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Witness Bearing in Holocaust Musical Presentation: Confronting Trauma in Mieczysław Weinberg’s Opera 'The Passenger'
No full textIn a letter to his second wife, Polish Soviet composer Mieczysław Weinberg wrote: “If I consider myself marked out by the preservation of my life, then that gives me a kind of feeling that it is impossible to repay the debt…” As the sole survivor of his Jewish family, Weinberg dedicated a large part of his compositional career to the memorialization of the trauma born of World War II and the Holocaust. According to Wlodarski (2015) Holocaust themed worked function as “secondary musical witnesses,” prompting composers, performers, and audience members to collectively bear witness to trauma. This dissertation advances scholarship on the musically mediated transference of trauma by expanding Wlodarski’s framework to include artists and institutions, with Weinberg’s 1968 Holocaust opera The Passenger as a paradigmatic case study.Adapted from the 1962 eponymous Polish novel by Auschwitz survivor and journalist Zofia Posmysz, The Passenger follows the collision between Lisa, a Holocaust perpetrator, and Marta, a Holocaust survivor, within two separate temporal-spatial planes: a ship bound for Brazil in 1960, and the concentration camp of Auschwitz in 1944. This dissertation approaches the opera from two angles, one historical, the other contemporary: (1) as a musical score that reflects the decision-making process by its librettist and composer as they adapted the novel; and (2) as an example of a living operatic performance that embodies the experiences of its artists as it is framed by its producing institutions and acts upon its changing audiences. Using methodologies of literary criticism, adaptation theory, musical analysis, ethnography, and analysis of visual, print, and digital media archives, this dissertation contributes to scholarship in opera and performance studies, music and trauma studies, and Holocaust studies. It is also designed to serve as a resource for institutions and individual artists who perform or stage Holocaust repertoire
MODELING THE KARENIA BREVIS BLOOMS IN THE WEST FLORIDA COASTAL OCEAN: UNRAVELING THE INFLUENCE OF NUTRIENT PULSES, HURRICANE EVENTS, AND MIXOTROPHIC GRAZING
No full textKarenia brevis, a toxin-producing dinoflagellate, blooms almost annually on the West Florida Shelf, posing serious ecological, economic, and public health risks in coastal regions. While previous studies have highlighted the importance of nutrient sources, such as offshore nitrogen fixation, the remineralization of organic matter from zooplankton excretion, and terrestrial inputs, the links between K. brevis blooms and episodic nutrient release events, extreme storm disturbances, and mixotrophic processes remain poorly understood. Therefore, this dissertation developed a three-dimensional coupled hydrodynamic-biogeochemical model to investigate the impacts of these factors. Using the 2021 Piney Point release event as a case study, modeled ecological responses revealed a succession from fast-growing, short-lived r-strategists, such as diatoms, to slow-growing, long-lived K-strategists like K. brevis following the nutrient injection. Nutrient budget analysis suggested that a significant portion of the nutrients initially utilized by the diatom bloom was retained in the system through the deposition of organic matter and dead cells, which could provide additional nutrient sources for the development of the summer K. brevis bloom. In comparison, extreme storm events can deliver not only a huge amount of nutrient loads but also alter coastal circulation. Model results suggested that wind-driven upwelling and expansive, nutrient-rich river plumes caused by Hurricane Ian (2022) created favorable conditions for an earlier and more intense coastal K. brevis bloom. Sensitivity analyses identified storm-induced circulation as a key factor for bloom initiation, while the magnitude of nutrient loading largely determined bloom intensity. In contrast, the effects of suspended sediments and freshwater input were found to be relatively minor and short-lived.
In addition, a novel modeling framework was developed in this study, incorporating recent advances in mixotrophic dynamics to investigate the impact of mixotrophy on K. brevis blooms. By conducting a hindcast run and a hypothetical run without mixotrophy, the results demonstrated the importance of mixotrophy in bloom persistence and expansion. Mixotrophic grazing on Synechococcus is shown to be able to not only provide a nutrient and energy source but also a competitive advantage over the picoplankton prey cells with higher nutrient affinity and larger surface-area-to-volume ratio.
Overall, this dissertation presents a mechanistic modeling framework that enhances our understanding of K. brevis bloom dynamics and provides important insights for predicting bloom development under future environmental scenarios
Solar Power for All: Exploring the Potential of Solar Energy in Broadway East, Baltimore
No full textThis thesis investigates how landscape architects can design multifunctional solar energy landscapes (MSELs) to support energy justice, ecological restoration, and community revitalization in Broadway East, Baltimore. Focusing on three vacant sites, the thesis evaluates their potential to support agrivoltaics, ecovoltaics, and solar parking canopies. Proposed designs integrate solar infrastructure with landscape elements such as shade trees, pollinator meadows, rain gardens, and public gathering spaces to improve environmental performance and neighborhood livability. Grounded in spatial analysis and site-specific design, the thesis demonstrates how solar infrastructure can be adapted to local social and ecological conditions, transforming underutilized land into multifunctional community assets. This work highlights the critical role of landscape architects in shaping energy transitions that are not only technically efficient, but also equitable, resilient, and responsive to place
Metamorphoses: A Costume Design
No full textThis document presents a detailed account of the costume design implementation forMetamorphoses, a theatrical adaptation by Mary Zimmerman. Drawing inspiration from Ovid’s esteemed
epic poem of the same title, the script is organized into ten distinct narratives, accompanied by a
pre-show, each showcasing the transformative journeys of prominent figures from Greek mythology. In
the University of Maryland production, audiences are introduced to working-class characters within a
historical hotel ruin setting before the performance begins. These characters take on roles such as
laundresses, maintenance workers, docents, and security staff. The overall production design is anchored
in a neutral elemental theme: water. A substantial pool of water, centrally positioned on the alley stage,
plays a pivotal role in shaping the interactions and transformations that unfold throughout the
performance. The University of Maryland's School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies produced
this show from November 15th to 22nd, 2024. The production was directed by Kenyatta Rogers, with
contributions from August Henney in scenic design, Scott Monnin in lighting design, Timothy Kelly in
projection design, Leo Grierson in sound design, and Bailey Hammett in costume design. The stage
management team was led by Adam Hawley, with support from assistant stage managers Erin Sanders
and Amberly Kuo. This thesis meticulously documents the design process, tracing the evolution from the
initial concept to the final execution on stage, and includes research renderings, fitting photographs,
design documentation, and production images
Portable miRNA Detection with Ligation-initiated Transcription and CRISPR/Cas12a
No full textEarly detection of cancer is important for improving patient prognosis. miRNAs are good biomarkers for cancer screening because they are found in peripheral blood and their dysregulation is associated with cancer development. However, current miRNA detection assays, like RT-PCR, require expensive equipment. We are developing an assay for detecting specific miRNAs using padlock-probe based rolling circle transcription that activates a CRISPR/Cas12a complex, resulting in the cleavage of DNA-conjugated gold nanoparticles. This produces a colorimetric output that is quantified using a 3D printed portable detector. The portable detector is controlled by a Raspberry Pi that utilizes a PCB heater and thermistor; this incubates the assay at the desired temperature, while regularly taking photos to measure the color change. The presence of miRNA successfully initiates ligation, rolling circle transcription, and the activation of Cas12a. However, the conjugation of gold nanoparticles and the aggregation of gold nanoparticles with the linker still need to be optimized. The portable detector can facilitate the reaction and quantify the assay results without extensive equipment or intensive labor, making it efficient and cost-effective
Investigating the Role of Macrophage miR-146a in Foreign Body Response to Biomaterials
No full textAnnually, more than 70 million biomedical devices including pacemakers, dental implants, breast implants, and orthopedic prosthetics, are implanted globally, contributing to a total expenditure exceeding US100 billion. Implantation of biomaterials leads to a variety of cellular and tissue responses, including a chronic inflammatory condition known as foreign body response (FBR), resulting in the formation of a fibrous capsule surrounding the implant which isolates the implant from the host tissue. This causes loss of function of the implant, harm to the patient and sometimes even causes death of the patient. The central role of macrophages in driving FBR, undergoing fusion to give rise to destructive foreign body giant cell (FBGC), is well known, yet the precise molecular mechanism is still undefined. To address this gap in knowledge and recognize crucial molecular targets, we conducted a microRNA (miR) analysis and examined the regulatory role of macrophage-derived miR-146a in regulating FBR. Our research findings include: (a) severity of FBR is inversely related to macrophage-derived miR-146a level; (b) macrophage specific miR-146a regulate expression of genes associated with fibrosis, inflammation and mechanosensation; (c) implant-stiffness induced FBGC formation, collagen deposition, myofibroblast differentiation and F-actin generation is governed by miR-146a in murine implant models; (d) miR-146a drives cellular traction force generation, which is crucial for FBGC formation. These findings indicate the macrophage miR-146 is the central regulator of FBR in response to chemical and physical stimuli. This insight can help us in designing promising therapeutic interventions, as manipulating miR-146a expression or function at the site of the biomaterial implant, could delay or completely stop FBR.
Emerging data supports biophysical cues influence macrophage function and FBR intensity, yet researchers still use conventional 2D cell culture methods which are unable to replicate the three-dimensional nature of cells and tissues. To address this concern, we successfully developed a alginate-collagen 3D microcapsules, that can closely mimic three-dimensional interactions present in cells/tissues. Using this model, we also determined the role of transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) on FBGC formation, F-actin generation and change in genetic expression leading to a more fibrotic and inflammatory outcome. To sum it up, this research has helped us in identifying a novel target miR-146a, which can be used as a selective therapeutic strategy to address FBR
The Many Faces of Generalization: from Traditional ML to LLM Safety
No full textEnsuring the trustworthiness of machine learning systems requires strong generalization not only under distribution shifts but also under adversarial manipulations. This dissertation advances our understanding of trustworthy machine learning from two perspectives: improving generalization through model invariance and equivariance, and improving safety alignment in large language models (LLMs).
The first part of the dissertation investigates how structural priors like invariance can enhance generalization in the vision domain. We introduce the notion of sample cover induced by transformations, which theoretically quantifies the effectiveness of data augmentations and empirically guides data augmentation selection as a data-dependent metric. To tackle robustness against unforeseen data variations, we propose an equivariant domain translation framework that leverages out-of-distribution data to learn unforeseen robustness. Lastly, we draw inspiration from human perception and propose PerceptionCLIP, a two-step method that improves zero-shot image classification by inferring and conditioning on contextual attributes that the model should be invariant to.
The second part focuses on the safety alignment of LLMs. We present AutoDAN, a white-box attack that generates interpretable and transferable jailbreak prompts through gradient-guided text generation, revealing emergent attack strategies. We also use the same framework to automatically generate pseudo-harmful prompts for red-teaming false refusals in safety-aligned LLMs, uncovering trade-offs between safety and usability. Lastly, we introduce AdvPrefix, a prefix-forcing objective that enables more nuanced and effective jailbreaks by automatic model-dependent prefix selection.
This thesis demonstrates that generalization remains a central challenge across both traditional ML and modern LLMs. Together, these contributions provide practical tools and empirical findings for building machine learning systems that generalize better under distribution shifts and adversarial conditions
A Room Inside a Room Inside a Room: Metamedium in Digital Performance
No full textThrough the case study of multimedia solo performance Can You Help Me Decipher Barbara Walters’ Handwriting? (I think she was having an affair with my grandfather) I explore how the incorporation of digital elements within performance can be used to comment on themselves and the politics embedded within them. Drawing from Marshall McLuhan’s Medium is the Massage, This paper posits that meta medium is a marker of digital theatricality through its inherent self awareness, and compares and contrasts the influence of the digital within traditional theatre and solo performance structures and processes
“THE SUPREME COURT PRECIPITATED THE AFFAIR”: A LYNCHING IN MARYLAND, JURY DISCRIMINATION, AND THE SUPREME COURT
No full textIn 1885, the lynching of fifteen-year-old Howard Cooper a few miles outside Baltimore, Maryland, happened during a “Supreme Court moment.” The young man, indicted by an all-white grand jury, hoped to appeal his case to the Court, and it had the potential to advance jury discrimination safeguards and equal protection in a direction favorable to Black defendants, even as the national mood shifted in another direction. The United States Supreme Court decided five cases in 1880 and 1883 wherein Black defendants, with some success, contested state laws based on equal protection grounds, arguing that the laws either outright excluded Black men from serving on juries or were applied in a discriminatory manner with the same impact. Had the Court accepted Cooper’s case, it might have expanded upon the protections against jury discrimination articulated in Strauder v. West Virginia (1880), Ex parte Virginia (1880), Virginia v. Rives (1880), Neal v. Delaware, and Bush v. Kentucky (1883). The white mob lynched Howard Cooper while the local Black community raised funds for a Supreme Court appeal based on his indictment by an all-white grand jury accusing Cooper of raping a white woman. The distinctive aspects of the Maryland law in place in 1885 regarding jury qualification and selection were ripe for Supreme Court review. Howard Cooper’s attorneys cited the court’s rulings from 1880 and 1883 in a failed effort to dismiss his grand jury indictment before the Maryland Court of Appeals. They planned to use these favorable opinions in seeking a writ of appeal from the Supreme Court, and the Court likely would have taken the case. The local community, in fact, the entire United States, was well aware of the Court’s positive turn regarding Black defendants' challenges to all-white juries. Unfortunately for Howard Cooper, this awareness resulted in his death.
This dissertation tells a story of jury discrimination, the denial of equal protection, and the potential for one case to broaden the equal protection afforded Black defendants at a critical time in history. The lynching of a fifteen-year-old Maryland child cut short the possibility of changing the composition of juries for Black defendants, if not permanently, at least for a time.
The Supreme Court did not hear another challenge to the discriminatory exclusion of Black men from juries until 1896 and 1898, when a new Mississippi constitution and laws enacted to prevent Black men from voting also barred them from jury service. Although facially race-neutral, the laws were clearly “applied and administered by public authority with an evil eye and unequal hand.” The Supreme Court approved Mississippi’s tactic for removing Black voters from the rolls, paving the way for the Jim Crow era
Enhancing Transportation Data Accuracy and Integration: Techniques for Small Area Estimation and Data Linkage
No full textReliable transportation data is essential for the development, planning, and management of transportation systems. Traditional data collection methods, such as travel surveys, often lack the necessary granularity and context, making it difficult to fully understand the underlying reasons for travel behaviors and patterns. This dissertation proposes methods for enhancing transportation data integration and reliability, including small area estimation and mobile device data linkage. The research consists of four chapters, each addressing different aspects of data integration and analysis. The first chapter applies small area estimation techniques to combine multiple traditional surveys and census data to estimate the total number of household trips at the census tract level. This chapter provides a comprehensive SAE modeling framework within the transportation data context by integrating direct and synthetic estimations to produce accurate statistics. It includes various small area estimation techniques, such as regression-based models and population synthesis for areas with zero samples, as well as the Fay-Herriot model for areas with small samples. The second chapter focuses on integrating traditional surveys with modern GPS- derived surveys. The feasibility of using data record linkage to link similar travel behavior/trips to identify similar persons is explored. Two techniques are proposed: probabilistic record linkage and similarity-based approach. The objectives are to explore the feasibility of using them in transportation contexts and comparing the effectiveness of these methods. The third chapter extends the second chapter by focusing on optimization techniques for the methods proposed, particularly in the context of high-uncertainty datasets where the ground truth is unknown. This chapter offers solution techniques to optimize overall accuracy, including graphical solutions to identify discrepancies between the two datasets in the absence of ground truth dataset. The fourth chapter presents a practical application that integrates the optimization techniques introduced in Chapter 3 with the linking approaches developed in Chapter 2. Specifically, the optimization techniques are employed to estimate the discrepancy between two datasets: a self-reported trip survey and a GPS-derived trip survey. The estimated discrepancy is subsequently employed to determine the optimal matching parameters, which include the offset, scale, and threshold value, for implementing the linking approaches. In addition to the linkage application, this chapter conducts a statistical comparison of the two linking approaches by analyzing the results of the linked groups. The comparison focuses on aggregated trip characteristics, such as trip duration, trip distance, and the total number of trips per individual. Statistical metrics, including the t-test and distribution overlap values, are applied to evaluate the differences between the matched groups