MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

The modern stadium is a bipolar anomaly of the architectural world. They are built to hold large masses of people for short intervals of time, constantly juggling between satiated and famished. Their lifespan is relatively short and they are under constant pressure to keep up with the changing times. Often constrained by factors of transportation, circulation, life safety, and sheer cost, the stadium has become a static environment that does not offer much past a few hours of entertainment. Additionally, advancements in home theater technology have created competition, and make it difficult to get people to leave their homes for an event. The challenge is to change the role of the stadium within the community and to redefine it as an urban epicenter for activity and connection. This thesis proposes a Nordic ski jumping stadium in the heart of downtown Detroit, Michigan suggesting how the stadium can become a beacon for a city, an amenity to the community, and a location for pulse-pounding feats of human athleticism. Nine variables have been identified to define what makes an active, memorable, vibrant, positive experience for a spectator at a stadium: These include the physical variables of climate, connectivity, and visibility and acoustics; the emotional factors of memories, perception, and engagement; and the spatial conditions of program, materiality, and form. Placing the project within the urban fabric strengthens the entertainment district, and helps draw people to the stadium every day of the year. Juxtapositions between everyday activities and the stadium were also created and exploited, in order to create idiosyncratic vignettes of connection.

Committee: John Eliot Hancock M.Arch. (Committee Chair); Michael McInturf M.Arch. (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2004, Biochemistry

In addition to its action in cellular transformation, the Ski proto-oncogene has dramatic effects on cell death and differentiation during development. Ski functions as a potent anti-apoptotic protein by binding to the pro-apoptotic protein, Smac. Smac binds two separate domains of the apoptosis inhibitor XIAP, preventing their inhibition of caspase-3 and caspase-9. Ski blocks the interaction between Smac and XIAP, and overcomes Smac's dual inhibitory effects on XIAP both in vitro and in vivo. Upon induction of apoptosis, the intracellular distribution of Ski changes from exclusively nuclear to partially cytoplasmic, facilitating its interaction with active Smac. Ski also interacts with XIAP, up regulates the expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl2 family members, Ku70 and the anti-apoptotic, secretary form of Clusterin, while it down regulates the proapoptotic nuclear form of Clusterin. These findings identify a novel activity of the Ski protein that should play an important role in its functions during development and oncogenesis. Ski encodes a co-factor that can either repress or activate transcription, depending on its protein partners. These studies focused on Ski's transcriptional repression activity and found that Ski achieves its inhibitory effect via multiple mechanisms, in which histone deacetylases and heterochromatin protein 1a are involved. Over expressed Ski co-fractionates together with phosphorylated Smad2 in a 1.0 MDa complex. Even though the interaction with Smads is important for Ski to repress the TGFa pathway, too strong binding of Smads reduces Ski's inhibitory effect.

Committee: Ed Stavnezer (Advisor) Subjects: Chemistry, Biochemistry