Digital Commons Network^™

Time Document Portraits, Jordan Dewilde

Teaching Resource Archive

Students will create "time document" portraits inspired by the work of Mounira Al Solh. Students write notes from personal interviews with their portrait subject. The interviews inform their drawing and become part of the finished artwork.

Barro De Oaxaca, Samantha Rose Martinez

Teaching Resource Archive

The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the concept of intangible cultural heritage to students by studying the knowledge and skills to produce traditional handcraft within a specific culture, and for students to recognize the relationships between the forms and functions of traditional Oaxacan pottery.

Socioeconomic Status And Health Disparities Drive Differences In Accelerometer-Derived Physical Activity In Fatty Liver Disease And Significant Fibrosis, Lucia Tabacu, Sajag Swami, Mark Ledbetter, Mohamad S. Siddiqui, Ekaterina Smirnova

Internal Medicine Publications

Background and aims: The cornerstone of clinical management of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are lifestyle changes such as increasing physical activity (PA) aimed at improving cardiometabolic risk. To inform NAFLD prevention and treatment guidelines we aimed to: (i) quantify the role of PA on lowering the risk for NAFLD and fibrosis; (ii) characterize NAFLD and fibrosis association with PA in the context of socioeconomic environment.

Methods: A sample of 2648 participants from the NHANES 2003–2006 was selected to develop survey weighted multivariable logistic regression models for predicting NAFLD and significant fibrosis, diagnosed non-invasively via fatty …

Through The Decades: Aapi Life At Vcu, Asian American & Pacific Islander Affinity, Aurianna Nacua, Aerin Fortes, Cierra T’Eo, Maryam Rabiutheen, Sithmi Rajaguru, Natalie Auandee

Through the Decades: AAPI Life at VCU

Posters displayed at the exhibit "Through the Decades: AAPI Life at VCU." The posters presented were: Depictions of AAPI Culture On-campus, The Model Minority Myth on Campus, Services for AAPI Individuals, Black Contributions to AAPI Life on Campus, Monroe Park Campus, Meet the Monroe Park Students, Medical College of Virginia, Meet the Medical Students, Current Student Voices, Past Student Organizations, Current Student Organizations Spotlight, Meet Past Faculty, Current Faculty and Staff Spotlight, and Pieces by Professor Roberto Jamora.

To Open Or Not To Open: An Exploration Of Faculty Decisions To Publish Open-Access Articles, Jessica Kirschner, Hillary Miller, Preeti Kamat, Jose Alcaine, Sergio Chaparro, Nina Exner

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Introduction: Faculty face numerous pressures as they decide whether to publish articles open access (OA). This pilot study investigated the extent to which School of Education faculty members’ engagement with OA was influenced by promotion and tenure (P&T) and how this influence related to other intrinsic, extrinsic, and contextual factors. Methods: This exploratory, sequential, mixed-method study adapted Social Exchange Theory to understand faculty engagement with OA article publication. The study used a quantitative survey followed by qualitative interviews and focus groups.

Results: Participants reported that P&T had substantive influence over faculty practices regarding OA. Con- nected factors included beliefs about …

Decistifying Trans And Gender Diverse Inclusion In Library Work: A Literature Review, Keahi K. Adolpho, Stephen Krueger

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This comprehensive review illuminates the current state of scholarly literature on trans and gender diverse inclusion in libraries, with the intention to provide a foundation and identify gaps for further research. Covering 50 works published between 2002 and 2023 in the areas of general inclusion, public libraries, academic libraries, experiences of library workers, archives, information behavior, and cataloging, we found that, with the exception of works on archives and cataloging, little scholarly literature goes beyond introductory talking points on basic information about trans and gender diverse people. We conclude with a call for much more in-depth research on this essential …

Annum Arcanum (2024)

Annum Arcanum, 2024-

Annum Arcanum is "an atelier and annual anthology archiving arcane works." The organization of the same name was founded at VCU in the fall of 2023, and published its first collection in the spring of 2024. From the Letter from our Founder in vol. 0: "First, we seek to create spaces specifically catered to the showcasing of works that are experimental, niche, or otherwise outside of the mainstream in other words, the arcane...Beyond that, we strive to be a resource for students to develop their skills as artists."

Supercharge Your Research Impact For The Health Sciences, Alanna Natanson

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Health science researchers at all stages of their career can use the strategies and tools in this guide to promote their scholarly research and document its impact on the field and wider world. Promoting and documenting research is important for crafting biosketches for grant applications and applying for promotion/tenure. Topics in the guide include selecting a journal for manuscript submission, open access publishing models, submitting supplementary materials to repositories, building a record of your scholarship, and exploring article-level and author-level metrics in Web of Science and Google Scholar. Explore the links to further background information and follow the step-by-step instructions.

Chemical Strategies For Tailoring Properties Of Nanomaterials Produced By Pulsed Laser Interaction In Liquid Environments, Katharine M. Tibbetts

Chemistry Publications

Interactions of intense ultrashort laser pulses with liquid media and at solid-liquid interfaces produce plasmas with high densities of reactive chemical species that promote the formation of nanomaterials. This work discusses the current understanding of laser-induced chemical reactions in aqueous medium involving hydrated electrons and hydroxyl radicals, and the effects of chemical additives on these reactions. Two chemical strategies are presented for controlling the composition of the laser-induced plasma and nanomaterial properties. First, adding chemical scavengers of hydroxyl radicals will be shown to inhibit metal oxidation, enabling the synthesis of ligand-free Ag and Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles by reduction of Au …

Unlocking Undeniable Talent At Vcu, Kenda Boone, Tabatha Dunlap, Aaron Jones, Nicole Porter, Khaleliah Williams

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

To unlock the undeniable talent within the VCU community, our team aims to enhance the student internship experience at the university. We plan to equip students with tailored internship guidance, consolidating resources for comprehensive career preparation. By providing insights into relevant opportunities and effective strategies, we empower students to unleash their full potential. Our vision is to enable meaningful professional experiences, fostering success beyond graduation.

Enhancing Public Safety At Virginia Commonwealth University, Rigby Bendele, Les Harrison, Oswaldo Moreno, Chernoh Wurie, Carolina Yaber

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

The authors of this report will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of safety and security measures on both Virginia Commonwealth University campuses (VCU) in comparison to those of similar urban research institutions (N=10). This evaluation will provide campus leaders with recommendations for proactive strategies, community partnerships, and ongoing evaluation through which VCU can increase both actual and perceived safety for members of VCU and neighboring communities.

Community Ramgagement: Vcu Festival Of The Arts, Stephen Bar, Paula Coates, Laxmikant Deshpande, Faika Zanjani

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

The proposed project aims to align with VCU's Quest 2028 vision to seek community partnerships and opportunities to elevate awareness and collaborative action between VCU and communities. The VCU Festival of the Arts (VFOTA) is envisioned to embody community engagement and collaborative excellence. Drawing inspiration from established and successful art fairs, VFOTA fosters direct artist-audience interaction, promotes enrichment, and can highlight student accomplishments and education. Celebrating diverse artistic expression, the VFOTA can support regional talent and the local arts ecosystem that can enhance community well-being. Through initiatives like the VFOTA, VCU can demonstrate its UNwavering dedication to fostering thriving communities.

Relationship Building Advice For Liaison Librarians: Putting It Into Practice And Troubleshooting, Bettina Peacemaker, Kelsey Cheshire, Janet M. Reid, Carla-Mae Crookendale, Julie Arendt, Sergio Chaparro, John Glover, Stephani Rodgers, Erin Carrillo

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Liaison librarians depend on communication and cooperation to be successful, so professional publications about liaison librarianship regularly include discussions of relationship building methods. As a department of experienced liaison librarians, we identified the relationship-building ideas from previous publications that were proactive in nature and had worked for us. Even though the advice has been helpful, we faced challenges or heard about challenges from other librarians when we discussed implementing the ideas. To improve on the published ideas, we have added tips for putting them into practice and answered troubleshooting questions based on our experiences. Adapting to and working around challenges …

Mathematical Model For The Role Of Multiple Pericentromeric Repeats On Heterochromatin Assembly, Puranjan Ghimire, Mo Motamedi, Richard Joh

Physics Publications

Although the length and constituting sequences for pericentromeric repeats are highly variable across eukaryotes, the presence of multiple pericentromeric repeats is one of the conserved features of the eukaryotic chromosomes. Pericentromeric heterochromatin is often misregulated in human diseases, with the expansion of pericentromeric repeats in human solid cancers. In this article, we have developed a mathematical model of the RNAi-dependent methylation of H3K9 in the pericentromeric region of fission yeast. Our model, which takes copy number as an explicit parameter, predicts that the pericentromere is silenced only if there are many copies of repeats. It becomes bistable or desilenced if …

Describing Trends In Virginia's Dentist And Dental Hygienist Workforce: Challenges And Opportunities, Shillpa Naavaal, Yetty Shobo, Barbara Hodgdon

Dental Public Health and Policy Publications

Purpose: Regular assessment of the dental workforce is essential to improve the population's oral health. This analysis aimed to understand the trends in the distribution of dentists and dental hygienists (DHs) in Virginia.

Methods: Annual survey data (2013-2022) of dentists and DHs from the Virginia Department of Health Professions Healthcare Workforce Data Center was used to examine the trends in provider distribution by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geography across Virginia.

Results: In 2022, there were 5,720 dentists and 5,290 DH licensees in Virginia. In the dentist workforce, there was a high representation of those aged ≥60 years …

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.

L'Atelier Réel – Apprendre Le Français Au Niveau Intermédiaire, Kathryn Murphy-Judy

Open and Affordable Course Content at VCU

No abstract provided.

Vcu Health & Wellness Fair, Aamir Khan, Lexie Lewis, Abby Matulewicz, Fahim Thawer, Hannah Turazzo, Malorie Burkett

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

This project proposes the creation of a VCU Health and Wellness Fair, in partnership with both academic campuses, VCUHS, and local community organizations. With over ten health science degree programs available at VCU, our institution is well-positioned to lead a collaborative effort aimed at enhancing community health and well-being. By leveraging the expertise of our students and faculty, we aim to address key health concerns and promote preventative healthcare and wellness practices.

Equity Challenges And Opportunities In The Revised Fafsa, Nakeina E. Douglas-Glenn Phd, Charity Scott Phd, Chelsie Dunn Phd, J. Herman Tomasi, Catherine Auwarter, Anila Surin, Research Institute For Social Equity Rise

Research Institute for Social Equity

Financial aid is one of the most significant factors influencing students' enrollment decisions, making costs a major barrier to college attendance for many college students. As of May 2023, over 1.7 million students have completed the FAFSA, indicating a recovery in application numbers after a slow start. The FAFSA still poses challenges for higher educational institutions, student matriculation, and attrition.To address these challenges and ensure the revised FASA fulfills its promise of advancing educational equity, strategic interventions at the institutional, state, and federal government levels are essential.

Understanding The Virginia Literacy Act, Candace Bechtold, Kimberly Bridges, David Naff, Joan A. Rhodes, Valerie Robnolt, Tara Davison, Suzanne Alexandre, Michael Crusco, Karli Johansen, Amber Butler, Allison Yandle, Jennifer Askue-Collins, Jean Samuel, Sharrie Merritte, Regina Frazier

MERC Publications

This research and policy brief from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) offers an overview of the Virginia Literacy Act. It is structured to explore the following questions: 1) What are the recent trends in reading achievement in Virginia? 2) What are the policy implications of the VLA for Virginia school divisions? 3) What does the research say about Science of Reading (SoR)? 4) What core instructional programs are approved to meet the VLA? It concludes with a series of key takeaways and recommendations.

Click here to listen to our podcast episode on the Virginia Literacy Act and click here …

Unraveling A Broken Model: Exploring Librarians Experimentation And Early Use Of Chatgpt, Hope Y. Kelly Phd

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

A recent study about ChatGPT use amongst librarians broke a reliable and widely replicated model. This presentation digs through the incongruous results to provide a snapshot of the excitement, concerns, and conflict that arise in engaging with such tools, particularly in our capacity as information literacy instructors.

Generative AI, like Chat GPT, is changing the landscape of information literacy as well as how we develop and deliver instructional content. This presentation speaks to how early adopters and detractors began to experiment with the technology and how they viewed its influence on their instructional design, applying information literacy principles to GenAI …

Linguistic Inquiry And Word Count (Liwc) For Text Analysis, Isabella Lenzini, Destiny Fore Msw, Anna W. Wright Phd

IRBEH/Spit for Science Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Controlling The Home: Material Expressions Of Anti-Roma Sentiment, Abby Lacuesta

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

The Romani people, also known as the Roma diaspora or simply the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group that has experienced centuries of oppression and stigmatization. Largely seen as a “nomadic” group, the issue of housing is at the core of exploring modern Roma struggles. One key question to further the research on the connection between anti-Roma sentiment and housing is questioning how housing has served as a physical expression of cultural anti-Roma sentiment. Though the Roma are commonly perceived as choosing their nomadism, this article seeks to deconstruct this stereotype through the lens of housing law, forced nomadism, and …

Collaborative Leadership For Research Investigating Stem Teacher Preparation Across Many Institutions, Dana P. Franz, Keith Hubbard, Devon Brenner

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

This paper describes the creation of a collaborative research team investigating the impacts of education preparation on the recruitment and retention of science and mathematics teacher candidates in rural settings. Our collaborative research includes a core leadership team across 3 institutions and with collaboration across 14 total universities. We discuss the process from the inception through year two of this program, including the structure of leadership, communication techniques with the large group, and efforts to translate this research into scalable action. Using a framework for transdisciplinary research (Hall et al., 2012), we describe the processes and challenges that we encountered …

That Girl Vs. New Girl: The Perils Of Choice Feminism, Katherine Noble

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

In recent years, Elizabeth Meriwether’s television show New Girl has begun to reach the status of a cult classic. The show’s sharp humor and quirky protagonist have captured the hearts and minds of many. But is this all for the good? New Girl features a controversial protagonist, Jessica Day, whose personality grates on some and resonates with others. Jessica represents stereotypically feminine interests and ideals yet takes on a leading role and independence not always afforded to female characters. This opens her, and the larger show, up to feminist readings and critiques. Surprisingly, little scholarly research has been conducted on …

Career And Technical Education: Historical Insights, Current Impacts, And Policy Implications, Meleah Ellison, David B. Naff, Phelton Moss, Jenna Lenhardt, Morgan Meadowes, Jonathan Staylor, Latonja Y. Wright, Luke Parker, Andy Bristow, Kelsey Pacer, Samantha Hope, Shelby Garofalo, Singith Nawagamuwage Perera, Georgia Youngquest, Rachel Hale, Sharrie Merritte

MERC Publications

This research and policy brief from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) summarizes recent peer reviewed literature, publicly available trend data, and policies at the federal, state, and school division level related to Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses. It explores the following questions:

1. What are the purposes of CTE courses?
/="/">2. What are the trends in CTE participation and how does this vary by student and school demographics?
/="/">3. What are the impacts or benefits of CTE?
/="/">4. What are evidence-based practices and innovative programs related to CTE?
/="/">5. What are policies guiding the …

Actionable Advocacy Journalism: Embracing Bias And Empowering Audiences With Calls To Action, Megan T. Schiffres

Richard T. Robertson School of Communication Student Scholarship

This thesis outlines the principles of actionable advocacy journalism, a new theoretical framework designed to empower audiences to take action in their communities. This framework proposes an update of journalistic ethics including the elimination of objectivity and demonstrates the positive impact of biased journalism on improving audience trust and strengthening community ties. It explores the historical roots of advocacy in journalism, examines the factors that led to the journalistic philosophy of objectivity, and explains its fundamental flaws. This thesis also outlines strategies for transforming news into a practical resource. These strategies combine the principles of solutions journalism with evidence-based persuasion …

Humans Are Dust, Chelsea Nanfelt Rowe

Theses and Dissertations

I probe how objects act as intermediaries between people. These explorations reflect on the delicate navigation that happens when we intertwine our lives with others. My curiosities lie in the fuzzy aura of human life that encircles materials. Do our materials possess life or do we imbue and inject the materials in our world with personalities reflective of ourselves? My motivation for this project is to highlight the stories infused in and witnessed by things we surround ourselves with and use daily.

Exploring Factors Influencing The Adoption Of Ai Tools In Auditing: A Mixed-Methods Study, Fahad Alsudairi

Theses and Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence's (AI) rise has created value for organizations and society, prompting scholars to study its spread across many areas. However, the impact of AI adoption on governmental organizations still needs to be explored. Governmental entities face unique challenges distinct from private organizations, and existing research often focuses on the perspectives of AI experts or senior management, neglecting the insights of lower-level employees who will use the system daily.

This study investigates the multifaceted factors influencing the intention to adopt AI tools within a governmental auditing bureau in Saudi Arabia. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has …