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The Shape of Remembering
No full textMy artwork explores memory, comfort, and the ways we carry the presence of those we love. My grandma, in particular, has been a constant source of inspiration and warmth. She has been a consistent but unconscious presence in my art, specifically through the materials used and memories that unfold within them. One memory that always comes back to me is summer afternoons in the living room, shelling beans while we talked and watched TV. The way our hands moved, the easy conversation between us, and the comfort of that small moment have stayed with me. The bean shape reappears in my work as a symbol of connections, nourishment, and memory. Alongside these tender memories, I draw from the imaginative side of my childhood through my monster creations, which I began making to escape the tension that filled my home. They became companions in moments when I felt overwhelmed, and I often sought comfort in my grandma’s home, where creativity and calmness replaced the noise. The way the sculptures are made is to transform memories into forms, shaping something soft, approachable, and familiar that carries emotional weight.
I work with sculpture, wood, and textiles to give these memories a shape. Artists who inspire me include Michelle Holzapfel, who carves domestic objects from wood, embedding them with layers of personal and cultural memory. Textiles bring something different to the works. The fabric has life within its folds, its stitches and softness reminding me of comfort and care. Artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Do Ho Suh use fabric to capture memory and embody personal history within the fabric. As I assemble sculptures, wood, and textiles, I want to make a space where people can connect with their own memories.
When I began my art degree, my grandma started giving me materials she had collected or made by hand. She passes along materials that others might overlook, fabric, rolls of paper, and little odds and ends she held onto over the years. These materials carry more than their physical presence; they hold quiet acts of care and time. They hold a weight of small, intimate moments that often go unnoticed but leave a lasting mark.
The beans return again and again in this show as reminders of those afternoons with my grandma. They might look ordinary, but for me, they carry closeness and quiet work that builds memories over time. My monster artworks appear as extensions of my childhood imagination, creatures I once created for comfort, protection, and escape. In this exhibition, they exist beside the bean forms, forming tenderness and strength, and reality and imagination. All of this work comes from the same impulse to find comfort and connection in making.https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/1166/thumbnail.jp
Blush Records
No full textSome of my earliest experiences with music had nothing to do with sound. Before I even understood the concept of musical artists and bands, I would go through my parent’s cases of CD’s and pick out my favorites based solely on the cover art. The cover often shaped my expectations long before I pressed play. The relationship between sight and sound, and the ability of design to suggest a whole world in a single frame, stayed with me.
Blush Records is a fictional record label created as a way to explore how music culture shapes visual identity. This project looks at the emotional worlds that surround band imagery and album design, and how a graphic language can suggest a sound even when the music does not exist. I approached the label as a full ecosystem, building out its roster and imagining the specific tone of each artist through visual decisions in typography, color, and illustration. The three bands developed for the record label represent different imagined subcultures. Glum leans into grunge inspired textures and heavier forms, while Second Rodeo and girls with bangs both take on a playful more feminine tone. But each identity belongs to the larger world of the label through shared sensibilities in composition and tone. This allowed me to test how broad a visual ecosystem can become while still feeling unified.
My understanding of restraint and conceptual precision is influenced by the work of Peter Saville. His album covers for New Order, such as on Power, Corruption & Lies or Blue Monday, show how a designer can use unexpected references and minimal information to create strong emotional associations. My process for designing is also influenced by poster designer Jay Ryan and his hand drawn gig posters. I appreciate and incorporate analogue methods such as scanners and distressed surfaces, and improvised layering techniques that feel handmade and slightly unstable.This exhibition is ultimately
about the pleasure of inventing. It treats design as a tool for storytelling and imagines the kinds of bands and identities that might exist just outside the frame of reality.https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/1172/thumbnail.jp
Structure-activity relationships of ionogels consisting of thiol-ene photopolymerized poly(ionic liquid) networks and protonated ionic liquids.
No full textIonogels are crosslinked polymer networks swollen with ionic liquids. Ionogels offer unique properties which combine the physicochemical properties of the ionic liquid (conductivity, thermal/electrochemical stability) with the mechanical properties of the network. Examples of applications in which ionogels are utilized include energy storage devices and sensors. In this work, we will describe a method whereby covalently crosslinked poly(ionic liquid) networks were prepared using thiol-ene photopolymerization in the presence of a protonated ionic liquid. The amount of protonated ionic liquid was varied (0-30-wt%) in order to investigate the effects on the thermal and conductive properties of the networks. Due to the protonated nature of the ionic liquids used, humidity was also varied for the conductivity experiments
KRUPS KREPE III: Advancing Hypersonic Re-Entry Technologies with Innovative Spacecraft
No full textThe Kentucky Re-Entry Universal Payload System (KRUPS) project advances spacecraft re-entry technology by developing and testing payloads for orbital and suborbital missions. KRUPS aims to enhance understanding of thermal protections systems (TPS) and the re-entry environment using miniature re-entry vehicles. The project is one of the only hypersonic re-entry testbeds and is allowing for affordable access to space. The KRUPS has successfully flown two re-entry missions from the International Space Station (ISS): KREPE I and KREPE II. These missions validated the functionality of the KRUPS vehicle by successfully collecting and transmitting data to the ground.
The Kentucky Re-Entry Universal Payload System (KRUPS) project advances spacecraft re-entry technology by developing and testing payloads for orbital and suborbital missions. KRUPS aims to enhance understanding of thermal protections systems (TPS) and the re-entry environment using miniature re-entry vehicles. The project is one of the only hypersonic re-entry testbeds and is allowing for affordable access to space. The KRUPS has successfully flown two re-entry missions from the International Space Station (ISS): KREPE I and KREPE II. These missions validated the functionality of the KRUPS vehicle by successfully collecting and transmitting data to the ground.
Building on these successes, KREPE III introduces several significant innovations. The upcoming mission in 2026 will evaluate new TPS geometries and materials under re-entry conditions. Additionally, KREPE III will incorporate a novel radio mesh network to enable real-time inter-capsule communication during descent. By leveraging a mesh network, the mission will increase the reliability of data transmission during and after atmospheric re-entry.
The integration of new geometry, TPS materials, and communication technologies in KREPE III provides an opportunity for high-fidelity re-entry data. The data collected will be used to validate aerothermodynamic computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. Through these advancements, KRUPS continues to push the boundaries of re-entry research, contributing to the development of innovative aerospace technologies
High fat diet induces behavioral deficits and an altered inflammatory profile that is partially restored by dietary reversal.
No full textIntroduction: Obesity is a risk factor that can increase the likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Kentucky has a higher prevalence of obesity compared to other states in the US, posing a significant risk of diet-related neurodegeneration and instances of AD and related dementias. Recent studies have shown robust impacts of dietary intervention in preventing later cognitive decline. Specifically in rodents, high-fat diet reversal can decrease memory deficits and neuroinflammation. These models need to be further explored to better identify the mechanisms underlying preservation of memory with an eye toward therapeutic targets for treatment of obesity-related cognitive decline in humans. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the role of dietary reversal on body weight, biomarker levels, and memory impairment in mice receiving a high-fat diet. Methods: Twenty male mice were placed on a high-fat diet (HFD) at 6w of age. At 14w, the diet for half of the mice was switched to standard mouse chow (STD) for the remainder of the study. Mouse weights were collected weekly as a measure of metabolic health. Observable health was assessed using frailty index tests. Memory impairment was assessed in the Y-maze apparatus. Following observational and behavioral assessments, blood samples were collected at baseline, one month, and two months post-diet change. Brain tissue was collected at the conclusion of the study. Results: At 1mo post-diet change, mice in the HFD group were frailer compared than baseline and frailer compared to mice in the Rev group at 1mo. HFD produced spatial memory deficits in the Y-maze. Several plasma and brain biomarkers were also significantly altered. Conclusion: These findings indicate that HFD reversal can preserve cognitive and metabolic health and is associated with alterations in peripheral and central neuroinflammatory biomarkers that altogether provide future therapeutic targets which may ultimately benefit people in the Commonwealth
An autoethnography on the desires and emotions in heritage language learning: The effect of external pressures
No full textWhen an immigrant family has a child in a strictly monolingual community, there is not an apparent reason for the child to learn the heritage language (HL) without an external pressure. This autoethnography explores external pressure and its emotional effects on the author and her desire to learn the HL language.
Narratives on key events impacting the author’s HL journey were analyzed through the concepts of feeling rules and emotional labor (Hochschild, 1983), with focus on how external pressures influenced her desire to learn and maintain the Korean HL.
It was revealed that external pressure, in the form of feeling rules, shapes all, if not a majority, of a child’s desires to learn their HL. Feeling rules enforced by broader society and peers generate emotional labor to meet the expected genuineness of desire. Fear of shame and embarrassment from not meeting racial expectations, like the expectation of bilingualism from a non-white living in a white community or from an HL speaker in an HL speaking community, further extends that pressure. Immigrant parents generationally pressure their child to learn their HL out of obligation or perceived future benefit. Complying to these pressures led to the creation of a specific type of desire towards learning the heritage language. However, over time, the recognition of cultural and career benefits transformed the external desire into the author’s, leading to the construction of her own bilingual identity. This study provides a nuanced view of HL learning from a child’s perspective, highlighting how children’s motivations are shaped by both societal and generational pressures, as well as giving insight on potential mental health, diversity, and education policies that can create inner motivation towards learning the HL
Risk Assessments for COVID-19
No full textIn the world of COVID-19, a person’s risk assessment of the disease and its vaccines can greatly impact their likeliness of receiving said injections. Risk assessment is impacted by everything in a person’s life. Their political ideology, the region they live, or the age they are all impact how a person views, in this case, COVID-19 and its vaccines. These risk assessments tell scientists which groups of people are most and least likely to receive vaccinations and which areas can be focused on for vaccine education or promotion.
Different factors of risk assessment impact each other as well. For example, men of different ages or women of different political parties will have varying risk assessments. Two such factors are whether a person finds the CDC ad about the COVID-19 vaccine reliable and how many out of 100 people a person would think would experience serious side effects. Using regression models, the ratio of people who do or do not agree with statements or trust certain sources can be found. Regression models can also be used to find the average number of people participants say will have extreme or mild symptoms. The regression model then uses each demographic, such as age or gender, to find the difference in each sub-sections average.
It was concluded that the people who found the CDC ad credible were more likely to be elderly, married, and a democrat. It was also concluded that people who are young, have kids, or republican are more likely to guess that a larger amount of people with experience severe or serious symptoms after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine
Using Eye-Tracking and Data Visualization to Enhance the Study of Medieval Manuscripts
No full textMedieval manuscripts are handwritten books produced primarily between the 6th and 16th century, are a rich source of historical, artistic, and cultural information. For modern readers, however, the elements found in these manuscripts are quite challenging to engage with and understand, especially for students being introduced to the material. Among several attempts to enhance manuscript comprehension using technology, eye tracking has recently been explored as a promising way to analyze how individuals navigate manuscript pages.While eye tracking has been used as a means of collecting gaze data from students to improve their reading experience, there are many different methods of data visualization for gaze patterns that have yet to be applied to medieval manuscript viewing. The goal of this study was to improve the engagement of college students with medieval manuscripts by using eye-tracking technology and various data visualization techniques to better understand their viewing patterns. By using data visualization with the data acquired from eye-tracking technologies, the effect of different visual elements on the attention of participants was able to be investigated, leading to discoveries such as how non-textual elements can distract participants from the textual elements of the manuscripts. Findings on students’ gaze patterns while viewing manuscript pages such as these can be used to refine how medieval manuscripts are taught and allow students to better understand their own viewing patterns, increasing comprehension and engagement
CoVCues: A Trustworthy Resource Amidst The COVID Infodemic
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in online health misinformation, which, to a significant extent, has impacted the public\u27s confidence and trust in online healthcare information. The World Health Organization (WHO) has termed this issue as the COVID ‘infodemic. In an effort to address this COVID \u27infodemic\u27, various datasets have been developed to facilitate the detection of misinformation. However, most of these datasets are limited to primarily unimodal data, which consists mainly of textual cues, and lack visual cues, such as images, infographics, and other graphic data components. Existing literature indicates that there are a few multimodal datasets to aid with COVID misinformation identification, but none of these have an organized, processed and analyzed repository of image artifacts in the form of visual cues. To address this gap, we introduce the novel CoVCues dataset, which contains various image artifacts and emphasizes the importance of visual cues for the detection of online health misinformation. CoVCues is a uniquely new framework that leverages categorization, sub-categorization of images from publicly available data, and AI models to explore the capability of visual content in enhancing misinformation detection. In order to demonstrate that CoVCues aids in establishing information assurance by fostering trust, we apply computer vision based machine learning (ML) techniques to find pattern recognition elements, such as identified faces, and image coherence plus authenticity, which can be connected directly to well-known trust antecedents. Through this applied trust analysis process, we make a strong case of information reliability for the trustworthiness of the CoVCues image dataset. Overall, our CoVCues dataset introduces a novel image-centric approach to empower misinformation detection accuracy and represents a valuable resource for both researchers and professionals in fighting against the COVID infodemic. CoVCues is a uniquely exclusive image artifacts collection to help extend the value of the multimodal datasets in this context and could open new avenues of future research and development on this topic area. It highlights how visual cues can increasingly play a pivotal role in online health misinformation recognition, facilitating the development of more effective and robust detection methods for COVID related infodemic crises. Additionally, to our knowledge, our approach of organization, classification and mapping of the collected CoVCues image artifacts to critical trust factors using computer vision driven ML methods, as described in this paper, is novel and has no precedence
The impact of Psychotropic Substances on Developmental Zebrafish Gene Expression
No full textRecent studies have shown evidence of the relationship between environmental factors to neurodevelopmental disorder susceptibility. Some evidence suggests that long-lasting disruptions in the structure and function of the nervous system are frequently caused by prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse. Inappropriate use of both legal and illegal drugs has always been a major issue in the United States. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 Americans over the age of 12 have used illicit drugs in 2022. A substantial amount of prescribed and illicit psychotropic drugs is excreted through urine and feces every day. Wastewater treatment does not remove drug residue, leading to the contaminated water being discharged into surface water sources and reaching the drinking water consumed by humans and animals. The drug levels detected in source water bodies are negligible, however, what remains unknown is the real effect of the mixture of these low drug doses on the nervous system. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is used as a toxicity model due to its high neurological resemblance to humans. Our central hypothesis is that developmental exposure to low levels of psychoactive drugs through contaminated water will have a significant effect on protein and gene expression involved in nervous system development and function. Here we are evaluating which genes might be expressed in the brain. This project uses zebrafish embryos to simulate human embryos exposed to those contaminants in utero, focusing on gene-environment interactions to shed light on the effects of drug exposure on the nervous system gene expression in developing zebrafish