This dissertation explores factors that influenced key performance indicators for project implementation success in broadband infrastructure projects funded by the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). Key performance indicators for project implementation success were operationalized as finishing within the 36-month grant period (schedule), within the proposed budget (budget), and constructing the planned number of network miles (outputs). Drawing on research in policy implementation, public administration, nonprofit management, and project management, a framework was created to identify and categorize these factors as project-specific, organization-centric, physical environment, interorganizational, or legal environment (POPIL). A mixed methods approach investigated factor-indicator relationships using Ordinary Least Squares regression and other quantitative analyses of 67 BTOP-funded Comprehensive Community Infrastructure projects and a qualitative postmortem analysis of Citizens Telephone Cooperative's successful New River Valley Regional Open-Access Network (NRV-ROAN) project. Strong and significant regression equations were developed for the schedule adherence, output adherence, and overall project implementation success indicators. Deficient capacity of organizations to implement proposed projects was a significant and strong negative influence on each of these three indicators along with interorganizational relationship issue reports regarding the principal-agent relationship and relationships with other actors. The postmortem analysis included 17 participant interviews and further underscored the importance of sufficient organizational capacity and strong partnerships to enable organizations to overcome challenges they may encounter during implementation. In addition to testing the POPIL framework, this dissertation highlights the importance of alignment of goals and metrics across the legislative, programmatic, and project levels of implementation to ensure that programs and projects do not work at cross-purposes. For practitioners, the findings also emphasize that projects should be designed within an organization's capacity, and prospective partners should have the expertise and resources both to implement a project as proposed and respond to unexpected events. / Ph. D. / This research created and tested a framework for identifying factors that influence the ability of organizations to complete projects successfully within a planned timetable and budget. These proposed factors were categorized as project-specific, organization-centric, physical environment, relationships between organizations, or the legal environment. The framework was applied to a group of 67 broadband infrastructure projects funded through a federal stimulus grant program, the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), to gain an understanding of why some projects were implemented successfully while others fell short of their intended goals. The quantitative analysis found organizations that did not align projects within their existing resources and expertise to allow for unexpected challenges were more likely to experience schedule delays and fail to construct the project as proposed. This analysis also found an increase in the number of issues reported between BTOP and grant recipients led to lower success rates of project implementation. A retrospective analysis of one project, the New River Valley Regional Open-Access Network, used documents and 17 interviews with participants involved in the project’s planning and completion to address the questions: What went well? What could have gone better? What should be changed in the future? Interview participants highlighted the importance of an organization’s strong leadership, carefully consideration of the limitations of an organization’s resources and expertise, and building strong partnerships before undertaking a project. Implications for practitioners include that programs like BTOP that are responsible for the implementation of legislative mandates should encourage a clear articulation and alignment of goals and priorities that is consistent from legislation through program evaluation and down to the measures used to track individual project’s progress. While BTOP was a one-time grant program, the findings are valuable for practitioners looking to increase Internet access in communities and those looking for a model to be able to evaluate grant proposals and opportunities for partnerships. The BTOP experience is also a cautionary note for grant making organizations to consider their own resources and organizational limitations as well as those of prospective grant recipients when designing programs and selecting projects to support.

Studies show that mentoring has a significant impact on the educational successes of minority students and the development of their personal and professional identity within their particular field of study. Within these mentoring relationships an environment is created to where students feel comfortable to discuss their various personal concerns that impact their matriculation through their undergraduate experience in a variety of ways. The purpose of this study is to document the experiences of undergraduate African American students majoring in agriculture while enrolled at a predominately white land grant institutions and explore opportunities for using mentoring as a tool and factor in assisting these students in persisting towards their undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech. The foundation of the study was based on Bean and Eaton's Psychological Model of Retention and Rodgers and Summers' Revised model of retention for African American students at PWIs. Findings from this study were articulated by students conceptualization of mentors as a supportive guide in contrast to procedural advising relationships, additionally how students have experiences mentorship with mentors with a range of identities; student interactions within their colleges and departments as well as their both indirect and direct mentorship experiences; their support, interaction and connection to the African American community on campus during their undergraduate tenure; and how the university's bureaucratic structure has an impact on their experience as African American students. / Master of Science in Life Sciences / Mentorship has a significant impact on the personal, academic and professional development of student during their undergraduate experiences at four-year institutions, having a large impact on their personal identity as well as how they view themselves within their particular field of study. Within these mentor and mentee relationship an environment is created where both parties develop rapport and understanding among each in order to be able to discuss concerns and interest that they may have that have an impact on their entire undergraduate experience in a number of ways. The purpose of this study is to document the experiences of undergraduate African American students majoring in agriculture while enrolled at a predominately white land grant institutions and explore opportunities for using mentoring as a tool and factor in assisting these students in persisting towards their undergraduate degree. The foundation of the study was based on two student development psychological models. Findings from this study were articulated by students conceptualization of mentors as supportive guide in contrast to procedural advising relationships, additionally how students have experiences mentorship with mentors with a range of identities; student interactions within their colleges and departments as well as their both indirect and direct mentorship experiences; their support, interaction and connection to the African American community on campus during their undergraduate tenure; and how the university’s bureaucratic structure has a impact on their experience as African American students.

With commercial deployment of the Citizens Band Radio Service commencing in the last quarter of 2018, efforts are in progress to improve the efficiency of the Spectrum Access System (SAS) functions. An area of concern as identified in recent field trials is the timebound evacuation of unlicensed secondary users from a frequency band by the SAS on the arrival of an incumbent user. In this thesis, we propose a way to optimize the evacuation process by reducing the number of secondary spectrum grant revocations to be performed. The proposed work leverages knowledge of incumbent user spectrum occupancy pattern obtained from historical spectrum usage data. Using an example model trained on 48 hours of an incumbent user transmission information, we demonstrate prediction of future incumbent user spectrum occupancy for the next 15 hours with 94.4% accuracy. The SAS uses this information to set the time validity of the secondary spectrum grants appropriately. In comparison to a case where spectrum grants are issued with no prior knowledge, the number of revocations declines by 87.5% with a 7.6% reduction in channel utilization. Further, the proposed technique provides a way for the SAS to plan ahead and prepare a backup channel to which secondary users can be redirected which can reduce the evacuation time significantly. / Master of Science / Studies on spectrum occupancy show that, in certain bands, licensed incumbent users use the spectrum only for some time or only within certain geographical limits. The dynamic spectrum access paradigm proposes to reclaim the underutilized spectrum by allowing unlicensed secondary users to access the spectrum opportunistically in the absence of the licensed users. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has identified 150 MHz of spectrum space from 3550-3700 MHz to implement a dynamic spectrum sharing service called the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS). The guiding principle of this service is to maximize secondary user channel utilization while ensuring minimal incumbent user disruption. In this study, we propose that these conflicting requirements can be best balanced in the Spectrum Access System (SAS) by programming it to set the time validity of the secondary license grants by taking into consideration the incumbent spectrum occupancy pattern. In order to enable the SAS to learn incumbent spectrum occupancy in a privacy-preserving manner, we propose the use of a deep learning model, specifically the long-short term memory (LSTM). This model can be trained by federal agencies on historical incumbent spectrum occupancy information and then shared with the SAS in a secure manner to obtain prediction information about possible incumbent activity. Then, using the incumbent spectrum occupancy information from the LSTM model, the SAS could issue license grants that would expire before expected arrival time of incumbent user, thus minimizing the number of revocations on incumbent arrival. The scheme was validated using simulations that demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach in minimizing revocation complexity.

External and internal funding is a way that nurse scholars can support research and scholarship activities. Often, programs are supported by a combination of internal and external funding to support projects. External funding through competitive grants is a valuable way to fund initiatives and to expand services. However, these applications commonly require a detailed and complete budget that will provide a framework to fiscally plan for program activities – which can be daunting to novice grant seekers. There is a scarcity of information in the literature on the framework for the development of a program budget or how to begin, which can be a challenge to those new to this process. A well-prepared and developed budget supports the success of an external funding application and serves as the framework to fiscally support and optimize activities. The purpose of this presentation is to provide nurses the basic information on how to develop a budget for external and internal funding applications.

Land grant, also known as Morrill Act, institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were founded upon the principles to educate a target population with limited access to resources to expand their educational opportunities and social mobility. With the rise of new public management and neoliberalism, state financial support for higher education has changed drastically over the past two decades. Institutions are required to demonstrate performance metrics for funding. However, some of these institutions have been disproportionately under-resourced for many decades and the funding inequality has left them with a unique set of challenges to overcome. Social construction theory demonstrates the way policy can influence a target population and how the policies can shape societal perceptions about the target group. Limited funding, or in some cases omitted funding, from state legislatures to HBCUs or other Predominantly Black Institutions has led inequitable learning environments despite these institution’s commitment to serving students who may not have the financial means to otherwise pursue a postsecondary education. This study seeks to analyze the historical context of state relationships with higher education institutions, the historical context of funding inequality in higher education policy, the current climate for land grant and minority serving institutions’ role in higher education, the evolving emphasis on performance metrics for higher education institutions, and the analysis of funding practices in a more recent allocation year to investigate if funding inequality persists in the current climate.

This thesis explores the impacts of the Partnership for Incentive-Based Budgeting (PIBB) model at Virginia Tech (VT), a land-grant institution. By conducting a mixed-methods approach including semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and a review of political theory, this research examines the differences in perceptions of employees across employee classifications, academic area, and financial experience at VT on the PIBB model, unhealthy internal competition, communications, fiscal policy, and political influence. The PIBB model was adopted at VT as a strategic response to reduced state funding and aims to encourage budget management improvements and collaborative planning across the university. Findings indicate that while the PIBB model is designed to align financial incentives with the university's academic and operational goals, it may also foster unhealthy, internal competition among faculty, staff, and administrative units. This competition arises from the pressure to meet specific performance metrics linked to budgetary allocations, potentially leading to conflicts and misalignment with the university's broader educational objectives –underscoring the need for a balanced approach to budgeting that supports both financial sustainability and academic integrity. Complexities of implementing market-driven budgeting models within academic settings suggests that while such models can drive efficiency, they must be managed carefully to avoid undermining the core mission of educational institutions. This thesis contributes to ongoing discussions about the optimization of resource allocation in public higher education. / Master of Arts / This thesis looks at how the Partnership for Incentive-Based Budgeting (PIBB) model, implemented at Virginia Tech (VT), impacts various aspects of the university. Using a combination of interviews, document analysis, and a look into political theory, the research investigates how different employees at VT perceive the PIBB model, its effects on internal dynamics like competition, communication, financial policies, and political influences. The PIBB model was implemented as a result in the decline in state money going to VT and to help manage the budget better and collaboration across the university. This thesis research found that while the PIBB model tries to link money incentives with university goals, it also creates unhealthy competition among faculty, staff, and units within the university. This competition happens as everyone wants to meet certain goals to get more money, which can take away from the main goal of the university, which is education. The study shows that it is important to find a balance between the university's goals being at the forefront but also managing the money appropriately. It also shows that using budgeting methods based on business ideas in a public university is tricky and needs careful management to keep the university's values intact. Overall, this research adds to the conversation about how we can best use money in public colleges to make them better for everyone.

Understanding student college choice is a daunting prospect. Students’ choices start long before college application and are influenced by many variables. This study is grounded in Perna’s (2006) college choice model, Bourdieu’s (1986) theory of social capital, and the concept of trust reducing myopia in future decisions of low socio-economic status (SES) individuals in Jachimowicz et al. (2017) and Farah and Hook (2017). This study examined the narratives of low SES community college students located in south Mississippi to gain a better understanding of the role of trust in the decision-making process, particularly ways trust plays a role in the financial decision to attend community college, how students decide who or what is trustworthy in searching college information, and how the source of information influences their college decisions. The study focused on 6 Pell Grant-eligible participants currently enrolled in their first year of community college: 5 females and 1 male, comprised of 4 white students, 1 black student, and 1 Hispanic student. The students were interviewed in person through semi-structured interviews lasting up to 1 hour, part of the qualitative narrative inquiry research design. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, edited for accuracy, deleted, and all student names changed to provide anonymity. The interviews were analyzed organically, the analysis based on the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space set forth by Clandinin and Connelly (2000). This study found that trust plays many roles in the financial decision to attend a community college for low SES students: trusting information they receive, trusting they would receive their financial aid, and trusting the college credential will pay off for them financially through higher quality jobs. The study showed that these students were most influenced by those in their lives with whom they had deep relationships or college employees with whom they felt a connection. These findings support the assertion that trust is significant to the college decision-making process among community college students. Understanding their decision-making process could help colleges understand more clearly how to reach these students and give them the support they need so their college decision yields positive results.

Le mémoire qui suit se propose d'explorer la possibilité d'une réflexion qui mettrait en lumière la situation et les enjeux de la modernité. L'œuvre de George Grant témoigne précisément d'un effort considérable pour penser l'aventure moderne en termes de bien commun et d'amour. Conscient de la primauté de la technologie et de la domination de celle-ci sur nos pensées, actions et jugements, Grant s'interroge sur le sort qui est réservé à la justice à l'intérieur du projet moral moderne. Aux yeux de plusieurs analystes les préoccupations de Grant débouchent sur un discours ambivalent et contradictoire. Nous soutenons plutôt que cette contradiction n'est visible que dans l'opposition formulée entre le langage du bien chez les Anciens et le langage des valeurs chez les Modernes. C'est justement parce que Grant a su penser le rapport de la technologie et de la justice que son discours peut paraître contradictoire.

The Middle Fork John Day Basin in Northeastern Oregon is prime habitat for spring Chinook salmon and Steelhead trout. In 2008, a major tributary supporting rearing habitat, Big Boulder Creek, was restored to its historic mid-valley channel along a 1 km stretch of stream 800 m upstream of the mouth. Reduction of peak summer stream temperatures was among the goals of the restoration. Using Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) Fiber Optic Technology, stream temperature was monitored prior to restoration in June 2008, and after restoration in September 2008, July 2009, and August 2009. Data gathered was used to determine locations of groundwater and hyporheic inflow and to form a stream temperature model of the system. The model was used both to develop an evaluation method to interpret components of model performance, and to better understand the physical processes important to the study reach. A very clear decreasing trend in surface temperature was seen throughout each of the DTS stream temperature datasets in the downstream 500 m of the study reach. Observed reduction in temperature was 0.5°C (±0.10) in June 2008, 0.3°C (±0.37) in September 2008, 0.6°C (±0.25) in July 2009, and 0.2°C (±0.08) in August 2009. Groundwater inflow was calculated to be 3% of the streamflow for July 2009 and 1% during the August 2009 installation. Statistically significant locations of groundwater and hyporheic inflow were also determined. July 2009 data was used to model stream temperature of the 1 km (RMSE 0.28°C). The developed model performance evaluation method measures timelag, offset, and amplitude at a downstream observed or simulated point compared with the boundary condition, rather than evaluating the model based on error. These measures are particularly relevant to small scale models in which error may not be a true reflection of the ability of a model to correctly predict temperature. Breaking down model performance into these three predictive measures was a simple and graphic method to show the model's predictive capability without sorting through large amounts of data. To better understand the model and the stream system, a sensitivity analysis was conducted showing high sensitivity to streamflow, air temperature, groundwater inflow, and relative humidity. Somewhat surprisingly, solar radiation was among the lowest sensitivity. Furthermore, three model scenarios were run: a 25% reduction in water velocity, a 5°C increase in air temperature, and no groundwater inflow. Simulations of removal of groundwater inflows resulted in a 0.5°C increase in average temperature over the modeled time period at the downstream end, further illustrating the importance of groundwater in this stream system to reduce temperatures. / Graduation date: 2012

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