Digital Commons Network^™

The Twilight Zone: The Confluence Of Childhood Scenes And Future Anxiety, Jongwon Bae

Theses and Dissertations

Jongwon Bae’s paintings reflect his childhood memories as an archive that is to be repressed until it manifests itself in uncertain ways as it becomes confluent with the anxiety about the future.

Maybe That's What It Means, Anael Berkovitz

Theses and Dissertations

Anael Berkovitz explores personal and collective memory through the use of storytelling and interpretation. Focusing on how identity is shaped by stories, her three part video details the nomadic nature of her own family, the obfuscation of language in translation and the incorporation of an invasive species into a culture.

A Chair In The Woods, Victoria Dolloff

Theses and Dissertations

Victoria Dolloff's MFA Thesis considers traces of play and perception in the development of her artwork, exploring the idea of reorientation through subtleties of the absurd. Her installation Untitled (Landscape) questions object as place and place as memory utilizing fragmentation as reconstruction.

Rescuing Age-Related Proteolysis Deficits With Methylene Blue, Shane E. Pullins

Theses and Dissertations

The average lifespan is constantly increasing with the advent of new medical techniques, and age-related cognitive decline is becoming a prevalent societal issue. Even during healthy aging, humans and rats exhibit progressive deficits in episodic/declarative memory. In laboratory rats, age-related memory impairment can be assessed with trace fear conditioning (TFC). Recent research implicates ubiquitin proteasome system-mediated protein degradation in the synaptic plasticity supporting memory formation and retrieval. In rats, aging leads to decreased basal proteolytic activity in brain structures known to support the acquisition and retrieval of trace fear memories, and our preliminary data suggests activity-dependent proteasome activity declines in …

Food And Negotiation Of Identity Among The Russian Immigrant Community Of Brighton Beach, Elena Starkova

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the construction of ethnic identity among Russian immigrants in New York, by examining how it has been negotiated and articulated through foods, including traditional and non-native foods as a vehicle for their shifting identities and for reaffirming their position and participation in mainstream American society.

The Effects Of The Hiv-1 Tat Protein And Morphine On The Structure And Function Of The Hippocampal Ca1 Subfield, William D. Marks

Theses and Dissertations

HIV is capable of causing a set of neurological diseases collectively termed the HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorders (HAND). Worsening pathology is observed in HIV+ individuals who use opioid drugs. Memory problems are often observed in HAND, implicating HIV pathology in the hippocampus, and are also known to be exacerbated by morphine use. HIV-1 Tat was demonstrated to reduce spatial memory performance in multiple tasks, and individual subsets of CA1 interneurons were found to be selectively vulnerable to the effects of Tat, notably nNOS+/NPY- interneurons of the pyramidal layer and stratum radiatum, PV+ neurons of the pyramidal layer, and SST+ neurons …

The Fractured Memory Of A Mind’S Eye, Russell G. White

Theses and Dissertations

The work I create is informed by questioning reality/identity, the fractalizing planes

of existence our essence occupies, and the artifacts of memory experience navigating

through space time. While existing in this realm of oversaturated media and neon

glow, I question the effects of pervasive data systems overloading or programming the

mental software we possess. My work includes humor as a means of exploring these

conventions while also displaying psychedelic surrealist imagery to help break away

from the conscious prison this existence births our concept apparatuses within.

Restoration, Shannon M. Slaight-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The marks I make in clay have different characteristics, and the physical mark of one’s fingertips or visual record of the hand is personal and intimate. This visible activity is the evidence of my constant presence and control within each object. Its repetitive meditation produces a private relief from my persistent anxieties. This exploration for me is not only visual, but also physical. This is the start of my infatuation with the idea of pattern. It has its own discrete visual language and modes of communication; and through my research I am developing a method of intercommunication.

Intention To Deceive Alters Access To Semantic Memory, James Nye

Theses and Dissertations

I conceptualize a theory of deception within the perspective of discourse and pragmatics while choosing to examine the decision to engage in deception within the perspective of cognitive psychology. Currently, cognitive perspectives of deception have emphasized that inhibitory control of one’s motor processes are vital because in order to respond deceptively, one must prevent honest behavior from leaking into one’s actions. Although indirect evidence for inhibition is heavily linked with deception, current empirical data connecting motoric control with deceptive responses has been difficult to observe. I propose a theoretical perspective that shifts the role of inhibitory control in deception away …