Master of Science / Department of Civil Engineering / Sunanda Dissanayake / Public transportation in rural America has existed for decades. Its providers are challenged with low populations and long distances in rural areas. Many of these rural transit providers have been in existence for many years, but ridership still remains low. These providers usually operate in a demand-response format, as opposed to large cities, where buses run on fixed routes. This research was conducted to see if any type of service improvements or enhancements could be found in order to increase ridership of demand-response transit service in rural Kansas. In order to determine if ridership of public transportation in rural Kansas can be increased, customer satisfaction surveys were conducted. One survey was distributed to current riders of demand-response systems, one survey distributed to non-riders of public transportation, and the last survey given to providers to obtain basic system information throughout Kansas. Ridership is significantly skewed toward the elderly, disabled, and those who either choose not to drive or are unable to drive. Those who do not fall into one of these three categories often do not use public transportation in rural areas. For most of the riders, public transportation is their only reliable method of mobility as they are transit dependent. Only 35% of the riders had a personal vehicle they could use to make the trip had public transportation not been available. Riders of demand-response transit systems in rural Kansas are pleased with the service provided as a whole. Non-riders are ambivalent toward demand-response transit service. They appreciate the fact that in many cases general public transportation service exist, but they are also generally unwilling to use it themselves. These are typically choice riders, and are unlikely to switch to demand-response transit due to their other mobility options. It was found that the more vehicles a person has access to in their household, the less knowledge they have about public transportation in their area. These people are content to use the vehicles they have, because it is more convenient than using public transportation in rural Kansas. Improvements to the provider’s system, like extending operating hours and days, along with implementing GIS-assisted scheduling may bring higher ridership. However, this may only increase the number of rides by the same current riders with few new riders grained. Increasing the usage of demand response ridership will continue to be a challenge in the future with the increasing number of elderly in the years to come.

The mail order business was once a traditional method of selling and distributing clothes, and other commodities, to customers. Now, the e-commerce trend, with more sophisticated techniques of marketing, selling, and distributing goods, has not only challenged the traditional mail order system, it seems also that the traditional retail chain and even fashion chains are being challenged. This change not only affects how sellers compete (be they long-distance or not), it has probably affected us as consumers - our requirements and how we purchase. This work contributes to this development through extensive empirical investigations into how and why customers return what they have previously ordered. The primary conclusions are that consumer requirements tend to vary, and therefore the standard solution of delivering goods to a vast variety of consumers without engaging in discussion about the individual customer service requirements (et cetera) is most probably the central cause behind the increasing return trends seen in the business. The purpose of this thesis is to identify and to characterise important factors causing returns. Further, to assist the development of Returns Management research, the intention is to develop a theoretical model of a Supply/Demand Chain returns system that incorporates an application of avoidance and gatekeeping in a distance sale context with the aim to improve overall systems performance. The research design used in the thesis was a case study performed at one of the largest mail order organisation in Sweden, with a long tradition in the business. The main data used in the thesis has been collected from interviews, a questionnaire, and secondary data exported from the case organisation. Sales and returns data covering approximately one year of sales and returns in the Swedish market was quantitatively analysed, and the results were regularly discussed and presented to key informants at the case organisation to substantiate authenticity and trustworthiness. The overall conclusion is that the distance-sales trade is affected by the trends that are seen in other areas, namely increased competition - not only from within the distance trade but also from the traditional retail trade. This is probably due to the ease of shopping via e-commerce, and the vast supply of products that even exceeds that of the retail chains. This attracts new customer groups with new demands and requirements. This, in many ways, is an archetypal difference between today’s e-commerce business and yesterday’s mail order business, and could explain why customers from the different channels behave and return differently. The use of the Internet affects how we purchase, and therefore the result of the purchase. It is quite likely that we are far more spontaneous when purchasing over the Internet in comparison with telephone and mail orders. Key words: Returns management, customer service, demand chain management, e-commerce, avoidance, gatekeeping

Compressed air leakage accounts for up to 42% of electrical energy loss on a typical mine compressed air system. By using underground control valves it is possible to reduce the amount of air leakage. Underground valve control was successfully implemented in a South African mine. The project implementation and achieved results are documented in this study. The implementation of underground control valves initially requires a large capital investment. In this study the electrical and financial savings realised by underground valve control and surface valve control were calculated. The payback periods for each control strategy were determined and compared. It was determined that underground valve control can realise up to 40% higher electrical savings than surface control. Depending on the size of the mine and due to the large initial investment, the payback period for an underground valve control system can be up to six times longer than that of a surface control system. / MIng (Mechanical Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Today the regional railway system lacks the capacity at the central station in order to meet the demand for both the public and freight transportation. The West link is a railway infrastructure project that is expected to both increase train commuting and also increase the train capacity at the central station in Gothenburg. The purpose of this thesis work is to do an elastic demand analysis between car traffic and the West Link in modal shift to determine how many travelers will change mode. Also traffic simulations will be made to investigate the traffic conditions around the stations when the West link has been implemeted. The simulation results showed that nowadays there are congestions on the major highways and some of the smaller low capacity roads. In the future, congestions will become more significant if no countermeasures are implemented like the West link. In the elastic demand analysis the results were overall around 47% – 51% on a demand of between 350 000 – 400 000 trips. As a conclusion it cannot be said whether the West link will ease the pressure on car traffic or not. The reasons are that the population will increase about 100 000 inhabitants until 2030 and the West link is assumed by the region to have this amount of travelers each day. This would result in the same traffic pressure as today with congestions in certain parts. If the number of West link users will be around 200 000, as the results of this thesis shows, then the West link will ease the pressure on car traffic.

Encouraging the uptake of energy efficient vehicles (EEVs) is an aspiration of critical importance in a day and age in which we are confronted with the increasingly dire consequences of human behaviour on our planet, and on the planet for generations to come. The transport sector is one of the highest contributors of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, whilst pollution from this sector is responsible for a large proportion of human deaths each and every year. Given the severity of these issues, it is more important than ever for policy-makers, and researchers alike, to encourage a transition within the community towards more sustainable lifestyles. Transportation is key to this change. As a service that every human being uses, almost every day of his or her life, the transport sector presents a unique opportunity for behavioural change. Through efficient and targeted policies, consumers can be incentivised to make more sustainable transport choices and to consider the consequences of their own actions. Foremost amongst these initiatives is that of encouraging a transition towards energy efficient vehicles. This thesis has been produced in order to shed further light on issues affecting this transition. In particular for policy-makers, this document includes a series of recommendations based on prevailing findings in the current literature, in addition to the novel and significant findings of this research effort. These include the various lessons learnt from government policies that have already been implemented in regions around the globe. As a thesis by publication, this document consists of four research articles that investigate factors affecting the EEV market, specifically in terms of: consumer demand, vehicle usage and product pricing. A number of other demographic and economic factors have also been examined, including the role of economies-of-scale. / Att uppmuntra ökad användningen av energieffektiva fordon (EEVs) är en strävan av avgörande betydelse i en tid då vi konfronteras med de allt mer ödesdigra konsekvenserna av människors påverkan på vår planet, i dag och för kommande generationer. Transportsektorn är en av de sektorer som bidrar mest till utsläppen av antropogena växthusgaser. Utsläpp från transportsektorn bidrar även till ett stort antal dödsfall varje år. Med tanke på vikten av dessa frågor är det viktigare än någonsin för beslutsfattare och forskare att bidra till en samhällsövergång mot mer hållbara livsstilar. Transporter är avgörande i denna omvandling. Eftersom transporter är en tjänst som alla människor utnyttjar i stort sett varje dag, erbjuder transportsektorn en unik möjlighet till beteendeförändringar. Genom effektiva och målinriktade åtgärder kan konsumenter ges incitament att göra mer hållbara transportval och överväga konsekvenserna av sina handlingar. Främst bland dessa initiativ är en uppmuntran till en övergång mot mer energieffektiva fordon. Denna avhandling har tagits fram i syfte att belysa frågeställningar som berör denna övergång. För framför allt beslutsfattare innehåller avhandlingen en rad rekommendationer baserade på såväl rådande forskningsresultat från aktuell forskningslitteratur som nya resultat från denna forskningsinsats. Dessa inkluderar erfarenheter från redan implementerade politiska åtgärder från regioner runt om i världen. Denna sammanläggningsavhandling består av fyra forskningsartiklar som undersöker faktorer som påverkar EEV-marknaden vad gäller konsumentefterfrågan, fordonsanvändning och produktprissättning. Utöver dessa har även ett antal andra demografiska och ekonomiska faktorer, inklusive betydelsen av stordriftsfördelar, undersökts. / <p>QC 20160503</p>

In history there are numerous examples of strong market-leaders who have lost everything through the emergence of a new breakthrough technology which has replaced the existing one. That could be the reason why Christensen received such high attention when he presented his famous work about disruptive technologies in 1997. In his work, and in many following studies, several aspects of this phenomenon have been investigated. However, the key point for the market leaders, the ability of identifying a market disruption before it happens, ex ante, is still a field that has not reached a definedstate of the art. In this work one of Christensen's original ideas of disruption, driven by changes incustomer demand, is highlighted as a possible improvement for the ex ante methodology. In this thesis a selected existing holistic prediction model is extended explicitly with this aspect of need change. The purpose of this work is thus to evaluate if including the property of shifting customer needs in an existing holistic model would improve the ex ante prediction of disruption and lead to a simple, practical but yet rich model. With a literature review of the existing types of ex ante methods a fitting base model for the holistic approach to disruptive prediction is found. A second literature review is performed with the focus on disruption and its link to changes in need, as expressed by customer demand. This serves as a starting point for the extension of the base ex ante model into a methodology that look also upon the aspect of shifting customer demand. To validate and use the proposed extended ex ante model a qualitative approach is selected. It consists of two studies within the automotive industry. One is a history analysis of a known disruptive case to validate the extension, the entry of Japanese car manufacturers into the US market. One is a case-study of a present potentially disruptive case to apply the extended method as a genuine ex ante method for final evaluation at a post-disruption stage. It investigates the effects of electric vehicles on the Chinese automotive market. Through the analysis of the two studies the conclusion is reached that a qualitative improvement of the prediction has been obtained. Additionally it is shown that the analysis of customer need change can provide an increased understanding of the underlying drivers of the disruption.

The 2008 Climate Change Act set legally-binding carbon reduction targets. Demand side management (DSM) includes energy use reduction and peak shaving and offers significant potential to reduce the amount of carbon used by the electricity grid. The demand side management (DSM) schemes that have tried to meet this challenge have been dominated by engineering-based approaches and so favour tools like automation (which aims to make shifting invisible) and pricing (which requires customer response) to shift demand. These approaches tend to focus on the tools for change and take little account of people and energy-use practices. This thesis argues that these approaches are limited and therefore unlikely to produce the level of response that will be needed in future. The thesis therefore investigates the potential for time-shifting domestic energy demand but takes a different angle by trying to understand how people use energy in their daily lives, whether this use can be shifted and some of the implications of shifting it. The centrepiece of the work is an empirical study of eleven households energy-use practices. The interdisciplinary methodology involved in-house observations, interviews, photographs, metered energy data and disruptive interventions. The data was collected in two phases. Initially, a twenty-four hour observation was carried out in each household to find out how energy was implicated in everyday practices. Next, a series of three challenges were carried out, aimed at assessing the implications of disrupting practices by time-shifting food preparation, laundry and work/ leisure. A practice theory approach is used to shift the focus of attention from appliances, tools for change, behaviour or even people, to practices. The central finding of this work is that practices were flexible. This finding is nuanced, in the light of the empirical research, by an extended discussion on the nature of practices; in particular, the relationship between practices and agency and the temporal-spatial locatedness of practices. The findings demonstrate that, in this study at least, expanding the range of demand response options was possible. The research suggests numerous possibilities for extending the potential of practices to shift in time and space, shift the energy used in practices or substitute practices for other non-energy-using practices, though there are no simple technological or behavioural fixes . More profoundly, however, the thesis concludes that infrastructures of provision , such as the electricity grid and the companies that run it, underpin and facilitate energy-use practices irrespective of the time of day and year. In this context technology-led demand response schemes may ultimately contribute to the problem they purport to solve. A more fundamental interrogation of demand and the infrastructures that serve it is therefore necessary and is almost entirely absent from the demand response debate.

This thesis presents a demand reduction and responsive strategy for underground mining operations. The thesis starts with a literature review and background research on global energy, coal mining and the energy related issues that the mining industry face everyday. The thesis then goes on to discuss underground mine electrical power systems, data acquisition, load profiling, priority ranking, load shedding and demand side management in mining. Other areas presented in this thesis are existing energy reduction techniques, including: high efficiency motors, motor speed reduction and low energy lighting. During the thesis a data acquisition system was designed and installed at a UK Coal colliery and integrated into the mines existing supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. Design and installation problems were overcome with the construction of a test meter and lab installation and testing. A detailed explanation of the system design and installation along with the data analysis of the data from the installed system. A comprehensive load profile and load characterisation system was developed by the author. The load profiling system is comprehensive allows the definition of any type of load profile. These load profiles are fixed, variable and transient load types. The loads output and electrical demand are all taken into consideration. The load characterisation system developed is also very comprehensive. The LC MATRIX is used with the load profiles and the load characteristics to define off-line schedules. A set of unique real-time decision algorithms are also developed by the author to operate the off-line schedules within the desired objective function. MATLAB Simulation is used to developed and test the systems. Results from these test are presented. Application of the developed load profiling and scheduling systems are applied to the data collected from the mine, the results of this and the cost savings are also presented.

ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada / The higher bandwidth capacities available with the adoption of Ethernet technology for networked FTI data acquisition systems enable more data to be acquired. However, this puts increased demands on the network recorder to be able to support such data rates. During any given flight, the network recorder may log hundreds of GigaBytes of data, which must be processed and analyzed in real-time or in post-flight. This paper describes several approaches that may be adopted to facilitate data-on-demand data mining and data reduction operations. In particular, the use of filtering and indexing techniques that may be adopted to address this challenge are described.

Metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) have become increasingly interested in incorporating land use patterns and design ideas into transportation problems. Many design ideas under the umbrella of the New Urbanism; yet in practice they hardly get fully implemented in the standard transportation planning procedures. This research intends to contribute to the continuing debate on land use pattern-travel connection by adding further empirical evidence from the Austin, TX region. Also, it demonstrates ways to integrate land use patterns in transportation demand analysis. The study identifies 42 mixed use districts (MXD) in the Austin region and analyzes the following aspects of travel behavior in MXDs and non-MXDs: production trip rates, frequency of produced trips, network trip length, internal rate of capture, and person-miles of travel (PMT). The study contributes to transportation planning and policy making in Central Texas by providing local empirical evidence on urban form-travel connection. The study’s method and process can be of interest to a broad audience in academia and practice. / text