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Title: Financialization in the Structured Products Market
Creator: Zhu, Lizi
Date: 2023
Description: This dissertation aims to study financialization in the structured products market. The structured products market has been undergoing a major...
Show moreThis dissertation aims to study financialization in the structured products market. The structured products market has been undergoing a major transformation in recent years. The market used to mainly serve institutional investors. However, as a few trading platforms powered by fintech companies emerged on the horizon, more and more banks are starting to compete in this market. The average trade size has also been declining significantly, thereby making the market increasingly accessible to retail investors. What are the factors that facilitate the development of this market? What are the economic incentives of issuers and investors? How do issuers compete? What does the future hold for this market? The main finding of this dissertation is that structured products provide utility to retail investors; As the level of risk aversion increases, an investor increasingly prefers structured products to other traditional asset classes; issuers develop three sources of competitive advantage to be a satisficer; the rise of fintech and improvement of financial education are the key to opening this market to retail investors.
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Title: Multimodal Learning and Generation Toward a Multisensory and Creative AI System
Creator: Zhu, Ye
Date: 2023
Description: We are perceiving and communicating with the world in a multisensory manner, where different information sources are sophisticatedly processed...
Show moreWe are perceiving and communicating with the world in a multisensory manner, where different information sources are sophisticatedly processed and interpreted by separate parts of the human brain to constitute a complex, yet harmonious and unified intelligent system. To endow the machines with true intelligence, multimodal machine learning that incorporates data from various modalities including vision, audio, and text, has become an increasingly popular research area with emerging technical advances in recent years. Under the context of multimodal learning, the creativity to generate and synthesize novel and meaningful data is a critical criterion to assess machine intelligence.As a step towards a multisensory and creative AI system, we study the problem of multimodal generation in this thesis by exploring the field from multiple perspectives. Firstly, we analyze different data modalities in a comprehensive manner by comparing the data natures, the semantics, and their corresponding mainstream technical designs. We then propose to investigate three multimodal generation application scenarios, namely text generation from visual data, audio generation from visual data, and visual generation from textual data, with diverse approaches to give an overview of the field. For the direction of text generation from visual data, we study a novel multimodal task in which the model is expected to summarize a given video with textual descriptions, under a challenging condition where the video can only be partially seen. We propose to supplement the missing visual information via a dialogue interaction and introduce QA-Cooperative network with a dynamic dialogue history update learning mechanism to tackle the challenge. For the direction of audio generation from visual data, we present a new multimodal task that aims to generate music for a given silent dance video clip. Unlike most existing conditional music generation works that generate specific types of mono-instrumental sounds using symbolic audio representations (e.g., MIDI), and that heavily rely on pre-defined musical synthesizers, we generate dance music in complex styles (e.g., pop, breaking, etc.) by employing a Vector-Quantized (VQ) audio representation via our proposed Dance2Music-GAN (D2M-GAN) framework. For the direction of visual generation from textual data, we tackle a key desideratum in conditional synthesis, which is to achieve high correspondence between the conditioning input and generated output using the state-of-the-art generative model -- Diffusion Probabilistic Model. While most existing methods learn such relationships implicitly, by incorporating the prior into the variational lower bound in model training. In this work, we take a different route by explicitly enhancing input-output connections by maximizing their mutual information, which is achieved by our proposed Conditional Discrete Contrastive Diffusion (CDCD) framework. For each direction, we conduct extensive experiments on multiple multimodal datasets and demonstrate that all of our proposed frameworks are able to effectively and substantially improve task performance in their corresponding contexts.
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Title: WASTEWATER COLLECTION SYSTEM MODELING: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED URBAN WATER AND ENERGY NETWORK
Creator: Wang, Xiaolong
Date: 2020
Description: Wastewater collection systems, among the oldest features of urban infrastructure, are typically dedicated to collect and transport wastewater...
Show moreWastewater collection systems, among the oldest features of urban infrastructure, are typically dedicated to collect and transport wastewater from users to water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). Since the 1970s, wastewater engineers and scientists have come to understand that wastewater collection systems can bring benefits for urban water and energy networks, including thermal energy recovery and converting pipelines to bioreactors. However, there is little knowledge about the temporal and spatial changes of collection systems parameters that are important for these applications. Furthermore, the vast majority of existing studies of these applications have focused on laboratory or extremely small-scale systems; there have been few studies about beneficial applications associated with large-scale systems. The purpose of this study is to increase our understanding of how urban wastewater collection systems can bring potential benefits to urban water and energy systems. Models describing wastewater hydraulics, temperature, and water quality can provide valuable information to help evaluate thermal energy recovery and wastewater pretreatment feasibility. These kinds of models, and supporting data from a case study, were used in this study; sizes of the theoretical wastewater collection systems range from 2.6 L/s to 52 L/s, and the sample locations of the case study had flows ranging from 2.3 L/s to 24.5 L/s. A cost-benefit analysis of wastewater source heat pumps was used to evaluate the thermal energy recovery feasibility for different sizes of wastewater collection systems. Results show that the large collection system can support a large capacity heat pump system with a relatively low unit initial cost. Small collection systems have a slightly lower unit operating cost due to the relatively high wastewater temperature. When the heat pump system capacity design was based on the average available energy from the collection system, larger systems have lower payback times; the lowest payback time is about 3.5 years. The wastewater quality model was used to describe the dissolved oxygen (DO) and organic matter concentrations changes in the collection system. The model provides a framework for predicting pretreatment capability. Model results show that DO concentration is the limiting parameter for organic matter removal. Larger collection systems can provide more organic matter removal because they provide relatively longer retention times, and they offer the potential for greater DO reaeration. The model can also be used to identify environmental conditions in sewer pipelines, providing information for potential issues predication.
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Title: DEVELOPMENT OF FULLY BIOCOMPATIBLE HYDROGEL NANOPARTICLE FORMULATIONS FOR CONTROLLED-RELEASE DELIVERY OF A WIDE VARIETY OF BIOMOLECULES
Creator: Borges, Fernando Tancredo Pereira
Date: 2020
Description: In recent years, our group has focused on the production of PEGDA-based hydrogel scaffolds and nanoparticles for drug delivery of small...
Show moreIn recent years, our group has focused on the production of PEGDA-based hydrogel scaffolds and nanoparticles for drug delivery of small molecules. However, with recent advances in modern therapeutic treatments, such as protein and genetic engineering, there is an increasing need for the development of drug delivery devices that would be able encapsulate larger molecules. Therefore, the goal of this thesis work was to develop a systematic way to produce fully biocompatible PEGDA-based hydrogel nanoparticle formulations that would be able to encapsulate any size molecule, ranging from small ionic molecules, to peptides and proteins, all the way to large nucleic acids, and deliver it in a controlled manner.The first of part of this work consisted of developing a stable and reproducible process for the production of hydrogel PPi-NPs. Initial studies were done in order to assess the influence of phosphate salts in the polymerization system and it was found that both monophosphate and polyphosphate salts significantly damper the NVP homo-polymerization kinetics, but do not affect the co-polymerization of NVP and PEGDA. Then, emulsion stability studies were done to determine whether phosphate salts affected the stability of the minimeulsion system used in the production of the nanoparticles. Cloud point measurements and droplet size screening measurements showed that by transitioning from a Pi-loaded emulsion system to a PPi-loaded emulsion system, the required HLB of the emulsion shifts by 1.5 points. Upon correction for that shift, a reproducible process for production of PPi-loaded nanoparticles was obtained. A parametric study was then performed to see how the different process parameters affected the different properties of the produced particles. The second part of the work consisted in developing a platform for encapsulation of large to very-large molecules within these hydrogel systems. A new set of equations was developed for better estimation of the interstitial space, available for encapsulation of molecules, of crosslinked polymers that used very high molecular weight crosslinkers and/or high amounts of crosslinker. Upon development of this new set of equations, hydrogel discs were made via photopolymerization in order to validate the equations. By introducing a third monomer, EGA, and varying the molecular weight and concentration of the crosslinker, hydrogels with a wide range of mesh dimensions from 25 to 700 were achieved. These gels were then used to encapsulate 4 different sample molecules of varying molecular weights and size. A new heuristic was developed for encapsulation of non-spherical molecules, where the aspect ratios of the molecule and of the polymer network are considered. By varying the size of the ratios of the dimensions of the hydrogel network to the dimensions of the molecule, significantly different release profiles of small molecules, peptides and oligonucleotides were obtained. Finally, in order to explore different administration routes, the process was transitioning into being fully biocompatible. The organic solvent previously used in the emulsion system was replaced by soybean oil and the surfactants were replaced by a food-grade surfactant, PGPR, to form Bio-Compatible Nanoparticle Emulsions (BCNEs). Qualitative release from the BCNEs was shown. A new method for quantitative measuring of release from BCNE was developed. Release from QK-BCNE was observed up to 46 days, which is unprecedented for sustained-release and revolutionary for the field. A BCNE spreadable ointment formulation was also developed.
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Title: Illinois Institute of Technology gymnasium with the Life Sciences Building under construction in background, Chicago, Ill., 1966
Date: 1966
Description: Photograph of the gymnasium of the Illinois Institute of Technology, located at 32nd and Dearborn Streets. The gymnasium was constructed in...
Show morePhotograph of the gymnasium of the Illinois Institute of Technology, located at 32nd and Dearborn Streets. The gymnasium was constructed in 1947 and demolished in 1966. It was built as part of a 1947 Federal Works Agency project to provide facilities for veterans of World War II. Photographer unknown.
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Collection: Office of Communications and Marketing photographs, 1905-1999

Title: IMAGE-ANALYSIS WITH FIJI PROGRAM ON PERIPHERAL BLOOD MONOCULAR CELLS AFTER CONSUMPTION OF HIGH-FAT, HIGH CARBOHYDRATE MEAL WITH OR WITHOUT ADDITION OF SPICES – A SINGLE-CENTER RANDOMIZED, BLINDED, PLACEBO-CONTROLLED, 4-ARM, 24HR ACUTE CROSSOVER STUDY
Creator: Tsai, Meng Fu
Date: 2020
Description: Chronic low-grade inflammation plays a significant role in developing various chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and type II...
Show moreChronic low-grade inflammation plays a significant role in developing various chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes. Western-type diets characterized by high-fat (saturated fat) and high-carbohydrate (HFHC) calories induce oxidative stress leading to inflammation. Polyphenol rich foods, such as berries, tea, and herbs and spices, have antioxidant properties. Spices have been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects in cell and animal studies; however, data are limited in humans. In the present study, we hypothesized that bioactive polyphenolic compounds in herbs and species would reduce diet-induced inflammation in overweight and obese (OW/OB) individuals. In a randomized, single-blinded 4-arm, 24-h, crossover clinical trial, sixteen OW/OB adults consumed an HFHC meal with and without three herbs and spices combinations, including Italian herbs (rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley), cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice) on four separate occasions at least three days apart. Markers of inflammation were assessed before and at 2, 4, 5.5, and 7 hours after meal consumption by tracking nuclear translocation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), a transcription factor in inflammatory signaling, in human peripheral blood monocular cells (PBMCs) and by measuring plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6), a pro-inflammatory cytokine. Nuclear translocation of NF-κB and the proportion of PBMCs activated were estimated through a new method leveraging machine-learning immunofluorescence image analysis. Metabolic markers were also investigated by RX Daytona automated clinical chemistry analyzer. Statistical analysis was conducted using a statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) (α<0.05, significance). Preliminary results suggested the pumpkin pie spice mixture may improve inflammatory status. Compared to the control meal, the meal with pumpkin spice reduced nuclear translocation of NF-κB and proportion of PBMCs activation, p=0.007, and p=0.005, respectively. The addition of herbs/spices in HFHC meal had no apparent effect on postprandial glucose, insulin, or IL-6 concentrations compared to the control meal. Increased triglyceride concentrations were suggested after consuming the meal with Italian herbs compared to control (p=0.004). Overall, the results of this research suggested the potential of pumpkin pie spice as having anti-inflammatory effects in the context of a typical western-style eating pattern. A major component of this research was to develop a new method for assessing real-time inflammation in the human body. While the method and data are encouraging, upgrading image resolution and programming will be the subject of future research.
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Title: Gender Stereotype Biases Within Law Enforcement Clinical Psychological Evaluation
Creator: Porter, Maxwell G.
Date: 2023
Description: Female representation in law enforcement, despite significant improvements in past decades, remains markedly low at approximately 12%. One...
Show moreFemale representation in law enforcement, despite significant improvements in past decades, remains markedly low at approximately 12%. One possible barrier is the clinical psychological evaluation (CPE), a type of individualized assessment used to evaluate the mental or emotional fitness for duty of applicants. The present study examines the presence of potential gender bias in CPE for law enforcement positions by examining self-report personality assessment scores as well as narrative CPE recommendation reports generated by evaluating psychologists. Archival CPE data collected between 2014 through 2019 was obtained from a personnel selection consulting firm for entry-level law enforcement candidates (n = 390). Data included candidate scores on self-report psychological assessments (16PF, IPI-2), candidate background information, and psychologist-generated evaluation reports. A computer-aided text analysis using LIWC-22 was used to measure gender related inferences in the narrative report. Results indicated that (a) women received significantly lower assessor recommendation ratings than men, (b) significant differences in self-report personality scores were observed, however these were limited to a narrow subsection of traits, (c) gender was no longer a significant predictor of CPE outcome after controlling for applicant personality trait scores, and (d) meaningful differences in agency-related inferences in the narrative reports were observed, but it is unclear whether gender stereotypes influenced the reports. Practical implications, study limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.
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Title: In situ EXAFS studies of novel Palladium-based anode catalysts for direct ethanol and formic acid fuel cells
Creator: Su, Ning
Date: 2024
Description: In this work we made nanoscale uniform deposition of Pd based anode catalyst on the transition metal Au (with atomic ratio Pd:Au=1:10) support...
Show moreIn this work we made nanoscale uniform deposition of Pd based anode catalyst on the transition metal Au (with atomic ratio Pd:Au=1:10) support of direct liquid ethanol fuel cells (DLEFCs) and direct liquid formic acid fuel cells (DLFAFCs). Synthesizing with uniform dispersion and catalyst nanoparticle dimensions understand the role of Pd reaction on its support in the direct EOR (ethanol oxidation reaction) and FOR (formic acid reaction) pathways, we performed in situ Pd K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements as a function of potential using a custom-designed flow cell with the catalyst deposited on the glassy carbon window. We did in-situ EXAFS to better understand the reaction mechanism of Pd1@Au10 anode catalyst with EOR and AOR in nanoscale. Compared EOR with FOR electrochemical performance showed Pd@Au&C played better in ethanol than HCOOH and more stable which the the current density can reach up to 1216.25 mA·mg-1 Pd of EOR with Pd1@Au10&C in 1M KOH+1M EtOH (CH3CH2OH) on the ethanol fuel cells (DLEFCs), and 3.56 times higher of the EOR current compared with commercial Pd@C
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Title: Gwendolyn Brooks receiving an honorary degree at from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, 1968
Date: 1968
Description: Photograph of Gwendolyn Brooks, then Chicago's Poet Laureate, receiving an honorary degree from Illinois Institute of Technology. Photographer...
Show morePhotograph of Gwendolyn Brooks, then Chicago's Poet Laureate, receiving an honorary degree from Illinois Institute of Technology. Photographer unknown.
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Collection: Office of Communications and Marketing photographs, 1905-1999

Title: Ekco Pool, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1970s
Date: 1970-1979
Description: Photograph of students in Ekco Pool on the lower level of Keating Hall. Date of photograph is unknown. Date range listed is approximate.
Collection: Office of Communications and Marketing photographs, 1905-1999

Title: Exhibition announcement for the exhibit Pioneers of Abstract art at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY, 1996, verso
Date: 1996
Description: Exhibition annoucement postcard for the exhibit Pioneers of Abstract art at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY,...
Show moreExhibition annoucement postcard for the exhibit Pioneers of Abstract art at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY, September 20-October 17, 1996. The exhibit commemorated the 60th anniversary of American Abstract Artists group, and included work from founding and current members, including Mary Henry's Verklaerte Nacht (acrylic on canvas, 1996). The recto of the card includes a detail of the frontispiece of the original 1937 American Abstract Artists portfolio.
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Collection: Mary Dill Henry Papers, 1913-2021

Title: Exhibition announcement for the exhibit Pioneers of Abstract art at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY, 1996, recto
Date: 1996
Description: Exhibition annoucement postcard for the exhibit Pioneers of Abstract art at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY,...
Show moreExhibition annoucement postcard for the exhibit Pioneers of Abstract art at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY, September 20-October 17, 1996. The exhibit commemorated the 60th anniversary of American Abstract Artists group, and included work from founding and current members, including Mary Henry's Verklaerte Nacht (acrylic on canvas, 1996). The recto of the card includes a detail of the frontispiece of the original 1937 American Abstract Artists portfolio.
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Collection: Mary Dill Henry Papers, 1913-2021

Title: Exhibition announcement for the exhibit Pioneers of Abstract art at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY, 1996
Date: 1996
Description: Exhibition annoucement postcard for the exhibit Pioneers of Abstract art at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY,...
Show moreExhibition annoucement postcard for the exhibit Pioneers of Abstract art at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York, NY, September 20-October 17, 1996. The exhibit commemorated the 60th anniversary of American Abstract Artists group, and included work from founding and current members, including Mary Henry's Verklaerte Nacht (acrylic on canvas, 1996). The recto of the card includes a detail of the frontispiece of the original 1937 American Abstract Artists portfolio.
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Collection: Mary Dill Henry Papers, 1913-2021

Title: Exhibition announcement for Mary Henry's show Selected Works at Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, Washington, February 6-April 17, 1988
Date: 1988
Description: Exhibition annoucement postcard for Mary Henry's show Selected Works at Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, Washington, February 6...
Show moreExhibition annoucement postcard for Mary Henry's show Selected Works at Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, Washington, February 6-April 17, 1988.
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Collection: Mary Dill Henry Papers, 1913-2021

Title: Robert R. McCormick Lounge, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill.
Date: 1960-1969
Description: Photograph of McCormick Lounge. The building is located at 3241 South Wabash Avenue, and was designed by Mittelbusher & Tourtelot and...
Show morePhotograph of McCormick Lounge. The building is located at 3241 South Wabash Avenue, and was designed by Mittelbusher & Tourtelot and constructed in 1959. McCormick Lounge serves as the entry point to the McCormick Student Village, which also includes the six residence halls that surround it. The 1992 renovation included work on the dining halls and common areas, as well as a new entrance. The dining hall portion of the building closed in 2003. Date of photograph is unknown. Date range listed is approximate. Photographer unknown.
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Collection: Office of Communications and Marketing photographs, 1905-1999

Title: Benjamin de Brie Taylor painting the Hawk mural in Ekco Pool, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1980
Date: 1980
Description: Photograph of Benjamin de Brie Taylor and an unidentified student painting the mural above Ekco Pool in Arthur Keating Hall. The mural's hawk...
Show morePhotograph of Benjamin de Brie Taylor and an unidentified student painting the mural above Ekco Pool in Arthur Keating Hall. The mural's hawk was later adopted this as the official logo of the IIT Athletic Department. Taylor was Director of the Institute of Design at IIT from 1973 to 1975, and remained on the faculty at ID until 1987. Photographer unknown. Date of photograph is unknown. Date listed is approximate.
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Collection: Office of Communications and Marketing photographs, 1905-1999

Title: Two students in dormitory room, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1960s
Date: 1960-1969
Description: Photographer unknown. Date of photograph is unknown. Date range listed is approximate.
Collection: Office of Communications and Marketing photographs, 1905-1999

Title: Robert R. McCormick Lounge, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill.
Date: 1985-1986
Description: Photograph of McCormick Lounge. The building is located at 3241 South Wabash Avenue, and was designed by Mittelbusher & Tourtelot and...
Show morePhotograph of McCormick Lounge. The building is located at 3241 South Wabash Avenue, and was designed by Mittelbusher & Tourtelot and constructed in 1959. McCormick Lounge serves as the entry point to the McCormick Student Village, which also includes the six residence halls that surround it. The 1992 renovation included work on the dining halls and common areas, as well as a new entrance. The dining hall portion of the building closed in 2003.
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Collection: Mies Centennial records, 1969-1986

Title: Adaptive Learning Approach of a Domain-Aware CNN-Based Model Observer
Creator: Bogdanovic, Nebojsa
Date: 2023
Description: Application of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for performing defect detection tasks and their use as model observers (MO) has become...
Show moreApplication of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for performing defect detection tasks and their use as model observers (MO) has become increasingly popular in the medical imaging field. Building upon this use of CNN MOs, we have trained the CNNs to discern between the data it was trained on, and the previously unseen images. We termed this ability domain awareness. To achieve domain awareness, we are simultaneously training a new variation of U-Net CNN to perform defect detection task, as well as to reconstruct a noisy input image. We have shown that the values of the reconstruction mean squared error can be used as a good indicator of how well the algorithm performs in the defect localization task, making a big step towards developing a domain aware CNN MO. Additionally, we have proposed an adaptive learning approach for training these algorithms, and compared them to the non-adaptive learning approach. The main results that we achieved were for the ideal observers, but we also extended these results to human observer data. We have compared different architectures of CNNs with different numbers and sizes of layers, as well as introduced data augmentation to further improve upon our results. Finally, our results show that the proposed adaptive learning approach with introduced data augmentation drastically improves upon the results of a non-adaptive approach in both human and ideal observer cases.
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Title: Correlating Microstructural Properties to Macroscopic Shear Mechanics to Improve the Understanding of Tissue Biomechanics
Creator: Cahoon, Stacey Marie
Date: 2023
Description: Understanding tissue biomechanics is of interest for modeling organ injury from external loads, development of tissue surrogate materials, and...
Show moreUnderstanding tissue biomechanics is of interest for modeling organ injury from external loads, development of tissue surrogate materials, and creating new biomarkers for disease. Probing the response of soft tissue in shear can provide information on histopathology, provided a methodology exists that connects the macroscopic mechanical properties with cell-level properties. Two of the available methods to measure the macroscopic shear viscoelastic properties of soft tissue are oscillatory shear rheometry and ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE). Due to its accuracy, rheometry is the gold standard, but it is destructive, requires excised homogeneous samples, and can only be applied ex-vivo. SWE is an emerging non-invasive imaging technique which requires validation, ostensibly by comparing with rheometry. Histology is the gold standard for providing morphological information on the cell level, which can determine tissue pathology. The challenge is to connect the macroscopic mechanical metrics derived from SWE and rheometry to the tissue microstructure. To address this challenge, mathematical models can be used that employ multiple, judiciously chosen measurements of macroscopic shear properties and histology to estimate intrinsic mechanical properties at the cell level.A class of homogeneous and composite lipid phantoms mimicking the mechanical properties of brain white matter were fabricated to test a novel stereotactic system and an optimized SWE imaging protocol. The shear stiffness measurements obtained with SWE on the whole phantom were validated with rheometry performed on a series of samples made with the same material as the phantoms. The same procedure was applied to porcine brain white matter excised from fresh whole brains (n=3). Cylindrical cores were extracted from the corpus callosum area, sliced into discs and microscopic sections were subsequently removed for histology. Good agreement was found between the SWE and rheometry measurements of shear stiffness, which generally increases with the level of compressive prestress. Immunofluorescence was used to stain separately the axon neurofilaments and myelin sheaths, and digital image analysis of the confocal microscopy images allowed the estimation of axon volume fraction and axon-to-myelin ratio in the corpus callosum. Using these metrics and a composite mechanical model, a connection between the macroscopic shear measurements and the viscoelastic properties of axon and glia matrix was made for porcine brain tissue. Similarly, rheometry was used to measure the macroscopic properties of decellularized porcine myocardium extracellular matrix (ECM) in two different fiber locations, and for three different fiber orientations. The mechanical properties were found to be dependent upon fiber location, but not on fiber orientation. Since collagen is a primary supportive structure for the ECM, several microscopic slices were probed with immunofluorescence to compute the collagen I and collagen IV volume fractions. Another mechanical model was employed to establish a connection between the macroscopic properties and the mechanical properties of the collagen matrix in decellularized porcine myocardial ECM.This dissertation highlights the use and integration of three different experimental techniques (rheometry, ultrasound SWE, and histology) to correlate key microstructural properties of soft, fibrous tissues (ex-vivo healthy porcine brain white matter and myocardium ECM) with macroscopic shear mechanics. The consideration of the effect of compressive prestress is noteworthy. The reported baseline data for the tissues under shear loading and prestress are pertinent to the physiological function of these tissues, and therefore constitute preliminary data and a necessary first step before a systematic study of the biomechanics of the same tissues in vivo is performed.
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