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I argue that, while no major politician is openly acknowledging affiliation with or adoption of Dominionist political beliefs, that these beliefs are influencing the tenor of the Republican party and that the influence of these beliefs is reflected in many of the policies and platforms of prominent members. Further, there are Dominionist adjacent organizations actively driving the Overton window and the public policy agenda towards a more Domionist centered political arena. Specifically, this paper examines the 1776 Report as a reflection of Dominionist themes and the culmination of efforts by the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation and its Project Blitz to bring Dominionist Christian viewpoints into the public discourse. Thus, this paper argues that the Dominionstis mindset has successfully reached the highest levels of power in the US government.

Fiber optic temperature and vibration sensors were designed and built to take readings in the harsh environment of a steel mill. The sensors are insensitive to electromagnetic noise; making them well suited for the use in such an environment. The temperature sensor uses an optical filter technique. A piece of intrinsic silicon is inserted between two optical fibers and 1064nm wavelength light is transmitted through the silicon. As the temperature increases, the silicon becomes more highly absorbing. The vibration sensor uses an optomechanical technique. Light is transmitted across a short air gap between two optical fibers. One of the fibers acts as cantilever while the other is fixed. As the cantilever vibrates, the transmitted power fluctuates, which enables the detection of the frequency and amplitude of the vibration. Sensors were initially tested under laboratory conditions, and subsequently field tested at ArcelorMittal Dofasco. The temperature sensor has a sensitivity of 0.4°C over the temperature range from 22°C to 120°C. The vibration sensor has a sensitivity of 2.87mV /g peak over a frequency range from 0 to 1250 Hz. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

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A test program for the Hybrid-Composite Beam (HCB) was conducted prior to its use for the replacement of a skewed, simply-supported bridge (Tide Mill Bridge). The HCB is an innovative combination of conventional materials and ideas in a structural beam. The beam consists of a concrete arch tied with prestressing strand that is placed within a Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) box. Behavior in individual HCB's and a three HCB-system was examined to determine the appropriateness of the current design methodology developed by John Hillman and the simplifying assumptions made within it. Such assumptions include strain compatibility and linear-elastic behavior. Three HCB's were tested at the structures laboratory at Virginia Tech. During individual beam tests, the predicted behavior of the FRP box and prestressing strand agreed with experimental results. The tests revealed the arch was susceptible to local bending and behaved far differently from predicted. Overall, the beams were shown to behave linearly. A final test was performed to apply the design live load to the system. Slight non-linear behavior was observed in the beams. Distribution factors for the system were also investigated and compared to AASHTO and Hillman's model. AASHTO factors were conservative for exterior girders but unconservative for interior girders. Hillman's factors were often conservative but were in agreement for the shear in the exterior girder. The current design procedure appeared to predict FRP and strand behavior well, but the behavior of the arch appeared to differ greatly from the other components of the HCB. / Master of Science

This thesis explores landscape's framing role in memorialization through a discussion of southeastern United States mill villages. This paper moves the preservation discussion from the architectural realm of an isolated textile mill building to the scale of the landscape encompassing the entire infrastructure of mill life. The beginning of the 20th century witnessed the transformation of the piedmont region of South Carolina from a farmland of sharecroppers to the cotton textile center of the nation. This rapid industrialization altered rolling landscape and winding creeks into a series of mill villages and dammed waterways connecting larger cities of neighborhood mills. The beginning of the 21st century is witnessing another transformation, the shuttering of those mills because of globalization and a trend toward adaptive reuse into luxury apartments. While this form of preservation rescues a portion of the deteriorating memory infrastructure, it threatens to distort or erase the unique relationship between mill and mill village by romanticizing mill life and brushing over the complex history of labor present in those spaces. The landscape reveals that the mills channeled not only human labor, but also the work force of nature through dams regulating waterways. Like the social restructuring of the mills, this restructuring of nature had impacts: disturbed ecologies, toxic sedimentation, and altered waterways. Investigation proceeds through a research and design process. Research includes creating a spatial data set of the mills in the South Carolina piedmont region from a list in the 1930 edition of Clark's directory of southern textile mills. This mapping along with watershed analysis determines a specific mill site for intervention along a waterway where dams have impaired the natural ecology. The design explores the potential of revising or removing the mill dam, a piece of memory infrastructure, and wrestles with the balance of preservation and ecological restoration. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Life history and annual production of Hydropsyche slossonae were determined in Mill Creek, Virginia, emphasizing aspects of its early life history. Mill Creek is a first—order stream in the Central Appalachian Ridges and Valleys ecoregion. Each adult female laid approximately 230 eggs in May and June which hatched in 13 days. Five larval instars were recorded with most individuals overwintering in III and IV instars. Pupation and emergence occurred primarily over a six week period in May and June. No mortality in the egg stage (0%) was detected, while high mortality in I instar (92.9%) was due in part to sibling cannibalism. Second through fifth instars showed constant, low mortality, with high mortality again in the pupal stage; an estimated 0.5% of the original eggs survived to adulthood. Growth analysis revealed two distinct growth phases; one from hatching through IV instar (0.008 mg/day) and a much faster growing V instar in May (0.085 mg/day). Annual production estimates ranged from 3 to 5 g/m² and were highly variable. It may be more precise to estimate production by predicting biomass from survivorship and growth functions than directly from sample data. On a per day basis, production was not constant but varied during the year. Yield per day peaked slightly later than peaks in production. High daily production occurred immediately after hatching due to growth of many small individuals. At the end of the generation, there was another period of high daily production due to fast growth by fewer larger individuals. Most production occurred from March through June. At other times, daily production was relatively low. / Ph. D.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Arlo Biere / The purpose of the research reported in the thesis, here, is to quantify new value added possible in flour milling with the use of the SDmatic monitor, produced and sold by Chopin Technologies SAS. As an employee of Chopin, part of my responsibility is to market the SDmatic. The SDmatic was designed and is marketed to improve flour quality by providing automatic monitoring of starch damage in flour—damaged starch affects dough characteristics, which affects baking quality and the ideal damaged starch differs by type of bakery product. While the SDmatic is so marketed, Chopin, now, realizes that SDmatic might also benefit a flour miller by increasing operational efficiency of the mill, specifically by reducing the electrical energy used in milling. If that can be done, it would improve mill profitability, reduce energy demand and, thus, reduce the pressure on the climate and environment from energy production. To address that possibility, the thesis research studied the relationship between energy usage and damaged starch in the flour and, then, estimated the cost savings possible by using the SDmatic to mill flour to specifications most efficiently. Finally, those results were used to estimate the return on investment in the SDmatic from improved mill efficiency, alone. The research shows improvement in energy efficiency is definitely possible with better management and targeting of the level of starch damage in flour production. Such improved management is possible, today, because SDmatic dramatically reduces the difficulty and time required to measure damaged starch. Such monitoring has not been done in the past because of the cost and time involved with prior methods. SDmatic makes that possible and cost effective, now.