Embryonic stem cells have the potential to differentiate into ectodermal, mesodermal and endodermal derivatives. This property makes them a valuable source of tissue specific progenitor and differentiated cells that can be used for cell replacement therapy. The first goal of this thesis is to test if cardiogenesis from embryonic stem...
Rare events are studied in an increasing number of areas, ranging from lightwave and optical communication systems, to industrial routing problems, to rogue ocean waves, to financial asset pricing, to the rare failure of something as common as Gaussian elimination, as well as numerous others. In optical communication systems, a...
The homotopy groups of bo^tmf are shown to be isomorphic to the homotopy groups of a wedge of suspensions of spectra related to integral Brown-Gitler spectra. We will then restate Mahowald's proof of the topological splitting of bo^bo and subsequently apply similar techniques to construct a map that realizing the...
The human brain shows great flexibility to adjust itself to dynamically ever-changing environment. Despite more than 100 years of cognitive brain research, the dynamical aspect of cognitive process has remained poorly understood compared to the static aspect of that. This dissertation concerns the dynamic character and functional significance of periodically...
Eukaryotic gene transcription is a coordinated process involving the participation of a large number of proteins. Sequence-specific DNA-binding transcription factors function as activators or repressors of transcription and frequently recruit transcriptional coregulators that lack specific DNA-binding activity. These multi-protein complexes with intrinsic chromatin-modifying and chromatin-remodeling activities have emerged as key...
We use transverse sound spectroscopy to probe excited states of the Cooper pairs in the B-phase of superfluid 3He. In particular we study those excited states with non-zero energy at zero momentum, the so called gapped, or exciton, modes. This includes precise measurements of the imaginary squashing mode energies as...
Both individual and institutional investors face a number of constraints in their consumption and investment decisions. We look at well-motivated constraints on the consumption process as well as liquidity constraints and study their impact on optimal consumption and investment policies under a dynamic discrete time setting.
The use of composites is increasing as they afford scientists and engineers the ability to combine the advantageous properties of each constituent phase, e.g. metal ductility and ceramic stiffness. With respect to materials design, biomimetics is garnering increasing attention due to the complex, yet efficient, natural microstructures. One such biomimetic,...
My primary interest is in markets as aggregators of information. To study this I create a benchmark market-microstructure model of sequential trading on posted prices. I have a competitive market maker and rational profit-maximizing traders with different tastes over a single asset and heterogeneous information over its value. The differences...
A dynamic model of the rolling process that includes the material strain-hardening and work roll flattening effects was developed based on homogeneous deformation theory. By coupling this new dynamic rolling process model with a structural model for a mill stand, a single-stand chatter model expressed through a state-space representation was...