Understanding organization of soft materials on mesoscopic and nanoscopic scales is importantfor materials design. In this regard, non-van der Waals interactions such as hydrogen
bonding and electrostatic interactions offer great opportunities due to the richness and diversity
in morphological structures they produce. The primary reason for this is that these...
This dissertation studies the integration of analytical modeling and optimization, machine learning, and Bayesian learning to optimize cost, access, and quality of healthcare delivery. Chapter 1 models computer-aided triage (patient prioritization) as feature-based priority queuing where types (diseases) are not perfectly observed but are inferred from observed features using a...
This dissertation develops a causal theory of the relevant alternatives in a situation and applies this theory to the semantics and epistemology of conditionals, the theory of knowledge, and the epistemology of stereotyping. The first chapter presents the theory of causal models and causal alternatives. The second chapter applies this...
Biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particles, produced by forest ecosystems across the globe, are principal, yet poorly understood constituents in the climate system. These atmospheric particles form when biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) react with atmospheric oxidants, leading to increasingly lower volatility oxidation products that partition into the condensed phase...
Protein-based biomaterials are widely used in biomedical applications and mechanical support because of their novel structural flexibility, biocompatibility and mechanical properties. Protein-based biomaterials outperform traditional synthetic materials in various environments as traditional materials lack the diverse chemical functionalities that proteins offer. Novel bioinspired techniques such as directed evolution offer the...
Coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) methods are techniques that image a sample by illuminating it with a coherent beam and recording the intensity diffraction pattern produced by the wavefront outgoing from the sample. These are lensless methods that are not limited in resolution by the physical characteristics of an objective lens,...
Social engagement, or shared attention between a child and caregiver, is a critical process for language and social development. Although previous EEG studies have investigated child social processing in closely controlled, experimental studies, no study has examined the interactive, reciprocal process of naturalistic social engagement. In my first paper, we...
The explosion of data in the digital age has provided new possibilities for policy creation,the development of knowledge, and societal innovations. In this way, data becomes an essential
tool in personal decision-making, legal change, and policy creation as we leverage new forms of
data to understand social phenomena. But along...
Hollow biopsy needles are widely adopted medical devices for the removal of biological tissue to better identify a lesion or an abnormality observed through a physical exam or a radiology scan. These procedures can provide significantly more information than most medical tests, and they are usually performed on dermis layers,...
This dissertation considers a periodically-forced 1-D Langevin equation that possesses two stable periodic solutions in the absence of noise. We aim at answering the question: is there a most likely noise-induced transition path between these periodic solutions that allows one to identify a preferred phase of the forcing when the...
While there is high demand for university computer science (CS) courses, students often struggle when learning to program. Prior work has identified that student perceptions of their programming ability may contribute to these challenges. For example, studies show that students often perceive that they do not belong, are not capable...
Histories of digital media, software, and computing are inseparable from histories of queer and transgender life. Stored in Memory: Recovering Queer and Transgender Life in Software History situates visual media like video glitch art, the computer’s graphical user interface, video games, and computer operating systems as the product of historical...
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, causing devastating disabilities in both motor and non-motor domains following the degeneration of dopamine (DA) producing neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Current treatments are highly limited in efficacy, and no established treatments currently exist to alter disease...
Fausto Romitelli (1963-2004), one of the most inventive composers of his generation, created a musical language that draws inspiration from a multifaceted array of sources, including the technological landscape of daily life, the visual arts, poetry, literature, and philosophy. Furthermore, from early in his career, Romitelli incorporated elements in his...
Missing data are often described as an annoyance in research and generally presented as a source of error or bias during analysis. To this end, methods that center on planned missingness are an underappreciated and powerful tool that can actually be used to improve data collection and the validity of...
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous, crystalline materials synthesized by combining metal nodes and organic linkers through self-assembly. The diverse range of building blocks available allows for extensive tunability of MOFs, enabling the optimization of these materials for various applications, such as gas storage, separations, and catalysis. This study aimed to...
Global energy demand is increasingly rapidly in today’s modern world with increasing living standards all around the world. As global energy demand rises, energy efficiency has never been more crucial and that the improvement of tribological systems is critical to the progress of the global future. A large part of...
Modeling human language is at the very frontier of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Statistical language models are probabilistic models that assign probabilities to sequences of words. For example, topic models are frequently used text-mining tools to organize a vast set of unstructured documents by exploring their theme structure. More...
This thesis describes a novel demonstration of quantum teleportation, a protocol within the broader field of quantum information science, carried out by an electron transfer reaction within a molecular system. As described in Chapter 1, quantum information science has potential impacts in computation, communication, and cryptography. This field relies on...
Background. Rates of common bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are at an all-timereported high in the United States, while rates of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
infections are declining. Among HIV-negative men and transgender women who have sex with
men, whom are theoretically at risk for both HIV and bacterial...