The focus of this thesis is an investigation of ways to detect weak dependence between two random variables X and Y. Our approach is to design tests for correlation rather than testing for dependence directly, since X and Y are not independent if they are not uncorrelated. We examined the magnified Pearson correlation after the Box-Cox transformation to determine whether X and Y are dependent. The results indicated that our approach not only has the potential to detect and evaluate the weak dependence cases that have previously been intractable, but also is conceptually simple and easy to implement.

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This dissertation examines global shifts in medical and religious thinking about leprosy, using the southern African kingdom of Swaziland as a case study from the start of British rule in 1902 to the first decade of the twenty-first century. Involving a wide variety of both local and international actors, these encounters were frequently characterized by highly unequal power dynamics, especially between Swazis and Western doctors, bureaucrats, and missionaries. However, it is a central theme of this work that Swazis often turned Western scientific and religious preoccupations with leprosy into assets for their own benefit. Understanding the reasons why and under what circumstances Swazis did so illuminates the processes by which peoples of different cultures adapt themselves to shifting circumstances. Rather than abandoning local cultural ideas in favor of those of more powerful outsiders, I argue that the adaptations enacted by Swazis were coherent within their own cultural perspectives and are best understood as evolutions of local ideas instead of the byproduct of a foreign value system. Influenced by the narrative approach of microhistory, this project correlates evidence from three major archival collections, representing chiefly the perspective of British colonial figures and medical missionaries from the Church of the Nazarene, with insights derived from oral interviews conducted with both medical personnel and former leprosy patients in Swaziland. In so doing, it investigates themes related to the transfer of stigma across social and cultural boundaries; the clashing expectations of cultures divided by geography, language, education, and more; the limits of Western science and bureaucracy when attempting to exercise control over other cultures; and the continual negotiations through which all parties pursued their particular agendas. In analyzing the interplay between the primarily scientific and political concerns of the British colonial government and the chiefly spiritual concerns of the Nazarene medical missionaries, the story makes possible an understanding of how Swazis created advantageous spaces for themselves. I argue that they did this primarily by entering into relationships of social dependency, which they understood as creating bonds of mutual obligation between themselves and Westerners.

The favorable interaction between proteins and nanoparticles has sparked potential applications of nanotechnology in medicine, and the unique electronic and chemical properties of nanoparticles also provide novel strategies for protein-related therapeutics. The formation of the biocorona has attracted substantial interest over the past decades. For instance, as a potential drug delivery mechanism, protein-coated nanoparticles can improve biocompatibility and increase targeting ability. However, the mechanistic details of protein-nanoparticle interactions remain poorly understood. For example, it is currently impossible to predict the orientation and structure of proteins on the nanoparticle surface, as well as the fate of the biocorona in vivo. Since the composition of the biocorona determines the biological response, identifying and stabilizing the biocorona seems critical for the further development of applications in biological system. In this study, we investigated the physicochemical properties of protein interactions with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Firstly, we developed an NMR-based approach for measuring the stoichiometry of protein adsorption to AuNPs, which can be generally applied to globular proteins of different size. Quantitative analysis enabled us to create a protein binding model that involves an initial association, structure reorientation and irreversible adsorption. Secondly, we measured the protein hydrogen-deuterium exchange rates and found that they were unperturbed in the presence of AuNPs, suggesting that proteins retain their globular structure upon adsorption. Finally, we investigated the electrostatic contribution to binding, and we identified a dynamically changing surface in which the factors of net charge, binding affinity and protein size play distinct roles at different phases.

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