Explanatory feeder cattle basis models were developed for 16 different Virginia markets by season, futures contract month, weight, lot size, sex, breed and USDA grade differentials. The models are more disaggregated and explain up to 80 percent more of feeder cattle basis variation than any previous research. Since the variables in these explanatory models are all known in advance, these basis models are also predictive. Basis estimates from these models make it possible for a Virginia feeder cattle forward pricing agency to offer forward price and minimum price contracts to small size operators. / Master of Science

This thesis is an architectural investigation of a house as a rational object imbued by memory. The place is a wooded hill on the border between a hundred acre farm and the marshy ravine of the Totopotomoy "Totomoy" Creek in Mechanicsville, Virginia. The farm dates back to the Civil War when the Totomoy was no man's land between Union and Confederate earth works. It has been farmed by my grandfather since the late 1940s. The house is a pair of rectangles separated by a stair. The concrete block walls are punctured by large windows, aligned to define interior passage and establishing clarity of spatial and formal relationships. The tower house is the reduction and rational manifestation of familial memory. / Master of Architecture

An investigation of the pH, organic matter content, and cation exchange properties of the soil of the 26-year-old rotation and continuously cropped plots at Blacksburg, Virginia was carried out. Individual soil samples were taken of the eight sub-plots which represent each plot. After the chemical work had been completed, the data obtained were analyzed statistically. As a result of this investigation, the following conclusions are considered worthy of mention: Fertilizer and cropping practices which tended to increase crop yields also tended to increase soil organic matter and cation exchange capacity. There was a significant, positive correlation between organic matter content and cation exchange capacity of the soil. The organic fraction seemed to be of greater importance than the mineral fraction in contributing to the cation exchange capacity of this soil. Superphosphate, rock phosphate, muriate of potash and farm manure had or no effect on soil reaction. Ammonium sulphate caused a reduction of the pH and exchangeable calcium and magnesium and an increase in exchangeable hydrogen. The application of this fertilizer decreased exchangeable calcium but had no influence on the pH. Of the total potassium applied as muriate of potash, an average of 15 percent remained as exchangeable potassium in the upper six inches of soil. Where farm manure was applied, exchangeable calcium, magnesium, potassium, and cation exchange capacity were increased significantly. Examination of the samples and crop yield data from the check plots indicated considerable soil variation. / Master of Science

This study examines the socioeconomic lives of artisans of German descent who worked within Wythe County, Virginia from 1780 to 1830. It is particularly concerned with how a distinct German-American culture manifests over time as seen through these artisans' produced materials and structures. This thesis traces this manifestation through a careful examination of Wythe material culture, wills, probates, inventories, court records, account books, receipts, invoices, census records, personal correspondence, and personal property tax assessments. Scholars of early America and the southern backcountry have often narrated German cultural identity transformations along the lines of language and marriages. This work diverts from those tendencies, thereby complicating prior understanding of German-Americans settlement and development patterns in early America. Beginning in the 1780s entire German families, neighborhoods, and communities left their prior American homes and settled within a relatively unsettled area of southwest Virginia. These predominately second-generation German descendants brought with them to the backcountry a culturally-constructed material culture lexicon passed onto them by their ancestors. This thesis argues that artisans of Wythe County operated as major agents of economic and social development while also providing a hybridized cultural resource for their neighbors and surrounding Great Road communities. These German families and congregations, composed of farmers, hausfrauen (housekeepers), and craftsmen by trade, sought to maintain a familiar and distinct cultural landscape and ethos through the many wares and structures they produced. These German neighborhoods accommodated and diversified their trades to fit within a burgeoning early-American society while still aware of their predominately German community's cultural character and needs. / Master of Arts

This thesis focuses on three groups of people: Virginia superintendents, leaders of Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute and Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and teachers of Virginia public schools. On their own terms, each of these groups represents a different facet of state level policies of standardization and segregation. The annual and biennial reports published by the office of the Virginia superintendent of public instruction during the early twentieth century constitute the basis of analysis for this thesis. The first chapter of this thesis analyzes introductory letters from the superintendent of public instruction. Within these letters, the superintendent wrote often about public school facility renovations and improvements. The second chapter uncovers how leaders of black institutions of higher education represented their institutions to the superintendent by documenting the success of their graduates and the disciplinary atmosphere of their campuses. Chapter three explores standardization and professionalization measures that the superintendents recommended for Virginia teachers. This thesis adds to our understanding of education in the early twentieth century by looking at every day, bureaucratic decisions in relation to concepts of standardization and race in Virginia. In all, this thesis uncovers three standards of education that developed during the early twentieth century. Putting these three chapters together reveals a complex story about standardization and segregation, a story that, I argue, uncovers how race and power were embedded within everyday decisions and actions at the state level. / Master of Arts / During the early twentieth century, leaders of Virginia public education grappled with concepts of standardization and segregation. Through a close reading of annual and biennial reports published by the office of the Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction, this research explores how decisions about public education were embedded in race and power. The first chapter of this thesis analyzes introductory letters from the superintendent of public instruction. Within these letters, the superintendent wrote often about public school facility renovations and improvements. The second chapter uncovers how leaders of black institutions of higher education represented their institutions to the superintendent by documenting the success of their graduates and the disciplinary atmosphere of their campuses. Chapter three explores standardization and professionalization measures that the superintendents recommended for Virginia teachers. This thesis adds to our understanding of education in the early twentieth century by looking at every day, bureaucratic decisions in relation to concepts of standardization and race in Virginia. In all, this thesis uncovers three standards of education that developed during the early twentieth century. Putting these three chapters together reveals a complex story about standardization and segregation, a story that, I argue, uncovers how race and power were embedded within everyday decisions and actions at the state level.

The characteristics of career-threatened principals in Virginia as identified by Virginia superintendents were examined. All superintendents of operating school divisions in Virginia were selected as the population for this study. A survey was used to generate data on demographic characteristics of career-threatened principals, their scores on administrative competencies, sources of information about these principals, interventions initiated by superintendents to assist career-threatened principals, and final career outcomes for these principals. Relationships among demographic variables and all other variables were analyzed. A limited demographic profile of Virginia superintendents was generated. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance, t-test, and chi square analysis. An alpha level of .05 was used for all analyses. Findings The career-threatened principals were generally male and were principals of high schools. Most were assistant principals within their school divisions immediately before becoming principals. They served an average of four years as principals with an average of two years under career-threatening conditions. Principals who experienced career-threatening problems were unlikely to retain their jobs, with only 14.7% remaining in their principalships. Female principals were more likely dismissed from their principalships than males, and male principals were more likely to receive verbal reprimands as an intervention strategy than female principals. Those competencies receiving the lowest mean scores for these career-threatened principals were solving problems, making decisions, flexibility, delegating responsibilities, developing positive community relations, and developing positive school climate. Superintendents' personal observations were the primary source of information about these principals and the primary intervention was individual conference. / Ed. D.

This study utilized freshwater mussel shells to assess the role of mercury contamination in the North Fork Holston River, an aquatic habitat affected by extensive extirpations of mussel populations starting in the early 1970's. Mussel shells (n=366) collected from 5 sites, upstream and downstream of Saltville (where mercury was used from 1950-1972) were analyzed to test if: (1) geochemical signatures of shells record variation in mercury levels relative to the contamination source; and (2) shell taphonomy could be used to differentiated affected and unaffected sites. Analysis of 40 shells for geochemical signatures using atomic absorption spectroscopy indicated a strong longitudinal pattern. Mercury content was as follows: upstream sites had low Hg concentrations (<5 to 31ppb), shells directly below Saltville had high concentrations (23-4,637ppb), shells 18km downstream of Saltville displayed intermediate values (7-115ppb), and those 38.4km downstream were comparable to upstream sites (<10ppb). Two pre-industrial shells collected from Saltville in 1917 also yielded Hg estimates (5-6ppb) comparable with upstream estimates. The Hg content was not correlated with shell length (r=-0.3; p=0.2) or degree of taphonomic alteration (r=0.18; p=0.28). Analysis of 366 shells for taphonomic signatures indicated that shells are most heavily altered and fragmented directly downstream of Saltville. In contrast, upstream sites, inhabited by reproducing mussel populations, contain many fresh-dead shells. Taphonomic signatures can thus be used to differentiate sites with different extirpation histories. Relic mussel shells can provide useful spatial and temporal data on Hg concentrations in polluted ecosystems and offer a tool for delineating areas with unknown extirpation histories. / Master of Science

In the first half of the twentieth century in Virginia, the town band was a popular concert venue and sometimes a symbol of community pride. Originally, community bands faced few competitors for entertainment popularity, but the advent of movie theaters in the 1930's, and eventually television in the 1950's, challenged the band's former role. Attendance decreased at band concerts and the community space that bands had occupied was allotted for other uses. Despite this decline, the town band survived. Virginia is home to at least 34 community bands today. This study presents a geographic analysis of present day community bands in Virginia. I visited 25 active bands and administered a twenty-five question, self-designed survey to 900 band members (98% response rate). I also personally interviewed conductors and band presidents. Members reported demographic information and the distances and time that they traveled. I also explored how band members perceive their role in the community based on their participation in the community band. I then examined the variation of responses across the state. Results show that bands in Virginia consist primarily of educated, retired individuals with previous musical experience. While traveling the same distance, band members spend more time traveling in regions with large metropolitan areas than in rural regions. Finally, although band members in rural areas received higher sense of community scores than those in metropolitan areas, the scores for both areas were encouragingly high. The results indicate that although regional variations exist for the variables of travel and sense of community, community music in Virginia has a solid rate of participation, and community bands will continue to serve their respective regions in the state. / Master of Science

At the crossing of a strong architectural edge and an axis line, it is necessary to articulate the intersection and acknowledge the moment. But what if, at the point of this intersection, other contextual factors work against the articulation? What if there is an opportunity to not only mark the intersection, but in doing so strengthen the edge condition, elevate the importance of the axis line and provide a celebrated threshold experience? This project looks at this very condition as it exists within the context of the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. At the intersection of the axis of symmetry for the campus and the building edge along Perry Street, there is no acknowledgment of this crossing. In fact, in its present condition, the intersection is beset by a breakdown in the edge condition and only a trace of the powerful axis line. In addressing the challenges that plague this existing condition, this project will seek to achieve four things with respect to the Virginia Tech campus, at large: 1. Articulate the termination point of the axis of symmetry for the campus by strengthening the pedestrian path that runs along the axis providing a clearly defined route to the Drill Field. 2. A redefinition of the edge along Perry Street, repairing the breech in the building wall and connecting the components that make up the edge. 3. Strengthen intersection of the edge and the axis/path line by developing a new pedestrian portal into the heart of campus thereby providing a formal entry point along an edge that currently does not articulate the entry points into campus. 4. Develop the architectural context within the site, bridging the divide between the architectural traditions of the campus core with the modernist vernacular of the Perry Street Edge. / Master of Architecture

The study has two objectives: to develop a methodology to identify success criteria for the VT CRC and to communicate outputs (success criteria) to selected members of the VT CRC’s stakeholders. A methodology is developed to identify success criteria based on the VT CRC's primary objectives. These primary objectives are: technology transfer and economic development. The purposes of a methodology are to place the VT CRC within the framework of Virginia Tech's larger missions and then to identify success criteria. A methodology consists of seven steps. There are thirteen success criteria which have been identified by a methodology. A methodology is based on management systems engineering theories, concepts, and tools/techniques. The study communicates outputs from a methodology by a questionnaire. Questionnaires will be sent to twelve selected members who are from the VT CRC, the university, tenants, and Town of Blacksburg. Their responses will be analyzed to decide whether these outputs are success criteria for the VT CRC and whether a methodology accomplishes its purposes. Furthermore, a background of Virginia Tech and a concept of university-related research parks will be discussed. Included in a discussion of Virginia Tech are missions, a modern view of a land-grant university, and roles of the Virginia Tech Foundation. Included in a discussion of research parks are purposes, benefits, and drawbacks. / Master of Science