It is widely understood that people’s perceptions of themselves and tasks influence their engagement and effort. Further, these relationships are often viewed as the purview of the individual. In contrast, research on human development has documented the influences of participation in multiple (often overlapping) contexts on individual development. Processes of...
Models of recursive preferences are commonly associated with a preference for early resolution of uncertainty, often regarded as an important economic channel in applications. This dissertation provides a different understanding of recursive preferences based on attitudes toward correlation, and in particular aversion to intertemporally correlated risks. Part 1 provides a...
Prostate cancer is the most common cause of cancer among men in the United States, and the second most common cause of cancer-related death, accounting for significant morbidity and mortality. This dissertation describes the genomic landscape of prostate cancer from multiple angles to identify mechanisms of disease heterogeneity amongst patients....
This dissertation studies interactions between a non-Bayesian decision maker (DM) and a sophisticated information provider who wants to influence the DM. In the essay ``Strategic Justifications," an auditor receives a justification from a self-interested expert who wants to convince the auditor that she acted in good faith for her clients....
Zinc, an essential trace element that serves as an enzyme cofactor and can also be stored as a divalent ion in cellular vesicles, is emerging as an important mediator of signaling pathways required for biological functions such as growth, development, and reproduction. Zinc mediates cell signaling by acting both as...
Eukaryotic genomes are organized into chromatin, which acts to regulate access to the organism’s genetic material. A large and diverse class of proteins, known as chromatin modifiers and remodelers, are responsible for regulating the composition and structure of chromatin by monitoring nucleosomes. Chromatin remodelers are involved in multiple cellular processes,...
The rise and racial gap in maternal mortality and morbidity in the US growing public health crisis. The US maternal mortality rate is double that of peer countries such as the UK and Canada. Even more striking, Black women are 243% more likely to die from childbirth-related causes. According to...
I present concepts and methods for evaluating infrared camera systems. The individual components of camera systems are fairly well understood, but the system is more than the sum of its parts. Many of the usual techniques for measuring individual photodetectors are inapplicable to pixels which are permanently bonded to a...
The ability to control the crystalline ordering and morphology of polymeric nanomaterials is a grand challenge in the field of materials science, which could enable the development of functional materials able to solve long-standing problems in renewable energy and medicine. In this work, we explore a combination of supramolecular chemistry...
This dissertation examines how theatre makers, activists, and politicians staged performances as a tool for rebuilding Catalan cultural identity and strengthening the Catalan independence movement. Through these performances, many Catalonians have sought to define their identity by invoking a retrospective of abuse and trauma, while presenting a united—albeit simplified and...