Advanced nondestructive inspection techniques like stress wave timing and resistance microdrilling have been used to successfully inspection timber bridges, but it is most effective on girder style bridges. There is a noted need to develop additional inspection techniques for longitudinal deck/slab timber bridges, which comprise about 20% of the national bridge inventory. One technique that holds potential is ground penetrating radar, a recognized nondestructive testing technique that has been used effectively for many different environmental and transportation applications. It has been utilized successfully to identify buried objects, internal defects and material changes. The objective of this research was to assess the potential for using GPR to identify and assess simulated deterioration in longitudinal timber deck timber bridges. GPR scans were completed in the longitudinal and transverse directions of a screwlaminated timber bridge deck before and after a bituminous layer was added to assess embedded defects that simulated voids, decay, insect damage and horizontal shear splitting. Assessment of the GPR wave energy signal was completed using visualization software that was provided with the commercial GPR unit used for the testing. The radar signal was analyzed in both the longitudinal direction (antenna front to back) and the transverse direction (antenna side to side). Interpretation of the radar signals allowed for the identification of various internal defects present in the deck. Based on the results, GPR has the potential to identify internal defects in timber bridge decks before and after a bituminous layer was added. Large, rectangular void defects (at least 6? by 12? by 5 in. (15.2? by 30.4? by 12.7 cm)) that were hollow, filled with foam, or filled with sawdust/adhesive were most easily identified under all scanning conditions. The addition of a bituminous layer, common to slab bridge construction, damped the signal response and made it more difficult to identify defects. Several smaller defects that were found in the deck without a bituminous layer were not identified in scanning completed after the bituminous layer was added.

Sports have grown to be one of the largest industries in the United States and the world. Groups such as the National Football League, the Major League of Baseball, and the National Basketball Association, make billions of dollars every year.[1] Along with this growing popularity has come the development of some of the most incredible pieces of architecture, showing off power, strength, and elitism. Teams are constantly competing to give their fans the best experience possible, including the greatest stadiums in the country. However, these technological and architectural feats come with environmental costs. Stadiums that hold over 80,000[2] spectators and a couple of thousands of employees are typically made entirely of steel and concrete and are responsible for incredible amounts of carbon dioxide. Often, they are fully utilized for a short amount of it. After a team relocates or decides their current stadium is not good enough, they destroy it to build a new one. In a field that is more concerned with the spectacle, this architectural study explores how the design of athletic facilities can be more sustainable through the use of long-span mass timber structures. It explores the history of stadium design and the desire to create the next big thing. The author goes into detail exploring the use of mass timber in the field and presents how it not only can be sustainable but also a demonstration of the spectacle they desire. The design portion of this project will center around a new Indoor Track Facility for the University of Massachusetts. The structure will highlight the research from beginning to end, constructed from mass timber arches, beams, and columns. Sports have grown to be one of the largest industries in the United States and the world. Groups such as the National Football League, the Major League of Baseball, and the National Basketball Association, make billions of dollars every year.[1] Along with this growing popularity has come the development of some of the most incredible pieces of architecture, showing off power, strength, and elitism. Teams are constantly competing to give their fans the best experience possible, including the greatest stadiums in the country. However, these technological and architectural feats come with environmental costs. Stadiums that hold over 80,000[2] spectators and a couple of thousands of employees are typically made entirely of steel and concrete and are responsible for incredible amounts of carbon dioxide. Often, they are fully utilized for a short amount of it. After a team relocates or decides their current stadium is not good enough, they destroy it to build a new one. In a field that is more concerned with the spectacle, this architectural study explores how the design of athletic facilities can be more sustainable through the use of long-span mass timber structures. It explores the history of stadium design and the desire to create the next big thing. The author goes into detail exploring the use of mass timber in the field and presents how it not only can be sustainable but also a demonstration of the spectacle they desire. The design portion of this project will center around a new Indoor Track Facility for the University of Massachusetts. The structure will highlight the research from beginning to end, constructed from mass timber arches, beams, and columns. [1] Gough, “Total Revenue of All National Football League Teams from 2001 to 2020.” [2] Steinbach, “7 Ways Stadium Design Has Changed.”

Timber theft is a crime within the forest industry which has not received a large amount of attention within research literature. As a result, there are no recent estimates available of the extent of the problem. The southern Appalachian region has conditions which seem to be conducive to timber theft, but convictions for timber theft in the area are infrequent. In order to address these issues, a study was undertaken in a 20 county region of the southern Appalachians to interview law enforcement officers and prosecuting attorneys about their knowledge of timber theft and their current level of investigation and prosecution. To ascertain the extent of timber theft, interviews were also carried out with both industrial and non-industrial landowners. The survey results indicate that both prosecuting attorneys and law enforcement officers are generally knowledgeable regarding timber theft and trespass. Results were similar between those individuals who had experience with the crime as well as those who did not. The overriding perception from both prosecuting attorneys and law enforcement officers was that timber theft should be handled as a civil violation. This perception was primarily a result of the frequent lack of properly located boundary lines to prove ownership of the property, and the difficulty of proving criminal intent. The study found 22 convictions for timber theft out of 36 criminal cases in the past three years. Due to a low response rate (16%) from non-industrial private forest landowners, estimates of the extent of timber theft were determined from the industrial landowner data and the law enforcement and attorney surveys. Based on these data, the impact of timber theft was conservatively estimated at 120 incidents per year, resulting in a loss of approximately $300,000 per year within the study area. An extrapolation of this to the entire southern Appalachian region would mean over $4 million per year. The results of this research indicates that there are potential areas for improvement in the conviction of timber theft offenders as well as in reducing the total number of theft incidents. The current statutes used to deal with timber theft are generally inadequate to provide prosecutors with the potential to convict most timber thieves because of the unique evidentiary requirements of a timber theft. As a result, changes in the statute would likely provide the greatest remedy. Civil statutes are also inadequate in many states to provide landowners the opportunity to obtain a suitable civil judgment. Information needs to be disseminated to landowners, law enforcement officers, and prosecuting attorneys about the aspects of timber theft which are most pertinent to them, and how the problem should be dealt with both before and after the theft. / Master of Science

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This project aims to chronicle the process of building from the architects point of view. Not mindless, mechanical tasks aimed at some economic goal; but tangible, thoughtful work towards an educational and philosophical desire. The desire to be a Master-Builder has fueled architects for centuries. It is a role that the common definition of Architect has all but forgotten. While in practice very few of us will continue this tradition, it is important that we not lose this fundamental aspect of building. To begin to fulfill oneself with this title, the path is very simple: build a building. That is what follows in this book. It is a chronological outline of the design and build of the New River Valley Train Observation Tower. An additional layer to this project is the inclusion of a variety of innovative building materials/techniques, particularity the use of hardwood cross-laminated timber (CLT). This building will serve as an ongoing research opportunity to evaluate the conditions of building with this material in an extreme condition, complete exposure to weather. No work of architecture is a solo endeavor, yet my heavy involvement in the design, documentation, and building of the tower has culminated in a body of work that is distinctly my own. My role was that of a project manager, and I reported to faculty Kay Edge, Edward Becker, and Robert Riggs. This structure allowed me to have a great deal of independence, while vetting my drawings and ideas with experienced professionals. A small group of students joined me in the larger aspects of the build, which provided another opportunity to discover an aspect so critical to building: collaboration. This build taught so much about project management, design, and realization that could only be understood through such a physical experience. / Master of Architecture / This project aims to chronicle the process of building from the architects point of view. Not mindless, mechanical tasks aimed at some economic goal; but tangible, thoughtful work towards an educational and philosophical desire. The desire to be a Master-Builder has fueled architects for centuries. It is a role that the common definition of Architect has all but forgotten. While in practice very few of us will continue this tradition, it is important that we not lose this fundamental aspect of building. To begin to fulfill oneself with this title, the path is very simple: build a building. That is what follows in this book. It is a chronological outline of the design and build of the New River Valley Train Observation Tower. An additional layer to this project is the inclusion of a variety of innovative building materials/techniques, particularity the use of hardwood cross-laminated timber (CLT). This building will serve as an ongoing research opportunity to evaluate the conditions of building with this material in an extreme condition, complete exposure to weather. No work of architecture is a solo endeavor, yet my heavy involvement in the design, documentation, and building of the tower has culminated in a body of work that is distinctly my own. My role was that of a project manager, and I reported to faculty Kay Edge, Edward Becker, and Robert Riggs. This structure allowed me to have a great deal of independence, while vetting my drawings and ideas with experienced professionals. A small group of students joined me in the larger aspects of the build, which provided another opportunity to discover an aspect so critical to building: collaboration. This build taught so much about project management, design, and realization that could only be understood through such a physical experience.

We compared techniques for assessing nutritional condition in 3 groups of terrestrial salamanders. We measured variability in species richness and relative abundance before harvest at 5 sites in the Jefferson National Forest of southwest Virginia and compared the effects of 7 silvicultural treatments on terrestrial salamander richness and relative abundance at 1 site. / Master of Science

The concept of a ready-to-assemble kit fabricated in a factory and delivered to the customer is well known and commonly used by the furniture industry. In wood construction, the lack of a simple and reliable method of assembling the frame members creates a barrier to wide acceptance of prefabricated kit structures. This thesis focuses on a novel technology of assembling structural components of a wood frame using a metal nail plate connector (NPC). This technology was referred to as a ready-to-assemble (RTA) wood framing system. The RTA system simplifies the framing process and allows for rapid erection of a wood structural frame by a small nonprofessional crew. A 16 x 24 foot RTA building was constructed to demonstrate the feasibility of the RTA system concept. An effective assembly sequence was proposed and successfully implemented. The design procedure for the RTA buildings was presented. The lateral load path for the RTA building includes diaphragms and shear walls. The contribution of the RTA frame can be ignored from the lateral load analysis. This conclusion was validated for the diaphragms with aspect ratios up to 4:1. The finite element method was used to model the RTA structures. The models incorporated semi-rigid behavior of the NPC. An analytical model was developed to predict the nonlinear moment-rotation relationship of the NPC. The proposed model showed a good agreement (R2=0.98) with the experimental data. Tests were conducted to measure the load-drift response of the RTA shear walls. / Master of Science

The study was undertaken in response to a prediction by the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) that current harvest levels cannot be sustained into the future given an increasing growth to removal insufficiency throughout the state of Virginia. The purpose of the study is to determine how market signals, land and owner characteristics, and owner preferences affect landowners' decisions concerning their forestland. Particular emphasis is placed on the effects of absenteeism and land fragmentation on landowner behavior. Such information is important for targeting policies that will successfully maintain commercial timber levels throughout the state. / Master of Science

When thinking about architecture, I cannot help but think about my life and the things that have affected my life. How does the environment around us effect the daily decisions we make? How do the experiences throughout our life impact who we are and who we become? The people and surroundings we choose will ultimately decide the type of people we become. When we select our surroundings we are in turn selecting our ideal community. Everyone is trying to achieve community in some sense, from individuals to city planners. Council members, politicians, city officials... make decisions everyday based on their idea of what community is to them and their citizens. In the following pages I will design a community and put in place the elements for it to prosper and grow... / Master of Architecture

The significance of the Canadian timber industry and its subsequent contributions to the economic structure of early Canada is well-documented. Discussions on the growth of the industry centre around the expanding American markets, British interest in Maritime forest resources and the shifting of interest to the resources of the Canadian Shield, culminating on the trade in the Ottawa Valley. The effects of water transportation routes and construction of the railway system on trade are also significant themes. Furthermore, historical sketches on various lumbering giants, and tales of myth-like lumberjacks and shanty towns add colourful sources of slightly more specific details of the lumbering era. The relationship between the settler and lumbermen comprises yet another area of relevant concern. Studies of settlement patterns and timber boom towns logically follow the discussions on the partnership between lumbermen and farmers.To fully appreciate the significance of the timber trade in Canada, and more specifically in Upper Canada, a clear appreciation of all the above data is necessary. One level of documentation, however, is curiously absent from the discussion on lumbering and that is the level of very specific detail. Very few attempts have been made to document the arrival of lumbering on the primary level of individual land licence application. This paper acknowledges this oversight and initiates a methodological, lot by concession lot, study of lumbering in a defined study area. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy