published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Real Estate and Construction Development

Public policy structured to treat "market failures" related to land use (through restructuring property rights) must be evaluated in terms of its potential impacts not only upon social efficiency, but also upon the distributions of wealth and income associated with real estate ownership. Analyses of basic relationships between forms of real estate ownership, and wealth and income levels provide a benchmark from which to evaluate potential changes in the wealth and income positions of real estate owners affected by public land use policy. Hence, the main objective of this study was to estimate and analyze descriptors of the distribution of real estate ownership by income class. Particular emphasis was given to analysis of institutional and economic forces which help to explain an individual's ownership in one or another form of real estate. This analysis provided a basis for the following hypotheses: 1. The proportion of wealth devoted to home real estate is inversely related to the investor's level of wealth. 2. The proportion of wealth devoted to business real estate is directly related to the investor's level of wealth. 3. The proportion of wealth devoted to speculative real estate is directly related to the investor's level of wealth. The empirical base used to test these hypotheses, and obtain the objective came from published national samples for the early 1960s and 1970s. Statistical results provided, primarily, confirming evidence on these hypotheses. / Graduation date: 1976

No description available.

This thesis examines the relationship between two property investment markets within the context of price discovery and co-integration. This thesis is different from other similar studies since the price discovery process is examined by employing a transaction based data. Using Malaysia’s property market as a case study provides this thesis with the opportunity to use transaction-based information. In addition, it has been noted that many studies on price discovery and co-integration have focused on markets that are mature and where the relevant market information is available. Since no similar information is available as far as Malaysia property market is concerned, this thesis requires the construction of a commercial property index. The construction of the index based on transaction information is a prerequisite for subsequent analyses. A hedonic method is considered for this task and the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimator has been employed to produce respective indices. Vector Autoregressive as well as Engle and Granger Co-integration tests have then been employed to examine the relationship between direct and indirect markets. Findings from both analyses indicate that price discovery emerges from the indirect to the direct market. Evidence of long-run co-integration with faster adjustment towards equilibrium suggests no diversification benefit can be achieved between direct and indirect property markets. This finding reasserts the efficiency of indirect property markets in absorbing information. The originality of this thesis comes in the form of the data provided for the analysis. It has been recognised that this is not the first study to use transaction-based information. Nevertheless, the significant contribution of this thesis lies in the time-series data of direct commercial property which was developed from the market’s actual transaction information, none of which previously existed. A similar study is recommended for a mature property market that is transparent and open. Such markets seem to provide a direct property market that is much more efficient.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Traditional satellite and launch control systems have consisted of custom solutions requiring significant development and maintenance costs. These systems have typically been designed to support specific program requirements and are expensive to modify and augment after delivery. Over the past five years, technical advances have resulted in Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products which greatly reduce the complete life cycle costs associated with satellite and launch control system procurements. These advances, however, have been restricted to specific functional areas of the satellite and launch control system - most notably, telemetry processing and simulation. Until recently, technological advances in the development of COTS products which support functional areas like commanding and mission planning have lagged behind. This paper describes the development and application of a COTS product which provides a highly advanced commanding capability that is tightly integrated with the processing of telemetry data. This closed loop telemetry and commanding system forms the basis of a satellite or launch control system at a fraction of the cost normally associated with systems of this kind.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1992 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / Real-time computation speed is an additional requirement for simulations. It is necessary for 'man-in-the-loop' systems like flight simulators and for 'hardware-in-the-loop' systems where real components like new closed loop controllers are tested under realistic conditions. In the past a lot of companies have designed and built special purpose simulation computers which are very powerful but expensive and not handy enough for 'in-the-field-tests'. The progress in computer science shows a trend to distributed systems where multiple processors are running in parallel to improve the performance dramatically. At the DLR Institute for Flight Mechanics a computer system, based on the transputer, was designed to achieve the real-time simulation capabilities for the ROTEST model rotor. This four-bladed rotor is a 2.5 scale of the BO105 main rotor, equipped with elastic blades, operating at 1050 rpm. After an introduction to the ROTEST rotor, including the demands upon the simulation, a short introduction to transputers and the associated philosophy is given. The next part of the paper presents the characteristics of the simulation model, its mathematical description and the transputer architecture on which it is running. In the last part of the paper the input and output processes to the simulation are described. This includes a real-time representation of the rotor and an oscilloscope like output device, as well as analogue input and output devices to a controller.

A set of definitions, theorems and proofs to describe the Laplace transformation.

One of the classic theorems concerning the real numbers states that every open cover of a closed and bounded subset of the real line contains a finite subcover. Compactness is an abstraction of that notion, and there are several ideas concerning it which are equivalent and many which are similar. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the more important of these ideas. This synthesis is accomplished by demonstrating either situations in which two ordinarily different conditions are equivalent or combinations of two or more properties which will guarantee a third.

Two observations underpin this thesis; 1. There is a need for automated pattem-recognition techniques that allow processes requiring skills normally associated with the human brain to be carried out rapidly, reliably and cheaply, and; 2. The current methods applied to solving artificial intelligence (AI) problems are insufficient to the task of creating generalised systems capable of pattem-recognition and environmental interaction. Neural networks (NNs) are a good method of solving AI problems that are difficult or impossible to solve using knowledge-based or symbolic techniques. NNs provide the flexibility to analyse poorly-defined systems or systems that are general in nature, and also provide the ability to learn from noisy, complex data sets. The main problem with the use of NNs to date has been that one NN's structure and dynamics may work for a specific problem, but if this problem is changed slightly then it is difficult to determine the optimal settings for the network to enable it to adapt to the new situation. The use of evolutionary methods is emphasised throughout this thesis as a way of optimising NN system performance. Several methods have been developed through the course of this thesis that improve the performance of NN models. One of the most important is the use of a biologically plausible node and connection modification algorithm. In this method, local effects such as the activation levels of nodes at either end of a connection or a node's past activation history are the only input parameters which network components use for their adjustment. Included in the biological plausibility argument are NN structuring methods that mimic specific areas of the brain. One example is the visual system, in which a pyramidal structure is applied that permits a hierarchical pattern recognition process to develop. This process builds the image recognition up from small 'substructures' in successive layers, allowing the system to recognise objects that are not specifically defined by the user. Arguments are made that an AI systems's utility is limited if it does not have the capability of interacting with its environment. A system that merely observes without attempting to alter or exist within an environment is only half of the story. From a biological standpoint, intelligence is the result of successive generations of organisms interacting with and altering their environment. Limiting an AI system's ability to interact with the environment can only place restrictions on the capabilities of that system, not improve them. Following development of a suite of applicable pattem-recognition techniques, work is carried out in order to implement these methods within a simple environment. For the moment, a virtual 'block world' is used that is relatively easy and cheap to manipulate. The importance of both modularity and sensory feedback to the ability to develop complex behaviours is investigated, with these two concepts included in the overall evolutionary strategy of system development. The results obtained show that the techniques developed provide a pattem- recognition and learning system that is capable of being applied to general problems and that learns without human intervention. In comparison to classical NN techniques the systems developed show superior learning abilities and can be applied in less specific situations. The use of modularity and sensory feedback in the animat simulations has allowed the development of behavioural patterns that are difficult to achieve using homogeneous, input-output systems. Evolutionary methods have allowed system optimisation in a way that is impossible to achieve through trial and error, and which also permit the system to be easily fine-tuned towards specific problems and situations. With current advances in computer speed and memory capacity, it is now possible to implement NNs comparable in size to the nervous systems of small animals. The methods used here provide the potential to provide these NNs with the sophistication displayed by their organic counterparts.

Yan Wai-hin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-95). / Chapter Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter II. --- Literature Review --- p.5 / Chapter Chapter III. --- Model Formulation --- p.25 / Chapter Chapter IV. --- Empirical Analysis --- p.46 / Chapter Chapter V. --- Conclusion --- p.85 / Appendix --- p.91 / References --- p.92