This study examines the stressful responses of faculty/staff and students after experiencing the April 16, 2007 school shootings at Virginia Tech. Understanding people's responses to trauma not only assists in more knowledge about what is stressful after a traumatic event but also may facilitate the finessing of tools and strategies for resilience and recovery in the aftermath of trauma. After investigating stressful responses to the April 16, 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, and in particular those with probable PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), I found it was not always necessary to meet the "stressor" A criterion of PTSD. This is crucial because the "stressor" criterion A of PTSD is required to receive the diagnosis of PTSD. Although I found subtle stress differences for women compared to men, and faculty/staff compared to students, none of the differences were statistically significant. This research additionally contributes to the literature by detailing a profile of stressors for both faculty/staff and students in the aftermath of the worst college campus shooting in U.S. history to date. Findings suggest future research should examine the "stressor" criterion A of PTSD as well as the full spectrum of stressful responses both in the "immediate" and "delayed" aftermath of trauma(s). / Ph. D.

The focus of the project is to provide an elegant, spiritual chapel for Virginia Tech that provides space for people of all religions while offering indoor and outdoor spaces for meditation. The differentiation of spaces is established through the use of light, color and form. The light is structured to utilize the color system devised from Goethe's Color theory. / Master of Architecture

In the aftermath of the rampage at Virginia Tech, the community experienced a surge of social solidarity. Using a longitudinal study of 478 students, this thesis examines the impact of attitudinal solidarity on well-being nine months after the shootings. In particular, this study focuses on the interaction effects of sex and solidarity on later well-being, providing a theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the connections between these factors. Quantitative analysis, conducted using linear regression with interaction variables, found that social solidarity four months after the shootings positively and significantly predicted well-being nine months after the shootings. The predictive power, however, was stratified by sex; women experienced diminished benefits of solidarity relative to their male counterparts. The literature suggests that this disparity may be attributed to additional social burdens placed on women after traumatic stressors. Other negative predictors of well-being include knowing victims and conversations with the media in the week after the attacks, This research has the potential to shed light on effective methods of responding to community-level trauma and may provide guidance to future policy-makers in when faced with these challenging situations. / Master of Science

This study is an investigation of Dr. Laura Jane Harper's tenure, achievements, and contributions to Virginia Tech from 1949-1980. Throughout Virginia Tech's history, examples of leadership, scholarship, and service have been recorded about students, faculty, and administrators; however, female administrators are overlooked in these collections. Using archival and interview data collection techniques and historical biographical methods, we will examine Harper's influences to the profession, significant contributions in the areas of scholarship, administration, and as a mentor for minorities and women. Harper was born on August 18, 1914 in Jackson, Mississippi. She attended and graduated from Belhaven College in 1934 with a bachelor degree, a master of science degree in 1948 from the University of Tennessee, and a doctorate in 1956 from Michigan State University. From 1960 until 1964, she served as dean of the School of Home Economics for both Radford College (now known as Radford University) and VPI (now know as Virginia Tech). After 1964, Harper continued to serve as the Dean of the Home Economics College at VPI with additional responsibilities until her retirement in 1980. During Harper's tenure she touched the lives of many and made several contributions to the institution in which she was employed. Harper worked at Virginia Tech as a professor, researcher, department head, and dean for over 31 years in the home economics discipline; however, the legacy she left continues. / Master of Arts

Next generation wireless communications require transmission of reliable high data rate services. Second generation wireless communications systems use single-input multiple-output (SIMO) channel in the reverse link, meaning one transmit antenna at the user terminal and multiple receive antennas at the base station. Recently, information theoretic research has shown an enormous potential growth in the capacity of wireless systems by using multiple antenna arrays at both ends of the link. Space-time coding exploits the spatial-temporal diversity provided by the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channels, significantly increasing both system capacity and the reliability of the wireless link. The Virginia Tech Space-Time Advanced Radio (VT-STAR) system presents a test bed to demonstrate the capabilities of space-time coding techniques in real-time. Core algorithms are implemented on Texas Instruments TMS320C67 Evaluation Modules (EVM). The radio frequency subsystem is composed of multi-channel transmitter and receiver chains implemented in hardware for over the air transmission. The capabilities of the MIMO channel are demonstrated in a non-line of sight (NLOS) indoor environment. Also to characterize the capacity gains in an indoor environment this test bed was modified to take channel measurements. This thesis reports the system design of VT-STAR and the channel capacity gains observed in an indoor environment for MIMO channels. / Master of Science

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.

The transportation sector has a significant impact on the environment both nationally and globally since it is a major vehicle fuel consumption and emissions contributor. These emissions are considered a major environmental threat. Consequently, decision makers desperately need tools that can estimate vehicle emissions accurately to quantify the impact of transportation operational projects on the environment. Microscopic fuel consumption and emission models should be capable of computing vehicle emissions reliably to assist decision makers in developing emission mitigation strategies. However, the majority of current state-of-the-art models suffer from two major shortcomings, namely; they either produce a bang-bang control system because they use a linear fuel consumption versus power model or they cannot be calibrated using publicly available data and thus require expensive laboratory or field data collection. Consequently, this dissertation attempts to fill this gap in state-of-the-art emission modeling through a framework based on the Virginia Tech Comprehensive Power-Based Fuel consumption Model (VT-CPFM), which overcomes the above mentioned drawbacks. Specifically, VT-CPFM does not result in a bang-bang control and can be calibrated using publicly available vehicle and road pavement parameters. The main emphasis of this dissertation is to develop a simple and reliable emission model that is able to compute instantaneous emission rates of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) for the light-duty vehicles (LDVs) and heavy-duty diesel trucks (HDDTs). The proposed extension is entitled Virginia Tech Comprehensive Power-Based Fuel consumption and Emission Model (VT-CPFEM). The study proposes two square root models where the first model structure is a cubic polynomial function that depends on fuel estimates derived solely from VT-CPFM fuel estimates, which enhances the simplicity of the model. The second modeling framework combines the cubic function of the VT-CPFM fuel estimates with a linear speed term. The additional speed term improves the accuracy of the model and can be used as a reference for the driving condition of the vehicle. Moreover, the model is tested and compared with existing models to demonstrate the robustness of the model. Furthermore, the performance of the model was further investigated by applying the model on driving cycles based on real-world driving conditions. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the model in replicating empirical observations reliably and simply with only two parameters. / Ph. D.

Evaluation of library service effectiveness is important in identifying the areas where improvement is most needed, and in justifying library budgets. Traditional methods of service effectiveness evaluation have been too costly and impractical for regular use. However, most of the data required for this evaluation can be collected inexpensively and quickly with automated library systems which many libraries have already started using. This study reviews traditional methods of library service effectiveness and proposes new methods which take advantage of electronic data processing. The proposed methods are practical and inexpensive so that they can be used routinely. / Ph. D.

This diploma thesis is focused on searching for relationship between school shootings and media coverage of these tragedies. The theoretical framework is based on media effects theory, especially on the theory of media violence, and it reflects significant empirical research in this course of study. The thesis describes the case of Columbine High School shooting in connection with so called copycat effect problem and it brings the concrete examples of such an influence. The crucial part of the text determines the three problematic areas of school shootings media coverage, which are explained by bringing out the concrete examples from around the world. Moreover, the thesis shows a solution how to better deal with these problematic areas of coverage. The thesis also concludes partial content analyses, which show the way how chosen Czech media coped with these problematic areas of school shootings media coverage. To be concrete, it analyses Lidové noviny, server iDnes.cz and Czech television news.