Desmoplakin (DP) is a component of desmosomes, critical adhesive complexes found in cardiac intercalated discs. DP is often mutated in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC), an inherited disorder that is a frequent cause of sudden cardiac death. The disease progression of AC is characterized by cardiomyocyte cell death and replacement of the...
Active traffic management systems aim to relieve recurring and non-recurring congestion by using estimated and predicted traffic conditions to guide trip makers before and after entering the network as well as to design control strategies to improve system performance. With external disruptions and interventions (e.g., weather, special events, and incidents),...
To accelerate the implementation of technologies enabled by two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials, the human health and environmental implications of these materials need to be addressed. Fundamental studies which elucidate the mechanisms of toxicity and environmental fate will allow for the safer design of these materials and promote their widespread use. This...
In 2015, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that 1 in 6 Americans fall ill with a foodborne infection annually, resulting in more than 3000 fatalities and an estimated $15 billion in economic burden due to combined medical costs, productivity loss, and death. On a per-case basis, infections...
In this work we explore a connection between some high dimensional asymptotic problems and random matrix theory. In the first part, we establish a link between the Wishart ensemble and random critical points of holomorphic sections over complex projective space and use this to establish asymptotics on the average number...
Developing low-cost, scalable, high-efficiency photovoltaic materials is an important technological challenge because of the projected increase in global energy consumption in coming years, the environmental cost of carbon emissions, and the widespread availability of solar energy. This dissertation contains three studies on the development of novel hybrid materials as photovoltaic...
Stars, planets and massive black holes are ubiquitous in binary and multiple configurations. In stellar systems the binary components interact through various type of mass loss and mass transfer. Mass transfer interactions in eccentric systems are inprinciple phase-dependent and can occur in different ways. We formulate the understanding of mass...
Each movement we make represents the final output of complex processes in the nervous system. Studies of motor control often attempt to minimize further complication by using controlled environments to generate repeated movements. However, in natural situations, the motor system faces the much more complicated task of interacting with an...
Households in emerging markets hold significant amounts of dollar deposits while firms have significant amounts of dollar debt. Motivated by the perceived dangers, policymakers often develop regulations to limit dollarization. In this paper, I draw attention to an important benefit of dollarization, which should be taken into account when crafting...
Understanding the role of heterogeneity across agents is crucial in predicting how the macroeconomic outcomes are affected by these differences. This dissertation presents three papers in which I study labor market outcomes of different segments of the population according to their choice of education and how labor market characteristics affect...
Caenorhabditis elegans has been a highly productive model organism. However, most of the knowledge gained from the species has come a single strain isolated in Bristol, England in 1951. However, there exists significant potential in the natural variation present in the species to make discoveries. In this dissertation, I describe...
This thesis focuses on ecological models of population dynamics and the traveling, migratory waves that can result when a stable state either displaces an unstable state, or displaces another stable state. We consider the effect of nonlocal interactions, where members of the species interact over a distance. This gives rise...
In support of a scientific foundation for the predictive design of composition and processing of quench and partition (Q&P) martensite/austenite TRIP steels, theory of coupled diffusional/displacive transformation is experimentally calibrated to control austenite carbon content and its associated mechanical stability. Under paraequilibrium constraint, the calibration quantifies an effective BCC stored...
The brains of humans and animals have the amazing capability of extracting abstract relationships between external stimuli efficiently. Knowing such regularities helps us compute and react to novel information flexibly without prior experience. The olfactory system is no exception. Animals need to infer commonalities across different odors sharing similar meaning,...
Nanostructured semiconductors exhibit promising optoelectronic properties, such as high photoluminescence quantum yield and efficient charge separation, making them attractive materials for applications including photovoltaics, LEDs, and lasers. These superior properties are often due to improved crystallinity and reduced charge separation distance compared to bulk semiconductors. As a result, it is...
Herpesvirus virions consist of three layers: nucleocapsid, tegument, and envelope. The innermost layer, the nucleocapsid, initially assembles as an immature procapsid precursor built around viral scaffold proteins. The event that initiates procapsid maturation is unknown but it is dependent upon activation of the internal protease. Scaffold cleavage triggers angularization, or...
Chip-based photonic devices are doing for optics what integrated circuits have done for electronics. By directly combining many individual components in a compact, scalable and robust way, photonic chips open the possibility for creating optical and electro-optical devices that could not be practical with discrete components. The applications for this...
Recently, much public attention has been focused on racial inequalities in who is subjected to exclusionary school disciplinary policies, and consequently, forced to miss hours of instruction. Over the past two decades, researchers have documented the disparate impacts that zero-tolerance policies have had on students of color, low-income students, and...
Recently, there has been increasing interest in exploring nano-materials used as an additive to existing concrete materials. With respect to fiber-shaped nanomaterials such as carbon nanofibers (CNF), many studies have shown that mechanical strength properties of cementitious materials can be improved significantly. In this dissertation, the research has focused on...
Heterogeneous materials have been emerging and playing essential roles in various engineering and scientific fields. They usually include multiple phases of materials to create unique properties that are not accessible to their homogeneous counterparts. The traditional design approach in the material science community is to use trial-and-error iteratively, which is...