The brains of humans and animals have the amazing capability of extracting abstract relationships between external stimuli efficiently. Knowing such regularities helps us compute and react to novel information flexibly without prior experience. The olfactory system is no exception. Animals need to infer commonalities across different odors sharing similar meaning,...
This thesis focuses on ecological models of population dynamics and the traveling, migratory waves that can result when a stable state either displaces an unstable state, or displaces another stable state. We consider the effect of nonlocal interactions, where members of the species interact over a distance. This gives rise...
Nanostructured semiconductors exhibit promising optoelectronic properties, such as high photoluminescence quantum yield and efficient charge separation, making them attractive materials for applications including photovoltaics, LEDs, and lasers. These superior properties are often due to improved crystallinity and reduced charge separation distance compared to bulk semiconductors. As a result, it is...
Herpesvirus virions consist of three layers: nucleocapsid, tegument, and envelope. The innermost layer, the nucleocapsid, initially assembles as an immature procapsid precursor built around viral scaffold proteins. The event that initiates procapsid maturation is unknown but it is dependent upon activation of the internal protease. Scaffold cleavage triggers angularization, or...
Chip-based photonic devices are doing for optics what integrated circuits have done for electronics. By directly combining many individual components in a compact, scalable and robust way, photonic chips open the possibility for creating optical and electro-optical devices that could not be practical with discrete components. The applications for this...
While scholarship over recent decades has complicated the traditional classification of the Bavlis texts into the field has still maintained a model of two separate, though fundamentally interrelated, discourses. According to this model, the Bavli consists of a normative, non-narrative, legal discourse alongside an antinomian, narrativized discourse of stories. Through...
Recently, much public attention has been focused on racial inequalities in who is subjected to exclusionary school disciplinary policies, and consequently, forced to miss hours of instruction. Over the past two decades, researchers have documented the disparate impacts that zero-tolerance policies have had on students of color, low-income students, and...
This dissertation is situated at the intersection of critical philosophy of race, affect theory, and new media studies. The dominant questions of my research consider what new problems and avenues of thought the digital age and social media open up for the study of race. This focus includes the ways...
Recently, there has been increasing interest in exploring nano-materials used as an additive to existing concrete materials. With respect to fiber-shaped nanomaterials such as carbon nanofibers (CNF), many studies have shown that mechanical strength properties of cementitious materials can be improved significantly. In this dissertation, the research has focused on...
Heterogeneous materials have been emerging and playing essential roles in various engineering and scientific fields. They usually include multiple phases of materials to create unique properties that are not accessible to their homogeneous counterparts. The traditional design approach in the material science community is to use trial-and-error iteratively, which is...