Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1990. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 590-592).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [50]-52).

Thesis--Hamburg. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-307).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 60-67).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [115]-117).

Thesis (Ph.D)--Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Pan, Ronghua; Committee Member: Chow, Shui-Nee; Committee Member: Dieci, Luca; Committee Member: Gangbo, Wilfrid; Committee Member: Yeung, Pui-Kuen. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Harding Graduate School of Religion, 1984. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-202).

This thesis examines the problems with social cost-benefit analysis in three areas -- economics, ethics and politics -- and suggests how these problems might be addressed in government project review processes. Problems in economics are empirical, methodological or theoretical dilemmas that make a social cost-benefit analysis difficult to prepare and interpret. Problems in ethics stem from the value judgments implicit in a social cost-benefit analysis that may be in conflict with the ethical beliefs of some individuals in society. Problems in politics stem from the various powers of individuals in a political process and challenge the relevancy of analysis. A literature survey, primarily of welfare economics but also of environmental ethics and political theory, is used to determine the various problems with social cost-benefit analysis, while a case study is used to illustrate how these problems are reflected in practice. Similarly, ideas for improvement are drawn from the literature of environmental impact assessment and these ideas are illustrated by applying them to the case study. The problems are discussed according to the stage of analysis at which they occur: problem definition, specification of objectives, selection of alternatives, prediction of consequences, and evaluation of alternatives. The case study is of the social cost-benefit analysis of B.C. Hydro's proposed Site C hydroelectric development and the associated project review process of the B.C. Utilities Commission Act. Empirical problems in economics range from: defining "wicked problems"; measuring interpersonal utility; defining and measuring consequences; obtaining adequate data; and evaluating or recognizing intangibles. Methodological problems in economics include: predicting consequences; elements of bias in evaluation techniques; the neglect of non-users in evaluation techniques for non-market resources; option values for environmental resources; and evaluating irreversible project consequences. Theoretical problems in economics stem from: narrow problem definitions and incomplete specification of alternatives which hinder achievement of optimal decisions; the theory of "second best"; the Scitovsky reversal paradox; the need for actual compensation to take place under certain situations; the use of willingness-to-pay or willingness-to-be-compensated measures of consumer surplus; the selection of a discount rate; and the effect of risk and uncertainty on evaluation. Ethical problems in social cost-benefit analysis arise from: the existence of multiple and conflicting problem definitions and sets of alternatives; Arrow's Impossibility Theorem which precludes the specification of a social welfare function; value judgments made implicitly in the methods of inquiry in both economics and the science needed for impact prediction; the existence of non-utilitarian frameworks that conflict with the utilitarian emphasis of social cost-benefit analysis; the reductionist nature of valuing environmental resources; the judgments made about individual rights in the selection of willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-be-compensated measures; and the judgments made about future generations in the selection of a discount rate. Political problems in social cost-benefit analysis are evident in: the hidden agendas and political goals of politicians, bureaucrats and interest groups; incentives to bias problem definition and alternative selection in order to justify a politically but not necessarily economically justified project; incentives to restrict the boundaries of analysis to provincial boundaries; and incentives to overstate benefits, understate costs and neglect qualitative project effects. Some of the economic, ethical and political problems can be resolved by changing the way that government project review processes operate. Three broad changes are recommended: a two-tier review process which clearly separates evaluation from the preceding stages of analysis; an increased use of public and interdepartmental review in the early stages of analysis; and a flexible and experimental approach to evaluation. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Mean-field games (MFG) are models of large populations of rational agents who seek to optimize an objective function that takes into account their state variables and the distribution of the state variable of the remaining agents. MFG with congestion model problems where the agents’ motion is hampered in high-density regions. First, we study radial solutions for first- and second-order stationary MFG with congestion on Rd. The radial case, which is one of the simplest non one-dimensional MFG, is relatively tractable. As we observe, the Fokker-Planck equation is integrable with respect to one of the unknowns. Consequently, we obtain a single equation substituting this solution into the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. For the first-order case, we derive explicit formulas; for the elliptic case, we study a variational formulation of the resulting equation. For the first case, we use our approach to compute numerical approximations to the solutions of the corresponding MFG systems. Next, we consider second-order stationary MFG with congestion and prove the existence of stationary solutions. Because moving in congested areas is difficult, agents prefer to move in non-congested areas. As a consequence, the model becomes singular near the zero density. The existence of stationary solutions was previously obtained for MFG with quadratic Hamiltonians thanks to a very particular identity. Here, we develop robust estimates that give the existence of a solution for general subquadratic Hamiltonians. Additionally, we study first-order stationary MFG with congestion with quadratic or power-like Hamiltonians. Using explicit examples, we illustrate two key difficulties: the lack of classical solutions and the existence of areas with vanishing densities. Our main contribution is a new variational formulation for MFG with congestion. With this formulation, we prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions. Finally, we devise a discretization that is combined with optimization algorithms to numerically solve various MFG with congestion.

As the nature of work significantly transforms over the next several decades, engineering students today will play a major role in building and developing society. Both industry and academia position critical thinking skills and problem-solving abilities as central to the growing needs of developed and developing societies. Consequently, engineers will be paid in the future to solve complex problems. ABET (2021) standards indicate these ill-structured problems or complex engineering problems involve multiple factors outside of standard building codes or equations. Complex or socioscientific problems have no obvious solution pathway, multiple perspectives, and require a well-reasoned and argued solution. Thus, ill-structured problems emerge from situated and societal contexts in which various aspects of the context or problem space are undefined, unspecified, uncertain, or as Chen et al. (2019) describe, 'fuzzy'. Novice learners struggle with the inherent uncertainty embedded at all stages of the problem-solving process. Students need opportunities to grapple with the challenges of real-world problems, including the inherent uncertainties associated with them. In problem-solving situations learners often reject or avoid uncertainty and associated feelings of discomfort because traditional education provides few opportunities to confront these uncertainties in problem solving. Evidence suggests uncertainty becomes a productive or constructive experience when learners are forced to express, contend, grapple with, argue, and negotiate how and what they know with others. Thus, generation of uncertainty, or productive uncertainty, in problem-solving situations facilitates management of ambiguity and complexity through argumentation to, in turn, foster well-informed, confidently argued and supported solutions. The purpose of this study was to develop a framework to guide designers/instructors to facilitate learning using argumentation as a pedagogical tool to manage uncertainty. / Doctor of Philosophy / Work is changing across industries, and students today will play a major role in building the world of tomorrow by solving complex problems. Therefore, industry and education position critical thinking and problem-solving skills as crucial to developing an innovative workforce to prosper in the future. Moreso, engineers will play a major role in using critical thinking and problem-solving skills to solve complex problems. Essentially, engineers will be paid to solve these pressing problems. Complex problems, also known as socioscientific problems, are extremely uncertain - having no apparent solution, requiring multiple perspectives, and arriving at a feasible solution under constraints. Additionally, complex problems are impacted by multiple effects associated with cultural and social contexts, making these problems increasingly more 'fuzzy' or uncertain. Because uncertainty is a key part of complex problem solving, students need chances to grapple with these problems and unavoidable uncertainty, which is too often avoided. Uncertainty creates feelings of discomfort which learners seek to avoid or reduce. However, evidence indicates uncertainty can also be used productively. If students can embrace or learn to work within uncertainty, they can learn to argue, negotiate, reason, and solve problems more effectively. The act of collaboratively arguing, reasoning, sharing perspective, or negotiating (argumentation as a process) holds promise as an overarching practice which allows students to confront and manage uncertainty in problem solving. Therefore, this study aimed to position argumentation as a teaching tool to foster and manage productive moments of uncertainty while solving complex problems. The study resulted in a taxonomy of uncertainty sources and management strategies, and cognitive guidelines for designers and educators to use argumentation as a process to promote and manage uncertainty while learning to solve complex problems.