Digital Commons Network^™

A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Approach To Predicting Trajectories Of Posttraumatic Growth In Veterans Following Acquired Physical Disability, Lisa Goldberg Looney

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine potential predictors of PTG across time in Veterans with acquired physical disabilities. Specifically, this study aimed to understand how various demographic and injury characteristics, coping styles, appraisals of injury, and social support might predict trajectories of PTG from discharge from inpatient rehabilitation through 12 months after baseline. Initial curvature analyses suggested that a cubic polynomial trend best fit the movement of PTG over time, generally conforming to an initial increase, decrease, and then plateau or slight increase. Four HLMs were run to examine whether demographic and injury characteristics, coping styles, appraisals of …

A Systematic Review Of Weight-Related Communication Trainings For Physicians: What Do We Know And How Can We Inform Future Development Of Training Programs?, Jean M. Reading, Morgan Snell, Jessica G. Larose

Graduate Research Posters

It is reported that physicians lack training to address weight-related concerns with patients. To overcome this, training programs have been implemented in medical settings to prepare physicians to have conversations with patients. However, it is unclear the degree of consistency among existing training programs and factors associated with better outcomes. The objective of this study was to systematically review the existing literature in this area to determine differences in content, outcomes, and implementation of existing studies that test weight-related communication training programs for physicians.

A systematic literature review of online databases including PubMed, PsycINFO, and Proquest was conducted with the …

Brain Trust: Students For Students: Vcu To Rps Mentorship Program, The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute At Virginia Commonwealth University, Diana Burkett, Thomas Gresham, Courtney Harris, Mark Meadows, Laura Morgan, Susan White, Tiffany Williams

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

As a public, urban research institution, Virginia Commonwealth University embraces the importance of developing university-community partnerships that generate innovative solutions to societal challenges and prepare engaged citizens of tomorrow. The Students for Students: VCU to RPS Mentorship Program provides a model that will connect current VCU students to current Richmond Public Schools (RPS) students through a formal, multi-year mentorship. The ultimate goal of this program is to support and positively influence RPS students, while providing current VCU students with an opportunity to give back to the community while developing their mentorship skills. The mentoring relationship will seek to motivate RPS …

#Black Lives Matter, Bahar Davary

Ethnic Studies Review

This short story begins with a reference to the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his killer as part of a pattern of behavior that shouts loud and clear: “black lives don’t matter”. The story traces the injustices of slavery and life and work on the plantations. It takes us from Jim Crow laws in the U.S. to the stifling of the national movement of the Congolese, from assassination of Patrice Lumumba, to the killings of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. In short, the story is a reflection on the responsibility of educators in addressing the …

Abstracts

Ethnic Studies Review

Abstracts for Ethnic Studies Review, Vols. 37 and 38, 2014-2015.

Smoking Behavior In Arab Americans: Acculturation And Health Beliefs, Roula Ghadban

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Arab Americans, a growing population in the U.S., tend to have high rates of smoking and low rates of smoking cessation. Arab Americans and their families are at a high risk for poor health outcomes related to smoking.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to better understand the smoking behaviors of Arabs in the U.S., using the two publishable manuscripts format. The first manuscript is a systematic review of the literature exploring the smoking behavior, prevalence and use among Arab Americans and examining studies addressing the effect of acculturation on this behavior. The second manuscript is a cross-sectional …

What's Haunting Jackson Ward? Race, Space, And Environmental Violence, Rachel Spraker

Theses and Dissertations

This research is about examining the way in which racialized environmental violence contributes to exploitative social relations becoming embedded in the everyday world. I argue that the space of the everyday has been produced through cycles of social relations proceeding from and/or tied to racialized environmental violence. I continue the work of critical scholars in asserting that social and environmental violence is linked in the same ideological impulse which seeks to hide itself behind a variety of alienating processes. The slow way in which environmental violence works is particularly impactful in these processes because of its attritional lethality, contributing to …

Focused Attention Vs. Open Monitoring: An Event-Related Potential Study Of Emotion Regulation By Two Distinct Forms Of Mindfulness Meditation, Tarah L. Raldiris

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of two novel forms of 8-week mindfulness meditation training, focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM), relative to an established training, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), on early emotional reactivity to negative emotional images as assessed by electroencephalography (EEG). Data on the late-positive potential (LPP) were analyzed to address whether the three mindfulness interventions attenuated the LPP from pre- to post-intervention, and if significant differences existed between groups in LPP at post-intervention. Rather than an attenuation, results indicated an average increase in LPP amplitude from pre- to post-intervention. No significant differences were found in the LPP …

Understanding The Expressive Cartoon Drawings Of A Student With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Michael S. Collins

Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the highly expressive comic drawings of Amy, a child with autism. This study connects larger fields of research: the study of how people with autism spectrum disorder [ASD] process faces and emotions; and, research about artists with ASD. Amy's understanding of emotion was analyzed by asking her to view and identify humans and cartoon characters expressing different emotions. Her ability to illustrate emotion is tested by asking her to respond to various drawing prompts. The study concluded that Amy has difficulty identifying the emotions of humans and cartoons, but she does have the ability to illustrate …

Effects Of Cumulative Risk On Asthma Outcomes In Urban Children And Adolescents, Samantha A. Miadich

Theses and Dissertations

Pediatric asthma disproportionately affects racial/ethnic minority children and children living in low-income, urban areas. Many families living in low-income, urban areas experience a number of stressors that can place children/adolescents at risk for worse asthma outcomes. This study examined the impact of a cumulative risk model of stressors (e.g., ED visits, quick-relief medication use, lung function, asthma control, QOL) in urban children (7-12 years) with persistent asthma. This study further aimed to examine both the original cumulative risk model and an adolescent-specific cumulative risk model as predictors of asthma outcomes in a sample of 60 adolescents (13-17 years). Asthma-related caregiver …

Wise Choices? The Economics Discourse Of A High School Economics And Personal Finance Course, Tamara L. Sober

Theses and Dissertations

Today’s high school students will face a host of economic problems such as the demise of the social safety net, mounting college student debt, and costly health care plans, as stated in the rationale for financial literacy provided by the Council for Economic Education’s National Standards for Financial Literacy. These problems are compounded by growing income and wealth inequality and the widespread influence of neoliberal ideology. Although one of the major goals of economics education is to teach students to make reasoned economic choices in their public and private lives and provide the skills to solve personal and social …

Longitudinal Bidirectional Relations Between Subtypes Of Anxiety And Callous-Unemotional Traits In Early- To Mid-Adolescence, Stephanie A. Hitti

Theses and Dissertations

Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by limited empathy, lack of guilt or remorse, and callous use of others. They are a risk factor for adult psychopathy, especially when comorbid with conduct problems. Thus, efforts to identify risk factors and consequences of CU traits have been prominent. One construct that may act as both a risk factor for and consequence of CU traits among youth is anxiety. While the most consistent finding is in this literature is a negative relation between CU traits and anxiety, findings have been mixed. The present study examined bidirectional relations between three subtypes of anxiety (i.e. …

The Influence Of Family Composition On Adolescent Problem Behavior: The Moderating Roles Of Gender And Adult Support, Jasmine Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

There is convincing support for the link between family composition and adolescents’ problem behaviors. What is less clear is the extent to which these relations exist for African-American adolescents. Previous studies have demonstrated that this relation varies by gender. However, there is limited evidence to suggest the potential moderating influence of adult support. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of family composition on adolescents’ physical aggression, delinquency, and substance use. The study comes from secondary analyses of a larger study that evaluated the effectiveness of a violence prevention program. The current study included 1,116 African-American middle …

Multimodal Pedagogies, Processes And Projects: Writing Teachers Know More Than We May Think About Teaching Multimodal Composition, Jessica B. Gordon

Theses and Dissertations

Multimodal writing refers to texts that use more than one communicative mode to convey information. While there is much scholarship that examines the history of alphabetic writing instruction and the alphabetic composing processes of students, little research explores the historical origins of multimodal composition and the processes in which students engage as they compose multimodal texts. This two-part project takes a fresh approach to studying multimodal writing by exploring the multimodal pedagogies of ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric and writing teachers, analyzing the role of mental and physical images in modern writers’ composing practices, and investigating contemporary students’ processes for …

Integrating Genetics And Neuroimaging To Study Subtypes Of Binge Drinkers, Megan E. Cooke

Theses and Dissertations

Risky alcohol use is a major health concern among college students, with 40.1% reporting binge drinking (5 or more drinks in one occasion) and 14.4% reporting heavy drinking (binge drinking on 5 or more occasions) in the past month. Risky alcohol use is thought to be the result of a complex interplay between genes, biological processes, and other phenotypic characteristics. Understanding this complex relationship is further complicated by known phenotypic heterogeneity in the development of alcohol use. Developmental studies have suggested two pathways to risky alcohol use, characterized by externalizing and internalizing characteristics, respectively. However, the underlying biological processes that …

Impact Of Chemotherapy On Nicotine Dependence, Yasmin Alkhlaif

Theses and Dissertations

Although cigarette smoke has been implicated in a causal relationship with various types of cancers, around 62% of all cancer patients are current smokers, recent quitters, or former smokers. While most patients who are smokers are motivated to quit after cancer diagnosis, 25 -30% of these patients continue to smoke. Furthermore, most quitters relapse after 2-3 years of post-chemotherapy. This represents a major health concern since several clinical studies revealed that perpetuation of smoking in cancer populations attenuates patient's well-being and quality of life. Smoking may impair healing, attenuate the efficacy of chemotherapy, increase the disease complications and diminish survival …

Investigating The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Cultural Intelligence To Attitudes Towards Team-Based Learning In Undergraduate Pre-Health Profession Students, Kevin A. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Improving patient outcomes has long been the rationale supporting calls to reform health care delivery systems and health profession education programs (Greiner, 2002; Institutes of Medicine, 2001, 2004; O’Neil & Pew Health Professions Commission, 1998). In 2003, the Institute of Medicine shared its vision statement for health professions education, asserting that “[a]ll health professionals should be educated to deliver patient-centered care as members of an interdisciplinary team, emphasizing evidence-based practice, quality improvement approaches and informatics” (Knebel & Greiner, 2003, p. 3).

Despite the importance placed on teamwork in health sciences education, little attention has been devoted to understanding underlying factors …

State-Based Human Rights Violations And Terrorism, Eray Karlidag

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine the within-country and between-country effects of state-based human rights violations on annual counts of total, fatal and attributed attacks. I use the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) for my outcome variables and Political Terror Scale (PTS) to measure state-based human rights violations.

Scholars argue that repressive governments that silence dissidents and close all avenues of political expression increase the likelihood of terrorism and other acts of violence against the state (Gurr, 1970; Crenshaw, 1981; DeNardo, 1985; Piazza, 2017). In such circumstances, terrorism and acts of violence against the state may serve as a defense mechanism against …

Prime, Perform, Recover, Patrick Harkin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the formal and conceptual framework of my artistic practice as it culminated in the installation of my thesis exhibition, Prime, Perform, Recover. My exhibition seeks to operate as an analysis and critique of the separation inherent in media presentation and rhetoric surrounding natural disasters.

I utilize the aesthetics and vocabulary of disaster capitalism and prepping culture in order to pose direct questions about ecological and social change. I examine the role of images within mass media image production as an all encompassing Now-Time. In this paper I describe frameworks that my practice proposes as potential solutions to …

Laban For The Actor: The Mind/Body Connection, Margaret C. Buckner

Theses and Dissertations

When it comes to actor training in higher education, an extremely strong emphasis is placed on understanding the voice and interpreting the text. While some institutions do incorporate movement courses into the curriculum of the students, many do not serve the learning actor in the most effective way. The work of Rudolf Laban is a way to strengthen the curriculum taught to actors, specifically in regards connecting actors to their bodies. This thesis discusses and analyses the use of Laban’s movement theory in the movement classroom, and focuses on the most effective way of presenting the material to the student. …

Impact Of School-Based Sex Education On College Students’ Rape Myth Acceptance: An Exploratory Analysis, Erika Carpenter

Theses and Dissertations

Research indicates nearly one-fourth of college women fall victim to sexual assault (Cantor et. al., 2015). Two predictors of high proclivity to rape are endorsement of rape myths and adherence to traditional gender norms (King & Roberts, 2011). Additionally, research shows school-based sex education in the United States presents gender and sexual norms in troubling ways that disproportionately harm women (Kendall, 2013). However, research on sexual assault and rape myths have not examined the impact school-based sex education has on rape supportive attitudes. This study aimed to bridge that gap by using original survey data from undergraduate students at a …

Abuse-Related Behavioral Effects Of Oxycodone In The Mouse And Their Modulation By Hiv-1 Tat Expression, Rachel M. Enga

Theses and Dissertations

Abuse of prescription opioids has become epidemic and oxycodone is among the most frequently abused of these drugs. Opioid misuse is a risk factor for HIV infection and its chronic use by HIV-infected individuals can be accompanied by worsened progression to AIDS, cellular damage, and behavioral deficits collectively termed “neuroAIDS”. This toxicity is likely attributable, in part, to the interaction of opioids with the neurotoxic HIV-1 Tat protein. The ultimate objective of this dissertation was to characterize the interaction of HIV-1 Tat expression with the abuse-related effects of oxycodone. Physical dependence, drug self-administration, and sensitization are three classes of phenomena …

Design For Disassembly - A Circular Approach, Wajiha Pervez

Theses and Dissertations

As the world becomes increasingly aware of the need to better care for the environment, innovative business models are helping to counter the damage of the fast fashion system - a phenomenon in the fashion industry whereby production processes are expedited in order to get new trends to the market as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Designing products with a focus on their renewability can shift the product-consumer relationship. The closed loop concept of a “circular economy” is emerging as a viable and promising solution to the current linear business model.

This study explores the possibilities of a more mindful …

Optimization Of In Vitro Transcription/Translation Conditions For In Vitro Compartmentalization Studies And Synthesis Of 4-Fluorohistidine, Christine Ring

Theses and Dissertations

Genetic code expansion allows the incorporation of non-canonical amino acids with a variety of new functional groups: fluorescent amino acids,^1-3 azides,^4-6 alkynes,^5-10 and photocrosslinkers.^4,11,12 This incorporation requires the evolution of new tRNA/aminoacyl tRNA sythetase pairs. Traditionally screenings of novel tRNA/aminoacyl tRNA synthetase pairs have been done in vivo. While these in vivo screenings have proven robust, they are limited in multiple ways: non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) must be nontoxic and bioavailable. Furthermore, library size is limited by transformation efficiency. Lastly, in vivo screenings require substantial amounts of the target ncAA, which is often not available …

Called To Teach: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of Community College Adjunct Faculty’S Teaching Self-Efficacy, Christy L. Tyndall

Theses and Dissertations

Adjunct faculty teach over 50% of courses in U.S. higher education but little is known about them as educators. Strong evidence has been found in the K-12 literature demonstrating the link between teachers’ beliefs, instructional practices, and subsequent student outcomes. Teaching self-efficacy, beliefs in one’s capabilities to perform specific tasks in a particular context, is an important contributor to motivation and performance (Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998). This research advances teaching and learning literature in higher education and provides insight into an understudied population of educators by exploring adjunct faculty’s teaching self-efficacy and factors that influence those beliefs. In this mixed …

Black Lives Matter: Decrypting Encrypted Racism, Basil Ugorji

Ethnic Studies Review

The agitation of the Black Lives Matter movement has dominated the public discourse in the United States. Mobilized against the killing of unarmed black people, the movement and their sympathizers have made a series of demands for justice and dignity for the black people. However, many critics have raised concern over the legitimacy of the phrase, black lives matter since all lives irrespective of race, should matter. This article does not intend to pursue the ongoing debate over the semantic use of black lives or all lives. Instead, the paper seeks to study, through the lenses of the African American …

Ethnic Studies Review

Ethnic Studies Review

No abstract provided.

The Black Lives Matter Movement And Why The Response Of All Lives Matter Is Misleading, Scott Loken

Ethnic Studies Review

This paper discusses the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s brief history and relevance, and the problem with the response of All Lives Matter and how it is misleading. It discusses incidents leading up to the initial Social Media hashtag and how the statement took off as a rallying cry in response to any incident which seemed to be racially motivated, especially in situations where police officers were involved resulting in the death of African American citizens. This article examines how the organization was first developed in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman and his acquittal of …

Parent-Fostered Enrichment Activities And Academic Outcomes In Middle Childhood, Princess-Melissa T. Washington-Nortey

Theses and Dissertations

Despite numerous educational reforms, elementary school children in the United States continue to lag behind their peers from other developed countries on reading, math and science outcomes. Many interventions focus on strategies aimed at increasing the amount of classroom work children undertake. However, the key to improving outcomes may lie in out of school enrichment activities that facilitate learning. Drawing from Eccles Expectancy-Value theory(Simpkins, Fredricks, & Eccles, 2012), the current study focuses on assessing the impact of parent-fostered enrichment activities on child academic outcomes in the first three years of elementary school. Using secondary data from Early Childhood Longitudinal Study …

Towards A Model Of Internal/External Motivation To Respond Without Prejudice: An Examination Of White Racial Identity And Affect, Christina Barnett

Theses and Dissertations

The current study explored how White racial identity influences the relationship between affective reactions to racism and one’s internal or external motivation to respond without prejudice. The first aim was to examine the bivariate relationships between White racial identity ego schemas and affective reactions to racism. The second aim examined the bivariate relationships between affective reactions to racism and an internal/external motivation to respond without prejudice. The third aim explored whether Phase I or Phase II White racial identity ego schemas explained the relation of affective reactions to racism and internal/external motivation to respond without prejudice. PROCESS mediation models were …