Measurements on growth traits up to 41 years of age
from 68 progeny sites in eight first-generation breeding
zones of coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii
[MIRB.] FRANCO var. menziesii) in the US Pacific Northwest
were used to investigate age trends of genetic parameters
and to determine optimum age of selection. Heritabilities...
Trends in greater sage-grouse breeding populations are typically indexed by determining the peak number of males attending a lek in a lekking season. Numerous studies have estimated negative trends in sage-grouse breeding populations over time via data collected for the last 50 years. However, the inherent bias in data collection...
Ship turnaround time at a marine containerport is an important
measure of the port's efficiency and attractiveness. Both the speed
and quality of load planning affect the length of turnaround time
considerably. Past attempts at computerizing the load planning
function have been unsatisfactory and have not reflected the port's
objective...
A composite system of a Markovian Decision Process
with multiple criteria involves both discounting criteria
and nondiscounting criteria. The measurement of the
discounting criteria is chosen to be the total sum of
the payoffs over the time horizon and the measurement of
the non-discounting criteria is chosen to be the...
Multiobjective Decision Making (MODM) has been
suggested for the solution of complicated decision
problems. Decision analysis in numerous areas, including
industrial energy and environmental planning, necessarily
requires consideration of multiple conflicting
objectives. MODM has been successfully applied to
a number of these problems of this type. Moreover, it
has the...
The objective of this study is to develop an ordering policy
which will minimize the total cost associated with maintaining an
inventory under active constraints. Previous work in this area has
concentrated on the application of either the Lagrangian multiplier
technique or the exchange curve which allows non-linear trades-offs
between...
Quality Capability Self-diagnosis is a convenient and
economical way to assess the performance of an operating
quality system, as well as a basis for initiating necessary
corrective actions essential to quality improvement and
preparation for certification. This paper describes the
research leading to the development of a cost-effective and
systematic...
This thesis examines the transient and steady-state temperature performance
of a rotary regenerative heat exchanger. In contrast to previous
studies on this problem, fluid flow in the circumferential direction was
considered. Appropriate modeling was included to measure the effect of
carry-over on the differential equations describing mass and energy
conservation....
My thesis is comprised of two articles, titled "Journeying Through (An)Other World: Examining the Role of Magic and Transformational Otherness in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "Magic, Muggles, and Mudbloods: Examining Magical Otherness in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series." The introduction frames the thematic, theoretical, and critical connections...