M.S.

An economic description and analysis of Christmas tree production was made for the benefit of Virginia's farm and other landowners. The purpose of the study was to aid in determining if investment in Christmas trees was likely to be economically successful, and to improve plantation management on existing plantations. Basic production and marketing data was collected from the state's growers, and used to describe and recommend certain operations commonly involved in the production process. Evaluation of the operations was based primarily upon financial considerations, with emphasis on cultural effectiveness whenever possible or appropriate. A computer analysis program was also developed which, given a set of input data, calculates the present net worth of the investment and break-even price per tree using a discount rate of 12 percent. In addition, the internal rate of return, and yearly and accumulated cash flows are presented. It was found that if the operations recommended in the study were carried out on a five-acre plantation over a production cycle of nine years that the internal rate of return could be expected to range from 9.4 percent for a high-cost operation and $1000 per acre land cost, to 39.8 percent for a low-cost operation and a $100 per acre land value. The primary financial disadvantage of Christmas tree production was found to be the large negative cash flow incurred up to the last year of the cycle. The computer program developed in this study has been stored on the VPI & SU Extension Division's Computerized Management Network so that it will be readily accessible to prospective and current Christmas tree growers. / Master of Science

The Blue Ridge Mountains separated Montgomery County, Virginia from the state's eastern agricultural markets. This mountain barrier restricted the transportation of crops and therefore limited farm products to subsistence crops and easily transported livestock. Only after the construction of the Allegheny Turnpike in 1809, and the Roanoke Canal in 1815, which together provided outlets to formerly inaccessible markets., did Montgomery's infant economy begin to emerge. Still, the county's economy could not supply enough capital to finance further internal improvements. Therefore the citizens of Montgomery appealed to the General Assembly for internal improvements. But within the existing system of representation, the state's western reaches were underrepresented. In part then, Montgomery's struggle for economic prosperity was a political struggle where the Westerners, desirous of increased representation sided against the overrepresented Easterners. After almost fifty years of political agitation by the West, that region finally obtained concessions from the Easterners which approximated its equal share of legislative power. Almost immediately Western representatives pushed measures through the General Assembly providing for an increased number of internal improvements for the West. Among the internal construction projects that aided the Transmontane was the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. This railroad, extending from Bristol to Lynchburg, became an important stimulant for the undeveloped Montgomery economy. Rail transportation provided cheap, quick access to eastern agricultural markets. This facilitated the use of large-scale farm production in Montgomery. Moreover, rail transportation generated other non-agricultural industries such as coal and lumber. Montgomery's struggle for economic development paid off in the decade 1850-1860. This prosperous period came as a result of the internal improvements which Westerner's had begged for since early in the nineteenth century. During this successful period the economic ties established with the East by Montgomery helped to mold the county's decision to secede from the Union in 1861, while the counties further west shared no such common bonds and did not join the Confederacy. / Master of Arts

Within the overthrust belt of southwest Virginia, windows in the Pulaski thrust sheet expose a variety of parautochthonous and allochthonous rocks, ranging in age from Cambrian to Mississippian. The décollement of the Pulaski fault as exposed in the Price Mountain and East Radford windows is in places a thick, highly complex, deformation zone. In this zone, a suite of carbonate breccias, cataclastic quartzitic rocks and deformed shales occur. The rocks of the décollement comprise a thrust chaos and tectonic mélange. Mélange and chaos fabrics are typified by folding, faulting and cataclasis. The East Radford window exposes a complexly folded and faulted antiform consisting of a telescoped, inverted stratigraphic section of Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian rocks. The antiformal structure is entirely allochthonous with minimum horizontal displacement of several kilometers. Deformation of the parautochthonous Mississippian rocks below the Pulaski décollement in the Price Mountain window includes thrust and normal faults, folds of at least 3 orders and cataclasis. / Master of Science

Economic guidelines for regenerating loblolly pine were developed for Virginia forest landowners. The general procedure used was the structured personal interview. The basic economic guidelines are expected regeneration costs calculated using the actual total regeneration cost and an associated probability of achieving an acceptable stand of loblolly pine. Average expected costs are calculated for the most frequently used regeneration technique-opportunity combinations in Virginia. Results indicate the use of expert opinion is an acceptable procedure for developing economic guidelines. The guidelines appear to be useful in determining which regeneration method to use, as well as aids in determining the future financial yield necessary to justify the initial expected regeneration cost and in computing rate of return on the regeneration investment. / Master of Science

Acute bioassys were conducted on the planarian, Dugesia tigrina, to determine the toxicity of zinc, nickel, cadmium, copper, chromium, diquat, and ABS. The order of toxicity from most toxic to least toxic was: copper cadmium nickel zinc ABS chromium diquat. From these LC₅₀ values sublethal concentrations were arbitrarily chosen for use in the light response studies. After acclimation to total darkness, crawling speed away from a beam of light was measured in the controls and the experimentals at 24, 43, and 96 hours. There were significant differences between the lowest sublethal concentrations and the highest sublethal concentration used in these experiments. For zinc, cadmium, and chromium the crawling speeds were slowest in the lowest concentration used. Under nickel, copper, diquat, and ABS stress, the slowest crawling speeds were found in the highest sublethal concentration used. This suggests that different systems in the animal's body were affected by the toxicants. It appears that sublethal concentrations of these toxicants have a marked effect on the negative phototactic response of D. tigrina as measured by the crawling speed away from a beam of light. The exact mechanism for reduced crawling speeds is unknown. Speculation on the fate of the toxicant as it relates to the animal is offered. / Doctor of Philosophy

Given is an investigation of experimental plans that require a minimum number of assemblies, minimal multidimensional designs (MMD's) and minimal augmented multidimensional designs (MAMD's). Such designs are incomplete factorials which allow for only some two-factor interactions. An analysis of incomplete factorials with and without interactions is developed from a reduced form of the normal equations. C_ip_i = Q_i where p_i is a vector of estimates of factor i effects and C_i is the coefficient matrix for pi and Qi is a vector of transformed observations. The general forms for C_i and Q_i are presented. The construction of MMD's and MAMD's is made possible from results obtained on connected designs. A definition of a connected design where two-factor interactions are assumed leads to a procedure for"connecting" experimental plans. This procedure provides a way of adding assemblies to a design in order to estimate contrasts not originally estimable in the design. Using this augmentation procedure and the minimum number of assemblies to be added, MAMD's may be constructed. MMD's follow by sequentially augmenting with the minimum number of assemblies, m-factor designs, m = 1,2,...,m*, whose total number of factor level combinations are a minimum. A method for finding MMD's and MAMD's which are optimal for one factor or for a set of two-factors is then presented as well as some examples of MMD's and MAMD's with and without two-factor interactions. Data is generated and analyzed for a particular design which is both a MAMD and a MMD, and a discussion of this design's optimality is also given. / Ph. D.

This dissertation is concerned with the application of a method for decomposing multivariate data, three-mode principal component analysis, to a three-way table with one observation per cell. It is based on the class of multiplicative models for three-way tables (s x t x u) whose general form has expectation E(y_ijk) = μ + α_i + β_j + γ_k + (αβ)_ij + (αγ)_ik + (βγ)_jk + s Σ _p=1 t Σ _q=1 u Σ _r=1 c_pqr g_ip h_jq e_kr. The application is related to tests for nonadditivity in the two-way analysis of variance with noreplication. Three-factor interaction can be assessed for three-way cross classified tables with only one observation per treatment combination. This is done by partitioning the three-factor interaction sum of squares into a portion related to the interaction and a portion associated with random error. In particular, the estimated interaction matrix is decomposed by three-mode principal component analysis to separate significant interaction from random error. Three test procedures are presented for assessing interaction: randomization tests, Monte Carlo methods, and likelihood ratio tests. Examples illustrating the use of these approaches are presented. In addition to the above testing approaches, a graphical procedure, joint plots, is investigated for diagnosing the type of model to fit to three-way arrays of data. The plot is a multiway analogue of the biplot graphical analysis for two-way matrices. Each observation is represented by a linear combination of inner products of markers which are obtained from three-mode principal component analysis. The relationship between various models and the geometrical configurations of the plots on Euclidean spaces of such markers allows one to diagnose the type of model which fits the data. An example is given to illustrate the simplicity of the technique and the usefulness of this graphical approach in diagnosing models. / Ph. D.

Stockholm står inför en historisk befolkningstillväxt och nu väntas en tid av ombyggnationer och förtätningar av Stockholms storstadsregion. Denna utveckling bidrar starkt till att även CBD växer. Det finns ett flertal projekt som pågår eller planeras i CBD. Ett av dessa projekt är totalrenoveringen av Diligentias profilfastighet Sveavägen 44 i utkanten av norra CBD. Tidigare har det funnits andra projekt som genomförts i utkanten av CBD. I Centralenområdet genomfördes ett flertal stora projekt. På Blasieholmen genomfördes en satsning på tre fastigheter. Dessa projekt har varit lyckade i avseende på sin områdespåverkan och har mer eller mindre varit startskott för en större fastighetsutveckling i områdena. Båda områdena är en del av det vi idag kallar CBD. Detta examensarbete syftar till att utreda om och i så fall, hur stor, påverkan Sveavägen 44 har på närområdet. Än så länge är Sveavägen 44 ganska isolerat från city och ensamt i sin klass. Frågan är om Diligentias investering i Sveavägen 44 kan locka fler aktörer i området att förädla sina fastigheter och att dessa projekt i slutändan får ett stort genomslag. Utvecklingen av norra CBD kommer att diskuteras i avseende på områdesutveckling, hyresutveckling, värdeutveckling och vakans. Slutsatsen av studien är att effekterna från Sveavägen 44 är positiva men begränsade i utsträckning då området som helhet har haft få effekter. Den största effekt Sveavägen 44 har haft på området i norra CBD är hyrespåverkan. I takt med att hyror i CBD har ökat har det faktum att Diligentia kräver hyror högt över medelhyran i området bidragit till en stark positiv hyresutveckling i området. Attraktiviten för butiks- och kontorslokaler i området har ökat, framförallt för de förstnämnda. Butiker i området står förmodligen för en större utveckling framöver; den ökade efterfrågan kommer med sannolikhet tvinga utbudet till en upprustning. Förutom förädlingen för butikslokaler bedöms områdesutvecklingen annars stå stilla. Fastigheternas låga ytvakans och relativt höga standard håller tillbaka en större fastighetsutveckling i området. Möjligtvis kommer mindre flexibla fastigheter med rumsindelade lokaler, som nu har höga vakanser, att konverteras till bostäder. Områdets status som Stockholms China Town, om än svagt idag, kommer att blekna och området längre norrut längs Sveavägen, utanför CBD, kommer befästas som Stockholms China Town. / Stockholm has a historical population growth and a time of reconstruction and densification is to be expected for the metropolitan area of Stockholm. This change contributes strongly to extension of the CBD. There are many projects under construction or in the planning process in city. One of these projects is the refurbishment of Diligentia’s profile property Sveavägen 44 in the northern parts of the CBD. There have been projects implemented in the outskirts of CBD before. In the Central Station area a number of large projects have been carried out. At Blasieholmen there was a big investment in three properties. These projects have been successful in terms of its impact on the area and they have more or less been a starting point for a larger real estate development in its area. Both areas are part of what is today considered as CBD. This master thesis aims to investigate whether, and if so, how much impact the renovation of Sveavägen 44 has on the surrounding area. So far, Sveavägen 44 is relatively isolated from the city center and alone of its high standard in the area. The question is if Diligentia’s large investment in Sveavägen 44 could motivate more players in the area to refine their properties and these projects will end up having a big impact on the area. The development of the northern CBD will be discussed in terms of area development, rental development, value creation and the vacancy rate. The conclusion of the study is that the impact Sveavägen 44 has on the area is positive but limited in the extent to which the area as a whole has had an impact. The biggest impact on the area in northern CBD Sveavägen 44 has had is on the rental development. In line with the increased rental levels in CBD, together with the fact that Diligentia is demanding rents over the average rental level for the area, has contributed to a strong positive rental development. The demands for retail and office space in the area have increased, especially for the former. Shops in the area are facing a larger development in the future; the increased demand will likely compel supply improvement. Besides the refinement of retail premises the development of the area is assessed to otherwise stand still. The low vacancy rate of space and relatively high standard for the properties in the area will hold back a movement of upgrading the premises. It is possible for the difficult room structured properties, suffering from high vacancies, to be converted into residential. The status of the area as Stockholm’s China Town, yet not widely used, will fade and an area further north alongside Sveavägen, outside the border of CBD, will be consolidated as Stockholm’s China Town.