By 2030, up to half of the world’s population is projected to suffer from water insecurity: a chronic scarcity of potable water due to rapidly warming temperatures, increased agricultural demand, and pollution. The health impacts of contaminated water are profound: hundreds of thousands of global deaths each year are ascribed...
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in US and non-invasive cardiac imaging has vital importance for early detection and diagnosis of heart disease. Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) is arguably the most versatile imaging modality and capable of a comprehensive evaluation of heart disease without ionization radiation. Despite the...
The topic of this dissertation is the coherent-constructible correspondence (CCC). CCC is a version of homological mirror symmetry for toric varieties. It equates the derived category of coherent sheaves on a toric variety and the category of constructible sheaves on a torus whose singular support lies in the specific conical...
his dissertation addresses questions of investment theories in financial economics. Chapter 1 studies investment problem with ambiguity and agency friction in a optimal contracting framework, where investors (principal) have ambiguous beliefs about the cash flows and the managers (agent) can pursue unobservable risk-taking strategies that earn cash flow but may...
Nanoparticles are nanometer scale (1-1000 nm) structures capable of encapsulating a diverse range of cargoes. Encapsulation of a cargo can drastically alter its pharmacokinetics, cytotoxicity, and biodistribution while allowing for informed and rational design of the nanoparticle itself. Poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene sulfide) (PEG-b-PPS) is an amphiphilic diblock co-polymer able to self-assemble...
This dissertation contains two studies. In Chapter 1 we investigate the relationshipbetween expansionary credit events and firms’ employment decisions. To overcome the
endogeneity coming from the supply side of credit we exploit the legal and political framework
in Mexico to examine the effects of local governments’ prepayment of loans, a...
Photonics are useful in applications where high-bandwidth and low-loss interlinks are desired. One of the key components of a photonic interlink is an optoelectronic modulator which is used to encode data from an electrical signal on to an optical carrier. Many of the optoelectronic modulators typically used require integration with...
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...