“Now I seem to see all the things I have observed arranged like tools in a neat row; they are aligned as in a botanical chart, or a catalogue, or a dictionary.” - Aldo Rossi Situated along railroad tracks that wind their way around a mountain near Charlottesville is an abandoned industrial structure whose stack can be seen from the I-64 bridge. I always strained to see over the concrete guardrail, but the most I managed to Gather was the remains of a roof and that incredible brick smokestack. The image of the once functioning machine which ceases to work, and which is locked in some bygone era has intrigued me from an early age. The energy once produced, or the task performed Is somehow still locked in these artifacts: the obsolete locomotive, the masonry chimney of a burned frame house, a beautifully worn toy long since outgrown. Within these objects is a melancholy that is both disturbing and sublime. Their architecture is subtle and silent, unnoticed by many, they offer a strength in their gentle variations, as well as their bold geometries. Rossie’s beautiful ‘Scientific Autobiography’ explores his dreamlike world of forms based upon observations of daily life in Lombardy, Italy. A decidedly anti-modern and anti-post-modern essay it calls for present architects to draw inspiration from the vernacular. Rossi’s formal vocabulary seems to have derived through years of observing and sketching mundane objects inherent to life in Northern Italy. The chapel project is an attempt to build a broken machine or an abandoned factory. Inspiration comes not from the spectacular, but the countless anonymous structures ever present in industrial zones of cities and along back roads in the country. Observation of old railroad structures, power plants, and farm machinery has played a pivotal role in the vocabulary that I have developed thus far. The sketch has proved to be an indispensable tool for extracting these images from my memory. Analysis of these sketches has allowed me to formulate basic premises about my work. (1) Autonomy – I see the same object quality in industrial buildings in America as in deChirico’s ‘The Red Tower.’ However this autonomy is not the same of the moderns – of a pristine object placed within a hostile environment, but one of relative autonomy. That is one that is formally abstracted but still has a very definite connection to a long line of predecessors. The wheel is not reinvented, but simply evolves a bit more. There as in Rossi’s buildings and sketches, the image is a new one, but the skeleton is the same. Nothing illustrates this point better than visiting Modena, and not only experiencing Rossi’s cemetery, but its older neighbor. (2) Strong Graphic Quality – This has solely to do with the image as a graphic composition. It has nothing to do with a particular ‘style’, but in the fundamentally strong relationship of parts, and of the proportion of the parts and the whole. An architect, beyond any other quality, should have a highly refined sense of visual laws. A basic geometric structure should be set up. Objects should be repeated and mutated with drastic changes in scale, material, and function. (3) Silence-Referring again to ‘The Red Tower,’ there is a wealth of inspiration for architects in regard to producing a structure that is quiet and subtle in its forms. This image is bathed in a sense of longing and melancholy that explores the timeless. I see this in the crumbling remains of the old smoke stack. / Master of Architecture

This thesis investigates the design of a new airport for the city of Washington D.C. The design explores the idea of an airport as a harbor and a gateway into the city. An airport as a place for the meeting of aircraft and traveler; a place for both person and machine. The dominant element of the airport is the roof of the main terminal. The main terminal is divided along its length with a series of tall concrete masts. From the masts, hollow concrete box beams are hung from a web of four hundred steel cables. The concrete box beam is formed by thirty foot long sections spanning from cable to cable. The beam is made of ten sections that cantilever three hundred feet out each side from the line of masts. The roof is formed by these two cantilevers, and it is beneath this roof that the airplanes and the travelers gather. This thesis involves the grand scale. The size of elements like runways and aircraft require large and at times overwhelming designs; yet, care will be taken to accommodate the person, the traveler. / Master of Architecture

...But architecture has limits- and when we touch the invisible walls of the limits, then we know more about what is contained in them. -Louis I. Kahn Ideally, a thesis study in architecture should be made at a personal level of investigation so that a student may develop his or her own ideas and interests and, therefore determine a focus or direction towards an individual architectural position. It should be understood at the beginning, then, that this thesis asks a question that may never be answered. It is a part of a process in what is likely to become a lifelong search for the limits of architecture. Architecture has always been the product of man’s attempt to shape his world. As such, architecture arose from a basic human need as a response to the challenge that nature poses to man. "...the first fact of architecture," wrote Vincent Scully, "is the topography of a place and the way human beings respond to it with their own constructed forms." Given these ideas, the focus of this thesis is the study of architecture as a potential medium through which man not only shapes his world, but interacts with it as well. This study has taken form through an investigation into the ideas of path and place as concepts which are fundamental to architecture, carrying with them implications of a relationship between man, architecture, and nature. / Master of Architecture

“Two great desires which are in essence the desire to absorb and then desire to emit, the desire to know and the desire to test, the desire to hear and the desire to utter, and the basis not only of a true and effective education, not only are they the wholesome body and the enchanting voice of art, but they are greater then these, for they are the animation of quality of that higher purpose and significance of art that we call poetry” Lois Sullivan Crafts are the integration of art and life. They bring together nature and man in the form of a usable object. Architecture may be named the ultimate craft endeavour for through building we create a work of art which is used by man. In the thesis the two disciplines are brought together in the Center for Arts and Crafts. The Center, a complex of structures united by public space acts like the guilds of the early twentieth by providing “a forum for exchange of ideas and theories and [a place for] socializing.” (Cummings, page 25) The craft center offers an opportunity to learn about craft; the use of our minds and hands together. Visitors have the chance to participate with craft through viewing the making process, and making them oneself. The theme for the design becomes “interaction.” Interaction is possible for the neighborhood with those outside and those inside. Providing public space is essential to encourage interaction. “Space is the principle medium of urbanism - the matrix that units public and private interests in the city, guaranteeing a balance between the two.” (Michael Dennis, Court and Garden, page 2) The making of a public rooms is often neglected in today’s architecture. Where ever these courtyards and piazzas occur, they are active and full of life. The Washington Harbor which neighbors the Incinerator site is a successful example of the desire of people to congregate and their need for socializing. The Arts and Crafts Center becomes a stage, enlivening the structure through activities of the public and their interaction with the inhabitants of the complex. The creation of a space which requires human participation to complete the architecture ensures that we, humanity, and the primary subject or object of architecture. Architecture is built by human hands for humans to inhabit. It should spark our imagination and encourage our participation. The honest expressions of structure and materials are rare in recent buildings leaving us faced with false images and removed from reality. How can we interact with false truths? In our search for a new reality we can look back to simpler times and apply their principles to our complex world. Nature and our own histories must become our guide on the journey toward meaningful and engaging architecture. / Master of Architecture

Current building codes and standards may not be adequate to assure occupant wellbeing or to prevent problems such as the Sick Building Syndrome (SBS). As building codes and standards are based at least implicitly on human response criteria, the objective of this dissertation was to define human response criteria and measures, and to identify links with exposure parameters, exogenous factors and methodological effects. A characterization, consisting of four domains based on two objects of evaluation: environment and personal state, and two aspects of evaluation: perceptual and affective, was used as a framework for identifying human response criteria. Through a literature review and evaluation synthesis of ten published studies, a hierarchy of exogenous factors that can be linked to the four domains was identified. Potential methodological effects associated with three types of methodologies were identified and linked to one or more domains. Then, links between human responses and exposures were identified from the literature. A conceptual model, synthesizing the combined impacts of exposures, exogenous factors and methodological effects on human response was developed. A selected portion of the conceptual model was tested empirically in two open-plan, non-industrial work spaces. The empirical study showed that for the selected spaces, exogenous factors explained more of the variation in human responses than did exposure parameters. Based on the empirical study, the major conclusions of the dissertation were that: (1) the concept of the four domains is useful in specifying criteria, (2) a hierarchy of exogenous factors is linked to the four human response domains, (3) control of exogenous factors such as the social environment and adaptive factors may all be needed to achieve healthy buildings, or to resolve problems associated with the Sick Building Syndrome, (4) occupant characteristics must be considered in developing exposure criteria, and (5) for levels of exposures typically found in indoor environments, it is necessary to consider their multifactorial impacts rather than the impacts of individual stressors. / Ph. D.

The purposes of this two-phase study were to identify and describe the problems in assisted living and nursing home dining areas, identify solutions, and offer design recommendations or guidelines that would be useful to those involved in creating the dining environment for the elderly. The study was completed in North Carolina, and was limited to facilities with a minimum of 40 beds. Phase I consisted of a mailed questionnaire to a random sample of 288 of the total 576 administrators of assisted living and nursing homes. The response rate was 32.6%, or 94 questionnaires completed and returned. Frequencies and percentages were examined to determine the most commonly occurring problems in dining areas. Findings of Phase I revealed the major problems and gave direction for the in-depth case studies of Phase II. The problems occurring most frequently were glare from windows, maintenance of walls and floors, noise, size of room, and instability of tables. From the 34 respondents who gave permission for further research, six facilities were selected for in-depth exploration of the target problems identified in Phase I. Methods used in Phase II included: (1) observation of the dining room, photographing the area, preparing sketches of the floor plan and furniture layout, and verifying the information submitted on the mailed questionnaires of Phase I; (2) interviews with staff members; and (3) interviews with residents. The participants of Phase II were a convenience sample of five on-duty staff members and five lucid elderly residents at each facility. The findings of Phase II revealed that staff and residents made adjustments to avoid glare. Maintenance problems concerning repair of walls and floors were, however, overlooked by staff and residents. Sound levels in the dining room were disturbing and confusing, causing irritation and loss of appetite among resident diners. Noise was often generated by both residents and employees. Restricted size of the dining space hindered staff from providing service, while residents accepted the given size. Many residents preferred separate eating areas for those who could feed themselves and those who required assistance in eating. Finally, the unlevel tables and instability of table bases were constant irritations to residents and staff. There were implications for designers of various disciplines as well as furniture manufacturers, administration personnel, and educators of design students. Design recommendations included suggestions that would be useful to the four groups listed above. Recommendations for further study include researching opinions of family members on design of facilities; exploring areas other than dining rooms of assisted living and nursing home interiors; and studying the comparison of assisted living and nursing home environments for satisfaction level of residents. / Ph. D.

Partial group delay has an interpretation as a parameter that measures the time-lag relationship between two channels of a multiple time series after adjustments have been made for the influence of the remaining channels. The time-lagged relationship is typically studied frequency by frequency. In this dissertation a procedure for estimating the partial group delay parameter is proposed which is intended to work well even for small sample sizes. The only published procedure for estimating the partial group delay parameter is by Zhang and Foutz [1989]. The procedure by them is an asymptotic one and requires a fairly large sample size. The proposed procedure for estimating the partial group delay parameter uses the frequency domain approach of time series analysis. The frequency domain approach is also known as spectral analysis and models a time series using sine-cosine functions. The two most important spectral tools used in the dissertation are the discrete Fourier transform and the periodogram ordinates. The procedure consists of finding preliminary values for the partial group delay parameter. The mean of the preliminary values is then estimated using transforming and modeling techniques on the preliminary values. A key requirement for the procedure is that the periodogram and cross periodogram ordinates at each Fourier frequency are independent of the periodogram and cross periodogram ordinates at all other Fourier frequencies. Under this requirement, the estimate is uniformly minimum variance unbiased. The key requirement is satisfied as the sample size increases or if the channels of the multiple time series are Gaussian white noise processes and are not cross correlated. The performance of the procedure is demonstrated using a simulation study and is compared to the only published procedure by Zhang and Foutz [1989]. / Ph. D.

A new hierarchy of relaxations is developed that extends the Reformulation-Linearization Technique (RLT) of Sherali and Adams (1989, 1990). This hierarchy referred to as (RLT1), provides a unifying framework for constructing a spectrum of continuous relaxations spanning from the linear programming relaxation to the convex hull representation for linear mixed integer 0-1 problems, and is particularly designed to exploit explicit or implicit special structures defined by the constraints of a problem. Specifically, inherent special structures are exploited by identifying specific classes of multiplicative factors that can be applied to the original mathematical formulation of a problem to reformulate it as an equivalent polynomial programming problem. Subsequently, this resulting problem is linearized to produce a tighter relaxation in a higher dimensional space. This general framework permits one to generate a hierarchical sequence of tighter relaxations leading up to the convex hull representation. Several classes of constraints are presented to demonstrate how underlying special structures, including generalized upper bounding (GUB), variable upper bounding (VUB), covering, partitioning and packing constraints, as well as sparsity, can be exploited within this framework. For some types of structures, low level relaxations are exhibited to recover the convex hull of integer feasible solutions. An alternative partial application of this new hierarchy is also presented, along with a discussion of some additional cases that might lend themselves to such a scheme. Additional ideas for further strengthening RLT1-based constraints by using conditional logical implications, as well as relationships with sequential lifting, are also presented. This new RLT1 is applied in detail to the set packing problem and several formulations of the Asymmetric 'Traveling Salesman Problem (ATSP). Computational experimentation is performed to illustrate the relative strength of RLT1 relaxations in comparison to those obtained using other methods. A new class of valid inequalities for the 3-index TSP is also presented. Finally, the dissertation concludes with comments concerning extensions and parallel implementations of RLT1. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

The purpose of this study was to examine two affective variables that usually hinder the mathematical performance of students. Specifically, this study was to assess the attitudes toward the learning of mathematics and the mathematics anxieties of the African-American students enrolled in Developmental Mathematics II classes at Halifax Community College. Along with assessing the attitudes toward the learning of mathematics and the mathematics anxieties of the African-American students, the study examined if there was a difference between attitudes towards learning of mathematics and mathematics anxieties of the African-American and non African-American students. Using the two instruments (Fennema-Sherman Attitudes toward the Learning of Mathematics Scales and Suinn's Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale) of the study, along with the long interviews of some of the African-American students, it was found that overall the attitudes toward the learning of mathematics were positive and that mathematics anxieties were not prevalent among the African-American students. It was also found that there were no significant differences between the mathematics anxieties of the African-American and non African-American students and no significant differences between the attitudes toward the learning of mathematics of the African-American and the non African-American students who were enrolled in the Developmental Mathematics II classes at Halifax Community College. / Ed. D.

This study was conducted to analyze the impacts of different trade and pricing policies on the grains and livestock sector in the Philippines. Four trade policy alternatives were evaluated: (a) base 1990 trade policies; (b) full trade liberalization in the grains and livestock sector: (c) a uniform 20 percent import tariff system for both grains and livestock commodities; and (d) price stabilization of rice and corn. Two price stabilization instruments, buffer-stock and variable import levy, two target prices, and two price band band widths were evaluated. The economic surplus measure of costs and benefits was used as the basis for economic efficiency comparisons among the different trade and pricing policies. The study simulated the operations of grains and livestock markets in the Philippines. Supply and risk response parameters were estimated with profit function approach using time-series data on prices, production, and input usage. Food demand elasticities were adopted from previous works in the Philippines. A separate set of demand functions were estimated for corn as livestock feed with the use of pseudo-data generated by varying the prices of the different feed ingredients in a process model of least-cost feed rations of hog and poultry. The ten-year period simulations were iterated 250 times, using world prices of wheat, rice, and corn drawn from their historical price distributions along the trend projected by the World Bank. Results of the study revealed that most economic gains can be attained by shifting to full trade liberalization of grains and livestock markets. With full trade liberalization, the economy gains by importing lower priced corn and producing higher-valued livestock products for domestic consumption and exports. The effect of a uniform 20 percent tariff is similar to that of full trade liberalization, but with lesser economic benefits. On the other hand, due to positive supply response to stabilized prices, there are small economic gains that could be achieved by the operation of a stabilization scheme for rice and corn over trade liberalization. These benefits, however, are offset by the heavy financial exposure required from the government. The variable import levy that defends rice and com prices at average expected world prices gives the best results among the different price-stabilization schemes. / Ph. D.