Digital Commons Network^™

Pro-Environmental Behaviors Among Black Environmentalists: A Critical Race Perspective, Kimberly S. Compton

Theses and Dissertations

Environmentalist narratives have left out the labor of Black environmentalists, mischaracterizing Black communities as disinterested in environmental problems or solutions. The purpose of this critical transformative exploratory qualitative study, guided by critical race theory, was to explore the meaning of pro-environmental behaviors among Black environmental advocates. Ten adult Black environmental advocates and organizers were interviewed using semi-structured interviews which were transcribed and analyzed using directed content analysis and thematic analysis. The findings demonstrated divergences between definitions of the environment and how that impacts what is considered pro-environmental behavior; the breadth of the pro-environmental behaviors in which Black environmentalists are engaged; …

Leading In Crooked Rooms: Race, Gender, Culture And Black Women's Leadership Skills And Practices, Portia Newman

Theses and Dissertations

The literature on Black women leaders, where it exists, focuses on the barriers to Black women becoming leaders or being fully empowered when in leadership positions. However, to understand the leadership identity of Black women, and perhaps help to explain the absence of Black women in formal leadership spaces, means to examine the influence of race, gender, and culture on leadership behavior, as well as the setting in which leadership exists. This qualitative grounded theory study explored the leadership skills and practices of 15 senior-level cross sector Black women leaders. The data was collected in two phases: 1) a leadership …

Mathematical Modeling Of Lung Inflammation: Macrophage Polarization And Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury With Methods For Predicting Outcome, Sarah B. Minucci

Theses and Dissertations

Lung insults, such as respiratory infections and lung injuries, can damage the pulmonary epithelium, with the most severe cases needing mechanical ventilation for effective breathing and survival. Furthermore, despite the benefits of mechanical ventilators, prolonged or misuse of ventilators may lead to ventilation-associated/ventilation-induced lung injury (VILI). Damaged epithelial cells within the alveoli trigger a local immune response. A key immune cell is the macrophage, which can differentiate into a spectrum of phenotypes ranging from pro- to anti-inflammatory. To gain a greater understanding of the mechanisms of the immune response in the lungs and possible outcomes, we developed several mathematical models …

Humanizing Architecture: A Polymorphic Space, Nada Abbara

Theses and Dissertations

The built environments in which our communities thrive constitute an integral part of human experience and evolution. Yet, many places are detached from the way we experience them due to mass-production, which often produces standardized environments, and due to the tendency of modern architecture to delineate spaces as static objects rather than dynamic interactions. Thus, there is an emerging need to humanize architecture through an interdisciplinary approach that engages nature’s behavioral patterns. The project proposes a transformable polyhedral structure that interacts with human emotion through a three-dimensional morphing space that contracts and expands. This spatial interaction is achieved through a …

Phenotypic Characterization Of Table Mountain (Pinus Pungens) And Pitch Pine (Pinus Rigida) Hybrids Along An Elevational Gradient In The Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia, Alexander L. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Hybridization has played a long-standing role in the evolution of both plant and animal species and allows for the sharing of genetic information between lineages. Here, potential hybridization of a species endemic to the Appalachian Mountains, Table Mountain pine (Pinus pungens), and pitch pine (Pinus rigida) was investigated along an elevational gradient, through the use of phenotypic measurements: cone length, cone width, and needle length. Phenotypes were used to identify hybrids in a three-tiered elevational sampling method at two sites in Shenandoah National Park with the use of linear discriminant analysis. It was found that hybridization …

Nature-Inspired Material Strategies Towards Functional Devices, Sayantan Pradhan

Theses and Dissertations

Naturally sourced, renewable biomaterials possess outstanding advantages for a multitude of biomedical applications owing to their biodegradability, biocompatibility, and excellent mechanical properties. Of interest in this dissertation are silk (protein) and chitin (polysaccharide) biopolymers for the fabrication of functional biodevices. One of the major challenges restricting these materials beyond their traditional usage as passive substrate materials is the ability to combine them with high-resolution fabrication techniques. Initial research work is directed towards the fabrication of micropatterned, flexible 2D substrates of silk fibroin and chitin using bench-top photolithographic techniques. Research is focused on imparting electrochemical properties to silk proteins using conducting …

The Default: The Paradox Of Play And Productivity, Yeon Geong Hwang

Theses and Dissertations

Society takes a dim view of idleness, regarding downtime as wasted time, but what if society’s view is wrong? This thesis champions daydreaming; it advocates for quirky, playful experiences that improve quality-of-life by avoiding burnout and mitigating tedium. Borrowing language from the Theatre of the Absurd, The Default challenges society’s attitudes toward productivity, striking a new relationship between a cubicle worker and a set of seemingly-familiar but surprising objects. Reflecting on the absurdity of contemporary work-life imbalance, the objects and narratives depicted in The Default invite playful interactions, when objects that appear to be normal behave unexpectedly. The Default is …

Floating Home: An Imagined Community, Carrie Collier

Theses and Dissertations

Climate experts around the world agree that anthropogenic climate change threatens the long-term survival of the human species. Human activity has already contributed to an exponential spike in the rate of extinction among other Earthly species, beginning at the time of the industrial revolution.

The American home is a site of concentrated resource consumption, waste production, and greenhouse gas emission. It is also a site where gender-based expectations continue to burden women with a majority share of uncompensated, under-valued domestic labor. Collective or communal housing arrangements could reduce per capita carbon output while facilitating the equitable re-distribution of work that …

≥I++ Wayward Self, Space, And Language, Mystie Do, Thu Tm Do

Theses and Dissertations

Having crossed different geographical and cultural borders, I can’t seem to position myself beyond society’s forced binaries of race, sexuality, and materiality. My personal diasporic experience drives me to bring together various presences, putting them next to one another, engaging them in dialogues. My works often share multiple space–time possibilities: a digital space, a physical site, a virtual alternity. Occupying these parallel worlds are varied ratios of mixtures of natural ecosystems, my own system of abstraction, and existing technological systems that allow us a level of individual engagement not previously available. I want to invite people to fluctuate between these …

Tya And Educational Outreach In Higher Education: An Asset To Undergraduates And Their Community, Emily J. Mattison

Theses and Dissertations

Undergraduate students pursuing a career in theatre are at the beginning of their life-long training and understanding and appreciation for the art. Performing in a Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) touring production alongside the responsibility of crafting educational outreach opportunities provides the students with a unique chance to comprehend the art they have chosen to devote their lives to. This paper details the value of offering a course I crafted entitled “TYA Educational Outreach”, for both the undergraduates enrolled and the community they would be reaching. While undergraduates develop an understanding of the impact theatre can have on an individual …

Anywhere I Stand, Hanaa Safwat

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I will trace the effects of colonialism and the nationalism, conceptions of deserts as empty spaces form a sense of place and create a subjecthood and orientation that is unable to freely move through the landscape. I relate these structures to the thesis installation titled Anywhere I Stand I Block the Flow of the Wind that was installed at theVCU Anderson Gallery on April 9 2021.

Pase Perdido Missing Pass, Larissa M. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

This paper contains the following terms: colonialism, ghost populations, natural occurrences, global positioning, poetic relation, confrontation/vengeance, mapping, graphs, models, warfare, bio warfare, magic, mystery, migration, memory, mutation, ghosts, and esoteric systems

Reward-Related Effects Of Amphetamines Administered By Electronic Cigarette, Lucas Wohler

Theses and Dissertations

While e-cigarette vaporizers are primarily used for the delivery of nicotine, they can also be used to administer a wide range of other substances of abuse including stimulants such as d-amphetamine and methamphetamine. Methamphetamine and prescription amphetamines are widely abused throughout the United States and across the world leading us to believe there may be abuse potential with vaping methamphetamine as vaping becomes increasingly popular. In the present study, methamphetamine and amphetamine vapor were assessed using vapor capture methods. The vapor samples were then analyzed using liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (LC-MS). Three experiments were carried out to examine the abuse …

Effects Of Abiotic And Biotic Factors On Hornworm Distributions, Emelia O. Kusi

Theses and Dissertations

Determining the drivers of species occurrences is a central topic in ecology. Both abiotic and biotic factors are important predictors of species distributions, yet most species distribution models consider abiotic variables only. In this study, the influence of abiotic and biotic factors on current distributions of herbivores, Manduca sexta, and Manduca quinquemaculata, their major cultivated and wild host plants, and a parasitoid, Cotesia congregata, was quantified using an ensemble of three models (generalized linear model, maximum entropy, and random forest). The predictive ability of abiotic-only, biotic-only, and abiotic-biotic models was evaluated. Winter temperatures and precipitation (i.e., precipitation of …

Glucocorticoid Receptor Dysregulation Underlies 5-Ht2a Receptor-Dependent Synaptic And Behavioral Deficits In A Mouse Neurodevelopmental Disorder Model, Justin M. Saunders

Theses and Dissertations

Schizophrenia is a severe neuropsychiatric disorder that presents with diverse symptoms, some of which remain resistant to treatment. Increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders such as schizophrenia has been observed following gestational infection in humans, leading to development of maternal immune activation (MIA) animal models. Increased density of the serotonin 5-HT2AR receptor (5-HT2AR), the primary target of hallucinogenic drugs and a key target of atypical antipsychotics, has been observed in postmortem antipsychotic-free prefrontal cortex samples from schizophrenia subjects, a change reflected in frontal cortex of adult MIA offspring. To model MIA, we administered 20 mg/kg i.p. of the viral mimetic poly-(I:C) …

Overcoming Mechanisms Of Acquired And Innate Doxorubicin Resistance Using Nanomedicine And Tumor-Associated Macrophage Immunotherapy, Rashed M. Almuqbil

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Overcoming Mechanisms of Acquired and Innate Doxorubicin Resistance Using Nanomedicine and Tumor-Associated Macrophage Immunotherapy

By Rashed M. Almuqbil, Pharm.D.

Director: Sandro R.P. da Rocha, PhD

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. The available treatment for solid tumors may include surgery, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy or a combination of all those regimens. Chemotherapy is widely used in the treatment of both lung cancers and breast cancer, including metastases, irrespective of type and stage. The poor rates of survival can be attributed to late diagnosis, and due to the development of acquired and innate chemoresistance. Lung tumors are intrinsically …

Cardiac Arrest And Global Ischemia Reperfusion Injury: Role Of Mitochondria And Cannabinoid Receptor 2 Signaling., Jennifer L. Bradley

Theses and Dissertations

We explored the effects of cardiac arrest on mitochondria populations and heart whole tissue lysate proteomics utilizing the Weil Institute’s in vivo rat model of cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. We have discovered that brain mitochondria are more sensitive to global ischemia compared to heart mitochondria. Additionally, complex I is the most sensitive electron transport chain complex to ischemic injury and is a major control point of the rate of oxidative phosphorylation following cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Preservation of brain mitochondrial activity and function during cardiac arrest may enhance outcomes and recovery.

A recent article focusing on acute myocardial …

Augmented Reality In Sport Broadcasting, Chad Goebert

Theses and Dissertations

For a large portion of its history, sport broadcasting has been stagnant when it comes to incorporating new and innovative technologies. However, due to declining viewership and consumer desire for customizable content, augmented reality graphics have begun to be incorporated into multiple sport broadcast products. In fact, the UEFA Champions League, NBA, NFL, and NHL have all used or indicated their intention to utilize AR graphics in future broadcasts. Considering that media rights revenue is the main source of revenue to sport properties and organizations, it is important to carefully consider how the core product (the broadcast) is presented. The …

Novel Roles Of Yy1 In Astrocytes, Karli A. Mockenhaupt

Theses and Dissertations

Astrocytes tile the entire central nervous system, are diverse across brain regions, and perform specialized functions fine-tuned for their neuronal circuit. Initially, astrocyte heterogeneity is generated through intrinsic programs specified by their progenitors. Then, as astrocyte mature, they are specialized by region-specific communication with surrounding cells. The molecular programs that regulate this diversity and allow for the accommodation to the needs of the local environment remains elusive. We explored a ubiquitously expressed zinc finger transcription factor, Yin Yang 1 (YY1), that both activates and represses transcription by regulating loops of active chromatin. This report describes the diverse functions of astrocytic …

Straight Through My Heart, Raul A. Aguilar Canela

Theses and Dissertations

Straight through my heart is an exhibition that explores the concept of heartbreak as a socio-political phenomenon. Through the affect of sadness the thesis analyses the way in which subjects are formed under cognitive capitalism. Paying particular interest to the collateral effects of neoliberal culture —hyper-stimulation, self-exploitation, competition, and obsession with productivity—and the pathologies they create —depression, anxiety, body aches, fatigue— this work shifts the burden of sadness from the individual to the community. By doing so it proposes heartbreak as a public feeling.

Tender Perception: The Ethics Of Existence And Nonliving Objects’ Movement In Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons, Timothy Berge

Theses and Dissertations

In exploring the relationship between Gertrude Stein's and Henri Bergson's lectures on movement this posits a conception of democracy embedded in Stein's poetry where everything that moves exists and everything that exists has a stake in the landscape in which it exists. Tender Buttons describes objects in ways that highlight the movement of nonliving matter, evoking current scholarship in new materialism, particularly Jane Bennett. After establishing a relationship between Bergson and Stein, this thesis turns to Jane Bennett teasing out the political and ecological implications of Stein's conception of movement in inanimate objects.

Information Architecture For A Chemical Modeling Knowledge Graph, Adam R. Luxon

Theses and Dissertations

Machine learning models for chemical property predictions are high dimension design challenges spanning multiple disciplines. Free and open-source software libraries have streamlined the model implementation process, but the design complexity remains. In order better navigate and understand the machine learning design space, model information needs to be organized and contextualized. In this work, instances of chemical property models and their associated parameters were stored in a Neo4j property graph database. Machine learning model instances were created with permutations of dataset, learning algorithm, molecular featurization, data scaling, data splitting, hyperparameters, and hyperparameter optimization techniques. The resulting graph contains over 83,000 nodes …

Effect Of Kcc2-Enhancing Prodrug Clp290 On Tat ± Morphine Treated Female Mice At The Behavioral And Molecular Levels, Michael Marone

Theses and Dissertations

HIV-1 infection is highly comorbid with opioid use disorder. Prescription and illicit use of opioids are particularly risky for HIV-1 infected individuals due to potential synergistic neurotoxic effects mediated by viral proteins and opioids. Additionally, opiate drug abuse has been shown to exacerbate neuropathogenesis of HIV-1⁺ individuals. Development of combination antiretroviral therapies (cART) has drastically improved the life expectancy of these patients. Unfortunately, although the severity of neurological and neurocognitive complications has declined, the incidence of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) remains 30-50% in the post-cART era and is worsened by opioid use disorder. HIV-1 proteins, inflammatory mediators, and excitotoxins …

Muscarinic Excitation Of Dopamine Neurons In The Ventral Tegmental Area Via Activation Of A Trpc-Like Cation Conductance, Yu Tzu Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) play a crucial role in reward and motivational behaviors, including the development of drug addictions. VTA DA neurons receive excitatory cholinergic inputs from the mesopontine tegmentum. Blockage of the M5 muscarinic receptor in DA neurons has been shown to attenuate drug-induced DA release and abuse-related behaviors, but the molecular mechanism is unknown. In this study, experiments were designed to identify the electrophysiological effects of muscarinic agonism in the modulation of action potential kinetics and firing patterns in VTA DA neurons of mice. Pharmacology of the muscarinic receptor-evoked current was also characterized. …

Effect Of Stimulus Waveform On Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Metrics In Proximal And Distal Arm Muscles, Christopher Lynch

Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of common transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) waveforms (monophasic and biphasic) on resting motor threshold (RMT), active motor threshold (AMT), and motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitudes in the biceps and first dorsal interosseous (FDI) because waveforms may affect motor targets differently. Additionally, we determined the test-retest reliability of TMS metrics for each stimulation type and muscle.

Methods: Ten individuals participated in two sessions of single-pulse TMS delivered to the motor cortex perpendicular to the central sulcus. MEPs were normalized to the maximum EMG signal during contraction and were recorded at …

Fty720-Induced Antinociception In The Chronic Constrictive Injury (Cci) Mouse Model: Neuronal-Astroglial Mechanisms Through S1p1 Signaling, Lauren V. Moncayo

Theses and Dissertations

Novel pharmacological and genetic advancements increased interest in the sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor-1 (S1P₁) as a potential therapeutic target. S1P₁ plays a critical role in the mechanism of action of Fingolimod/FTY720, a therapy currently FDA-approved for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) (Camm et al., 2014). To prevent RRMS, FTY720 downregulates S1P₁ on lymphocytes to impair their trafficking and sequester cells in the lymphoid organs to prevent further pathogenic attack (Brinkmann et al., 2010). Recent developments in pre-clinical models suggest FTY720 holds therapeutic potential to treat other diseases, such as neuropathic pain, a debilitating chronic pain …

The Effects Of Interleukin-1Β On Cardiac Reserve And Exercise Capacity In The Mouse, Habeebah Z. Vohra

Theses and Dissertations

Heart failure (HF) is characterized by dyspnea, fatigue, and exercise intolerance. Clinical evidence points to increased interleukin-1β (IL-1β) activity in patients with HF, with an IL-1 blockade improving the exercise capacity in HF patients. In healthy mice, recombinant-mouse IL-1β (rmIL-1β) induces acute systolic dysfunction, peaking 4 hours after administration. However, the direct effects of rmIL-1β on exercise capacity are unknown. We hypothesized that rmIL-1β diminishes the exercise capacity in the mouse. Adult mice were trained to run on a treadmill and exercise capacity was assessed before, 4 hours, and 96 hours after intraperitoneal administration of rmIL-1β (3 μg/kg) or vehicle …

Developing Computer Aided Algorithms For Automatic Assessment Of Psoriasis Disease Severity Using Digital Images, Intisar Rizwan I Haque

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the research work was to develop image processing algorithms for automatic and objective assessment of psoriasis to aid in more effective management and treatment of patient symptoms. For this purpose, multiple classical machine learning-based unsupervised approaches are proposed which achieve a maximum average accuracy of ~94% on a dataset of 45 images of various resolutions. This accuracy improves performance by 14% in comparison to existing approaches reported in the literature on the same dataset of images. An alternative deep learning neural network-based approach was proposed that achieves an average accuracy of ~87% for the same set of …

Modeling Continental-Scale Outdoor Environmental Sound Levels With Limited Data, Katrina Lynn Pedersen

Theses and Dissertations

Modeling outdoor acoustic environments is a challenging problem because outdoor acoustic environments are the combination of diverse sources and propagation effects, including barriers to propagation such as buildings or vegetation. Outdoor acoustic environments are most commonly modeled on small geographic scales (e.g., within a single city). Extending modeling efforts to continental scales is particularly challenging due to an increase in the variety of geographic environments. Furthermore, acoustic data on which to train and validate models are expensive to collect and therefore relatively limited. It is unclear how models trained on this limited acoustic data will perform across continental-scales, which likely …

Maximum Carbon Dioxide Capture, Sequestration And Maximum Carbon Dioxide Beneficial Reuse At The Optimal Cost Efficiency For The Power Generation Sector To Address Global Temperature Rise, Michael Dean Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Global Climate Change is arguably one of the most important global crises of our times. Global Climate Change is the result of increasing global ambient temperatures around the world. These increased temperature changes have been impacting all aspects of human life and activity as wells as impacting all biological and physical systems of Earth. The primary cause of Global Climate Change are anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and other Greenhouse Gases. Fossil fuel combustion is a primary source of these emissions. The initiation of anthropogenic Global Climate Change has been scientifically traced back to the Industrial Revolution. From the Industrial …