In the absence of a randomized control trial, regression discontinuity (RD) designs can produce plausible estimates of the treatment effect on an outcome for individuals near a cutoff score. In the standard RD design, individuals with rating scores higher than some exogenously determined cutoff score are assigned to one treatment condition; those with rating scores below the cutoff score are as...

managers always consider the precise estimation of sediments in watersheds due to various conditions, such assoil and water resources management, construction, infrastructure and economical and social issues. in this condition,an optimized determination of sediment rating equation (typical method until now for sediment yield estimation) isessential to investigate sediment yield in rivers. in th...

Highway agencies monitor the condition of thousands bridge decks every year. Even though Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has been used in bridge-deck evaluation, Step-Frequency GPR (SF-GPR) provides advanced assessment yet requires extensive and complex post-processing analysis. An SF-GPR analysis system was recently developed for monitoring all state Maryland. The objective this study to develo...