Daydreams of a Daydreamer

"What is most truly human about man, what is perhaps his greatest gift derived from evolution and perhaps his greatest resource in his mastery of the environment and of himself, is his capacity for fantasy." -Jerome Singer The mind is inherently restless. Fifteen to 50 percent of our days consist of daydreaming. Research has found that daydreaming is our minds default mode. It brings us not only unforeseen hours of virtual pleasure and joy, guilt and anxiety, but it also helps generate our sense of self and may even be the key to consciousness. "Daydreams of a Daydreamer" is an investigation of my hopes aspirations and desires. Having been brought up in an extremely religious environment and recently "coming out of the closet" there is a continuing urge in my life to resolve these opposing cultures. Though I no longer practice my former religion, I am learning to make peace with how it affects who I am. I chose cement and crochet to represent perceived characteristics of these two cultures, respectively our physical needs, wants and carnal desires, and our need for spiritual well being. The materials mended into each sculpture are a way of mediating between the two. This mending in my art is a way of healing. Much of this healing and resolve comes from the process of making my work. Within the process of life molding and casting I am able to drawing out representations of our physical needs, wants and carnal desires. Partial figures are caste in order to pinpoint areas of tension and relaxation. All the casts are from the male figure as a form of self-investigation. The repetitive action of crocheting is a rhythmic motion that provides me with ample time to daydream. Crocheting becomes a form of busy work, work that tends to let our minds drift and sift through other thoughts. The crochet also serves as a spiritual signifier. The way it can flow, cover and embed itself with the figure but at the same time be distinctive from the body resonates my thoughts on how spirituality seems to support us, give us hope and weave in and out of our lives

IMPROVED SYNTHESIS OF 3-ARYL-ISOXAZOLES AS INTERMEDIATES FOR NOVEL G-QUADRUPLEX BINDING ANTI-TUMOR AGENTS

As a promising new target for chemotherapy G-quadruplexes (G4) have drawn great interest from the scientific community. Current chemotherapeutic agents exhibit broad toxicity to patients; G4 has the potential to be selectively targeted by novel chemotherapeutic agents that exhibit toxicity specific towards cancer cells. Anthracenyl isoxazolyl amides (AIMs) have shown potent anti-tumor activity and have evidence to support them as G4 binding molecules. Studies of the AIMs’ unique mechanism of action require an efficient synthesis of target molecules. For our system, methods traditionally used to synthesize isoxazoles were inefficient and gave poor yields. A critical comparison of methods to prepare sterically hindered 3-aryl isoxazoles containing fused aromatic rings using the nitrile oxide cycloaddition (NOC) revealed that modification of the method of Bode, Hachisu, Matsuura and Suzuki (BHMS), was far superior to that of the enamine method. Utilization of either triethyl amine as a base or sodium enolates of diketone, ketoester and ketoamide dipolarophiles gave much higher yields as well as fewer by-products from the NOC. Here-in is reported the improved synthesis of 3-aryl-isoxazoles via an adaption of the BHMS method. Included in this report is the crystallographic data for Ethyl 3-(10\u27-bromo-9\u27-anthracenyl)-5-methyl-4-isoxazolcarboxylate. As seen in the crystal structure of the chapter 2 title compound the isoxazole plane is nearly orthogonal to the plane of the anthracene; which is thought to be a necessity for the AIMs to interact with G4. This conformation is ideal for both pi-stacking with the guanine decks and polar interactions with the phosphate backbone of quadruplex DNA

A MODEL BASED APPROACH TO THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPUTER AIDED PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

This work investigated the use of generic models in the early stages of the design and implementation of computer aided production management (CAPM) systems. A set of issues that affect the success of such CAPM systems was identified, using information obtained from literature and observations made by the author during an in-depth case study of the design and implementation of a CAPM system. The set of issues included the failure of many manufacturing companies to take a systemic perspective of CAPM and the importance of developing a thorough understanding of existing systems and how these systems are currently integrated. Requirements were proposed for an improved approach to the design and implementation of CAPM systems. Taking the requirements into consideration the concepts underlying the use of and types of models were explored. In particular, the use of generic models and how generic models could help manufacturing companies were considered. The work also investigated the use of soft systems thinking and the concept of a business process to encourage a systemic perspective to be taken. A genetic process model was proposed as a means of meeting the requirements of an improved approach. A generic model of an "order fulfilment" process in a manufacturing company was developed and a way of using it which embodies soft systems principles was proposed. The model and its use was validated using five key needs of practitioners. The validation involved a review of the model by practitioners and the use of the model in a local company as part of a project to design and implement a CAPM system. The originality of this work lies in the development by the author of a generic model which can be used as part of an improved model based approach to the design and implementation of CAPM systems. This should provide clear advantages over existing approaches

Religious Internationalism: the Ethics of War and Peace in the Thought of Paul Tillich

The purpose of this study is to assemble and assess the ethics of war and peace in the writings of Paul Tillich. It proceeds chronologically, sketching the evolution of Tillich's thought from the period of his World War One chaplaincy in the German Imperial Army through the time of the Cold War, when he was one of the most prominent Protestant theologians in the United States.The material for this study includes two hundred seventy-five primary sources and nearly two hundred secondary sources. Tillich's corpus ranges from lectures and occasional articles to theological treatises, from political and social theory to sermons and radio addresses, from systematic theology to philosophy of history.Chapter one analyzes Tillich's theological roots and his chaplaincy sermons as the starting point for his thoughts on power, nation, and nationalism. Chapter two examines his post war turn to socialist thought and his participation in religious socialism, fueling his cultural analyses and culminating in his forced emigration under Hitler. Chapter three probes the transitional, American inter war period of Tillich's work, giving special attention to his self-described boundary perspective as well as the one treatise he wrote on religion and international affairs. Chapter four is devoted to his Voice of America speeches, written and broadcasted into his former homeland during World War Two. Chapter five covers the same Second World War period, giving special attention to Tillich's message to his English-speaking audience and emphasizing social and world reconstruction.Chapter six turns to the Cold War period and Tillich's apparently lessening interest in political and social theory and interpretation of history, but his simultaneous commitment to paths toward personhood in a internationally bipolar world.The concluding seventh chapter assembles Tillich's ethics of war and peace as an ethic of religious internationalism. It assesses the ethic, offering suggestions for adjustments intended to give it more universal significance. The study concludes that Tillich's thought has provocative contributions to make to current debates regarding civilizational conflict, economics and international justice, trade and globalization, the defense of unprotected minorities, and immigration policy

Protein-S Deficiency Diagnosed Post-ACL Injury in a Collegiate Track and Field Athlete

OBJECTIVES 1.Summarize details of unique case involving undiagnosed clotting disorder in a collegiate athlete. 2.Present overview regarding mechanism and epidemiology of protein S deficiency. 3.Identify the role of the certified athletic trainer in the evaluation and treatment process, and as a patient advocate. 4.Emphasize importance of trust and communication between athlete, certified athletic trainer, and team physician throughout evaluation and treatment

Reconsidering laminate nonsymmetry

Nonsymmetric laminates are commonly precluded from composite design due to perceptions of reduced performance arising from in- and out-of-plane coupling. This coupling introduces warpage during cure—leading to raised stresses, together with diminished buckling and load carrying capacity. However, these reduced performance characteristics are rarely quantified and included in the design process; instead the symmetric-only paradigm remains pervasive at the cost of a significantly reduced design space. Warpage is largely driven by mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion between sublaminates located above and below the midplane and can be predicted by the classical laminate theory. Acknowledging that all symmetric laminates in multipart structures have build stresses from assembly, it is proposed that subsets of nonsymmetric laminates that translate to similar raised stress levels be considered for design. Challenging this symmetric-only design paradigm would permit greater design freedom and offer new routes to elastically tailor composite structures. Further analysis of structural performance is assessed in terms of reduced loading and buckling capacity

African American Adults’ Experiences with the Health Care System: In Their Own Words

African Americans suffer a disproportionate burden of death and illness from a number of different chronic diseases. Inequalities in health care practices and poor patient and provider communication between African American patients and health care professionals contribute to these disparities. We describe findings from focus groups with 79 urban African Americans in which the participants discussed their interactions with the healthcare system as well as beliefs and opinions of the healthcare system and professionals. Analysis revealed five major themes: (1) historical and contextual foundations; (2) interpersonal experiences with physicians and other health care workers; (3) discrimination; (4) trust, opinions and attitudes, and (5) improving health care experiences. These findings indicate that perceptions of discrimination and racism were prevalent among African Americans in this study, and that the expectation of a negative interaction is a barrier to seeking care. Authors discuss prevention and public health implications of these findings and make recommendations for health care practitioners

An Exploration in Optomechanics: from Trampoline Resonators to Multimode Mechanics

The quantum to classical transition in large mechanical systems is still a mystery. An ideal tool for exploring this new regime of physics is cavity optomechanics. The field of optomechanics uses light in an optical cavity to finely control and detect mechanical motion. Remarkable progress has been made in recent years with the generation of non-classical states of motion. If such states can be extended into the macroscopic regime, new physics may emerge due to the unprecedented scale.In this dissertation we work towards the goal of macroscopic quantum optomechanics by developing new mechanical devices, experimental techniques and experimental protocols. First we fabricate nested trampoline resonators, devices with high mechanical quality factor, excellent vibrational isolation from the mechanical environment and mirrors which can support high finesse cavities. With these devices we explore a new optomechanical interaction in which spatially separated, nondegenerate mechanical modes can exchange their state. Finally, we investigate theoretically how this interaction can generate a quantum entangled state between multiple mechanical modes, bypassing many experimental difficulties of previously proposed schemes. These developments help pave the way towards phonon interference experiments in macroscopic resonators