This study involved a qualitative comparative analysis of government laboratory technology transfer, examining both the process and impact of successful cases before and after passage of technology transfer legislation. The legislation, passed in the mid- and late-1980s, was intended to encourage cooperative research for commercialization purposes. The study examined a variety of factors related to government laboratory technology transfer, including the researchers' roles, mechanisms used, partners, and economic impact. Certain aspects of the researchers' roles became more positive toward technology transfer. They contributed to technology marketing by producing more laboratory prototypes and samples in the post-legislation period. On the other hand, they retreated from broad-based technology marketing in the sense that their roles as technology champions became centered around their relationships with their CRADA partners. There was an undercurrent of caution by the laboratory researchers towards technology transfer in both the pre-legislation and post-legislation periods, and neither time period contained many examples of market analysis or technology evaluation work by the laboratories. Also, there was tension between the research role and technology transfer role, possibly indicating a lack of trust in that relationship. The laboratories primarily used CRADAs and licenses to transfer technologies, and used other mechanisms to a lesser degree. There was even less variety in mechanisms in the post-legislation period. The researchers' comments about license royalty-sharing became stronger in the post-legislation period, indicating that incentive is working. Yet, the data suggested new administrative needs such as for royalty tracking statements and dispute mechanisms. The post-legislation period involved more small-firm partners and more user-initiated contacts, indicating more market pull. The post-legislation period also exhibited more "institutionalized" university relationships. State and local governments were not prominent among the users in either time period. The technology transfer legislation had positive effects in terms of economic impact and outcomes. The following indicators increased in the post-legislation period: new products (generated as a result of technology transfer), sales revenues, new companies, new jobs, and technology transfer contributions to dual use. Technology transfer and commercialization failures decreased and the time to market decreased. The assessment revealed additional findings related to increased international activity, private sector problems, and other factors contributing to technology transfer. An extensive literature review provided background for the issues and problems in evaluating technology transfer. This review included an inventory of technology transfer measurement activities to-date, including models from non-government technology transfer communities. The study experience, itself, further uncovered some insights to technology transfer metrics at a time when the experience base in this area is still premature / Ph. D.

Lake Moomaw, a 1,024-ha flood control reservoir in Bath and Allegheny counties, Virginia contains a migratory population of smallmouth bass that congregate in the headwaters of the reservoir during the spring spawning period, where they are vulnerable to a shore-based, harvest-oriented fishery. The extent of this fishery and resulting effects on the small mouth bass population were analyzed by means of a creel survey in the headwaters area during the spring spawning seasons of 1995 and 1996. Effort, catch, and harvest, as well as user characteristics and motivations data were obtained from direct interviews with anglers using this area. Estimates for 1995 indicated extensive fishing pressure per ha, with 1,167 angler hours per ha spent fishing for smallmouth bass in the headwaters, while in 1996 almost 1,400 angler hours per ha were spent in this area. Catch and harvest rates were relatively low and sustainable during both years, with 124 small mouth bass caught and 82 harvested in 1995, while 318 small mouth bass were caught and 222 harvested in 1996. An extensive capture-recapture study yielded estimates of exploitation rates for small mouth bass in the reservoir of 12- 15% annually. Exploitation of the whole-lake population occurring in the spring headwaters fishery was estimated at 4-6%, while the exploitation rate on the subset of the population using the headwaters during the spring was 11-14%. Analysis of movements of snlallmouth bass in the reservoir using ultrasonic telemetry and dart tag recaptures indicated that the subset of the population using the headwaters was mainly drawn from the upper and middle portions of the reservoir, and that significant amounts of spawning occurred in the lower section of the reservoir as well. Areas used by smallmouth bass for reproduction were documented with summer and fall electrofishing to determine relative abundance of young-of-the-year smallmouth bass in the reservoir, and showed spawning to take place throughout the reservoir. Densities of young-of-the-year shifted as fall progressed, with highest densities in the middle portion of the reservoir in early fall, indicating that reproductive inputs from the headwaters were realized in the lake as fall progressed. The headwaters fishery is a high-profile activity which, during 1995-96, had a low and sustainable impact on the Lake Moomaw smallmouth bass population. / Master of Science

Certaines études suggèrent que des pigeons estiment la durée d’un stimulus en ignorant les moments pendant lesquels le stimulus disparaît. (Cabeza de Vaca, Brown & Hemmes, 1994). Plusieurs recherches dénotent une dégradation de l’information temporelle accumulée avant l'interruption. L’expérience 1 de la présente étude vérifie si l’information temporelle accumulée avant l’interruption se dégrade dans une tâche de production temporelle. Les expériences 2-3 vérifient s’il y a partage des ressources attentionnelles avant l’interruption entre l’attente de celle-ci et la production temporelle. Dans ces expériences, les participants produisent, au rythme d’un son, un intervalle temporel, cessent de traiter le temps lorsque le son s'arrête et recommencent à traiter celui-ci lorsqu’il revient. Dans l’expérience 3, des essais sans interruption sont introduits. Les résultats suggèrent que les humains interrompent l’accumulation sans qu’il y ait dégradation de l'information temporelle et partagent leurs ressources attentionnelles créant un allongement des intervalles produits en fonction de la durée précédant l'interruption.

Le but de la présente recherche est d'étudier l'influence du stress sur le sommeil chez des personnes qui dorment bien et qui souffrent d'insomnie. L'échantillon se compose de 27 bons dormeurs, 22 insomniaques n'utilisant pas de médicaments pour dormir et 18 insomniaques en faisant l'usage. Les résultats indiquent que les insomniaques perçoivent le stress comme étant plus difficile à prévoir et à contrôler que les bons dormeurs et ils en sont plus envahis que ces derniers. De plus, l'intensité des événements négatifs vécus durant la dernière année, l'impact du stress quotidien ainsi que l'état d'activation somatique et cognitive au coucher sont aussi plus élevés chez les insomniaques que chez les bons dormeurs. Aucune différence n'est toutefois observée entre les deux groupes d'insomniaques pour l'ensemble des variables associées au stress. Deux variables, soit l'impact du stress quotidien ainsi que les stratégies de gestion du stress orientées vers l'émotion, prédisent mieux l'état d'activation au coucher. La perception du stress est pour sa part le meilleur prédicteur de la qualité du sommeil. L'efficacité du sommeil est significativement reliée à une seule variable, soit l'impact du stress quotidien.

With increased use of pallets constructed utilizing structural panel decks, there is a need for a standardized, reliability-based design system, PDS-PANEL, to assist in the design and manufacture of panel-deck pallets. The primary objective of this research was to develop finite element models which predict the static bending behavior of pallets with at least one panel deck. stringer and block pallets were modeled using plate elements to simulate deck behavior and were validated by comparing predicted deflections to experimentally measured deflections. Differences were considerably less than the allowable 15 percent for both stringer and block models. Sensitivity studies conducted with these models provided a rational basis to simplify models for use in the existing PDS-PANEL program developed at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Simplified models were required to have solution times of less than 2 minutes on a 286 type or more powerful personal computer (PC). / Ph. D.

Laboratory and field experiments were conducted with six populations of Chironomus riparius to test for variation among the populations in life history parameters such as growth. mortality and/or reproductive rates. Egg masses of C. riparius from five field populations and one laboratory population were obtained and used to initiate laboratory cultures for experimentation. Environmental effects on life history variations could be ruled out because experiments were conducted with larvae that had been reared in the laboratory for several generations under identical conditions. Populations were compared under a variety of experimental conditions to test whether they would respond similarly, if genetically similar. or differently, if their genotypes were different. The populations were subjected to a variety of experimental conditions in the laboratory in which temperature and food quality were manipulated. The population collected from Strouble''s Creek. Virginia demonstrated a pattern of high growth rate and low mortality rate. While the population collected from the final clarifier at the Madison, Wisconsin sewage treatment plant showed a pattern of low growth rate and high mortality rate. When several populations were transplanted into a high chlorine environment at the Blacksburg, Virginia sewage treatment plant, the population that had been previously exposed to the chlorine showed a significantly lower mortality rate than the other populations. A series of toxicity tests revealed different sensitivities among several populations to an experimental pesticide. Differences among populations were also found in numbers of egg masses produced, numbers of eggs per egg mass, length of time until the onset of adult emergence, and the overall length of the emergence period. The results of this study show the importance of genetic differences among populations of C. riparius. Many commonly measured life history parameters that are usually assumed to vary primarily from differences in environment have been shown to vary as well from underlying genetic differences between populations. The role of genetics should be assessed, whenever possible. in studies where comparisons between populations of aquatic insects are made, in order to determine the degree to which genetics and environmental variables contribute to observed population differences. / Ph. D.

Within this Book is a glimpse of the world that was brought forth from my thesis work. When beginning to find the place of the thesis work, I assumed that I should be making an architectural construction at the scale of building, the scale in which I then believed architecture existed. Knowing that I wanted to find a way of making where I could physically construct every thing I was to make in a careful architectural manner, I hoped that this consideration would lend itself to the design of a building (the kind that people can physically inhabit). What I found was that the building I am making is of a different sort of inhabiting, and that I have been able, through making, to hone my tools. With these I can come to a site(situation), and begin to make decisions that are in the world of architecture. The textile article, one made of woven fibre, is continually referenced throughout this thesis. Being assured of the very close connection between fabric and building (Oxford English Dictionary definition), A Building as being a Fabric, I have explored the literal physical kinds of connections to which fabric lends itself. Fabric items (those made with fibre) engage the world of the temporary connection (a button, a tied closure), because of this, the exploration of temporary construction was naturally a part of this thesis. Finding that though physically temporary, the connection between a site and its construction, can have a presence that has more permanence in its temporal quality than if it were to have a more physical permanence. During the making of each thing, it became clear to me that the woven must have limits; there is a beginning and a completion (Looms have a frame for construction with particular dimensional limits). What is that beginning and completion in each of the thesis projects, what is the construction? In order to have a metaphorical and physical understanding for myself it has been necessary to bring back that question into the realm of the textile and fabric article. What do you do with fabric? It is sewn into particular constructions. This particularity has the beginnings and completions to transform fabric into made things. The woven stuff can go on forever but it takes decision and an idea to take the material into a physical realization. It occurred to me that when one uses material in any form to create a construction, there are particular decisions made that have to stop the woven thing and bind it so that it can be made into something in particular. It seems that within the world of architecture it is important to know when to stop an action and when to make a decision, not letting something default into indistinguishablity. / Master of Architecture

Initial formal studies of three dimensional cubic objects and their affects on space and light lead to the design of complex living arrangements that take the form of apartments. Rooms within the building volumes develop interdependent relationships that blur the distinction between inside and outside space and emphasis the private and public aspects of a clustered arrangement of buildings. / Master of Architecture

Conflict resolution strategies in special education are necessary in view of increased disability and civil rights legislation impacting schools. With increase in federal laws and regulations comes an increase in parental expectations and unclear interpretations of "what is right" and "what is legal" regarding meeting the educational needs of students with disabilities. The purpose of the study was to identify factors that escalate and de-escalate parent-school conflict in special education and to understand the special education mediation process from the perspectives of parents, school officials and mediators in Massachusetts. Data were collected through telephone interviews with 44 participants. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Parent participants had experienced special education mediation either during the school year 1995-1996 or 1996-1997. School officials and mediators had experienced multiple special education mediations. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze data. Eight categories of factors that escalate parent-school conflict in special education were identified: (a) Discrepant Views of a Child's Needs, (b) Knowledge, (c) Service Delivery, (d) Valuation, (e) Reciprocal Power, (f) Constraints, (g) Communication, and (h) Trust. Participants in each group revealed that the mediation process was of value even though one may not achieve the desired outcome. Strengths of the mediation process were identified in the areas of its ability to provide disclosure, empower participants, provide opportunity for communication, provide suitable outcomes, strengthen relationships and provide a pragmatic approach to problem-solving. Limitations of mediation were reported in it's ability to be misused by participants seeking opportunities for fact-finding and it's lack of ability to be enforced. Results indicated that training in conflict handling strategies is needed by parents and school officials. Results of the study supported using early intervention conflict identification and resolution strategies so that conciliatory attitudes and trust might be preserved in parent-school relationships. / Ed. D.

A wall is a primordial architectural artifact. The power and potential of a wall lies in its ability to transcend the necessities of construction and become a generator of architecture. A wall can be more than a plane in space, it can sculpt light and provide housing for various activities within its tectonic dimension. These additional functions can create an experience of both solidity of a wall as well as the possibility of inhabiting a wall. The creation of a "place". A wall also possesses the ability to create a sense of place. This can occur not only through the provision of habitable space, but also through the provision of bearing points for other structural members, illuminable surfaces, or zones of both visual and physical penetration. Within this thesis project, the wall generates a stair, and together, they begin to produce the rest of the architecture. At first there is a wall. Then there is the apartment. / Master of Architecture