The demand for low cost, unconventional electronics requires new materials with unique characteristics that the traditionally used silicon-based technologies cannot provide. Metal oxide semiconductors, such has amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO), have made impressive strides as alternatives to amorphous silicon for electronics applications. However, to achieve the full potential...
Soft functional materials are fundamentally interesting from a chemistry standpoint and have exciting applications in robotics, chemical and biomolecule sensing, and biomedical engineering. In addition, soft materials are also useful in lithography, particularly cantilever-free scanning probe lithography (CFSPL). Because of their low modulus, biocompatibility, stimuli responsiveness, malleability, and other characteristics,...
In a new analysis of Renaissance pastoral that draws on ecocriticism, queer theory, and a historicist approach, this dissertation finds a green and inhuman world that opposes the modern view that humans differ significantly from, and enjoy a right of dominion over, nonhuman species and the environment. Through readings of...
Like many diseases, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is driven by the activity of inflammatory cells. Using molecular imaging to target and analyze populations of inflammatory cells is one promising strategy to non-invasively assess atherosclerosis progression. However, current molecular imaging contrast agents are not suited for such targeted imaging applications. Nanomaterial-based strategies...
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of crystalline materials composed of metal nodes connected by organic linkers. Due to their high degree of synthetic tunability, MOFs have been considered for a wide range of applications, including many that rely on a change in oxidation state. While most MOFs are generally...
The purpose of this study was (1) to examine the impact that small ensemble free improvisation experiences had on dispositional empathy development when compared with other forms of collective music making; and (2) to examine the relationship between co-performing musicians’ empathy levels and their performance achievement in small ensembles using...
This dissertation imagines the near future of teamwork, when AI agents will join teams,interacting, collaborating, and completing tasks as a team member. Broadly, I seek to answer the
questions: how do humans integrate a new AI teammate onto their team, and how does the AI
teammate’s function influence this integration...
This dissertation examines the following puzzle: Why have antitrust (competition) laws and policies failed in their mission to prevent concentrations of economic power globally? Corporate monopolization has grown more acute in the last three decades and created serious problems in consumer and worker protection, economic stability, and democratic representation worldwide....
We investigated the relationships between trauma, depression, and pelvic pain severity in patients with chronic pelvic pain. Previous research has demonstrated that pelvic pain is associated with trauma history (e.g., physical and sexual abuse). As one potential mechanism of this relationship, trauma may lead to increased susceptibility to pain by...
This thesis studies Bayesian-robustness of algorithm design. The main perspective requires for a single fixed algorithm that its performance is an approximation of the optimal performance when its inputs are independent and identical draws (i.i.d.) from every unknown distribution which is an element of a known, large class of distributions....