空氣污染防制費自民國84年7月1日開徵，希望能藉由空污費的徵收來減少污染的排放量，同時能透過空氣污染防制費的有效運用來改善空氣品質，而本文僅針對空氣污染防制迄今，對家計部門所產生的清潔效益進行估算。 首先，利用家計部門生產函數建立理論模型，接著以錢玉蘭、蕭代基(1996)，「台灣大都會地區改善空氣品質之經濟效益評估與酸雨風險認知調查」的問卷調查資料為樣本，對超對數及近似理想需求函數的實證模型進行配適比較。結果顯示：近似理想需求函數配適之判定係數較高，符合加總性、齊次性及對稱性限制條件，而價格變數與屬性變數之估計結果亦相當合理，因此，推論近似理想需求函數為解釋台灣清潔需求型態的較適模型。 由近似理想需求函數所推估之85及86會計年度空污費執行所帶來台灣地區家戶清潔效益分別為每戶2101元及651元，加總每戶效益後，台灣地區總清潔效益分別為128億元及39億元，與空污費實際執行的歲出相較，推論空污費執行迄今之效益大於成本。並由推算之各都會地區補償變量性質，建議政府以效率的觀點使用空氣污染防制費時，應將防制資源優先使用於改善都市化程度愈高，人口數愈多，污染程度愈嚴重地區的空氣品質。 / The Environmental Protection Agency of Taiwan launched the Air Pollution Emission Fees Program to levy emission fees on petroleum products, July 1, 1995. The purpose of such a program is to provide economic incentives to change peoples' behavior towards the consumption of fuels and to collect fees to be used for the improvement of air quahty. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of the emission fees program on household cleanness. In order to achieve this objective, we first employ a household production function in accordance with the theory of consumption behavior. Two models are utilized in this study, i.e., the translog firnction model and the almost ideal demand function model. We utilize cross-section data to fit into these models and find that the almost ideal demand model has more significant explanatory power. Therefore, we infer that this model is a better functional form for expressing the cleanness behavior of Taiwan's households. The estimated results of the total benefits for household cleanness resulting from the implementation of air pollution emission fees are NT$12.8 and NT$3.9 bilhon for the accounting years of 1996 and 1997, respectively. By comparing expenditure from the air pollution fees, which were designated for the purpose of improving air quality, i.e., NT$4.2 and NTS3.3 billion for the respective years 1996 and 1997, we can see that the pollution control program is conformable with the benefit-cost principle. Finally, based on the empirical results, pohcy recommendations are presented in the conclusion.

The transportation infrastructure systems in the United States were built between the 50's and 80's, with 20 years design life. As most of them already exceeded their original life expectancy, state transportation agencies (STAs) are now under increased needs to rebuild deteriorated transportation networks. For major highway maintenance projects, a federal rule enforces to perform a life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA). The lack of analytical methods for LCCA creates many challenges of STAs to comply with the rule. To address these critical issues, this study aims at developing a new methodology for quantifying the future maintenance cost to assist STAs in performing a LCCA. The major objectives of this research are twofold: 1) identify the critical factors that affect pavement performances; 2) develop a stochastic model that predicts future maintenance costs of flexible-type pavement in Texas. The study data were gathered through the Pavement Management Information System (PMIS) containing more than 190,000 highway sections in Texas. These data were then grouped by critical performance-driven factor which was identified by K-means cluster analysis. Many factors were evaluated to identify the most critical factors that affect pavement maintenance need. With these data, a series of regression analyses were carried out to develop predictive models. Lastly, a validation study with PRESS statistics was conducted to evaluate reliability of the model. The research results reveal that three factors, annual average temperature, annual precipitation, and pavement age, were the most critical factors under very low traffic volume conditions. This research effort was the first of its kind undertaken in this subject. The maintenance cost lookup tables and stochastic model will assist STAs in carrying out a LCCA, with the reliable estimation of maintenance costs. This research also provides the research community with the first view and systematic estimation method that STAs can use to determine long-term maintenance costs in estimating life-cycle costs. It will reduce the agency's expenses in the time and effort required for conducting a LCCA. Estimating long-term maintenance cost is a core component of the LCCA. Therefore, methods developed from this project have the great potential to improve the accuracy of LCCA.

In this thesis the Copper-Chlorine (Cu-CI) thermochemical cycle and its components as well as operational and environmental conditions are defined, and a comprehensive thermodynamic analysis of a Cu-CI thermochemical cycle, including the relevant chemical reactions, is performed. Also the performance of each component/process is evaluated through energy and exergy efficiencies. Various parametric studies on energetic and exergetic aspects with variable reaction and reference-environment temperatures are carried out. A detailed analysis of the general methodology of cost estimation for the proposed process, including all cost items with their percentages, the factors that affect accuracy, and a scaling method, is also presented. / UOIT

Overheight vehicle impact to bridge decks is a major problem in the transportation networks in the United States. An important factor that causes this problem is inadequate vertical clearance of bridges. Using steel pedestals to elevate bridge decks is an efficient and cost-effective solution for this problem. So far, steel pedestals have been used in the low seismic regions of the United States and therefore, their design has been based on providing enough strength to carry vertical loads and the lateral behavior of bridges elevated with pedestals have not been a major concern. But even in low seismic zones the seismic hazard should not be completely ignored. Also there might be some bridges in medium or high seismic regions that need to be elevated because of the lack of enough vertical clearance and using steel pedestals can be considered as an option for elevating those bridges. To address the mentioned needs, this dissertation proposes a framework to determine the structural reliability of bridges elevated with steel pedestals by developing probabilistic capacity and demand models for the slab-on-girder bridges subjected to lateral loads. This study first compares the behavior of previously tested pedestals with the behavior of elastomeric bearings in low seismic regions using statistical tests. Then, to provide a general framework, which can be applied to all bridges that are elevated with steel pedestals, this dissertation develops probabilistic capacity and demand models for steel pedestals considering all the aleatory and epistemic uncertainties of the problem. Using the developed probabilistic models along with the available models for other components of bridges, seismic fragility curves for elevated bridges are obtained and used to determine the structural reliability. Finally, this study uses the developed framework in a decision analysis that helps the engineering community and decision makers to check if the installation of steel pedestals on a specific bridge has financial justification or not. Results show that for a typical two-span slab-on-girder bridge, the use of steel pedestals has financial justification only in low seismic regions and if the societal benefits of elevating the bridge can at least cover the installation cost of pedestals.

This study investigates the proposed extension of the existing runway of Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. The process involves the application of Geographic Information System (GIS) and several geospatial techniques for analysis and result presentation. The aim of the study was achieved with the following resources: satellite imagery downloaded from the Landsat webpage and processed to generate a land use map of the study area; a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) covering the study area which was downloaded from the Consortium for Spatial Information’s (CSI) webpage and observed ground spot heights along the straight path of the proposed runway extension covering a total length of 2.5km and 200m wide. These datasets were modified, processed and assigned the same coordinate system in order to make them conformal for analysis. A GIS was created with the foregoing resources in conjunction with other geospatial applications such as ERDAS Imagine and Surfer 8 to carry out the analysis. The analysis covered the environmental impacts of the proposed project, its effects on already existing human settlements and the huge cost implications based on certain conditions like the mandatory straight path which has to be maintained as an extension of the existing runway. Other factors considered are; the land use of the extension area, the economic benefits of the project, the accessibility of the area, noise pollution as well as the safety and security issues involved. A summary of the result of our analysis shows features such as residential settlements, roads, swampy areas, valleys and areas of high elevation which will act as obstructions along the proposed  runway path. Also, the total surface area of the proposed runway and the volume of earth material required were calculated. The results achieved from this study shows that GIS and other geospatial tools are indispensable resources in complex planning processes such as facility maintenance and management.

In this thesis potential for (final and primary) energy and CO2 emission reductions and cost effectiveness of replacing existing household electric appliances and light bulbs with most popular or most energy efficient appliances in a multifamily apartment building in Växjö city is studied. The results showed that there is significant potential to reduce electricity demand and thereby to reduce primary energy use and CO2 emissions. The greatest potential lies with replacing existing incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs, while the lowest savings seem to be with replacement of microwave ovens. Assuming that reduced electricity demand reduces electricity generation in coal-based steam turbine (CST) technology, annually about 63 MWh of primary energy and 25 ton CO2 emissions could be reduced from the investigated building if the existing refrigerator/freezer, stove/oven, microwave oven, televisions and light bulbs are replaced with the most energy efficient alternatives available in the market today. Also, the results from ‚discounted payback period‛ and ‚cost of conserved energy‛ analyses also showed that it is cost-effective to install the most energy efficient appliances. This study for a single building is based on limited number of interviews, selected appliance types, and number of assumptions about marginal electricity production systems. To generalize the results more such studies in different conditions with measurement of actual energy use of all the household appliances should be conducted, which would help to fully understand the potential of primary energy savings and CO2 emission reductions in Swedish apartment buildings.

<p>As cloud computing is gaining popularity, many application owners are migrating their</p><p>applications into the cloud. However, because of the diversity of the cloud environments</p><p>and the complexity of the modern applications, it is very challenging to find out which</p><p>cloud environment is best fitted for one's application.</p><p>In this dissertation, we design and build systems to help application owners select the</p><p>most suitable cloud environments for their applications. The first part of this thesis focuses</p><p>on how to compare the general fitness of the cloud environments. We present CloudCmp,</p><p>a novel comparator of public cloud providers. CloudCmp measures the elastic computing,</p><p>persistent storage, and networking services offered by a cloud along metrics that directly</p><p>reflect their impact on the performance of customer applications. CloudCmp strives to</p><p>ensure fairness, representativeness, and compliance of these measurements while limiting</p><p>measurement cost. Applying CloudCmp to four cloud providers that together account</p><p>for most of the cloud customers today, we find that their offered services vary widely in</p><p>performance and costs, underscoring the need for thoughtful cloud environment selection.</p><p>From case studies on three representative cloud applications, we show that CloudCmp can</p><p>guide customers in selecting the best-performing provider for their applications.</p><p>The second part focuses on how to let customers compare cloud environments in the</p><p>context of their own applications. We describe CloudProphet, a novel system that can</p><p>accurately estimate an application's performance inside a candidate cloud environment</p><p>without the need of migration. CloudProphet generates highly portable shadow programs</p><p>to mimic the behavior of a real application, and deploys them inside the cloud to estimate</p><p>the application's performance. We use the trace-and-replay technique to automatically</p><p>generate high-fidelity shadows, and leverage the popular dispatcher-worker pattern</p><p>to accurately extract and enforce the inter-component dependencies. Our evaluation in</p><p>three popular cloud platforms shows that CloudProphet can help customers pick the bestperforming</p><p>cloud environment, and can also accurately estimate the performance of a</p><p>variety of applications.</p> / Dissertation

Abstracts: The purpose of the study was to compare the efficacy and cost between intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) with intramuscular (IM) analgesics for women in the first two days after surgery. The study included 200 patients who were assigned to receive PCA or intramuscular injections opioid during a period of 2 days after surgery. The PCA group included 124 patients and IM group had 76 patients. The data were collected using a structured questionnaires, patient chart review and hospital charge data. The several findings were observed in this study. 1. The pain level in the PCA group was significantly lower than in the IM group (P< 0.01). The PCA group had significantly greater satisfaction with pain control than those in IM group (p< 0.01). The influence of activity by pain in the IM group had significantly greater than those in PCA group (p< 0.05). 2. The incidence of skin itching in PCA group was significantly higher than in the IM group ¡]P< 0.01¡^.3. Cost per patient was higher for PCA group¡]NT$ 420.9¡Ó22.6¡^than IM group¡]NT$228.4¡Ó60.1¡^. In conclusion, PCA produced better pain relief, get better patient¡¦s satisfaction than conventional on-demand IM opioid injections but it was more expensive.

Organizations are increasingly focusing on their value chain activities in an effort to improve their performance, especially in the recent economic times. Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their channel activities has become a focal point for many organizations. Interorganizational systems (IOS’s) have played an important part in this effort. While in theory, IOS’s have the ability to enhance the degree of cooperation and coordination between two channel partners, often the results obtained are not what is expected. Hence, it becomes very important to understand the barriers to the assimilation of these technologies. Drawing upon theoretical perspectives of governance, including transaction cost analysis (TCA), control theory and agency theory, we develop an integrative model that examines the factors that influence an organizations assimilation process. The model identifies and examines three stages of assimilation: technological, exploitive and explorative assimilation that add value to an organization. The model features asset specificity, technological uncertainty, performance documentation, agent orientation and bilateral governance mechanisms as antecedents to assimilation. It also examines the moderating effects of bilateral mechanisms. Our results suggest that theories of governance provide an additional lens to examine assimilation phenomena. In specific, our empirical analysis leads to several key findings: (1) channel partners who are locked in to the relationship with high levels of asset specificity are more likely to assimilate the technology; (2) bilateral governance mechanisms are a key force in the assimilation process, with both direct and moderated effects; (3) organizations that view the channel partner as an agent of the firm are less likely to adopt the technology, especially when the relationship exhibits low levels of bilateral governance mechanisms. Together these findings provide new insights into barriers to the assimilation of IOS’s in channel relationships.

The U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) has used the interstitial building system (IBS) as a design component for some of the hospitals in its healthcare infrastructure portfolio. Department of Defense (DoD) leadership is aware of increases in healthcare costs and understands the importance of safely reducing costs, which may be possible through design initiatives. An analysis was performed on facility maintenance metrics for ten different U.S. Army hospitals, including IBS design and conventional / non-interstitial building system (NIBS) design. Statistical analysis indicated a significant difference in cost and time data between IBS and NIBS for most of the building systems considered (HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and interior). Scheduled maintenance for the plumbing building system was not found to have a significant difference in costs; scheduled maintenance for the HVAC and plumbing building system was not found to have a significant difference in time expended. The data in this study showed that facility maintenance cost and time were generally lower for IBS than NIBS. Time spent (and associated cost) for scheduled maintenance of the electrical and plumbing building systems were slightly higher in IBS, though not significantly higher for plumbing. It may be easier to reach the plumbing and electrical building systems due to the greater accessibility afforded by IBS design. While a cost premium is estimated for integrating IBS design, the savings provided by life cycle facility maintenance is estimated to be up to three and a half times the initial cost premium.