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Mapping Rhythmoscapes through Art: Ethico-Aesthetics, Movement, and Process Philosophy
No full textThis research-creation navigates the terrain of ethico-aesthetic inquiry as a philosophical excavation, proposing a procedural account of art as an unfolding force—an ongoing negotiation with the thresholds of perception, thought, and experience—and of composition as the generative shaping of conditions for emergence rather than the arrangement of forms.
Traversing various creative practices that move with concepts such as vortexing, crawling, vegetal life, stammering, ficta, giftfullness, and secrecy, this project reveals acts of creation—compositional processes—as modes of thought in motion: appetitive, affectively driven, and generative of ecologies of experience that elude the conventional bounds of the conceptual and the aesthetic.
By unsettling the presumed absolutes of classical and Enlightenment rationality—time, essence, matter, truth, value, justice—this work foregrounds the processual, relational, and contingent ontogenesis of composition, creation, and thought—art as thought-in-act: an immanent, affective operation through which form, and idea co-emerge in the unfolding of the event. Artful acts function as morphogenetic processes that displace perceptual thresholds and ossified structures, activating relational fields for novel modalities of sensation, and ethical attunement within an ecology of ongoing transformation.
Drawing on the lexicon of process philosophy, this project thinks through movement as a generative vector within milieus of individuation, subjectivity, reality, and experience, unsettling, entrenched preconceptions and opening pathways for the emergence of new sensibilities within a field of continuous becoming. The oscillation between form and formlessness, continuity and discontinuity, solidity and liquidity, opens onto abolitionist paraontology and radical epistemology wherein uncertainty is embraced as a condition of thought and making becomes a temporally entangled process of abstraction-in-act.
This work illuminates art’s capacity to carve out a procedural, ethico-aesthetic space through living sympathetic and luring composition, where continual reinvention unfolds through thresholds, fissures, and edges: sites where tension, rupture, and friction catalyze machinic transformations. It traces how such practices cultivate a sensibility attuned to chaosmos process, where meaning remains in a perpetual assignification, an ongoing re-signifying through the modulation of intensities and relational thresholds. Art, as an artful practice, moves beyond its conventional boundaries, stepping away from traditional definitions and forging its own path as an uncontained, transversal, machinic act of composition and generation of novelty
Learning Flexible Graph Representations for 3D Human Pose Estimation
No full textAccurate 3D human pose estimation remains a significant challenge in computer vision, especially under occlusions, complex joint articulation, and depth ambiguities. Graph Convolutional Network (GCN)-based methods have proven effective by modeling the human skeleton as a graph of joints and bones. However, standard GCNs are limited by one-hop neighbor aggregation, as well as spectral bias, which emphasizes low-frequency features while overlooking fine-grained motion. This thesis addresses these issues by introducing flexible graph convolutional network (Flex-GCN), a novel architecture that enhances spatial awareness through multi-hop aggregation controlled by a scaling parameter. Flex-GCN integrates residual graph convolutional blocks and a global response normalization layer to improve feature selectivity and contextual understanding. Moreover, adjacency modulation enables dynamic graph restructuring, allowing better representation of distant joint relationships. Building upon these findings, the second part of this thesis introduces the
Flexible Graph Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (FG-KAN), a more expressive framework that integrates the Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (KAN) with graph-based learning. FG-KAN replaces the fixed activation functions in standard GCNs with learnable, univariate functions applied directly to graph edges, enhancing both interpretability and adaptability, which not only mitigates spectral bias but also enables the model to capture fine-grained joint dynamics crucial for accurately estimating complex and fast body movements. FG-KAN incorporates residual connections, scalable multi-hop feature aggregation, and symmetric adjacency modulation, ensuring both computational efficiency and improved generalization. Comprehensive experimental evaluations on benchmark datasets such as Human3.6M and MPI-INF-3DHP demonstrate that both Flex-GCN and FG-KAN outperform competing baseline methods in terms of Mean Per Joint Position Error, Procrustes Aligned Mean Per Joint Position Error, and Percentage of Correct Keypoints. Notably, while both
models demonstrate strong robustness, interpretability is a distinct advantage of FG-KAN, as evidenced by qualitative visualizations and ablation studies
More Than Meets the Eye: Unpacking the Popularity of Hallmark Movies
No full textWhat began as a humble greeting card company soon evolved into a major media conglomerate capable of producing up to 40 new feature-length movies during Christmas time alone. How did Hallmark achieve such a transformation? This thesis explores the role that social media has played in propelling Hallmark movies' popularity to astronomical heights. After providing a historical overview of Hallmark and a timeline of its growth, I will provide an analysis of how the company uses social media to promote its films and communicate with its fans. This will include a breakdown of how the network incorporates Christmas into its social media and programming strategies throughout the entire year. After examining how Hallmark manages its own social media profiles, I will look at the types of content being produced by fans and anti-fans. This section will begin by defining what an anti-fan is as well as explaining how analyzing their online behavior helps us understand more about the media objects they are responding to. I will then provide an analysis of the content being created by fans and haters of Hallmark movies alike. Through analysis, this thesis aims to map out Hallmark’s social media strategy in conjunction with its complex fandom to explain the popularity of its seemingly unremarkable movies
Assessing Small-Sample Error in Labor Mobility Statistics: Evidence from a Simulated Two-Sector Stochastic Stock-and-Flow Model
No full textThis paper analyzes the measurement error arising from limited sample sizes in the estimation of gross and net mobility rates using simulated data and a two-sector stochastic stock-and-flow model. It further investigates how the magnitude of these errors changes with increasing sample size and in response to reductions in the volatility of underlying stochastic shocks. The results demonstrate that sampling variability in mobility statistics declines substantially with increasing sample size, but the rate of improvement diminishes beyond a certain point. I identify a sample size of 10,000 observations as a critical point beyond which the marginal reduction in standard error becomes negligible
A Data-Driven Approach for Capacity Planning and Enhancing Courier Efficiency for an Online Food Delivery Business.
No full textThe rapid growth of e-commerce and on-demand food delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Meituan has significantly influenced consumer purchasing behavior. To meet rising demand, platforms often rely on either in-house or crowdsourced couriers. While crowdsourcing helps reduce logistics costs, it also introduces operational challenges, particularly around courier performance and behavior, factors that can directly impact delivery efficiency and customer satisfaction. With order volumes increasing at a fast pace, there is a growing need for data-driven strategies that can support better planning and resource management.
This study uses real-world data from the Meituan food delivery platform to conduct an exploratory data analysis (EDA) of courier behavior and performance. Key performance indicators (KPIs) examined include delivery time, distance traveled, courier workload, order acceptance rate, courier activity and inactive time, spatial-temporal delivery patterns, fulfillment rates, and average delivery time during peak and off-peak periods. In addition, several machine learning models: Linear Regression, Random Forest, XGBoost, LightGBM, K-Nearest Neighbors, and Support Vector Machine, are implemented to predict order volumes across different times and regions. These models are evaluated using standard error metrics, including RMSE, MSE, MAE, MAPE and R-squared. By integrating insights from both the EDA and predictive modelling, this study proposes data-driven strategies to enhance operational planning and efficiency.
Keywords: Machine Learning, On-demand Food Delivery, Crowdsourced couriers, EDA, Courier Performance, Spatial-temporal analysi
Hydrofoils with High Dihedral Wings
No full textHydrofoils are among the most efficient watercraft and offer a promising solution for sustainable maritime transport through electrification. Hydrofoils, i.e., wings operating in water, lift watercraft above the water surface to decrease drag and increase cruising speed. The reduction in drag translates to improved cruising efficiency, which is essential for electric watercraft with batteries that have limited energy density. However, maintaining sufficient stability during the foiling mode remains a critical concern due to the limited operational altitude at a one-foot scale and the complex two-phase flow environment, unlike aircraft. This thesis investigates the influence of high dihedral angles (30° - 50°) on the passive stability characteristics, specifically roll, pitch, and yaw, of a canard-configured surface-piercing hydrofoil watercraft.
This thesis proposes a multiphase Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation framework via a commercial numerical simulation package (Star-CCM+) to simulate the air-water interface. The proposed framework can address the two-phase gas-liquid complex flow condition, including ventilation and submergence effects, using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) model. The watercraft was modeled as a rigid body, and the effect of the dihedral angle was isolated for the study. Small disturbance theory was used to obtain stability derivatives, which assessed the hydrofoil watercraft’s initial response to perturbations.
Simulation results demonstrate that dihedral angles in the range of 30° to 40° provide the most favorable initial stability characteristics across the longitudinal, lateral, and directional stability axes. In contrast, dihedral angles beyond 45° lead to diminished pitch and yaw stability and increased coupling between motion axes, which may increase the risk of oscillatory behavior. These findings highlight the importance of carefully selecting dihedral angles during the design process.
This work presents a validated CFD-based framework for evaluating hydrofoil stability under realistic two-phase flow conditions. The research outcomes provide insight into the initial tendency of high dihedral angles to disturbances in the longitudinal, lateral, and directional stability axes
Do Bilinguals With ADHD Suffer a ‘Double Disadvantage’?: An Investigation of Vocabulary Size and Inhibitory Control in Young Adult Bilinguals With ADHD
No full textIn today’s increasingly bilingual world—where one in twenty adults is diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—surprisingly little is known about how bilingualism and ADHD interact. This dissertation investigated how vocabulary size and inhibitory control are influenced by bilingualism, ADHD, and their intersection in young adults.
Manuscript 1 examined vocabulary size in 391 English and/or French-speaking young adults. Study 1 grouped participants into two categories: monolinguals and bilinguals, with and without ADHD. Study 2 analyzed bilingualism and ADHD symptomatology as continuous variables. Contrary to expectations, individuals with ADHD had larger vocabularies than their non-ADHD peers—in both monolinguals and bilinguals and across languages. Furthermore, ADHD symptomatology was positively associated with vocabulary size, especially in monolinguals and less-balanced bilinguals, challenging deficit-based views of ADHD.
Manuscript 2 examined response inhibition and inhibition of interference in 274 young adults using the stop-signal and flanker tasks. Bilinguals with ADHD showed enhanced response inhibition, particularly under high task demands. No group differences were found for inhibition of interference, where performance was high across groups. These results support the idea that bilingual advantages emerge under cognitive challenge—whether through aging, as previously documented —or in the presence of ADHD, as demonstrated here.
Together, these findings refute the notion of a ‘double disadvantage’ for bilingual individuals with ADHD. Instead, both bilingualism and ADHD served as sources of cognitive strength. Their combination did not impose an additional burden and enhanced performance when cognitive demands were high. These findings highlight how linguistic and neurodevelopmental diversity can foster increased adaptability
Being and Transition
No full textThis dissertation argues that the two most influential interpretations of “the event” in 20th century philosophy—that of Martin Heidegger and that of Alain Badiou—articulate a pair of views (appropriation and traversal, respectively) which have come to dominate our understanding of transition, or the capacity of sex, gender, and identity to change. Being and Transition tracks the development of these views and the metaphysics of change that ground them, especially as they pertain to the trans subject, or that subject (transgender, transsexual) who undergoes a transition, by enquiring into the way that both Heidegger and Badiou drew their theories of the event from experiences of what they called “transition” in their own thinking. As I show, both the appropriation and the traversal views abandon the idea of radical change that the concept of the event is supposed to open. I apply these views to fields of literature and art wherein radical change remains the question, reading the works of Laura Riding, Catherine Christer Hennix, and others. I advocate for a return to a discourse that can think the ontological claims of the trans subject, which the appropriation and traversal views fail to do. In the process, I outline what I consider to be a new supervention of sexual difference, active but undertheorized in philosophy, trans studies, queer theory, and politics today: a modal difference, or differential relation to change, which renders the split between trans and cis subjectivity a precondition for any thought of sex, gender, and identity
Exploring the Representation of Private Sphere in First-Person Documentaries by Iranian Women Filmmakers from 2011 to 2024: A Study on Amateurism and Home Movies
No full textThis thesis traces the aesthetic and political trajectory of Iranian women’s first-person documentary cinema, offering an alternative historiography of autobiographical filmmaking that highlights the intersection of private life and public discourse on the margins of Iranian cinema. These documentaries occupy a peripheral space—drawing on home movies and amateur aesthetics—to express what dominant cinema leaves unsaid, revealing its cracks and silences. The study argues that such marginal forms have evolved into powerful tools of cultural critique, challenging state narratives and reshaping gendered subjectivity in the post-digital era. The thesis begins by situating the emergence of first-person documentary within Iran’s broader political and cinematic context, especially the reform era and digital media’s impact. It then analyzes 21 Days and Me (2011) and Unwelcome in Tehran (2011), which use modest means and domestic experience to disrupt dominant documentary practices. The next chapter focuses on Profession: Documentarian (2014), Radiograph of a Family (2020), and The Silent House (2022), showing how personal archives and home movies raise the political stakes by linking familial memory to national history. The final section explores amateurism, authorship, and access in the digital era, with Impasse (2024) exemplifying how amateur aesthetics connect interior spaces with collective experience, particularly during moments of social unrest. By focusing on six documentaries over a decade, the thesis maps a gradual shift from intimate self-expression toward direct political engagement. It foregrounds women’s voices and evolving formal strategies, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of Iranian documentary cinema beyond official narratives
Performance Analyses of a Suspension Seat Considering Occupant Biodynamics Coupled with Suspension Kineto-dynamics and Elasto-dynamics of the Seat Cushion
No full textDrivers of commercial off-road vehicles are generally exposed to high magnitudes of multi-directional Whole-body vibration (WBV), which predominate in relatively low-frequency range (up to 10 Hz). Low natural frequency suspension seats are widely used to reduce the WBV exposure along the predominant vertical axis. WBV at the driver-seat interface has been associated with potential risk of lower back injuries, discomfort and reduced work efficiency among the occupational vehicle drivers. The vibration attenuation performance of a suspension seat is strongly affected by the kinematic and dynamic properties of the suspension system, visco-elastic properties of the cushion and the seated body biodynamics, apart from the nature of the vehicle vibration. Minimal efforts are done so far to improve the seat suspension performance exposed to different spectral classes of excitation defined in ISO-7096 neglecting the effect of occupant biodynamics. A thorough evaluation of suspension seat and the contribution of components influencing suspension performance is required to solve these problems and take into account the combined influence of suspension dynamics and human body biodynamics.
This dissertation research focuses on improving the vibration isolation performance of vehicle-specific seat suspension by developing occupant-seat suspension model in a Multi-Body Dynamic (MBD) environment which takes into account the suspension kinematics, contribution of suspension component dynamics, elastic motion-limiters and human body biodynamics by identifying vehicle-specific optimal suspension parameters. A kineto-dynamic model was developed in the ADAMS/View MBD environment and the validation of the model is verified by performing extensive laboratory measurements on a selected suspension seat with a test subject with WN input excitation ranging from 0.25-1 m/s2 rms and selected spectral class for EM2.
The parameters of the suspension components such as pneumatic spring connected to auxiliary volume, damper and cushion were identified by characterizing the static and dynamic behavior of these components independently and by formulating suitable mathematical models. The validated model was further simulated to identify the effect of auxiliary volume, seated body mass, ride height on the suspension resonance, rms acceleration and peak relative travel. It is concluded that the suspension responses were sensitive to the auxiliary volume and co-ordinates of the suspension components accounting to the suspension dynamics and overall seat suspension performance. Optimal suspension component parameters were then established by identifying suitable component parameters such as an increase in the auxiliary volume of the pneumatic spring by 12% and damping constants along with their respective co-ordinates to maintain constant suspension seat resonance at 1.27Hz independent of the seated body mass. The suggested model parameters showed improved vibration isolation performance by minimizing SEAT values from 9% to 30.6% depending on the input excitation of spectral classes.
Subsequently, a seat suspension model is formulated to identify the influence of air spring mount and its effective stiffness considering occupant biodynamics. Laboratory measurements are performed with different air spring mount angles to characterize the air spring at different angles. The measured data is used to validate with the developed model and further used to obtain optimal air spring mount angle to minimize the suspension resonant frequency irrespective of the seated body mass.
The contribution of seat cushion has been significant providing comfort to the occupant at various driving conditions. Lack of knowledge of the static and dynamic behavior of visco-elastic properties of seat cushion and the availability of suitable material models in the Finite element environment formulated a scope of research. A novel and preliminary attempt to develop a dynamic Finite Element (FE) model is demonstrated in LS DYNA environment taking into account the dynamic forces experienced by the seat cushion in an operating environment. The validation of the developed FE model was demonstrated by performing laboratory measurements to characterize the cushion behavior at different preloads, excitation frequency and amplitude.
Subsequently, the developed FE seat cushion model was simulated to obtain seat pressure distribution using a dummy and its validation was demonstrated by performing measurements using a single test subject with a pressure mat sensor. The peak pressures forces at contact interface between the occupant and seat cushion under Ischial Tuberosity (IT) are compared. Lowering the peak pressures and increase in the area of pressure distribution can improve comfort of the occupant where prolonged seating in a vibrating environment is inevitable. A multi-layer seat cushion model is suggested to improve the seat pressure distribution in order to minimize the peak pressures and increase the contact area between the occupant and seat cushion