Protein homeostasis, or proteostasis, is essential for preserving all cellular functions and involves a balance of protein synthesis, folding, trafficking, and degradation. A collapse in proteostasis is a common feature of many neurodegenerative disorders that are characterized by the accumulation of insoluble protein aggregates in the brain. Parkinson’s disease (PD)...
This dissertation examines the interactional mechanisms that undergird exercises of regulatory authority in expert work settings. In the first chapter, I argue that, in the aftermath of a crisis (in this case, induced by a major regulatory event), organizational actors face environments of high uncertainty which challenge rational models of...
In recent years, the social sciences have been ensnared in a crisis in which many research findings cannot be replicated (Ioannidis, 2005; Open Science Collaboration, 2015; Camerer et al., 2016; Makel & Plucker, 2014). This crisis has been attributed to a variety of problems including lack of transparency about research...
This dissertation addresses two distinct but related questions. First, how should we conceive of social freedom? Second, given this conception, what ideals would best satisfy the demands we are under as citizens and moral agents? In answer to the first question, I defend a novel account of social freedom, where...
Regulatory T (Treg) cells are required to control immune responses and maintain homeostasis, but are a significant barrier to antitumor immunity. Conversely, Treg instability, characterized by loss of the master transcription factor Foxp3 and acquisition of proinflammatory properties, can promote autoimmunity and/or facilitate more effective tumor immunity. A comprehensive understanding...
Existing nonlinear optimization methods have proven reliable over the past few decades for a wide range of applications but have critically relied on accurate function and gradient evaluations. Modern nonlinear optimization problems arising from machine learning and scientific computing applications are increasingly complex and large scale, which make accurate evaluations...
This dissertation reorients political theory to the concepts of use and utility for a more critical and emancipatory perspective on contemporary communal life. The reorientation entails a recovery of Aristotle’s and Marx’s overlapping approaches to use, whose contemporary reception indexes the surprising alignment of critical political theory with economics. That...
Semiconductor nanocrystals possess unique photophysical properties that make them desirable for many optoelectronic applications such as photovoltaics, LEDs, and quantum computing. When the size of a semiconductor is reduced to below the excitonic Bohr radius of the material, its carriers becomes quantum confined resulting in drastic changes to optical, electronic,...
Nanomaterials offer unique properties not seen in their macroscopic kin. They can be used in printed electronics, as catalysts, and so much more. However, their diminutive size complicates materials processing techniques. They can easily aggregate become no longer useful. A solution to this is to use a polymeric surfactant such...
The field of robot design mostly focuses on careful construction of complex control and planning algorithms (e.g., tuning neural network weights) which bear sole responsibility for improving task performance, while the robot’s body is often assumed to be part of the environment. In nature, however, biological organisms co-evolve both their...