In response to growing concern over the sustainability of natural resource extractive industries such as mining, logging, and energy production, a growing number of rural communities are looking to their natural, cultural, and historic resources as new sources of economic revitalization. Unfortunately, while both government officials and residents have come to accept tourism as a potential boon to local economies, relatively little attention has been given to its potential for creating both social change and social problems. This study investigates the relationship between attitudes toward tourism development and place bonds among residents of the Mt. Rogers area of Southwest Virginia. Attitudes toward tourism are measured as feelings about economic, social and environmental impacts of development and as support for tourism, both overall and for individual types of recreation based development. Place bonds are measured through length of residence, local sentiment, local identity, and regional identity. Findings indicate that the four measures of place bonds may be measuring different types of attachments to place. Data analysis also reveals that there is not difference in concern for tourism impacts between long- and short-term residents. Longterm residents are, however, less supportive of tourism development than those of shorter tenure. Neither local sentiment nor local identity are significantly correlated with any of the tourism attitude variables. Residents with high regional identity are more positive about the impacts of tourism than those with a relatively weaker sense of regional identity. Those with high regional attachments are also more supportive of development, especially nature programs and folk-cultural based tourism. New residents with high regional identity are the most supportive of tourism overall. They are also the youngest, most educated and the most active in recreation, as well as having the highest mean annual income and being least satisfied with the quality of life in their communities. The findings of this study suggest that there may be more than one type of attachment to community or place. They also reveal that certain groups are more receptive to tourism development than others. The complexity of residents’ place bonds as well as the wide range of attitudes toward tourism found in this study suggest that there is a need for further community based research on the topic of tourism development. / Master of Science

The inadvertent release of petroleum hydrocarbons to the subsurface can be an imminent threat to groundwater supplies. Benzene, a water-soluble, carcinogenic petroleum hydrocarbon, is often one of the primary concerns in the cleanup of these underground petroleum leaks. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of soil properties, nutrient addition and benzene concentration on the biodegradation of benzene in soil systems. More specifically, a primary objective was to correlate measurable soil properties with benzene biodegradation characteristics in the soil. Benzene biodegradation was measured in seven uncontaminated Virginia soils and three contaminated soils using, laboratory microcosms. Microcosms consisted of 5 grams of soil combined with 5 mL of a sterile benzene solution. Benzene concentrations in the sterile solutions were varied at 1, 10 and 50 ppm initial benzene concentration as well as with and without nutrient supplements in the form of ammonium phosphate and potassium phosphate. Measurable physical, chemical and biological properties of each soil were then correlated with the observed benzene biodegradation characteristics, specifically an acclimation period or lag phase, a zero order biodegradation rate and a final time to degrade the substrate to less then 5 ppb benzene concentration. Statistical analysis showed an overall increase in zero order degradation rates with the addition of nutrients in uncontaminated soils at 1, 10 and 50 ppm initial benzene concentration. Multiple linear regression analysis also indicated statistically significant relationships between several soil properties (generally pH, % sand, and % organic matter) and benzene biodegradation characteristics. These results indicate that models could be developed to predict the biodegradation of benzene and similar petroleum hydrocarbons in soils based on numerous soil physical, chemical and biological properties, rather than a single microbial degradation rate. / Master of Science

A Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program enables a local government to restrict development activities on privately owned lands by purchasing the landowner’s rights to those activities. The Purchase of Development Rights is an appealing alternative to zoning because it offers landowner compensation concomitant with the imposition of land use restrictions. Experience with this technique of land use management, however, has exposed limitations in its effectiveness resulting from the high costs of acquiring the development rights to eligible properties. Often, PDR program administrators find their budget exhausted before the development rights have been acquired to a sufficient number of properties to satisfactorily achieve the program objectives. As a consequence, administrators are faced with the question of which parcels to include in their purchasing effort. To make the most of their program funds, they want to select the set of properties that will contribute the most towards the program goals, given the cost of acquiring their development rights. In doing so, the administrators are identifying their optimal purchasing strategy. The goal programming model introduced in this study is used as part of an educational process designed to assist administrators in determining which combination of properties constitutes their optimal purchasing strategy. An application of the model is made using the Agricultural Reserve Program, a farmland preservation Purchase of Development Rights program newly adopted by the City of Virginia Beach. By enabling administrators to identify their optimal purchasing strategy, the goal programming model contributes to the cost-control problems associated with Purchase of Development Rights programs because it ensures that, whatever the available budget, administrators are making the most of their revenues by adopting a cost-effective purchasing strategy. / Master of Science

"The spaces where life occurs are places. A place is a space which has a distinct character. Since ancient times the genius loci, or ‘spirit of place' , has been recognized as the concrete reality man has to face and come to terms with in his daily life. Architecture means to visualize the the genius loci, and the task of the architect is to create meaningful places, whereby he helps man to dwell.""...a totality made up of concrete things having material substance, shape, texture, and colour. Together these things determine an ‘environmental character’, which is the essence of place." Christian Norberg-Schulz / 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.