Cultural competence is defined as having the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to interact and assist people from culturally and ethnically diverse backgrounds (Sue, 2001). People who are culturally competent are aware of their own cultural background and the backgrounds of groups that are different. These individuals understand and appreciate a variety of cultures. Much of the research on cultural competence has focused on practitioners or graduate students in medicine, psychology, education, and social work (Eunice, 2004). Primarily, this research has looked at the training that these individuals have received and their attitudes about interacting with diverse groups. Howard-Hamilton, Richardson, and Shuford (1998) proposed that a set of competencies be developed for college students similar to those created for practitioners. Examples of those competencies include an understanding the cultural backgrounds of other groups, being able to interact with diverse individuals, an appreciation for diversity and valuing social justice for all cultural groups, etc. Research on cultural competence and college students has primarily focused on attitudes of college students towards diverse individuals (Hu & Kuh, 2005; Nelson-Laird, Engberg, & Hurtado; 2005; Pascerella & Terenzini, 2005; Pacerella, Edison, Nora, Hagedorn, & Terenzini, 1996; Whitt, Edison, Pascerella, Terenzini, & Nora, 2001). Students' in and out-of-class experiences give them a holistic education in which they develop an appreciation of individuals whose cultures are different (Kuh, 1995). Yet, very little research has focused on students' experiences learning about and interacting with individuals from other cultures. The purpose of this study was to gain insight from students participating in a cultural awareness program regarding their experiences before and during college that shape their cultural competence. Specifically, I examined students' perspectives on pre-college and college experiences that influence their values and beliefs about their own and others' racial/ethnic culture. The participants of the study were college students who participate in a cultural awareness grant program. This study is phenomenological by nature. Data was obtained from interviews, field notes, and students' journals. Three interviews were conducted with each of the participants. In the first interview, the students were asked about their backgrounds and how they describe their racial or ethnic culture. In second interview, the participants were asked about their interactions and experiences with other racial or ethnic groups on campus. The third interview focused on students' opinions about learning about issues of race and ethnicity. The data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), inductive analysis (Patton, 2002) and open coding (Rossman & Rallis, 2003). Profiles of the participants were created from the interview transcripts and field notes (Seidman, 2006). The background, experiences, and perspectives of students were described in narrative form. Results of this study indicate that four factors have an impact on participants becoming culturally competent: (a) family influences, (b) formal learning, (c) encounters with others, and (d) personal interests. / Ph. D.

Termites are known to harbor within their gut a diverse assemblage of symbiotic microorganisms. Little work has been done, however, to describe the diversity and function of the bacteria in the economically important eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes. The first object of this study was to characterize the bacterial diversity in the gut of R. flavipes using amplified rDNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. It was determined that ARDRA was an effective technique for characterizing the diversity of the termite gut microbiota. Of the 512 clones analyzed in the ARDRA study, 261 different ARDRA profiles were found. Forty-two 16S rRNA gene sequences were also analyzed, resulting in 33 different ribotypes. Representatives from six major bacterial phyla, Proteobacteria, Spirochaetes, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and the newly proposed "Endomicrobia," were discovered. Further analysis indicated that the gut of R. flavipes may harbor as many as 1,318 ribotypes per termite. The second objective was to determine if the gut bacterial diversity could be manipulated by changing the termite's food source. Using ARDRA analysis, I found no evidence that changing the food source affected the termite gut bacterial diversity. In addition, changing the food source did not induce aggression in nestmates fed on different food sources. The third objective was to search for patterns of coevolution between termites and their gut symbiotic bacteria. Using rRNA gene sequences from this study and sequences from public databases (1,450 sequences total), a neighbor-joining tree demonstrated strong evidence for coevolution of termites and their symbiotic bacteria, especially in the phyla Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Spirochaetes, and "Endomicrobia." Many monophyletic clusters were entirely composed of phylotypes specific to Isoptera. / Ph. D.

I conducted a mixed method study to explore how gender and diversity are being taught and defined at accredited marriage and family therapy programs. This research approach was explored through a feminist lens and within a systems theory framework, using both qualitative and content analysis methods. I examined course syllabi and interviewed faculty members that taught gender and diversity topics in their courses. I examined findings by program (masters and doctoral) and type of training (those that taught specific gender and culture courses and those that attempted to infuse gender and culture throughout the curriculum). The sample population consisted of syllabi from 21 masters and 18 doctoral training programs (ten each that taught specific courses in gender and diversity and eleven masters and eight doctoral courses that stated that they infuse gender and diversity throughout the curriculum). That is that there was variation in the topic areas that were explored when the specific courses content and infused course content were compared. There was a significant difference in the degree to which these topics were taught between the two program levels (Masters vs. Doctoral). However, the qualitative data reflected similarities in the teaching methods of both types of programs. Additionally, Twenty faculty members were interviewed, ten from a master's and ten from doctoral programs. These faculty members were equally split between those representing infusion and specific courses. I constructed course summary tables of books, articles, course objectives and illustrative learning activities from each syllabus. The major implications of this study were that the experiences of the professors were explored and the student's perspectives had been excluded. There was also little variation in the racial and gender characteristics of the professors / Ph. D.

Smart antenna systems are employed to overcome multipath fading, extend range, and increase capacity by using diversity or beamforming techniques in wireless communication systems. Understanding of the smart base antenna performance mechanisms for various environments is important to design cost effective systems and network. This dissertation focuses on the experimental characterization and modeling of the smart base station antenna performance for various propagation environment scenarios. An eight-channel Virginia Tech smart base station antenna testbed was developed to investigate performances of three reverse link diversity methods. The experiment campaign resulted in 245 sets of collected data over 83 measurement sites, which were used to compare the performance of space, polarization, and angle diversity under identical conditions. Measured propagation path loss, envelope correlation coefficients, power imbalances, and mean effective gain (MEG) are characterized as a function of distance between the base station and the mobile terminal to illustrate the diversity performance mechanisms over different propagation environments. The performance of the three base station diversity methods with selection combining (SC), maximal ratio combining (MRC), and equal gain combining (EGC) techniques for both urban and suburban non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments are presented and summarized using the measured data. Forward-link performance of a twelve-fixed narrow-beam base station antenna system for urban NLOS environments is investigated using the same measured data. A new procedure is introduced to experimentally model the forward-link performance of muitlple-fixed narrow-beam (MFNB) antennas using the measured reverse-link vector channel response. The experimentally calculated lower bound performance result shows that it achieves 2.5 to 2.8 times higher average RF SIR compared to the conventional three-sector base station system for typical urban NLOS multipath fading environment conditions. Also, a new mobile user angle estimation algorithm using the muitlple-fixed narrow-beam antennas for NLOS multipath fading environment conditions is developed and the experiment results are presented. / Ph. D.

This study examines policy and procedure documents related to Disability at 3 U.S. institutions of higher education over a 25-year time frame. Policy and procedure documents are the foundation that govern how institutions "handle" Disability, outlining expectations and guidelines for providing services and establishing bureaucratic channels used to determine who has access to those services. This research employs a comparative case study mixed methods approach. The found documents and their online contexts are analyzed according to four qualities: findability, cohesion, consistency, and transparency. A document's findability refers to the ability of a user to locate the original document, and a document's cohesion, consistency, and transparency, refer to respectively where, what, and how these documents persist from their original creation date. As I collected these documents, I constructed comparative matrices to track these qualities within and across three different universities. The initial findability of documents demonstrates two key results: 1) during the overall 1990– 2015 time frame, there was a marked change in the availability of materials in a digital format, and 2) the emergence of a way to describe documents via the phrase "Does Not Exist." These materials definitively did not exist prior to a given time frame, but later versions of such documents included an earlier start date. Cohesion results indicate that the documents most likely to be presented in a single source were broadly usable to a large portion of the university population: the general student body. Consistency results address a major issue with the document search: while these materials were likely to exist, at each of these institutions and time frames (barring the DNE documents), they are very difficult to track down. Transparency across found, single-source documents was ubiquitous; if it could be found, it had searchable text. Beyond the findings of my document collection, I created two major products as a result of this dissertation work: key recommendations for different stakeholder groups and a curated exhibit of VT-specific materials collected for this study. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study examines policy and procedure documents related to Disability at 3 U.S. institutions of higher education over a 25-year time frame. Policy and procedure documents are the foundation that govern how institutions "handle" Disability, outlining expectations and guidelines for providing services and establishing bureaucratic channels used to determine who has access to those services. This research employs a comparative case study mixed methods approach. The found documents and their online contexts are analyzed according to four qualities: findability, cohesion, consistency, and transparency. A document's findability refers to the ability of a user to locate the original document, and a document's cohesion, consistency, and transparency, refer to respectively where, what, and how these documents persist from their original creation date. As I collected these documents, I constructed comparative matrices to track these qualities within and across three different universities. The initial findability of documents demonstrates two key results: 1) during the overall 1990– 2015 time frame, there was a marked change in the availability of materials in a digital format, and 2) the emergence of a way to describe documents via the phrase "Does Not Exist." These materials definitively did not exist prior to a given time frame, but later versions of such documents included an earlier start date. Cohesion results indicate that the documents most likely to be presented in a single source were broadly usable to a large portion of the university population: the general student body. Consistency results address a major issue with the document search: while these materials were likely to exist, at each of these institutions and time frames (barring the DNE documents), they are very difficult to track down. Transparency across found, single-source documents was ubiquitous; if it could be found, it had searchable text. Beyond the findings of the document collection, there are two major products as a result of this dissertation work. First, key recommendations for different stakeholder groups (SEEKERS, WRITERS, and KEEPERS) are outlined; these recommendations are intended for the entire audience as practices that they can incorporate within their own documents. Second, the work undertaken to create a repository using materials from my document collection, utilizing the Qualitative Data Repository (based in Syracuse University) as the host for a curated exhibit of VT-specific materials, is described.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how diversity discourse inscribes oppressive institutional structures (slavery, racism, and whiteness), specifically, institutional power, and offer possibilities for making sustainable change. This dissertation is an institutional critique (Porter et al. 2000) that includes Black women's experiences in diversity leadership roles at Virginia Tech, an analysis of the institution's bureaucratic structure, an analysis of diversity discourse published by Virginia Tech's Office for Inclusion and Diversity (OID), and climate surveys. By following diversity discourse, I explore how the discourse and modalities inscribe institutional power, the "outsider-within" construct of Black women, and obstructions to institutional change through discursive practices. In general, change happens at institutions but does not connote equitable, sustainable change. I argue that mapping the discursive and material construction of institutional power can reveal discursive methods/methodologies for remapping the institution toward inscribing structures of resistance. / Doctor of Philosophy / The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how diversity discourse inscribes oppressive institutional structures (slavery, racism, and whiteness), specifically, institutional power, and offer possibilities for making sustainable change. This dissertation is an institutional critique (Porter et al. 2000) that includes Black women's experiences in diversity leadership roles at Virginia Tech, an analysis of the institution's bureaucratic structure, an analysis of diversity discourse published by Virginia Tech's Office for Inclusion and Diversity (OID), and climate surveys. By following diversity discourse, I explore how the discourse and modalities inscribe institutional power, the "outsider-within" construct of Black women, and obstructions to institutional change through discursive practices. The "outsider-within" positionality is "a marginality that stimulated a distinctive Black women's perspective on a variety of themes" (Collins, 2022) from a dual existence as an outsider within oppressive white spaces. Change happens at institutions but does not demonstrate equitable and sustainable change. I argue that investigating the discursive and material construction of institutional power (following the discourse) can reveal discursive methods/methodologies for implementing acts of resistance.

Leafy greens like lettuce and spinach are a common vehicle for foodborne illness in United States. It is unknown if native plant epiphytic bacteria may play a role in the establishment of enteric pathogens on leaf surfaces. The objective of this study was to characterize the bacterial communities of fresh and packaged spinach leaves and to explore interactions with E. coli O157:H7. We assessed the bacterial diversity present on the spinach leaf surfaces and how parameters such as spinach cultivar, field conditions, post-harvest operations and the presence of E. coli O157:H7 affected its diversity. Differences in bacterial population size and species richness were associated with differences in plant topography; flat leaves had smaller bacterial populations than savoy leaves, which correlated with larger number of stomata and trichomes in savoy leaves. During spinach growing season shifts in environmental conditions affected richness and population size of the spinach bacterial community. Decreases in the overall soil and ambient temperature and increased rainfall decreased richness and bacterial population size. Fresh spinach richness and composition assessed by parallel pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA elucidated 600 operational taxonomic units, with 11 different bacterial phyla. During postharvest operations diversity indexes and evenness tended to decrease, likely attributed to storage at low temperature and time of storage (4°C and 10°C), that promoted the dominance of g-Proteobacteria. Bacteria isolated from fresh spinach elicited growth inhibition of E. coli O157:H7 in vitro, which was associated with nutrient competition. In contrast growth enhancement produced by epiphytes was associated to low correlations in carbon source utilization and the ability of E. coli O157:H7 to rapidly utilize carbon resources. In packaged spinach, E. coli O157:H7 altered the composition of the bacterial community and its growth was promoted on packaged spinach when a disinfection and temperature abuse occurred, removal of the epiphytic bacteria resulted in significant increases in numbers of E. coli O157:H7 at 10°C and was associated with increased expression of E. coli O157:H7 virulence and stress response genes. The large diversity present on the surface of spinach leaves significantly impacted the ecology of enteric pathogens like E. coli O157:H7 on the phyllosphere. / Ph. D.

Forests provide a number of ecosystem services which sustain and enrich the wildlife, human societies, and the environment. However, many disturbances threaten forest ecosystems, making it necessary to monitor their health for optimal management and conservation. Although there are many indicators of forest health, changes in biogeochemical cycling, loss of species diversity, and invasive plants are particularly useful due to their vulnerability to the effects of climate change and intensive agricultural land use. Thus, this work evaluates the use of imaging spectroscopy to monitor forest nutrient status, species diversity, and plant invasions in the Mid-Atlantic region. The research is divided into four separate studies, each of which evaluated a unique application for imaging spectroscopy data at a different scale within the forest. The first two studies examined loblolly pine nutrient status at the leaf and canopy scales, respectively. The first study determined that loblolly pine foliar macronutrient concentrations can be successfully modeled across the Southeastern US (R2=0.39-0.74). Following on these results, the second study focused on the relationship between physical characteristics, reflectance, and nutrients. Reflectance values and W scattering coefficients produced successful nitrogen models across loblolly pine plots at the canopy scale. Regression models showed similar explanatory power for nitrogen, although W scattering coefficients were significantly correlated with nitrogen at multiple wavelengths and reflectance variables were not. However, the direction of some of the correlations with W and the unusually high directional area scattering factor values indicate a need for further experimentation. The third study found that several imaging spectroscopy algorithms were moderately successful in identifying wavyleaf basketgrass invasions in mixed deciduous forests (overall accuracy=0.35-0.78; kappa=0.41-0.53). Lastly, the fourth study used a novel imaging spectroscopy/lidar fusion to identify canopy gaps and measure species diversity of understory vegetation. The lidar algorithm identified 29 of 34 canopy gaps, and regression models explained 49 percent of the variance in gap species diversity. In conclusion, imaging spectroscopy can be used to evaluate ecosystem health through forest nutrient status, nitrogen models, species diversity estimates, and identification of invasive plant species. / Ph. D.

U.S. demographic shifts are not being reflected in higher education institutions (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.; U.S. Department of Education, 2013). While institutions recruit underrepresented students and faculty, retention of these populations continues to be an issue in part due to a lack of sense of belonging (Booker, 2007; Hurtado and Carter, 1997), poor institutional climate (Hurtado, Alvarez, Guillermo-Wann, Cuellar, and Arellano, 2012; Rhee, 2008), and institutional racism (Stanley, 2006). Organizational culture theory offers a lens to examine the underlying structural problems preventing organizations from permanently adopting diversity and inclusion initiatives throughout the institution. This qualitative study examines how faculty members describe organizational culture of diversity and inclusion at a research university with a high degree of student diversity. The conceptual framework was Schein's (2010) organizational culture model. Participants included 19 faculty members who identified as Caucasian/White, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, or Asian/Pacific Islander. Of all participants, 12 were male and seven female. In-person interviews were conducted to gather data. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Five themes emerged: forming culture, describing diversity and inclusion within the culture, learning impacted by diversity, feeling the culture, and directing culture. Unique findings from this study reveal that participants believed there is a shifting organizational culture of diversity and inclusion at the selected institution due to newly acquired designations, causing redefinition of existing assumptions. Additionally, faculty members (a) held different definitions for diversity and inclusion, which affected how they understood the university's responsibilities; (b) relied on localized diversity initiatives over university-wide ones; (c) believed in the unique needs of a highly diverse student body; and (d) were concerned with gaining diversity and inclusion at all ranks of the institution. Findings suggest that faculty at this institution viewed the organizational culture of diversity and inclusion to be welcoming for students. However, participants' perspectives were mixed about this same culture being welcoming to all faculty members. The study has implications for administrators and faculty members seeking to create more diverse and inclusive organizational cultures. Findings also have implications for future research on organizational culture, faculty, diversity, and inclusion. / Ph. D.

Arthropod natural enemies play a key role in controlling potentially damaging pest populations in agroecosystems. An abundant and diverse natural enemy community is associated with higher yields in a variety of crops. Certain aspects of soybean production can make a field more or less amenable to a robust natural enemy community. For instance, commonly used broad-spectrum insecticides which are highly toxic to most arthropods can decrease natural enemy densities and allow for secondary pest outbreaks. Selective insecticides that have less impact on natural enemy populations allow for pest control while preserving important predators. Another production decision that could alter natural enemy communities is the choice of cropping system, specifically planting early (full season) or late, after small grain harvest (double crop). My research objectives were to examine how 1) selective insecticides and 2) cropping system affect the density and diversity of natural enemies in Virginia soybean. To address the first objective I compared the natural enemy community in soybean plots that were exposed to selective insecticides, broad-spectrum insecticides or no insecticide. I sampled insects using three different techniques and found that the two selective insecticides I tested, both from a new class called diamides, did not reduce the natural enemy community compared to controls. To examine how cropping system affects the natural enemy community I sampled full season and double crop fields during the growing season for two years. In 2014 ground-dwelling spider diversity was higher in full season soybean. In both years, double crop soybeans had higher abundance of spiders and insect natural enemies on the ground and in the foliage compared with full season soybean. This was unexpected, since double crop soybeans are planted later than full season and arthropod populations would have less time to colonize and grow. When I compared diversity of a family of predatory beetles I found higher diversity in full season soybean. The similarity in spider and insect natural enemy diversity and abundance trends suggests that a greater number of species can co-exist in full season soybean, while in double crop soybeans a few dominant natural enemies thrive. / Ph. D.