Statement by Susan Burgess collected by Rachel George on June 26, 2014

Traumatic brain injury is a critical public health issue. Finite element (FE) head models are valuable instruments to explore the causal pathway from mechanical insult to resultant brain injury. Intracranial fluid-structure interaction (FSI) and biofidelity evaluation are two fundamental aspects of FE head modeling. The existing head models usually do not account for the fluid behavior of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and its interaction with the other intracranial structures. Such simplification cannot guarantee a realistic interfacial behavior and may reduce the biofidelity of the head model. The biofidelity of a head model can be partially identified by comparing the model’s responses against relevant experimental data. Given the recent plethora of strain-based metrics for brain injury evaluation, a direct comparison between the computationally predicted deformation and experimentally measured strain is preferred. Due to the paucity of experimental brain deformation data, the majority of FE head models are evaluated by brain-skull relative motion data and then used for strain prediction. However, the validity of employing a model validated against brain-skull relative motion for strain prediction remains elusive. The current thesis attempted to advance these two important aspects of the FE head modeling. An FSI approach was implemented to describe the brain-skull interface and brain-ventricle interface, in which the CSF was modeled with an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian multi-material formulation with its response being concatenated with the Lagrangian-simulated brain. Such implementation not only contributes to superior validation performance and improved injury predictability of the head models but also largely reveals the mechanisms of age-related acute subdural hematoma (ASDH) and periventricular injury. It is verified that the age-related brain atrophy exacerbates bridging vein strain that explains the predisposition of the elderly to ASDH, while the presence of a fluid ventricle induces strain concentration around the ventricles that aggravates the vulnerability of the periventricular region. For the biofidelity evaluation, the current thesis revisited the only existing dynamic experimental brain strain data with the loading regimes close to traumatic levels and proposed a new approach with guaranteed fidelity to estimate the brain strain. Biofidelity of a head model was evaluated by comparing the model’s responses against the newly estimated brain strain and previously presented brain-skull relative motion data. It is found that the head model evaluated by brain-skull relative motion cannot guarantee its strain prediction accuracy. Thus, it is advocated that a model designed for brain strain prediction should be validated against experimental brain strain, in addition to brain-skull relative motion. In conclusion, this thesis yields new knowledge of brain injury mechanism by implementing the FSI approach for the brain-skull interface and brain-ventricle interface and standardizes the strain validation protocol for FE head models by reinterpreting the experimental brain strain. It is hoped that this research has made a valuable and lasting contribution to an improved understanding of the basic head impact mechanics.QC 2019-10-30</p

Lay judges and labor courts: a question of legitimacy

This article reviews the role of lay judges in labor courts in five European Union countries (Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland and Sweden). We find that a very high proportion of judgments are unanimous in all five countries, despite imputed differences of interest between the employee, employer and professional judges and significant variations in the way that lay judges are selected, trained and deployed. This suggests that one key contribution of lay judges is to provide legitimacy to the decision making process. Three different facets of legitimacy are explored, but further empirical research is needed to establish why decisions are generally unanimous and how legitimacy might be more systematically compared cross-nationally

Ethnicity and the Writing of Medieval Scottish history

Historians have long tended to define medieval Scottish society in terms of interactions between ethnic groups. This approach was developed over the course of the long nineteenth century, a formative period for the study of medieval Scotland. At that time, many scholars based their analysis upon scientific principles, long since debunked, which held that medieval 'peoples' could only be understood in terms of 'full ethnic packages'. This approach was combined with a positivist historical narrative that defined Germanic Anglo-Saxons and Normans as the harbingers of advances of Civilisation. While the prejudices of that era have largely faded away, the modern discipline still relies all too often on a dualistic ethnic framework. This is particularly evident in a structure of periodisation that draws a clear line between the 'Celtic' eleventh century and the 'Norman' twelfth. Furthermore, dualistic oppositions based on ethnicity continue, particularly in discussions of the law, kingship, lordship and religion

The roles, resources and competencies of employee lay judges: A cross-national study of Germany, France and Great Britain

This research project analysed and compared the roles, resources and competencies of lay judges in Germany, France and Great Britain, where lay judges take up their role through nationally distinctive routes: nomination essentially by the social partners in Germany, self-nomination in Great Britain and election in France. The primary research consisted of qualitative data collected through interviews, set against contextual information on national institutional arrangements, industrial relations, This research project analysed and compared the roles, resources and competencies of lay judges in Germany, France and Great Britain, where lay judges take up their role through nationally distinctive routes: nomination essentially by the social partners in Germany, self-nomination in Great Britain and election in France. The primary research consisted of qualitative data collected through interviews, set against contextual information on national institutional arrangements, industrial relations, and court procedures. The key findings are as follows: • The dominant influence on lay judge’s reported perception of their role is their experience of the prevailing industrial relations system in each country, mediated by the labour court structure. Routes to nomination not only reflect national systems but may reinforce them and have a bearing on employee lay judges’ sense of organisational allegiance. • While acknowledging distinct employer and employee perspectives, there was an aspiration to be impartial and a commitment to fairness. This was most unambiguously expressed in Germany and Great Britain. In France, deliberations were sometimes reported as resembling a negotiation between employee and employer lay judges, but one that had to culminate in a legally correct judgment. Very few employee lay judge interviewees reported that they experienced enduring dissonance between sitting on the employee side in the court and their role as a lay judge, although this was noted by several at the outset. • Our interview findings from lay and professional judges indicated that lay judges bring distinctive knowledge. Some of this knowledge is explicit and often specific. Lay knowledge is often tacit, however, and acquired through long exposure to workplace events. Such knowledge was valued by many professional judge interviewees as adding an extra dimension to decision-making and was seen by near-ly all our interviewees as the main contribution of lay judges to the judicial process. Crucially tacit knowledge is a form of understanding that needs to be elicited in the process of deliberations, rather than as evidence provided by an expert witness. As well as bringing knowledge to the court, lay judges also reported that they could enhance their representational and personal-professional skills by transferring knowledge and experience acquired in court back to the work-place. • Gender played some role in the motivation to become a lay judge in Great Britain and in how lay judges assessed their contribution in Germany. Some female interviewees in Britain reported that work-place problems they had personally experienced had contributed to their motivation to become a lay judge. In Germany, there were some differences between men and women in their views of the nature of their contribution: whereas men tended to emphasise the specialist knowledge they could bring to bear in deliberations, women highlighted a ‘social perspective’

Analysis of Expression Pattern and Genetic Deletion of Netrin5 in the Developing Mouse

Boundary cap cells are a transient, neural-crest-derived population found at the motor exit point and dorsal root entry zone of the embryonic spinal cord. These cells contribute to the central/peripheral nervous system boundary, and in their absence neurons and glia from the CNS migrate into the PNS. We found Netrin5 (Ntn5), a previously unstudied member of the netrin gene family, to be robustly expressed in boundary cap cells. We generated Ntn5 knockout mice and examined neurodevelopmental and boundary-cap-cell-related phenotypes. No abnormalities in cranial nerve guidance, dorsal root organization, or sensory projections were found. However, Ntn5 mutant embryos did have ectopic motor neurons that migrated out of the ventral horn and into the motor roots. Previous studies have implicated semaphorin6A (Sema6A) in boundary cap cells signaling to plexinA2 (PlxnA2)/neuropilin2 (Nrp2) in motor neurons in restricting motor neuron cell bodies to the ventral horn, particularly in the caudal spinal cord. In Ntn5 mutants, ectopic motor neurons are likely to be a different population, as more ectopias were found rostrally. Furthermore, ectopic motor neurons in Ntn5 mutants were not immunoreactive for NRP2. The netrin receptor DCC is a potential receptor for NTN5 in motor neurons, as similar ectopic neurons were found in Dcc mutant mice, but not in mice deficient for other netrin receptors. Thus, Ntn5 is a novel netrin family member that is expressed in boundary cap cells, functioning to prevent motor neuron migration out of the CNS

Strategies to Enhance Out of State Enrollment at VCU Focusing on Name Recognition, Successful Alumni and Out of State Students

The project team has conceptualized several possible university marketing initiatives. These initiatives revolve around a central concept: increasing out-ofstate student enrollment at VCU. In concert with the Office of the Vice President of University Outreach, Team 3 will study and test the effectiveness of outdoor and other strategically located VCU advertising along major northeast corridor transportation routes and hubs to attract out-of state undergraduates