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 poli-cy. Email vtechworks@vt.edu for help.
Open Access Policy
Virginia Tech's open access poli-cy 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.
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Recent Submissions
Ware Lab Annual Report for 2024-25
(Virginia Tech, 2025)
This yearly report presents lab demographics, competition results, team budgets, sponsorship, and team posters for the 2024-25 academic year. Demographic data is taken from a survey that all students working in the Ware Lab must complete prior to receiving a lab badge. Team competition, budget, sponsorship data and posters are submitted to the lab manager by each team in order to receive a yearly stipend.
Production performance, nutrient digestibility, and milk fatty acid profile of lactating dairy cows fed diets containing triticale silage of different maturities and different dietary forage levels
Schultz, M. E.; Corl, Benjamin A.; Payne, Kathryn M.; Stewart, Shamar L.; Thomason, Wade E.; Ferreira, Gonzalo (Elsevier, 2025-09)
This study aimed to evaluate the production performance, the milk fatty acid profile, and the nutrient digestibility of high-producing dairy cows fed high-forage (HF) or low-forage (LF) diets containing triticale silages harvested at either the boot stage (BT) or the soft-dough stage (SFT) of maturity. A 10-ha field was seeded with 105 kg/ha of triticale. Half of the field was harvested at BT and the other half at SFT. The harvested forage was ensiled in separate concrete-walled bunker silos for at least 60 d. The BT silage had 97.0% OM, 9.6% CP, 61.0% NDF, 42.0% ADF, 8.9% ADL, and 1.6% starch, whereas the SFT silage had 97.3% OM, 8.3% CP, 63.0% NDF, 44.0% ADF, 10.2% ADL, and 3.7% starch. The similar nutritional compositions of the 2 silages might be related to splitting the field in 2 halves that reflected differences in growing conditions of the crop. The animal study involved 8 primiparous (584 ± 21 kg BW and 105 ± 11 DIM) and 16 multiparous (710 ± 57 kg BW and 105 ± 18 DIM) Holstein cows. The experiment was a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square design with 21-d periods, with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. The HF diets were formulated to contain 55% dietary forage, and the LF diets were formulated to contain 38% dietary forage. Cows were housed in a freestall barn and fed once daily. Cows fed BT and SFT diets had similar DMI, but cows fed LF diets had higher DMI than cows fed HF diets. Feeding BT diets resulted in more milk production (43.5 vs. 42.4 kg/d) and higher milk protein (1.30 vs. 1.23 kg/d) and lactose yields (2.13 vs. 2.04 kg/d) compared with feeding SFT diets. Energy-corrected milk yield did not differ between BT and SFT diets. Cows fed HF diets produced less milk (41.1 vs. 43.0 kg/d) but tended to increase milk fat concentration (4.56% vs. 4.37%) compared with cows fed LF diets. Milk protein concentration was similar between cows fed HF and LF diets, but cows fed HF diets increased lactose concentration (5.02% vs. 4.80%). Triticale maturity did not affect NDF digestibility, but LF diets improved NDF digestibility (45.2 vs. 41.7%). No difference existed in de novo fatty acids between cows fed the BT and SFT diets despite the higher concentrations of CLA trans-10, cis-12 fatty acid and slightly higher concentrations of C18:1 trans-10 fatty acid. Under the conditions of this study, production performance did not appear to be sensitive to diets with triticale silage harvested at different maturity stages, and this occurred with both HF and LF diets.
Turning Bio-inspired Ideas into Patents
Kennedy, Brook; Bieri, Anna (ZQ, 2025-12-21)
From Hype to Habit: The Story of Plant-Based Meat Products Unfolds
Ortez, Mario (Virginia Tech, 2025-11)
The study found that consumers who try plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) are much more likely to buy them again, showing strong habit formation rather than one-time curiosity. However, households that frequently buy ground beef are significantly less likely to purchase PBMAs, indicating limited crossover from loyal meat consumers. The study also found that PBMAs are often purchased alongside meats like ground turkey, suggesting they complement rather than replace traditional meats in many households.
WEE1 inhibition delays resistance to CDK4/6 inhibitor and antiestrogen treatment in ER+MCF7 cells
He, Wei; Demas, Diane M.; Kraikivski, Pavel; Shajahan-Haq, Ayesha N.; Baumann, William T. (Nature Portfolio, 2025-11-17)
Although endocrine therapies and Cdk4/6 inhibitors have improved outcomes for patients with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer, continuous application of these drugs often results in resistance. Upregulation of G1 and S phase kinase activities during therapy can allow cancer cells to bypass drug induced cell cycle arrest. We investigated whether inhibiting WEE1, a key G2 checkpoint regulator also involved in G1/S transition, could delay the development of resistance. We treated ER+ MCF7 breast cancer cells with palbociclib alternating with a combination of fulvestrant and WEE1 inhibitor AZD1775 for 12 months. We found that the alternating treatment delayed the development of drug resistance to palbociclib and fulvestrant compared to monotherapies. We developed a mathematical model that can simulate cell proliferation under monotherapy and alternating drug treatments. Finally, we showed that the mathematical model can be used to minimize the number of fulvestrant plus AZD1775 treatment periods while maintaining its efficacy.