Digital Commons Network^™

Regulation Of Tgf-Β1–Induced Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition By Integrin Inhibition, Wesam Elhawabri

Theses and Dissertations

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical process underlying cancer progression, fibrosis, and tissue remodeling, characterized by coordinated changes in cell morphology, nuclear structure, and extracellular matrix (ECM) organization. Transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) is a primary inducer of EMT; however, the extent to which integrin-mediated signaling and ECM remodeling regulate these structural changes remains incompletely understood. In this study, we quantitatively investigated EMT-associated remodeling in A549 lung carcinoma cells and MCF10A epithelial cells following TGF-β1 stimulation. Cells were cultured on ECM-coated substrates and treated with TGF-β1 in the presence or absence of integrin-targeting inhibitors (ATN-161, 28-G11, and STX-100). Im …

Daisyworld, Eva Foldy

Theses and Dissertations

Daisyworld explores how painting can represent ecological and sociopolitical crisis without relying on narratives of total collapse as a catastrophic end, instead framing the present as a condition of ongoing, uneven transformation. Drawing on ecological models of adaptation, interdependence, and planetary self-regulation, it uses plant fasciation as both a biological reference and speculative metaphor for distorted yet generative forms of survival. Situating painting within a broader history of visual culture, it examines how images function as accessible systems of knowledge while challenging colonial and human-centered modes of representation. In dialogue with contemporary, systems-based artistic practices, the project repositions painting as …

All Other Ground Is Sinking Sand, Kevin Hopkins

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis project, All Other Ground Is Sinking Sand, is a body of work that frames soft sculpture as "prophetic charm" and collaborative performance as the ceremony that charges them. In this essay, I will explore the conceptual chronology of the charms, their connection to the notion of décalage, and their potential to compel witnesses toward the immediate liberation of queer, Black individuals.

With my research centered on the necessity of shifting cultural responses to enduring racial trauma, I focus my work on deconstructing Black hypermasculine archetypes shaped by white supremacy and unpacking the tension between individual autonomy and social …

Between The Veins: Materializing Memory In The Age Of Digital Storage, Alice Mohammed Aslem

Theses and Dissertations

What happens to a childhood stored behind a password? This thesis began with a simple moment of scrolling through my son’s photographs on my phone. As the images multiplied, they began to lose clarity, turning into an overwhelming digital archive. This made me ask: What kind of memories am I preserving for him?

Having grown up between analog and digital worlds, Between the Veins explores how I navigate memory through material objects and digital archives. Using weaving, images are transferred onto screw pine and palm leaves. In this process, digital files of his childhood are translated into organic fibers of …

Examining Mental Healthcare Underutilization Among Latino Immigrants: Healthcare Providers’ And Community Health Workers' Perspectives, Geovani Muñoz

Theses and Dissertations

Latinos continue to experience many logistical and systemic barriers to professional mental health services (Derr, 2016) despite being the second-largest racial-ethnic group in the United States (U.S.). With a community of 65 million people (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024), Latinos experience mental healthcare inequalities (Cook et al., 2019) due to structural, cultural, and systemic barriers. Although prior research has emphasized culturally responsive care as a pathway to reducing disparities (Nagy et al., 2025), much of the literature has focused on Western medical models, with limited attention to community-based perspective. Guided by the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) framework, the present study …

Comorbid Psychosis In The General Population, Mariam Sankoh

Theses and Dissertations

Psychosis is a complex psychiatric phenotype characterized by substantial heterogeneity in symptom presentation, psychosis diagnosis, comorbidity patterns, and genetic architecture across diverse populations in the general population. Despite advances in psychiatric epidemiology and genomics, important gaps remain in understanding how psychosis symptoms and psychosis-related diagnoses manifest across racial and ethnic groups and how evolutionary genomic factors may contribute to disease risk and cross-ancestry genetic prediction. This dissertation, Characterizing Comorbidity in Psychosis in the General Population, integrates epidemiological, psychometric, and evolutionary genetic approaches to examine psychosis across diverse populations.

Aim 1 examined racial and ethnic differences in psychosis comorbidity patterns …

Munajat: Design As A Dialogue With The Divine, Shawky Abdalla

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary design discourse remains grounded in functional, seemingly user-centered paradigms, often neglecting what lies beyond the tangible within a human experience. This research challenges such frameworks by positioning design as a dialogue with what exceeds the physical, moving toward the experiential, where meaning precedes and informs form. Drawing on Islamic philosophy, particularly the relationship between zahir and batin (outward form and inward meaning), the study repositions design as a medium for remembrance (dhikr) rather than mere utility.

Through a critique of modernist and postmodernist principles, the research proposes a series of objects that engage with memory, introspection, and transcendence in …

From Cultural Binaries To Coexistence: A Graphic Autoethnography Of Individualism And Collectivism In An International Context, Shahad Alsubaie

Theses and Dissertations

This arts-based autoethnographic study investigates individualism and collectivism, specifically through my study-abroad experience traveling from Saudi Arabia to the United States. Through arts-based reflective practice, I depicted the diasporic experience of being ontoepistemologically collectivistic while navigating a primarily individualistic society. I use the medium of a graphic memoir to illustrate and develop frameworks of confluence that embrace the two distinct cultural orientations simultaneously. This arts-based self-study not only contributes to the body of transnational scholarship but also serves as a reference for international students, researchers, and educators to use arts-based subgenres and data analysis methods to gain better insights into …

Contours Of Duration: Movement Authored Through Form—A Behavior Archive, Jood Senussi Elbeshti

Theses and Dissertations

Insect anatomy offers an elegant example of motion derived from structure. Inspired by insect movement, Contours of Duration employs a cam-and-follower system consisting of moving, leg-like parts, designed to engage a series of rotating cams, such that the shape of each cam’s surface activates the legs in unique ways, generating repetitive movement, and demonstrating how geometry produces distinct motion behaviors over time. Through iterative experimentation and controlled variation, trace emerges as a central methodology, whereby movement, over time, creates a distinct pattern of marks, making motion legible and reflecting how subtle changes to surface and form generate different behavioral outcomes. …

Dietary Acculturation, Dietary Inflammatory Potential, And Metabolic Syndrome Among Immigrants In The United States: A Mixed-Methods Approach Using Nhanes And Qualitative Data, Esse G. Foka Nzaha

Theses and Dissertations

Background and Objectives: Immigrants in the United States undergo acculturation — a process of sociocultural and behavioral adaptation to the host country. Increasingly, behavioral adaptations have been associated with cardiometabolic health and chronic disease risk. Metabolic syndrome (MetS), a cluster of conditions including abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, impaired fasting glucose, elevated triglycerides, and reduced HDL cholesterol, is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases and other chronic diseases, including cancer. Despite the growing immigrant population in the U.S., the role of diet and dietary acculturation in MetS development remains poorly understood in this population. This …

24-H Circadian Rest-Activity Rhythms And Physical Frailty In Older Adults: A Biopsychosocial Perspective On Sex Differences And Social Capital, Jisu Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Physical frailty is a prevalent geriatric syndrome characterized by age-related decline across multiple physiological systems. Physical frailty is associated with an elevated risk of adverse health outcomes, including chronic disease progression and all-cause mortality, representing a significant and growing public health concern. Disrupted circadian rest-activity rhythms (RARs) are increasingly recognized as clinically meaningful markers of physical frailty in older adults. However, the extent to which biological sex and social determinants of health (SDoH), particularly social capital, contribute to or modify the associations between RARs and physical frailty remains underexplored.

Therefore, this dissertation summarizes the existing literature on age-related changes in …

A Mathematical Frameworks For Singular, Nonlinear Phenomena: Applications To Nematocyst Firing And Inhomogeneous Nls With Coulomb Potential, Abdulrahman Alharbi

Theses and Dissertations

Nematocysts are specialized cellular organelles found in all cnidarians, including corals and jellyfish, as well as in some single-celled protists such as dinoflagellates. These organelles display remarkable diversity in morphology and function, playing roles in prey capture and defense. The firing of a nematocyst is one of the fastest accelerations in nature, yet the underlying physical mechanisms remain not fully understood. In this work, we address key questions: how sufficient force is generated to overcome the fluid boundary layer, whether fluid–structure interaction models can reproduce observed dynamics, and what mechanisms trigger discharge.

Our research investigates models based on osmotic pressure …

Internalizing Symptoms In Lgbtq+ Young Adults: Understanding The Roles Of Social Support And Resilience To Social Stigma, Chloe M. Sobolewski

Theses and Dissertations

LGBTQ+ young adults are at increased risk of adverse mental health outcomes including internalizing symptoms. The current study seeks to better incorporate strengths when modeling internalizing symptoms outcomes in LGBTQ+ young adults. The present study is secondary analysis of data collected as part of a three-wave longitudinal study. LGBTQ+ young adults (N = 250) completed baseline questionnaires assessing resilience to social stigma, types of perceived social support (i.e., family, friend, significant other), and internalizing symptoms. Moderation models were not practically or statistically significant; however, covariates (i.e., age, socioeconomic standing, and childhood basic needs) stood out in their significant contribution in …

Examining Youth Ethnic Identity And Parental Familismo As Protective Factors Against Bicultural Stress And Internalizing Symptoms In Latino Youth, Daniella Olivares

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescence is a critical developmental period marked by increased vulnerability to mental health challenges. For Latino adolescents living in the U.S., experiences of bicultural stress may heighten the risk for adverse mental health outcomes. However, cultural strengths–such as youth ethnic identity and parental familismo–may serve as protective factors. The current study examined whether youth ethnic identity and parental familismo moderated the relationship between bicultural stress and internalizing symptoms among a diverse sample of Latino youth in central Virginia. Latino adolescents (n = 60) completed measures assessing bicultural stress, ethnic identity, and internalizing symptoms, while parents (n = 60) reported on …

Synthesis Of Iso-Dityrosine, A Potential Biomarker Of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Brandon R. Knouse

Theses and Dissertations

As the population of the United States continues to age, the prevalence of neurodegenerative disorders is rising, increasing the societal and clinical burden of diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and dementia-related conditions. Lewy Body Dementia (LBD), the second most common cause of dementia, shares underlying neuropathological features with Parkinson’s disease, including the aggregation of misfolded α-synuclein into Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites. Current diagnostic approaches rely heavily on cerebrospinal fluid biomarker analysis; however, significant overlap exists among biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions, limiting diagnostic specificity. Emerging evidence suggests that oxidative modifications of α-synuclein, particularly the formation …

Tuberculosis In Jim Crow Virginia, 1900-1972, Elizabeth Dooley

Theses and Dissertations

Tuberculosis (TB) was a major public health concern in the United States, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. Transmission and treatment of the disease, which is spread between humans through close contact, was complicated by racial segregation laws in the South known as Jim Crow laws. Virginia subscribed to these laws, which played a role in how and where Black Virginians with TB could be treated. Segregated treatment facilities with an inadequate number of beds for the number of infected people and deaths in the state added to these complications of disease control and plan for eradication. …

Early Math Readiness And Later Achievement: A Longitudinal Study, Bailey Bontrager

Theses and Dissertations

The current body of literature provides much evidence that mathematics skills at the start of kindergarten are predictive of later mathematics achievement, and that students enrolled in early childhood education (ECE) programs are better prepared for mathematics at the start of kindergarten. However, the potential for children to develop mathematical skills prior to entering kindergarten relies on access to ECE programs and resources in families’ surrounding communities. Recent use of geospatial data collection techniques and measures of community resource availability have enabled researchers to examine specific localities for the ways in which community organizations and institutions support residents in particular …

Comparison Of Artificial Intelligence Vs Human Observer For Periapical Radiolucency Detection, Adam J. Pink

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the performance of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program (OverJet AI) with that of experienced endodontic residents, endodontists, a radiologist, and dental students in detecting periapical radiolucencies using radiographic images.

Methods: One hundred and fifty periapical radiographic images were analyzed using the OverJet AI software to determine the presence/absence of a periapical radiolucency as well as the size (small 1-3mm, medium 4-6mm, and large 6+mm). The unaltered images were also evaluated by two endodontic residents, two practicing endodontists, an oral radiologist and two 4th year dental students.

Results: Agreement between the AI …

Nanomagnet Based Reservoir Computing And Quantum Control, Fahim F. Chowdhury

Theses and Dissertations

Conventional CMOS scaling has driven remarkable advances in computing but faces increasing physical and energy constraints, motivating alternative computing paradigms that integrate memory and computation while improving energy efficiency. Nanoscale magnetic systems offer a promising platform for such approaches because their intrinsic nonlinear dynamics and localized magnetic fields can support both classical and quantum information processing. This thesis investigates nanomagnetic systems for physical reservoir computing and, with primary emphasis, for localized quantum control of spin qubits.

The first part explores dipole-coupled nanomagnet arrays as physical reservoirs. Micromagnetic simulations demonstrate nonlinear dynamical behavior with high short-term memory and parity-check capacity, enabling …

Integration Of Whole Genome Sequence And Rna-Sequencing Data For Disease-Specific Phenotype Prediction, Leiliani M. Clark

Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease driven by complex genomic and transcriptomic alterations, making accurate phenotype prediction a challenging task. Recent advances in genomic foundation models and representation learning provide new opportunities to extract biologically meaningful features directly from sequencing data. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a multimodal framework integrating whole genome sequence (WGS) and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) embeddings for breast cancer classification. DNABERT-2, a DNA foundation model, was evaluated for its ability to generate genomic representations from The Cancer Genome Atlas breast cancer (TCGA-BRCA) WGS data, and the impact of downstream fine-tuning on embedding …

Local Lung Delivery Of Ginkgetin For Therapeutic Intervention In Lung Fibrosis, Cimone L. Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

Lung fibrosis (LF) is a progressive, irreversible pathological condition in the lungs that is ultimately fatal. Current drug treatments (nintedanib, pirfenidone, and nerandomilast) slow disease progression but cause significant systemic adverse effects due to oral administration. Transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4), a mechanosensitive ion channel, may play a role in LF progression and represent a novel anti-LF target. Ginkgetin (GKT), a natural biflavonoid, is a potent TRPV4 inhibitor with anti-inflammatory and antioxidative properties. Local lung delivery could achieve high local lung concentrations while minimizing systemic exposure. Accordingly, this project evaluates GKT's therapeutic intervention efficacy in LF via local lung …

Discrete Cell Signaling Differences Cause Female-Dominant Il-33 Responses In Mast Cells, Tania D. Maldonado

Theses and Dissertations

Many allergic diseases are more common and severe in women than in men. A key component of allergic inflammation is IL-33, a cytokine released by epithelial cells after allergen exposure. Because mast cells are a central early responder in allergic disease and are activated by IL-33, we investigated sex differences in mast cell responses to IL-33. We first found that male mast cells expanded poorly in standard RPMI-based culture media containing phenol red, which has estrogenic properties. Male cells also responded poorly to IL-33 when cultured with in media containing phenol red. In contrast, female mast cells expanded 3-fold less …

Climate, Biogeography, And Dispersal: A Unifying Framework For Ameri-Caribbean Dry Forests, Pablo Lopez Bustamante

Theses and Dissertations

Seed dispersal is a crucial ecological function that enables plants to alter their distributional range, avoid intense competition and natural enemies near the parent plant, and recover from disturbances. These processes shape species and functional composition of forests. Wind has traditionally been considered the dominant dispersal mechanism in Ameri-Caribbean dry forests, yet growing evidence suggests that other dispersal mechanisms also play significant roles in this ecosystem, responding differently to biotic and abiotic conditions. Still, how dispersal syndrome composition influences plant communities, the ecological drivers underlying these patterns, and the effects of climate change on dispersal syndrome dominance remain poorly understood. …

Sex In Plants: Birth, Death, And Trying To Survive In Changing Climates, Elena M. Meyer

Theses and Dissertations

Plant mating systems are key determinants of fitness. Angiosperms exhibit a wide variety of reproductive strategies, including self-fertilization (or selfing), outcrossing, and mixed mating. It has been estimated that up to 43% of plant species are capable of selfing, and selfing has been hypothesized to provide reproductive assurance where opportunities for mating may be limited, such as in marginal environments. However, questions regarding the overall distribution of selfing rates across angiosperms, the maintenance of mixed mating in the face of inbreeding depression, and the impact of self-fertilization on diversification rates remain incompletely resolved. Here, we explore the dynamics of self-fertilization …

Empirical Dynamical Modeling Of Cortico-Hippocampal Information Transfer During Memory Encoding, Sam Y. Cole

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how brain dynamics support successful memory formation remains a central challenge in neuroscience. This dissertation applies tools from empirical dynamical systems theory to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying episodic encoding, with a focus on cortico-hippocampal interactions. Using stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG) data recorded during a delayed free recall of word lists task, this work reveals nonlinear, state-dependent shifts in directed information flow between cortex and hippocampus that distinguish successful from unsuccessful encoding. To further characterize these dynamics, state-space trajectories are reconstructed using time-delay embedding and recurrence-based methods, and features derived from these trajectories are used to classify memory outcomes. By integrating …

Implementation Of Tg-351 Reference Dosimetry For A 6 Mv Photon Beam In An Mr-Guided Radiotherapy System, Nicholas A. Castellano Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Magnetic resonance guided radiation therapy (MRgRT) combines magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and radiation therapy to enable the visualization of anatomy in real time during treatment. The presence of a magnetic field in MRgRT affects charged particle radiation and detector responses, necessitating changes to traditional reference dosimetry procedures. The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Task Group 351 (TG-351) provides a formalism for reference dosimetry in MRgRT. In this study, the TG 351 formalism is used to perform reference dosimetry for a 6 MV flattening filter-free (FFF) photon beam from a Viewray MRIdian MR-Linac radiation therapy system. Beam quality determination, …

De Novo Protein Binding To Zinc Oxide Through Biomineralization Pathways, Jean-Mark A. Francis

Theses and Dissertations

De novo proteins are structurally distinct from proteins found in nature and thus capable of having their amino acid sequence modified to accomplish tasks such as increasing protein-nanoparticle binding without unfolding or decomposing. Zinc Oxide nanoparticles are functionally distinct from their bulk counterparts and are widely used as semiconductors in a variety of fields such as medicine and agriculture. With demand for these nanoparticles increasing, environmentally sustainable methods of Zinc Oxide nanoparticle synthesis are being investigated as an eco-friendly alternative to currently utilized but environmentally hazardous chemical and physical techniques. This research investigates the binding characteristics between Zinc Oxide nanoparticles …

Conceptual Concerns Regarding The Content Validity Of The Construct Of Gender Dysphoria In The Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision, Waverley Vesely

Theses and Dissertations

The diagnostic classification of gender dysphoria in the DSM-5-TR elicits a number of clinical, political, and philosophical concerns, ranging from those that are diagnostic and taxonomical in nature to those that fall within the domains of ontology, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. Part of the reason for the complexity of studying the diagnostic and nosological validity of gender dysphoria as an extant diagnostic classification is that, unlike many disorders, gender dysphoria is inextricably tethered to identity. While the recent change from gender identity disorder to gender dysphoria has nominally removed the status of disorder, in practice, both clinicians and the general population …

The Relationship Between Symptom Catastrophizing And Sociocultural Factors Among Adults With Persistent Sympathetic Activation Syndromes, Whitney M. Redemer

Theses and Dissertations

Persistent Sympathetic Activation (PSA) has emerged as a potential unifying mechanism underlying a range of complex chronic health conditions yet remains poorly characterized within biomedical and psychosocial research. Limited research has delineated how PSA manifests across diverse populations or how diagnostic and sociocultural factors shape lived experiences of this phenomenon; thus, the objective of the present study was to examine whether diagnostic certainty – operationalized as provider-confirmed versus self-suspected PSA-related diagnoses – is associated with symptom catastrophizing, and whether this relationship varies as a function of sociocultural factors. Drawing on data from a larger study aimed at characterizing the lived …

Foreign-National Families, Education, And Parenting: Unpacking The Influence Of Cultural Transitions On Child-Rearing And Expectations, Yuqi Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines how highly skilled foreign-national parents navigate parenting and educational decision-making within the context of cultural transition in the United States. While existing research on foreign-national parenting has largely focused on socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, less is known about families who possess substantial educational and professional capital. Despite these advantages, these parents encounter unique challenges related to institutional navigation, identity negotiation, and social constraints. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory, Coleman’s social capital theory, Berry’s acculturation framework, and Yosso’s community cultural wealth model, this study explores how cultural background and migration experiences shape highly skilled foreign-national families’ parenting beliefs …