The purpose of this project was to investigate the roles of different languages (namely Guaraní, Jopará, and Spanish) in the formation of Paraguayan cultural identity among Paraguayan migrants to the greater Buenos Aires region of Argentina. Though the Paraguayan community makes up the largest immigrant population in Argentina, outside of...
Low completion rates have created serious "leakage points" (Astin, 1988) and "severe hemorrhaging" (Lango, 1996) in higher education to a large number of Hispanics. Traditional research on college persistence, which has blamed the students' culture for low performance, is inaccurate. Little research has specifically investigated academic persistence from a cultural...
Smoldering can play a dangerous role in the ignition and spread of wildfires. Naturally occurring fuels consist of multiple layers of organic materials with varying particle sizes due to differences in decomposition stages with fuel depth, yet the influence of particle size on burning behavior is poorly understood. Previous research...
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most common DNA polymorphisms in plant and animal genomes. SNPs were identified in the allele sequences of up to 12 sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) genotypes for a genome-wide sample of 81 loci originally mapped using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers. The RFLP loci...
This work is inspired by problems in natural resource management centered on the challenge of invasive species. Computing optimal management policies for maintaining ecosystem sustainable is challenging. Many ecosystem management problems can be formulated as MDP (Markov Decision Process) planning problems. In a simulator-defined MDP, the Markovian dynamics and rewards...
This research explored the self-concept of Chicanas in terms of their lived experiences and how those experiences influenced the shaping of their identity. It examined the multiple labels Chicanas use to self-identify and the context or situations in which they use specific labels. Moreover, it took into account the influence...
We do not know how to align a very intelligent AI agent's behavior with human interests. I investigate whether—absent a full solution to this AI alignment problem—we can build smart {\ai} agents which have limited impact on the world, and which do not autonomously seek power. In this thesis, I...
A new male sterile (MS) mutant was found in 1988 in an inbred
line of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) in the greenhouse of
Sunseeds Company. The mutant is characterized by normal
corolla in both male and female flowers, normal fertility in
the female, and absence of pollen in otherwise normal-appearing...