101-110 of 237 results
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CONVECT (Convective Organization aNd Venting Experiment in Complex Terrain)
PI Curtis James
CO-I Ronny Schroeder
CONVECT is a major meteorological field research project being proposed for July - August 2025 in north-central Arizona. The project is aimed at improving our understanding and ability to predict the convective development and organization of boundary layer thermals, thunderstorms, and mesoscale convective systems during the North American Monsoon (NAM).
The proposed field project is the Convective Organization aNd Venting Experiment in Complex Terrain (CONVECT), focused in north-central Arizona near the city of Prescott. This targeted region, encompassing the Black Hills, Verde and Prescott Valleys, and Mogollon Rim, provides an ideal laboratory for investigating processes connecting complex terrain to boundary-layer and convective processes. During the summer monsoon season, this region experiences frequent deep, precipitating convection. These storms typically initiate over the most prominent terrain features in this region and then may propagate into the populated lower lying areas or send out density currents or buoyancy bores that subsequently initiate new convection. The thunderstorms are generally spatially localized, forming over a deep convective boundary layer, but are often associated with pulse severe conditions (damaging wind gusts or large hail). Some cells may become terrain-locked or exhibit back-building behavior, leading to intense rainfall and flash flooding.
The multi-scale approach proposed for CONVECT will, for the first time, capture the complete physical chain of land-atmosphere processes that drive water vapor transport and monsoonal precipitation over complex terrain at meso- to micro-scales. This diurnally cycling chain includes energy and moisture exchange over a heterogeneous, sloping surface, thermally-driven planetary boundary layer (PBL) circulations, the venting of PBL air into the free troposphere, and the initiation, upscale growth, and propagation of deep convection. The proposed deployment includes a dense network of surface flux and energy balance probes, lower-tropospheric thermodynamic and kinematic profiling systems, mobile radars, and crewed and uncrewed aircraft with in-situ and remote sensors. The campaign will be carefully guided by multi-scale modeling, and in turn, experimental observations will be assimilated to evaluate their impact on multi-scale predictability and the validity of surface layer and PBL parameterizations in complex terrain. The CONVECT science team of instrument scientists and numerical modelers contains the necessary, complementary expertise in the surface layer, the boundary layer, and deep convection to substantially advance understanding of mountain exchange between the surface and free troposphere, as well as extreme precipitation, through a multi-scale lens.
Categories: Faculty-Staff
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Peer Review within a Learning Management System (LMS) in a Face-to-Face (F2F) Course
PI Wendi Kappers
The purpose of this research study is to investigate student collaboration and the effectiveness of peer review on the part of the reviewer to increase understanding of information literacy. Focus upon the Learning Management System (LMS) to support automation of peer review activities is a secondary purpose.
This research paper describes the use of peer review to improve information literacy. Peer-reviewed assignments for learning have been seen favorably within the literature. The articulated benefits range from students feeling more engaged, having expressed less anxiety, or found to be better equipped to perform in unfamiliar areas outside their current learning environments. However, minimal research examines the benefits specifically for the feedback provider (reviewer) when a more modern tool, such as the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) is used. During the fall 2015 semester, a study was conducted to examine the peer review process from the vantage point of the reviewer when mitigated by an LMS. Since peer review is seen as a social activity, this study is guided by a social constructivism teaching framework to investigate peer review activities for (a) linear relationships to that of a perceived social element inclusion, (b) changes in learning from the perspective of the reviewer rather than the receiver of feedback, and (c) improvement in perceived information literacy. Additionally, this research examines Canvas attributes as identified by Sondergaard & Mulder(1) (2012) of (a) Automation, (b) Simplicity, (c) Customizability, and (d) Accessibility, which support statements from the literature that indicate a lack of investigation of more modern peer review tools. Survey results, both qualitative and quantitative, were analyzed across three different peer-reviewed assignments for this examination. Of the 91 respondents, representing a 32 percent response rate, descriptive analysis revealed themes ranging from Changes in Student Efforts to Valued New Perspectives; whereas, expected Active Learning and Social Benefits slightly contradicted the positive tone that was originally found in the thematic review. Overwhelming positive ratings were collected regarding the use of the LMS to support and implement a peer-reviewed assignment. Perceived affects upon the peer reviewer, and how these types of assignments can support the proposed Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET) General Criterion 3 Student Outcomes and General Criterion 5 Curriculum currently under revision are discussed. Lastly, these data are represented for use as an evaluation baseline for future planned investigations and for other faculty and course developers, who are considering implementation of peer-reviewed activities within first-year program courses
Categories: Faculty-Staff
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Cyber hygiene and cyber insurance current practice research
PI Wendi Kappers
CO-I Aaron Glassman
CO-I Michael Wills
Identify the market uptake and applicability of cyber hygiene models, particularly within small to medium enterprises, and relate this to current market practices in the use of cyber insurance policies and mechanisms as part of risk mitigation and management.
The cybersecurity and information risk management marketplace abounds in "top ten" lists of risks, recommended strategies and tactics, and advice; yet the uptake and successful implementation of these measures across SMB / SME (less than 250-500 person) organizations is lackluster. Cyber insurance underwriting, too, is showing strains, especially in light of 2020-2021's ransomware and related siruption attacks reacinc pandemic-seeming proportions. This research forms the first part of a process to develop, calibrate, and use models of risk avoidance, management, and acceptance behaviors.Categories: Faculty-Staff
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An Investigation of Factors that Influence Passengers’ Intentions to Use Biometric Technologies at Airports
PI Kabir Kasim
CO-I Scott Winter
This research investigated the factors that influence passengers’ intentions to choose the use of biometrics over other methods of identification. The current study utilized a quantitative research method via an online survey of 689 persons from Amazon ® Mechanical Turk ® (MTurk) and employed structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques for data analysis. The study utilized the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as the grounded theory, while perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were included as additional factors that could influence individuals’ intentions to use new technology.
The study further assessed the impact of passengers’ privacy concerns on the intentions to use biometrics and investigated how the privacy concerns moderate the influencing factors of passengers’ behavioral intentions. Because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that became prevalent at the time of the study, a COVID-19 variable was introduced as a control variable to examine if there were any effects of COVID-19 on passengers' behavioral intentions while controlling for the other variables.
Results showed that for the TPB factors, attitudes and subjective norms significantly influenced passengers’ behavioral intentions to use biometrics, while the effect of perceived behavioral control (PBC) on passengers’ intentions was not significant. The additional factors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use did not significantly influence passengers’ intentions. In addition, the hypothesized relationships between privacy concerns and four factors, behavioral intentions, attitudes, PBC, and perceived ease of use were supported, while the relationships between privacy concerns and perceived usefulness and between privacy concerns and subjective norms were not supported.
The examination of the moderating effects found that privacy concerns moderated the relationships between passengers’ intentions and three factors: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived usefulness. However, because the interaction plots showed that the moderating effects were weak, the effects were not considered to be of much value and were therefore not added to the final model. Results also showed that the control variable (COVID-19) did not significantly influence passengers’ behavioral intentions and passengers’ privacy concerns while controlling for the other variables.
Practically, the study contributed a research model and specified factors that were postulated to influence passengers’ behavioral intentions to use biometrics at airports. Further research would be required to determine additional factors that influence behavioral intentions. Finally, although the moderating effects were not used in the final model, the findings suggest that stakeholders can customize biometric systems and solutions appropriately to cater to passengers’ concerns.
Categories: Graduate
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Meta-Analyses of the Effects of Standardized Handoff Protocols on Patient, Provider, and Organizational Outcomes
PI Joseph Keebler
CO-I Elizabeth Lazzara
This meta-analysis attempts to understand the benefits of a structured communication process on patient, provider, and organizational outcomes. Studies have found that one of the most crucial points during a patient’s hospital stay is the transition of care between one or more providers, often referred to as a patient handoff. These brief interactions between providers are often especially vulnerable to communication breakdowns due to interruptions, omission of pertinent information by the sender or receiver of the information. To illustrate, upwards of 80% of severe, preventable medical errors have been attributed to miscommunication during handoffs. In other words, failures in communication during handoff are potentially responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives every year in the United States.
Standardized protocols – usually in the form of a short mnemonic (e.g. SBAR – situation, background, assessment, recommendation) or a longer multi-item checklist - have been required by the Joint Commission, but meta-analytic integration of handoff protocol research has not been conducted. Meta-analysis is a statistical technique that quantitatively assesses effects across multiple studies, providing a summary of the current state of the science. The overall purpose of this study was to understand the effects of handoff protocols using meta-analytic approaches. Handoff information passed during transitions of care, patient outcomes, provider outcomes, and organizational outcomes are the primary outcomes studied for this research.
Initially 4,556 articles were identified across a multitude of literature databases, with 4,520 removed. This process left a final set of 36 articles, all which included pre-/postintervention designs implemented in live clinical/hospital settings. Meta-analyses were conducted on 34,527 pre- and 30,072 postintervention data points.
Results indicate positive effects on all four outcomes: handoff information, patient outcomes, provider outcomes, and organizational outcomes. We found protocols to be effective, but there is significant publication bias and heterogeneity in the literature. Publication bias indicates that only studies with significant findings are being published, while heterogeneity indicates that studies are not being conducted the same way – usually lacking standardized metrics. These results demonstrate that handoff protocols tend to improve results on multiple levels, including handoff information passed and patient, provider, and organizational outcomes. Significant effects were found for protocols across provider types, regardless of expertise or area of clinical focus. It also appears that more thorough protocols lead to more information being passed, especially when those protocols consist of 12 or more items. This research has continued to this day, with a recent dissertation (Kristen Welsh-Webster) completed i in 2017 on implementation of handoffs in a live anesthesia unit. Keebler and Lazzara’s team are currently writing multiple grants in collaboration with local and national hospital systems to improve their handoffs and team processes surrounding care transitions.
Categories: Faculty-Staff
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Integrated Structural Health Sensors for Inflatable Space Habitats
PI Dae Won Kim
PI Sirish Namilae
Under this research project we will develop an innovative structural health monitoring system for inflatable space habitat structures by integrating nanocomposite piezoresistive sensors
Inflatable structures for space habitats are highly prone to damage caused by micrometeoroid and orbital debris impacts. Although the structures are effectively shielded against these impacts through multiple layers of impact resistant materials, there is a necessity for a health monitoring system to monitor the structural integrity and damage state within the structures. Assessment of damage is critical for the safety of personnel in the habitat, as well as predicting the repair needs and the remaining useful life of the habitat. We are developing a unique impact detection and health monitoring system based on hybrid nanocomposite sensors composed of carbon nanotube sheet and coarse graphene platelets. An array of these sensors sandwiched between soft good layers in a space habitat can act as a damage detection layer for inflatable structures. We will further develop algorithms to determine the event of impact, its severity, and location on the sensing layer for active health monitoring. Our sensor system will be tested in the hypervelocity impact testing facility at UDRI in future.Categories: Faculty-Staff
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In Service Performance of Pipe to Structure Connections
PI Payal Kotecha
Dr. Kotecha was awarded a research grant for $200,000 from the Florida Department of Transportation to investigate pipe-to-structure connections.
This two-years project will investigate the performance of installed resilient connectors and typical brick and mortar connections. This will include field inspections and documentation within District 7 for resilient connectors. Additional investigations will also be conducted in other locations for structures with brick-and-mortar connections. These results will further evaluate the potential of statewide deployment of resilient connectors.Categories: Faculty-Staff
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Understanding Factors that Influence Anesthesia Handoffs
PI Elizabeth Lazzara
CO-I Joseph Keebler
Communication is an essential aspect of quality patient care in modern medicine, yet mishaps in communication during handoffs (i.e., the transition of a patient between two or more providers) happen frequently. The purpose of this project was to understand the factors that influence handoffs between anesthesia providers and clinicians within the post anesthesia care unit.
Handoffs are ubiquitous in hospital settings and frequently occur before and after surgery (i.e. the perioperative setting). Because patient care in the perioperative setting is contingent upon communication between providers, it is important the handoff between surgical and post-surgical units occurs efficiently and efficaciously to ensure relevant patient information is being transferred. To ameliorate errors associated with handoffs, there is a national call for standardization (i.e., protocols). Although there has been progress in this domain, handoff research remains problematic. Protocols are often developed unscientifically, research methods lack rigor, and studies rarely compare protocols against one another. Additionally, many studies do not focus on contextual variables (e.g., noise or turn taking) or individual differences that could influence handoff efficiency.
To address this gap, this study utilized qualitative and quantitative methods to develop an innovative, customized, data-driven handoff protocol, implemented the protocol into a live perioperative setting, and evaluated it in comparison to the previously established handoff protocol, SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation).
We designed the handoff protocol using literature from the medical field, interviews, and a card sorting technique (a method to determine how experts organize their knowledge). Based on this data, we generated a protocol (i.e., Flex 12) and corresponding learning/training materials. We trained participants on Flex 12 using information- and practice-based strategies as well as feedback. More specifically, participants listened to a lecture on handoffs, had the opportunity to perform handoffs, and received feedback regarding their performance of those handoffs. To determine its effectiveness, the Flex 12 was tested using a pre-post within-subjects design, which means that all participants were measured before and after the Flex 12 was implemented.
Although handoff protocol was not significant with regards to handoff efficiency, noise and turn taking was significant. In other words, handoffs were less efficient when there was more noise from equipment or staff and when providers had more turns during their conversation. Finally, the use of the protocol impacted provider’s attitudes and cognitions. For example, providers perceived less authority between one another when the protocol was used.
Despite being a small study at one site, it does present evidence that other contextual factors should be considered to better understand handoffs. Factors, such as noise and turn-taking, do influence handoff outcomes (i.e., handoff efficiency). Considering the time demands placed on healthcare providers, it is critical to understand and maximize efficiency while maintaining safety.
Categories: Faculty-Staff
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The Effects of Carry-on Baggage on Aircraft Evacuation Efficiency
PI Sang-A Lee
Overall, two studies were conducted to provide an outline of the factors that affect and affected by carry-on baggage. Study 1 used an agent-based model, AnyLogic, to simulate the aircraft evacuation model of an A380. The model was validated, and a two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to examine the effects of the percentage of passengers evacuating with carry-on baggage and exit selection choices on the total evacuation time. The simulation results suggested that the mean evacuation time for 0% was significantly lower than 50% and 80%. The mean evacuation time for the shortest queue choice was also lower than the closest exit choice. Study 2 used an expanded theory of planned behavior (TPB) to determine the factors that affect passengers’ intentions to evacuate with carry-on baggage. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that attitude was the significant determinant of passengers’ intention to evacuate with carry-on baggage.
The most frequent obstacle of an aircraft evacuation is the passengers carrying baggage while evacuating. Passengers who insist on taking their carry-on baggage during an emergency evacuation not only slow down the evacuation process but also act as a significant risk to the safety of other passengers. This study investigated the factors that affect passengers’ behavioral intention to evacuate with carry-on baggage and the effects of evacuating with carry-on baggage on the total evacuation time. Overall, two studies were conducted to provide an outline of the factors that affect and affected by carry-on baggage.
Study 1 used an agent-based model, AnyLogic, to simulate the aircraft evacuation model of an A380. The model was validated, and a two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted to examine the effects of the percentage of passengers evacuating with carry-on baggage and exit selection choices on the total evacuation time. The simulation results suggested that the mean evacuation time for 0% was significantly lower than 50% and 80%. The mean evacuation time for the shortest queue choice was also lower than the closest exit choice.
Study 2 used an expanded theory of planned behavior (TPB) to determine the factors that affect passengers’ intentions to evacuate with carry-on baggage. The total v sample size was 281 after data cleaning. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model (SEM) were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that attitude was the significant determinant of passengers’ intention to evacuate with carry-on baggage. The factor of ‘perceived risk’ was not supported, but the results showed that the opposite effect of the hypothesis was significant. The results of this study fill a gap in the research regarding passengers’ behavior of evacuating with carry-on baggage. Potential applications of this study will also help the federal regulations, airlines, and aircraft manufacturers by providing a better understanding of carry-on baggage at aircraft emergency.
Categories: Graduate
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Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence (VLRCOE)
PI John Leishman
CO-I Ebenezer Gnanamanickam
CO-I Kaijus Henri Palm
CO-I Guillermo Mazzilli
Ship airwakes are the unsteady turbulent flows that are generated by the earths atmospheric boundary layer (the wind colloquially) blowing over a ship. These flow fields are highly turbulent, not easy to predict and couple with a similar wake flow field generated by a rotorcraft operating close the the ship. This coupling as expected is extremely difficult to predict let along faithfully simulate in a flight simulator. This coupling can have catastrophic consequences for the operation or rotorcraft operating in the vicinity of Naval ships.
Ship airwakes are the unsteady turbulent flows that are generated by the earths atmospheric boundary layer (the wind colloquially) blowing over a ship. These flow fields are highly turbulent, not easy to predict and couple with a similar wake flow field generated by a rotorcraft operating close the the ship. This coupling as expected is extremely difficult to predict let along faithfully simulate in a flight simulator. This coupling can have catastrophic consequences for the operation or rotorcraft operating in the vicinity of Naval ships.
While ship airwakes have now been studied for several decades, there remain many unanswered questions and associated challenges in understanding these unsteady, three-dimensional flows, particularly concerning their turbulence characteristics and how flow scales in the airwake can potentially couple with those of a rotorcraft, including Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS). Navy personnel and aircraft safety remain the primary motivating factor for understanding the airwake and the interactions so produced. In this regard, developing a versatile, high-fidelity mathematical model to represent the ship airwake in a flight simulation, such as using a reduced-order mathematical representation, remains a priority for the technical community. This goal is particularly critical for more contemporary ship shapes typical of the current Navy inventory. It is toward this end that the fluid dynamic studies of the airwake are addressed in this proposed task. Furthermore, a vast majority of ship airwake measurements have not considered the interactions between an operating rotor(craft) and the airwake, another challenge the proposed task will address.
Overall, the mean flow features of the ship airwake are currently reasonably well characterized, at least for simplified ship superstructures such as the SFS2. However, much of the combined spatio-temporal behavior of the ship airwake, in general, has not been measured and so the physics are still poorly understood, particularly for contemporary Navy ship shapes. Organized turbulence structures, their distribution of energy across different scales, and their interactions with, or influence on, or criticality for, a traditional rotorcraft or less conventional UAS are not understood or sufficiently documented so far. The recent time-resolved airwake measurements of the current PIs have better established the true three-dimensional nature of the ship airwake, along with other turbulent aspects of the flow that have not been previously documented. These features include the high degree of intermittency, the bistable nature of the airwake, etc. These recent measurements have highlighted the predominance of low frequencies in the airwake, but not exclusively so. They indicate the likelihood of coupling with the response of any rotor system, large or small These new measurements have emphasized the need for spatially and temporally resolved high-frequency flow measurements that capture the true three-dimensionality of the airwake flow and its turbulent aspects, including intermittency. In addition, parsing these measurements into low-order mathematical models (such as for use in FlightLab or similar) remains a challenge, both in the context of understanding the flow physics and developing a higher-fidelity representation of the airwake for use in piloted simulations. Furthermore, the challenge of measuring, understanding, and representing the interactions between the airwake and a rotor system still remains to be studied at the fidelity needed if faithful models of the airwake are to be realized.
Technical Objectives (ERAU tasks only):
1) With the focus on faithfully capturing the three-dimensionality of the flow and its turbulent aspects (such as the frequency content and intermittency), time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) measurements with high spatio-temporal resolution will be conducted. These measurements are proposed for a more relevant ship geometry, namely the NATO Generic Destroyer (GD) of NATO AVT-315, while also investigating the differences to the widely used SFS2. Also, a representative rotor system will be introduced into the airwake to study the interactions therein. ERAU will use their new subsonic 4x6 ft wind tunnel with a mostly glass test section and the large field of view TR-PIV system awarded under an ONR DURIP. The focus will be on carrying out dual-plane, time-resolved stereo PIV (DPTR-sPIV) measurements, which allow for spatially and temporally synchronous measurements.
2) These datasets will then be used to represent the flow field using reduced-order models (ROMs). The advantages of methods such as wavelets, spectral POD (sPOD), Multi-scale Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (mPOD), and probabilistic/statistics techniques, will be used to acquire physical insights into the complex airwake environment, while describing the flow in a manner that is more relevant to the scales of UAS. This proposed approach will also offer new quantitative metrics for comparing airwakes, sorted into frequencies, which quantitatively reflect the energy distributions, and so they are much more suitable for V&V. ROMs can then be constructed, and flow field physics and interactions can be examined at each scale, whose contours should be comparable across all frequencies.
Categories: Faculty-Staff
101-110 of 237 results