Digital Commons Network^™

The Development Of Novel Inhibitors Of The Nlrp3 Inflammasome, Jacob W. Fulp

Theses and Dissertations

Inflammasomes are intracellular multimeric protein complexes that regulate inflammation by controlling the maturation of cytokines, interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-18 (IL-18). Additionally, activation of these inflammasome complexes has been implicated in an inflammatory form of death known as proptosis. Of the known inflammasomes, the NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLPP3) inflammasome, is the most elucidated. Under physiological conditions, NLRP3-mediated inflammation promotes healing and the elimination of cellular debris and pathogens. However, the dysregulation of IL-1β, IL-18 and pyroptosis are instrumental in the development of multiple pathologies. Furthermore, studies suggest that the NLRP3 inflammasome mediates detrimental neuroinflammation and …

A Cape As Red As Blood And A Slipper As Pure As Gold: Vision And Visuality In The Costume Design Of Into The Woods, Hannah E. Chalman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the costume design for Theatre VCU’s 2018 production of Into the Woods. It outlines my concept for the design focusing on the origins of these archetypes. This concept is further expanded on by discussing Cinderella and the Witch characters and analyzing the choices within their costumes. This thesis also includes renderings, swatches, and photos.

The Player’S Journey: Ludology And Narratology In Modern Gaming, Angelica Fuchs

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the evolution of gaming criticism (specifically ludology and narratology) and games as a medium of expression through the use of case studies. These case studies look at some of the core aspects of four major titles (The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, various BioWare games and Journey) and survey how these games work to effectively employ a narrative while maintaining an immersive, intuitive system for the player to interact with. Through these titles, the thesis suggests that in order to gain a full scope of a game’s intentions, studies should analyze more than …

Laminated Paint, Travis R. Austin

Theses and Dissertations

Though we may not perceive it, we are surrounded by material-in-flux. Inert materials degrade and the events that comprise our natural and social environments causally thread into a duration that unifies us in our incomprehension. Sounds reveal ever-present vibrations of the landscape: expressions of the flexuous ground on which we stand.

Untitled, Daliya Jokondo

Theses and Dissertations

My practice is concerned with the activation of fragmentation, concealment and evasiveness as practical tools for surviving (the danger of visibility when positioned in the margins) while moving or engaging with oppressive power structures. The aforementioned appear in my practice as complete forms of erasure, adornment and costuming, in addition to language play. My thesis’ concern is the desire to speak the autobiographical in relation to generational trauma. Herein lives the voices of three generations of survivors.

Heparan Sulfate, A New Target For Platinum In Metastatic Tnbc, Samantha J. Katner

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Heparan Sulfate, A New Target for Platinum in Metastatic TNBC

Author: Samantha J. Katner, Ph.D.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2018

Advisor: Dr. Nicholas Farrell, Professor, Chemistry Department

Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs), composed of the linear polysaccharide heparan sulfate (HS) conjugated to a protein core, are located on the cell surface and extracellular matrix. The HS chains display varying degrees of sulfation, which constitutes the molecular recognition motif for many HS-protein interactions. HSPGs, associated growth factors, and heparanase promote tumor progression by facilitating invasion, angiogenesis, …

Escapism: Indulging In Daydreams, Tanruk Pairoj-Boriboon

Theses and Dissertations

A fantasy world, that exists only in our minds, provides us a place where we can mentally escape from everyday reality. Escapism, such as indulging in daydreams, allows us to experience comfort and makes us feel safe, eliminating feelings of insecurity and vulnerability.

This study aims to use playfulness and reverie as a tool to access and confront mental discomforts. Transforming disturbing situations into an experience of reverie; a correction of unsatisfying reality, by converting a solid component of the real world into a desirable infinite form will provide alternative viewpoints.

Throughout my work, this method has been employed to …

Assessing Research Productivity From An Institutional Effectiveness Perspective: How Universities Influence Faculty Research Productivity, Michael M. Rawls

Theses and Dissertations

Faculty research productivity studies typically focus on the scholarly performance of the individual researcher, although environmental and organizational conditions that are largely outside of the researcher’s control can significantly impact that performance. From an institutional effectiveness perspective, it is imperative for the higher education administrators and leaders who share the responsibility of managing and supporting their university’s research enterprise to understand how the institutional environment itself impacts the productivity of its research community. In this sequential mixed methods study, a quantitative framework was tested for assessing institutional effectiveness in research administration based on the assertion that this concept can be …

Structural And Functional Consequences Of Hiv-1 Viral Protein Tat And Morphine Co-Exposure At The Blood-Brain Barrier, Crystal R. Leibrand

Theses and Dissertations

According to UNAIDS 2016, over 37 million people worldwide were infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2016, with over 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States. Of those, approximately one half will suffer from HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), which is a spectrum of neurocognitive disorders ranging from asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment, to mild neurocognitive disorder, to HIV-associated dementia. While combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) has decreased the incidence of the most severe forms of HAND in patients with HIV, milder forms of HAND still persist. These defects can include decreased motor skills, cognitive abilities, memory, and attention. While …

Development And Validation Of A Semi-Physiological Pharmacokinetic (Pbpk) Model To Predict Systemic And Pulmonary Exposures After Intravenous, Oral Administration And Pulmonary Inhalation Of Selected Drugs, Budesonide, Tobramycin And Ciprofloxacin, In Humans, Bishoy Hanna

Theses and Dissertations

Using a semi-PBPK modeling/quantitative meta-analysis approach, this project investigated what factors affect pulmonary and systemic exposures of Budesonide (BUD), Tobramycin (TOB), and Ciprofloxacin (CIP) after inhalation:

Three structurally different pulmonary disposition models were developed for each drug, including pulmonary absorption (all three), excretion (TOB and CIP) and sequestration (TOB) in a peripheral and central lung compartment. Systemic disposition parameters were estimated using available human mean plasma (c_p(t)) and sputum (c_s(t)) concentration profiles after IV administration, and GI absorption parameters were estimated from these profiles after oral administration. Pulmonary disposition parameters were estimated from c_p(t) …

[You Are With] Kin And [You Can Be At] Ease, Abdul Azim Al Ghussein

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of hospitality, sharing and acclimation within a studio art practice as a means of fostering consideration of others. I employ a practice whereby I disrupt the typical gallery context, and through the production and dissemination of consumable items from the Middle East, I examine how resources can be used, valued, and shared to accommodate various and unspecified others and provide opportunities for crossing thresholds of guest and host relationships.

Path, Evan Galbicka

Theses and Dissertations

Path is a collaborative system that developed over the course of five months of studio activity and continued through the duration of the exhibition. The system’s main collaborators were a land snail native to eastern North America (Neohelix albolabris), myself, and a digital cellular automaton. These prime agents interwove processes and exchanges between one another into a complex network of folded fractal feedback loops. Cyclic processes produced artifacts and infrastructures to support communication between the components and agents of Path. As a whole, Path spoke to the possibilities for interspecies, cyber-physical, and ecological collaboration to create an …

A Third Place: For Children(5–7) To Play And Learn, Yuqi Ye

Theses and Dissertations

The motivation for this project follows the untimely death of an Asian student last year. Crime rates, especially with regard to young children, are tough social problems happening in a lot of countries. Education and structured play are a key solution related to decreasing these crime rates. In today's educational systems, preschool education should involve family and community, foster mutual cooperation, and provide the best environment for a child's growth to promote their potential development.

Contesting The Commemorative Narrative: Planning For Richmond’S Cultural Landscape, Hannah M. Cameron

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract: New Orleans, Baltimore, and Charlottesville are reevaluating the presence of Confederate statues in their built environment. Known as the Capital of the Confederacy, Richmond’s cultural landscape is visible through the connection of two historical spaces, Monument Avenue and Shockoe Bottom. Both serve as a powerful case study for how the commemorative narrative of these spaces is contested today and how barriers that exist influence urban planning processes and outcomes.

The Building Breathes Together, Mckeever Donovan

Theses and Dissertations

The Building Breathes Together presents a realm of speculative, industrial habitation and alchemical production. In my instillation, I look to raise questions surrounding romantic notions of production and utility. The work introduces a surreal and haunted space of decomposition and regeneration.

The Break, Ian Gerson

Theses and Dissertations

The Break is a personal investigation into problems and possibilities of representing my specific transgender identity.

Trans as a tactic to speak about a state of forever becoming, forever in between, outside of and in opposition to dominant social norms of being.

Trans as a model for a different way of viewing and being in the world.

Can we form a different kind of horizontal shared power though a collective refusal to play into existing structures from which we have been excluded? What are the potentials for modeling other ways of being, other ways of (dis)engaging, other ways to be …

Nuclear Rupture In Progeria Expressing Cells, Kranthidhar Bathula

Theses and Dissertations

Cells regularly take on various types of force in the body. They have structures that are able to mediate, transfer and respond to the forces. A mutation in force regulating proteins such as lamin in the nucleus or the KASH domain which connects the nucleus to the cytoskeleton of the cell can cause catastrophic events to occur. The aims of this study were to better understand the response of the nucleus when structural proteins are mutated or are not present while under force. Progeria, a rare disease where an additional farnesyl group is attached to lamin was used in this …

You Build Like A Girl, Sara Hackett

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis explored creating a space for young women to gain confidence and experience in the built environment under the guidance of female mentors. Teaching not only tool skills, but also the fundamentals of design thinking and problem solving to encourage bold decisions and lead to career decisions that expand the skilled workforce candidate pool.

Enhancing Adherence To Prescribed Opioids Using A Mobile-Base Application: A Pilot Study Of Feasibility In Chronic Non-Cancer Pain, Daniel M. Sop

Theses and Dissertations

In this study we present feasibility of a mobile monitoring and reporting system that would provide an accurate unbiased screening tool to systematically analyze opioid adherence in Sickle cell disease patients. In addition, the software simultaneously measures pain. The Mobile Applications Rating Scale: a new and validated tool for assessing the quality of health mobile apps for engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information quality, subjective quality, relevance and overall impact was administered post usage to evaluate the application.

A total of 28 patients were recruited to review and test the software at one sitting. The majority of the population found the application …

Graphene As A Solid-State Ligand For Palladium Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions, Yuan Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Palladium-catalyzed carbon-carbon cross-coupling reactions have emerged a broadly useful, selective and widely applicable method to synthesize pharmaceutical active ingredients. As currently practiced in the pharmaceutical industry, homogeneous Pd catalysts are typically used in cross-coupling reactions. The rational development of heterogeneous catalysts for cross-coupling reactions is critical for overcoming the major drawbacks of homogeneous catalysis including difficulties in the separation, purification, and quality control process in drug production. In order to apply heterogeneous catalysis to flow reactors that may overcome this limitation, the catalyst must be strongly bound to a support, highly stable with respect to leaching, and highly active. While …

Designing School Community: Changing Inner-City Middle School Culture Through Interiors, Rachel A. Ramey

Theses and Dissertations

While the knowledge of disrepair in inner-city schools is fairly common, the impact that school facilities are having on students and faculty is not as widely known. More recently, the closing of inner city schools has greatly increased across the United States; Reduction in public school enrollment from 2006-2013: Detroit -63%, Cleveland -32%, Indianapolis -27%, D.C. -23%, L.A. -23%,etc. (Journey For Justice Alliance,2014).

Due to budget cuts, threat of school closings from poor facility conditions, large class size, and pressure to raise test scores, inner city schools struggle to keep teachers (Journey For Justice Alliance,2014). Poor teacher retention along with …

Psychick Order, Corissa Duffey

Theses and Dissertations

Preserving Psychick Order is an investigation into the subliminal, of a body processing trauma and transition. I explore how my mind and body filter memory, fear, and the impact of the past into the present. Since childhood, making dolls has been a way for me to express complex feelings, especially as they relate to dynamics between biological and found family. By tenderly modeling dolls after my own transforming physical features and mental processes, I make connections between the effects of my mind on my body and vice versa. I like to describe the resulting forms as queer monsters trying to …

Engineering Surface Properties To Modulate Inflammation And Stem Cell Recruitment Through Macrophage Activation, Kelly M. Hotchkiss

Theses and Dissertations

Biomaterials are becoming the most commonly used therapeutic method for treatment of lost or damaged tissue in the body. Metallic materials are chosen for high strength orthopaedic and dental applications. Titanium (Ti) implants are highly successful in young, healthy patients with the ability to fully integrate to surrounding tissue. However the main population requiring these corrective treatments will not be healthy or young, therefore further research into material modifications have been started to improve outcomes in compromised patients. The body’s immune system will generate a response to any implanted material, and control the final outcome. Among the first and most …

Adolescent Emotion Expression, Emotion Regulation, And Decision-Making In Social Context, Tennisha N. Riley

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents engage in risk behaviors at an alarming rate, and particularly when they are with peers. Despite efforts to develop prevention and intervention programs, rates of risk-taking among adolescents is still relatively high. Adolescents continue to engage in physical fights and aggressive behavior, use substances such as alcohol and illicit drugs, and make decisions that impact driving and motor vehicle incidents. The regulation of emotions plays a significant role in adolescents’ decisions to engage in such risk behaviors.Examining adolescents’ emotion expression and regulation is therefore critical to identifying ways to support positive development.

This dissertation project explored important regulatory mechanisms …

Converging Objects Of The Universe, Everett Hoffman

Theses and Dissertations

Reconfigured found objects shape scenes of everyday life, questioning the structural histories that go into defining an identity. Engaging in a multidisciplinary approach of making, my work reimagines the function of ornamentation and its relationship to the body. I approach new materials and found objects with the eye of a jeweler, highlighting and exploiting the subtle, and often invisible, links between material histories and their connection to identity. Material debris patinated with age like skillets, baseballs, and furniture are used to penetrate normative structures around identity, gender, and sexual desire. Using adornment as a support in my installations I propose …

Isolation, Hollis B. Mccracken

Theses and Dissertations

My work investigates a lifelong passion for buildings, homes, and architecture. Buildings are more then shelters made of wood and screws; I personify them as if they were living breathing creatures. I’m particularly drawn to rundown and abandoned structures because I empathize with these sad looking buildings that were once majestic. This personal connection exists because I view them as versions of my former self, rough around the edges with a promising interior. Expanding beyond vacant and decaying buildings, I portray my experiences within fabricated architectural systems. I communicate with building materials and architecture through their many layers of physical …

Edgelands, Anne Bujold

Theses and Dissertations

Animal imagery has been part of the human effort to understand our place in the world since the beginning of recorded history. Through examining the role and use of animal imagery in the creation of cultural signals, I have developed a framework for my practice. Edgelands employs representations of feral animals as symbols for the “misfit” to emphasize the value of those who do not fit in. My experience as a woman in the field of metal work informs my material choice and process, subverting ironwork motifs and the purpose of gates and boundaries. Edgelands overlaps a series of material …

Victims, Victors, Or Bystanders? African American College Students' Perceptions Of African American Agency During The Civil War, Stephanie L. Hooks

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines African American students’ perspectives of African American agency during the Civil War. It also seeks to understand where their knowledge of African Americans during the Civil War comes from. The topic fits within the Critical Race Theory framework and utilized a mixed methods approach to understand the study findings. The methodology included an online survey completed by forty-two participants at a Historically Black university and 3 semi-structured interviews using the interview protocol. Descriptive statistical demographic data, open-ended responses and interview transcripts were analyzed using the agency rubric developed by the researcher. The themes that emerged from the …

Performative Design, Lenita Ann Eldhose

Theses and Dissertations

The field of design is one that holds the power to empower, bridge gaps, inform, evolve and revolutionize human thoughts. To gain a higher understanding of the correlation of anthropometrics and ergonomics in an embodied space relative to the discipline of dance connecting one’s mind and body. The need for a space that instills a sense of freedom for artists to experience and execute their art and to reside alongside their mentors and traveling artists. The need for a space that can bring the diverse cultures that live in and around Richmond together through an expressive form of art. Providing …

What Lies Beneath, Meg Wachs

Theses and Dissertations

What is the very first thing you notice about a person? Appearance? What if the first thing you saw was everything that they were trying to hide? We would see every flaw but we would also see every truth. What Lies Beneath is an exploration of interior and exterior and an exposure to the dark and abject inside all of us; the parts we keep hidden and the things that build up until they have no place else to go. Rooted in an examination of the human psyche, my thesis explores the difference between the facade we project to the …