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...
The multimedia capabilities of computers have recently become the focus of computer developers due to the increasing demand for advanced computer graphics and new media capabilities, such as video conferencing, 3-D visualization, and animation. To support these multimedia capabilities, specialized graphics hardware, such as MPEG encoding/decoding card, 3-D graphics card,...
Intermittent, headwater streams recently have been recognized as important
components of forest ecosystems and have been provided increased protection by the
Northwest Forest Plan. However, few studies have examined their distribution,
dynamics, and ecological roles, such as habitat for wildlife. My goal was to provide
additional information on the ecology...
Spotted wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii, is an economically damaging pest on small fruits. The estimated economic impact is hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the U.S. alone, and increasing every year. Current control of SWD relies heavily on chemical insecticides which have many negative impacts on environmental and...
With confirmation of non-nutritive sugar, erythritol, having insecticidal properties to Dipterans, this thesis research focuses on use of erythritol as a human-safe management tool for small berry and cherry pest, Drosophila suzukii, commonly referred to as spotted-wing drosophila. Drosophila suzukii is a destructive invasive fruit fly from Asia with an...
This thesis examines the characterization of the femme fatale and the implications of this trope for late-Victorian gender and sexuality in the ghost stories of female aesthete Vernon Lee. In her treatment of the femme fatale figure, Lee both reinforces and complicates the image of the sexualized, often bestialized woman...
The problem of optimization of stochastic dynamic systems with
random coefficients is discussed. Systems with both Wiener processes and uncertain random-process disturbances are dealt with in
this dissertation, and these include certain bilinear stochastic
systems. It is the purpose of this thesis to study the optimal control and, to some...