The form and function of neural circuits are shaped by experience during critical periods of development. Recently, our lab discovered an important outcome of critical period plasticity in the visual system, namely, binocular matching of orientation preference, whereby initially randomly aligned orientation preferences become matched in individual cells. Following this...
Smartphone is becoming ubiquitous and its sales proportions have exceeded the sales of personal computer systems since 2012. The number of smartphones will increase and perhaps at an even higher rate in the coming years. The computational capacity and numerous mobile applications benefit end user's daily life. At the same...
As Power and Energy become the limiting factors for computer designs and systems, a holistic approach for tackling inefficiencies needs to be adopted. Computations need to be classified based on their importance and impact on the end quality, power consumption, and runtime so that the system can perform the needed...
Background: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a significant public health issue. Previous research on the pathophysiology of depression in adults has demonstrated abnormal neural processing associated with depression symptomatology including alterations in reward and aversion circuits. Loss aversion (LA), or the concept that individuals evaluate outcomes based on losses and...
This dissertation examines the gradual construction and contested meanings of U.S. slavery’s first western border. According to most historiography, Congress’s Northwest Ordinance of 1787 fixed the meaning of this border at the nation’s inception, constituting the Northwest Territory as the free opposite of slave territories south and west of the...
Efferocytosis is the anti-inflammatory removal of dying cells and cellular debris, occurring billions of times per person, per day as a part of homeostatic maintenance during natural cell turnover. Macrophages are major professional phagocytes of the immune system and are responsible for dead cell clearance during infection and injury. During...
Increasingly, people are engaging online and can participate in activities like searching for information, communicating with family and friends, and self-expression. However, some populations such as older adults, face barriers to online participation like device cost, access, and learnability, which prevent them from reaping the benefits of Internet use. Moreover,...
Minimal mathematical models are used to understand complex phenomena in the physical, biological, and social sciences. This modeling philosophy never claims, nor even attempts, to fully capture the mechanisms underlying the phenomena, and instead offers insights and predictions not otherwise possible. Here, we build and explore minimal dynamical systems models...
In this dissertation, I explored the pedagogical content knowledge of in-service high school educators recently assigned to teach computer science for the first time. Teachers were participating in a professional development program where they co-taught introductory computing classes with tech industry professionals. The study was motivated by three questions: (1)...
Granular solids consisting of various particle sizes exhibit the tendency to de-mix, or segregate, when caused to shear by external forces such as gravity. This well-known phenomenon is of special practical interest to many industries involved in the handling and transportation of bulk solids, where segregation can lead to adverse...