In vivo, substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) dopaminergic neurons exhibit three spiking patterns – irregular, regular, and bursting. These distinct modes of activity are thought to underlie the different roles that dopamine (DA) plays in target structures within the basal ganglia. In particular, burst spiking in SNc DA neurons is...
In his Nobel lecture Herbert Kroemer famously stated that “The interface is the device”. While he made this statement in the context of semiconducting heterostructures, it has proven to be just as relevant for more complex materials, such as the transition metal oxides. In particular, the 2-D conducting gas that...
My research interests, which span organic, inorganic, physical and biochemistry, have focused broadly on photo-, magneto- and redox-active molecules, especially those with potential applications in organic photovoltaics, spintronics and electronics. My research under the joint supervision of Professor Wasielewski and Professor Fraser Stoddart has concentrated upon understanding electronic and magnetic...
This dissertation explores a form of performance I call “ototheatre,” which is a mobile and participatory audience experience executed with portable sound technology. Ototheatre is an emergent artistic form that sits at a convergence of contemporary technologies and audience consumption habits. Case studies, including smartphone applications and new theatrical works...
This dissertation uses several interrelated methods derived from corpus linguistics, statistics, and machine learning to infer a number of historically significant voice-leading schemas in a corpus of eighteenth-century Neapolitan solfeggi (exercises for voice with bass accompaniment). The goal of this work is to gain insights not only into the characteristics...
This dissertation consists of three essays in applied microeconomics. In the first chapter, I introduce a new statistical test for identifying prejudice from empirical data. In the second chapter, I (joint with James Schummer) consider the revenue maximization problem for a two-sided, one-to-one matching platform. In the third chapter, I...
Certain inducible genes show faster reactivation if they were recently expressed. This epigenetic phenomenon is called transcriptional memory and is inherited for several generations after the first round of induction. During this phase, genes show several conserved molecular features that are essential for faster reactivation: peripheral localization of the gene,...
The electronic spin state (S) of metal ions is fundamental to the performance of magnets, protein cofactors, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. The ability to manipulate the spin state of transition metals allows for the development of advanced materials with emergent properties. This following chapters will introduce two...
Optical interferometry is a powerful technique which has been widely utilized for well over a century in making the world’s most precise measurements. By measuring how the interference between two waves is affected by a physical process, one can deduce the magnitude of this process. Because the wavelength of a...
Electromagnetic metamaterials composed of colloidally synthesized plasmonic metal nanoparticles offer new opportunities to probe light-matter interactions. The properties of these structures largely depend on the spatial arrangement of nanoparticles within them. Therefore, new assembly strategies that afford a high level of structural control are expected to enable a broad range...