Gaining From Captured Indian Traditional Knowledge Systems: Paths Taken And Way Forward, Ramasami T

International Journal of Traditional Knowledge

India’s scientific heritage is deeply reflected in Ayurveda, a tradition of integrative medicine documented for over two millennia. P.C. Ray, the father of modern chemistry in India, highlighted the depth of ancient chemical knowledge and early use of mercury compounds, while M.S. Valiathan later revived and analyzed the classical texts of Charaka, Sushruta, and Vagbhata to bridge Ayurveda with modern science. Building on this foundation, the Government of India launched initiatives linking Ayurveda with genomics, personalized medicine, and rasayana therapies, yielding promising insights such as the genetic basis of prakriti classifications and protective effects of Amalaki Rasayana. Efforts like the …

Guitar Amplifier Directivity, Rachel C. Edelman, Brian E. Anderson, Samuel D. Bellows, Timothy W. Leishman

Directivity

No abstract provided.

From Industrial Building To Affordable Senior Housing: An Idea Book Beyond Code, Weiyi Ma

Masters Theses

This thesis envisions a proposal to adaptively re-purpose Rhode Island’s extant industrial building stock into affordable housing tailored to the needs of its older and more vulnerable citizens. Architectural dignity, in terms of older citizens amidst this housing crisis, is the creation of living environments that honor their autonomy, comfort, and identity through design interventions that provide accessible, luminous, breathable, and socially enriching spaces, reaffirming their rightful place within the community. With humanistic care and logical rigor, it establishes a mathematical framework for assessment and execution, anchored in five criteria: light, air, space, accessibility, and livability, and presents itself in …

Prosthesis, Alexander A. Grosek

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the hospital as a prosthetic—a structural and spatial support for the human body in moments of vulnerability. Like a crutch or cast, the hospital temporarily supports patients in their transition from horizontal (infirm) to vertical (mobile), yet its architecture often fails to contribute meaningfully to that healing process. While clinical treatment is prioritized, the spatial, emotional, and sensory dimensions of care are neglected. What supports what becomes a central question: the building holds the body, but the body also gives meaning to the building. Their relationship is reciprocal.

Rather than proving that good design improves health—an idea …

Eos Wellness Center: Rethinking Inpatient Mental Health Facility Design, Emily Simms

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The design of mental health facilities significantly impacts patient outcomes, especially for individuals with depression. Environmental factors such as lighting, thermal comfort, and access to nature influence mental health. This research explores how architectural design can reduce self-harm incidents and enhance recovery outcomes for patients with depression. The project hypothesizes that synchronizing light patterns and thermal comfort with patients’ circadian rhythms will reduce self-harm incidents and improve recovery. The problem established in the research is that disruptions to circadian rhythms increase the risk of depression, PTSD, and anxiety by 30% (Burns et al., 2022). Suicide is also the second leading …

The Value Of Home: The Covid-19 Pandemic’S Influence On Living Space, Mental Well-Being, And Design Adaptability, Grace E. Woodall

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Grace Woodall, Architecture

Title: The Value of Home: The COVID-19 Pandemic’s Influence on Living Spaces, Mental Well-Being, and Design Adaptability

Faculty Mentor: Marisa Gomez Nordyke

The COVID-19 pandemic redefined how people worked, learned, socialized, and lived. This study examines how American young adults’ perceptions of home evolved during and after the isolating lockdowns. This work addressed how the COVID-19 experience altered home’s value in young adults, the spatial, mental, and experiential challenges of confined spaces during the lockdowns, and the architectural elements that responded to these shifts. By analyzing post-pandemic housing trends, a literature review of architecture, psychology, home design, …

Affordable Architecture: Promoting Mental Health Through Cost-Effective Design In Underfunded High Schools In Dallas-Fort Worth, Raphaella Malicay

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Mental health awareness has increased over the years as well as numerous strategies to support mental health. Some of these strategies include addressing the built environment. This paper explores the intersection between mental health and the built environment through the lens of affordable architectural methods that would be effective in underfunded secondary schools. This study examines how architecture influences students’ well-being and how certain design strategies can be implemented even in schools that lack the financial resources for adequate infrastructure. Here the focus is on investigating affordable solutions such as improving ventilation, optimizing natural light, having flexible learning spaces, and …

Biophilic Design Strategies In Healthcare: Using Nature To Promote Wellness In Small-Scale Mental And Behavioral Health Facilities, Skyler Peckham

University Honors Theses

Designing spaces that promote the health and well-being of the general public has been a highly debated topic for several centuries within the disciplines of architecture, urban planning, and other similar fields. As more research has been done throughout the years, the notion of utilizing nature to promote wellness has become a prominent design strategy. Through the examination of a wide range of scholarship regarding the benefits that nature has for human health and connecting this research to the biophilic evidence-based design strategies of healthcare facilities, I aim to highlight what design aspects truly promote wellness for patients in small-scale …

Spatial Hearing In Simulated Reverberant Classroom Environments, Gabriel Seth Evan Weeldreyer

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Spatial hearing provides access to auditory spatial cues that promote speech perception in noisy listening situations. However, reverberation degrades auditory spatial cues and limits listeners’ ability to utilize these cues for segregating target speech from competing babble. Hence, spatial unmasking—an intelligibility benefit from a spatial separation between a target and masker—is reduced in reverberant environments as compared to free field. This work tests the hypothesis that interaural decorrelation, the result of increasing reverberation, will broaden the perceived auditory source width with a cascading effect of reduced auditory spatial acuity and subsequently poorer spatial unmasking. To understand the perceptual consequences of …

Analysis Of The Right Sizing Approach To Healthcare Space Planning, Johnathan Anspach

All Theses

Achieving optimal spatial design in healthcare facilities is crucial for efficient operations and high-quality patient care. This study investigates the application of the right-sizing approach to healthcare conceptual design, with a specific focus on the Medical-Surgical Unit (MSU) and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) departments within inpatient wards. Utilizing a robust methodology, foundational parameters and constraints were established to align with the functional requirements of a 100-bed hospital case study. Through a systematic process, industry practitioners contributed valuable insights via surveys, facilitating the quantification of parameter rankings essential for spatial decision-making.

Analysis of the data revealed significant correlations between parameters, emphasizing …

Health And Healthcare: Designing For The Social Determinants Of Health And Blue Zones In North Nashville, Rebecca Tonguis, Honor Thomas, Olivia Hobbs

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Owned by North Nashville’s First Community Church, a now empty site in the Osage-North Fisk neighborhood of North Nashville has been identified as a potential site for a new location of The Store, in addition to a community-centric architectural development based on the social determinants of health and informed by the principles behind Blue Zones, the locations with the highest lifespans in the world. Opened by Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, The Store is a free grocery store that “allow[s] people to shop for their basic needs in a way that protects dignity and fosters hope”, for which North Nashville …

Aging In Place With A Warming Climate: Housing Design And Policies For Aging With Extreme Heat, Nichole M. Kain

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Aging populations—particularly in areas prone to extreme heat—are facing unique residential challenges. In the past 10 years, extreme heat has killed more people in the United States (U.S.) than all other weather hazards combined, and it is expected to get hotter, with extreme heat events predicted to happen more often in the future. People over the age of 65 are disproportionately represented as the majority of heat victims, and are likely to perish in their own homes during these events. Every day, 10,000 people turn age 65 in the U.S. and many are choosing to age and retire in places …

Design Guidelines For Homeless Shelter And Resource Center Site Plans, Samuel Johnson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Homelessness is one of the most pressing humanitarian issues facing the country today. Lack of affordable housing, among many other complicating factors, have led to many cities scrambling to find both short-, middle-, and long-term solutions to the issue. The Covid-19 pandemic added a disruption in services, critical record-keeping, and data-gathering, which has further confounded experts looking for an effective path forward. As it stands, there is a significant gap in academic research addressing best practices for shelter site design, particularly as it relates to landscape. The role of landscape and greenspace within and around a shelter is not well …

Trumpet Directivity From A Rotating Semicircular Array, Samuel D. Bellows, Joseph E. Avila, Timothy W. Leishman

Directivity

The directivity function of a played musical instrument describes the angular dependence of its acoustic radiation and diffraction about the instrument, musician, and musician’s chair. Directivity influences sound in rehearsal, performance, and recording environments and signals in audio systems. Because high-resolution, spherically comprehensive measurements of played musical instruments have been unavailable in the past, the authors have undertaken research to produce and share such data for studies of musical instruments, simulations of acoustical environments, optimizations of microphone placements, and other applications. The authors acquired the data from repeated chromatic scales produced by a trumpet played at mezzo-forte in an anechoic …

Reintroducing Hemp (Rongony) In The Material Palette Of Madagascar: A Study On The Potential Of Hemp Clay Components And Its Impact On Social And Ecological Communities., Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina

Masters Theses

When mentioning the word hemp, especially in the local language of Madagascar, the literal translation does not set it apart from marijuana, as they are both called “rongony” - creating the stigma around hemp as the negative stereotype of marijuana. However, the material has been used by the ancestors of Madagascar, as well as across cultures, in its fibrous form to produce fabrication like textile goods and packaging. During colonization, the prohibition of hemp intensified, and since then, any activity related to either of these plants is prohibited and will end in severe punitive measures. This thesis explores the strengths …

Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories Of Water And Earth, Alexis Violet

Masters Theses

Unearthing Complexity investigates conceptions of time and surface through geological stories of the water and earth. Building on theories of deep time, hydrofeminism, critical zones, and grounding, I hope to foster a deeper awareness of time scales other than our own and a more tangible understanding of the embodied experience of matter in the universe. Working toward a new literacy of the water and earth in which they are recognized as living, changing bodies to which we are inherently tied at a molecular level, the site of this multiscalar inquiry occurs in the coastal zones of the Narragansett Bay where …

Gamelan Gong Directivity Dataset, Samuel D. Bellows, Dallin T. Harwood, Kent L. Gee, Micah R. Shepherd

Directivity

No abstract provided.

Limpieza De Asbestos En La Ciudad De Nueva York, Ariana G. Perez-Castells

Capstones

This is the story of how asbestos is removed in New York City, and who carries out the work. It's unclear how much more asbestos abatement is left in the county, and the U.S. has not completely banned the dangerous material, unlike over 50 other countries across the world. Both of these things could change soon. A new study that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will carry out by December 2024 would give us a better picture of how much asbestos there is still in buildings and how much more removal work is to be done. At the same time, …

A “Third Place” For The Little Rock Air Force Base, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

The third place is a widely understood concept coined by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg to denote those life-affirming civic places that are neither work nor home. In an effort lead by Clemson University, the UACDC partnered with the Little Rock Air Force Base to develop a Social Center – or a Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR)/Outdoor Recreation (ODR) Center per official military nomenclature – using mass timber technology. Two schemes reflecting mat building typology, a deep-plan, large, horizontal building developed from repeatable modules, were prepared by the UACDC studio at the level of Schematic Design. The first scheme, The Shed …

U.S. Army Medical Command’S Medical Treatment Facilities’ Response To Sars-Cov-2 (Covid-19), Seyedmohammad Ahmadshahi

All Theses

Starting in December 2019 to the current time in May 2022, COVID-19 was a devastating pandemic with approximately 440 million cases and 6 million deaths worldwide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2021). The United States (US) with roughly 90 million cases and 1 million deaths (CDC, 2021) was one of the epicenters of the outbreak since the beginning. The pandemic has significantly impacted the health systems across the US with unpredictable surges of highly infectious patients with uncertain symptomology and acuity levels, requiring isolation and critical level of care (Brambilla et al., 2021).

Based on the findings from …

Kemar Hats Head Orientation Directivity, Samuel D. Bellows, Timothy W. Leishman

Directivity

This directivity data set for a KEMAR head head-and-torso simulator (HATS) includes head orientations in 14 directions in 5° steps starting from 0° to 40° and then in 10° steps from 40° to 90°. The full spherical measurements followed at an a = 0.97 m radius with the mouth aperture at the spherical center. The sampling density and distribution followed the AES 5° dual-equiangular sampling standard, omitting the south pole (θ = 180°). Thus, each spherical directivity assessment included 36 polar-angle θ samples and 72 azimuthal-angle ϕ samples. The presented data include 22 1/3-octave bands, ranging from 80 Hz …

Application Of The Aho-Corasick Algorithm To Create A Network Intrusion Detection System, Komil Tashev, Mokhinabonu Agzamova, Nozima Axmedova

Bulletin of TUIT: Management and Communication Technologies

Nowadays the Internet is very massive and the need for a system to protect the networks from being attacked becomes very important. One of the main goals of studying pattern matching techniques is their significant role in real-world applications, such as the intrusion detection systems branch. The purpose of the network attack detection systems NIDS is to protect the infocommunication network from unauthorized access. This article provides an analysis of the exact match and fuzzy matching methods, and discusses a new implementation of the classic Aho-Corasick pattern matching algorithm at the hardware level. The proposed approach to the implementation of …

Art And Empathy: Self Discovery In A Dark Forest, Younser Lee

Graduate School of Art Theses

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 40 million people report feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress as the world moves at an increasingly rapid pace and faces unprecedented challenges. However, many ignore these negative thoughts and fail to acknowledge them as a serious issue. My art, which shares my own experiences, creates safe, cathartic places for viewers to think about their own emotional experiences. Crucial to this process is my use of daily objects and the creation of individualized, participatory, and multisensory experiences.

My art relates to daily life and the negative emotions that we experience daily. I …

Constructing The Panama Canal: A Brief History, Ian E. Phillips

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

Seeking to commemorate the construction of the Panama Canal, an engineering marvel widely considered a contender for the eighth wonder of the world, this article attempts to retell the story of the Canal's construction by synthesizing a narrative centered on the Canal under French and American leadership, worker segregation, and labor conditions at the Isthmus.

No Visitors Allowed: How Health Systems Can Better Engage Patients’ Families During A Pandemic, Jennifer Schlimgen, Amy Frye

Patient Experience Journal

The ravages of COVID -19 and the no visitor policies that accompany it have forged a tectonic shift in the patient and family experience. This hit home for me with a recent family member health event and hospitalization, leading me to think “we HAVE to do better!” Why should hospitals and health systems care about family involvement during COVID-19?

Experience Framework

This article is associated with the Patient, Family & Community Engagement lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework (https://www.theberylinstitute.org/ExperienceFramework).

• Access other PXJ articles related to this lens.
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Covid-10, Healthcare Interior Design + Provider Experience - How Does Your Space Work For You?, Ruth E.P. Deibler

Graduate Research Posters

The lack of research on healthcare staff experience and interior design of the spaces they work in is evident. A focus on staff perspective is needed, particularly staff who navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. This research seeks to capture those stories to develop further research in order to improve staff experience. The initial phase of this mixed-methods approach is a survey. Hypothetically, by placing providers at the center of qualitative research related to healthcare interior design, we can better understand existing healthcare spaces. Ideally, we can develop additional evidence-based, human-centered solutions to transform interior environments in healthcare.

The 20-year Women’s Health …

The Influence Of Light In The Built Environment To Improve Mental Health Outcomes, Nathanael T. Kohl

Theses and Dissertations

Current mental health statistics for US active duty and Veteran members justify research into the causes and remedies for those plagued with negative mental health outcomes. Recent research has suggested that the built environment is connected to our mental health. This study investigated this connection with active duty and Veteran populations across the US. A literature review was completed on what factors of light in the built environment affects mental health outcomes. An analysis of active duty and Veteran mental health symptoms and the natural light rating in their residence was completed to understand the design changes that can be …

Enhancing Emergency Care Environments: Supporting Suicidal Distress And Self-Harm Presentations Through Environmental Safeguards And The Built Environment, Stephanie Liddicoat

Patient Experience Journal

Self-harming and suicidal distress are prevalent, worldwide healthcare issues. Existing literature explains that both self-harm and suicidal presentations at Emergency Departments are increasingly occurring, correlating to high costs in healthcare service delivery. This scoping review aimed to (1) identify the current body of literature which examined the relationship between design practice and service user experiences within Emergency Departments for self-harm and suicidal distress presentations, and (2) identify the ways in which the built environment could increase the efficacy of therapeutic efforts through improving service user outcomes and experiences. This scoping review established that there was a paucity of research at …

Average Speech Directivity, Samuel D. Bellows, Claire M. Pincock, Jennifer K. Whiting, Timothy W. Leishman

Directivity

Speech directivity describes the angular dependence of acoustic radiation from a talker’s mouth and nostrils and diffraction about his or her body and chair (if seated). It is an essential physical aspect of communication affecting sounds and signals in acoustical environments, audio, and telecommunication systems. Because high-resolution, spherically comprehensive measurements of live, phonetically balanced speech have been unavailable in the past, the authors have undertaken research to produce and share such data for simulations of acoustical environments, optimizations of microphone placements, speech studies, and other applications. The measurements included three male and three female talkers who repeated phonetically balanced passages …

Accessible Design In Rural Health Care: Usability Profile Of Outpatient Health Care Facilities In Rural West Virginia., Jordan E. Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became law in 1990. Since then, research has shown that people with disabilities continue to experience environmental, systematic, and structural barriers to health care. The purpose of this research is to explore the prevalence of barriers in rural West Virginia health facilities and the relationship between building characteristics (like age and purpose) and accessibility. The researcher evaluated ten rural outpatient member-sites of the West Virginia Practice-Based Research Network using a survey to understand building characteristics and a tool to measure essential features for a facility to be considered ‘usable’. Findings included a negative correlation …