his dissertation addresses questions of investment theories in financial economics. Chapter 1 studies investment problem with ambiguity and agency friction in a optimal contracting framework, where investors (principal) have ambiguous beliefs about the cash flows and the managers (agent) can pursue unobservable risk-taking strategies that earn cash flow but may...
Nanoparticles are nanometer scale (1-1000 nm) structures capable of encapsulating a diverse range of cargoes. Encapsulation of a cargo can drastically alter its pharmacokinetics, cytotoxicity, and biodistribution while allowing for informed and rational design of the nanoparticle itself. Poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene sulfide) (PEG-b-PPS) is an amphiphilic diblock co-polymer able to self-assemble...
This dissertation contains two studies. In Chapter 1 we investigate the relationshipbetween expansionary credit events and firms’ employment decisions. To overcome the
endogeneity coming from the supply side of credit we exploit the legal and political framework
in Mexico to examine the effects of local governments’ prepayment of loans, a...
Photonics are useful in applications where high-bandwidth and low-loss interlinks are desired. One of the key components of a photonic interlink is an optoelectronic modulator which is used to encode data from an electrical signal on to an optical carrier. Many of the optoelectronic modulators typically used require integration with...
Meiosis is a highly regulated process necessary for proper chromosome division. Zincfluxes regulate mammalian meiosis; between prophase I and metaphase II, total intracellular zinc
increases by 50%, while 20% of zinc is released in “zinc sparks” following fertilization. Although
zinc fluxes had been shown to be conserved in mammals, it...
Found in 1-2% of the population, bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common congenital cardiovascular disease and is associated with increased risk of aortic valve dysfunction and aortic disease. Current treatment is focused on surgical intervention either after the development of symptomatic aortic stenosis/regurgitation or aortic diameter thresholds. However,...
While metabolic engineering can enable the sustainable bioproduction of new materials, efforts are often impeded by pathway bottlenecks. To mitigate the effects of toxic or reactive intermediates and resource competition resulting from heterologous pathway incorporation, bacterial microcompartments (MCPs) have recently been considered for engineered compartmentalization in bacterial host organisms. MCPs...
Understanding associative memory is fundamental for a variety of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, however, a large proportion of this research has excluded female subjects due to unsubstantiated bias. By including intact females, ovariectomized females and males in the study of associative memory, clear sex differences in acquisition emerged. Female mice...
Concentrating on the work of Paul Celan and Yoko Tawada, my dissertation explores the complicated role played by plants in post-war and contemporary German-language literature. Reflecting on and engaging with the intricate dynamics of vegetative life without the prejudice that it simply stands for an inferior form of life to...
Robot dynamics are typically highly nonlinear and their control is a challenging research topic without a single overarching algorithm that demonstrates the best performance. In this thesis, I derive a nonlinear control algorithm that uses an analytical, closed-form solution to compute feedback with controllability-based guarantees for convergence. The proposed algorithm,...