Problems in interpersonal functioning are a major concern. In adults, interpersonal dysfunction is often investigated as it relates to personality disorders (PDs). In fact, researchers have argued that a core of interpersonal dysfunction is what defines personality disorders (Hopwood, Wright, Ansell, & Pincus, 2013). This is perhaps most evident for...
This dissertation explains the heterogeneous effects of armed conflict on sub-national governance in the North Caucasus. While acknowledging the role of inherited institutions, my multimethod investigation shows how they were strategically transformed during the breakup of the Soviet Union, creating unintended consequences and the basis for governance today. My main...
Nonlinear systems with many interacting components often exhibit behaviors that cannot be anticipated, even in principle, by only knowing the properties of the constituent parts and thereby emerge as a result of interactions between the parts. Examples of such systems range from power grids and financial markets to food networks...
Proteins are known to have diverse biomedical functions and excellent catalytic performance; however, they are also fragile outside living cells, challenging their use in industrial applications. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly porous crystalline materials that consist of metal cluster nodes and organic linkers. With their rigid structures, MOFs can effectively...
Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) have shown promise as imaging agents, drug delivery platforms, and plasmonic sensors. Anisotropic gold NPs, such as gold nanostars, have particularly received attention due to their shape-dependent optical and spectral properties. With their 3D anisotropic structure with branches protruding into different directions and high surface areas,...
Drying oils have been used as a binding medium for oil paints since the 15th century. These oil paints transition from a liquid-like paste to a solid-like film as a result of crosslinks forming between the oil molecules. These reactions have been extensively studied chemically, but other material properties are...
Levels of the several different human apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like 3 (APOBEC3; A3) cytidine deaminases vary across different cell types. While levels of nuclear-localized A3s are low or non-existent in primary cells, a nuclear A3 is often upregulated in cancer cells. Increased chromosomal mutagenesis due to nuclear A3...
The literature has established glucokinase (GCK) to be the principal hexokinase (HK) in the liver, operating as a glucose sensor to regulate glucose metabolism and lipid homeostasis. We have recently proposed Hexokinase Domain Containing-1 (HKDC1) to be a novel 5th HK with expression in the liver. Here, we reveal HKDC1...
Supervised learning model is one of the most fundamental machine learning models. It can provide powerful capability of prediction by learning complex patterns hidden in many, sometimes thousands, predictors. It can also be used as a building block of other machine learning tasks, like unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning. Such...
Nanocarriers are drug delivery vehicles that have at least one dimension at the nanoscale (10-9 m). Engineering the nanocarrier surface is a strategy for targeting drug delivery to specific cell types to enhance efficacy and minimize side effects. A useful analogy is to consider how the chassis of an automotive...