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 50 freely available and openly licensed textbooks are among our most downloaded items.
Communities in VTechWorks
Select a community to browse its collections.
Recent Submissions
Shared space and resource use within a building environment: An indoor geography
Villarreal, Mark; Baird, Timothy D.; Tarazaga, Pablo A.; Kniola, David J.; Pingel, Thomas J.; Sarlo, Rodrigo (Wiley, 2025-03)
Indoor spaces are essential to most humans' lives. Furthermore, in many cases, buildings are shared indoor environments that contain diverse people and resources. Spatial patterns of use are important but under-examined aspects of human-building interactions. This study leverages perspectives from human-environment geography and mechanical engineering to examine spatial patterns of use within a network of shared indoor spaces in an academic building at a research university in the United States. Here we ask: (1) What spaces and resources do building users value? and (2) How are values associated with observed measures of use? We hypothesise that spatial patterns of use follow an ideal free distribution (IFD), a common ecological model of resource use. To test this, we define measures of value and use derived from mixed qualitative (n = 50) and survey-based social data (n = 196) and data from a building-based system of accelerometers. Our analyses provide some support for the IFD hypothesis. We discuss the implications of this finding and potential new avenues for geographic research in shared indoor environments.
Transformative Pathways for Strengthening Climate-Resilient Health Systems Among Indigenous Communities: Advancing Equity and Sustainability in Global Health
Perera, Chrishma D.; Galappaththi, Eranga K.; Zavaleta-Cortijo, Carol; Baird, Timothy D.; Kolivras, Korine N.; Ford, James D.; Dickson, Michelle; Pickering, Kerrie; Chi, Guangqing; Bezerra, Joana; Vijayan, Dhanya; Chicamana-Zapata, Victoria; Togarepi, Cecil; Thilakarathne, Kheminda G.; Hangula, Martha M.; Akugre, Francis A.; Nuwagira, Richard; Nkalubo, Jonathan (Wiley, 2026-01)
Most climate-resilience health interventions are designed at the global level, with minimal attention to Indigenous communities' needs. The lack of consideration can lead to unintended harm and exacerbate health risks. This study aims to identify the capacities of Indigenous communities that can serve as transformative pathways in safely adopting global climate-resilient health approaches within Indigenous contexts, ensuring the aims of the Sustainable Development Goals, such as Good Health and Well-being (SDG3) and Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10). The World Health Organization's climate-resilient health systems approach was used as a starting point to identify the transformative pathways. We collaborated with the Indigenous Peoples' Observatory Network (IPON) and conducted key informant interviews (n = 17) with partners who maintain ongoing collaborations with Indigenous communities across 11 countries: Australia, Canada, Fiji, Ghana, India, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Uganda. The interview process was guided by two objectives: (i) to identify and examine how transformative pathways contribute to climate-resilient health systems and (ii) to provide recommendations for strengthening transformative pathways based on key informants' insights. We identified five transformative pathways to support the resilience of health systems to climate change risks: (i) government-community interactions, (ii) traditional medicine and spiritual beliefs, (iii) experience-based practices, (iv) community-based collective actions, and (v) community-based policies. Based on the key informant interviews, we provide three recommendations to enhance the identified transformative pathways: (i) Indigenous mentorship in knowledge, health education, and research, (ii) identify opportunities to develop an Indigenous inclusive health workforce, and (iii) enhance indigeneity in health policies.
Building as common property: examining Ostrom's model in an innovative university residence hall
Baird, Timothy D.; Tural, Elif; Kniola, David J.; Pingel, Thomas J.; Abaid, Nicole (Routledge, 2025-10-18)
Buildings are not only physical infrastructures but also socially and institutionally produced environments that structure access to space, resources and community life. This study draws from human–environment geography, common property theory and scholarship on built environments to conceptualize buildings as shared indoor environments that function as common pool resources and can be governed as common property regimes. Using an ethnographic approach, we examine a large, mixed-use academic–residential building at a U.S. research university to better understand how it was produced and governed as a shared resource. Data from stakeholder interviews, institutional documents and participant observation reveal governance dynamics that align closely with Ostrom’s design principles, including clear boundaries, collective choice, monitoring and sanctions. We identify both the institutional mechanisms and spatial strategies that contribute to sustainable, cooperative use of shared indoor resources. We also propose a conceptual framework that links building governance to broader national design trends, institutional mental models, and localized scarcities and abundances. Our findings offer practical insights for designers, campus planners and institutional decision-makers seeking to foster more inclusive, adaptive and sustainable building use.
Leading in Place with Teams: Building Better Collaboration
Kaufman, Eric K. (2026-01-16)
Workshop for the Provost's Leadership Development Program: 2025-26 Leading in Place Cohort
Isolation and characterization of four novel Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteriophages from oysters
Aldaroub, Joud; Walsky, Chrissy M.; Elwell, Rylee E.; Aylward, Frank O.; Stevens, Ann M.; Burke, Alison Kernell (2025-12-29)
Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VP) is a bacterial pathogen found in brackish and marine water that infects many marine organisms, such as oysters and shrimp. Consumption of raw or undercooked seafood contaminated with V. parahaemolyticus is a primary cause of seafood-borne gastroenteritis in humans. Due to increasing ocean temperatures, V. parahaemolyticus contamination of oyster beds in the United States has spread up the east and west coasts to the northern-most states. Promising new research is exploring the isolation of bacteriophages against V. parahaemolyticus with a long-term goal to possibly decontaminate oyster beds, thereby expanding the harvest season and allowing for safer consumption of seafood. In this study, storebought oysters harvested from the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia were used to isolate four bacteriophages with activity against a specific V. parahaemolyticus strain. A standard double agar overlay plaque assay was used to identify phage activity. After phage isolation, the genomes were sequenced, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed to visualize the virions. The genomes and TEM images revealed four distinct phages. Three of the phages are distinct isolates that exhibit podovirus-like morphology with short tails and genome sizes of approximately 43 kbp. One phage has siphovirus-like morphology and is a mid-sized tailed phage with a genome size of 80 kbp. Although spot tests performed with the oyster homogenates on up to 10 different V. parahaemolyticus strains recovered activity across a wide range of hosts, plaque assays with the isolated phages showed limited host range. Future work will be necessary to determine the viability of using the bacteriophages for elimination of V. parahaemolyticus in harvested oysters, treatment of aquaculture seed and spat, and/or the environment.