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AMALIA E CARLO (1812) BY PIETRO CARLO GUGLIELMI IN NAPOLEONIC NAPLES: UNEARTHING A FORGOTTEN OPERA
Full text linkThis dissertation offers a significant contribution to musicology, illuminating an opera lost to obscurity for over two centuries. Its reconstruction is the result of interdisciplinary research encompassing Italian socio-political history, philology, and cultural-linguistic analysis. The opera is Amalia e Carlo, a masterpiece by Pietro Carlo Guglielmi, composed in 1812, which enjoyed a brief period of success before succumbing to the shifting tides of time and political change. Its libretto and musical score were scattered and relegated to the obscurity of archives and closets in Tuscany, Naples, and Munich. The research aims to elucidate the opera\u27s importance not only within the context of its creation during the Napoleonic dominion in Italy and the Kingdom of Naples but also its potential resonance with contemporary audiences.
The in-depth study of Amalia e Carlo offers a comprehensive analysis of its textual and musical content. A crucial aspect of this dissertation is the examination of Andrea Leone Tottola’s libretto—preserved in its original Italian and Neapolitan dialect, transcribed, and translated into both contemporary Italian and English. Moreover, the dissertation provides the first in-depth study of Tottola’s style through a comparative analysis of three of his librettos. Equally significant is the investigation into Pietro Carlo Guglielmi’s legacy as this is the first comprehensive examination of his opera Amalia e Carlo. This dissertation reassesses his contributions by situating his works within the transition from the Classical to the Romantic period and illustrating how he adapted to shifting political and cultural influences from Bourbon to Napoleonic rule. This dissertation also examines the broader influence of Andrea Leone Tottola and Pietro Carlo Guglielmi on Vincenzo Bellini’s opera Adelson e Salvini
INVESTIGATING TREATMENT PLANNING PARAMETERS FOR PROTON ARC TECHNIQUE IN PENCIL BEAM SCANNING (PBS) PROTON THERAPY
Full text linkProton arc pencil beam scanning (PBS) proton therapy is a novel approach to treating complex cancer in the field of radiation therapy. It provides conformal dose coverage to the CTV while reducing dose to healthy tissues. Unlike traditional proton therapy modalities, such as intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT), which primarily relies on static beam delivery, proton arc utilizes a rotational approach to irradiate the tumor from a multitude of angles, utilizing an arc of proton beams. The successful clinical implementation of proton arc PBS technology necessitates the development and validation of advanced treatment planning optimization algorithms and treatment planning techniques to generate clinically viable treatment plans. These new algorithms and treatment planning techniques are crucial to harness the full potential of proton arc, particularly when applied to anatomically challenging sites.
This thesis aims to explore the impact of key treatment planning parameters such as energy layer spacing and spot spacing on the dosimetric quality of proton arc PBS proton therapy plans. The study was performed in eight patients, including four with prostate cancer and four with lung cancer. The dosimetric evaluation included analysis of target coverage, homogeneity index (HI), and OARs sparing to determine an optimal parameter for clinical implementation
MOTHERHOOD: AN ORPHAN OF AMERICAN POLITICS A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STATE ACTORS AS INSTITUTIONS
Full text linkThe political geography of America is relatively unique in the world: the United States is a powerful and wealthy country, but also consists of sub-national actors that retain significant legal powers within their own borders. The political actors in America, at both this smaller level and at the larger Federal level, have uniquely strong institutional power to shape the social and civic life of their citizens. Despite their absolute significance to the survival of their societies, mothers and mothers’ rights have largely been ignored or taken second place to other political issues. As many countries in Europe and other regions in the world have advanced the most basic protections for mothers’ rights, such as paid maternity leave, America has lagged behind. Motherhood, as an institution, has become the orphan of American politics. This dissertation study attempts to understand why, by analyzing and comparing those state-level factors that most affect the power and agency of motherhood
THE EFFECT OF HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE ON THE MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF RED BLOOD CELLS
Full text linkHuntington’s disease (HD) has an impact on brain tissues and can alter the biochemical properties of the peripheral blood. Evidence in existing literature suggests that peripheral mutant Huntingtin protein may be involved and deteriorate HD. Red blood cells (RBCs), being the most abundant type of cells in the peripheral blood, can show detectable changes in their biophysical properties due to subtle changes in cell membranes. These changes can offer a minimally invasive means to track the progression of the disease. The transgenic line R6/2 is used as the disease model. Utilizing the electro-deformation spectroscopy, we measured membrane permittivity, cytoplasm conductivity, and membrane shear modulus of RBCs. This allowed us to track changes in these mechanical and electrical properties due to the aging of the organisms and the progression of HD. Comparison between the wild-type and HD groups verified the impact of the disease, including the impaired weight gain in mice, reduced RBC deformability (higher membrane shear modulus), and increased cytoplasm conductivity. These properties can serve as potential biomarkers to track the progression of the disease
INTEGRATING LIDAR POINT CLOUD AND IMAGERY BASED BUILDING FOOTPRINT FOR 3D LOD BUILDING RECONSTRUCTION
Full text link3D Building reconstruction is crucial for urban planning, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions on critical issues such as flood risk assessment, urban heat island effects and sustainable infrastructure development. Accurate classification of LiDAR point cloud data is fundamental for identifying building structures and separating them from other elements in complex urban environments. In this study, a deep learning-based approach, RandLA-Net, is employed to classify building points from airborne LiDAR data. This classification process serves as a foundation for generating reliable 3D building models. To enhance classification accuracy, this research integrates building footprints as a reference layer, refining the detection of building points and ensuring the validation of the classification results. By aligning classified building points with derived building footprints, the study improves the precision of extracted building points. Once the building points are improved, they are utilized to reconstruct detailed 3D building geometric models at different levels of detail including LOD 0, 1 and 2. This research further focuses on reconstructing and automating the workflow for LOD extraction by employing the Open3D library to generate LOD models efficiently. By combining advanced classification and building footprint extraction techniques with an automated building reconstruction process, this approach optimizes the utility of LiDAR point cloud data, providing detailed LOD models that support a wide range of spatial decision-making processes
EXPLORING EMOTIONAL AWARENESS THROUGH INTERACTIVE DESIGN
Full text linkThis research was inspired by my emotional journey after relocating to the United States. Navigating a new culture, language barriers, and unfamiliar routines brought a complex mix of emotions. These experiences led me to begin to better understand and manage my emotional responses. That process revealed the importance of emotional awareness and became the foundation for my exploration into how design can help individuals recognize and engage with their emotions more meaningfully.
Emotions are significant in human life, from social relationships to decision-making. However, many people fail to understand their emotions or how to control them. Individuals experience emotions differently, which may fluctuate from one extreme to the other, depending on circumstances. Understanding emotions help us show self-compassion to ourselves and others when times are hard. It also allows us to make thoughtful decisions for the future rather than just reacting to what\u27s happening right now. Understanding and managing emotions nurtures personal well-being and fosters empathy and collaboration. As a medium of interaction and engagement, interactive digital and physical design has the unique potential to facilitate emotional awareness. This study aims to achieve this goal through interactive posters and immersive installations, which invite viewers to connect with their emotions, fostering reflection, dialogue, and self-awareness.
This research investigates how design can enhance emotional awareness, which is defined as the ability to recognize, label, and manage emotions. It will explore how interactive design can be used as a tool to help people identify and express their emotions and evoke empathy and emotional intelligence in shared contexts. This thesis explores how people can be empowered to better understand their emotional experiences through interacting with design, fostering both personal growth and societal well-being
EDUCATION IN DEATH: THE POST-MORTEM LIFE OF ACADEMIC COLLECTIONS
Full text linkFlorida Atlantic University has a skeletal teaching collection made up of nine disarticulated individuals. Like other anatomical skeletal collections housed in universities, FAU’s collection has unknown origins. With the current shift in bioarchaeology, it is important to take any steps necessary towards a more ethical practice and properly answer for the unethical practices that led to countless collections being obtained without consent. Keeping proper documentation should always have been a necessity, but moving forward, instructors can introduce curation taphonomy forms into their routine documentation. I drafted and tested these forms on five of the nine skeletal individuals in FAU’s collection to document any damage that has been caused by routine handling. Moving towards a more ethical method of collection, forms like this will be necessary as future collections will be from bodies actively donated with informed consent or obtained with the informed consent of descendants
PRIVATELY OWNED FIRMS WITH PUBLIC DEBT: ARE LOWER BORROWING COSTS MORE IMPORTANT THAN TAX DEDUCTIONS?
No full textThe Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) limited the amount of interest expense that firms can deduct while at the same time, interest rates in the U.S. were relatively low. I examine the differences in leverage between private companies that issue public debt (POPDs) and firms that issue equity that is publicly traded. I find that POPDs have higher leverage than public equity firms. I further examine whether the interest limitation provisions of TCJA cause firms to reduce their debt post TCJA. I find that both POPDs and public equity firms that have limitations on interest deduction reduce their debt post TCJA. Finally, I examine whether low interest rates or tax benefits associated with the interest are more important to POPDs. I find that POPDs that enjoy lower interest rates have higher leverage compared to POPDs that merely derive a tax benefit from the interest deduction. Overall, my findings document that the objectives of TJCA are being met, but there are significant differences between POPDs and public equity firms in terms of their leverage
A Comparative Analysis of the Voicing Systems in Tagalog and Hiligaynon
Full text linkTagalog and Hiligaynon are both languages from the Philippines that use the unique Philippine-style topic marking system. This system illustrates a special relationship between the verb and the subject or object through an affix marking focus. Tagalog is well-studied, but there is much debate on its voicing system. Hiligaynon and its voicing system are understudied. This paper explores the voicing system in both languages to better understand their similarities. Tagalog and Hiligaynon have related voicing systems, however, Tagalog uses five voices, separating the beneficiary and locative voices, while Hiligaynon has four, combining these two voices into the referential voice. Even though the systems in the two languages are comparable, more research should be undertaken to better address how affixation used in each language can carry multiple pieces of information, and semantic ambiguities in the verbs and noun phrases can lead to problems when counting the voices present
Emotional Development in Infancy
Full text linkDevelopmental science has documented that infants’ emotional reactions are shaped by individual dispositions and their environment. This study investigated fear responses along with patterns of brain development in infants 6 to 10 months. Nine infant-mother dyads participated, with each infant observed twice (18 visits). An electroencephalogram (EEG) was used to analyze brain activity during resting-state and fear-eliciting conditions. Infant fear vocalizations were evaluated and coded during two conditions, i.e., an unfamiliar object (an electronic toy-spider), and an unfamiliar adult approaching. Results indicated infants’ fear vocalizations were stimuli-specific, with more fear expressed towards approaching strangers than the novel object. Findings also showed a relationship between heightened fearful vocalizations towards strangers in certain infants and right frontal-region EEG asymmetry. These findings support that infant fear responses vary based on the type of fear-eliciting stimuli as well as the role of individual dispositions, with patterns of infant right frontal EEG asymmetry linked to temperamental fear