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Job Attitudes of Full-Time Teaching Faculty: A Qualitative Exploration of Professional Self-Concept, Psychological Contract, and Workplace Justice Perceptions
No full textA growing proportion of American higher-education faculty are ineligible for tenure, hired through term-limited contracts (Drake et al., 2019). These work arrangements provide universities the ability to grow or shrink their faculty workforce in response to shifting institutional priorities and student enrollment (GAO, 2017; Kezar, 2013). These work arrangements are particularly common in teaching-focused faculty positions (Baldwin & Chronister, 2001); recent estimates suggest 61% of teaching faculty at four-year institutions are hired on term-limited contracts (e.g., one-to-five year contracts; GAO, 2017). Teaching faculty may receive successive term-limited contracts, creating a career-long relationship with an institution. Although the growth of this role at four-year universities is well-documented, less is known about how these work arrangements impact the psychological experiences of these organizationally embedded teaching faculty. Building on prior quantitative findings (Quenemoen et al., 2023), the qualitative study applied an abductive model (Timmermans & Tavory, 2012) to explore the experiences and perceptions that shape teaching faculty’s job attitudes and behaviors. Semi-structured interviews with 22 full-time teaching faculty explored participants’ professional self-concept (Beach & Mitchell, 1987; Lee & Mitchell, 1994), psychological contract (Rousseau, 1989), and justice beliefs (Colquitt et al., 2001). Findings, including the role of job crafting (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001) in reducing participants’ perceptions of job insecurity, the psychological effects of ambiguous policies and performance standards, and teaching faculty’s responses to experiences of injustice and psychological contract breach are discussed
Interfacing the brain: high-channel-count neural recording and minimally invasive brain stimulation ASICs
No full textThe brain's complexity governs our interactions with the world, and unraveling its mysteries could transform the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders, which pose a significant health challenge. Specialized tools, particularly neural interfaces, are crucial in this pursuit. These interfaces act as communication pathways between the brain and external devices.
My research addresses two critical areas: high-channel-count neural recording and minimally invasive neural stimulation. In the realm of neural recording, current technologies face challenges in scalability, limiting the number of neurons that can be recorded simultaneously. This limitation hinders our ability to fully understand the brain's complex communication networks. My work focuses on developing advanced recording systems capable of capturing the activity of a larger number of neurons concurrently.
On the stimulation side, traditional electrical methods raise concerns about long-term safety due to the electrode-tissue interface. While non-invasive techniques such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) offer an alternative, they suffer from limitations in precision and hardware bulkiness. My research aims to develop minimally invasive stimulation techniques that mitigate these issues, offering safer and more precise methods to modulate brain activity.
By addressing these two critical challenges, my work strives to push the boundaries of neural interfacing, bringing us closer to a deeper understanding of brain function and its potential therapeutic applications
5.4 Letter to our relatives, ancestors, and future generations: A call to establish Indigenous Biotechnology
Get PDFThis entreaty was created as part of The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology summit (February 23-26, 2025) in Pacific Grove, CA.At the 50th anniversary of the Asilomar Summit, the Indigenous Biotechnology Working Group share this letter as a collective call to establish Indigenous Biotechnology as a distinct and self-determined field. Grounded in Indigenous Knowledge Systems, this emerging field reimagines biotechnology through the values of reciprocity, sovereignty, stewardship, and kinship with all life. In response to centuries of extractive science and ongoing colonialism, Indigenous Biotechnology centers the rights of Peoples and the rights of Nature in the design, governance, and development of biotechnology. This letter highlights foundations of the field, calls for global alliances, and invites to build the Principles of Indigenous Biotechnology by 2026. We write to our ancestors, relatives, and future generations to shape a future in which biotechnology safeguards the biodiversity, cultures, and Peoples that sustain our scientific innovations
Empirical Studies of Auctions: Risk and Dynamics
No full textThis dissertation explores bidder behavior and price formation in auction markets through two empirical essays, with a focus on risk aversion and learning dynamics. The first chapter investigates Credit Default Swap (CDS) auctions, which consistently yield different bond recovery prices than those observed in the OTC market. I develop a structural econometric model of multi-unit auctions with risk-averse bidders to explain this discrepancy. Using detailed data from ISDA Determination Committee documents and TRACE bond prices, I estimate bidder valuations and quantify the role of risk aversion in driving auction outcomes. The second chapter examines dynamic auction environments where bidders interact repeatedly and learn over time. I employ a reinforcement learning framework, specifically Q-learning, to model boundedly rational bidding strategies. Simulated behavior is compared to equilibrium benchmarks, offering insight into how learning-based agents adapt in complex auction settings. This approach captures behavioral regularities that standard models often overlook
Flexible Bayesian models for varying-effects regression
No full textIn this thesis, we develop Bayesian methods for structured data modeling with applications in brain connectivity and microbiome research. We first introduce a Bayesian vector autoregressive model to estimate group-specific directed brain connectivity networks while incorporating covariate effects through a novel nonparametric prior. This approach improves estimation and reveals differences in connectivity patterns across individuals with traumatic brain injury. Next, we propose a Bayesian regression framework that selects relevant predictors and covariates while leveraging network dependencies among features. This method enhances predictive accuracy and is applied to microbiome data to identify taxa associated with obesity. Finally, we extend varying-coefficient models to longitudinal microbiome data, allowing predictor effects to evolve over time and covariate values. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods through simulations and real-world biomedical applications
PARQ: A Deep Learning Based Approach for Automatic Assessment of Motor Disease Severity in Parkinson’s Disease
No full textParkinson’s Disease (PD) is the fastest growing neurodegenerative disease and severely impacts motor function (tremors, rigidity, bradykinesia), projected to grow to 20 million cases globally. Clinical evaluations involve visual examination of movement phenomenology to rate motor severity using the Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS part III). However, each independent rating of motor tasks is susceptible to rater experience, time constraints, and inter-rater variability, impacting diagnostic accuracy and care outcomes. With limited access to specialized PD centers and the inherent subjectivity of clinical ratings, there is a critical need to improve consistency and accessibility in PD severity assessment.
We propose PARQ, a deep learning based approach to automatically quantify PD motor disease severity. Our end-to-end pipeline takes videos from in-clinic MDS-UPDRS assessments and predicts the typical rater distribution using mean and standard deviation, learned from an expert group of raters. To that end, we demonstrate our approach on a pilot clinical study to show that PARQ can accurately and reliably assess PD motor disease severity across all visually rated motor tasks
Reparative Landscapes: Reclaiming the Spatial Logics of Salmon in Divided Lands
No full textReparative Landscapes: Reclaiming the Spatial Logics of Salmon in Divided Lands, explores the present, fractured relationships between the Pacific Chinook salmon and the Nooksack River watershed. Following the salmon’s life cycle, this work engages with the historic and ongoing alterations to these landscapes at the hands of colonial and capitalist extraction and the relentless imposition of political and property boundaries. Salmon, which have co-evolved with the region over millennia, are emblematic of resilience and reciprocal relationships that span these divided lands. These salmon are nearly extinct. Drawing upon the guidance of Indigenous leadership and models of stewardship, this thesis proposes a reparative approach that reclaims salmon’s cyclical, transectional relationship with the land. Three sites—natal waters, migratory paths, and the estuary—explore interventions focused on restoring vital habitats and dismantling boundary logics that severed our relations to the land. The proposed interventions restore riparian buffers and spawning beds, construct wetlands, and monitor and slow sea level rise while engaging local communities, ecologists, landowners, and others determined to bring back the salmon. They utilize time as a tool of design, participating in a slow, deliberate undoing of colonial logics—fostering a future where the salmon return, the land regrows, and stewardship is recentered
5.3 Broadening Science Education within Existing Structures
No full textThis entreaty was created as part of The Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology summit (February 23-26, 2025) in Pacific Grove, CA.The social, ethical, and political problems we are facing are not merely an interdisciplinary exercise, but a fundamental component of biotechnology. Scientists are increasingly needed to also act in roles as policy advisors, advocates, participants in diverse conversations, and active community members. Expanding science education to meaningfully incorporate the knowledge and skills needed to effectively engage in these roles is necessary. This entreaty serves as a concrete, non-exhaustive list of some examples, resources, evaluations, and ideas for implementing interdisciplinary learning and equity-minded science into existing science education structures. This document includes five categories of educational structures with an introduction, examples, pros, cons, and ideas to expand for each category. We hope it acts as a resource for people to begin implementing interdisciplinary education at their own institutions
After Mies: A Machine for Generating Urbanism
No full textA sixth extension to the Caroline Wiess Law Building at the MFAH. This building focuses on the renewal and regeneration of the museum campus' public qualities
Cathode‐Electrolyte Interphase Engineering toward Fast‐Charging LiFePO4 Cathodes by Flash Carbon Coating
Get PDFLithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, LFP) batteries are widely used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems due to their excellent cycling stability, affordability, and safety. However, the rate performance of LFP remains limited due to its low intrinsic electronic and ionic conductivities. In this work, we developed an ex situ flash carbon coating method to enhance the interfacial properties for fast charging. A continuous, amorphous carbon layer was achieved by rapidly decomposing the precursors and depositing carbon species in a confined space within 10 seconds. Simultaneously, different heteroatoms can be introduced into the surface carbon matrix, which regulates the irregular growth of cathode-electrolyte interphase (CEI) and selectively facilitates the inorganic region formation. The inorganic-rich, hybrid conductive CEI not only promotes electron and ion transport but also restricts parasitic side reactions. Consequently, LFP cathodes with fluorinated carbon coatings exhibited the highest capacity of 151 mAh g-1 at 0.2 C and 96 mAh g-1 at 10 C, indicating their excellent rate capability over commercial LFP (58 mAh g-1 at 10 C). This solvent-free, versatile surface modification is shown for other electrode materials, providing an efficient platform for electrode-electrolyte interphase engineering through a surface post-treatment