Digital Commons Network^™

From Seed To Sky: Impacts Of Explosive Compounds On Vegetation Across Spatial And Developmental Scales, Stephen M. Via

Theses and Dissertations

Explosive compounds are broadly distributed across the globe as a result of nearly two centuries of munitions use in warfare and military activities. Two explosive compounds have seen disproportionate use; RDX (hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine) and TNT (2-methyl- 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene), being the most commonly found explosives in the environment. The effects of explosives on biota have been studied in great detail; however, there is a general lack of understanding with regard to broader ecological impacts of these contaminants. My dissertation objective was to follow the impacts of explosive compounds on vegetation across scales. Impacts on vegetation at the species scale alter community composition via …

The Molecular And Mechanical Mechanisms Of The Age-Associated Increase In The Severity Of Experimental Ventilator Induced Lung Injury, Joseph Ames Herbert

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Background

The majority of patients requiring mechanical ventilation are over the age of 65 and advanced age is known to increase the severity of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) and mortality. However, the mechanisms which predispose aging ventilator patients to increased mortality rates are not fully understood.

Pulmonary edema is a hallmark of VILI and the severity of edema increases with age. Ventilation with conservative fluid management decreases mortality rates in acute respiratory distress (ARDS) patients, but has not been investigated in VILI. We hypothesized that age-associated increases in pulmonary edema promote age-related increases in ventilator-associated mortality. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) …

Host Densities And Parasitism Rates In A Forest Defoliator Across A Rural-Urban Landscape, Abigail J. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Fall cankerworm (FCW) outbreaks have recently increased in frequency and intensity in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, especially around cities of Charlotte, NC and Richmond, VA. This study evaluated the effects of two landscape features associated with urbanization, impervious surface and forest cover, on population patterns of FCW and its parasitoids across eastern Virginia. Forest cover was positively related to parasitism rates while impervious surface was positively related to FCW abundance, suggesting that FCW outbreaks may be amplified in urban areas. FCW abundance declined over the two-year period of this study, but parasitism rate increased at most sites. …

One Of Us, Farrah T. Al Sulaiman

Theses and Dissertations

With this thesis, I reflect on my identity as a Saudi American. I look at how nonverbal communication through gesture and artifact presents the potential for both communication breakdowns, as well as shared understanding. From the lens of Saudi culture, I consider how gender relations and intra-national tribal factions play a role in the division of society, which my work seeks to overcome, at both the national and global levels. My exhibit, One of Us, interrogates one of the most controversial gestures in contemporary society: veiling. As I discuss the notion of camouflage, I review the types of veils available …

A New Governance Recipe For Food Safety Regulation, Alexia Brunet Marks

Publications

Although food safety is a significant and increasing global health concern, international economic law does not adequately address today’s global food safety needs. While most countries rely on a collection of formalized legal rules to protect food safety, these rules too often fall short. As fiscal constraints impede raising the number of border inspections, formal international commitments (treaties) frequently limit governmental efforts to raise food safety standards. Private companies, meanwhile, can readily adopt higher standards to meet consumer demands and supply chain needs, thus demonstrating more nimbleness and flexibility in adopting the highest food safety standards available. Can countries learn …

Decayed Drama, Increased Inclusivity: Beckett’S Theater In The 1960s, Ryan Diller

The Expositor: A Journal of Undergraduate Research in the Humanities

No abstract provided.

The Energy Prosumer, Sharon B. Jacobs

Publications

Decentralization is becoming a dominant trend in many industries, and the electricity industry is no exception. Increasing numbers of energy consumers generate their own electricity and/or provide essential grid services such as storage, efficiency, and demand response. This Article offers a positive account of the emergence of these new energy actors, which it calls "energy prosumers. " It then frames several doctrinal and procedural puzzles that prosumers create, including jurisdictional puzzles, distributional concerns, and democratic challenges. Ultimately, it concludes that prosumers can be a positive disruptive force in the electricity industry if courts and regulators can manage these challenges effectively. …

Not Affirmative Consent, Aya Gruber

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Dynamics Of Excessive Force, Daria Roithmayr

Publications

Existing scholarship suggests that police use of excessive force will be greatest in departments with "bad apple" officers or bad top-down incentive structures. This paper proposes an alternative theoretical account to argue that patterns of excessive force dynamically emerge from local interactions among individuals that aggregate to form more global patterns of escalation, contagion, and decay. I focus on two dynamic interactions in particular. First, I argue that excessive force spreads and escalates by way of a self-reinforcing arms race between civilians and officers that intensifies the use of excessive force over time. As officers use excessive force, civilians in …

Law, Science, And The Injured Mind, Govind Persad

Publications

Even while we widely recognize legal liability for physical injury, we frequently discount mental, emotional, and psychological injury. We disfavor tort liability for emotional distress; we prohibit prisoners from suing for purely psychological injuries; and we tax the damages victims of emotional injury receive even while leaving damages for physical injury untaxed. This Article argues that neuroscientific, psychological, and technological advances challenge our traditional ideas about the set of injuries that are possible and that merit legal redress. The Article goes on to contend that, while these advances challenge our traditional ideas, they do not inevitably overturn traditional distinctions within …

A Facial Component-Based System For Emotion Classification, Elena Sönmez, Songül Albayrak

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Smart environments with ubiquitous computers are the next generation of information technology, which requires improved human--computer interfaces. That is, the computer of the future must be aware of the people in its environment; it must know their identities and must understand their moods. Despite the great effort made in the past decades, the development of a system capable of automatic facial emotion recognition is still rather difficult. In this paper, we challenge the benchmark algorithm on emotion classification of the Extended Cohn-Kanade (CK$+)$ database, and we present a facial component-based system for emotion classification, which beats the given benchmark performance: …

The Utilization Of Flavonoids As Inhibitors Of Urease And As Antimalarial Agents And The Discovery Of Bacterial Methionine Aminopeptidase Inhibitors, Travis Robert Helgren

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the inhibition of prominent enzymatic pathways important for both medicinal and agricultural applications. The research involved three distinct projects: First, an enzymatic urease inhibitory assay was optimized for plate-based screening of tree bark extracts to compare with ex vivo results from simulated-barn floor manure slurry assays performed by Dr. Wayne Zeller (USDA, Madison, WI). It wafs discovered that the measured ammonia abatement activities of each extract exhibited a correlation in both the enzymatic and ex vivo assays. Second, aminoalkylated quercetin analogs were synthesized and screened for antimalarial activity. The most potent species were found to exhibit sub-micromolar …

Stress-Induced Anxiety And Fos Immunoreactivity In Adulthood Following Chronic Juvenile Methylphenidate Exposure, Mercedes Mcwaters

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Methylphenidate (MPH), or Ritalin, is the most commonly prescribed psychostimulant for the treatment of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Research has established that MPH alleviates symptoms of ADHD short-term in humans, but research on the long-term effects after juvenile exposure has yielded mixed results. One possible long-term effect of MPH treatment is the alteration of neural circuits, especially dopaminergic and noradrenergic circuits projecting to the prefrontal cortex that are implicated in ADHD symptomatology and are the targets of MPH treatment. Long-term alterations of these circuits may impact coping with stress later life as these same circuits mediate the stress response. Specific …

Cpsa Regulates Mycotoxin Production, Morphogenesis And Cell Wall Biosynthesis In The Fungus Aspergillus Nidulans, Xuehuan Feng

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The model filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans synthesizes a variety of secondary metabolites, including the mycotoxin sterigmatocystin (ST). The production of this toxin is positively controlled by veA, a global regulatory gene that also governs sexual and asexual development in A. nidulans. In the absence of veA (ΔveA), ST biosynthesis is blocked. Previously we performed random mutagenesis in a [Delta]veA strain and identified several revertant mutants that are able to synthesize ST, among them RM1. Complementation of RM1 with a genomic library revealed that the mutation occurred in the coding region of a gene, putatively involved in polysaccharide biosynthesis, designated as …

Creativity, Policy, And Practice : A Three-State Exploration Of Relationships Between Definitions Of Creativity In State Art Education Policies And Their Application By Middle-Level Art Educators, Christopher Grodoski

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

More than ever, creativity is a necessary outcome for education. A global and networked society requires U.S. citizens to innovate within a variety of complex economic, political, and social realities. The necessity of creativity highlights a crucial role for art education in contemporary education. However, there is a lack of clarity about what constitutes creativity. In particular, there is a lack of knowledge about how research, policy, and the life contexts of art educators relate to the operationalization of creativity in practice. This study addresses an area of neglect by exploring relationships among categories of creativity in research, federal and …

Design And Synthesis Of Ispe Inhibitors As Potential Antibacterial Agents, Jeremy Ryan Troxell

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores the inhibition of the IspE enzyme, found within the 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway, using a variety of molecular scaffolds for the development of potential antibacterial agents. This research involved two distinct projects: First, the design of an improved synthetic route for MEP. MEP is the substrate utilized in the IspD reaction and can be converted enzymatically to produce CDP-ME, the substrate for IspE. Therefore, MEP is a valuable compound that is necessary for our IspD and IspE inhibition assays. Second, the design and synthesis of two different scaffold series was implemented for the purpose of developing IspE …

Resistant Acts : Challenges Of Older And Chronically Ill Mexican Women Living In 21st-Century United States, Lucy Sosa

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Older and chronically ill Mexican women living in a 21st century working class neighborhood confront many challenges. The challenge of being older and chronically ill are exacerbated by the multiple socially constructed identities of difference they embody, such as, race, gender, class, linguistic competence, immigration and educational status. In their search for health and wellbeing, these embodied differences constructed for the women a number of care-searching, care-receiving and health outcome experiences that reveal the effect these differences can have in the lives of members of a vulnerable population. The women's experiences also reveal their determination to gain access to affordable, …

Restoration Age And Quality Effects On Dynamic Soil Properties At Nachusa Grasslands In Franklin Grove, Il, Sarah Smith

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Land use and management are key factors influencing the quality and function of soil as measured through dynamic soil properties. This study was conducted to quantify the differences in soil quality indicators across a chronosequence of prairie restorations of varying vegetative quality, as well as across different agricultural tillage systems including no-till, conservation, and conventional. Prairie restorations were chosen from a 3,100 acre Nature Conservancy site in Franklin Grove, IL known as Nachusa Grasslands, and agricultural fields were selected during a survey of farmers across north-central Illinois. The dynamic soil properties bulk density, aggregate stability, organic carbon, particulate organic matter …

Niche Differentiation Among Malagasy Carnivorans : An Analysis Of Evolution In A Spatiotemporally Isolated Carnivoran Clade (Eupleridae : Carnivora), Michael C. Taylor

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

To occupy an ecological niche, a carnivoran species must possess the necessary morphotype to consistently capture and process resources. In theory, two species would inevitably compete with one another if they occupied the same niche. Carnivoran diversity is related to niche differentiation, which can be facilitated spatially, temporally, or morphologically. Differences in diet preference and prey preference among carnivorans are effectively indicated by variations in craniodental morphology. Eupleridae is the sole carnivoran lineage in Madagascar and many of its species coexist in its eastern lowland rainforests and other ecoregions. This study described, in detail, the craniodental morphology of eight euplerid …

Nonprehensile Throwing Manipulation Of A Disk-Shaped Object With A Disk-Shaped End Effector, Sujithkumar Pasupuleti

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Robots are mechatronic systems, widely being used in streams of engineering, medicine and entertainment. Especially in mechanical industries, robots are extensively used in material handling, welding and painting units. However, the available robotic mechanisms may not be efficient in handling materials when they are too large to grasp with grippers. In this case, use of nonprehensile manipulation could offer better results. In this thesis, nonprehensile throwing manipulation of a disk-shaped object with a disk-shaped end effector is presented. The end effector is attached to a two-link robotic manipulator arm. The throwing motion is proposed in such a way that the …

Hepatocyte Specific Gp73/Golm1 Knockout Mice And Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Lines Provide Insights Into The Potential Roles Of Gp73 Hcc Serum Biomarker, Gunisha Arora

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Golgi Protein -- 73kDa (GP73/GOLM1) is a resident cis-Golgi Type II membrane protein that is nearly undetectable in normal hepatocytes, but its expression increases in hepatocytes during hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its serum levels increase in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection and HCC, yet its biological role in the liver and in the pathogenesis of HCC remains unclear. In order to investigate possible biological roles for GP73, hepatocyte-specific GOLM1 null mice (C57BL/6) were created using the Cre-loxP system, with "floxed" GOLM1 gene exon 3 and Cre recombinase driven by the albumin promoter. Mouse genotypes were confirmed by PCR analysis. …

Small Mammal Responses To Bison Reintroduction And Prescribed Fire In One Of The World's Most Threatened Ecosystems, Angela Marie Burke

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The restoration of tallgrass prairies is often centered on reestablishing the native vegetation structure with only minor efforts directed to the fauna that inhabit these areas. The reinstatement of traditional disturbance regimes of fire and grazing bison is a critical component to the active management of tallgrass prairies, and its subsequent effects on both flora and fauna in remnant prairies is well documented. Understanding the role of small mammal populations and how they are affected by varying grazing and fire management strategies can assist in the holistic evaluation of restoration efforts in sites currently undergoing active restoration. Peromyscus and Microtus …

'"Ideology" Or "Situation Sense"? An Experimental Investigation Of Motivated Reasoning And Professional Judgment, Dan M. Kahan, David Hoffman, Danieli Evans, Neal Devins, Eugene Lucci, Katherine Cheng

Faculty Publications

This Article reports the results of a study on whether political predispositions influence judicial decisionmaking. The study was designed to overcome the two principal limitations on existing empirical studies that purport to find such an influence: the use of nonexperimental methods to assess the decisions of actual judges; and the failure to use actual judges in ideologically-biased-reasoning experiments. The study involved a sample of sitting judges (n = 253), who, like members of a general public sample (n = 800), were culturally polarized on climate change, marijuana legalization and other contested issues. When the study subjects were assigned to analyze …

Augustine's Trinitarian Sacramental Sensibilities, Influence, And Significance For Our Imperiled Planet, Jame Schaefer

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Towards An Understanding Of The Role Of Cation Packaging On Dna Protection From Oxidative Damage, Cody E. Gay

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

In sperm chromatin, DNA exists in a highly condensed state reaching a final volume roughly twenty times that of a somatic nucleus. For the vast majority (>90%) of sperm DNA in mammals, somatic-like histones are first replaced by transition proteins which in turn are replaced by arginine-rich protamines. This near crystalline organization of the DNA in mature sperm is thought crucial for both the transport and protection of genetic information since all DNA repair mechanisms are shut down. Recent studies show that increased DNA damage is linked to dysfunctions in replacing histones with protamines resulting in mispackaged DNA. This …

Green Infrastructure In The Community Ratings System: A Proposed Path To National Flood Insurance Program Recognition, Kevin Macwhorter, Kathleen Zaratzian

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

No abstract provided.

The Eyes, Glenn Miscikowski

Mighty Pen Project Anthology & Archive

A young soldier’s father and friends take him hunting, where he confronts the violence of the war behind him.

Articles, stories, and other compositions in this archive were written by participants in the Mighty Pen Project. The program, developed by author David L. Robbins, and in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, offers veterans and their family members a customized twelve-week writing class, free of charge. The program encourages, supports, and assists participants in sharing their stories and experiences of military experience so both writer and audience may benefit.

Bioactive Poly(Beta-Amino Ester) Biomaterials For Treatment Of Infection And Oxidative Stress, Andrew L. Lakes

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Polymers have deep roots as drug delivery tools, and are widely used in clinical to private settings. Currently, however, numerous traditional therapies exist which may be improved through use of polymeric biomaterials. Through our work with infectious and oxidative stress disease prevention and treatment, we aimed to develop application driven, enhanced therapies utilizing new classes of polymers synthesized in-house. Applying biodegradable poly(β-amino ester) (PBAE) polymers, covalent-addition of bioactive substrates to these PBAEs avoided certain pitfalls of free-loaded and non-degradable drug delivery systems. Further, through variation of polymer ingredients and conditions, we were able to tune degradation rates, release profiles, cellular …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Antioxidant Conjugated Poly(Βeta-Amino Ester) Micro/Nanogels For The Suppression Of Oxidative Stress, Prachi Gupta

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Oxidative stress is a pathophysiological condition defined by an increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can result in the growth arrest of cells followed by cell disintegration or necrosis. A number of small molecule antioxidants (e.g. curcumin, quercetin and resveratrol) are capable of directly scavenging ROS, thereby short-circuiting the self-propagating oxidative stress state. However, poor solubility and rapid 1^st pass metabolism results in overall low bioavailability and acts as a barrier for its use as a drug to suppress oxidative stress efficiently.

To overcome this limitation, these small molecule antioxidants were covalently conjugated into poly(β-amino ester) (PβAE) …

Peptide-Functionalized Magnetic Nanoparticles For Cancer Therapy Applications, Anastasia K. Hauser

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in the United States. Radiation and chemotherapy are conventional treatments, but they result in serious side effects and the probability of tumor recurrence remains high. Therefore, there is an increasing need to enhance the efficacy of conventional treatments. Magnetic nanoparticles have been previously studied for a variety of applications such as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, anemia treatment, magnetic cell sorting and magnetically mediated hyperthermia (MMH). In this work, dextran coated iron oxide nanoparticles were developed and functionalized with peptides to target the nanoparticles to either the extracellular matrix …