This dissertation examines various means by which the profit motives of media firms can directly result in biased information transmission. In the first two chapters, I analyze to what extent conflicts of interest in expert review industries may result in artificially inflated reviews, with a particular application to the video...
Individuals with severe motor impairments often have a difficult time performing daily activities, and thus rely heavily on assistive devices to restore some functional independence. The two main limitations of the current controllers for assistive devices are: 1) controllers that do not require coordinated hand movement provide a limited vocabulary...
Across all levels of education, persistent academic achievement gaps exist between students from higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Despite these daunting odds, many students from lower-SES backgrounds manage to maintain high levels of academic motivation and persist in the face of difficulty. One factor that has been shown...
Nucleosome organization influences gene activity by controlling DNA accessibility to transcription machinery. In this thesis, we have developed a chemical biology approach to determine mammalian nucleosome positions genome-wide. Using this strategy, we uncover surprising new features of nucleosome organization in mouse embryonic stem cells. In contrast to the prevailing model,...
Understanding the nature of quantum effects in dense biological systems is of great interestto many scientists today. It seems that the question is not does quantum mechanics dictatebiological processes, but rather by how much and to what extent. A big challenge though in thisfield is how to properly test and...
Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the causative agent of the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea and is adapted to survive in humans, its only host. The N. gonorrhoeae cell wall is critical for maintaining envelope integrity, resisting immune cell killing, and production of cytotoxic peptidoglycan (PG) fragments. Deletion of the N. gonorrhoeae genes...
This dissertation describes the relationship between the surface chemistry of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots, QDs) and their optoelectronic properties, such as photoluminescence and degree of quantum confinement. We primarily focus our efforts on one particular subset of ligands known to couple strongly to the inorganic core of the QD...
Climate change may be one of the most important puzzles the world has attempted to solve and one of the greatest challenges in this area is to improve our understanding of how atmospheric aerosol particles impact climate processes. We seek to overcome this challenge by focusing on the chemistry and...
Woodstock—the word is shorthand for the spirit of the 1960s counterculture. Yet the assumption that the 1960s dawned a “New Age” neglects contributions made by earlier generations of Woodstock artists in advancing a utopian vision of emancipated art, life, and labor. From 1902 onwards, Woodstock—a small Dutch hamlet in upstate...
The over-a-decade quantitative study of the flexion synergy has provided concrete evidence that the stereotypical movement coupling of shoulder abduction with elbow flexion and wrist/finger flexion (i.e. flexion synergy) significantly affects the ability to perform functional upper extremity movements that are essential for activities of daily living (e.g. reach-to-grasp an...