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Virginia Commonwealth University Undergraduate Bulletin [2009], Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU Bulletins

Undergraduate bulletin for Virginia Commonwealth University for the academic year 2009-2010. It includes information on academic regulations, degree requirements, course offerings, faculty, academic calendar, and tuition and expenses for undergraduate programs.

The X-Ray (2009)

The X-Ray (MCV, 1913-2010)

The yearbook of the Medical College of Virginia.

Vcu Volunteers, Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Mays, Jeanne Mcneil, Lynn Pelco, Lisa Price-Stevens, Jamie Stillman, Lydia Zirkle

L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs Publications

VCU Volunteers follows VCU’s history of developing mutually partnerships with the community and is supported by VCU 2020 Theme 5- A model for community-university partnerships. VCU Volunteers will make VCU a better place to work by fostering a sense of belonging and pride in employees at all levels. The mission of VCU Volunteers is to build a collaborative employee community through the shared experience of volunteering. An employee-driven steering committee will guide the activities of the program. This committee will be denied by an employee and will include representative’s membership for Human Resources – Work/Life Resources, Community Engagement, the VCU …

First Annual Research Development Conference, National Organization Of Research Development Professionals (Pre-Incorporation)

Research Development Repository

• Panel #1: Research Development Offices and Organizations – RD Activities Defined
• Panel #2: Research Development Infrastructure Part I/Support for Grant Proposals
• Keynote – Research Development, A National Perspective. Donna Dean, PhD, Senior Science Advisor with Lewis-Burke Associates LLC
• Panel #3: Research Development Infrastructure Part II/Support for Faculty
• Panel #4: Partnerships – Building relationships
• Next Step Session

Mast Cell Regulation Of The Immune Response, John J. Ryan, Johanna K. Morales, Yves T. Falanga, Josephine Fa Fernando, Matthew R. Macey

Biology Publications

Mast cells are well known as principle effector cells of type I hypersensitivity responses. Beyond this role in allergic disease, these cells are now appreciated as playing an important role in many inflammatory conditions. This review summarizes the support for mast cell involvement in resisting bacterial infection, exacerbating autoimmunity and atherosclerosis, and promoting cancer progression. A commonality in these conditions is the ability of mast cells to elicit migration of many cell types, often through the production of inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor. However, recent data also demonstrates that mast cells can suppress the immune response through interleukin-10 …

Endothelial Cells And Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Apoptosis, Proliferation, Interaction And Transdifferentiation, Seiichiro Sakao, Koichiro Tatsumi, Norbert F. Voelkel

VCU Health Publications

Severe pulmonary arterial hypertension, whether idiopathic or secondary, is characterized by structural alterations of microscopically small pulmonary arterioles. The vascular lesions in this group of pulmonary hypertensive diseases show actively proliferating endothelial cells without evidence of apoptosis. In this article, we review pathogenetic concepts of severe pulmonary arterial hypertension and explain the term "complex vascular lesion ", commonly named "plexiform lesion", with endothelial cell dysfunction, i.e., apoptosis, proliferation, interaction with smooth muscle cells and transdifferentiation.

Virginia Dental Journal (Vol. 86, No. 2, 2009)

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Virginia Dental Journal (Vol. 86, No. 3, 2009)

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Rcmat: A Regularized Covariance Matrix Approach To Testing Gene Sets, Phillip D. Yates, Mark A. Reimers

Biostatistics Publications

Background Gene sets are widely used to interpret genome-scale data. Analysis techniques that make better use of the correlation structure of microarray data while addressing practical "n

Results We evaluated our testing procedure using both simulated data and a widely analyzed diabetes data set. We compared our approach to another popular multivariate test for both sets of data. Our results suggest an increase in power for detecting gene set differences can be obtained using our approach relative to the popular multivariate test with no increase in the false positive rate.

Conclusion Our regularized covariance matrix multivariate approach to gene set …

Synchronization Of Pancreatic Islet Oscillations By Intrapancreatic Ganglia: A Modeling Study, B. Fendler, M. Zhang, L. Satin, R. Bertram

Pharmacology and Toxicology Publications

Abstract

Plasma insulin measurements from mice, rats, dogs, and humans indicate that insulin levels are oscillatory, reflecting pulsatile insulin secretion from individual islets. An unanswered question, however, is how the activity of a population of islets is coordinated to yield coherent oscillations in plasma insulin. Here, using mathematical modeling, we investigate the feasibility of a potential islet synchronization mechanism, cholinergic signaling. This hypothesis is based on well-established experimental evidence demonstrating intrapancreatic parasympathetic (cholinergic) ganglia and recent in vitro evidence that a brief application of a muscarinic agonist can transiently synchronize islets. We demonstrate using mathematical modeling that periodic pulses of …

Ethnic Politics, Political Corruption And Poverty: Perspectives On Contending Issues And Nigeria's Democratization Process, Dewale Adewale Yagboyaju

Ethnic Studies Review

It is common to interpret African politics in tribal or ethnic terms. In the case of Nigeria, the dominant political behaviour can be defined, on the one hand, in terms of "incessant pressures on the state and the consequent fragmentation or prebendalizing of state-power" (Joseph, 1991:5). On the other hand, such practices can also be related to "a certain articulation of the factors of class and ethnicity" (ibid). For a better understanding of the essentials of Nigerian politics and its dynamics, it is necessary to develop a clearer perspective on the relationship between the two social categories mentioned above and …

Dna Structure Modulates The Oligomerization Properties Of The Aav Initiator Protein Rep68, Jorge Mansilla-Soto, Miran Yoon-Robarts, William J. Rice, Shailee Arya, Carlos R. Escalante, R. Michael Linden

Physiology and Biophysics Publications and Presentations

Rep68 is a multifunctional protein of the adeno-associated virus (AAV), a parvovirus that is mostly known for its promise as a gene therapy vector. In addition to its role as initiator in viral DNA replication, Rep68 is essential for site-specific integration of the AAV genome into human chromosome 19. Rep68 is a member of the superfamily 3 (SF3) helicases, along with the well-studied initiator proteins simian virus 40 large T antigen (SV40-LTag) and bovine papillomavirus (BPV) E1. Structurally, SF3 helicases share two domains, a DNA origin interaction domain (OID) and an AAA+ motor domain. The AAA+ motor domain is also …

Chang-Rae Lee's A Gesture Lite: The Recuperation Of Identity, Matthew Miller

Ethnic Studies Review

In Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life, the elderly, wellrespected and fastidious Franklin "Doc" Hata begins an introspective journey toward a revitalized and reimagined identity. For Lee, this journey affords the chance to address ethnicity and immigration under a unique transnational context. The novel chronicles how an identity can be recuperated (i.e., healed) through personal and cultural reconnections to the body and to memory. I purposefully use the word "recuperate" in both the traditional and theoretical senses. "Recuperation" results from Hata's moving back into his past to grow forward in self. Simultaneously, he "heals" his self, physically and psychologically, from various …

Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, Education And Abolition, Kabria Baumgartner

Ethnic Studies Review

Some thirty years before Harriet Ann Jacobs opened the Jacobs Free School in Alexandria, Virginia in January 1864, one of her first students was her fifty-threeyear-old uncle, Fred. The seventeen-year-old Harriet appreciated her uncle's "most earnest desire to learn to read" and promised to teach him.1 As slaves, both teacher and student risked the punishment of "thirtynine lashes on [the] bare back" as well as imprisonment for violating North Carolina's anti-literacy laws targeting African Americans.2 Nevertheless they agreed to meet three times a week in a "quiet nook" where she instructed him in secret.3 While the primary goal for him …

The Journal Of Social Theory In Art Education

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

No abstract provided.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Art Education And The Symbolic Interaction Of Bodies And Self-Images, James H. Rolling Jr.

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

This article begins with the premise that self-imagery is constituted as a shape-shifting aggregate of symbolic systems that incorporates the human body itself as one of its representations. At intermittent points of the body's embodiment of visual culture and tacit social experience, alternative representations accrete into varying symbolic systems, the multiple shapes a self-image may take over a lifetime. Given that social identity is derived from the interaction of various symbolic systems, how do some bodies and self-images come to be taken as that of identities incompatible with most others? In this exploration of the self-image and identity, the author …

Ethnic Studies Review

Ethnic Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Black Mayors In Non-Majority Black (Medium Sized) Cities: Universalizing The Interests Of Blacks, Ravi K. Perry

Ethnic Studies Review

The nature of political representation of Black constituents' interests from their elected Black representatives is changing in the twentyfirst century. Increasingly, African Americans are being elected to political offices where the majority of their constituents are not African American. Previous research on this question tended to characterize Black politicians' efforts to represent their Black constituents' interests in two frames: deracialized or racialized (McCormick and Jones 1993; Cruse 1990). However, the advent of the twenty-first century has exhausted the utility ofthat polarization. Black politicians no longer find explicit racial appeals appropriate for their electoral goals, given the changing demographic environment, and …

Cultivating Hospital Volunteers And Auxiliary Board Leadership: The Next Generation, The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute At Virginia Commonwealth University, Martha Clements, Nicole Dailey, Ingrid Mercer, Kelli Parmley, Michelle Peace, Jennifer Thompson

GEHLI - 2026 VCUL Team Project Publications

In spring 2009, Team Vision accepted the challenge from the VCUHS Hospital Auxiliary Board to assist in increasing the auxiliary volunteer population. After meeting with the Auxiliary Board, Volunteer Services, and John Duvall (team mentor), Team Vision proposed a project that would look more globally at volunteer recruitment, training and placement, and retention.As the project evolved, we also examined how the two organizations could draw on their deep experience and resources not only to develop a robust volunteer population , but to develop and strengthen their own organizations to better define their goals and ensure an Auxiliary Board membership of …

I Knew You When, Jami Dittus

Theses and Dissertations

Four short stories and the first quarter of a novel revolve around characters sick with want, sick of and from the worlds in which they live. They crave connection with other people, often through indirect methods, but can’t always manage the connections they make with other characters. Objects, comforting and static when people cannot be, take prominence as connection to the real world.

Virginia Dental Journal (Vol. 86, No. 1, 2009)

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Virginia Dental Journal (Vol. 86, No. 4, 2009)

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

A Longitudinal Examination Of How Hospital Provision Of Home Health Services Changed After The Implementation Of The Balanced Budget Act Of 1997: Does Ownership Matter?, Tiang-Hong Chou

Theses and Dissertations

By using a natural experiment approach and longitudinal national hospital data, this study sheds light on the objective functions of hospitals with different ownership forms by comparing their relative reductions in HH provision after the implementation of the BBA. The empirical findings reveal that for-profit hospitals behave differently as compared to public and private nonprofit hospitals, due to their different operational objectives. While the response of for-profit hospitals is consistent with the profit-maximizer model, both public and private nonprofit ownership types behave consistently in accordance with the model of two-good producers whose objective is to maximize market outputs for meeting …

Determinants Of Nursing Home Performance: Examining The Relationship Between Quality And Efficiency, Nailya Delellis

Theses and Dissertations

Determinants of nursing home performance: examining the relationship between quality and efficiency By Nailya O. DeLellis, MPH, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2010 Director: Dr. Yasar Ozcan, Professor, Department of Health Administration To assess the relationship between quality of care and efficiency of nursing homes this study used 10% random sample of non-hospital based nursing homes of size 20-360 beds and occupancy rate of 5-100% in OSCAR database 2008 (n=1430). Data Envelopment Analysis was used to calculate efficiency score and Structural …

Pulmonary Delivery Of Anorectic Gut Secreted Peptides For Appetite Suppression In Rats, Priya Nadkarni

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation project aimed to demonstrate that pulmonary delivery of two anorectic gut secreted peptides, peptide YY (PYY) and oxyntomodulin (OXM) enabled food intake suppression and reduced body weight gain in rats via their systemic absorption from the lung and interaction with the brain. After PYY and OXM were administered to the lungs at varying doses, food intake and body weight gain were monitored in freely feeding rats. Significant 30-35 % food intake suppression was achieved for 4-6 h following pulmonary administration of endogenously active PYY3-36 and OXM1-37 at 0.80 and 0.50 mg/kg, respectively. Moreover, when administered daily for 7 …

Virginia Public School Superintendents’ Perceptions Of The Leadership Practices Utilized To Lead Urban, Rural, And Suburban School Divisions, Brian P. Fellows

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in the perceptions of the leadership practices utilized by Virginia superintendents in rural, urban, and suburban school divisions. Never before in the history of public education has the spotlight shone so brightly on the field of public education. The federal government seeks guarantees that every child is being educated based on a minimum level of standards and that every school in the country is making annual progress. In this era of accountability, school systems, superintendents, principals, and teachers across Virginia are under immense pressure to have their individual …

Predictors Of Situation Awareness In Graduate Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Suzanne Wright

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT PREDICTORS OF SITUATION AWARENESS IN GRADUATE STUDENT REGISTERED NURSE ANESTHETISTS Suzanne M. Wright, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Major Director: J. James Cotter, Ph.D. Situation awareness (SA) is defined as one’s perception of the elements of the environment, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future. Stated more simply, SA is knowing what is going on around you. The concept of SA is well known in the field of aviation which is …

Invertebrate Colonization And Plant Architecture: The Influence Of Two Non-Native Milfoil Species, Elizabeth W. Rielly

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if the complexity and surface area of a macrophyte’s

structure has an influence on invertebrate colonization, and to determine the influence of two non-native species on invertebrate colonization. Three plant architectures were compared. Floating leaved plants were represented by the following species: Nuphar lutea, Nymphaea odorata, and Brasenia schreberi. Moderately dissected leaved plants were represented by Potamogeton natans, and highly dissected leaved plants were represented by two non-native species, Myriophyllum spicatum and Myriophyllum heterophyllum. The number of invertebrates/g dry biomass and the number of individuals/m², diversity, evenness, and richness were calculated for …

Identification And Characterization Of Prevotella Intermedia 17 Toll-Like Receptor 2 Ligands, Jamie Feng-Hsia Yuan

Theses and Dissertations

Periodontal disease is one of the most prevalent human diseases affecting millions of individuals. Bacteria are the trigger of the host response that then results in initiation and progression of periodontal disease. The interactions between the host and the bacteria, although very complex and intricate, are not well understood. Species of gram-negative anaerobic bacteria implicated in the development of periodontal disease include Porphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia. The goal of our study was to identify P. intermedia surface proteins interacting with TLR2 receptor. Using Cy5-labeled surface proteins we identified multiple proteins using our capture assay. The interaction of three …

Workplace Discrimination And Learning Disability: The National Eeoc Ada Research Project, Joseph Conway

Theses and Dissertations

Using the Integrated Mission System of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the employment discrimination experience of Americans with Learning Disabilities (SLD) is documented for Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The study examines demographic characteristics of the charging parties and the industry of the responding employer against whom complaints are filed. It establishes the nature of the discriminatory act, specifically, pin-points the issue(s) that predicated the allegation, and shows the final outcome or resolution of these complaints. Key dimensions of workplace discrimination as experienced by individuals with LD are detected using two Tests of Proportion. The first …