The Parsons Lineament (a major Appalachian Cross-strike Structural Discontinuity, CSD) extends from the Plateau of West Virginia into the Valley and Ridge Province in northern Rockingham County, Virginia. Regional and second—order folds change in strike from typical Central Appalachian trends (N30—35°E) to near due north within the CSD, regional anticlines plunge out, and major thrusts terminate within thisi zone. ln the Rockingham County portion of the Broadtop Synclinorium, the CSD is marked by an increase in intensity (ratio of surface area to volume) of systematic joints and second—order, sinistral strike-slip faults. Two sets of regional joints occur : J1, a pervasive east—west— trending, near vertical joint set, and J2 which varies with structural position. Peaks in J1 intensity coincide with known strike-slip faults and pronounced photolineaments. J2 is associated with closure on the Bergton anticline. Drilled depths to the Oréskany horizon, age relations and intensity of systematic joints suggest deformation associated with a northeast—facing lateral ramp is responsible for both the Parsons lineament and closure on the Bergton natural gas field. Within the North Mountain thrust sheet, the Parsons CSD consists of a linear zone of anomalously-trending, second-order folds and shears near the nose of the Linville anticline. Blind thrusts responsible for second-order folding are exposed in a quarry face and strain values (from pressure fringes adjacent to pyrite framboids in Martinsburg shales) suggest that the second-order folds adjacent to the Linville anticline are the result of movement on the Saumsville fault in the subsurface. Age relations of S1 and S2 cleavages and V2 calcite veins indicate an east-to-west order of thrusting for the Pulaski-Staunton and Saumsville faults. The linear disturbed zone results from displacement transfer at the termination of the Saumsville fault and, together with the structural anomalies in the Broadtop Synclinorium, constitutes the Valley and Ridge extension of the Parsons CSD. / Master of Science

Geologic mapping along the northeasternmost 25 miles of the St. Clair fault, which traverses the Central and Southern Appalachian juncture at about the middle of this segment, was accomplished to observe the changes in geologic style and structural trend that occur across the juncture in this northwesterly Valley and Ridge strike belt. The study area is an excellent smale scale area for observations on the nature of the juncture over the larger scale as it includes most of the features that characterize this juncture such as change of physiographic and structural trend and transition from thrust fault-dominated deformation to fold-dominated deformation. The juncture or recess is prominent in the study area as a sharp bend in Gap-Moss Mountains and is in fact one of the sharpest bends occurring at the junction. Southwest of this recess, the stratigraphic units on the northwest of the St. Clair fault are overturned and a broad syncline is formed on the northwest, known as the Hurricane Ridge. The axis of this fold closely parallels the strike of the St. Clair fault. As the junction is approached the Hurricane Ridge syncline changes axial strike to the north and passes northwest of the Browns Mountain anticlinorium which is plunging out into the junction. Just northeast of the recess the St. Clair fault bifurcates and its strike is slightly changed when the segments rejoin. Northeast of this point, the St. Clair fault loses stratigraphic displacement and instead of a single broad fold northwest of the fault and parallel to it, there are numerous small folds developed that strike 20-30° more northerly than the fault. The fault does not, however, truncate any of the folds. The St. Clair fault extends 13 miles into the Central Appalachians where it dies out down the plunge of an anticline at Morning Knob in Alleghany County, Virginia. A strong shear zone is evident in the core of the structure at Morning Knob but is lost as the competent Silurian units plunge under Devonian shales. Integrating this information with other recent work on the juncture it may be concluded that: 1. The change of topographic and structural trend across the Central and Southern Appalachian juncture does not require any significant difference in timing of deformation. 2. There is probably no significant difference in orientation of principal stress across the juncture but rather the change of trend and differences of geologic "style" reflect contrasts in thickness and facies within the sedimentary column and contrasts involving basement topography which indirectly influence cover structure. Thus the changes evident across the juncture are seen to be the result of differential physical response to the applied stress. / Master of Science

Master of Science

This study was conducted to identify personal and institutional barriers preventing community college students from completing their education goals, whether that was a degree program, diploma program, or credentialing program. It was also conducted to identify strategies that can be used to assist these students in overcoming these barriers. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of students at one West Virginia Community and Technical College who dropped out of their programs of study. The study sought to identify actions and events that contributed to students choosing to drop out and strategies that can be used to reduce their dropping out. Understanding the students' perspectives concerning their decisions to drop out will assist community college personnel to evaluate the on- and off-campus factors influencing these decisions. This qualitative study sought to directly ask students about their personal lives and also about the people and events on campus that influenced their decision to drop out of Thompson Community and Technical College (pseudonym). The study contains three major research questions: What personal factors contributed to students dropping out of one West Virginia Community and Technical College? What institutional factors contributed to students dropping out of one West Virginia Community and Technical College? What strategies can one West Virginia Community and Technical College implement to enhance student retention and decrease student dropout rates? The basic qualitative research design of conducting one-on-one qualitative interviews was used for this study. Criterion and purposeful sampling were utilized to identify participants. Semi-structured interviewing and document reviewing was utilized to gather data to discover rich information from the participants' lived experiences. Participants were suggested by current or former faculty or staff members at one of the West Virginia Community and Technical College campuses in the state of West Virginia. They were students who had already attended for at least one semester and who had subsequently dropped out of their programs of study. Fifteen participants were interviewed for the study. / Doctor of Education / This study tried to find out if there were specific personal reasons or specific college reasons why students did not finish school and graduate from their community college. It also tried to find out if students had suggestions for what might have kept them in college. Finding out this information could maybe help colleges figure out how to help students stay in school and graduate. Fifteen former students were interviewed face-to-face by the researcher for this study. Each person had finished at least one semester at a West Virginia Community and Technical College, but then had left before they graduated. Three of them left for only personal reasons. Twelve of them left because of what happened at the college. They shared many stories and gave many suggestions for improvement. They also shared good experiences.

Mountaintop removal is an aggressive form of strip mining practiced almost exclusively in Central Appalachia, and since 1977 has been regulated by state and federal laws. Beginning in the late 1990s, considerable controversy erupted in coal mining states like West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee over the adverse social and environmental impacts of the practice. The analysis of mountaintop removal presented here is restricted to its effects in West Virginia during roughly the last decade. Relying on theories of democratic practice developed by pragmatic philosophers like John Dewey and G.H. Mead, this work studies the standard practices of state and federal regulatory agencies and elected officials in an effort to determine what, if any, social goods they work to defend. Pragmatic theories of democracy suggest that a government can be considered representative only when it acts on behalf of the public good. Chapter 1 of this thesis introduces the reader to the practice of mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia. Chapter 2 lays the theoretical groundwork for determining an individual's or institution's values through an analysis of its habitual actions. In chapter 3, I examine the consequences of mountaintop removal for the state of West Virginia, its citizens, and the coal interests that operate within its borders. Chapter 4 is dedicated to an analysis of regulatory responses to the conflicting interests of the various groups affected by the practice. Finally, in Chapter 5, some conclusions are drawn about the extent to which the regulation of mountaintop removal in West Virginia can be considered democratic. / Master of Arts

Makurath (1977), in studying the Keyser Limestone, concluded that brachiopods were distributed randomly, casting doubt over the validity of using recurrent communities as a paleoenvironmental tool. However, a re-evaluation of the Keyser fauna, utilizing cluster analysis, polar ordination, and detrended correspondence analysis, reveals that the fauna can be arranged along a gradient, according to distance from the shore. Recurrent communities do exist within the Keyser Limestone. With the aid of coenocorrelation curves, they can be traced along the entire Appalachian basin. The most nearshore community, belonging to Benthic Assemblage 1 of Boucot (1975), is the Stromatolite Community, followed by the Tentaculites-Meristella-Cupularostrumgordoni Schuchertella and Meristella Communities of Benthic Assemblage 2, the Stromatoporoid-Coral, Crinoid, and Gypidula communities of Benthic Assemblage 3, the Dalejina -Atrypa-Rhynchospirina Community of Benthic Assemblage 4, and the Eccentricosta-Cupularostrum Assemblage 5. / M.S.

This dissertation consists of three manuscripts analyzing labor market dynamics in West Virginia and the Appalachian Region. The first manuscript examines the dynamic effects of national, regional, and local labor market shocks on labor force participation rates in Appalachia. A dynamic factor model with time-varying loading parameters and stochastic volatility is used to explore the synchronicity and divergence between state labor force participation rates within and outside the Appalachian region. We find that the choice of time and state is crucial to the relative importance of the level of synchronization on observed change in LFPR variations. Our findings can help better target labor policy by taking advantage of the sensitivity exhibited by each state to various labor market conditions. The second manuscript examines the dynamic effects of state, Metro/Non-Metro, and county labor market shocks on labor force participation rates in West Virginia. In the first stage, using a dynamic factor model, we find that non-metropolitan and county-specific components are dominant contributors to the observed variations in the change in West Virginia LFPRs. In the second stage, using a fixed effects panel model, we find county demographics, education levels, income, access to interstate highways, and industry composition are useful covariates for explaining the variance contributions of the state, metro/non-metro and county factors. The third manuscript uses cointegration analysis in the presence of structural breaks to determine whether the Unemployment Invariance Hypothesis exists in West Virginia. Using monthly labor force data from 1976 - 2022, we find mixed support for the unemployment invariance, added worker effect, and discouraged worker effect hypotheses over multiple sub-sample periods. These results suggest that labor markets are temporally-dynamic, and a one-size-fits-all approach could prove disadvantageous to growth. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation focuses on labor market dynamics in West Virginia and the Appalachian Region. In the first of three manuscripts, we investigate how much U.S. state labor force participation rates move together nationally, and within the Appalachian Region. We find that how much labor force participation rates move together across the U.S. and within the Appalachian Region depends on the choice of time and state. In the second manuscript, we examine how much West Virginia county labor force participation rates move together across the state and within the Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan regions. We also study how county characteristics such as industry composition and education levels influence the variation in how much labor force participation rates move together. We find that Non-metropolitan county labor force participation rates exhibit similar dynamic behavior and that education, personal income, access to highways, and industry composition of the counties influences how much the rates move together at the different levels. In the third manuscript, we investigate whether changes in the unemployment rate in West Virginia result influences that state's labor force participation rate in the long-run. We find that evidence of said long-run relationship albeit changing over time. We posit that the relationship dynamics are largely explained by the ensuing labor market and economic conditions. By extension, labor market policies and interventions should be timely and flexible.

Ph. D.

During 1999-2001, potential den trees and denning success of black bears was investigated on industrial forest lands and national forest lands in Virginia and West Virginia. One hundred and fifty seven potential den trees were found on five study areas, 135 on national forest lands and 22 on the industrial forest lands. Twenty-seven hollow potential den trees were found, 22 on national forest lands and 5 on industrial forest lands. Densities of potential den trees ranged from 12.5/km2 to 437.5/km2 on the national forest lands and on the industrial forest lands the densities ranged from 0-187.5/km2. There were significantly higher densities (F1, 69=5.86, P=0.0181) of potential den trees on the national forest land than on the industrial forest land. There were also significantly (F=2, 68=7.86 P=0.0008) higher densities of hollow potential den trees based on the stand age class. Denning success for females expected to have cubs was 98% (n=46) in tree dens on national forest lands and 100% (n=8) on industrial forest lands. Denning success for females expected to have cubs was 76% (n=55) in ground dens on national forest lands and 80% (n=5) in ground dens on industrial forest lands. Females expected to have cubs on the national forest lands had an overall denning success of 89% (n=80) and on industrial forest lands there was overall, 92% (n=13) denning success. Chi-square tests showed that abandonment of dens by bears was significantly higher (x2=19.02, 1df) in ground dens than in tree dens. Litter sizes were not different from national forest lands and industrial forest lands (t=-0.36, 44df, P=0.84). The mean litter sizes on the national forest lands was 2.55 (SE=0.16) cubs per litter and on the industrial forest land 2.4 (SE=0.22) cubs per litter. / Master of Science

School consolidation, which involves closing one or more schools and combining them into a single school, is a common phenomenon in rural Appalachian communities due to out-migration and lack of funding for public schools. When school consolidation occurs, the local school may be closed, or students from other communities may be bused to the school. Community residents, however, do not always agree with the decision to consolidate their local schools. When this disagreement occurs, residents may choose to participate in organized resistance activities to show their opposition, make their voices heard to local politicians and the media, and seek an alternative to the proposed consolidation. This case study of school consolidation in one rural Appalachian county seeks to document and analyze the struggle in which community residents engaged in an effort to prevent local schools from being consolidated. Data was collected in the form of semi-structured interviews conducted with members and sympathizers of a resistance organization called TOPS. TOPS was formed in 2001 to oppose school consolidation, but its members were not successful in keeping their local schools open. Many schools in McDowell County have been consolidated or are scheduled to be consolidated in the near future. For example, Big Creek High School, which was at the center of many consolidation debates, will be closed in 2010. Its students will be bused to a new, consolidated high school. I conducted interviews during fall 2006 and spring 2007 to determine community members' grievances concerning consolidation, to establish a narrative of their struggle against state government officials, and to provide a basis for analyzing the movement's failure to achieve its goals. I used these interviews, along with TOPS' documents, local newspaper articles, and literature from other anti-consolidation efforts, to examine possible reasons why TOPS was not successful. Social movements literature, particularly the concepts of framing and repertoires of contention, formed the theoretical basis of this analysis. / Master of Science