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Making Explicit Connections Between Experiential Learning And Justice: New Approaches To Teaching And Learning Through An Imagination For Justice, Patrick M. Green

Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education

Excerpt

Beyond simply being a form of active learning, experiential learning, in its many iterations, has been promoted as a philosophy, a community development model, a theory, a professional skill training opportunity, a global education and civic development approach, and a pedagogical strategy that leads to deep, high impact learning. Indeed, experiential learning has become increasingly specialized in the last several decades with the evolution of numerous sub-fields, such as study abroad and global immersion programs, outdoor education programs, community-based learning (both domestic and global service-learning), internship and work-integrated learning, undergraduate research experiences, and a myriad of other high-impact learning …

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Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education

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Tissue-Specific H2bub1 Is Required For Cardiomyocyte Development, Syndi Marissa Barish

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Currently, the most common birth defect is congenital heart disease (CHD). Whole-exome sequencing of CHD patients identified variants affecting chromatin modifier genes, which contribute to 2.3% of CHD. De-novo mutations affecting the core complex (RNF20, RNF40 and UBE2B) required for the monoubiquitination of H2B on K120 (H2Bub1) are enriched in CHD patients. This complex has many cellular roles, such as stem cell differentiation, but no described role in cardiac morphogenesis. This body of work describes the role of H2Bub1 in heart development in vivo in mice and in vitro in human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes. The patient variant …

Computational Principles Of Multiple-Task Learning In Humans And Artificial Neural Networks, Daniel Benjamin Ehrlich

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

While humans can learn to perform many specific and highly specialized behaviors,perhaps what is most unique about human cognitive capabilities is their capacity to generalize, to share information across contexts and adapt to the myriad problems that can arise in complex environments. While it is possible to imagine agents who learn to deal with each challenge they experience separately, humans instead integrate new situations into the framework of the tasks they have experienced in their life, allowing them to reuse insight and strategies across them. Yet the precise forms of shared representations across tasks, as well as computational principles for …

Mapping A Functional Cancer Genome Atlas, Ryan Dz-Wei Chow

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Over the past decade, tremendous resources have been devoted to sequencing the genomes of patient cancers. But while the molecular portraits of cancer are now in higher resolution than ever before, it has remained challenging to derive clinically actionable insights from these data. A central issue is that tumor genome sequencing often can only tell us what mutations are present, not which ones are functionally important. Towards this end, I sought to build an improved toolkit for functional cancer genomics, with the overarching goal of creating experimental platforms that are practical, scalable, and flexible. In collaboration with several colleagues, I …

The Organismal And Evolutionary Determinants Of Siphonophore Predation, Alejandro Damian Serrano

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The open-ocean midwater is the largest habitat for animal life on Earth, and one of the most homogeneous environments in space and time. However, these waters harbor complex food webs involving predatory animals from manifold phyla, presenting unique adaptations to capturing the scarce prey resources. These conditions create a natural laboratory, with minimal abiotic disturbances, where interspecific interactions such as predation play a major role in shaping community dynamics and the evolution of form and function. Siphonophores play a central role in midwater food webs feeding across multiple trophic levels on different prey phyla (i.e. jellyfish, crustaceans, worms, fishes). Like …

Measurement Of The Reactor Antineutrino Spectrum Of U-235 By Prospect And Daya Bay, Jeremy Gaison

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Since their experimental discovery over 60 years ago, neutrinos have proven to be a fascinating means of exploring the physical universe. Through a variety of both natural and man-made sources, physicists have discovered many unusual features about these par- ticles from their oscillation between their different flavor states to their particularly small mass. There are still many questions to answer regarding these fundamental particles, though. Among these questions is whether a possible fourth type of neutrino exists, a sterile neutrino, which could resolve a range of discrepancies between recent measure- ments and predictions at a variety of different energies and …

The Dna Mismatch Repair Pathway Affects Atr Activation Upon Temozolomide Treatment In Glioblastoma Multiforme, Sachita Ganesa

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

In many solid tumors, methylation status of the O6-methylguanine methyltransferase (MGMT) gene promoter is a prognostic biomarker for treatment with the alkylator, temozolomide (TMZ). In the absence of promoter methylation, the MGMT enzyme removes O6-methylguanine (O6-meG) lesions. However, in the setting of MGMT-promoter methylation (MGMT-), the O6-meG lesion activates the mismatch repair (MMR) pathway which functions to remove the damage. Our group previously reported that MGMT- promoter methylation affects activation of the ataxia telangiectasia and RAD3 related protein (ATR) in response to TMZ treatment. Whether or not MMR proteins are involved in ATR activation in the context of MGMT-promoter methylation …

From Eyes To Minds: Perceiving Perception, And Attending To Attention, Clara Colombatto

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The most important visual stimuli that we encounter in everyday life may be other people, and in particular their eyes. We constantly monitor (and follow) where others are looking, and hundreds of studies have stressed the importance of eyes as uniquely powerful visual stimuli. This dissertation argues otherwise: The eyes are special only insofar as they signal deeper properties about the minds behind them—namely the nature and direction of others’ attention and intentions. We empirically support this view in two ways: First, in studies of ‘minds without eyes’, we demonstrate how well-known gaze effects (such as prioritized processing of eye …

Expanding The Reliable Paleomagnetic Constraints On Configurations Of Pre-Pangean Supercontinents, Zheng Gong

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Supercontinents embody perhaps the longest cyclic process on our planet, profoundly influencing the evolution of Earth’s biosphere, geosphere, and atmosphere on timescales of hundred-million years or more. Yet, the configurations of pre-Pangean supercontinents, Rodinia, Nuna, and/or Kenorland, as well as their transition processes remain the subjects of debate, hampering the understanding of the interactions between the global tectonics and Earth’s evolution in deep time. Compared to other approaches, paleomagnetism is the only quantitative method to reconstruct pre-Pangean supercontinents in an absolute paleogeographic framework. However, a recent summary of global paleomagnetic data of Precambrian age reveals two problems. First is that …

Algorithmic Advances For The Design And Analysis Of Randomized Experiments, Christopher Robert Harshaw

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Randomized experiments are the gold standard for investigating the causal effect of treatment on a population. In this dissertation, we present algorithmic advances for three different problems arising in the design and analysis of randomized experiments: covariate balancing, variance estimation, and bipartite experiments. In the first chapter, we describe an inherent trade-off between covariate balancing and robustness, which we formulate as a distributional discrepancy problem. In order to navigate this trade-off, we present the Gram–Schmidt Walk Design which is based on the recent discrepancy algorithm of Bansal, Dadush, Garg, and Lovett (2019). By tightening the algorithmic analysis, we derive bounds …

New Roles For Small Noncoding Rnas In Germline Development: Maternal Piwi And Pirnas Specifically Protect The Fertility Of Female Progeny, Lauren Gonzalez

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

The long-term survival of a species depends on the integrity of its genetic material and the inheritance of that genetic material across generations. In sexually-reproducing organisms, these processes are carried out by the germline: the tissue that produces eggs in females or sperm in males. PIWI proteins and their associated small noncoding piRNAs have been well-characterized for their roles in protecting genome integrity in the germline and promoting the self-renewal of germline stem cells, which support the continual production of eggs or sperm. In Drosophila, maternally-expressed PIWI proteins and piRNAs are also enriched in the germ plasm, the posterior region …

Transcompartmental Sodium Imaging In Brain Cancer, Muhammad Khan

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancers are the second-leading cause of death in the United States, next to cardiovascular disease. Although treatments of some solid tumors with high mortality are showing promise, there is one exception: glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Even with advanced therapies, median survival rate for GBM patients is dismal because most are not diagnosed early enough. A hallmark of normal physiology is maintenance of large ion gradients across the cell membrane, mainly for sodium (Na + ) and potassium (K + ) ions. Under normal conditions, high and low Na + in extracellular (Na + ) …

On Neuroscience-Inspired Statistical And Computational Problems, Zifan Li

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Recent years have witnessed a surge of problems lying at the intersection of statistics andneuroscience. In this thesis, we explore various statistical and computational problems that are inspired by neuroscience. This thesis consists of two main parts, each inspired by a different system in the brain. In the first part, we study problems related to the visual system. In Chapter 2, we investigate the problem of estimating the collision time of a looming object using a theoretical formulation based on statistical hypothesis testing. In Chapter 3, we build computational models for the compound eye of Drosophila, and analyze how the …

Characterization Of Postoperative Recovery After Cardiac Surgery- Insights Into Predicting Individualized Recovery Pattern, Makoto Mori

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Understanding the patterns of postoperative recovery after cardiac surgery is important from several perspectives: to facilitate patient-centered treatment decision making, to inform health care policy targeted to improve postoperative recovery, and to guide patient care after cardiac surgery. Our works aimed to address the following: 1) to summarize existing approaches to measuring and reporting postoperative recovery after cardiac surgery, 2) to develop a framework to efficiently measure patient-reported outcome measures to understand longitudinal recovery process, and 3) to explore ways to summarize the longitudinal recovery data in an actionable way, and 4) to evaluate whether addition of patient information generated …

Integrating Genomics With The Fossil Record To Explore The Evolutionary History Of Echinoidea, Nicolas Mongiardino Koch

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Echinoidea constitutes one of five major clades of living echinoderms, marine animals uniquely characterized by a pentaradial symmetry. Approximately 1,000 living and 10,000 extinct species have been described, including many commonly known as sea urchins, heart urchins and sand dollars. Today, echinoids are ubiquitous in benthic marine environments, where they strongly affect the functioning of biodiverse communities such as coral reefs and kelp forests. Given the quality of their fossil record, their remarkable morphological complexity and our thorough understanding of their development, echinoids provide unparalleled opportunities to explore evolutionary questions in deep-time, providing access to the developmental and morphological underpinnings …

At The Intersection Of Temporal & Modal Interpretation, Josh Phillips

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This work is chiefly concerned with the semantics of linguistic categories including tense, modality and negation and the relationships between them. In particular, how do they interact in order to “displace” discourse and to talk about situations remote from the time & place where they're produced? What gets conventionally encoded in linguistic expressions (semantics)? And what's the role of discourse context and extralinguistic factors (pragmatics) in performing these operations? The current thesis contains three connected (but independent) components; each explores different sets of data in view of understanding particular types of displacement phenomena — that is, how, in a given …

Improving Surveillance Of Emerging Rna Viruses, Mary E. Petrone

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Effective surveillance of emerging RNA viruses is essential for public health andepidemiological research. Without identifying incident infections in an actionable time frame, the prevention of future infections becomes nearly impossible. This was exemplified at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, during which time only a small fraction of infected individuals was detected through surveillance, and the virus promptly spread across the country. Similarly, parameterizing informative epidemiological models requires accurate data. In the absence of effective surveillance and/or a clear understanding of where gaps in the system exist, efforts to better understand the dynamics of circulating viruses …

The Rheology Of Striated Muscles, Khoi Dac Nguyen

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Striated muscles are actuators of animal bodies. They are responsible for several biomechanical functions critical to survival and these include powering the cardiovascular system and modulating the mechanical interactions the body has with its surroundings. Nearly two centuries of active research on muscle phenomena has led to detailed insights into its microscopic composition, but accurate predictive models of muscle at larger scales remain elusive. This thesis reports on efforts to accurately capture the mechanical properties of striated muscles based on current knowledge of actomyosin dynamics. Specifically, this thesis derives the rheology of striated muscles from the dynamics. Muscle rheology is …

Mobilization And Partisan Identities: A Comparative Study Of Partisanship Under Compulsory And Voluntary Voting, Eli Gavin Rau

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Partisan identification is intimately related to many central aspects of political behavior. It influences vote choice, voters’ policy positions, and the manner in which voters process new political information. Partisanship has the power to undermine politicians’ accountability and it can even trump voters’ democratic values in polarized societies. Yet large gaps remain in our understanding of the relationship between partisanship and another key subject of political behavior: voter participation. We know that partisans are more likely to turn out to vote than their non-partisan counterparts; but why are partisans more likely to turn out? Are partisans simply people who are …

Social Control And Incarceration In Lesotho: A History Of Strategies, 1850-1970, Samuel John Severson

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation explores how technologies and infrastructures for promoting control and cohesion have interfaced with the social and political history of Lesotho over the longue durée. This approach allows for tracing lines of historical continuity and change during a period spanning the coalescing of the nation from communities on the Southern African Highveld in the early-19th century, the onset and grinding realities of British colonial rule and the rise of a local economy dependent on labor migration to South Africa, and the unravelling of empire and the challenges of governance in the years following official national liberation in 1966. I …

Interactions Among Species And Ecosystems Determine Their Responses To Scale-Specific Fluctuations, Franz Wesley Simon

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Ecosystems are highly connected systems with many interacting components. Understanding the mechanisms creating ecosystem patterns requires an explicit consideration of the scales at which interactions among species and their environments occur. This dissertation focuses on the scale of temporal variability and how temporal variability is incorporated into communities’ dynamics. I first derive an abstract theory that describes the general patterns of variability propagation within communities. Next, I explore the role of species’ interaction strengths on community dynamics across time scales. Finally, I study the impact of human-induced hydrological changes of the Guadalquivir River on the European anchovy fishery in the …

Biological Mechanisms Linking Stress And Anhedonia, Colin Stanton

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Evidence from research across species suggests that stress exposure is linked with anhedonia (loss of pleasure and/or decreased motivation). However, the mechanisms through which stress might impact anhedonia remain unclear. Chapters 1 and 2 of this dissertation review putative etiological pathways from stress to anhedonia and discuss stressor characteristics that could inform experimental models of stress-induced anhedonia. Chapter 3 describes an attempt to identify which types of stress are most associated with anhedonia using stress interview data from multiple datasets. Unexpectedly, we found no credible effects on anhedonic symptoms for stressor chronicity, severity, dependence on behavior, or interpersonal focus. Instead, …

Proteome-Wide Screening For Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Docking Motifs And Interactors, Guangda Shi

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

AbstractProteome-wide screening for mitogen-activated protein kinase docking motifs and interactors Guangda Shi 2021 Kinases catalyze the transfer of phosphate to substrates, a reaction critical for many cellular events. Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), including ERK, p38, and JNK, phosphorylate hundreds of substrates, and each plays a pivotal role in distinct processes such as cell growth, survival, differentiation, and apoptosis. To correctly respond to external stimuli, MAPKs use several mechanisms to achieve a high degree of selectivity for their target substrates. A critical aspect of MAPK specificity comes from docking interactions occurring between sites distal from the site of catalysis and short …

On The Role Of Stability In Animal Morphology And Neural Control, Neelima Sharma

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Mechanical stability is vital for the fitness and survival of animals and is a crucial aspect of robot design and control. Stability depends on multiple factors, including the body's intrinsic mechanical response and feedback control. But feedback control is more fragile than the body's innate mechanical response or open-loop control strategies because of sensory noise and time-delays in feedback. This thesis examines the overarching hypothesis that stability demands have played a crucial role in how animal form and function arise through natural selection and motor learning. In two examples, finger contact and overall body stability, we investigated the relationship between …

Immune Activation By Novel Allobaculum Species Reveals Reciprocal Epistasis Among Human Gut Commensals, Tyler A. Rice

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Gut commensal microbes that elicit human immune responses are noteworthy for their ability to influence both local mucosal inflammation and, more rarely, systemic antibody responses. Here we isolated and characterized novel strains belonging to genus Allobaculum from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) stool samples. In defined gnotobiotic mouse models we recapitulated the inflammatory effects of Allobaculum sps. and their notable induction of systemic immune responses at baseline. A microbial ecology screen revealed that this taxon is inversely correlated with Akkermansia muciniphila, and co-colonization experiments uncovered microbe-dependent redirection of immune phenotypes, which we term reciprocal epistasis. These immunostimulatory gut commensal strains exemplify …

Regulation Of Tim-3 By Phosphatidylserine, Courtney Mccaul Smith

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

TIM-3, or T cell, immunoglobulin, and mucin domain-containing protein-3, is a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed by several types of immune cells, including T cells, making it an important regulator of the immune response. However, the biology of TIM-3 is complicated, as it has been shown to variously promote and inhibit the function of T cells and other immune cells. Understanding the contexts in which TIM-3 serves these dual roles has remained difficult, as the ligands that regulate the activity of this receptor are still unclear. Several molecules have been proposed to regulate TIM-3, including phosphatidylserine (PS), galectin-9, carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion …

Development Of Diverse Bifunctional Molecules For Interrogating Dcps, Her3, Brachyury, And Phosphorylation-Driven Diseases Towards Therapeutic Applications, Jake Charles Swartzel

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

Technologies that hijack cellular pathways using bifunctional small molecules have recently risen to the forefront of the drug discovery world. The first targeted protein degradation (TPD) technology to be developed, PROteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs), were disclosed two decades ago. The recent successes of AR and ER-degrading PROTACs in pioneering clinical trials has propelled interest in developing novel platforms to further expand the druggable proteome and the arsenal of strategies that are available for therapeutic intervention. This thesis is focused on the development of novel bifunctional molecules that enable interrogation of diseases driven by traditionally challenging protein targets. The first chapter …

Craft And Storytelling: Romance And Reality In Joseph Conrad And Gabriel García Márquez, Camila Velez Valencia

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation describes how the novels, novellas and short stories of Joseph Conrad and Gabriel García Márquez subvert the conventions of the European realist novel and indeed the quotidian world of real facts itself in favor of a romance grounded in everyday experience. In their fictions, Conrad’s and García Márquez’s narrators trace the apparition of the wonderful in an otherwise realistic world through their mastery of craft and its concomitant vernaculars. They draw on the tropes of the traditional romance—digression, repetition and chance—to reenchant disenchanted worlds, to reconstrue the strange. They borrow the skills of the oral storyteller—craftsmanship, gesture and …

Lesson Presentation For The Law Code Of Hammurabi, Gabriela A. Azcarate

Student Created

Students will learn how to read, contextualize, interpret, and evaluate historical documents to interpret human behavior and culture and to make connections between past and present.

In this lesson, students will use Hammurabi’s Code to analyze and examine the religious, economic, political, and social facets of life in Mesopotamian society.