While regular maintenance of roads and bridges are essential to ensure a high level of service for road users, road users typically do not prefer having to drive through a construction zone because of the lower speed and increased possibilities of crashes. These road user inconveniences are typically ignored or not given much weight while planning, developing, and awarding construction and maintenance projects. Typically, a contractor with the lowest bid is awarded a construction project irrespective of whether the project will be completed in a shorter or longer duration if the duration is within a provided limit. Such a decision-making process, known as "the apparent lowest bidder," is the most common method for selecting the best contractor for construction projects, even though quicker completion of a construction project results in reduced inconvenience to the road users. To overcome this limitation, state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) have started to use the monetary quantification of the road user inconveniences, known as the road user cost, while selecting the best contractor for a project. However, monetary quantification of the road user cost is a significant challenge to state DOTs. Many state DOTs lack a systematic methodology to compute the road user cost or have inconsistent methodologies within the same state DOT. Currently, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) does not have a systematic methodology to compute the road user cost. This study aims to review existing methodologies from other state DOTs across the U.S. to identify the best practices for calculating the road user cost. To achieve this, the study reviewed existing literature on the subject and conducted a nationwide survey questionnaire covering all 50 state DOTs. The survey result shows that 34 out of 37 responding state DOTs are currently calculating the road user cost. More than half of the state DOTs have developed their state-specific methodologies for various purposes, including A+B contract evaluation, incentives/disincentives determination, and benefit-cost analysis for alternative project evaluation. The delay cost and the vehicle operating costs are the two most common components to compute the road user costs. As the road user cost calculation requires additional time and effort, it is calculated only for a limited number of construction projects based on the project's duration, location, and complexity. Most state DOTs prefer and use a spreadsheet-based tool to ease the calculation process. The survey results provide the most extensive and detailed information about the current practices of calculating the road user costs in the U.S. The survey results will be used to develop a new methodology to compute road user costs for TDOT. Other state DOTs can also use the study's findings to improve their road user cost calculation methodologies. Such improved methodology will help state DOTs make more informed contract-management decisions and reduce inconveniences to road users. Keywords: Road User's Cost, Department of Transportation, Work Zone, A+B Bidding

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:14:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2002-04-01T00:00:00Z / Electronic commerce is already a Brazilian reality. However, this modality of electronic business hasn't yet achieved its full potential, especially referring to business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. Several factors are pointed as restrictions to its growth, but none is more on the spot, or more controversial than Internet security, especially on electronic transactions. This research analyzes security matters from an Internet user 's point of view, since lhe Web user 's security perception leads to trust, and trust ajJects electronic purchase decisions, including how much he or she will buy through Internet. Internet security, often taken as the biggest problem in digital world, is now alternatively understood as an ecommerce foundation, and consequently, a huge competitive advantage for e-business. / O comércio eletrônico já é uma realidade brasileira. Contudo, esta modalidade de negócio eletrônico ainda não atingiu o seu pleno potencial, especialmente nas negociações orientadas para o consumidor (B2C). Vários fatores são apontados como restrições ao seu crescimento, mas nenhum deles é tão destacado e controvertido quanto a segurança na Internet, especialmente nas transações eletrônicas. Este trabalho analisa a questão da segurança do ponto de vista dos usuários de Internet, uma vez que a percepção de segurança dos internautas determina a sua confiança, e a sua confiança influencia a sua decisão de compra eletrônica e a abrangência das compras realizadas através da Internet. A segurança, vista freqüentemente como a grande vilã no mundo digital, passa a ser entendida alternativamente como um dos fundamentos do comércio eletrônico e, conseqüentemente, uma grande vantagem competitiva para os negócios eletrônicos.

A extração de metadados semânticos de vídeos digitais para uso em serviços de personalização é importante, já que o conteúdo é adaptado segundo as preferências de cada usuário. Entretanto, apesar de serem encontradas várias propostas na literatura, as técnicas de indexação automática são capazes de gerar informações semânticas apenas quando o domínio do conteúdo é restrito. Alternativamente, existem técnicas para a criação manual dessas informações por profissionais, contudo, são dispendiosas e suscetíveis a erros. Uma possível solução seria explorar anotações colaborativas dos usuários, mas tal estratégia provoca a perda de individualidade dos dados, impedindo a extração de preferências do indivíduo a partir da interação. Este trabalho tem como objetivo propor uma arquitetura de personalização que permite a indexação multimídia de modo irrestrito e barato, utilizando anotações colaborativas, mas mantendo-se a individualidade dos dados para complementar o perfil de interesses do usuário com conceitos relevantes. A multimodalidade de metadados e de preferências também é explorada na presente tese, fornecendo maior robustez na extração dessas informações, e obtendo-se uma maior carga semântica que traz benefícios às aplicações. Como prova de conceito, este trabalho apresenta dois serviços de personalização que exploram a arquitetura proposta, avaliando os resultados por meio de comparações com abordagens previamente propostas na literatura / The extraction of semantic information from digital video is important to be used on personalization services because the content is adapted according to each users preferences. However, although it is possible to find several approaches in the literature, automatic indexing techniques are able to generate semantic metadata only when the contents domain is restricted. Alternatively, this information can be created manually by professionals, but this activity is time-consuming and error-prone. A possible solution would be to explore collaborative users annotations, but such approach has the disadvantage of lacking the individuality of annotations, hampering the extraction of users preferences from the interaction. This work has the objective of proposing a generic personalization architecture that allows multimedia indexing procedures to be accomplished in a cheap and unrestricted way. Such architecture uses collaborative annotations, but keeps the individuality of the data in order to augment the users profile with relevant concepts. The multimodality of metadata and users preferences is also explored in this work, which provides robustness during the extraction of semantic information, bringing benefits to applications. This work also presents two personalization services that explore the proposed architecture, along with evaluations that compare the obtained results with previously proposed approaches

Atualmente as dificuldades enfrentadas no deslocamento urbano são consideradas um dos maiores problemas, especialmente nas grandes cidades. O planejamento adequado do sistema de transporte urbano é fundamental para minimizar o tempo e os custos de deslocamento, melhorando a qualidade de vida da população e o próprio funcionamento do ambiente urbano. Esta dissertação parte da premissa de que os sistemas de simulação podem ser usados para estudar diferentes alternativas para melhorar o sistema de transportes, servindo de base para a tomada de decisão de forma a otimizar o deslocamento urbano. Assim, este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de um modelo computacional para simulação do sistema de transporte urbano. O modelo proposto combina características dos modelos mesoscópicos e microscópicos, incluindo o comportamento dos usuários no planejamento da rota. Um framework para o desenvolvimento de aplicações de simulação é descrito e testado com uma implementação usando como cenário o Metropolitano de São Paulo (Metrô), considerando-se dados da pesquisa Origem-Destino para teste e validação do modelo aqui proposto. / Nowadays, the difficulties faced in urban displacement are considered a major problem, especially in big cities. Proper urban transport system planning is essential to minimize travel time and costs, improving quality of life and improving the urban environment. This master thesis starts from the premise that simulation systems can be used to study different alternatives to improve the transport system, so that decision making can be better justified and can optimize the urban displacement. Therefore, this work presents the development of a computational model for urban transportation system simulation. The model proposed targets mesoscopic and microscopic models, including user behaviors of route planning. A framework for development of simulation applications is described, with an implementation using as scenario the Metropolitano of São Paulo (Metrô) for model testing, considering data from Origem-Destino survey for testing and validation of the model here proposed.

Atualmente as dificuldades enfrentadas no deslocamento urbano são consideradas um dos maiores problemas, especialmente nas grandes cidades. O planejamento adequado do sistema de transporte urbano é fundamental para minimizar o tempo e os custos de deslocamento, melhorando a qualidade de vida da população e o próprio funcionamento do ambiente urbano. Esta dissertação parte da premissa de que os sistemas de simulação podem ser usados para estudar diferentes alternativas para melhorar o sistema de transportes, servindo de base para a tomada de decisão de forma a otimizar o deslocamento urbano. Assim, este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de um modelo computacional para simulação do sistema de transporte urbano. O modelo proposto combina características dos modelos mesoscópicos e microscópicos, incluindo o comportamento dos usuários no planejamento da rota. Um framework para o desenvolvimento de aplicações de simulação é descrito e testado com uma implementação usando como cenário o Metropolitano de São Paulo (Metrô), considerando-se dados da pesquisa Origem-Destino para teste e validação do modelo aqui proposto. / Nowadays, the difficulties faced in urban displacement are considered a major problem, especially in big cities. Proper urban transport system planning is essential to minimize travel time and costs, improving quality of life and improving the urban environment. This master thesis starts from the premise that simulation systems can be used to study different alternatives to improve the transport system, so that decision making can be better justified and can optimize the urban displacement. Therefore, this work presents the development of a computational model for urban transportation system simulation. The model proposed targets mesoscopic and microscopic models, including user behaviors of route planning. A framework for development of simulation applications is described, with an implementation using as scenario the Metropolitano of São Paulo (Metrô) for model testing, considering data from Origem-Destino survey for testing and validation of the model here proposed.

The Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study for adults has never had any created norms in terms of Czech population. Since the time of creation its graphical stimulus material became old and nearly unusable. The purpose of this text is to show the method P-F Study to the readers and than to introduce new version for adults PFT (C-W) prepared for publication. There is also a version presented on separate cards, which is part of the new set. The validity and test-retest reliability was verified previously, but reliability was also examined by agreement of two independent evaluators. The standardisation was realized on the sample of 300 persons in age from 18 to 81 years. The new norms were created for factors, categories, S-E patterns and GCR. Also the scoring and compilation of the scoring blank was adapted. Key words: aggression, frustration, projective method, Rosenzweig P-F Study, user's manual

A extração de metadados semânticos de vídeos digitais para uso em serviços de personalização é importante, já que o conteúdo é adaptado segundo as preferências de cada usuário. Entretanto, apesar de serem encontradas várias propostas na literatura, as técnicas de indexação automática são capazes de gerar informações semânticas apenas quando o domínio do conteúdo é restrito. Alternativamente, existem técnicas para a criação manual dessas informações por profissionais, contudo, são dispendiosas e suscetíveis a erros. Uma possível solução seria explorar anotações colaborativas dos usuários, mas tal estratégia provoca a perda de individualidade dos dados, impedindo a extração de preferências do indivíduo a partir da interação. Este trabalho tem como objetivo propor uma arquitetura de personalização que permite a indexação multimídia de modo irrestrito e barato, utilizando anotações colaborativas, mas mantendo-se a individualidade dos dados para complementar o perfil de interesses do usuário com conceitos relevantes. A multimodalidade de metadados e de preferências também é explorada na presente tese, fornecendo maior robustez na extração dessas informações, e obtendo-se uma maior carga semântica que traz benefícios às aplicações. Como prova de conceito, este trabalho apresenta dois serviços de personalização que exploram a arquitetura proposta, avaliando os resultados por meio de comparações com abordagens previamente propostas na literatura / The extraction of semantic information from digital video is important to be used on personalization services because the content is adapted according to each users preferences. However, although it is possible to find several approaches in the literature, automatic indexing techniques are able to generate semantic metadata only when the contents domain is restricted. Alternatively, this information can be created manually by professionals, but this activity is time-consuming and error-prone. A possible solution would be to explore collaborative users annotations, but such approach has the disadvantage of lacking the individuality of annotations, hampering the extraction of users preferences from the interaction. This work has the objective of proposing a generic personalization architecture that allows multimedia indexing procedures to be accomplished in a cheap and unrestricted way. Such architecture uses collaborative annotations, but keeps the individuality of the data in order to augment the users profile with relevant concepts. The multimodality of metadata and users preferences is also explored in this work, which provides robustness during the extraction of semantic information, bringing benefits to applications. This work also presents two personalization services that explore the proposed architecture, along with evaluations that compare the obtained results with previously proposed approaches

The goal of this thesis is to create a music player for smartphones as well as PCs that works with local music files in the user's device and which can learn which songs does the user like based on their actions during listening to music. The music player can, among other things, remember which songs were skipped by the user, when was volume turned up, or how many times was a certain song played. Each song has a score that is calculated based on these actions. With a higher score, there is also a higher chance of playing the song in the future. The results of my thesis are two full-featured versions of music player, which are capable of communication with each other to ensure synchronization of song scores. The main benefit of this thesis is an improvement of user experience during listening to music, which is achieved by the application's algorithm for song selection and minimalistic user interface.

The monetary quantification of inconveniences caused to the road users by ongoing construction activities is known as the Road Users Costs (RUCs). While the importance of RUCs is widely known, some highway agencies lack an appropriate methodology to compute RUCs. Thus, there is a need to develop a framework to compute RUCs that can be adopted quickly by highway agencies. This study reviewed existing literature and conducted a nationwide survey to identify and summarize the current practices of computing RUCs. It developed an enhanced framework and tool to compute RUCs that balances the effort required to calculate RUCs and the accuracy of the results. This enhanced framework accounts for the spatiotemporal variation of RUCs. The results of the study are expected to enable highway agencies to quickly and accurately compute RUCs to make better project management decisions, such as selecting the best contractor that minimizes the agency costs and RUCs.

The complexity of data stored in large databases has increased at very fast paces. Hence, operations more elaborated than traditional queries are essential in order to extract all required information from the database. Therefore, the interest of the database community in similarity search has increased significantly. Two of the well-known types of similarity search are the Range (\'R IND. q\') and the k-Nearest Neighbor (\'kNN IND. q\') queries, which, as any of the traditional ones, can be sped up by indexing structures of the Database Management System (DBMS). Another way of speeding up queries is to perform query optimization. In this process, metrics about data are collected and employed to adjust the parameters of the search algorithms in each query execution. However, although the integration of similarity search into DBMS has begun to be deeply studied more recently, the query optimization has been developed and employed just to answer traditional queries. The execution of similarity queries, even using efficient indexing structures, tends to present higher computational cost than the execution of traditional ones. Two strategies can be applied to speed up the execution of any query, and thus they are worth to employ to answer also similarity queries. The first strategy is query rewriting based on algebraic properties and cost functions. The second technique is when external query factors are applied, such as employing the semantic expected by the user, to prune the answer space. This thesis aims at contributing to the development of novel techniques to improve the similarity-based query optimization processing, exploiting both algebraic properties and semantic restrictions as query refinements / A complexidade dos dados armazenados em grandes bases de dados tem aumentado sempre, criando a necessidade de novas operações de consulta. Uma classe de operações de crescente interesse são as consultas por similaridade, das quais as mais conhecidas são as consultas por abrangência (\'R IND. q\') e por k-vizinhos mais próximos (\'kNN IND. q\'). Qualquer consulta e agilizada pelas estruturas de indexação dos Sistemas de Gerenciamento de Bases de Dados (SGBDs). Outro modo de agilizar as operações de busca e a manutenção de métricas sobre os dados, que são utilizadas para ajustar parâmetros dos algoritmos de busca em cada consulta, num processo conhecido como otimização de consultas. Como as buscas por similaridade começaram a ser estudadas seriamente para integração em SGBDs muito mais recentemente do que as buscas tradicionais, a otimização de consultas, por enquanto, e um recurso que tem sido utilizado para responder apenas a consultas tradicionais. Mesmo utilizando as melhores estruturas existentes, a execução de consultas por similaridade tende a ser mais custosa do que as operações tradicionais. Assim, duas estratégias podem ser utilizadas para agilizar a execução de qualquer consulta e, assim, podem ser empregadas também para responder às consultas por similaridade. A primeira estratégia e a reescrita de consultas baseada em propriedades algébricas e em funções de custo. A segunda técnica faz uso de fatores externos à consulta, tais como a semântica esperada pelo usuário, para restringir o espaço das respostas. Esta tese pretende contribuir para o desenvolvimento de técnicas que melhorem o processo de otimização de consultas por similaridade, explorando propriedades algebricas e restrições semânticas como refinamento de consultas