Molecular chaperones are crucial machines that maintain protein homeostasis in the cell. In the ER, the two major chaperones performing this function are the Hsp70 BiP and Hsp90 Grp94. While BiP interacts with every nascent polypeptide targeted to the ER and has a specific client binding motif, less is known about how Grp94 chooses its clients. Here, I explore how BiP and Grp94 can work together and set the groundwork for studies exploring a shared...

Neural circuit development is profoundly influenced by experience-dependent processes. The visual system serves as a robust model for understanding how experience affects sensory perception and the circuit mechanisms required for processing of the visual world. Decades of research have focused on cortical processing of visual receptive field properties and the early plasticity of cortical neurons, with less concentration on the contributing inputs to visual cortex. In this thesis I focus on the lateral geniculate nucleus...

The field of active matter seeks to understand how the collective behavior of many animate constituents leads to large-scale organization and dynamics. In this thesis, I studied an active matter system composed of purified cytoskeletal components to examine the statistical properties of the material dynamics and their microscopic origins.

Wonderland is a novella in which a recent college graduate ends up working through her self-esteem issues--or, at least, begins the process of working through them--when she enters into a romantic B.D.S.M relationship.

This study examines commonalities in English-language texts dealing with queer history before 1969. The goal of this research is to expand the field of queer historiography by understanding what stories and methodologies preceded more modern histories, and especially to understand what existed before the narrative of an upward arc from the flashpoint of the Stonewall Uprisings. Material surveyed includes magazines, poetry, sexology books, novels, diaries, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and academic papers in order to collect...

The increase in genetic testing availability, coupled with the increase in demand for genetic counselors has led some groups to evaluate who is offered genetic testing and genetic counseling, and how those services are provided. Hereditary breast cancer risk assessment is one of the fields currently undergoing re-evaluation of services. In February of 2019, the American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) released a consensus statement calling for all breast cancer patients to be offered genetic...

The U.S. Dollar emerged as the dominant world currency after the end of World War II. Though the global economy has changed drastically since then, the U.S. Dollar is still the leading currency. This thesis provides strategies if China wishes to challenge U.S. Dollar dominance as the internationalization of the Chinese Renminbi continues to expand. First, I will evaluate the history of the U.S. Dollar’s replacement of the British Pound Sterling as the dominant world...

“Death, which is the most horrifying of evils, is nothing to us; whenever we, on the one hand, exist, death is not present. On the other hand, whenever death is present, we, then, do not exist” (Ep. Men. 125). According to Epicurus, in section one hundred twenty-five of his “Letter to Menoeceus”, if death is the deprivation of all sense-perception and the annihilation of the subject, it cannot be bad, for there must be an...

The United States is experiencing an infant and maternal mortality crisis across racial stratifications at more alarming rates than in the antebellum era and Jim Crow. Over the past fifteen years, these disparities have accrued significant media, scholarly, and medical attention. Scientific evidence has proven that racism and the physiological stress it causes are contributing factors to these birth outcome disparities. Even so, there has been a dearth of information on how harmful tropes have...

Ultradian genes are genes that transcribe with ultradian rhythmicity (more than one cycle in 24 hours), that is speculated to be independent of the Circadian Clock. Their expression can induce cyclic changes such as in behavior, gene expression and metabolism (1). They have no known internal regulators, and the regulation of their expression is not well understood in D. melanogaster. Our Goal is to determine if our candidate Ultradian Genes are indeed cycling with ultradian...

Donald Martino’s Notturno (1973) is both his most well known work and is among his most conceptually impenetrable. The composer’s publicly shared observations reveal little of the work’s deep formal and conceptual procedures by describing the work as being “about the diversity of feeling that I undergo daily when I contemplate my life at that moment before sleep.” Naturally this diversity manifests itself in a myriad of formal and conceptual ways representative of the composer’s...

On June 27, 2013, the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill with strong

Over the past several years, the State of Illinois has been implementing and planning several programs to move Medicaid and Medicare recipients into systems of care coordination. The original, mandatory Medicaid managed care program (MMC) in Illinois is known as the Integrated Care Program (ICP) and began on May 1, 2011 with the goal of improving the quality of care and services that the Medicaid population receives, along with saving the State money on Medicaid...

June 2014 marks the 15 th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's landmark civil rights decision in Olmstead v. L.C., finding that the unjustified institutionalization of people with disabilities is illegal discrimination. While many cases are resolved without involving the courts, during the last 15 years, the lower courts have had the opportunity to apply Olmstead in a number of contexts, resulting in decisions furthering community integration for people with disabilities. This issue brief...

Surveys of consumers or their families and caregivers are an essential means of assessing quality in the delivery of home and community-based services (HCBS). A substantial number of such surveys have been fielded for the purpose either of measuring HCBS quality generally or of specific aspects of HCBS quality. Other surveys not developed for HCBS nevertheless measure concepts that are important in HCBS quality, such as life satisfaction or community participation. As the need for...

As people with disabilities have greater opportunities to live and participate fully in their

The Community Living Policy Center and the Institute for Health and Aging partnered to conduct an evaluation of Cal MediConnect (CMC). One goal of this evaluation was to assess beneficiaries' experiences with care, include access, quality, and coordination over time. To that end, researchers conducted a longitudinal telephone survey with three groups of dually eligible beneficiaries: those enrolled in CMC, those who opted out, and those in non-demonstration (non-CCI) counties. Key findings from the first...

As a growing number of states adopt Managed Long-Term Services and Supports frameworks, it becomes imperative that ongoing efforts to promote HCBS over institutional services continue and are integrated into the incentives and requirements of managed care contracts. Managed care can help states accelerate the shift towards the community--or slow and reverse it, depending on the incentives put into requests for proposals and contract language.

Surveys of consumers or their families and caregivers are an essential means of assessing quality in the delivery of home and community-based services (HCBS). A substantial number of such surveys have been fielded for the purpose either of measuring HCBS quality generally or of specific aspects of HCBS quality. Other surveys not developed for HCBS nevertheless measure concepts that are important in HCBS quality, such as life satisfaction or community participation. As the need for...

The decentralized nature of Home and Community-Based Services, and the fact that many HCBS providers travel to an individual’s home rather than service recipients traveling to provider facilities, have presented real difficulties for policymakers and advocates seeking to determine the most appropriate means of measuring network adequacy for LTSS providers. This report outlines multiple options that are available to state policymakers seeking to evaluate network adequacy for HCBS providers under MLTSS programs.

First issued in 2014, the Home and Community Based Settings Rule seeks to ensure that the limited Medicaid funding dedicated to Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) funds settings that are truly home-and community based in nature, rather than settings that retain the characteristics of institutions. As a result of advances in federal public policy and civil rights law, coupled by demands from people with disabilities and their advocates for greater community-based options, states have...

Before new training standards took effect in Washington State in 2012, prior standards for personal care aides (PCAs) were uniform but inadequate. In response, the regional home care union passed a ballot initiative that expanded curricular learning objectives, increased training hours, and introduced certification requirements for all PCAs. With these changes, Washington raised the bar nationwide for PCA training and certification; however, home care leaders remain concerned that certification rates are too low. This report...

MFP was first authorized through the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 with strong bipartisan support. The program was extended in the Affordable Care Act through September 2016, with flexibility to use funding through 2018. Since then, there have been five short-term extensions to keep the program afloat.

By examining response patterns to questions about Jewish attitudes, the study identified five different types of Jewish identity among the young adults who applied to go on a Birthright trip in summer 2018: Ancestry, Secular Peoplehood, Casual Religious, Connected, and Committed. After sorting applicants into groups corresponding to their Jewish identity type, the study examined the ways in which participants in the different groups were impacted by their Birthright experience. Specifically, the study asked: