Rosella Bearden
In Spring of 2011, prisoners inside Pelican Bay State Prison contacted prisoner-rights and anti-prison activist organizations announcing prisoners would be beginning a rolling hunger strike and that they needed support making sure their voices and demands were heard and acted on outside prison walls. The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition (PHSS)- originating in the Bay Area and made up of grassroots organizations, family members, formerly incarcerated people, lawyers, and individuals- to amplify the voices of CA prisoners on hunger strike was formed. Though the hunger strike has ended, the demands […]
Marina Blum
Measles was once a nearly ubiquitous childhood plague, a rite of passage with sometimes deadly outcomes. However, the disease has all but disappeared in the vaccination era – few people cross paths with the measles, few know anyone who has been infected. The veritable erasure of the disease from public life stems from widespread use of the measles vaccine, whose success effectively revolutionized societys relationship with measles from one of grudging resignation, to a near ignorance. It is the nature and details of this change in perception that I will […]
Zhengzheng Hu
The Game of Chomp (also called Northeast) is a two-player game on a rectangular chocolate bar consisting of m-by-n squares. Players take turns eating chocolate squares on the board. If a player eats a square, they must eat all squares lying above (north) and to the right (east) of that piece. Whichever player eats the lowest left corner chocolate square (poisoned) loses (Gale). For my project, I am trying to apply Sprague-Grundy value from Game Theory and Young diagrams from Algebra to characterize winning strategies for Chomp or provide evidence […]
Kathryn Boden
Over the past two decades Tibetan Buddhism and modern Science have been seriously engaging each other in topics of consciousness, origins, and happiness. The excitement of the possible convergence between science and spirituality in a conversation that has been historically polarized between secular and religious values has overshadowed investigative research that aims to understand the quality and impact of the interaction. To start this process, I will look at the lasting effects of two programs; Science For Monks (SFM) and the Emory Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI) on Tibetan Buddhist communities […]
Denny Cha
Ubiquitin is a protein that serves as a molecular tag for either degradation of its targets by the 26S proteasomes or for a wide variety of other functions such as DNA repair, transcription, endocytosis, membrane transport, or protein localization in a proteasome independent manner by covalently attaching to its target proteins. Deubiquitinases (DUBs) are proteins that mediate ubiquitin removal and processing to play regulatory roles in multiple cellular processes. The deubiquitinase (DUB) Usp44 is a critical regulator of cell division that acts as a tumor suppressor by preventing premature anaphase […]
Scarlet Cummings
How do issues of authorship and originality function within fine art and cinema? What are the similarities between painting and film? What are the fundamental differences, especially those relating to the meaning and worth of emulation within the two mediums? My research will attempt to answer these questions using two case studies: Orson Welles’ 1973 film F for Fake, and the paintings of the infamous Elmyr de Hory, Hungarian art forger extraordinaire who imitated the style of countless painters (Degas, Derain, Dufy, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, and Vlaminck to name a […]
Alexander Flores
During the middle ages the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus was wildly popular throughout Europe, and was translated into nearly every vernacular language. This non-canonical religious text contained a piece of theology that has fallen into obscurity, Christs harrowing, or descent, into Hell. In Middle English the Harrowing of Hell occurs as a narrative poem in three manuscripts, spanning the late 13th century to the early 14th century. A striking aspect of these poems is that they appear to straddle the line between what we consider poetry and drama. The poems […]
Dipin Kaur
While it is the largest democracy in the world, Indias human rights record with respect to conflict zones has been unsteady at best. In many areas of the country with past and ongoing conflicts, the commission of human rights violations of the government has been continuous and widespread. The failure of the Indian state to investigate these human rights abuses committed by its own departments has created a structure where, in these areas of conflict, basic human rights have been suspended and faith in the democratic system, the police and […]
Avery Kim
The large scale matter distribution allows to answer the fundamental questions about the Universe including the cosmological constituents and the origin of the Universe. The Universe seems homogeneous on a very large scale (~100 kpc), yet on the smaller scales such as on the order of clusters and galaxies, the cosmological structures exhibits non-Gaussianity. This non-Gaussian matter field created by non-linear gravitational evolution is proved to be hard for modeling. Since the majority of matter is almost non-interactive dark matter, the science we learn from a direct observation has a […]
Griffin Rodgers
P-N junctions are the basis of most modern electronicsthe foundation for the diodes and transistors that make up our computers. Current research in low dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) heterostructures aims to make these junctions smaller. TMD p-n junctions are made of atomically thin, stacked TMD layers and have been hailed for their novel properties, diverse applications, and potential to revolutionize electronics. My research project will provide improved understanding of the performance, functionality, and limits of atomically thin, stacked TMD p-n junctions. I will use Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM)a […]