Improving the Distribution of Densities in Southern California

Many of the biggest transportation challenges in Southern California arise not due to its overall density but due to the lack of concentration of densities. While recent years have witnessed increasing efforts to expand public transit services and encourage compact development in transit areas, there is a dearth of research providing support for improving the distribution of densities in the region. This project adopts a simultaneous equation modeling (SEM) approach to reveal the complexity of parcel-level (residential) land use intensification dynamics in a five-county Southern California metropolitan region with emphasis on the importance of reciprocal interactions between current and planned land use changes and the critical role of public transit accessibility. Results suggest that residential densification and upzoning processes reinforce each other. Urban residential upzoning can promote the probability of parcel-level residential densification significantly, even though it does not always lead to an immediate market response in every location. More importantly, the residential density increases are found to induce further plan/zoning modifications in nearby areas, indicating the presence of feedback loops in this dynamic relationship. There is also evidence of the positive influence of public transit accessibility. Single-family residential land parcels with greater access to high-quality transit services show a higher level of densification and upzoning probabilities, when all other conditions are held constant. Such positive effects are detected not only in existing high-quality transit areas but also in locations where public transit services will be available in the future

Comparative analysis of casino operations on the Las Vegas Strip and in Atlantic City

The main purpose of this study is to assess the state of the casino industry within the respective markets of Atlantic City and the Las Vegas Strip, based on recent changes in their financial performances. It attempts to identify trends in revenue, cost, and profit margin of the Las Vegas Strip and Atlantic City casinos since 1995, when the gaming market saturation was not a problem. Casino performances within these two markets are compared. To achieve this objective, aggregate data of 37 casinos on the Las Vegas Strip and 12 casinos in Atlantic City are used; Despite fast rising revenues on the Las Vegas Strip, total operating costs and expenses have increased more quickly than has total revenue. This has caused a decline in net income before income taxes and extraordinary items since 1996 (Nevada Gaming Abstract, 1995--2000). In Atlantic City, a fierce marketing war took place consisting of bus and coin giveaway packages in 1996 (Rutherford, 1999), which significantly affected the increase of total operating costs and expenses, as well as a decline in the bottom-line profit margin for the year. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Effect of admixtures on the yield stresses of cement pastes under high hydrostatic pressures

When cement-based materials are transported at a construction site, they undergo high pressures during the pumping process. The rheological properties of the materials under such high pressures are unknown, and estimating the workability of the materials after pumping is a complex problem. Among various influential factors on the rheology of concrete, this study investigated the effect of mineral and chemical admixtures on the high-pressure rheology. A rheometer was fabricated that could measure the rheological properties while maintaining a high pressure to simulate the pumping process. The effects of superplasticizer, silica fume, nanoclay, fly ash, or ground granulated blast furnace slag were investigated when mixed with two control cement pastes. The water-to-cement ratios were 0.35 and 0.50.ope