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Unearthing Waters: River Heritages of Amazonia
No full text“Unearthing Waters” challenges the failures of heritage preservation in landscape architecture, exposing how its conventions uphold systems of exclusion instead of dismantling them. Placed as both a spatial archive and counterfactual speculation, it foregrounds traditional river heritages as counter-frameworks for land back initiatives in Brazil’s Amazon River basin, envisioning alternative pathways toward territorial justice. Rooted in site-specific ecologies of repair, this initiative structures a new communal program: The Amazon River Reparation Complex.
Unlike regional conservation and industrial complexes, this endeavor unfolds as an active counter-archeology, unearthing historical land trauma through mobilized local insurgencies set in 2035. These acts retrace the submerged histories and contested geographies of the region, critiquing how extractive infrastructures have erased cultural landscapes and land rights across three conflict sites — from Indigenous settlements flooded by hydropower reservoirs in Amazonas, to archeological sites buried beneath transportation ports in Santarém, and riverine communities mined near the Xingu River.Department of Landscape Architectur
The Wind Beneath My Wings: A story about love, guidance, and perseverance.
No full textThis story defines the meaning of love, guidance, and perseverance through the eyes of a young, ambitious caterpillar yearning for a sense of truth, belonging, and hope in a world designed to keep him from becoming a butterfly. The Wind Beneath My Wings is a metaphor for African Americans residing in troubled environments, with high aspirations of making something of themselves, while finding ways to simply survive in the process.
Hov, the protagonist, goes through a myriad of trials and tribulations as he approaches cocoon season. All he wants to do is learn how to spread his wings and fly. The narrative takes the reader on a journey through a day of Hov’s life, the meaningful encounters that come along the way, and an intriguing insight into his unique perspective, as he aims for transformation. Hov ultimately discovers that the journey is indeed the best part when searching for truth, purpose, and belonging.Extension Studie
The identities and roles of cerebrospinal fluid macrophages during development and in the setting of neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage
No full textThe choroid plexus (ChP), a complex epithelial structure in the brain’s ventricles known for the secretion of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), is being increasingly recognized for its role as an immune system hub. The largest population of immune cells are macrophages, which exist as two distinct populations inside the ChP (on the blood side of the blood-CSF barrier) and on the epiplexus surface of the ChP (on the CSF side of the blood-CSF barrier). The CSF population of cells includes not only the cells on the surface of the ChP, but those on the ventricle walls and free-floating in the CSF—together, these are the intraventricular macrophages, the first immune cells that encounter the CSF milieu.
One such condition in which the CSF milieu changes dramatically is in neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage, a common disease of preterm infants in which the fragile blood vessels of the adjacent germinal matrix (known as the lateral ganglionic eminence, or LGE, in mice) burst and causes bleeding directly into the brain ventricles. Macrophages are well-known for clearance of waste products, but how these immature macrophages interact with the harmful iron-containing red blood cells (RBCs) is currently unknown.
This study investigated the developmental appearance and activity of the brain macrophages ex vivo, their expression profile, and how they responded to hemorrhage in the embryonic mouse brain. We describe this elusive population in the ventricle over embryonic brain development and devise a method of imaging the intraventricular macrophages ex vivo. We use this technology in E12.5 embryos to examine the interactions between microglia of the LGE and the developing blood vessels in this region. In E15.5 embryos, we visualized the ChP, and compared the motility of stromal and epiplexus cells. Sequencing of these populations revealed that the embryonic intraventricular macrophages share a transcriptional identity with a previously described developmental microglial type. Using a mouse model of neonatal IVH, we show that embryonic intraventricular macrophages robustly respond to RBCs in the ventricle, and that in their absence, there is an increased number of RBCs present in the brain ventricles 3 days after hemorrhage. Altogether, the work presented here provides compelling evidence that intraventricular macrophages contribute to the removal of RBCs from the ventricle. Future work will explore targeting this population pharmacologically to ameliorate symptoms from neonatal IVH.Biology, Molecular and Cellula
Where Dragonflies Return: Towards an Ento-Metropolis
No full textThe Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly, a key ecological indicator of groundwater-based ecosystems, faces extinction in the United States. Its most genetically diverse remaining habitat - the Des Plaines River watershed in Illinois – is experiencing significant groundwater depletion and encroachment through urbanization, thereby threatening the species’ survival. This proposal reimagines single-minded infrastructure easements as shared commons for people and wildlife, and operates at three layers: point, repurposing groundwater wells into dragonfly habitats; line, transforming transmission corridors into flight pathways; and field, integrating these elements into a systemic urban framework for long-term coexistence.
Over time, the return of the dragonfly would mark the site’s transformation into a new kind of public space, offering a cultural identity shaped by confronting insect agency. Each summer, swarms of dragonflies would become a celebrated spectacle, signaling restored balance between human infrastructure and the natural world. By centering more-than-human perspectives, this vision challenges conventional infrastructure design, advocating for landscapes as adaptive commons—spaces of ecological reciprocity rather than extraction and control.Department of Landscape Architectur
A γδ T cell–IL-3 axis controls allergic responses through sensory neurons
No full textIn naïve individuals, sensory neurons directly detect and respond to allergens, leading both to the sensation of itch and the activation of local innate immune cells, which initiate the allergic immune response. In the setting of chronic allergic inflammation, immune factors prime sensory neurons, causing pathologic itch. While these bidirectional neuroimmune circuits drive responses to allergens, whether immune cells regulate the set-point for neuronal activation by allergens in the naïve state is unknown. Here we describe a gd T cell-IL-3 signaling axis that controls the allergen responsiveness of cutaneous sensory neurons. We define a poorly characterized epidermal gd T cell subset, termed GD3 cells, that produces its hallmark cytokine IL-3 to promote allergic itch and the initiation of the allergic immune response. Mechanistically, IL-3 acts on Il3ra-expressing sensory neurons in a JAK2-dependent manner to lower their threshold for allergen activation without independently eliciting itch. This gd T cell-IL-3 signaling axis further acts via STAT5 to promote neuropeptide production and the initiation of allergic immunity. These results reveal an endogenous immune rheostat that sits upstream of and governs sensory neuronal responses to allergens upon first exposure. This pathway may explain individual differences in allergic susceptibility and opens novel therapeutic avenues for treating allergic diseases.Accepted Manuscrip
International Tax and Corporate Discretion
No full textCorporate social responsibility ("CSR") has a tax problem. The field encourages companies to do more for society than the minimum that is legally required. But, when it comes to companies avoiding tax, CSR has very little to say. Activists even allege that CSR merely distracts from companies' much costlier tax minimization strategies that deprive the state of needed revenue and thereby undercut the state's capacity to perform these very same functions.
Though CSR has historically sidestepped questions of tax, this is beginning to change. Some major companies now discuss tax as a part of their corporate sustainability reporting. And CSR standard setters have started to consider including tax as a factor in their evaluation of corporate behavior. At the same time, countries around the world are starting to implement the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ("OECD") and G20 plan for a Global Minimum Tax. This program aims to enforce a minimum tax rate for large multinational corporations, thereby reducing incentives for tax arbitrage. Though this focus on tightening the rules regarding how much tax business entities owe is significant, companies will still retain much discretion as to where they pay tax.
This Article argues that corporate discretion regarding where to pay tax is a pressing issue about which a more robust version of CSR may provide important guidance. It proposes that future dialogue between tax and CSR should focus not just on how much companies pay but also on where companies pay tax. The Article articulates how considerations of economic development, human rights, and environmental protection may inform the exercise of corporate tax discretion, and it examines the important ramifications of these decisions for global inequality
On Self and Nonself A Case Study of the Cytosolic LPS Sensor Caspase-11
No full textThe cornerstone of immunology lies in the distinction between Self and Non-self, where the immune system must differentiate threats (Non-Self) from innocuous elements (Self) to trigger appropriate responses. Traditionally, this dichotomy has been conceptualized as a mutually exclusive relationship, where Non-Self is defined as the absence of Self. Within this classical framework, autoimmune diseases represent aberrations, and immune tolerance toward tumors is seen as a failure of the immune system.
This thesis explores an alternative framework, proposing that recognition of Self is a prerequisite for recognizing Non-self. In this model, recognition of endogenous ligands, which can be loosely defined as “Self” in the traditional framework, provides a contextual basis for the immune system to fine-tune its responses.
Focusing on caspase-11, traditionally described as a sensor for cytosolic lipopolysaccharide (LPS)—a molecule exclusively associated with Gram-negative bacteria—this thesis uncovers the molecular mechanisms underlying caspase-11's ligand recognition. Furthermore, it identifies the self-equivalent of LPS, shedding light on the duality of Self and Non-Self in immune recognitionMedical Science
A Balancing Act: Examining the Intersection of Data Privacy Rights and the Detection of Child Sexual Abuse Materials
No full textNAComputer Scienc
Description Changes in Architecture: Identity Rules in Shape Grammars and Multiplicity in Design Datasets
No full textThis paper argues that changes or shifts in descriptions of architectural objects or elements have played a critical role in advancing architectural design across history. Description changes are possible when the elements are amenable to a multiplicity of interpretation, to shifts in their structural configuration, appearance, or stylistic meaning. An original compilation of examples is presented that illustrates such descriptive changes across history. These range from the formation of the Doric order to Romanesque, Gothic, Modern and Postmodern architecture. These descriptive changes are shown to have stimulated important generative processes, from forming the triglyph to crafting a Gothic pinnacle or spatially and structurally organizing Terragni's Danteum. The diversity of the examples demonstrates the relevance of descriptive change to all aspects of architecture: from purely structural to purely ornamental.
"Description changes" are represented as rule-based computational processes guided by identity rules, a class of shape rules developed within the design computing theory area of shape grammars. The compilation of the examples illustrates how visual calculating with identity rules can be applied to real architectural contexts. Due to the rising interest in data-driven machine learning, whether for classification or for generative modeling, current architectural design discourse often revolves around a need for creating digital datasets that statically represent a record of architectural knowledge (e.g., plans, three-dimensional geometries, building component libraries). By raising the importance of description changes that have characterized architectural innovation, this paper argues for adopting a new lens in the representation of architectural knowledge in data, namely, one that embraces the possibility and need for changes in descriptions of architectural elements and a multiplicity in their meanings.Computer ScienceHistory of Art and ArchitectureVersion of Recor
Worlds Left Over: Curiosity and Enhanced Experience in Bāṇa’s Kādambarī
No full textThis dissertation looks to the past in order to make claims about the future—or multiple possible futures—of a literary text. It does so by presenting a grounded ahistorical reading of Kādambarī, a remarkably difficult work of Sanskrit literary prose written by the court poet Bāṇa in the seventh-century capital city of Kannauj. This reading illustrates what I call “four-dimensional philology,” the self-reflexive interpretive practice whereby an influential conceptual resource from a text’s reception history functions as a point of departure for novel rereading. The main conceptual resource employed by this dissertation is Bhāmaha’s notion of “enhancement” (atiśaya). With it, I examine moments of heightened experience and expression in Bāṇa’s prose romance, particularly those involving divine horses and precious stones. Instead of limiting myself to the historical question of “what has been said about Kādambarī?” I instead opt for the irrealis mood, asking “what could be said?” in the hope of gaining greater clarity into what should be said about Bāṇa’s work. Ultimately, this dissertation aims to read Kādambarī better with the hope that we might better read ourselves. What is it about literature—especially difficult literature—that piques our curiosity? What forms can the ensuing “revelation” take? And why, after all this, would we ever wish to read Kādambarī again?South Asian Studie