The connection between our body and mind is integral in the way we perceive and relate to the world that exists around us. Our perceptions and emotional responses to those spaces can influence and become a powerful tool for design. In turn, architecture can encourage active and mindfullness in a person's everyday life. The architectural project is a mixed-use development consisting of a multi-family residence, hotel, coffee shop, and spa located off of 14th Street in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in Washington DC. The program provides spaces for dwelling, both temporary and permanent, to encourage both physical and psychological wellness. / Master of Architecture

Historic preservation commissions are required to review proposals of infill within historic districts. Often, this process is viewed as something that stifles an architect. What can an architect to do to both comply with the preservationists wishes and fulfill their clients desires to have an innovative new construction? An architect must look past the prescribed ways of satisfying preservation commissions requirements and fully interpret the process. / Master of Architecture

"I would like to - sometime - build a theater which has natural light..." Louis I. Kahn "Space and the Inspirations" 1967 Titled "On Dancing with Architecture" and in reference to Merce Cunningham's choreography, this thesis project is the notion of overlaying architecture as a third autonomous layer to the existing ones in the performance arts that are dancing and music. Since the project is equally concerned with the performers and the audience as well as with the general public, it shall contain a nonstandard performance stage for modern dance as well as general public space. However, what does it mean to give shape to the notion of "Dancing with Architecture" in actual physicality? In order to investigate an appropriate answer to this problem, the project offers a unique opportunity of applying architecture's power of representation in rich analogies and metaphors. Therefore more than designing just a theater that serves for dance, this space shall be a place that, in its appearance as a whole and in detail, represents the tale of its initial challenge and investigation. In addition, and as part of being a nonstandard stage for modern dance, the project shall critically review conventions in stage space and offers the opportunity to investigate it under a different scope, for instance through the question of how to increase the spectator's spatial experiences and interactivity with the performers, or through exploiting natural phenomena such as daylight, wind, water, landscape, time and gravity as stimulating factors to introduce new facilities in modern dance. / Master of Architecture

Šiame darbe pristatysime du alternatyvius, vienus iš pačių populiariausių, realaus laiko šešėlių generavimo metodus. Tai šešėlių planų (angl. shadow maps) ir šešėlių tūrių (angl. shadow volumes) metodai. Kadangi šie metodai turi įvairių skirtingų privalumų ir trūkumų, yra nuolat tobulinami, kartais kuriami ir iš jų ir hibridiniai algoritmai, kurie perimtų kuo daugiau šių dviejų technikų gerųjų savybių. Todėl šiame darbe pamėginsime nustatyti ir įvertinti, kuriais atvejais yra vienas geresnis už kitą. / In this work we introduce to two alternative, most popular real time shadow rendering techniques. This is shadow map (or mapping) and shadow volumes techniques. Because those two methods have diferent advantages and weaknesses, there are always in development, and sometimes hybrid algorithms are created, which would absorb more good features from them. So in this work we tried to determine and rate in which cases one is better than another.

Prion protein (PrP) is best known for its involvement in prion diseases. A normal, dynamic isoform of prion protein (PrP^C) transforms into a pathogenic, compact isoform (PrP^Sc) during prion disease pathogenesis. The PrP^Sc, acting as a template upon which PrP^C molecules are refolded into a likeness of itself, accumulates in the brain neurones and causes disease. It is the only known component of prions, proteinaceous infectious particles. Both prion protein isoforms have the same primary amino acid structure and are encoded by the same prion protein gene (PRNP). PRNP determines susceptibility/disposition to prion diseases and their phenotypes.¶The normal function of PRNP is elusive. The Prnp knock-out mice with disrupted ORF show only very subtle phenotype. A number of hypotheses were proposed on the function of mammalian PRNP. The extracellular, GPI-anchored, glycosylated mammalian PrP^C expressed in a heterogenous set of cells could: transport copper from extracellular to intracellular milieu, buffer copper from synapse, contribute to redox signalling, act neuroprotectively, mediate cell-cell contacts, affect lymphocyte activation, participate in nucleic acid metabolism, be a memory molecule, and be a signal-transduction protein.¶ Experimental evidence demonstrated a redundancy between the PRNP and another, unknown gene. The critical issue therefore is to discover new genes homologous with PRNP, candidates for this redundancy. Using unpublished data, a sequence of zebrafish cDNA sequenced by Prof. Tatjana Simonic’s group (University of Milan, Italy), I discovered a new paralogue of PRNP. By searching manually, and in a targeted fashion, data deposited in public biological databases, I compiled support for the new human gene Shadow of prion protein (SPRN) including the direct evidence, homology-based evidence and ab initio gene prediction. The protein product called Shadoo (shadow in Japanese) is an extracellular, potentially glycosylated and GPI-anchored protein of a mature size of 100-odd amino acids. It is conserved from fish (zebrafish, Fugu, Tetraodon) to mammals (human, mouse, rat), and exhibits similarity of overall protein features with PrP. Most remarkably, the Sho is the first human/mammalian protein apart from PrP that contains the middle hydrophobic region that is essential for both normal and pathogenic properties of PrP. As this region is critical for heterodimerization of PrP, Sho may have potential to interact with PrP and is a likely candidate for the Protein X. Mammalian SPRN could be predominantly expressed in brain (Tatjana Simonic Lab, University of Milan, Italy).¶ Using the same approach to search public databases, I found, in addition, a fish duplicate of SPRN called SPRNB, and defined a new vertebrate SPRN gene family. Further, I also expanded a number of known fish genes from the PRNP gene family. The total number of the new genes that I discovered is 11. With the representatives of two vertebrate gene family datasets in hand, I conducted comparative genomic analysis in order to determine evolutionary trajectories of the SPRN and PRNP genes. This analysis, complemented with phylogenetic studies (Dr. Lars Jermiin, University of Sydney, Australia), demonstrated conservative evolution of the mammalian SPRN gene, and more relaxed evolutionary constraints acting on the mammalian PRNP gene. This evolutionary dialectic challenges widely adopted view on the “highly conserved vertebrate” PRNP and indicates that the SPRN gene may have more prominent function. More conserved Sprn could therefore substitute for the loss of less conserved, dispensable Prnp in the Prnp knock-out mice. Furthermore, the pathogenic potential of PRNP may be a consequence of relaxed evolutionary constraints.¶ Depth of comparative genomic analysis, strategy to understand biological function, depends on the number of species in comparison and their relative evolutionary distance. To understand better evolution and function of mammalian PRNP, I isolated and characterized the PRNP gene from Australian model marsupial tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii). Marsupials are mammals separated from their eutherian relatives by roughly 180 million years. Comparison of the tammar wallaby and Brazilian opossum PrP with other vertebrate PrPs indicated patterns of evolution of the PrP regions. Whereas the repeat region is conserved within lineages but differs between lineages, the hydrophobic region is invariably conserved in all the PrPs. Conservation of PrP between marsupials and eutherians suggests that marsupial PrP could have the same pathogenic potential as eutherian PrPs. Using the marsupial PRNP gene in comparison with the PRNP genes from eutherian species in which prion diseases occur naturally (human, bovine, ovine) or experimentally (mouse), I defined gene regions that are conserved mammalian-wide and showed the utility of the marsupial genomic sequence for cross-species comparisons. These regions are potential regulatory elements that could govern gene expression and posttranscriptional control of mRNA activity. These findings shed new light on the normal function of mammalian PRNP supporting best the signal-transduction hypothesis. The normal function of PRNP may be triggering of signalling cascades which contribute to cell-cell interactions and may act anti-apoptotically. Yet, in the heterogenous set of cells expressing PrP^C these pathways will contribute to a number of cell-specific phenotypes, such as the synaptic plasticity and activation of lymphoid cells.

Global illumination is an important factor when striving for photo realism in computergraphics. This thesis describes why this is the case, and why global illumination is considered acomplex problem to solve. The problem becomes even more demanding when considering realtime purposes. Resent research has proven it possible to produce global illumination in realtime. Therefore the subject of this thesis is to compare and evaluate a number of those methods. An implementation is presented based on the Imperfect shadow maps method, which per se isbased on instant radiosity and reflective shadow maps. The implementation is able to renderplausible global illumination effects in real time, for fully dynamic scenes. With conclusions that while it demonstrably is possible to provide believable global illum-ination in real time, it is not without shortcomings. In every case approximations or restrictionshas to be done to some extent, sometimes leading to wrong results. Though in most cases, notvisually unpleasing by a great deal. The final conclusion is that global illumination is possible on current hardware, with believablequality and good speed. Showing great potential for future implementations on next generationof hardware.

Front projection is an economical method to produce large displays. However, the twin problems of occlusions, which create shadows on the screen, and light projected onto users near the screen, potentially blinding them, makes front projection a poor fit for large upright interactive surfaces. Virtual Rear Projection (VRP) uses multiple redundant front projectors to provide the user experience of using a rear projected display. By using a projector-camera system to mitigate shadows and blinding light, a virtual rear projected display significantly improves upon the user experience of a traditional front projected display, allowing it to replace a rear projected display. In this thesis we characterize the problems caused by shadows and occlusions and develop projection technologies that mitigate shadows and blinding light. We also present a laboratory performance evaluation, and a user evaluation of the technology showing that VRP improves the user experience with respect to traditional front projection.

Lietuvoje šešėlinės ekonomikos augimas pastaraisiais metais sulėtėjo, tačiau šešėlinės ekonomikos pozicijos mūsų šalyje yra pakankamai tvirtos ir daro neigiamą įtaką valstybės ekonomikos vystymuisi. Svarbu ištirti teorinius ir praktinius šešėlinės ekonomikos vertinimo, prevencijos aspektus, kadangi Lietuvoje nėra atliekamas pastovus šešėlinės ekonomikos vertinimas, o kova su šešėline ekonomika vykdoma naikinant pasekmes, bet ne priežastis, neužtikrinant efektyvios prevencijos. Magistro darbo tikslas išnagrinėti šešėlinės ekonomikos būklę ir įvertinti šešėlinės ekonomikos prevencijos priemones Lietuvoje. Tuo tikslu naudojant bendramokslinį loginės, sisteminės analizės, statistinės informacijos loginės analizės, lyginamosios analizės metodus, atskleista šešėlinės ekonomikos samprata, išnagrinėti šešėlinės ekonomikos Lietuvoje funkcionavimo mechanizmo ypatumai, pateikta šešėlinės ekonomikos vertinimo metodika, išanalizuoti šešėlinės ekonomikos Lietuvoje pokyčiai ir priemones jai mažinti. Darbą sudaro keturios pagrindinės dalys. Pirmojoje dalyje aptariama šešėlinės ekonomikos samprata, išnagrinėjami įvairūs sampratos aspektai. Antrojoje darbo dalyje atskleidžiami šešėlinės ekonomikos funkcionavimo mechanizmai – priežastys, kodėl šešėlinė ekonomika susiformuoja, ją sąlygojantys veiksniai, pasekmės valstybės ekonominiam gyvenimui. Trečiojoje darbo dalyje nagrinėjami metodai, kurie įvairiose šalyse naudojami šešėlinei ekonomikai identifikuoti ir įvertinti. Ketvirtoje darbo dalyje... [to full text] / The growth of shadow economy has recently slowed down in Lithuania, but the shadow economy still forms a great part of economy and is a loss for the society. It is important to analyze theoretical and practical aspects of shadow economy evaluation and prevention, because Lithuania’s government does not make periodical researches of shadow economy; the fight against the shadow economy is mostly against its results, not the reasons, not assuring efficient prevention of shadow economy. The aim of this Master Paper is to analyze measures and means of shadow economy minimizing. Seeking for this aim, and using the method of logical, systemic analysis, statistical information analysis, comparative analysis the shadow economy concepts, functional aspects, were analyzed, as well as the methods of shadow economy evaluation, the results of shadow economy in Lithuania and abroad, and means to minimize it. The Master paper contains four main parts. The first part analyzes theoretical and practical aspects of the concept „shadow economy”. The second part of the Paper presents the functional mechanism of shadow economy, theoretical theories describing the reasons and results of shadow economy. The third part analysis methods for shadow economy evaluation and measurement. The forth part of the Paper presents the research of shadow economy results in Lithuania and foreign countries; this part disuses means of shadow economy prevention used in Lithuanian and abroad. At the end of the forth... [to full text]

The initial attempt was to find efficient technique to identify shadow plylgons in the shadow-volume based shadow generation algorithm. It was observed that shadows correspond to loops of ridge edges (REs). By identifying all the non-overlapping RE loops of a 3D object, one finds all the shadow polygons and, consequently, all the shadows it generates on other objects as well as shadows it generates on itself. This, however, requires extensive edge-edge intersection tests.It was subsequently realized that by storing the angular representations of the RE looks in a look up table, one can avoid the need of decomposing RE loops into non-overlapping loops and, consequently, the need of performation extensive edge-edge intersection tests. Actually, by building the look up table in a way similar to the bucket-sorted edge table of the standard scan-line method, one can use the table in the scan conversion process to mark the pixels that are in shadow directly, without the need of performing any ray-polygon intersection tests as required in the shadow-volume based shadow generation algorithm. Hence, one gets a new shadow generation technique without the need of performing expensive tests.

Since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, the Federal Reserve has been engaging in quantitative easing. Quantitative easing is a form of open market operation in which the Federal Reserve buys long-term U.S. government and other securities, versus traditional open market operations that occur through the short-term Treasury bill market. At the same time, the shadow bank system, which is a system of financial intermediaries that perform unregulated credit intermediation outside of traditional banks, has contracted significantly. Some argue that this contraction is due to a collateral crunch induced by quantitative easing in the shadow bank system—a crunch that occurred when the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program took high-quality collateral off the market. I will focus specifically on repurchase agreements, an instrument within the shadow banking that uses the same types of securities that the Federal Reserve has been buying during quantitative easing as collateral, to determine whether quantitative easing has led to a contraction of the repurchase agreement market. I find that increases in Federal Reserve asset holdings from 2005-2013, and specifically during QE1, are associated with decreases in primary dealer repurchase agreements. This shows that under certain circumstances, Federal Reserve asset purchases lead to contractions in the shadow bank system. This paper aims to increase understanding of how monetary policy affects shadow banking and understanding of the unintended consequences of monetary policy, such as decreased shadow bank lending caused by quantitative easing.