According to the National Federation of the Blind, there are an estimated 10 million people in the United States who are visually impaired. Of these, 1.3 million are legally blind. Many people with extreme vision loss receive orientation and mobility training in order to help them learn skills that allow them to travel and navigate multiple types of indoor and outdoor environments. Even with this training, a fundamental problem these people face is learning new routes, especially in environments with which they are not familiar. Although the research community has developed a number of localization and navigation aids that are meant to provide navigation assistance, only a handful have reached the marketplace, and the adoption rate for these devices remains low. Most assistive navigation devices take responsibility for the navigation and localization processes, leaving the user only to respond to the devices' commands. This thesis takes a different approach and proposes that because of the high level of navigation ability achieved through years of training and everyday travel, the navigation skills of people with visual impairments should be considered an integral part of the navigation system. People with visual impairments are capable of following natural language instructions similar to those given by a visually impaired person communicating route directions over the phone to another person with visual impairments. Devices based on this premise can be built, delivering only verbal route descriptions. As a result, it is not necessary to install complex sensors in the environment. This thesis has four hypotheses that are addressed by two systems. The first hypothesis is that a navigational assistance system for the blind can leverage the skills and abilities of the visually impaired, and does not necessarily need complex sensors embedded in the environment to succeed. The second hypothesis is that verbal route descriptions are adequate for guiding a person with visual impairments when shopping in a supermarket for products located in aisles on shelves. These two hypotheses are addressed by ShopTalk, a system which helps blind users shop independently in a grocery store using verbal route descriptions. The third hypothesis is that information extraction techniques can be used to extract landmarks from natural language route descriptions. The fourth and final hypothesis is that new natural language route descriptions can be inferred from a set of landmarks and a set of natural language route descriptions whose statements have been tagged with landmarks from the landmark set. These two hypotheses are addressed by the Route Analysis Engine, an information extraction-based system for analyzing natural language route descriptions.

We equipped 28 Marbled Godwit from four locations in North America with miniature satellite transmitters to determine migration routes, strategy, and connectivity. Godwits captured in Utah (n = 13) went to breeding sites in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Montana and North Dakota and wintered along the Baja Peninsula and west coast of mainland Mexico. They used Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (BRMBR), Utah as a stopover during both north and southbound migration. Godwits captured on Akimiski Island, Nunavut, Canada (n = 7) migrated through the midcontinent USA and wintered at sites along the Gulf of California, Sonora, Mexico. There is overlap in use of Mexico winter and stopover areas between the birds from Akimiski Island and those captured in Utah. Godwits captured in Georgia on the Atlantic coast (n = 6) migrated to breeding grounds in North and South Dakota. Godwits wintering along the Atlantic coast breed in close proximity to those originating from Mexico wintering sites and using BRMBR as a stopover. Godwits tagged on Akimiski Island traveled significantly farther during southbound migration (3862 km) than did godwits tagged in Utah (2533 km) and Georgia (2204 km) (P < 0.001). Godwits tagged in Utah traveled the shortest distance to the first stopover during southbound migration (670 km) (P < 0.001). This short distance between stopovers is characteristic of a “hopping” migration strategy, which is different than the intermediate “skipping” distances traveled by godwits from Canada (1925 km) and Georgia (2204 km), to their first stopover. Utah godwits also had the shortest residency period on winter habitats (174 days) (P < 0.001). Georgia godwits had the shortest southbound migration duration (2 days) (P < 0.02), the shortest residency period at breeding habitats (56 days) (P < 0.01) and the longest residency period on the wintering grounds (303 days) (P < 0.003). (152 pages)

The Bratislava phenomenon of waterfront diversity is an European rarity. With my work, I would like to support this duality and show its potential. I have highlighted a few principles which, in my opinion, are the problem of the not very functioning symbiosis of the waterfronts. Bratislava as a city suffers from large number of uncertain spaces, which prevents any continuity. The left waterfront is almost entirely built up and you can see some continuity there. The right waterfront is full of empty unidentified areas, parking lots and old buildings. The international cycle route holds this area together. The continuous forest becomes a set of fragments. The presence of man could be the basic of connection. The addition of features and interventions could increase the interest of people. A social space would be created, the center would be extended to the opposite waterfront and the connection with Petržalka would be realistic gold for the future. The solution could be to create several stops along the cycle path. Each space under the bridge has its own charakter. Today, all these spaces are without presence of man. Every bridge could get its own identity by creating space suitable for humans. Together, the bridges will create and adventure route on the right waterfrot with a lot of opportunities to socialize, entertain, educate, experience some culture events or do some sports. The cycle route passes through the several other interesting places to stop. The number of visitors will increase by adding use and the continuity would be created by man himself.

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This research studies travelers' route choice behavior in a driving simulator with real-time information en-route. We investigate whether travelers plan strategically for real-time information en-route or simply select a fixed path from origin to destination at the beginning of a trip, and whether network complexity and a parallel driving task affect subjects' strategic thinking ability. In this study, strategic thinking refers to a traveler's route choice decision taking into account future diversion possibilities downstream enabled by information at the diversion node. All of the subjects in this study participated in driving-simulator-based tests while half of the subjects participated in additional PC-based tests. Three types of maps were used. The first type required a one-time choice at the beginning of a trip to test the traveler's risk attitude. The other two types offered route choices both at the beginning of and during a trip to test the traveler's strategic thinking. The study shows that a significant portion of route choice decisions are strategic in a realistic driving simulator environment. Furthermore, different network complexities impose different cognitive demands on a subject and affect his/her strategic thinking ability. A subject tends to be more strategic in a simple network. Lastly, a parallel driving task does not significantly affect a subject's strategic thinking ability. This seemingly counterintuitive conclusion might be caused by the simplicity of the tested network.

No description available.

The events of September 11,2001 followed by the oil price hike and the economic crisis of 2008, have lead to a drop in the demand for air travel. Airlines have attempted to return to profitability by cutting service in certain unattractive routes and airports. Simultaneously, delays and excess demand at a few major hubs have lead to airline introducing service at reliever airports. This dissertation attempts to capture the changes in the airline network by utilizing a supply-demand framework. / Ph. D.

Safe and secure transportation of hazardous materials (hazmat) is a challenging issue in terms of optimizing risk to society and simultaneously making the shipment delivery economical. The most important safety concern of hazardous material transportation is accidents causing multiple causalities. The potential risk to society from hazmat transportation has led to the evolution of a new threat from terrorism. Malicious entities can turn hazmat vehicles into weapons causing explosions in high profile locations. The present research is divided into two parts. First, a neural network model is developed to identify when a hazmat truck deviates from its pre-specified path based on its location in the road network. The model identifies abnormal diversions in hazmat carriers' paths considering normal diversions arising due to incidents. The second part of this thesis develops a methodology for predicting different paths that could be taken by malicious entities heading towards a target after successfully hijacking a hazmat vehicle. The path prediction methodology and the neural network methodology are implemented on the network between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC. The trained neural network model classified nodes in the network with a satisfactory performance .The path prediction algorithm was used to calculate the paths to two targets located at the International Dulles Airport and the National Mall in Washington, DC. Based on this research, the neural network methodology is a promising technology for detecting a hijacked vehicle in its initial stages of diversion from its pre-specified path. Possible paths to potential targets are plotted and points of overlap among paths are identified. Overlaps are critical locations where extra security measures can be taken for preventing destruction. Thus, integrating both models gives a comprehensive methodology for detecting the initial diversion and then predicting the possible paths of malicious entities towards targets and could provide an important tool for law enforcement agencies minimizing catastrophic events. / Master of Science

The rise of micromobility, most notably electric standing scooters (e-scooters), has resulted in new challenges for traffic planning and road safety. One such issue is the fact that in most European countries, e-scooter users are obliged to ride their vehicle on cycling infrastructure and thereby share this infrastructure with bicyclists. This increases the use of and, subsequently, demand for bicycle lanes, which is an obvious challenge for transport planning. However, for adequate planning and construction of cycling infrastructure, information on route choice behavior of bicyclists and e-scooter users and its influencing factors is necessary. While research on bicyclists' route choice is well advanced, research on e-scooter riders is still in its infancy. For bicyclists, the presence of bicycle facilities, traffic volume, and travel time are among others particularly important for route choice. However, the question arises whether this also applies to e-scooter riders as vehicle dynamics are different and riders are, at least for now, less skilled due to lack of training and exposition. In order to fill this research gap, we aimed to analyze the determinants for route choice of e-scooter users in comparison to bicyclists in a field study. [from Introduction]

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine teachers' perspectives of the key factors contributing to the retention of rural teachers who entered teaching through an alternate route certification program in Mississippi. It was specifically the goal of this study to understand how alternatively certified teachers perceive their own characteristics (e.g., teacher preparation, personal experiences), school conditions (e.g., students, administration), and compensation (e.g., salary, benefits) to be related to their decision to remain in the profession. In this study, 9 rural alternate route teachers were interviewed from 8 schools in Mississippi. The research questions were: (1) How do rural alternate route teachers who stay describe their decision to continue teaching in terms of teacher characteristics?; (2) How do rural alternate route teachers who stay describe their decision to continue teaching in terms of school conditions?; and (3) How do rural alternate route teachers who stay describe their decision to continue teaching in terms of compensation? Sher's (1983) rural retention 3 C's framework provides a model for understanding retention. Sher proposed that attracting and retaining teachers in rural schools is a function of 3 C's: teacher characteristics, school conditions, and compensation. The data revealed that for teacher characteristics teacher preparation that included practice teaching combined with coursework was important, and participants valued experience working/teaching children. Data also revealed school conditions factors as student were a source of satisfaction for teachers, most teachers had little induction and mentoring support, teachers lacked administration and collegial support, and teachers found networks of support outside the school setting. The data revealed that the relationship between compensation and retention is complex, and that compensation was less important than intangible benefits. Although the study failed to find a simple and direct cause of retention, these findings do provide further insight into teacher retention. The findings of the study suggest implications for teacher preparation, school districts, and policy.