Engineering Commons^™

Identifying And Overcoming The Barriers To Sustainable Construction, Cristin Szydlik

Doctoral Dissertations

"Sustainable construction has become increasingly more prevalent over the last decade. All federal and most state government buildings are mandated to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification (at the silver level at a minimum). Although sustainable construction is increasingly more common, there are still barriers to the successful completion of a sustainable project, specifically with regards to projects achieving LEED certification. There are still holes in the guidance on how to successfully achieve LEED certification. Even though government agencies have mandated LEED certification, the existing barriers are preventing buildings from achieving certification, which can delay the building …

Quantifying Economic Benefits For Rail Infrastructure Projects, Akhilesh Ojha

Masters Theses

"Investment in rail infrastructure is necessary to maintain existing service and to cater for future growth in freight and passenger services. Many communities have realized the importance of investment in rail infrastructure projects and set up goals and visions to achieve economic development through investing in such projects. Due to limited funds available, communities have to select a single or very few projects from a variety of projects. It is very critical that right projects must be selected at the right time for a community to realize economic development. The limited methods for quantifying the economic benefits to the stakeholders …

Sustainability Analysis In Integrated Inventory Control And Transportation Systems, Brian Joseph Schaefer

Doctoral Dissertations

"Due to the importance of costs as well as environmental effects of logistical activities throughout supply chains, such as inventory holding, freight transportation, and warehousing activities, this dissertation models and analyzes four integrated inventory control and transportation problems that account for economic and environmental aspects of a supply chain agents related decisions.

The first model presents an integrated inventory control and transportation problem in a single item deterministic demand setting. A supply chain agents inventory control and transportation mode selection problem is solved under carbon cap, carbon cap and trade, carbon cap and offset, and carbon tax regulations. The second …

Workplace Sleepiness: Causes, Consequences And Countermeasures, Neda Khalafi

Masters Theses

"Sleep deprivation is an epidemic problem in our society that adversely affects the quality and safety of our daily lives. At home and on the job, inadequate sleep is associated with considerable social, financial, and health-related costs, due to instability of waking functions. Research has shown that, sleep deprivation among workers, whether from sleep disorders, lifestyle or shift work, can hinder the proper performance, and in extreme cases may pose hazard to the workers themselves and their environment. Deficits in daytime performance can have profound effects in the processing industry where workers are often required to perform monotonous tasks that …

Hedge Fund Replication Using A Strategy Specific Modeling Approach, Sujit Subhash

Masters Theses

"Institutional investors and wealthy individuals have in the past allocated a significant portion of their portfolios to hedge funds with the expectation of unconditional and uncorrelated returns to the market. However, the financial crisis of 2008 has heightened investor sensitivity to the high fees, illiquidity, and lockup periods typically associated with hedge funds. Hedge fund indexes showing excellent returns and low volatility contain funds that are closed to new investments, while the performance of investable funds have been shown to be inferior to their non-investable counterparts. The lack of transparency and extreme variation in the performance of hedge funds make …

Economic And Environmental Comparison Of Different Ordering Policies For An Integrated Inventory Control And Supplier Selection Problem, Sepideh Almasi Monfared

Masters Theses

"This study analyzes an integrated inventory control and supplier selection problem in stochastic demand environment under carbon emissions regulations. In particular, a continuous review inventory model with multiple suppliers is investigated under carbon taxing and carbon trading regulations. We analyze and compare the optimal supplier selection and order splitting decisions with single sourcing and two alternative delivery structures for multi-sourcing, namely, sequential ordering and sequential delivery. For each of the three ordering policies, a solution method is proposed and these policies are compared in terms of their economic as well as environmental performances. A numerical study is conducted to demonstrate …

A Contingency Base Camp Framework Using Model Based Systems Engineering And Adaptive Agents, Dustin Scott Nottage

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research investigates the use of adaptive agents and hybridization of those agents to improve resource allocation in dynamic systems and environments. These agents are applied to contingency bases in an object oriented approach utilizing Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) processes and tools to accomplish these goals. Contingency bases provide the tools and resources for the military to perform missions effectively. There has been increasing interest in improving the sustainability and resilience of the camps, as inefficiencies in resource usage increases. The increase in resource usage leads to additional operational costs and added danger to military personnel guarding supply caravans.

The …

The Use Of Statistics And Its Analysis In Resolving Transportation Related Problems, Venkat Sravan Kothapalli

Masters Theses

"Statistical methods are traditionally used to summarize or describe a collection of data. This can be termed as descriptive statistics. This research focuses on application of certain statistical approaches, tools to solve transportation related problems. This research focuses on usage of statistical analysis in determine some of the significant factors and assumptions which should be taken into consideration while developing safety and maintenance related measures by transportation agencies. This research mainly focuses on; testing null hypothesis and frequency analysis. The research therefore is presented in two different case studies: 1) Statistical analysis of the work zone crash historical raw data …

Data Classification And Forecasting Using The Mahalanobis-Taguchi Method, Adebolaji A. Jobi-Taiwo

Masters Theses

"Classification and forecasting are useful concepts in the field of condition monitoring. Condition monitoring refers to the analysis and monitoring of system characteristics to understand and identify deviations from normal operating conditions. This can be performed for prediction, diagnosis, or prognosis or a combination of any these purposes. Fault identification and diagnosis are usually achieved through data classification, while forecasting methods are usually used to accomplish the prediction objective. Data gathered from monitoring systems often consists of multiple multivariate time series and is fed into a model for data analysis using various techniques. One of the data analysis techniques used …

Use On Multinomial Logistic Regression In Work Zone Crash Analysis For Missouri Work Zones, Paul Robin

Masters Theses

"This study focuses on the use of statistical data analysis procedures in identifying factors which affect the severity of crashes in work zones. Work zones are unsafe for the traffic passing through as well as the workers. Multinomial Logistic Regression has been used to analyse Missouri work zone crash data to identify significant factors which affect the severity of crashes. This particular type of regression analysis was used due to the mixed nature of data. Multinomial regression was used to compare crashes with severity Property Damage Only against crashes with Minor Injuries and Disabling Injuries/ Fatal. The factors considered were …