The current fiscal crisis in U.S. institutions of higher education is a direct result of the 2008 global recession. The collapse in the financial industry, housing foreclosures, and high unemployment are just a few of the consequences that continue to wreak havoc on state and local governments. Funding cuts continue to trickle down as state revenue sources decline. Debates over what should be funded (national security, health, or education) leave legislative bodies at odds. Higher education is especially vulnerable in part because lawmakers are less willing to slash such programs as Medicaid, children's health insurance and K-12 public education. The competition for state funding leaves public institutions with fewer resources and major deficits to address. Given the challenging fiscal environment that community colleges continue to face, this research, focusing specifically on community colleges in the state of Texas, presents the pressing array of challenges that confront community colleges and identifies the techniques that have been adopted to allocate resources most effectively. Exploration of the issue may provide insight into the best practices, and strategies that can help other institutions address fiscal challenges. A mixed method research design, using survey and interview research methods, was used to implement this study. The survey findings provide useful insights into what is currently going on at Texas community colleges. Follow up interview discussions compliment the survey findings and provide the researcher with important contextual information pertaining to “why” things are as they are based on participant perceptions. / text

This thesis consists of two essays analyzing the effect of uncertainty in macroeconomic and financial settings. Inspired by the counter-cyclical pattern of uncertainty and the role played by capital reallocation in Total Factor Productivity, we propose a theoretical viewpoint on uncertainty-driven business cycles in the first essay. Relying on the interaction between financial market and real sector, we are able to build up a transmission mechanism from uncertainty to business cycle by introducing a financial contract between firms and financial intermediaries. By setting up two types of firm with different production technology in a general equilibrium model, we show that information asymmetry leads firms with financing needs to be financially constrained. Due to information asymmetry, first best case is unachievable and production resources are allocated more to firms without financing needs. When uncertainty changes, the lending decision of financial intermediary also changes, further affecting firms’ production capacities. Production resources are reallocated between the two types of firms which generates fluctuations in TFP and other aggregates. More importantly, firms with financing needs is assumed with better production technology than the one adopted by the other type on average. Increase in uncertainty worsens the informational problem, reduces funds provided to firms with better technology, causes reallocation of resources to the other type, and further decreases productivity of the economy as a whole. This is in line with an economic downturn and also consistent with the counter-cyclicality of uncertainty. We also conduct a quantitative analysis by calibrating the model to the data and the estimated results provide corroborating evidence for the theory. Using a merged data-set of US firms during years 1971-2008, we empirically examine the impact of uncertainty on capital reallocation via financial friction in the second essay. By adopting KZ index as an indicator for firms’ financial statuses, we decompose the uncertainty-capital reallocation relation into three hypotheses. Using cross-sectional dispersion of stock return as a measure for uncertainty, we find that uncertainty is negatively associated with firms’ financial statuses. A firm with high uncertainty level is more likely to be in a low position of financial status. Second, uncertainty is in a negative relation with capital reallocation, which means capital reallocation decreases at firm level when uncertainty increases. Third, by sorting firms into different groups based on their financial statuses, we find that firms which are in worse financial situation are more responsive to uncertainty change. The finding is consistent with our prediction that uncertainty affects capital reallocation through financial friction. We employ both reduced-form and structural estimation strategies to examine our predictions, and all regression results are supportive. To further test the role of financial friction in the relation, we also sort firms into different groups by SIC code. And we find that, firms in industries relying more on financial market for external financing are more responsive to uncertainty change. / published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Networks function properly only when nodes cooperate to provide service. In many networks, such as ad hoc and interdomain networks, network devices are deployed by different owners. Due to limited communication resources, nodes in such networks may behave selfishly. That is, they are only interested in maximizing their own utilities, leading to selfish networks. Incentives are required in such networks to stimulate cooperation. In wired selfish networks, existing work mainly focuses on traffic assignment among predetermined available paths for one source and destination pair. In wireless selfish networks, available bandwidth is assumed to be fixed and predetermined, and the interferences among flows are ignored. Resource allocation in selfish networks needs to be developed under more general models. This dissertation has devised general analytical models for bandwidth allocation in wired and wireless selfish networks. Based on the analogy between resource allocation in selfish networks and auction, auction theory has been adopted in the design and analysis of resource allocation schemes. With incentives introduced in the schemes, selfish nodes will follow the prescribed algorithm and report their information truthfully so that the system cost is minimized. I firstly propose a general model for bandwidth allocation in wired selfish networks. Bandwidth requirements of call routing requests in a given period are allocated as a batch and satisfied at the end of the period. Then, a centralized mechanism is designed to allocate bandwidth and determine payments with different sequencing strategies. Some properties of the mechanism such as individual rationality and incentive-compatibility are studied. I go on to develop the distributed algorithm in wired selfish networks. Available paths are no longer assumed to be fixed and predetermined. Destination nodes conduct the sub-auctions in a certain order for bandwidth allocation and determine payments in a distributed manner. Truthfulness of the distributed mechanism is guaranteed under Nash equilibrium. This distributed mechanism, as a more scalable solution to allocate bandwidth in wired selfish networks, can still guarantee the performance achieved by existing work. / published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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Natural gas plants can have multiple owners for raw natural gas streams and processing facilities as well as for multiple products. Therefore, a proper cost allocation method is necessary for taxation of the profits from natural gas and crude oil as well as for cost sharing among gas producers. However, cost allocation methods most often used in accounting, such as the sales value method and the physical units method, may produce unacceptable or even illogical results when applied to natural gas processes. Wright and Hall (1998) proposed a new approach called the design benefit method (DBM), based upon engineering principles, and Wright et al. (2001) illustrated the potential of the DBM for reliable cost allocation for natural gas processes by applying it to a natural gas process. In the present research, a rigorous modeling technique for the DBM has been developed based upon a Taylor series approximation. Also, we have investigated a cost allocation framework that determines the virtual flows, models the equipment, and evaluates cost allocation for applying the design benefit method to other scenarios, particularly those found in the petroleum and gas industries. By implementing these individual procedures on a computer, the proposed framework easily can be developed as a software package, and its application can be extended to large-scale processes. To implement the proposed cost allocation framework, we have investigated an optimization methodology specifically geared toward economic optimization problems encountered in natural gas plants. Optimization framework can provide co-producers who share raw natural gas streams and processing plants not only with optimal operating conditions but also with valuable information that can help evaluate their contracts. This information can be a reasonable source for deciding new contracts for co-producers. For the optimization framework, we have developed a genetic-quadratic search algorithm (GQSA) consisting of a general genetic algorithm and a quadratic search that is a suitable technique for solving optimization problems including process flowsheet optimization. The GQSA inherits the advantages of both genetic algorithms and quadratic search techniques, and it can find the global optimum with high probability for discontinuous as well as non-convex optimization problems much faster than general genetic algorithms.

No description available.

In an inevitably occurring process, bridges possessing historic, artistic, and engineering significance deteriorate and must be maintained and rehabilitated in order to be kept in service. Ideally, all potentially significant bridges would be properly preserved and continue to beautify and bring character to their surroundings for years to come. However, funding is currently limited for transportation projects in general, and even more so for historic bridge preservation, which some may consider less critical in comparison to other transportation needs. Because of this limitation on resources, it is important that bridge-owning agencies use proper planning and management strategies in order to make the best use of available funding. This thesis presents a framework designed to assist agencies in this process. The framework is devised specifically for TxDOT for use in Tarrant County, Texas, but can be used as a model for agencies anywhere with some modifications to fit the inventory under evaluation. Included in the framework are a methodology for prioritization of bridges within an inventory, guidance on financial and legal procedures, identification of potential funding sources, summary and review of condition assessment practices and bridge mitigation strategies, a template for individual bridge preservation plans, and a framework for resource allocation within a bridge inventory. It can be concluded from this research that early detection of defects, preventive maintenance, condition assessment beyond routine inspection, adjustment of evaluation methodology, and use of engineering judgment when using numerical evaluation methods are critical components of proper management of historic bridges.

Future generation wireless networks are envisioned to provide ubiquitous networking to a wide number of mobile users, promising them the ability to access the various data networks anywhere and anytime. Such networks have motivated the research into efficient management and allocation of the wireless network's limited resources. Heterogeneity also exists amongst the subscribers, i.e. there are those who are willing to spend a little extra on their subscriptions in the prospect of obtaining a better level of service. This work proposes a framework for efficient resource management, while satisfying the heterogeneous QoS demands of the different subscribers. Part of the proposed framework was used to generate mathematical models for the purpose of analyzing the behavior of the system under two different resource management schemes.

Future generation wireless networks are envisioned to provide ubiquitous networking to a wide number of mobile users, promising them the ability to access the various data networks anywhere and anytime. Such networks have motivated the research into efficient management and allocation of the wireless network's limited resources. Heterogeneity also exists amongst the subscribers, i.e. there are those who are willing to spend a little extra on their subscriptions in the prospect of obtaining a better level of service. This work proposes a framework for efficient resource management, while satisfying the heterogeneous QoS demands of the different subscribers. Part of the proposed framework was used to generate mathematical models for the purpose of analyzing the behavior of the system under two different resource management schemes.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 159 p. : col. ill., col. maps. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 106-110).