This study presents an analytical approach for the mechanics of the pneumatic tires and the vehicle dynamic simulation. Most of tire dynamic parameters in this study are derived by using the tire geometry rather than experimental data. For the tire dynamic properties, explicit formulations are derived analytically as functions of slip ratio, slip angle, camber angle, and other tire dynamic parameters. These formulations can be efficiently used for the general vehicle simulations of braking/traction and steering maneuvers with a varying camber angle at irregular terrains. For on-highway vehicle simulations, a conceptual sports car is modeled as a twenty-six degrees of freedom multi-body system, while the military 1/4 ton truck M151-A2 is modeled as a fourteen degrees of freedom multi-body system for off-highway vehicle simulations. To study vehicle ride comfort, stability, and maneuverability, numerous vehicle simulations are performed using the comprehensive tire model, steering, braking, traction, nonlinear suspension, and realistic irregular terrains. For these simulations, a general-purpose multi-body dynamic analysis code (named MBOSS) has been developed.

Medication errors are the second most frequent cause of injury among all types of medical errors (Leape, et al., 1991). Of concern to nursing practice, medication administration errors (MAE) are second only to ordering errors (Bates, Cullen, et al., 1995). The introduction of information technology designed to promote safe medication practice, such as the Bar Code Medication Administration (BCMA) system, offers new opportunities for reducing MAE. BCMA was developed to improve patient safety, improve documentation of medication administration, decrease medication errors, and capture medication accountability data. The overall goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of BCMA on medication administration errors: wrong patient, medication, dose, time, and route. Rogers' (1995) theory, organizational diffusion of innovations, provided the study's framework.A descriptive comparative design examined incidence of MAEs before (Time 1) and after implementation (Time 2) of BCMA on eight units in one medical center. MAE incidence was calculated using MAE and patient-days data. Nurse adherence to BCMA usage procedure was assessed with a questionnaire created for the study.Findings indicated that total MAEs increased from Time 1 to Time 2, however, wrong patient and wrong dose errors decreased. There was a statistically significant (p < 0.05) increase in wrong route errors at Time 2. Comparing these findings with previous research demonstrated a diversity of methods, limiting conclusions. Nurse adherence findings indicated high overall adherence. However, completion of certain steps was hindered by software, equipment, or the work environment.Study findings were significant to nursing, informatics and patient safety research. Findings demonstrated the early state of BCMA research, added to knowledge about MAE detection methods, and brought a nursing perspective to information technology research on a process primarily within nursing purview. Implications for future research include improvement in MAE definitions and detection methods to support reliable data collection for research and quality improvement analysis. Also, sociotechnical theory recognizes health care as an interwoven, heterogeneous environment with complex roles and work practices, and may provide a more appropriate framework for evaluation of medication safety technology innovations than the linear model used in this study.

This dissertation offers an empirical examination of the relationship between community social capital and health care safety net capacity. The ability and willingness of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and private physicians to serve the uninsured is crucial to ensuring that all Americans have access to a basic level of health care. Among other factors, this ability and willingness has been found to be a consequence of unique community values and traditions. This dissertation examined the extent to which the level of community social capital (community rates of participation in club meetings, projects, volunteer and civic activities) was related to three health care provider outcomes; 1) the willingness of private physicians to deliver uncompensated care; 2) the financial capacity of FQHCs to provide uncompensated care; and 3) the amount of FQHC resources directed toward the provision of largely uncompensated community-oriented services.Community and health care provider data on 1,248 FQHCs across 183 U.S. counties and 12,406 private physicians across 1,029 U.S. counties were collected from multiple data sources. Comprehensive multivariate analyses including Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA), Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM), and a planned comparison was conducted on these data at the community ecological and individual provider levels of analysis.Based on a literature review and the theoretical components of social capital theory, I developed a conceptual framework that proposed a relationship among social context, institutional frameworks and organizational behavior. The dissertation research sought to determine the extent to which the social context in which the organization was embedded influenced organizational behavior.I found that the relationship between community social capital and health care safety net capacity was weak and the direction of the association mixed. Among the findings was a positive and significant relationship between civic participation and FQHC grant revenues. Unexpected findings included significant correlations between community social capital and Medicaid generosity, and social capital and uninsurance. Although the data analysis suggested that unmeasured factors were largely responsible for variation in safety net capacity, it raised interesting questions that provoke future study. Important implications for theory, policy and practice are discussed.

In 2006, India began formally reconstructing its national food safety policy, subsuming over seven laws and agencies into a single streamlined regulatory authority. This moment of reform offers a "most likely" test case for theories of global policy convergence. Scholars across multiple fields predict that national politics are becoming more similar over time. Those predictions are especially strong in the field of food safety policy, as the WTO now mandates that member states align with an encyclopedic policy resource called the Codex Alimentarius. The dissertation asks whether, how, and why we see both global pressures for and actual evidence of convergence in the Indian case. I ask if the details of the case map onto the prevailing account in sociology, which predicts convergence as a result of spreading political culture; the sociology of food's broad predictions of both convergence and low political autonomy vis a vis global trade mandates; or the prevailing account in political science, which sees domestic regulatory change as a result of global competitions for consumer markets. I find very limited convergence in the Indian case, mostly limited to a nascent movement toward norms of "science-based" regulation. I also find that theories of regulatory competition best explain why India has converged to the extent it has, though the case suggests new causal mechanisms whereby trade agreements and economic competition generate regulatory change.

Revised; Originally Published: 2007 / 2 pp.

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