Respiratory-swallow coordination is implicated as an essential component of safe and efficient swallowing, yet current evidence is incomplete regarding its relevance to swallowing impairment, assessment and treatment. Three studies were conducted that: 1) characterized and confirmed the optimal respiratory-swallowing coordination patterns in healthy adults, 2) identified linkages between deviations in...
This dissertation is on daily policing dynamics in China, centering around one core question: why coercive institutions can be extremely efficient for some issues but nearly dysfunctional for others in authoritarian regimes. The police may enforce the law relentlessly in some cases, even if there is no clear harm, but...
Agency is a broad orientation aimed to advance the self and one’s own abilities, whereas communion is a broad orientation aimed to interact with others and connect to people in a larger social context. In Chapter 1, I introduce a new framework to conceptualize the constructs of agency and communion....
Convolutional neural networks have become a staple in computer vision and image processing tasks. The capacity for these networks to perform visual pattern recognition in a data-driven fashion has prompted explosive growth in a myriad of applications. That said, despite their popularity, there are still facets of these networks that...
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have exceptional properties and are mass-producible at the ton scale as aggregated powders, but their difficulty in processing is a significant barrier to widespread use. Even after decades of research, there still isn’t a solvent for CNTs that is massively available, easily removable, and non-damaging. The need...
Transcriptome profiling including whole genome bulk and single cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) enables the quantitative study of transcript changes at either tissue or single cell level. With the advancement in next generation sequencing technology, it is now part of routine lab practice. More than other high-throughput technologies, computational algorithms are...
This thesis contains three chapters studying macroeconomics and trade. The chapters are organized into two topics: inflation expectations and perceptions, and the effect of trade intermediation on economic activity. In the first chapter, I investigate whether households are significantly harmed by inaccurate beliefs about inflation. The chapter analyzes two established...
Uterine leiomyomas (fibroids) are a major source of gynaecologic morbidity in reproductive age women and are characterised by the excessive deposition of a disorganised extracellular matrix, resulting in rigid benign tumours. Clinically, leiomyoma patients usually present with pelvic pain, urinary incontinence, as well as heavy cyclic and non-cyclic bleeding. Curative...
Across the United States, public school districts are facing critical budget crises. To keep cuts away from the classroom, bus transportation is a common area to look for cost reductions. This thesis studies two fundamental problems that arise in public school transportation: the bus route design problem and the school...
Early-stage oxidation and corrosion mechanisms of CoCrMo and NiCrMo alloys can be analyzed on the nanoscale by transmission electron microscopy. Both alloys are attractive for a broad array of applications such gas turbines and aircraft engine components as they are known for their excellent corrosion resistance and mechanical properties at...