EEB Dissertation Defense: Insights Into Land Plant Genome Annotation, Evolution, And Conservation Through Improved Bioinformatic Approaches And Genomic Technologies Please join us for an engaging seminar that explores adaptations in land plant genomes (some of the smallest and largest will be featured!)

Shawn Cummings, in the Language & Cognition division of the Department of Psychological Sciences, will be defending his dissertation: "Linking Lexically Guided Perceptual Learning to Statistical Patterns in Speech Input". ABSTRACT: Listeners use lexical information to modify the mapping between speech acoustics and speech sound categories. Despite convention to consider lexically guided perceptual learning as a binary outcome, the magnitude of the learning effect varies in the extant literature. We hypothesize that graded learning outcomes can be linked, in part, to statistical characteristics of the to-be-learned input, consistent with the ideal adapter theory of speech adaptation. We begin with creation and analysis of a lexically guided perceptual learning corpus including stimulus sets for the /ʃ/-/s/ contrast for each of 16 talkers following standard methods (i.e., waveform averaging to create ambiguous variants), yielding variability in the statistical cues specifying this contrast across talkers (Experiment 2). We then analyze the perceptual consequences of this variability on perception prior to experimentally induced bias (Experiment 2). Finally, we (a) measure lexically guided perceptual learning for each talker, (b) identify input characteristics that are associated with learning magnitude, and (c) examine whether a computational instantiation of the ideal adapter theory can model the input-learning link (Experiment 3). Robust learning is observed for 13 of 16 talkers, with magnitudes of learning strongly convergent between behavior and model simulations. These results provide a critical and successful test of the ideal adapter framework for speech adaptation, thus informing an understanding of the mechanisms that allow listeners to solve the lack of invariance problem for speech perception.

U n i v e r s i t y of C o n n e c t i c u t DEPARTMENT OF PATHOBIOLOGY & VETERINARY SCIENCE Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Elizabeth Ramirez-Medina Major Advisors: Dr. Guillermo Risatti Associate Advisors: Dr. Paulo Verardi, Dr. Antonio Garmendia and Dr. Manuel Borca Title: "Assessment of the biological function of African Swine Fever Virus genes" Wednesday, July 16, 2025, 11am ESB 121 To attend virtually via WebEx please use the following link: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/uconncmr/j.php?MTID=me1071857f38dad6d504c2b27e7f0b96d

Who: Sachin Tripathi, PhD Candidate in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering). What: PhD Dissertation Defense for the dissertation titled: "Three-Dimensional Temperature Distribution and Thermal Induced Responses of a Lunar Habitat Structure Considering Regolith Cover and Self Shadow Effect." Why: As lunar exploration advances, this study addresses critical challenges in designing safe, sustainable lunar habitats. The findings provide vital insights for robust structural designs, contributing significantly to structural engineering for extraterrestrial environments. This defense is an opportunity for the UConn community, including students, faculty, and researchers, to engage with cutting-edge research for future lunar missions.

Covariate-Assisted Stochastic Block Models: Feature Selection and Latent Factors

Dissertation title: Transforming Elegies in Romantic Britain and Republican China Date: Monday, July 17 Time: 10 am to 12pm Place: SHH 236 Committee Charles Mahoney (Co-major advisor) Liansu Meng (Co-major advisor) Peter Zarrow (associate advisor) Peter Constantine (reader) Johannes Turk (external reader) Victor Zatsepine (reader) If you are not able to attend the Dissertation Defense in person, please see Webex meeting link below. Webex Meeting link: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/uconn-cmr/j.php?MTID=me16a76c50c43317ed83f93b7a097f4fe Meeting number: 2868 631 4780 Meeting password: nJPW2ncmX72 Join from a video system or application Dial 28686314780@uconn-cmr.webex.com You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number. Join by phone +1-415-655-0002 Toll Access code: 28686314780 Global call-in numbers https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/uconn-cmr/globalcallin.php?MTID=m03db380aee7590cee3bbc96c6f4d99c6

Rachel V. Tucker (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Communication, University of Connecticut) will defend her doctoral dissertation titled, "Communicative Disenfranchisement During Childbirth: Examining the Outcomes Associated with and Role of Race/Ethnicity and Health Insurance Status in Shaping Black or African American, Hispanic or Latina, and White Women's Interactions with Providers During Childbirth" on Friday, July 18, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. EDT on WebEx. This study used the post-positivist articulation of the theory of communicative disenfranchisement to examine the outcomes associated with adverse interactions between healthcare providers and Black or African American, Hispanic or Latina, and White cisgender women (N = 230) receiving care for childbirth in the U.S., and the intersecting role of race/ethnicity and health insurance status in shaping such interactions. The findings from this study offer theoretical insights that extend our understanding of communicative disenfranchisement as a contextually dependent process, as well as practical insights regarding how to improve maternal healthcare interactions. A copy of the dissertation is available by emailing Michael J, Melnik at michael.melnik@uconn.edu.

Title: Advancing Marginal Likelihoods for Longitudinal Data Analysis Field of Study: Statistics This dissertation proposes a novel Bayesian method that decomposes the marginal likelihood into two distinct components, enabling better assessment of covariance structures conditional on the mean structure in repeated measures data.

You are invited to attend the Doctoral Dissertation Oral Defense of Falu Hong Department of Natural Resources and the Environment College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources. Dissertation title: Remote Sensing the Human Impact: Mapping Impervious Surface Dynamics, Primary Forest Loss, and Biodiversity Extinction Risk. Date and time: Monday, July 21, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. EST. Location: Room 109, Advanced Technology Laboratory (ATL), Bio Science Complex, University of Connecticut Virtual access: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/meet/fah20002 Falu Hong's dissertation leverages remote sensing/satellite observations to analyze the human impacts on Earth's environment. The research focuses on: (1) Mapping impervious surface dynamics across the conterminous United States during the past four decades, (2) Decoding primary forest loss in Haiti and the Dominican Republic (3) Forecasting the biodiversity extinction risk by simulating the future land cover changes. All are welcome to join, in person or virtually.

Elena is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut and PhD researcher with the ICArEHB center at the University of Algarve Portugal. Join us on zoom as she defends her dissertation - "Ancient Futures - Paleoclimate Changes and Social Resilience in late Quaternary Mozambique"

I am Kunze Li, a fifth-year PhD student majoring in Economics. The title of my dissertation is "Inequality in Labor Market Outcomes and Wealth: The Roles of Health, Intergenerational Return Rate Correlation, and Estate Taxation." I am writing regarding my dissertation defense. I plan to graduate this summer, and all of my advisors have already agreed to participate in my defense at this time. Therefore, I would like to schedule an oral defense.

Yijia Gao (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Economics, University of Connecticut) will defend her doctoral dissertation titled, "Competitive Incentives and Environmental Regulation: Three Essays in Environmental Economics" on Wednesday, July 23, 2025 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EDT on WebEx.

Hemp Hurd Fiber: A Viable Substitute for Peat Moss in Container Production of Horticultural Crops   Growers are interested in alternative, sustainable substrates to replace peat moss due to rising costs and awareness of the environmental damage caused by peat mining. Cultivation of hemp (Cannabis sativa) in the United States for the textile industry is expanding. A significant byproduct of hemp stem manufacturing is hurd, which consists of fibers that are too short for textile use. The feasibility of using hurd as a substitute for peat in the production of a range of crops, including potted flowering plants, vegetables, and ornamental shrubs and herbaceous perennials, was explored.

Dissertation Title: More Than Trauma-Bonded: Shared Strengths and Its Cognitive, Behavioral, and Affective Benefits for Intraminority Solidarity. Field of Study: Social Psychology

Samuel Haiden is a student in Dr. Gerald Berkowitz' lab. Since the Farm Bill of 2018, hemp-cannabis has been eligible for research in the US. Since, the Berkowitz lab has been a leader in the molecular genetics of trichome development and cannabinoid synthesis. This presentation is the culmination of Sam's research on photoperiodism and minor cannabinoid production in this novel field of research.

Field of Study: Systems Genomics Dissertation Title: Generation of TCR-mimic Antibody Libraries Targeted Towards NRAS Mutant Q61R