Digital Commons Network^™

Novel Time-Since-Deposition Signatures For Canine Blood; Implications For Animal Cruelty Investigations, Alysia M. Townsley

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

Dogfighting is a felony in all 50 states and is often tied to other organized crime activities including gambling, narcotics, and weapons trafficking. Because of the clandestine nature of dogfighting crimes, it may be necessary to determine the age of blood samples from suspected events, not just the source. In this study, flow cytometry was used to identify cellular autofluorescence signatures for estimating TSD (time-since-deposition) in canine blood deposits up to 6 months old. To accomplish this, blood was taken from canines of various chronological ages and breeds, then deposited to create TSD samples ranging between 1 day and 180 …

A Parting Repast, Debra D. Dowden-Crockett

Theses and Dissertations

Both the thesis document and exhibition comprise the story of my journey through grief, examination of loss, contemplation of death, and transformation through acceptance and relinquishment. I conflate art and emotion to put form to the complex human experience of watching a loved one die, having to say a last goodbye, and the mourning that ultimately follows.

I examine the rituals surrounding death, the role of memory, and the symbolic presence of food as a shared experience of both mourning and nourishment, the intimate moments of mourning, and the gradual process of finding peace and closure.

Featuring works from a …

¡Bip Bip!, Diego Pablo Málaga Beckhart

Theses and Dissertations

¡Bip Bip! is a body of work that investigates the car as it exists in the American imagination, a metaphorical and physical object where culture, identity, and power intertwine. This work uses painting, printmaking, collage, video, and installation to explore the car as a space of expression, interiority, and understanding the world through a marginalized lens.

Central to my practice is my personal vehicle, Guadalupe, which functions as both muse and metaphor, the main driver of the framework within ¡Bip Bip! My practice examines the different but congruent contexts intersections of this iconic American symbol, the car. In my paintings, …

Inherited Wounds: Navigating Intergenerational Trauma Through Cooperative Play, Ayza Sheikh

Theses and Dissertations

'Strength' for Pakistani women is often defined as compromise, sacrifice, and silence. This definition has shaped intergenerational struggles in which women's self-narratives are constructed through suppression. Inherited Wounds seeks to address the trauma of suppression by creating a safe space for expression that fosters reflective and emotion-driven dialogue between Pakistani mothers and daughters.

Using interactive storytelling and embodied play, I developed a choice-based, narrative-driven video game and accompanying gesture-based controller. The game unfolds across childhood, marriage, and motherhood, mirroring the cycle of intergenerational struggle. Navigating choices in the game requires physical, intimate cooperation. The game uses the protagonist’s life as …

The Page And The Stage: How Comics Perform, Elizabeth Buccella

Theses and Dissertations

Comics and theatre share several, often overlooked similarities, like their unique concept of the gaze, interpretation and execution of a script, and the curation of a distinct visual language. This makes comics a viable candidate for analysis using the field of performance studies and other theatrical forms of analysis. The process of comics and how they are read is discussed before a brief literature review of performance and comics studies scholarship. Two comics, one nonfiction and one fiction, are analyzed using the key concepts from the literature review.

Treatment Resistant Obesity Among Midlife Women Receiving Care From A Specialized Weight Management Clinic, Emily C. Stevens

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Obesity is a complex chronic disease that conveys significant health risk. Women with obesity are at greater risk for associated conditions including heart disease, hypertension, ischemic stroke, and sex-specific cancers compared to their male counterparts. Midlife may present unique challenges for women as it is during this life phase that they experience an increase in their overall obesity prevalence and severity. Some midlife women experience treatment resistant obesity (TRO), a phenomenon not previously explored in the research literature, conceptualized as failure to achieve clinically meaningful weight loss of ≥ 5% after having received medically specialized obesity care for one …

Napoleon’S Corpse And The Subversion Of Historical And Political Authority, Alissa Rachel Adams

Art Inquiries

This article examines printed depictions of Napoleon Bonaparte’s exhumed corpse in conjunction with Romantic historical practice in nineteenth-century France. Current studies on history in the Romantic age emphasize Romantic historicism’s link to a widespread and frustrated yearning for direct access to the past that will settle the upheavals of the revolutionary period. This study considers how the corpse and its representations fulfill the desire for direct access to the past but, in doing so, also contributes to a proliferation of individual understandings of the past—and future. Through an analysis of representations of the corpse, their sources, and their connection to …

Commonwealth Times 2024-11-13

Commonwealth Times, 1969-

No abstract provided.

“We Don’T Do That”: Negotiating Graduate Education As A Bisexual+ Student, Kaity Prieto, Victoria B. Olivo

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Bisexual+ people comprise the largest portion of the queer and trans community, yet there is limited research on bi+ subpopulations and a particular absence of literature exploring bisexual+ student identities and experiences. Much of the extant bi+ college student literature has centered on undergraduate experiences, leaving graduate experiences underexplored. Through this narrative inquiry study, guided by a queer theoretical framework, we sought to understand how bi+ graduate students navigate academic and professional contexts and how systems of power influence their identity negotiation narratives. Findings revealed pervasive bisexual+ erasure in academic contexts, pressure to conform to normative notions of professionalism, and …

Digital Place-Futures Outside A Colonial Metaversal Imaginary: Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’S We Are Here Because Of Those That Are Not As Critical Digital Place-Craft, Luke A. Meeken

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

In this piece, the author analyzes a recorded digital walk through Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s WE ARE HERE BECAUSE OF THOSE THAT ARE NOT, a digital archival place designed to contain, protect, and share the experiences of Black trans people. The author’s encounter with Brathwaite-Shirley’s work is contextualized and analyzed through critical and decolonial place lenses and digital materialist lenses. Particular attention is paid to the ways physical and digital places crafted in colonial contexts bodily habituate settler-colonial sensibilities. The author examines how the critical digital placemaking strategies practiced by Brathwaite-Shirley informed teacher and student place-craft within the context of a …

“Who All Gon Be There?”: On Blackness, Transness, And K-12 Pedagogies For [Black] Trans Futures, Shea W. Martin

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Grounded in trans-of-color critique and Black trans studies, this theoretical meditation reckons with the impossibility of Black trans safety, recognition, and futurity within our U.S. K-12 educational landscape. Situated in a “post-Transgender Tipping Point” sociopolitical landscape, I explore how these limitations contribute to Black trans youth’s disparate experiences in today’s schools, particularly with attention to the [in]effectiveness of existing queer and trans pedagogies. In an attempt to locate what is deemed possible for Black trans youth in imagined educational futures, I discuss trends within select K-12 trans pedagogical scholarship through which I explore questions related to authorship, reflexivity, and intersectional …

Exploring The Evolution Of Altruistic Punishment Using A Pde Model For Multilevel Selection, Daniel Cooney

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Graying Incarcerated Persons And Education Programs In Nigerian Correctional Centre, Ijeoma B. Uche Phd, Agnes E. Okafor Phd, Okala A. Uche Phd *Corresponding Author

Journal of Prison Education Research

Correctional education programs are rehabilitation programs designed for incarcerated persons in Nigerian correctional institutions. However, getting the graying incarcerated persons to participate in education programs becomes quite challenging. This study investigates graying incarcerated persons and education programs in one correctional centre. Data were collected qualitatively from fifteen (15) incarcerated individuals aged 60 years and above using semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was employed in analyzing the data generated for the study. Findings show that there are no available education programs for graying incarcerated individuals. The study also revealed that designing education programs in such a way that it will accommodate the …

The Mouse In The Museum, Maggie Colangelo, Bernard Means

Virtual Curation Lab's Comic Publications

Find out about America's first successful public museum of art and natural history from a unique perspective: a mouse! The museum mouse guides you through Charles Willson Peale's Philadelphia Museum from its founding in his own home to its eventual establishment in what is now called Independence Hall. You will encounter a killer bear, an eagle that has seen better days, and the massive bones of an extinct elephant: the mastodon. This gripping tale is brought to you by Maggie Colangelo and Bernard K. Means, co-creators of Founding Monsters, Founding Monsters Tales, Mystery of the Missing Megafauna, and Tales from …

Virginia Commonwealth University Courses (2024), Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU Bulletins

Listing of courses for the 2024-2025 year.

Virginia Commonwealth University Undergraduate Bulletin (2024), Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU Bulletins

Undergraduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2024-2025. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for undergraduate programs.

East Marshall Street Well Project: Reparative Work And The Policy For Human Remains, Rome Kamarouthu

East Marshall Street Well Project Symposium Posters

This poster introduces the public to the history of medical exploitation tied to the East Marshall Street Well in the 19 th century, as well as the reparative efforts of the East Marshall Street Well Project, a partnership between VCU and a community group known as the Family Representative Council. It stresses that the Family Representative Council has called upon VCU to bury the remains found in the well, as well as to support research and memorialization efforts. The poster highlights the work of student fellows in fulfilling those recommendations, specifically in conducting and processing oral history interviews, and in …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Alternative Light Sources In The Search For Skeletal Remains, Oiivia L. Thompson

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

Many search and recovery operations for human skeletal remains are unsuccessful due to difficulties recognizing bones in outdoor environments even when evidence indicates the last known whereabouts of a missing individual. Though the collagen component of bone is known to emit fluorescent, this property has not been leveraged consistently during skeletal remains searches. Thirty-six mock searches were completed in 5000 ft² zones of eastern deciduous forest by volunteers associated with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. Pig and deer bones were scattered and partially concealed under brush and leaf cover. Pairs of volunteers were allowed up to one hour …

A Radiographic Analysis Of Teeth With Carrier-Based Obturation Requiring Retreatment, Robert W. Rudnicki

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine observer accuracy and agreement in detecting carriers using preoperative radiographs, as well as to identify potential radiographic indicators for the presence of carriers.

Methods: A chart review was conducted for patients seen at the VCU graduate endodontic clinic. Eligible cases included previously treated teeth that were nonsurgically retreated, with and without identified carriers. 100 cases were identified, including 61 carrier and 39 non-carrier cases. Preoperative radiographs were randomized, and evaluators assessed each case for the presence of carrier-based obturation. Evaluators included three endodontists, one general dentist, and four endodontic residents. Statistical …

Evaluation Of Alternative Methods For Dna Recovery Of Compromised Skeletal Remains, Ciara N. Rhodes

Theses and Dissertations

Skeletal remains frequently serve as the sole source of genetic material available for developing a profile in cases concerning unidentified human remains or mass casualties. Nevertheless, as unidentified skeletal remains age and are exposed to uncontrolled environmental conditions, the success rates of conventional methods of bone analysis diminish significantly. The physical and mechanical processing of skeletal remains into fine powder for DNA isolation and downstream analysis can substantially impact the quality and quantity of recoverable genetic information. This concern may be exacerbated when dealing with degraded forensic skeletal remains. Few studies have explored whether pulverization of bone samples contributes to …

The Patient Experience Of Language Discordance And Interpreter Services In The Emergency Department, Keri L. Baker

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Clear communication is critical to the interaction of a patient and medical provider. For non-English speaking patients, language discordance, described as the lack of proficiency in a shared language, with the medical team results in a poor patient experience and poor patient outcomes. The predominant solution to language discordance is the use of interpreter services, however these services are underused in the emergency department (ED). Studies examining underuse of interpreter services have primarily focused on the clinician and little is known about the patient’s influence on the use of interpreter services.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 Spanish-speaking …

Images Of Maps And Connotative Tendencies In Early Republican America, Kerr Houston

Art Inquiries

No abstract provided.

Ritual: Full Journal

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

No abstract provided.

The Right To Education: A Reality Or Pipe Dream For Incarcerated Young Prisoners In Malawi, Samson Chaima Kajawo, Lineo R. Johnson

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Young people are often incarcerated in penitentiaries worldwide. Incarceration is not expected to hinder their access to quality education. This article, guided by Marxist theory, examines the practicality of educational rights at five young prisoners’ facilities in Malawi. The study used a descriptive phenomenological qualitative research design to engage the voices of 52 incarcerated and released young people in semi-structured interviews to ascertain if prisoners’ quality education was a reality or mere pipedream at young prisoners’ facilities. The findings show a disparity between correctional education policies and the actual reality. Due to the inadequacy of resources and the negativity of …

Strength In Caring: An Interprofessional Innovation To Cultivate Organizational Wellness, Kelly Lockeman

Health Sciences Education Symposium

Background. The impact of COVID-19 on the physical and mental health of individual providers and entire health care systems has had a devastating blow to already fragile networks.[1] It is imperative to identify strategies that heal, repair, and build capacity in health care providers and fix the system in which they practice. Building resilience through self-care is only a part of the solution.[2,3] Health care organizations are striving for solutions that target issues such as psychological safety, interprofessional teamwork, and wellness-centered leadership, which are more likely to reduce burnout than individualized self-care programs.[4,5] The purpose of the Strength in Caring …

Virginia Commonwealth University Undergraduate Bulletin [2023], Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU Bulletins

Undergraduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2023-2024. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for undergraduate programs.

Virginia Commonwealth University Courses [2023], Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU Bulletins

Listing of courses for the 2023-2024 year.

A Heart Pierced By A Narwhal Tusk And Other Sketches, Maggie Colangelo, Bernard Means

Virtual Curation Lab's Comic Publications

A series of sketches and spot illustrations by artist Maggie Colangelo, Senior Graphics Artist for VCU's Virtual Curation Laboratory. Many of the illustrations are related to various celebrations over the calendar year, usually tied to open houses in the lab.

Tales From The Virtual Curation Lab, Issue 01, Maggie Colangelo, Bernard Means

Virtual Curation Lab's Comic Publications

"Tales from the Virtual Curation Lab brings you fascinating graphic narratives inspired by artifacts, fossils, historic objects—and even one person—3D scanned by VCU’s Virtual Curation Laboratory. Read about an Ice Age camel that had its face ripped of by a bear, the world’s oldest ham, a vampire’s skull, and more!”--back cover

The Mystery Of The Missing Megafauna, Maggie Colangelo, Bernard Means

Virtual Curation Lab's Comic Publications

The creative team behind Founding Monsters and Founding Monsters Tales have created a new comic that takes a more scientific and less historic approach to the giant mammals that once roamed North America. The Mystery of the Missing Megafauna explores how changing climate impacted biodiversity and megafauna populations in North America at the end of the last Ice Age. Particular attention is placed on the extinction of mastodons, mammoths, giant ground sloths and other megafauna whose fossils are found at Saltville in southwestern Virginia. This comic draws a connection to contemporary climate change and the major extinctions happening today. The …