Joseph Gitlin
Estimators give us an idea of the true value of our estimand, which represents a phenomenon that we observe in the real world. The concern with estimators is whether or not they follow certain properties, which is checked by underlying math such as Analysis and Probability Theory, and how accurately and consistently they capture the real value. With more data, it becomes more apparent which estimators are accurate with low variance; it’s easier to see how to improve these estimators given more data used for fitting them to the observations. […]
Will Gerardo
There has been increasing concern about the ethics of using human skeletal remains from historical and archaeological contexts in research and teaching. While emphasis on the unethical practice of taking and holding archaeological Native American and African American ancestral remains is an important focus, the origins and use of South Asian skeletons in anthropology and biomedicine have yet to be thoroughly explored. This project asks: Who are the skeletons that North American biological anthropology and biomedicine students utilize for study, and where were they taken from? What is the relationship […]
Vivian (Jiawei) Gao
My research project aims to investigate the upper limit of axion-photon coupling from galaxy cluster modulation. The goal is to use simulations to further push the limit of axion-photon coupling and get closer to the theoretical strength of axion-photon coupling, which would verify the existence of axion-like particles. This is essential in the investigation of particle physics and would solve the strong CP problem.
Ellie French
Workers of the ILWU (International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union) carry out their jobs in frequently dangerous situations that demand high-level cooperation and effective communication. On the docks and within union meetings, members constantly engage in strategic presentation of complaints and interpersonal conflicts. My research will employ methodologies of interactional sociology and conversation analysis to analyze verbal practices within union locals, specifically the act of voicing complaints. The focus of my analysis includes the workplace discourses of radio speech, face-to-face talk, and formal presentation of grievances at union meetings. What does […]
Francesca Cohn
The complex spatiotemporal control of gene expression is orchestrated by regulatory genomic elements called enhancers. Mutations in these enhancer regions have been linked to phenotypic evolution and human disease, however there is still little known about their regulatory logic; particularly whether individual enhancers are active in a single or multiple tissues, i.e. modular or pleiotropic. My research addresses this question by testing putative enhancers of the developmental gene Pitx2 using transgenic reporter assays in threespine stickleback fish.For each putative enhancer, I am asking: 1) does it drive expression of GFP […]
Peter Flo Grinde-Hollevik
The advent of satellite-based geospatial embedding data has allowed for a new opportunity to explore an unforeseen set of capabilities in environmental predictive tasks. In this project, I first establish the predictive relationship between census block-level in-situ measurements of median NO2 concentrations derived from the Google Street View Car and geospatial embeddings sourced from the Sentinel-2 satellite and the Earth Genome Project. This hypothesized relationship is then extended into the construction of a generalizable and robust predictive modeling framework. I then hope to deploy this framework on 4 counties of […]
Rebecca Ferreira Alves
Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) is a facultative intracellular pathogen used as a vaccine vector in over 20 cancer vaccine trials for its ability to induce robust CD8+ T-cell responses. Lm is also capable of inducing the V𝛾9V𝛿2 T-cells subset of the 𝛾𝛿 T-cells which possess strong cytotoxic capabilities against tumors. The Portnoy lab identified that the non-mevalonate pathway of isoprenoid biosynthesis that produces HMBPP, the activator of V𝛾9V𝛿2 T-cells, functions only anaerobically. To fully understand how Lm can produce HMBPP and induce the V𝛾9V𝛿2 T-cells immune response, I seek to investigate […]
Sam Duffy
Interaction between in- and out-groups is foundational to magical realist works. They depict the ways in which the arrival and subsequent impact of colonialism to Latin America forced in-groups to become increasingly wary of out-groups. These works illustrate the impact of colonialism on—and the resilient continuation of—cultures that colonizers would erase, and the resulting shift in communication with outsiders. My project will examine the alteration of out-group interaction following the arrival of colonialism to Latin America as portrayed in the magical realism genre. By conducting a survey of Latin American […]
Sierra Dabby
Ozone formation is accompanied by anomalous oxygen isotope effects. Oxygen has three stable isotopes: 16O, 17O, and 18O (relative abundances of 99.76%, 0.04% and 0.20% with 17O and 18O discovered at Berkeley by Nobel Laureate William Giauque). Isotope geochemists measure these stable isotopes as ratios, 17O/16O or 18O/16O, which have a relationship with slope ~0.5. However, in ozone (O3) formation, the resulting ozone is equally enriched in 17O and 18O relative to 16O and the 17O/16O vs 18O/16O relationship has a slope of 1. This is dubbed mass-independent fractionation (O-MIF). […]
Hanna Cox
How might one experience selfhood within a Benedictine, Trappist monastic tradition? How might a cloistered religious life cultivate subjectivity? What constitutes healing within Catholic ontologies, and how might monasticism bear on processes of healing? How might experiences of selfhood and of healing interplay? How might one engage their experience with theology? I am so fortunate and grateful to be able to immerse myself in a community of Cistercian women monastics during the course of my research. While these questions follow anthropological considerations of religion as it intersects with subjectivity and […]