Primates span incredible behavioral and ecological diversity, and this diversity is reflected in the shape of the skull. This dissertation asks two questions surrounding the evolution of primate skull shape: 1) what are ...

This dissertation examines how people’s loyalty to their groups influences their perception of harm. Specifically, people who are loyal (vs. not loyal) to their ingroup perceive negative actions by an outgroup against their ...

Multi-sided media market is a rapidly evolving phenomenon where practice is ahead of research. In this market, a media platform usually manages the interaction between multiple groups of participants, such as consumers, ...

Data-driven approaches to decision-making under uncertainty is at the center of many operational problems. These are problems in which there is an element of uncertainty (e.g., customer demand) that needs to be estimated ...

β-Adrenergic receptors (βAR) are one of the key modulators of cardio-pulmonary functions and belong to a large family of membrane proteins, termed as G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). β-blockers (βAR antagonists) and ...

I investigate the generation and propagation characteristics of leaky Rayleigh waves (LRWs) by a spherical shock wave incident on a glass-water boundary both experimentally and numerically. The maximum tensile stress produced ...

Thousands of public records survive from democratic Athens. Nearly all of them are inscribed on stone (or more rarely metal). A century and more of study has revealed that these inscriptions were the tip of the iceberg. ...

Contests are essential parts of an animal’s life history, as they dictate access to critical resources like mates, food, or territory. Studying how animals efficiently assess competitive ability to resolve contests is a ...

I explore the relationships between households’ real estate decisions and their local urban and political environments. In the first chapter, I investigate whether household mortgage choices are influenced by social interaction. ...

Granular materials under shear are common in nature and industry. Previous results show changes of system behaviors when friction is added and particle shapes are varied, e.g. shear jamming for frictional grains. Understanding ...