Digital Commons Network^™

Smoking Patterns Among Vcu Students, Jasmine Saini

UROP Posters

For some individuals, college can be a high risk time for the development of problems associated with alcohol use and other substances. The purpose of this study is to examine these initiation and use patterns as they relate to nicotine use among college students 18 years of age and older enrolled in Spit for Science: The VCU Student Survey. The Spit for Science research project evaluates how genetic and environmental factors contribute to substance use and emotional health among college students at VCU. This study uses data from the Spit for Science 2011 cohort (n=2007) to investigate smoking patterns among …

Factors Involved In The Successful Transition To And Subsequent Use Of Electronic Health Records (Ehrs) Systems By Individual And Group-Practice Physicians, Naveen Chandra Kotha

UROP Posters

The use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) by healthcare professionals has been recommended as a way of improving healthcare quality, patient safety, and workflow efficiency, and lowering costs in the long run. While large hospital systems integrate EHRs into their services, individual and group practice-owning physicians, especially those of specialties and subspecialties, are often left wondering whether they should follow the trend and whether the transition from traditional, paper-chart systems or older EHRs to newer, commercial ones will truly benefit their patients and their practice as a whole. These physicians also often wonder whether benefits such as electronic-prescribing, clinical decision …

Crime And Security In Brazil: Brazil's Pacification Efforts In The Favelas Of Rio De Janeiro, Susan C. Shea

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to study Brazil's current pacification efforts in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has long been linked to violent crime, corruption, and increasing social inequality. It features more homicides than any other country on earth: one in ten people killed around the world each year is a Brazilian (Carvalho, 2015). However, in 2008, Rio's state government began applying a new law enforcement program to rid favelas of gangs and crime before hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Information on the current/future tactics and strategies that Rio will incorporate into …

Assessment Of The Neighborhood Environment And Its Association With Gestational Age At Birth, Brittaney A. Castro

UROP Posters

Preterm birth is one of the most persistent of health disparities and accounts for five times more African American versus European American infant death. The preterm birth rate in African American is nearly twice as high compared to European Americans. Recent studies have shown that a major contributor to this disparity is accounted for by the greater environmental heterogeneity seen in African American populations. The purpose of this study is to examine how the measured neighborhood environment influences race-specific preterm birth rates by: 1) assessing the degree of neighborhood heterogeneity that exists between self-identified race; 2) estimate the extent these …

Analysis Of Treatments Used For Individuals With Rett Syndrome Who Experience Seizures, Harshita Nangunuri

UROP Posters

Rett Syndrome (RTT) is a severe Autism Spectrum disorder affecting one in ten thousand females. Seizures are a common symptom associated with RTT, as up to eighty percent of individuals with RTT have seizures. Most of these individuals are treated for these seizures with antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). However, AEDs are not very effective for treating seizures in all cases, have many side effects such as increasing the risk of vitamin D deficiency for individuals with RTT and do not help with any other symptoms associated with RTT. Because of these problems associated with AEDs, two additional treatments to treat seizures …

Visual Attention To Emotional Stimuli In Individuals High On Psychopathic Traits: Evidence From Eye Tracking, Donna M. Crossman

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Researchers have described psychopaths as callous, cold-hearted individuals who show reduced empathic response to their victims. It is suggested that the inability to identify negative emotions, specifically fear, in individuals is what allows psychopaths to offend/take advantage of other people as they do not recognize the fear in victims that may otherwise deter victimization. This is the first study to examine how non-incarcerated individuals high on psychopathic personality traits process emotions. Additionally, eye-tracking technology was used to provide a more fine-grained assessment of attention. In contrast to hypotheses, the high psychopathic group did not differ from the low psychopathic or …

The Breakup Project: Using Evolutionary Theory To Predict And Interpret Responses To Romantic Relationship Dissolution, Craig E. Morris

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The formation and maintenance of romantic pair bonds is a well-represented topic in human evolutionary sciences. This extensive body of work, drawn mostly from the field of evolutionary psychology, has proposed mechanisms for attracting a mate (e.g., resource display, physical cues), attaining a mate (e.g., intrasexual competition), and keeping a mate (e.g., competitor derogation, emotional manipulation). However, this evolutionary model of human pair bonding has not fully addressed relationship termination. If we accept that we have an evolved suite of behaviors that encourage and facilitate pair bonding, then we must also look to breakups and ask whether evolution has played …

Ceramics Of Aztec North And The Terrace Community, Aztec Ruins National Monument, Michelle I. Turner

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

This study reports on a ceramic analysis of nearly 1500 surface-collected potsherds from five unexcavated sites on the river terrace at Aztec Ruins National Monument, including the Aztec North great house. I conducted a detailed attribute analysis and mean ceramic dating.

The mean ceramic date for Aztec North is AD 1104±39, while other terrace sites have later mean dates. Based on these dates, it appears that Aztec North was constructed before or contemporaneously with Aztec West, and it might have been the first structure in the Terrace Community. These data support the theory that, even at this earliest moment, Aztec …

Let Us Pick The Organization: Understanding Adult Student Perceptions Of Service-Learning Practice, Susan C. Reed, Howard Rosing, Helen Rosenberg, Anne Statham

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Faculty and Staff Works

Service learning offers a pedagogy by which adult students are guided toward understanding their potential for leadership in civic life and community development, strengthening the impact that universities have in communities. In this study, qualitative data is analyzed to determine how adult students perceive their service-learning experiences and what the university could do to involve them more in the future. Respondents provide some evidence that they value opportunities to give back to communities where they have a connection; appreciate hands-on learning that is integrated with classroom learning; benefit from placement experiences that build upon prior knowledge and skills; and prefer …

The Effect Of Community Service Learning On Undergraduate Persistence In Three Institutional Contexts, Susan C. Reed, Helen Rosenberg, Anne Statham, Howard Rosing

College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Faculty and Staff Works

This study explores the role of community service learning (CSL) in promoting undergraduate persistence relative to other experiences students have in college, their entering characteristics, and institutional features. By following the 2009 freshmen cohort at three Midwestern universities over three years, this study finds that students’ experiences while in college (CSL, full-time enrollment, and GPA) have a stronger effect on the likelihood of reenrollment than students’ entering characteristics (age, gender, and race). Our separate analyses for each institution allow us to consider how the differences between the three universities (student body composition, retention rate, CSL program) might lead CSL courses …

Eating Puerto Rico: A History Of Food, Culture, And Identity, Rafael Chabrán

Diálogo

No abstract provided.

El Ceviche: Una Receta Y Un Cuento, Jaime Vilchis

Diálogo

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Chicana/O Literature Through Food: Postnational Appetites, Marina Nájera

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No abstract provided.

Pan Dulce, Mariano Zaro

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No abstract provided.

When Lightning Struck, Or Death At An Early Age, Arthur Ramírez

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No abstract provided.

A Taste Of Oaxaca: A Chef, A Recipe, And A Cookbook, Juan Pablo Bustos, Apollonia Galván

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No abstract provided.

The U.S. Story Of Immigrants And Un-Immigrants, Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez

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No abstract provided.

Idealizing Maya Culture: The Politics Of Race, Indigeneity, And Immigration Among Maya Restaurant Owners In Southern California, M. Bianet Castellanos

Diálogo

Based on an ethnography of Maya restaurant owners in Los Angeles, the article examines how Maya migrants use Yucatecan cuisine to negotiate the politics of indigeneity. In Mexico, Maya peoples are denigrated as “Indian.” In the U.S., Maya migrants are racialized as “Mexican.” These racialization processes are intended to discipline indigenous subjects both within and outside of national boundaries. By drawing on popular indigenous cultural symbols and tastes that reinforce an idealized Maya culture, Maya restaurateurs construct an alternative politics of recognition that opens the door for new conversations about what it means to be indigenous and Latino.

Techniques Of Humiliation: Neoliberalism And The Noncitizen's Body, Munia Bhaumik

Diálogo

This article argues that the disciplining of noncitizens becomes a constitutive characteristic of neoliberalism. Examining two narratives about bodily deprivation in detention centers, the study pursues the psychic life of statelessness through tragic testimonies that not only point to subjection, induced through techniques of humiliation, but also to the neoliberal contradiction between “inclusion” and practices of regulation. Readings interrogate the problem of normativity in neoliberalism. In particular, the article argues against normative presuppositions about both race and gender, demonstrating how this leads to the denial of medication and death in detention facilities.

Queering Citizenship: Undocuqueer And Immigration Reform, Betsy Dahms

Diálogo

Analysis of the founding of the UndocuQueer movement and organizer, Julio Salgado, through Anzaldúan theory on nepantla, and in terms of cultural, sexual, and political citizenship, in the experience of those who came to the U.S. as children. This study assesses reasons for “coming out” as undocumented and queer through activism; argues that coalitional and relational activism challenges current anti-immigration policies and social factors; and advocates for a global and embodied citizenship.

“Sobreviviendo”: Immigration Stories And Testimonio In Song, Martha E. Gonzalez

Diálogo

Informed by experiential methodologies, this study demonstrates how those who engage in collective creative expression, significantly songwriting and dance, affirm a sense of community to usher social and political ideas forward, while reinstating a sense of humanity for migrants within and across nation-state borders. It discusses a specific recording and collaborative composition titled Sobreviviendo.

Queering Political Economy In Neoliberal Ironbound Newark: Subjectivity And Spacemaking Among Brazilian Queer Immigrant Men, Yamil Avivi

Diálogo

This paper complicates the dominant narrative of Newark’s Ironbound community as an exceptional and heteronormative neighborhood by analyzing the non-heteronormative subjectivities and spaces in them. During the period between 2004-2009, subjects were interviewed, in queer minoritarian spaces, to understand how Brazilian gays/ queers reified and contested neoliberal ideologies of nationalism, “good” ethnicity, individualism, and “appropriate” sexual mores. This ethnographic account employs textual and spatial-temporal analysis to generate an alternative narrative of gay/queer life and groupings in the Ironbound.

Moving Beyond Immigration Reform: A Call For Social Inclusion And To Change U.S. Foreign Policy, Esther Portillo-Gonzales

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No abstract provided.

Self-Determination And Intersectionality In The Immigrant Rights Movement, Betty Hung

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No abstract provided.

The Art Of Community: An Interview With Malaquías Montoya, Delia Consentino, Malaquías Montoya

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No abstract provided.

Latino Art And The Immigrant Artist: The Case Of Sandra C. Fernández, Tatiana Flores

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No abstract provided.

The Art Of Malaquías Montoya, Malaquías Montoya

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No abstract provided.

Despojos, Judith Pérez Soria

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No abstract provided.

Poemas Migrantes, Consuelo Hernández

Diálogo

Includes the poems "La inmigrante", "El tren de la muerte", "Borderlands", "Nostalgia", and "Lejos"

Aquí Estoy, Bamby Salcedo

Diálogo

No abstract provided.