Digital Commons Network^™

[2017-12-08] Meeting Of The Academic And Health Affairs Policy Committee, Virginia Commonwealth University. Board Of Visitors

VCU Board of Visitors Minutes

Official minutes of the VCU Board of Visitors and its Executive Committee.

The Misconception Of Social Anxiety Disorder: Creating Understanding Through Motion Graphics, Kaijun Qu

Theses

This thesis project explores Social Anxiety Disorder, by showing emotions and feelings of the person who suffers from social phobia to help his/her friends and classmates to understand them.

The symptoms of a person with social phobia can be seen as being afraid of communicating with other people, appearing in public, and/or being the center of attention. In such situations, others may easily misunderstand them, so the patient can lose the chance to communicate to others. As a result, the patient's condition will be getting worse. Therefore, it is very hard for people with social phobia to make new friends. …

Chimes: December 8, 2017, Calvin College

Chimes

Calvin commits to be carbon neutral by 2057 by Rae Gernant

Student senate committee works toward more diverse faculty by Kathryn Mae Post

Arts theme announced by Isabella Ebbert

Downtown GR rings in the holiday season by Morgan Anderson

Over the Rhine brings Christmas to Calvin by Brandon Schreur

How the tax reform bill affects Calvin students by Peter Ford

Worship institute launches new video series to serve churches by Ben Demaso

Acquisition Of Functions On The Outer Capsid Surface During Evolution Of Double-Stranded Rna Fungal Viruses, Carlos P. Mata, Daniel Luque, Josué Gómez-Blanco, Javier M. Rodríguez, José M. González, Nobuhiro Suzuki, Said A. Ghabrial, José L. Carrascosa, Benes L. Trus, José R. Castón

Plant Pathology Faculty Publications

Unlike their counterparts in bacterial and higher eukaryotic hosts, most fungal viruses are transmitted intracellularly and lack an extracellular phase. Here we determined the cryo-EM structure at 3.7 Å resolution of Rosellinia necatrix quadrivirus 1 (RnQV1), a fungal double-stranded (ds)RNA virus. RnQV1, the type species of the family Quadriviridae, has a multipartite genome consisting of four monocistronic segments. Whereas most dsRNA virus capsids are based on dimers of a single protein, the ~450-Å-diameter, T = 1 RnQV1 capsid is built of P2 and P4 protein heterodimers, each with more than 1000 residues. Despite a lack of sequence similarity between …

Some Dimension Reduction Strategies For The Analysis Of Survey Data, Jiaying Weng, Derek S. Young

Statistics Faculty Publications

In the era of big data, researchers interested in developing statistical models are challenged with how to achieve parsimony. Usually, some sort of dimension reduction strategy is employed. Classic strategies are often in the form of traditional inference procedures, such as hypothesis testing; however, the increase in computing capabilities has led to the development of more sophisticated methods. In particular, sufficient dimension reduction has emerged as an area of broad and current interest. While these types of dimension reduction strategies have been employed for numerous data problems, they are scantly discussed in the context of analyzing survey data. This …

Universities Take On Health Care Challenges On Many Fronts, Caron Blanton

University of Mississippi News

UM faculty and students work to improve wellness, daily life for all Mississippians

Editorial: Murine Models Of Leukemia And Lymphoma, Christine E. Cutucache, Pierluigi Porcu

Biology Faculty Publications

Murine models serve as an effective way to mimic the in vivo tumor microenvironmental interactions that take place in patients with leukemias and lymphomas. Specifically, leukemias and lymphomas rely heavily on the surrounding stroma and tissue microenvironmental cytokine and chemokine signals to ensure survival and expansion of tumor cells. Finally, leukemic cells migrate thanks to signals from varying regions of the host, furthering the progression and severity of disease. It is therefore impossible to fully understand such a dynamic relationship between tumor cells and their surrounding microenvironment, and the events to transformation in leukemias and lymphomas without an in vivo, …

Governance Challenges In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case Of Land Guards And Land Protection In Ghana, David Kwasi Bansah

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Land management policy in many developing nations has been riddled with conflict because of competing land tenure systems. Having transitioned through customary tenure systems to bureaucratic property rights regimes without a complete shift from the former, Ghana’s land management system, over time, has witnessed administrative challenges such that some desperate land protection schemes are taking root, including the use of unregulated security land guards in peri-urban areas. The fundamental objective of this research, therefore, is to explore and better understand the lengths to which people or groups will go to ensure land rights and protection in a regime of statutory …

Outcomes Of Resident-Performed Descemet's Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty, Tatyana Beketova, Margaret Pfeiffer, Alice Chuang, Gene Kim

Journal of Academic Ophthalmology

Purpose This article aimed to evaluate outcomes of resident-performed Descemet's stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK).

Methods This is a case series of patients who underwent DSAEK performed by PGY-4 ophthalmology residents at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital from January 2013 to August 2016 staffed by a fellowship-trained cornea specialist. Patients with less than 1 month of follow-up were excluded. Demographics, baseline ocular characteristics, and intraoperative data were recorded. Vision and graft status were recorded at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and the last follow-up visits. Surgical failure was defined as graft detachment within 1 week of surgery and/or primary graft …

Lifestyle And Vascular Risk Effects On Mri-Based Biomarkers Of Alzheimer’S Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study Of Middle-Aged Adults From The Broader New York City Area, Lisa Mosconi, Michelle Walters, Joanna Sterling, Crystal Quinn, Pauline Mchugh, Randolph E. Andrews, Dawn C. Matthews, Christine Ganzer, Ricardo S. Osorio, Richard S. Isaacson, Mony J. De Leon, Antonio Convit

Publications and Research

Objective To investigate the effects of lifestyle and vascular-related risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) on in vivo MRI-based brain atrophy in asymptomatic young to middle-aged adults.

Design Cross-sectional, observational.

Setting Broader New York City area. Two research centres affiliated with the Alzheimer’s disease Core Center at New York University School of Medicine.

Participants We studied 116 cognitively normal healthy research participants aged 30–60 years, who completed a three-dimensional T1-weighted volumetric MRI and had lifestyle (diet, physical activity and intellectual enrichment), vascular risk (overweight, hypertension, insulin resistance, elevated cholesterol and homocysteine) and cognition (memory, executive function, language) data. Estimates of …

Comparison Of Internships In The United States And Germany, Kelsey Ennis

Honors Theses

My goal in my thesis is to lay out where my three internships were, what they consisted of and what was expected of me, and what I gained from each of them in terms of what I can use in the future as examples of what works in a museum.

Internships are required for Public history students at Western Michigan University and consist of 240 hours in preferably varying environments. When my first internship was a success, I decided to conduct two more internships beyond the 240 hours that I had completed with the first. I was the first Public …

Commencement Ceremonies, University Of North Florida

Commencement Printed Materials

Program for the Fall Commencement ceremonies.

Application Of Non-Targeted Volatile Metabolomics In Plant Pathology, Jinyan She

Theses and Dissertations

Our study focuses on the application of volatile metabolomics and chemometrics in plant pathology. Specifically, volatile metabolites or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) and its pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica have been investigated. The American chestnut was once a dominant tree species in the eastern forests of the United States. However, it was nearly devastated by the fungal pathogen C. parasitica. The loss of this tree species has significantly impacted the ecosystem. Therefore, preservation and restoration of American chestnut are crucial. Chapter one provides an overview of mass spectrometry based volatile metabolomics and their implementation …

Classroom Responsibility In Transitioning Teachers: What Drives It When Self-Efficacy Is Lacking?, Shameeka Renee Deanes

Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has linked self-efficacy to classroom responsibility noting that teachers take on more classroom responsibility when they have confidence in themselves and their abilities. However, the gap to be addressed is with transitioning teachers who transitioned from other careers and those who entered alternate route programs. Previous research has found that these teachers lack self-efficacy because of lack of preparation and classroom experience, yet they still must take on the responsibilities of the classroom. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the internal factors that drive classroom responsibility for transitioning teachers who have low self-efficacy. In addition …

Buck Fyu Shirts, Zachary Grant Bess

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

[one of the simplest forms of the design, and most common, as it is on a blue background, we know it’s Aggie based]

[A fan wears the shirt in 2011]

[A Red variant, found online, to be worn by a University of Utah Fan, the man in the photo also interestingly has a white undershirt, indicative of religious vestments (garments) and is likely a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who owns BYU. The individual may not wear it if it explicitly said “FUCK BYU”]

[A black version, available for purchase, likely to be interchangeable between …

#Aggiestrife, Zachary Grant Bess

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

Pictures

[the account “@aggiestrife” mocking the fact that BYU Student, and Rapper, “James the Rapper” hates Aggies]

[Parody account “@noellecockett, a profile who pretends to be USU President Noelle Cockett, mocks the parking situation]

[I mocked a professor’s grading process, back in April]

[School Newspaper, The Utah Statesman, uses it for a serious issue]

#280characters, Zachary Grant Bess

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

[The Chicago Bears use the limit to reference a Saturday Night Live Skit, in Humor]

[I use the new limit to share a longer portion of a classic poem, more than I might have previously, as a proud English Major]

[Student uses satire to mock the new limit, playing the part of an annoying internet user who abuses and overuses the limit]

[a reference to both 420, the marijuana celebration, and a classic meme from It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia, that explains confusing situations]

[user shows the full limit of how bad this change could be]

[TV Show Law And …

Vista Deficiency Attenuates Antibody-Induced Arthritis And Alters Macrophage Gene Expression In Response To Simulated Immune Complexes, Sabrina Ceeraz, Susan K. Eszterhas, Petra Sergent, David A. Armstrong, Alix Ashare, Thomas Broughton, Li Wang, Dov Pechenick, Christopher M. Burns, Randolph J. Noelle, Matthew P. Vincenti, Roy A. Fava

Dartmouth Scholarship

In addition to activated T cells, the immune checkpoint inhibitor “V domain-containing Ig suppressor of T-cell activation” (VISTA) is expressed by myeloid cell types, including macrophages and neutrophils. The importance of VISTA expression by myeloid cells to antibody-induced arthritis and its potential for relevance in human disease was evaluated. Methods: VISTA was immunolocalized in normal and arthritic human synovial tissue sections and synovial tissue lysates were subjected to western blot analysis. The collagen antibody-induced arthritis model (CAIA) was performed with DBA/1 J mice treated with antibodies against VISTA and with VISTA-deficient mice (V-KO). Total mRNA from arthritic joints, spleens, and …

The Impact Of Religious Diversity Management Strategies On Employee Attitudes, Moises E. Rios Jr.

University Honors Theses

The following research article utilizes the four frameworks (faith-avoiding, faith-based, faith-safe, faith-friendly) discussed by previous researchers Miller and Ewest (2015) in order to evaluate the effects of religious diversity management strategies on varying employee attitudes. An evaluation of the previous research in the field of religion and its effects on management strategies with a basis in title VII laws is also addressed. Based on a sample of 300 participants, significant results in the frameworks and their corresponding variables were found. Of the four frameworks utilized the faith-friendly framework was found to be by far the most favored of all regardless …

Cart With A Vertically Oriented Load, John L. Cashin, Alex Lee, Sam Zhao

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

A cart with a vertically oriented load was constructed per design requirements, utilizing computer aided design software and simulations, as well as targeted specifications per industry consultation.

Torsional Stiffness Measuring Device, Cheyne Shiroma, Clayton Over, Nadab Wubshet

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

This device will measure the torsional stiffness of a FSAE race car frame. Our design will apply a torsional load to the frame while simultaneously providing precise measurements required to calculate the applied load, displacement, angular deflection, and torsional stiffness. Unlike the most popular method of testing torsional stiffness by applying load with a lever, our device twists the frame using hydraulic bottle jacks with an integrated pressure gauge. This aspect enables precise control of the twist, and the pressure gauges provide the capability of load-measurement. The validity of measurements will be assessed by comparing results to theoretical calculations.

Tissue Stretching Device, Usama Ismail, Humza Ismail, Elvir Sarajlic

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

This tissue loading project consists of designing an apparatus that has two main functions. The first, and most obvious of these, being creating a device that will deform a band or disk of tissue with cells pre-seeded on them uniaxially while recording the stress and strain, specifically strain rate, that is applied to the tissue. While the deformation aspect of this device will be key, an equally important part of this project will be designing a part of our tissue loader that mimics the environmental chamber that the lab already uses or is compatible with the environmental chamber that is …

Algorithms & Fiduciaries: Existing And Proposed Regulatory Approaches To Artificially Intelligent Financial Planners, John Lightbourne

Duke Law Journal

Artificial intelligence is no longer solely in the realm of science fiction. Today, basic forms of machine learning algorithms are commonly used by a variety of companies. Also, advanced forms of machine learning are increasingly making their way into the consumer sphere and promise to optimize existing markets. For financial advising, machine learning algorithms promise to make advice available 24–7 and significantly reduce costs, thereby opening the market for financial advice to lower-income individuals. However, the use of machine learning algorithms also raises concerns. Among them, whether these machine learning algorithms can meet the existing fiduciary standard imposed on human …

Cross-Curricular Writing In Mathematics For Comprehension, Kirsten Stowell

Honors Theses

Even though the idea of implementing writing in a mathematics classroom is far from new and the benefits from doing so are hardly nonexistent, this concept is often not found in modern secondary mathematics classrooms. Writing about mathematics allows students to organize and communicate their thinking, gain a better conceptual understanding of mathematical topics, develop a stronger sense of mathematical procedure, move beyond surface-level thinking, and place abstract ideas into context. Writing can also be used by teachers as a formative assessment to explicitly determine if students are struggling conceptually or procedurally in a mathematics classroom to then adjust instruction …

Introduction Of Iodised Salt Benefits Infants’ Mental Development In A Community-Based Cluster-Randomised Effectiveness Trial In Ethiopia, Karim Bougma, Frances E. Aboud, Tizita M. Lemma, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., Grace S. Marquis

Faculty Publications

The effectiveness of salt iodisation in improving the mental development of young children has not been assessed. We implemented a community-based cluster-randomised effectiveness trial in sixty randomly selected districts in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. We randomly allocated each district to treatment and randomly selected one of its villages. In parallel to national salt iodisation efforts, iodised salt was brought early into the markets of the thirty intervention villages before it became widely available in the thirty control villages 4–6 months later. The primary outcome was children’s mental development scores on the Bayley Scales. This was an intention-to-treat analysis using …

Field Methods, Sampling Strategies, Historical Documents, And Data Redundancy: A Study Of Historic Tenant Farmsteads In Leflore County, Mississippi, Jayson Jon Zoino

Theses and Dissertations

Historic tenant farmsteads are often thought to be redundant archaeological resources because of their limited temporal range and function which acts to limit the diversity of their archaeological assemblages. However, work has not been done that confirms this equivalence, and archaeologists often write off tenant farmsteads as being too modern or too disturbed to warrant investigation. This is a problematic approach as tenant farmsteads are quickly eroding from the American landscape and a representative sample of sites need to be investigated and preserved before they’re gone. This thesis tests different sampling strategies and field methods that may allow for the …

Impacts Of Immigration Policy Changes On Employment Of Foreign Born Doctorate Recipients, Jun Cheng

Theses and Dissertations

The H-1B visa program was initiated in 1990 to temporarily hire highly-skilled foreign workers. The H-1B visa program has changed several times since its initiation. One of the most important changes occurred in 2001 when the 21st Century Act exempted individuals employed by institutions of higher education and nonprofit and government research organizations from the H-1B visa cap increasing the number of visas available for foreign high-skilled immigrants. To analyze the impact of policy changes affecting the H-1B program on highly-skilled workers, we study the behavior of foreign-born Ph.D. students who graduated from institutions in the United States over the …

Editorial: Murine Models Of Leukemia And Lymphoma, Christine E. Cutucache, Pierluigi Porcu

Kimmel Cancer Center Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

A Happy Marriage Of Inconvenience: The Power Of Adrienne De La Fayette Over Her Destiny In Eighteenth-Century France, Brittany I. Fox

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Extensive analysis and interpretation have occurred concerning the Marquis de Lafayette and his contributions to the American War for Independence and the Revolutionary French era. However, the discourse on his wife, Adrienne de Noailles, the Marquise de La Fayette, has been confined to a chapter within her husband's larger narrative. Examining her agency over her circumstances, Adrienne proves to be more than an idealistic angel suffering from a tumultuous time period.

An Analysis Of The Perceptions Of Quality Professional Development And Its Relationship To Teacher Turnover, Job Satisfaction, And School Performance, Cammesha Rana Sims

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between educators' perceptions of the quality of Professional Development to which they have been exposed and the three outcomes related to school productivity, specifically teacher retention, job satisfaction, and student proficiency in basic skills. For that purpose, secondary data extracted from the 2013 administration of the Teaching, Empowering, Leading, and Learning Questionairre (TELL) were merged with pertinent school demographic information archived on the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) website.The results of the Hierarchial Multiple Regression indicated that the teacher- perceived quality of Professional Development appeared to make a substantial contribution …