Digital Commons Network^™

Hopeless Optimism, Shane Caryl

Theses

Being influenced by the toy art scene that exploded in Japan, my work is an insight to the American adult through the playful and satirical antics of my creations. Through making a series of sculptures I am interested in the visual language that is needed to create an implied narrative, which is required for the metaphor to come across. These satirical situations I have created are influenced by Anime, Comic Books, Merry Melodies Cartoons and Japanese Manga and the way they are made is inspired by the works found in the Little Boy exhibition as well as the Beautiful Losers …

The Evolution Of Fear Ecology: A Fruit Fly (Drosophila Melanogaster) Perspective, Itachi Mills

Theses

Several mechanisms underlie how evolutionary lineages respond to predation pressures or predation risk. Further mechanisms link evolutionary predation responses to how animals forage, or find mates. However, gaps remain in our understanding about how predation and foraging interact in an evolutionary context.

In my first chapter, I elaborate on how predation and foraging relate in to one another in ecological, evolutionary and behavioral contexts. I start out with an overview of fear ecology. Then, I outline how trade-offs influence the evolution of morphological, chemical and behavioral responses to predation. I further elaborate on how these trade-offs influence reproduction. Finally, I …

Cell Dynamics In Three-Dimensional (3d) Culture Environments, Rong Fan

Theses

A three-dimensional (3D) cell culture system provides an effective platform to study cell dynamics in in vivo-mimicking conditions and thus plays an important role in understanding cell biology, organ function, and disease model. This dissertation investigates cell dynamics in a variety of 3D environments including solid and liquid matrix. We study cell dynamics in 3D hydrogel microparticles and show that cells exhibit significant differences with that from 2D monolayer culture, including cell cycle, survival, morphology and the sensitivity to inflammation. We further develop a 3D printed cell-laden hybrid hydrogel construct to investigate colon cancer cell dynamics in physiologically relevant bowel …

Rational Drug Design Directed At Blocking The Initial Signaling Events In Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Sepsis., Christopher A. Tipton

Theses

Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) is classified as an immune system response to an infectious state. If left untreated, SIRS leads to sepsis, septic shock, end-organ dysfunction, and death. As a patient progresses through these stages, associations of acute respiratory distress, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and acute renal failure persist, resulting in millions of deaths annually. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a bacterial endotoxin, is released into the blood stream, triggering SIRS. LPS is found in the outer cell-wall of Gram-negative bacteria and is responsible for initiation of a devastating cytokine storm. One of the regions of LPS, lipid A, is a polyacylated glucosamine …

Cang Zhuo——Hide The Diamond In The Rough, Quan Zhang

Theses

When I started the conceptual process of my thesis, I asked myself, what is jewelry? Why do I choose jewelry as the form to express my concept? What do I want to express through the jewelry that I create? I looked back to Chinese culture for inspiration since that has been the biggest influence in my life. It has molded my mode of thinking, the way I live and how I create.

The original idea of “Hide A Diamond in the Rough” comes from the traditional Chinese philosophy about an attitude towards life called 藏拙 or Cang Zhuos. What does …

Synthesis Of Polyproline Spacers Between Nir Dye Pairs For Fret To Enhance Photoacoustic Imaging, Nisha Geng

Theses

With the goal of enhancing the emission of ultra-sound (US) waves in photoacoustic imaging (PAI) for the detection of cancer we discovered an effective system for Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) composed of a near infrared fluorescent (NIRF) dye and a NIR quencher (NIRQ) dye separated by a polyproline peptide spacer. In PAI, a newly developed imaging technique, the signal is generated by excitation of cells using pulsed infrared lasers and measurement of resulting US waves using detectors. NIRF dyes can increase the sensitivity of PAI signal, particularly when used in targeted molecular imaging agents (TMIAs). However, most of the …

O’Whahsa’ - Protection, Comfort And Healing, Leah Shenandoah

Theses

Leah Shenandoah is an Oneida Nation multimedia artist, musician and scholar who conveys the concepts of protection, comfort and healing through music, sculpture, jewelry and fashion. On May 6, 2011, "O'whahsa'" which translates to "hood" in the Onya'ta:aka Oneida language, was presented at the Hungerford Building in Rochester, NY. Over 250 attendees witnessed a transcendental space consisting of: five sculptures made of fabric stretched over a welded steel rod armature-painted in a vibrant and impressionistic fashion; five sets of clothing and jewelry worn by Shenandoah and four dancers; smoke, fog, multi-colored lights and a 45-minute set of original songs written …

Headstrong: Concussion Reduction Using Biomimicry, David Evenski

Theses

The objective of this project is to address the concern of traumatic brain injuries, which include concussions, by designing a product to better protect the head from damage upon impact. Concussions impact the quality of life for those who suffer one (or many), both in the short-term and long-term phases of their life. Current protective equipment on the market fall short of addressing the urgent need for higher quality and reliable headwear to reduce brain injury. Recently, high tech solutions for football helmets are under development, due to the public exposure of the risks and long-term disabilities that can evolve …

Teaching Agents With Deep Apprenticeship Learning, Amar Bhatt

Theses

As the field of robotic and humanoid systems expand, more research is being done on how to best control systems to perform complex, smart tasks. Many supervised learning and classification techniques require large datasets, and only result in the system mimicking what it was given. The sequential relationship within datasets used for task learning results in Markov decision problems that traditional classification algorithms cannot solve. Reinforcement learning helps to solve these types of problems using a reward/punishment and exploration/exploitation methodology without the need for datasets. While this works for simple systems, complex systems are more difficult to teach using traditional …

Profiling The Neurovascular Cell Interactions In Alcohol Exposure And Hiv-1 Infection, Agnieszka Agas

Theses

Alcohol use is known to exacerbate the progression of human immunodeficiency virus associated acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or HIV/AIDS in the brain, known as the NeuroAIDS. The mechanisms of this accelerated progression are still poorly understood. The purpose of my thesis is to review the parameters contributing to the co-morbid effects of alcohol in the progression of NeuroAIDS. The first aim will evaluate the exacerbating effects of alcohol on HIV-1 transmission, infection, and the role of metabolic energy imbalance during NeuroAIDS progression, which will enable me to formulate the possible mechanism for NeuroAIDS progression. The second aim will help me establish …

Iii-Nitride Nanowire Light-Emitting Diodes: Design And Characterization, Dipayan Datta Choudhary

Theses

III-nitride semiconductors have been intensively studied for optoelectronic devices, due to the superb advantages offered by this materials system. The direct energy bandgap III-nitride semiconductors can absorb or emit light efficiently over a broad spectrum, ranging from 0.65 eV (InN) to 6.4 eV (AlN), which encompasses from deep ultraviolet to near infrared spectrum. However, due to the lack of native substrates, conventional III-nitride planar heterostructures generally exhibit very high dislocation densities that severely limit the device performance and reliability. On the other hand, nanowire heterostructures can be grown on lattice mismatched substrates with drastically reduced dislocation densities, due to highly …

Experimental Study Of Bubble Rupture During Shock-Fluid Interaction, Subhalakshmi Chandrasekaran

Theses

Head injuries are associated with exposure to high energy explosive detonation. There are four distinct types of blast induced neurotrauma (BINT): 1) these caused by supersonic shock waves propagating in the atmosphere (primary), 2) high velocity impact of shrapnel and debris (secondary) 3) acceleration and deceleration of the body and collision with the solid objects in the field (tertiary) and 4) exposure to high temperature and toxic gases (quaternary). One of the mechanisms implicated in non-impact primary blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) is cavitation. It is hypothesized that cavitation can occur in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) layer, brain interstitial fluid, …

Facial Capture Lip-Sync, Victoria Mcgowen

Theses

Facial model lip-sync is a large field of research within the animation industry. The mouth is a complex facial feature to animate, thus multiple techniques have arisen to simplify this process. These techniques, however, can lead to unappealing flat animation that lack full facial expression or eerie over-expressive animations that make the viewer uneasy. This thesis proposes an animation system that produces natural speech movements while conveying facial expression and compares them to previous techniques. This system used a text input of the dialogue to generate a phoneme-to-blend shape map to automate the facial model. An actor was motion captured …

Bill Owens: A Us Craft Beer Pioneer, 1982-2001, Patrick Walls

Theses

Bill Owens is a pioneer in the United States craft brewing industry through his efforts as an advocate, writer, publisher, brewer, and entrepreneur who created a lasting legacy by influencing generations of brewers and beer fans. Owens wrote the first book on homebrewing equipment (How to Build a Small Brewery: Draft Beer in Ten Days in 1982). He opened the third brewpub in the country (Buffalo Bill's Brewery in Hayward, California in 1983) where, in 1985, he introduced the first commercial pumpkin beer among other beer style firsts. Owens published numerous brewery-focused magazines that featured many illustrious beer writers. …

Parents’ Perspectives: How They Use Behavior Modification Techniques With Toddlers Aged 1-3, Diana H. Solt

Theses

Role-models, most often parents, are vital in the process of teaching children how to communicate and resolve conflicts. Children, specifically toddlers just learning to speak, may present unique disciplining challenges. This study examined the various methods of conflict management strategies parents use to try and change their toddler children’s behaviors. The main parental strategies studied include: verbal, imitative, physical, and no-action. Using a snowball sampling approach, 28 men and women participants were interviewed. The findings show that parents most often used verbal or imitative techniques to discipline their children. However an overwhelming majority agreed that verbal techniques do not work …

The Modernized Keyboard: Improving The Musician’S Experience Through User-Centered Design, Andrew James Magee

Theses

In 2016, a major part of being a gigging musician is traveling with your instrument.

For musicians with smaller instruments, such as the harmonica, traveling is no problem. Simply place it in your pocket and you are good to go anywhere with musical creation at your fingertips.

Medium-sized instruments, like the guitar, are somewhat of a hassle to travel with due to their size, but are also typically lightweight, so the traveling still somewhat tolerable.

But for musicians with large and heavy instruments, such as drums or a digital keyboard, traveling can be a nightmare. 

My thesis explores the full …

Outburst, Benjamin A. Strack

Theses

Outburst is the story of 17-year-old Tommy, a young musician who views life differently: from the seat of a wheelchair. He is working with his best friend, Joey, to come up with a winning entry for a songwriting contest. They are a complementary ensemble, as Joey has the greatest skill with the guitar and Tommy’s abilities are stronger as a lyricist. With a lot of work left on the song, and only four days to the competition, Joey’s new girlfriend drives a wedge in their friendship and musical partnership.

Tommy tries to accommodate Kristin’s entry into their social circle, but …

Adding Security To Control Area Network Of Vehicles By Using Sha-3, Aidin Ameri

Theses

The lack of security in the vehicles on the road is real and should be taken seriously. Since the lifespan of vehicles has average of eleven years, this means if we start to implement new changes to vehicles today, it would takes eleven years to make sure most vehicles on the road support our implementation. This is important as the number of lines of codes in vehicles are ever increasing and becoming more autonomous with the ability for vehicles to drive themselves. But there is no security implemented in their low level systems such as the Control Area Network which …

Welcome Home Rochester: Guiding Refugees Through Life In America, Michael Kelly

Theses

Rochester, NY is the third-largest city in New York State, situated on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, with a population of 210,565. Rochester is also the third largest city—after Buffalo and Syracuse—in terms of refugee resettlement. In 2016, US government resettlement and secondary migration brought 850 new refugees here. In 2017, that number is expected to pass 1,000., When refugees are resettled in the United States, the first three months of casework and assistance are provided by a federally-funded resettlement organization. After these months, however, refugees are removed from the resettlement service’s caseload. In Rochester, it is at this …

Fixino 1.0, Sultan Alshehri

Theses

Fixino 1.0 is 3D short film that explores the contrast between a lazy human and an efficient robot in a comedic visual-gag style narrative. Produced at the Rochester Institute of Technology, this 3D short attempts to take the audience on a journey of contrasting spaces and characters. On one side, we have the efficient robot, Fixino and his well-kept operation space. On the other, we have the careless and lazy human, Charlie, and his disorderly environment.

I wanted this story to comment on our current world state, as well as the near future, where humans become a liability in the …

Evolution Of The Museum Experience: Mobile Augmented Reality’S Impact On The Visitor Experience At An Outdoor Living Museum, Rita Locke Pettine

Theses

This paper reports the findings of a study to determine if using Mobile AR (augmented reality) to render an exhibit’s supplemental information increased the level of learning and enjoyment of visitors to a living museum, specifically the Pocock Trail located within the Bergen Swamp, which is classified as a “Living Museum”. A museum is identified as “Living” when it “is a natural, wild area that is relatively undisturbed by man. It is an area where the native plant and animal life are maintaining themselves in a natural, biological manner” (BSPS, 2016). When an area is undisturbed by man it is …

Predicting Cholera Positive Cases In Haiti, Jessica Young

Theses

While Western countries typically run census surveys frequently, poorer countries such as Haiti do not have the money to do so; thus research into how Haitians live is severely lacking. Furthermore, studies that do exist tend to be not only old and outdated, but also lacking in depth. Using new census data recently collected from Haiti, I attempt to predict if certain behaviors and living situations can be used as indicators for determining if someone has cholera. Challenges for exploring this data center on getting the surveys into a format suitable for analysis and the severe class imbalance between the …

Reevaluating Essential Fatty Acid Nutrition In Florida Pompano, Trachinotus Carolinus, And Nile Tilapia, Oreochromis Niloticus, Christopher John Jackson

Theses

Aquaculture is currently the fastest growing sector of protein production, and is expected to overtake the harvest of wild fisheries. Limitations in nutrition, specifically fatty acid nutrition, are preventing even more dramatic growth of many species of commercial importance. Currently, much of the research involving fatty acids examines requirements as being correlated to thermal guilds (warm vs. cool water) or salinity tolerance (marine vs. freshwater). However, recent studies have revealed the potential for trophic level to be as much, if not more, influential in determining fatty acid requirements of a species. As such, two feeding trials were conducted to determine …

Alphabot: Using Interaction Design To Help Children With Reading Disabilities Through A Multi-Sensory Approach, Chao Luo

Theses

A reading disability is one form of learning difficulty, caused by neurological factors. Young children with reading disabilities are recognized as having trouble with spelling, reading, writing, and other academic activities. Even though there is no cure for reading disabilities so far, there are many things we can do to help these children. For young children, the best way to help them learn is taking advantage of all their senses.

Multimedia has been widely used in education today. Designers use various formats of digital multimedia to enhance user’s experience in learning. It provides an excellent opportunity to help children with …

Regional Sustainable Standard Exploration: The Case Of Chinese Rural Areas, Jinzuo Zhang

Theses

Evaluation criterion of sustainability is an effective method of protecting stable Eco-system, enhancing life quality and reducing the waste of resource.

Recently, with the emergence of resource shortage and environmental degradation, people started to shift their attention to the development of sustainability, which is to find the balance among social, environmental and economic factors. Especially in the end of the 20th century, the concepts of sustainability had been approved by the countries around the world [8]. Some developed countries took the lead in starting develop sustainable practices and set evaluation standard based on the real needs of project construction.

However, …

Importance Of Concentrated Flow Paths In Agricultural Watersheds Of Southern Illinois, Prabisha Shrestha

Theses

Field scale research shows concentrated flow paths (CFPs) are prevalent in agricultural watersheds. They are an important source of soil erosion in cropland and significantly contribute to the transport and delivery of agricultural pollutants such as sediment and nutrients to nearby water resources. High resolution LiDAR data have enabled the investigation of the prevalence of concentrated flow at a large geographic extent. This study focused on identifying CFPs in 389 agricultural fields in Jackson County in southern Illinois and estimating the contribution of the CFPs to drainage of the fields. Addressing the lack of literature on factors influencing CFP characteristics, …

In Vitro Apparent Ruminal Digestibility Of Diets Containing Corn Distillers Grain With Different Quantities Of Crude Fat, David Eldridge Williams

Theses

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF David Williams for the Master of Ruminant Nutrition degree in Animal Science, presented on December 12, 2016 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: IN VITRO APPARENT RUMINAL DIGESTIBILITY OF DIETS CONTAINING CORN DISTILLERS GRAIN WITH VARYING LEVELS OF CRUDE FAT MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Rebecca Atkinson
 Four dual-flow continuous fermenters were used in a Latin square design to determine the apparent ruminal digestibility and ruminal characteristics of diets containing dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS) at various levels of fat content. Fermenters were randomly assigned to one of the following treatments: 1) 40% DDGS containing …

Re-Presenting Racist Objects: A Case Study Of The Dentzel Carousel At Ontario Beach Park In Rochester, Ny, Kelli M. Spampinato

Theses

Caricatures of African Americans and associated racist imagery, once commonplace in American life, have been used to display dominance and oppression over African Americans. These images were created in order to support the Jim Crow hierarchy, which white Southerners established in the late 1800s and upheld until the 1960s, with white people reigning at the top and black people at the bottom. This Southern social construct was not limited to this geographical area, but also influenced white opinions and attitudes towards the black population in the north as well. In part, white supremacy was maintained through the creation of everyday …

The Power Of After-Hours: Young Adult Engagement And Programming In Museums, Hannah E. Barber

Theses

This project explores the cultivation of an ever deepening relationship between young adult audiences (ages 21-40) and museums and cultural institutions through the use of special event programming. Museums are turning to after-hours events to capture this audience’s attention, developing them as a mode of communication to solidify connections between the institution and young adults. Drawing on Ray Oldenburg’s construct of a “Third Place,” developed in his psychological study focused on the comfort of individuals in physical spaces, I investigate how several museums in the Rochester, New York, area are pursuing young adult audiences by creating social and engaging spaces …

Rabbit Hole, Chen Wang

Theses

Rabbit Hole is a multimedia installation, which combines drawing, performance, animation, and sculpture to celebrate gender as a performative expression of multiple possibilities while presenting sexual identification as neutral and fluid.

In Rabbit Hole, I present an opportunity for the viewer to experience a disorientating fictional space, in which the physical body floats across boundaries. Constructed biomorphic forms entangle and pulsate creating an arena where gender is ever evolving, celebrating a freedom of sexuality. The symbolic representation of the rabbit within the work connects across North American and Chinese Culture.