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Articles 1891 - 1920 of 5390

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Commonwealth Times 2014-10-13 Oct 2014

Commonwealth Times 2014-10-13

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

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Sanctuary In The Richmond City Jail, S. Croft Oct 2014

Sanctuary In The Richmond City Jail, S. Croft

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

The following article is a collaboration among four individuals about unique programs run through “The Sanctuary” at the Richmond City Jail in Virginia, US. The Richmond City Jail is one of few jails in the US to offer programs to inmates who serve only short sentences as compared to prisons where the incarcerated serve much longer. In addition to this anomaly, students from outside of the jail come inside to take college classes with the inmates. Programs include literature classes, yoga, religious studies, creative writing, and more. The article explores the impact of The Sanctuary on the spirit, confidence, and …

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Waking Up In Prison: Critical Discussions Between Typical College Students And Their Incarcerated Peers, Tabitha Dell'angelo Oct 2014

Waking Up In Prison: Critical Discussions Between Typical College Students And Their Incarcerated Peers, Tabitha Dell'angelo

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This article describes a typical college course that was taught in a youth correctional facility. The course combined traditional college students and inmates from the prison. Over the course of 15 weeks both groups grew to understand one another and themselves. The article seeks to illustrate the realities related both to fear and success in such an undertaking. This collaborative model between colleges and correctional facilities has promise as a model for prison education.

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Identities, Education And Reentry: Performative Spaces And Enclosures, Randall Wright Oct 2014

Identities, Education And Reentry: Performative Spaces And Enclosures, Randall Wright

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This is part one of a two-part interdisciplinary paper that examines the various forces (discourses and institutional processes) that shape prisoner-student identities. Discourses of officers from a correctional website serve as a limited, single case study of discourses that ascribe dehumanized, stigmatized identities to "the prisoner." Two critical concepts, performative spaces and identity enclosures, are purposed as potential critical, emancipatory terms to explore the prisoner-student identity work that occurs in schools and elsewhere in prison. This paper is guided by the effort to assist teachers to act as transformative intellectuals in prisons and closed-custody settings by becoming more aware of …

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Commonwealth Times 2014-09-22 Sep 2014

Commonwealth Times 2014-09-22

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

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Ink (2014 Fall/Winter, Culture Cover) Sep 2014

Ink (2014 Fall/Winter, Culture Cover)

Ink, 2008-

The student-run features magazine covering the fashion, art, music and culture worlds at VCU and in Richmond. Published annually in print and updated regularly online.

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(Untitled), Christine Navin May 2014

(Untitled), Christine Navin

Theses and Dissertations

For millennia humanity’s preoccupation with time and its own mortality has proven to be elemental in what makes a civilization tick. This concern has been a focal point of philosophy, science, and religion. The measuring system of time asserts itself daily through the Danse Macabre, daily motions and memento mori — the things at every corner of civilization.

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Roles Of Seed Dispersal And Environmental Filters In Establishment Of The Dominant Shrubs: Morella Cerifera And M. Pensylvanica, On An Atlantic Barrier Island, Benjamin Dows May 2014

Roles Of Seed Dispersal And Environmental Filters In Establishment Of The Dominant Shrubs: Morella Cerifera And M. Pensylvanica, On An Atlantic Barrier Island, Benjamin Dows

Theses and Dissertations

Patterns of the expansion of woody cover into grasslands on barrier islands of the Virginia coast were investigated. Seed dispersal of the dominant shrub Morella spp., was sampled deploying seed traps (n = 82) throughout a landscape under shrub encroachment pressure on Hog Island, VA. Traps were placed underneath: fruiting Morella, non-fruiting Morella, co-occurring species (Iva frutescens and Baccharis halimifolia) and in grass land, (no shrub cover). Environmental filters that act upon dispersed seeds and subsequently determine establishment patterns were also investigated. Dispersal distribution throughout the encroachment zone was leptokurtic and dispersal among cover types suggest co-occurring shrub species facilitate …

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Approaches To Reduce Selection Of Genomic Variants In Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture, Marion Riggs May 2014

Approaches To Reduce Selection Of Genomic Variants In Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture, Marion Riggs

Theses and Dissertations

Optimizing culture conditions that reduce genomic instability in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) is an unmet challenge in the field. Results from our lab and numerous research groups demonstrate that hPSCs are prone to genomic aberrations and single-cell passaging increases the rate of genomic alterations. However, single-cell based passaging maintains advantages for scale-up and standardizing differentiation protocols. In this study, we investigated the problem of genomic instability in hPSC cultures with the goal towards identifying and characterizing candidate genes that could contribute to generation and survival of abnormal hPSCs. Based on microarray analysis, we identify ARHGDIA, located on 17q25, as …

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Four Seasons, Morgan Pearse May 2014

Four Seasons, Morgan Pearse

Theses and Dissertations

FOUR SEASONS By Morgan Pearse, MFA. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Art in Sculpture + Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014. Major Director: Matt King, Assistant professor, Sculpture + Extended Media. Fantasy functions in a mental space. Cyberspace is a fantasy world. Cyberspace is a mental space mediated by the individual, but also through/into itself. What does an internal thought mean when it is directed towards strangers via online avatar? The Internet exists. Your body exists. There is something in between. There is no singular …

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Threshold, Marisa Finos May 2014

Threshold, Marisa Finos

Theses and Dissertations

Are the threshold experiences encountered between waking and sleeping similar to the liminal space between life and death? The sights, sounds, and bodily sensations experienced in the unconscious void blur the lines between the unknown and our conscious existence. Using the figure, I portray how the body might exist in these transitional moments. Through my investigations into sleep paralysis, dream states, and notions of an afterlife and the soul, I explore how we perceive the self in these altered states of consciousness.

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Erratic Boulders, Julie Malen May 2014

Erratic Boulders, Julie Malen

Theses and Dissertations

Exploring how the material environment affects human knowledge of the world is an ongoing investigation in my studio. With this tactile exploration I am also looking to discover how histories and cultures overlap constantly and in close proximity within my daily experience. By collaging natural fragments and cultural debris in my installations, I seek to exaggerate this overlap and create the dizzying feeling of moving through many places at once. Cultural and historical overlapping also occurs in the phenomena of erratic boulders, which refers to the depositing of boulders, rocks, sediments and other materials that receding glaciers leave behind. This …

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Thinking Bodies And Sensational Minds: Affect And Embodiment In Contemporary Art, Sandra Burke May 2014

Thinking Bodies And Sensational Minds: Affect And Embodiment In Contemporary Art, Sandra Burke

Theses and Dissertations

The human subject is profoundly interdependent, in relation to other people and to the surrounding environment, both “natural” and technological. Western dualistic thinking creates bounded and oppositional categories and generates a conception of human subjects as autonomous, self-sufficient beings that are transparent to themselves and in control of self, other, and world. This contributes to the ongoing inequalities in society and supports normative hegemony. This dissertation argues that it is imperative to insist on the intersubjective, permeable, and contingent qualities of existence. While this project is preceded by a great deal of theoretical criticism of Western metaphysical dualism, we must …

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A Passive Acoustic And Experimental Study Of Juvenile Blue Catfish, Ictalurus Furcatus, Sound Production And Agnostic Behavior In The Tidal Freshwater James River, Laura Morgan May 2014

A Passive Acoustic And Experimental Study Of Juvenile Blue Catfish, Ictalurus Furcatus, Sound Production And Agnostic Behavior In The Tidal Freshwater James River, Laura Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

Blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, are an invasive species in the James River, VA. They produce stridulation sounds and passive acoustic monitoring may prove useful in locating and monitoring their populations. Little is known about their behavior, therefore my goal was to examine agonistic behavior and the use of sound in defending a territory. This thesis consists of two manuscripts: 1) A passive acoustic study of the tidal freshwater James River, 2) An experimental study of agonistic behavior in juvenile Blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus. The first study showed that three sounds (click, run croak) occurred more often in warmer months than …

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Planar Cell Polarity And Neurodevelopment, Simon Sun May 2014

Planar Cell Polarity And Neurodevelopment, Simon Sun

Theses and Dissertations

Planar cell polarity (PCP) is a developmental signaling mechanism that establishes a polarity within the plane of an epithelium. PCP has been shown to play a role in guiding numerous neurodevelopmental processes such as convergent extension, neuron migration, and axon pathfinding. Certain commissural neurons in the dorsal spinal cord make a series of guidance decisions en route to the brain: first, a ventral projection along the D-V axis, followed by a midline crossing, and after exiting the floorplate, a dorso-anterior turn along the A-P axis. Here, we provide in vivo evidence that the axons of the Commissural Primary Ascending (CoPAs) …

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Understanding The Role Of Stylochus Ellipticus As A Predator Of Crassostrea Virginica In Chesapeake Bay Tributaries, Marion Kensey Barker May 2014

Understanding The Role Of Stylochus Ellipticus As A Predator Of Crassostrea Virginica In Chesapeake Bay Tributaries, Marion Kensey Barker

Theses and Dissertations

Predation may be a key component of the unsuccessful restoration of the Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica), a former keystone species in Chesapeake Bay. Here, I examine the polyclad flatworm Stylochus ellipticus and its potential role as an important predator of C. virginica. Using small-fragment size C. virginica specific DNA primers, oyster DNA was successfully detected in whole organisms homogenates of wild-caught S. ellipticus individuals. Of the 1,575 individuals tested, 68.1% tested positive, thus predation occurred. Predation did not appear to be affected by salinity or temperature; however, season did appear to have an effect on both predation and S. ellipticus …

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Student Education & Character Building Center Adaptive Reuse Project, Latonia M. Ricks-Chavis May 2014

Student Education & Character Building Center Adaptive Reuse Project, Latonia M. Ricks-Chavis

Theses and Dissertations

There are many programs throughout the world and in the state of Virginia that have been developed to change the outlook of youth on a broader spectrum. Youth in at risk communities face a different set of parameters and are often mislabeled as "bad kids". Many of these youth simply need an environment filled with positive energy. This redesign will create an environment that guides through intuition and the understanding of angles and markers that are considered universal in all languages. The space will open up a world that is non-institutional and without the normal boundaries and pressures of typical …

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Relationship Of Mitochondrial Enzymes To Fatigue Intensity And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Men With Prostate Cancer Receiving External Beam Radiation Therapy, Kristin Filler May 2014

Relationship Of Mitochondrial Enzymes To Fatigue Intensity And Health-Related Quality Of Life In Men With Prostate Cancer Receiving External Beam Radiation Therapy, Kristin Filler

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Cancer-related fatigue is often described by patients as a lack of energy, mental or physical tiredness, diminished endurance, and prolonged recovery after activity. Etiologic mechanisms underlying CRF are not well understood. Methods: A literature review was conducted to examine studies that had investigated the association of mitochondrial dysfunction with fatigue. The major conclusion from this review was that alterations in energy metabolism may contribute to fatigue. Therefore, the dissertation study focused on laboratory techniques for measuring mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation enzymes (complexes I-V) and a mitochondrial-specific oxidative stress marker (superoxide dismutase 2 [SOD2]). The primary aim of the dissertation research …

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Conspecific Attraction In A Low-Density Population Of A Threatened Songbird, Daniel James Albrecht-Mallinger May 2014

Conspecific Attraction In A Low-Density Population Of A Threatened Songbird, Daniel James Albrecht-Mallinger

Theses and Dissertations

Many organisms use both vegetation structure and social cues in selecting habitats. Many species of songbirds use the presence of breeding conspecifics as a social cue and sign of habitat quality, and can be induced to settle in unoccupied habitats by artificially broadcasting breeding song, a process referred to as “conspecific attraction”. In our study, we tested response to conspecific attraction a low-density population of the threatened Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) in Highland County, VA. Response to broadcast song was observed, with a modest increase in mean male abundance at survey points within 250 meters of treatments, and mean abundance …

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Unification, Agency, Systemization, Intuition: My Art Making Process And Ideas, Zachary Duer May 2014

Unification, Agency, Systemization, Intuition: My Art Making Process And Ideas, Zachary Duer

Theses and Dissertations

This essay is an attempt to describe my ideas about my work, my process, and my philosophy of art by examining five of the major pieces I created during the pursuit of a Master of Fine Arts degree at Virginia Commonwealth University. I will discuss the pieces in chronological order, first providing a description of the works’ salient characteristics, then delving into both my specific thoughts about the work as well as the background ideas that were pertinent to me during my process of creation.

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Threading Art: The Dynamics Of Costume Design And Costume Studies., Tavares De Melo Isabela Marchi May 2014

Threading Art: The Dynamics Of Costume Design And Costume Studies., Tavares De Melo Isabela Marchi

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this research is to demonstrate the strong relationship between design and history in the process of studying and creating costumes for theatre. Costumes are considered an important area in the study of material culture, which has been given more visibility within academia. Over the past few decades, the number of museums and universities with collections dedicated exclusively to costumes and textiles has noticeably increased, recognizing them as works of art worthy of being preserved. Considering costumes’ ability to document time and space, and to visually tell stories, many theatre departments have implemented methods to organize their …

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Structural Alterations To The Axon Initial Segment Following Diffuse Axonal Injury As A Consequence Of Age, William Behl May 2014

Structural Alterations To The Axon Initial Segment Following Diffuse Axonal Injury As A Consequence Of Age, William Behl

Theses and Dissertations

An epidemiological shift towards the elderly population has occurred in traumatic brain injury (TBI). Age is believed to be one of the strongest prognostic indicators following TBI. Diffuse axonal injury (DAI), a prevalent feature of TBI, is believed to be the primary cause for much of the morbidity and mortality associated with TBI. The pathobiology associated with DAI is believed to occur in response to the primary injury in a progressive, secondary fashion. Though the injury mechanisms behind DAI have been shown to occur at numerous sites along the axon, recent work suggests that the axon initial segment (AIS) may …

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Hybrid Gulf — Excavating Future Identities, Robert Canak May 2014

Hybrid Gulf — Excavating Future Identities, Robert Canak

Theses and Dissertations

This Project examines the coexistence of two cultures?–?in this case the host Gulf, and the imported Western?–?and addresses certain problems that still need attention. This Project celebrates the creation of the third, hybrid, culture as a result of their intermingling. In this Research, Postcolonial Theory? and Transitional Object Theory? are used as conceptual frameworks, and are combined with Archaeology and Design as a practice. On a personal level, the Project evolved out of my cross-cultural origin and experiences. On an academic level, the Project serves as an experiment, trying to fill the gaps in the Gulf region’s search for identity. …

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Personified - Objects With Personalities That Illustrate Applied Empathy As A Mechanism To Document Qatar’S Changing Phenomena., Maryam Al-Homaid May 2014

Personified - Objects With Personalities That Illustrate Applied Empathy As A Mechanism To Document Qatar’S Changing Phenomena., Maryam Al-Homaid

Theses and Dissertations

In the past, a user’s interaction with objects was usually limited to a core function. Whereas today, there is a trend toward objects that can offer multi-layered experiences with the potential to not only serve a core function, but to communicate information and emotion. These interactions offer a give-and-take relationship between the user and the object, with the potential for characteristics, individualistic features, and even personalities to appear. Interactions with such objects provide the potential for empathic relationships to form between human and object. Empathy becomes the bond that gives a user the opportunity to view the world from the …

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Queeranimal Imaginary: An Intra-Active Investigation Of Ecology, Performance, And Sound, Caryn Brissey Apr 2014

Queeranimal Imaginary: An Intra-Active Investigation Of Ecology, Performance, And Sound, Caryn Brissey

Theses and Dissertations

Through interrelated experiments in writing, video, sound, and movement, this research investigates the intersections of intimacy, ecology, and performance. Integrating an autoethnographic approach to gender and sexuality with creative practice and theoretical inquiry, this layered investigation offers implications that are both deeply personal and widely accessible. I am using my own experiences growing up as a queer child to generative corporeal and experience-based material, while also incorporating the ideas of current queer and gender theorists to frame my own research within the larger context of feminist studies. This research culminated into an evening length performance at Dogtown Dance Theatre on …

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Indirect Effects Between Deer, Mice, And The Gypsy Moth In A Forest Community, John Wojcikiewicz Apr 2014

Indirect Effects Between Deer, Mice, And The Gypsy Moth In A Forest Community, John Wojcikiewicz

Theses and Dissertations

White-tailed deer are ecosystem engineers that dramatically alter forest understory vegetation. Consequently, deer can impact many species in a forest through both direct and indirect effects. One species that deer may indirectly affect is the gypsy moth, whose pupae are preyed upon by the white-footed mouse. Through alterations to understory habitat of mice, deer may reduce mouse predation on gypsy moth pupae. In this study, I tested for indirect effects of deer on the gypsy moth by comparing mouse abundance, vegetation properties, and predation on pupae inside, and outside, of long-term deer exclosures. Overall, I did not find evidence for …

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Forest Net Primary Production Resistance Across A Gradient Of Moderate Disturbance, Ellen Goodrich-Stuart Apr 2014

Forest Net Primary Production Resistance Across A Gradient Of Moderate Disturbance, Ellen Goodrich-Stuart

Theses and Dissertations

The global carbon (C) balance is vulnerable to disturbances that alter terrestrial C uptake and loss. Moderate disturbances that kill or defoliate only a subset of canopy trees such as insect defoliation, drought, and age-related senescence are increasing in extent and frequency; yet, little is known about the effect of moderate disturbance on forest production and the mechanisms sustaining or supporting the recovery of the C cycle across a range of moderate disturbance severities. We used a broad plot-scale gradient of upper canopy tree mortality within a large manipulation of forest disturbance to: 1) quantify how aboveground wood net primary …

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Camping Out, Mike Linskie Apr 2014

Camping Out, Mike Linskie

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores my personal mythology, and its relation to all things found not only in my studio practice but the work itself. Biographical anecdotes are shared as well as ideas on drawing, home décor, collecting, craft, art history, storytelling, and camp. Camp provides the space in which all aspects of my practice and work reside.

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Untitled, Adriane Connerton Apr 2014

Untitled, Adriane Connerton

Theses and Dissertations

This text is an exploration of the ideas and work that I made in 2014.

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Child As Other: The Crisis Of Representing Childhood, Cynthia Henebry Apr 2014

Child As Other: The Crisis Of Representing Childhood, Cynthia Henebry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores my own work in the context of historical and contemporary representations of children. Because the child’s experience is essentially unknowable to the adult, issues of control that are always at play between photographer and subject are highlighted when an adult is the photographer and a child is the subject. This is evident when we examine and compare the photographs of children that have so far existed as well as the contexts in which they were made. While I believe that complete resolution of these issues is all but impossible, my work and research is motivated by a …

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