ASSESSMENT OF A SAFE DRIVING PROGRAM FOR NOVICE DRIVERS AND SMART JERSEY BARRIER DESIGN TO MINIMIZE ANIMAL-TO-VEHICLE COLLISIONS

Each year, the total number of vehicles, motorists, highway infrastructures, and distance traveled by drivers increases on a global basis. This rise in personal and commercial ground vehicle usage brings with it the advantages of the modern age, but it is not without societal cost. Vehicular incidents result in tens of thousands of deaths each year in the United States alone. For this reason, research has been performed to advance driver safety while simultaneously providing wildlife with means to avoid animal-to-vehicle collisions (AVC). In this thesis, two solutions are proposed: a driver education program with classroom experiences, in-vehicle resources, and innovative assessment tools; and a redesigned Jersey highway barrier which offers driver notification and animal egress when wildlife cross roadways. Vehicular crashes accounted annually for 41,338 and 37,648 fatalities between 1994 to 2009 in the United States and European Union, respectively (ECRS, 2012), (FARS, 2012). In general, the skills and experiences of novice drivers do not favorably compare to motorists with significantly greater driving time and life experiences. A safe driving program tailored to young drivers and their at risk behaviors has been collaboratively developed by Clemson University and the Richard Petty Driving Experience. This program educates novice motorists using both in-vehicle and classroom modules based on critical vehicular scenarios identified from accident databases. Appropriate attitudinal behaviors when operating a motor vehicle, general information for car maintenance, and vehicular control strategies are introduced during the classroom and in-vehicle roadway events. During the safe driving program, students participate in four modules: braking to realize proper stopping technique, obstacle avoidance curriculum to facilitate proper lane selection and collision avoidance, tailgating to learn about following distance, and loss of control to react when a vehicle is about to become laterally unstable. Students are evaluated using both in-vehicle instructor metrics and the objective based questionnaires which assess critical driving skills and attitudinal knowledge, respectively. The assessment results from twenty-six driving classes consisting of 662 drivers, whose ages primarily ranged from 15-20 years old, were analyzed. Overall, the participants demonstrated a nearly proficient safe driving skill level at the completion of their respective programs as evidenced by 71.3%, 79.1%, 81.4%, and 80.6% scores during the braking, obstacle avoidance, tailgating, and loss of control modules, respectively. Further, the students displayed while an average 16.4% increase between the pre-and post-test scores on general automotive safety knowledge. Barriers are commonly used on roadways to separate vehicles traveling in opposing directions and to protect against possible head-on collisions. However, these barriers may interfere with wildlife passage such that animals become trapped on the road. Typically, small animals cannot find safe passage across all traffic lanes due to the presence of solid barriers and eventually die if struck by a vehicle. The occurrence of animal-to-vehicle collisions also presents a dangerous scenario for motorists as a driver may intuitively swerve to avoid hitting the animal. In this study, a redesigned Jersey style barrier, named the Clemson smart portal, will be presented and discussed. This roadway barrier features a portal for small animal travel, along with a mechatronic-based warning system to notify drivers of animal passage. The smart barrier concept empowers the animals to cross the roadway through the portal, while a sensor detects their presence and activates a strobe light to alert motorists. Laboratory tests have successfully demonstrated this new barrier\u27s capability to detect animal presence for various scenarios

Analysis and Evaluation of the Macroscopic Organizational Structure of Red Horse

The primary contingency engineering capability within the United States Air Force is provided by Rapid Engineer Deployable, Heavy Operations Readiness Squadron, Engineer (RED HORSE). This thesis examines the macroscopic organizational structure of RED HORSE; that is, the manner in which RED HORSE resources (personnel and equipment) are organized collectively, above the unit (squadron or flight) level. It builds on the findings of the Air Combat Command - sponsored RED HORSE 2010 Strategic Study, and focuses on issues of geographic location and chain of command above the unit level, as the study found these two topics were found to be vital to the accomplishment of the RED HORSE mission. Working in direct cooperation with ACC, this research uses value focused thinking and multi-attribute preference theory to create a hierarchical structure depicting the goals and objectives of a qualified decision maker (ACC/CEX). The research effort generated and evaluated 20 alternatives. The decision analysis model recommends an optimal macroscopic organizational structure whereby RED HORSE units are assigned to different theater commands as the most preferred alternative. Extensive sensitivity analysis showed that the model is very reactive to changes in objective and evaluation measure weights, indicating that further research is required

UPPER EXTREMITY MOTION AND SPRINT RUNNING: A FAREWELL TO ARMS?

Despite a lack of prior research on the topic, the sport coaching community has popularized the use of arm drills for athletes with the intent to enhance sprinting performance. The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of self-restricted arm motion on sprint running velocity. Track & field athletes and team sport athletes (n=15) completed 12 30-meter sprints (six with normal arm motion, six with restricted arm motion) while radar data was collected to quantify running velocity. Using a mono-exponential function, velocity profiles were created for each trial which produced four outcome variables: vmax, amax, τ, and 30-meter sprint time. Differences in group means for all four outcome variables were not substantial between the two experimental conditions. It was concluded that the use of arm motion during maximal effort sprinting does not play a major role in running velocity enhancement

Molecular phylogeny of Diabrotica beetles (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) inferred from analysis of combined mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences

The phylogenetic relationships of thirteen Diabrotica (representing virgifera and fucata species groups) and two outgroup Acalymma beetle species (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) were inferred from the phylogenetic analysis of a combined data set of 1323 bp of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) and the entire second internal transcribed spacer region (ITS-2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA of 362 characters. Species investigated were D. adelpha, D. balteata, D. barberi, D. cristata, D. lemniscata, D. longicornis, D. porracea, D. speciosa, D. undecimpunctata howardi, D. u. undecimpunctata, D. virgifera virgifera, D. v. zeae, D. viridula, and outgroup A. blandulum and A. vittatum. Maximum parsimony (MP), minimum evolution (ME), and maximum likelihood (ML) analyses of combined COI and ITS-2 sequences clearly place species into their traditional morphological species groups with MP and ME analyses resulting in identical topologies. Results generally confer with a prior work based on allozyme data, but within the virgifera species group, D. barberi and D. longicornis strongly resolve as sister taxa as well as monophyletic with the neotropical species, D. viridula, D. cristata and D. lemniscata also resolve as sister taxa. Both relationships are not in congruence with the prior allozyme-based hypothesis. Within the fucata species group, D. speciosa and D. balteata resolve as sister taxa. Results also strongly supported the D. virgifera and D. undecimpunctata subspecies complexes. Our proposed phylogeny provides some insight into current hypotheses regarding distribution status and evolution of various life history traits for Diabrotica

Dispersion Compensation in Acoustic Emission Pipeline Leak Location

The general practice of acoustic leak location relies on two different physical phenomena for determining source location: 1) reduction in signal amplitude with increasing distance from the source (attenuation-based methods), and 2) increase in signal transit time with increasing distance from the source (time-of-flight-based methods). The work discussed here describes efforts at ISU directed at gaining first-principle understanding of the underlying physical phenomena of multi-mode dispersion in fluid filled pipes and to developing time-of-flight source location data processing for such dispersive systems. Results are presented for work detailing the characteristics of pipe propagation, as well as the effect of those characteristics on cross-correlation analysis. Theoretical and experimental results are also shown for two approaches which potentially overcome the limitations of cross-correlation techniques

Development of dual modality lanthanide-doped magnetite nanoparticles for potential biomedical imaging

In recent years, the application of iron oxide nanoparticles for a myriad of research fields has opened many new avenues for possible biomedical applications. The potential to combine the paramagnetic property of iron oxide nanoparticles with the luminescence properties of a lanthanide metal would be an important development in the biomedical imaging of tumors. With the ability to intravenously administer dual functionality nanoparticles such as these, a medical team could have both a magnetic resonance image, (MRI), due to the T2 relaxation of magnetite, along with a fluorescent image through the use of laparoscopic techniques. Both images could then be overlaid to give a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of the affected biological area during surgery or treatment. The purpose of this research was to develop super-paramagnetic magnetite nanoparticles incorporated with a lanthanide metal ion to create dual functionality nanoparticles possessing both paramagnetic properties and monochromatic luminescent properties. The nanoparticles were synthesized using a high temperature-based thermal decomposition method or a low temperature-based co-precipitation method. Once the nanoparticles were synthesized, they were made available for coordination with an organic chromophore to provide the means for luminescence. A chromophore’s, or sensitizer’s purpose is to perform ligand-to-metal energy transfer. For europium, coordinated with the chromophore chosen this light is a bright red, with a wavelength of 614 nm. To optimize the ratio of iron oxide to europium, various theoretical europium doping values for the magnetite nanoparticle were tested. The amount of surface coordination with the chromophore was also tested with each incorporation percentage to determine the optimal light emission for each variance. A third method was developed for synthesizing magnetite nanoparticles. In this case, making core-shell, magnetite cores with a europium shell, nanoparticles. The purpose was to compare europium-doped iron oxide nanoparticles with those surface coated with europium. The same chromophore employed for the europium doped nanoparticles was again used to provide a means for luminescence. Theoretical doping levels of europium to iron oxide for this project were 16:84, 20:80, 30:70, and 40:60 europium to iron oxide for each doped nanoparticle synthesis. The thermal decomposition method being the most efficient at doping with values for theoretical 40:60 europium to iron oxide, and actual doping was found to be 39.56:60.44. Varying amounts of TTA [thenoyltrifluoroactonate] for surface coordination will vary from 16 mg TTA/ 75 mg nanoparticles. This research found low quantum yields for all synthesized nanoparticles, with the highest quantum yield value of 1.8 ± 0.013 %