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Intimate Temporal Resonances: A Composition Portfolio
No full textDuring my seven years of doctoral studies at Harvard (from 2018 to 2025), I made 15 works in total, 8 of which are enclosed in this composition portfolio. Although this wasn’t clear to me from the beginning, approximately halfway through the program I became aware that vulnerability stands at the center of my work. It behaves like a gravitational force that shapes and colors all the parameters and aspects of my music, pulling them in, reshaping and creating a mirror of the self, pleading for attention. I couldn’t ignore it anymore; I had to admit it and fully acknowledge its presence and transformative potential – first to myself, and then to others. The notion of vulnerability can be traced in all of these pieces, in various forms and scales. Sometimes it’s something I say (intimate confessions), sometimes, something I don’t say (they are implicitly present but hidden), and sometimes, it’s what I experience through sound.
In f l e s h (2019), the shift from pure tone to distortion and noise, along with physically demanding instrumental lines, mirrors internal pressure and emotional strain. The piece svi tvoji svetovi (2019) stretches harmonic progression and resonance over time, exposing fragility through slowness and introspection. With Kontakt (2021), war-related sound objects (such as air raid sirens and helicopters) combine into a dense, overwhelming sonic mass, confronting trauma and reflecting the impact of PTSD. This deep focus on sonic material continues in resound (2021), where electroacoustic techniques zoom into microscopic sonic details, stretching resonances and harmonies until the emergence of voice as a direct expression of the inner self. In Nebulae (2022), the electric guitar’s distorted sound meets floating textures, while the arrival of a love song at the end creates a feeling of disorientation and transcendence. A different kind of inward focus emerges in brightness (2022), where harmonic reduction and extreme slowness turn listening inward, with a whispered prayer marking a moment of reflection and spiritual connection. Finally, in spektrum . spektra (2025), a single pitch expands into a multi-layered sonic world, where the electric guitar explicitly connects to my late father (his musical influence and the absence after his passing), transforming inherited sonic memories into an immersive, cathartic experience.
Paradoxically, my very first piece of this period (sh[out], 2018) is a full disclosure of intimacy, one that literally and transparently exposes a highly emotionally charged personal content. Yet, at that time, internally and externally, I wasn’t ready to process and categorize this output. My understanding of it has gradually shifted, from avoidance to the recognition of a compulsive need to feed in the cycle of re-experiencing pain, and this has eventually evolved into an awareness and embrace of an enlightening moment – when someone who has carried the weight of unresolved burden for years is starting to wake up. This is a very precious moment to me – a turning point that redefines the narrative in which the subject is not telling a story anymore, nor are they directing everyone’s attention toward one specific point. Contrary to any glimpse of voyeurism, this mutual process of reconstructing the sonic and mental space between artist and audience forms an environment that enables and encourages self-reflection. It is a polyphony of the mirroring of shared emotions and experiences, a weaving of thoughts and impressions that lie at the core of human existence.
The body of work that I made during my doctorate, in retrospect, represents an effort to engage the audience on a fundamental level; it is an invitation for everyone to allow and encounter their own inner spaces while being submerged in a subtly altered perception through the lens of sound. Ultimately, my music aims to spark introspection, catharsis, and personal growth.Musi
Register Allocation using Pseudo-Boolean Optimization
No full textRegister allocation is the process in which variables defined by the user-given pro-
gram are assigned to a physical location in memory during the runtime of the program.
Despite being a NP-hard problem, this step cannot be skipped during the process of
compilation and thus is the subject of study. Generally, it is accepted that the programmer must choose between a balance of compilation speed and run time reduction.
The better a register allocation is, measured by the reduction effect on the run time,
the longer the register allocation pass generally takes. Even in cases where run time is
the goal of the user, however, modern compilers such as Clang and GCC use heuristics to approximate the effectiveness of their solutions as to provide reasonable compile
times. Curious as to alternate approaches to this problem, we explore the possibility of
recruiting the use of NP-hard solvers in aiding us during register allocation.
The chosen approach involves translating the register allocation into a pseudo-
boolean optimization (PBO) problem. This specific NP-hard problem was chosen due
to the similar nature that it had with register allocation, allowing to quick translation,
and the strength of the solvers that were publicly available. Specifically, there is a natural mapping from the assignment of virtual registers to physical locations and stack
slots at each program index to variables within the PBO problem. Furthermore, the
translation between the correctness requirements to the constraints representable in
PBO is quite easy as well.
By performing this transformation of register allocation to a PBO problem, we
hope that we can achieve the highest level of running time efficiency by sacrificing a
large amount of time during compilation. This is not to replace the current standard
algorithms used in practice today, but offer an extreme comparison between them and
the theoretical optimal solution. As such, we will be able to understand how much
room there is left in improvement to these heuristics and whether or not investing
more work in them is worthwhile.Computer Scienc
Plasma N-Glycome as a Novel Biomarker for Cardiovascular Risk
No full textFirst Project:
Title: Plasma N-Glycome as a Novel Biomarker for Cardiovascular Risk: Secondary Analysis of the JUPITER and TNT Trials.
Background: Glycosylation, a key post-translational enzymatic modification of proteins, plays a crucial role in biological pathways related to atherosclerosis. However, the relationship between plasma N-glycans and clinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) is underexplored.
Methods: Using a discovery-validation study design, we measured baseline plasma N-glycans with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography in two nested case-control studies within the JUPITER (NCT00239681; N=513 case-control pairs, discovery) and TNT (NCT00327691; N=436 case-control pairs, validation) trials. Incident CVD cases were matched 1:1 by age and sex in JUPITER and by statin randomization and disease risk score in TNT.
Using conditional logistic regression, we examined associations between baseline plasma N-glycans and future CVD in JUPITER, adjusting for age, sex, race, LDL-C, HDL-C, hypertension, smoking, hs- CRP, BMI, aspirin use, and statin randomization. Significant associations were validated in TNT. We conducted a meta-analysis to combine effect estimates and performed sex- and age-adjusted Spearman correlations between plasma glycans and clinical biomarkers. Additionally, we derived a plasma glycan score in JUPITER via stepwise conditional regression.
Results: In JUPITER, five plasma N-glycans were significantly associated with lower CVD risk after false discovery rate (FDR) adjustment: two core fucosylated-galactosylated (GP5,10), two tetragalactosylated-tetrasialylated (GP37,38), and one oligomannose (GP19) glycan. All were negatively associated with CVD. GP10 was replicated in TNT (FDR.05). Meta-analysis confirmed these findings, linking core fucosylation, galactosylation, and sialylation to lower CVD risk across multiple glycans (GP5,10,16, 21,37, and 38) and identifying a positive association between antennary fucosylation (GP27) and CVD in a model excluding inflammatory variables.
Seven GPs comprised the plasma glycan score, which was associated with a nearly 2-fold increase in CVD risk per standard deviation (aHR:1.91, 95%CI: 1.59–2.30, P.001) in JUPITER after adjusting for traditional risk factors, with validation in TNT. In JUPITER, adding the glycan score improved the AUC from 0.73 (95%CI: 0.64–0.82) to 0.76 (95%CI: 0.67–0.84), P.001, with further replication in TNT (P=0.03).
Conclusion: Specific baseline plasma N-glycan profiles are associated with future CVD. Core fucosylation, galactosylation, and sialylation show independent negative associations, while antennary fucosylation is positively associated to risk, potentially via inflammatory pathways. The glycan score improves model prediction performance, independent of cardiovascular risk factors.
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Second Project:
Title: Immunoglobulin G N-Glycosylation as a Novel Biomarker for Premature Myocardial Infarction: a Case-Control Study.
Background: Glycosylation, a key post-translational modification, plays a crucial role in biological pathways related to atherosclerosis.
Purpose: To investigate whether immunoglobulin-G (IgG) N-glycosylation profiles are associated with premature myocardial infarction (MI) and to evaluate whether a glycan-based score improves case identification beyond traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
Methods: We measured 27 IgG N-glycans using capillary gel electrophoresis in 377 cases with premature first MI (men≤55 years; women≤65 years) and 377 controls matched for age (±5 years), sex, and nationality from the Gulf PREVENT study, a case-control study investigating risk factors for premature MI in the United Arab Emirates. We performed conditional logistic regression to evaluate associations between IgG-N-glycans and premature MI, adjusting for age, body mass index, LDL-C, HDL-C, hs-CRP, hypertension, diabetes, and smoking. Using LASSO regression, we derived a novel IgG-glycan score as a linear combination of selected glycans associated with premature MI. We evaluated model performance using likelihood ratio tests and the area under the curve (AUC) adapted for the case-control design, using 10-fold cross-validation.
Results: After adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors, glycan peaks (P) 4,13,23, and 27 were positively associated with premature MI (false discovery rate[FDR].05). Bisecting N- acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) was the consistent glycosylation pattern among these four glycans. In contrast, P22, a core-fucosylated and monogalactosylated glycan, had inverse association (FDR=0.02) with premature MI. An IgG-glycan score, composed of Ps 2,4,8,17,20, and 24, was associated with twofold increase in premature MI risk per standard deviation increment (aOR,1.98 [95%CI,1.56–2.52];P.001) after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors. Furthermore, the IgG- glycan score significantly improved model fit, as indicated by the likelihood ratio test (P.001), and enhanced model performance, increasing the AUC from 0.72(95%CI,0.64–0.79) to 0.75(95%CI,0.68– 0.81).
Conclusion: We identified novel IgG N-glycosylation patterns that were associated with premature MI independent of cardiovascular risk factors. While core fucosylation, galactosylation, and sialylation were common to both positively and negatively associated glycans, the crucial distinction was that glycans linked to increased premature MI risk consistently contained bisecting GlcNAc, whereas those negatively associated lacked this modification. A novel IgG-glycan score was associated with premature MI risk independent of other risk factors and improved model performance.Graduate Educatio
Supporting the Supporters: Understanding the Training and Support Needs of Staff Serving Clients who Use Drugs with Mental Health Challenges
No full textThe changing needs of people who use drugs, particularly those with unmet mental health needs, pose significant challenges for organizations that provide harm reduction or “low-threshold” services, whose non-clinical staff manage complex cases. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of mental health providers to meet the needs of people who use drugs with co-morbid mental health challenges, placing additional burdens on non-clinical organizations and staff. To meet the increasing demand for low-threshold services, staff must take on more complex cases, placing them at risk for burnout and overextension. Despite this increasing demand, little is known about the training and support needs of this workforce.
A pilot intervention with low-threshold program staff was developed to identify and support staff training and capacity-building needs. This doctoral project analyzed secondary, qualitative data from this pilot to understand the training needs of this workforce and provide recommendations to similar low-threshold organizations.
Staff needs were thematically analyzed, and themes were stratified using a five-level, staff-centric, socio-ecological model:
• Individual level: Emphasized the importance of self-care, preventing and responding to burnout, addressing secondary trauma, and developing skills grounded in adult learning principles.
• Interpersonal level: Highlighted the need to understand the interaction between substance use and mental health, focusing on mental health medication, psychosis response, client engagement strategies tailored to people who use drugs, and improved crisis management and safety protocols.
• Organizational level: Identified the necessity for enhanced training and education on harm reduction practices, clinically-oriented supervision and support, and real-time feedback mechanisms.
• Community level: Identified challenges related to resource and referral limitations for clients with mental health needs and adapting to the evolving drug use landscape.
• Societal levels: Highlighted the challenges of addressing stigma associated with drug use and shifting support from individuals in recovery to those actively using substances.
The findings show that training and support for non-clinical staff are essential to client and staff wellbeing but are not alone sufficient to bridge mental health service gaps. Organizational investment is crucial to provide comprehensive staff-centric training and support and foster a low-threshold service workforce that is empowered, well-supported, and better equipped to support their clients' complex needs.Public Healt
Quantum gas microscopy of the anyon-Hubbard model
No full textLow-dimensional quantum systems can host anyons, particles with exchange statistics that are neither bosonic nor fermionic. However, the physics of one-dimensional (1D) anyons remains largely unexplored. Using ultracold bosonic Rb-87 atoms in an optical lattice, we realize and explore the anyon-Hubbard model, which hosts 1D anyons and features a rich phase diagram. We implement the model using techniques from Floquet engineering, realizing the statistical phase in the form of a density-dependent Peierls phase.
Using our high-resolution imaging system, we explore both the dynamical and ground state behavior in the anyon-Hubbard model. In the first set of experiments, we probe 1D anyons via two-particle quantum walks, observing the anyonic Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect, as well as the formation of bound states without on-site interactions. Once interactions are introduced, we observe spatially asymmetric transport in contrast to the symmetric dynamics of bosons and fermions.
In the next set of experiments, we adiabatically prepare and probe ground states in the anyon-Hubbard model. First, we observe continuous fermionization in the density profile with increasing statistical phase. Then, we probe the chirality of the bound states in the anyon-Hubbard model, drawing similarities to a continuum model of 1D anyons. This work constitutes the first experimental study of the anyon-Hubbard model, and lays the foundation for exploration in the strongly correlated many-body regime.Physic
Essays on Human Capital Investment Decisions: K-12, Higher Education, and the Labor Market
No full textIn this dissertation, I use applied econometric methods to explore a myriad of human capital investments that individuals choose in K-12, higher education, and labor market contexts. The findings provide insight into how public and education policies shape what and where students, particularly women, study and/or work.
The first paper studies the impact of state reproductive rights laws on women’s college choices after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion in \textit{Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization} (2022). Using college application data from the Common App, I find that abortion bans caused a significant decrease in the proportion of high-achieving women who applied to a school in states with abortion bans. Effects were larger for applicants from states without abortion bans, as well as for applicants from the most liberal counties in the United States. Measurable effects first emerged in the 2021-22 college application season after several Court actions suggested that it would overturn \textit{Roe v. Wade} (1973) the following year, increased in magnitude in the 2022-23 college application season, and persisted in the 2023-24 college application season.
The second paper examines the effect of a district-level policy change to a K-12 centralized school assignment system on school choice. The policy change, which occurred in a large urban school district in the Northeast, increased families’ access to nearby high-quality schools and provided them with new information about school quality. Using district administrative data, I find that families chose higher-quality schools as their preferred first-choice school when their access to these schools increased. I also find suggestive evidence that gaining information about school quality affected school choices above and beyond improvements to school choice sets. These findings coincided with a decrease in the number of schools that families could choose from, suggesting that school choice decisions can improve as options decrease.
The third paper describes the relationship between non-pecuniary workplace preferences and college majors, occupations, and the gender pay gap. I use data on first-time bachelor’s degree-seeking traditional undergraduate students from the 2012/17 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study. First, I find that workplace preferences became less important relative to salary as students approached the workforce. Second, I find that workplace preferences, particularly preferences for helping others as a part of one’s job, were positively associated with female-dominated majors and occupations (e.g., education and health care fields) and negatively associated with male-dominated majors and occupations (e.g., business and STEM fields). Third, I find that preferences for helping others explain a significant portion of the early-career gender wage gap; women were more likely to choose jobs within the same field that involved helping others and were associated with lower wages.Educatio
The British Empire’s Greatest Hebraist: The Texts and Contexts of Christian David Ginsburg
No full textThis dissertation offers a comprehensive biographical and intellectual examination of
Christian David Ginsburg (1825–1914), a pivotal yet overlooked figure in the history of modern
Jewish and Biblical scholarship. Born to a Jewish family in Warsaw, Ginsburg converted to
Christianity in his youth and relocated to England, where he integrated himself into elite social
and academic circles within Victorian London. By the end of the nineteenth century, he was
widely regarded as Britain’s premier authority on all aspects of Hebraic and Jewish literature,
especially the textual and paratextual elements of the Hebrew Bible. His prolific output played
an important role in the nascent field of academic Jewish studies, especially in the Englishspeaking world. His works represent a remarkable and revealing effort to elucidate key aspects
of Jewish intellectual history within the linguistic and conceptual frameworks of his Victorian
milieu.
Despite his significant contributions and correspondence with prominent scholars,
Ginsburg has been largely overlooked in the secondary literature. This dissertation aims to
rectify this gap by providing a comprehensive biography of Ginsburg and situating his work
within the intellectual currents of the nineteenth century. The dissertation is structured around
four chapters, each addressing a key aspect of Ginsburg's life and intellectual legacy. Chapter
two traces his personal trajectory from his humble origins in Poland to his role as a well-connected and highly accomplished Victorian grandee. Chapter three focuses on Ginsburg’s
biblical exegesis, particularly his commentaries on the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes. This chapter both highlights his unique synthesis of traditional and critical methodologies and
considers his own place within the broader histories of Jewish and Christian Biblical
commentary. Chapter four examines Ginsburg as a historian, focusing upon his pioneering
investigation into Jewish mysticism, which more than any other work demonstrated his
interactions with other Jewish scholarship of his own period as well as previous centuries.
Chapter five explores Ginsburg’s massive works on the biblical masorah, which cemented his
reputation as a leading scholar and have served as foundational works in this field ever since.
Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to restore Ginsburg to his rightful place in the history of
Jewish and Biblical.
This dissertation goes beyond this rehabilitative effort. Through an in-depth analysis of
Ginsburg’s contributions, this dissertation seeks to probe, illuminate, and complicate some of
the intellectual currents within which Ginsburg’s works may be placed. These include the late
Hebraic Haskalah, the circle of Judaic scholars known as the Wissenschaft des Judentums
movement, the tradition of Christian Hebraism, and the strain of European ideas that has come
to be called the Religious Enlightenment. Ginsburg’s example is instructive for the study of
these movements, and for their distinct yet intertwined paths of development in the nineteenth
century.Near Eastern Languages and Civilization
Investigating evolutionary changes to the genetic architecture of the postcranial skeleton in humans and other mammals
No full textWith a haploid size of over 3 billion base pairs, identifying the genomic regions involved in any given human trait is a daunting problem of finding a needle in a haystack. To add complexity, most traits are highly polygenic – that is, controlled by many genetic loci with small individual effects – so the problem is more akin to finding hundreds to thousands of tiny needles in that same haystack. A promising approach to making this problem more feasible is to partition the genome using biological information relevant to the trait, such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS) or chromatin accessibility data (e.g., ATAC-seq) in relevant tissues. In this dissertation, I use these approaches to identify genomic positions which have shaped the development of the postcranial skeleton in humans and other mammals. In Chapter 2, I combine human GWAS on eleven complex traits with genotypic and phenotypic data on hundreds of mammals to identify genomic positions that have evolved in parallel across Mammalia. I find that evolution in body size and red blood count across mammals has repeatedly utilized non-coding nucleotide changes underlying variation in those traits in humans. In Chapter 3, I investigate genomic evidence for the role of limb integration in autopod (hand and foot) evolution by characterizing regulatory elements and genes involved in the patterning and growth of the human autopod skeleton at the cartilage stage. I show that natural selection has acted more strongly on the foot than the hand and that while some regions of anatomical change in the autopod are consistent with a few loci of large effect, changes in the size of the posterior digits are consistent with an additive, polygenic model. In Chapter 4, I combine autopod regulatory regions with data on other skeletal elements across the postcranium to comprehensively test regulatory elements involved in the developing postcranial skeleton for differential enhancer activity between human and chimp using a massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA). In doing so, I simultaneously assess the efficacy of multiple methods for identifying genomic regions with human-specific regulatory properties based on comparative genomics. Altogether, this dissertation combines comparative and functional genomic approaches to identify genomic regions involved in the evolution and development of the human postcranial skeleton and highlights changes to regulatory elements that may play causative roles in trait biology.Human Evolutionary Biolog
Differential response of osteocytes to tensile and compressive cues during loading, unloading, spaceflight and artificial gravity
No full textIn bone, osteocytes are vital contributors to the processes of mechanosensation and mechanotransduction. Recently, there has been an increased interest in differential bone adaptation in response to different mechanical cues. To date, there are no reports about osteocytes' differential response to tension versus compression forces. We aimed to study the differential effects of tension and compression cues on osteocytes in vivo, in mice tibia at steady state and when subjected to different mechanical challenges. Areas in mice tibial midshaft subjected to tensile and compressive forces have been previously identified by utilizing finite element modeling. Mice were subjected to 1) mechanical loading, 2) unloading though hindlimb suspension, and 3) spaceflight and artificial gravity. Samples were analyzed using Backscatter Scanning Electron Microscopy (BSEM) imaging to visualize the morphological changes in osteocyte lacunae, as well as light microscopy to visualize the morphology of the Lacuno- Canalicular Network (LCN). Bulk RNA sequencing was performed to explore whole genome differential gene expression associated with the morphological changes. Depending upon whether the osteocytes were subjected to tension or compression, they behaved differently in terms of 1) peri-lacunar remodeling, 2) macro-remodeling and 3) their transcriptome; in which lacuna were lower in density and larger in size larger in compression cortices. The compression cortices were thicker and more porous than tension cortices, and the osteocytes’ transcriptome revealed differentially express neuronal genes that are involved in dendrite formation and regulation, ion transport genes, which regulate the ionic microenvironment, and Extra-Cellular Matrix (ECM) related genes, which regulate ECM resorption or formation.Orthodontic
Oral health education for non-dental health care providers in a Massachusetts Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) program
No full textObjectives: Older adults (age 65+) are the fastest growing age group within the United States. In 2022, only 64% of older Americans visited the dentist for a dental exam or cleaning compared to 95% having a doctor visit. Non-dental healthcare providers can play a role in assessing oral health (OH) concerns among older adults. This exploratory study examined whether non-dental providers who received OH education training would have increased knowledge and higher confidence to perform oral assessments in their older adult patients.
Methods: Physicians and nurse practitioners (N=21) of a Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) center in Massachusetts were recruited. Providers completed a 13-item pre-test, then attended a virtual education session (1 hour) covering OH knowledge and skills including training to perform a basic oral exam, identify xerostomia, conduct an oral cancer screening, and assess denture hygiene and associated lesions. The education session was followed by a 10-item post-test and brief discussion. Two-months later, providers were given a 14-item questionnaire followed by a 30-minute-long discussion session. The questionnaires items on knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) and confidence in assessing OH among older adults as well as demographic questions.
Results: Nineteen out of 21 providers participated in the OH education. Sixteen participated in the pre-test; 19 in the post-test; and 15 in the 2-month follow-up. Before the education session, 56% did not have prior OH training in their health profession education, while 31% did have training. Prior to the education, 81% of providers reported sometimes conducting an OH screening; 13% did not conduct screenings. At the 2-month follow-up, 87% of providers reported conducting an OH screening in some appointments. Providers acknowledged the importance of additional training (e.g., skill-building) for assessing OH among older patients. In the brief discussions, providers explored that overall, they felt that their oral health knowledge was increased after the OH education session. They also discussed how the OH training/skill building increased their confidence in assessing OH among their older adult patients.
Conclusions: Half of the PACE providers did not receive oral health education in their health profession training. They suggested additional lectures with tips and skill-building exercises.Geriatric Dentistr