Cuteness is a popular aesthetic in product design, yet there is a lack of understanding of who is most likely to engage in cute consumption and, more importantly, why. In this dissertation, I consider the role of sex and gender identity in cute consumption, proposing a strong mental association between...
Imagine sitting in a room listening to some friends play a song. Perhaps one friend is playing guitar, another playing bass, and a third is playing drums. The musical content in this scene is extraordinarily complex, yet it contains many types of structure that is easy for us to comprehend....
Laser powder-blown directed energy deposition (DED) is an additive manufacturing process that utilizes a co-axial nozzle and laser to melt metal powders onto a substrate in a line-by-line fashion. This coupling gives rise to interactions between the laser, powder, and melt pool. To address fundamental process understanding, physical models were...
Polymer and polymer/ceramic composites known as bone cements are commonly used in musculoskeletal reconstructive surgeries where bone tissue fixation, reinforcement, or void filling may be needed. Polymethylmethacrylate, PMMA, was the initial (and currently only) FDA-approved bone cement for bone-void filling applications yet faces many inherent material-based challenges that impacts its...
This dissertation purposely prioritizes Tibetan and Himalayan tsunmas’ perspectives on the topic of restoring a full ordination lineage for ordained women. To do so, it examines the gendered landscapes of Buddhist women’s ordination, which has been a contentious issue throughout Buddhism’s twenty-six-hundred-year history, beginning with the Buddha’s eventual acceptance of...
The increasing availability of large-scale scholarly datasets offers an unprecedented opportunity to understand the fundamental predictability, uncertainty, and dynamics of science and innovation. In this dissertation, I present some of my contributions to the science of science and innovation in three distinct but related settings, through a combination of canonical...
Granular materials consisting of discrete particles, are a pervasive material in nature and play a major role in disparate fields of science and technology. To control and manipulate the granular materials in engineering, enriching our understanding of their fundamental characteristics and mechanical behavior is crucial. In this context, one of...
The worldwide community of patients affected by Basal Cell Carcinoma of the skin (BCC) is larger than that of any other cancer. While BCC is rarely lethal, currently available treatment strategies often leave patients with disfiguring scars on their faces, heads, and necks. Moreover, the high recurrence rates of BCC...
In this dissertation, I provide insight into different aspects of the law and politics of trade secrecy at four levels of analysis. Part I examines trade secrecy from an international and comparative perspective. It encompasses Chapters 2 and 3 and focuses on (#1) international law and (#2) comparative national policy....
This dissertation examines anti-Black race-based ideologies prevalent in early American musical theatre through a multi-faceted case study concerning Morgan Benson, a child actor of the early musical theatre stage, Target Parades of the long nineteenth-century, and The Black Joke. This is an excavation project, seeking to unearth conceptual underpinnings for...