The major purpose of this study was to determine if seven high school students with a history of reading problems would demonstrate more effective use of the graphophonic, syntactic, and semantic cue systems involvement in reading by means of a whole language approach. The underlying assumption of this study was that students who experience problems in learning to read can be helped if reading is presented in the context of whole language. This assumption is supported by the theoretical bases of psycholinguistic insights into the reading process. Assisted reading with specially adapted taping procedures and questioning strategies provided the means of involving the students in whole language. The Reading Miscue Inventory (RMI) was used to evaluate each student's use of the language cue systems during oral readings prior to and following assisted reading sessions. Pre- and post-RMI Reader Profiles consisting of the percentage scores for Comprehension Patterns, Grammatical Relationships Patterns, and Sound/Graphic Relationships were constructed and compared. Pre- and post-Retelling Scores also were compared. The pre-RMI group scores indicate that before involvement in whole language the subjects' reliance on graphophonic cues was stronger than on meaning-producing cues, i.e., syntactic and semantic. The post-RMI profile shows continued reliance on graphophonic cues and increased reliance on syntactic and semantic cues. Increased reliance on the meaning-producing cues signifies that the students were attempting to read for meaning and were making more effective use of the language cue systems after involvement in whole language. The results support the use of whole language in the teaching of reading. Therefore, instructional techniques such as assisted reading which use whole language should be incorporated into the reading program. Exploratory purposes of the study were to determine if the students' attitude toward reading would improve and whether their percentile scores on the comprehension section of a standardized reading achievement test would improve after involvement in whole language. Prior to the assisted reading sessions, not one of the students indicated that he liked to read. Afterwards all the subjects said that they enjoyed reading more than they had when the sessions began. They all made posit comments about their success and said they would recommend the treatment to a friend with a reading problem. No valid conclusions could be drawn from the results of the standardized reading achievement tests. Implications for further research resulted from the study. / Ed. D.

Community college counselors are continually confronted with the difficult task of assisting students to choose from one of the various curricula. Scholastic aptitude test data have been frequently used by counselors to provide students with information to assist them in their college planning. However, before the decision to assess the scholastic aptitude of students and to use the results for counseling purposes, the scholastic test's predictive validity should be determined. The Snort Test of Educational Ability (STEA) is a scholastic aptitude test score available to all Virginia Community Colleges. The STEA score is currently transmitted to the college via the student's high school transcript. Because the 1975 Virginia Community College System Policy Manual requires a validity study of potential curricular placement tools, it was the purpose of this study to determine the STE.A's validity for predicting a student's 1976 fall quarter grade point average. This investigation was conducted during the academic year 1976-1977 at three community colleges within the Virginia Community College System. The samples used in this study were drawn from 1976 Virginia high school graduates enrolled for the first time for the fall quarter, 1976, at a metropolitan, a suburban, and a rural institution. One hundred subjects were randomly selected at each institution. From the colleges' permanent files the following data were collected for each student: (1) total high school grade point average, (2) last high school grade in English, (3) last high school grade in math, (4) STEA score, (5) sex, (6) race, (7) curriculum, and (8) 1976 fall quarter grade point average. Using this data, Pearson product moment correlations and multiple regression coefficients were generated by the"Correlational Procedure" and"General Linear Model Procedure” of the Statistical Analysis System - 1976 The results of the study as they related to the hypotheses were as follows. At the three institutions significant (p< .05), but low, correlations were found between the students’ fall quarter g.p.a. 's and their STEA scores. Low to moderate three and four variable multiple correlations were significant (p < .05) between the fall quarter g.p.a. and combinations of the following independent variables: the total high school grade point average, the grades in high school English and math, and the STEA. For all three colleges the results were not significant for the prediction of the fall quarter g.p.a. using the STEA when subgrouped by students’ sex, race or curriculum. From the results of this study the following conclusions were made. For the three com.mur.i / Doctor of Education

Recent studies have noted the inadequacy of the Carnegie Commission's classification category of Liberal Arts Colleges II. This study was designed to develop a more definitive taxonomy for the private colleges in this category based on their financial characteristics. The institutional population for this study consisted of 499 private colleges classified as Liberal Arts Colleges II that were in operation during the fiscal year 1973-74. A computer tape of REGIS IX data provided by the National Center for Educational Statistics,"Financial Statistics of Institutions of Higher Education 1974," was utilized for the collection of data and computation of specific measures. Twelve financial variables were selected and each variable was divided by the college's fall 1973-74 FTE student enrollment and the quotient was used as the ratio for this study. This procedure was used to express the financial data in terms of the enrollment of each institution. The NORMIX cluster analysis was used to analyze these per FTE ratios to determine if sub-classifications of colleges existed within the total population of 499 colleges. The NORMIX analysis produced 13 clusters of colleges. Each of the 13 clusters was reviewed to determine its financial characteristic and to assess the discriminating importance of the ratios. To facilitate this inspection of the ratios, the mean of each ratio was plotted graphically to explain important deviations from the corresponding ratio for the population of 499 colleges. In addition, characteristic data for each cluster was reviewed. The discussion of results presented several conclusions, implications, and recommendations for further research. A number of financial strategy considerations were reviewed for the various clusters of colleges. In addition, the enrollment strategy of various colleges was examined. The cluster analysis technique as used in this study has additional possible uses. First, the system does allow for taxonomy construction based on the variables specified by the researcher. Second, the technique can be used to help edit data. Third, the method could be helpful in determining the mission and academic quality of colleges if additional characteristic data were included in the clustering process. The technique of financial analysis used in this study suggested topics for further research. The computerized systems available today open new horizons for future researchers. / Ph. D.

In this study a linear spent fuel storage model is developed to identify cost-effective spent nuclear fuel storage strategies. The purpose of this model is to provide guidelines for the implementation of the optimal time-dependent spent fuel storage capacity expansion in view of the current economic and regulatory environment which has resulted in phase-out of the closed nuclear fuel cycle. Management alternatives of the spent fuel storage backlog, which is created by mismatch between spent fuel generation rate and spent fuel disposition capability, are represented by aggregate decision variables which describe the time dependent on-reactor-site and off-site spent fuel storage capacity additions, and the amount of spent fuel transferred to off-site storage facilities. Principal constraints of the model assure determination of cost optimal spent fuel storage expansion strategies, while spent fuel storage requirements are met at all times. A detailed physical and economic analysis of the essential components of the spent fuel storage problem, which precedes the model development, assures its realism. The effects of technological limitations on the on-site spent fuel storage expansion and timing of reinitiation of the spent fuel reprocessing on optimal spent fuel storage capacity expansion are investigated. The principal results of this study indicate that a) expansion of storage capacity beyond that of currently planned facilities is necessary, and b) economics of the post-reactor fuel cycle is extremely sensitive to the timing of reinitiation of spent fuel reprocessing. Postponement of reprocessing beyond mid-1982 may result in net negative economic liability of the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. / Ph. D.

The public stigmatization of ex-deviants, in particular ex-convicts and ex-mental patients, was conceptualized from the labeling theoretical perspective as "delabeling inconsistency" (DI). A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 281 residents of Henry County, Virginia in order to identify factors that contributed to the DI of ex-convicts and ex-mental patients (i.e., the respondents' stigmatization of these ex-deviants). The variables proposed to be related to the dependent variable - DI - were: #1) the respondent's age; #2) the respondent's highest achieved educational levels; #3) the degree of dangerousness that the respondent attributes to the ex-deviant; #4) the amount of interaction that the respondent attributes to a total institution (e.g., a prison or a mental hospital) in having completely treated the ex-deviant (e.g., an ex-convict or an ex-mental patient); #6) the degree of responsibility that the respondent attributes to the ex-deviant for his behaviors; and, #7) the degree of seriousness that the respondent attributes to the ex-deviant's former deviance. Using path analysis, it was found thats dangerousness (variable #3) and seriousness (#7) were directly related to the DI of both ex-convicts and ex-mental patients; interaction (#4) and effectiveness (#5) were inversely related to the DI of both ex-convicts and ex-mental patients; education (#2) was inversely related to the DI of ex-mental patients and was essentially unrelated to the DI of ex-convicts; responsibility (#6) had an inverse relationship with the DI of ex-mental patients and a direct relationship with the DI of ex-convicts; and, age (#1) had a negligible relationship with the DI of both ex-convicts and ex-mental patients. The variable that materialized as the most influential independent and intervening variable with the DI of both ex-convicts and ex-mental patients was dangerousness (#3). / Doctor of Philosophy

Master of Science

A method of kinematic analysis has been applied to discfolds in the Devonian Millboro Formation in the junction zone and adjacent, differently trending segments of the Central and Southern Appalachian Valley and Ridge Province. Types and kinematic signatures of shearing movements that produced discfolds at twenty localities have been recognized. Discfolds are a type of flexural fold produced by planar shearing movements during northwestern translation and deformation of the Paleozoic cover, and their analyses reflect the orientations of the large-scale movements that produced the major folds and faults. Most analyses indicate northeast-striking, southeast-dipping slip planes, northwest-trending slip lines, and overall vergence of the shear zones to the northwest. Discfolds on northwest limbs of major anticlines were produced by shearing along late-stage, southeast-dipping reverse faults, and those on the southeast limbs by shearing along southeast-dipping, bedding-parallel reverse faults and/or by large-scale flexural flow. Analyses of discfolds in the junction zone indicate movement of material out of the zone toward both the northeast and southwest. Visual and statistical comparisons between analyses of the central and southern segments show contrasts in the orientations of the slip planes and slip lines. Thus, the transport directions of the two segments converged toward the northwest, and are consistent with those that must have operated earlier in the formation of the major folds and faults. This conclusion coupled with the apparently similar timing of the discfolds indicates that there was, at most, only slight northwestern rotation of the southern segment in relation to the central. / Master of Science

The white room washed with its amorphous color faces & encloses & widens & is the interlocuter; on its floor are objects: a walnut the found pomegranate, the orange pepper divided & halved, are all cells Taken apart, they are spined seeds & needles are reeds of a dry chant that rotate until the figure is unrecognized leaving the first rippled shell jell in the orange flesh that turns bright & translucent and further, a strong magenta dye Conscious faces mouthe the old skin of the soft refrigerated fruit like the lines of a small city or the embossed design on the rim of a white plate. / Master of Architecture

Within the last two-and-a-half decades tremendous increases have occurred in the value and size of farm operations and in the amount of capital required. These increases and enactment of the 1976 Tax Reform Act have cast the estate planning problems of farmers in a new and more critical context. The farm owner-operator has certain objectives which he wishes to accomplish through estate planning, constrained by certain factors which influence his situation. The uninterrupted operation of the farm may be jeopardized during intergeneration transfer. If an heir wishes to continue operating the farm, he must raise enough capital to complement his equity in the farm so that he may purchase the assets of the farm. This problem is further compounded by administrative expenses, estate taxes and inheritance taxes. A survey was made of rural residents in Virginia in 1976 who attended estate planning meetings. The majority of the individuals surveyed had either no formal estate plan or a will only. Less than one-fourth had used life estates or trusts in their estate plans, and approximately only one-fifth had made gifts. According to a case study analysis of alternative estate plans based upon three actual cases, estate plans which utilize a will only resulted in the highest capital erosion from the estate of the alternatives considered. Estate plans which utilize a will, gifts, and trusts or life estates resulted in the least capital erosion. The plan which equates the present value of the marginal tax on the husband's and the wife's estates resulted in the minimum taxes and administrative expenses. The major implication drawn from the study is that an expanded educational effort is needed to provide farmers with an understanding of alternative estate plans which would aid them in making decisions concerning their own estate plans. / Master of Science

This paper presents a method for simultaneously optimizing the routes and schedules of certain commuter airlines. This method is specifically designed for those commuter airlines which primarily provide a feeder service from small communities into a single large community. The problem is that given a set of small communities, a single large community, a set of aircraft and the demand as a function of time of day, determine which communities each aircraft will serve, the order in which these communities will be served and the time(s) that the aircraft will stop at each community in order to minimize passenger inconvenience. These assignments are subject to service and economic constraints. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer quadratic programming problem. A computer program is developed to solve this problem. An example problem with an operating commuter airline is included to demonstrate the application of the solution procedure. / M. S.