This paper explains the development and implementation of a methodology for assessing the economic impacts of large-scale environmental regulations. The development process began with a literature review surveying channels through which environmental regulations might influence economic performance. Avenues deemed suitable were incorporated into a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the California economy. This model is based on the California Department of Finance's Dynamic Revenue Analysis Model (DRAM). Modifications to DRAM for the current project include a revised sectoring scheme that features industries of particular regulatory interest, revamped data matrices that accommodate this new sectoring scheme, a new air pollution module, programming options designed to facilitate the simulation of environmental regulations, and enhanced output reporting that highlights income, production, employment, and price responses to proposed regulatory changes. The new model, E-DRAM, is implemented, policy experiments are run, and their results are interpreted.

A brief time-series exploration of state-product, pollution prevention costs, and pollution follows. In it, vector auto regression (VAR) techniques are used to investigate the relationship between Gross State Product (GSP), pollution prevention expenditures, and levels of pollution. Findings suggests that the cost of holding pollution levels constant increases with GSP and that the cost of pollution control given asp rise as ambient pollution levels fall. This line inquiry will be more fruitful as more data becomes available.

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Mastocytosis denotes a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by abnormal growth and accumulation of mast cells. Cutaneous mastocytosis is characterized by skin-limited disease and is the most common subtype. Systemic mastocytosis has extracutaneous organ involvement with variable symptomatology and prognosis. Clinical manifestations are secondary to mediator release or direct organ infiltration of mast cells. Current available treatment for systemic mastocytosis is non-curative with conventional symptom-directed therapy for all subtypes. Cytoreductive agents are available for those with refractory symptoms or extensive extracutaneous disease. To date, clinical responses remain mixed and systemic mastocytosis is still an incurable condition.

The superphylum Alveolata contains three remarkably diverse groups of protozoans: the free-living ciliates and dinoflagellates, and the parasitic apicomplexans. Despite their diversity in morphology and lifestyle, alveolates are taxonomically unified by the presence of alveoli, a peripheral membrane system situated underneath the plasma membrane. The phylum Apicomplexa has received extensive attention due to the medical and economic burdens caused by its parasitic constituents, which include Toxoplasma gondii (toxoplasmosis) and Plasmodium spp.(malaria). Importantly, T. gondii serves as a model organism for these apicomplexans and even alveolates due to its experimental tractability. Moreover, toxoplasmosis is a life-threatening disease for immunocompromised individuals and congenitally infected neonates, highlighting the desperate need to understand its biology and develop better therapeutics against this pathogen.

A hallmark structure of the Alveolata is the alveoli, called the inner membrane complex (IMC) in apicomplexan parasites. The IMC is a peripheral membrane-cytoskeletal system underlying the plasma membrane and governs essential functions in all facets of the parasite’s intracellular lifestyle, including host cell invasion, replication, and egress. Specifically, it serves as a platform for the actin-myosin motor that powers gliding motility and provides a scaffold for daughter cells during replication. However, the sectioned organization of the IMC into multiple distinct subcompartments suggests additional functions not yet discovered for each compartment. Furthermore, even the well-established functions are not thoroughly understood, largely due to the scarcity of known IMC components. Here, we define a novel third role for the IMC and greatly expand the current catalog of daughter IMC proteins.

By characterizing the apical cap proteins AC9 and AC10, we demonstrate for the first time that the IMC apical cap critically stabilizes the apical complex, a cytoskeletal structure that controls parasite motility and secretory organelle exocytosis. We discover that AC9:AC10 performs this function by interacting with the MAP kinase ERK7 and concentrating it in the apical cap. Our subsequent dissection of the AC9:AC10:ERK7 complex revealed multiple independent interactions that organize the apical cap and uncovered an unusual mechanism of competitive inhibition that AC9 exerts on ERK7. This implicates the apical cap as not only an anchoring site for ERK7, but also as a regulatory center for its kinase activity.

We also explore the daughter cell scaffold by focusing on IMC29, pinpointing its precise timing of expression and describing its important function in coordinating the initiation stages of endodyogeny. We then use proximity labeling to identify a large array of novel IMC proteins, many of which localize exclusively to the nascent daughter cells. This firmly establishes the daughter IMC as a distinct subcompartment with its own cohort of proteins. Moreover, some of these proteins exhibited an interesting localization to the membrane interface between two daughter cells, launching a new area of research that promises novel insights into endodyogeny. Together, this dissertation presents exciting findings into the composition and function of the T. gondii IMC, with potentially broader impacts for apicomplexan and alveolate cell biology.

The International Criminal Court is a deeply divisive international organization. To some, it is the political pawn of neocolonial states; while for others, it represents hope for millions of victims of the world’s gravest crimes. The autonomy and authority of international justice, however, remain poorly understood. In this dissertation, I examine the social conditions of power in the international justice field, focusing on the nexus between the ICC’s organizational development and its interactions with communities in the Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ituri, a small and relatively unknown corner of northeastern Congo, is where the ICC has pursued its first trials and will soon implement its first reparations orders for victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Contrary to notions of victims as a mere rhetorical or symbolic concern of global governance, I argue that victims have been central to the ICC’s struggles to consolidate its autonomy and overcome fundamental sources of illegitimacy, both from the states whose sovereignty it threatens and the communities whose interests it claims to represent. To manage these threats, the ICC has come to depend on a variety of victim-centric practices, the majority of which ultimately serve its institutional interests while reinforcing local cycles of violence. At the same time, the ICC has displayed remarkable flexibility in crafting creative responses to victims that can serve as models for the practice of justice in the future. Ultimately, this analysis clarifies the social conditions of autonomy in fields of global governance, highlighting the productive practices that shape their authority and their relationship to vulnerable populations.