling is a powerful tool in wildlife management that uses presence absence analysis to determine where species occur on a landscape. We used camera trapping data across multiple protected areas over 20 years to determine what influences pumas across the landscape. We found pumas were affected by differing variables depending on habitat. Important variables were: thickness of vegetation, elevation, distance to roads and water, prey and there were positively associated with jaguars and ocelots. Additionally, pumas were more likely to move into a new site if the activity of their favored prey, deer, was high. Pumas occurred at 41-96% of camera stations depending on site, across all years, indicating they are widespread across Belize. Compared to 11 other occupancy studies from Latin America, Belize generally had higher occupancy, even in areas of selective logging, compared to the other available studies in the neotropics. While sites with heavy human impacts had lowest occupancy, these areas are still being used by pumas and likely serve as steppingstones between protected areas of higher occupancy. Such areas could be targets for protection to preserve landscape connectivity across Belize, which is rapidly developing in infrastructure. Overall, jaguars appear to be a suitable umbrella species for the puma, however, further analysis is needed for more specialized species such as threatened Baird's tapir, crested guan, black howler monkey, and smaller cat species, the margay and jaguarundi, to ensure that the jaguar is a suitable umbrella species that supports a wide variety of species within the community.

The indoor environmental quality (IEQ) of buildings can have a strong influence on occupants’ productivity and health. Post occupancy evaluation (POE) is the first step in assessing IEQ, and typically relies on subjective surveys of thermal quality, air quality, visual quality, and acoustic quality. However, the practice of conducting POE, from data collection during field studies to data coding, analyses and visualization, is very labor intensive. In addition, there is often a significant discrepancy between major IEQ standards and actual human perception. The Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics (CBPD) at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has expanded POE to include both objective IEQ measurements and records of the TABS that may affect indoor environment and user satisfaction. The suite of three tools including user satisfaction survey, technical attributes of building system and workstation IEQ measurements in the National Environmental Assessment Toolkit has been deployed in over 1600 workstations in 65 buildings, generating a rich database for statistical evaluation of the possible correlations between the physical attributes of workstations, measured environmental conditions, and user satisfaction. The database also supports a number of critical hypotheses relative to the complexity and depth of field data needed, the critical factors that must be collected, and the possibility that humans are indeed good sensors for many variables. The major statements that have been drawn from the research are as follows: (1) Because human health and performance outcomes are a result of an integration of indices, IEQ evaluation must include thermal, air, visual, and acoustic measures. (2) While POE with IEQ measurement is an ideal approach to assessing the full suite of environmental characteristics that impact human satisfaction, health and performance, field measurements are labor and cost intensive. (3) Building occupants can provide critical insights and even real measures of IEQ, and contribute to updating IEQ standards to reflect integrated realities. As such, this research revealed an integrated approach to POE +M by leveraging occupants as sensors to quickly capture IEQ conditions in a work environment. This approach can identify critical factors in the physical environment that impacts building occupant comfort and satisfaction. This approach provides practical IEQ assessment methods and procedures centered on the occupants’ perspective. The ultimate outcome of this research will contribute (1) correlations between occupant perception and measured data, (2) a refined survey method to assess building IEQ capable of robust prediction of building performance, and (3) metrics and guidelines for IEQ standards that capture new IEQ thresholds that impact building occupants’ comfort. The hypotheses tested in this thesis are summarized as follows: Hypothesis 1: Humans are effective sensors for POE+M. Combining occupant responses with key IEQ attributes can provide insight that is comparable to complex field instrumentation. Hypothesis 2: User satisfaction can inform design decisions. Comparing user satisfaction to instrumented IEQ measurements can inform acceptable thermal, air, visual, and acoustic design for occupant satisfaction. Hypothesis 3: Environmental thresholds are not adequate. Comparing user satisfaction to instrumented IEQ measurements can inform acceptable thermal, air, visual, and acoustic quality l conditions for occupant comfort. Multivariate regression, multiple correlation coefficient, and Pearson correlation statistical analysis of the database of 1600 workstations revealed the relationship between measured and perceived IEQ indices, interdependencies between IEQ indices and other satisfaction variables of significance. This research can contribute correlations between occupant perception and measured conditions, and metrics and guidelines for IEQ standards that capture new IEQ thresholds that impact building occupants’ comfort. The key findings of the IEQ data analysis are as follows: The result of the thermal quality revealed that smaller thermal zone, greater window quality, a level of control, measured air temperature at 60 cm from the floor, and radiant temperature asymmetry between exterior and interior walls are critical factors of temperature satisfaction. For air quality, operable windows, window quality, partition height, dedicated exhausts for printer and copy area, return air density are critical factors for overall air quality satisfaction. User satisfaction of the visual quality showed that seated view in the workstation is the most critical factor for user’s overall visual quality satisfaction. In addition, better ceiling fixture, ceiling lens type, window type and managing illuminance level on the work surface are important. Lastly, to ensure the acoustic quality satisfaction in both background noise and frequency from distraction from other people, bigger workstation, more partition sides, higher partitions and management of distributed noise source are critical for user comfort and perceived productivity. Overall, this thesis identified opportunities to improve the process of IEQ assessment by engaging occupants in POE, and define critical indicators for building occupant satisfaction. The results will contribute to the ongoing database of engaging humans as IEQ sensors. In the future, the findings and framework described here may be applied in different aspects of the building delivery process, such as building life cycle evaluation, building design, and the construction stage, to improve occupants’ thermal, air, visual, and acoustic conditions in the building.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Shaped BPSK (SBPSK) and Shaped Offset QPSK (SOQPSK), as defined in various MIL standards, are widely employed on SATCOM links because they offer an attractive combination of good spectral efficiency, constant envelope characteristics, and interoperability with legacy equipments. More recently, numerous terrestrial applications of OQPSK and similar waveforms (Feher-patented FQPSK) have been proposed. The present paper describes a simple non-proprietary modification of the MIL-STD SOQPSK waveform which offers spectral containment and detection efficiency comparable to or better than FQPSK-B (Revision A1), while preserving a constant envelope characteristic and backward compatibility with existing equipment.

The tropical forests of Indochina harbor a suite of globally threatened tropical mammal species. These species are difficult to detect, and subsequently understudied. Noninvasive camera trapping was used to survey terrestrial mammals from a protected area in southeastern Lao PDR (Xe Sap National Protected Area). The presence-absence of four mammals (mainland serow Capricornis milneedwardsii, muntjac Muntiacus spp., macaque Macaca spp., and wild pig Sus scrofa) was modeled in an occupancy framework thereby accounting for detection probabilities. Our goals were to establish baseline occupancy data to assist with biological monitoring and to better understand the factors influencing the distribution of the target species. Naïve occupancy, or the proportion of sites at which the target species was detected, was 0.58 for muntjac, 0.55 for macaque, 0.38 for wild pig, and 0.30 for serow. True occupancy estimates (Ψ ± SE) from top-ranked models was 0.79 ± 0.21 for macaque, 0.74 ± 0.13 for muntjac, 0.51 ± 0.13 for wild pig, and 0.48 ± 0.18 for serow. The results underscore the importance of accounting for imperfect detection rates when studying rare or elusive species. I included two site covariates (forest type and distance to nearest village) in the occupancy models. Estimating occupancy as a function of site covariates improved model performance and provided insight into landscape-level factors that affect species occurrence. In the top-ranked models, serow occupancy was higher in hill evergreen forest (HEGF) than semi-evergreen forest (SEGF). Muntjac occupancy was higher in areas further from villages. Macaque occupancy was higher in areas closer to villages. Wild pig occupancy was higher in areas further from villages and in HEGF. I recommend using an occupancy framework to analyze occurrence data for difficult-to-study tropical mammal species. The results highlight the importance of Xe Sap NPA for large mammal conservation in the region. / text

Bakgrund: Brist på vårdplatser innebär att en patient får vårdas på en vårdplats som inte uppfyller kraven på utformning, utrustning och säkerhet eller att kunskapen hos sjuksköterskor inte stämmer överens med vårdbehovet (Socialstyrelsen 2016, s. 93). Syfte: Att undersöka om patientsäkerheten påverkas vid platsbrist och överbeläggning. Metod: Examensarbetet är en litteraturstudie där 11 artiklar granskats och analyserats samt presenteras i resultatet. Resultat: Överbeläggningar och utlokaliseringar leder till ökade vårdskador och orsakar ett lidande för patienten. Brister i sjukvårdsmiljön visade sig genom att utrustning eller läkemedel inte var tillgängliga, vilket ledde till ytterligare fördröjning av behandling för patienten och till en förlängd sjukhusvistelse. En annan effekt var ökad risk att smittas av vårdrelaterade infektioner.