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
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Recent Submissions
Determining the mechanism of protein transit through the peptidoglycan layer in Gram-positive bacteria and identifying phage-docking sites on Clostridium perfringens
Banta, Jacob Stewart (Virginia Tech, 2026-01-30)
Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive (Gram+) anaerobic spore-forming bacterium that can act as a lethal human pathogen. Depending on the pathway of entry and strain, infection can lead to gastrointestinal disease or gas gangrene. Disease, as with nearly all bacterial pathogens, is primarily the result of secreted proteins, better known as exotoxins. These toxins can aid in the breakdown of host tissue leading to increased nutrient availability for the pathogen. Toxins of particular interest include collagenase, perfringolysin O, and phospholipase C. Most toxins, assuming they are not directly injected into host cells, need to be secreted. This is no trivial task, as the Gram+ cell wall (the outermost structure) is a very thick, dense, mesh-like screen comprised primarily of peptidoglycan (PG) and teichoic acid side chains. Due to this barrier, which ordinarily benefits the bacterium in both defense and resisting osmotic stress, secretion can be an issue. Globular proteins smaller than 25 kDa have been found to passively move through the PG, but most toxins and larger macromolecules exceed this size threshold. A solution to this issue could be either a temporary opening in the PG layer or a designated protein-lined channel for this event to occur. In order to determine this mechanism, the aforementioned toxins come into play as they are all between 45-120 kilodaltons (kDa) in size. Each is passed through the cytoplasmic membrane via the general secretion system (Sec) in a linear fashion. From there it is highly supported that proper toxin folding occurs in the periplasmic-like space. Following this step, the cell wall secretion mechanism has yet to be identified. Such a mechanism could be a target for antimicrobials rendering the cell avirulent, but viable.
The strain used in this project, HN13, is both non-sporulating and only has two characterized secretion pathways (Sec and pilus-dependent). Random transposon mutagenesis and several negative selection rounds were used to construct multiple mariner mutant libraries. These libraries were screened on specific agar to visualize respective toxin secretion with approximately 200,000 mutant colonies screened. From the initial secretion screen mutants undergo an additional secondary screen through which only 186 mutants of interest were found (<0.1% identification rate). Through the use of various genetic techniques, 28 genes have been identified that lead to the lack-of-secretion phenotype. These genes encode various proteins including transcription regulators, sporulation factors, two-component regulatory systems, and potentially a protein which may play a role in secretion during cell division. Through genetic complementation/knockout trials the last major unknown physiological trait of Gram+ bacteria, protein secretion, has been studied here.
C. perfringens is the causative agent of gastrointestinal disease and gas gangrene. Gastrointestinal infection is typically self-limiting but may be treated with antibiotics which can lead to unintended clearing of normal healthy microflora. As for gangrenous infection, if left untreated it is 100% fatal. Even with swift treatment, amputation may still be required due to the rapid spreading of bacteria in tissue (cm/hour). Antibiotic treatment is nearly ineffective due to induced blood clotting. This leads to an anaerobic environment where most antibiotics will either not be able to function or even reach the cells. For both routes of infection, bacteriophages could supplement or entirely replace antibiotics. This could help greatly reduce the amount of collateral damage to the microbiome in gastrointestinal infection due to high phage specificity. A more speculatory approach is administering phages to tissue surrounding gangrene infection to diminish bacterial spread and density. Phages used as an alternative treatment could also help slow the observance of antibiotic resistance seen throughout the medical industry. In order to develop an effective phage therapy, phage docking sites need to be identified. Docking sites would allow for implementation of phage engineering and aid in the determination of untested phages that would be predicted to bind. Phage therapy may be a promising alternative treatment method to better treat both types of C. perfringens infections.
Beyond the Aesthetic Machine: Disney's Multiplane Camera and the Role of Special Effects Technologies in the Animation Industry
Meindl, Michael John (Virginia Tech, 2026-01-30)
The Walt Disney Company, throughout its history, has foregrounded a commitment to technological innovation as a tool for creating stories and entertaining audiences. One of Disney's most celebrated exemplars of this commitment is the multiplane camera, a special effects device first introduced in 1937 and widely praised for its ability to instill a sense of depth in the company's earliest feature-length films, including Snow White and Pinocchio. Animation and cinema studies scholars who have studied the multiplane camera have primarily analyzed the device's aesthetic contributions.
This dissertation argues that the multiplane was far more than an aesthetic machine. Combining Cinema and Media Studies with Science and Technology Studies, it bridges the investigation of aesthetics, technology, labor, and business to explore the full lifecycle of special effects technologies in the animation industry. It approaches the multiplane camera as a networked device that both shaped and was shaped by the people, spaces, and workflows surrounding it. Using primary sources, including patents, workers' manuals, and industry publications, as well as an analysis of the aesthetic use of special effects technologies, it traces how the multiplane camera was designed, put into action, altered, and eventually constrained by shifting production practices, labor strikes, economic conditions, and consumer tastes from the 1920s to the 1950s.
By focusing on the multiplane camera, this dissertation contributes to studies of the special role of special effects and emphasizes the fragility of special effects labor as a meeting point of aesthetics, technology, and industry. It shows the negotiations required to sustain special effects technologies in practice and how once special effects become ordinary and then obsolete.
Bridging Security and Agility: A Comprehensive Approach to Integrating Security Practices in Agile Development through DAST, LLMs, and Automation
Thool, Arpit Uday (Virginia Tech, 2026-01-30)
Effectively integrating security practices within Agile software development is essential as software systems become complex and critical. While Agile methodologies are widely adopted for their responsiveness and efficiency, many security practices remain documentation-heavy and process-driven, creating friction with Agile's emphasis on frequent delivery, individuals, and interactions. This Ph.D. dissertation investigates the integration of security practices—particularly Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), used to identify critical real-time vulnerabilities in web applications—into Agile workflows, examining its perceived impact on development teams and processes. We first surveyed Agile practitioners to understand their perspectives on security integration, revealing both benefits and challenges in implementation. We then explored how Large Language Models (LLMs) could improve the comprehension of security testing outputs, demonstrating that LLM generated summaries enhance the accessibility and understanding of security alerts. Subsequently, an in-depth real-world case study of a Kanban-based Agile team integrating DAST into its Continuous Integration Continuous Development (CI/CD) pipelines uncovered practical obstacles—such as report complexity and workflow interruptions, alongside conditions that supported successful adoption, including increased automation and dedicated engineering support. Finally, the insights from these studies informed the development of SafeAIMerge, a CI/CD-based tool that integrates DAST scanning with LLM-generated summaries to deliver actionable, developer-friendly security feedback within pull requests (PRs). Practitioner evaluations indicate that the tool reduces cognitive and emotional workload during vulnerability remediation, enhances security report understanding, and supports software developers in more efficient resolution of security issues. Together, these studies form a cohesive body of evidence demonstrating how security practices such as DAST, when supported by automated workflows, LLMs, and guided by practitioner-centered design, can be effectively embedded into Agile development.
Virginia’s Additive Manufacturing and Advanced Materials Tech Hub: 10-Year Roadmap
Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement (Virginia Tech, 2025)
This project, led by the New River Valley Regional Commission, received a $500,000 Tech Hubs grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Along with the Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement (CECE), the project includes Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, LAUNCH, and the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research as partners.
Expanding Industrialized Offsite Construction (Ioc) in Central Appalachia
Agee, Philip; Bone, Clara; Kelly, Isabel; Leonard, Rob; Lyon-Hill, Sarah; McCoy, Andrew; Posthumus, Ashley; Shirvani, Vida B.; Swanson, Colby (Virginia Tech, 2025-02)
A grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission will help Virginia Tech create a road map to address the affordable housing crisis and promote innovative and sustainable construction practices in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Virginia Tech Center for Economic and Community Engagement (CECE), in partnership with the Virginia Center for Housing Research in the College of Engineering, received a $453,743 grant through the commission’s Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE) initiative that aims to drive large-scale, regional economic transformation through multistate collaborative projects across Appalachia.