Digital Commons Network^™

Commonwealth Times 2020-10-21

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Commonwealth Times 2020-10-07

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Commonwealth Times 2020-03-04

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Commonwealth Times 2020-02-26

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Commonwealth Times 2020-02-19

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Commonwealth Times 2020-01-22

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

Not Missing: Transcriptions, J. L. Gaustad

Someone's Missing...and I Think It's Me

Not Missing: Transcriptions contains transcriptions of handwritten notes and journal entries from the book Someone's Missing...and I Think It's Me: Our Great Adventure with Dementia, by J.L. Gaustad. It is meant to accompany that book, with page numbers keyed to the pages in the book. For the print edition, this separate zine will be included in a pocket in the cover.

Someone's Missing...And I Think It's Me: Our Great Adventure With Dementia, J. L. Gaustad

Someone's Missing...and I Think It's Me

Someone’s Missing…and I Think It’s Me is a unique blend of memoir, advice, and art. Gaustad chronicles her experiences with her late husband, prominent artist and VCU faculty member Gerald Donato, as they try to navigate the mysteries and terrors of early-onset dementia. Beautifully illustrated with original artwork by the author, Donato, and artist friends, Gaustad takes a brutally honest, sometimes harrowing, and ultimately life-affirming look at their challenged marriage. Although her original intent was to create a guide for those dealing with brain illness in loved ones, the book became a testament to the beauty and humor to be …

The Politics Of Annexation: Oligarchic Power In A Southern City, John V. Moeser, Rutledge M. Dennis

The Politics of Annexation

This Open Access Edition of The Politics of Annexation presents a newly formatted version of the original 1982 edition. The text itself has been edited only for non-substantive style changes and corrections. The Preface, the new Introduction (“Fifty Years Later”), and the index were prepared especially for this edition. The original edition was published by Schenkman Publishing Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is available online through the UR Scholarship Repository at https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/307/

The Politics of Annexation examines the process of American cities using annexation of suburban areas as a tool to increase their tax base and generate new revenue. The authors …

Marijuana Legislation: Identifying The Impact On The Oral Healthcare Provider, Abby L. Geiser, Jessica Reid-Burrell

Dental Hygiene Student Scholarship

Objectives/Aims: Since the mid-2000s, the United States has seen a surge in legislation involving the legalization of marijuana, both recreationally and medicinally. The relaxed laws translated into an increase of marijuana consumption and thereby a potential increase in the number of patients a provider will see that are cannabis users. The purpose of this review is to illustrate how the providers begin to see pathologies related to cannabis use more frequently, and how they will need to be prepared for ways this can be addressed. Additionally, oral healthcare providers will face ethical dilemmas and legal challenges when treating patients and …

The Effect Of Competitive Swimming On Oral Health Status, Laura Apsley, Alexandra Walter

Dental Hygiene Student Scholarship

Objectives/Aims: Competitive athletes are often considered to be susceptible to bodily injury. It is now being realized that competitive swimmers are also at risk, specifically in the unsuspected realm of the oral cavity. The purpose of our research is to examine the effect of competitive swimming on an athlete's oral health status.

Methods: Using sources found on Pubmed and Google Scholar, the data used for the correlation of swimming pools and generalized dental trauma are as follows: competitive swimmers and non- competitive swimmers were examined for specific variables such as decayed, missing, or restoratively involved teeth, plaque and gingival index, …

Health Disparities Among Latinx Communities: Issues Of Access To Information, Interpreters, And Bilingual Providers, Shea Wenzler, Roma Kankaria, Sydney Welles, Anubhav Thapaliya

Undergraduate Research Posters

Health Disparities among Latinx Communities: Issues of Access to Information, Interpreters, and Bilingual Providers

Shea Wenzler, Depts. of Psychology and Political Science, Roma Kankaria, Sydney Welles, and Anubhav Thapaliya, with Dr. Indira Sultanić, School of World Studies

Members of the Latinx community in Richmond and the United States face challenges in obtaining equitable health care access because of socioeconomic and systematic barriers within the healthcare system. This analysis conducted by the Collective Corazón—a VCU student organization that addresses Latinx healthy equity through service and advocacy—examines the underlying causes of Latinx health disparities. Special emphasis is placed on access to just, …

Pattern Research Project: Emblems Of Colonialism - Mudejar Bookcase, Hallie Gillespie

Pattern Research Project

The Emblems of Colonialism project is a part of the broader Pattern Research Projects created by design history and design studio faculty members, Emily Smith and Dr. Sara Reed. Students in VCU Interior Design were asked to examine a pattern or motif used on a decorative object or surface during the colonial era in the Americas. During the 15th through 18th centuries, a period of colonialism forced new relationships between European countries and places in what is now known as North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. This project explores how colonial era patterns reveal power structures, othering, and the …

Pattern Project - Emblems Of Colonialism - Thomas Day S-Curve, L.T Moon

Pattern Research Project

The Emblems of Colonialism project is a part of the broader Pattern Research Projects created by design history and design studio faculty members, Emily Smith and Dr. Sara Reed. Students in VCU Interior Design were asked to examine a pattern or motif used on a decorative object or surface during the colonial era in the Americas. During the 15th through 18th centuries, a period of colonialism forced new relationships between European countries and places in what is now known as North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. This project explores how colonial era patterns reveal power structures, othering, and the …

The Potential Effects Of Hormonal Therapy And Stress On The Oral Health Of The Transitioning Population, Elena G. Cantwell, Devon Mcclure

Dental Hygiene Student Scholarship

Problem: In terms of healthcare, the transgender population is underserved. Unfortunately, these individuals often experience stress related to seeking preventative care and fear discrimination. These factors preventing them from seeking care, in addition to hormone therapy taken during the transition process, could have severe impacts on their dental health. The purpose of this study is to establish a link between the hormone therapy used during gender transitioning and the effect on oral health. While there is a correlation between hormone replacement therapy and clinical evidence that sex hormones can impact on periodontal tissues, few studies have linked this knowledge to …

For I Know The Plans I Have For You: God Locus Of Control, Spiritual Change, And Death Anxiety In Primary Brain Tumor Patients, Kelci D. Willis, Julia Brechbiel, Rachel Boutte, Laurel Kovalchick, Kyra Parker, Audrey Ann Louis Villanueva, Ashlee R. Loughan

Graduate Research Posters

Background/Purpose. Primary brain tumor (PBT) patients risk experiencing death anxiety given the high mortality rate of their diagnosis. In line with Terror Management Theory (TMT), many diagnosed with cancer utilize religion as a method of coping with the disease. However, previous literature on the relation between death anxiety and religion in cancer patients indicates mixed findings of either a negative relationship or no association. To the authors’ knowledge, no study has analyzed these two constructs together in PBT patients. The current study sought to address this gap by investigating the relationship between religiosity and death anxiety in an understudied population. …

Is Helping Really Helping? Health-Related Quality Of Life After Tbi Predicting Caregiver Depression Longitudinally In Latin America, Chimdindu Ohayagha, Paul B. Perrin, Mickeal Pugh Jr., Yaneth Rodriguez, Silvia Olivera, Maria Cristina Quijano, Juan Carlos Arango-Lasprilla

Graduate Research Posters

Objective: Studies have shown that functional and psychosocial sequelae of traumatic brain injury (TBI) predict emotional well-being of caregivers (Harris, 2000). Previous research examining the mental health of caregivers and the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of people with TBI have primarily been in the US (Sander, 2012). Very little research has been conducted to uncover the unique relationships between HRQoL of people with TBI and caregiver mental health longitudinally, or in low-middle income Latin American countries. The aim of this study was to evaluate how HRQoL after TBI predict caregiver depression longitudinally in two countries and three data collection …

When Whiteness Is Invisible To Those Who Teach: Teacher Training, Critical Professional Development, And The Intersection Of Equitable Education Opportunities, Robyn Lyn

Graduate Research Posters

Background

Non-White teachers comprise 18% of the teaching force with faster burnout rates than White teachers. Teachers of Color (ToC) are exhausted. Institutionally, pre-service teacher education (TE) and inservice teacher professional development (PD) neglect the experiences and perspectives of non-White teachers. Critical Professional Development (CPD) “frames teachers as politically-aware individuals who have a stake in teaching and transforming society; dialogical; honors relationality/collectivity; strengthens racial literacy; recognizes critical consciousness & transformation as an ongoing process” (Mosely, 2018, p. 271).

Q1: What type of critical TE and PD is needed to transform the racialized education system?

Q2: What are the benefits of …

Temporal Behavior Of The Individual Soft Microparticles: Understanding The Detection By Particle Impact Electrochemistry, Junaid Ahmed, Julio C. Alvarez

Graduate Research Posters

Emerging progress of the Particle Impact Electrochemistry (PIE) technique has opened a novel field of detection and characterization of many analyte particles. 1 PIE comprises detection of changes in current when collisions of individual micro or nanoparticles are linked with an electrochemical event at the surface of an ultramicroelectrode (UME). 2 Being a rapid, low cost, and analyzing of one analyte at a time, PIE is widely used to characterize the shape, size distribution, and catalytic activity of nanoparticles. 2-5 To explore the scope of PIE for the detection of soft microparticles (absence of crystalline structure), ferrocene (Fc) trapped toluene-in-water …

Food Choice As A Signal Of Racial Identity, Danyel Smith, Shawn C.T. Jones, Phd, Nao Hagiwara,Phd

Graduate Research Posters

Objectives: This study experimentally assessed food preference as one potentially important racial identity cue particularly for Black Americans, which in turn impacts interpersonal relations both between ethnicities/races (i.e., inter-group) and within ethnicity/race (i.e., intra-group). We hypothesized that preference for “Soul Food,” which is historically significant to Black Americans, as opposed to “Fresh Salad,” would be associated with stronger racial identity and induce more positive reactions among Black participants but more negative reactions among White participants.

Methods: Undergraduate students (N = 365) viewed one of four online profiles that were ostensibly completed by a Black Student. Student gender (i.e., DeShawn vs. …

Expressed Emotion, Mental Health, And Functioning In Families Of Children With And Without Asthma, Katherine W. Dempster, Julia Scheidemantel, Jessica Greenlee, Marcia A. Winter, Ph.D, Robin S. Everhart, Ph.D

Graduate Research Posters

Introduction: Expressed emotion (EE), the affective attitudes and behaviors of one toward another, can affect caregivers’ behaviors toward their child. Research examining associations between EE and child/family outcomes is mixed; these associations may be affected by other influences such as the presence of a chronic disease or parent mental health. In this study of families living in an urban area, we examined associations between EE and child outcomes (anxiety/depressive symptoms) and family functioning, with parent anxiety as a covariate. We evaluated child asthma status as a moderator in these associations as the presence of a chronic illness may strengthen the …

L1-Norm Regularized L1-Norm Best-Fit Line Problem, Xiao Ling, Paul Brooks

Graduate Research Posters

Background

Conventional Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a widely used technique to reduce data dimension. PCA finds linear combinations of the original features capturing maximal variance of data via Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). However, SVD is sensitive to outliers, and often leads to high dimensional results. To address the issues, we propose a new method to estimate best-fit one-dimensional subspace, called l1-norm Regularized l1-norm.

Methods

In this article, we describe a method to fit a lower-dimensional subspace by approximate a non-linear, non-convex, non-smooth optimization problem called l1 regularized l1-norm Best- Fit Line problem; minimize a combination of the l1 error …

Molecular Predictors Of Anakinra Treatment Success In Heart Failure Patients With Reduced Ejection Fraction, Joshua Morriss, Daniel Contaifer Jr, Leo F. Buckley, George Wohlford, Monther Alsultan, Suad Alshammari, Asanga D. Ranasinghe, Salvatore Carbone, Justin M. Canada, Cory Trankle, Elvin T. Price, Antonio Abbate, Benjamin W. Van Tassell, Dayanjan S. Wijesinghe

Graduate Research Posters

Background. Kineret (Anakinra) is an interleukin-1 antagonist that is under investigation for its novel clinical application treating patients that have heart failure with reduced (<50%) ejection fraction (HFrEF). A prior study from our group indicated that Anakinra may restore heart function by addressing dysregulations in HFrEF metabolic pathways. Herein, we attempt to elicit Anakinra’s effects on both metabolome and lipidome.

Methods. Lipids and metabolites that had previously been quantified by mass spectrometry (MS) from patients (n=49) who had ≥2 mg/L of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were mTIC normalized and transformed. We conducted a stepwise Linear Discriminant Analysis (r- LDA) to test Anakinra (2 and 12 weeks) vs placebo for separation from combined baseline. Metabolic pathway analysis was performed with Fisher’s exact test algorithm for detection of over-represented and enriched analytes. Univariate analysis (one tailed t-test …

Daily Sleep Quality Is Associated With Daily Cognition In Late-Life, Emily K. Donovan, Joseph M. Dzierzewski, Constance H. Fung, Karen R. Josephson, Cathy A. Alessi, Jennifer L. Martin

Graduate Research Posters

Background: Older adults often face sleep disturbance or cognitive decline that goes beyond the scope of normal aging. The present study examined the relationship between self-reported sleep quality and self-reported daytime attention in a community-dwelling sample of older men at the between-persons and within-persons levels of association.

Methods: Thirty-eight participants (M age =75.36 years, SD age =7.51 years, range=66-90 years) completed a twice-daily sleep diary for one week. Sleep quality and attention were assessed using a single-item 0-10 rating scales from the morning diary (“How was the quality of your sleep last night?”) and from the evening diary (“How was …

Differences In Treatment For Substance Use Disorders By Insurance Status: Self-Help Only Versus Outpatient Medical Treatment, Huyen Pham, Lauryn Walker Phd Rn, Andrew J. Barnes Phd, Peter Cunningham Phd

Graduate Research Posters

Background: The role of insurance on substance use disorders (SUD) treatment utilization generally is poorly understood and still less is known on how insurance status relates to the use of evidence-based treatment (i.e., medicalization approach) compared to other treatments, like single self-help groups, where the research on effectiveness is less supportive. This study examines associations between health insurance and any SUD treatment utilization as well as use of single self- help versus medicalization approach.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used. Data were from the 2015-2017, public use National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Adjusted logistic regressions were …

Photolithographic Micropatterning Of Organic, Flexible Biomaterials And Its Applications, Sayantan Pradhan, Sayantan Pradhan, Meng Xu, Vamsi K. Yadavalli

Graduate Research Posters

A current trend in biodevices has involved a shift from traditional rigid platforms to flexible and stretchable formats. These flexible devices are expected to have a significant impact on future healthcare, disease diagnostics and therapeutics. However, the fabrication of such flexible devices has been limited by the choice of materials. Biomimetic composites of naturally derived and synthetic polymers provide exciting opportunities to develop mechanically flexible, physiologically compliant, and degradable bioelectronic systems. Advantages include the ability to provide conformal contact at non-planar biointerfaces, being able to be degraded at controllable rate, and invoking minimal reactions within the body. These factors present …

Deafness: Disability Or Culture? Best Practices Regarding Controversial Interventions For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students, Jacob Ziemba

Graduate Research Posters

Background: Many people in the deaf community view deafness as a distinct culture, with its own unique language and history. They reject the use of assistive technologies which can restore hearing for themselves and their children. However, some members of the medical and legal communities consider it unethical to deprive a child of these interventions. Learn more about this emerging conflict, as well as best practices for working with deaf and hard of hearing students in a school environment.

Methods: Peer-reviewed journals and popular publications were consulted to gather information about attitudes towards interventions such as the cochlear implant from …

Why Them: The Informal Caregiver's Transition To A Cancer Diagnosis, Rebecca Hoppe, Marcia A. Winter, Tara A. Albrecht

Graduate Research Posters

Background: Hematologic malignancies (HM) are life-threatening cancers associated with high mortality, numerous symptoms, and lengthy hospitalizations. Informal caregivers (family or friend; IC) of adults with various diseases experience negative quality of life and poor psychological well-being. However, there is scant research exploring the IC experience.

Objective: To learn how ICs adapt to patients’ diagnosis of HM and their caregiver role.

Methods: The current study used a qualitative descriptive design to analyze the semi-structured interview responses from ICs (N=28) within six weeks of the patients’ HM diagnosis. A content analysis was conducted to generate common themes.

Findings: Several themes emerged related …

The Socioeconomic And Policy Barriers To Refugee Health, Matt Tessema

Undergraduate Research Posters

The Socioeconomic Barriers and Policy Barriers to Refugee Health

Matt Tessema, Dept. of Journalism, with Dr. Dina Garcia, Dept. of Health Behavior and Policy

There are multiple barriers that make it difficult for refugees to get adequate healthcare and among their largest barriers is meeting their oral health needs. The goal of this study is to figure out what those barriers are, whether it is financial or educational, and how to address it. This will be determined through the use of qualitative data from our semi-structured interview questionnaire. Those that will be interviewed include the health liaisons of refugee camps …

A Review And A Proposal For Reducing The Symptoms Of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder In Adolescents By Combining Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Training And Methylphenidate Medication As A Treatment, Kirti Sharma

Undergraduate Research Posters

A Review and a Proposal for Reducing the Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Adolescents by Combining Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Training and Methylphenidate Medication as a Treatment

Kirti Sharma, Dept. of Biology, with Prof. Mary Boyes, VCU Honors College

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder among adolescents that may lead to impaired executive functioning and poor mental development. In 2018, the National Health Interview Survey reported that from 1997 to 2016, the prevalence of ADHD significantly increased from 6.1% to 10.2% in children and adolescents (age 4 to 17 years). Medication, such as methylphenidate, is considered as first-line therapy …