The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 authorized the distribution of about $30 billion incentive funds to accelerate electronic health record (EHR) applications to improve the quality of care, safety, privacy, care coordination, and patients' involvement in healthcare. EHR use has the potential of saving $731 in costs for hospitals per patient admission; however, most hospitals are not applying EHR to reach the level at which cost savings are possible. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies that IT leaders in hospitals can use to apply EHR to achieve the cost saving benefits. The participants were IT leaders and EHR super users at a large hospital in Texas with successful experience in applying EHR. Information systems success model formed the conceptual framework for the study. I conducted face-to-face interviews and analyzed organizational documents. I used qualitative textual data analysis method to identify themes. Five themes emerged from this study, which are ensuring information quality, ensuring system quality, assuring service quality, promoting usability, and maximizing net benefits of the EHR system. The findings of this study included four strategies to apply EHR; these strategies include engaging training staff, documenting accurately and in a timely manner, protecting patient data, and enforcing organizational best practice policies to maximize reimbursement and cost savings. The findings of this study could contribute to positive social change for the communities because EHR successful application includes lower cost for hospitals that may lead to the provision of affordable care to more low-income patients.

University research buildings are significant energy consumers in the United States. There is therefore a need to reduce energy use on the nation's campuses, not only cutting their carbon footprints but also saving money. Universities' efforts to reduce energy use include updating older facilities, implementing renewable energy systems, and encouraging energy saving behavior. This study evaluated the differential effects of two forms of feedback on electricity consumption in two groups of research buildings on a college campus to determine whether providing feedback to energy users has an impact on energy conservation behavior. A control group of buildings received no feedback regarding their electricity use. In the first study group of buildings, occupants received information about their electricity consumption with some electricity saving tips, distributed via email. The same procedure was followed with building occupants in the second study group, who received additional information showing their electricity consumption performance in comparison to other buildings within the study group. The baseline reading was conducted a week before the experiment began in August, 2012. Over the course of the five week study, the daily adjusted average reductions in electricity usage compared to the control group were less than 1 percent for both study groups, with study group 1 achieving an average reduction of 0.2 percent and study group 2 an average reduction of 0.8 percent. Although the reduction observed for study group 2 was 4 times greater than that for study group 1, the saving was not continuous over the study period. Accordingly, the result was deemed to be not statistically significant and the effectiveness of comparative energy use feedback in university research buildings was not supported. However, even small savings in the energy used in university research buildings can be very important in terms of the total amount of energy saved because research buildings use significantly more energy than other buildings on campus such as academic buildings and residence blocks. This study concludes with a consideration of potentially fruitful directions for future research into developing new ways to reduce the energy consumption on university campuses. / Master of Science

Demand for potable water and energy is increasing with growing populations and economies and many fear that scarcity of such resources will become a significant worldwide problem in the future. As such, promoting water and energy conservation in residential building environments has become an important focal area for research. Providing feedback of water or energy consumption to residential building occupants has been demonstrated to be effective in promoting water and energy conservation separately. However, although water and energy are inexorably connected, we lack research that investigates the bridge between water and energy in the representation of feedback to promote water conservation. In this paper, we describe a study that was designed to investigate the impact of two different representations of water consumption feedback on water conservation. Water consumption was represented to consumers in one of two different ways: 1) gallons and 2) gallons along with the estimated embodied energy of water consumption. The study was conducted in 18 residential halls at Virginia Tech and lasted approximately six weeks. The outcome of the study suggests that representing water consumption in terms of gallons together with the embodied energy associated with water consumption can lead to a statistically significant reduction in water conservation while representing water consumption only in terms of gallons may not. This has significant implications for future water feedback designed to promote water conservation and the study indicates that non-monetary approach can be taken. / Master of Science

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Akademiska Hus AB är ett statligt ägt fastighetsbolag med uppdrag att äga och förvalta fastigheter för utbildning, forskning och studentbostäder. Ett av deras energimål är att halvera mängden inköpt energi till år 2025 med startår 2000. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka förbättringsmöjligheter och åtgärder kopplade till VVS-system för att nå energimålet. Arbetet har utförts på förvaltningsområdet Campus Solna som har ett specialavtal med Stockholm Exergi för fjärrvärme och fjärrkyla. Specialavtalet är utformat med fördelaktiga tariffer vid hög nyttjandegrad, ett exempel är kompensation vid användning av fjärrkyla under vinterperioden men det föreligger tilläggsavgifter vid underutnyttjad leverans. Detta sätter begränsningar i vilka typer av besparingsåtgärder som kan utföras med positivt ekonomiskt resultat samt minskad andel inköpt energi. De besparingsåtgärder som har valts för beräkningar är två typer av värmepumpslösningar och ett byte till effektivare värmeåtervinningsbatterier. Beräkningarna har utförts med hänsyn till gällande avtal och därefter jämförts mot ett annat befintligt standardavtal inom Akademiska Hus för att undersöka om förvaltningsområdet Campus Solna skulle gynnas av en annan avtalsform. Nyttjandetiden för fjärrvärme och fjärrkyla är ett förhållande mellan energi och effekt visar resultatet att de åtgärder där den procentuella andelen mellan energi- och effektbesparing är ungefär lika stor finns största ekonomiska lönsamheten. Resultatet efter utförda beräkningar visar att de två typerna av värmepumpslösningar ger stora besparingar i inköpt energi men i förhållande till effektbesparingarna generar detta tilläggsavgifter och en ekonomisk förlust. Vid jämförelse mot standardavtalet utan tilläggsavgifter sparas en stor andel inköpt energi och den potentiella ekonomiska besparingen ökar. Dock, visade det sig vid en totalkostnadsanalys att den årliga kostnaden för värmepumpslösningen med standardavtalet blir lika stor som kostnaden med det befintliga avtalet utan någon åtgärd och detta på grund av att tarifferna för inköpt fjärrvärme och fjärrkyla är högre. Värmeåtervinningsbatterierna har ett bättre förhållande mellan energi- och effektbesparing vilket resulterar i en ekonomisk vinst även vid gällande avtal. Eftersom återvinning av värme minskar andelen förbrukad energi är det även positivt ur en miljö- och hållbarhetssynpunkt. Slutsatsen är att om det befintliga avtalet fortsätter att nyttjas måste åtgärder som skapar ett bra förhållande mellan energi- och effektbesparing hittas. Alternativet är att försöka förhandla fram ett nytt avtal när gällande specialavtal löper ut för att göra åtgärder som värmepumpar lönsamma. Utöver ovannämnda undersökning har arbetsmetoderna för energibesparingar på Akademiska Hus undersökts genom kvalitativa intervjuer där syftet var att belysa hur nuvarande samarbete ser ut mellan de olika yrkesrollerna samt om det finns en tydlig strategi för hur energimålet ska nås. En slutsats efter utförda intervjuer är att det upplevs att det finns för lite tid att genomföra ett energiarbete. Bakomliggande orsak till detta anses vara att det skulle behövas en bättre arbetsmetodik, tydligare struktur för arbetsfördelning samt mer resurser i form av en dedikerad arbetsgrupp som jobbar operativt med energifrågan. / Akademiska Hus AB is a government owned real estate company, their primary mission is to own and administrate facilities for education, research and student housing. One of their energy goals is to reduce the amount of acquired energy by half between the year 2000 and 2025. The purpose of this thesis is to find solutions and ways to make improvements regarding HVAC-systems to achieve this energy goal. The work has been carried out at the property area Campus Solna, which have an agreement with special amendments and conditions with Stockholm Exergi concerning district heating and cooling. The agreement is designed with beneficial tariffs at high utilization, one example is that during the winter season Akademiska Hus gets compensated for using the district cooling but it also exists surcharges at underutilization of delivered heating and cooling. This puts limitations in which types of measures that can be performed to reduce the amount of acquired energy and at the same time have a positive economical result. The selected solutions are two different types of heat pumps and a change to more efficient heat recovery exchangers for ventilation. The calculations have been executed with regard to the current special agreement and then compared to another existing agreement within the corporation to examine if Campus Solna would benefit from another agreement. The utilization time for the district heating and cooling consist of a relation between energy and power, results show that saving measures where the ratio between them are about the same size is the most profitable economically. The results after the performed calculations show that the two types of heating pumps generate large savings in acquired energy but in relation to the reduced power usage causes surcharges and an economical loss. When compared to the other agreement without the additional charges the potential economical outcome improves while reducing the acquired energy. However, when performing a total cost analysis, the calculations with the other agreement indicate that the total annual cost for acquired energy with the heating pump solutions will amount to the same as using the existing agreement without performing any energy saving measures. This is due to the difference in tariffs between the agreements. The heat recovery exchangers have a better relation between energy and power savings, which results in an economical profit regardless of the agreements. This measure also decreases the consumed energy, which has a positive impact on the environment and sustainability. In conclusion, if the current agreement is to be used in the future energy saving measures have to meet the requirement of the energy and power ratio. However, finding enough of such measures that helps Campus Solna to achieve their energy goal can be problematic. The alternative is to renegotiate the agreement to make solutions like heat pumps profitable. Through qualitative interviews with a selection of personnel, work methods connected to energy saving has been discussed to see if there are possibilities for improvements regarding collaboration between the different departments to achieve the energy goal. One conclusion after the interviews is that the personnel are experiencing that there is not enough time to focus on energy savings and projects in their daily work. Hence, there is a need for better working methods, a clearer structure for how the work is to be distributed and more resources in the form of a dedicated working group that works operationally with the energy issue.

The problem of energy saving during overhaul of a linear part of gas trunkline is regarded in this paper. This issue has been analyzed from different perspectives. Thermodynamic analysis of gas evacuation from a string that is off operation for the overhaul to a parallel or adjacent string with the use of mobile compressor systems was made. Economical attractiveness of mobile compressor systems applications was proved. Various methods of gas trunklines linear parts overhaul have been considered. For each of the methods problems of minimization of necessary for the overhaul amount of energy consuming machines have been solved. The results can be used in the development of overhaul projects of the gas trunklines linear parts.

In the form of images and videos, visual content has always attracted considerable interest and attention to itself since the early days of the computer era. Although, due to the high density of information in such contents, it has always been challenging to generate, process and broadcast videos and images. These challenges grew along with the demand for higher quality content and attained the research community's attention to themselves. Even though many works have been done by researchers and engineers in academic and industrial environments, the demand for high-quality content introduces new constraints on the quality, performance (speed) and energy consumption. This thesis focuses on a couple of image and video processing applications and introduces new approaches and tweaks to improve the performance and save resources while keeping the functionality intact. In the first part, we target Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), an imaging technique used by satellites to capture the earth's surface. Many algorithms have been developed to extract useful information, such as height and displacement, from such images. However, the sheer size of these images, along with the complexity of most of these algorithms, lead to very long processing time and resource utilization. In this work, we take one of the dominant algorithms used for almost every In-SAR application, Phase Unwrapping, and introduce an approach to gain up to 6.5 times speedups. We evaluated our method on InSAR images taken by the Radarsat-2 sensor and showed its impact on a real-world application. In the second part of this thesis, we look at a prevalent application, video streaming. These days video streaming dominates the internet traffic, so any slight improvement in terms of energy consumption or resource utilization will make a sizable difference. Although the streamers use various encoding techniques, the quality of experience of the clients prevents them from overplaying these techniques. On the other hand, there has been a growing interest in another venture of research which focuses on developing techniques that aim to restore the quality of the videos that have been subjected to compression. Although these techniques are used by many users on the receiver side, the streamers often ignore their capabilities. In our work, we introduce an approach that makes the streamer aware of the capabilities of the receiver and utilizes that awareness to reduce the cost of transmission without compromising the end user's quality of experience. We demonstrated the technique and proved our concept by applying it to the HEVC encoding standard and JCT-VC dataset. / Graduate

The thesis describes a design of the office building of Wanemi a.s. company in Zábřeh na Moravě. The company intends to build an ecological paper mill in the city. The office building is located at the „green“ entrance zone of the manufacturing facility. The building is designed in accordance with the requirements of energy–efficient buildings and the philosophy of the company – People and nature. The „green“ entrance zone that includes a placement of individual objects (office building, presentation pavilion, info center) has been solved as a pre-diploma thesis.

The topic of outsourcing ranks at the top of business issues for a wide variety of companies (Wery, 2004; Ezrati, 2004). The majority of American companies believe that offshore-related matters rank as the most strategic decisions that management is expected to make in the next 12 months (Wery, 2004). “Outsourcing in China can help many companies save money, but it can be very frustrating if not done right" (Ting, 2004). The perceived benefits of outsourcing production to China are tremendously enticing, but a lack of understanding of the total costs involved lures many companies into outsourcing when it is not necessarily the best decision. The question then arises and becomes the purpose of this study: How does a company decide if offshore outsourcing is the right decision and, if so, how do they do it properly? The purpose of this research is to search for generally applicable information that can be utilized by American companies in deciding whether to outsource their production to China. The information regarding outsourcing overseas was collected from 22 American firms and 24 Chinese manufacturers to evaluate and provide insight into outsourcing arrangements. In the final chapter of this thesis, a summary is presented of the important findings regarding the purpose of the thesis study.

Using data from 584 individuals identifying themselves as married, the purpose of this study was to examine how personal and relational characteristics were linked to financial attitudes, knowledge, and capabilities and financial well-being using the family financial socialization framework (Gudmunson & Danes, 2011). Supporting the first two hypotheses, marital quality, materialism, age, and household income were found to directly predict financial prudence as a measure of financial attitudes, knowledge, and capabilities and to indirectly predict retirement savings rate as a measure of financial well-being. Financial prudence supported the first hypotheses as well by directly predicting retirement savings rate. Education also supported the first hypothesis, in that it directly predicted an individual's measure of financial prudence. In support of the third hypothesis, education was associated with retirement savings rate. Results suggest the importance of considering both financial and non-financial predictors of saving for retirement.