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The In-Betweens of Life
Get PDFHave you ever walked through someplace too many times to count, and then one day it feels entirely new? The feeling of paying attention to an insignificant place for the first time interests me. We are constantly surrounded by buildings and trees and sidewalks and light poles, and don’t often take the time to look at them. In this series of paintings, I am taking the time to look at the overlooked.
With The In-Betweens of Life, I am very particular about leaving my hand in each mark. Because the paintings are so small, the viewer is invited close to see them as each brushstroke realizes the subject. I hope that there is a conversation between my hand and the eye of the onlooker. My goal is to create familiarity with each place, as if it is somewhere specific yet universally everywhere. The painted mark identifies my connection with each place and serves as a record of my attempt to find the image within the painting. In order to find meaning with each place, the viewer’s point of view shifts to suggest a new location and a new experience. My subject of “in-between” places is a metaphor for the experiences we fail to notice because we are in the search of the extraordinary. These paintings are meant to create anticipation for a longing of something bigger to arise
Lifestyles of the Instagram Famous: What Fashion Micro-Influencers Want from Brands and how Brands Should Partner with Them.
Get PDFIn an age of social media, Instagram ranks among the most popular mobile sharing platforms in the world. Created in 2010, Instagram now boasts over 800 million users and has widespread community engagement, leading worldwide trends.With the exponential growth of Instagram, it is no surprise that companies and their brands began to pay close attention to its marketing potential. And although marketers have utilized Instagram in many ways, perhaps the most successful tactic has been through influencer marketing. An influencer is any person in a position to affect the decisions of others. Influencer marketing works well for brands because of the influencer’s highly engaged followership. While influencer marketing is seen as a strong method for modern day marketing, there has been little formal research into the Instagram influencer population itself. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the identities of female fashion influencers on Instagram. By knowing more about influencer motivation, experience, and perspective, brands will be able to more accurately identify how influencer marketing can work to meet their goals. In this study, I discovered data that suggests influencers value real interactions and real relationships, rather than simply presenting a facade. While their presence on Instagram is curated, planned, and strategic, influencers believe their online personas reflect their own identity very personally. It is important for marketers to remember the person behind the social media account if they hope to secure a lasting relationship, as well as gain the full benefits of influencer marketing
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: A Comparative Analysis of Access to Education and Healthcare for Immigrants before DACA, under DACA, and under the Dream Act
Get PDFThe United States has long been considered a nation of immigrants, welcoming individuals and families of every background to build a better future for themselves and the country. Throughout various periods of its history, however, the U.S. has fluctuated between welcoming and exceptionally restrictive immigration policies, with changes are often generating passionate debate from all ideological standpoints. A significant development in the modern U.S. immigration system is the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program under the Obama Administration. This program allowed certain young undocumented immigrants who met established criteria to qualify for deportation protections. With approximately 700,000 DACA recipients currently, questions arise regarding these immigrants’ ability to access critical services such as education and healthcare. The research presented seeks to analyze the accessibility of healthcare and education for current DACA recipients in addition to exploring under which circumstances these services would be most accessible for those recipients. Through documentary research, I find that healthcare and educational services would be most accessible to current DACA recipients under the DREAM Act. While DACA created new opportunities for numerous undocumented immigrants in education, the program did not significantly advance opportunities to access healthcare services. Due to these conditions, the DREAM Act is the most promising legislation to enhance both educational and healthcare service access for current DACA recipients
Honors Accounting Thesis
Get PDFThis thesis consists of nine case studies that involved analyzing the financial statements of both domestic and international companies. These analyses examined a number of accounting related issues and key management decisions regarding accounting policies. The cases required the consideration of management’s responsibility to report accurately and completely the financial results of operations in regard to accounting policy decisions pertaining to financial statement presentation, bad debt expense recognition, and capital asset depreciation. In addition, the cases explored other current topics in accounting such as the convergence of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles with International Financial Reporting Standards and the implementation of Accounting Standards Update 606. Throughout all case studies, a focus was maintained on the effects of management’s decision making regarding accounting policy on corporate reporting and disclosures
Analysis of Dunc-13 and its Role in the Formation of Ethanol Tolerance in Drosophila Melanogaster
Get PDFAlcoholism is a costly disease that is responsible for a significant portion of the global disease burden, yet there is much is left to know about how this disease develops. Tolerance plays a critical role in predisposing an individual to alcohol abuse. Recently, the active zone of presynaptic neurons has been implicated as an ethanol effector. In this study, we examined the role that a presynaptic active zone protein, Dunc13, plays in the formation of tolerance to alcohol. Dunc13 is an ortholog of mammalian Unc13-1, and through the use of Drosophila as a model system, we show that genetic reduction of this protein creates ethanol resistance in naïve flies. This genetic reduction is also used as a tool to examine the transcriptome that results from alcohol exposure. mRNA samples were sequenced from haploinsufficient Dunc13 flies, as well as wildtype Canton-S flies. These sequences were used to identify genes that are differentially expressed between these two genotypes without exposure to ethanol and four hours after a sedating dose of ethanol. Naive and ethanol exposed haploinsufficient Dunc13 flies did not have any genes with significantly different levels of expression. This indicates Dunc13 flies are transcriptionally resistant to ethanol treatment. The genetic manipulation creates a neurophysiological state that does not have a differential response to rapid ethanol tolerance, highlighting the importance of this protein in the acquisition of tolerance. Further, the genes identified in this study contribute to the platform with which alcohol tolerance can be studied
The Effects of Acute Exercise Intensity on Episodic Memory and False Memory
Get PDFThe Effects of Acute Exercise on Episodic Memory and False Memory
Previous experimental work demonstrates that acute exercise may enhance episodic memory performance. However, limited research has examined the extent to which acute exercise influences false memory production, and no studies, to date, have examined whether there is an intensity-specific effect of acute exercise and true and false memories. Thus, the present experiment evaluated the effects of acute exercise on episodic memory and false memory. A three-arm, parallel, between-group randomized controlled trial was employed, with participants (Mage = 20.8 years) randomized into a moderate-intensity exercise group (15-minute bout of treadmill exercise at 50% Heart Rate Reserve; N = 20), a high-intensity exercise group (15-minute bout of treadmill exercise at 80% Heart Rate Reserve; N = 20), or a control group (15 minutes of sitting; N = 20). Episodic and false memory were both assessed using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. For the number of words recalled across each of the 6 lists, there was a significant main effect for list (F(list)=10.2, P<.001, η2p=.15), marginally significant main effect for group F(group)=2.7, P=.07, η2p=.09), but no list by group interaction effect (F(list x group)=1.00, P=.44, η2p=.03). Those in the high-intensity exercise group recalled significantly (P<0.05) more words than the control group. For the false word recall, there was not a significant main effect for list (F(list)=2.15, P=.06, η2p=.04), group (F(group)=2.20, P=.12, η2p=.07) or list by group interaction (F(list x group)=1.27, P=.24, η2p=.04), but across various lists, high-intensity acute exercise was associated with a greater rate of false memories. For the memory recognition task, there was no main effect for word type (F=.85, P=0.46, η2p=.01), group (F=.85, P=.43, η2p=.03), word type by
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group interaction (F=.97, P=.44, η2p=.03), recall by group interaction (F=1.03, P=.41, η2p=.04), or word type by recall by group interaction (F=1.13, P=.32, η2p=.04). However, there was a main effect for recall (F=64.3, P<.001, η2p=.54) and a word type by recall interaction (F=182.6, P<.001, η2p=.77). That is, participants, across all three experimental conditions, were more likely to perceive the studied and critical lure words as being “old” (i.e., that they previously were exposed to them during the study session). These findings suggest that high-intensity exercise may enhance true episodic memories, and, possibly, increase the rate of select false memories. We discuss these findings in the context of how different acute exercise intensities may have unique and differential effects on underlying mechanistic processes related to true and false episodic memory.
Keywords: fuzzy trace theory; hippocampus; prefrontal cortex; recollectio
Encoding a 1-D Heisenberg Spin 1/2 Chain in a Simulated Annealing Algorithm for Machine Learning
Get PDFThe application areas of machine learning techniques are becoming broader and
increasingly ubiquitous in the natural sciences and engineering. One such field of interest
within the physics community is the training and implementation of neural networks to
aid in quantum many-body computations. Conversely, research exploring the possible
computational benefits of using quantum many-body dynamics in the area of artificial
intelligence and machine learning has also recently started to gain traction. The marriage
of these fields comes naturally with the complementary nature of their mathematical
frameworks. The objective of this study was to explore the possibility of encoding a
quantum spin ½ system in a binary form in order to train a neural network. Once the
spins are transformed into binary form, a bit count is calculated for each state of the
system. An exact diagonalization of the XXZ Heisenberg Hamiltonian is then used to
compute the energy eigenvectors and eigenvalues. The model is trained to identify the bit
counts of the lowest energy state of the system which is found through a stochastic search
algorithm known as simulated annealing
The Developmental and Behavioral Effects of Early Life Stage Cannabinoid Exposure
Get PDFAs of 2019, marijuana legalization and decriminalization is sweeping the globe. Patients are increasingly using cannabis-derived compounds including Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) for treatment of diseases as diverse as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and cancer. Furthermore, mothers are claiming that CBD oil decreases uncomfortable pregnancy side effects. While the adverse effects of chronic cannabinoid use and of cannabinoids on pregnancy have been previously investigated, the exact function of the endocannabinoid system, and its primary receptors, cannabinoid receptors 1 and 2, involved in producing these outcomes is still unclear. In this study, two strains of zebrafish embryos, namely fli and cnr2-/- were exposed to varying concentrations of CBD and THC for 96 hpf and their developmental and behavioral outcomes were observed to further determine the role that CB2 plays in embryonic development and organogenesis. Fli larvae had a higher percent incidence of pericardial edema and yolk sac edema when exposed to 0.6 mg/L CBD, whereas CBD treated cnr2-/- were not significantly different than untreated. Fli larvae also showed an increased percent incidence of yolk sac edema at 2.5 mg/L THC and a percent incidence not different from control, or 2.5 mg/L at 1.25 mg/L, whereas cnr2-/- only suffered from yolk sac edema at 2.5 mg/L THC. Behavioral patterns were treatment-dependent, as both THC and CBD showed increased activity at 0.65 mg/L and 0.075 mg/L, respectively. These studies indicate that cannabinoid developmental toxicity depends both on the particular cannabinoid and its interactions with the CB2 receptor. Additional studies are needed to investigate the THC and CBD toxicities in the cnr1-/- to further understand the mechanisms of cannabinoid toxicity
Geographical Variability in Antibacterial Chemical Defenses of the Caribbean Sponge Xestospongia muta
Get PDFCoral reefs are important and diverse marine ecosystems, and sponges represent the majority of species in Caribbean reefs. Xestospongia muta is a giant barrel sponge that is one of the most abundant and visible sponges on Caribbean reefs, and has been the subject of many studies. Xestospongia muta produces a diversity of secondary metabolites that have various ecological functions including allelopathy, anti-fouling, predation deterrence, and antibacterial activity. The chemical defenses produced by a sponge can change in response to various biotic and abiotic stressors, including water temperature, sedimentation, nutrient runoff, and predation.
This study compared the antibacterial activity of X. muta samples from sites at four countries in the Caribbean: Belize, Curaçao, Grand Cayman, and St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, to characterize geographic variation in the bioactivity of secondary metabolites from X. muta. There are currently no known sponge pathogens of X. muta, so antibacterial activity was tested against three known coral pathogens, and one human enteric bacteria that can be discharged onto reefs. Antibacterial assays compared the growth of the bacterial strains exposed to sponge extracts with bacterial growth in control broth.
The sponges from each country had different antibacterial activity profiles, with sponges from Belize having the most inhibitory interactions and sponges from St. Croix having the least. The differences in activity between countries suggest that large-scale geographic patterns in metabolite production do occur. Within countries, the antibacterial
activity was largely the same, but there were some examples of significant differences. Many of the factors that can affect secondary metabolite production were similar except for the amount of human activity in the area, suggesting that anthropogenic factors can cause large changes in reef ecosystems. The sponges also varied in the amount of activity against each bacteria, suggesting that there is specificity in the action of the chemical defenses of X. muta.
As sponges continue to increase in abundance and biomass on Caribbean reefs, they will be exposed to greater impacts from natural and anthropogenic changes. Data from this study indicate that such changes could have important ecological implications on the ability of X. muta to produce chemical defenses to protect itself from potential pathogens and other stressors
An Analysis of Case Studies Regarding Principal Financial Accounting Concepts
Get PDFDuring Fall of 2017 and Spring of 2018, I participated in an alternate thesis route for accounting majors. The alternate route consisted of enrolling in a year-long course with Dr. Victoria Dickinson and individually completing cases based on financial accounting concepts each week. The cases selected each focus on a specific financial accounting concept. The conclusions reached in the cases were based on materials from the case, in class lecture notes, and an intermediate accounting textbook. Each case presents a series of questions which start with basic accounting concepts and build to more complex conceptual issues. Each case further developed my technical skills and advanced my knowledge about financial accounting concepts. Overall, everything learned from the completion of this thesis will be applicable towards a future career in accounting from a conceptual standpoint and from the further development of writing and technical skills