Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Analysis of energy and savings of using ground loop or steam to change temperature of the bulding heat pump loop in Norm Asbjornson Hall(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2023) Kuikel, Shraddha; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Kevin AmendeThe need for efficient and sustainable environmental conditioning systems in buildings has become increasingly important in the face of rising energy costs and environmental concerns. This thesis aims to assess the optimization of the control logic to maximize energy savings and costs associated with utilizing ground loop or steam to modify the temperature of a heat pump loop in ground source heat pumps (GSHP) in Norm Asbjornson Hall (NAH) building at Montana State University (MSU). The study begins by providing a comprehensive review of existing literature on GSHP systems, their working principles, and the various methods employed to alter the temperature of the heat pump loop. The research methodology involves determining the conditions under which it is economically viable to operate ground loops and/or a steam heat exchanger to maintain the heat pump loop temperature within a set operating range. This is done by deriving an equation that utilizes the coefficient of performance (COP) and entering water temperature (EWT) of the heat pump loop. Energy and cost analysis is then conducted to assess the energy efficiencies for different cases. The findings reveal that both steam and ground loops can effectively alter the temperature of heat pump loops, providing enhanced temperature control and increased energy efficiency. The analysis shows that each strategy does have important financial and environmental implications, nevertheless. Due to the equipment, infrastructure, and operational expenditures, steam injection is primarily utilized to raise the loop's temperature for heating mode only, and at extreme situations when the ground loop cannot provide enough energy to maintain the heat pump loop temperatures. However, compared to steam injection, ground loops, which can be used for both heating or cooling, offer significant energy savings and lower long-term maintenance costs, albeit needing a sizable initial investment. In summary, the thesis explores how to optimize control logic to save energy and costs using ground loop or steam to adjust building heat pump loop temperature. The study evaluates energy, cost, and environmental impact of the proposed control logic optimization approach. The findings aim to provide insights into informed decision-making regarding the adoption of this alternative method.Item Outcome measurement in direct primary care(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Nursing, 2021) Davis, Lindsey Michelle; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Yoshiko Yamashita ColcloughThe cost of healthcare in the United States compared to the quality of outcomes achieved is disproportionately high. Limitations in access to primary care result in poorer population health, increase in frequency and severity of exacerbations of chronic conditions, higher numbers of emergency room visits, surgical interventions and specialty consultations which increase healthcare expense. A novel model of primary care delivery, Direct Primary Care (DPC), claims anecdotal improvement in cost, access, satisfaction, and clinical outcomes but the results have not been validated in the literature. This project aimed to gain insight to the degree of improvement in access and care outcomes achieved at a direct primary care clinic in Montana. A valid and reliable, patient-reported outcome measure (the Person-Centered Primary Care Measure) was implemented to identify the extent to which this DPC clinic achieved improvements in these areas. The results of this project indicated that efforts in DPC have the capacity to advance population health, improve clinical outcomes and reduce cost through increased access to care. Further evaluation is recommended including repetition of this project in other geographic locales. Others wishing to continue the work may desire to include demographic information such as age, gender and length of practice membership.Item Mitigating software engineering costs in distributed ledger technologies(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2018) Heinecke, Jonathan Taylor; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mike WittieDistributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are currently dominating the field of distributed systems research and development. The Ethereum blockchain is emerging as a popular DLT platform for developing software and applications. Several challenges in Ethereum software development are the complex nature of working with DLTs, the lack of tools for developing on this DLT, and poor documentation of concepts for DLT developers. In this thesis, we provide building blocks that reduce the complexity of DLT operations and lower the barrier to entry into DLT development. We do this by providing a Node.js library, Ethereum-Easy, that simplifies operations on Ethereum. We implement this library into a sample application called Rock, Paper, Scissors (RPS) and built a continuous delivery, continuous integration pipeline for deploying Ethereum code (Jenk-Thereum). This thesis aims to make development on DLTs easier, quicker, and less expensive.Item Development of non-proprietary ultra high performance concrete(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2017) Snidarich, Richard Allen, Jr.; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael BerryUltra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has mechanical and durability properties that far exceed those of conventional concrete. Particularly, UHPC has compressive and post-cracking tensile strengths of around 20 ksi and 0.72 ksi, respectively. Thus, elements made with UHPC are thinner/lighter than elements made with conventional concrete. The enhanced durability properties of UHPC also allow for longer service lives and decreased maintenance costs. However, using UHPC in conventional concrete applications has been cost prohibitive, with commercially available/proprietary mixes costing over 10 times conventional concrete mixes. The overall objective of this research was to develop and characterize economical non-proprietary UHPC mixes made with materials readily available in Montana. This objective was achieved by first identifying and obtaining suitable/economical materials to be used in UHPC. Specifically, the materials identified and used in this research were simply Type I/II portland cement, class F fly ash, fine masonry sand, silica fume, and high range water reducer. UHPC mixes were then developed/characterized/optimized by using a statistical experimental design procedure (response surface methodology). The mixes developed as part of this research obtained compressive strengths of approximately 20 ksi with flows of 11 inches, and costs of $300 per cubic yard (excluding freight of materials).Item Use of bicarbonate salts in algal growth for enhancement of lipid content(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2016) Pedersen, Todd Christian; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brent M. Peyton; Robert D. Gardner, Robin Gerlach and Brent M. Peyton were co-authors of the article, 'Assesment of Nannochloropsis gaditana growth and lipid accumulation with enhanced inorganic carbon delivery' submitted to the journal 'Journal of applied phycology' which is contained within this thesis.; Robin Gerlach, Brent M. Peyton, Gregory L. Helms and Robert D. Gardner were co-authors of the article, 'Monitoring chlorella vulgaris metabolism during bicarbonate induced lipid accumulation using 1 H high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy' submitted to the journal 'Algal research' which is contained within this thesis.Production of biofuel from microalgae has thus far been cost prohibitive due in part to expenses associated with providing the necessary nutritional requirements for growth of the algal culture. In particular, inorganic carbon must be supplied in higher concentrations than available atmospherically to achieve high density cultures necessary for biofuel production strategies. Cost of algal biomass, as a feedstock, will be the limiting factor to the realization of algal biofuels moving forward. Prior research has demonstrated bicarbonate to enhance lipid content in select algal cultures grown under stress conditions, such as nitrogen depletion. This phenomenon has come to be known as bicarbonate-induced lipid accumulation, colloquially known as 'bicarbonate triggering', and has unrealized potential in executing economical and productive algal biofuel. Still, this method has only been demonstrated in select microalgal species and relatively little metabolic information is available regarding its use. Here, two species were investigated with the use of bicarbonate salts for algal growth and lipid accumulation. Nannochloropsis gaditana is a marine microalga which produces relatively high lipid content under nutrient stressed conditions, and has not been thoroughly studied under use of bicarbonate. This organism was studied under bicarbonate supplementation in batch photobioreactor systems. Chlorella vulgaris is a fresh water green alga which has received attention as a biofuel candidate, due to high growth rates and lipid content. This organism was investigated under bicarbonate supplementation during nitrogen depletion with the use of high resolution-magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy over 38 hours with a 14:10 diel cycle. N. gaditana showed best growth rates under pH controlled growth strategies during nitrogen replete conditions, and bicarbonate was seen to increase lipid content following nitrogen depletion when paired with this growth strategy. However, N. gaditana may not be an ideal candidate for biofuel production as it has relatively low growth rates compared to other industrially relevant organisms, and demonstrated low productivity in batch systems. Metabolite investigation in C. vulgaris revealed large incorporation of inorganic carbon from bicarbonate amendments into biomass, specifically monitored as increases to the biological sucrose pool and subsequent synthesis of fatty acids as carbon storage compounds.Item Statistics in the presence of cost : cost-considerate variable selection and MCMC convergence diagnostics(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2016) Lerch, Michael David; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Steve CherryThe overarching objective of this research is to address and recognize the cost-benefit trade-off inherent in much of statistics. We identify two places where such a balance is present for researchers: variable selection and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. An easily identifiable source of cost in science occurs when taking measurements. Researchers measure variables to estimate another quantity based on a model. When model building, researchers may have access to a large number of variables to include in the model and may consider using a subset of the variables so that future uses of the model need only measure this subset rather than all variables. The researchers are incentivized to proceed in this manner if some variables are prohibitively expensive to measure for future uses of the model. In this research, we present a new algorithm for cost-considerate variable selection in linear modeling when confronted with this problem. Since overfitting may be a danger when many variables at the disposal of the researcher, we build on the LARS and Lasso algorithms to perform cost-based variable selection in concert with model regularization. In MCMC sampling for Bayesian statistics, the cost-benefit trade-off is unavoidable. Researchers sampling from a posterior distribution must run a sampler for some number of iterations before finally stopping the sampler to make inference on the finite number of samples drawn. In this situation, the cost to be reduced is time to run the sampler while realizing the longer the sampler is run, the better the convergence. Time may not be as tangible a cost as a dollar figure, but increased wait time to perform analyses incurs the cost of running a computer and any negative effects associated with a delay as the researcher waits until the sampler has finished running. In this research, we introduce new convergence assessment tools in a diagnostic and plot. Unlike commonly used convergence diagnostics, these new tools focus explicitly on posterior quantiles and probabilities which are common inferential objectives in Bayesian statistics. Additionally, we introduce equivalence testing to the convergence assessment domain by using it as the framework of the diagnostic.Item The effect of course section size on the cost of instruction in agriculture(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1968) Hehn, Jacob RobertItem Prescription drug price dispersion in heterogeneous markets(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2005) Ohler, Adrienne Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Vincent H. Smith.A homogeneous good is one that does not vary in quality, time, or space. In a perfectly competitive market with no information or transportation costs, all sellers would charge the same price. However, dispersion exists even for seemingly homogeneous goods. A prescription drug is one of the best examples of a homogeneous good because an individual can buy the drug from several different pharmacies but still receive the exact same good. However, prices for prescription drugs vary tremendously among pharmacies. The purpose of this research is to examine the conditions under which price dispersion exists. This study finds three major causes of price dispersion: differing amounts of search and information costs, differing degrees of competition in each drug market, and differing levels of variation among production costs. Extending previous research, this study includes variables that account for effects caused by differing market characteristics by using variables that measure the percent of individuals in poverty, the percent of the population over 65, and the distance from a Canadian market. Using variables that measure purchase frequency, number of substitutes, average cost, number of manufacturers, and whether or not the drug is a brand or generic, the effects of search, competition, and production costs are examined across drug markets. In addition, the effects of pharmacy heterogeneity on price dispersion are examined by developing a model for price determination. Several variables are used that control for differences in services and quality of pharmacies, such as delivery, convenience to consumers, whether or not the pharmacy is a chain, and location. Additional hypotheses are developed from the price determination models, and the effects of search and competition on prices are reviewed again using the drug and market characteristic variables.