A center for the study of world religions and mythologies, this project provides an educational center, a place for learning about religions and myths from around the world. This center provides a place to understand the essence of man’s “struggle toward the heights” as well as the history of that labor, its impact on society. Although education is the primary function of the project, worship is supported and encouraged with various areas available for meditation. These meditation areas support both private reflection and congregation. The primary functional areas of the complex consist of: a gallery, an amphitheater, a lecture hall, a library. These very different building types are tied together through a common language of structure that expresses our understanding of man’s place between earth and light, and our “struggle towards the heights”. I chose the site located at the bridge over Rock Creek Park on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington D.C., for its relationship to the city and for its dramatic sense of place. The capital city of a country founded, in part, by people seeking freedom from religious persecution, Washington D.C. provided highly appropriate for this project. Additionally, people of diverse religious backgrounds and national origins inhabit the District of Columbia, making it a multicultural city. Further, known as Embassy Row, Massachusetts Avenue houses a large number of embassies. To support this highly multinational area, religious buildings of various denominations blanket Massachusetts Avenue. Finally the juncture of Massachusetts Avenue with Rock Creek forms a significant boundary within the city. / Master of Architecture

A certain amount of care is inferred with the thought of craftsmanship. With a decline in craftsmanship in today’s society, the care and thoughtfulness inherent in the skill of making objects are gradually being replaced by the "ready-made" and the immediate. In order to reverse this trend we must educate the children, teach them the love of craft and making. The children must learn that care and its resultant lasting product are important. To help preserve the care for making lasting and significant things, I have chosen as my thesis to design a school of craft where children are to gain such knowledge. My hope is to design a space which is expressive of the ideas of craftsmanship using the knowledge of today’s technology. / Master of Architecture

There have been many predictions about what the future could be. Films such as, “1984”, “Brazil”, and “Blade Runner” as well as books like William Gibson’s fantasy novel “Neuromancer” are but a few examples of such vision. Unfortunately, all have envisioned the future as a cold bleak place where architecture is but a machine and lost people live in sterile environments with no contact with the outside world. Is this what we really believe the future to be? Are we victims of technology of do we control our own fate? / Master of Architecture

The thesis project studies the spatial relationships between Eve towers and the space they enclose. / Master of Architecture

Conduct Disorder (CD) is one of the most frequently occurring childhood behavior disorders. A state wide survey of elementary school counselors was conducted concerning the services provided to these students. Elementary school counselors were asked to identify peers to be interviewed (six) who are more effective than usual in providing these services. The study found: 1) Students with CD comprise about 2% of the populations of respondent schools. 2) On average, respondents devote 19% of their work time to students with CD. Almost all feel somewhat or highly frustrated in providing services to students with CD; rate themselves as only somewhat or not very effective in providing these services, and less effective with students with CD than with other populations. 3) Respondents identified the number one need as further training for themselves specific to providing services to students with CD, and rated their graduate training for this work negatively. 4) Seventeen percent of respondent schools receive no services for students with CD from outside agencies, and most rated the services negatively. The six interviewees contributed: 1) Creative and unique services for students with CD are often required for success, such as a whole class treatment for a class containing two students with-CD like behaviors and a teacher mentoring program for students with CD. 2) While there was no consensus among interviewees for a most effective service activity, they tended to name indirect services such as developing and coordinating behavior modification plans and teacher mentoring programs as the most important part of treatment programs. Individual counseling was rarely named as the most important aspectof treatment programs, but was described as important for providing an understanding of the student that allows for effective customizing of the behavior modification plan, and developing a therapeutic relationship that allows credibility for counselor guidance in times of crisis or opportunity for these students. Recommendations to improve the status of services to students with CD by their elementary school counselors were made for counselor educators, administrators of school counselors, non-school agencies, and elementary school counselors. Further research recommendations are also made. / Doctor of Philosophy

M.A.

Humans find themselves in increasingly isolated conditions and locked into interaction with mechanical devices. In order to survive in this environment we must question what it is to live at the end of the 20th century. What are we to do if our worst fears for the future come true and what structures can we create to respond to a hostile living environment? / Master of Architecture

Contemporary layered manufacturing systems build parts using a constant layer thickness. Such systems must seek a compromise between fast fabrication and large inaccuracies on the one hand, and slow fabrication and high precision on the other. This thesis demonstrates how this compromise can be avoided. Specifically, it segregates solid models described in the STL file format into exterior and interior regions. The exterior regions are fabricated with thin, dense, adaptive thickness layers, using narrow material deposition, to ensure high-precision part surfaces. Concurrently, the interior regions are fabricated with thick, sparse layers, using wide material deposition, to maximize build speed and minimize material usage. Experimental software has been developed and sample parts have been fabricated to demonstrate proof of concept. / Master of Science

The attachment and detachment of Listeria monocytogenes Scott A to Buna-N rubber and stainless steel under varying conditions of temperature and pH were investigated. Numbers of attached cells increased with increasing attachment temperatures (10° to 45°C) and time (up to 120 min) for both Buna-N rubber and stainless steel. Cells attached at higher levels on stainless steel at all temperature and pH levels investigated. Rate of attachment was found to be significantly lower at 10°C than 30° and 45°C on Buna-N rubber. When L. monocytogenes was grown at 10°, 30°, and 42°C before exposure to Buna-N rubber at 30°C, differences in rates of adhesion were not significant. A downward shift in the cell suspension holding temperature immediately prior to attachment to Buna-N rubber at 10°C resulted in reduced adhered cell populations. A similar upward shift did not affect attachment at 45°C. Altering the pH of the attachment environment within the pH range of 4 to 9 did not affect the maximum levels of attached cells to Buna-N rubber. However, the measured rates of adhesion indicated slower attachment occurs under alkaline conditions. Growth pH was also found to significantly affect rates of attachment and maximum adhered cell populations to Buna-N rubber. Compared to Buna-N rubber, the rate of attachment to stainless steel was markedly more rapid for all temperature and pH conditions studied and could not be calculated. The ease of removal for cells adhered to Buna-N rubber was significantly affected by growth temperature, but not growth pH. Significant differences in detachment were also found between Buna-N rubber and stainless steel, inferring a stronger attachment to Buna-N rubber. Cell surface hydrophobicity was affected by both growth temperature and growth pH, but differences in hydrophobicity could not be correlated to differences in rates of attachment. Addition of 0.01% trypsin to the attachment medium during cell suspension exposure to both test surfaces resulted in a 99.9% reduction in the adhered cell population when compared to controls. This suggests that proteins may play a role in the initial attachment process for L. monocytogenes. / Ph. D.

In 1992 the Virginia General Assembly enacted the Comprehensive Services Act with the words, "It is the intention of this law to create a collaborative system of services ...that is...family-focused...when addressing the strengths and needs of troubled and at-risk youth and their families in the Commonwealth" (A report to the Governor and General Assembly, 1992, Appendix A, p.1). The directives of the Comprehensive Services Act are carried out in each community through a Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT). The members on each FAPT represent family service agencies based in the community and a parent who collaboratively develop an intervention plan for each at-risk youth and family referred to the team. This study was conducted to determine if the family strengths used by FAPTs were more or less useful depending upon FAPT communities or FAPT representatives. The method chosen for gathering information for the study was a modified Delphi technique. The 70 FAPT representatives who participated in the study came from 17 respondent groups, (nine FAPT Communities and eight FAPT Representative areas). One aspect of the study was to find which family strengths were unique to the upper quartile of only one respondent group. A second aspect of the study was to find which common family strengths were in the upper quartiles of each of the 17 respondent groups, the nine FAPT Communities, and the eight FAPT Representatives. The third aspect of the study was to look at upper quartile family strengths as they were grouped by categories. This report helped identify some of the differences in perspectives among family service providers from different communities and areas of representation. Even though there were some differences among the 17 respondent groups regarding the usefulness of family strengths, there were also some commonalities. This report helped to identify some of these common perspectives among family service providers. / Ed. D.