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Virginia Commonwealth University Commencement Program [2018], Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Changing Behavior And Renewing The Brain: A Study Of College Students, Mark Maddix, Glena Andrews

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

The field of neuroscience and religion continues to explode as researchers seek to understand religious experiences in the brain. Studies in religious experience, called neurotheology, attempt to draw conclusions about the truth of these religious experiences from the study of biological brain events. Given the substantial research on the science of religion, this article explores the physiological changes of college students engaged in regular spiritual practices. Students were asked to engage in intentional spiritual formational practices, such as prayer, meditation, Scripture reading, and contemplation, to see if these practices impacted their physiological activities, including brain wave, heart rate, skin response …

Rnai-Mediated Knockdown Of Vatpase Subunits Affects Survival And Reproduction Of Bed Bugs (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), Sanjay Basnet, Shripat T. Kamble

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius L. (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) has resurged as one of the most troublesome household pests affecting people across the globe. Bed bug infestations have increased in recent years primarily due to the evolution of insecticide resistance and the insect’s ability to hitchhike with travelers. vATPases are one of the most evolutionarily conserved holoenzymes in eukaryotes, which are mainly involved in proton transport across the plasma membranes and intracellu­lar organelles. RNA interference (RNAi) has been developed as a promising tool for insect control. In this study, we used RNAi as an approach to knock down subunits A …

The Relationship Between Vertigo, Vestibular System Disorders, And Therapy, Etta Rubin

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

The relationship between vertigo and vestibular system disorders has been the subject of much research in recent years.The aim of this study is to review and analyze the relevant literature regarding this relationship, with emphasis on determining what causes the dizziness, how to test for vertigo, and specifically how to treat it.Additionally, while there may be many ways to prevent vertigo, the focus will be on how the role of therapy is vital in the future of healthcare, serving as prevention of anxiety and reoccurring vestibular disorders.

Research And Creative Activity, July 1, 2017–June 30, 2018: Major Sponsored Programs And Faculty Awards For Research And Creative Activity, University Of Nebraska–Lincoln, Office Of Research And Economic Development, University Of Nebraska–Lincoln

Office of Research and Economic Development: Publications

Foreword by Bob Wilhelm, Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development:

This booklet highlights successes in research, scholarship and creative activity by University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty during the fiscal year July 1, 2017– June 30, 2018.

It lists investigators, project titles and funding sources on major grants and sponsored program awards received during the year; fellowships and other recognitions and honors bestowed on our faculty; books published by faculty; performances, exhibitions and other creative activity by our faculty; and patents and licensing agreements issued for products of Nebraska research.

Notably, the university reached a major milestone in FY2017: earning $302 …

An Engineer Cantonment Bestiary: The Art Of Titian Ramsay Peale, Hugh H. Genoways, Thomas E. Labedz

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Includes an overview of the work of American nature artist Titian Ramsay Peale as part of the Stephen H. Long Expedition, 1819-1820, at Engineer Cantonment in eastern Nebraska, USA.

Includes textual descriptions and/or reproductions of watercolors and lined drawings by Peale of banded killifish (Fundulus diaphanous), American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrothynchos), Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus/Falco lagopus), Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis tabida), Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos), Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea), American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea), Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus …

Signals Of Forest Degradation In The Demography Of Common Asian Amphibians, Nancy E. Karraker, Samantha Fischer, Archalee Aowphol, Jennifer Sheridan, Sinlan Poo

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Background: Lowland areas in tropical East and Southeast Asia have a long history of conversion from forestland to agricultural land, with many remaining forests being chronically degraded by wood cutting, livestock grazing, and burning. Wetland-breeding amphibians that have evolved in lowland forests in the region have adjusted to changes in habitat composition caused by humans’ activities, and populations continue to persist. However, we have little understanding of the impacts of forest disturbance on these species beyond assessments of abundance and distribution, and species considered to be common and widespread have been largely neglected.

Methods: We examined body condition …

2018 Scholarly Productivity Report, Missouri University Of Science And Technology

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Scholarly Productivity Reports

No abstract provided.

Efficacy Of Limonene Nano Coatings On Post-Harvest Shelf Life Of Strawberries, Rajiv Dhital, Nathalie Becerra-Mora, Dennis G. Watson, Punit Kohli, Ruplal Choudhary

Articles

Strawberries are highly demanded fruits because of their color, nutritional values and appearance. The aim of this study was to develop and characterize alginate and limonene liposomes as edible coating materials and to determine their efficacy in shelf life extension and maintaining quality parameters of ‘Chandler’ strawberries. Alginate solution (1.5% w/v) and Limonene liposomes prepared from 80% lecithin and 20% PDA were used as edible coating materials. Fungal decay percentage, total yeast and mold counts, headspace atmosphere analysis, total soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, total anthocyanin content and total phenolics were analyzed to assess fruit quality during 14 days at …

Novel Caries Loci In Children And Adults Implicated By Genome-Wide Analysis Of Families, Manika Govil, Nandita Mukhopadhyay, Daniel E. Weeks, Eleanor Feingold, John R. Shaffer, Steven M. Levy, Alexandre R. Vieira, Rebecca L. Slayton, Daniel W. Mcneil, Robert J. Weyant, Richard J. Crout, Mary L. Marazita

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background: Dental caries is a common chronic disease among children and adults alike, posing a substantial health burden. Caries is affected by multiple genetic and environmental factors, and prior studies have found that a substantial proportion of caries susceptibility is genetically inherited.

Methods: To identify such genetic factors, we conducted a genome-wide linkage scan in 464 extended families with 2616 individuals from Iowa, Pennsylvania and West Virginia for three dental caries phenotypes: (1) PRIM: dichotomized as zero versus one or more affected primary teeth, (2) QTOT1: age-adjusted quantitative caries measure for both primary and permanent dentitions including pre-cavitated lesions, and …

The Effects Of Maternal Caffeine Intake On A Fetus, Jennifer Kahan

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

The United States has been noted as the country with the greatest caffeine consumption in the world. More than half of all Americans are said to consume caffeine on a daily basis. Caffeine is easily available in a variety of dietary products including coffee, tea, soft drinks, and chocolate. Many pregnant women are unaware of the potential risk that excessive caffeine consumption can have on their unborn child. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ramifications of caffeine intake on a fetus. The studies reviewed propose that heavy maternal caffeine consumption, that of more than 300 mg daily, …

Using Tpack To Explore The Integration Of Virtual Microscopes Into An Introductory Biology Course, Bobbie Seyedmonir

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine the effectiveness of virtual laboratories relative to traditional or blended laboratories in the attainment of conceptual knowledge and skill in microscopy, and (2) to explore how such technologies are integrated in real world classrooms. Four sections of a non-major’s introductory biology course were utilized for the study (N=100). After attrition, the maximum number of intact cases for each question was utilized. Results show no difference between groups in the attainment of conceptual understanding of microscopes parts and functions; however, the Traditional treatment condition scored significantly higher than both the Virtual …

The Biology Of Inequality, Lucille A. Jewel

Scholarly Works

We have known for quite some time that disadvantaged individuals suffer from poorer health outcomes and lower life spans than the advantaged. The disadvantaged do not perform as well on educational tests than their wealthier peers. In some situations, racial discrimination intersects with poverty to worsen these outcomes for minorities. With the notion that poverty becomes implanted in an individual’s genes and brain, science helps explain how these disparate lifespans and variations in cognitive outcomes come to be. This Article collectively refers to these scientific theories as embodied inequality. Embodied inequality explains why it is so difficult for individuals to …

Ryan Matura Library Annual Report, 2017-2018, Peter Gavin Ferriby

Library Annual Report

The annual report reflects the academic year 2017-2018.

Metabolic And Transcriptional Modules Independently Diversify Plasma Cell Lifespan And Function, Wing Y. Lam, Arijita Jash, Cong-Hui Yao, Lucas D'Souza, Rachel Wong, Ryan M. Nunley, Gordon P. Meares, Gary J. Patti, Deepta Bhattacharya

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Plasma cell survival and the consequent duration of immunity vary widely with infection or vaccination. Using fluorescent glucose analog uptake, we defined multiple developmentally independent mouse plasma cell populations with varying life- spans. Long-lived plasma cells imported more fluo- rescent glucose analog, expressed higher surface levels of the amino acid transporter CD98, and had more autophagosome mass than did short-lived cells. Low amino acid concentrations triggered re- ductions in both antibody secretion and mitochon- drial respiration, especially by short-lived plasma cells. To explain these observations, we found that glutamine was used for both mitochondrial respira- tion and anaplerotic reactions, yielding …

Assessing The Christian Epistemic Obligation To Big Bang Cosmology, Sven Östring

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

For centuries, in the midst of historical waves of conflicting explanations of how our cosmos began, the Bible has resolutely proclaimed that God originally created the universe out of nothing. Thus, biblical cosmology holds that the universe is not past eternal and had a beginning. This cosmology was at odds with both the polytheistic Babylonian Enuma Elish creation myth 1 and Aristotle’s assertion that the universe has existed, unchanging, from eternity past. 2

Field Evaluation Of Commercially Available Small Unmanned Aircraft Crop Spray Systems, Wayne Woldt, D. Martin, M. Latheef, Greg Kruger, Robert J. Wright, Justin Mcmechan, Christopher A. Proctor, Tamra Jackson-Ziems

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

Agricultural research and development on small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has been directed toward UAS enabled sensing to detect features of interest. While compelling, there is an immediate need to increase the breadth and depth of UAS-based research, to move beyond sensing, and explore active intervention in agricultural production systems. This paper is focused on the concept of crop protection through ultra-precise, unmanned aerial application systems, and seeks to initiate research discussion in this important area of opportunity. Toward this end, two different, commercially available, small Unmanned Aerial Application Systems (sUAAS - defined as less than 55 lbs. maximum take-off …

How Does The Presence And Management Of Leadership Tension Affect Leaders And The Organizations They Lead?, Aaron A. Cole

Doctor of Ministry

Many leaders inside and outside the church struggle with the weight of leadership demands, feeling overwhelmed and intimidated by the tension that comes with leadership. It is not a lack of calling, clarity, or vision on the part of leaders but the tension of moving people toward achieving mission. Such tension, caused by the function of leadership and not necessarily the leader, is a crucial area that tends to cause a leader to rise or fall. Unfortunately, many leaders eject or struggle without success due to a lack of understanding and the skill set necessary to effectively manage leadership tension. …

Efficient Detection Of Phthalate Esters In Human Saliva Via Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Dana J. Discenza, Melissa A. Smith, Lauren E. Intravaia, Mindy Levine

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The detection of phthalates in human biologic fluids remains an important research objective because it provides an important measure of an individual’s exposure to this class of compounds, which have known deleterious health effects. Moreover, the ability to accomplish such detection in fluids that are easy to collect, such as saliva and urine, provides additional practical advantages. Reported herein is the application of cyclodextrin-promoted fluorescence energy transfer and fluorescence modulation to accomplish precisely such detection: the development of sensitive and selective florescence-based detection methods for phthalates in saliva, an easily collectable human biologic fluid. Such saliva-based detection methods occur with …

Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor Of The Lung, Akshay Khatri, Abhinav Agrawal, Rutuja R. Sikachi, Dhruv Mehta, Sonu Sahni, Nikhil Meena

Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (New York) Publications and Research

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMT) of the lung, first reported in 1939, are considered a subset of inflammatory pseudo-tumors. They are a distinctive lesions composed of myofibroblastic spindle cells accompanied by an inflammatory infiltrate of plasma cells, lymphocytes, and eosinophils. IMTs may be benign, invade surrounding structures, undergo malignant transformation, recur or may even metastasize. They can occur due to a genetic mutation or can occur secondary to infectious or autoimmune diseases. Patients may be asymptomatic, or present with cough, hemoptysis, dyspnea, pleuritic pain, constitutional symptoms or pneumonia. In this article we review the pathophysiology, genetics, clinical presentation, imaging findings of …

Mckee Library Annual Report 2017-2018, Southern Adventist University

Annual Reports

The 2017-2018 Annual Report includes statistics on library usage, updates on the library's collections and art, and plans for future growth.

This report won the American Librarian Association's 2019 PR Xchange Award for Annual Reports.

Noninfectious Manifestations And Complications Of Chronic Granulomatous Disease, S. E. Henrickson, A. M. Jongco, K. F. Thomsen, E. K. Garabedian, I. P. Thomsen

Journal Articles

© The Author(s) 2018. Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), a primary immunodeficiency characterized by a deficient neutrophil oxidative burst and the inadequate killing of microbes, is well known to cause a significantly increased risk of invasive infection. However, infectious complications are not the sole manifestations of CGD; substantial additional morbidity is driven by noninfectious complications also. These complications can include, for example, a wide range of inflammatory diseases that affect the gastrointestinal tract, lung, skin, and genitourinary tract and overt autoimmune disease. These diseases can occur at any age and are especially problematic in adolescents and adults with CGD. Many of …

Study Of Flare Assessment In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Based On Paper Patients, D. Isenberg, J. Sturgess, E. Allen, C. Aranow, A. Askanase, B. Sang-Cheol, S. Bernatsky, I. Bruce, J. Buyon, C. Gordon, +29 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

© 2017, The Authors. Arthritis Care & Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American College of Rheumatology. Objective: To determine the level of agreement of disease flare severity (distinguishing severe, moderate, and mild flare and persistent disease activity) in a large paper-patient exercise involving 988 individual cases of systemic lupus erythematosus. Methods: A total of 988 individual lupus case histories were assessed by 3 individual physicians. Complete agreement about the degree of flare (or persistent disease activity) was obtained in 451 cases (46%), and these provided the reference standard for the second part of the study. This …

Lifelong Behavioral And Neuropathological Consequences Of Repetitive Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, B. C. Mouzon, C. Bachmeier, J. O. Ojo, C. M. Acker, S. Ferguson, D. Paris, G. Ait-Ghezala, G. Crynen, P. Davies, F. Crawford, +2 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

© 2017 The Authors. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc on behalf of American Neurological Association. Objective: Exposure to repetitive concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), has been linked with increased risk of long-term neurodegenerative changes, specifically chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). To date, preclinical studies largely have focused on the immediate aftermath of mTBI, with no literature on the lifelong consequences of mTBI in these models. This study provides the first account of lifelong neurobehavioral and histological consequences of repetitive mTBI providing unique insight into the constellation of evolving and ongoing pathologies with late …

On Statistical Modeling Of Sequencing Noise In High Depth Data To Assess Tumor Evolution, R. Rabadan, G. Bhanot, S. Marsilio, N. Chiorazzi, L. Pasqualucci, H. Khiabanian

Journal Articles

© 2017, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. One cause of cancer mortality is tumor evolution to therapy-resistant disease. First line therapy often targets the dominant clone, and drug resistance can emerge from preexisting clones that gain fitness through therapy-induced natural selection. Such mutations may be identified using targeted sequencing assays by analysis of noise in high-depth data. Here, we develop a comprehensive, unbiased model for sequencing error background. We find that noise in sufficiently deep DNA sequencing data can be approximated by aggregating negative binomial distributions. Mutations with frequencies above noise may have prognostic value. We evaluate …

Neuro-Immune Interactions In Inflammation And Host Defense: Implications For Transplantation, S. S. Chavan, P. Ma, I. M. Chiu

Journal Articles

© 2017 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons Sensory and autonomic neurons of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) play a critical role in regulating the immune system during tissue inflammation and host defense. Recent studies have identified the molecular mechanisms underlying the bidirectional communication between the nervous system and the immune system. Here, we highlight the studies that demonstrate the importance of the neuro-immune interactions in health and disease. Nociceptor sensory neurons detect immune mediators to produce pain, and release neuropeptides that act on the immune system to regulate inflammation. In parallel, neural reflex …

Design And Mechanism Of (S)-3-Amino-4-(Difluoromethylenyl)Cyclopent-1-Ene-1-Carboxylic Acid, A Highly Potent Γ-Aminobutyric Acid Aminotransferase Inactivator For The Treatment Of Addiction, J. I. Juncosa, K. Takaya, H. V. Le, M. J. Moschitto, P. M. Weerawarna, R. Mascarenhas, D. Liu, S. L. Dewey, R. B. Silverman

Journal Articles

© 2018 American Chemical Society. γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Inhibition of GABA aminotransferase (GABA-AT), a pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme that degrades GABA, has been established as a possible strategy for the treatment of substance abuse. The raised GABA levels that occur as a consequence of this inhibition have been found to antagonize the rapid release of dopamine in the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens) that follows an acute challenge by an addictive substance. In addition, increased GABA levels are also known to elicit an anticonvulsant effect in patients with epilepsy. We previously …

Glucocorticoid Use And Factors Associated With Variability In This Use In The Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics Inception Cohort, J. Little, B. Parker, M. Lunt, J. G. Hanly, M. B. Urowitz, A. E. Clarke, J. Romero-Diaz, C. Aranow, M. Mackay, I. N. Bruce, +32 Additional Authors

Journal Articles

© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. Objectives. To describe glucocorticoid (GC) use in the SLICC inception cohort and to explore factors associated with GC use. In particular we aimed to assess temporal trends in GC use and to what extent physician-related factors may influence use. Methods. Patients were recruited within 15 months of diagnosis of SLE from 33 centres between 1999 and 2011 and continue to be reviewed annually. Descriptive statistics were used to detail oral and parenteral GC use. Cross sectional and longitudinal analyses were …

Global And Multi-Focal Changes In Cerebral Blood Flow During Subthalamic Nucleus Stimulation In Parkinson’S Disease, A. M. Mubeen, B. Ardekani, M. Tagliati, R. Alterman, V. Dhawan, D. Eidelberg, J. J. Sidtis

Journal Articles

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. Electrical stimulation of subthalamic nuclei (STN) is a widely used therapy in Parkinson’s disease (PD). While deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the STN alters the neurophysiological activity in basal ganglia, the therapeutic mechanism has not been established. A positron emission tomography (PET) study of cerebral blood flow (CBF) during speech production in PD subjects treated with STN-DBS found significant increases in global (whole-brain) CBF.1That study utilized a series of whole-slice regions of interest to obtain global CBF values. The present study examined this effect using a voxel-based principal component analysis (PCA) combined with Fisher’s …

Switching Language Modes: Complementary Brain Patterns For Formulaic And Propositional Language, J. J. Sidtis, D. Van Lancker Sidtis, V. Dhawan, D. Eidelberg

Journal Articles

© John J. Sidtis et al. 2018. Language has been modeled as a rule governed behavior for generating an unlimited number of novel utterances using phonological, syntactic, and lexical processes. This view of language as essentially propositional is expanding as a contributory role of formulaic expressions (e.g., you know, have a nice day, how are you?) is increasingly recognized. The basic features of the functional anatomy of this language system have been described by studies of brain damage: left lateralization for propositional language and greater right lateralization and basal ganglia involvement for formulaic expressions. Positron emission tomography (PET) studies of …