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Breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. Essentially all breast cancer treatment involves surgery. The two most generally performed surgical treatments for breast cancer are breast conservation therapy and mastectomy followed by breast reconstruction. Breast reconstructive surgery is an important component of the breast cancer treatment process. The aesthetic outcome of breast cancer treatment is a critical factor in breast cancer survivors' quality of life. Aesthetics is a general term that refers to physical characteristics such as symmetry and proportion. Currently, physicians, patients, or other observers evaluate breast aesthetics in a subjective, qualitative manner. However, such assessments are typically based on vaguely defined rating scales that have low intra- and inter-observer agreement. Their qualitative nature also restricts the analyses that can be performed. Quantitative, objective measures with high reliability are needed to meaningfully relate patient and surgical variables to aesthetic outcomes and to compare the outcomes of different kinds of breast cancer treatments (e.g., reconstruction procedures). I postulated that quantitative measures of breast aesthetic properties can be designed using clinical photographs. In this dissertation, I have designed algorithms to compute objective, quantitative, reproducible measures of breast aesthetics. I have evaluated the algorithms for computing objective measures of breast aesthetic properties such as ptosis and surgical scars from clinical photographs. A preliminary observer rating scale of 11 symmetry ratings items, 14 individual breast ratings items, and a global rating on overall appearance before and after the entire rating items was proposed. Eye-tracking technology was used to understand how plastic surgeons assess breast aesthetics by recording their gaze path while they rate breast anatomy on clinical photographs. In addition to these design and evaluation tasks, I also have used the objective measures to conduct a preliminary comparison of the aesthetic outcomes of different reconstruction procedures. / text

This graduate report, more than a formal description of the artistic developments I have gradually acknowledged, is a personal and perhaps arbitrary recollection of ideas that might help the reader–and me–understand the nature of the gestures that have evidently influenced the work I have produced in the past two years. These words belong to an inevitable act of introspection that seeks to validate some of the questions that have directed my artistic investigation throughout this time. I believe my work derives from two different and yet relevant positions: on one hand, the need to find meaning out of brutal events that have indisputably marked the course of history, specially in Colombia–my home country–where victims appear to loose their voices in a context ruled by indifference and apathy; and, on the other, the desire to understand what controls the reception of violent imagery as we depend on how social location, collective identification and political affiliation dictate the way we perceive the world. Each project mentioned in this report is a result of studying obsessively the political kidnappings that have been taking place in Colombia in the past twenty years, as a response to an allegedly abuse of power induced by the government against Las FARC, one of the most powerful guerrilla groups in Latin America. However each one is far from being a true document of real events and on the contrary, each one emerges as a naïve interpretation, possibly an illustration, of an ambiguous conflict that has no reasonable explanation but being a natural product of a conservative warfare–which in fact is no less than a reading made by a distant and passive witness like myself. / text

The effects consumer-driven innovation can have on an industry can be difficult to quantify. In this thesis I seek to highlight their existence and underscore their influence by observing the historical impact of numerous innovations on modern technology and society. Using the photography industry as a case study, I will show how successful companies leverage consumers to increase profits and technological development. Companies unable or unwilling to adapt will struggle to maintain profits and become insignificant in the market place. It is also important to consider the enablement of customers by these manufacturers. Advancements in the primary industry as well as supporting industries can lead to variability in market growth and often stimulate societal changes. As consumer innovators progress towards production, it is increasingly important that manufacturers adapt and redefine their market presence. Consumers are a powerful force and represent more than financial capital. My research shows that creative companies can harness consumer energy and find opportunities in the intellectual capital of the crowd. / text

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

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