<p>Abstract</p> <p>Risky foraging is a male reproductive tactic in most polygynous mammals. It is speculated to result from intense intra-sexual reproductive competition. Consequently this behavior has been speculated ...

<p>This dissertation examines Haiti's crucial role in the re-making of the Atlantic World in the early 19th century. The point of departure for this work is Haiti's Declaration of Independence in 1804 and my research ...

<p>This dissertation consists of three independent musical compositions that represent a diversity of my compositional interests. The first work is titled Song of the Morrígan and is written for chamber orchestra with piano ...

<p>Gram-positive pathogens, such as <italic>Streptococcus pyogenes</italic> and <italic>Staphylococcus aureus</italic>, are etiological agents of a large array of human diseases. Unfortunately, our ability to treat these ...

<p>Mercury contamination in aquatic ecosystems is a concern as anaerobic aquatic sediments are the primary regions of methylmercury production in freshwater and coastal regions. Methlymercury is a bioaccumulative neurotoxin, ...

<p>Directional data, i.e., data collected in the form of angles or natural directions arise in many scientific fields, such as oceanography, climatology, geology, meteorology and biology to name a few. The non-Euclidean ...

<p>A key component of many reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms is the approximation of the value function. The design and selection of features for approximation in RL is crucial, and an ongoing area of research. One ...

Despite decades of protection, the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) has failed to recover, primarily due to interactions with fishing gear and ship strikes. Right whales range along the U.S. east ...

<p>Drylands, comprising arid and semi-arid areas and the dry subtropics, over some 40% of the world's land area and support approximately 2 billion people, including at least 1 billion who depend on dryland agriculture ...

<p>Instability in the propagation of nonlinear electro-chemical waves in the heart is responsible for life-threatening disease. This thesis describes an investigation of the effects of boundaries on cardiac wave propagation ...