Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Consumer Engagement With Efficient And Renewable Energy Technology: Case Studies On Smart Meter Utilization And Support For A Community Anaerobic Biodigester System In Vermont, Samantha Whitney Lewandowski

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Residential electricity consumption in the United States has many adverse impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, dependence on fossil fuels, and costs. Efficient and renewable energy technologies have the potential to help mitigate some of these impacts, but appear to be under-utilized in the United States. One major barrier to expanding the deployment of these kinds of technologies and maximizing the benefits they can provide is a lack of consumer engagement. The overall purpose of this thesis is to better understand the extent to which efficient and renewable energy technologies are being engaged with and what factors may influence such …

Market Efficiency In U.S. Stock Markets: A Study Of The Dow 30 And The S&P 30, Colin Michael Van Oort

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The U.S. National Market System (NMS), the largest marketplace in the world for securities and exchange traded funds, suffers from geographic market fragmentation which leads to reduced market efficiency.

Communication lines transmit price updates and other information between geographically isolated exchanges at varying speeds, bounded above by the speed of light.

Market participants have access to federally mandated information provided by the Securities Information Processor (SIP) and privately offered information provided by the exchanges, often called direct feeds.

These feeds are quantitatively and qualitatively distinct, with the direct feeds tending to provide more information at a faster rate than the …

Some Results On A Class Of Functional Optimization Problems, David Rushing Dewhurst

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

We first describe a general class of optimization problems that describe many natu- ral, economic, and statistical phenomena. After noting the existence of a conserved quantity in a transformed coordinate system, we outline several instances of these problems in statistical physics, facility allocation, and machine learning. A dynamic description and statement of a partial inverse problem follow. When attempting to optimize the state of a system governed by the generalized equipartitioning princi- ple, it is vital to understand the nature of the governing probability distribution. We show that optimiziation for the incorrect probability distribution can have catas- trophic results, e.g., …

Cityscape Connections: National Park Service Relevance And Resilience In Urban Areas, Elizabeth Eleanor Perry

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The National Park Service (NPS) strives to embody U.S. democratic ideals, conserving our collective stories and scenery for their intrinsic value and the enjoyment of current and future generations. However, although these places are conserved for all, they are not enjoyed by all. As with other conservation agencies, the NPS finds itself increasingly concerned with building relevance with diverse potential stewards. In cities, where 80% of the U.S. population and 40% of the NPS portfolio is based, there is a prime opportunity to build relevance with large, diverse, and proximate audiences. Recognizing this opportunity, the NPS initiated its Urban Agenda …