http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/ucsd_etd/rss Recent eScholarship items from UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Wed, 14 Oct 2026 11:43:02 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hf0p5zz This dissertation presents a search for anomalous production of the Higgs boson with the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, together with two developments in reconstruction and computing for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). The search targets vector boson scattering production of a Higgs boson with two vector bosons. It aims to constrain the quartic HHVV coupling, quoted relative to its Standard Model value: departures from unity grow the cross section quadratically and boost the final-state bosons. The search uses the full Run 2 dataset, 138 inverse femtobarns at a center-of mass energy of 13 TeV and 283 inverse femtobarns of Run 3 data at 13.6 TeV, in three channels: an all-hadronic state with three large-radius jets and two single-lepton states. The dominant multijet and top quark backgrounds are estimated from data with an ABCD method built on two decorrelated classifiers, and the signal is extracted from a simultaneous fit to several orthogonal signal regions... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hf0p5zz Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Arora, Aashay https://escholarship.org/uc/item/934643sx The behaviors of complex systems with interacting decision-making agents are governed not only by each agent’s selfish response to others’ decisions, but also by unforeseen environmental uncertainties. As such, analytical characterization of equilibrium behaviors of such systems must be robust to unknown disturbances. This dissertation explores stochastic one-shot games, where the agents’ utilities depend not only on the collective strategy profiles but also on some well-behaved randomness; and a distributionally robust version of such games. The main focus is on providing conditions under which these games admit a Nash equilibrium (NE), relating the NE of the games, and coming up with distributed algorithms that converge near an NE, when it exists. Another focus of this dissertation is on applying these algorithms to solve task allocation problems among self-interested agents in a distributed way.We first study the game where each decision-maker is agnostic to the random variable’s... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/934643sx Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Mandal, Nirabhra https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bj5726h This dissertation argues that interpreting our own values, cares, concerns, and other elements of our identities can significantly transform our evaluative, motivational, and affective lives. More specifically, I develop an empirically informed account of how applying lexical concepts to our evaluative-motivational perspectives (paradigmatically, in the context of sincere, intimate dialogue) can reshape those very perspectives, often bringing them into closer alignment with the contents those concepts ascribe to them. In short, I show that self-interpretation is, in the usual case, a mode of self-formation. In fact, I argue, it is a particularly valuable mode of changing—and holding on to—who we are. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bj5726h Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Tiran, Noam https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7r49q4m5 Human information work often unfolds through iterative, exploratory, and partially specified processes. Yet current digital workspaces do not reflect the evolving structures of the task itself; instead, they are organized around fixed tools, specific content types, and application boundaries. This mismatch fragments work across applications and leaves coordination burdens to the users. This design paradigm has persisted partly because the fluid, idiosyncratic nature of tasks made them difficult to represent directly. As AI systems become increasingly capable of interpreting and externalizing the structure of ongoing work, this constraint begins to loosen, opening the possibility of interfaces that are not static containers for content, but dynamic representations of the task itself. This thesis proposes task structures as an underlying representation for a new generation of generative and composable interfaces. Task structures make explicit the objects and relationships... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7r49q4m5 Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cao, Yining https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6pc3z5vc In this thesis, we present four results: in the first, we give a fast algorithms for calculating the quasi-F-split height of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in characteristic p. In the second, we give a fast algorithm for calculating the zeta functions of projective hypersurfaces in characteristic p. In the third, we show that Berkovich’s affinoid algebras and dagger algebras are F-instersection flat (and thus contain big test elements). In the fourth, we consider the problem of the nullstellensatz of perfectoid Tate algebras. We give a result and a counterexample; we establish a limitation on what the possible quotient fields, and we generalize a counterexample due to Gleason. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6pc3z5vc Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Garzella, Jack Jerry https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6985739k The study of affective behavior in non-human animals has increased due to its importance in monitoring their welfare. However, assessing affective states poses challenges given that context, state and behavior do not exist in a 1:1:1 correspondence. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.) exist in complex social and physical environments that make them an interesting candidate for the study of affective states. In Chapter 1, we identified candidate affective behaviors from existing literature and from surveys of dolphin trainers. We tested these candidate behaviors using dolphins’ responses to a cognitive task as a quasi-manipulation. We expected to induce positive affect when a reward was received and negative affect when a reward was not received. We found that certain behaviors are associated with each outcome and that these behaviors matched those that were identified by trainers. In Chapter 2, we elicited a state of surprise by presenting dolphins with a violation of expectations.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6985739k Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Miller, Emma Christine https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63w245qp Geometric numerical integration has repeatedly proven useful for modeling dynamical systems, but attempts to apply this technique to kinetic plasmas face unique challenges. Traditional particle-in-cell (PIC) methods, though computationally efficient, introduce statistical noise that precludes strict structure-preservation. On the other hand, grid-based (Eulerian) methods, which constitute the other main category of kinetic plasma integrators, have degrees of freedom that scale with the size of the domain, meaning that the computational costs they incur can quickly exceed the memory and processing limitations of local workstations. Nevertheless, Eulerian methods are, in principle, compatible with a geometric approach, and how one ought to discretize, in a structure-preserving way, the infinite-dimensional Lie group of symplectomorphisms remains an interesting, and nontrivial, open question. We give a partial answer, extending a structure-preserving approach - previously applied... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63w245qp Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ostrowski, Kevin James https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h17286t Large-scale pretraining has produced powerful deep learning representations, but real-world data rarely match the clean, uniform assumptions of standard transfer learning. This dissertation uses heterogeneous data to describe settings in which information differs in modality, representation, relevance, quality, or frequency across inputs, outputs, tasks, or supervision. Examples include molecules represented as graphs, images, strings, and text; images containing both informative and redundant regions; noisy or incomplete labels; and rare but important classes. Applying pretrained models in these settings requires deciding which information to process, how to connect different forms of information, and how much to trust each supervision signal. This dissertation develops adaptive learning as a unifying approach through three paradigms: adaptive selection focuses computation on useful input components; adaptive alignment maps heterogeneous modalities, tasks, and outputs into a... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h17286t Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Liang, Youwei https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ph425t9 This dissertation examines improvisation as a site of continuously negotiated agency, drawing on three original recordings — Echoes of Origin, Emanations, and Misterio Entre Tú y Yo — as primary objects of analysis. Taking an autoethnographic approach grounded in two decades of performance experience, the project argues that musical initiative in ensemble improvisation is not held by a single performer but redistributed moment to moment through a relay of proposal, ratification, withholding, and seizure. To trace this relay, the dissertation develops the Interaction Map, a symbolic notation system designed to capture the transfer of initiative in ways standard notation cannot, applying it through close analysis of an extended passage from Emanations and a comparative passage from Echoes of Origin.Extending this relay inward, the dissertation then asks what happens to musical initiative when only one performer occupies every position within it. Drawing on Bakhtin's account of unmerged... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ph425t9 Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Acosta, Boris Ernesto https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8pz5p54q We construct and study non-invertible symmetries associated with G-graded fusion categories in two-dimensional quantum field theories through three-dimensional symmetry topological field theories enriched by a symmetry group G. We systematically develop the corresponding symmetry-enriched topological orders and investigate how different symmetry fractionalization classes in the three-dimensional theory affect the resulting non-invertible symmetries in two dimensions. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8pz5p54q Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Zhang, Zipei https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8284m0pb The Standard Model (SM) provides a remarkably successful description of elementary particles and their interactions. Nevertheless, several open questions indicate its incompleteness and motivate searches for new physics beyond the SM. This thesis presents a study aimed at probing physics beyond the SM through Higgs-related resonances with the CMS experiment, together with developments in heterogeneous computing for charged-particle track reconstruction. The first two Chapters of the thesis introduce the theoretical and experimental foundations of modern particle physics, including the SM, the Higgs mechanism, the Large Hadron Collider, and the CMS detector. The third Chapter presents a search for Higgs-pair resonances in the final state of two bottom quark jets and two photons, as probes of possible new physics beyond the SM. These searches exploit the unique role of the Higgs boson as a window into electroweak symmetry breaking and potential extensions of the SM.Chapter 4 addresses... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8284m0pb Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gu, Yanxi https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6p8556j5 Uncertainties in global climate projections are largely due to the uncertain representation of subgrid-scale processes in global simulations (e.g., clouds and convection). There are multiple approaches to improve the physics parameterizations within global climate models (GCMs). One approach is to improve our physical understanding of specific subgrid-scale processes (e.g., clouds and cloud microphysics). Another approach is to calibrate GCM parameterizations using observed climate statistics. I leverage simplified numerical models and optimization to contribute to both approaches. Simplified numerical models provide insights into how physical processes behave and are good for testing numerical methods. Optimization is a powerful calibration tool for solving high-dimensional inverse problems. First, I connect two very different stratocumulus cloud models to understand how simplified cloud models adapt to varying meteorological conditions. I calibrate a scalar delay differential... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6p8556j5 Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gjini, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6kc749w6 Essays in Workplace Influences on Health Behaviors examines the impact of workplace peers and policies on health behaviors.Chapter 1 examines the impact of coworker fitness on individual fitness and weight status. Using the conditional random assignment of soldiers in the US Army to companies, I find that being assigned to a high fitness peer group increases individual fitness and decreases the likelihood of being obese. The decrease in obesity persists for at least three years following the dissolution of the original peer group. Using an instrumental  variables approach, I isolate the impact of peers’ time varying behaviors and highlight the potential for fitness promoting policies to create positive spillovers. Finally, I show that the peer effect is driven by individuals competing with top performing peers rather than individuals trying to stay ahead of less fit peers.Chapter 2 explores how increased workplace drug testing can lead individuals to substitute away from... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6kc749w6 Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hoover, Alec Christopher https://escholarship.org/uc/item/31h0w0gs The overarching goal of this dissertation is devising computational tools for high-Reynolds number, turbulent, realistic, engineering flows, then applying the tools as such. To meet this goal, the tools must be statistical. We therefore develop new statistical methods, each tailored to a distinct type of statistics. They range from an improved algorithm for spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (spectral POD, or SPOD), made for flows with stationary statistics and broadband--tonal spectra, called adaptive sine-taper SPOD; to a workflow that synthesizes time-varying mean-flow analysis and space--time POD, designed for statistically transient flows; to a wholly new method created for strongly nonlinear flows, named triadic orthogonal decomposition (TOD). We test the methods on a variety of turbulent examples, including an open-cavity flow, jets, a wind-turbine wake, and isotropic turbulence. The examples show that sine-taper SPOD balances sharply resolving tonal peaks and... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/31h0w0gs Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Yeung, Brandon https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2z21021p Privacy threats are abundant when a user browses the Web. For example, online tracking code collects information about people for targeted (and potentially discriminatory) advertisements. Governments have surveilled foreign and domestic network traffic. Attackers also forge criminal legal process documents (e.g., search warrants) to steal user data from tech companies. In response to these threats, privacy defenders have created tools that are sometimes widely adopted, but the threats still remain. I argue that this discrepancy can be explained by privacy defenses being built around a model of a system that differs from that system's actual behavior. Furthermore, I argue that empirical analysis can evaluate how well the model and system align, and that when they diverge, widespread privacy harms occur. I examine four privacy defenses across the Web ecosystem. First, we analyze content blockers, which aim to protect users from online tracking. We find that content blockers... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2z21021p Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ukani, Alisha https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ps2s8c0 This dissertation contributes to scholarship at the intersection of medieval spirituality and gender, moving towards a less teleological model of the history medieval spirituality and gender. Using a single core text, Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum (c. 1229), this study examines how gendered meanings manifest in four interrelated ways: the masculine, the feminine, the supernatural, and the transcendent. The analysis first traces traditional gendered lines, but the latter part of this discussion interrogates those binaries, testing how those dichotomies hold up under scrutiny.In terms of masculinity, this dissertation argues that within the dichotomy between crusader and monk, Caesarius intentionally intertwines two masculinities using the concept of ‘the elect.’ By conflating them under the auspices of spiritual prowess, he frames them as conceptually similar. For femininity, despite of Caesarius’s assertions of equity between women and men, his narratives... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ps2s8c0 Mon, 12 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Violette, Stephanie Victoria https://escholarship.org/uc/item/98z4c1sh In this dissertation, we establish a unified theoretical foundation for staircase formation and persistence using a hierarchy of reduced physical models. The objective is to identify the minimal physical mechanisms responsible for staircase formation, determine the conditions that allow these structures to persist, and assess their relevance to transport regulation in magnetized plasmas. In Chapter 1, we study staircase formation in passive scalar advection by stationary and fluctuating cellular flows. We show that layering emerges from the separation between rapid intra-cell mixing and slow inter-cell transport. Staircases remain robust to global transverse shear and weak vortex scattering when the diffusive timescale exceeds the turnover timescale and profile curvature remains sufficiently large. Persistence is quantified using the cellular Peclet number and profile curvature. In Chapter 2, we extend this model to active scalar transport by studying staircase formation... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/98z4c1sh Thu, 8 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ramirez Flores, Fredy Roldan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j9984hc Throughout this portfolio of works, I examine how my musical practice has been affected by my understanding of noise. I treat noise not as a replacement for musical structure but as a set of pressures applied to my musical language. These pressures stem from four different understandings of noise. The first is timbral, a sound with a greater presence of inharmonic frequencies. The second comes from Attali. To him, noise is some sound that interferes with the ability to understand a message. Drawing from Baudrillard, I understand structural noise as the confusion that arises when representations and imitations of sounds replace the original versions. The last understanding of noise is Hegarty’s relational view of noise. After discussing key figures in the development of noise within music history such as Helmut Lachenmann and John Cage, I present a series of analyses of my own works: Deepfake for cello, electronics, and video, jeanne for vocalist and electronics, Displacement (a... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j9984hc Thu, 8 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Mencher, Aaron https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1rq7v75v The rapid development of large generative models has motivated a shift in recommender systems toward deep generative architectures with compact vocabularies. A fundamental operation in this paradigm is action tokenization: the process of converting human-perceivable actions, such as user-item interactions, into machine-readable token sequences, often referred to as semantic IDs. In this dissertation, we investigate the role of action tokenization in generative recommendation, focusing on how human actions should be tokenized and leveraged. Our research follows three main directions. First, we develop stronger action tokenization methods that make semantic IDs more expressive and effective, including scaling semantic IDs from short to long sequences and moving from context-independent to context-aware tokenization. Second, we study how to better leverage semantic IDs during training and inference so that generative models can use them more effectively, including improving... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1rq7v75v Thu, 8 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hou, Yupeng https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8dx6n4fk As containerized development has grown in popularity, it’s been increasingly employed in domains for which it wasn’t originally designed, such as AI/ML. Anecdotally, it has been reported that development teams are concerned with the challenges of containerization, despite the promised gains in productivity. There have been few studies focused on understanding developer perspectives in the context of the changes to the software development cycle that arise from employing containers. Furthermore, past studies do not relate the various types of workloads to job roles and the extent of their impact on the specific development tasks performed and tools being employed in containerized development. To address this gap, we conducted 35 contextual interviews with Kubernetes cluster operators and varying levels of users (i.e., namespace users and managers). Participants were recruited from two distinct research organizations, one industrial and the other academic. Their primary focus... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8dx6n4fk Mon, 5 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Coleman, Cora https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3zd8s0dm Understanding the 3D world from visual observations is a fundamental challenge in computer vision, with broad implications for robotics, autonomous driving, and embodied AI. Despite remarkable progress in 2D vision, a critical disconnect persists: existing foundation models are anchored to the 2D image plane and lack the geometric grounding needed to reason about 3D environments. At the root of this disconnect lies a data problem — 3D data is expensive, difficult to scale, and insufficient to support the kind of large-scale training that has driven 2D progress. This thesis addresses these challenges across three interconnected thrusts: scalable 3D data curation, spatial reasoning, and real-world 3D perception. First, I tackle the 3D data bottleneck from two complementary perspectives. From a reconstruction standpoint, I present COLMAP-Free 3D Gaussian Splatting, which eliminates the dependence on structure-from-motion preprocessing, enabling scalable 3D reconstruction from... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3zd8s0dm Mon, 5 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Fu, Yang https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3v5085kq Despite the impressive performance of deep neural networks, our understanding of how they work is very limited. To address this, the field of mechanistic interpretability aims to build a bottom-up understanding of the mechanisms that a neural network uses to calculate its output. An important building block for mechanistic interpretability is interpreting the roles of individual neurons inside the network. However, interpreting individual neurons poses many challenges. First, a single network may have thousands or millions of neurons, so it is not feasible for humans to manually interpret each neuron. Second, the field lacks clear standardized definitions of what makes a good explanation, making it difficult to compare competing methods or measure progress. Finally, individual neurons can be polysemantic, i.e., they activate on multiple unrelated concepts, which makes interpreting them difficult. In this dissertation, I discuss solutions to these three essential problems... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3v5085kq Mon, 5 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Oikarinen, Tuomas https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2cb0q34z Extreme land temperatures are among the most direct and consequential expressions of climate change, with impacts on human health, ecosystems, infrastructure, and the habit- ability of hot regions. Yet the physical controls on Earth’s hottest surface and near-surface air temperatures remain incompletely understood, especially in the dry subtropical environments where record-setting heat most often occurs. This dissertation addresses that problem by linking climate-model projections, radiative-transfer theory, and reduced-order land–atmosphere modeling.First, I analyze CMIP6 simulations to evaluate how the hottest land temperatures change under greenhouse forcing. The results show that annual hottest daily-mean and daily-maximum temperatures over tropical land warm about 30–40% faster than the tropical land mean. The geography of record-like heat remains concentrated in subtropical arid and semi-arid regions, particularly the Middle East and South Asia, while the likelihood of... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2cb0q34z Mon, 5 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Wilson, Anthony https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1xw9x5n2 Riboswitches are 5'-untranslated regions of messenger RNA that bind a ligand and subsequently control bacterial gene expression. Riboswitches are comprised of a ligand-binding aptamer domain and an expression platform that controls transcription termination or affects translation initiation via controlling ribosome binding site accessibility. The widely conserved yybP-ykoY family of riboswitches bind manganese ions (Mn2+) to affect the expression of genes encoding Mn2+ transporter proteins. This dissertation explores the mechanism of one widespread Mn2+-sensing riboswitch, alx, in E. coli, which activates the translation of the Alx Mn2+ exporter. The alx riboswitch uniquely activates translation in vivo in response to both alkaline pH and increased Mn2+ concentration, making it a novel example of RNA-based gene regulation. Prior studies have determined the static structure and dynamics of isolated Mn2+-sensing aptamer domains. While valuable, these works did not include the riboswitch... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1xw9x5n2 Mon, 5 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Palmer, Danea https://escholarship.org/uc/item/62z3x5t7 Nucleic acids have been shown to have roles beyond carrying and delivering genetic information. They have drawn interest and gained popularity as powerful tools, being developed for furthering scientific research and enabling advancements in biotechnology. The use of nucleic acids in the advancement of technologies that enable visualization, tracking, and manipulation of biological macromolecules has significantly broadened their investigation, especially RNA. The growing interest towards RNA biology due to its wide-ranging functions and impacts in the cell has been a motivator for the development of robust strategies to further study and harness its programmability. The focus of this work is to develop a strategy to generate fully encodable, robust, site-specific, covalent RNA-protein conjugates using tRNA guanine transglycosylase (TGT) from E. coli. A key step in the mechanism of guanine exchange by TGT is the formation of a covalent intermediate between TGT and its RNA substrate.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/62z3x5t7 Thu, 1 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Guerrero Baker, Karen https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4pk44934 Understanding and dissecting the dynamics of single-cell interactions is integral to immunological research. However, many of the microfluidic platforms that seek to facilitate this are constrained by strict particle size limits, low trap density, or complex multilayer fabrication processes. This thesis presents a microfluidic flow-reversal platform with a high-density trap array that hydrodynamically pairs two distinctly sized particle populations in a 1:1 ratio. Fabricated as a single layer via conventional soft lithography, the device incorporates 1,566 bidirectional traps that enable sequential loading of particles. Initially motivated by investigating host-pathogen interactions between neutrophils and Coccidioides spherules, the device was characterized using 10 µm and 20 µm fluorescent beads as model particles across operational flow rates from 75 to 200 µL/min. The results demonstrate an optimal 1:1 capture yield exceeding 40% at 125 µL/min, corresponding to an estimated... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4pk44934 Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Martin, Spencer Leon https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8k3011h5 Acoustic observations collected by a REMUS 600 autonomous underwater vehicle on the New England Shelf Break show delayed, sloping, and diffuse returns associated with a seafloor depression and the disruption of otherwise persistent sub-bottom stratigraphy. To investigate mechanisms capable of producing the observed scattering features, a two-way coupled normal mode model is developed for an idealized seafloor depression with sloping edges and modified sediment structure. Modes with substantial support near the perturbed sub-bottom structure undergo the strongest redistribution, with strong non-adiabatic coupling including significant forward and backscattering across an array of output modes and angles. Water-column-confined modes generally interact weakly with the leading edge, although they may undergo appreciable backscattering at the trailing bathymetric transition. Full-field calculations illustrate edge-generated forward and backscatter, strong coupling into sediment-associated... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8k3011h5 Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Doerner, Robert https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1009c02z Chiari malformation type I (CM-I) is characterized by herniation of the cerebellar tonsils past the foramen magnum into the upper spinal canal. This descent can obstruct cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow. A large fraction of CM-I patients develop syringomyelia, in which a fluid-filled cavity, or syrinx, forms within the spinal cord. The mechanisms governing syrinx formation remain incompletely understood, although abnormal CSF dynamics associated with CM-I may play an important role. One leading hypothesis proposes that the pulsating cerebellar tonsils create amplified pressure waves in the spinal subarachnoid space that promote fluid transport into the spinal cord. However, some aspects of altered CSF dynamics in CM-I and the mechanisms underlying syrinx formation remain unexplained. This work characterizes cerebellar tonsillar motion, cervical CSF flow, and craniocervical pressure dynamics before and after posterior fossa decompression in pediatric CM-I patients. Cardiac-gated... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1009c02z Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sznicer, Madison https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3mv0c3nh This dissertation examines philosophical problems in general relativity and historical questions about the production of physical knowledge. Part I focuses on three foundational problems in general relativity. Chapter 1 revisits the metaphysics of spacetime through Mach’s principle and the vacuum challenge, arguing that the existence of gravitational degrees of freedom not fixed by the stress–energy tensor need not straightforwardly support substantivalism. Chapter 2 distinguishes energy conservation from energy balance in general relativity, arguing that even skeptics about gravitational energy should retain balance relations as physically indispensable constraints against gravitational perpetual motion machines. Chapter 3 argues that general relativity often achieves empirical success not through a single unified model applied uniformly, but through a plurality of approximation schemes, boundary conditions, and matching procedures adapted to different regimes. Part II turns... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3mv0c3nh Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Shi, Shelly Yiran https://escholarship.org/uc/item/11h4w3c0 In an era of increasing political polarization and intensified rhetoric, teachers must navigate directed attacks on educational initiatives. While prior research addresses conditions related to successful implementation of new policies in schools as well as the ways in which external threats can impact organizations and people working within them, less is known about how teachers react emotionally to polarized political rhetoric or how these reactions might relate to their perceptions of school climate and conditions. In an effort to address this gap, this mixed methods study investigated teachers’ affective responses to political rhetoric, their perceptions of conditions on their campuses, and the relationships therein. Using a dual theoretical framework of threat-rigidity theory and constructivism, the study explored three research questions via a concurrent embedded multi-phase mixed methods design using a quantitative survey with embedded qualitative components (n = 52) and... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/11h4w3c0 Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Guthrie, Cassiopeia Barlow https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0px0h07s Colorectal cancer is characterized by a fibrotic phenotype that makes solid tumors hard to treat. The overexpressed and dysregualted extracellular matrix limits the delivery of therapeutics and the infiltration of immune cells, presenting a physical barrier that inhibit or dampen therapeutic effects and full tumor perfusion. Here we show that introducing quorum-regulated collagenase expression into attenuated Salmonella typhimurium enables bacteria to remodel this barrier from within the tumor and improve its own colonization efficiency. We demonstrate that collagenase expression under LuxI/LuxR quorum-sensing control produces density-dependent ECM disruption in CRC spheroids and significantly enhances intratumoral bacterial penetration at physiologically relevant seeding densities. We establish a patient-derived organoid co-culture platform using matched tumor and normal colon tissue from microsatellite-stable and microsatellite-instable CRC patients, and show that Salmonella... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0px0h07s Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 O'Connor, Katherine https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58g2j7xn A prototype “top launch” electron cyclotron (EC) heating system has been developed at the DIII-D tokamak that utilizes an in-vessel mirror to reflect an outside-launched microwave beam into the plasma with a nearly-parallel path along the resonance line. The DIII-D EC system currently has eight steerable mirror systems and one of these has been used to test this prototype system. In 2020 and 2022, two top launch systems were installed on DIII-D using in-vessel waveguides through upper ports on the machine. These systems demonstrated a reactor-relevant technology for driving off-axis current in Advanced Tokamak (AT) scenarios. However, one of the in-vessel waveguides failed and both systems were removed in 2023. This new prototype was designed to replace the previous systems with a reliable alternative at 10% the cost. The prototype in-vessel mirror is made of ATJ graphite to match the material of the DIII-D first wall. The mirror’s surface is canted at a fixed angle to reflect... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58g2j7xn Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 de Boucaud, Nikolai https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58x9f4z8 One of the most common types of damage in composite laminates is delamination. This type of damage occurs when the plies within the material separate, reducing the strength and, if ignored, possibly leading to structural failure. The repair of these materials is costly and limited by tool availability, which motivated the adaptation of a repair technique known as injection repair for strength-restoring applications. The goal of this work is twofold: first, to develop a data processing and visualization computational tool that generates three-dimensional maps and delamination density plots from ultrasonic pulse-echo C-scan data, which would be used to assist in identifying percolation pathways within an damaged composite material; and second, to develop a drilling process that produces favorable hole geometry for resin penetration into delaminations while minimizing drilling-induced damage and debris accumulation. The drilling process incorporates carefully selected drilling tools... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/58x9f4z8 Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Valerio, Christopher https://escholarship.org/uc/item/477718xp Brief electrical stimulation (ES) following peripheral nerve repair has emerged as a promising strategy to accelerate axonal regeneration; however, ES may reduce regenerative specificity by increasing axonal mistargeting and inappropriate motor neuron reinnervation. Biomimetic multichannel scaffolds that recapitulate peripheral nerve fascicular architecture provide structural guidance for organized axonal regeneration and may improve the efficacy of ES. This study evaluated whether combining brief ES with a biomimetic multichannel scaffold enhances regeneration following peripheral nerve injury. Thirty-six Fischer 344 rats underwent 1-cm sciatic nerve transection and biomimetic multichannel scaffold implantation. Eighteen animals received intraoperative ES of the proximal nerve stump (6 V, 20 Hz, 110 μs pulses for 10 min). Samples were collected at 1, 3, and 5 weeks for histological and functional analyses. Axons within the proximal nerve, scaffold, and distal nerve were quantified,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/477718xp Fri, 18 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Dela Cruz, Benjamin Francis https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9j80z6fb Fully understanding the behavior of functional nanomaterials requires insight into atomic motion, electron delocalization, bond formation, and interparticle interactions. The resolution required to study these phenomena, particularly under experimentally relevant conditions, often exceeds the capabilities of modern nano characterization equipment. Molecular simulation offers a computational microscope with which to investigate these systems at the necessary scale. Yet for many nanomaterial systems of practical interest, the simulation infrastructure needed to gain that insight simply does not exist. This dissertation constructs missing infrastructure across three nanomaterial systems of increasing complexity, enabling mechanistic questions about these systems to be answered with molecular-scale precision for the first time.Chapter two considers the smallest system: a single conjugated polymer chain. A method to quantify the effects of intermonomer improper torsion on electron... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9j80z6fb Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ramji, Robert Scanlon https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6zj2v90m Phthalates (Phthalic Acid Esters; PAEs) are widely used toxic plasticizers, and their contamination in oceans and air is widespread due to their leachability. Previous studies have detected PAEs in air and water in remote marine environments worldwide, suggesting their transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere. However, no prior work has quantified PAE enrichment in the ocean surface layer or in marine aerosols. Here, we investigate the transfer characteristics and enrichment factors (EFs) of three common PAEs: dimethyl phthalate (DMP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), from artificial seawater to an artificial (i.e., palmitic acid) sea surface microlayer (SML) and in nascent sea spray aerosols (SSA). The relative extent of enrichment was found to depend on PAE hydrophobicity and volatility. DBP exhibited the highest EFs in both the artificial SML and nascent SSA compared to other phthalates. DBP EFs in the artificial SML from two independently... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6zj2v90m Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hedin, Molly Maevia https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3m14n1h4 Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is among the most lethal malignancies worldwide, with a five-year survival rate of approximately 12–13% due to the absence of reliable early detection tools. Elevated circulating protease activity, including cathepsin S and chymotrypsin, has been demonstrated in PDAC patient blood using the Rapid Assay for Protease Detection (RAPD), a charge-changing peptide (CCP)-based gel electrophoresis platform developed at UC San Diego. Dried blood spot (DBS) cards offer a cold-chain-independent sample blood sample collection from a finger prick that could enable home-based PDAC screening; however, no validated method exists for protease activity detection from DBS matrices.Result: This thesis tests the feasibility and storage stability of CCP-based protease activity detection from PDAC patient whole blood spotted onto blood spot cards (BSCs; Whatman 903 protein saver cards). Whole blood spotted onto BSCs produced significantly higher normalized... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3m14n1h4 Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Srinivas, Megna Gopalkrishna https://escholarship.org/uc/item/23s3p0h7 Motivation: Large pharmacogenomics screens have generated a wealth of information cataloguing the responses of more than a thousand tumor cell-line models to FDA-approved and exploratory drugs. Although centralized repositories have consolidated data access, the diversity of experimental platforms and response metrics used in these screens have made it challenging to integrate and compare their measured drug responses. Towards better pharmacogenomic data harmonization, we surveyed a range of data analysis protocols based on different curve-fitting functions (sigmoid, piecewise linear), different response metrics (IC50, EC50, integrated AUC), and different drug concentration windows (full range or truncated).Results: We found that an AUC derived from a sigmoidal curve fitted to a truncated dose range yields the strongest agreement between screening platforms, significantly bettering other protocols surveyed. This harmonization procedure also best aligns drug responses across successive... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/23s3p0h7 Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Aleysha Tone https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0458p3t1 Plastics are highly inert and environmentally persistent petroleum derivatives employed in commercial, industrial, and residential applications. Disintegration via mechanical and chemical means generates plastic fragments of micro (≤ 1 mm) or nanoscopic (≤ 1 μm) sizes. Such particles are highly heterogeneous in size, morphology, structural chemistry, and surface topography. With a vast and often indiscernible environmental burden, the biochemical and biophysical influences of plastics on mammalian physiology are of concern, especially regarding chronic inflammation. Utilizing three monocyte-derived model systems, a mouse cell line, bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs), and patient-derived, monocyte-enriched PBMCs, morphologically heterogeneous microplastics, such as polystyrene (PS) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN), at low, medium, and high dosages were imaged for topographical variety via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), size characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS),... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0458p3t1 Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Snyder, Dylan Matthew https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6538p7tn Dark matter interactions with nuclei transition between two regimes: coherent scattering, in which single phonons are produced, and scattering off individual nuclei, which produces nuclear recoils. Understanding this transition requires understanding multiphonon excitations, which are important for interpreting low-threshold direct detection experiments but are computationally prohibitive to calculate. In this thesis, we employ a one-dimensional crystal lattice model in which dark matter scattering can be computed exactly. We show that the only difference between coherent and incoherent scattering is that conservation of crystal momentum is enforced in the coherent case. The momentum conservation constraint becomes less important as more phonons are produced, yielding the transition to incoherent scattering. Using numerical calculations of the one-dimensional structure factor, we also obtain quantitative validation of the incoherent approximation for computing sub-GeV dark matter... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6538p7tn Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Lin, Lynn https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5hj0n5r6 This thesis aims to determine the capabilities of the G2-MACRO-SPC, also known as “VIOLET”, a minimally invasive optical system capable of identifying and imaging copepods in situ. The primary focus is to determine how the optical performance of the system degrades over time due to biofouling, and how the taxonomic distribution observed by the system changes with optical performance. Image data was continuously collected, with computer vision extracting regions of interest. The system was not cleaned, and the degradation in optical performance was determined by measuring the contrast change over time with a 1951 USAF resolution test chart. The system’s contrast dropped below threshold values between 8 and 17 days. A downward trend was observed in the ROI areas, indicating that the system under samples smaller organisms as the optical degradation worsens. Additionally, with a baseline of 0% misidentified, the neural network misidentified 41% of the copepods after 8 days with the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5hj0n5r6 Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Constantino, Nicholas https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5876w1b7 In response to the accumulation of plastic waste in the environment, the development of degradable bioplastics as an alternative has been highly sought after, yet should certain bioplastics succeed the non-biodegradable plastics, there may be implications of how the accumulation of this more bioavailable form of plastic impact the carbon cycle, particularly in the marine environment, where nutrient conditions are diverse and play an important biological role in carbon utilization. This Thesis examines the model marine bacterium Alteromonas macleodii ATCC 27126’s ability to utilize 3-Hydroxybutyrate (3HB), a monomer of the bioplastic Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) among glucose, galactose, and maltose, components of natural polysaccharides and certain bioplastics, depending on the provision of reduced nitrogen (NH4) or oxidized (NO3). According to Optical Density (OD600) growth curves, cell counts, and respiration determined by the INT Reduction method, 3HB resulted in peak biomass... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5876w1b7 Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Garcia, Diego https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4g33h6vf The ability to accurately identify fish species is crucial for fisheries management and stock assessments. Traditional techniques such as morphological or genetic analysis can be costly, time-consuming, and often destructive to the sample. This study evaluates the utility of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy as a rapid, cost-effective, and non-destructive tool for fish identification. I collected spectral data from both otoliths and scales of several recreationally important fish in California. I standardized the data following quality control and then used principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce dimensionality prior to performing linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The spectral data collected from the scales consistently displayed higher classification accuracy than spectral data from the otoliths. This may be due to stronger organic signatures in the scales that are associated with a greater abundance of organic material, particularly proteins such as collagen,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4g33h6vf Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Callahan, Sarah Grace https://escholarship.org/uc/item/23z6g10r There are two main types of topology optimization techniques: density-based methods (DTO) and boundary-based methods–the most popular of which are level set methods (LSTO). DTO is very straightforward to implement, but can have difficulties with getting rid of grey densities for clear 0-1 results. Level set topology optimization, due to being a boundary-based method, has a clear definition of the boundary, but has a reputation for being slow to converge, inefficient, and difficult to implement. This work seeks to prove that these drawbacks can be resolved with applying appropriate implementations of the level set method and structuring the methodology in such a way that different techniques for sensitivity calculations can be used.This dissertation presents a modular, large-scale, and multi-physics level set topology optimization method. Its five main contributions are: (1) Large-scale efficient level set topology optimization, (2) an exploration on the impact of different objective... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/23z6g10r Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Jauregui, Carolina Miranda https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1pp5363f A thesis introducing briefly the diverging image among other conclusions drawn around art and art practice, as it pertains to the work of alexis hithe towards the completion of a master’s degree of fine art. Discussed at length are the compelling forces, strategies, theories and practices that guide and shape the work, which typically consists of experimental moving image, light and conceptual installations. This writing may also serve as a non-linear recollection of a temporal experience of the graduate program in Visual Art at University of California San Diego. Do not think of this document as a graveyard, but perhaps a carving or a whisper. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1pp5363f Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hithe, Alexis https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1m01c21t A recently developed cutoff low catalog and a long-term precipitation dataset from 1982 to 2024 were analyzed to examine how cutoff lows contribute to annual and seasonal precipitation variability across the U.S. West Coast (USWC) compared to atmospheric rivers (ARs). Assessments were conducted for three regions: Southern California (SoCal), Northern California (NorCal), and the Pacific Northwest (PNW). On average, 5% of the total precipitation was associated with cutoff lows only, while 48% was associated with ARs only across all three regions. While the relative precipitation contributions from cutoff lows were <5% in the PNW and NorCal, the SoCal region received 9% of its total precipitation from cutoff lows, underscoring their greater importance in SoCal. The PNW and NorCal regions had their peak cutoff low precipitation contributions from May to July, while SoCal’s peak was from September to November. Cutoff lows were most frequent in different regions and months, with... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1m01c21t Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hurley, Kyle https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1963997s Friction-based structural components have been developed and used in earthquake-resistant buildings for seismic response modification purposes. They can provide high initial stiffness, decoupled strength and stiffness, and energy dissipation, through relatively simple designs. If properly designed, they can be damage-free after earthquakes. However, their broader application requires further understanding at multiple levels. At the material level, the mechanical and tribological properties of composite friction materials remain insufficiently understood for earthquake structural engineering applications. At the component level, conventional friction-based components can be sensitive to machining tolerances, and friction shim inspection and replacement may require removal of external clamping parts, which can be time-consuming. In addition, friction-based components typically have near-zero post-elastic stiffness, which may lead to excessive connection displacement demands in specific... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1963997s Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Kaixin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/16v4776n The Antarctic Peninsula is undergoing rapid environmental change while several baleen whale species continue to recover from historical exploitation. Understanding how whales respond to this dynamic ecosystem is therefore important for identifying the environmental processes that shape feeding habitat. This study examines the acoustic occurrence of humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), and blue whales (B. musculus) near the South Shetland Islands across three site-year deployments between 2014 and 2016. Passive acoustic recordings were used to quantify humpback whale song and non-song vocalizations, fin whale 20 Hz calls, and blue whale Z- and D-calls. Generalized additive models related acoustic occurrence to environmental variables describing mesoscale circulation, hydrography, primary productivity, and sea ice. Acoustic patterns differed between species, call types, and sites. Fin whale calling showed the clearest seasonality, blue whale Z-calls were... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/16v4776n Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Schriber, Nicole https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wb9x85j The San Pedro Basin (SPB) is a deep borderland basin in the Southern California Bight containing DDT-contaminated sediments, yet the physical processes governing sediment mobilization, transport, and redistribution remain poorly constrained. This study integrates long-term hydrographic observations from the San Pedro Ocean Time-series (SPOT) with near-bottom mooring measurements to characterize deep-ocean circulation, bottom boundary-layer dynamics, and sediment resuspension potential. Hydrographic observations indicate weak stratification below the 740 m sill and minimal seasonal or interannual variability, consistent with prolonged isolation of deep-basin waters. Relationships between deep-water density, dissolved oxygen, and the Niño 3 index are weak, suggesting limited penetration of ENSO-related variability into the deep basin. Near-bottom Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurements show that bottom current variability is dominated by semidiurnal tides, with secondary... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wb9x85j Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kreitzer, Zachary Austin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0097c8j6 Reliable underwater acoustic communication is important for Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) operations but is affected by environmental conditions and vehicle geometry. The objective of this research was to identify factors affecting acoustic communication performance for a REMUS 100 UUV and to develop autonomous behaviors that could improve communication reliability during mission execution. Laboratory and field experiments conducted through the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) Coastal Observing Research and Development Center (CORDC) evaluated the effects of vehicle self-noise, vehicle depth, and vehicle orientation on communication performance using a WHOI Micromodem-2 operating at 25 kHz. Communication success was evaluated under varying operating conditions, and BELLHOP acoustic propagation modeling was used to support interpretation of depth-dependent communication performance. Results showed that changes in vehicle propulsion RPM produced minimal... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0097c8j6 Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Morales, Adam https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9219d8gf DEEP ROLES is a thesis exhibition that investigates performance as both subject and inheritance. At its center is A Doll's House, a 23-minute documentary film in which I direct my parents, both former actors, as they return to the Henrik Ibsen play they performed together thirty years prior, using the script as a starting point for examining our family dynamic, and the distance between former and currently performed roles. Drawing on psychoanalyst Avgi Saketopoulou's theories of "limit consent" and "exigent sadism," I argue that discomfort and risk are the primary strategies in my practice; notably in the documentary process itself, where the act of filming becomes a form of exigent sadism that imperils all parties in the service of transformation. I situate these works within a broader inquiry into the mechanics of liveness, improvisation, and scripts – both theatrical and behavioral – to think through how they structure our encounters with one another. My training in clown,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9219d8gf Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Cleary, Sophia https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9mw7z16s Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) enables fabrication of complex metal components, but its coupled multiphysics drives multiple defect-formation mechanisms. Porosity is a critical defect because it forms through transient, spatially localized process events and can degrade mechanical reliability. Localized in-situ pore detection is therefore essential for resolving conditions associated with individual pore formation, advancing understanding of LPBF process–structure relationships, and supporting more reliable process monitoring and qualification.This dissertation develops a Multimodal Sensor Fusion Machine Learning (MSFML) framework for localized LPBF pore prediction by integrating heterogeneous sensor data with process- and physics-informed knowledge. The proposed Parallel Multi-Layer Multimodal Sensor Fusion (PMMSF) method progressively fuses one-dimensional sensor signals, image data, photometric-stereo products, process parameters, physics-derived features, and multi-layer context.The... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9mw7z16s Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Satterlee, Nicholas https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8sm7w6b5 Treatment effects in biomedical studies are often evaluated using time-to-event outcomes, such as disease onset, treatment failure, infection, or mortality. In many clinical and epidemiologic settings, these effects may vary across patient characteristics, and treatment decisions must also account for risks observed in real-world data. This dissertation develops and applies causal survival analysis methods for estimating treatment effects in precision medicine and clinical decision-making.The first part introduces a martingale R-learner for estimating heterogeneous treatment effects in survival data. We develop a functional score framework that extends estimating equations for survival outcomes to nonparametric heterogeneous treatment effects and generalizes Neyman orthogonality to this setting. The proposed approach decomposes conditional martingale residuals into components involving the risk-set propensity score and marginal martingale, reducing sensitivity to nuisance estimation.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8sm7w6b5 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Qi, Yuchen https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rb1h694 Background: Adolescent obesity remains a significant public health concern in the United States and disproportionately affects youth from socially marginalized populations. Increasing evidence suggests that obesity is shaped by social determinants such as stigma and discrimination. Stigma operates across multiple levels, ranging from individual experiences of discrimination to structural conditions embedded within policies, institutions, and societal norms. This dissertation examined whether stigma at individual and structural levels was associated with adolescent adiposity within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.Methods: Three complementary longitudinal analyses were conducted using the ABCD study. Chapter 1 examined the prospective association between perceived racial/ethnic discrimination [BA1.1][ML1.2] and adiposity and evaluated racial centrality as a potential moderator. Chapter 2 investigated whether exposure to state-level structural stigma, measured... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8rb1h694 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Lopez Gurrola, Maria https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80p3c27n Background: Cardiovascular health (CVH) is shaped by upstream determinants, including socioeconomic adversity (adversity) and the built environment. Research on walkability has shown positive associations with CVH, but studies are largely cross-sectional and focus on macro-scale features such as density rather than micro-level pedestrian streetscape features such as sidewalk quality. Key gaps remain in how walkability is operationalized, how it interacts with adversity, and how it operates within Hispanic/Latino communities, a key US demographic. Despite decades of research, the political factors that shape walkability also remain understudied. Objectives: This dissertation aimed to 1) describe the spatial and statistical distributions of adversity, walkability, and pedestrian streetscapes in San Diego, California, 2) estimate longitudinal relationships and effect modification between those variables on six year changes in CVH among Hispanic/Latino adults in San Diego, and 3)... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80p3c27n Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Carson, Jacob Robert https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7qd5k6v3 Rationale: Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) poses a significant challenge in psychiatry, characterized by the persistence of symptoms despite multiple treatment attempts. Approximately 30-50% of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not achieve adequate response from first-line interventions, leading to TRD. This underscores the urgent need for novel interventions and personalized treatment strategies. Neuromodulatory treatments such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and esketamine have emerged as promising options, yet considerable heterogeneity in treatment outcomes underscores the urgent need for robust, individualized predictive frameworks. This dissertation aimed to enhance understanding of response in TRD by integrating clinical, demographic, and neurophysiological predictors across three complementary studies.Study 1 (published) aimed to identify clinical and demographic predictors of rTMS treatment response in TRD. This retrospective... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7qd5k6v3 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Benster, Lindsay L https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kj9v58c Risk factors related to short-term (2-year) outcomes among youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR) include severity of attenuated psychosis symptoms, cannabis use, early life adversity, and functional impairment. Given known interactions between these and other risk factors, distinct “risk-profiles” may be present and may predict longer-term outcomes. Few studies have followed CHR youth beyond 2 years, limiting understanding of the lifetime impact of these collective factors.Latent class analyses (LCA) were employed to isolate risk-profiles from existing data of CHR youth (N = 1846). Two LCA were conducted; one including baseline global cognitive index (GCI) as an indicator variable (LCA-With GCI), and one without GCI (LCA-Without GCI). Risk-profiles were then used as predictors of 2-year outcomes in logistic regressions. Aim 2: Risk-profiles from a subset of these individuals (n = 419) who were reassessed after 5-20 years were employed as predictor variables of clinical... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kj9v58c Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kennedy, Leda https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7cc2c664 This study explored how and why mathematicians use evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) in advanced collegiate mathematics (ACM), courses beyond calculus that are often proof-based. In undergraduate mathematics, traditional lecturing remains dominant (Johnson et al., 2018; Stains et al., 2018) despite decades of research indicating that EBIPs such as active learning improve student success (Freeman et al., 2014; Theobald et al., 2020). While much prior research has examined factors that influence faculty adoption of EBIPs, particularly in introductory courses (e.g., Apkarian et al.,2021), less attention has been given to why faculty choose to use EBIPs in ACM, how they persist in using them, and why they use them in the ways they do. This study addresses this gap by examining these three questions. To address these questions, six tenure-track mathematics faculty were recruited from three four-year universities in the Southwestern United States, with two participants... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7cc2c664 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Moschetti, Mariah Gabriella https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7387d91n This dissertation presents an integrated simulation-to-data-model workflow for analyzing the impact of injector spacing on hydrogen combustion in a micromix turbine-motivated setup. First, a reacting hydrogen jet issuing into a hot air crossflow is simulated employing periodic spanwise boundaries to represent an injector row. Analysis is performed with respect to three turbine performance-oriented metrics: wall heat transfer, downstream unburnt hydrogen throughput and a bulk temperature concentration metric. Second, a hierarchy of data models is used with the sample simulations to efficiently explore the established metrics in the dense inter-jet spacing parameter range. The investigation spans the parameter range of two to ten jet diameters. The simulations show that two diameter spacing introduces blockage, which results in a 15% increase to the crossflow velocity around the jet and subsequently drives faster downstream unburnt hydrogen throughput. They also show that... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7387d91n Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Eduku, Kaku Ekyenye-Armah https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5ht6024v Supermassive stars offer an intriguing solution to a problem compounded by recent observations that there exists objects in the very early universe which are much too massive than would be expected from standard formation channels. This dissertation explores supermassive stars and their basic properties primarily analytically, thereby discovering a means of stabilizing them with dark matter and possible signatures of their demises induced from the complicated interplay of neutrinos with these stars during collapse. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5ht6024v Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kehrer, Kyle https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5cf6f27t The blood-brain barrier (BBB) regulates the exchange of molecules between the circulation and the central nervous system through specialized endothelial transport systems. One such transporter is Stra6 which mediates retinol uptake and displays regional enrichment at the BBB. It has high expression in the nucleus accumbens shell and ventral cochlear nucleus. While this region-specific expression pattern is well established, little is known about how Stra6 is regulated during neuroinflammatory conditions. Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated that Stra6 expression is increased at the BBB in both Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE), a model of multiple sclerosis, and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation - an endotoxin that triggers the innate immune system. Endothelial-specific deletion of Stra6 also reduced EAE disease severity, suggesting that Stra6 may play an active role in neuroinflammatory processes rather than simply being a marker of inflammation.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5cf6f27t Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ramesh, Pavithra https://escholarship.org/uc/item/47g8q559 Eye movements provide a useful window into visual attention because they reveal when and where a person engages with objects in the environment. In traditional event-related potential (ERP) studies, electroencephalography (EEG) activity is usually time-locked to the moment a stimulus is presented. However, this approach becomes less precise in natural and dynamic settings, where people move their eyes and head before fully engaging with an object. To address this, I studied alternative time-locking methods that use eye position and movement, and assessed fixation-related potentials (FRPs) under free-head-movement conditions in immersive virtual reality (VR). In the primary study, participants completed a three-dimensional visual oddball task in VR, viewing standard and deviant targets while shifting their eyes toward near-peripheral targets or turning both head and eyes toward far-peripheral targets. Simultaneous EEG, eye-tracking, and head-movement data were collected, along... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/47g8q559 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Green, Nathaniel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/44s3k0rf Black people with HIV (PWH) experience persistent disparities in antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence and HIV-related health outcomes in the United States. These disparities are shaped by interacting psychosocial, community, and structural-level factors. This three-paper dissertation integrated archival longitudinal data and newly collected multi-method data to: 1) examine psychosocial determinants of health (PSDOH) as predictors of ART adherence, 2) examine Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs and related psychosocial predictors of ART adherence, and 3) characterize experiences related to living with HIV, ART adherence, HIV care navigation, resilience, social support, and community cohesion among Black PWH in Southern California. Study 1 (N = 91) examined PSDOH as predictors of longitudinal ART adherence among Black PWH enrolled in the culturally adapted Individual Community Care for HIV/AIDS Now: Getting Engaged (iC-CHANGE) text messaging intervention. ART adherence... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/44s3k0rf Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Serrano, Vanessa Bianca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3vh375wv Performing Silence analyzes and explores the multifaceted meaning of silence in music performance and composition, using Japanese terms as a guideline to investigate varying contexts of musical silence. This dissertation uses Ma, Seijaku, and Chinmoku as chapter divisions to examine contextual differences in order to deepen interpretative approaches to silence.The discussion of musical silence has been a significant part of twentieth-century music. Although those discussions offered an opportunity for artists to utilize the intentional absence of sound as a functional component in music, there is potential to further explore the contexts and textures of silence that suggest the connotation of musical silence. The context and background of the absence of sound convey contrasting characteristics and interpretations. I argue that knowing the detailed contexts and backgrounds of silence in music strongly affects performers’ ability to execute music with diverse musical techniques,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3vh375wv Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Matsuda, Kosuke https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3n10r6cn Stormwater management challenges are becoming more complex due to urbanization, aging infrastructure, climate change, and sea-level rise, which exacerbate flooding, pollutant loading, and drainage inefficiencies across systems with diverse designs, climates, and watershed characteristics. This dissertation assesses how distributed stormwater adaptation and future climate stressors impact urban drainage performance in distinct regions of the western United States, addressing three interconnected issues: whether green infrastructure (GI) offers net environmental benefits at the city level; how combined sewer overflow (CSO) volumes respond to compound climate stressors like rainfall intensification, sea-level rise, and groundwater rise; and whether regionally transferable modeling frameworks are feasible. A comparative framework was applied to six West Coast areas, from Mexico to Canada, including San Diego (Imperial Beach), the San Francisco Bay Area (San Francisco, San Leandro),... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3n10r6cn Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bagheri, Kian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/33d8f4ft Planetary histories are poorly understood, as humans have only existed for a fraction of time since Earth’s initial formation. Thermal evolution modeling offers insight into how planets may have evolved over geologic time, and how they arrived at the states we observe them in today. This dissertation aims to analyze key parameters which have strong control over terrestrial planets’ thermal and interior evolutions. Application of parameterized mantle convection via boundary layer theory provides the ability to explore wide ranges of parameter spaces and understand the underlying physical mechanisms which drive thermal evolution. Many existing thermal evolution models consider boundary layers that are symmetric in thickness and incompressible mantles applied to Mars-sized stagnant lid planets. We evaluate the validity of these assumptions on planetary evolution and investigate compressible mantles with asymmetric thickness thermal boundary layers found using locally determined temperature... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/33d8f4ft Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Auerbach, Victoria L. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2wx2x70g The ability of an animal to detect and respond to danger is crucial for survival. Cues associated with decay pose a particular threat as they can be indicative of illness or disease. In fish, the odor of dead or decaying conspecifics elicits robust and persistent avoidance behavior. Despite its importance, the perceptual and neural basis of this behavior is poorly understood.This dissertation focuses on a persistent nociceptive alarm state in zebrafish (Danio rerio) evoked by brief exposure to high concentrations of the polyamine, cadaverine. This product of the flesh putrefaction pathway has been well studied in the context of olfaction, with specific receptors identified in the olfactory epithelium. We found that brief exposure to cadaverine evoked a 10-15 minute-long increase in heart rate and suppression of visually-driven motor behavior. Brain-wide imaging identified persistently-active populations of neurons within the hindbrain. Additionally, cell-type specific imaging... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2wx2x70g Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Padilla, Grace Margaret https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2kh2v14n Rationale: Surveillance mammography (SM) plays a critical role in early detection of breast cancer (BC) recurrence or second primary cancers. Disparities in receipt of surveillance mammography exist among Latina breast cancer survivors (BCS). No known studies have used the Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) to evaluate or predict intentions to obtain SM among Latina BCS. Design: This cross-sectional study used the IBM to examine relationships between constructs in the IBM (attitudes, perceived norms, personal agency), psychosocial variables (fear of cancer recurrence, depressive symptoms), cultural variables (spirituality, familism), and intentions to obtain SM within the next 12 months using correlations and path analytic models (PAMs). Latina BCS (N=127, Mage = 58.7 years, SD = 10.9) were recruited through convenience sampling in the United States. Pearson correlations and PAMs examined the relationship between constructs in the IBM, psychosocial variables, cultural variables,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2kh2v14n Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gonzales, Manuel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1pt9d72z While much is known about the cognitive and linguistic changes associated with aging in hearing monolinguals and bilinguals, less is known about aging effects in deaf bimodal bilinguals who use American Sign Language (ASL) and English. This population presents unique challenges for neuropsychological testing due to a lack of appropriate assessment material, wide variability in exposure to language, and differences in educational backgrounds. This dissertation investigated aging effects in deaf ASL-English bilinguals by adapting three widely used neuropsychological tests that have shown utility for identifying Alzheimer’s disease in hearing monolinguals.Study 1 examined the effects of aging and testing language on verbal list learning, a common component of cognitive evaluations, in a group of young and older deaf ASL-English bilinguals. Younger participants showed no effect of language on recall and recalled more items than older participants in both languages. Older participants... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1pt9d72z Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Camilliere, Sadie https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1fw2d061 This dissertation challenges the dominant view of mathematical problem-solving as disembodied and abstract by examining how disabled rock climbers problem-solve across the domains of rock climbing and mathematics. Drawing on enactivism, ecological psychology, and critical disability scholarship, this qualitative study centers six disabled climbers’ experiences in constraint navigation as an epistemic resource for reimagining mathematics education. Through focus groups, semi-structured individual interviews, rock climbing observations, and task-based mathematical interviews, this study addresses three research questions: 1) What are the affordances and constraints designed into the context of the problem space for rock climbing?; 2) What are individuals' perceived similarities and differences concerning problem-solving across the domains of (a) rock climbing; (b) mathematics; and (c) their daily lives?; and 3) What are the observed similarities and differences with regard to the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1fw2d061 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hernandez, Gabriela https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vv005p0 Chronic pain, a disabling biopsychosocial condition, is increasingly addressed with cognitive behavioral interventions such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Such interventions seek to maximize physical, social, and occupational functioning by changing how one manages pain via addressing pain-related thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. The chronic pain literature is dominated by between-subject designs and self-report measures that lack ecological validity and may be subject to bias. Both pain and physical activity, a component of function, can be objectively measured in an ecologically valid way using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and accelerometry, respectively. Prior research has indicated cross-sectionally a dynamic within-person pain-physical activity relationship, but statistical analytic approaches have lacked nuance, and this relationship has not been examined in an intervention context. This dissertation addressed... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0vv005p0 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Tynan, Mara Elizabeth https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mg5c01k Rationale: Eating disorders are highly debilitating, and sometimes fatal, psychiatric conditions linked to alterations in reinforcement learning that may maintain illness and interfere with treatment. Computational psychiatry frameworks offer a novel approach for eliciting latent learning and decision-making mechanisms implicated in psychopathology and show promise for optimizing treatments. This dissertation applied computational methodology (e.g., theory-driven mathematical modeling) and neuroimaging to investigate reinforcement learning across eating disorder diagnoses, contexts, and valences to characterize their role in eating disorder phenomenology. Study 1 showed that adolescents with anorexia nervosa restricting type (AN-R; n = 36) displayed augmented habit-based reward learning compared to age-matched adolescent controls (n = 28), with higher goal-directed reward learning associated with greater orbitofrontal cortex-to-nucleus accumbens functional connectivity.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0mg5c01k Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Brown, Carina Samantha https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j03p9h9 Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) is an inducible transcription factor involved in many cellular processes, such as inflammation, innate immune responses, and cell survival. The inhibitor of NF-κB Kinase (IKK) complex is central to the induction and nuclear translocation of NF-κB. Activation of IKK catalytic activity in response to TNF-α and other canonical inducers of NF-κB requires formation of non-degradative linear polyubiquitin chains and their association with its NEMO subunit. NEMO, or NF-κB essential modulator, is a component of the IKK complex that is required for canonical activation of NF-κB. Without NEMO, the canonical pathway is disrupted and NF-κB cannot be induced to translocate into the nucleus. Past observations suggested that the IKK NEMO subunit, upon noncovalent association with linear polyubiquitin chains, mediates a second protein-protein interaction with the catalytic IKK2 subunit and “primes” the complex for kinase catalytic activity via activation loop phosphorylation.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j03p9h9 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Luong, Sally https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0bg0k8gz This study compares mental health help-seeking attitudes, perceived stress, self-esteem,body image, burnout, and overall mental well-being outcomes between scholar athletes and other students. A mixed-methods cross-sectional study collecting data from questionaries and qualitative interviews with a convenience sample of 60 undergraduate and graduate students aged 18-25. Independent samples t-tests, linear regression models, and correlation tests were performed to compare and predict the effect size of psychological scales among groups based on student status, sex, and type of sport. Qualitative interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis of how institutional, cultural, and interpersonal factors influence mental-health help- seeking among participants. Our findings found that team sport athletes were more favorable towards mental health help-seeking than their individual sport counterparts. There were also differences in personal achievement burnout and overall mental well-being... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0bg0k8gz Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Pham, Dalena T https://escholarship.org/uc/item/02m7r19b N6 -threonylcarbamoyladenosine (t6A) is a universally conserved tRNA modification found at position 37 of ANN-decoding tRNAs (N is A, U, G or C) and is essential for accurate and efficient translation. t6A37 biosynthesis occurs in two steps: synthesis of the pathway intermediate threonylcarbamoyladenylate (TC-AMP) by TsaC/TsaC2 enzymes, followed by transfer of the threonylcarbamoyl moiety onto A37 of substrate tRNAs, catalyzed in bacteria by the threonylcarbamoyl transfer (TCT) complex. Although the enzymes responsible for t6A37 biosynthesis have been identified and characterized biochemically, key mechanistic questions have remained unresolved, including how TsaC2 catalyzes TC-AMP formation and what drives substrate tRNA recognition. In this dissertation, I used X-ray crystallography, SEC-SAXS, cryo-EM, and biochemical assays to investigate t6A biosynthesis in Thermotoga maritima. In Chapter 2, I performed time- and pH-dependent soaking of TmTsaC2 crystals to capture substrate-,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/02m7r19b Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kutchuashvili, Ana https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7n09z9qt Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) is associated with aggressive tumor biology, but its role in tumor immune escape remains incompletely understood. We combined ecDNA annotations, RNA-seq data, somatic mutations, HLA presentation metrics, tumor purity estimates, and immune deconvolution results from a TCGA pan-cancer cohort. Our goal was to determine if ecDNA-positive tumors are immune-cold and to understand the mechanism behind this phenotype. Once adjusted for cancer type and tumor purity, tumors with ecDNA showed decreased cytolytic activity, a weaker CD8 signal, and reduced inferred cytotoxic immune infiltration, and these effects became more severe with higher ecDNA loads. Conversely, ecDNA-positive tumors did not reveal significant decreases in PHBR-based antigenicity metrics or strong binder fractions, which contradicts the notion of a broad loss of neoantigens. Although HLA-A and B2M showed selective decreases, the broader MHC-I transcriptional program was not coordinately suppressed.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7n09z9qt Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Iyer, Krithika https://escholarship.org/uc/item/95j6b20x In technology-mediated environments, perceptual information is filtered, transformed, or augmented, requiring observers to infer social, physical, and agentive states from perceptual evidence. I characterize this challenge as representation-reality alignment (RRA): The process through which humans coordinate perception, action, and inference to evaluate how perceptual representations correspond to underlying reality and to guide behavior accordingly. Across three chapters, I examine how children and adults interpret mediated information when perceptual input provides ambiguous or indirect evidence about the world.Chapter 1 asks how children aged 4 to 6 years infer a video chat partner’s visual access from the self-view. Children increasingly used the self-view as evidence of another person’s visual perspective with age; explicit reasoning emerged earlier than spontaneous action-based use. Chapter 2 asks how children aged 3 to 6 years judge whether perceptual features in augmented... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/95j6b20x Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Lin, Chaolan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7k2661dg Scientific applications are increasingly using neural networks (NNs) at the edge as a fundamental tool for advancing fields such as particle physics and materials science. As the scientific instruments used in these experiments become more advanced, they produce a lot more data (e.g., 40 TB/s) than before. As a result, scientists are relying on edge NNs, which have more capabilities than traditional algorithms, to process the data. To process data quickly enough, these scientific edge NNS have unique requirements. They must (1) be heavily quantized and (2) execute fully on chip. Even more so, these scientific NNs often operate in high radiation environments (1000× that of space). My thesis focuses on using hardware-software co-design to create efficient, fault-tolerant computer architectures for NNs that execute fully on chip so that they meet the strict latency and throughput requirements laid out by these scientific experiments. I defend the following thesis statement: On-chip... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7k2661dg Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Weng, Olivia https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3rs0w1cq The sixth-generation (6G) cellular ecosystem is evolving toward integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), where the same infrastructure supports both high-rate data exchange and environmental perception. Vehicular networks are among the most demanding use cases: autonomous navigation demands ultra-reliable connectivity and centimeter-level positioning accuracy, yet conventional beam training protocols incur prohibitive overhead and global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based localization fails in urban canyons. This dissertation develops a hybrid model/data-driven framework addressing these challenges through three contributions. The first introduces a passive radar-aided framework for multiuser millimeter wave (mmWave) link configuration. A roadside unit senses existing automotive frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) transmissions from multiple vehicles via a mixing filter bank with constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detection, isolating individual vehicle signals... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3rs0w1cq Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Yun https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1986x5w0 “I don’t know if you noticed, but when you perform, there’s crickets in the audience” - a professor who-shall-not-be-named once said to me at a Spring conference. Ouch. The infamous Conference Room 144. On the outside – completely unassuming serenity. On the inside - a bloodbath.The professor continued: “You ask too many questions. Stop trying to think. Stop trying to learn this.” My first thought: “Sorry, I’m not supposed to learn at an educational institution? How does that make sense?” Little did I know that precisely this piece of advice was the catalyst to my growth as an artist at UCSD. I spent most of my first year asking questions - clarifying questions, questions that asked for permission, validation, and questions that in truth were new, inventive ways for me to apologize for mistakes I hadn’t even made yet. I held onto the idea of getting it right so tightly that most of the time I actually missed the answers to those questions. But guided by the ever-so-blunt professor’s... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1986x5w0 Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Nguyen, Mai Lan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18p9h6g3 Though activist groups in the San Diego-Tijuana area have long organized for Palestinian liberation, the continuous bombardment of Gaza by Israel and its resulting humanitarian crisis in the wake of October 7, 2023, has influenced a surge in transnational advocacy actions, oftentimes evoking comparisons or connections between the U.S.-Mexico border and borders surrounding Gaza and the West Bank. Analyzing events for Palestinian liberation and/or border advocacy between October 2023 and July 2024, this thesis reimagines the application of “linked fate” through a spatially removed, transnational lens motivated by interlocking systems and mechanisms of power. I propose that border sites offer tangible and theoretical links by which geographically disconnected communities may conclude that what happens in one impacts the other, clarifying how activists in the San Diego-Tijuana borderlands at times draw “linked fate” solidarity relationships through four common narratives: Directly,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18p9h6g3 Sat, 8 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Dorais, Brandi Nikole https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8092b9f3 To address the youth mental health crisis, youth must be engaged in improvement efforts. However, there is limited research on how youth come to participate in this work and what conditions enable and constrain their efforts. In this yearlong case study, I examined a high school student-led mental health advocacy committee situated in a large urban U.S. district. Interviews (N=31), documents, and field notes were analyzed using a five-cycle inductive and deductive coding process, guided by social cognitive theory and the critical youth empowerment framework.The first research question asked what shapes students’ pathways into mental health advocacy. Findings reveal seven elements that form the preliminary Proximity-Based Model of Youth Mental Health Advocacy Development: a prosocial orientation, experience related to mental health concerns, empathic concern, disillusionment and frustration with inadequate systems, moral conviction and urgency, self-efficacy, and opportunity.The... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8092b9f3 Fri, 7 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Levine, Rebecca https://escholarship.org/uc/item/77w9v0gj Beyond compartmentalization and protection, cellular membranes are highly dynamic and specialized structures that perform molecular transport and serve as platforms for protein localization and modulation of function. The lipid composition of membranes defines their identity, material properties, interacting partners, and cellular functions. While bilayer lipids establish the dominant fluid lamellar topology, nonbilayer lipids destabilize uniform lipid packing and introduce elastic curvature stress that enables morphological changes, membrane fission and fusion, and protein interaction. Cells expend considerable energy to establish specific lipid compositions for specialized membrane compartments, and a growing body of literature has provided evidence for tight homeostatic regulation of lipid composition and biophysical properties. Through combinations of headgroups, linkages, and acyl chain chemistry, eukaryotic cells produce more than 2000 species of lipids, many of whose... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/77w9v0gj Fri, 7 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Milshteyn, Daniel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5gc98387 The local-to-global principle—the idea that global structure is determined by, or can be certified from, local constraints—appears across mathematics, theoretical computer science, and physics under different disguises. This thesis studies two manifestations of this principle: in quantum error-correcting codes, where local parity checks certify the integrity of the global encoded information, and in the entanglement bootstrap, where local reduced density matrices determine the global structure of quantum phases of matter.Part I constructs quantum low-density parity check (qLDPC) codes. We first build a family of quantum locally testable codes (qLTCs) achieving linear dimension, near-linear distance, and near-constant soundness, by generalizing square-complex qLDPC codes to higher-dimensional cubical chain complexes. We then extend the cubical construction to the sheaf cochain complexes, on which we define Poincaré duality and a cup product. Poincaré duality clarifies the duality... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5gc98387 Fri, 7 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Lin, Ting-Chun https://escholarship.org/uc/item/26t2h37b Modern energy systems are increasingly shaped by flexible demand, distributed storage, and building infrastructure. These systems generate rich data and require fast, adaptive decisions, but they are also governed by physical laws, safety constraints, and strategic behavior that are difficult to capture with generic black-box learning. This creates a disconnect between the structure-rich models used in classical energy systems analysis and the flexible learning pipelines favored in modern data-driven control. Methods that ignore known structure often suffer from poor sample efficiency, weak interpretability, and unreliable constraint handling, while purely model-based approaches struggle with hidden objectives and computational scale. The goal of this thesis is to bridge this disconnect by developing structured learning and control methods that integrate optimization, physics, and control-theoretic structure directly into trainable decision-making architectures.First, the dissertation... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/26t2h37b Fri, 7 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bian, Yuexin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/91c9h60g As antenna array apertures in the next-generation multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) wireless systems scale up, it is necessary to ensure reasonable scaling in the hardware cost and power consumption. In the past decade, a hybrid architecture was proposed which balanced the beamforming functionality across digital precoding and analog precoding with phase shifters, switches, or true time delays. This evolution from a fully digital architecture to a hybrid architecture enabled expanding the array aperture beyond the number of radio frequency chains. For next-generation cellular, to ensure scalability to even larger apertures, we propose the tri-hybrid MIMO paradigm which replaces the conventional antennas in MIMO with more capable reconfigurable antennas. This dissertation investigates two types of reconfigurable antennas, namely hybrid parasitic arrays and dynamic metasurface antennas (DMAs).In the first contribution, we use a circuit-theoretic model for parasitic arrays which... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/91c9h60g Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Deshpande, Nitish https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wt2985z The interleukin-17 (IL-17) family comprises a group of cytokines involved in host defense against pathogens, autoimmune diseases and anti-tumor immunity, making IL-17 signaling pathways promising therapeutic targets. Among the six IL-17s found in human, Interleukin-17 D (IL-17D) is the least studied. Previous work from our lab has demonstrated that IL-17D is regulated by the NRF2 pathway and contributes to tumor and virus surveillance through recruitment of natural killer cells. Compared to wild-type (WT) mice, IL-17D knockout (KO) mice exhibit reduced resistance to carcinogen-induced tumorigenesis, viral and bacterial infection, and experimental colitis.As the function of IL-17D appears to be context specific, and a recent study demonstrated IL-17D may promote atopic dermatitis development through DDX5 inhibition in keratinocytes, this dissertation explored the roles of IL-17D in the skin biology. In mouse psoriasis-like and atopic dermatitis-like skin inflammation models, IL-17D... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wt2985z Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Wang, Lu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kf2p0v2 The glacial fjords of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) are critical connectors between the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) and the global ocean—delivering freshwater from the melting ice sheet to the ocean and channeling deep, warm ocean waters back toward the ice. The GrIS has been losing mass at an accelerating rate since at least 1990 due to unabated rising global air temperatures from industrial human activities. This increasing addition of fresh glacial meltwater to the salty ocean has cascading local to global impacts. A challenge for improving projections of ice loss and ocean changes is the representation of local fjord processes in largescale models. Addressing this and improving fjord parameterizations requires coordinated, accessible, long-term datasets spanning multiple fjords and timescales—essential, also, to furthering multidisciplinary fjord ecosystem understanding. While fjord dynamics play an outsized role in determining future global sea level rise and ocean circulation... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kf2p0v2 Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Roth, Aurora https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6c8854xf This dissertation consists of three chapters in macroeconomics and finance. The first two chapters focus on how monetary policy shocks affect lending by depository institutions. The third chapter explores how conglomerates develop in Brazil.Chapter 1 revisits the commercial and industrial (C&I) loan puzzle: standard models predict bank lending should fall when interest rates rise, yet empirical results find the opposite for C&I loans. Allowing contractionary and expansionary monetary policy shocks to affect lending differently, I show the contractionary puzzle disappears: C&I lending falls as theory predicts while C&I lending still puzzlingly declines after expansionary shocks. The decline is concentrated in the top 1% of lenders, and firm-level evidence is consistent with large firms (which tend to use large banks) substituting away from C&I loans and refinancing debt with corporate bonds at the lower market rates.Chapter 2 compares credit union and commercial... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6c8854xf Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Yee, Steven https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67r7b9cr On a modular curve of arbitrary congruence level, we introduce the notion of a “Makdisi symbol”, a device that simultaneously gives a moduli-friendly coordinate system while also having an elegant Hecke theory. Concretely, these are cuspidal projections of products of two weight 1 Eisenstein series, and their study was originally pioneered by the work of Kamal Khuri-Makdisi. We show that a certain subclass of symbols, the “invertible Makdisi symbols”, yield precisely the eigenforms of rank zero; combining this with the moduli interpretation, we obtain a systematic and relatively efficient algorithm to determine the rational points on a modular curve, so long as the curve has a rank zero eigenform. The algorithm is p-adic in nature, based on the method of Chabauty-Coleman, and does not require finding any equations for the curve. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/67r7b9cr Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Xu, Christopher https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5tk886jq Computer graphics algorithms are efficient, accurate, and predictive at forward simulation. Photo-realistic images can be generated from precise physical quantities that describe the geometry of objects in the scene, their reflectance properties, and the lighting conditions. The inverse-rendering problem is to invert these algorithms and recover the scene description from the induced images, recovering the cause from the effect. This work addresses inverse rendering of scene geometry via analysis-by-synthesis. The method starts with an initial hypothesis of the geometry, renders an image, compares it with a reference, and uses the error to update the hypothesis. There are three crucial components to this approach: (a) suitable mathematical representations to describe the geometry, (b) mathematical tools and algorithms that estimate gradients for a rendering algorithm, and (c) objective functions to compare estimates with reference images. The design and analysis of these three... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5tk886jq Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Mehta, Ishit https://escholarship.org/uc/item/50491433 Quantum computing has emerged as a transformative frontier of computation. In recent years, quantum hardware has scaled at an unprecedented rate. As this momentum continues, the central challenge is shifting upward in the stack—from hardware-level feasibility toward system-level scalability. This thesis will focus on quantum computer architecture and compiler, introducing the challenges and opportunities to efficiently harness device capabilities and lower the demands on hardware technology, thereby accelerating timelines for practical quantum advantage. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/50491433 Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Zhang, Hezi https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hh707c0 Advances in high-throughput sequencing and spatial profiling technologies have enabled unprecedented characterization of tumor biology; however, most approaches interrogate tumor-intrinsic programs, the tumor microenvironment, and systemic immunity in isolation, limiting mechanistic understanding of therapeutic response. In this dissertation, we develop an integrative, multi-scale framework to define tumor ecosystem states that capture the coordinated interactions between malignant cells, stromal compartments, and immune populations across molecular, spatial, and systemic levels. Using bulk RNA sequencing of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumors, we identify three reproducible tumor ecosystem states (subtypes) defined by distinct combinations of epithelial, immune, and stromal programs. These subtypes are associated with differential survival outcomes and are governed by subtype-specific regulatory networks, including interferon-driven immune activation, stromal fibrosis... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hh707c0 Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mesrizadeh, zahra https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3n48v781 Understanding physiological flows is essential to the advancement of medical science. This dissertation investigates two physiologically relevant flow problems and their applications through a combination of theoretical modeling and experimental analysis. The first investigation concerns cerebrospinal-fluid flow in the central nervous system, with particular emphasis on the in vitro experimental characterization of the slow fluid-particle drift induced by cardiac-driven motion in the spinal canal. The study shows that Time-Spatial Labeling Inversion Pulse (Time-SLIP), a non-contrast MRI technique, can be used to measure mean Lagrangian drift in a simplified phantom. It also identifies potential limitations associated with signal quality, spatial resolution, and post-processing methodology, which may complicate future clinical applications of the method. The second topic concerns blood flow in the main pulmonary artery. This problem is first addressed through the development of... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3n48v781 Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Campos, Obed Armando https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3dd44049 This dissertation consists of three chapters examining the design and impacts of safety net programs in the United States. Chapter 1 examines how access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has affected the health and economic outcomes of low-income families in the modern era. Exploiting state-level expansions under Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE)—one of the largest SNAP reforms since the 2000s—I use a difference-in-differences design with multiple large-scale data sources on program usage and population health. The expansion increased SNAP participation and generated spillovers to Medicaid and WIC enrollment. Increased resources improved food security and health care utilization. Although short-term health gains are modest, they are more pronounced among non-White populations, including reductions in low birth weight and obesity. Notably, I find no significant effects on employment status and only a slight decline in hours worked. These findings... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3dd44049 Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Shin, Jaeyeon https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2z0390w5 A variety of renewable energy sources are needed to support the modern electrical grid. Lithium metal batteries and fuel cells are high-energy-density, high-power technologies that are needed to meet the demand for immediate power delivery, such as electrified vehicles or portable electronics. The lifetime and power output of these technologies can be improved via the efficient usage of their material components. This dissertation investigates the mechanisms and morphologies of metal plating and stripping inside two relevant clean energy technologies. Firstly, the conformal plating of a Ni/P alloy on a high-aspect ratio porous oxide substrate was studied for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The fabrication of a porous conductive interface improves the power output of thin-film SOFCs. Secondly, the effect of low temperature on the stripping of lithium metal anodes was studied. Improved homogeneity of the stripped interface and the spontaneous formation of faceted crystals under... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2z0390w5 Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hopkins, Emma https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0tn784q0 This dissertation examines the experiences of myself and other academic laborers in dialogue with the experiences of our families that labored within the immigrant agricultural economy. This research is particularly timely with the gutting of Diversity Equity, and Inclusion programs across industries and institutions, alongside the exploitative racialized labor that has existed before, during and after. This dissertation uses an intergenerational examination of labor to reflect on how to navigate this current moment in the higher education. Building off previous research, my multi-disciplinary dissertation engages with the history of farmwork and academic labor through the frameworks of critical race theory and labor studies from the theoretical vantage of everyday life. This is put in dialectic with the results of an ongoing neo-liberalization of the University. “Afterlives” emerges as a key concept to track the ongoing salience of the lived and affective experiences of the farmworkers... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0tn784q0 Thu, 6 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hernandez, Keven https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9bb404b2 An orbit equivalence between two free p.m.p. actions of countable groups is Shannonif the partition generated by the associated cocycles have finite Shannon entropy. The main result of this dissertation is that if one of the groups is finitely generated, amenable and non- virtually-cyclic, or has a w-normal subgroup that is infinite and non-virtually-cyclic, or has an amenable quotient that is infinite and non-virtually-cyclic and the action factors onto an action of the quotient, then the two actions have the same Rokhlin entropy. This extends a result of Austin and results of Kerr and Li to the Rokhlin entropy setting. The proof uses a new notion of dissipable orbit equivalence, witch is a symmetric condition that yields the equality of entropy. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9bb404b2 Wed, 5 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Qingyuan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9b00s7jz Renormalization group (RG) fixed points are a particular class of systems that govern the universal properties of phases and phase transitions of many-body systems. States at RG fixed points usually have simple local entanglement properties from which one can derive (i.e. entanglement-bootstrap) the universal structural properties of phases and critical points. This dissertation collects a series of works on 2+1D chiral gapped phases within the Entanglement Bootstrap formalism. One long-term goal is to establish an operator bulk/edge correspondence from entanglement, thereby connecting the operator algebras of bulk chiral gapped systems with those of edge conformal field theories (CFTs). Moreover, a local entanglement property that is commonly shared by a family of fixed points can be used as a condition to enumerate all such fixed points. This dissertation includes one work in this direction, where we attempt to enumerate all 1+1D CFTs in a small Hilbert space. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9b00s7jz Wed, 5 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Li, Xiang https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8nt9d39q The academia-industry gap is a longstanding divide between the expectations of early-career software developers and students' ability to meet those expectations upon graduating from an undergraduate CS program. This gap persists due to stark differences between university coursework and professional development: software developers contribute to large, existing code bases while students create projects from scratch. As professional developers increasingly adopt GenAI tools, this gap is only widening. To address this gap, this dissertation focuses on the programming processes students use to create software. The first part of this dissertation contributes to our understanding of students’ programming processes. I’ll uncover how students engage in incremental development for small projects, program comprehension in large code bases, and AI collaboration for software development tasks. The second part of this dissertation demonstrates that by measuring these processes, we can... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8nt9d39q Wed, 5 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Shah, Anshul