Digital Commons Network^™

Racing And Erasing Parental Rights, Cynthia Godsoe

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Kinship Care And Adoption Myopia, Cynthia Godsoe

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Carfilzomib-Loaded Ternary Polypeptide Nanoparticles Stabilized By Polycationic Complexation, Preye Mike Agbana, Ji Eun Park, Piotr G. Rychahou, Kyung-Bo Kim, Younsoo Bae

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Carfilzomib (CFZ) is a second-generation proteasome inhibitor showing great efficacy in multiple myeloma treatment, yet its clinical applications for other diseases such as solid cancers are limited due to low aqueous solubility and poor biostability. Ternary polypeptide nanoparticles (tPNPs) are drug carriers that we previ- ously reported to overcome these pharmaceutical limitations by entrapping CFZ in the core of the nanopar- ticles and protecting the drugs from degradation in biological media. However, preclinical studies revealed that tPNPs would require further improvement in particle stability to suppress initial burst drug release and thus achieve prolonged inhibition of proteasome activity with CFZ …

A Community-Engaged, Mixed-Methods Approach To Prioritizing Needs In A Statewide Assessment Of Community Cancer Needs, Jessica R. Thompson, Todd Burus, Caree R. Mcafee, Christine Stroebel, Madeline Brown, Keeghan Francis, Melinda Rogers, Jennifer Redmond Knight, Elaine Russell, Connie L. Sorrell, Elizabeth A. Westbrook, Pamela C. Hull

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Introduction Kentucky has the highest all-site cancer incidence and death rate in the US. In 2021, the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center convened a steering committee to conduct a statewide community cancer needs assessment (CNA). The goal of the final CNA phase was to gather community input on prioritizing Kentucky’s cancer-related needs and ways to address them. Methods In 2021, we recruited 162 people to participate in online concept mapping, a participatory mixed method, to explore connections and identify priority areas. Fifty-one community members and 111 organizational partners participated in survey-based activities to prioritize 80 items representing key CNA …

Impact Of Age >70 Years On Oncological Outcomes In Patients With Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer Treated With Bacillus Calmette-Guérin., Roberto Contieri, Valentina Grajales, Wei Shen Tan, Alberto Martini, Akshay Sood, Patrick J. Hensley, Kelly Bree, Niyati Lobo, Graciela M. Nogueras-Gonzalez, Charles C. Guo, Neema Navai, Colin P. Dinney, Ashish M. Kamat

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of age on oncological outcomes in a large contemporary cohort of patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) treated with adequate Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG).

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed an Institutional Review Board-approved retrospective study analysing patients with NMIBC treated with adequate BCG at our institution from 2000 to 2020. Adequate BCG was defined as per United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines as being receipt of at least five of six induction BCG instillations with a minimum of two additional doses (of planned maintenance or of re-induction) of BCG instillations within a span of …

Retinoic Acid-Mediated Inhibition Of Mouse Coronavirus Replication Is Dependent On Irf3 And Camkk, Justin H. Franco, Ryan A. Harris, William G. Ryan, Roger Travis Taylor, Robert E. Mccullumsmith, Saurabh Chattopadhyay, Zhixing K. Pan

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the shortfalls in our understanding of how to treat coronavirus infections. With almost 7 million case fatalities of COVID-19 globally, the catalog of FDA-approved antiviral therapeutics is limited compared to other medications, such as antibiotics. All-trans retinoic acid (RA), or activated vitamin A, has been studied as a potential therapeutic against coronavirus infection because of its antiviral properties. Due to its impact on different signaling pathways, RA’s mechanism of action during coronavirus infection has not been thoroughly described. To determine RA’s mechanism of action, we examined its effect against a mouse coronavirus, mouse hepatitis …

Sedimentation Of Large, Soluble Proteins Up To 140 Kda For 1h-Detected Mas Nmr And 13c Dnp Nmr – Practical Aspects, Dallas Bell, Florian Lindemann, Lisa Gerland, Hanna Aucharova, Alexander Klein, Daniel Friedrich, Matthias Hiller, Kristof Grohe, Tobias Meier, Barth Van Rossum, Anne Diehl, Jon Hughes, Leonard J. Mueller, Rasmus Linser, Anne-Frances Miller, Hartmut Oschkinat

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

Solution NMR is typically applied to biological systems with molecular weights < 40 kDa whereas magic-angle-spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR traditionally targets very large, oligomeric proteins and complexes exceeding 500 kDa in mass, including fibrils and crystalline protein preparations. Here, we propose that the gap between these size regimes can be filled by the approach presented that enables investigation of large, soluble and fully protonated proteins in the range of 40–140 kDa. As a key step, ultracentrifugation produces a highly concentrated, gel-like state, resembling a dense phase in spontaneous liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). By means of three examples, a Sulfolobus acidocaldarius bifurcat- ing electron transfer flavoprotein (SaETF), tryptophan synthases from Salmonella typhimurium (StTS) and their dimeric β-subunits from Pyrococcus furiosus (PfTrpB), we show that such samples yield well-resolved proton-detected 2D and 3D NMR spectra at 100 kHz MAS without heterogeneous broadening, similar to diluted liquids. Herein, we provide practical guidance on centrifugation conditions and tools, sample behavior, and line widths expected. We demonstrate that the observed chemical shifts correspond to those obtained from μM/low mM solutions or crystalline samples, indicating structural integrity. Nitrogen line widths as low as 20–30 Hz are observed. The presented approach is advantageous for proteins or nucleic acids that cannot be deuterated due to the expression system used, or where relevant protons cannot be re-incorporated after expression in deuterated medium, and it circumvents crystallization. Importantly, it allows the use of low-glycerol buffers in dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) NMR of proteins as demonstrated with the cyanobacterial phytochrome Cph1.

Interactions Between Multiple Stressors, Nanomaterials And A Pathogen, In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Jarad Cochran

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NP), which have received interest for use in agriculture, show in vitro and in vivo toxicity at relatively low concentrations. Silver nanoparticles (Ag NP) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NP) cause adverse effects in model soil organisms under environmentally relevant conditions. In most toxicity assessments of nanomaterials, model organisms are exposed to a single stressor. Though single stressor experiments are essential to understanding the fate and effects of released NP, in nature, organisms are affected by multiple stressors, including pathogens, which might exacerbate or mitigate negative effects of NP exposure. There is limited research on …

The Case For Waivable Employee Rights: A Contrarian View, William Corbett

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The Once And Future Clean Air Act: Impacts Of The Inflation Reduction Act On Epa's Regulatory Authority, Nicholas Bryner

Journal Articles

The Clean Air Act is one of Congress's greatest success stories. The major piece of legislation, passed in the context of environmental and public health crises, has driven technological change through regulation that has dramatically improved air quality even in a prolonged period of economic growth. In the context of climate change, however, despite many efforts since the 1990s, the Clean Air Act has not proven to be a successful legislative tool. Instead, the Act has faced complex obstacles in the statutory language and a trend in Supreme Court jurisprudence-leading up to and including the June 2022 decision in West …

Judicial Fidelity, Caprice L. Roberts

Journal Articles

Judicial critics abound. Some say the rule of law is dead across all three branches of government. Four are dead if you count the media as the fourth estate. All are in trouble, even if one approves of each branch’s headlines, but none of them are dead. Not yet.

Pundits and scholars see the latest term of the Supreme Court as clear evidence of partisan politics and unbridled power. They decry an upheaval of laws and norms demonstrating the dire situation across the federal judiciary. Democracy is not dead even when the Court issues opinions that overturn precedent, upends longstanding …

Local Government Regulation Of Ccs, Keith B. Hall

Journal Articles

Carbon capture and storage is being used in an increasing number of locations in the United States as a tool to address climate change, and many more projects are in the planning stages. Although government, industry, and some prominent environmental organizations support the use of CCS, some environmental organizations and many citizens who live in the vicinity of proposed CCS projects oppose CCS. This has prompted several local governments to enact ordinances that attempt to prohibit or regulate CCS. These ordinances take many forms-moratoria, zoning restrictions and setbacks, effective bans, outright bans, construction and operational restrictions, and various other types …

Taxonomic Revision Of The Soil Genus Trichocoleus (Trichocoleusaceae, Cyanobacteria), Including Four New Species From White Sands National Park, New Mexico, Amanda Szinte

Masters Theses

Cyanobacteria have never received molecular characterization in the gypsum soils at White Sands National Park. These gypsiferous soils support distinctive plant communities and considerable microbial taxonomic diversity in their biological soil crusts. Employing a polyphasic approach characterizing both morphology and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene and associated 16S-23S ITS region, six strains of Trichocoleus isolated from White Sands biocrusts were fully characterized. Phylogenetic analyses including other as-yet-unnamed Trichocoleus strain sequences and the three previously described species, T. desertorum, T. caatingensis, and T. badius, led to a revision of the genus and identification of 17 unnamed species-level groups within Trichocoleus. …

Influences Of Professors' Personality Traits, Teaching Styles, And Generational Affiliation On Technology Acceptance: A Mixed-Methods Exploration Of Blended Learning Readiness, Joey K. Freeman

Education Dissertations

The abrupt transition to emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic offered minimal time to prepare, resulting in faculty reliance on prior pedagogical practices in the shift to an online instructional environment. Although the pandemic altered the learning environment in the short-term, it also offered a glimpse of how higher education institutions (HEIs) could transform their learning environments in the long-term. Though a body of literature exists on factors that influence technology acceptance, a limited number of studies have explored personality traits, teaching styles, and generational affiliation. An adapted Technology Acceptance Model considered these variables as antecedents to perceptions, attitudes, …

School Librarians’ Self-Efficacy As Educational Technology Coaches, Becky P. Johnson

Education Dissertations

Although school librarians adapt and continue to thrive through radical changes, one in five school librarian positions are cut due to a loss of funding. One way school librarians can promote their knowledge in digital and information literacy and their skills as education leaders is to serve as educational technology (EdTech) coaches in their school community. With the influx of EdTech in schools, districts are shifting budgets and quickly adding technology-focused jobs, which leaves other positions at risk for job loss. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the self-efficacy of school librarians to serve as EdTech coaches through the lens of …

Multi-Physics Modeling Of Immersion Cooled Electric Power Apparatuses, Reza Ilka

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electric power conversion apparatuses such as electromagnetic transformers and power electronic converters play a backbone role in the global power and energy industries, such as power transmission and distribution, electrified transportation vehicle systems, industry automation, and the like. To investigate the performance (efficiency, reliability, etc.) of such critical power conversion apparatuses, high-fidelity multi-physics modeling becomes critical which involves dedicated coupling among multiple physical domains, including electrical, magnetic, thermal, mechanical, and material engineering. Nevertheless, the majority of the existing models for these power conversion apparatuses focus only on one or two physical domains, and the modeling fidelity needs to be further …

Inclusive Publishing Strategies For Journal Staff And Prospective Authors In The Digital Humanities, Rachel Schrauben Yeates

Master's Projects

In this project, I will share the inclusive strategies and solutions to common pitfalls I observed in my exploratory review of a selection of DH online journals and share Inclusivity Guides tailored to journal staff and prospective authors to perform a quick audit of journal site design and content. I paid special attention to the information available to researchers considering submitting their work for publication. Which journals leave a good impression and provide potential authors with enough information to confidently submit their work? How can prospective authors assess a journal’s commitment to furthering and practicing inclusivity in their field, and …

Ryanair V. Booking, District Of Delaware

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

No abstract provided.

Diverse Minds, Shared Planet: Designing, Assessing, And Adapting Curricula To Engage Diverse Learners With Their Environment And Inspire Positive Change, Mallory Rose Lampe

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The pieces that compose this portfolio together explore how environmental education can connect diverse learners to their environment through the integration of accessible curricula to inspire stewardship and action to take care of the planet we share.

Arth102: History Of Western Art Ii, Heather Horton

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for History of Western Art II, a chronological survey of major periods, styles, artists, and monuments of western visual arts, primarily painting, sculpture, and architecture beginning with the development of the arts from about 1300 to the present day.

Lbsci 701: Fundamentals Of Library And Information Science, S E. Hackney

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Reimagining On-Campus Student Employment As A Foundation For Career Readiness: Student Employment In Virginia Commonwealth University’S Division Of Student Affairs, Jaedda Hall, Mary Lee Magee, Sean D. Mays, Kimberly C. Young

Doctor of Education Capstones

Many undergraduate students participate in on-campus employment while pursuing their academic programs. Increasingly, institutions of higher education recognize student employment not only as a resource to address institutional workforce needs or students’ pressing financial needs, but also to promote students’ overall learning, development, and success. To better understand on-campus undergraduate student employment in the context of Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Division of Student Affairs (DSA), this descriptive study employed a mixed-methods approach using surveys, interviews, focus groups, secondary data analysis, and artifact analysis. These methods were applied to explore the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, including undergraduate student employees, supervisors of …

Safe Schools: A Descriptive Study Examining How To Prevent Peer-To-Peer Sexual Misconduct In K-12 Schools, Crystal R. Bell, Kristine Herakovich-Curtis, Elizabeth Terrier, Leah Wiedenhoft

Doctor of Education Capstones

In response to a problem of practice presented by the non-profit Stop Sexual Assault in Schools (SSAIS), this study examines what training and resources K-12 Title IX Coordinators and school administrators need to prevent and effectively address peer-to-peer sexual harassment and assault. Grounded in Improvement Science, we partnered with SSAIS to address a real-world dilemma. Through the theoretical lens of the Social-Ecological Framework, a descriptive study was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methodologies to study changes needed to reduce peer-to-peer sexual misconduct in schools. Data were collected through focus group interviews and a Nearpod questionnaire with a national sample. Relying …

Bottling The “Secret Sauce”: Capturing The Heart Of The East End At Peter Paul Development Center, Melissa E. Abban, Melissa Buckley, Marie Garrenton, Latonja Y. Wright

Doctor of Education Capstones

Peter Paul Development Center (Peter Paul) submitted a Request for Assistance (RFA) to obtain support from a Virginia Commonwealth University Doctorate of Educational Leadership (EdD) Capstone team with documenting programming and principles and evaluating them consistently. To address this request, the team analyzed the context and problem of practice through document review, empathy interviews, partner discussions and site visits. The literature review helped the team design and conduct research, fieldwork, and data analysis to support Peter Paul in standardizing procedures and programs, fostering a culture of institutional knowledge, and effectively communicating impact to stakeholders. The team used a Convergent Parallel …

Transforming The Route 228 Corridor: A Safe And Connective Approach, Michael Boeh

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This capstone plan centers around the Rt. 228/19 intersection and surrounding corridor located in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. In spite of recent projects, the intersection continues to convey feelings of danger and a lack of safety. This redesign project will utilize SketchUp to demonstrate how safety and connectivity can be prioritized and made a reality for the Rt. 228 corridor.

Best Practices For Community Outreach For The Virginia Eviction Reduction Pilot, Callie B. Houghland

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The purpose of this plan is to understand best practices for community outreach for the VERP program and provide materials to aid future outreach efforts. This plan has five parts. First, this plan will review characteristics that contribute to housing vulnerability, such as race or number of children, and consider which vulnerabilities should be prioritized in outreach. Then, this plan will identify how VERP grantees are currently conducting community outreach and who is being served through the program. Next this plan will look to understand who is missed between those who are most vulnerable and who are actually served across …

Anticipating The Fall Line: A Plan For Equitable Trail-Oriented Development On Commerce Road, Eric King

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Once completed, the Fall Line trail will provide a 43-mile active transportation route through Central Virginia from Ashland to Petersburg. Three miles of the trail’s alignment follow Commerce Road in Richmond’s Southside. As Manchester continues to undergo rapid change, trail-oriented development (TrOD) offers an opportunity to accommodate growth and transform the industrial corridor into a mixed-use destination as envisioned by the city’s master plan. While TrOD within the study area represents both economic and community development, relatively low residential property values and median incomes within surrounding neighborhoods warrant proactive measures to mitigate potential displacement pressures. Drawing from precedents set by …

Plenty Of Room At The Inn: Strategies For Gentle Densification Of Cleveland Park, Woodley Park, Van Ness, And Forest Hills, Dc, Harrison M. Hyde

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This capstone focuses on expanding housing opportunities, through the implementation of Gentle Density, in high-resource, single-family neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. The tangible outcomes of this study were be: a set of design guidelines, proposed changes to the Zoning Code of 2016, and an analysis of the co-benefits of densification. The co-benefits analysis examined any potential changes ridership changes for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, as well as changes in the potential customer bases for local businesses in each neighborhood. These analyses were done for a maximum build-out Scenario A, a less dense Scenario B, and a do-nothing Scenario C. …

A Business Model For Communication Design Enterprises, Con Kennedy

Articles

Several international reports and studies indicate that the Communication Design sector has a skill deficit in entrepreneurship and business management, and a greater understanding of these topics is needed. Some authors advocate applying existing business models for design enterprises. However, the skill deficit prevails. It is worth noting that these reports discuss the entrepreneurship deficit in general terms without an explanation of the causes of this deficit or how to remedy the issue. Therefore, this paper explores the development of a Business Model specific for Design Entrepreneurs for deployment in Communication Design enterprises.A theoretical framework for a specific business model …

Democratic Backsliding In Poland In Light Of Rule Of Law Accountability To The European Union, Caterina Chiopris, Monika Nalepa

Emory Law Journal

In 2015, Poland began to gradually dismantle institutions of the rule of law that had been carefully put in place after its governmental transition. Moreover, this process has been underway largely with the electorate’s support. This is puzzling because only several years earlier, the rule of law seemed to be all but guaranteed by the country’s accession to the European Union. As Poland is still a member of the European Union, and the European Union is noticing erosion of the rule of law and sounding the alarm, why are “eroders” still being elected? We propose an explanation based on the …