Digital Commons Network^™

Belt Melon Grass, Andrew M. Francis

Theses and Dissertations

This essay was written largely after the completion of my thesis exhibition which shares its title. An integral aspect of the work was the after-­hours maintenance it required. Below I describe the unforeseen personal significance that labor came to hold and the way in which it functioned as a healing ritual. Through this work, and those leading up to it, I have a reinvigorated awareness of the importance of therapy as an aspect of my art­making, of which this thesis is a testament.

Development And Validation Of A Discrete Event Simulation Model To Evaluate The Long Term Use Of Electronic Cigarettes In Us Population, Kunal Saxena

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Cigarette smoking is associated with lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic respiratory conditions. It is responsible for high mortality and morbidity risk in the US population. Smokers find sudden quitting difficult and it is reported that a large number of unassisted quitting attempts are eventually unsuccessful. Electronic cigarette or e-cig is a novel battery-driven, nicotine delivery product, currently being used as a smoking cessation tool by current and former smokers. Since its resemblance to a conventional cigarette, and its non-combustible nature, e-cig use has risen exponentially in the last few years. To address such public health issues, the US …

At What Age Should Screening Mammography Be Recommended For Asian Women?, Junko Tsuchida, Masayuki Nagahashi, Omar M. Rashid, Kazuaki Takabe, Toshifumi Wakai

Surgery Publications

Although regular screening mammography has been suggested to be associated with improvements in the relative survival of breast cancer in recent years, the appropriate age to start screening mammography remains controversial. In November 2009, the United States Preventive Service Task Force published updated guidelines for breast cancer, which no longer support routine screening mammography for women aged 40–49 years, but instead, defer the choice of screening in that age group to the patient and physician. The age to begin screening differs between guidelines, including those from the Task Force, the American Cancer Society and the World Health Organization. It remains …

Strike! A Zine Of Radical Flash Fiction And Poetry, Brought To You By Amendment! (2015)

Amendment, 2004-

"Amendment's flash fiction contests yielded such powerful results that we (the staff) decided to make this zine, showcasing some of our favorite pieces from the talented participants. These works were all written in five minutes or less on prompts such as ableism, marriage, manhood/womanhood, and catcalling."

Poictesme: An Anthology Of Literature And Art (2015)

Pwatem (Poictesme), 2006-

Poictesme (now Pwatem) is an anthology of literature and art from undergraduate students at Virginia Commonwealth University. It publishes poetry, prose and art of all kinds from talented undergraduate students of all majors.

The End Of Prisons: Reflections From The Decarceration Movement, Carmen Lanos Williams

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Book review of The End of Prisons: Reflections from the Decarceration Movement, edited by Mechtild E. Nagel and Anthony J. Nocella (2013).

The Last Mile Of The Way: Soul Music And The Civil Rights Movement, Christopher Smith

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

In the summer of 1960, a group of Soul performers was scheduled to perform at a segregated dance in Little Rock, Arkansas. Jesse Belvin, Jackie Wil-son and Arthur Prysock were to play two shows that evening—one for a black audience and a second show for a white audience. These segregated shows were essentially the norm in the majority of the country. However, that night, Jackie Wilson decided he was not going to perform the second show for a white audi-ence and encouraged the others to follow suit. They were all subsequently run out of town at gun point and somewhere …

Hip Hop On Film: Performance Culture, Urban Space, And Genre Transformation In The 1980s, Renette Smith Mccargo

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Book review of Hip Hop on Film: Performance Culture, Urban Space, and Genre Transformation in the 1980s, by Kimberly Monteyne (2013).

The End Of Prisons: Reflections From The Decarceration Movement, Carmen Lanos Williams

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Book review of The End of Prisons: Reflections from the Decarceration Movement, edited by Mechtild E. Nagel and Anthony J. Nocella (2013).

From A-Town To Atl: The Politics Of Translation In Global Hip Hop Culture, Holger Droessler

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

This article examines the linguistic and cultural tensions in global Hip Hop culture through an analysis of the performance of Gsann, an emcee from the Tanzanian Hip Hop crew X Plastaz, at the 2009 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. Gsann's rhymes in Swahili, his emphasis on religion, and his global travels distinguished him from his African American colleagues in the cipha. At the same time, the decision by the BET producers to translate Gsann's Swahili rhymes into English has to be seen within the longer history of cultural and linguistic politics in Tanzania and the United …

Analysis Of Humira, Electro-Acupuncture, And Pulsatile Dry Cupping On Reducing Joint Inflammation In Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis, Natalie Noll

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Humira, an anti-TNF drug aimed at decreasing inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients, can cause skin diseases from rashes to skin cancer. Humira works by blocking the chemical receptor RANKL which inhibits the production of osteoclasts. Osteoclasts are cells that attack and eat bone and cartilage therefore an inhibitory mechanism would cause inflammation.. By analyzing Humira’s effect on the human body, Humira can be compared to other treatments such as electro-acupuncture and pulsatile dry cupping to determine the viability of these alternative treatment methods in regards to their abilities to decrease inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis patients through blocking RANKL. An analysis …

Annual Higher Ground Women's Leadership Conference 2015, The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute At Virginia Commonwealth University

GEHLI - 2026 VCUL Team Project Publications

No abstract provided.

Biomimicry: New Natures, New Enclosures, Jesse Goldstein, Elizabeth Johnson

Sociology Publications

Advocates of biomimicry, encourages a new industrial paradigm that ostensibly leaves behind the crude violence of Francis Bacon, the domination of nature-as-machine, and a history of toxic production processes that have given rise to a present and coming climate crisis. As part of a broader trend towards the conceptualization and development of a ‘bioeconomy’, we argue here that biomimicry produces ‘nature’ in new ways. At face value, these new approaches to valuing nature may seem less violent and exploitative. Yet, new natures can and are tortured in new ways. We argue that biomimicry produces ‘nature’ through well-worn logics of resource …

“Rip It!”: A Juxtapositional And Critical Discourse Analysis Of Gender Violence In 3 Tyler Perry Films, Avina Ross

Graduate Research Posters

This qualitative study uses juxtapositional, intersectional and critical discourse analyses as one composite framework to assess Black female victimness and matriarchy in three Tyler Perry films. Findings exposed a transitional archetype model consisting of 5 domains (Victim, Bitterfruit, Matriarch, Forgiver and Princess) whereby victimized characters are portrayed using racist and sexist stereotypes. Additionally, rich juxtapositions in the films with regard to Black female victimness and matriarchy were also revealed. These juxtapositions play out in the transitional archetype model and reiterate a harmful racist gendered stereotype: strong, Black women (matriarchs) are not and cannot, by way of their strength, aggressiveness and …

Twenty Years Of Virginia Organizing: A Historical Analysis, Ruth Berta

Graduate Research Posters

Virginia Organizing is a non-profit, non-partisan statewide grassroots community organization aimed at empowering people to affect change in their communities. They celebrated their 20^th anniversary in 2015 and this process evaluation identifies the unique role that the Virginia Organizing State Governing Board has had in governing the organization. It determined the historical themes from this governing body’s 20 years of meeting minutes and assessed its membership diversity over time. In attempting to answer these questions: What themes emerge from the first 20 years of Virginia Organizing State Governing Board meeting minutes? How has the diversity of the membership of …

Love Story, Grace Weaver

Theses and Dissertations

I think of my paintings as pop songs. My aim in the work is to embrace a complicated femininity, championing and questioning the aesthetics of girliness, cuteness, and whimsy. This is the realm of the Young-Girl. The text that follows will chart a path from the cliché to the empathic—holding hands with philosophical comrades in that same territory, ranging from Taylor Swift to Kaja Silverman—seeking the way in which the paintings relate to the grand tradition of the love story.

From A-Town To Atl: The Politics Of Translation In Global Hip Hop Culture, Holger Droessler

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

This article examines the linguistic and cultural tensions in global Hip Hop culture through an analysis of the performance of Gsann, an emcee from the Tanzanian Hip Hop crew X Plastaz, at the 2009 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. Gsann's rhymes in Swahili, his emphasis on religion, and his global travels distinguished him from his African American colleagues in the cipha. At the same time, the decision by the BET producers to translate Gsann's Swahili rhymes into English has to be seen within the longer history of cultural and linguistic politics in Tanzania and the United …

Policing The Campus: Academic Repression, Surveillance, And The Occupy Movement, Sandra L. Combs

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Book review of Policing the Campus: Academic Repression, Surveillance, and the Occupy Movement, edited by Anthony J. Nocella II and David Gabbard (2013).

Policing The Campus: Academic Repression, Surveillance, And The Occupy Movement, Sandra L. Combs

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Book review of Policing the Campus: Academic Repression, Surveillance, and the Occupy Movement, edited by Anthony J. Nocella II and David Gabbard (2013).

Hip Hop Culture In A Small Moroccan City, Brian Seilstad

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

This paper explores Hip Hop culture by tracing its development from the global level through the Arab world to finally its manifestation in Morocco. Hip Hop culture is defined broadly as a wide range of artistic expressions-rap, graffiti, breakdancing, DJing, etc.-and also a mind-set or way of life. The focus on the Moroccan context starts at the national level, pointing out some of the key artists, issues Moroccan Hip Hop faces, and how this has been explored by scholars of Hip Hop. The paper focuses on an ethnographic exploration of Hip Hop culture in Ifrane, a small Moroccan city. An …

Rabble: A Chapbook Companion To Poictesme (2015)

Rabble, 2014-

Rabble is a companion chapbook publication to the magazine Pwatem. From the preface of most issues: "'Tell the rabble my name is Cabell."- James Branch Cabell to his editor, to help people learn how to pronounce his name. Cabell used the word derogatively but we are taking it back. These pages will showcase the writing and illustrations of our rabble-the ordinary students of VCU."

Emanata: Comics Anthology At Vcu Presents Rebels (2015)

Emanata, 2014-

Started by illustrator and comics artist Chris Kindred in 2014 with Weird, Vol. 1, Emanata is VCU’s first-ever comics anthology.

Embedding Into The Nursing Community On An Academic Health Center Campus, Roy E. Brown

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Objectives: To describe and evaluate the process by which a librarian became embedded into the nursing community on an academic health sciences center campus from 2010-2014. These efforts will be evaluated through qualitative and quantitative measures to determine the success of serving the nurses on campus and to address potential improvements.

Methods: In 2010, the library liaison program was enhanced with the goal of embedding into the professional schools. The nursing liaison leveraged relationships with faculty, staff and students to address the educational, research and clinical needs of the school of nursing as well as the nurses in the health …

Strengthening The Pipeline— Talent Management For Libraries: A Human Resources Perspective, Agnes K. Bradshaw

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

In order to both increase the pipeline of new librarians and develop “bench strength” (which is a human resources term used to refer to the capabilities and readiness of potential successors to move into key professional and leadership positions), librarians of color can work to form and develop strong, sustaining professional networks (in and outside the employing library) in order to help navigate the hiring process and to develop a support network that can be utilized throughout a professional career.

Virginia Dental Journal (Vol. 92, No. 3 [I.E. 2], 2015)

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Ex Vivo Dna Cloning, Adam B. Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Genetic engineering of microbes has developed rapidly along with our ability to synthesize DNA de novo. Yet, even with decreasing DNA synthesis costs there remains a need for inexpensive, rapid and reliable methods for assembling synthetic DNA into larger constructs or combinatorial libraries. While technological advances have resulted in powerful techniques for in vitro and in vivo assembly of DNA, each suffers inherent disadvantages. Here, an ex vivo DNA cloning suite using crude cellular lysates derived from E. coli is demonstrated to amplify and assemble DNA containing small sequence homologies. Further, the advantages of an ex vivo approach are …

Trying To Exit Here, Leigh C. Suggs

Theses and Dissertations

There is an in-between space during the act of seeing. The in-between space lies on the spectrum of the reality in front of us and what our brain tells us. It is within this suspended moment an individual can experience an unaltered and unaffected vision. While this moment is fleeting, it defines the highest peak of personal experience. It is my belief no two people will ever experience the same vision during this suspended time. And after it passes, the sigh/vision can never be the same. We are constantly bearing witness to the inexpressive, and this fleeting moment is something …

"Dollars Damn Me": Editorial Politics And Herman Melville's Periodical Fiction, Timothy R. Morris

Theses and Dissertations

To illustrate Melville’s navigation of editorial politics in the periodical marketplace, this study analyzes two stories Melville published in Putnam’s in order to reconstruct the particular historical, editorial, social, and political contexts of these writings. The first text examined in this study is “Bartleby,” published in Putnam’s in November and December of 1853. This reading recovers overtures of sociability and indexes formal appropriations of established popular genres in order to develop an interpretive framework. Throughout this analysis, an examination of the narrator’s ideological bearings in relation to the unsystematic implementation of these ideologies in American public life sets forth a …

A Modern Craftsman Revival, Eugene M. Rader

Theses and Dissertations

Introducing concepts of Craftsman kit construction to the interior, as well as modern technology to lessen the cost of handcrafted details, opens the possibility to new methods of modular design in which interior units are configured around structural skeletons and central base points that provide supply lines to residential units. One example is Dutch design firm Minale-Maeda’s Keystones, a 3D printed connector that holds together any necessary components, like furniture. These keystones can be printed at home and save time and the need to obtain anything but essential components (website). The design firm works to create an “ongoing awareness of …

Conversing With Nature, Hope Harding

Theses and Dissertations

Artist Statement

I reference nature in my mixed media works that primarily include painting and glass. My process is intuitive and the materials guide me each step of the way. I create textural surfaces that are intended to reflect and mimic nature. I often add found objects to my work that I have picked up along a walk. The objects capture a memory for me, and add visual and textural elements.

I want to evoke a familiar feeling or sense of place in each piece by suggesting sensory experiences, such as the dusty earth, the wind against the skin, or …