The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act (or “GRH”), which unprecedentedly provided for “sequestration”, a doomsday device to enforce fiscal discipline upon Congress and the President, was passed with bipartisan support on December 12, 1985. How did GRH take place, and why did it assume its final form? Casting GRH’s enactment in functionalist and...
The invention of GdIII-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) probes substantially expanded the capability of MRI in visualizing details in tissue. Building upon the achievement of GdIII-based complexes, more ideal probes should feature contrast that is responsive to biomarkers, such as redox status and ion concentrations. The abnormality of these biomarkers...
In response to exponentially increasing demand for digital media, today's Internet landscape has evolved into a multitude of diverse and interdependent distribution systems designed to move content as efficiently as possible. While many of these systems have \emph{individually} been explored in depth by both academic and industrial communities, a cross-sectional...
To relate the mechanical responses of hard-soft copolymer systems with their microstructures, a coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) approach is employed. With the generic bead-spring polymer model mapped from atomistic simulations, this dissertation first studies the morphology of structures with various hard-soft compositions and interactions between hard beads. Following that, this...
The start of the 21st century brought the sweeping proliferation of portable electronics such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. These technologies were largely enabled by advances in energy storage methods – lithium ion batteries in particular. Society's push for more advanced energy storage applications, such as electric vehicles, stresses the...
This dissertation explores Holocene climate change along the west coast of Greenland and late Holocene climate variability in the subpolar North Atlantic region using paleolimnology. Lake sediment archives and the climate proxies contained within them provide a valuable window into past temperature change on Greenland, home to one of Earth’s...
Assistive robotics focuses on human-robot systems that provide physical support and assistance to the elderly and people with motor-impairments. While assistive machines, such as the powered wheelchair, can significantly enhance the functional independence of individuals, many users are challenged by their direct operation, the manner in which such systems are...
ABSTRACT Variation of stateness across the territory and population of sovereign states is a notorious, but understudied phenomenon with important implications for issues such as global security, environmental sustainability, and political stability. This dissertation engages in theory-building research to explain subnational variation of stateness in the contemporary world, focusing on...
This dissertation adopts a jointly ethnographic and historical approach to study shifting racial formations and configurations of inequality in the metropolitan U.S. South. Specifically, it analyzes how immigrants and working poor populations are reshaping the social life, privatized spaces, and conservative politics of Atlanta’s white suburbs. It focuses on Sandy...
Citizen media literacy is essential in a democratic society, particularly in the online environment where valid media sources have proliferated alongside purveyors of fake news. This dissertation explores technologies that automatically detect aspects of bias in news articles, with the ultimate aim of leveraging them to augment media literacy. It...