Bioculture Journal
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Search for Charged Higgs Bosons in Multi-Lepton and Dijet Final States via Vector Boson Fusion with the ATLAS Detector
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2025This thesis reports on two independent studies conducted using 140 of proton--proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of ~TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. The first study focuses on the performance and calibration of quark/gluon jet discrimination techniques, which are essential tools for a wide range of physics analyses at the LHC. Two approaches are explored: a track-based tagger and a boosted decision tree combining multiple jet substructure observables. The tagging efficiencies are measured for jets with transverse momentum in the range of 500~GeV to 2000~GeV. Differences between data and simulation are quantified at various working points, and corresponding correction factors are derived to enhance the precision of future physics analyses. The second study presents a combined analysis of searches for singly and doubly charged Higgs bosons, and , produced through vector-boson fusion processes. These searches target decay channels involving massive vector bosons, specifically focusing on fully leptonic final states containing electrons or muons. The analysis sets new limits on the product of the production cross-section and branching fraction for charged Higgs boson masses in the range of 200~GeV to 3000~GeV. The results are interpreted within the framework of the Georgi-Machacek model, establishing the most stringent constraints to date on its parameter space across the probed mass range
Capstone Poster for "Support in Schools: Implementing an In-School Resource Program for Family and Student Basic Needs"
No full textMaster of Social Work (MSW)Basic human needs include food, water, shelter, clothing, and more. When one lacks these needs, significant consequences, risks of physical and mental health issues are increased. For young students, these challenges often manifest as poor academic performance and attendance as well. In Tacoma, Washington, a large number of students face unmet basic needs, which impact their educational experiences. Through interviews with key stakeholders, including individuals with lived experiences and professionals working directly with McKinney-Vento students and families in Tacoma, interventions are necessary to address these needs, particularly within the school environment. An in-school resource program is critical to supporting students and families in meeting their basic needs, enhancing their overall well-being and academic success. This capstone poster offers an overview of a proposed program that would involve the integration of school social workers, which there is currently a lack of in the Tacoma Public School district and designated site coordinators. The program would include a resource pantry stocked with essential items such as food, clothing, hygiene products, gently used furniture, and technology. Site coordinators and school social workers would engage and connect with students and families on a weekly basis to assess and address their specific needs. To support thriving future generations, we must support these students as they are youth and adolescents. This program will not only tackle the barriers caused by unmet basic needs but also contribute to a more positive school experience for students, improving their sense of well-being and engagement with education
Leveraging Machine Learning to Uncover Integrated Impacts of Urban Environment Features on Human Health
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2025While human health is significant to sustainable development as cities keep increasing and are estimated to contain 70% of the population by 2050, the quantitative relationship of how the urban environments influence human health remains so poorly understudied due to the convoluted connection and co-effect among numerous urban factors, as well as the large-scale data integration difficulty. Previous researchers studying urban health mainly focus on finding specific urban environment feature’s influence or try to analyze the mechanisms of features co-effect on a coarse scale larger than census tract level or just with qualitative approach. Thus, this research set and reached the objectives to quantify the essential, specific and integrated relationship between urban environment and human health, and specify urban indicators’ co-effect at census tract level mainly from the urban environment’s perspective. With the development of data science, various statistical methods including Machine Learning (ML), SHAP analysis, and Pearson correlation analysis offer promising opportunities for analyzing such complex relationships, facilitated by the increasing availability of urban data by modern tools and the advancements in computational efficiency. By utilizing these methods, this research analyzes 6044 census tracts in 10 US metropolitans (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Jacksonville, San Francisco Area, Seattle Area, Washington DC Area, Boston Area) with data from 2015 to 2024, builds a framework for census tract level urban health index developed from literature review and WHO urban health indicators framework (2014), quantifies 27 urban environment features’ influence on human health indicators especially on life expectancy, and builds a high performance urban health prediction model for future intervention suggestion for policy makers, making significant meaning towards the urban planning practice
Study on the decline of wildlife population in nature due to illegal breeding and hunting: Implications for biodiversity conservation
No full textBackground: Poaching of wildlife, including protected species, is on the rise, partly due to increased demand in the world market. Therefore, this journal aims to examine the problems faced by Indonesia in dealing with wildlife trade crimes that still occur frequently, as well as the implementation of Law Number 5 of 1990 related to law enforcement for wildlife protection in Indonesia. Methods: The research method used is qualitative, by collecting data from books, articles, news, and journals. The analysis involved theories, concepts, legal principles, and regulations in the Act, as well as related case studies in Indonesia. Findings: The results show that although Indonesia has Law No. 5 of 1990, it is still lacking in effectiveness in reducing poaching and trade of wild and protected animals. Law enforcement officials and related agencies face various problems in the implementation of law enforcement. Community involvement in the endangered species trade is a key driver of the illegal keeping trend in Indonesia. Conclusion: The rate of prosecutions and convictions of illegal keepers remains low, creating inequalities in sentencing and giving the impression that the risks of this illegality are relatively low compared to the financial gains possible. Novelty/Originality of this article: This article highlights that collaboration between the government, communities and non-governmental organizations can provide additional support in conservation efforts and handling illegal cases
Diversity of Meliaceae family in Bogani Nani Wartabone national park (Hungayono tourism object)
No full textIntroduction: The Meliaceae family is a group of flowering plants that are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Some of its members have important economic value. Based on initial surveys in the Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park area, especially the Hungayono tourist attraction area of Gorontalo Province, it is known that there are various species of Meliaceae familli plants. However, it has not been identified what types of Meliaceae plants are and how the value of diversity index in the tourist attraction area. Methods: The purpose of this study was to determine how the diversity of Meliaceae plant species in the Hungayono tourist attraction area of Gorontalo Province. Data collection techniques using exploratory or cruising methods using sampling techniques Probability Sample. Findings: The results of the study found 10 species of Meliaceae familli plants in the Hungayono tourist attraction area. The index value of plant diversity of Meliaceae familli found in the Hungayono tourist attraction area is 1.91 with moderate criteria which indicates a fairly stable ecosystem condition. Conclusion: these findings provide valuable baseline data on the Meliaceae family in the region, contributing to future conservation and biodiversity management efforts in the area. Novelty/Originality of this article: The novelty of this research lies in the first recorded identification and diversity assessment of Meliaceae species in the Hungayono tourist attraction area
Private Choices in Public Health: A Framework for Economic Epidemiological Modeling of Infectious Disease
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2025This dissertation investigates the role of risk compensation in infectious disease dynamics by examining how individuals adjust private preventive behaviors in response to perceived mortality risk, and how these behavioral shifts shape and are shaped by epidemic trajectories. While conventional epidemiological models assume fixed or policy-driven contact rates, real-world transmission depends critically on how individuals perceive and respond to evolving risk. Public health policies, in turn, interact with these private behaviors—amplifying or dampening their effects. The first part of this dissertation provides empirical evidence of risk compensation behavior by analyzing high-frequency mobility data across U.S. counties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using lagged local mortality as a proxy for perceived risk, the study finds that individuals significantly reduced their mobility in response to rising deaths—particularly in high-contact, discretionary domains. These responses evolved over time and were shaped by public health interventions such as shelter-in-place orders and mask mandates, which often amplified rather than displaced private behavioral changes. The second part develops a dynamic economic-epidemiological model that endogenizes contact rates through mortality-responsive behavioral feedback. Critically, the magnitude of behavioral responsiveness estimated in the empirical analysis is used to calibrate the strength of the feedback loop—bridging observed behavior with modeled transmission. This endogenous co-evolution of behavior and epidemic severity creates a self-regulating system in which private action dynamically responds to real-time risk signals, suppressing transmission as perceived threat intensifies. The model, grounded in a delayed SEIRDS framework, demonstrates how such feedback can flatten epidemic curves, delay transmission peaks, and produce multiple waves. Introducing pandemic fatigue—modeled as declining responsiveness to risk—erodes this adaptive loop, weakening the self-limiting dynamic and enabling persistent spread. Simulations highlight the importance of accounting for behavioral adaptation in forecasting and policy design. Together, these studies offer a unified framework for understanding how private choices interact with public policy and disease dynamics through the lens of risk perception and behavioral adaptation
Insights from a changing ocean: Evolving biogeochemistry and its impacts on marine ecosystems and climate
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2025Marine biogeochemistry integrates chemical, biological, geological, and physical processes that are fundamental to Earth's climate and ecosystems. As elements cycle through the ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere, they leave behind biogeochemical fingerprints that serve as proxies to track environmental change. Over the industrial era, anthropogenic CO2 emissions and other human activities have caused the oceans to change rapidly, perturbing this biogeochemical landscape. Characterizing biogeochemical shifts is critical to advance our understanding of climate-driven impacts, assess marine ecosystem health, and evaluate climate solutions. Recent advancements in biogeochemical tools and technologies have deepened our insights into oceanic change. The development of high-precision paleoproxies has extended records of ocean conditions into the pre-industrial era, while the Argo float array has enabled four-dimensional monitoring of biogeochemistry globally. High-resolution numerical modeling has also improved our ability to capture complex interactions at fine spatial and temporal scales, offering a holistic framework to understand anthropogenic impacts from past to future. Together, these technologies provide a comprehensive toolkit to characterize shifts in ocean biogeochemistry in unprecedented detail and advance our understanding of global environmental change.
This thesis weaves together applications of novel biogeochemical tools to examine the drivers, impacts, and mitigation strategies of a rapidly changing ocean. Each chapter leverages diverse datasets and multiple tools to provide new insights on ocean change based on marine biogeochemistry. In Chapter 2, I combine boron-isotope measurements from cold-water corals with a biogeochemical model to reconstruct and investigate subsurface acidification trends over the industrial era in the California Current System. In Chapter 3, I combine Argo-based biogeochemical data products, archival tagging records, and machine learning methods to develop a four-dimensional species distribution model for an economically important fishery species, revealing biogeochemical constraints on its migration. In Chapter 4, I employ a high-resolution biogeochemical model of the Salish Sea to evaluate the detectability of ocean alkalinity enhancement, a marine carbon dioxide removal strategy for climate mitigation. These studies provide new frameworks and tools to investigate, monitor, and respond to a changing ocean
The Fractional Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Twisted MoTe2
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2025Emergent quantum phenomena in two-dimensional moire superlattices, particularly twisted bilayerMoTe2 (tMoTe2), reveals a rich interplay between electronic correlations and band topology. Leveraging
device fabrication, optical spectroscopy, local imaging techniques, and low-temperature electrical
transport measurements, we have experimentally demonstrated robust integer and fractional
quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) states without external magnetic fields. Fractionally quantized
Hall conductance plateaus at fillings such as ν = −2/3 and −3/5, accompanied by vanishing longitudinal
resistance, provide definitive evidence for fractional Chern insulating (FCI) phases driven
purely by electron-electron interactions. Additionally, local visualization of fractional edge states
through microwave impedance microscopy has directly confirmed bulk-edge correspondence. Further
exploration into higher Chern bands and dissipationless transport has expanded understanding
of correlation-driven phenomena, uncovering potential pathways to non-Abelian fractional states
relevant for quantum computing. These results collectively establish twisted MoTe2 as an exceptional
platform for exploring novel quantum states and highlight their potential for future topological
quantum technologies
Assessing Gene-Environment Interaction in the Association Between Smoking and Leukocyte Telomere Length
No full textThesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2025Telomere length is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, including smoking behavior. While smoking is associated with shorter telomeres, this association may vary by genotype. In a subset of the UK Biobank cohort (N = 360,909) with genetically inferred European ancestry, we analyzed 581,069 common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and average relative telomere length estimates derived from quantitative PCR (qPCR) to test whether the association between ever/never smoking status and telomere length differs by genotype. One SNP, rs4418881, reached genome-wide significance (P = 4.49e-8) in the 2 degrees of freedom gene-environment interaction joint test but did not reach significance in the overall genome-wide association study (P = 4.19e-7). Stratified analyses revealed that rs4418881 was genome-wide significant in ever smokers (P = 1.06e-8) but not in never smokers (P = 0.35), suggesting that this SNP may modify the effect of smoking on telomere length
The Urban Environment and Active Living: The Case of Bogotá, Colombia
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2025The built environment fundamentally shapes health opportunities, including those for active living. While research from the Global North has identified the types of built environments that support choice-based physical activity, less is known about their distribution and active-living promoting potential in Global South cities, where activity is often necessity-driven and socioeconomic inequalities and segregation are pronounced. This dissertation addressed this gap by using a neighborhood typology approach to examine how socioeconomic residential segregation and neighborhood built environments relate to shape active living patterns in Bogotá, Colombia. Findings showed that more segregated neighborhoods were less likely to be characterized as active living-supporting built environments, but were not directly associated with physical activity levels, likely due to misalignment between researcher-defined and perceived access to neighborhood characteristics. Despite limitations, including cross-sectional data, temporal mismatches, and reliance on proximity-based measures, this work highlights important areas for future place-based epidemiologic research in Global South cities. When leveraged intentionally, the built environment has the potential to foster cities that are fundamentally just, promoting equitable opportunities, mobility, and health for all residents