Digital Commons Network^™

“Poetry Doesn’T Restore Ecosystems”: Garbage And Poetry In The Anthropocene, Joseph Russell Hendryx

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the representation of material garbage in American poetry, from the development of industrial waste management in the late nineteenth century to the present day ecological crises. In the early to mid-twentieth century, garbage serves as a new Romantic nature, allowing poems’ speakers to reflect on themselves and their society through this trashed landscape. The presence of the material garbage itself, however, was never a central concern and continued to be hidden behind its various metaphorical utilizations. A.R. Ammons’s poem Garbage opened up the poetic conversation by searching for a more nuanced and worldly treatment of garbage. The …

An Investigation Of Brain Normalization And Lesion Compensation Techniques Applied To Stroke, Taylor Hanayik

Theses and Dissertations

One of the most ubiquitous steps in neuroimaging is the normalization of brain images. The process of normalization attempts to match any given brain to a standardized template image (e.g. the MNI 152 image). However, clinical images such as those from stroke participants present many challenges when we attempt to warp them to the space of template images, which are typically representative of neurologically healthy individuals. Many software packages exist to facilitate normalization of brain images, but most have limited options available to compensate for brain injury, which is often disruptive to these algorithms. Of the injury compensation methods that …

Showing One’S Manhood: The Social Performance Of Masculinity, Fayaz Kabani

Theses and Dissertations

Contrary to much criticism of the past thirty years that regards Shakespeare’s Prince Hal as the epitome of unfettered Machiavellian subjectivity, Hal should be regarded as a teenaged male navigating the contradictory discourses of early modern masculinity in order to perform an integrated, consistent masculinity for his audience. His acceptance of hegemonic masculinity is complicated by his father Henry IV’s usurpation of the throne. The resulting ambivalence in Hal results in his participation in the countermasculine world of Eastcheap. However, once Hal “chooses” his role as Prince of Wales, he finds it difficult to sacrifice his personal self, or body …

College Students And Corporate Social Responsibility: An Examination Of Corporate-Social Responsible Behavior In College Athletics From The Students’ Perspective, R. Jacob Gilbert

Theses and Dissertations

Much research has been done on corporate social responsibility in the business world. Additionally, while there are major gaps in research on the sports side of corporate social responsibility, there has been very little - if any - research done into corporate social responsibility in college athletics. With approximately 130 major Division I football programs with operating budgets rivaling major corporations, in addition to a plethora of other revenue sports, the actions of these institutions also need to be studied. Thus, in an effort to understand the socially responsible actions of these institutions, this paper dives into the student perspective …

A Rotatable Asymmetric Variable Compensation Mirt Model, Xinchu Zhao

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to develop, estimate, and interpret a new variable compensation multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) model, named the Rotatable Asymmetric Variable Compensation Model (RAVCM), that allows for transformation between different correlation structures. Since the model is rotatable like the common compensatory models (CM), it is not necessary to specify or estimate the correlation of abilities to recover the model. Also, it can approximate the existing MIRT models well. In simulation, the RAVCM is shown to estimate the parameters with small error, especially when the non-compensatory model (NCM) is the true model and the correlation of …

The Impact Of Teaching Growth Mindset On Archery Skill Achievement: An Action Research Study, Phillip Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Although setbacks and failure are common in school, especially in outdoor adventure physical education classes, the ways in which students handle those setbacks and failure impact their academic achievement and performance. This dissertation describes a problem of practice based on observations of how the researcher’s students handle setbacks and failure in his outdoor adventure education class, specifically how these setbacks and failure affect the students’ archery performance. This study examined how teaching noncognitive skills using the computer program Brainology impacts student skill performance in archery and the students’ perceptions of this impact. This study used a concurrent mixed methods action …

Effects Of Lighting And Noise On Performance And Situation Awareness In Air Traffic Control Tasks, Saralee Pruksaritanon

Student Works

Work environment influences an individual’s performance and situation awareness (SA). This study aims to investigate the effects of lighting and noise on the performance and SA in air traffic control (ATC) tasks. These two variables are important in the domain of ATC because the tasks require an individual to receive and process information both visually and auditorily. The results are useful for designing air traffic control rooms, which are set differently among different air navigation service providers. The subjects are 16 students majoring in Air Traffic Management (ATM) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) – Daytona Beach, FL. The research uses …

Family And School Impact On Psychological Functioning From Childhood To Late Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study Of Rural Chinese Youth, Yang Yue

Theses and Dissertations

The transition from childhood to adolescence can be a significant stressor for youth, leading to increases in internalizing problems for those who are vulnerable. Compared to the mounting research conducted on U.S. youth, children and adolescents in China have received less attention on their psychological adjustment. As Chinese youth constitute roughly 15% of the world’s population (World Health Organization, 2010), and the disproportionate quantity of longitudinal investigation on Chinese youth psychological functioning, understanding the influence of risk and protective factors, and their interactive effects on internalizing problems among Chinese youth is critical.

According to Life Course Theory, Ecological Systems Theory, …

Implementation Of A Depression Screening Tool For Cardiovascular Patients In The Primary Care Setting, Amber Nicole Ballentine

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) have a two-fold increased risk of depression as compared to patients without CVD. According to the American Heart Association (AHA, 2016), there is no gold-standard procedure for screening for depression in cardiovascular patients. Screening for depression varies greatly across specialties and practices, often leaving a gap for detection and treatment of depression in cardiac patients. There are many depression screening tools available; however, the AHA recommends use of the patient health questionnaire (PHQ) screening tool. The PHQ-2 and PHQ-9 questionnaires are the most brief, sensitive, and specific depression screening tool for patients with …

Prevalence And Predictors Of Anxiety Disorders In Adolescent And Adult Males With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Fragile X Syndrome, Jordan Ezell

Theses and Dissertations

disorders are the most prevalent disorders in children and adolescents, affecting approximately 15-20% of individuals under the age of 18 (Salum et al, 2013). Clinical subgroups, like autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and fragile X syndrome (FXS), have an elevated risk of a co-occurring anxiety disorder. Despite the elevated risk of anxiety in these groups, few research studies have investigated the rates and predictors of anxiety disorders in adolescents with these ASD and FXS. In the current study, participants included males with FXS (n=31) or ASD (n=20) aged 16 to 24. Measures included the Children’s Interview for Psychiatric Symptoms-Parent Version (P-ChIPS), …

The Short-Term Self-Control Stability Of College Students, Nicholas James Blasco

Theses and Dissertations

Since the stability problem was first outlined by Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) in their influential work A General Theory of Crime it has received a steady stream of attention from the academic community. Researchers have studied juveniles and adults and have implemented a variety of methodological and statistical approaches. Many of these studies do not show support for the theoretical concept outlined by Gottfredson and Hirschi; yet, there were exceptions. The current study used a slightly different theoretical approach accompanied with research methodology that is still in its infancy. While most studies testing the relative stability of self-control use longitudinal …

A Quasi-Experimental Analysis Of School-Based Situational Crime Prevention Measures, Gary Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there has been an expansion of situational crime prevention (SCP) measures in K-12 schools, including physical controls, law enforcement personnel, and security policies that are designed to prevent crime by modifying the situational features of school environments. Although SCP measures are now increasingly commonplace in schools, there is inadequate research demonstrating the need for SCP measures and their impacts on school crime. In particular, there is contradictory and inconclusive evidence of their effectiveness and research has largely been limited to examining aggregate outcomes through the use non-experimental, correlational designs. This dissertation aims to address these gaps in …

Food Acquisition And Shopping Patterns And Associations With Body Mass Index, Xiaonan Ma

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Obesity is a big public health concern in the US. Previous studies examined its association with food shopping practices measured by distance to the food store, shopping frequency, and type of store selected. However, not much is known about the actual food acquisition and shopping habits integrating multi-dimensional aspects. The purpose of this study was to identify distinct food acquisition and shopping patterns in populations primarily residing in food deserts in South Carolina (SC) and a general population in the US and characterize these patterns with respect to socioeconomic status (SES), nutritional knowledge, and perceptions and store selection …

Home Exercise Therapy For The Treatment Of Knee Osteoarthritis, Kezia Nixon

Theses and Dissertations

Knee pain is the chief complaint of most osteoarthritis patients, and encourages them to seek medical attention. Unfortunately, pharmacological approaches to the treatment of knee osteoarthritis have been found to be inadequate. Given the prevalence and chronicity of osteoarthritic knee pain, there is an obvious need for treatments that can be provided for the course of the disease, with minimal adverse side effects. Exercise therapy has been found to significantly improve both pain and function among individuals with knee osteoarthritis. The primary objective of this quality improvement project was to investigate the effectiveness of a home-based therapeutic exercise program on …

Towards A ‘Pedagogy Of Hybrid Masculinities’: The Effects Of Teacher-Selected Vs. Student-Selected Informational Texts On The Literacy Achievement And Masculine Identities Of Middle-Level Males, Elizabeth Coen Welch

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether teacher-selected informational texts or student-selected informational texts best contribute to literacy achievement and engagement for middle-level males and to examine middle-level males’ perception of the relationship between masculine performance and literacy practice. For the purposes of this study, literacy achievement was measured using pre-test/post-test comparison on an assessment which measured participants’ ability to determine the central idea of an informational text while engagement and the relationship between masculine expression and literacy achievement were analyzed using observational field notes and semi-structured focus group interviews. Over a nine-week period during the first nine-week …

Examining The Factor Structure, Concurrent Validity, And Predictive Validity Of The Social Motivational Orientations In Sport Scale (Smoss) In An Early Adolescent Sample, Alex M. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

Research demonstrates that youth are motivated to initiate and continue participation in sport for social reasons. Allen (2003, 2005) developed the Social Motivational Orientations in Sport Scale (SMOSS) to help facilitate the measurement of social goals in sport. This instrument consists of three subscales—affiliation (i.e. have fun, make friends; seven items), recognition (i.e. receive recognition from others about sport involvement or ability; four items), and status (i.e. belong to the popular group; three items)—designed to measure these aspects of participants’ social motivations to sport involvement. However, the SMOSS has only been used among high school students and older adults in …

A Culturally Tailored Intervention System For Cancer Survivors To Motivate Physical Activity, Golam Mushih Tanimul Ahsan, Jannatul F. Tumpa, Riddhiman Adib, Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed, Daniel Petereit, Linda Burhansstipanov, Linda U. Krebs, Mark Dignan

Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

It is necessary for a cancer survivor to have good health behavior. Essential exercise and proper diet are helpful to decrease the risk of recurrence of the disease and the development of a new cancer type. People from low socioeconomic status are more likely to participate in risky health behaviors and have a higher chance of recurrence of cancer. It is important to have a motivational system for cancer survivors that motivates them to perform regular physical activities. In this article, we discuss the development of an mHealth system, which aims to increase physical activity in Native American populations with …

The Possible Role Of Endogenous Retroviruses In Tumour Development And Innate Signalling, Emmanuel Atangana Maze

School of Biomedical Sciences Theses

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are fossils of ancient retroviral infection in the germline. In primates they represent around 5% of the genome sequence. During time spent in the genome, being transmitted in a Mendelian fashion, copies of ERVs have accumulated mutations, which rendered them inactive. However, some of them (the most recently integrated ones) are still able to transcribe and produce viral proteins, although few are capable of re-infection. In the past often considered as unharmful ‘junk DNA’, recent evidence link ERVs with cancer and several inflammatory diseases. For example, a few reports demonstrate that ERVs are involved in tumour development …

Barriers And Perceptions To Obtaining Palliative Care In The Emergency Department, Jacqueline Lucille Saucier

Dissertations

Background:

Purpose: This study explored barriers and perceptions of providing palliative care services while patients are in the emergency department (ED) in order to increase the>likelihood of caregivers to elicit palliative care methodologies for patients with chronic illness, who are not necessarily at the end of life, but rather who are identified through repeated visits to the ED.

Design and Methods: A mixed methods approach was used to explore the barriers and perceptions of providing palliative care services in the ED. By using a qualitative approach, evidenced by grounded theory, this study explored the barriers and perceptions of providing …

Constrained Bayesian Method For Testing The Directional Hypotheses, Kartlos J. Kachiashvili, Naveen K. Bansal, I. A. Prangishvili

Mathematical and Statistical Science Faculty Research and Publications

The paper discusses the generalization of constrained Bayesian method (CBM) for arbitrary loss functions and its application for testing the directional hypotheses. The problem is stated in terms of false and true discovery rates. One more criterion of estimation of directional hypotheses tests quality, the Type III errors rate, is considered. The ratio among discovery rates and the Type III errors rate in CBM is considered. The advantage of CBM in comparison with Bayes and frequentist methods is theoretically proved and demonstrated by an example.

Evaluating Smartphones For Infrastructure Work Order Management, Victor L. Guinn, Brent T. Langhals, John J. Elshaw

Faculty Publications

Infrastructure managers require timely and accurate state information to diagnose, prioritize, and repair the substantial infrastructure assets supporting modern society. Challenges in obtaining sufficient information can often be attributed to inadequate data collection procedures (phone calls, paper reports, etc.) or a general lack of knowledge or ability on the part of the reporting individual to accurately convey what is actually wrong with the facility. Fortunately, modern smart-phone technology offers the potential to improve maintenance work requests by providing better geolocation and problem description accuracy. An experiment simulating real-world maintenance requests was conducted comparing smart-phones with traditional verbal work order request …

Psychodynamic Psychiatrists' Experiences Of Being Stalked, Douglas Ingram

NYMC Faculty Publications

Despite the estimated 15% likelihood that a psychiatrist will become the victim of stalking, there is little formal recognition of its prevalence or its impact on well-being. Through narrative accounts, ten psychiatrists with psychodynamic orientations speak of their experiences including how each managed the anxieties consequent to stalking. These include a variety of adaptive psychic operations as well as concrete actions to curtail stalking.

Mental Health First Aid Training For Vcu Faculty And Staff, Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University, Roy Brown, Kendra Gerlach, Cristen Jandreau, Jennifer Lee, Anne Massey, Jennifer Tennison, Peter Uetz

GEHLI - 2026 VCUL Team Project Publications

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), an international training program, teaches participants to notice and support individuals experiencing a mental health or substance use issue and connects them to appropriate resources. While resources exist for students, this project aims to implement MHFA as a professional development opportunity for VCU faculty and staff. A successful pilot training held this summer demonstrates the need and desire for training in the VCU community. Evidence shows mental health issues lead to absenteeism, employee turnover and increased healthcare costs, costing organizations billions in recruitment that may have been avoided. Through state partnerships, trainers are available to …

Ram Essential, The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute At Virginia Commonwealth University, Sompop Bencharit, Cait Burns, Kristen Caldwell, Muthoni Imungi, Matt Lovisa, Magdalena Morgan, Bert Waters

GEHLI - 2026 VCUL Team Project Publications

The underlying causes of food insecurity are complex and often intertwined with related issues that affect a student’s ability to meet even basic needs, such as housing, employment and health care, forcing them to choose between their well-being and their education. The latest Hunger in America report finds that about 10 percent of Feed America’s 46.5 million adult clients are college students. That equates to 2 million full-time college students. “Of those surveyed by the emergency food services network, roughly 30.5 percent of students reported that they were forced to choose between food and educational expenses at some point over …

Empowering Students With The Hidden Curriculum, Hilary Neve, Tracey Collett

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Quality After The Qof? Before Dismantling It, We Need A Redefined Measure Of ‘Quality’, James Close, Richard Byng, Jose M. Valderas, Nicky Britten, Helen Lloyd

Peninsula Medical School

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) for UK general practice is one of the largest health-related pay-for-performance (P4P) schemes in the world. In 2004, the scheme initially had a positive impact on quality of care, primarily achieved via establishment of procedural baselines in the clinical management of incentivised (mostly chronic) diseases. It reduced between-practice variation in care delivery while also improving disease registers, recording of clinical activities, and adoption of electronic medical record systems, leading to an explosion in general practice data and research. Despite some successes, recent years have seen accelerated debate concerning the removal of QOF. One major …

Prevalence Of Asthma, Aspirin Sensitivity And Allergy In Chronic Rhinosinusitis: Data From The Uk National Chronic Rhinosinusitis Epidemiology Study, Cm Philpott, S Erskine, C Hopkins, N Kumar, S Anari, N Kara, S Sunkaraneni, J Ray, A Clark, A Wilson, S Erskine, C Philpott, A Clark, C Hopkins, A Robertson, S Ahmed, N Kara, S Carrie, V Sunkaraneni, J Ray, S Anari, P Jervis, J Panesaar, A Farboud, N Kumar, R Cathcart, R Almeyda, H Khalil, P Prinsley

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Can Practitioners Use Patient Reported Measures To Enhance Person Centred Coordinated Care In Practice? A Qualitative Study, Hannah Wheat, Jane Horrell, Jose M. Valderas, James Close, Ben Fosh, Helen Lloyd

Peninsula Medical School

No abstract provided.

Adverse Life Events And The Onset Of Anxiety Disorders., B Miloyan, O Joseph Bienvenu, B Brilot, Ww Eaton

School of Psychology

This study tested the hypothesis that adverse events are associated with increased risk of onset of anxiety disorders. Data from Waves 1 (N = 43,093; 2001-2002) and 2 (N = 34,653; 2004-2005) of the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) were used to assess whether adverse events at baseline are associated with increased risk of anxiety disorder onset over three years of follow up. Sixty-six percent (SE: 1.0) of respondents with an anxiety disorder in the intervening period between Waves 1 and 2 had experienced an adverse life event in the year prior to the Wave 1 …

Functional Brain Networks Underlying Idiosyncratic Switching Patterns In Multi-Stable Auditory Perception, D Farkas, Sl Denham, I Winkler

School of Psychology

In perceptual multi-stability, perception stochastically switches between alternative interpretations of the stimulus allowing examination of perceptual experience independent of stimulus parameters. Previous studies found that listeners show temporally stable idiosyncratic switching patterns when listening to a multi-stable auditory stimulus, such as in the auditory streaming paradigm. This inter-individual variability can be described along two dimensions, Exploration and Segregation. In the current study, we explored the functional brain networks associated with these dimensions and their constituents using electroencephalography. Results showed that Segregation and its constituents are related to brain networks operating in the theta EEG band, whereas Exploration and its constituents …