No description available.

No description available.

Collectively, US public transportation systems operated 137,047 vehicles per peak period in 2008 (American Public Transportation Association 2010). Buses accounted for the largest segment among these vehicles, and the passenger van segment was second. Together, they accounted for 78% of the vehicles operated per peak period (American Public Transportation Association 2010). Due to their pervasive use in the public transportation industry, buses and vans have been the focus in various academic research studies. However, very few studies have focused on vehicle procurement. Further, none have focused on the specific vehicle procurement function of supplier evaluation and selection. The over-arching objective of this research is to gain a deeper understanding of the relative importance of vehicle supplier attributes in reference to the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) “best-value” procurement initiative and the influence of these attributes on the evaluation and selction of bus and van suppliers. This research studies vehicle procurement decision-makers at public transportation agencies to determine which supplier attributes they perceive to be the most important when evaluating vehicle suppliers. Results indicate that the top five supplier attributes were quality, reliability, after-sales support, warranties and claims, and integrity. The order of these top five attributes changed according to the type of supplier being evaluated, i.e., conventional fuel vehicle supplier versus alternative fuel vehicle supplier. The reason for this change was explained as being due to the increased engineering and technological expertise required of alternative fuel vehicle suppliers. Utilizing Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), the research showed that the variation in the perception of the importance of particular supplier attributes was not generally influenced by an agency's urban classification, its vehicle fleet size, its capital expenditure level, its decision-makers' education level, or their years of experience. However, FTA region was determined to have an influence on two attributes. Utilizing a conditional logit discrete choice model, the research also found that in practice price and not quality had the highest parameter estimate and was therefore deemed most important. It was followed by quality, after-sales support, technical capability, and delivery. Further, to garner a deeper understanding of attributes' relative importance, participants in the research identified 41 attribute components and provided metrics by which to measure these components and, by extension, the attributes. This research contributes in four areas. These are government procurement initiatives, agency “best-value” procurement practice, vehicle supplier marketing, and academic research in supplier evaluation and selection in the public transportation industry.

No description available.

Since the 75th anniversary of the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane in 2003, a growing number of journalists and historians writing about the disaster have incorporated Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God as part of the official historical record of the hurricane. These writers often border on depicting Their Eyes as the authentic experience of black migrant workers impacted by the hurricane and subsequent flood. Within the novel itself, however, Hurston theorizes on the potential epistemic violence that occurs when a piece of evidence—a photograph, fallen body, or verbal artifact—is used to judge a person. Without a person's ability to use self-representation to give an "understandin'" (7) to go along with the evidence, snapshots or textual evidence threaten to violently separate people from their prior knowledge of themselves. By offering the historical context of photographs of African Americans in the Post-Reconstruction South, I argue that Janie experiences this epistemic violence as a young girl when seeing a photograph of herself initiates her into the racial hierarchy of the South. A few decades later, while on trial for shooting her husband Tea Cake, Janie again faces epistemic violence when the evidence of Tea Cake's body is used to judge her and her marriage; however, by giving an understandin' to go along with the evidence through self-representation, Janie is able to clarify that which other forms of evidence distort and is able to go free. Modern texts appropriating Their Eyes run the risk of enacting epistemic violence on the victims of the hurricane, the novel, and history itself when they present the novel as the complete or authentic perspective of the migrant workers in the hurricane. By properly situating the novel as a historical text that offers a particular narrative of the hurricane rather than the complete or authentic experience of the victims, modern writers can honor Hurston's literary achievement without robbing the actual victims of the hurricane of their voice.

Amid declining state funding, do public universities seek alternative revenue streams to keep tuition and fees down? Is such diversification only a public university phenomenon? If both private and public schools are seeking new sources of revenue, then state appropriations may not be the impetus. Instead, institutional characteristics may have a greater influence. In addition, would those higher education institutions (HEIs) with a greater propensity to generate alternative revenue have a greater rate of survival? I examine HEIs by sector using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from fiscal years 2003–2004 through 2016–2017 and provide future researchers with guidance on its use. Controlling for different states’ policies, politics, and fiscal health, I find that institutional characteristics influence certain HEIs to seek alternative revenue streams and that these characteristics often strengthen the relationship between state appropriations and alternative revenue sources. Furthermore, the findings suggest that generating alternative revenue, as I define it, may play a role in the survival of HEIs. / Business Administration/Accounting

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis addresses the financial cost implications incurred during elections, with special focus on South Africa. The discussion is conducted by way of comparing South Africa to countries like India, Australia, Israel and Mexico. Democracy entails more than merely conducting periodic elections that are free and fair, but it cannot be less. To a large extent free and fair elections are indicative of the governing authority's commitment to democracy. This commitment however, does have financial implications. A question that is very rarely addressed relates to the financial cost implications that accompany this commitment. For a country such as South Africa with a range of other pressing socio-economic issues, the cost factor with regard to the voting process is of vital importance. The South African electoral experience, in comparison to that of other developing countries, is presently a very costly undertaking at a conservative average cost of more than US $13.00 per vote. Depending on how the expenses are calculated, this figure takes on hefty proportions. To an extent the tardiness on the part of the South African Government in appointing the Electoral Commission to conduct the 1999 elections and the subsequent conflicts regarding the budgetary allocations to the Electoral Commission (EC) combined with poor electoral planning, resulted in the EC having to resort to very expensive technology in order to ensure that a free and fair election would be conducted on the date set by the President. Apart from addressing the above mentioned issues, relating to the cost expenditure during elections, the assignment also addresses possible ways to reduce these costs incurred. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis fokus op die finansiële uitgawes wat tydens verkiesings aangegaan word, met spesifieke verwysing na Suid-Afrika. Die bespreking geskied aan die hand van 'n vergelyking met lande soos Indië, Australië, Israel en Mexico. Demokrasie behels baie meer as net die hou van periodieke vrye en regverdige verkiesings, maar dit kan ook nie enigiets minder as dit behels nie. Vrye en regverdige verkiesings is tot 'n groot mate 'n bewys van 'n bepaalde regime se verbintenis tot die demokrasie. Hierdie verbintenis het egter finansiële implikasies vir 'n land. Die finansiële koste verbonde aan hierdie "verbintenis" is egter selde 'n punt van akademiese bespreking. Met die aantal sosio-ekonomiese vraagstukke waarmee die Suid-Afrikaanse regering op die oomblik gekonfronteeer word, is dit van kardinale belang dat dringende aandag geskenk word aan pogings om die koste-faktor van die verkiesingsproses so laag as moontlik te hou. In vergelyking met die gemiddelde koste wat verbonde is aan verkiesings in ander ontwikkelende lande, was die 1999 Suid-Afrikaanse verkiesing (teen sowat US $13,00 per kieser) 'n duur onderneming en afhangende van hoe die kostes bereken word, ontaard hierdie bedrag in 'n aardige een. Tot 'n groot mate was swak verkiesingsbeplanning die oorsaak dat daar tot duur tegnologie gewend moes om te verseker dat die verkiesing vry en regverdig verloop, soos op die datum wat deur die President bepaal is. Die laat aanwysing van die 1999 Verkiesingskommissie en die daaropvolgende konflik oor die verkiesingsbegroting, het ook bygedra tot die feit dat duur tegnologie ingespan moes word. Afgesien van bogenoemde aspekte, bespreek die tesis ook moontlike maniere om toekomstige verkiesings in Suid-Afrika teen 'n laer koste te hou.

Nesta tese, investigam-se os centros urbanos e o fenômeno das centralidades na atualidade, tendo Palmas, capital do Tocantins, como objeto empírico. Palmas foi estabelecida a partir de um plano urbanístico, de 1989, para uma população ainda inexistente. Seus preceitos de racionalidade projetual são transgredidos já em seus primeiros anos, quando adentra efetivamente na lógica capitalista de produção do espaço urbano, tendo a gestão pública como participante fundamental desse processo. Como decorrência, desencadeia o fenômeno da multicentralidade prematuramente. Seus centros urbanos surgem deflagrando as contradições sociais e estampam os conflitos de seu processo de urbanização. Enquanto seu centro principal evoca simbolicamente o poder e está alinhado aos interesses hegemônicos, seus subcentros populares revelam uma construção coletiva do espaço e ricas apropriações de seus espaços livres públicos, abrindo maiores possibilidades para a vivência urbana e contribuindo para a formação da cidadania. / In this thesis, the urban centers and the phenomena of centralities are investigated today, with Palmas, the capital of Tocantins, as an empirical object. Palmas was established from an urban plan, from 1989, for a still non-existent population. Its precepts of design rationality are already transgressed in its early years, when it effectively penetrates into the capitalist logic of urban space production, with public management as a fundamental participant in this process. As a result, it triggers the phenomenon of multicentrality prematurely. Its urban centers emerge deflagrating the social contradictions and stamping the conflicts of its process of urbanization. While its main center symbolically evokes power and is aligned with hegemonic interests, its popular subcentres reveal a collective construction of space and rich appropriations of its public spaces, opening up greater possibilities for urban living and contributing to the formation of citizenship.

A presente dissertação objetiva compreender a influência do processo de adequação entre o espaço concebido originalmente a partir de um projeto e o espaço vivido temporalmente a partir das apropriações nas dinâmicas cotidianas do espaço percebido. Para tal, optou-se por analisar a história de consolidação do espaço físico e social do Conjunto Habitacional Guajuviras como o estudo de caso deste trabalho. Este conjunto popular foi projetado e implantado em Canoas/RS entre as décadas de 1970 e 1980 a partir do Banco Nacional da Habitação (BNH) e da Companhia Habitacional (COHAB) local e passou por um processo conturbado de apropriação e ocupação irregular. Hoje o Bairro Guajuviras vivencia uma série de contradições físicas e sociais em função das transformações e adaptações que originaram regiões distintas dentro de um mesmo lugar. Juntas estas diferentes parcelas e seus respectivos cotidianos configuram um mosaico de espaços conhecido popularmente como “Guaju” que é abordado aqui em função de três momentos complementares. Primeiramente, analisa-se a história do conjunto destacando a origem das diferentes regiões. Em seguida, objetiva-se mapear o processo de adequação considerando as adaptações físicas de cada região. E, por ultimo, pretende-se apreender os percursos cotidianos enfatizando as diferentes fronteiras a serem atravessadas pelos moradores de cada região. Após cada um dos momentos, o objeto de estudo é aprofundado em função de uma reconstrução do espaço que é ao mesmo tempo histórica, física e social. / This dissertation aims to understand the influence of the adequacy process between the space originally designed from a project and the space temporally lived from the appropriations in the everyday dynamics of the perceived space. To this end, it was decided to analyze the consolidation history of physical and social space Housing Guajuviras set as the case study of this work. This popular housing was designed and implemented in Canoas/RS between the 1970s and 1980s from the National Housing Bank (BNH) and the Housing Company (COHAB) site and went through a troubled process of appropriation and illegal occupation. Today Guajuviras district experience a series of physical and social contradictions due to the changes and adaptations that led to different regions within the same place. Together these different plots and their everyday configure a space mosaic popularly known as "Guaju" which is addressed here in terms of three complementary moments. First, it analyzes the history of the housing highlighting the origin of the different regions. Then the objective is to map the adequacy process considering the physical adaptations of each region. And lastly, it is intended to grasp the daily routes emphasizing the different borders to be crossed by the residents of each region. After each of the moments, the object of study is deepened due to a reconstruction of the space that is historical, physical and social.

Ho Wai-yee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-53). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract (English) --- p.i / Abstract (Chinese) --- p.ii / Acknowledgement --- p.iii / Table of contents --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Literature Review --- p.4 / Chapter 1.3 --- Organization of the thesis --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter2 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.9 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Model --- p.9 / Chapter 2.3 --- Effects of government expenditure --- p.11 / Chapter 2.4 --- Summary / Chapter Chapter3 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.16 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Model --- p.16 / Chapter 3.3 --- The capital mobile case --- p.21 / Chapter 3.4 --- Summary --- p.25 / Chapter Chapter4 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.27 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Model --- p.27 / Chapter 4.3 --- Dynamics --- p.33 / Chapter 4.4 --- Current Account Balance --- p.35 / Chapter 4.5 --- Comparative Statics --- p.36 / Chapter 4.6 --- Welfare --- p.38 / Chapter 4.7 --- Summary --- p.41 / Chapter Chapter5 / Conclusion --- p.43 / Appendix --- p.46 / Reference --- p.52