Bioculture Journal
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Increasingly Radical: Examining Predictors of Support for Reactionary Right-Wing Candidates for the United States House of Representatives
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2024Why are voters in Western democracies turning towards more reactionary right-wing politicians? Using the United States as a prominent example of this phenomenon I examine the validity of various explanations for increasing popularity and electoral success of right-wing candidates. By combining newly available measures of candidate ideology with individual level survey responses and county-level contextual information, I use multi-level logistic models to identify predictors of White Republicans supporting reactionary right politicians in United States Hose of Representatives elections from 2010 to 2020. I find that residents of counties with higher social capital are more likely to support far-right candidates and that this relationship is strengthened in settings where county-level unemployment is low. Additionally, I find that those residing in counties that have seen an increase in the Hispanic population and those who reside in more economically unequal counties are more likely to support far-right candidates. In combination, these results lend support to the notion that it is not those who have been left behind economically that are moving towards right-wing candidate, but rather it isthose in areas that have experienced demographic change and who experience a sense of status threat from their new neighbors who support such candidates
Pemanfaatan limbah biji mangga menjadi minyak nabati dengan proses ekstraksi
No full textThe extraction process is a process of separating a substance based on its dissolution difference against two different dissolved liquids, usually water and the other an organic solvent. Vegetable oil is an oil that can be extracted from various parts of the plant that is processing the stems, leaves, seeds, flowers and fruit peel. Seed is one of the main ways plants to regenerate. Seeds contain large and distinct quantities of macromolecule reserves, which are stored as a source of spare food to support early germination. As an alternative to the healthful drugs of the body from various diseases that will attack the human body and have other important benefits. In this study used an extraction research method that produced vegetable oils in using 30 grams of mango seeds each on a 6-time process with ethanol and hexane solvents which used 500 ml each at a given time. From a good yield yield obtained at 3 hours of extraction process with ethanol solvent having a yield of 50%, then having a good quality is obtained by the yield of vegetable oil by using ethanol solvent. Thus the vegetable oils of the extraction process have a good oil content in the ethanol solvent versus hexane
Cripping Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Celebrating Disability Identity, Community, and Culture in Schools
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2024There is a broad disconnect between the beauty cultivated by disabled communities and the ways in which schools continue to position disability as a problem that resides in the individual student. To shift conceptions of disability in schools, there is a significant need to educate folks about disability history and pride, especially disabled students who are those most impacted by ableist educational institutions. In this study, I sought to design and implement a classroom curriculum that fostered authenticity, pride, and joy in disability identity, community, and culture in school. I drew upon academic and activist frameworks to conceptualize Cripping Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies (Cripping CSP), a multifaceted approach to uplift and sustain disability identity, community, and culture in school. Cripping CSP was used to design and implement a Disability Justice in Schools (DJS) unit with high school students who have a range of disability identities and classifications. The DJS unit was co-taught by two disabled educators and incorporated a variety of arts-based activities exploring disability identity, community, and culture in schools. Throughout the DJS unit, youth were invited to reflect on their personal experiences of disability and ableism in school, work in cross-disability collaborations, and co-create artwork that illustrated their dreams for realizing the principles of Disability Justice (Sins Invalid, 2019) in school contexts. Based on analysis of classroom observations, student-generated classwork and artwork, and optional student interviews, this dissertation demonstrated (1) how disabled youth made sense of their own disability identity alongside Disability Justice more broadly, (2) how disabled youth engaged in disability community by navigating cross-disability collaborations, and (3) how disabled youth embody and expand the framework of Cripping CSP. This study contributes to theoretical, methodological, and practical shifts in the ways that disabled ways of knowing and being are centered and celebrated schools and in educational research
Lightning Declines Over Shipping Lanes Following Regulation of Fuel Sulfur
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2024Aerosol interactions with clouds represent a significant uncertainty to our understanding of the Earth system. Deep convective clouds, in particular, can have complex responses to aerosol that have proven difficult to elucidate. Here, we leverage the two busiest shipping lanes in the world, which carve a narrow path of pollution through a pristine marine bound- ary layer, to make headway on the influence of aerosol on deep convective clouds. We use the recent change in allowable fuel sulfur by the International Maritime Organization to test the sensitivity of the lightning to shifting aerosol size distributions. We find that, across a range of thermodynamic conditions, the enhancement of lightning over the shipping lanes has fallen by over 30%. Retrievals of cloud droplet number show a similar decline. The enhancement is therefore at least partially aerosol-mediated, a conclusion that is supported by observations of droplet number at cloud base. These results have fundamental implica- tions for our understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions, suggesting that deep clouds show sensitivity to the shifts in aerosol number distribution in the remote marine environment
Invisible Lived Experiences During an Upended Time: An Exploratory Study of Asian Mothers Who are International Doctoral Students in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2024This exploratory research explores the multifaceted experiences of Asian Mothers who are International Doctoral Students (AMIDS) living in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, examining the intricate interplay between motherhood, doctoral student life, and the challenges of living as Asian foreigners in the United States. Employing intersectionality as a grounding framework to analyze the data, the findings are structured around three central themes: Academic dreams and maternal realities during the COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic-induced challenges and opportunities adapting to the virtual shift, and the pandemic’s unveiling of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia. In the first theme, AMIDS faced the pandemic's initial shock, prioritizing family safety and adopting meticulous safety measures, leading to emotional distress and increased domestic duties. Transitioning to virtual learning added to their burden, with unfamiliar curricula and ongoing childcare challenges causing guilt and societal pressures. The second theme examines AMIDS' adaptation to remote work and learning, presenting both challenges and opportunities. While flexibility was afforded, managing home distractions and virtual advisor interactions posed new hurdles. Despite this, virtual platforms facilitated balancing family responsibilities with academic pursuits. The third theme delves into the impact of immigration policy changes and rising anti-Asian sentiment, exacerbating AMIDS' fears of deportation and vulnerability to hate crimes. These experiences led some to reconsider their long-term plans, highlighting the need to address systemic biases. Overall, the study highlights the need for universities to prioritize the foundational needs of AMIDS, recognizing the irreplaceable nature of some non-academic life aspects of the students. Furthermore, it calls for greater awareness and advocacy at both institutional and governmental levels to address the unique challenges faced by this overlooked student population. In conclusion, this study illuminates the resilience and determination of AMIDS in overcoming diverse challenges during the pandemic
Photorealistic Virtual Try-on with Generative Models
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2024Virtual try-on (VTO) is revolutionizing the online apparel shopping experience, enabling customers to see how a particular fashion item would look on them. Despite significant progress, current VTO methods still encounter challenges such as accurately warping garments under large pose gap and heavy occlusion, as well as preserving body shape and identity of the person under the new garment. Additionally, most research focuses on upper-body VTO, whereas a full-body VTO that allows for garment mix-and-match is more desirable in real-world scenarios. In my thesis, I address above challenges by developing generative models tailored for the VTO task. First, I propose TryOnDiffusion, the first method capable of try-on synthesis at 1024x1024 resolution for various body poses and shapes while preserving garment details. Previous methods either focus on garment detail preservation without effective pose and shape variation, or allow try-on with the desired shape and pose but lack garment details. In this project, I show that the underlying reason for this challenge is a widely-used two-stage pipeline consisting of an explicit warping model and a blending GAN model. To solve this issue, I propose a diffusion-based architecture that unifies two UNets (referred to as Parallel-UNet), which can warp the garment implicitly with cross attention, in addition to warping and blending in a single network pass. Next, I present M&M VTO, which extends TryOnDiffusion from upper body VTO to full body VTO, allowing to mix and match multiple garments. To preserve intricate garment details required by full body VTO, I propose a single-stage diffusion model in the pixel space that is trained progressively. To solve a common identity loss problem in current VTO methods, I design a novel architecture named VTO UNet Diffusion Transformer (VTO-UDiT) to disentangle denoising from person specific features, allowing for a highly effective finetuning strategy. Furthermore, M&M VTO also supports garment layout editing via text inputs finetuned on multi-modal foundation models. Finally, I show how we can train generative models on synthetic datasets for 3D clothed human reconstruction, which is an important component towards VTO in the 3D world. I propose reconstructing NBA players, which takes as input a single photo of a clothed player in any basketball pose and outputs a high resolution mesh and 3D pose for that player. Key to my approach is a deep neural skinning approach for creating poseable, skinned models of NBA players, and a large database of meshes derived from the video game. Although trained only on synthetic data, the proposed pipeline generalizes well to real-world images even under heavy occlusion
Invariants of Poisson Algebras, Poisson Enveloping Algebras, and Deformation Quantizations
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2024The Shephard-Todd-Chevalley Theorem and the Watanabe Theorem are among the earliest results addressing the homological properties of invariant subalgebras. Initially studied in the context of polynomial algebras, these theorems have motivated researchers to generalize their applicability beyond the scope of commutative algebras. Notable instances include, but certainly are not limited to: Alev and Polo's studies on enveloping algebra of semisimple Lie algebras and Weyl algebras; Kirkman, Kuzmanovich, and Zhang's studies on skew polynomial rings, quantum matrix algebras, non-PI Sklyanin algebras and down up algebras; Gaddis, Veerapen, and Wang's studies on semiclassical limits (Poisson algebras) of several families of Artin-Schelter regular algebras. In this dissertation, we will continue Gaddis, Veerapen, and Wang's studies on Poisson algebras, a commutative algebra together with a non-commutative bracket. Our primary emphasis will be on quadratic Poisson structures on polynomial rings of three variables. Our objective is to prove variants of the Shephard-Todd-Chevalley Theorem for these Poisson algebras and their associated algebraic structures: Poisson enveloping algebras and deformation quantizations. Furthermore, we will prove a variant of the Watanabe Theorem for Poisson enveloping algebras arising from quadratic Poisson structures on an arbitrary polynomial ring
Sulfur and Oxygen Isotopes Show That Primary Sulfate is the Dominant Source of Particulate Sulfate in Fairbanks, AK
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2024Within and surrounding high-latitude cities, poor air quality disturbs Arctic ecosystems, influences climate, and harms human health. The Fairbanks North Star Borough has wintertime particulate matter (PM) concentrations that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) threshold for public health. Particulate sulfate (SO42-) is the most abundant inorganic species and contributes approximately 20% of the total PM mass in Fairbanks, but air quality models underestimate observed sulfate concentrations. Here we quantify sulfate sources using size-resolved δ34S(SO42-), δ18O(SO42-), and Δ17O(SO42-) of particulate sulfate in Fairbanks from January 18th to February 25th, 2022 using a Bayesian isotope mixing model. Primary sulfate contributes 62 (±12%) of total sulfate mass on average. Most primary sulfate is found in the size bin with particle diameter < 0.7μm, which contains 90 (±5%) of total sulfate mass and poses the greatest risk to human health. Oxidation by all secondary formation pathways combined contributes 38 (±12%) of total sulfate mass on average, indicating that secondary sulfate formation is inefficient in this cold, dark environment. On average, the dominant secondary sulfate formation pathways are oxidation by H2O2 (12 ± 6%), O3 (8 ± 4%), NO2 (8 ± 3%), OH (8 ± 3%),, and TMI-O2 (2 ± 1%),. These findings will inform mitigation strategies to improve air quality and public health in Fairbanks and possibly other high-latitude urban areas during winter
Polyether- and serum albumin-based hydrogels and bioplastics for bio-interfacing applications leveraging additive manufacturing
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2024Additive manufacturing, commonly referred to as 3D printing, affords numerous advantages as an automated means of fabricating 3D objects with excellent design freedom and minimal waste. Despite remarkable progress over the past couple of decades toward making 3D printing technologies more capable and more accessible, there is still a need for more diverse functional materials for 3D printing. For example, in biomedical science and engineering, 3D printing has been used to fabricate anatomical models, medical devices, and tissue- and organ-like constructs comprising living cells. For many of these applications, there is a need for materials that better mimic or interface with the living systems in question. In tissue engineering and therapeutic delivery, hydrogels have shown great promise, as hydrated three-dimensional networks in which cells can be cultured or therapeutics can be encapsulated. Additionally, when naturally derived hydrogels are dehydrated, more functional or sustainable alternatives to petroleum-derived plastics can be obtained. These materials, which can be referred to as “bioplastics,” can be used to fabricate functional objects via 3D printing. This dissertation focuses on the design, synthesis, and application of functional hydrogels and bioplastics for additive manufacturing in the biomedical space. Chapter 1 contains a brief overview of 3D printing, hydrogels, and water-processable bioplastics, with an emphasis on their biomedical applications. Chapter 2 features a methodology that leverages additive manufacturing to fabricate coaxial nozzles for extrusion of hydrogel tubes toward modeling vascular endothelium. Chapter 3 highlights a highly tunable protein-based bioplastic platform for light-based (vat photopolymerization) 3D printing of functional objects. Chapter 4 describes dynamic hydrogels utilizing a protein-ligand interaction toward potential applications in therapeutic delivery or 3D bioprinting
My Story Has a Hopeful Future: Using Digital Journaling to Empower Youth Living with a Chronic Illness
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2024Adolescents and young adults living with chronic illness experience more complications and challenges when transitioning to adult-oriented care. Despite various interventions to support medication management, goal setting, and collaboration with care teams, AYAs continue to struggle, affecting their health and life outcomes. In this dissertation, I investigated how designing to capture and integrate youths' stories into journey tools can support reflection and empower youth in their chronic illness journeys. I did this work in the context of youth who have undergone kidney transplantation as a focused example of a chronic illness journey.I first examined the experiences of youth transplant patients and their caregivers as they recalibrated to normalcy post-transplant. As a result, I identified five dimensions of their experiences. These dimensions represented the fluctuating nature of patients' and caregivers' experiences post-transplant. Informed by the rich understanding of their experiences, I contributed a conceptual framework that ties together multiple facets of patients’ lives and represents the different needs and tensions that may arise throughout various parts of the transplant journey.
I then probed further into youth transplant patients’ experiences to better understand their transplant journeys. Consequently, I characterized and discovered story categories that youth transplant patients and their caregivers discussed for each of the five dimensions of the framework. Additionally, I explored another essential element of youth’s chronic illness journeys, medication management, and provided insights into medication management visuals to help support youth throughout their journey. From this work, I contributed new design insights for capturing youth kidney transplant stories and medication management to inform the design of chronic illness journey tools.
Lastly, I explored the impact of My Kidney TREK, a tool designed to capture youth kidney transplant patients' journeys in a real-world setting. Informed by design insights from my previous work, this tool provides youth with a comprehensive view of their kidney transplant journeys. I found that My Kidney TREK positively impacted patients' and caregivers' reflections on their transplant journey, demonstrating the value of incorporating stories within a chronic illness journey tool. Additionally, I discussed the design of the My Kidney TREK and provided recommendations to improve future chronic illness journey tools.
Regardless of their health challenges, youth with a chronic illness still have hopes for their futures and aspire to thrive throughout their journey. Capturing and reflecting on their chronic illness stories provides a more holistic picture of their journeys, highlighting barriers that interfere with harmonizing their healthcare and life needs. Ultimately, my work shows how using digital journaling promotes self-efficacy as youth transition towards independence and empowers them to take more control of their lives. This research offers a promising avenue for improving the healthcare journey for youth with a chronic illness