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Three Essays in Microeconomics:
Get PDFThesis advisor: Arthur LewbelIn this series of essays, I apply the tools of economics to a variety of real world problems. The first essay looks at the impact of a gun control regulation on mortality and crime. A third of US states have removed all restrictions on carrying concealed handguns. This might decrease crime by invisibly arming law-abiding citizens, or increase it by eliminating penalties for criminals. It could have no effect at all, because handguns are easily hidden, so anyone who wished to carry a gun was already doing so. I compare counties along the borders of states that liberalized concealed carry to contiguous counties in neighboring states that did not, using mortality and crime micro-data. I find that deregulation had no impact on homicide, violent crime, firearm mortality, firearm usage, or firearm ownership.
The second essay, co-authored with Sajala Pandey, looks at the impact of an earthquake in Nepal on child development. Biologists have posited that prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) has an adverse impact on child development, possibly via the process of epigenetic imprinting which occurs during the first trimester. Researchers have attempted to study this link by using natural disasters as a source of exogenous variation. A shortcoming of these studies is that natural disasters may also affect prenatal healthcare provision, either by decreasing it’s provision (due to infrastructure being destroyed) or increasing it (thanks to aid flowing into the region.)
We look at the impact of 2015 Earthquake in Nepal on children who were (a) in utero at the time of the earthquake and (b) in areas severely affected by it. Consistent with theories from PNMS, we find that the earthquake adversely impacted their height-for-age, and the effects were concentrated on individuals who were in the first trimester of gestation. These negative effects were entirely offset by an increase in the consumption of antenatal healthcare. We find that the earthquake resulted in a improvement in development indicators for those children who were in severely affected areas but not in-utero at the time of the earthquake, highlighting the importance of healthcare provision in early childhood.
The third essay, co-authored with Andrew Copland, proposes a solution to the problem of assigning multiple scarce goods to agents in the absence of prices, for example assigning seats in courses to students in a university. Students submit a list of preferences over courses, a lottery for rankings is held, and an algorithm allocates each student their top available course, reversing their ranks at the end of each round. Then, for each student, the algorithm compares their outcomes to the outcomes generated by every alternative ordering they could have set. Whenever such revisions result in more preferred outcomes, their preferences are replaced with the alternative. Our solution is non-dictatorial and Pareto optimal. When it converges without encountering a loop, it is strategy-proof. It retains properties even in small economies. We compare our algorithm to alternatives.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics
The Ethics of Capitalism in Relation to Wealth Inequality
Get PDFThesis advisor: Michael SmithContemporary American capitalism is sick. To determine what is wrong with it we must first go back to its conception and understand the theoretical advantages and drawbacks of this system. Once we come to understand what capitalism is, and how it developed, we will move on to see how it has evolved to its current state within an American mixed economy. Wealth inequality is at an all time high in America, exacerbated by the 2008 financial crisis, with warnings from men like Karl Marx coming to fruition more than a century later. Today, corporations praise capitalism on the way up, and exploit interventionist concepts such as bailouts on the way down to skew wealth to unprecedented levels. Multi-millionaire politicians accept lobbying funds and allow this to happen, stopping capitalism from running its natural course. The wealthy 1% are able to invest in economic vehicles and share in this massive wealth shift while most Americans cannot afford to, and as a result the average American is left behind. To rationalize whether capitalism is a system worth saving, we will then look to why some economic inequality is inherent to capitalism to some degree. Once this is understood, we can then analyze whether or not such wealth inequalities are immoral in itself. We will find that wealth inequality may be an unavoidable feature of capitalism, however under certain conditions it is not in itself immoral — it is the lack of economic opportunity and economic sufficiency for Americans that is. Perhaps there is a reason why corporations and politicians act the way they do, and if so we will look at potential remedies to limit inequality and hold corporations and politicians accountable. The thesis will conclude that if this pattern of growing wealth inequality continues as demonstrated in the recent COVID-19 pandemic, capitalism in America may be doomed.Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Philosophy
Towards Improved Practicality in Iron-Catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura Cross-Coupling Reactions:
No full textThesis advisor: Jeffery A. ByersThis dissertation will discuss the development of Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions catalyzed by iron-based complexes with an emphasis on addressing limitations to their practical application in industrial contexts. Chapter 1 will provide an overview of the development of the palladium-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction and key factors which have enabled its prevalent use in various industries, with a comparison to how those factors have limited similar development of iron-catalyzed analogues. Chapter 2 will discuss the initial discovery and subsequent development of a series of iron-based precatalysts for the cross-coupling reaction of unactivated aryl boronic esters and alkyl halides. Chapter 3 will discuss the development and validation of a bench-stable iron(III)-based complex capable of catalyzing the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction between unactivated aryl boronic esters and alkyl halides. To conclude, Chapter 4 will discuss the ability of iron-based complexes to participate in the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction with alkyl tosylate electrophiles and its implications for harnessing the ability of iron catalysis to operate under different mechanistic manifolds.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
Proteomic and Chemoproteomic Strategies to Interrogate Post-translational Modifications:
No full textThesis advisor: Eranthie WeerapanaProtein activity is modulated by hundreds of post-translational modifications (PTMs). This thesis will describe the development and application of proteomic methods to study three chemically distinct PTMs. In the first project we describe the development of a proteomics platform to identify cysteine oxidation sites on interactors of the NADPH oxidase complex in response to EGF activation. The NADPH oxidases (Nox) are the source of H(2)O(2) which acts as a secondary messenger during EGFR activation. Known targets of Nox H(2)O(2) include phosphatases PTP1B and PTEN. Oxidation of the active site of PTP1B and PTEN temporarily inactivates their phosphatase activity which allows for EGF signal propagation. The platform involves combining TurboID with OxICAT to identify proteins which are oxidized by Nox2 in a spatially and temporally controlled manner. In the second project, our goal is to identify proteins which recognize two Met oxidation sites in actin known to play a role in regulating the transition between F and G actin. We utilized a peptide based photo-crosslinking approach to identify PFKL and HSP70s HSPA8 and HSPA1B as putative "readers" of oxidized or unoxidized methionine in actin respectively. Finally, protein citrullination is a enzyme catalyzed PTM where the guanidinium on arginine is converted into a urea by a family of enzymes called protein arginine deiminases. Aberrant citrullination is linked to many human diseases including rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, proteomic methods to characterize citrullination can provide insights into disease pathophysiology. We describe the identification of novel protein targets of with a chemoselective biotin phenyl glyoxal probe, and the development of a label free proteomic method to identify sites of citrullination.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
Phenomenology and Ontology (1923-1929):
No full textThesis advisor: John SallisMartin Heidegger’s work centers on the task of retrieving the traditional problem of ontology, metaphysics, and first philosophy: the problem of Being. There has been a tendency in the scholarship to take Heidegger’s formulation and solution to the problem together as a whole. In contrast, I propose to differentiate between the two, and to engage Heidegger’s formulation of the problem as such, which takes shape as phenomenological ontology in the second half of the 1920s. I claim that the subject matter of phenomenological ontology, the problem of Being, is in fact the unitary articulation of four problems: the ontological difference, the basic articulation of Being, the possible modifications of Being, and the truth-character of Being. My analysis shows that these four problems are Heidegger’s problematization (following Brentano) of the four main senses of Being, traditionally associated with Aristotle and Aristotelianism: the difference between the incidental and the in itself; the articulation of being-at-work, potency, and being-at-work-staying-itself; Being in the sense of the categories; and Being in the sense of truth. Concerning its method, I claim that phenomenological ontology reformulates the problem of Being in three moments: reduction, construction, and destruction. My analysis shows that, with these three moments, Heidegger problematizes (following Husserl) the movement of ascent and descent traditionally associated with Plato and Platonism. Although Heidegger never makes it fully explicit, the problem of the phenomenologically reductive, constructive, and destructive unitary whole of the four basic problems of Being is in fact his problematization of a (the) perennial locus philosophiae—the unity of the four senses of Being in an ascent and a descent. Moreover, I claim that phenomenological ontology has a transcendental-architectonic character, in a Kantian sense. The problem of Being is formulated in three differentiated moments: the reductive fundamental ontology asks and answers the question of the sense of Dasein’s Being; the constructive transcendental science of Being asks and answers the question of the sense of Being as such; and the destructive groundwork of metaphysics asks and answers the question of the (historical) whole [καθ'ὅλου] of the Being of entities. Heidegger considers that his own architectonic is the historical outcome of the ontotheological orientation of the problem since Antiquity (Aristotle’s Metaphysics), during the Middle Ages (Suárez’s Disputationes), and throughout Modernity (Kant’s Critiques.) Because my interest lies in the problem itself, my aim is to problematize Heidegger’s ontotheological interpretation of the locus philosophiae. The first task in this direction is to clarify Heidegger’s incomplete construction of a unitary phenomenological ontology during the mid-late 1920s. The present text begins this clarification by outlining the reconstruction of fundamental ontology as projected upon the science of Being, and on the basis of the indicated locus. The reconstruction is a clarification in that it exhibits the simplest moments of the inner structure of phenomenological ontology. The dissertation is divided into two main parts. In the first part, I analyze the basic concepts of phenomenological ontology. I exhibit first the basic concepts of fundamental ontology (Chapter 1), and then the basic concepts of the science of Being (Chapter 2.) Through these first two chapters I show the correspondence between the concepts of fundamental ontology and the science of Being based on the projection of the former onto the latter. It is here that I argue that fundamental ontology and the science of Being are two stages in Heidegger’s architectonic reformulation of the problem of Being. I also argue that each of these stages reflects the whole problem from its own standpoint. In the second part, I begin the reconstruction of fundamental ontology as projected upon the science of Being. I claim that the analytic of Dasein is to be understood as the reduction of Dasein. The reduction of Dasein is articulated in two distinct moments that I call ‘ontological’ and ‘existential.’ I first characterize the reduction of Dasein as a whole (Chapter 3) and then its first moment—the ontological reduction (Chapter 4.) The text ends with an Appendix where I clarify Heidegger’s lexicon of Being. Here, I anticipate fundamental aspects of the existential reduction, and point toward the connection between Heidegger’s and Husserl’s accounts of the reduction.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Philosophy
Suicide and Spiritual Resistance Among Black People in the U.S.: From Death Consciousness to Divine Consciousness
Get PDFThesis advisor: Thanh V. TranSuicide is an escalating public health crisis for Black people in the United States, yet the majority of the suicide research in the United States is based on the European American population. The psychological impact of the centuries of persistent stress and pain Black Americans have endured in the U.S., fueled by racism since the tragic period of slavery, is well-documented. However, despite the unrelenting historical and contemporary manifestations of racism and other systems of oppression in U.S. society, Black Americans have chosen death by suicide at rates lower than White Americans. Previous research has established the complexity of suicide and revealed that there are multiple personal and societal stress factors that contribute to creating risk factors for Black suicide. Research has also established that Black Americans historically have cultivated a resistance to the desire to take their own lives, seemingly linked to religious/spiritual and cultural coping resources that have served as a protective factor against suicidal behavior. Yet, there is a lack of scholarship that explores the impact of these resources on suicide in this population. Suicidologists are calling for suicide to be examined within a multidimensional contextual framework and for there to be a shift from a deficit approach to a strengths-based approach. There is a need for greater research focus on the factors that influence suicidal behavior in Black Americans, as well as the factors that are associated with creating a shield of protection against this self-destructive behavior. Through a convergent mixed-method approach, and guided by a robust cluster of theories, with Critical Race Theory and the Afrocentric Worldview as the overarching theoretical and philosophical approaches, this dissertation aims to address the gaps in the literature by examining several research questions. The following questions are examined through quantitative research: (1) Do racial discrimination and personal stress influence suicide attempts among Black people in the U.S., and does religion/spirituality serve as a protective factor and moderate the relationship between attempted suicide and racial discrimination and personal stress?; (2) Do post-incarceration status and personal stress influence suicide attempts among Black people in the U.S., and does religion/spirituality serve as a protective factor and moderate the relationship between attempted suicide and post-incarceration and personal stress?; (3) Do veteran status and personal stress influence suicide attempts among Black people in the U.S., and does religion/spirituality serve as a protective factor and moderate the relationship between attempted suicide and veteran status and personal stress? The data for this study were drawn from the cross-sectional National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) III which covers April 2012-June 2013. Logistic regression was employed to analyze the data.
The quantitative research explores the impact of personal and societal stressors on the mental health of Black people and the role of religion/spirituality in cultivating a healthy emotional and mental environment that insulates them from suicide. The qualitative data include interviews with three adult Black men from the researcher’s family across three generations. Through three generations of Black men from one family, this dissertation further aims to examine whether religion/spirituality is a protective factor insulating Black people in the U.S. from developing suicidal behavior as they navigate societal stress factors including racial discrimination, post-incarceration status, and veteran status and whether religion/spirituality as a protective factor is passed down intergenerationally. If so, it aims to explore whether there are any intergenerational patterns and/or differences in the utilization of religion/spirituality as a source of protection against developing suicidal behavior.
Assessed together, the findings from the quantitative and the qualitative research underscore the potential impact of stress and societal stress factors on suicidal behavior among Black people. Specifically, the quantitative research shows an association between personal stress and societal stress factors including racial discrimination, post-incarceration status, veteran status, and suicide attempts. The quantitative research also underscores the complexity of the role of religion/spirituality as a protective factor, as the findings from the quantitative research show that religion/spirituality was not a buffer against suicide attempts for the participants in that study. The findings from the qualitative research reveal that religion/spirituality can serve as a buffer and illustrates religion/spirituality functioning as an extension of Afrocentric culture and serving as a protective shield enabling some Black people to resist the full psychological impact of personal and societal stressors.
This dissertation provides the foundation for the broader work highlighted through this study encapsulated in the Ubuntu Relational Framework for the Study of Black Suicide, an Afrocentric framework I developed that emerged as a guide for exploring the risks and protective factors of Black suicide. The constructs of death consciousness and Divine consciousness emerged during the analysis of the qualitative research as a way of conceptualizing the influence of societal stressors and protective factors on suicidal behavior, and they are an expression of Afrocentric culture. This framework highlights the need to equally prioritize the concern of what animates Black people’s desire to live, which was illuminated through the qualitative research, along with the question of what factors make them at risk for cultivating a desire to die. It further attends to the need for social workers to address the conditions of the racist U.S. environment these factors are assessed within.
This dissertation also includes my autoethnography which serves as an analytic review and critical analysis of key concepts related to the study of Black suicide. It is a resource for further grounding in the historical and contemporary context of the Black experience and the Afrocentric worldview incorporated in this work. Autoethnography is an epistemological site for exploring Divine consciousness and the role of religion/spirituality and culture passed down intergenerationally as a protective factor against suicidal behavior. It further outlines a methodology for employing spiritual and cultural resources and operationalizing spiritual resistance.
Finally, this dissertation goes beyond identifying risk and protective factors for suicidal behavior in Black people. It outlines a structure for training social work clinicians and researchers in this Afrocentric framework that would expand social workers’ knowledge of African-centered social work, and a method appropriate for responding to this multidimensional mental health problem that requires a creative, culturally rich approach. The training includes a methodology for employing religious/spiritual and cultural resources that operationalizes spiritual resistance that will equip social workers for supporting Black people in developing a healthy holistic mental and social environment within an oppressive racist environment.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work.Discipline: Social work
Pd/azaborine-biaryl phosphine complexes: reaction development, mechanistic analysis, and investigations into metal-ligand coordination dynamics
Get PDFThesis advisor: Shih-Yuan LiuDescribed herein are three research projects that focused on 1) the catalytic activities of Pd/azaborine-derived biary phosphine (Senphos) complexes in 1,3-enyne difunctionalization reactions and 2) the coordination behaviors of these Pd/Senphos complexes. In the first chapter, expansion of the substrate scope and mechanistic studies of the reported Pd/Senphos catalyzed site-, regio- and trans-selective hydroboration of 1,3- enynes are described. In the second chapter, the first intermolecular site-, regio- and transselective chloroboration and cyanoboration of enynes that are enabled by the Pd/Senphos catalytic system are presented. The cyanoboration products, namely vicinal boronsubstituted alkenylnitriles, are demonstrated as versatile synthetic building blocks. In the last chapter, the κ2-P-η2-B,C coordination behavior in a series of 1,2-, 1,3- and 1,4-Senphos ligated Pd(0) or Pd(II) complexes are evaluated based on solid-state structures and variable-temperature NMR measurements.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Chemistry
A Breaking Point for Mexico: A Narrative of Embedded Violence and the Threat to Citizenship Well-Being
Get PDFThesis advisor: Alejandro Olayo-MéndezTo what extent have the policies implemented by the Mexican government since 2006 against the War on Drugs further fueled social violence? What have been the effects of violence on security, citizenship well-being, displacement, and human rights? This thesis examines how the pervasive violence in Mexico, despite being overwhelmingly visible recently, has been embedded into the system since long before. Mexico experiences different approaches to violence: ordinary, structural, and drug violence. The research question and my contribution are illustrated from four different perspectives, based on the various types of violence that exist in the country: intercartel, government-cartel, cartel-citizens, and government-citizens. After conducting a case study analysis of specific events throughout the last three presidential administrations, a recurring pattern shows that despite the differences in political background, violence continues to be aggravated through a similitude in strategy. Government officials should take meaningful action to address the security needs of citizens – despite the presence of violence – and consider policy changes that focus on providing safety and well-being.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: International Studies
Self-Sacrifice in Vietnamese Women: A Virtue Or Vice?
Get PDFThesis advisor: James F. KeenanThesis advisor: Daniel J. DalyThesis (STL) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology
Framing a Nigerian Ecotheology: From a Contemporary Christian Eschatological Perspective
Get PDFThesis advisor: Félix J. Palazzi von BürenThesis advisor: Colleen GriffithThesis (STL) — Boston College, 2021.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Sacred Theology