University of Massachusetts Boston
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Intercontinental Variation In Population Genetics And Life-History Traits In Native And Invasive Populations Of The Aquatic Plants Myriophyllum Spicatum And Myriophyllum Sibiricum
No full textBiological invasions pose significant threats to freshwater ecosystems worldwide, and understanding their evolutionary, genetic, and biogeographic drivers is essential for effective management. My dissertation integrates microsatellite and ITS rDNA data to examine the dynamics of both invasive and native populations of two closely related aquatic plant species, Myriophyllum spicatum (Eurasian watermilfoil) and M. sibiricum (Northern watermilfoil).
Myriophyllum spicatum is native to Eurasia, where it inhabits a variety of freshwater aquatic habitats. Since its introduction to North America in the mid-20th century, it has become highly invasive, forming dense underwater mats that outcompete native vegetation, reduce biodiversity, and degrade water quality. By contrast, M. sibiricum is native to northern regions of both Asia and North America, where it maintains stable populations largely confined to its historical habitats.
By studying patterns of hybridization, reproductive strategies, and global genetic diversity, my thesis advances our understanding of how widespread aquatic plants evolve, disperse, and invade. It also offers a foundation for predicting and managing their future impacts
Towards Computational Methods in Medical Data Analysis: From Speech and Text to Imaging
No full textEarly detection of cognitive decline and efficient medical image analysis remain critical challenges in healthcare. Traditional clinical assessments are infrequent and resource-intensive, while everyday speech data and unlabeled medical images remain largely unexploited. This dissertation develops computational methods integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence across speech, text, and imaging modalities to address challenges in medical data processing. For cognitive monitoring, this work first introduces methods using voice assistant systems to collect longitudinal speech data in home environments, demonstrating that incorporating historical session patterns significantly enhances detection of mild cognitive impairment. Building on this foundation, a framework combining large language model-driven prompt refinement with multimodal fusion extends the approach to unstructured daily voice commands, where automatically extracted linguistic features align with established cognitive markers such as word-finding difficulties and reduced coherence. To further improve generalizability across diverse populations, supervised contrastive learning combined with Product of Experts fusion addresses picture variability and achieves robust performance across languages and demographic subgroups. Beyond speech analysis, this dissertation also addresses medical imaging challenges through an open-source application using self-supervised learning with modified lesion detection filtering, enabling accurate content-based image retrieval without extensive manual annotations. Together, these contributions demonstrate that passive speech monitoring can detect cognitive changes with clinical relevance and that self-supervised approaches effectively address label scarcity in medical imaging, advancing computational methods for handling diverse biomedical data in clinical settings
Empowering Youth in a Changing Climate: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Salt Marsh Summer Science Program
No full textClimate change presents not only environmental challenges but also emotional challenges for today’s youth. This thesis documents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a field-based summer science program aimed at empowering adolescents with coastal salt marsh ecology while addressing climate change emotions and science identity development. The program, based in a Massachusetts salt marsh, was adapted from existing public environmental curricula and guided by place- and experience-based learning principles. Over Spring and Summer 2025, 13 students (ages 13-18) participated in extra-curricular field trips, hands-on research activities, and reflective discussions about the environment and the emotions it brings forth. Pre- and post-program surveys measured content knowledge, environmental attitudes, climate change anxiety, and sense of agency, using multiple choice, true/false, Likert scale, and open-ended questions. Quantitative results showed modest gains in salt marsh knowledge, yet mixed degrees of self-reported science skills confidence, as well as mixed degrees of personal and community agency levels regarding climate action. Climate-related anxiety levels were persistent, as many students continued to express their worries regarding the future. Due to the small sample (n=13) and low statistical power, pre/post differences were not statistically significant, and thus emphasis was placed on qualitative insights. Thematic analysis of open-ended responses revealed that some students valued the immersive field experience, while others did not particularly enjoy the labor of field work. Most students did not feel very hopeful about the future of climate change both before and after program participation, yet some expressed faith in humanity’s ability to adapt. Students highlighted the hands-on work, connections with local fauna, and learning about climate solutions as factors that strengthened their positive feelings towards science and nature. This study concludes that providing a hands-on, skill-building, student-led environmental science program can positively influence youth outcomes, but that the development of varying program options has the potential to connect with much of today’s youth as represented by the 13 study participants. Lessons learned include the importance of multi-faceted program design (fieldwork, mentorship, reflection) and the need for supportive spaces where young people’s climate-related emotions are acknowledged and addressed. This project demonstrates a model for place-based, climate change education that aims to empower rather than overwhelm, though further research with larger samples, longer studies, and individual participant follow-up is required to provide statistically robust results
Latinos in Massachusetts Selected Areas: Webster
No full textEstablished in 1989, the Massachusetts Legislature created the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy in response to a need for an improved understanding of the Latino experience in the commonwealth. Now in its 34th year, the Gastón Institute continues its mission of informing the public and policymakers about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and providing information and analysis necessary for effective Latino participation in public policy development. To learn more about the Gastón Institute, visit: www.umb.edu/gastoninstitut
Daily Life Therapy: Daily Living Skills Training (Handwashing, Brushing Teeth, and Getting Dressed) for Parents of Autistic Children
No full textThe Boston Higashi School founded by Dr. Kiyo Kitahara in 1987 has been utilizing Daily Life Therapy to teach residential autistic children daily living skills. Parents, whose children attend the Boston Higashi school just in the day program, have expressed challenges in teaching daily living skills when their children are home and have asked for strategies to carry over what is being taught at school into their home. Utilizing the tenets of “Kimochi Zukuri,” to prepare the child’s mind for a task, the training proposed with this project is to bridge the gap in teaching daily living skills from Boston Higashi School to the child’s home
Anchoring Group Modulation and Host-Guest Chemistry in β -Cyclodextrin-Coated EGaIn Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery
No full textLiquid metal nanoparticles have emerged as a new class of functional nanomaterials offering a combination of metallic conductivity, fluidity, and surface reactivity. Among them, eutectic gallium–indium (EGaIn) nanoparticles are particularly attractive due to their liquid‐core and oxide‐shell structure, which permits surface modification and integration with organic ligands. The thin gallium oxide shell formed spontaneously on EGaIn serves as a versatile platform for chemical anchoring, enabling the construction of hybrid nanostructures for biomedical applications, especially drug delivery. This dissertation explores how the chemical nature of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) derivatives, differing in their anchoring functionalities, governs the interfacial chemistry, structural properties, and host-guest behavior of EGaIn nanoparticles.
To bridge molecular inclusion chemistry and nanoparticle surface engineering, β-CD derivatives bearing amino, phosphate, carboxylate, and thiol groups were employed to functionalize EGaIn nanoparticles. The systematic comparison revealed how each anchoring group uniquely influences particle morphology, oxide‐layer structure, and mechanical rigidity. These nanoparticles were further evaluated for their ability to encapsulate a model hydrophobic guest, Coumarin 460, revealing that variations in loading efficiencies are intrinsically linked to the inclusion strength and accessibility of the β-CD cavity. Complementary spectroscopic investigations of the free cyclodextrin derivatives established the mechanistic basis for inclusion—deep inclusion for carboxylate β-CD, partial inclusion for phosphorylated β-CD, weak interaction for aminated β-CD, and external association for thiolate β-CD.
Through integrating insights from both nanoscale and molecular analyses, this work demonstrates how anchoring group chemistry simultaneously controls the inorganic–organic interface and the molecular recognition ability of the coating. Carboxylate β-cyclodextrin achieves the best compromise, forming EGaIn nanoparticles that are morphologically stable, mechanically robust, and capable of deep molecular encapsulation. Amino β-cyclodextrin provides structural stability but limited functionality, phosphate anchoring offers strong attachment but partial accessibility, and thiol anchoring grants transient binding unsuitable for aqueous stability.
Overall, this dissertation establishes a unifying framework that connects coordination chemistry, oxide layer structure, and host–guest interactions in liquid metal hybrid nanoparticles. The findings not only elucidate how functional group chemistry shapes both stability and inclusion capability but also pave the way for designing tunable, biocompatible EGaIn-based nanoplatforms for future applications in targeted and responsive drug delivery
The Implementation of an International Treaty Across a Small Island Developing State: The United Nations Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) in Cabo Verde
No full textThe UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979. To date, it is the most comprehensive international treaty for women’s rights. Cabo Verde, a small island developing state located off the west coast of Africa, ratified CEDAW in 1980. As an archipelago, Cabo Verde serves as a unique case study for treaty implementation, particularly, as literature on small island developing states has established that these states face unique challenges when it comes to implementation of laws, policy, and to governance overall, all of which heavily intersect with the processes required for full realization of an international treaty.
The literature also articulates that these challenges often derive from small island developing states having centralized governments, geographic divides, limited resources and unequal distribution of those resources. This case study therefore sets out to explore Cabo Verde’s efforts to implement CEDAW across the archipelago. This study narrows analysis to specific criteria to measure CEDAW implementation such as legislative reform, CEDAW dissemination and the status and work of the gender machinery.
Ultimately, analysis of findings indicates that there are indeed unique challenges to CEDAW implementation that can be linked directly to the particularities of Cabo Verde’s context as a small island developing state. Some challenges are associated more so with the economic/development aspect of Cabo Verde’s context, such as limited resources, which has far-reaching impact for government sectors and programs that aim to target and eradicate discrimination against women. Other challenges to CEDAW implementation can be tied to the geographic context of Cabo Verde, wherein land divisions create real barriers to access, transportation, free movement and opportunities for women. However, these challenges are juxtaposed alongside notable advances that Cabo Verde has made to implement CEDAW and end the various forms of discrimination against women
Alloy Anodes for Rechargeable Calcium Ion Batteries
No full textRechargeable multivalent ion batteries represent an exciting new category of energy storage devices poised to achieve low cost alternatives in contrast to the current state-of-the-art lithium ion technologies. Calcium ion batteries (CIB) are of key interest owing to their high theoretical energy density, natural abundance, and low cost. However, the development of rechargeable CIB has been hindered by challenges of calcium ion’s diffusion kinetics and the reactivity of metallic calcium towards conventional non-aqueous electrolytes. To unlock calcium’s potential to provide high voltage and capacity, circumventing the rapid passivation of the calcium metal anode is necessary. This thesis investigates alloy candidates for Ca.
This work is motivated by two primary considerations: (1) Ca alloys create an intermetallic compound that can better facilitates reversible Ca exchange upon charge and discharge on the anode side; (2) the Ca alloy process helps reduce the energy barriers for Ca ion exchange and thus improves the possible stability at the anode. This thesis collectively advances the fundamental understanding of Ca-based alloy systems through detailed investigations of the electrochemical alloying processes in indium and silver materials, identified as promising candidates for calcium-ion storage. The findings reveal key electrochemical and interfacial limitations that are crucial for guiding the rational design and further development of next-generation, high-performance calcium-ion batteries (CIBs)
Representation Of Asian Communities Within American Museums: A Comparative Case Study Of The National Museum Of Asian Art, Wing Luke Museum, And Museum Of Chinese In America
No full textMuseums play a critical role in preserving and sharing the collective history, culture and advancements of humanity. In today\u27s digital age, they are not just repositories of artifacts but also platforms that inspire creativity, critical thinking, and innovation, while embracing multicultural inclusivity. As institutions that have a significant education role, museums help bridge the gap between past and present, offering communities a space to engage with diverse histories. In the context of Asian cultural museums across the United States, however, a troubling pattern of misrepresentation persists. This study critically examines three prominent Asian cultural museums- the National Museum of Asian Art, the Wing Luke Museum of Asian Pacific American Experiences, and the Museum of Chinese in America- highlighting their successes and failures in representing authentic Asian American voices, stories and artistry. The research aims to show how these museums confront issues of cultural stereotypes, misrepresentation, and appropriation and how they engage with the communities they represent.
Through an analysis of how the museums are organized, the diversity in their collections, and of their staffing and community outreach, this study reveals several underlying problems with Asian American representation in these museums, particularly the limited inclusion of contemporary art and artists. Despite a growing number of Asian American visitors, disparities in the representation of Asian artists in these major museums suggests a significant gap in visibility. This research will explore how factors like museum size, budget, and location, influence representation practices, emphasizing the importance of inclusive and accurate portrayals. By examining key elements- what is displayed, how museums engage with their communities, and who makes the decisions behind the scenes- this study offers insights into how these museums can evolve to contribute to a more empathetic and accurate understanding of Asian American culture and history