Meiosis is a highly regulated process necessary for proper chromosome division. Zincfluxes regulate mammalian meiosis; between prophase I and metaphase II, total intracellular zinc
increases by 50%, while 20% of zinc is released in “zinc sparks” following fertilization. Although
zinc fluxes had been shown to be conserved in mammals, it...
Found in 1-2% of the population, bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) is the most common congenital cardiovascular disease and is associated with increased risk of aortic valve dysfunction and aortic disease. Current treatment is focused on surgical intervention either after the development of symptomatic aortic stenosis/regurgitation or aortic diameter thresholds. However,...
While metabolic engineering can enable the sustainable bioproduction of new materials, efforts are often impeded by pathway bottlenecks. To mitigate the effects of toxic or reactive intermediates and resource competition resulting from heterologous pathway incorporation, bacterial microcompartments (MCPs) have recently been considered for engineered compartmentalization in bacterial host organisms. MCPs...
Melanin is a functional biopolymer most commonly associated with human skin pigmentation, where it serves as a radiation protection agent, shielding us from the harmful effects of UV radiation. However, melanin is also present in human ears, eyes, hair, and brains, serving a variety of functions. In fact, melanin...
Transcription plays a pivotal role in the transfer of genetic information within living organisms. It serves as the initial step in gene expression, allowing cells to convert the instructions encoded in their DNA into functional molecules. Eukaryotic transcription initiation is a complex and dynamic process that requires joint efforts from...
Western scientific norms (e.g., Bacon, 1623/2005) dictate that mechanistic explanations like “rain falls because clouds form water vapor” are preferable to teleological ones like “rain falls so that plants should grow. Do people have preferences that naturally align with this? The predominant interpretation of past research is that they do...
Uranium is a unique, multifaceted element that possesses rich chemistry and promise for challenging reactions. Pressing demands within nuclear stockpile stewardship and the nuclear energy sector call for development of this relatively understudied element. Uranium metal–organic frameworks (U-MOFs), a class of nanoscale hybrid materials, harness the exceptional attributes of uranium...
With the increasing demand for customized products, rapid prototyping, and small-batch production, incremental sheet forming (ISF) is gaining ever-growing attention. The potential of ISF to produce parts without the use of geometry-specific dies has revolutionized the sheet forming processes. Despite its promising characteristics, ISF thus far has not been extensively...
Commonsense inference is a critical capability of modern artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The machines need commonsense knowledge to perform tasks exactly like human being does. Learning commonsense inference from text has been a long standing challenge in the field of natural language processing due to reporting bias -- people do...
This dissertation aims to: 1) characterize the range of beliefs museum practitioners have about racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity; 2) their understanding of the role of race, culture, and ethnicity in minoritized learners’ sensemaking; and 3) the areas of tension and symmetry between practitioners’ values and their perception of their...
How do perceivers stereotype people who are at the margins of multiple, interlocking social identities? The present dissertation proposes and tests a model of intersectional stereotyping called intersectional categorization theory (ICT). This model advocates the following core ideas: (a) that perceivers use one lens at a time for making sense...
Understanding associative memory is fundamental for a variety of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, however, a large proportion of this research has excluded female subjects due to unsubstantiated bias. By including intact females, ovariectomized females and males in the study of associative memory, clear sex differences in acquisition emerged. Female mice...
The concept of epistemic infringement marks a novel entry into the social epistemology literature concerning epistemic misconduct. Epistemic infringement constitutively involves the systematic contravention of social and epistemic norms, particularly in a manner that serves to erode epistemic agency. This dissertation identifies epistemic infringement as a useful theoretical tool for...
Travel time is a key aspect of capturing and evaluating the operational performance and service quality of transportation systems, and travel time improvement is a common objective for travelers, service providers, transportation practitioners and agencies. However, the reliability of travel times, including the probability of unexpected delays, is an important...
Self-Assembled Monolayers for MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry (SAMDI-MS) is a technique that combines self-assembling molecules of alkane disulfides on gold and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. By using well-defined monolayers with functionalizations that both prevent non-specific adsorption onto the surface and presents immobilization handles, it is possible to pull out analytes of interest,...
Human language processing is incremental. In this dissertation, I explore how an incremental perspective can help us clarify our understanding of transformational syntax, which typically proceeds bottom-up. As part of our exploration, I develop an incremental head-driven parsing algorithm for Minimalist Grammars. The two main innovations of this parsing algorithm...
Membrane contact sites (MCSs) facilitate communication and organization of organelles that contribute to fundamental cellular processes. It has become increasingly appreciated how extensive and essential MCSs are for cellular health, and this field is rapidly growing. We use budding yeast as a model system to study the mechanisms of how...
Chemokines, such as Stromal Derived Factor 1 (SDF-1 or CXCL12) and their G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are well known regulators of the development and functions of numerous tissues. CXCL12 has two receptors: CXCR4 and CXCR7 or atypical chemokine receptor 3 (ACKR3). CXCR7 has been described as an atypical “biased”...
We have a remarkable ability to perform complex, coordinated movements without much conscious effort. In addition to the computations required to generate commands for muscles, a key aspect of coordinated motor control is incorporating sensory feedback about the movement. One of the most important feedback routes is through proprioception, the...
Uttering Sonic Dominicanidad: Women and Queer Performers of Música Urbana Verónica Dávila Ellis What meanings are ascribed to the voices and sonic compositions of Caribbean and Latinx women and queer performers? What do their sounds tell us about Caribbean identity, gender, sexuality, and race? This dissertation centers the work of...