Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Residential Electricity Demand In Arkansas, Ileana M. Resendez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study analyzes residential electricity demand in Arkansas. Explanatory variables utilized include real per capita income, residential electricity price, heating degree days, cooling degree days, and residential natural gas price. The results indicate that the income effect dominates the substitution effect given a real personal income increase and a decline in real electricity rates in the state of Arkansas during the period under study.

Hispanic Communities And Environmental Justice: A Comparative Study Of Mobility And Exposure To Air Toxics In Houston, Maricarmen Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Environmental justice research has focused too little attention on immigrant communities. This study extends from the premise that themes of immigration and mobility among racial/ethnic minority communities must be more carefully analyzed by environmental justice (EJ) scholars. By clarifying why Hispanic people live where they live, and what factors shape their exposures to cancer risks from hazardous air pollutants, this study aims to contribute to the existing EJ body of knowledge. The analysis employs qualitative methods, implemented as part of a larger National Science Foundation-funded study. In-depth semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with randomly selected Hispanic individuals, some of whom …

Essays On The Digital Divide, Belal Abdelfattah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The digital divide is a phenomenon that is globally persistent, despite rapidly decreasing costs in technology. While much of the variance in the adoption and use of information communication technology (ICT) that defines the digital divide can be explained by socioeconomic and demographic variables, there is still significant unaccounted variance that needs to be explained if the world's population is expected to be brought more fully into the digital age. The present research addresses this need with three cross-country studies. Study 1 primarily investigates the time individuals spend with traditional media sources as a likely explanation for their frequency of …

Three Essays On Social/Political Structures And Icts Use, Seungeui Ryu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My research identifies how social structures affect the use of the Internet and/or a mobile chat application and how the Internet impacts the political structure of a nation. In my first essay of the 3-essay Dissertation, I am designing three models based on social structure theory that are used to study the Internet and a popular mobile chat application's use by managers in South Korea, with the help of a survey instrument. In my first essay, the contribution is on i) testing a model of manager's personal behavior on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use at the individual level involving …

Solar Pv Power Generation Forecasting Using Hybrid Intelligent Algorithms And Uncertainty Quantification Based On Bootstrap Confidence Intervals, Donna Alhakeem

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis focuses on short-term photovoltaic forecasting (STPVF) for the power generation of a solar PV system using probabilistic forecasts and deterministic forecasts. Uncertainty estimation, in the form of a probabilistic forecast, is emphasized in this Thesis to quantify the uncertainties of the deterministic forecasts. Two hybrid intelligent models are proposed in two separate chapters to perform the STPVF. In Chapter 4, the framework of the deterministic proposed hybrid intelligent model is presented, which is a combination of wavelet transform (WT) that is a data filtering technique and a soft computing model (SCM) that is generalized regression neural network (GRNN). …

Mapping Technologically And Economically Important Materials At Lunar And Terrestrial Sites Using Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) And Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission And Reflection Radiometer (Aster) Data, Douglas L. Standart

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation comprises three distinct research projects, all of which employ the use of remote sensing and digital image processing methods for the discovery and characterization of mineral resources. Two of the research projects focus on the use of hyperspectral data to identify water and ilmenite on the lunar surface. The third research project involves the use of multispectral data to map alunite in copper porphyry and epithermal silver-gold deposits. Our approach to these problems result in innovative algorithms and geological interpretations that are of use to both planetary science and exploration and the terrestrial mineral industry.

Project I: Towards …

A Long- And Short-Run Analysis Of Electricity Demand In Ciudad Juarez, Ericka Cecilia Mendez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Economic growth and appliance saturation are increasing electricity consumption in Mexico. Annual frequency data from 1990 to 2012 are utilized to develop an error correction framework that sheds light on short- and long-run electricity consumption behavior in Ciudad Juarez, a large Mexican metropolitan economy at the border with the United States. The results for this study reveal that electricity is an inelastic normal good in this market. Moreover, natural gas is found to be a weak complement to electricity. With regards to the customer base in this urban economy, population, employment, and income exercise positive and statistically significant impacts on …