Two way left turn lanes (TWLTL) and raised medians are common median treatments on roadways. This research focused on evaluating the safety effectiveness of conversion of TWLTLs into raised medians using Before-After and Cross Sectional Studies. In the Before-After Studies, we evaluated the effect of this treatment using the Naive, Before-After with Comparison Group (CG), and Before-After with Empirical Bayes (EB) Methods. In order to apply these methods, a total of 33 segments of a treated group and 109 segments of a comparison group have been collected. Also, safety performance functions (SPFs) have been developed using the negative binomial model in order to calibrate crash modification factors (CMF) using the Before-After with Empirical Bayes Method. This research also evaluated the safety effectiveness of this treatment on four and six lane roads using Before-After with CG and Before-After with EB. The type of raised medians was further evaluated using Before-After with CG and EB. In sum, the results from this study show that applying the before-After and Cross Sectional studies have proved that the conversion from a TWLTL to a raised median helped to reduce total, fatal and injury, head on, angle, and left turn crashes. It significantly reduces crashes for head-on and left turn crashes, by restricting turning maneuvers. Also, this study has proved that the treatment is more effective on four rather than six lane roads. Furthermore, two types of raised medians, concrete and lawn curb, were evaluated after the conversion from TWLTLs. It was found that both medians have similar effects due to the conversion, and both median types helped in reducing the number of crashes.

No description available.

Educators of students with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities face a significant challenge in preparing their students while in school to function, acquire, and maintain skills that would facilitate successful performance in the workforce while in supported and/or independent employment after graduation. The field of special education still debates about the best way to teach students with moderate intellectual disabilities, the best setting for their instruction and the best instructional schedule. The current research investigated the effectiveness and efficiency of three instructional schedules in the skill acquisition and generalization of two-way radio usage to report task completion by high school students with moderate intellectual disabilities. The instructional schedules investigated were: (a) community-based instruction only (CBI), (b) community based instruction plus simulated instruction in the classroom-same day (CBISC) and (c) simulated instruction in the classroom only (SICO). A Multiple Probe Design across participants with intermittent probe trials within each instructional group, and an added generalization phase (Horner & Baer, 1978; Tawney & Gast, 1984; Alberto & Troutman, 2003) was employed in this study. Nine high school students with moderate intellectual disabilities, three in each instructional schedule, were taught to use a two-way radio to report task completion. The results of the study revealed that the CBI instructional schedule was the overall most efficient instructional schedule for skill acquisition. Two of the CBI participants required the least number of trials to learn to use a two-way radio to report task completion. The second most efficient schedule was the CBISC and the least efficient instructional schedule was the SICO. Based on Mean scores, learning efficiency appeared to be greater for the participants in the CBI and CBISC instructional schedule. These participants required the least number of intrusive prompts. Results indicated that the SICO instructional scheduled was more efficient for only one participant. This participant only required verbal prompts for acquisition of the skill. However, participant one on the SICO instructional schedule required the most intrusive prompts of all participants across groups. For generalization, the CBISC instructional schedule appeared to be the most effective. In this schedule, the two participants that concluded the study generalized the skill across three novel settings with 100% accuracy. The SICO schedule, also had two participants generalized the skill across three novel settings; however, one participant in that group failed to generalize the skill in two settings. The CBI instructional schedule appeared to be the least effective for skill generalization in this study. In this schedule, only one participant generalized the skill in all three novel settings.

This thesis investigates a parametric study of a flat plate floor system designed using post-tensioning. The load balanced by the post-tensioning, the slab depth, and the strength of concrete were varied to create the parametric study of a hotel/condominium grid layout. In order to perform the parametric study, research was conducted on the development of post-tensioning, methods of analysis for two-way slab design, and post-tensioning methods of analysis. Design was conducted by hand through a series of Excel spreadsheets and compared to results found using the computer analysis program, ADAPT-PT. The designs found in the parametric study were then used to perform a cost analysis across ten cities in the United States: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Seattle. The designs from the hand analysis and the ADAPT-PT model provided similar results for the post-tensioning, and both methods provide an adequate design. The use of ADAPT-PT is recommended because of its ease of use and quick calculation capabilities. The designs of the hand analysis were quantified and along with unit prices gathered from contractors and suppliers the cost analysis found that the design with 100% of the dead load balanced provided the least expensive solution for all the cities, and the design using a 6000 psi strength concrete provide the most expensive solution for all cities. The least expensive slab design was $9.02 per square foot in Atlanta, Georgia, and the most expensive slab design was $24.96 per square foot in Miami, Florida. A more rigorous parametric study in the future may provide a better optimization for the hotel/condominium slab investigated as the parametric study of this thesis found costs which varied by less than 10% between the most expensive and least expensive slabs in the ten cities.

В магистерской диссертации изложены результаты исследований, направленные на выявление индивидуальных потребностей человека, способствующих повышению мотивации к занятиям фитнесом и приобщению молодых людей к здоровому образу жизни. / A Master's thesis results of researches focused on revealing of person individual needs, promoting motivation to fitness classes and young people involvement in healthy way of life are presented.

Förskolans styrdokument är vägledande för vad förskollärare ska undervisa, vilket innefattar undervisning i dans som bidrar till estetiska lärprocesser. Syftet med studien är att skapa en bild av förskollärares syn på undervisning i dans som estetisk uttrycksform och hur de omsätter den i praktiken. Studien tar utgångspunkt i estetiskt teoretiska begrepp. Studien är kvalitativ med elva semistrukturerade individuella intervjuer i empirin där alla informanter är förskollärare. Vi har valt att använda oss av kvalitativ innehållsanalys med syfte att kunna fördjupa oss i förskollärarnas svar och resonemang inom vårt fokusområde. Resultatet visar att undervisning i dans som estetisk uttrycksform i förskolan praktiseras i syfte att skapa positiva känslor hos barnen, gemenskap och fysisk träning och som ett sätt att uttrycka sig. / Preschool regulatory documents indicate what preschool teachers shall teach, which includes education in dancing that contributes to aesthetic learning processes. The aim of the study is to create a picture of preschool teachers view of dancing as a mean of expression and put it in to practice. The study takes its point of departure in aesthetic theoretical concepts. The study is qualitative including eleven semi-structured individual interviews in empiricism where all informants are preschool teachers. We have chosen to use qualitative analysis of content with the aim to deepening our understanding of preschool teachers answers and reasoning within our area of focus. The result shows that education in dance as an aesthetic way of expression is practiced with the aim of creating positive feelings and emotions among children, kinship and physical exercise and as a way of expressing oneself.

Denna kvantitativa studie undersöker faktorer som kan ha påverkat resultatet på Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions medarbetarundersökning relaterat till påståendet "There is open and honest two-way communication at our company” och varför. Studien tillämpade en enkät som distribuerades på Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions intranät och via e-post och fanns att tillgå för cirka 1900 medarbetare. Totalt besvarade 34 medarbetare på studiens enkät.  Sara von Platens avhandling “Internkommunikation och meningsskapande vid strategisk organisationsförändring: En studie av Sveriges Television” och Mats Heides avhandling “Intranät - En ny arena för kommunikation och lärande” används för perspektiv med relevans för denna studies forskning. Vidare utgår studiens teoretiska ramverk från tvåvägskommunikation, organisationskommunikation och organisationskultur. Studien berör och diskuterar utöver dessa teorier även internkommunikation i relation till studiens resultat.  Inhämtad empiri tyder på att brist på återkoppling, dålig kommunikation och information mellan Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions olika divisioner, utebliven information och brist på att alla får ta del av information kan vara faktorer som påverkat att Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions fått ett lägre resultat på deras senaste medarbetarundersökning kopplat till påståendet "There is open and honest two-way communication at our company”. Upplevd kultur inom organisationen, brist på engagemang från medarbetare och brist på att involvera medarbetare i kommunikationen kan även ha bidragit till att medarbetarundersökningen fick ett lägre resultat kopplat till påståendet som nämnts. / This qualitative study examines factors that may have influenced the results of Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions employee survey related to the statement “There is open and honest two-way communication at our company” and why.  The study applied a survey that was distributed on Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions intranet and was sent out by their internet and e-mail. The survey was available to about 1,900 employees. A total of 34 employees responded to the study’s questionnaire. Sara von Platen’s thesis “Internal communication and meaning-making in strategic organizational change: A study of Swedish Television” and Mats Heide’s thesis “Intranet – A new arena for communication and learning” intended for perspectives with relevance for this study. The study's theoretical framework is based on two-way communication, organizational communication, and organizational culture. In addition to these theories, the study also addresses and discusses internal communication. Collected empirical evidence indicates that lack of feedback, poor communication and information sharing among Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions different divisions and lack of information and failure to provide information to all employees may have affected the results of Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions employee survey related to the statement “There is open and honest two-way communication at our company”. The study further interprets that the culture perceived within the organization, as well as lack of engagement and involvement of employees in communication may also contributed to the lower result.

Asynchronous iterative algorithms are parallel iterative algorithms in which communications and iterations are not synchronized among processors. Thus, as soon as a processing unit finishes its own calculations, it starts the next cycle with the latest data received during a previous cycle, without waiting for any other processing unit to complete its own calculation. These algorithms increase the number of updates in some processors (as compared to the synchronous case) but suppress most idle times. This usually results in a reduction of the (execution) time to achieve convergence. Optimized Schwarz methods (OSM) are domain decomposition methods in which the transmission conditions between subdomains contain operators of the form \linebreak $\partial/\partial \nu +\Lambda$, where $\partial/\partial \nu$ is the outward normal derivative and $\Lambda$ is an optimized local approximation of the global Steklov-Poincar\'e operator. There is more than one family of transmission conditions that can be used for a given partial differential equation (e.g., the $OO0$ and $OO2$ families), each of these families containing a particular approximation of the Steklov-Poincar\'e operator. These transmission conditions have some parameters that are tuned to obtain a fast convergence rate. Optimized Schwarz methods are fast in terms of iteration count and can be implemented asynchronously. In this thesis we analyze the convergence behavior of the synchronous and asynchronous implementation of OSM applied to solve partial differential equations with a shifted Laplacian operator in bounded rectangular domains. We analyze two cases. In the first case we have a shift that can be either positive, negative or zero, a one-way domain decomposition and transmission conditions of the $OO2$ family. In the second case we have Poisson's equation, a domain decomposition with cross-points and $OO0$ transmission conditions. In both cases we reformulate the equations defining the problem into a fixed point iteration that is suitable for our analysis, then derive convergence proofs and analyze how the convergence rate varies with the number of subdomains, the amount of overlap, and the values of the parameters introduced in the transmission conditions. Additionally, we find the optimal values of the parameters and present some numerical experiments for the second case illustrating our theoretical results. To our knowledge this is the first time that a convergence analysis of optimized Schwarz is presented for bounded subdomains with multiple subdomains and arbitrary overlap. The analysis presented in this thesis also applies to problems with more general domains which can be decomposed as a union of rectangles. / Mathematics

Property Management, one functional area within Right-of-Way offices in state transportation agencies, is responsible for managing the property acquired for highway projects. These activities are data and document intensive and efficiency for performing them would be improved through the implementation of an information management system. Because of the geospatial nature of many of these activities, geographic information systems (GIS) would increase the effectiveness of this system. A literature review and survey were conducted to understand the current state of practice for the use of GIS and information management systems in Property Management. There is no identified comprehensive system that covers all Property Management activities. An initial step in developing a geospatially-enabled enterprise-level information management system, a logical model was developed. This included developing the business process diagram, business process models, and use case models based on the principles of systems engineering using the Computer Aided Software (CASE) Enterprise Architecture. Activities that would benefit from a geospatial component have been identified and included in the models. The developed models have been validated by working with PennDOT staff. The resulting model serves as a standard template for state transportation agencies and helps conceptualize the advantages of integration and interaction with other systems, and geospatial enablement prior to investment in an information management system. / Master of Science

This research serves to evaluate the ability of optical detection techniques to ascertain the lubricity of revenue service track from a moving platform for railroad applications. A literature review is presented that covers the rail vehicle dynamics that drive the need of Top-of-Rail lubrication and directly affect the manner in which the Top-of-Rail Friction Modifiers (TORFM) and flange grease both spread down rail and eventually wear away. This literature review also highlights previous research in the field of rail lubrication and the benefits that rail lubricants, specifically TORFM, provide for the railroads. Finally, the literature review covers the governing optical principals inherent to the synchronous spot radiometer that has been developed for use in the research as a gloss ratio instrument and also addresses the drawbacks and challenges inherent to applying this type of instrument in the railroad industry. The research then overviews previous rail lubricity sensors developed by the Railway Technologies Laboratory (RTL) at Virginia Tech and the lessons learned from their application. The preceding field testing conducting with a modified second generation rail lubricity sensor and a rail push car is briefly summarized with emphasis on the drawbacks and issues that were used to develop the third generation sensor used for this research. The development of the third generation sensor is covered, including the issues that it attempts to solve from its predecessor and the governing optical principals that govern the operation of the sensor. The laboratory evaluations conducting to commission the sensor are also covered in preparation for deploying the new third generation sensor in medium speed, medium distance revenue service testing. This includes a shakedown run on a siding in Riverside, VA prior to conducting mainline in-service testing. Finally, this research thesis covers the in-service testing on revenue track conducted with the new third generation rail lubricity sensor and the accompanying remote-controlled (RC) rail cart. The two components, when combined, create a Lubricity Assessment System which is capable of being operated at speeds upwards of 10 mph remotely from a follow hy-rail truck. The data collected from this field test is analyzed for the lubricity assessments that are able to be drawn from this initial phase of field service testing. The conclusions from this testing affirm the ability of optical methods to determine and evaluate Top-of-Rail (TOR) lubricity from a moving platform. Specifically, the new sensor is able to identify several local phenomena that demonstrate the high potential for errant evaluation of rail lubricity evaluation from spot check based methods that are solved by evaluating the track in a continuous, moving fashion. Based on the continuous moving data collected for this test, several new signal traits such as the spatial frequency (wavenumber) associated with the passing freight cart wheels in the lubricity signal and the phantom applicator effect of transient lubricity conditions at the entrances and exits of curves can be detected and investigated. The success of this research indicates the continued evaluation of lubricity signals from a moving platform is warranted and suggests the potential for introducing one of these systems to various track metrology cars deployed throughout the United States railroads. / Master of Science / The United States railroads have been employing rail lubricants to the rails since the beginning of the industry and have recently, in the past 20 years, introduced another type of lubricant: Top-of-Rail Friction Modifiers (TORFM). TORFM creates a third body layer between the train wheels and the Top-of-Rail surface to minimize asset wear of both the wheel and rail and to increase the train efficiency. As the United States railroads embrace Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), increased train efficiency can allow the railroads to run longer trains with fewer locomotives. This increases the efficiency and capability of the rail network and also decreases the fuel burned and the amount of rail and wheel wear. TORFM has been proven to be effective and is widely adopted, but the railroads are still in need of tools to determine the presence and absence of these thin and often nearly invisible layers of lubricant on the rail surface. This research uses lasers as tool to quantify the level of lubrication of the rail surface. The presence of rail lubricants, such as TORFM, on the rail surface change the amount of light that is reflected and scattered off the shiny steel surface. These changes are often small but can be captured by photodetectors housed in the instrument. By plotting the detected sensor values, trends in the lubricity signal can be tracked and evaluated to determine the presence or absence of rail lubricants and assess the overall quality of lubrication on the rail at specific locations down track. The research in this thesis takes existing methods that were used for single spot inspections and adapts them to a moving platform. The moving platform is able to continuously scan the Top-of-Rail surface as the instrument moves along and generates continuous moving evaluations of rail lubricity. This can be especially important when the lubricity is not uniform and allows for trends in the data to be analyzed to provide more consistent and precise evaluations of the lubricity trends down rail. Optical tools like this sensor, which are by nature non-contact sensors, can easily be adapted to existing track measurement railcars and deployed system wide. This solves a strong need for railroad engineers: to be able to identify the presence of rail lubricants and evaluate the effectiveness of their lubrication practices.