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When the party starts partying: structure, logic, and contradictions of propaganda in China’s new era
No full text2023This dissertation develops around the following contradiction: How has the propaganda system in China mobilized public expression while also repressing it? While conventional literature usually considers heavy censorship as the defining feature of China’s propaganda system, a modern (and modernist) state such as China also relies on positive inputs from citizens to its ideological engineering project. Since the 2010s, the increasingly tightened control has been accompanied by an increasingly visible participation of popular culture in party-state propaganda. This contradiction demands a reexamination of the concepts of propaganda and ideology. Using insider interviews, ethnography, and critical discourse analysis, this dissertation argues that the key to understanding the contradiction lies in changing the conceptualization of propaganda. In the 2010s, the main strategy of China’s propaganda system shifts from making clear-cut prohibitive rules to engineering societal norms that discipline people’s thinking and push citizens to internalize the state’s interest. In other words, propaganda is not simply a top-down imposition of doctrine and dogma, but instead is diffused in the society as discourse and culture, which creates an immersive experience for citizens, constantly reconstructing their subjectivities
Advancing multi-scale network and agent-based computational lung models: potential for personalized prediction of disease progression
Full text link2025The lung is a structurally and mechanically complex organ that is susceptible to many diseases that cause permanent lung damage, such as emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis. There has been an advent of computational models of lung diseases to better understand their underlying mechanisms. To replicate the mechanical behaviors seen in the lungs, spring network models have been utilized on both the alveolar scale and the full-lung scale; additionally, agent-based models have been utilized to apply biological behaviors to spring network models. The union of these two model types — the structural and the biological — has led to important breakthroughs in understanding pathogenesis of lung diseases. However, these models have been focused on uniform tessellating shapes which do not capture the complex structural heterogeneity seen in the lungs. Additionally, these networks tend to be generic as well as esoteric, limiting broader application. There is therefore a need for a more robust means of creating subject-specific models and interpreting the results. The main thesis of this work is therefore that subject-specific spring network models can be utilized to understand the underlying mechanisms of lung pathologies, which in turn can be used to predict disease progression. This work outlines the development of non-uniform and ultimately subject-specific models of lung tissue using spring network model and agent-based model hybrids. These models are then compared to and validated by physiological data, and show complex emergent behavior consistent with real lung diseases. In conclusion, these non-uniform and subject-specific models are far more robust at capturing and understanding existing lung structural pathologies and show great promise to predict disease progression on a personalized basis
Almost sure central limit theorems for parabolic/hyperbolic Anderson models with Gaussian colored noises
No full textThis short note is devoted to establishing the almost sure central limit theorem for the parabolic/hyperbolic Anderson models driven by colored-in-time Gaussian noises, completing recent results on quantitative central limit theorems for stochastic partial differential equations. We combine the second-order Gaussian Poincaré inequality with the method of characteristic functions of Ibragimov and Lifshits, effectively overcoming the challenge from the lack of Itô tools in this colored-in-time setting, and achieving results that are inaccessible with previous methods.Accepted manuscrip
Journal of African Christian Biography: v. 10, no. 2 (April 2025) A quaterly publication of the Dictionary of African Christian Biography (www.DACB.org)
Full text linkFocus: Elizabeth Ruhubya (Uganda); M. O. Madile (Uganda); S. Otu and P. Mohenu (Ghana); Cape Coast History (Ghana)[In this issue, the leading biography—that of Elizabeth Ruhubya—is a striking illustration of the challenges mentioned above. It is a story that has been constructed out of shreds of sources, mostly about other more prominent figures, mostly men.
Emma Wild-Wood wrote this biography after her article “Looking for Elizabeth Ruhubya: Women’s Biographies and Problems of archival research in the Great Lakes Region,” which offers creative insights into how one can still reconstruct a biography using fragments but also by drawing from the local collective Christian witness. The biographies in this issue include Moses Ochwo Madile, a pioneer independent church founder from Uganda, by J. O. Moses Okello, Samuel Otu and
Paulo Mohenu, pioneers from the Basel Mission in Ghana, by Emmanuel Anim Nyanteh, and Silas Javan Aggrey Owiti, another independent church leader from Kenya, by Wilson Okonjo Adongo.
Finally, Cosmas Sarbah offers a biographical history of the Archdiocese of Cape Coast in Ghana, starting with the stories of the earliest founders and pioneers of early Roman Catholic missions in the Gold Coast and extending the narrative up to the
present time.
A Taylor–Leibniz expansion for time domain viscoelastic studies
Full text linkTransient simulations of viscoelastic materials remain common, as does interest in the formulation of such simulations. This paper offers an alternative to the current set of solution schemes, including the Newmark-Beta or space-time Galerkin methods. The solution to an equation of motion for a viscoelastic simulation can be expressed by a Taylor series, when a Leibniz integration rule is applied to the time integral appearing in the viscoelastic stress equation. The result is a remarkably simple scheme to implement that also offers extremely rapid solution times. This effort includes a formulation of the approach, as well as numerical results for a simple mass and viscoelastic spring system, including an assessment of the number of Taylor series terms needed to accurately depict transient behavior. The paper outlines how the approach could be extended to finite element analysis and how complex loading conditions could be accounted for. Care is given in addressing the potential limitations of the approach.Published versio
Optimal maneuvering for safe and cooperative autonomous vehicles in mixed traffic
Full text link2025Optimal trajectory planning and control for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) in mixed traffic is a fundamental and challenging problem, especially when safety and optimization goals conflict with each other with the existence of human-driven vehicles (HDVs). While cooperative control of CAVs offers promising opportunities for enhancing traffic safety and efficiency, how to benefit from the presence of a limited fraction of CAVs in mixed traffic when CAVs must safely interact with uncontrollable HDVs remains an open question. The first part of this dissertation establishes a safe interaction between CAVs and HDVs in the lane-changing problem so that the best possible response of a CAV to actions by its neighboring HDVs is modeled and an optimal policy for the CAV to perform a safe maneuver is designed. This interaction is formulated using a game theoretic framework with an appropriate behavioral model for an HDV and an iterated best response (IBR) method is used to determine aNash equilibrium. Moreover, CAV-HDV interaction can be eliminated or greatly reduced by CAV cooperation so that the optimal policy is independent of HDV behavior. The cost of CAVs in this policy is proved to be monotonic with respect to the length of the CAV-HDV gap when vehicle interaction starts. Second, considering the fact that the dynamics and human-in-the-loop control policies of HDVs are unknown and hard to predict in practice, this dissertation adopts an event-triggered Control Barrier Function (CBF) method for CAVs to ensure the safety between CAVs and HDVs, and implements it in highway lane-changing maneuvers. The employed event-triggered CBF method estimates HDV models online, constructs data-driven and state-feedback safety controllers, and transforms constrained optimal control problems for CAVs into a sequence of Quadratic Programs (QPs). It reduces the computation complexity, bridges the gap between optimal trajectory planning and real-time control, and provides flexibility for CAVs to execute lane changes while ensuring collision avoidance with HDVs. Beyond controlling CAVs, the final part of this dissertation develops a Cooperative Compliance Control (CCC) framework to incentivize HDVs to align their behavior with socially optimal objectives using a "refundable toll" scheme so as to achieve a desired compliance probability for all non-compliant HDVs. A key challenge lies in the heterogeneous and unknown responses of human drivers to tolls, complicating controller design and compliance enforcement over the traffic network. To address this, the thesis employs Control Lyapunov Functions (CLFs) to adaptively correct crucial components of the compliance probability model online and demonstrates that the desired compliance probability for HDVs can be achieved. The CCC scheme can be applied at both the micro-level, to induce a desired acceleration/deceleration of non-cooperative vehicles, and the macro-level, to affect decision-making processes such as route guidance, thereby improving system-wide traffic efficiency
Weapons of mass distraction: information warfare in the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars
Full text linkThough states have relied on information warfare to support conventional conflicts throughout history, technological developments, particularly over the past two decades, have transformed both the actors capable of conducting operations as well as the operations themselves. Despite some international efforts to adapt law and policy to encompass this rapidly changing environment, legal frameworks remain unequipped to address the contemporary challenges posed by 21st century information warfare. By examining information operations conducted by both state and non-state actors in the Russia-Ukraine War and the Israel-Gaza War, this paper seeks to define and categorise the contemporary information landscape and identify further challenges to effective policymaking. Through an in-depth analysis of conflict-related information operations, and a comparison of actors both within the same conflict settings and between the two wars, this paper proposes additional categorisations of information operations and further identifies gaps in existing legal frameworks based on these findings
Environmental influences on menstrual disturbances and uterine leiomyomata
No full text2025Menstrual disturbances and gynecologic conditions affect the health and quality of life of millions of individuals, yet they are understudied relative to their public health burden. Environmental exposures can influence reproductive health outcomes, and may represent potential targets for public health interventions. In this dissertation, we estimated the effects of three environmental factors — the neighborhood socioeconomic environment, use of chemical hair straighteners, and metal biomarkers — on the risk of abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB), dysmenorrhea, and uterine leiomyomata (UL).First, we conducted a cross-sectional study of the associations of neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage with the prevalence of AUB and dysmenorrhea. We analyzed data from Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO), an internet-based cohort of North American pregnancy planners. We operationalized neighborhood disadvantage using the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) and defined AUB and dysmenorrhea based on self-reported menstrual cycle characteristics. We observed that living in a more disadvantaged neighborhood (relative to the least disadvantaged within-state quartile) was associated with a higher prevalence of menstrual disturbances. After adjustment for individual-level household income, the association between neighborhood disadvantage and prevalence of AUB was attenuated, whereas neighborhood disadvantage remained positively associated with the prevalence of dysmenorrhea.
Second, we conducted a cross-sectional study of the associations of chemical hair straightener (“relaxer”) use with the prevalence of AUB and dysmenorrhea in PRESTO. We observed positive associations of current (vs. never) relaxer use with the prevalence of AUB and dysmenorrhea. Furthermore, measures reflecting higher cumulative lifetime exposure to hair relaxers, including younger age at first use, ever experiencing burns during application, and greater frequency of use, were positively associated with the prevalence of dysmenorrhea.
Third, we conducted a prospective study of the associations of 17 metal biomarkers measured in whole blood with UL incidence during 20 months of follow-up. We analyzed data from the Study of Environment, Lifestyle and Fibroids (SELF), a cohort of reproductive-aged Black individuals in the Detroit, Michigan area. We used Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR), a flexible statistical mixture method that allows for non-linear associations and interactions between mixture components while controlling for co-pollutant confounding. We observed a weak, positive association between the metal mixture and incident UL during 20 months of follow-up, which was driven by cadmium. We observed stronger positive associations of cadmium and mercury with incident UL among participants with vitamin D deficiency (<20 ng/mL).
Our results illuminate novel connections between the social and physical environment and reproductive health. If supported by further research, our findings may inform public health interventions to prevent menstrual disturbances and UL.2027-05-09T00:00:00
Understanding and addressing opioid misuse and overdose in U.S. higher education settings: a mixed methods study of college students and institutional leaders
No full text2025The rate of unintentional drug overdose deaths among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) increased 147% between 2015 and 2022 despite otherwise stable rates of substance use. Overdoses involving fentanyl (a highly potent synthetic opioid) tripled among AYAs from 2019 to 2021. Evidence indicates that fentanyl is being added to nonopioid drugs, including stimulants (e.g., Adderall, Ritalin, cocaine) and counterfeit pills, implicating a much broader range of AYAs beyond those who knowingly use opioids. For numerous reasons—including that more than half of all AYAs enroll in US postsecondary education—colleges and universities represent an important setting to understand and prevent opioid misuse and overdose nationwide. Utilizing three levels of data—population-level student survey data, college-level policy data, institutional leaderin-depth interview data—the immediate objective of this dissertation is to understand the current state of student opioid knowledge and opioid overdose prevention in higher education. The long-term goal of this research is to generate evidence to inform the design and implementation of opioid overdose and harm reduction programs and policies for the more than 20 million college students in the US. The three chapters of this dissertation aim to: (1) comprehensively describe current public health approaches to prevent opioid-related harms in college and university settings; (2) estimate, using national survey data from the Healthy Minds Study (HMS), college students’ willingness to intervene during an overdose through their (i) opioid-related knowledge, (ii) social relationships, and (iii) campus connectedness; and (3) explore, using in-depth interviews, perceptions of and decision-making by higher education leaders regarding student opioid misuse and overdose prevention programming in college settings. This dissertation research is innovative as it is the first known study to use large-scale, multi-campus data from college students to examine their knowledge of opioid overdose risk, naloxone, and willingness to intervene during an overdose. It is significant as the findings will have a broader impact on filling gaps relating to opioid overdose prevention in higher education settings.2026-05-09T00:00:00
The museum of fine arts’ presentation of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture
Full text linkWhen you walk into the main Ancient Greek and Roman gallery of the MFA, you are immediately faced with several marble sculptures, pots, and friezes. It looks like a traditional exhibition of ancient art. In fact, the focal point of the gallery is a colossal Roman statue called Muse with the Head of Juno . The statue is practically the epitome of what comes to mind when we think of Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, with its flowing drapery and gleaming marble. The gallery is set up in a way so that one weaves through life-size sculptures and all white marble, but another one stands out. It is a Roman copy of the Athena Parthenos, and to the side is a screen with a technological rendering of what she is thought to have looked like. The position of the screen behind the sculpture forces you to reimagine the Athena Parthenos, as well as all other Greek and Roman sculptures.The text on the wall goes on to explain “The Myth of Classical Whiteness,” stating that objects in the gallery marked with a color wheel have traces of pigments and urges the viewer to “experience ancient art as it was meant to be seen.” Science and technology are now forcing museums to present a more accurate presentation of this art, and consequently forcing us to reevaluate our memories and perceptions