VTechWorks
VTechWorks provides global access to Virginia Tech scholarship, including journal articles, books, theses, dissertations, conference papers, slide presentations, technical reports, working papers, administrative documents, videos, images, and more by faculty, students, and staff. Faculty can deposit items to VTechWorks from Elements, including journal articles covered by the University open access policy. Email vtechworks@vt.edu for help.
Open Access Policy
Virginia Tech's open access policy enables researchers to deposit the accepted version of scholarly articles with no embargo.
Theses and Dissertations
Virginia Tech was first in the world to require ETDs in 1997, and continues to add scans of older theses and dissertations.
Open Textbooks
More than 40 freely available and openly licensed textbooks are among our most downloaded items.
Communities in VTechWorks
Select a community to browse its collections.
Recent Submissions
Coevolution of library services, scholarly communication infrastructures, and emergent academic fields: the ongoing case of veterans studies
Pencek, Bruce; Higgins, Jason A.; McGandy, Michael (University of Michigan Press, 2023-11-28)
A decade ago, an archivist and a librarian asked the Charleston Conference: Is your library ready for an emergent academic field? (Brodsky and Pencek 2013) Here we present a history of that emerging academic field, veterans studies, emphasizing its coevolution with library services that support scholarly communication. These culminated in a flourishing open-access journal, a biennial conference, and a scholarly association to coordinate them. Ultimately, a local initiative became an international network that attracted federal grants and publisher interest. But even with scholars’ networks growing and librarians promoting access and preservation, a key question before the field is whether today's publishing ecosystem can be sufficiently robust and diversified to carry forward the multidisciplinary, transnational intellectual project laid out in the Veterans Studies Association’s scope statement (VSA 2022). Although a peculiar convergence of opportunities made possible one library’s contribution to the institutionalization of veterans studies, university libraries' intellectual and technological resources – even in their early stages – to support their own communities may be better equipped than they assume to help scholars grow new fields of research and instruction.
The probability of chromatin to be at the nuclear lamina has no systematic effect on its transcription level in fruit flies
Afanasyev, Alexander Y.; Kim, Yoonjin; Tolokh, Igor S.; Sharakhov, Igor V.; Onufriev, Alexey V. (2024-05-06)
Background: Multiple studies have demonstrated a negative correlation between gene expression and positioning of genes at the nuclear envelope (NE) lined by nuclear lamina, but the exact relationship remains unclear, especially in light of the highly stochastic, transient nature of the gene association with the NE.
Results: In this paper, we ask whether there is a causal, systematic, genome-wide relationship between the expression levels of the groups of genes in topologically associating domains (TADs) of Drosophila nuclei and the probabilities of TADs to be found at the NE. To investigate the nature of this possible relationship, we combine a coarse-grained dynamic model of the entire Drosophila nucleus with genome-wide gene expression data; we analyze the TAD averaged transcription levels of genes against the probabilities of individual TADs to be in contact with the NE in the control and lamins-depleted nuclei. Our findings demonstrate that, within the statistical error margin, the stochastic positioning of Drosophila melanogaster TADs at the NE does not, by itself, systematically affect the mean level of gene expression in these TADs, while the expected negative correlation is confirmed. The correlation is weak and disappears completely for TADs not containing lamina-associated domains (LADs) or TADs containing LADs, considered separately. Verifiable hypotheses regarding the underlying mechanism for the presence of the correlation without causality are discussed. These include the possibility that the epigenetic marks and affinity to the NE of a TAD are determined by various non-mutually exclusive mechanisms and remain relatively stable during interphase.
Conclusions: At the level of TADs, the probability of chromatin being in contact with the nuclear envelope has no systematic, causal effect on the transcription level in Drosophila. The conclusion is reached by combining model-derived time-evolution of TAD locations within the nucleus with their experimental gene expression levels.
Cost-Effective Methods for Reducing Sediment Loads in the Lick Run Watershed
Thompson, Theresa M.; Sample, David J.; Stephenson, Stephen Kurt; Towsif Khan, Sami; Macdonald, Kiara (2024-05-15)
Digital biomarkers: 3PM approach revolutionizing chronic disease management — EPMA 2024 position
Smokovski, Ivica; Steinle, Nanette; Behnke, Andrew J.; Bhaskar, Sonu M. M.; Grech, Godfrey; Richter, Kneginja; Niklewski, Gunter; Birkenbihl, Colin; Parini, Paolo; Andrews, Russell J.; Bauchner, Howard; Golubnitschaja, Olga (2024-05-11)
Non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) have become a major global health concern. They constitute the leading cause of disabilities, increased morbidity, mortality, and socio-economic disasters worldwide. Medical condition-specific digital biomarker (DB) panels have emerged as valuable tools to manage NCDs. DBs refer to the measurable and quantifiable physiological, behavioral, and environmental parameters collected for an individual through innovative digital health technologies, including wearables, smart devices, and medical sensors. By leveraging digital technologies, healthcare providers can gather real-time data and insights, enabling them to deliver more proactive and tailored interventions to individuals at risk and patients diagnosed with NCDs. Continuous monitoring of relevant health parameters through wearable devices or smartphone applications allows patients and clinicians to track the progression of NCDs in real time. With the introduction of digital biomarker monitoring (DBM), a new quality of primary and secondary healthcare is being offered with promising opportunities for health risk assessment and protection against health-to-disease transitions in vulnerable sub-populations. DBM enables healthcare providers to take the most cost-effective targeted preventive measures, to detect disease developments early, and to introduce personalized interventions. Consequently, they benefit the quality of life (QoL) of affected individuals, healthcare economy, and society at large. DBM is instrumental for the paradigm shift from reactive medical services to 3PM approach promoted by the European Association for Predictive, Preventive, and Personalized Medicine (EPMA) involving 3PM experts from 55 countries worldwide. This position manuscript consolidates multi-professional expertise in the area, demonstrating clinically relevant examples and providing the roadmap for implementing 3PM concepts facilitated through DBs.
Evolution of Tech-Assisted Repression in Putin's Russia
Erickson, Landon Guy (Virginia Tech, 2024-05-15)
This thesis is an examination of the evolution of tech-assisted repression in Putin's Russia. The thesis uses a novel analytical framework called the T.E.A. table framework, which organizes repression into three categories: techniques (the repressive acts themselves), effects (short-to-medium term individual and communal effects), and arcs (large-scale societal shifts over long periods of time). This framework is "tested" against two influential texts in the study of non-democratic politics: The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt and Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes by Juan Jose Linz. The following chapters look at the techniques, effects, and arcs of television-based repression, social media-based repression, and finally artificial intelligence-based repression. As these technologies have been introduced, there has been a consisted trend toward centralization, control, and increasing the granularity, or the personalization and adaptability, of repression.