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REGISTERED DIETITIAN NUTRITIONISTS’ KNOWLEDGE, EDUCATION, IMPRESSIONS, AND UTILIZATION OF TREATMENTS REGARDING POSTURAL ORTHOSTATIC TACHYCARDIA SYNDROME (129 pp.)Director of Thesis: Amy Miracle, PhD, RD, CSSD, LDPostural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is a common form of dysautonomia, marked by orthostatic intolerance, an increased heart rate when in a standing position, and many symptoms that affect numerous body systems. The treatment of POTS often requires involvement of registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs). This study aims to determine practicing RDNs’ knowledge and utilization of the treatment of POTS within the United States of America. Participants were RDNs who were identified using snowball sampling through various national, state, and local dietetic organizations and social media sites.A self-developed questionnaire was created and distributed via Qualtrics. Eighty-one individuals completed the questionnaire, and 68 responses were eligible to be included in data analysis. The questionnaire consisted of four sections that assessed RDNs knowledge, training, education, impressions, and utilization of treatments regarding POTS. The current study found that only 26.4% of participants had ever treated a patient for POTS symptoms, of which only one considered themself to be “extremely familiar” prior to treating it. Additionally, the average score for the knowledge portion of the questionnaire was only 2.6 out of a total of 7 possible points, demonstrating only moderate familiarity about POTS and its treatments. Overall, the study showed that RDNs feel there is a need for further education both in academia and after credentialing, and that most RDNs feel they are lacking in knowledge regarding POTS. This study also emphasizes the importance of further research on POTS and the efficacy of its nutritional therapies.

Finite element analysis (FEA) is a technique which has not been widely used in Forensic Science in general and firearms examination in particular. The general utility of FEA was assessed by the simulation of scenarios commonly encountered during the investigation of firearm related crimes. As a test, simulations included the perforation of a windshield and sheet metal with a 9 mm projectile, the development of pseudo subclass characteristics during the manufacturing of a breech face, and the impact of a projectile with another projectile in air and with a solid body. Results from the simulations were compared to projectiles and substrates used in empirical testing which mimicked the simulated scenarios. Observation of the deformation caused in both methods of testing demonstrated visual similarity. The main aim of this project was to expand the knowledge-base regarding sources of variability in breech face impressions on cartridge cases fired by a single firearm. It was proposed that the gas flow within the primer cup during discharge is non-uniform. This is due to interaction between the generated gas and the anvil which is contained inside the primer cup. As gas flows around the arms of the anvil, it is directed away from the rear surface of the arms which results in localized areas of low pressure. Concurrently, the areas unobscured by the anvil are subjected to higher pressures. This translates into localized areas of high and low force in the interaction between the primer surface and breech face. The resulting areas of high force will result in greater impression development while areas of low force will result in less development. It was hypothesized that cartridges fired from a single firearm with similar anvil orientations will have greater similarity in impression development while cartridges fired with dissimilar anvil orientations will result in less similarity. This study investigated the effect of anvil orientation on breech face impression development in two ways, theoretically and experimentally. Computer aided design (CAD) and FEA were used to model the gas flow in the primer cup and the subsequent impression development during discharge. A 9 mm Luger cartridge was modeled according to the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute (SAAMI) specifications. The 3D model was then imported into Ansys Workbench for FEA simulation. Results of fluid simulations modeling the gas flow at the point of maximum pressure during discharge showed localized areas of high and low pressure across the inner base of the primer cup. Structural simulation to model the development of breech face impressions suffered from multiple limitations resulting in a reduced model being used. While simulation of breech face impressions for the entire breech face was unattainable, the reduced model returned impression generation demonstrating the feasibility of FEA for modeling breech face impressions once the discussed limitations are remedied. Cartridges were reloaded for experimental data collection. Alliant Unique powder was used and five charge weights ranging from the suggested starting charge weight to the suggested maximum charge weight were chosen with equal increments between each charge weight. The anvil orientation inside the primer was marked before each primer was seated into the primer pocket of the cartridge case. Ten anvil orientations were chosen ranging between 0 degrees and 162 degrees in 18 degree increments. Ten repetitions for each charge weight-angle combination were performed. The loaded cartridges were discharged in an H-S Precision Universal Receiver and the fired cartridge cases were scanned using a Sensofar s Neox confocal microscope. The resulting surface profiles were compared using the Congruent Matching Cells (CMC) algorithm provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The results from CMC analysis were analyzed to determine the presence or absence of significant differences in CMC results between anvil orientations and charge weights. Non-parametric statistical tests (Kruskal-Wallis and Dunns) were conducted to determine significant differences between delta angle and delta charge weight groups. The Cohen d test was used to assess practical significance of these results. Significant differences were found between groups for both angle orientation and charge weight. Overall, the highest CMC percent values are returned when the anvil orientation and charge weight are the same between the two fired cartridges.

The ability to read other human's faces is a crucial part of everyday life. Subconsciously, the human brain analyzes someone's face within the first few seconds of seeing it, making a variety of conclusions ~\cite{FacePerp} such as gathering information about emotional state and assuming character traits this person might possess. The purpose of this thesis is to create a tool that allows a user to alter features of a character's three dimensional (3D) face mesh to look increasingly or decreasingly like the character possesses certain personality traits. Using a sample set of randomly generated faces, a survey is conducted to rate if the given face, or associated character, possesses a set of chosen characteristics. The characteristics included in this study, i.e. trustworthiness, were chosen based on previous studies investigating the association of facial attributes to personality traits based solely on rapid visual appraisal. Resulting character face meshes produced with the presented work exhibit the same character identity but with perceived traits amplified or decreased. This may be useful in production as a tool to design character faces with particular traits in mind, leveraging human bias of viewers or players.

A.A. Long identifies a problem concerning the role of right reason (orthos logos) in Stoic ethics. Whilst an articulate account of both 1) the conditions of right reason’s attainment and 2) the means by which a moral agent can fulfil these conditions seems necessary to any bona fide Stoic ethics, the early Stoics, claims Long, offered up no such exposition. Although they seemingly possessed the theoretical resources to construct a normative account of rationality—namely, a robust conception of rationality as a constitutive feature of the human being to draw upon—the early Stoics instead relied on the non-existent ideal of the Sage in their scant remarks on right reason’s attainment, which led them into problems of circularity. In this thesis, I argue that, although the early Stoics may indeed fall victim to these problems, Epictetus offers in the Discourses an account of reason’s perfection that more adequately addresses Long’s concerns. I conclude that, whilst, like the early Stoics, he does not explicate the sufficient conditions for right reason’s attainment, Epictetus takes one of right reason’s necessary conditions (namely, consistency in judgment and action) and explicates the fulfillment of said condition in great detail. I argue this by first outlining what Epictetus takes to be the two primary features of the early Stoic conception of reason, namely, 1) preconceptions as conceptual content and 2) the capacity to make use of impressions. I then locate in the Discourses a multifaceted account of reason’s perfection that revolves around and exploits these two features. To judge and act consistently, one must purify one’s preconceptions of foreign, unnatural elements through dialectic, as well as articulate them as definitions through the study of philosophy and experience. Furthermore, the proper use of impressions consists in being non-precipitous in assent, consistently referring ordinary impressions to one’s articulated preconceptions as a standard of judgement, and developing a creative intelligence in the procedure of testing impressions. Whilst arguably still unsatisfyingly assumption-laden, as well as failing to address Long’s concerns in full, the moral epistemology I locate in Epictetus’ Discourses solves the problem of right reason in Stoicism more adequately than the early Stoic pedestalling of the Sage, and in a way that is nonetheless consistent with most core early Stoic doctrines.

David Hume’s project in A Treatise of Human Nature is founded upon his loosely-defined distinction between impressions and ideas. This distinction causes problems for his theory because it has difficulty accounting for the differences between species of perceptions. In this thesis, I try to solve some of these issues using a phenomenological account of the difference between impressions and ideas. My account supplements Stephen Everson’s “functional” account to create a more robust system for differentiating Hume’s perceptions.

A house can be considered a place made from the stories that make it. In order to design the house I recalled places I experienced during my childhood. Digging back through the memories of those places I became intrigued why those particular memories remained so vivid in my mind.  I listened to stories told to me by my parents about the houses where they grew up and the spatial experiences they remembered. The fabrication is a house in northern Iran activating the memories of those collective stories. The fabrication does not necessary follow particular conventions customary to the specific region.  In fact most of the qualities incorporated in the project have roots in traditional bazaars and houses across Iran. The project primarily studies the relation between varieties of architectural spaces through photography. Models and analytical drawings were an essential part of the work.

There is evidence to suggest that prejudice may be dynamic and continually develop given new information regarding a target group (Henderson-King & Nisbett, 1996; Towles-Schwen & Fazio, 2001). It was hypothesized that a neutral encounter with a minority group member would have no impact on a target group stereotype whereas a negative encounter would lead to a more negative impression of the group, either through increased stereotype endorsement or through revision to the stereotype itself. A priming technique was used to measure prejudiced reactions in conjunction with an overt measure of prejudice, comparing the responses of Ss after exposure to a positive, neutral, or negative encounter with a White or Black experimenter. The findings indicated that the implicit and explicit measures were collecting data as expected, however neither experimenter race, encounter type, nor the interaction of race by encounter had a significant influence on implicit or explicit prejudiced responses.

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