In communities impacted by climate disasters, institutions largely determine the distribution of outcomes within a population. This research aims to examine the role of institutions in differential outcomes for displaced communities impacted by the 2020 Labor Day Wildfires in the Santiam Canyon and the Rogue Valley. Using semi-structured interviews of...
My dissertation title is, “Applied economic strategies to evaluate policies and environmental outcomes: case studies from immigration and ecosystem services.” The first two chapters of this dissertation concern the relationship between local immigration policies and societal welfare. The third chapter examines the impact of human activity on the environment and...
High-speed police pursuits occur daily across the United States. On average, one person dies per day as the result of a police pursuit. In certain contexts, it might be acceptable to society for a police officer to engage in a high-speed pursuit. The ends could justify the means. For example,...
Small molecule drugs have been instrumental in our fight against diseases, beginning when some of the earliest ancient cultures used plant remedies to treat illnesses. More recently, the skill of isolating and characterizing the active ingredients within bioactive plants and microbial extracts has led to the isolation and design of...
Intracellular delivery of mRNA holds great potential for vaccine and therapeutic discovery and development. This is realized by the preeminent role mRNA is playing in the record-breaking pace of SARS-CoV-19 vaccine development. Recent advances in chemical modifications of mRNA have enabled high-efficiency gene expression with superior spatiotemporal control while eliminating...
Oceanic plateaus are regions of overthickened oceanic crust and are often thought to form from the interaction of mantle plumes with oceanic lithosphere. These regions can cover vast areas of the ocean basins and represent a highly elevated magmatic flux relative to normal mid-ocean ridge spreading. Oceanic plateaus are considered...
The cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) is one of the most important food crops in the United States, as well as globally. As demand rises, growers in the Pacific Northwest are revisiting their crop management strategies to determine whether there are additional ways to enhance crop productivity while managing plant and...
Innovation is critical for firm growth and survival. Thus, how much value firms create and capture from their innovative activities has been an interest of scholars. This dissertation explores three important questions on this topic to which extant literature has paid little attention. First, I examine how the external threat...
This study aimed to investigate the effects of Advanced Placement Environmental Science on the pro-environmental behaviors and beliefs in high school juniors and seniors at a high school in central New Jersey. Using a pro-environmental behaviors scale adapted from earlier research by Astrid Leeuw (2015) in conjunction with the theory...
Metal-organic polyhedra (MOPs) are discrete molecules comprised of a metal and interconnecting ligands. The resulting MOP structures are porous cages, and to date, they have shown great promise toward gas capture. Ammonia is a hazardous gas that is produced in enormous quantities for use in fertilizers. In this talk, I...