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Critical sociological studies of education have investigated whether education enables young women to lead independent lives and have argued that it reproduces gender inequalities (Holland & Eisenhart, 1990). In the past decade, since the shooting of the Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, the debates about women’s education the world over have been brought back into focus. Contemporary discourses surrounding women’s education have often been implicitly premised on an assumption that the education of young women would enable them to gain autonomy over their bodies, and reproductive and sexual freedoms. Based on ten months of fieldwork among lower middle-class young women (18-30) who are completing or have completed their college education in Ghaziabad district, twenty miles east of Delhi, I examine the role of education in bringing about a change in gender relations in this region. In analysing education ethnographically, I focus on the meanings and practices of education as a lived experience and investigate the subjectivities and affective practices of educated young women as they negotiate their presence in the city. My examination of the subjectivities of educated young women in UP makes three contributions. First, it highlights that for lower middle-class young women, education is a daily practice that allows certain spatial and sexual freedoms. The practices of education entail an expression of emotional dispositions of rage and pleasure by young women in public spaces, which is an emerging middle-class practice in India. Second, it illustrates that while education enables pre-marital heterosexual intimacy in India, in line with global and Bollywood-inspired romances, it does not transform the institution of marriage. Marriage continues to be decided by parents, and young women are unable to realise their ideals of a companionate marriage, with egalitarian relations between husbands and wives. Third, I argue that young women are haunted by the promises of freedom and autonomy that education had inspired in them. Despite education’s inability to bring promised benefits, young people continue to invest in education because it is the only social institution that makes it possible for them to inhabit, even if for a short period, their imaginations for a better life. Thus, in this post-education landscape, young people maintain a ‘cruel optimism’ (Berlant, 2011) about the institution of education.

Right-Wing movements have gained political momentum in the last few decades, drawing within their ranks women who not only embody their exclusionary and violent politics but who also simultaneously contest everyday patriarchies. This thesis examines the everyday politics of women in two right-wing movements, the cultural nationalist Hindu right-wing project in India and the settler-colonial Zionist project in Israel-Palestine. Based on fourteen months of ethnographic, narrative, and visual 'fieldwork' conducted with women in both these movements, I argue that through a politics of the everyday, right-wing women bargain and negotiate with patriarchal communities/homes, male-formulated ideologies and discourses, and male-dominated right-wing projects and spaces. These mediations replicate and affirm as well as subvert and challenge patriarchal structures and power hierarchies, troubling the binaries of home/world, private/public, personal/political, and victim/agent. I assert that dominant literature on right-wing women focuses on motherhood and family, ignoring various other crucial subject positions that are constituted and occupied by right-wing women and neglecting the agential and empowering potential of right-wing women's subjectivities. I use four themes/lenses to examine the everyday politics of right-wing women. These are: pedagogy and education; charity and humanitarian work; intimacy, friendship, sociability and leisure; and political violence. By interrogating the practices that are contained in and enabled by these four locations of Hindu right-wing and Zionist settler women's everyday politics, this thesis highlights the multiple narratives, contradictions, pluralities, hierarchies, power structures, languages, and discourses that encompass right-wing women's projects. By capturing the processes of subject formation of right-wing women, I encapsulate how my interlocutors shape the subjectivities of those in their communities, transforming the local and international landscapes of the Hindu right-wing and the Zionist settler project. Drawing together ethnographic narratives, 'story-telling', visuals, methodological and ethical reflections, and inter-disciplinary theoretical engagement, this thesis also asks what the many-layered textures of everyday politics of right-wing women might mean for feminist scholarship in gender studies, politics, and international relations, for feminist methodologies, for feminist ethics, and for feminist activism.

Many organisms monitor the annual change in day-length, and use this information for seasonal timing of their developmental, physiological and behavioural response. The molecular mechanisms underlying this photoperiodic timing are largely unknown. The wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, is an emerging model organism that exhibits a strong photoperiodic response: short autumnal days experienced by females leads to the inductionof developmental arrest (diapause) in their progeny, allowing winter survival of the larvae. How do the females control the developmental trajectory of their offspring is unclear. Here, I took advantage of the available complete genome sequence of the wasp, and tested the role of epigenetics in the photoperiodic response. I used reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) to profile DNA methylation in adult females subjected to different photoperiods, and identified substantial differential methylation at the single base level. I have also found that knocking-down DNAmethyltransferase (Dnmt1a, Dnmt3), or blocking DNA methylation pharmacologically, largely disrupts thephotoperiodic diapause response of the wasps. In another set of experiments, I assessed the prevalence of 5-hydroxy methyl cytosine (5hmC), which is an intermediate in DNA demethylation in mammals. The results show that 5hmC is present in Nasonia although in limited amount and suggests that 5hmC-dependent demethylation may be evolutionary conserved in invertebrates. The role of microRNA (miRNA) in the photoperiodic response was also tested. I experimentally validated 32 of the computationally predicted Nasonia miRNA and tested their expression levels by using stem-loop real-time PCR. I identified significant differential expression in a sub-set of miRNA, which was induced by the photoperiod. To my knowledge, this is the first example uncovering the role of epigenetics in photoperiodic timing in insects.

Introduction: This study examines the multi-level process of racism associated with mental health inequities among racially minoritized undergraduate students. The US, including its educational structures, is built on the systematic exclusion and oppression of minoritized communities. Structural racism encompasses institutional policies and dominant cultural norms that either intentionally restrict opportunities or yield unintentional consequences for minoritized communities. Integrating minority stress theories and critical consciousness frameworks, three broad features of critically consciousness climates in departments of higher education are evaluated: (1) aggregate colorblind racial attitudes, (2) diversity equity, and inclusion initiatives, and (3) representation of faculty, and students at the graduate and undergraduate levels disaggregated by race and gender. Aim 1 examines mental health inequities that flow from distal departmental climate to proximal (internally perceived) levels of stress. The exploratory second aim investigates whether distal and proximal levels of minority stress interact to predict mental health outcomes. Method: 601 full-time undergraduate students nested within 49 departments were included in analyses. Measures of minority stress, anxiety, depression, and wellbeing were collected through an online university-wide student health survey. Results: Unexpectedly, higher awareness (i.e., lower colorblind racial ideology) was associated with higher minority stress, which in turn predicted higher anxiety, and depression, and lower wellbeing. Significant interaction patterns emerged between awareness and BIPOC representation scores, wherein belonging to a department with more inclusive practices (operationalized as higher awareness, and higher BIPOC faculty and graduate student representation) strengthened the negative impact of minority stress on mental health outcomes. Conclusion: Grounding the present findings in literature on psychological contract violations and diversity dishonesty help explain the potential unintended consequences of ineffective initiatives at developing critically conscious and inclusive departments. That is, departments should engage in critically conscious practices, but do so with strategic and intentional evaluation of whether BIPOC student needs are, in fact, being met. Otherwise, such climates may instead leave students feeling more disappointed and betrayed by the institution that is ultimately associated with greater mental health inequities.

Abstract Throughout American history, Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (SDFRs) have faced systemic discrimination, often leading to their intentional exclusion from federal programs. This has contributed to a decline in the number of farms operated by SDFRs. Even though certain policies led to a gradual increase in their numbers, the average acreage of SDFR-owned farms has diminished over time. Recognizing the impact of racial disadvantages on the diminished participation of SDFRs, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has instituted programs specifically tailored for minority farmers, offering financial aid and outreach initiatives. However, persistent and emerging barriers continue to impede the participation of these farmers and ranchers in federal programs. These barriers include a lack of information, transparency, and outreach efforts. Although the USDA has introduced federal programs to address financial difficulties and provide financial assistance through grants and loans, these programs predominantly favor large, White producers, leaving small and socially disadvantaged farmers in distress. Given the ongoing obstacles to participation in federal programs and accessing capital, this exploratory study seeks to comprehend how small African American farmers and ranchers adapt to financial challenges and employ coping strategies. The study draws on data collected from 22 farmers and ranchers classified as SDFRs. Interviews reveal that some farmers now refrain from taking loans from federal or private organizations, relying on tools such as networking and the internet for information and as platforms to promote their farm businesses.

Convolution layers are useful for improving the accuracy of neural networks. In the case of networks like CosmoFlow with multiple consecutive convolution layers, the runtime for convolution layers dominates the end-to-end runtime. Several convolution algorithms, such as implicit GEMM, Fast Fourier transform, and Winograd have been optimized for different platforms. To achieve performance close to theoretical bounds, oftentimes manual fine-tuning is required which is specific to the target architecture. We use the DaCe framework to develop portable optimizations for 3D convolutions for implicit GEMM and direct convolution algorithms for the GPUs. We benchmark the optimized code against the available manually tuned library implementations.

Adaptive emotion regulation (ER) holds a critical role in promoting mental and physical health; thus, understanding the psychological and physiological processes that contribute to ER is important. Both perceived ER, and heart rate variability (HRV), a purported psychophysiological index of ER capacity, have been shown to relate to psychopathology and well-being. Further, meta-analytic work suggests that greater HRV is associated with more adaptive ER. However, little research has examined the longitudinal relation between HRV and perceived ER. Thus, the current study tested whether 1) increases in HRV preceded and predicted improvements in perceived ER, and 2) improvements in perceived ER preceded and predicted increases in HRV. It was hypothesized that a significant bidirectional relation would be found between HRV and perceived ER across time. Participants (N = 129) consisted of mothers assessed annually for three years. Results revealed that Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA, an index of HRV) and perceived ER were not cross-sectionally associated at any timepoint, nor did RSA or perceived ER precede and predict the other longitudinally. The present study suggests the relation between HRV and perceived ER may be less robust than previously understood. Alternatively, methodological limitations or unidentified moderators (e.g., external stressors) may have attenuated findings.

Emerging wearable technologies are creating a major impact in the area of health monitoring, aerospace, prosthetics and robotics to monitor crucial information in real time which could not be achieved using conventional electronics only. The demand for multifunctional wearable systems is set to grow exponentially in the next decade and low cost multimodal sensor patches that can be closely coupled to the skin define the success of this new era of digital health and robotics. Accordingly, this dissertation focuses on developing a wireless multi-modal sensor patch that can be directly placed on the skin or integrated into clothing to monitor multiple biophysical and structural signals simultaneously. Serving both as a multimodal sensor as well as a compact integration platform for smart textile development, the proposed patch is ideally suited for complex body performance monitoring, realistic worker training and for high-risk patients.The foundation of this research is based on parallel plate capacitive sensors with elastomeric dielectrics (Ecoflex/PDMS) and conductive textile electrodes. The patches are highly stretchable (100%) with a gauge factor of 0.64 with pure silicone (Ecoflex) as the dielectric layer. The gauge factor of the capacitive strain sensor is enhanced two-fold with the inclusion of high-k (or relative dielectric constant) barium titanate (BTO) nanoparticles dispersed in the silicone dielectric layer without sacrificing its linearity and durability easily exceeding 2000 cycles. To further improve the capacitive performance and capabilities for multi-modal sensing, the elastomer dielectric layer is modified with highly flexible polyurethane (PU) foam. With a foam-based dielectric, the change in capacitance is not only due to the change in the thickness of the dielectric but also due to the change in the permittivity of the micropores due its porous structure. In addition to bending and stretching, the foam-based dielectric had a high-pressure sensitivity (0.0198 kPa-1) in the range of 0-4.5 kPa making it capable to monitor phonation, pulsatile flow and respiration.The piezoelectric properties of films, including the nanoparticles of barium titanate (BTO), lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (PVDF-TrFE) was systematically studied at different weight ratios by bending and motor vibrational tests. On corona poling the nanocomposite films at high field (6 kV/cm), the voltage output of all the piezoelectric sensors increased by two-fold. Therefore, with a few modifications in the dielectric layer, the patches are sufficiently sensitive to detect multiple stimuli such as strain, pressure, temperature, bending, vibration, and acoustic feedback. Due to limitations with high poling voltages that can cause arcing, triboelectric sensing was also explored in this work. While charge generation in piezoelectric materials is due to deformation and shift of ions in the crystal structure, triboelectricity is the charge generated due to friction between the two materials. Amongst all the material studied, polyurethane foam was used as the positive frictional layer and PDMS mixed with expandable microspheres was used as the negative frictional layer. The high sensitivity of the triboelectric sensors were capable of sensing small movements such as blinking and chewing, breathing rate and pulsatile flow which could not be detected with the piezoelectric sensors.Three different designs of multimodal patches were developed by combining the different dielectrics into a single patch. The patch is designed with a focus towards multi-purpose usage, both as a sensor in itself to capture motion as well as an integration platform for additional compact sensors that can be modified depending on the target application and measurement parameters. Deployed in appropriate locations and geometries, the patches can capture critical information on the type, intensity and duration between episodic movements and environmental factors, as demonstrated via a shoe-insert and respiratory health monitors. The information from these hybrid multimodal patches can be combined with machine learning/artificial intelligence algorithms for potential applications in the future to detect complex activities or early onset of symptoms by monitoring overall physiological health.

ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Overstay at Electric Vehicle Charging Stationsat the University of California San Diego by Akanksha Harish Master of Science in Engineering Sciences (Mechanical Engineering) University of California San Diego, 2021 Professor Jan Kleissl, ChairElectric vehicles (EV) have been gaining more popularity in the consumer market in recent years due continuous improvements in purchase price and driving range, thus amplifying environmental benefits and lower operating costs. While more public charging stations have been installed to cater to increasing numbers of electric vehicle users, charging demand has outpaced supply, especially at early adopter locations such as university campuses. Station overstay – when an EV remains plugged-in after completion of charging – adds to the shortage of charging opportunities as stations remain unusable while the parking space is occupied by a fully charged vehicle . Understanding user behavior is essential to develop a solution to solve station overstay.In this analysis, the effect of meteorological factors and school/work schedule on EV user behavior and overstay patterns was examined using charging data collected from EV charging stations at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). The statistics for duration and hourly rate of overstay were determined for different campus areas. Overstay patterns during school and non-school days were also examined to determine the impact of school/work schedules. The effect of high daytime temperature and rainfall on overstay was analyzed through comparison of overstay occurrence during these weather events with that observed during other weather conditions. The analysis showed that overstay at UCSD’s EV charging stations was found to be primarily influenced by school/work schedules of EV users. Most areas of the campus saw an increase in station overstay during the busiest hours on campus (9AM to 5PM) and on school days. On the hottest days, depending on the campus area, overstay was higher by 5-51% when daytime temperatures were very high. Station overstay during hours with heavy rainfall was 7-40% lower than when there was no rainfall.

Improving communication with a child with ASD has become an indispensable need in order to make the life smooth for the special child. Research has shown that communication gets driven by mood dynamics, non-verbal interactions, gestural communication and expressions. With the growth in technology, mixed reality and eye tracking are playing a major role in imparting experiences and making us learn about an environment without having to physically be in them. This research work explores how mixed reality can take a child with ASD through an experience that could help them open up and communicate well with others both with and without ASD. A series of training involved aims at an interaction and understanding gestures of others followed by initial training with child himself and animated creature through interaction. This overall experience integrates interactive play and human gestures in the way it happens in the real world. This will train and help enhance their willingness to share, interact and communicate with others besides training the motor skills. The resulting interactive environment addresses communication problem by introduction of a communicative and adaptive medium between a child with ASD and others.

Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) are changing the transportation ecosystem, but micro-decisions of drivers and users need to be better understood to assess the system-level impacts of TNCs. In this regard in the first paper, we contribute to the literature by estimating a) individuals’ preferences of being a rider, a driver, or a non-user of TNC services; b) preferences of ridehailing users for ridepooling; c) TNC drivers’ choice to switch to vehicles with better fuel economy, and also d) the drivers’ decision to buy, rent or lease new vehicles with driving for TNCs being a major consideration. We use a unique sample (N= 11,902) of the U.S. population residing in TNC-served areas. Elicitation of drivers’ preferences using a large sample is the key feature of this study. The population-weighted statistical analysis indicates that ridehailing services are mainly attracting personal vehicle users as riders, without substantially affecting demand for transit. Moreover, around 10% of ridehailing users reported postponing the purchase of a new car due to the availability of TNC services. The model estimation results indicate that the likelihood of being a TNC user increases with the increase in age for someone younger than 44 years, but the pattern is reversed post 44 years. This change in direction of the marginal effect of age is insightful as the previous studies have reported a negative association. Moreover, older ridehailing users with higher household vehicle ownership who live in suburban areas are less likely to pool rides. On the supply side, 65% of TNC drivers who work daily indicated that driving for TNCs was a consideration in vehicle purchase decisions. We also find that households with postgraduate drivers who drive daily and live in metropolitan regions are more likely to switch to fuel-efficient vehicles. These findings can inform transportation planners and TNCs in developing policies to encourage ridepooling and to improve the average fuel economy of the TNC fleet. In the second paper, we contribute to the literature by estimating a) Safety of children to use autonomous vehicles without any adult; specifically the question that we are analyzing is, “Once automated vehicles are running safely and reliably on all roadways, should a child of age 8, without a driver’s license, be permitted to travel alone in a driverless vehicle on trips up to 3 miles from his/her home?”; b) Preference to use either taxi in which the driver is unknown; ride-hailing services in which the rating of the driver is known or autonomous vehicles in which there is no driver; specifically, the question that we are analyzing is, “If the price and waiting time is the same, what would be the most preferred option among regular taxi, ride-hailing services and autonomous taxis?” and; c) The preference for the price of autonomous ride-hailing specifically Uber services. The question that we are analyzing is, “Should the cost of an automated Uber trip be higher or lower than the one served by a human driver and why?”. Our findings align with the previous work in that we find that males and younger individuals are more likely to use automated vehicles. They are also more likely to allow child to ride in an AV unsupervised. This information is useful for vehicle manufacturers to adjust their manufacturing standards and pricing, so that the modules they produce meet the preferences of the consumers.

Binge eating is a core symptom of eating disorders that often occurs in response to increases in negative affect. Recent data suggest that negative affect arising from interpersonal stressors is particularly potent at triggering binge eating. Given that binge eating is conceptualized as a maladaptive strategy for regulating emotions in individuals who have pre-existing deficits in this domain, training in emotion regulation may help persons susceptible to binge eating to better manage negative affect from interpersonal stress, thereby reducing their vulnerability to binge eating. The current study examined whether use of emotion regulation strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal versus expressive suppression) while being ostracized via Cyberball differentially impacts subsequent emotions and eating behaviors during a taste test. Females with binge eating (N = 53) and without binge (N = 51) were recruited and trained on either cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression. Participants then engaged in a Cyberball paradigm designed to ostracize them, and they were asked to simultaneously implement the learned emotion regulation strategy. Subsequently, all participants completed a taste test, during which they consumed pretzels and chocolate M&Ms. Neither binge eating status nor emotion regulation strategy had a significant main effect on emotions or eating behaviors after Cyberball. Further, no significant interaction effects between binge eating status and emotion regulation strategy were detected. The hypothesis that use of cognitive reappraisal compared to expressive suppression can lead to reduced negative emotions as well as reduced eating behaviors was not supported. Non-significant results may be due to a lack of understanding or compliance with emotion regulation instructions. Participants reported using similar levels of both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression strategies during Cyberball despite being trained and instructed to use one of the two strategies. Further investigation of the negative effects of interpersonal stress in persons with binge eating is warranted. Future studies may benefit from examining the use of other emotion regulation strategies, as well as more intensive emotion regulation training.

Printed electronics is emerging as an integral part of the electronic industry due to its low cost fabrication and flexibility of devices against the rigid and expensive technology using silicon. Various methods for printing have existed for a long time with inkjet printing being the most common method used for electronic devices. This thesis explores a new and innovative printed technology using a capillary based microplotting approach implemented via Sonoplot Microplotter II. Unlike the inkjet printing technique which prints in overlapping spots with resolution between 30µm-100µm, the Microplotting approach helps to prints continuous features with a higher resolution as low as 5 ¿¿. Capillary action is used to fill picoliter amount of ink into a micropipette which is used for printing. Thus, the focus of this thesis is the optimization of this new printing technology under various conductions using different conductive inks and on a broad range of substrates and different tip diameters. In addition, passive resistive, capacitive and inductive components were printed to characterize the printing process and operation of electrical devices under different conditions. The applications of this Microplotter was further demonstrated by printing a flexible resistive strain sensor. The procedures involved for the fabrication of micropipettes using a glass puller for different diameter tips attached to the dispenser head is also explained in this thesis.

Memory latency is a key bottleneck for many programs. Caching and prefetching are two popular hardware mechanisms to alleviate the impact of long memory latencies, but despite decades of research, significant headroom remains. In this thesis, we show how we can significantly improve caching and prefetching by exploiting a long history of the program's behavior. Towards this end, we define new learning goals that fully exploit long-term information, and we propose history representations that make it feasible to track and manipulate long histories. Based on these insights, we advance the state-of-the-art for three important memory system optimizations. For cache replacement, where existing solutions have relied on simplistic heuristics, our solution pursues the new goal of learning from the optimal solution for past references to predict caching decisions for future references. For irregular prefetching, where previous solutions are limited in scope due to their inefficient management of long histories, our goal is to realize the previously unattainable combination of two popular learning techniques, namely address correlation and PC-localization. Finally, for regular prefetching, where recent solutions learn increasingly complex patterns, we leverage long histories to simplify the learning goal and to produce more timely and accurate prefetches. Our results are significant. For cache replacement, our solution reduces misses for memory-intensive SPEC 2006 benchmarks by 17.4% compared to 11.4% for the previous best. For irregular prefetching, our prefetcher obtains 23.1% speedup (vs. 14.1% for the previous best) with 93.7% accuracy, and it comes close to the performance of an idealized prefetcher with no resource constraints. Finally, for regular prefetching, our prefetcher improves performance by 102.3% over a baseline with no prefetching compared to the 90% speedup for the previous state-of-the-art prefetcher; our solution also incurs 10% less traffic than the previous best regular prefetcher.

Aim: This study aimed to confirm the Minimal Important Difference (MID) of Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP) in dental patients. Materials and Methods: In this observational study a consecutive sample of 1896 adult patients completed the OHIP questionnaires twice, one questionnaire before the treatment was performed and a second at follow-up about 6 months after the initial visit. At both visits, scores for the 49-item, the 14-item, and the 5-item version were calculated. In addition, at follow-up, the patients (N=199) rated the overall change in their perceived oral health using a 7-point global scale (oral health worsened very much to improved very much). For the N=36 patients reporting a “minimal improvement”, the median of OHIP change scores (OHIP baseline – OHIP follow up) and a confidence interval was computed. This value was considered the Minimal Important Difference (MID) for OHIP. It was computed for OHIP-49, OHIP-14, and OHIP-5. MIDs were also computed for females versus males, less than 60 years old patients versus 60 and older patients, and patients with lower versus higher OHRQoL impairment at baseline (split at the OHIP49 score median at baseline). Results: The MID for the 49-item OHIP was 4.5 points (95% confidence interval: -3.8 to 11.3). The same values were -1 (95% CI: -1.0 to 2.0) and 0 (95% CI: 0.0 to 2.0) for OHIP-14 and OHIP-5. We did not find a gender or age influence on OHIP-49, 14, and 5’ MID, but demonstrated an influence of the magnitude of baseline OHRQoL impairment on OHIP-5. Conclusion: The results in our study corroborate the findings in the previous research about the Minimal Important Difference of OHIP instruments. OHIP’s MID seems to be similar across settings. However, we also found an influence of the magnitude of the OHRQoL impairment, indicating that MID is not one value that can be applied across settings. Our OHIP’s MID values can be used as benchmarks to judge the clinical relevance of the changes in perceived oral health when measured with OHIP.

Direct write printing is one of the evolving technologies that can be used to fabricate 3D structures such as ceramic micro-pillars. Direct write printing processes can print high resolution structures in the micron or sub-micron range. These structures find their applications in 3D Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), ultra-sound and thermal imaging, heat exchangers and solid oxide fuel cells. The present research is focused on fabrication of vertical ceramic micro-pillars using the Aerosol Jet direct write printing process for enhancing the aspect ratio of the pillars. Aerosol Jet printing offers flexibility with respect to ink compositions as compared with fabrication techniques such as lithography or ink-jet printing. This study includes an investigation of ink compositions to formulate a printable Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) ink. YSZ ceramic is chosen due to its wide range of applications. The effect of solid loading fraction on the viscosity of ink is also studied. The study identifies significant printing process parameters and their relationships to the process output for printing high aspect ratio YSZ micro-pillars. An experimental approach is followed where the diameter and height of pillars are the response variables of interest. A screening experiment with fractional factorial model is conducted in order to obtain the levels of process parameters that resulted in pillars with diameters as small as 50 µm and heights up to 1000 µm. After finding suitable process parameter levels, experiments were conducted to identify the minimum distance between consecutive pillars. Once the minimum possible distance was identified, 4x4 pillar arrays were printed on YSZ substrate and sintered in order to achieve sufficient pillar strength. Pillars with average diameters as small as 50 µm and heights up to 1000µm were achieved through this process.

Research on implicit associations in psychopathology suggests that socially anxious individuals may have implicit associations congruent with the core cognitive constructs/concerns in social anxiety, such as stronger negative associations for social stimuli and fears of evaluation. The literature also indicates that implicit associations are useful for predicting spontaneous behavioral reactions. The present study recruited two groups (n=25 for each group) of persons high in social anxiety versus persons low in social anxiety (i.e., N = 50). Participants engaged in three implicit tests that assessed their attitudes towards: general social stimuli, positive social stimuli, and negative social stimuli. Participants then delivered an impromptu speech task, after which they completed each of the implicit tests once more. It was hypothesized that: (a) groups would differ significantly on implicit associations for social stimuli and fears of evaluation, such that persons high in social anxiety would demonstrate more negative implicit associations across social stimuli compared to low socially anxious persons; and (b) implicit measures would predict behavioral anxiety ratings based on performance during a speech task within the overall sample. Results were in partial support of the study hypotheses: (a) partially consistent with hypotheses, highly socially anxious persons demonstrated significantly greater negative implicit associations for negatively valenced social stimuli (but not general or positive social stimuli); and (b) implicit 4 measures assessing associations for general social stimuli, and negatively valenced social stimuli, significantly to marginally predicted observer-rated eye gaze during the speech task. There was also a significant decrease in the strength of implicit associations for positively-valenced social stimuli following the impromptu speech task. Treatment and assessment implications, and limitations to the study, will be discussed.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a devastating autosomal dominantly inherited neurological disorder caused by an abnormal expansion of CAG trinucleotide repeats in the gene coding for the Nterminal region of the huntingtin (Htt) protein, which leads to the formation of a polyglutamine stretch. The greater the CAG repeats, the earlier the onset of the disease. The polyglutamine stretch destabilizes the Htt protein leading to misfolding, abnormal processing, aggregation, and inclusion formation. Mutant Htt protein is believed to damage and kill neurons in the striatum by a mechanism involving increased oxidative and metabolic stress, and impaired adaptive cellular stress responses. A large number of abnormalities have been reported in HD, including transcription deficits, energy impairment, excitotoxicity, and lack of trophic support. Reduced trophic support contributes importantly to striatal degeneration in human HD. Specifically, brainderived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression is reduced in patients with HD. BDNF is also decreased in brain tissue from mice transgenic for mutant Htt. BDNF levels influences the onset and the severity of motor dysfunction in HD mice. In addition to BDNF, levels of the molecular chaperones heat shock proteins (Hsp40 and 70) decrease progressively in HD brain. Hsp70 is a highly stress-inducible member of a chaperone family of proteins that functions to prevent misfolding and aggregation of newly synthesized mutant proteins and stress-denatured proteins. Hsps appear to play a critical role in HD since expression of active heat shock factor HSF1, a transcription factor responsible for the induction of Hsps, markedly reduces polyglutamine aggregate formation in both cell and mouse models. Many efforts have been made to develop preventive treatments for HD because of the strong genetic link and a freely available genetic test to identify individuals at risk. At present, only symptomatic therapy is available and effective therapeutic approaches to slow the disease iv process have yet to be developed. Previous studies have shown that electroconvulsive shock (ECS) induces the production of growth factors including BDNF and the molecular chaperones HSP40 and HSP70. Because ECS can stimulate the production of neuroprotective proteins, we determined whether ECS treatment could slow the progressive nature of the disease process and provide a therapeutic benefit in a mouse model of HD. ECS or sham treatment was administered to male N171-82Q Htt mutant mice. End points measured included motor function, striatal and cortical pathology, and levels of neurotrophic factors, protein chaperones, and proteins involved in synaptic plasticity. ECS treatment delayed the onset of motor symptoms, reduced body weight loss and extended the survival of HD mice. Striatal neurodegeneration was attenuated and levels of neurotrophic factors, protein chaperones and mitochondria-stabilizing protein were elevated in striatal cells of ECS-treated compared to sham-treated HD mice. Our findings suggest that ECS can increase the resistance of neurons to mutant huntingtin resulting in improved functional outcome and extended survival. The potential of ECS as a treatment for HD patients merits further consideration.