Browsing by Author "Damnjanovic, Ivan D."
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Item Comparison of LEED to Non-LEED Certified Hospitals with Regards to Patient Perspective and Financial Indicators(2012-10-19) Ulusoy, ErenAs natural resources are decreasing and environmental pollution is increasing, the buildings that play an important role in this problem should be constructed sustainably so their affects are kept to a minimum. Hospitals operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, therefore they are one of the largest energy consumers. Hence designers have started to design healthcare facilities according to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) criteria, believing that it will reduce waste production, energy consumption and increase patient satisfaction by creating brighter and less stressful facilities. To understand if the claims are correct or not, this thesis first studied the results of the patient survey, Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System (HCAHPS), undertaken at most of the hospitals in the U.S., and compares the results to LEED and non-LEED certified hospitals. To find answers for the claims related to the financial benefits, this thesis compared three financial indicators; cost of operation of plant, profitability, and inpatient revenue. In the cases where there is a large enough sample size, a t-test is used to compare two groups, however when the sample size was not large enough, two groups are compared based on their means. For the cost of operation of plant and profitability, non-LEED certified hospitals are performing better. However, the patient satisfaction and inpatient revenues are significantly higher at the LEED-certified hospitals.Item Managing Commodity Risks in Highway Contracts: Quantifying Premiums, Accounting for Correlations Among Risk Factors, and Designing Optimal Price-Adjustment Contracts(2012-02-14) Zhou, XueIt is a well-known fact that macro-economic conditions, such as prices of commodities (e.g. oil, cement and steel) affect the cost of construction projects. In a volatile market environment, highway agencies often pass such risk to contractors using fixed-price contracts. In turn, the contractors respond by adding premiums in bid prices. If the contractors overprice the risk, the price of fixed-price contract could exceed the price of the contract with adjustment clauses. Consequently, highway agencies have the opportunity to design a contract that not only reduces the future risk of exposure, but also reduces the initial contract price. The main goal of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of commodity price risk on construction cost and the optimal risk hedging of such risks using price adjustment clauses. More specifically, the objective of the dissertation is to develop models that can help highway agencies manage commodity price risks. In this dissertation, a weighted least square regression model is used to estimate the risk premium; both univariate and vector time series models are estimated and applied to simulate changes in commodity prices over time, including the effect of correlation; while the genetic algorithm is used as a solution approach to a multi-objective optimization formulation. The data set used in this dissertation consists of TxDOT bidding data, market-based data including New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) future options data, and Engineering News-Record (ENR) material cost index data. The results of this dissertation suggest that the optimal risk mitigation actions are conditional on owners' risk preferences, correlation among the prices of commodities, and volatility of the market.Item Rapid Loss Modeling of Death and Downtime Caused By Earthquake Induced Damage to Structures(2012-07-16) Ghorawat, SandeepIt is important to assess and communicate the risk to life and downtime associated with earthquake induced damage to structures. Thus, a previously developed four-diagram/four-step approach to assess direct losses associated with structural damage, a similar quantitative risk assessment technique is used to examine the indirect loss associated with death and downtime. The four-step approach is subdivided into four distinct tasks: (a) Hazard analysis, (b) Structural analysis, (c) Loss analysis of both direct and indirect losses and (d) The total loss estimation due to damage, death and downtime. This empirically calibrated model in the form of power curve is used by establishing losses corresponding to onset of damage state 5 (complete damage) and limiting upper losses. The utility of the approach is investigated for the bridges in both California and New Zealand regions with different detailing. Results show that death related losses for bridges are generally twice and downtime five times the direct damage losses. Thus, it is concluded that structures should be designed for more than just acceptable physical damage. It is shown that a marked improvement can be made by moving to a comprehensive damage avoidance design paradigm.