In a relay network for full truckload (TL) transportation, facilities known as relay points (RPs) serve as exchange points where truck drivers can exchange trailers. This would help carriers to assign more regular tours to drivers when compared to the excessively long tours that exist in the traditional Point-to-Point (PtP)...
This thesis consists of two essays on applied microeconomics issues. The first
essay presents a hedonic price econometric model of vacant commercial land. The second
essay presents cost frontier analysis on the industry and firm's performance of the U.S.
Motor Carrier industry.
Our hedonic price econometric model includes two new...
In certain cases in system modeling, parameter search problems
are complicated by the availability of scanty and corrupt physical
system data and a large number of model parameters. An algorithm
using man-machine interaction is presented to attack this type
of parameter search problem with the objective of efficiency in the...
Biomechanical models have been used in designing human work environments to evaluate potential risks to workers before a work environment is constructed. In order for work environments to be modeled correctly, most biomechanical models require as input, an accurate body posture of the worker. This information can be obtained by,...
This dissertation consists of three papers on land use economics and policies. The first two papers focus primarily on local land use policies and urban development. The third paper addresses the question how environmental amenities affect households' residential choices in a metropolitan area. In the first paper, an option value...
Many engineering devices and propulsion systems suffer from undesirable effects of cavitation; such as degradation in the efficiency of pumps and turbines, generation of noise and vibration on ship propeller, increased drag and erosion of propeller blade, etc.
In spite of decades of research on this problem, detailed study of...
A model is presented which predicts the net present
value of a stand level multi-entry harvest plan. The model
accounts for potential volume losses due to harvest-related soil compaction. The goal of this project was to answer five economic questions about the issue of soil compaction in forestry. The five...
The atmospheric fluidized bed combustor (AFBC) is an alternative to
the pulverized coal burner. The size of a utility scale AFBC would be
enormous so that the use of large particles is necessary to reduce its
size. In modeling the combustion of coal and capture of sulfur released
from the...
A mathematical model of Limiting Dilution Analysis for two limiting
parameters is presented and investigated. Limiting Dilution Analysis is a microbiological
cell assay developed for immunological application. In the given
case we deal with the interaction between B lymphocytes, macrophage derived
factor and T-independent antigens. The state of the art...
