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Continuous Monitoring of Dynamic Levels of Sepsis-Associated Biomarkers in Blood for Early Diagnosis
Get PDFSepsis is a general diagnosis related to a dysregulated immune response to a source of infection that, if left untreated, will most likely result in organ failure and eventual death. Sepsis affects 49 million people annually, and is responsible for 11 million annual deaths, according to Jarczak 1. A recent study has shown that over 80% of sepsis deaths may be preventable with earlier diagnosis and treatment, and that the risk of mortality increases by 8% for every hour that sepsis goes untreated 5. Thus, our team identified that the timeliness of sepsis diagnosis is a paramount healthcare need.
We further identified the shortcomings of current diagnostic methods to be: 1) the dominance of prognostic tests which make up for diagnostic capabilities, 2 2) long incubation periods in traditional tests like blood cultures, and 3) reliance on downstream indications of organ failure. Inspired by the Third International Consensus on Sepsis, 2 we recognize that a paradigm shift in sepsis patient diagnostics needs to occur in order to adequately address the needs of early diagnosis.
To meet these needs, this project consists of three design goals: 1) sample collection and patient accessibility, 2) interface between patient withdrawal and sample deposition, and 3) biomarker detection methodology. Our vision is that a tapered optical fiber within a microfluidic device, conjugated with antibody-based probes, is a promising platform to continually measure biomarkers from blood that are relevant for the early detection of sepsis. In this thesis we describe the steps taken towards these goals including subsystem manufacturing, optical and fluidic testing, and reagent characterization
DNA Storage of Images: From Pixels to Molecules
Get PDFDNA storage is rapidly emerging as a transformative solution for long-term, ultra-dense, and energy-efficient archival systems. This dissertation builds upon a deep understanding of image compression principles to design encoding frameworks that are uniquely attuned to the biochemical constraints of DNA storage. By fusing insights from traditional coding with molecular-level design, we develop a series of technically advanced solutions tailored for this emerging medium.
Our first contribution introduces Dynamic DNA-Fountain, a constrained codec that maps H.266 /VVC-compressed bitstreams to quaternary DNA sequences, optimizing for both information density and biochemical synthesis constraints. Building upon this foundation, we shift focus toward robustness—leveraging the inherent redundancy in image data. To this end, we propose the first residual convolutional neural network (ResCNN)–based decoder tailored for DNA-stored images, pioneering the use of visual residual learning to correct insertion, deletion, and substitution (IDS) errors. This is further extended in DSI-ResCNN, a dropout-aware system that introduces a novel mechanism to mitigate molecular chain breakage—addressing a failure mode long overlooked in the literature.
Progressing beyond modular encoding and correction, we construct two end-to-end compression frameworks that integrate semantic encoding with self-corrective capacity. HybridFlow-DNA employs a dual-stream generative pipeline to balance ultra-low bitrate compression and semantic preservation, while HDCompression-DNA incorporates diffusion-based recovery to enhance robustness under severe noise.
Finally, we extend the data domain beyond images into tactile sensory signals. The proposed Tactile-DNA system couples residual vector quantization (RVQGAN) with an updated, signalaware dynamic DNA-Fountain mapping, enabling multimodal archival grounded in biological constraints
Three Realistic Principles for Nurturing Ethical Prosocial Behavior
No full textThe world is in trouble with numerous significant challenges to life and society such as climate change, divisive politics, economic disparity, war, racism and discrimination, and violence. At the core of these issues is human behavior and in particular, ethical decision making. The purpose of this reflection is to underscore three practical principles to encourage more prosocial behavior by (a) embracing the reality of egoism, (b) finding ways to merge egoism with the common good, and (c) socially engineer ethical behavior that benefits society. Considering ethical decision making and nurturing prosocial behavior in a realistic manner provides at least some hope for relieving the many difficulties that our society faces
Grief and Bereavement in Young Adult College Students: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Practice and Research
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Here, There, and Everywhere: Observations on International Ramifications of US Immigration Policies of the 20th Century
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Willemsen, Elenaor, Psychology, interviewed by
No full textRaised in both California and Washington, Dr. Willemsen knew early on that she wanted to become a psychology professor. She pursued her academic path entirely at Stanford University, earning her bachelor\u27s through a Ph.D. in Psychology. In 1970, she joined the Psychology Department at Santa Clara University—just five years after its founding—becoming the third female faculty member ever hired. Over the years, her passion for faculty-student research flourished, with a primary focus on developmental psychology. One of her most beloved courses is PSYC 155: Psychology and Law, which she co-teaches with her husband. Her advice to the Santa Clara community? “You’re young—go learn Shakespeare and a new language.