VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Gut microbial metabolism of specialized compounds from dietary plants
Keywords: Chemical Engineering.

Plants are prolific chemists and synthesize a plethora of compounds with diverse bioactivities. We encounter these specialized molecules with every meal through the consumption of plant-based foods. While a diet rich in plants has been shown through epidemiological studies to be protective against chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the molecular components of plants responsible for these benefits are still unknown. A major challenge in assessing the health impacts of these compounds is identification of the relevant metabolites that result from their digestion. Just as plants are experts at building complex molecules, gut microbiota are specialists in breaking them down. The gut microbiome has enormous capacity for metabolism and has been shown to metabolize a variety of plant compounds. Here, we describe our efforts towards elucidating the metabolic fates of bioactive compounds from dietary plants following consumption, as mediated by the gut microbiome. We began our studies with cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage and broccoli. Cruciferous plants produce glucosinolates that can be metabolized by gut bacteria to generate cancer-preventive isothiocyanates. We established the genetic and biochemical basis for activation of glucosinolates by a common human symbiont Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron. Using a genome-wide screen, we identified a gene cluster responsible for isothiocyanate production and demonstrated the importance of these genes in determining host exposure to isothiocyanates. We next turned to Solanaceous plants like potato and tomato. We found steroidal alkaloid aglycones, derived from glycosides made in the plant, to be one of the major classes of compounds that accumulate in systemic circulation following tomato and potato consumption. Furthermore, we showed that host exposure to these compounds is gated by gut microbial metabolism, which is responsible for removing sugar side chain from these molecules and modifying the aglycone core. By surveying metabolism of steroidal glycoalkaloids by intestinal bacteria from human donors, we discovered significant inter-individual variation in the products formed, and a screen of human commensals enabled us to identify specific bacterial strains involved. Finally, we performed preliminary in vitro bioactivity assays and metabolomics analyses with human samples to explore the relevance and effects of this metabolism on host physiology. Taken together, we demonstrate two examples of dietarily abundant plant molecules whose bioactivities and bioavailability are mediated by intestinal microbiota. These studies highlight that, from a common dietary plant input, the gut microbiome can impact divergent health outcomes in the host
Hafnium oxide based ferroelectric materials for memory applications
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

Innovations of memory technologies are essential for addressing the future needs of data processing and storage. The discovery of ferroelectricity in hafnia (HfO2)-based materials has led the re-emergence of ferroelectric memories in advanced semiconductor technologies, with the potential to reshape the technology landscape and to enable novel computing architectures. Ferroelectric HfO2 is promising for non-volatile memories (NVM) due to its ability to scale down to ultra-thin films and very small device dimensions. However, challenges are still present for implementation of ferroelectric HfO2 in commercial products developed for embedded memories, including limited programming cycle endurance and compatibility with the back-end-of-line (BEOL) processing temperature. This dissertation presents innovations at the material and device levels to realize high endurance and low thermal budget ferroelectric memories, followed by advanced material characterizations to probe the mechanisms behind. First, I will demonstrate an experimental investigation of ferroelectricity in CeO2 doped Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) thin films.1 I will present an analysis encompassing measurements of switchable polarization, cycling endurance, stress-induced leakage current (SILC) and photoelectric effects to provide a comprehensive understanding of CeO2 doping effects on the conduction mechanism and reliability of CeO2-doped HZO polarization switching. Second, I will report an investigation of the crystal structure of ferroelectric HZO films as a function of atomic layer deposition (ALD) temperature. Our results suggests that optimization of HZO thin film synthesis defined by the ALD deposition temperature not only produces films with the highest ferroelectric polarization, but can achieve this at the low thermal budgets necessary for incorporation of ferroelectric HZO in BEOL devices
Hard and Soft Propaganda: Marketing Autocracy in Contemporary China
Keywords: Propaganda
Propaganda, Chinese
China
Three Child Policy
One Child Policy
Text
Thesis

Current scholarship has identified distinct styles of propaganda produced by the Chinese government. Huang (2015) describes “hard” propaganda as propaganda designed to signal state capacity rather than persuade; by contrast, Yang (2013) illustrates how “soft” propaganda advances narratives of everyday heroism to deflect from structural critique. However, literature on hard and soft propaganda remains bifurcated, even as both styles rapidly alternate in the Chinese information environment. My thesis offers the first empirical study of hard and soft propaganda, investigating whether distinct styles of propaganda produce different effects, whether propaganda variants interact with one another, and how this might contribute to autocratic resilience. I conduct an original survey experiment with over 650 mainland Chinese participants, who are treated with hard and/or soft propaganda based on the Three Child Policy. I find that citizens are significantly more likely to share and enjoy soft propaganda, and less likely to identify it as “political propaganda” in comparison to hard propaganda. Both hard and soft propaganda encourage citizens to seek redress through official channels, while soft propaganda also stirs an entrepreneurial response. Though hard and soft propaganda create political backlash, exposure to both varieties also makes it more difficult for participants to identify soft propaganda as political propaganda, and easier for participants to identify hard propaganda as political propaganda. I conclude that hard and soft propaganda result in distinct effects, and that a diverse informational strategy may reinforce autocracy over time.
Hardware-efficient designs for quantum error correction
Keywords: Applied Physics.

Quantum error correction (QEC) protects the quantum information against various dissipation processes. The experimental implementation of QEC is still challenging, despite significant efforts and progress in recent years. For example, the standard qubit-based QEC requires a large overhead in the qubit counts with a high hardware complexity. In this dissertation, I will present three works towards more hardware-efficient realizations of QEC. First, I will talk about an experiment on the quantum parametric oscillator, where the generated cat states are potentially useful as bosonic qubits. Next, I will propose a Floquet qubit design in superconducting circuits that has a mechanical analog of Kapitza's pendulum. The qubit subspace is protected autonomously with an engineered cooling process. Finally, I will describe a numerical framework for automatically discovering autonomous QEC schemes
Have low interest rates affected the contribution decisions of public pension funds in the United States?
Keywords: Public pensions, Interest rates, Pension contributions, Duration of pension liabilities
Text
Thesis

Low interest rates increase the liabilities of public pension funds by raising the costs of paying fixed future benefits. In response to this it is expected that contributions would increase. In this paper, it is found that public pension funds in the United States are not accounting for interest rates when making contribution decisions. Instead, it seems as though the duration of the pension fund liabilities on which zero coupon treasury yield curve rates are calculated is of greater importance. Public pension funds are seemingly concerned relatively more by the length of their amortization period to catch up on missed contributions, with increases in contributions occurring for low durations and decreases in contributions occurring for high durations.
HE ĀNUENUE PIʻO I LUNA O KOʻOLAUPOKO: Ethnography of Koʻolaupoko as a Native Hawaiian Cultural Complex of Resilience
Keywords: Indigenous peoples > Civil rights
Native Hawaiians
Native language and education
Indigenous peoples
Oahu
Hawaii > Kailua (Oahu)
Text
Thesis

Measuring the health, vibrance, and the body politic of Indigenous communities is a task best approached by nuance and complexity. This paper strategically envisions pathways of Native Hawaiian resilience and revival through the community, identity, tradition, and landmarks of the district of Koʻolaupoko on the Eastern side of Oʻahu, a place where settler colonialism, development, and Indigeneity come into conflict with one another. This paper fortifies and campaigns for the assessment and value of Indigenous community and cultural health via the vibrance of ancestral pathways. These pathways manifest as links between two physical spaces, humans and natural phenomena, ancestors and grandchildren, heavens and earth, spirits and materials. This paper shows that pathways continue to thrive and be reawakened by Native Hawaiians who inhabit these lands through physical presence, genealogical connection, and participation in local lineages of Indigenous knowledge.
Heavy Minerals from barite-rich sandstone beds in the Mapepe Formation, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa
Keywords: Byerly, Benjamin L.
Africa > Barberton Greenstone Belt (Eswatini and South Africa)
Chromite
Zircon
Komatiite
Africa > Fig Tree Group (Eswatini and South Africa)
Text
Thesis

Heavy mineral deposits in the Fig Tree Group Mapepe Formation in the Barberton Greenstone Belt are composed largely of detrital barite sand but also contain detrital chromite and zircon. This study presents geochemical chromite data, primarily Cr# (Cr/(Cr+AL))*100, and geochronological zircon data and compare these with published and unpublished data from source rock areas. Cr# data from source rock areas suggest aeolian processes could have transported grains prior to Fig Tree Group time. Mapepe Formation detrital zircons and chromites combined suggest these barite sandstones sourced chromite grains mainly from Onverwacht Group Mendon and Kromberg Formation komatiitic flows and zircon grains from Hooggenoeg Formation felsic rocks (H6), and that uplift was able to erode 3-4 km into underlying rock.
Here to stay : queer homemaking in German literature, 1980-2000
Keywords: German Studies.

This dissertation considers portrayals and practices of homemaking in queer German literary writing from the 1980s and 1990s. I term this genre the 'literature of partial discrimination', referring to legal changes in 1968/69 that partially decriminalised consensual sex between adult men and thus changed their status as citizens. In the fictionalised, semi-autobiographical texts that are the focus of my study, establishing a home -- often, but not always, within a domestic space -- emerges as crucial to the formation of queer identity. The queer literary corpus uncovers some of the affective, emotional and subjective elements of queer life and experience that are elided from the public histories of homosexuality that have constituted much of the scholarly work in the field. Chapter one reads two texts by Ronald M Schernikau -- kleinstadtnovelle (1980) and so schön (1999) -- arguing that they offer a queer utopian blueprint for non-heteronormative homemaking in West Berlin. Chapter two is situated on the other side of the Berlin Wall and examines Ulrich Berkes' Eine schlimme Liebe (1987); here I argue that Berkes' text is a quiet but radical call for acceptance of queerness in the German Democratic Republic. Chapter three remains East and reads three texts exploring queer female embodiment and desire: Waldtraut Lewin's Dich hat Amor gewiß... (1983), Gabriele Eckart's Der Seidelstein (1986) and Sonja Voß-Scharfenberg's Abseits (1990). These texts show the potentiality for queer female homemaking but also the very real constraints on these practices, constraints engendered by the patriarchal hegemonic nature of both private and public spheres in East Germany. This dissertation reads these literary works in their socio-historic context, and argues that literature as historical source material has the potential to disrupt dominant historiographies of post-war Germany
Heuristics and bounds for photonic design
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

This thesis covers a number of results in heuristics for approximately solving photonic design problems and bounds for the optimal value of such problems. Chapter 2 begins the thesis with an overview of the literature and a very general introduction to the photonic design problem, along with simplified summaries of the usual techniques used in both approximately solving physical design problems and in computing bounds for the optimal value of these optimization problems. Chapter 3 shows a heuristic which can be used to find approximate solutions to the photonic design problem and discusses some interesting observations based on the ideas introduced. In chapter 4, we cover a particular technique for bounding the optimal value of photonic design problems, along with several generalizations. Finally, chapter 5 shows a generalization of a number of bounds available in the literature to include objectives that often show up in efficiency metrics
Higgs pair production searches with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and the HL-LHC
Keywords: Physics.

Exploring the Higgs potential and electroweak symmetry breaking is one of the main goals at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Higgs pair production (HH) provides experimental access to the shape of Higgs potential and is the only direct probe of the Higgs self-coupling in proton-proton collisions. This thesis presents a search for HH production in the bbyy channel with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC with 139/fb of data at 13 TeV. The results from this search are combined with results from the bbtautau and bbbb channels to produce the most stringent limits on Standard Model HH production and the Higgs self-coupling to date. In addition to the present results, this thesis discuss ways to improve sensitivity to HH production during Run 3 and our projected sensitivity to HH production at the High Luminosity-LHC with 4000/fb at 14 TeV. The ATLAS Inner Tracker detector upgrade which is required to enable these searches is also presented
High pressure deformation of nanostructures and lightweight alloys
Keywords: Materials Science and Engineering.

Lightweight and strong alloys can reduce fuel consumption in vehicles, aircrafts and ships, and reduce spacecrafts and satellites payloads for deep space exploration. Low-density Al and Mg alloys that derive their high strength and mechanical properties from the collective interaction of defects with nanoscale precipitates are of interest for these applications. Individual nanoscale structures have also shown exceptional mechanical properties like high strength and elasticity. Nanostructuring of bulk alloys can be an effective strategy to reduce the density of the components and improve their strength. This bottom-up fabrication strategy requires a comprehensive understanding of deformation mechanisms at the nanoscale which is difficult to obtain. In situ electron microscope measurements on individual nanoparticles have shown unique deformation behaviors governed by the surface of the nanoparticles. These in situ measurements fall short in capturing the complete defect activity under stress, and suffer from limited measurement statistics and inadvertent heating of the nanoparticles. Diamond anvil cell (DAC) is a tool consisting of two diamond anvils opposing each other with the sample between them. The DAC setup applies a static high pressure on the sample through a pressure transmitting medium and allow in situ characterization of materials using optical and X-ray methods. Using this method I test and understand the deformation behavior of an ensemble of nanoparticles and nano-precipitates in bulk alloys under extreme conditions
High Throughout Genome Editing in Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Neurons
Keywords: synapse
CRISPR (Genetics)
Neurons
super resolution imaging
Text
Thesis

Studying the localization and abundance of neuronal proteins provides valuable insights into their physiological significance and interactions. Labeling of synaptic proteins has been traditionally achieved by immunohistochemistry or viral overexpression of fusion proteins, but these approaches have several limitations. The molecular architecture of synapses comprises hundreds of pre- and post-synaptic molecules, yet only a small fraction of these molecules can be reliably visualized due to the limited availability of specific, high-affinity antibodies. Moreover, immunohistochemistry and overexpression can introduce artifacts and inaccurately recapitulate the distribution of proteins in live cells. Mapping the synaptic proteome with precision and without being encumbered by the availability of quality antibodies, necessitates the use of genetically encoded fluorescent reporters that can be used to tag any molecule of interest. To meet this need, we designed and optimized a CRISPR-HDR strategy to visualize the endogenous expression patterns of neuronal proteins while leaving a minimal genetic footprint. Given the low HDR efficiency in post-mitotic cells like neurons, we leveraged our ability to edit human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) efficiently and induce them into mature, glutamatergic human neurons (iN). Using our approach, we successfully knocked in a HaloTag at the RIMS1 locus in hESCs, isolated pure RIMS1 knock-in cells using a relatively scarless selection strategy, and subsequently differentiated them into iN. We then validated the functionality and correct localization of the HaloTag by microscopy, establishing RIMS1:HaloTag as a reliable presynaptic marker in iN. To demonstrate the generalizability of our approach and the feasibility of a knock-in screen for synaptic molecules, we proceeded to tag other neuronal proteins like FZD3 and DLG4.
High voltage electrode development and the LZ experiment's WIMP search
Keywords: Physics.

Approximately 15% of the matter density in the universe is composed of Standard Model particles, while the other 85% is composed of an enigmatic "dark" matter whose fundamental properties are unknown. In recent decades, there has been substantial interest in performing a direct detection of scattering between dark matter and Standard Model particles, but currently no such signature has been verifiably observed. The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment was built to perform such a direct detection of dark matter using a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC), which can observe both light and charge signals from an interaction in the xenon. The dual-phase xenon TPC technology is critically dependent on maintaining strong drift and extraction fields in order to observe the charge signal. These fields are established by a set of four stainless steel wire mesh high voltage electrode grids that span the full width of the TPC. During operation, these grids achieve wire surface fields well above 15 kV/cm. These high fields can produce spurious charge signals and signals from real radioactive decays with atypical light-to-charge ratios, both of which can lead to low-energy backgrounds in LZ science data. As a result, substantial effort in the design, construction, validation, and operation of these grids was required to ensure that the LZ detector could be used to pursue world-leading dark matter searches. This work presents a detailed characterization of these efforts, from grid design all the way through first science run data with LZ. This work also presents two analyses performed within the first six months of datataking: the first science run searching for WIMP dark matter, and an analysis of radiogenic backgrounds from the high voltage grids. While the former analysis represents an immediate world-leading sensitivity to WIMP dark matter between about 10 GeV/c^2 and 10 TeV/c^2, the latter analysis lays a new foundation for the background model needed to search for dark matter at much lower masses, down to approximately 1 GeV/c^2
High-dimensional problems in probability, optimization, and learning
Keywords: Mathematics.

This thesis concerns several problems in probability, optimization, and machine learning. In the first part we study mixing and sampling. We first revisit the riffle shuffle, generalizing the classic ``seven shuffles suffice'' result of Bayer and Diaconis to shuffles with asymmetric cuts. We then study our first spin glass model, aiming to sample from the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick Gibbs measure in the high-temperature phase. We develop a new approach based not on a Markov Chain, but instead on Eldan's stochastic localization. Moreover we prove a hardness result for stable algorithms using Chatterjee's disorder chaos. In the second part we turn to optimization, aiming to find approximate ground states in spin glass models. This problem is intimately related to their low temperature behavior, and the limiting ground state energy is given by the Parisi formula at zero temperature. We determine an exact algorithmic threshold for a natural class of stable algorithms, which is achieved by approximate message passing algorithms. Our hardness results stem from a refined landscape property that we christen the branching overlap gap property. The third part concerns two problems in high-dimensional machine learning. We first study the problem of chasing convex bodies, in which one aims to perform stable convex optimization to obtain robust performance guarantees in changing environments. The solution involves a generalization of the classical Steiner point in convex geometry and its connections to Lipschitz selection. Finally we establish the law of robustness, showing that a natural robustness memorization task in high dimension requires extremely overparametrized machine learning models to solve