Digital Commons Network^™

Middle Children Of History: Male-Authored Post-1960s Fiction & The Nihilism Of White Male Protagonists, Emma C. Baughman

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the phenomenon of the white male nihilist as a recurrent character in British and American fiction post-1960. The utilization of this archetype by predominantly white male authors during this time period is symptomatic of the social, political, and economic changes that fundamentally altered the perception of the white masculine mythos in much of the Western world after the end of World War II. Because the perception of whiteness and masculinity is a primary signifier of the period’s changing value, my project approaches fictional texts of white male nihilism as objects of socio-cultural analysis that constitute a genealogy …

Reconceptualizing Supply Chain Flows, Muhammad Hasan Ashraf

Open Access Dissertations

Supply Chain Management (SCM) research was insufficiently equipped to provide managers with a comprehensive range of insights for effectively managing Supply Chain Flows (SCF) in their complex networks during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a consequence, many firms’ supply chains failed, and many others struggled to survive. Academics’ and practitioners' inability to effectively manage SCF during COVID-19 can be attributed in large part to a lack of proper understanding regarding the concept of SCF. Upon reviewing the SCM literature, it was revealed that no framework is available that can help conceptualize SCF. As a consequence, the discipline has failed to uniformly …

Pesticides, Polymers, And Pollution: Use Of Organic Chemistry To Combat Threats To Pollinator Health, Kassie Picard

Open Access Dissertations

Organic synthesis is a powerful tool that is used to solve real world problems from drug development to polymer synthesis. The basis of this work is the development and use of organic chemistry techniques to study pollinator health via the synthesis of small molecule pesticides and detection of microfibers

Pyrethroids are a class of synthetic pesticides with a wide range of agricultural, medical, and veterinary applications. These pesticides are particularly appealing due to the highly tunable molecular structure leading to selectivity towards pests and consistently low mammalian toxicity. The varroa mite, varroa destructor, is an ectoparasitic mite that infests honey …

Improving Quality: Exploring Ceramic Water Filters In Developing Communities, Hem Kumar Pokharel

Open Access Dissertations

The main objectives of this dissertation were to determine the underlying factors involved in the ceramic water filter (CWF) manufacturing and assist in quality control of the CWFs using peer reviewed articles, empirical models, and statistical procedures. First, the progress, bias and gaps in the ceramic filter research were identified based on the peer reviewed articles published after 2011. Second, flow rate (FR) and nominal pore diameter (NPD) values as parameters were used to predict the microbial removal of CWFs. Two empirical models (flow rate model, FRM, and nominal pore diameter model, NPDM) were developed based on the log removal …

Nanoscale Electrochemistry At Liquid/Liquid Interface For Biomedical And Energy Applications, Surendra R. Puri

Open Access Dissertations

The charge transfer across the liquid/liquid interface has been playing a crucial role in many biological and energy-related systems such as drug permeation through-bacterial membrane, ion or electron transfer through metal-reducing bacteria in microbial fuel cells (MFCs), and metabolic interaction in commensal bacterial species related to human health. Primarily, direct probing of these phenomena in situ is needed for more realistic fundamental analysis, thereby solving the problem related to public health and renewable energy generation. The interfacial CT in these systems mainly involves redox-inactive species that cannot be detected with conventional metal electrodes. Herein, the liquid/liquid interface is applied as …

Nano/Bio Interactions For Synthetic And Natural Nanomaterials, Zachary Shepard

Open Access Dissertations

As the field of nanotechnology advances, it is becoming more important to understand nanomaterial interactions with microorganisms. New methods for examining bacterial response to and interaction with nanomaterials are presented in the studies included here. First, bacterial response to two-dimensional nanomaterials is evaluated using a high throughput approach. Next, a calibrated water jet is used to demonstrate the effect of ship speed on biofouling release. Finally, methods of purifying biogenic nanoparticles were reviewed and evaluated for potential application at large scale. Each of these studies utilizes novel techniques for examining bacterial responses or interactions with nanomaterials or nano-enabled surfaces.

The …

Incorporating Public Health Into Transportation Decision Making, Bruce Appleyard, Tim Garrett

Mineta Transportation Institute

Investments in transportation have the potential to significantly affect public health outcomes. Decisions to build highways, transit, or bikeways, for example, influence how residents and visitors move around a metropolitan area. Personal travel habits and proximity to transportation infrastructure play a role in how likely people are to be physically active or be exposed to dangerous traffic and toxic pollution. For this study, the research team reviewed the literature that links transportation infrastructure, the surrounding built environment context, and public health outcomes such as chronic heart and lung diseases, obesity, and death. The team then researched publicly available data that …

An Analysis Of Major Target Deviations In Craniospinal Irradiation Treatment Plans For Patients With Intermediate-Risk Medulloblastoma Within A Phase 3 Clinical Trial (Children's Oncology Group Study Acns0331), Joshua P Schiff, Yimei Lee, Yu Wang, Stephanie M Perkins, Sandy K Kessel, Thomas J Fitzgerald, Nicole A Larrier, Jeff M Michalski

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Craniospinal irradiation remains an essential and yet difficult part of the treatment of patients with medulloblastoma. Whereas technological advances offer promise of increased conformity, realiance on advanced technology is not without risk, and it remains critical to carefully delineate targets. We describe examples of target deviations (TDs) in craniospinal irradiation treatment plans for postoperative patients with medulloblastoma in a phase 3 clinical trial (ACNS 0331).

METHODS AND MATERIALS: The principal investigator independently performed a review of the treatment plans and portal films of enrolled patients and evaluated the plans for TDs. TDs of dose, dose uniformity, and volume were …

Small Molecule Inhibiting Microglial Nitric Oxide Release Could Become A Potential Treatment For Neuroinflammation, Philipp Jordan, Amanda Costa, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Microglia are the immune effector cells of the central nervous system (CNS) and react to pathologic events with a complex process including the release of nitric oxide (NO). NO is a free radical, which is toxic for all cells at high concentrations. To target an exaggerated NO release, we tested a library of 16 544 chemical compounds for their effect on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced NO release in cell line and primary neonatal microglia. We identified a compound (C1) which significantly reduced NO release in a dose-dependent manner, with a low IC50 (252 nM) and no toxic side effects in vitro or …

Higher Dose Oral Fluconazole For The Treatment Of Aids-Related Cryptococcal Meningitis (Hiflac)--Report Of A5225, A Multicentre, Phase I/Ii, Two-Stage, Dose-Finding, Safety, Tolerability And Efficacy Randomised, Amphotericin B-Controlled Trial Of The Aids Clinical Trials Group, Umesh G. Lalloo, David B. Clifford, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: The WHO recommended 1200mg/day of fluconazole (FCZ) in the induction phase of cryptococcal meningitis (CM) in HIV prior to 2018 in regions where amphotericin-B (AMB) was unavailable. A 2-stage AMB-controlled, dose-escalation study to determine the maximum tolerated dose and the safety/efficacy of an induction-consolidation strategy of higher doses FCZ (1200mg-2000mg/day), adjusted for weight and renal function (eGFR)in adults with CM was undertaken.

METHODS: In Stage-1, three induction doses of FCZ (1200mg/day, 1600mg/day and 2000mg/day) were tested in sequential cohortsand compared with AMB in a 3:1 ratio. A particular dose was not tested in Stage 2 if there were significant …

New York’S Professor John R. Nolon: A National Leader In Land Use Law With A Large Impact Across The Hudson Valley And The State Of New York, Patricia E. Salkin, Samuel Stewart

Scholarly Works

As Professor John R. Nolon steps down from active law teaching, this article reflects not only on his contributions as a national thought leader in the field, but also on how he has a hand in changing the land use and conservation patterns in New York while promoting affordable housing and combating discrimination.

The Case Against The Case For Zoning, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Critiques an article defending zoning. In particular, the article notes that a traditional justification for zoning is that it conserves community character. This argument fails because when people priced out of exclusive neighborhoods move to other areas, they change the character of the receiving area. Similarly, the argument that zoning prevents infrastructure from being overloaded overlooks the fact that if people priced out of one area move to a cheaper area, the latter area's infrastructure is equally burdened. A third argument is that zoning allows local governments to push the costs of growth to developers- but the sluggish growth of …

Labor Rights And Dispute System Design: Assessing The Legal Legacy Of The 2022 Qatar World Cup, Zachary R. Calo

Scholarly Works

The aim of this paper is not to relitigate Qatar’s human rights record but to assess the effectiveness of its labor reforms: the principal concern is dispute resolution and enforceability. While Qatar instituted a broad suite of labor law reforms in the years preceding the World Cup, questions remain about whether they have improved access to justice for migrant workers. More attention needs to be given to the dispute settlement system established by Law No. 13 of 2017 to assess if new legal norms translate into enforceable rights. It is argued that the labor dispute system has largely failed by …

Redefining The Narrative Of Women In Leadership: A Qualitative Study Of Latina Leaders In K-12 Education, Casie J. Dimsey

Educational and Organizational Learning and Leadership Dissertations

Even with women outnumbering men in obtaining graduate and professional degrees in educational leadership, the representation between women and men in higher level positions such as principalships, district office executives, and superintendencies remains incongruent. Consequently, this incongruency is further exacerbated when we look beyond women as a monolith and see that women of color, and more specifically Latina women are significantly underrepresented in comparison to their counterparts and the population that they represent. Through using a qualitative phenomenological approach, the researcher explored intersectional factors in relation to the participants multiple identities. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to provide …

"We Have Not Been Allowed The Liberty... To Worship As We Please" Nancy Naomi Tracy And The Denial Of Latter-Day Saint Religious Liberty, Derek Sainsbury

Faculty Publications

This article examines the life of Nancy Naomi Tracy as a lens into the Latter-day Saint struggle for religious liberty in nineteenth-century America. Joining the Church in 1834, Tracy endured repeated persecution—from the Missouri expulsions and the 1838 Mormon War to the federal antipolygamy campaigns of the 1880s—yet actively fought for her faith’s constitutional protections. As the only known female electioneer missionary in Joseph Smith’s 1844 presidential campaign, she embodied the Saints’ bold blend of religious conviction and political engagement. Drawing on Tracy’s three personal reminiscences (1880, 1885, and 1896–99), the study explores how her experiences as a wife, mother, …

Health Occupations Salary Outcomes: Intersections Of Student Race, Gender, And First‑Generation Status, Peggy Gesing, Mohan D. Pant, Amanda K. Burbage

EVMS School of Health Professions Faculty Publications

Greater diversity in the healthcare workforce has been identified as a critical need in serving an increasingly diverse population. Higher education institutions have been tasked with increasing the number of underrepresented students in the health occupations pipeline to better align with the demographics of the general population and meet the need for a diverse health occupations workforce. This study used the National Science Foundation’s National Survey of College Graduates dataset to capture data across time, examining the intersectionality of race, gender, and first-generation status on the salary outcomes of students who earn degrees related to health occupations. Results indicate that …

Clonal Diversity, Antibiotic Resistance, And Virulence Factor Prevalence Of Community Associated Staphylococcus Aureus In Southeastern Virginia, Katelyn D. Cranmer, Mohan D. Pant, Suzanne Quesnel, Julia A. Sharp

EVMS School of Health Professions Faculty Publications

Staphylococcus aureus is a significant human pathogen with a formidable propensity for antibiotic resistance. Worldwide, it is the leading cause of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI), septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, and infective endocarditis originating from both community- and healthcare associated settings. Although often grouped by methicillin resistance, both methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive (MSSA) strains are known to cause significant pathologies and injuries. Virulence factors and growing resistance to antibiotics play major roles in the pathogenicity of community-associated strains. In our study, we examined the genetic variability and acquired antibiograms of 122 S. aureus clinical isolates from SSTI, blood, and urinary …

Designing Home-Based Physical Activity Programs For Rural Cancer Survivors: A Survey Of Technology Access And Preferences, Elizabeth A Salerno, Rohana Gao, Jason Fanning, Neha P Gothe, Lindsay L Peterson, Allison B Anbari, Maura M Kepper, Jingqin Luo, Aimee S James, Edward Mcauley, Graham A Colditz

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: While technology advances have increased the popularity of remote interventions in underserved and rural cancer communities, less is understood about technology access and preferences for home-based physical activity programs in this cancer survivor population.

PURPOSE: To determine access, preferences, and needs, for a home-based physical activity program in rural cancer survivors.

METHODS: A Qualtrics Research Panel was recruited to survey adults with cancer across the United States. Participants self-reported demographics, cancer characteristics, technology access and usage, and preferences for a home-based physical activity program. The Godin Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ) assessed current levels of physical activity. Descriptive statistics …

Slc-0111, An Inhibitor Of Carbonic Anhydrase Ix, Attenuates Hepatoblastoma Cell Viability And Migration, Katja Eloranta, Marjut Pihlajoki, Emmi Liljeström, Ruth Nousiainen, Tea Soini, Jouko Lohi, Stefano Cairo, David B Wilson, Seppo Parkkila, Markku Heikinheimo

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: In response to hypoxia, tumor cells undergo transcriptional reprogramming including upregulation of carbonic anhydrase (CA) IX, a metalloenzyme that maintains acid-base balance. CAIX overexpression has been shown to correlate with poor prognosis in various cancers, but the role of this CA isoform in hepatoblastoma (HB) has not been examined.

METHODS: We surveyed the expression of CAIX in HB specimens and assessed the impact of SLC-0111, a CAIX inhibitor, on cultured HB cells in normoxic and hypoxic conditions.

RESULTS: CAIX immunoreactivity was detected in 15 out of 21 archival pathology HB specimens. The CAIX-positive cells clustered in the middle of …

The Plasma Virome In Longitudinal Samples From Pregnant Patients, Molly J Stout, Anoop K Brar, Brandi N Herter, Ananda Rankin, Kristine M Wylie

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Nucleic acid from viruses is common in peripheral blood, even in asymptomatic individuals. How physiologic changes of pregnancy impact host-virus dynamics for acute, chronic, and latent viral infections is not well described. Previously we found higher viral diversity in the vagina during pregnancy associated with preterm birth (PTB) and Black race. We hypothesized that higher diversity and viral copy numbers in the plasma would show similar trends.

METHODS: To test this hypothesis, we evaluated longitudinally collected plasma samples from 23 pregnant patients (11 term and 12 preterm) using metagenomic sequencing with ViroCap enrichment to enhance virus detection. Sequence data …

Conserved Gene Signatures Shared Among Mapt Mutations Reveal Defects In Calcium Signaling, Miguel A Minaya, Sidhartha Mahali, Abhirami K Iyer, Abdallah M Eteleeb, Rita Martinez, Guangming Huang, John Budde, Sally Temple, Alissa L Nana, William W Seeley, Salvatore Spina, Lea T Grinberg, Oscar Harari, Celeste M Karch

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

The Vacc-Seqqc Project: Benchmarking Rna-Seq For Clinical Vaccine Studies, Johannes B Goll, Richard D Head, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1093242.].

Psychosocial Work Environment Stressors For School Staff During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Barriers And Facilitators For Supporting Wellbeing, Liz R Rolf, Liz Vestal, Ashley C Moore, Nikole Lobb Dougherty, Nancy Mueller, Jason G Newland

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: After periods of remote and/or hybrid learning as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the return to in-person learning has been beneficial for both students and teachers, but it has not been without challenges. This study was designed to assess the impact of the return to in-person learning on the school experience, and efforts made to ease the transition in furthering a positive in-person learning environment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a series of listening sessions with 4 stakeholder groups: students (

RESULTS: Three main themes emerged around school staff experiences: (1) increased levels of stress and anxiety …

Review Of Factors Resulting In Systemic Biases In The Screening, Assessment, And Treatment Of Individuals At Clinical High-Risk For Psychosis In The United States, Miranda A Bridgwater, Emily Petti, Maksim Giljen, Leeann Akouri-Shan, Joseph S Deluca, Pamela Rakhshan Rouhakhtar, Caroline Millar, Nicole R Karcher, Elizabeth A Martin, Jordan Devylder, Deidre Anglin, Raquel Williams, Lauren M Ellman, Vijay A Mittal, Jason Schiffman

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Since its inception, research in the clinical high-risk (CHR) phase of psychosis has included identifying and exploring the impact of relevant socio-demographic factors. Employing a narrative review approach and highlighting work from the United States, sociocultural and contextual factors potentially affecting the screening, assessment, and service utilization of youth at CHR were reviewed from the current literature.

RESULTS: Existing literature suggests that contextual factors impact the predictive performance of widely used psychosis-risk screening tools and may introduce systemic bias and challenges to differential diagnosis in clinical assessment. Factors reviewed include racialized identity, discrimination, neighborhood context, trauma, immigration status, gender …

A Practitioner's Guide To Geospatial Analysis In A Neuroimaging Context, Julie K Wisch, Ganesh M Babulal, Kalen Petersen, Peter R Millar, Enbal Shacham, Stephen Scroggins, Anna H Boerwinkle, Shaney Flores, Sarah Keefe, Brian A Gordon, John C Morris, Beau M Ances

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Health disparities arise from biological-environmental interactions. Neuroimaging cohorts are reaching sufficiently large sample sizes such that analyses could evaluate how the environment affects the brain. We present a practical guide for applying geospatial methods to a neuroimaging cohort.

METHODS: We estimated brain age gap (BAG) from structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from 239 city-dwelling participants in St. Louis, Missouri. We compared these participants to population-level estimates from the American Community Survey (ACS). We used geospatial analysis to identify neighborhoods associated with patterns of altered brain structure. We also evaluated the relationship between Area Deprivation Index (ADI) and BAG.

RESULTS: …

Unicorn, Hare, Or Tortoise? Using Machine Learning To Predict Working Memory Training Performance, Yi Feng, Anja Pahor, Aaron R Seitz, Dennis L Barbour, Susanne M Jaeggi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

People differ considerably in the extent to which they benefit from working memory (WM) training. Although there is increasing research focusing on individual differences associated with WM training outcomes, we still lack an understanding of which specific individual differences, and in what combination, contribute to inter-individual variations in training trajectories. In the current study, 568 undergraduates completed one of several N-back intervention variants over the course of two weeks. Participants' training trajectories were clustered into three distinct training patterns (high performers, intermediate performers, and low performers). We applied machine-learning algorithms to train a binary tree model to predict individuals' training …

Glioblastoma Induces Whole-Brain Spectral Change In Resting State Fmri: Associations With Clinical Comorbidities And Overall Survival, Ki Yun Park, Abraham Z Snyder, Michael Olufawo, Gabriel Trevino, Patrick H Luckett, Bidhan Lamichhane, Tao Xie, John J Lee, Joshua S Shimony, Eric C Leuthardt

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Glioblastoma, a highly aggressive form of brain tumor, is a brain-wide disease. We evaluated the impact of tumor burden on whole brain resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) activity. Specifically, we analyzed rs-fMRI signals in the temporal frequency domain in terms of the power-law exponent and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF). We contrasted 189 patients with newly-diagnosed glioblastoma versus 189 age-matched healthy reference participants from an external dataset. The patient and reference datasets were matched for age and head motion. The principal finding was markedly flatter spectra and reduced grey matter fALFF in the patients as compared to the …

Preliminary Validation Of A Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging Metric For Tracking Dementia-Related Neurodegeneration And Future Decline, Gavin T Kress, Emily S Popa, Paul M Thompson, Susan Y Bookheimer, Sophia I Thomopoulos, Christopher R K Ching, Hong Zheng, Daniel A Hirsh, David A Merrill, Stella E Panos, Cyrus A Raji, Prabha Siddarth, Jennifer E Bramen

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive decline and atrophy in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) and subsequent brain regions. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) has been widely used in research and clinical care for diagnosis and monitoring AD progression. However, atrophy patterns are complex and vary by patient. To address this issue, researchers have made efforts to develop more concise metrics that can summarize AD-specific atrophy. Many of these methods can be difficult to interpret clinically, hampering adoption. In this study, we introduce a novel index which we call an "AD-NeuroScore," that uses a modified …

Prospective In Silico Evaluation Of Cone-Beam Computed Tomography-Guided Stereotactic Adaptive Radiation Therapy (Ct-Star) For The Ablative Treatment Of Ultracentral Thoracic Disease, Joshua P Schiff, Eric Laugeman, Hayley B Stowe, Xiaodong Zhao, Jessica Hilliard, Ellie Hawk, Jesiah Watkins, Casey Hatscher, Shahed N Badiyan, Pamela P Samson, Geoffrey D Hugo, Clifford G Robinson, Alex T Price, Lauren E Henke

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: We conducted a prospective, in silico study to evaluate the feasibility of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided stereotactic adaptive radiation therapy (CT-STAR) for the treatment of ultracentral thoracic cancers (NCT04008537). We hypothesized that CT-STAR would reduce dose to organs at risk (OARs) compared with nonadaptive stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) while maintaining adequate tumor coverage.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: Patients who were already receiving radiation therapy for ultracentral thoracic malignancies underwent 5 additional daily CBCTs on the ETHOS system as part of a prospective imaging study. These were used to simulate CT-STAR, in silico

RESULTS: Seven patients were accrued, 6 with …

Therapeutic Activity Of Lipoxin A4 In Tio2-Induced Arthritis In Mice: Nf-Κb And Nrf2 In Synovial Fluid Leukocytes And Neuronal Trpv1 Mechanisms, Telma Saraiva-Santos, Tiago H Zaninelli, Felipe A Pinho-Ribeiro, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Lipoxin A4 (LXA

METHODS: Mice were stimulated with TiO

RESULTS: LXA

CONCLUSION: LXA