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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

How Effective Is Group Feedback In Encouraging Occupants Of An Office Building To Reduce Energy Consumption?, Ushik D. Shah Apr 2015

How Effective Is Group Feedback In Encouraging Occupants Of An Office Building To Reduce Energy Consumption?, Ushik D. Shah

Open Access Theses

Lighting contributes to a high percentage of the total energy use in office buildings. The lack of financial incentive often dissuades office workers from trying to save electricity at their work place. This thesis aims at reducing the total power consumed by an office building by using persuasive technologies on the occupants to promote environmentally conscious and energy saving behavior. ^ A three week field study was conducted by providing occupants of an office building feedback about their energy consumption along with messages to encourage them to save energy. Feedback was provided via television screens and flyers placed strategically at …


Food Security In The Free State Province: Meaning Making As Democratic Agency, Jacqueline Del Valle Hanoman Ambrosio Apr 2015

Food Security In The Free State Province: Meaning Making As Democratic Agency, Jacqueline Del Valle Hanoman Ambrosio

Open Access Dissertations

People's stories are powerful means of explaining their realities, for their narratives reveal what meanings they make of the situations they are living, how they face these situations and what strategies they formulate to overcome them. Their meaning making is one of the most powerful tools of their agency, and this is what this study reveals. In it, I tell the stories of people in the Free State Province, South Africa, who face food insecurity within abundance, and their critical consciousness and agency as they struggle to survive in their democracy. Poverty is a rawness...Poverty is struggle... Poverty is shame...these …


Spatial Analysis Of Passenger Vehicle Use And Ownership And Its Impact On The Sustainability Of Highway Infrastructure Funding, Matthew Volovski Apr 2015

Spatial Analysis Of Passenger Vehicle Use And Ownership And Its Impact On The Sustainability Of Highway Infrastructure Funding, Matthew Volovski

Open Access Dissertations

Across the United States, the sustainability of highway funding is at risk due to increasing need and uncertainty in the factors that drive revenue. Past studies on highway funding sustainability have identified that the root cause of changing highway revenue are the shifts in social demographics and economic characteristics. Unfortunately, from the revenue perspective (the focus of this dissertation), the ability of previous research to account for these factors has been rather limited in two ways; first, the inability to accurately assess current regional vehicle use (a typical prerequisite for statistical modeling of highway revenues) due to difficulties associated with …


The Integration Of Heat Resources In A Solar Thermal-Heat Pump Hydronic System, John Maxfield Degrove Jan 2015

The Integration Of Heat Resources In A Solar Thermal-Heat Pump Hydronic System, John Maxfield Degrove

Open Access Theses

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, roughly 41% of the energy consumed in the U.S. is used the power buildings. Within that number, almost half is used to heat or cool the building. Current technologies allow for consistent thermal management, but most utilize energy harvested from fossil fuels or convert electricity back into thermal energy. Background literature shows that the utilization of alternative heat resources such as heat pumps and solar thermal collectors can greatly reduce the energy used for heat delivery while producing adequate heating performance. A combined hydronic system using a bank of solar thermal collectors in …