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AI-Driven Judgments: Visualizing Occupational Stereotypes from Facial Features
Get PDFPhysical appearance, particularly facial attractiveness, plays a significant but context- sensitive role in workplace evaluations. While the “what is beautiful is good” stereotype suggests a universal beauty premium effect in organizational settings, recent research has shown that additional facial traits, such as trustworthiness, competence, gender, and age, also shape judgments, and their effects vary by occupational context. This study inves- tigates how both appearance- and competence-based visual traits influence perceived job suitability across client-facing and back-office roles in two industries: finance and retail. A total of 376 participants rated 817 hyper-realistic synthetic faces, generated using Style- GAN2, on their suitability for four roles: Financial Advisor, Risk Analyst, Retail Sales Associate, and Inventory Manager. Predictive models trained on these ratings were used to estimate trait scores of perceived job suitability and facial traits for novel faces and ana- lyze their associations. The client-facing Retail Sales Associate role was strongly associated with attractiveness-based traits, while both back-office roles and the client-facing Financial Advisor prioritized competence-based traits, with appearance-based traits showing weaker or negative correlations. These findings suggest that the influence of facial traits on per- ceived job suitability depends more on the industry context than on whether a role involves client-facing interactions. The findings challenge the notion of a uniform beauty premium and emphasizes the need for bias-conscious hiring practices and theoretical frameworks that account for contextual variability in impression formation
Outdated by Design: Reimagining Schools for Real-World Skills
Get PDFThe last major overhaul of the U.S. education system came in the late 19th-century, when the Committee of Ten called for a standardized curriculum segmented by age, ability, and subject. While this model was suitable for the needs of the industrial era, today’s world demands the ability to problem-solve, adapt to new contexts, and work in teams. This shift in skills is compounded by a startling socio-emotional skill gap fueled by the chronic stress associated with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). I examine literature on the skills children need to develop and visit schools with transformative skill-building practices already underway. I call for a fundamental shift in the landscape of education models from the content-rooted curriculum of the 20th century to the skills-driven pedagogy necessary for the educational, economic, and personal flourishing of the 21st century
"I no Black, I Dominican": The Collision of Whiteness and Birthright Citizenship on the Island of Hispaniola
Get PDFThis paper will analyze the ways in which the racialization of birthright citizenship in the Dominican Republic targets the existence of Dominican-born ethnic Haitians, effectively dismantling birthright citizenship in the nation with systemic efforts to ‘whiten’ the country, leading to both physical genocide and what has been coined as civil genocide. My theoretical intervention will be based on the construction of the better colonized complex which investigates the role of Fanon’s theory of internalization of white hegemonic structures during imperial rule on the Island of Hispaniola and the reproduction of these racial hierarchies as analyzed through Gani’s theory of transferal. Coupled with the institutional desire for a mestizo majority nation in the reimagined racial triangulations of the Dominican Republic, whiteness, as a socially constructed phenomenon, will be cast as the civil and modern foil to the villainized, Black and Haitian Other. The evidence I will use to support this paper will be based on historical contextualization of the imperial conquest of Hispaniola, a case study of the Trujillato regime, and a legislative analysis of the progression of racialized legal processes that has manifested in the denationalization and massive statelessness of ethnic Haitians in the Dominican Republic
Swipe Left, or Right? Decoding Generative AI's Believable Social Behavior and Decision-Making in a Simulated Dating App
Get PDFDating apps shape romantic opportunities but remain inaccessible to researchers due to commercial secrecy and privacy concerns. We developed an alternative approach using authentic user profiles and Large Language Model agents,powered by GPT-4o to simulate dating decisions in a controlled environment. These agents engaged in 80,000+ simulated interactions, generating both choices and explanations for their preferences. Our supervised machine learning analysis (regression models, decision trees) and unsupervised semantic clustering revealed consistent patterns: education emerged as the dominant predictor of dating desirability across demographic groups. Gender differences were particularly pronounced in evaluation hierarchies—female agents prioritized income in male profiles, while male agents emphasized age when assessing females. Control experiments demonstrated high behavioral fidelity, with agents consistently acting according to their assigned demographic attributes and producing reasoning patterns that closely mirror documented human mate selection criteria. This methodology offers a transparent believable method for studying bias patterns in social decision making typically hidden behind proprietary algorithms
Mapping Informality and Violence: Machine Learning Insights into Crime Patterns Across South African Police Jurisdictions
Get PDFThis study examines the relationship between neighborhood informality and crime rates in South Africa, where rapid urbanization has led to criminal organizations stepping in to provide services within some of these settlements. Applying K-means clustering and Local Moran’s I analysis to 1,164 police jurisdictions, we observe that the cluster with the highest level of informality also exhibited the lowest crime rates. Furthermore, in clusters representing moderately dense urban areas, linear regression reveals a statistically significant negative correlation between levels of informality and crime rates. Machine learning models, including KNN and random forest, show that crime can be predicted with low MSE, with k-complexity emerging as a key feature. Finally, a longitudinal case study on crime and growth data offers further insight into potential causal relationships, though the results are not statistically significant. These findings have implications for urban governance and public safety policies in developing countries
This Language Is Mine: US College Students Navigating Contradictions of “Mother Tongue” and Heritage Language
Get PDFIn this essay, I draw on both autoethnography and ethnographic research among college students studying their Heritage Language (HL)—or Heritage Language Learners (HLLs)—at a US university. I explore the felt contradictions and tensions that get voiced when attempting to navigate the uneasy relationship between two terms: “mother tongue” and HL when invoked either together or separately. While both terms can refer to the same language, the choice of one term over the other is used to emphasize different orientations. Whereas “mother tongue” is rooted in notions of kinship, HL constructs a relationship to the language that is largely external to a familial domain. As I suggest here, this distinction is made and collapses situationally as I and my research collaborators attempt to use them to explain the relationships among language and kinship, literacy, and religion. En este ensayo, me baso tanto en autoetnografía como en investigación etnográfica entre estudiantes universitarios analizando su lenguaje de herencia –o estudiantes de lenguajes de herencia (HLLs)– en una universidad estadounidense. Exploro las contradicciones y tensiones sentidas que se hacen oír cuando se intenta navegar las relaciones no fáciles entre dos términos: “lengua madre” y lenguaje de herencia cuando se invocan conjunta o separadamente. Mientras ambos términos se pueden referir al mismo lenguaje, la elección de un término sobre el otro es usado para enfatizar diferentes orientaciones. En tanto que la “lengua madre” está enraizada en nociones de parentesco, el lenguaje de herencia construye una relación con la lengua que es largamente externa al dominio familiar. Como sugiero aquí, esta distinción es hecha y colapsa situacionalmente como mis colaboradores en la investigación y yo intentamos usarlas para explicar las relaciones entre lenguaje y parentesco, alfabetismo y religión.</p
The nisin O cluster: Species dissemination, candidate leader peptide proteases and the role of regulatory systems Open Access
Get PDFNisin O is an antimicrobial peptide encoded by the human gut bacterium Blautia obeum A2-162 which has antimicrobial activity against clinically relevant organisms. The nisin O biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) varies from other nisin BGCs as it lacks a leader-peptide cleaving protease and contains two bacterial two-component response regulator–histidine kinase (RK) systems. The dissemination of the nisin O cluster, the final proteolytic biosynthesis step and the regulation of nisin O are currently unknown and are the foci of this study. We identified six nisin O-like BGCs across Blautia, Dorea and Ruminococcus species using comparative genomics. These BGCs show evidence of genetic transfer between genera, with genes involved in transposition discovered up- and downstream of the BGCs. All nisin O-like BGCs contained two RK systems but no protease. Mining the B. obeum A2-162 genome identified candidate proteases that were cloned and used in pre-nisin O leader peptide cleavage assays. None of the candidate proteases removed the leader; however, cleavage was achieved using trypsin. To maximize the expression of the nsoA1-4 peptides, the interactions of the two RK systems with predicted promoters in the nisin O cluster were assessed using a PepI reporter assay. We observed that the PnsoR2K2 promoter was constitutively expressed, with NsoR1K1 increasing its activity, and that there was increased nsoA1-4 expression when the nisin A RK system and nisin A were present. Long-read cDNA sequencing confirmed nso gene transcription in the heterologous expression system and identified a novel, highly expressed gene. This study provides evidence that the nisin O BGC has been transferred between different gut-associated genera, with all clusters lacking a protease and containing two RK systems. We hypothesize that this BGC has lost its protease due to negative selection as a result of high trypsin concentrations in the gut. Further work is required to maximize nisin O expression for it to be used as a potential antimicrobial therapy
Dense, continuous membrane labeling and expansion microscopy visualization of ultrastructure in tissues
Get PDFLipid membranes are key to the nanoscale compartmentalization of biological systems, but fluorescent visualization of them in intact tissues, with nanoscale precision, is challenging to do with high labeling density. Here, we report ultrastructural membrane expansion microscopy (umExM), which combines an innovative membrane label and optimized expansion microscopy protocol, to support dense labeling of membranes in tissues for nanoscale visualization. We validate the high signal-to-background ratio, and uniformity and continuity, of umExM membrane labeling in brain slices, which supports the imaging of membranes and proteins at a resolution of ~60 nm on a confocal microscope. We demonstrate the utility of umExM for the segmentation and tracing of neuronal processes, such as axons, in mouse brain tissue. Combining umExM with optical fluctuation imaging, or iterating the expansion process, yields ~35 nm resolution imaging, pointing towards the potential for electron microscopy resolution visualization of brain membranes on ordinary light microscopes
Decoding the Epitranscriptome: Detection of and Functional Insights into RNA Modifications
No full textRNA modifications are emerging as key regulators of gene expression, but their functional roles remain poorly understood due to the lack of accurate, transcriptome-wide detection methods. This dissertation presents a suite of high-accuracy and single-resolution next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques to map four modifications: pseudouridine (Ψ), N1-methyladenosine (m1A), 5-formylcytosine (f5C), and N6-methyladenosine (m6A), and explores their biological significance. To map Ψ, a bisulfite-induced deletion sequencing (BID-seq) method was developed, enabling base-resolution, quantitative detection of Ψ sites from low-input RNA. BID-seq allows precise assignment of Ψ writers, uncovers tissue-specific pseudouridylation patterns, and reveals that Ψ can stabilize mRNA, in contrast to the destabilizing effect of m⁶A. For m1A detection in small RNAs, an antibody-free approach based on sodium borohydride reduction and commercial reverse transcriptases was established. This method improves mutation and read-through rates, allowing the identification of previously undetectable m1A sites in mitochondrial tRNA, and rRNA, including low-stoichiometry sites. To profile f5C, a chemical reduction and sequencing approach (f5C-seq) was optimized using pic-borane to induce C-to-T transitions during reverse transcription. This technique confirms known f5C sites and uncovers novel ones in chromatin-associated RNAs, including those sensitive to ALKBH1. Finally, a single-assay method (m6A-Ψ-seq) was developed to simultaneously detect m6A and Ψ in the same RNA sample. By integrating sequential allyl-labeling and bisulfite treatment with optimized reverse transcription chemistry this method enables the study of potential interplay between multiple modifications. Finally, we identified a candidate Ψ-binding protein and investigated its role in regulating Ψ-modified RNAs and RNA metabolism. This protein selectively binds to Ψ-modified transcripts, and its knockdown leads to preferential downregulation of its bound and pseudouridylated RNAs, particularly those involved in cell cycle regulation. Collectively, methods developed in this thesis provide powerful tools to decode the epitranscriptome with high resolution and accuracy, offering new insights into the regulatory functions of RNA modifications across biological systems
Sounding the Hyphen: Cross-Cultural Performance in South Asian America
Get PDFThis dissertation explores the cross-cultural performance practices of the South Asian-American diaspora to theorize hyphenation as a cultural identity, creative process, and artistic product that stages a reciprocal dialogue between musical communities and genres. Focusing primarily on Indo-jazz fusion in New York City, I discuss the imbrication of Carnatic, Hindustani, and jazz aesthetics from both technical and sociocultural perspectives, analyzing the mechanics of cross-cultural collaboration and the practical considerations that go into communicating across genre lines as well as the implications these collaborations have for the formation of diasporic identity and cross-cultural community. Along the way, I interrogate mainstream ethnomusicological definitions of various South Asian musical concepts, offering an emic, performance-based perspective that emphasizes the ways these concepts are deployed in both traditional and cross-cultural contexts. Ultimately, I posit “hyphenation” as alternately an ontological, epistemological, and phenomenological construct. It describes, first, a transnational South Asianness that finds its complete expression only at the intersection of multiple competing national, ethnic, and cultural identities; second, a form of musical cognition and analysis, born of the genre-defying multiplicity endemic to the performance of traditional art in a transnational context; and third, a uniquely diasporic process of music-making that generates new meanings and new understandings of South Asianness through the act of cross-cultural translation, meanings that may account for the unwieldy global manifestations of fusion as an aesthetic genre. Chapter One interrogates the affordances and problematics of interracial performance on the one hand, and the intrinsic sense of race-based authenticity that accompanies South Asian practitioners of the traditional arts on the other. I argue that this question of authenticity generates a productive anxiety in white practitioners of South Asian music, ultimately leading them to perform their whiteness differently before the brown gaze. Chapter Two deploys hyphenation as a mode of theoretical analysis, asking what it means to treat the cross-cultural competence central to hyphenated artistic performance as a criterion for aesthetic evaluation. Chapter Three analyzes the artistic processes that go into communicating across genre lines as well as the sociomusical factors that shape this communication, emphasizing metaphors of language, conversation, translation, and speech to posit the cross-genre jam session as a space of productive dialogue and, ideally, mutual understanding. These chapters are separated by two short interludes, or thukkadas, in which I explore case studies that exemplify hyphenation as a music theoretical framework