Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Virginia Commonwealth University

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 2191 - 2220 of 5390

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Intra-Mitochondrial Injury During Ischemia-Reperfusion, Hema Aluri May 2013

Intra-Mitochondrial Injury During Ischemia-Reperfusion, Hema Aluri

Theses and Dissertations

Cardiac injury is increased following ischemia-reperfusion. Mitochondria are the “effector organelles” that are damaged during ischemia (ISC) when there is no blood flow. Resumption of metabolism by damaged mitochondria during reperfusion (REP) results in increased cell injury. Current therapeutic interventions to pre-condition and post-condition the heart during ISC are ineffective during certain conditions like aging and diabetes due to defects in the signaling cascades. In contrast, mitochondrial-based strategies are effective in protecting the heart during ISC-REP. Hence direct therapeutic targeting of dysfunctional mitochondria will provide the potential to bypass the upstream signaling defects and intervene directly upon the effector organelle. …

Go to article

A Hole In The Wall, Carl Marin May 2013

A Hole In The Wall, Carl Marin

Theses and Dissertations

A collection of life experiences, and inter-monologues that attempt to shed light on my artistic process.

Go to article

Automatic Segmentation Of Pressure Images Acquired In A Clinical Setting, Anathea Pepperl May 2013

Automatic Segmentation Of Pressure Images Acquired In A Clinical Setting, Anathea Pepperl

Theses and Dissertations

One of the major obstacles to pressure ulcer research is the difficulty in accurately measuring mechanical loading of specific anatomical sites. A human motion analysis system capable of automatically segmenting a patient's body into high-risk areas can greatly improve the ability of researchers and clinicians to understand how pressure ulcers develop in a hospital environment. This project has developed automated computational methods and algorithms to analyze pressure images acquired in a hospital setting. The algorithm achieved 99% overall accuracy for the classification of pressure images into three pose classes (left lateral, supine, and right lateral). An applied kinematic model estimated …

Go to article

Domestic In Nature, Emily Shepardson May 2013

Domestic In Nature, Emily Shepardson

Theses and Dissertations

I am a painter and a printmaker. My imagery consists of houses, barns, birds, trees, hands, and gloves. On the surface these items represent home, nature, and female identity. On another level they symbolize an inner world of dreams, wishes, and losses. My paintings contain aspects of collage, they combine paint, paper, and low relief. I paint layers of transparent and opaque images and colors in order to achieve a dreamy and ethereal effect. In printmaking, I combine my imagery in layers by printing small plates and stencils next to and on top of one another until a dense, multifaceted …

Go to article

Work | Space (The Laborer Revealed), Nicole Farrand May 2013

Work | Space (The Laborer Revealed), Nicole Farrand

Theses and Dissertations

There is always a moment, within the act of work, when the decision comes into question; the mind is aware of the goal, seeking out the destination, but the body brings the reality of the task to light, at first whispering its doubts, then speaking in full volume. The physical intensity of the creation of my work enlivens this debate between the consciousness of my intellect and the limitations of my being. The act of defining myself as an artist serves as a challenge to my body’s capabilities as a maker. Through this relationship with my work, I have become …

Go to article

Modernization Of The Mock Circulatory Loop: Advanced Physical Modeling, High Performance Hardware, And Incorporation Of Anatomical Models, Charles Taylor May 2013

Modernization Of The Mock Circulatory Loop: Advanced Physical Modeling, High Performance Hardware, And Incorporation Of Anatomical Models, Charles Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

A systemic mock circulatory loop plays a pivotal role as the in vitro assessment tool for left heart medical devices. The standard design employed by many research groups dates to the early 1970's, and lacks the acuity needed for the advanced device designs currently being explored. The necessity to update the architecture of this in vitro tool has become apparent as the historical design fails to deliver the performance needed to simulate conditions and events that have been clinically identified as challenges for future device designs. In order to appropriately deliver the testing solution needed, a comprehensive evaluation of the …

Go to article

Inhibition Of Retinoic Acid Receptors Results In Defasciculation Of The Trigeminal Nerve In Xenopus Laevis, Jeremy Thompson May 2013

Inhibition Of Retinoic Acid Receptors Results In Defasciculation Of The Trigeminal Nerve In Xenopus Laevis, Jeremy Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

The anatomy of the cranial peripheral nervous system has been studied for over a century, yet surprisingly little is known about how the nerves are guided to their targets. The study of the development of these nerves has important implications for our understanding of craniofacial anomalies and possible treatments for both injury and genetic disorders of nerve development such as Goldenhar-Gorlin syndrome. We have discovered that retinoic acid (RA) may play a role in the development of the trigeminal nerve. Inhibition of retinoic acid receptors (RAR) results in trigeminal nerves that become unbundled or defasciculated in the eye region. To …

Go to article

Fragments Of Social Life, Rachel Leah Cohn May 2013

Fragments Of Social Life, Rachel Leah Cohn

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines selected events from biography and how those events have influenced my philosophies about art-making as well as the work I have produced while a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University. This thesis is an attempt to give an expanded context for my work through various lenses, including the personal, the traumatic, the historical and the material.

Go to article

Remembering To Look Down: A Thing Not A Thesis, George Ian Mcmahon May 2013

Remembering To Look Down: A Thing Not A Thesis, George Ian Mcmahon

Theses and Dissertations

Thoughts on magic, spectacle, arena, material, materiality, marrow, invincibility, repetition, performance, sculpture, time, decay, temporality, tools, marks, gestures, writing, coaxing, site, stage, architecture, and movement.

Go to article

Shift, Gittins George May 2013

Shift, Gittins George

Theses and Dissertations

Using Eduard Manet and Alex Katz as an entry point into my work, I will discuss seven of my paintings in detail. I will examine formal structures within the work such as color and space and how they relate to the content. I will discuss ideas of voyeurism and notions of the gaze while examining film as a presence. Artifice, art history, desire, personal memory, nostalgia and everyday life are starting points for formal explorations within the work.

Go to article

Effects Of Ischemia And Reperfusion On The Local Regulation Of Oxygen Consumption, Tissue Oxygenation And Blood Supply In Rat Skeletal Muscle., Sami Dodhy May 2013

Effects Of Ischemia And Reperfusion On The Local Regulation Of Oxygen Consumption, Tissue Oxygenation And Blood Supply In Rat Skeletal Muscle., Sami Dodhy

Theses and Dissertations

In resting muscle, blood flow is regulated to meet the demand for O2 by the tissue. A modified ischemia (I)/reperfusion(R) investigation was systematically run and PISFO2, PaO2, Q and VO2 were observed. Twenty-nine spinotrapezius muscles from male Sprague-Dawley rats (284±20 grams) were surgically exteriorized for intravital microscopy to test a model relating blood flow, O2 supply and O2 demand. The model can aid in the understanding of the regulation of tissue PO2. The interstitial PO2 (PISFO2) and perivascular PO2 (PaO2) measurements were made using phosphorescence quenching microscopy (PQM). O2 consumption (VO2) values were obtained with a quasi-continuous, flash-synchronized, pressurized airbag …

Go to article

Naturalis Historia, Reconstructed, Sarah Briland May 2013

Naturalis Historia, Reconstructed, Sarah Briland

Theses and Dissertations

When Pliny the Elder wrote Naturalis Historia around 70 A.D., the idea of natural history contained and connected biology, geology, and mineralogy with the history of painting and sculpture. Art was an extension of the natural world as its materials were extracted from plants, animals, and, particularly, mined and quarried pigments, stone, and metals. In my developing body of work, Incidents of Naturalis Historia, Reconstructed, I combine wasps’ nests, architectural fragments, and other found objects excavated from my surrounding environment with elements of glass that resemble lichen, crystallization, and geologic specimens. These works simulate artifacts of an alternative history; one …

Go to article

Hissār, Sohail Abdullah May 2013

Hissār, Sohail Abdullah

Theses and Dissertations

Hissaar is a noun and a verb, it is the periphery and the extremities, and the walls and the fortress. And it is to encircle, to wrap and to contain. This paper is an inexhaustive account of thoughts, experiences and lessons learned, of varying forms that influence my aesthetic sensibilities, my art-value system, and my art- ethical concerns. They provide for my art the impetus for its perpetual (and perhaps circular) journey. It is about finding connections between the fraying ends of free floating ideas. The following fragments explores how words make ideas, ideas make images, images make memory; memory …

Go to article

Locus, Claire Krueger May 2013

Locus, Claire Krueger

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores my practice as it has progressed into video and video installation. I detail my use of cinematic tropes and mechanisms as they function within a spatial installation. I discuss the relationship of my work to other artists such as Pierre Huyghe, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, and Kevin Cooley who also deal with themes of landscape, spatial displacement, and video viewing. My work has evolved to video installation from a need to experience the traditionally flat viewing plane of photography in a more experiential way. The Locus installation is multi sensory, in that it addresses smell, …

Go to article

Differential Behavioral Effects Of Ketamine Between Adolescent And Adult Sprague-Dawley Rats, Maria A. Greenwood May 2013

Differential Behavioral Effects Of Ketamine Between Adolescent And Adult Sprague-Dawley Rats, Maria A. Greenwood

Theses and Dissertations

The dissociative anesthetic ketamine has been subject to growing abuse worldwide, particularly in adolescents. This project compared the effects of ketamine in conditioned place preference and intravenous self-administration in adolescent (PND 28-50) and adult (>PND70) Sprague-Dawley rats. Cocaine served as a positive control. In CPP, adolescents demonstrated preferences for ketamine, while adults developed an aversion. In the self-administration procedure, adults acquired the behavior more rapidly, but there was no difference in the percentage of subjects reaching acquisition nor in responding under a progressive ratio schedule for either drug. The CPP results suggest that adolescents have a greater sensitivity to …

Go to article

Underlying Conditions, Mariam Eqbal May 2013

Underlying Conditions, Mariam Eqbal

Theses and Dissertations

The following is a collection of lines, curves, and dots on a plane, representing words fashioned to communicate my ideas about relationships between the thing and the nothing. This thesis is like a map, a contour drawing, an assortment of lines, speaking my thoughts about things in relation to space and time. As something moving, developing into another thing, as a thing sentient, I am viewing, performing, and processing incremental acts. I am looking at water and I can see my reflection break into a thousand pieces. It is like watching time.

Go to article

Narrowing The Gap Between Imaginary And Real Artifacts: A Process For Making And Filming Diegetic Prototypes, Al Hussein Wanas May 2013

Narrowing The Gap Between Imaginary And Real Artifacts: A Process For Making And Filming Diegetic Prototypes, Al Hussein Wanas

Theses and Dissertations

Critical Design uses designed artifacts as a critique of consumer culture. However, the complex nature of these artifacts prompted designers to focus on the artifact and present it in an informative, but relatively isolated fashion.The theoretical framework for this thesis is drawn from a similar, yet more recent, design criterion called Design Fiction. The artifacts of Design Fiction are called Diegetic Prototypes: fictional prototypes that function in the social sphere of a film’s structure. This research develops a method for analyzing and creating artifacts, in reference to psychoanalysis theories on the human psyche and perception of objects. It then explores …

Go to article

Determinants Of Abuse-Related Effects Of Monoamine Releasers In Rats, Clayton T. Bauer May 2013

Determinants Of Abuse-Related Effects Of Monoamine Releasers In Rats, Clayton T. Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

Monoamine releasers constitute a class of compounds that promote release of dopamine, serotonin, and/or norepinephrine. These compounds have a range of different uses in the medical setting, including treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, narcolepsy, and obesity. A major limitation of many of these compounds (i.e. amphetamine, methamphetamine, phenmetrazine) is their propensity for abuse; however, not all monoamine releasers are abused (i.e. fenfluramine). The goal of this dissertation was to examine pharmacological determinants of abuse-related effects produced by monoamine releasers in two preclinical assays in rats: intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) and drug discrimination. First, this work confirmed and expanded upon previous …

Go to article

Shockheaded Peter: A Junk Opera. Costume Design., J. Theresa Bush May 2013

Shockheaded Peter: A Junk Opera. Costume Design., J. Theresa Bush

Theses and Dissertations

My concept is rooted in the fairy tail land of the dark woods like so many other terrifying fairy tails from my youth. Shockheaded Peter, our boogie man, is of the trees. The blood of the rotten children feeds the trees in this concept for the marbles that fall from our children literally representing blood will flow down the rake, across tin gutters, and into a huge tin washbasin out of which grows our gnarly set tree, a gnarly knobby willow. Peter comes from this tree that is fed by the blood of children. I set my costumes in the …

Go to article

Tissue Engineering Composite Biomimetic Gelatin Sponges For Bone Regeneration, Isaac Rodriguez May 2013

Tissue Engineering Composite Biomimetic Gelatin Sponges For Bone Regeneration, Isaac Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

The field of tissue engineering aims to develop viable substitutes with the ability to repair and regenerate the functions of damaged tissue. Common practices to supplement bone regeneration in larger defects include bone graft biomaterials such as autografts, allografts, xenografts, and synthetic biomaterials. Autologous bone grafting is the current gold-standard procedure used to replace missing or damaged bone. However, these grafts have disadvantages such as donor site morbidity, limited availability, and the need for a secondary surgery. The focus of this study is to tissue engineer a lyophilized gelatin composite sponge composed of hydroxyapatite (HA), chitin whiskers (CW), and preparations …

Go to article

Effects Of Mu Opioid Receptor Agonists On Intracranial Self-Stimulation In The Absence And Presence Of “Pain” In Rats, Ahmad Altarifi May 2013

Effects Of Mu Opioid Receptor Agonists On Intracranial Self-Stimulation In The Absence And Presence Of “Pain” In Rats, Ahmad Altarifi

Theses and Dissertations

Pain is a significant health problem. Mu opioid receptor agonists are used clinically as analgesics, but their use is constrained by high abuse liability. Intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) is a preclinical behavioral procedure that has been used to assess abuse potential of opioids, and drug-induced facilitation of ICSS is interpreted as an abuse-related effect. ICSS can also be used as a behavioral baseline to detect affective dimensions of pain. Specifically, pain-related depression of ICSS can model pain-related depression of behavior and mood, and drug-induced blockade of pain-related ICSS depression can serve as a measure of affective analgesia. This dissertation used mu …

Go to article

Accuracy Of Limited Field Cone Beam Computed Tomography In The Detection Of Buccal Cortical Plate Perforations Due To Periapical Lesions, Dan-Linh Ha May 2013

Accuracy Of Limited Field Cone Beam Computed Tomography In The Detection Of Buccal Cortical Plate Perforations Due To Periapical Lesions, Dan-Linh Ha

Theses and Dissertations

Pre-surgical planning for endodontic microsurgery is facilitated by the use of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). The purpose of this study was to determine whether limited field CBCT accurately predicts buccal cortical plate perforations due to endodontic lesions. Thirty-five roots that underwent microsurgical root end resection were included in this study. Prior to the surgery, 90 voxel CBCTs were taken with a Carestream 9300. The scans were analyzed by an endodontic resident and oral radiologist to determine the presence of a perforation in the buccal plate. These findings were compared to the clinical appearance of the bone. There was a …

Go to article

Microbial Evaluation Of The Calamus Heated Gutta-Percha Delivery System, Christopher Smart Dds May 2013

Microbial Evaluation Of The Calamus Heated Gutta-Percha Delivery System, Christopher Smart Dds

Theses and Dissertations

If gutta-percha cartridges are contaminated with bacteria prior to obturation then contamination of the root canal system may result. Successful treatment not only depends on bacterial elimination but also depends on prevention of recontamination. This study was motivated by the observation that endodontists frequently use single use gutta-percha cartridges on multiple patients. The goal of this study was to determine if cross contamination occurred when a single gutta-percha cartridge in the Calamus™ Flow System was used on multiple patients. An effective recovery method was established during a pilot study using Enterococcus faecalis as a sample bacterium. Microbial recovery was obtained …

Go to article

Lashes To Ashes, Exploring The Hidden Dimensions Of Human Hair, Rania Chamsine May 2013

Lashes To Ashes, Exploring The Hidden Dimensions Of Human Hair, Rania Chamsine

Theses and Dissertations

Hair is power, beauty and seduction: a reflection of ethnicity and religion, and even a canvas for self-expression. A key feature in defining identity and social status, it holds the essence of our individuality. However, once removed from its original and natural setting—the epidermis—hair is seen as waste, and often evokes disgust. The objective of this thesis is to explore human hair, which particularly in the Arabic-Islamic region, carries great significance and raises many religious, cultural, and gender issues. Through design, and informed by critical design theory, I explore how this corporeal material can be reused and re-presented as a …

Go to article

Not Another Space Suit: Fusing Technology And Indigenous Solutions To Facilitate Thermal Comfort, Alia Khairat May 2013

Not Another Space Suit: Fusing Technology And Indigenous Solutions To Facilitate Thermal Comfort, Alia Khairat

Theses and Dissertations

Unseen, unheard and unconsidered, Qatar’s migrant worker population is building one of the richest countries in the world. They labor in Qatar’s high heat index1 climate, which is coincidentally comparable to an Oriental sauna, wearing the most rudimentary of clothes. Working up to 60 hours a week, migrant workers fall victim to heat stress and dozens are hospitalized daily, starting as early as March and increasing in numbers during the peak months of June to August. Since clothes are essentially a “second skin,” affecting the rate and efficiency with which heat is exchanged between the body and its surroundings, a …

Go to article

Effect Of Cannabinoids On Pain-Stimulated And Pain-Depressed Behavior In Rats, Andrew Kwilasz May 2013

Effect Of Cannabinoids On Pain-Stimulated And Pain-Depressed Behavior In Rats, Andrew Kwilasz

Theses and Dissertations

Cannabinoids produce antinociception in many preclinical models of acute and chronic pain. In contrast, cannabinoids produce inconsistent analgesia in humans, showing little or no efficacy in treating acute pain, with modest efficacy in treating chronic inflammatory pain. This discrepancy may reflect an overreliance on preclinical assays of pain-stimulated behaviors, defined as behaviors that increase in rate or intensity following delivery of a noxious stimulus. In these assays, antinociception is indicated by a reduction in pain-stimulated behaviors, and antinociception is produced either by a reduction in sensory sensitivity to the noxious stimulus (i.e. true analgesia) or by false positive motor impairment. …

Go to article

Race, Power, And White Womanhood: The Obsessions Of Tom Watson And Thomas Dixon Jr., Tara Nicole Kowasic May 2013

Race, Power, And White Womanhood: The Obsessions Of Tom Watson And Thomas Dixon Jr., Tara Nicole Kowasic

Theses and Dissertations

Thomas Dixon Jr. (1864 -1946) and Thomas E. Watson (1856-1922), two controversial and radical figures, are often credited with the second coming of the Ku Klux Klan. Dixon, writer of novels and plays such as The Leopard’s Spots (1902) and The Clansman (1905), and Watson, politician, prolific writer, and publisher of Watson’s Magazine and The Jeffersonian, reached the masses and saturated popular culture with their racial agenda. As each of these men had especially long careers, this thesis focuses on particular times and specific issues. With Dixon, the writing of The Clansman (1905) and production of The Birth of a …

Go to article

A Network View On Neurodegenerative Disorders, Sreedevi Chandrasekaran May 2013

A Network View On Neurodegenerative Disorders, Sreedevi Chandrasekaran

Theses and Dissertations

Neurodegeneration is a chronic, progressive and debilitating condition that affects majority of the World's elderly population who are at greater risk. Numerous scientific studies suggest that there could be a common underlying molecular mechanism that promotes the degeneration and the subsequent neuronal loss, however so far the progress in this direction is rather limited. Abnormal protein misfoldings, as well as protein plaque formations in the brain, are some of the hallmark characteristic features of neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs). Genetic and environmental factors, oxidative stress, excessive reactive oxygen species formation, mitochondrial dysfunction, energy depletion and autophagy disruption etc. are some of the …

Go to article

Myelin Is Not Required For Maintenance Of The Axon Initial Segment, Anna Josephson May 2013

Myelin Is Not Required For Maintenance Of The Axon Initial Segment, Anna Josephson

Theses and Dissertations

Axonal pathology is a major contributor to impaired motor, sensory and cognitive dysfunction associated with multiple sclerosis particularly with the progressive forms of the disease. However, the early pathologic events responsible for axonal deterioration remain unclear. It is well recognized that maintaining proper axonal function is intimately related to proper establishment and maintenance of axonal domains such as the node of Ranvier and the axon initial segment (AIS). Numerous laboratories, including ours, have investigated the mechanisms that regulate node of Ranvier formation and maintenance. These studies have shown that node of Ranvier formation and maintenance require myelin contact. Interestingly, many …

Go to article

Opportunities For The Sustainable Use Of The Camel In Qatar, Corby Jayne Elford May 2013

Opportunities For The Sustainable Use Of The Camel In Qatar, Corby Jayne Elford

Theses and Dissertations

In the course of the modernization of Qatar, the need for camels has greatly diminished; herds have reduced in numbers and are now confined to enclosures. Overall, neglect of this valuable resource means that the camel is threatened with extinction. Currently, there is a need to address problems about sustainable development in Qatar by taking actions such as investing in the existing natural heritage to develop the use of indigenous animals like the camel. Through a review of past and present use of the native dromedary, a new type of sustainable agritourism will be developed that will provide a type …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last