Address Delivered at Kent State, May 4, 1987

Address by survivor Tom Grace, delivered on the 17th anniversary of the Kent State shootings

Address Delivered at Kent State, May 4, 1984

Address by survivor Tom Grace, delivered on the 14th anniversary of the Kent State shootings

Promotion, Education, and Marketing of an Expanded VCU Bike Share Program

We propose to help promote, market, and provide education about an expanded bike share program at VCU. The goal of the bike share program is three-fold: 1) improve travel between campuses, 2) encourage alternate transportation to reduce traffic and parking difficulties and 3) be a green initiative on the VCU campus. The expanded bike share program will include additional bikes and bike stations, managed by an outside company. Recently, VCU’s Office of Parking and Transportation has learned that they will be receiving funds for the program, and they are looking for assistance to promote, market, and provide education about the program. We will also explore additional aspects of a bike sharing program such as encouraging the use of helmets/safety issues, using technology to track bikes, and conducting a needs assessment to determine consumer demand and preferences

Must Do @ VCU

Must Do @ VCU is a set of annual collegial activities that can be performed throughout the year, by faculty, staff and students. These VCU-centered activities are considered to be the things that give VCU its identity. The goal of Must Do @ VCU is to generate a sense of community and of belonging to the University. VCU is a relatively new University and its traditions are therefore not well-established. Must Do @ VCU aims to build on shared experiences as a method to establish VCU culture

Computational de-orphaning of Mycobacterium tuberculosis targets

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a major health hazard worldwide due to the resurgence of drug discovery strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and co-infection. For decades drug discovery has concentrated on identifying ligands for ~10 Mtb targets, hence most of the identified essential proteins are not utilised in TB chemotherapy. Here computational techniques were used to identify ligands for the orphan Mtb proteins. These range from ligand-based and structure-based virtual screening modelling the proteome of the bacterium. Identification of ligands for most of the Mtb Proteins will provide novel TB drugs and targets and hence address drug resistance, toxicity and the duration of TB treatment

2017 Making Literature Conference

Keynote Speakers: Tom Noyes, Shari Wagner, Grace Tiffany, Jessica Mesman Griffith, David Griffit

The New Freedom Initiative Transportation Program

Rural advocates frequently cite the lack of public transportation as one of the most significant problems faced by rural Americans with disabilities (Gonzales, Stombaugh, Seekins & Kasnitz, 2006). Transportation is often critical both to accessing health care, and to becoming and staying employed (Johnson & Shaw, 2001). Section 5317, the New Freedom Initiative for Transportation, a program created by the 2005 federal transportation act (SAFETEA-LU, P.L. 109-59), is designed to “go beyond the ADA” and find new ways to provide transportation for people with disabilities. In each state, local providers compete for funding from the program. Funding may not be used to supplant existing services; twenty percent must go to rural (non-urbanized) areas. Understanding how this program has been used so far may help explain how to use it in the future. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recently commissioned a study of the uses of the §5317 program (Bergman, Berendes, Gerty & Miller, 2009). This fact sheet summarizes some of the more relevant findings for rural disability advocates, highlighting the role that trip vouchers have played so far

Computational Deorphaning of <em>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</em> Targets

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a major health hazard worldwide due to the resurgence of drug discovery strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and co-infection. For decades drug discovery has concentrated on identifying ligands for ~10 Mtb targets, hence most of the identified essential proteins are not utilised in TB chemotherapy. Here computational techniques were used to identify ligands for the orphan Mtb proteins. These range from ligand-based and structure-based virtual screening modelling the proteome of the bacterium. Identification of ligands for most of the Mtb proteins will provide novel TB drugs and targets and hence address drug resistance, toxicity and the duration of TB treatment

Mendelian Randomization Analyses Suggest Childhood Body Size Indirectly Influences End Points From Across the Cardiovascular Disease Spectrum Through Adult Body Size

Background Obesity is associated with long‐term health consequences including cardiovascular disease. Separating the independent effects of childhood and adulthood obesity on cardiovascular disease risk is challenging as children with obesity typically remain overweight throughout the lifecourse. Methods and Results This study used 2‐sample univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization to estimate the effect of childhood body size both independently and after accounting for adult body size on 12 endpoints across the cardiovascular disease disease spectrum. Univariable analyses identified strong evidence of a total effect between genetically predicted childhood body size and increased risk of atherosclerosis, atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure, hypertension, myocardial infarction, peripheral artery disease, and varicose veins. However, evidence of a direct effect was weak after accounting for adult body size using multivariable Mendelian randomization, suggesting that childhood body size indirectly increases risk of these 8 disease outcomes via the pathway involving adult body size. Conclusions These findings suggest that the effect of genetically predicted childhood body size on the cardiovascular disease outcomes analyzed in this study are a result of larger body size persisting into adulthood. Further research is necessary to ascertain the critical timepoints where, if ever, the detrimental impact of obesity initiated in early life begins to become immutable