Investigating stress-induced changes to the microstructure of motivated behavior

Thirty-three million people experience major depressive disorder (MDD) in their lifetime, but only about 30% of patients respond to current treatments. Anhedonia is a common symptom of MDD, which includes a lack of motivation for once rewarding activities. Furthermore, MDD is typically precipitated by chronic stress. Effort-related choice (ERC) is a useful paradigm for measuring motivational deficits in human and animal populations, in which the animal must choose between a high effort/high reward or a low effort/low reward. In this study, mice were subjected to chronic non-discriminatory social defeat stress (CNSDS) and completed an ERC task. The behavioral microstructure, including behavioral syllable frequencies and transition probabilities, was compared between CNSDS and control conditions. The results indicate the control mice had greater syllable frequency and transition probabilities compared to the CNSDS-exposed mice. This implies that the control condition had a more consistent behavioral strategy compared to the chronically stressed mice when deciding between a high effort/high reward and a low effort/low reward. Future directions include comparing the behavioral microstructure of males and females within both conditions.M.S.Includes bibliographical reference

Exploration of self-assembled carbon nanomaterials through various dimensions

The realm of the carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) runs extremely deep and spans many members: nanotubes (CNTs), graphene, buckminsterfullerenes, carbon dots, graphene oxide (GO), nanodiamond, nanoribbons, carbon fibre, nano-onions, peapods, nanobuds, and new members graphyne and fullertubes, with nanotubes, buckminsterfullerenes, and graphene being the most famous of CNM family. They have a plethora of applications ranging from bioimaging to display technology to sensors. In this thesis, we filled carbon nanotubes with fullerenes and metallofullerenes (Lu and Gd) and obtained visual confirmation of this via high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy. Additionally, we obtained baseline Raman measurements. These filled carbon nanotubes, which are called peapods, were made dispersible in water via a reaction with potassium metal. Then, more measurements via AFM, STEM, Raman, UV-Vis, and others were to help understand and confirm the dispersibility of the peapods. As a wrap-up, we did magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to test the performance of the water dispersible Gd filled peapods and compared it to OmniscanTM. Here, it proved to have about 6x the contrast ability over OmniscanTM. Also, I functionalized C60 with complementary H-bonding ligands for self-assembly and attempted to covalently link C60 to the surface exfoliated graphite. Then, we move to a summary of fullerene formation, collaborative works involving XPS/STEM/EELS, and miscellaneous projects that did not pan out to wrap it all up.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference

Saving two birds with one facade: landscape design for urban wildlife habitat and bird-building collision prevention

Human-centric design often ignores the importance of ecosystem function. This omission extends beyond the lack of diverse, valuable habitat in urban centers. Regarding bird-window collisions specifically, traditional architectural and landscape design can lead to the inadvertent decimation of species, and greatly impact systems beyond the local scope. This thesis reveals locations on the Rutgers University campuses with high rates of bird-building collisions, and recommends dynamic mitigation approaches dependent on such characteristics present at each site. Window reflectivity, lighting, spatial patterns, vegetation placement, and much more can be attributed to such collisions. At priority intervention sites, Dana Library in Newark and Nelson Biology Laboratories in New Brunswick, a second-story overhang and a multi-story glass-enclosed walkway are additional features hypothesized to be contributing to collisions at the site level. At both sites a façade is proposed, primarily for its potential use as a buffer to window glass. The seasonality and dietary needs of nine species most disproportionately affected across the campuses modeled approaches in vegetation selection. Rutgers contributes significantly to this global issue, and should look to examples of other universities to create a bird-friendly campus.M.L.A.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vit

Refugee perspectives on employment and mental health: a phenomenological qualitative exploration

Refugees experience multiple challenges and adversities that cause significant psychological distress in the migration and resettlement process. The United States is host to refugees who arrive fleeing war, conflict, and persecution. The Refugee Act of 1980 created ‘The Federal Refugee Resettlement Program’ to provide for the effective resettlement of refugees and to assist them to achieve economic self-sufficiency as quickly as possible after arrival in the United States (Dept. Health & Human Services (HHS), 2020). Refugees are forced to flee and migrate in search of safety and stability. They arrive in the United States with a high adversity burden, often having experienced significant trauma, spending many years in the refugee camps or endlessly waiting to be accepted by the host. As they arrive, they are enrolled in employment programs with the primary goal of securing employment and financial self-sufficiency. In this process, their mental health status stemming from their migration histories is overlooked and left unaddressed. Experiencing traumatic stress adversely impacts their mental health and influences their employment outcomes. Methods: I conducted a phenomenological study with 21 refugees from Afghanistan, Cuba, and Ukraine, resettling in New Jersey. Each participant engaged in an in-depth interview for 60 minutes guided by a semi-structured questionnaire. The study aimed at 1) exploring refugee perspectives on migration, mental health, and employment and 2) exploring employment as a protective factor that facilitates coping as refugees struggle and manage the pre-migration, migration, and post-migration traumas, thereby mitigating the negative impacts of forced migration. All data was collected, transcribed, and uploaded into Nvivo 12. The study utilized the stress and coping theory and the conservation of resources theory to help understand refugee experiences as they made meaning of the role of employment in their lives. The analytical process was complemented by an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), which prioritizes (a) a commitment to an understanding of the participant's point of view and (2) a psychological focus on personal meaning-making in specific contexts. Findings: The study captured refugee voices on forced migration, mental health, and employment. The emergent themes in Aim 1. involved (1) refugees’ traumatic migration experiences, multiple losses, and yet, within these losses, the surfacing awareness of post-migration growth, (2) forced migration caused adverse mental health, isolation, and manifestations of traumatic stress, and finally, (3) within the context of these experiences, refugees make meaning of employment as a means of financial stability, deeply gratifying and a source of identity, self-worth, and growth, while promoting integration. The findings of Aim 2. relate to (1) Multiple post-migration stressors that interfere with employment decision-making making, and achievement of goals, (2) barriers to employment, including limited language proficiency, lack of support with credentialing and work authorizations, adequate employment opportunities, and lack of guidance and mentorship. Finally, in the second part of Aim 2. refugees engaged with employment as a resilience-promoting factor in their lives, helping them cope with the migration stressors. Discussion and Implications: The findings in this study suggest that despite the challenges that refugees experience in securing sustainable employment, employment proves to be a resilience-promoting factor for refugees during this process. The Meaning-making and post-migration growth related to employment, the evolving experiences of dignity, hope, and connection reinforce the importance of employment in the lives of refugees resettling in the U.S. Employment as a critical coping strategy for refugees can be facilitated by investing in helping refugees develop English proficiency, focused employment support including guidance and mentorship, and mental health support as they seek sustainable employment. This dissertation underscores the importance of the close association between mental health and employment within the context of refugee resettlement. This study’s findings significantly inform policy and program development for refugees, and provide a deeper understanding of the refugee experience that can help improve mental health and employment outcomes and ultimately positively affect overall well-being.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference

Triphenylphosphine assay for nanomolar detection of lipid hydroperoxides

As the first stable product of lipid oxidation, hydroperoxides have often been the most common marker of oxidation progress. Their importance in the integrated alternated reaction scheme for lipid oxidation merits the need for a sensitive assay. The gold standard assay of hydroperoxide content -- iodometric titration with thiosulfate – has low sensitivity for the amount of sample required, tedious handling, and no possibility for high throughput. More sensitive methods such as xylenol orange and ferric thiocyanate colorimetric assays have debatable stoichiometry and specificity, limited range of quantification, and low stability. Triphenylphosphine (TPP), used for decades to detect trace levels of hydroperoxides in solvents, offers excellent promise as an alternative reagent for specific quantitation of lipid hydroperoxides with greater sensitivity than previous methods. TPP reaction with hydroperoxides yields the optically active triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO) which can be separated from other reactants by HPLC to create an assay with greater sensitivity, specificity, ease of handling, stability, confirmation of reaction completion, and possibility of high-throughput analyses using autosamplers. A previous study using standards verified quantitation of nanomolar hydroperoxides but did not optimize applicability to lipid hydroperoxides. This thesis extended TPP method development to optimize reaction specifically with lipid hydroperoxides (LOOH). A gradient program that separated TPP, TPPO, LOOH, and product hydroxylipids on a pentafluorophenyl column provided a means of following reaction completion with samples of unknown LOOH content and allowed determination of TPP excess required for complete reaction. Reversed-phase HPLC proved suitable for quantitating hydroperoxides of fatty acid methyl esters, but quantitating hydroperoxides of triacylglycerols required adapting the method to normal-phase HPLC due to their hydrophobicity. Standard curves of TPPO were generated for quantitating lipid hydroperoxides by both reversed-phase and normal phase HPLC. Response curves for TPP reaction with oxidized lipids of various hydroperoxide concentrations (predicted by iodometric titration) were co-linear with the TPPO standard curve, showing that the TPP-lipid hydroperoxide reaction is stoichiometrically 1:1. With reversed-phase HPLC, limits of detection and quantification were 2 pmol and 6.03 pmol TPPO injected (LOOH reacted), respectively. With normal-phase HPLC, limits of detection and quantification were 0.19 pmol and 0.57 pmol TPPO injected (LOOH reacted), respectively.M.S.Includes bibliographical reference

Enhancing quantum computing efficiency: compilation strategies leveraging algorithmic and hardware insights

Quantum computing has rapidly advanced, with diverse quantum devices such as superconducting qubits, trapped ions, neutral atoms, and photonic chips. Since Richard Feynman’s 1981 proposal, significant algorithms—including Shor’s algorithm, Grover’s search, and Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQAs)—have been developed, underscoring the need for efficient systems that bridge high-level algorithms and hardware implementations. Quantum algorithms, typically expressed in high-level languages, are transformed into logical circuits, then mapped onto physical circuits using hardware-specific basis gates via qubit mapping and routing, and finally executed through control pulses. Future quantum systems are expected to incorporate error correction codes to enhance computational reliability. My research focuses on algorithm-specific compilation with cross-stack optimization to enhance the efficiency of quantum program execution on existing hardware. I explore optimization opportunities arising from gate commutativity in algorithms like the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) and Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT), as well as flexibility in circuit synthesis for Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) algorithms. Additionally, I analyze often-overlooked hardware characteristics, such as the regularity of qubit connectivity in modern quantum devices, to inform compilation strategies. By studying gate commutativity and qubit connectivity, we discovered a compilation pattern for QAOA achieving linear circuit depth for clique graphs. Building upon this, we developed a general framework adaptable to practical cases, effectively handling sparsity of problem graphs and hardware noise variability. This led to up to 72% reduction in circuit depth and 66% reduction in gate count on IBM and Google architectures with up to 1,024 qubits, outperforming baselines in experiments on IBM Mumbai. We extended this to QFT compilation, resulting in the first linear-depth QFT circuits for architectures like Google Sycamore, IBM heavy-hex, and 2D grids with arbitrary qubit counts. Our methods overcome limitations of techniques relying on SAT solvers or heuristics, which often suffer from long compilation times or suboptimal outcomes due to large search spaces. In another contribution, we introduced Tetris, a compilation framework for VQA applications. Tetris focuses on reducing two-qubit gates during compilation, as these have higher error rates and execution times. By exploiting opportunities in circuit synthesis and using a refined intermediate representation of Pauli strings, Tetris reduces two-qubit gate counts and mitigates hardware mapping costs through a fast bridging approach. Overall, Tetris achieves reductions of up to 41.3% in CNOT gate counts, 37.9% in circuit depth, and 42.6% in circuit duration across molecular simulations compared to state-of-the-art approaches. The methodologies and insights from my research are not limited to these three scenarios; they can be applied to future quantum program compilation tasks. By focusing on cross-stack optimization and leveraging both algorithmic properties and hardware characteristics, my work contributes to bridging the gap between quantum algorithms and hardware, significantly improving the efficiency and scalability of quantum computing implementations.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference

Representing the economic boom and its anxieties: Italy and Japan

In my dissertation, I explore the cultural anxieties surrounding the economic miracles of Japan (1950-1970) and Italy (1958-1963) in the post-war period, focusing on the interplay of American influence, tradition, and modernity, as well as the evolving constructions of masculinity, gender roles, and patriarchal structures. This study highlights the shared struggles and distinct responses to rapid modernization and societal transformation by examining key literary and cinematic works from both nations. I argue that the economic miracles in Japan and Italy reveal common struggles with identity, gender, and societal expectations during rapid change. By comparing the two nations, this work demonstrates how similar challenges can manifest differently in unique cultural contexts while highlighting shared anxieties. First, I establish a connection between Italy and Japan by analyzing the translations of tankas by Gherardo Marone and Shimoi Harukichi. Then, I examine texts and cinematic representations of Italy and Japan: Un amore (1963) by Dino Buzzati, Una bambolona (1967) by Alba De Cespedes, American Hijiki (1967) by Nosaka Akiyuki, and the films Un amore (1965) by Gianni Vernuccio, La bambolona (1968) by Franco Giraldi, The Life of Oharu (1952) by Kenji Mizoguchi, and Flowing (1956) by Naruse Mikio. I explore the patriarchal anxiety in a changing world – Eastern and Western – and how the rapid economic growth intensified these anxieties about masculinity and gender roles. I also show how modernization and consumer culture commodified the relationships between gender roles: women were reduced to objects of desire, and they fought against the patriarchal system to revert it. In Chapter One, I establish a historical frame for Italy and Japan, exploring the dichotomy of tradition vs. modernity and the theme of alienation. In Chapter Two, I analyze the tankas translated in La Diana by Gherardo Marone and Harukichi Shimoi. In Chapter Three, I examine the commodification of gender roles, the alienation caused by consumer culture and patriarchal society, and the threat to masculinity in Italian novels and films. Finally, Chapter Four investigates films depicting women’s lives constrained by patriarchal structures amidst Japan’s modernization.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference

R.E.P.U.T.A.T.I.O.N (RIPK3’s version) - RIPK3 promotes neuronal survival by suppressing excitatory neurotransmission during CNS viral infection

While recent work has identified roles for immune mediators in the regulation of neural activity, the capacity for cell intrinsic innate immune signaling within neurons to influence neurotransmission remains poorly understood. However, the existing evidence linking immune signaling with neuronal function suggests that modulation of neurotransmission may serve previously undefined roles in host protection during infection of the central nervous system. Here, we identify a specialized function for RIPK3, a kinase traditionally associated with necroptotic cell death, in preserving neuronal survival during neurotropic flavivirus infection through the suppression of excitatory neurotransmission. We show that RIPK3 coordinates transcriptomic changes in neurons that suppress neuronal glutamate signaling, thereby desensitizing neurons to excitotoxic cell death. These effects occur independently of the traditional functions of RIPK3 in promoting necroptosis and inflammatory transcription. Instead, RIPK3 promotes phosphorylation of the key neuronal regulatory kinase CaMKII, which in turn activates the transcription factor CREB to drive a neuroprotective transcriptional program and suppress deleterious glutamatergic signaling. These findings identify an unexpected function for a canonical cell death protein in promoting neuronal survival during viral infection through the modulation of neuronal activity, highlighting new mechanisms of neuroimmune crosstalk.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference

Interactions between underrepresented students and STEM faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic

The success of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is a topic of concern in higher education. Student-faculty interactions are widely recognized as a support for these students, but the adoption of emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic changed how these interactions took place. This study used a mixed methods design, analyzing data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to determine how student-faculty interaction frequencies changed nationally during ERT. Additional semi-structured interviews were held with underrepresented STEM students and STEM faculty members at a large research university to provide further context on these overall trends. Key findings from the NSSE data include a decrease in student-faculty interaction frequencies during ERT, while key differences among student populations by gender identity, race, and ethnicity remained. Students recounted frustrations over additional obstacles to talking with faculty during ERT, while recognizing the efforts that some instructors made to support them. Faculty members in turn recounted their difficulties with observing students' reactions to their instructional methods, while appreciating the opportunity to learn new instructional techniques and gain a greater understanding of their students' lives. These and other data collected from this research are examined through a conceptual framework using Tinto's (1975) student retention theory, Rendón's (1994) validation theory, and related constructs.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference

Development of genetically encoded sensors for real-time monitoring of GLP-1 dynamics in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a critical neuroendocrine signal involved in glucose homeostasis and appetite regulation. Here, we report the development of genetically encoded fluorescent GLP-1 sensors (GLP-1 RTGR) designed to monitor GLP-1 dynamics in real time within the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus in freely behaving mice. By engineering GLP-1 receptors fused to circularly permuted fluorescent proteins, we achieved highly specific and sensitive detection of endogenous GLP-1 release. In vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo validation confirmed that these sensors exhibit robust and selective responses, enabling precise spatiotemporal mapping of GLP-1 fluctuations. Fiber photometry measurements revealed dynamic GLP-1 signaling patterns that correlate with feeding states, increasing postprandially and potentially reflecting satiety signals. Furthermore, preproglucagon knockout models lacking endogenous GLP-1 showed disrupted feeding patterns, underscoring GLP-1’s role in appetite control. Using a moving average crossover analysis, we predicted feeding behavior from GLP-1 fluctuations with high accuracy. Our findings demonstrate that GLP-1 RTGR sensors provide a powerful tool for real-time neuropeptide imaging, offering new insights into the neuroendocrine mechanisms governing energy balance and highlighting potential targets for metabolic disorder therapies.M.S.Includes bibliographical reference