No description available.

Concrete block single-story detached homes are popular residences in Florida, but construction materials and methods must undergo changes to combat rising prices and material shortages. Those systems with the greatest pressure of price or material shortage will change first. When current costs and methods are examine, it is found that two systems, roof and exterior walls, have the greatest need for changes in the immediate future; and one system, thermal insulation, needs an empirical study. The roof is of materials which are in short supply and rapidly increasing in cost. The study concludes that, with present cost trends, metal frame members for the roof or a reinforced concrete slab roof are feasible alternatives. The exterior walls have excessive labor costs, and the feasible alternative may be cast-on-site masonry tilt-up panel walls. Power prices, electrical and fuel, create a need to establish new guidelines for the extent of home thermal insulation. The heat gains and losses are examined to direct future studies of the home's thermal insulation problems. The concrete block home will continue to be viable if the necessary innovations are implemented to reduce cost rate of increase and to reduce operating and maintenance costs.

The costs related to workers compensation in the construction industry are rising every year, with no end in sight. Construction professionals can no longer afford to wait for others to solve the problem through new legislation or rate control. Controlling workers’ compensation costs is a puzzle that can be solved by contractors if they have all of the “pieces” and a guide. This thesis supplies the “pieces” by educating the reader on the terminology, intricacies, and problems of the workers’ compensation system. It also serves as the guide to solving the puzzle by discussing management techniques that are currently being used to control workers’ compensation costs, and their effectiveness. Costs are not the only concern of construction professionals as they turn their attention to workers’ compensation. It is mandatory that every company that is eligible have an Experience Modification Rating (EMR) that is applied to its premiums to adjust for its actual insurance performance. The EMR has gained a new function, however. Owners are using the EMR as a prequalifier in bidding, suggesting that the EMR is an accurate predictor of a contractor’s safety performance. This assertion is not entirely true. This thesis addresses the inadequacy of the EMR as an indicator of safety performance and suggests alternative measures of a contractor’s safety. The management techniques cited, and the assertions made with regard to the EMR, in this thesis are based on the opinions of the forty-two (42) contractors and over one thousand six hundred (1600) construction workers who participated in a study conducted by the Construction Industry Institute’s (CII) Workers Compensation Task Force. The findings of this thesis were made a part of the task force’s CII Source Document. / Master of Science

This research develops the concepts as well as a "case study” implementation of a cost model that estimates the costs of product design alternatives during the design process. This cost information, regarding design alternatives, is for decision making purposes. With the help of this cost model, the designer can better approximate that product form which results in the lowest costs of production, i.e., for which the sum of material costs and activity costs are minimized. The cost model integrates similarity analysis into an enhanced version of an activity-based cost management system. The similarity analysis is required because the details of a product's bill of materials and bill of activities are not yet available during the design process; however, such information provides the basis for any activity-based cost calculation. In a first step the cost model determines which of the existing products, based upon their cost driving characteristics, belong to the same product family as the design alternative. For these products detailed information is available, thus they can be used as reference products for the similarity analysis. These existing products are calculated as if they were the design alternative, hence they follow the decision costs principle; i.e., costs that will appear in the future but were determined in the past are not relevant for a particular decision. Subsequently, those reference products - as calculated on the basis of decision costs for the respective design - are utilized in a regression analysis. This analysis approximates the functional relationship between the product's cost driving characteristics and its costs, so that, finally, the costs for the design alternative in question can be estimated based on its characteristics. / Master of Science

Yes / The key questions to be addressed in this study are: with the benefit of hindsight, what conflict prevention 'packages' could the international community have designed in order to minimise the probability of the conflicts that actually took place? How much would have been saved if these packages had been implemented, given reasonable estimates about their costs, compared with the actual cost of conflict and post-conflict intervention. The first section provides a background to the conflicts. This is followed by an assessment of the levels of resources that the international community has committed to the Western Balkans since 1991. The third part of the study provides two hypothetical scenarios for CP interventions that might have restrained conflict from breaking out. These CP packages are then costed and an assessment of their probability of success is made.

Software development cost estimating models were analyzed using an application of the hedonic pricing approach. Several recently proposed software cost estimating tools were surveyed for the purpose of revealing their roots in the hedonic pricing approach. The analysis includes discussion of the hedonic pricing approach, the logic of several software cost models, and analysis of the models' hedonic pricing traits. Hedonic prices are the implicit prices of attributes of I differentiated products as revealed in the market through attribute levels associated with market-clearing prices. Several aspects of the software costing models fit within the hedonic pricing approach. Many of the models base cost estimates on the varying quantities of software product attributes (e.g., complexity of program, schedule requirements, etc.). Similarities and differences of traits among cost models were noted. / Master of Arts

M.S.

The subject of corporate bankruptcy has been of interest to financial academicians and practitioners alike. Researchers have directed most of their attention to accounting-based models for predicting bankruptcy filings. Although some research has attempted to estimate the probability and costs of bankruptcy, a very limited amount is centered around the outcome of bankruptcy proceedings. Specifically, little is known about the circumstances that determine whether the firm will liquidate, successfully reorganize, or become an acquisition of another firm after filing for court protection. Given the potentially large losses to both creditors and stockholders, the determinants of bankruptcy outcome should be of considerable interest. The focus of this research is threefold. First, the factors that should have an effect on the disposition of the firm after the bankruptcy filing are examined for their influence on the disposition. Second, since there is some dispute as to the appropriate classification of acquired firms, the correct classification of acquired (or merged) firms is determined. Third, the effect of a major change in the bankruptcy law is examined. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

The two most common options for post-mining land uses in the southern Appalachians are forestry or hayland/pasture. Hayland/pasture has become the predominant reclamation type due to ease of establishment and strict regulation standards requiring quick and dense erosion control by herbaceous cover. Recently, more landowners have become interested in returning mined land to an economically valuable post-mining land use, such as forestry. Landowners are becoming more aware of the possible future profits from timber stand harvests, as well as other benefits (monetary and aesthetic) derived from a forestry post-mining land use. Although hayland/pasture lands can provide economic returns through forage and grazing rents, many post-mining pasture lands are left fallow, with no economic returns being gained. Current research has provided the biological and technical information needed to reclaim mine lands to productive forest stands and achieve bond release. Cost information though has been lacking, or variable at best. The purpose of this study is to understand the processes of reclamation for both forestry and hayland/pasture, and calculate detailed cost estimates for both reclamation types. Total costs of reclamation are determined using a cost engineering method, in conjunction with Office of Surface Mining Regulation and Enforcement bond calculation worksheets. In Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, hayland/pasture reclamation is more costly on a per acre basis. The cost of hayland/pasture reclamation is greater than the cost of forestry reclamation by $140 per acre to $350 per acre. In Ohio, forestry reclamation is more expensive by nearly $60 per acre. Grading costs are four times as costly for hayland/pasture reclamation, as compared to forestry reclamation. Pasture reclamation requires more grading passes to prepare the seedbed, requiring four passes. Forestry reclamation typically involves only grading the site with one dozer pass to prevent compaction of minesoils which inhibits tree growth. Hyrdoseeding costs are also higher for hayland/pasture reclamation due to higher application rates of fertilizer and herbaceous seed. The hydroseeding costs make up the largest percentage of the total per acre cost for both forestry and hayland/pasture reclamation. Lime and mulch costs are equal for both reclamation types and are included in the hydroseeding equation. Due to the increased grading costs and higher hydroseeding costs, hayland/pasture reclamation is more expensive for all states analyzed in the Appalachians, other than Ohio. These cost estimates can provide useful tools for mine operators and landowners to determine the most economical and suitable post-mining land use for their individual property. / Master of Science

No / After more than a decade of comprehensive research work in the area of electronic government (e-government), no attempt has yet been made to undertake a systematic literature review on the costs, opportunities, benefits and risks that influence the implementation of e-government. This is particularly significant given the various related challenges that governments have faced over the years when implementing e-government initiatives. Hence, the aim of this paper is to undertake a comprehensive analysis of relevant literature addressing these issues using a systematic review of 132 studies identified from the Scopus online database and Google Scholar together with a manual review of relevant papers from journals dedicated to electronic government research such as Electronic Government, an International Journal (EGIJ), International Journal of Electronic Government Research (IJEGR) and Transforming Government: People, Process, and Policy (TGPPP). The overall review indicated that although a large number of papers discuss costs, opportunities, benefits and risks, treatment of these issues have tended to be superficial. Moreover, there is a lack of empirical studies which can statistically evaluate the performance of these constructs in relation to the various e-government systems. Therefore, this research would help governments to better analyse the impact of costs, opportunities, benefits and risks on the success of e-government systems and its pre-adoption from an implementation perspective.