We are witnessing an excitement about digital games and related immersive media as these become ever more prevalent in the world. Governments, private companies, and research institutes are investing in these technologies in hopes of transforming education. However, while scholarship on digital game-based learning has been steadily growing over the...
Transfer of information across membranes is fundamental to the function of all organisms and is primarily initiated by transmembrane receptors. This is an allosteric process and involves conformational coupling between ligand-binding domain and signaling domain of a receptor. This allosteric mechanism of activation is unclear for many receptors. Moreover, for...
This dissertation assesses the relationship between inequality and the longevity of urban communities. It does so through an examination of low-status households, a population segment I term Urban Commoners, at the ancient Maya city of Aventura, Belize. Aventura was a socioeconomically diverse urban center that grew to its peak in...
Breakthroughs in large-scale biological data collection have resulted in a wealth of -omics (genomics, metabolomics, etc.) datasets in the literature. However, the development of appropriate computational techniques for their analysis is lacking, yet crucial for fully extracting the rich information contained in these datasets. The work in this dissertation describes...
Shoulder (glenohumeral joint) osteoarthritis causes pain, limits daily activities, and frequently requires joint replacement surgery. In shoulder osteoarthritis, the glenoid bone surface erodes in one of two ways: symmetrically (concentric deformity) or asymmetrically (eccentric deformity). Shoulder replacements in patients with eccentric deformities fail and require additional, revision surgery more often...
Conventional polymer networks are composed of strong, fixed covalent cross-links. The covalent cross-links render polymer networks with outstanding mechanical properties, heat stability, and chemical resistance; however, they also prevent polymer networks from being decross-linked or/and recycled into similar-value products at the end of their life, leading to environmental and economic...
The creative process of an artistic work is a space, figuratively, in which every facet of our personal lives has an effect and, in turn, can be explored and altered. One of the most fundamental aspects of life, be it human or not, is the way in which one relates...
In 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) promoted national use of electronic health records (EHR) in the US by giving incentives to providers who adopt ‘meaningful use’ of EHRs. As of 2017, nearly 86% of office-based physicians had adopted EHRs. EHRs have rich information...
ABSTRACTFor several decades, dams have played an essential role in human development. In many low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), the construction of dams remains an integral part of industrialization and modernization. However, dam construction and associated infrastructure have significantly contributed to socioecological destruction and population displacement. For example, the construction of...
One of the pressing concerns of the fifteenth century was monastic reform, and reformers of the Observant movement rose to meet the challenge by attempting to return monastic houses to stricter observance of their earliest rules and governing documents. In this dissertation, I examine how Dominican nuns in German-speaking parts...