Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1975. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 388-389).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-194).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 372-378).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1958. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-119).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: William Latham III, Dept. of Economics. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis describes a study of two approaches to the design of water distribution networks to meet specified demands at minimum cost. One method is based on an incremental increase technique which first examines all possible "one-size" pipe increases in the network, then based on a benefit/cost analysis a decision is made on which pipe to increase one diameter size. The second approach utilizes a computerized linear programming technique to rapidly converge on an optimal network design. Both techniques rely on the use of an effective computerized network analysis program. It was found after studying several networks that the incremental increase technique is operational for any size of network. However, computer costs quickly become a limiting factor in the usefulness of this approach. The linear programming based technique was considerably less costly but did not prove itself to be fully capable of optimizing large networks in its present developmental state. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Civil Engineering, Department of / Graduate

In this thesis, theoretically sound and empirically tractable solutions are provided to problems inherent in the traditional practice of measuring inequality in the distribution of annual income. Inequality is taken throughout to mean the extent to which society falls short of a situation in which everyone is equally well-off. The measurement of annual income inequality is inappropriate in this regard because it is consumption, not income, that produces welfare. Furthermore, individual, and therefore social, welfare depends on consumption over the lifecycle, not just in a single year. There are also problems of a less theoretical nature. Measured annual inequality includes an age-related component attributable to the shape of lifecycle income profiles. Annual inequality indices also fail to account for the effects of income mobility. In response to these problems, two new approaches to the measurement of inequality are proposed. In the welfare approach, an improved index of inequality is sought by replacing annual income with a summary statistic of lifecycle consumption. Lifecycle inequality is then decomposed within and among age-cohorts. Intercohort inequality captures the contribution of economic growth to total inequality, while intracohort inequality is an index of pure interpersonal inequality. The decomposition approach is a compromise between the inadequacy of measuring annual income inequality and the impossibility of measuring lifecycle consumption inequality. Total inequality is measured in panel consumption data treated as a single distribution, and then decomposed into indices of age-related, mobility-related, and pure interpersonal inequality. Empirical implementation of the decomposition approach indicates that age-, and especially mobility-related, inequality account for substantial portions of total measured inequality. Sensitivity tests of the decomposition approach indicate that it is a robust method of measuring inequality. Finally, the decomposition approach is applied to the problem of measuring the trend of inequality, widely observed to have been remarkably constant in the post-War period. Although the trend of measured annual inequality is constant, lifecycle inequality as measured using the decomposition approach declines over the sample period. The principal finding of this thesis is that the decomposition approach to the measurement of inequality is essential for an accurate assessment of the level and trend of pure interpersonal inequality. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

This work is devoted to simultaneously estimating the parameters of the distributions of several independent Poisson random variables. In particular, we explore the possibility of finding estimators of the Poisson parameters which have better performance than the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). We first approach the problem from a fre-quentist point of view, employing a generally scaled loss function, called the k-normalized squared error loss function L[sub k] (λ, [sup ^]λ) = [sup P] ∑ [sub i=1] (λ[sub i] – [sup ^]λ[sub i])²/ λ[sup k][sub i], where k is a non-negative integer. The case k=0' is the squared error loss case, in which we propose a large class of estimators including those proposed by Peng [1975] as special cases. Estimators pulling the MLE towards a point other than zero as well as a point determined by the data itself are proposed, and it is shown that these estimators dominate the MLE uniformly. Under L[sub k] with k ≥ 1, we obtain a class of estimators dominating the MLE which includes the estimators proposed by Clevenson and Zidek [1975]. We next approach the problem from a Bayesian point, of view; a two-stage prior distribution is adopted and results for a large class of prior distributions are derived. Substantial savings in terms of mean squared error loss of the Bayes point estimators over the MLE are expected, especially when the Poisson parameters fall into a relatively narrow range. An empirical Bayes approach to the problem is carried out along the line suggested by Clevenson and Zidek [1975]. Some results are obtained which parallel those of Efron and Morris [1973], who work under the assumption that the random variables are normally distributed. We report the results of our computer simulation to quantitatively examine the performance of some of our proposed estimators. In most cases, the savings, under the appropriate loss functions, are an increasing function of the number of Poisson parameters. The simulation results indicate that our estimators are very promising. The savings of the Bayes estimators depend on the choice of prior hyperparameters, and hence proper choice leads to substantial improvement over the MLE. Although most of the results in this work are derived under the assumption that only one observation is taken from each Poisson distribution, we extend some results to the case where possibly more than one observation is taken. We conclude with suggestions for further work. / Science, Faculty of / Mathematics, Department of / Graduate

Bibliography: pages 149-150. / The subject of physical distribution was first examined in the early 1900s. It was developed and refined especially during World II under the name of 'Logistics', and began to be adopted in the field of business from the 1950s. From the 1960s onwards, national bodies have been established, both in the U.S. and the U.K., and works and theories have been published leading to the establishment of journals and the establishment of formal education programmes all dealing with physical distribution. A review of published works on the subject was undertaken. Some books were studied, as well as a number of journal articles dating from the early 1970s. No suitable references were obtained dealing with the subject in a South African context. A project was also carried out to design a system for distributing garments in a hanging mode. The thesis thus concerns a general review of physical distribution management and the distribution of goods and services throughout business and industry, with an emphasis being placed on south African conditions. The principal objectives of this study were to examine and review the state-of-the-art of the general theory and the use of physical distribution, to suggest means of applying it in South Africa and to briefly examine future trends and developments. These objectives were achieved by examining from books and articles the concept and theory of distribution, its interrelationships with aspects such as marketing, production and business organisations, and its management in business organisations: by discussing some characteristics of South African business and industry; by examining certain areas that provide the greatest potential for improvements: by discussing a project carried out to design a distribution system for hanging garments merchandise; and by examining future trends both overseas and in South Africa. Physical distribution is shown to be an important subject for business and society and for the economy as a whole. It is always changing in a dynamic environment and requires constant monitoring. This thesis shows how this field, which has been researched and developed overseas, is affected by local conditions and should be applied to specific areas in South Africa.

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