How do people make meaning of risk-taking? The present dissertation proposes a normative lay theory of risk-taking. The proposed model promotes the following core ideas: (a) Risk-taking is generally an ambiguous construct and requires the illumination of at least some dimensional parameters to disambiguate the risk behavior and risk-taker; (b)...
Although there has been profound evidence showing the positive correlation between spatial abilities and math performances, we still know very little about how and why spatial thinking facilitates the learning of mathematics. This dissertation unpacks several aspects of mathematics that are embedded in learning and playing an ancient and rich...
Human complex diseases such as common cancers and diabetes are characterized by high molecular heterogeneity contributed by both genetic and non- genetic factors. This molecular heterogeneity can not only complicate diagnosis, risk stratification and patient care, but also lead to differential therapeutic response and treatment efficiency. Therefore, understanding the molecular...
Soft materials in nature are formed through programmed self-assembly of biomolecules to create complex architectures and optimized physical properties. It is therefore a key challenge in biomaterials science and engineering to understand the principles that govern the structure and properties of such materials, and the interactions between their different components....
This dissertation investigates the muscle-powered transport technologies that pervaded the Japanese empire. It examines the production, adoption, evolution, and decline of draft animals, rickshaws, human-powered railways, and push-car railways in Japan and colonial Taiwan, 1850-1930. Invented in Tokyo in 1870, rickshaws proliferated across Asia and became a symbol of modern...
Nanoparticle synthesis is capable of producing particles with any combination of structure, chemistry, size, shape, and surface. All of the different combinations of these physical properties can produce nanoparticles with almost countless materials properties suited for many applications. Given this interest in using nanoparticles in so many different fields, including...
One of the central challenges in solid-state chemistry is synthetic control over structure. Owing to limited reactivity of Pb with transition metals at ambient pressure and high temperature as well as the variety of properties that emerge from the few known binary transition-metal–Pb compounds, this research focuses on accessing and...
Newborns are particularly susceptible to severe forms of herpes simplex virus type I (HSV-1) infection including encephalitis and multisystemic disseminated disease. The underlying age-dependent differences in the immune response that explain this increased susceptibility relative to the adult population remain largely understudied. Evidence from animal studies and genetic studies in...
This dissertation consists of three papers on methods for meta-analysis with few studies. These papers are concerned with proper inference from meta-analysis models that combine data from a small number of studies using fixed and random-effects models. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to meta-analysis, the motivation for this work and...
“‘The Indians Say’: Settler Colonialism and the Scientific Study of North America, 1722 to 1848” examines the issue of evidence and credibility within natural history by following the circulation of Indigenous testimony through Anglophone networks of scientific knowledge production. By merging the history of science with Native American and Indigenous...