Conversion of biomass to electricity is often not economically feasible as a result of large transportation costs and low output prices. We build a model of an adaptable biorefinery situated at an agri-processing facility that already has biomass on-site and consider the optimal scale of the...

In this paper, we use quantile regression analysis to explore the role submarket competition plays in setting housing prices in those price ranges where different submarkets occupy homes of similar price. We find evidence of direct competition between submarkets with different preferences for at...

We use a finite mixture model to identify latent submarkets from household demographics that estimates a separate hedonic regression equation for each submarket. The method is a relatively robust empirical tool to extract submarkets from demographic information with far less effort than...

In hedonic analysis, a common approach for eliciting information regarding the welfare significance of some landmark or (dis)amenity is to control for its distance from each observation. Unfortunately, the effects of distances to amenities on housing prices are generally not consistent...

Motivated to explore sustainability of renewable energy from bio-waste, this study attempted to discover the economic feasibility of effectively utilizing the existing agricultural waste to generate bio-energy, to complement local nucleus business by meeting specific market demands while...

A global modeling method is developed to describe the relationship between multi-type parameters and fuel cell performance, which significantly contributes to efficient performance prediction of fuel cell system. The multi-type parameters include operating parameters, geometric parameters of the...

In a seeming paradox, bluegrass seed production in the State of Washington increased following imposition of a statewide ban on stubble burning in 1996. Despite forecasts that alternative production practices would increase the cost of producing bluegrass seed so much that the industry would be...

Playas are small wetlands, averaging 14 acres in area, which periodically fill with rainwater and evaporate, and are not connected to any other body of surface water. On the Texas High Plains, the roughly 17,000 existing playas are a source of recharge for the Ogallala aquifer and the greatest...

Irrigated agriculture on the Southern High Plains of Texas relies heavily on water extracted from the Ogallala Aquifer, which is functionally non-renewable. Concerns about depletion of the aquifer have led to the implementation of policies designed to slow water extraction and increase the...