This study investigated the impact of the ECIA Chapter 2 Block Grant program and the extent to which the legislative intent was realized in a sample of eight local education agencies (LEAs) in Virginia. Specifically, three research questions were investigated: Did the implementation of ECIA Chapter 2 affect formerly funded categorical programs in the LEAs?; Did the implementation of ECIA Chapter 2 result in the reduction of administrative costs and paperwork burden for the LEAs?; and, Did the implementation of ECIA Chapter 2 provide increased LEA responsibility for the design and implementation of local education programs? The study included data collection at eight Virginia LEAs, Amelia, Arlington, Charlottesville City, King George, Powhatan, Rappahannock, Richmond City and Suffolk City. Administrative, programmatic and fiscal effects associated with ECIA Chapter 2 implementation for the 1982-83 school year were examined with the aid of a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analyzed through the use of the constant comparative method developed by Glaser and Strauss. Data were analyzed across study sites and in case study format. Study findings indicated that the implementation of ECIA Chapter 2 had a detrimental effect on the local programs previously supported with federal categorical program funds. Seventy-six percent of the local programs in study sites were diminished in some way with the implementation of Chapter 2. New local programs supported with Chapter 2 funds in study sites differed from those supported with categorical funds in significant ways. Second, the study found that three study sites experienced reduced administrative costs and paperwork, one experienced no difference, and one-half of the study sites experienced increased administrative costs and paperwork under Chapter 2. Finally, across all study sites, it was found that the implementation of ECIA Chapter 2 did not result in an increase of LEA involvement in program planning and development activities. / Ed. D.

Biaxial stress fatigue data is carefully examined in order to determine how much foundation exists for a rational approach to classical stress-based fatigue limit analysis involving biaxial stress components. A review is given of the methods presently in vogue, and new methods are suggested for obtaining equivalent mean and equivalent alternating stresses. Some groundwork is laid for the consideration of stress gradient influence on fatigue behavior. There are also some observations concerning the Distortional Energy and Tresca criteria and how they are incorporated in fatigue design procedures. The work is restricted to cases in which the alternating principal stress axes have fixed orientation. / Ph. D.

Recently a variety of national reports have been completed which call for school reform. Additionally, there has been an abundance of research which attempts to identify the characteristics of effective schools. Throughout the literature on school reform and effectiveness, school climate is consistently identified as an important factor in effective schools. However, questions concerning how schools improve their climate and what the effects and obstacles of such efforts are remain unanswered. School climate improvement efforts tend to fall into two major categories which can be referred to as either formal systematic approaches or informal non-systematic approaches. Formal approaches exist where the developer of the approach states specific steps and procedures which are followed by a school to improve its climate. Informal approaches are also being used by schools where the principal and staff identify and implement various actions which are undertaken to improve the school's climate for learning. This study identified and described both a formal and an informal approach to school climate and determined the effects and obstacles encountered with each approach. Two secondary schools using each type of approach were studied and compared. The procedures and activities used by each of the four schools under study were described. The outcomes and obstacles encountered in each school's climate improvement process were identified. The findings of the study were that all four schools in the study had positive outcomes regardless of the approach used. Common obstacles occurred in all four schools. They included lack of staff time to address school concerns, some staff did not support the school's efforts and students and parents were slow to respond positively to the staff's efforts. / Doctor of Education

The purpose of this research is to examine the significance of a market factor, an industry factor, a company factor and a growth factor in explaining security returns. A secondary objective is to determine if interim financial statements--the balance sheet and the income statement--provide useful information in developing the return model. Market-related and industry-related systematic risks are constructed as surrogate measurements for the market and industry factors. The company factor is composed of one accounting return measure (profitability) and five accounting risk measures (accounting beta, operating leverage, financial leverage, dividend covariability, and cash flow beta). These variables are included as individual regressors in the return model. Also, a company index (the first principal component) is constructed and tested for its significance in the four-factor return model. The compound growth rate in total assets measures the growth of individual companies. Quarterly accounting information is used to measure these company and growth variables, and their significance provides evidence supporting the usefulness of interim financial statements. A multiple regression analysis is employed to develop the return model. In addition to the market factor, an industry factor, components of the company factor (dividend covariability and profitability), and a growth factor are found to contribute significantly to estimation of the return model. The use of a company index in lieu of individual company variables, however, is not recommended for· developing the return model. Additionally, results indicate that the market model provides the best surrogate measure of the market factor, and Line of Business information is recommended for classifying companies into industry groups. Major limitations of the study are (i) a self-selection bias of companies for the sample; (ii) measurement errors in interim financial statement data due to accounting allocations; (iii) seasonality of quarterly accounting information; (iv) use of average regression statistics in determining the best return model; (v) a limited number of regression models examined; and (vi) multicollinearity. These may limit the generalizability of the findings beyond the sample data and the interpretation of relationship between security return and its potential determinants. / Ph. D.

An improved method for designing controllers for nonlinear stochastic systems is developed and analyzed. The resulting controller consists of a nonlinear control law coupled with an adaptive state estimator. The nonlinear control law is developed first. Using Taylor series expansion, linear approximations to the nonlinear systems are generated at selected points in the operating region. Then a control law which will produce the desired response is developed for each linearized configuration using conventional techniques for linear systems. The resulting control law parameters are treated as tabulated values from a set of unknown continuous functions of the nonlinear system parameters. These unknown functions are approximated at all points in the operating region by fitting curves to the tabulated data. The stability and convergence aspects of this nonlinear control law are analyzed in detail, with several derivations given and theorems proved. Two examples are given to illustrate the design procedure and evaluate its performance. The design procedure is extended to stochastic systems by incorporating a suitable state estimator. Two members of the class known as partitioned adaptive estimators (PAE's) are evaluated and their performance compared. The formulation known as the modified semi-Markov PAE is shown to be superior. The design, execution, and analysis of the experiments comprising the evaluation are discussed in detail, with particular attention given to correlating the performance of the estimators with the behavior of the weighting coefficients. Numerous figures and tables which amplify the discussions, along with some suggestions for further research, are also included. / Ph. D.

The viscoelastic response of polymer-based composite laminates, which may take years to develop in service, must be anticipated and accommodated at the design stage. Accelerated testing is therefore required to allow long-term compliance predictions for composite laminates of arbitrary layup, based solely upon short-term tests. In this study, an accelerated viscoelastic characterization scheme is applied to T300/5208 graphiteepoxy laminates. The viscoelastic response of unidirectional specimens is modeled using the theory developed by Schapery. The transient component of the viscoelastic creep compliance is assumed to follow a power law approximation. A recursive relationship is developed, based upon the Schapery single-integral equation, which allows approximation of a continuous time-varying uniaxial load using discrete steps in stress. The viscoelastic response of T300/5208 graphite-epoxy at 149C to transverse normal and shear stresses is determined using 90-deg and 10-deg off-axis tensile specimens, respectively. parameters In each case the seven viscoelastic material required in the analysis are determined experimentally, using a short-term creep/creep recovery testing cycle. A sensitivity analysis is used to select the appropriate short-term test cycle. It is shown that an accurate measure of the power law exponent is crucial for accurate long-term predictions, and that the calculated value of the power law exponent is very sensitive to slight experimental error in recovery data. Based upon this analysis, a 480/120 minute creep/creep recovery test cycle is selected, and the power law exponent is calculated using creep data. A short-term test cycle selection procedure is proposed, which should provide useful guidelines when other viscoelastic materials are being evaluated. Results from the short-term tests on unidirectional specimens are combined using classical lamination theory to provide long-term predictions for symmetric composite laminates. Experimental measurement of the long-term creep compliance at 149C of two distinct T300/5208 laminates is obtained. A reasonable comparison between theory and experiment is observed at time up to 10 5 minutes. Discrepancies which do exist are believed to be due to an insufficient modeling of biaxial stress interactions, to the accumulation of damage in the form of matrix cracks or voids, and/or to interlaminar shear deformations which may occur due to viscoelastic effects or damage accumulation. / Doctor of Philosophy

Small diameter LC columns provide rapid thermal equilibration and are ideal candidates for temperature programmed LC. Special instrumentation requirements are presented and details of column assembly are given to permit the preparation of highly efficient, stable microbore columns. Three LC temperature control systems are described and their individual strengths and weaknesses are discussed. Problems encountered in raising the temperature of an LC column are addressed and solutions are described. Experimental results of column and instrumentation evaluation are given and the effects of temperature on speed, efficiency, stability and retention of a broad range of samples is reported. Temperature and solvent programming are compared directly. / Ph. D.

Three fundamental problems in computer vision are addressed in this dissertation. The first deals with the problem of how to extract and assemble a rich symbolic representation of the gray level intensity changes in an image. Results show that the facet model based feature extraction scheme proposed here is superior to the other existing techniques. The second problem addressed deals with the interpretation of the resulting structures as three-dimensional object surfaces. The three different shape modules described in this dissertation are found to be useful in the recovery of intrinsic scene characteristics. Finally, mechanisms for interaction among different sources of information obtained from different shape modules are studied. It is demonstrated that interactions among shape modules can enhance the data acquired by different means. / Ph. D.

A major thrust for vocational education in the 1980s is the collaboration of schools with industry and other sectors of the community. The Building Our American Communities (BOAC) program was initiated in 1971 by the Future Farmers of America to involve agriculture students in their communities. Considerable financial and human resources have supported BOAC program operations for the past 13 years, yet there is a lack of knowledge as to who has been participating in the program, what resources have been utilized, and what outcomes have resulted. The purpose of the study was to examine the BOAC program by describing community development activities, BOAC projects, and characteristics associated with selected students and advisors who participated in the 1983 BOAC program relative to their FFA chapter, school, and community contextual situations with respect to program inputs and anticipated outcomes. The first four levels of Bennett and Nelson's (1975) evaluation hierarchy used by the Cooperative Extension Service served as a theoretical frame of reference for the study. The population for this descriptive study included the 48 students and 46 advisors who attended the 1983 National Conference on Community Development. Three survey instruments were developed by the researcher. One for students and one for advisors elicited background and participation information. The third instrument was used to gather participants' FFA chapter, school, and community data. BOAC program statistical reports were also used as a data source. The data were analyzed using descriptive techniques. Two major findings of this study were: 1. Benefits to FFA members and vocational agriculture programs represented the major program outcomes. These outcomes were increased citizen participation, increased human relation skills of members, and increased public awareness of the vocational agriculture program. 2. Students and advisors involved numerous individuals and groups in their projects which primarily improved the following community sectors: school/education, civic facilities, agriculture, and recreation. The BOAC program should be viewed as an excellent teaching tool for involving students in their communities. Future studies, using this one as a baseline data source, need to be conducted to determine BOAC program effects on program participants and nonparticipants. / Ed. D.

Mussel studies in the Tennessee River drainage (1973 - 1982) examined ecology and distribution and investigated factors limiting to distribution. This river system presently supports 71 freshwater mussel species, 25% of which are endemic to the Cumberlandian Region. Species have been extirpated from this drainage within the past 60 years, however the number of extant species remains high. The major impact of man's activities has been reduction of available habitat. Past and present distribution records indicate that mussel species assemblages are determined by geologic history and stream size. Although some overlap of species exists among stream size categories, there is no longer a continuous gradation from one category to the next; mussels exist in isolated communities separated by nonproductive river reaches. Productive reaches supporting more than 60 mussel species once existed in habitats spanning the transition from medium to large rivers; reaches now altered by impoundment. The maximum number of species reported in recent collections from any one site in the Tennessee drainage is less than 40, which seems to be the maximum number of species niches available. Quantitative sampling reveals characteristic patterns of species dominance. Changes in species dominance and age class structure provide a better basis for evaluating changes over time than do species composition or diversity alone. Mussel density was found to be more variable than species composition, and was unrelated to species abundance. Experiments on effects of siltation indicated that silt can be a significant limiting factor to mussel distribution. Transplant studies showed that mussels transplanted into heavily silted areas exhibited poor survival over a one year period compared to mussels moved to unsilted habitats. Results indicate that siltation may interfere with reproductive activity. Laboratory experiments testing the effect of suspended silt on the uptake of C-14 tagged algae by freshwater mussels showed that suspended silt can interfere with feeding. Food uptake was reduced to approximately 50% (of control) at silt levels of 211 to 820 mg/l, and to 80% at silt levels over 1000 mg/l. It was concluded that the limiting mechanism is one of dilution of food rather than direct interference with filtration or respiration. / Ph. D.