Dermatologic Manifestations Of Rheumatic Disease: Cutaneous Manifestations Of Vasculitides, Julianna S. Kang, Julia Nunley, Tiffany Ho, Mavra Masood, Fnu Nutan, Beth Rubinstein

Open and Affordable Course Content at VCU

No abstract provided.

Unveiling Undergraduate Research Opportunities For All, Justin Fedoryk, Laniece Jones, Timothy Luckritz, Tracy Mcmullin, Teresa Salgado, Meredith Sisson

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

VCU is experiencing unprecedented levels of growth in its research operations, having secured more than $460 million in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2023 and becoming one of the top 50 public universities in the country for sponsored research. Between FY18 and FY22, sponsored research funding at VCU increased by 49% (Crawford et al., 2022). Nonetheless, many faculty members are leaving a key resource untapped: VCU’s undergraduate students. According to Dr. Srirama Rao, Vice President of Research and Innovation, in a recent State of the Research address, only about 600 undergraduate students participate in sponsored research annually. Even faculty …

Early Onset Age Of Regular Alcohol Use In Indigenous Persons, Angel Lewis, The Spit For Science Working Group, Amy Adkins Phd, Karen Chartier Phd, Msw

IRBEH/Spit for Science Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Observing Ceramide Pathway With Ferroptosis Via Mia Paca-2 Cell Treatment With Rsl3, Tazrin Rahman

AUCTUS: The Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship

Composed of sphingosine and a fatty acid, ceramides are lipid molecules that serve as key metabolic signaling molecules of a sphingolipid pathway. While it acts as a precursor of complex sphingolipids, inducing ceramide generation can cause cell stress leading to subsequent cell death via apoptosis, necrosis, and even mitophagy. With regards to cell death specifically, a novel form of regulated cell death, ferroptosis, has recently been recognized of necrotic nature. Its unique morphological features and distinct properties have been observed over the last several decades; however, the molecular features were not identifiable as pure evidence of cell death, until recently …

Evaluating How Acidic Solutions Affect The Microhardness Of Bioceramic Sealers, Colton Fischer

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: With growing use of bioceramic sealers (BCS) in root canal therapy, there have been challenges when retreating BCS cases. Weak acids may be effective in removing BCS and their efficacy as a solvent can be measured by their influence on the microhardness of BCS. Microhardness can be used as an indirect measurement of material hardness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the microhardness of BCS when placed in contact with various acidic solutions to assess their potential use as a solvent for retreatment procedures.

Methods: EndoSequence BC Sealer (Brasseler USA) was injected into four 10 × 3mm …

Exploring The Impact Of Covid-19 On Adults With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities In The United States, Sarah Lineberry

Theses and Dissertations

Like most disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted people from historically marginalized communities. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have faced higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and death compared to people without disabilities, as well as significant disruptions to the services that support them to participate in the community. A relative lack of research about the experiences of people with IDD may have contributed to this risk and continues to limit our understanding of the impacts of COVID-19. This three-paper dissertation is guided by the theory of epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007) to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on …

Bet Inhibition As A Strategy For Enhancing The Response To Estrogen Antagonism/Cdk4-6 Inhibition In Er Positive Breast Cancer, Ahmed M. Elshazly

Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring malignancy in females, accounting for the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths. ER+ breast cancer constitutes approximately 70% of all breast cancer cases. The standard care of therapy comprises endocrine antagonists together with adjuvant therapy; however, the recovery from the therapy-suppressive state is associated with further drug resistance together with increasing tumor aggressiveness and with possible metastasis. Autophagy induction has been shown to be associated with various therapeutic modalities, with different functions, including cytotoxic, cytoprotective, cytostatic as well as non-protective forms. The triggering of autophagy may be responsible for resistance development and …

Effects Of Hiv-1 Tat And Opiates On Gene Regulation Of Oligodendrocyte Lineage Cells: Identification Of Myrf As A Novel Target, Kelly M. Flounlacker

Theses and Dissertations

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders remain pervasive even with increased efficacy/use of antiretroviral therapies. Opioid use/abuse among HIV+ individuals is documented to exacerbate deficits. White matter (WM) alterations (myelin pallor, volume/structural) detected by diffusion tensor imaging, are common observations in HIV+ individuals. Using transgenic mice expressing HIV-1 Tat, we examined effects of 2-6 weeks of Tat/morphine exposure on WM using genomic/biochemical methods. RNA sequencing of striatal tissue after 2-weeks revealed robust changes in mRNAs associated with oligodendrocyte populations/myelin integrity, including Transferrin, Ndrg1, and myelin regulatory factor (Myrf/Mrf), an oligodendrocyte-specific transcription factor involved in differentiation/maturation. Immunoblots conducted after 6-weeks exposure in …

Quantifying Insect Emergence In Tidal Freshwaters And The Importance Of Aquatic Prey In Wetland-Dependent Songbird Diet, Samantha L. Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Insectivorous birds and their arthropod prey are experiencing widespread population declines, driven largely by anthropogenic disturbance and climate change. For wetland-dependent insectivores that consume a mixture of terrestrial and aquatic insects, understanding the availability, consumption, and nutritional qualities of aquatic diet subsidies is important for conservation. I use prothonotary warblers (Protonotaria citrea) as a model species throughout this work, because their breeding season aligns with aquatic insect emergence and they include aquatic insects when provisioning nestlings. In the first chapter, I estimate aquatic insect emergence from tidal freshwaters, which are understudied compared to nontidal systems. Using continuous field …

How Stromal Interactions Play A Role In The Quest For Human Papillomavirus Specific Cancer Therapeutics, Alexis-Leigh A. Fakunmoju

Theses and Dissertations

High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV), like HPV16 and HPV18, are associated with malignant cancer growth within the oropharynx and cervix. Globally, HPV-induced cancers, including oropharyngeal and cervical cancers, contribute 5% to the overwhelming burden of all cancers. HPV is highly transmissible by sexual contact via micro abrasions to the mucosa. Once exposure occurs, the virus begins replication and creates an intimate relationship with the host’s cellular proteins. While most HPV is cleared quickly by our immune system, persistent infections, or infections in immune compromised individuals, are susceptible to transformation and tumor progression. Early detection measures like PAP smears and preventable measures …

Radiation Shielding Effectiveness Of Hafnium Diboride (Hfb2) Reinforced Epoxy Composites For Enhanced Radiation Protection And Safety, Furkan Erdogan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the radiation shielding effectiveness of hafnium diboride (HfB2) reinforced epoxy composites, with the aim of enhancing radiation protection and safety in various applications. The study focuses on the development and characterization of HfB2-epoxy composites with varying weight percentages of HfB2 nanoparticles, as well as on the evaluation of their shielding effectiveness against gamma rays and thermal neutrons. The radiation shielding performance of the composites is assessed using gamma-ray spectroscopy and neutron counting, and the neutron attenuation efficacy is compared with that of 5% borated high-dense polyethylene. The results indicate that the HfB2-epoxy composites exhibit promising radiation shielding …

Prospective Investigation Of Insomnia Symptoms And Sleep Duration As Risk Factors For Stroke Incidence And All-Cause Mortality In U.S Adult, Wendemi Sawadogo

Theses and Dissertations

Background and Objectives: Stroke is the second leading cause of death in the world. In the United States, on average, someone has a stroke every 40 seconds and someone dies as a result of stroke every 3.5 minutes. Identifying modifiable risk factors of stroke is therefore a public health priority. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which insomnia symptoms and sleep duration contribute to stroke incidence, all-cause mortality, and explore potential causal pathways.

Methods: The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study were …

Association Of Interpersonal Trauma And Polygenic Risk Scores With Depressive Symptoms In College Students, Rowan K. O'Hara

Theses and Dissertations

Major depression is considered a complex trait influenced by both polygenic risk factors and environmental exposures, such as childhood trauma. This study applied statistical genetic methods to calculate aggregate genetic risk for major depression to predict depressive symptoms scores in a college student sample. Data were from the Spit for Science (S4S) study in which college students from a large urban university self-reported interpersonal trauma (IPT) exposure prior to college and depressive symptoms from the past month (N = 7502; ancestry group: 20% African [AFR], 12% Admixed Americas [AMR], 10% East Asian [EAS], 49% European [EUR], 8% South Asian [SAS]). …

Enhancing Neuromorphic Computing With Advanced Spiking Neural Network Architectures, Paolo Gabriel Alejandro Cachi Delgado

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes ways to address current limitations of neuromorphic computing to create energy-efficient and adaptable systems for AI applications. It does so by designing novel spiking neural networks architectures that improve their performance. Specifically, the two proposed architectures address the issues of training complexity, hyperparameter selection, computational flexibility, and scarcity of neuromorphic training data. The first architecture uses auxiliary learning to improve training performance and data usage, while the second architecture leverages neuromodulation capability of spiking neurons to improve multitasking classification performance. The proposed architectures are tested on Intel's Loihi2 neuromorphic chip using several neuromorphic datasets, such as NMIST, …

Quantifying Fibronectin Mechanical Properties Using Antibody-Mediated Optical Tweezing (Amot), Caleb Dalton

Theses and Dissertations

Despite decades of investigations into fibronectin (FN) fibrillogenesis, fibril mechanics remain unclear. One of the most important roles for FN fibrils is in the arena of cellular mechanotransduction. Numerous studies have demonstrated that cells sense and respond to the mechanical properties of their surroundings; since FN fibrils are a major constituent of the ECM that links cells to their surroundings, mechanotransduction cannot be fully understood without understanding the mechanical properties of FN fibrils. In this proposal, a novel biomechanical assay is developed to probe isolated FN fibrils and quantify their response to specific loading conditions. This will be accomplished by …

“It's Just Not Enough”: Examining The Experiences Of School-Based Sexual Health Education And Conversation Engagement With Trusted Adults Among Black Boys In Richmond, Va, Sharyn A. Dougherty

Theses and Dissertations

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that youth make up a quarter of the sexually active population, yet account for half of the 20 million new sexually transmitted infections in the United States.In 2021, youth age 15-19 living in Virginia’s central region, which includes the Richmond Metropolitan area, had the second highest number of chlamydia cases and fourth highest number of gonorrhea cases among all age groups, with the highest rates among Black youth. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of Black youth in Richmond, VA with school-based sexual health education (SHE) and their …

Integrating Historically Marginalized Students’ Funds Of Knowledge For Culturally Responsive Teaching And Learning, Martinique Ann Sealy

Theses and Dissertations

The United States historically has not always recognized the unique knowledge, or Funds of Knowledge (FoK; Moll et. al, 1992) that Black (and other historically marginalized) students’ have as assets to classroom learning and much of today’s mainstream curriculum represents White cultural norms as the basis (Sjursen, 2021). Because of this reality, marginalized students must navigate mainstream cultural norms alongside their own culture to be successful in the classroom. This three-paper dissertation includes 1. a systematic literature review of Black U.S. k-8 students language and identity in relation to achievement, 2. a qualitative case study centered on middle school urban …

The Effect Of Strain And Drug Combinations On Ketamine's Locomotor Activating Effects In Rats, Caroline K. Flagler

Theses and Dissertations

Rationale: Initially developed as an anesthetic, ketamine is now used to treat a variety of disorders, including treatment resistant depression (TRD). While ketamine appears to be a breakthrough therapy for TRD, it has many use-limiting side effects, including abuse liability, psychotomimetic effects, and sedation. Utilizing ketamine in combination with other medications, such as the monoaminergic antidepressant desipramine (DSP), opioid antagonist naltrexone (NTX), and the NMDA receptor partial agonist D-cycloserine (DCS) may reduce side-effects resulting from ketamine therapy.

Objectives: The goal of this project was to study ketamine’s adverse effects using locomotor activation in an open field as a behavioral correlate …

Role Of The Ormdls In Keratinocytes, Souad Hatmi

Theses and Dissertations

The epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin, serves as a vital barrier protecting the body from environmental stressors, pathogens, and dehydration. Keratinocytes, the predominant cell type in the epidermis, play a central role in maintaining skin integrity and barrier function. In normal human skin, keratinocytes move from the basal layer to the stratum corneum, the top layer of the epidermis. In their travel, keratinocytes undergo a process of terminal differentiation, loss their ability to proliferate, secrete sphingolipids into the extracellular space, and gradually loss their nucleus and organelles. Sphingolipids, particularly ceramides, are key components of the intercellular lipid lamellae …

Computational Modeling Of Temporal Eeg Responses To Cyclic Binary Visual Stimulus Patterns, Connor M. Delaney

Theses and Dissertations

The human visual system serves as the basis for many modern computer vision and machine learning approaches. While detailed biophysical models of certain aspects of the visual system exist, little work has been done to develop an end-to-end model from the visual stimulus to the signals generated at the visual cortex measured via the scalp electroencephalogram (EEG). The creation of such a model would not only provide a better understanding of the visual processing pathways but would also facilitate the design and evaluation of more robust visual stimuli for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). A novel experiment was designed and conducted where …

Evaluating The Influence Of Concurrently Available Non-Drug Reinforcers On Drug Reinforcement Using Sophisticated Preclinical Models Of Substance Use Disorder, Madison M. Marcus

Theses and Dissertations

The maladaptive allocation of behavior towards cocaine and away from other concurrently available non-drug reinforcers (e.g., family, health, work, etc.) is a key characteristic of cocaine use disorder (CUD) that is embedded into multiple diagnostic criteria for CUD. Accordingly, basic research conducted in a drug-vs-food “choice” context has improved our fundamental knowledge of the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of drug reinforcement. However, to date, these preclinical studies have only been conducted with food as the alternative reinforcer. The extent to which other non-drug reinforcers compete with cocaine-taking behavior is unknown. The studies in this dissertation establish two sophisticated discrete-trial cocaine-vs-alternative …

Quantitative And Molecular Genetic Analyses Of Brain Structure, Substance Use, And Posttraumatic Stress Phenotypes: Data From Children, Adolescents And Adults, Daniel Bustamante

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

QUANTITATIVE AND MOLECULAR GENETIC ANALYSES OF BRAIN-IMAGING, SUBSTANCE USE, AND POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS PHENOTYPES: DATA FROM CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS AND ADULTS

By Daniel Bustamante, B.S., B.A.

Doctoral dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Integrative Life Sciences – Behavioral and Statistical Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2023.

Dissertation directors: Michael C. Neale, Ph.D., Banks Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry & Human and Molecular Genetics; and, Ananda B. Amstadter, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Human and Molecular Genetics.

Substance use (SU) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) phenotypes are comorbid, share …

Novel Strategies In Head And Neck Tumor Therapy; Contribution Of Senescence In Therapy Response, And Resistance Development After Cisplatin Treatment, Fereshteh Ahmadinejad

Theses and Dissertations

Therapeutic outcomes achieved in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients by concurrent cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy initially reflect both tumor regression and tumor stasis. However, local, and distant metastasis and disease relapse as well as cisplatin-induced resistance are common in HNSCC patients. In the current work, we demonstrate that cisplatin treatment induces senescence in both p53 wild- type HN30 and p53 mutant HN12 head and neck cancer models. We also show that tumor cells can escape from senescence both in vitro and in vivo. We further established a cisplatin-resistant cell line from HN30 parental cell line that underwent brief senescence …

Advancing Our Understanding On The Role Of Bromodomain Phd-Finger Transcription Factor (Bptf) In Cancer Through The Analysis Of Publicly Available Databases., Preksha Jerajani

Theses and Dissertations

The initiation and progression of cancer are significantly influenced by genetic factors, and despite ongoing research, a definite cure for this disease remains elusive. Over time, researchers have explored various genes as potential targets for treating various types of cancer, and numerous innovative therapies continue to be developed. General chemotherapies face their own challenges like recurrence, while cancer specific drugs face the challenge of metastasis. Therefore, therapeutic strategies have slowly started to shift towards comprehending the pathways and corresponding genes that may be implicated in multiple types of cancer, with the aim of identifying more effective targets for drug development. …

Stage-Structured Predator-Prey Interactions In A Warming World: A Case Study In Riverine Rock Pools, Andrew T. Davidson

Theses and Dissertations

Warming can impact predator-prey interactions through a variety of mechanisms. For example, warming can both alter the rate at which predators consume prey and the rate prey develop through vulnerable life stages. Thus, the overall effect of warming on consumer-resource interactions will depend upon the strength and asymmetry of warming effects on predator and prey performance. Here, we describe the consequences of these asymmetrical responses to temperature by first developing a simple stage-structured modeling framework, then applying that framework to predation of American rock pool mosquito larvae, Aedes atropalpus, by several common predators in riverine rock pools. We then …

Interactions Between Hiv And Opioids On Antiretroviral Accumulation, The Blood Brain Barrier, And The Inflammatory Response In The Brain., Kara Rademeyer

Theses and Dissertations

The complex mechanisms related to HIV infection, neurodegeneration, and chronic neuroinflammation collectively describe neuroHIV (Hauser et al. 2007; Chang et al. 2014; Smith et al. 2014). Specifically, opioid abuse, poor penetration of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, chronic inflammation and neuronal injury/degeneration are all implicated in neuroHIV (Fantuzzi et al. 2003; Letendre et al. 2004; Verani et al. 2005; Duncan and Sattentau 2011; Hong and Banks 2015; Simoes and Justino 2015; Olivier et al. 2018; Murphy et al. 2019; Osborne et al. 2020). For the first time, we demonstrate that morphine, fentanyl, and methadone in vivo alter the brain accumulation of ARVs, …

Buckets In A Deep Well: Essays About Shakespeare’S History Play Characters And An Original Drama, Brian C. Bassett

Theses and Dissertations

Buckets in a Deep Well is a set of essays that examines various characters portrayed in Shakespeare’s history plays, as well as parallel figures in 20th and 21st century works. Each essay primarily focuses on a single character’s response to a power structure: Richard Gloucester to the Tudor England of his audience in Richard III; Richard Nixon’s campaign-produced version of himself to 20th century American democracy in “Checkers;” Falstaff to organized society in Henry IV, Part 1; Marlo Stanfield to the drug economy of early 2000’s Baltimore in The Wire; the Duke of York to the disrupted monarchy of The …

Climate, Physiology, And Distributions: The Role Of Thermal Physiology In Biological Invasions, Sean D. Powers

Theses and Dissertations

Climate is a primary factor influencing species range dynamics, particularly for ectotherms whose body temperature is closely tied to the surrounding conditions. While range shifts of ectotherms are attributed to climate warming, the mechanism driving these shifts are not well understood. Studies in macrophysiology demonstrate that the interaction of climate with thermal physiology plays a key role in determining large-scale spatial and temporal patterns for many temperature-sensitive physiological traits. This work has revealed a clear relationship between thermal tolerance breadth and range size. However, more recent analyses of this relationship demonstrate that thermal tolerance breadth only provides a partial explanation …

Cellular Glycosphingolipid Imbalance Modulates Emt In Cancer Cells, Laura E. Clark, Amanda Dickinson, Santiago Lima

Undergraduate Research Posters

Sphingolipids are key components of the plasma membrane and are regulators of complex biological processes often altered in cancer cells. In human tumors, genes of key enzymes that regulate levels of glucosylceramide and lactosylceramide are often amplified. However, it is unknown why these traits are positively selected in transformed cells. In this work, we used CRISPR-Cas9 to knockout two key enzymes amplified in tumors in HeLa and H1703 tumor-derived cell-lines. As expected, the knockout lines had dramatic accumulation of GlcCer and LacCer. However, unexpectedly, they showed significantly decreased in-vitro wound-healing capacity and an almost complete loss of in-vitro extra-cellular matrix …

Ros And Sfk Signaling Is Required For Development Of Hematopoietic Stem Cells In Zebrafish, Bradley Williams, Erich Damm

Undergraduate Research Posters

ROS and SFK signaling is required for development of hematopoietic stem cells in zebrafish

Bradley Williams and Erich Damm

Background

Hematopoiesis is the process in which the myriad of mature blood cell types, including erythrocytes and leukocytes, develop from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) throughout the life of an organism. In vertebrates, HSCs originate from endothelial cells lining the floor of the dorsal aorta. This process is referred to as the endothelial to hematopoietic transition and is likely controlled in part by molecular signals from neighboring cells. Investigation into the molecular signaling mechanisms controlling the development of HSCs is critical to …