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Previous studies have demonstrated that the hypothalamus regulates neuroendocrine and autonomic function and behavior. Within the hypothalamus, the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) is an integratory node that contains neurons associated with the control of neuroendocrine and autonomic responses. The PVN also has one of the highest density of blood vessels within the brain. Alterations of normal PVN angiogenesis by dexamethasone could potentially result in long-term modifications of brain and endocrine functions.
Timed-pregnant Sprague Dawley female rats received DEX on gestational days 18-21 and the resulting progeny were sacrificed at Postnatal Day (PND) 0, 4, 14, and 21. A tomato lectin, Lycopersicon Esculentum labeled with DyLight594 was used to stain blood vessels in the PVN and scanning confocal microscopy was used to analyze the experimental brains for PVN blood vessel density
Analysis of data using a 3-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with age, sex and treatment as main factors, showed a significant age effect in vascular density. Analysis of female data by 2-way ANOVA demonstrated a significant effect of age, but no treatment or interaction effects. Post-hoc analysis shows significant differences at PND 2, 4, 14, and 21 compared to PND0. A Student‘s t-test of a planned comparison on PND2 showed a significant reduction by DEX treatment (p < 0.05). Analysis of data from females, using 2-way ANOVA demonstrated a significant effect of age, but no treatment or interaction effects. Post-hoc analysis shows significant differences at PND 2, 4, 14, and 21 compared to PND0. A planned comparison at PND 2 using Student’s t-test indicated a significant reduction by dex treatment.
The results of these studies demonstrate that there is significant postnatal angiogenic programming and that the vascular density of the PVN is altered by prenatal dexamethasone administration at PND2. The time-course shows developmental fluctuations in vessel density that may prove to be physiologically significant for normal brain function and developmental programming of brain and behavior.




Affective computing allows computers to monitor and influence people’s affects, in other words emotions. Currently, there is a lot of research exploring what can be done with this technology. There are many fields, such as education, healthcare, and marketing, that this technology can transform. However, it is important to question what should be done. There are unique ethical considerations in regards to affective computing that haven't been explored. The purpose of this study is to understand the user’s perspective of affective computing in regards to the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Code of Ethics, to ultimately start developing a better understanding of these ethical concerns. For this study, participants were required to watch three different videos and answer a questionnaire, all while wearing an Emotiv EPOC+ EEG headset that measures their emotions. Using the information gathered, the study explores the ethics of affective computing through the user’s perspective.
Cryptojacking is a process in which a program utilizes a user’s CPU to mine cryptocurrencies unknown to the user. Since cryptojacking is a relatively new problem and its impact is still limited, very little has been done to combat it. Multiple studies have been conducted where a cryptojacking detection system is implemented, but none of these systems have truly solved the problem. This thesis surveys existing studies and provides a classification and evaluation of each detection system with the aim of determining their pros and cons. The result of the evaluation indicates that it might be possible to bypass detection of existing systems by modifying the cryptojacking code. In addition to this classification, I developed an automatic code instrumentation program that replaces specific instructions with functionally similar sequences as a way to show how easy it is to implement simple obfuscation to bypass detection by existing systems.
This paper is centered on the use of generative adversarial networks (GANs) to convert or generate RGB images from grayscale ones. The primary goal is to create sensible and colorful versions of a set of grayscale images by training a discriminator to recognize failed or generated images and training a generator to attempt to satisfy the discriminator. The network design is described in further detail below; however there are several potential issues that arise including the averaging of a color for certain images such that small details in an image are not assigned unique colors leading to a neutral blend. We attempt to mitigate this issue as much as possible.
This paper is centered on the use of generative adversarial networks (GANs) to convert or generate RGB images from grayscale ones. The primary goal is to create sensible and colorful versions of a set of grayscale images by training a discriminator to recognize failed or generated images and training a generator to attempt to satisfy the discriminator. The network design is described in further detail below; however there are several potential issues that arise including the averaging of a color for certain images such that small details in an image are not assigned unique colors leading to a neutral blend. We attempt to mitigate this issue as much as possible.