This paper describes the development of a model to predict the hourly cost of downtime (using regression equations) for tracked hydraulic excavators operating in the UK opencast mining industry. A three-stage process was utilized for the model's development. The first stage predicted machine...

The financial success or otherwise of a maintenance strategy can be determined realistically only when actual costs are compared with target 'predicted' values. This is because, in the absence of accurate cost control mechanisms, maintenance expenditure can exceed capital cost. In order to...

This paper reports on an in-depth study of the status of sustainable housing design (SHD), in Sutherland Shire, Sydney, Australia. The motives and attitudes of key stakeholders towards SHD were identified. Also investigated was the feasibility of an Ecological Sustainability Index (ESI)...

Acyclic probabilistic finite automata (APFA) constitute a rich family of models for discrete longitudinal data. An APFA may be represented as a directed multigraph, and embodies a set of context-specific conditional independence relations that may be read off the graph. A model selection...

ToSIA (Tool for Sustainability Impact Assessment) offers a transparent and consistent methodological framework to assess impacts of changes (technological, policy, management, <i>etc</i>.) in the forest-based sector. This tool is able to facilitate the decision making process within and between diverse...

Franklin and Edwards state that concentrated poverty is the problem, and that a holistic, neighborhood based solution that is specific to the circumstances is the essential response. Citing Purpose Built’s successful work in Atlanta, Franklin and Edwards say the response must be integrated,...

This paper presents the findings of a Delphi survey, conducted in four European regions (Great Britain, Nordic Region, Central Europe and Iberia) to assess public preferences for 12 key structural attributes of forests. The objectives were to explore the extent to which generalisations can be...

The addition of another fraction to an initial experiment is often necessary to resolve ambiguities involving aliasing of factorial effects. One of the most widely used techniques for the selection of a follow-up experiment is foldover. However, semifoldover (i.e., adding half of a foldover...

CG-regressions are multivariate regression models for mixed continuous and discrete responses that result from conditioning in the class of conditional Gaussian (CG) models. Their conditional independence structure can be read off a marked graph. The property of collapsibility, in this context,...