Finite Element Method (FEM) is a common simulation method in Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) or studying natural phenomenon by numerically solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs). Programmable solvers for generic physics and geometry are thus highly desirable. However, the classical solvers are mostly complex systems in terms of both their mathematical...
Biomedical imaging is an essential part of medicine that enables the non-invasive observation of biological phenomena. This, in turn, allows for more accurate and earlier diagnoses, monitoring of therapies, and even fundamental research into biological processes. Molecular imaging, a fast-growing subdiscipline of biomedical imaging, seeks to image biochemical processes at...
Individuals with psychotic disorders experience profound challenges in maintaining a coherent sense of self and identity over time. Although disturbances in the basic, momentary sense of self are core features of psychotic experiences, less is known about psychosis’s impact on the autobiographical self, the experience of being a coherent and...
This dissertation explores the experience of violence and precarity among Central American youth as they travel through Mexico to the United States. Based on a multi-sited ethnographic study conducted across Mexico from 2015 to 2019, I illustrate how the journey of these youth migrants is, in its basic expression, an...
Sentence comprehension requires both syntactic prediction and working memory processes. Evidence suggests that both are impaired in agrammatic aphasia, and can independently contribute to comprehension breakdowns, but the relationship between them, especially during real-time sentence comprehension remains unclear. Two EEG studies investigated on-line processing of sentences with non-local long-distance dependencies...
This dissertation studies the pricing of jump risk in the cross-section, which builds on understanding the cross-sectional structure of jumps at market jump times, develops nonparametric measures of idiosyncratic jump risk, and investigates its asset pricing implications. Chapter 1 is joint work with Professor Viktor Todorov, in which we study...
Economic activity is mostly performed by groups of agents that form organizations and collectives. In this dissertation I explore the effects of two frictions, namely conflicting preferences and contracting with externalities, on the characteristics of agents that jointly constitute a given organization or collective. First, in many professional environments workers...
Androgen receptor pathway inhibitors are the mainstay treatment for advanced prostate cancer, but resistance is common. Here, we used a CRISPR activation screen to identify genes that promote enzalutamide resistance in the metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. We found that activation of the TGF-β target gene, PRRX2, promoted...
This dissertation consists of three chapters on contract theory. In Chapter 1, ``Agency in Hierarchies: Middle Managers and Performance Evaluations'', I study the optimal joint design of incentives and performance rating scales in a principal-manager-worker hierarchy. The principal wants to motivate the manager and the worker to exert unobservable effort....
This thesis examines the role of the media in stock markets and the role of transparency in investment decisions. In the first two chapters, I investigate how the contrasting trends in media coverage and earnings guidance have affected stock price informativeness over the past two decades. I develop a model...