Chemical Engineering

Long-term exposure to pharmacological doses of glucocorticoids has been associated with the development of osteopenia and avascular necrosis. Bone loss may be partially attributed to a steroid-induced decrease in the osteoblastic differentiation of multipotent progenitor cells found in the bone marrow. In order to determine if there is a change in the osteogenic potential of the bone marrow stroma following glucocorticoid treatment, Sprague-Dawley rats were administered methylprednisolone for up...

Geography

In 1997, the Virginia Refugee Health Program coordinated a protocol and reimbursement structure to encourage health departments to perform initial health screenings on refugees settling in the Commonwealth by establishing four recommended levels of assessment. This thesis is concerned with these initial health-related services provided to refugees by Virginias health departments, the quality of these services, and how they vary from one district to another. For this study, I interviewed health d...

Biology

Penicillin-binding proteins (PBPs) are membrane-associated enzymes involved in the polymerization of peptidoglycan. PBPs are divided into three classes based upon their molecular weights and functional domains. Gene expression is regulated in the two differentiated cells in Bacillus subtilis, the mother cell and the forespore, by coordinated expression of different sigma factors that recognize specific promoters in each compartment. The functional and compartmental specificity of individual peni...

Physics

The Virginia Tech Spectral-Line Survey (VTSS) is a high sensitivity, high resolution survey of Hydrogen-$\alpha$ and Sulfur-II emission in the full northern hemisphere. The instrument used for the survey isthe Spectral Line Imaging Camera (SLIC). SLIC uses a fast(f/1.2) lens attached to a cryogenically cooled, TK 512x512 CCD with 27 micron pixels. The focal length of the lens is 58mm which gives a pixel size of 1.6 arcminutes. The diameter of each field is 10degrees. A filter wheel ahead of the ...

Wood Science and Forest Products

Phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resole and polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate (PMDI) are two commonly used exterior thermosetting adhesives in the wood-based composites industry. There is an interest in combining these two adhesives in order to benefit from their positive attributes while also neutralizing some of the negative ones. Although this novel adhesive system has been reportedly utilized in some limited cases, a fundamental understanding is lacking. This research serves this purpose by inv...

Agricultural and Applied Economics

In international trade involving agricultural products, attempts to safeguard the health of humans, animals, and plants, have led to the imposition of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards. Due to the fact that groundnuts are susceptible to aflatoxin contamination, stringent aflatoxin standards have been imposed on groundnut trade by many developed countries. For Senegal and other groundnut exporters in the developing world, these aflatoxin standards pose a major challenge. As a result, in ...

Architecture

This thesis is an evaluation and proposal for development for an alternative health care center in West Virginia. The Gesundheit Institute is based on the work of Dr. Hunter Patch Adams and his desire to create an alternative to the current model of health care. The Institute would not charge for services and will offer non-traditional as well as traditional methods of healing. By evaluating what is currently happening at the center and what the resources are, I propose to use an incremental app...

Architecture

This architecture thesis is an exploration of an idea, an event, and a place. The idea was to explore design with water. The design had to be thoughtful and have an impact: an event. My place is on the waterfront.This thesis confirmed my ideas about site-specific and site-inspired architecture. I looked to my thoughts about water and tried to incorporate them into my design and enhance it with them. In my design I began to think about materials, about the senses, and about how we experience plac...

Economics

Experimental observations have shown that economic agents behave in ways different from the maximization of any utility function. Herbert Simon sought to deal with this by positing that individuals do not maximize, but rather satisfice. This was a radical departure from the traditional economic framework, and one that still has not been adequately formalized. But Simons suggestion is only the smallest part of what is needed for a theory that reflects the actual behavior. For instance, Simons fra...

Environmental Engineering

This study investigated the feasibility of using a portable geotextile fabric based filtering device to remove suspended solids from raw sewage. This device was considered to replace a conventional primary clarifier. The proposed filtration process directs wastewater influent through a geotextile fabric filter. As filtering progresses, and solids accumulate on the fabric, the loaded fabric is scrolled to present a fresh surface.Only non-woven polypropylene geotextile fabrics were investigated. T...

Civil Engineering

The experimental study reported upon in this thesis focused on the development of physical data characterizing the behavior of single-shear, laterally-loaded connections when loaded up to and beyond capacity (i.e., maximum resistance). Specimens included a wide array of connection configurations common in wood construction. All connections were tested monotonically in tension under displacement-controlled loading, parallel to the grain. Results of these tests are presented and discussed. Test va...

Electrical and Computer Engineering

A rake receiver, which resolves multipath signals corrupted by a fading channel, is the most complex and power consuming block of a modem chip. Therefore, it is essential to design a rake receiver be efficient in hardware and power. We investigated a design of a rake receiver for the WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) system, which is a third generation wireless communication system. Our rake receiver design is targeted for mobile units, in which low-power consumption is highly impor...

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

The two research questions that guided this qualitative, descriptive case study were:<p>1. What staff development and training occurred since IDEA 1997 and what would be recommended in the future in a selected Virginia school district regarding the discipline problems of students with disabilities.<p>2. How had one Virginia school district responded, implemented and resolved disciplinary problems (including barriers) as related to IDEA 1997 for specific students with ...

Engineering Science and Mechanics

The main objective of this work is to design robust, fast, andpractical controllers for gantry and tower cranes. The controllers aredesigned to transfer the load from point to point as fast aspossible and, at the same time, the load swing is kept smallduring the transfer process and completely vanishes at the loaddestination. Moreover, variations of the system parameters, suchas the cable length and the load weight, are also included.Practical considerations, such as the control action power, an...

Biology

Acid mine drainage (AMD) results from the oxidation of pyretic mineralogy, exposed bymining operations to oxygen and water. This reaction produces sulfuric acid andliberates heavy metals from the surrounding mineralogy and impairs water quality andfreshwater communities. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun an ecosystemrestoration project to remediate the abandoned mine land (AML) impacts to the NorthFork Powell River (NFP) and is utilizing the ecotoxicological rating (ETR) system todeline...

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project was to show the updated procedures and to make additions to the computer program called Tmin designed by E. I. DuPont De Nemours and Company. This program is used as a screening tool for determining the largest of the minimum pipe-wall thicknesses in a piping system.This project involved several additions that will be released in the next version of the Tmin computer program. The first major additions to be implemented are four alternating Stress-to-Number of cycles c...

Dairy Science

Transgenic techniques have rapidly evolved in recent years. However, the efficiency of these techniques to produce viable offspring is still disappointingly low. The purpose of this study was to assess in vitro development, transgene expression, and integration following pronuclear or cytoplasmic microinjection of condensed or linear green fluorescent protein DNA into murine embryos using electroporation. In experiment 1, the effect of embryo orientation (group or linear) within the electroporat...

Mechanical Engineering

The application of a decomposition methodology to the synthesis/designoptimization of a stationary cogeneration fuel cell sub-system for residential/commercialapplications is the focus of this work. To accomplish this, a number of differentconfigurations for the fuel cell sub-system are presented and discussed. The mostpromising candidate configuration, which combines features of different configurationsfound in the literature, is chosen for detailed thermodynamic, geometric, and economicmodelin...

Chemistry

Novel poly(ethylene isophthalate) (PEI) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) polymers containing terminal units derived from sodio 3-sulfobenzoic acid (SSBA) were synthesized using catalyzed melt polymerization techniques. Various concentrations of the ionic end group, SSBA, were successfully incorporated in a telechelic fashion. For comparison, polyesters containing telechelic alkyl groups with controllable molecular weights were also synthesized. Furthermore, ionic copolymers of dimethyl iso...

Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology

The three insecticides of interest were lindane (an organochlorine), malathion (an organophosphate) and piperonyl butoxide (PBO; a synergist). Based on minimum cytotoxicity (> LC25), the following concentrations were chosen for the pesticide mixture studies: 70µM lindane (Lind), 50µM malathion (Mal) and 55µM PBO. In the AlamarBlue cytotoxicity assay, individual pesticide and mixtures of malathion/PBO (MP) and malathion/lindane (ML) prompted cytotoxicity with var...

Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science

<i>Gaeumannomyces graminis var. triciti (Ggt)</i>, the causal agent of take-all in wheat, is difficult to detect accurately and rapidly due to its similarity to fungi in the Gaeumannomyces-Phialophora complex. My objectives are to detect the fungus in infested plants and soil, and to predict effective combinations of bacteria as biological control agents. Detection was based on avenacinase-based primers and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) conditions specified by earli...

Industrial and Systems Engineering

This research explores a hardware-based parallel simulation mechanism that can dramatically improve the speed of simulating flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) by applying appropriate enabling hardware technologies. The hardware-based parallel simulation refers to running a simulation on a multi-microprocessor integrated circuit board, called the simulator, which is specifically designed for the purpose of simulating a specific FMS. The board is composed of a collection of micro-emulators capab...

Mechanical Engineering

Energy release rates are extracted from non-linear finite element analyses of a thin film bonded to a rigid substrate that is shaft-loaded at its free edge. This geometry is of interest because it simulates a probe test that has proven to be useful in characterizing the adhesion of thin, microelectronic coatings bonded to silicon wafers. Preliminary experimental results indicate that out-of-plane rather than in-plane loading dominates failure in the system. This work therefore focuses on out-of-...

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

The purposes of this case study were to describe how a learning contract was implemented for a seventh-grade life science class and to discover its effects on thelearning experiences of the students. A learning contract was a written agreement between the student and the teacher in which the student agreed to complete a variety of assignments for a particular grade. Learning contracts were issued to the students for three grading periods of six-weeks. A total of 137 students participated in the ...

Chemistry

The goal of this research was to design, prepare and study a new class of supermolecules coupling ruthenium and platinum, which would display covalent binding to DNA. Drawing upon the well-established efficacy of cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cisplatin) and the DNA-binding properties of select ruthenium polyazine complexes, the approach was to bind the cis-PtIICl2 active site of cisplatin to ruthenium light absorbers using the dpq and dpb bridging ligands (where dpq = 2,3-bis(2-pyridyl)quino...

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

<p>The purpose of this study was to present an historical analysis of the function of the Literary Fund of Virginia as it pertained to public school funding. The major questions central to this study were: (a) How has the Literary Fund addressed the funding needs of the Virginia public schools? (b) What significant changes have occurred in the apportionment of Literary Fund revenue? and (c) What are the future trends of the Literary Fund?<p>The political and social ci...

Physics

In this thesis, we study the kinetic disordering of systemsinteracting with an agent or a walker. Our studies divide naturally into twoclasses: for the first, the dynamics of the walker conserves the totalmagnetization of the system, for the second, it does not. These distinctdynamics are investigated in part I and II respectively.In part I, we investigate the disordering of an initiallyphase-segregated binary alloy due to a highly mobile vacancy which exchangeswith the alloy atoms. This dynamic...

Curriculum and Instruction

AbstractRelationship of Body Attitude and Personality Characteristics to Dietary Intake in Female Collegiate AthletesTiffany Michelle ReissThe purpose of this study was to compare the relationship of body attitude to both dietary intake and selected personality characteristics. The study focused on the relationship between dietary intake and both body attitude and personality characteristics as well as differences in body attitude and personality characteristics between female college age lacros...

Geological Sciences

The interaction between CrIIIaq and seven different Mn-oxides (6 monomineralic, 1 synthetic) have been observed in pH ~4.4 HNO3 and pH ~4.4 ~10-4M CrIIIaq solutions. For each mineral-solution interaction, the aqueous chemical concentrations (e.g. [Mn]aq, [Cr]aq, [CrVIaq]) were measured with time. Reacted samples were examined by XPS to determine if, and to what extent, the surface chemical states of Cr, Mn and O had changed. Microscopic observations of the reacted surfaces were obtained using AF...

Chemistry

Well-defined central functionalized asymmetric tri-block copolymers (CFABC) were designed as a new type of polymer brush surface modifier, with a short central functionalized block that can form chemical bonds with a suitable substrate surface. A combination of sequential living anionic polymerization and polymer modification reactions were used for the synthesis of two CFABCs: PS-b-poly(4-hydroxystyrene)-b-PMMA and PS-b-poly(4-urethanopropyl triethoxysilylstyrene)-b-PMMA. GPC and NMR characteri...

Management

ABSTRACTAn Examination of the RelationshipBetween Ethical Work Climate andMoral AwarenessbyCraig V. VanSandtJon M. Shepard, ChairThis dissertation draws from the fields of history, sociology, psychology, moral philosophy, and organizational theory to establish a theoretical connection between a social/organizational influence (Ethical Work Climate) and an individual cognitive element of moral behavior (moral awareness). The research was designed to help fill a gap in the existing literature by p...

Food Science and Technology

     Natamycin is an antimycotic with very low water solubility and extremely high photosensitivity, which is used to extend the shelf life of shredded cheese products. The objectives of this research are: (a) to find a new delivery system for natamycin, which increases its aqueous solubility and (b) to increase the chemical stability of natamycin so that it has a prolonged antifungal effect on the surface of the shredded...

Civil Engineering

Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) systems have improved the process of collecting data from heavy vehicles on the U.S. highway system and enforcing the laws that govern vehicle weights. The benefits of WIM are reaped by everyone from highway designers and voernments officials, to truck drivers and transportation industry owners. The data collected by WIM devices is essential for proper pavement design, developing pavement management systems, weight enforcement strategies, modeling traffic improvement projec...

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

This study was designed to explore the advising styles that are currently perceived and preferred by African American and White students in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. The high attrition rate of African Americans in the engineering colleges both nationally and at Virginia Tech makes it critical to investigate what can be done to increase retention. The lack of awareness of academic advising preferences could be a major component in the high attrition of African American students...

Human Development

This research explored how Arab American couples found the strength and resilience that empowered them to overcome the terrorist attacks of September 11th and the aftereffects that followed. Utilizing a family resiliency model grounded in systems theory and social constructionism, I interviewed 18 Arab American couples from the New York and New Jersey areas. I applied a phenomenological method of inquiry to gather the experiences of Arab American couples in order to understand the protective pro...

Clinical Psychology

Although research describing relationships betweenpsychosocial factors and various eating patterns isgrowing, a model which explains the mechanisms throughwhich these factors may operate is lacking. A model toexplain overeating patterns among normal weight collegefemales was developed and tested. The model contained thefollowing variables: global adjustment, eating and weightcognitions, emotional eating, and self-efficacy.Three hundred ninety-one participants completed thefollowing self-report i...

Chemistry

Temperature programmed gas chromatography (TPGC) is commonly used for the analysis of complex samples with a wide range of boiling points. It is estimatedthat 80% of GC users implement TPGC on a regular basis. In 1962, John Calvin Giddings was the first to publish a simple model for TPGC. His theoriesconcerning TPGC are still accepted as the benchmark for explaining the underlying theory.The purpose of this research was to investigate, as speculated by Giddings, if temperature programming rate (...

Teaching and Learning

<p>Finding conceptual tools that lend themselves to the creation of consensusis no easier in an age of mass communication, mass transportation or mass education,than it was in earlier less "modern," technology adventurous, times. In fact,as I argue in this dissertation, modernity can be analyzed and experienced asbeing anathema to those characteristics upon which consensus can be built. Thisdissertation examines why this is the case and what may be done to amelioratethe w...

Biology

Molecular and morphologic studies were used to determine the evolution, classification and differentiation of Nymphaea odorata. Molecular analyses of the nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, the chloroplast trnL-F region, and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers determined the variation present between and within two species of Nymphaea. The ITS region resulted in a phylogeny depicting strong separation between species (N. mexicana and N. odorata) and some separation between ...

Biological Systems Engineering

Excess phosphorus (P) that is transported into water bodies can cause water quality problems. A high potential for P delivery occurs when there is a high transport potential from erosion, runoff, and/or leaching coupled with high soil test P and/or high rate of fertilizer P application. A management tool is needed to identify those fields that have a high transport and source potential to deliver P to surface water. The Virginia P-Index is a mass-based tool that estimates the annual risk of deli...

Biological Systems Engineering

An automated procedure was developed to identify and extract confined poultry facilities from color 35-mm slide imagery collected by the United States Department of Agriculture/Farm Service Agency (USDA/FSA). The imagery is used by the USDA/FSA to monitor compliance with various farm support programs and to determine crop production acreage within a given county. The imagery is generally available for all counties within the state on an annual basis. The imagery, however, is not flown to rigid s...

Human Development

The purpose of the study was to conduct a qualitative inquiry into the teacher-child caring relationship in order to portray a picture of caring possibilities by describing interactions in one public school classroom. Participant observation, interviews, a dialogic journal and artifact analysis was conducted with a public school preschool class. Through qualitative inquiry, thematic analysis, and interpretation of the data gathered, along with my reflections, review of the literature, and based ...

Wood Science and Forest Products

The objective of this thesis was to further develop the polymer composite system consisting of cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) and high modulus, continuous, regenerated cellulose fiber (lyocell). Of particular concern were both the interfacial adhesion between the fiber and matrix and the consolidation process in the manufacture of these composite materials.Interfacial adhesion was found to be substantial due to the relative lack of the fiber pull-out phenomenon observed after tensile failure i...

Human Development

ABSTRACTThis study explores Self-of-the-therapist (SOTT) training practices in accredited and candidacy status doctoral programs supported by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). Seventy-seven (77) surveys were sent to full-time faculty to assess training structures, training implementation, and the common ethical concerns associated with SOTT training in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) doctoral programs. Chi-square tests and Independent Sample t...

Teaching and Learning

<dir><p class=MsoNormal style= text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%;tab-stops:.5in >Thisstudy investigated<i style= mso-bidi-font-style:normal > </i>the perceptions ofChief Financial Officers and primary Distance Education Administrators oneconomic and institutional decision-making factors influencing institutionalinvolvement in distance education, and the economic readiness criteria and businessplan components necessary for institutions to be...

History

This thesis argues that from June 1940 when German soldiers occupied Lorient, France until May 8, 1945 when the Lorient Pocket surrendered, although the women of this port city faced drastic changes, they took control of their everyday lives. They did what it took to feed and clothe their families, working, standing in lines, buying on the black market, bartering, demonstrating, and recycling. They developed relationships with German soldiers which ran the gamut. Due to aerial raids in the conte...

Teaching and Learning

Through a direct application of two cognitive science theories, conceptual metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999) and structure mapping (Gentner, 1983, 1989; Gentner & Markman, 1995), this project defined an instructional design model for the design, development, and assessment of metaphor-enhanced, computer-mediated learning environments. It used the model to produce an instructional product with a metaphor-based interface. The project also built a parallel learning environment...

Biology

ABSTRACTMycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium intracellulare are environmental opportunistic pathogens whose source for human infection is water and soil. M. avium and M. intracellulare cause pulmonary infections (tuberculosis) in immunocompetent individuals and bacteremia in immunodeficient individuals (e.g. AIDS). One factor likely influencing the lack of success of antibiotic therapy in patients would be their ability to form biofilms. Growth in biofilms might result in antimicrobial resistan...

Biological Systems Engineering

Seventeen species of facultative anaerobic bacteria belonging to three genera (Serratia, Cellulomonas, and Corynebacterium) were screened for the production of xylitol; a sugar alcohol used as a sweetener in the pharmaceutical and food industries. A chromogenic assay of both solid and liquid cultures showed that 10 of the 17 species screened could grow on D-xylose and produce detectable quantities of xylitol during 24-96 h of fermentation. The ten bacterial species were studied for the effect of...

Human Development

"Women s Experiences of Rage towards their Intimate Partners: Diverse Voices within the Criminal Justice System"By: Kimberly R. FlemkeAbstractA multi-method study investigating incarcerated womens experiences of rage towards their intimate partners was conducted. The sample was drawn from a Philadelphia prisons recovery unit for women. Phenomenological and feminist critical theory perspectives guided the study; these combined approaches captured the essence of rage, while also offering...