Nonpoint source pollution captured by urban stormwater runoff is the greatest challenge for surface water quality improvements. Computer-based design tools have been developed to help mediate this issue by guiding end users through the implementation of decentralized stormwater management. The majority of these tools focus on treatment via biofiltration, yet concern regarding this treatment regime is rising. Case studies from research past clearly indicate the susceptibility of groundwater to contamination from extensive anthropogenic activity at the surface. Contaminants, such as nitrates and pathogens, are not completely removed before runoff enters the underground watercourse. Additionally, national and state legislation, which explicitly lists where neglect for groundwater quality is permissible—exacerbate concerns. This research analyzes the efficiency the BMP Siting Tool developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Grey-to-Green Decision Support Tool developed by the University of South Florida. The tools were used to obtain cartographic data illustrating suitable sites for bioswales and infiltration basins throughout northern portion of Hillsborough County, Florida. This data was then integrated with the Karst Aquifer Vulnerability Index (KAVI) groundwater vulnerability model. The area of bioswales and infiltration basins that intersected areas of the KAVI model listed as ‘highly vulnerable’ or ‘moderate-to-highly vulnerable’ was calculated. This permitted an assessment of which BMP facility had the greatest sitings atop vulnerable areas, respective of the tool. The BMP Siting Tool sited 2.80% of all bioswales and 27.89% of all infiltration basins above vulnerable areas. Likewise, the Grey-to-Green Decision Support Tool sited 21.66% of all bioswales and 9.62% of all infiltration basins above vulnerable areas. These results prompted the development of a supplemental groundwater vulnerability framework to be incorporated into both tools’ analytical process.

Afin de réduire les pollutions agricoles, les agriculteurs sont invités à faire évoluer leurs pratiques. Mais ces évolutions génèrent des changements d'organisation et de temps de travail, qu'ils invoquent pour expliquer leur difficulté à changer. Notre objectif est d'étudier ces changements du travail, pour concevoir des outils facilitant les transitions agroécologiques des agriculteurs. Nous avons enquêtés des conseillers agricole et des agriculteurs pour analyser l'offre de conseil, et la nature des informations sur le travail, dont les agriculteurs ont besoin pour conduire un changement de pratiques. Constatant l'insuffisance des outils existants, nous avons organisé deux ateliers de conception d'outils avec leurs futurs utilisateurs. Nous avons identifié et décris 28 outils qui pourraient être conçu. Quatre prototypes ont été élaborés : une fiche technique informant des changements du travail, un quizz et un jeu permettant d'identifier des changements du travail pour une exploitation, et un carnet de suivi d'essai permettant de relever des informations clefs pour établir un bilan de la gestion des concurrences et des choix d'organisation. / In order to reduce agricultural pollution, farmers are invited to change their practices. But these new practices can generate changes in organization and working time, which farmers assert to explain their difficulty to change. Our goal is to study these changes in the work and to design tools facilitating agroecological transitions of farmers. We have surveyed agricultural advisers and farmers to analyze the consulting service offer, and the nature of the work information that farmers need in order to implement new practices. Noting the inadequacy of the existing tools, we organized two tool design workshops with their future users. We have identified and described 28 tools that could be designed. Four prototypes were developed: a technical sheet informing about work changes, a quiz and a serious game to identify work changes for a farm, and a test logbook to record key information to establish an assessment of work competition management and organizational choices.

Many older people find it difficult to start using new technology and difficult to get the help when they need it. Society is becoming increasingly digital, therefore there's a risk ending up digitally excluded. Use of digital technology can be difficult due to problematic factors such as insufficient prior knowledge, lacking motivation, insecurity, and the complexity. In order for these factors to be managed, there needs to be support available. Prior research shows that older people have preferences for social support, but when this support is not available appropriate replacement tools need to be available to facilitate the use of digital technology. The purpose of the study was to help reduce digital exclusion among the elderly by studying how different digital support tools can be used to deal with problem factors when using digital technology. A qualitative study was conducted, based on a theory model that highlights four problem factors. Three different digital support tools in an auditory, visual and written format were evaluated. Opinions on the digital support tools as well as the various problem factors were collected from an IT educator and from the elderly at the age of 65 or over through two sub-studies consisting of interviews and thinking aloud tests. The results showed that the factors that were most difficult to counter with the digital support tools were the complexity and insufficient prior knowledge, while the factors lacking motivation and insecurity could be managed with the digital support tools. The results also showed that users of digital support tools should be able to choose whether the support is to be used in an auditory, visual or written format. The written instructions could combat the most problem factors. The visual instructions was the support tool that was most difficult to use because it required some prior digital knowledge. If basic digital knowledge is absent, none of the support tools could be used in an optimal way. Reducing digital exclusion solely with the help of digital support tools is thus difficult because those who are most excluded and have the greatest need for support don't possess the basic knowledge to use the tools. / Många äldre anser att det är svårt att börja använda ny teknik och svårt att få hjälp när de behöver det. I ett samhälle som digitaliseras allt mer riskerar de därför att hamna i ett digitalt utanförskap. Svårigheterna gällande användandet av digital teknik kan bero på olika problemfaktorer som bristande motivation, otrygghet, komplexitet och otillräckliga förkunskaper. För att dessa faktorer ska kunna hanteras behöver de äldre ha tillgång till stöd. Tidigare forskning visar att äldre föredrar sociala stödformer, men om det sociala stödet inte kan erhållas behöver lämpliga ersättande stödverktyg finnas tillgängliga som kan underlätta användandet av digital teknik.  Syftet med denna studie var att bidra till att minska det digitala utanförskapet bland äldre genom att studera hur olika digitala stödverktyg kan användas för att hantera problemfaktorer för digital teknik. En kvalitativ studie, som utgick från en teorimodell baserad på de fyra problemfaktorerna, genomfördes. Tre olika digitala stödverktyg, i form av skriftliga, auditiva och visuella instruktioner, utvärderades. Åsikter kring de digitala stödverktygen samt de olika problemfaktorerna samlades in från en IT-pedagog och från personer som var 65 år eller äldre genom två delstudier bestående av intervjuer och tänka högt-test.  Resultatet visade att faktorerna bristande motivation och otrygghet kunde hanteras med digitala stödverktyg medan faktorerna komplexitet och otillräckliga förkunskaper var svårare att hantera. Resultatet visade också att användaren av digitala stödverktyg bör få välja om stödet ska nyttjas i ett auditivt, visuellt eller skriftligt format. De skriftliga instruktionerna var det stödverktyg som kunde hantera flest problemfaktorer medan de visuella instruktionerna var svårast att använda eftersom verktyget krävde digitala förkunskaper. När förkunskaperna var otillräckliga kunde inget av stödverktygen användas på ett optimalt sätt. Det är därmed svårt att minska det digitala utanförskapet enbart med hjälp av digitala stödverktyg, eftersom de som står längst utanför det digitala samhället och har störst behov av stöd, inte har de grundläggande kunskaperna för att använda verktygen.

Today's society is characterized by a high degree of change where the manufacturing systems are affected by both internal and external factors. To adapt to current manufacturing requirements in the form of short lead-time, more variants, low and fluctuating volumes, in a cost-efficient manner, new approaches are needed. As the global market and its uncertainties for products and its lifecycles change, a concept called 'reconfigurable manufacturing system' has been developed. The idea is to design a manufacturing system for rapid structural change in both hardware and software to be responsive to capacity and functionality. A company's development towards the concept is often based on a strategy of incremental investments. In this situation, the challenges are to prioritize the right project and maximize the performance as well as the financial efficiency of a multi-approach problem. The report is based on three different issues. Partly how to standardize relevant performance-based metrics to measure current conditions, how new performance-based metrics can be developed in collaboration with reconfigurability characteristics, and set a direction for how decision models can be used to optimize step-based investments. The study is structured as an explorative study with qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews and document study to get in-depth knowledge. Related literature addresses concepts in search areas such as reconfigurable manufacturing system, key performance indicators, investment decisions, and manufacturing readiness levels. The findings are extracted from interviews and document studies that generate a focal company setting within the automotive industry, which acts as the foundation for further analysis and decisions throughout the thesis. The analysis results in sixteen performance measurements where new measures been created for product flexibility, productionvolume flexibility, material handling flexibility, reconfiguration quality and diagnosability using reconfigurability characteristics. A conceptual decision support model is introduced with an underlying seven-step investment process, analyzing lifecycle cost, risk triggered events in relation to cost, and performance measurements. The discussion chapter describes how different approaches are used during the project that has been revised by internal and external factors. Improvement possibilities regarding method choice and the aspects of credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability are discussed. Furthermore, the authors argue about the analysis process and how the result has been affected by circumstances and choices. The study concludes that a three-pronged approach is needed to validate the investment decision in terms of system performance changes, cost, and uncertainty. The report also helps to understand which performance-based metrics are relevant for evaluating manufacturing systems based on operational goals and manufacturing requirements.

The United States Farm Bill is a multi-billion-dollar federal legislation reenacted every five years to provide funding towards crop protection, nutrition, environmental protection, and other important focuses. The largest conservation program within the Farm Bill is the Conservation Reserve Program, which encompasses many conservation practices such as CP-33: habitat buffers for upland birds. Conservation implementation through the Farm Bill relies on voluntary producer enrollment in exchange for a rental fee to not farm enrolled land for a set time. I used yield data collected across six years from 36 agricultural fields in Humphreys and Holmes counties, Mississippi, USA, and a range of commodity prices to compare the change in economic and environmental opportunities available through economically targeted conservation enrollment between the 2014 Farm Bill and the 2018 Farm Bill. I found the 2014 Farm Bill was consistently higher in economic revenue and conservation opportunity compared to the 2018 Farm Bill

Corporations have gathered data about their business and employees for as long as the concept of business has existed. With the digitalization of the world, the possibility of how much data is stored has exploded and today it can be hard for companies and especially managers to make sense of all stored data. Utilizing this data is something that has grown to be very popular but how to do it is not straightforward. The objective of the thesis was to discover what data is important for an organization and how that should be used and visualized in a digital environment. The design thinking framework was used to come up with the best possible design for a digital support tool for managers. The resulting prototype proposes a way of how trends and accomplishments among coworkers, a list of things the manager have to take action on, how the team has reported on projects, monthly reports for budgetary target, time to customer, working time, and profitability and lastly visualization of the following data over time; "pejling", "time to customer", "internal time", "hourly rate", "working time", "profitability", "absence", and "overtime" should be designed in a digital support tool. / Företag har samlat data om deras organisation och anställda så länge som kon- ceptet företag har funnits. Med digitaliseringen av världen har möjligheterna för hur mycket data som sparas exploderat och idag kan det vara svårt för före- tag och speciellt chefer att förstå all sparad data. Att utnyttja det här datat har växt till att bli väldigt populärt men hur man gör det är inte självklart. Målet med det här examensarbetet var att förstå vilket data som är viktigt för en organisation och hur det ska användas och visualiseras i en digital miljö. Design thinking ramverket användes för att ta fram den bästa möjliga designen för ett digitalt chefsstöd. Den resulterande prototypen visar ett sätt på hur trender och prestationer bland medarbetare, lista med saker en chef måste ta tag i, hur teamet har rapporterat på projekt, månadsrapporter för budgetmål, tid mot kund, arbetstid och lönsamhet, och slutligen visualisering av följande data över tid; "pejling", "tid mot kund", "interntid", "timpris", "arbetstid", "lönsamhet", "frånvaro" och "övertid" kan designas i ett digitalt chefsstöd.

The study area for this dissertation is Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. / The general theme of this dissertation is understanding and enabling safe walking routes to school for children. We restrict our focus to safety issues related to the motorized-transportation environment, thereby defining safety as a function of factors that determine whether or not a child will be struck by a motor-vehicle on their journey to or from school. Our analysis is unique because it is at a small geographical scale but is representative of an entire urban environment. Working at a small geographic scale allows us to evaluate the variability in safe routes for children within our study area and apply our findings to develop a decision support tool that could be used to plan individualized routes for children in other similar urban environments. Our study area for this dissertation is Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The findings in this dissertation contribute ideas about how features of the local road environment may and may not influence risk of collisions between child pedestrians and motor-vehicles. It also offers methodological insight for future research on pedestrian safety at small geographic scales. This dissertation demonstrates the potential reduction in the risk of child pedestrian injuries by planning safer routes to school and also introduces methods that can be used to plan safer routes for children. Our results are a reminder of the importance of understanding the interaction between environment and behaviour in research on traffic safety and offer some caution to the notion of a universal 'safe route' to school. Whether or not a particular route to school is safe will very likely be dependent both on the environment and the child's behaviour in that environment. / Dissertation / Doctor of Social Science

No description available.

Pinhole corrosion leak in home plumbing has emerged as a significant issue. In the major water distribution system managed by municipalities and water utilities the costs are distributed among all subscribers. The home plumbing repair/replacement cost and possible water damage cost must be addressed by the home owner. There are also issues of the value of home, insurance rates, health consequences, and taste and odor problems. These issues have become major concerns to home owners. Cradle to grave life cycle assessment is becoming an integral part of industrial manufacturing. In this thesis comprehensive details pertaining to life cycle assessment are presented. Copper tubing for plumbing installations is mainly obtained from recycled copper. Various stages of copper plumbing pipe manufacturing are explained. A comprehensive synthesis of various corrosion mechanisms is presented. Particular reference is given to copper plumbing pipe corrosion. A decision support tool for replacing copper plumbing pipes is presented. The deterioration process is grouped into early, normal and late stages. Because available data reflects late stage process, an optimization, neural network and curve fitting models are developed to infer early and normal stage behavior of the plumbing system. Utilizing the inferred leak rates a non-homogeneous poisson process model is developed to generate leak arrival times. An economically sustainable replacement criterion is adopted to determine optimal replacement time. / Master of Science

Résumé Cette étude quasi expérimentale consistait à élaborer et à mettre à l’essai une mesure de soutien à l’intention d’enseignants débutants ainsi qu’à évaluer l’efficacité de celle-ci. L’une des particularités de cette mesure, appelée Dispositif de soutien en gestion de classe, était qu’elle était centrée essentiellement sur le développement de la compétence à gérer la classe. L’application du dispositif, échelonnée sur une année scolaire, portait sur une trentaine d’enseignants débutants œuvrant au primaire, en milieu défavorisé, à Montréal. Basé sur les trois phases du modèle théorique d’Archambault et Chouinard (2003), le dispositif se déclinait selon trois cycles de formation : l’établissement du fonctionnement de la classe, le maintien de celui-ci et le soutien à la motivation scolaire, ainsi que l’intervention pour résoudre des problèmes de comportement. Chaque cycle commençait par une journée de formation et d’appropriation (JFA) durant laquelle il y avait présentation d’un contenu théorique puis des ateliers d’appropriation. Par la suite, les enseignants effectuaient des mises en pratique dans leur classe. Pour terminer le cycle, un autre type de rencontre, la rencontre de suivi (RS), servait entre autres à objectiver la pratique. L’aspect original de cette mesure de soutien était que la première rencontre de formation était offerte une semaine avant la rentrée scolaire. Sur le thème « Commencer l’année du bon pied en gestion de classe », cette journée avait pour objectif de soutenir les enseignants débutants dans l’installation du fonctionnement de leur classe. L’efficacité du dispositif a été évaluée sur la base de trois dimensions : l’établissement et le maintien de l’ordre et de la discipline, le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle ainsi que la motivation professionnelle. Les perceptions du groupe d’enseignants débutants ayant pris part aux activités du dispositif (n = 27) ont été comparées à celles d’un groupe témoin (n = 44). Les participants avaient, en moyenne, 2,9 années d’expérience et leur âge variait de 23 à 56 ans. Les données ont été recueillies à l’aide d’un questionnaire auto rapporté rempli en deux temps, soit au deuxième et au huitième mois de l’année scolaire. Les scores des enseignants débutants du dispositif ont augmenté dans le temps pour l’ensemble des variables à l’étude. De plus, les analyses de variance à mesures répétées ont révélé que le dispositif a eu une triple incidence positive, attestée par des effets d’interaction. Les enseignants débutants engagés dans la démarche ont connu une augmentation de leur capacité à implanter les règles de classe, de leur sentiment d’efficacité personnelle à gérer les situations d’apprentissage et de leur motivation professionnelle. En effet, alors que, au début de l’étude, ils rapportaient des scores significativement inférieurs à ceux du groupe témoin, à la fin, les scores étaient équivalents. Les résultats ont aussi montré que les participants du groupe expérimental se distinguaient en affichant un meilleur sentiment d’efficacité à faire apprendre leurs élèves. L’étude nous apprend également que le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle à faire face aux problèmes de comportement et la capacité à gérer les comportements se sont renforcés de façon significative dans le temps chez l’ensemble des enseignants débutants. Finalement, aucun changement significatif n’a été détecté pour deux des huit variables à l’étude : le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle à avoir un effet sur le comportement des élèves et l’application des règles de classe. En définitive, ces résultats sont encourageants. Ils montrent l’enrichissement professionnel que les enseignants débutants peuvent retirer lorsqu’ils sont soutenus adéquatement. Nous croyons que la journée de formation portant sur l’installation du fonctionnement de la classe, avant la rentrée scolaire, a joué un rôle central dans les succès vécus par les enseignants débutants participants. C’est pourquoi nous recommandons ce type de formation assorti d’un suivi à long terme, où d’autres composantes entrent en jeu, afin de nourrir le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle et la motivation professionnelle des nouveaux enseignants. / Abstract The purpose of this quasi experimental study was to develop, test and assess the effectiveness of a support measure for new entrant teachers. One of the characteristics of this measure called “Support tool for classroom management” was to focus on the development of classroom management skills. The study extended over one school year and involved about thirty new primary school teachers in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Montreal. Based on Archambault and Chouinard’s three-phase theoretical model (2003), the tool consisted of three training cycles: develop classroom dynamics, maintain and support academic focus, and act to solve behavior problems. Each cycle began with a training session during which theoretical content was presented, and then followed by hands-on sessions. Afterwards, teachers practiced implementation in their classroom. To complete the cycle, another type of meeting called the “follow-up” meeting was scheduled to, among other things, objectify the practice. The original aspect of this support measure was to provide the first training session one week before the start of the school year. The objective of this first session, themed “Getting off to a good start in classroom management”, was to support new entrant teachers in establishing classroom dynamics. To determine the tool’s effectiveness, we based our assessment on the following three dimensions: development and maintenance of order and discipline, self-efficacy and career motivation. The perceptions of a group of new entrant teachers who participated in tool-related activities (n = 27) were compared with the ones of teachers in a control group (n = 44). Globally, participants had on average 2.9 years of experience and were between 23 and 56 years of age. The data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire that was administered in two stages, in the second and eighth months of the school year. New entrant teachers reported improvements on all study variables. In addition, repeated measures analyses of variance revealed that the tool had had a triple positive impact, as was demonstrated by interaction effects. New entrant teachers who used the tool increased their ability to enforce classroom rules, their self-efficacy at managing learning situations, and their motivation on the job. While they reported significantly lower results at the beginning of the study, the results of the treatment and control groups had become equivalent at the end. The results also indicated that treatment group participants had gained confidence in their teaching skills. The study also revealed that the sense of personal effectiveness at managing behavior problems and the capacity to manage behaviors were significantly reinforced over time amongst all new entrant teachers. Finally, two out the eight study variables did not have a significant effect: sense of personal effectiveness at making an impact on student behavior, and classroom rules enforcement. Ultimately, these results are encouraging. They demonstrate that new entrant teachers can benefit from professional enrichment when they are adequately supported. We believe that the training session on classroom dynamics that took place a week before the start of the school year played a central role in the success of the new entrant teachers who participated in the study. Therefore, we recommend this type of training, along with long-term monitoring, to increase the self-efficacy of new entrant teachers, and, ultimately, to enhance their career motivation.