Digital Commons Network^™

Ink (2011-11)

Ink, 2008-

The student-run features magazine covering the fashion, art, music and culture worlds at VCU and in Richmond. Published annually in print and updated regularly online.

Community Themes And Strengths Assessment: Mobilizing For Action Through Planning And Partnerships (Mapp), Nancy N. Menzel

Policy Briefs and Reports

The Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) is a strategic planning framework for improving community health. This project partners with the Southern Nevada Health District to enable completion of the Community Themes and Strengths Assessment (CTSA) phase of MAPP. CTSA will provide information on how Southern Nevada residents perceive their health and quality of life, while tracking their knowledge of community assets. The results will identify issues that will guide the planning, implementing, and evaluating of additional assessments and a strategic plan to improve public health, while at the same time providing data for external grant applications.

Control Balanced Designs Involving Sequences Of Treatments, Cini Varghese, Seema Jaggi

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Designs involving sequences of treatments for test vs. control comparisons are suitable for research in which each experimental unit receives treatments over time in order to compare several test treatments to one (or more) control treatment(s). These designs can be advantageously used in screening experiments and bioequivalence trials. Three series of such designs are constructed in incomplete sequences wherein the first class of designs is variance balanced while the other two classes of designs are partially variance balanced for test versus test comparisons of both direct and residual effects of treatments.

Florida Sentinel Bulletin, November 1, 2011, Gwen Hayes

Florida Sentinel Bulletin Collection

The November 1, 2011, issue of the Florida Sentinel Bulletin.

The Benefits Of Opt-In Federalism, Brendan S. Maher

Faculty Scholarship

The Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) is a controversial and historic statute that mandates people make insurance bargains. Unacknowledged is an innovative mechanism ACA uses to select the law that governs those bargains: opt-in federalism.

Opt-in federalism – in which individuals choose between federal and state rules – is a promising theoretical means to make and choose law. This Article explains why, and concludes that the appeal of opt-in federalism is independent of ACA. Whatever the statute’s constitutional fate, future policymakers should consider opt-in federalist approaches to answer fundamental but exceedingly difficult questions of health and retirement law.

Learning Human Emotion Patterns For Modeling Virtual Humans, Shu Feng, Ah-Hwee Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Emotion modeling is a crucial part in modeling virtual humans. Although various emotion models have been proposed, most of them focus on designing specific appraisal rules. As there is no unified framework for emotional appraisal, the appraisal variables have to be defined beforehand and evaluated in a subjective way. In this paper, we propose an emotion model based on machine learning methods by taking the following position: an emotion model should mirror actual human emotion in the real world and connect tightly with human inner states, such as drives, motivations and personalities. Specifically, a self-organizing neural model called Emotional Appraisal …

Interferons As Therapeutic Agents In Infectious Diseases, Mckenzie C. Ferguson, Scott Bergman, Cathy Santanello

Pharmacy Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

This article explains the rationale for development of interferons as therapeutic agents, and describes commercial products available today. It also provides a summary of studies that have been performed with interferons for use as exogenous biological response modifiers in viral infections. Overall, the best data exist for treatment of viral hepatitis B and C, for which interferons are a cornerstone of therapy. Although infections with human papillomavirus and common cold viruses sometimes respond favorably to interferons, their outcomes are far from ideal. Finally, the role of interferons as vaccine adjuvants is still being explored but could be promising.

Nest Predation And Circulating Corticosterone Levels Within And Among Species, Joseph J. Fontaine, Elena Arriero, Hubert Schwabl, Thomas E. Martin

Wildlife Biology Faculty Publications

Variation in the risk of predation to offspring can influence the expression of reproductive strategies both within and among species. Appropriate expression of reproductive strategies in environments that differ in predation risk can have clear advantages for fitness. Although adult-predation risk appears to influence glucocorticosteroid levels, leading to changes in behavioral and life-history strategies, the influence of offspring-predation risk on adult glucocorticosteroid levels remains unclear. We compared total baseline corticosteronc concentrations in Gray-headed Juncos (Junco hyemalis dorsalis) nesting on plots with and without experimentally reduced risk of nest predation. Despite differences in risk between treatments, we failed to find differences …

Alarm-Calling And Response Behaviors Of The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog In Kansas, Lloyd W. Towers Iii

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) use alarm calls to warn offspring and other kin of predatory threats. Dialects occur when vocalizations contain consistent differences among populations not isolated by geographic barriers. The Gunnison’s prairie dog (C. gunnisoni) has dialects in its alarm calls. The objectives of my study were to: (1) assess if the black-tailed prairie dog (C. ludovicianus) responded differently to alarm calls from other colonies than it did to alarm calls from its own colony, and (2) detect dialects, if they existed, in the alarm calls of the black-tailed prairie dog. The study included 8 black-tailed prairie dog colonies …

Sitting Bull And Geronimo: A Comparison Of Their Military And Religious Leadership, Gary Joseph Younger

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

In the history of the American West, hundreds of books have been written about Indian Leaders. Two of the most famous leaders are Sitting Bull and Geronimo. However, every history looks at them as individuals and never compares the military and religious aspects of the two men. Both Sitting Bull and Geronimo fought against the westward expansion of the United States to protect their people’s way of life. Each leaders’ religious views influenced their decisions. While Sitting Bull felt that Wakan Tanka chose him to lead his people, Geronimo believed that his Power wanted him to continue his quest for …

Dung Beetle Ecology: Habitat And Food Preference, Hypoxia Tolerance, And Genetic Variation, Sean Doyle Whipple

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Four studies were conducted on dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), which are insects of great ecological and economic importance. Range management practices were found to impact dung beetle diversity and abundance. While sampling on organic and conventionally managed ranches in Nebraska, 93% (5,767) of total dung beetle capture was from the organically managed ranch. Only 480 dung beetles (7% of total) were collected from the conventionally managed ranch. Results indicated that organic ranching had increased numbers and diversity of dung beetles.

Comparison of the attractiveness of native and exotic herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore dung yielded 9,089 dung beetles from 15 species. …

Gravesoil Microbial Community Structure During Carcass Decomposition, Amy E. Maile

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Dead bodies placed on soil represent unique challenges for investigators. Although processes in soils can be used to estimate postmortem interval, we know very little about how carcasses and insects affect gravesoil microbial communities.

To address this, the current project was composed of two experiments. Experiment one was conducted to investigate the effect of surface type on carcass decomposition and evaluate soil ecology methods. Experiment two was conducted to investigate the presence of an insect population (Lucilia sericata Meigen) on gravesoil microbial communities. Both experiments were conducted in a laboratory setting using freshly killed mouse carcasses. Mouse carcasses were …

Minimal Structural Requirements Of Alkyl Γ-Lactones Capable Of Antagonizing The Cocaine-Induced Motility Decrease In Planarians, Debra Baker, Sean Deats, Peter Boor, James Pruitt, Oné R. Pagán

Biology Faculty Publications

We recently reported that the natural cyclic lactone, parthenolide, and related analogs prevent the expression of behavioral effects induced by cocaine in planarians and that parthenolide’s γ-lactone ring is required for this effect. In the present work, we tested a series of alkyl γ-lactones with varying chain length (1–8 carbons) to determine their ability to antagonize the planarian motility decrease induced by 200 μM cocaine. Alkyl lactones with up to a 4-carbon alkyl chain did not affect planarian motility or antagonized the cocaine-induced motility decrease; only the compound γ-nonalactone (a γ-lactone with a 5-carbon chain) was able to prevent the …

The Sun Star, Vol. 31 No. 09 (November 01, 2011), N/A N/A

Sun Star

No abstract provided.

Dating Violence, Don't Ignore It!, Jeanne L. Surface, David Stader, Thomas Graca, Jerry Lowe

Educational Leadership Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Educational leaders have a substantial degree of control over students and generally have a tremendous influence on the decisions that they make. District administrators are already involved in comprehensive efforts to stem sexual harassment, teen violence and bullying; therefore, they may be well positioned to identify and address the problem of teen dating violence. Unfortunately, school district failure to take action is far too common, despite the statutory duty to ensure the safety of all students during school hours and at school sponsored events. School districts can be held liable for student dating violence under Title IX, under 42 U.S.C. …

On-Line Banking Systems: Are They Sustainable?, Satish Mahadevan Srinivasan, Sachin Pawaskar, Abhishek Tripathi, Lotfollah Najjar

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Although the trend for on-line banking has increased in recent years, the customers have not shown enthusiastic participation in the past and in present. Since the sustainability of a bank supporting on-line-banking service depends on what capacity it can attract new customers, retain already existing customers and how well can it extend its services to the current and future customer base. This investigation is focused on examining if there is any significant difference among the factors namely the transactional security, information design, navigational design, visual design, web site trust, web site satisfaction and e-loyalty over sustainability of on-line banking for …

Engineering On The Rose Float: Final Project Report, Stephen Boles, Garrett Dong, Peter Hoonhout

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project is to design the simple mechanical movement systems of the 2012 Cal Poly Tournament of Roses Float Parade to prevent failure. Three mechanisms were designed. One of the mechanisms is a tall building that has a superhero and helicopter rotating around the top; it also has the ability to rotate the top 2/3^rds of the mechanism to a 90 degree angle to fit under a 16.5 foot bridge. Another mechanism is the cars that look like they are driving on the pod’s road surface via train tracks underneath the surface. The cars will travel …

The Eagleville Times,Volume 9, Issue 11, Debbie Ryan

Eagleville Times

No abstract provided.

Levels Of Altruism, Martin Zwick, Jeffrey Alan Fletcher

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

The phenomenon of altruism extends from the biological realm to the human sociocultural realm. This paper sketches a coherent outline of multiple types of altruism of progressively increasing scope that span these two realms and are grounded in an ever-expanding sense of "self." Discussion of this framework notes difficulties associated with altruisms at different levels. It links scientific ideas about the evolution of cooperation and about hierarchical order to perennial philosophical and religious concerns. It offers a conceptual background for inquiry into societal challenges that call for altruistic behavior, especially the challenge of environmental and social sustainability.

Ipulse: November 2011, Lynn University

Student Newspapers

Issues:

• November 1, 2011
• November 2, 2011
• November 3, 2011
• November 8, 2011
• November 10, 2011
• November 16, 2011
• November 28, 2011
• November 29, 2011
• November 30, 2011

Photodynamic Therapy As An Adjunctive To Scaling And Root Planing In Treatment Of Chronic Periodontitis In Smokers., Mohammad S. Al-Zahrani, Obadah N. Austah

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVES: To compare photodynamic therapy (PDT) as an adjunctive treatment of chronic periodontitis with scaling and root planing (Sc/Rp) in smokers. METHODS: This is a split-mouth, single-masked randomized controlled clinical trial conducted at the Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between May 2010 and March 2011. Fifty-four teeth with probing depth of ≥5mm at one or more periodontal sites in 20 smokers diagnosed with moderate to severe chronic periodontitis were selected. In each patient, at least one tooth was randomly assigned to Sc/Rp plus PDT (test group) and the contra-lateral tooth was assigned to Sc/Rp only (control). …

In Vitro Efficacy Of Acetohydroxyacid Synthase Inhibitors Against Clinical Strains Of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Isolated From A Hospital In Beijing, China., Mei Dong, Di Wang, Ying Jiang, Li Zhao, Caie Yang, Chun Wu

Saudi Medical Journal

OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy of acetohydroxyacid synthase (AHAS) inhibitors against Mycobacterium tuberculosis from China, including multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) strains. METHODS: In this study, the tube dilution method and Middlebrook 7H10 agar media were used to describe the in vitro efficacy of 3 AHAS inhibitors (sulfometuron methyl, monosulfuron, and monosulfuron-ester) against H37Rv and 26 clinical isolates, which include MDR-TB and XDR-TB strains, from the 309th Hospital of Chinese People9s Liberation Army (PLA 309), Beijing, China. Cytotoxity of these compounds were then evaluated using the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2yl]-2,5-dipheny tetrazolium bromide assay with HBE cells. All the experiments were …

Spinal Locomotor Inputs To Individually Identified Reticulospinal Neurons In The Lamprey, James T. Buchanan

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Locomotor feedback signals from the spinal cord to descending brain stem neurons were examined in the lamprey using the uniquely identifiable reticulospinal neurons, the Müller and Mauthner cells. The same identified reticulospinal neurons were recorded in several preparations, under reduced conditions, to address whether an identified reticulospinal neuron shows similar locomotor-related oscillation timing from animal to animal and whether these timing signals can differ significantly from other identified reticulospinal neurons. Intracellular recordings of membrane potential in identified neurons were made in an isolated brain stem-spinal cord preparation with a high-divalent cation solution on the brain stem to suppress indirect neural …

Opening The Broom Closet: Recognizing The Religious Rights Of Wiccans, Witches, And Other Neo-Pagans, Bradford S. Stewart

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Religious freedom is a core component of our nation and one of the most widely known and accepted constitutional guarantees provided by the First Amendment. No prior civilization had adopted a national policy that tolerated various religious beliefs while simultaneously refusing to endorse or promote a national religion. Considering the fundamental backdrop of religious tolerance, it might seem unimaginable that a skilled medical technician could be fired from her job, an alleged victim of sexual abuse could have her credibility undermined in a court of law, or a mother could lose custody of her child, under the color of legality, …

Life After Gross: Creating A New Center For Disparate Treatment Proof Structures, Mark R. Deethardt

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Waterproofing The New Fracking Regulation: The Necessity Of Defining Riparian Rights In Louisiana's Water Law, Laura Springer

Louisiana Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Current Volume 22 : Issue 11, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Laboratory Diagnosis Of Clostridium Difficile Infection: Can Molecular Amplification Methods Move Us Out Of Uncertainty?, Fred C. Tenover, Ellen Jo Baron, Lance R. Peterson, David Persing

Biology Faculty Publications

The laboratory diagnosis of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) continues to be challenging. Recent guidelines from professional societies in the United States note that enzyme immunoassays for toxins A and B do not have adequate sensitivity to be used alone for detecting CDI, yet the optimal method for diagnosing this infection remains unclear. Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) that target chromosomal toxin genes (usually the toxin B gene, tcdB) show high sensitivity and specificity, provide rapid results, and are amenable to both batch and on-demand testing, but these tests were not universally recommended for routine use in the recent guidelines. …

Multiple Paternity Of Caretta Caretta Within The Northwestern Atlantic Ocean Population On Wassaw Island, Ga, Jacob Lasala

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Characterizing the mating system of a species is important for understanding demography and population dynamics and can contribute information to conservation efforts. Mating systems can impact the ecology, evolution, effective population size and genetic variability of a species. Polyandry, resulting in multiple paternity can influence the maintenance of genetic variation within a population. Within Testudines, the frequency of multiple paternity varies extensively among species (0-100% of nests). Previous studies on the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) have shown that within the large management unit of peninsular Florida, multiple paternity occurs in approximately 30% of nests. This study examines nests from the …

Corporate And Business Law, Laurence V. Parker

University of Richmond Law Review

In the 2011 session, the Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 2358, Benefit Corporations, to be codified as article 22 (the "Benefit Corporations Article") of the Virginia Stock Corporation Act ("VSCA"). The Benefit Corporations Article is largely based on legislation prepared in other states and allows a Virginia corporation to elect in its articles of incorporation to be treated as a "benefit corporation." These for-profit corporations are required to pursue not only profitability but also a general public benefit and, if one so elects, one or more specific public benefits. In Section II of this article, the author discusses the …