VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
"Placing the history of advertising": A spatial history of advertising in modern Shanghai (1905-1949)
Keywords: actor
advertising
city
digital history
ENS Lyon
map
outdoor
press
space
spatial history
urban history
representation
rhythm
Shanghai
Thesis

Directly inspired by Philip Ethington's proposal on "placing history", my dissertation offers a spatial approach to the history of advertising in modern Shanghai (1905-1949). Based on various materials (press, archives, photos, sketches, graphs, maps, trees), this spatial trend aims to shift the gaze from mainstream cultural approach (focused on representations visible on press advertisements) to a spatial and material approach of advertising, with a genuine concern for the physical aspects of advertisements. The first part (chapter 1 and 2) is devoted to mapping and measuring the populations and territories of advertising in Shanghai, both in the local press (Chinese newspaper Shenbao and British North-China Daily News), as well as within the city. The second part examines the actors who made and inhabited these spaces, namely the emerging advertising profession (chapter 3) and the actors involved in the production or consumption of advertised products (advertisers/manufacturing companies, brands/products, markets/consumers) (chapter 4). Chapter 5 is devoted to advertising “landscapes” - a term that I used as an operative concept to replace the overused, and often misused, notion of representation - in order to cover every dimension of advertisements (their physical environment at various scales, the copy surface, the discourses they carried). Chapter 6 offers to take advertising spaces as an ideal observatory for examining tensions, conflicts and other forms of relationships surrounding advertising, as well as a "laboratory" for inventing urban modernity – that is, new ways of conceiving and living the city in modern Shanghai. As spatial approaches are often blamed for “freezing” history, my dissertation eventually attempts to trace the circulations and rhythmic patterns between the printed and urban spaces, within and outside Shanghai (chapters 7 and 8). Beyond the "terrain", my dissertation strives to take advantage of the new resources available to historians in the digital age. The digital platform MADspace, which has been especially designed as a digital companion to this PhD project, makes the assumption that the digital ecology offers unexpected opportunities for renewing research questions and methodologies in the field of (Chinese, urban) history.
Plasmonic gold nanomaterials for medical diagnosis and biological imaging [electronic resource]
Keywords: Chemistry.

This thesis describes the development, optimization and application of plasmonic gold nanomaterials in medical diagnosis and biological imaging. Gold nanoparticles undergo unique localized surface plasmon resonances in the visible and near-infrared (NIR). Coupling of the scattering nanoparticle plasmon modes result in enhanced local electric field and NIR fluorescence emission rate, which can lead to NIR fluorescence enhancement (NIR-FE) under certain conditions. Here, the application of this NIR-FE effect is discussed in the context of protein microarray immunoassays. Multiplexed protein assays are constructed on the nanostructured plasmonic gold film that display up to 100-fold fluorescence enhancement and ~3 orders of magnitude extension of the protein detection dynamic range, compared to conventional assays on commercial substrates such as glass. Immunoassays performed on the plasmonic gold films afford more sensitive measurements of proteins over a broader dynamic range with higher signal-to-noise ratio. The aim of this thesis is to develop novel protein microarray immunoassays for biomedical diagnostics on the plasmonic gold platform to conquer some of the most challenging healthcare problems faced by global population. The clinical application of plasmonic substrates is demonstrated from the diagnosis of infectious diseases and the early detection of hypertensive heart diseases. The application of the plasmonic gold nanomaterials for sensitive imaging and detection of cellular proteins is also presented.
Plastic companions [electronic resource] : posthuman intimacy in twenty-first-century Latin America
Keywords: Iberian and Latin American Cultures.

"Plastic Companions: Posthuman Intimacy in Twenty-First-Century Latin America" examines how representations of gender expression and sexual practice in post-2000, Southern Cone literature interpolate the influence of technological advances on modern intimacy. "Plasticity" and "posthumanism" are two central, organizing principles of this research. Functioning as both noun and adjective, the word "plastic" refers to that which is easily shaped, but it can also signify something that gives shape, as in the case of plastic surgery. This bidirectional term—one that both gives and takes form—serves as a useful hermeneutic for reading posthuman intimacy in contemporary Latin American print and cinematic culture. By posthuman, I mean a way of understanding the irreversibly connected relationship between our species and a natural world that is rapidly being reshaped by technological interventions. This project is invested in both the flesh-and-blood impacts of these interventions and the symbolic influence of high-tech sexual allure on everyday intimacy. With a posthumanist perspective that shifts focus away from the human to highlight the agency of the rest of the material world, this analysis investigates how the literary expression of our growing reliance on technology reflects the more-than-human aspects of so-called "human" sexuality. From the shapely sex dolls in Ariel Magnus's Muñecas, to the thwarted, scalpel-sculpted ideals in Lucía Puenzo's XXY and Gabriela Cabezón Cámara's Romance de la negra rubia, and, finally, the fluid performances of online dating in Alberto Fuguet's Sudor—the plastic companions featured in this study demonstrate not only the malleability of humans as sexually desirable objects but also the elasticity of posthuman desire, which finds intrigue and satisfaction beyond the organic strictures of the species. The present dissertation also explores how narrative, itself, can be a technology of posthuman intimacy. One unifying feature of the archive is an explicit invitation to find these alternative forms of companionship desirable and actionable. These texts generate readerly complicity in taboo sexual intimacy by instilling knowledge of and perhaps appreciation for these once culturally marginalized relations. Each of the three chapters in "Plastic Companions" thus describes one formal feature that contributes to readerly complicity, naming plaesthetics, cyborg writing, and Grindr narrativity as the narrative attributes that distinguish these stories of posthuman intimacy. In summary, the project shows that the literary ramifications of integrating modern technology into Latin American stories of love and desire often undermine humanist depictions of intimacy and widen the pool of eligible significant others.
Plutonium Management and Disposition in the United States: History and Analysis of the Program
Keywords: Center for International Security and Cooperation
Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement
Spent Fuel Standard
plutonium
MOX
nuclear waste form
program management
nuclear security
Thesis

Signed in 2000, the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement between the U.S. and Russia required each nation to dispose of at least 34 metric tons of weapon plutonium. Nonetheless, the U.S. Plutonium Disposition Program still remains incomplete as of 2017. This thesis analyzes the failure of the Pu disposition program through the assessment of information from the scientific and technical literature, the U.S. government, and NGOs in order to answer the following question: Why has the United States been unable to implement its own policy as agreed to with Russia in the 2000 Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement? The analysis revealed that the failure of the U.S. policy is primarily a consequence of placing uncritical faith in the U.S. Government’s ability to implement the MOX fabrication technology. The program was unsuccessful because a multitude of problems compounded, including structural organization and communication issues, a waste standard that constrained disposition options, fundamental misunderstandings of the technology by those in policy-making positions, insufficient appreciation for the challenges of transferring a plant design from France to the U.S. with regard to regulatory and procurement issues, an underdeveloped contractor base, political complexity that affected the funding profile, and the attempt to implement a program that did not align with the U.S. National nuclear fuel strategy. This thesis proposes that a broad-based, reorganized U.S. nuclear waste and weapon material disposition program should combine the plutonium disposition program and other U.S. nuclear waste disposal projects into a unified national strategy. This plan should be implemented by a single-purpose organization focused on disposal of the entirety of the Nation’s nuclear waste, including excess weapons plutonium.
Police professionalism and racial disparities in arrest rates [electronic resource] : an examination of police discrimination, discretion, and diversity
Keywords: Sociology.

It is highly debated in both academia and civil discourse whether U.S. police agencies are professional, performing their duties impersonally and expertly. In particular, there is much concern that U.S. police agencies discriminate against black men. This dissertation examines the prevalence and causes of such discrimination, seeking to better understand and increase police professionalism. Using data from the 2013 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS), this dissertation employs multilevel modeling to estimate black and white criminal offenders' relative arrest likelihoods across different police agencies. The use of national data on criminal offenses allows me to condition on criminal behavior and examine police treatment of black and white men net of criminal behavior. This is a novel contribution that greatly improves our understanding of police discrimination in the U.S. My analyses of 956,434 criminal offenders reported for nine common offenses do not find evidence that police agencies discriminate against black offenders. In fact, black men are often less likely than white men to face arrest after committing the same criminal offense. This is the case even in police agencies that use more discretion when investigating reported offenses and with more officers of color. These findings suggest that black men's over-representation in the criminal justice system cannot be overcome simply by reducing police discretion and increasing police diversity. Moreover, arrest rate disparities are likely to persist even in the absence of police discrimination against black men, since 35 percent of reported male offenders are black. Overcoming racial disparities in arrest rates will require multipronged interventions that account for the complexity of this issue, including racial disparities in criminal behavior reported by victims, witnesses, and police officers. It is possible that criminal reports are exceedingly biased, which would help explain these findings, as well as the large racial disparities in arrest rates observed today.
Political origins of public education systems [electronic resource]
Keywords: Political Science.

Why do some governments provide more education than others? And why do so many education systems fail to promote student learning and reduce poverty and inequality? This volume addresses these questions by examining what motivates politicians to provide education. Using newly collected quantitative and qualitative data spanning the long history of public primary education systems in Europe, Latin America, the United States, and the rest of the world, it assesses four possible reasons why politicians may expand education systems: in response to the human capital demands of voters; in response to the job-related interests of organized teacher unions; in response to pressure from capitalists who demand a skilled workforce; or out of their own interest in nation-building. The weight of the evidence presented points to the role of nation-building as a trigger for primary education provision. In particular, I show that the civil wars, and more generally, instances of widespread internal political disorder were a crucial factor that prompted politicians to set up and expand primary education systems as a means to inculcate beliefs and behaviors that would prevent future rebellions against authority. These findings suggest that a core reason why education systems fail to promote learning and reduce poverty and inequality is because that is not what they were primarily designed to do.
Political risks in international finance [electronic resource]
Keywords: Political Science.

Political regime change creates a number of financial risks for international investors. One is sovereign risk, or the possibility that a government may fail to repay outstanding debts. A second is fiscal risk, defined as uncertainty about prospects for government revenue and excessive vulnerability to macroeconomic shocks. Finally, there is the risk that a newly-elected government will dramatically revise the economic policies of its predecessor. This thesis comprises three essays examining these risks in two different political contexts: British decolonization during the mid-twentieth century, and the present-day United States.
The politics and policies of inclusion [electronic resource]
Keywords: Political Science.

Can state policies make politics more accessible and responsive to historically marginalized groups? India, like many developing democracies, faces a fundamental contradiction between its promise of political equality and entrenched social inequality, across caste, class, and gender. In response, the Indian state has undertaken a number of institutional reforms explicitly aimed at making politics more inclusive. This dissertation comprises three studies that evaluate how these policies have affected both the political engagement and welfare of women and caste minorities in rural south India. It examines: (1) caste and gender quotas for elected office, (2) deliberative forums to engage citizens in governance, and (3) grassroots efforts to politically empower women through self-help groups.
Pore-scale simulation of immiscible multiphase flow with moving contact lines using level sets [electronic resource]
Keywords: Energy Resources Engineering.

Accurate Modeling of immiscible two-phase flow at the pore-scale requires the development of high-fidelity numerical methods that allow for high-resolution representation of fluid interfaces, while honoring the conservation laws of momentum, mass, and energy. The multiphase numerical methods must capture the interfacial jump conditions and model the multiscale physics of contact-line dynamics. The objective of this work is to model accurately the surface-tension force and the moving contact line (MCL) boundary condition using the level-set framework coupled with the Navier-Stokes equations. To model the MCL, we implemented the Cox-Voinov slip-based model that describes the viscous bending occurring of the fluid interface near the contact line. The Cox-Voinov model determines the contact angle boundary condition. Several test cases have shown that the Cox-Voinov model leads to excellent agreement with the experimental results without the need to explicitly resolve the nanoscale slip-length. We developed a new multiscale level-set method that efficiently captures the evolution of thin films covering the solid surface. In this multiscale framework, the MCL singularity is removed using a film model that takes into account the intermolecular surfaces forces in the vicinity of the contact line. The new multiscale method matches Bretherton's scaling law in a drainage process, where the deposited film thickness on the solid wall depends on the balance between the viscous and capillary forces. The new multiscale level-set method can simulate two-phase flow with a capillary number as low as
Portable giant magnetoresistive sensor system for quantitative point-of-care health diagnostics [electronic resource]
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

This dissertation describes the research and development of a portable, point-of-care molecular biomarker sensor system using the Giant Magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor that aims to combine the sensitivity of the clinical lab test and the practicality of the rapid strip test. A portable, quantitative immunoassay platform based on the GMR sensor technology is introduced. The platform only requires one-step user involvement. With the one-step detection scheme, quantitative test results can be obtained in less than 15 minutes after sample insertion. The portable GMR system is affordable and capable of detecting multiple protein biomarkers from one sample, enabling a wide array of diagnostics to be performed simultaneously. In the further development, a portable automated assay system on the GMR sensor system has been developed to automate assay steps to bring multistep immunoassay tests at the point-of-care, anywhere in non-clinical settings. A multiplexed hepatitis B virus biomarker diagnostic test for diagnosing the viral infection status has also been developed in conjunction with the automated assay system. Comparison between the automated multiplexed hepatitis B testing on the GMR sensor system and the commercial clinical lab testing is performed, and the results show excellent agreements between the results obtained by the two different sensor platforms. In conclusion, this dissertation describes novel devices to bring the clinical laboratory testing to reach more people and areas using the GMR sensor system by making the device portable, the process simpler and faster, and the cost affordable.
Post-M&A Performance in Mobile App Developing Startups
Keywords:  Department of Economics
mobile apps
mergers
acquisitions
startups
survival
Crunchbase
innovation
entrepreneurship
app ranking
Mobile Innovation Group
App Store
Stanford Department of Economics
Thesis

M&A is becoming increasingly common as a key growth and exit mechanism for startups. However, it is still a relatively undocumented phenomenon, due to the challenges of tracking target-specific metrics once the target and acquirer have merged. Using app ranking as a proxy for target performance, I manage to quantify the effects of acquisition on a target’s growth postacquisition. Firstly, we find that mobile app developing startups generally experience significant, positive, and rapid benefits in ranking from being acquired. Secondly, our observations about startups’ positive growth trajectories allow us to make inferences about circumstances where the increased access to resources afforded by an acquisition is particularly valuable in accelerating the target’s growth. Finally, we observe some interesting exceptions where targets’ apps experience rapid declines in ranking post-acquisition, providing empirical evidence for the important roles that startup acquisitions can also play in non-product-related functions, such as acquiring talent or reducing competition.
Precious cargo [electronic resource] : child rescue and American power, 1945-1980
Keywords: History.

In the quarter century between 1950 and 1975, Americans launched four major emergency campaigns to resettle children caught in war zones. This dissertation investigates these child evacuation airlifts in Korea (1950), Cuba (1960-1962), Nigeria (1968), and Vietnam (1975). It explores why Americans considered refugee children especially worthy of rescue; to what extent the Cold War informed their philanthropic efforts; and how the relationship between private humanitarians and the U.S. government changed over time. This study argues that small-scale acts of relief helped the American public endure the military and diplomatic setbacks of the Cold War. It demonstrates how aid to a symbolic few insulated state actors from more systematic critiques of U.S. foreign policy. Finally, by tracing the history of postwar child rescue missions through the lens of gender politics, this project illuminates the rise of one of the signature institutions of our own time: the international NGO.
A precise Cdk activity threshold determines passage through the restriction point [electronic resource]
Keywords: Biology.

At the restriction point (R), mammalian cells irreversibly commit to divide. R has been viewed as a point in G1 after growth factor signaling initiates a positive feedback loop of Cdk activity. However, recent studies cast doubt on this model by claiming R occurs prior to positive feedback activation in G1 or even before completion of the previous cell cycle. Here we reconcile these results and show that whereas many commonly used cell lines do not exhibit a G1 R, primary fibroblasts have a G1 R that is defined by a precise Cdk activity threshold and the activation of cell cycle-dependent transcription. A simple threshold model, based solely on Cdk activity, predicted with more than 95% accuracy whether individual cells had passed R. That a single measurement accurately predicted cell fate shows that the state of complex regulatory networks can be classified by a few critical protein activities.
Prediction and dimension reduction methods in computer experiments [electronic resource]
Keywords: Statistics.

In many fields of engineering and science, computer experiments have become essential tools in studying physical processes. This dissertation reviews standard prediction methods and dimension reduction methods in the analysis of computer experiments and proposes new approaches. Response surface modeling is the starting point of the analysis of computer experiments. Kriging or Gaussian process regression is widely used in constructing response surfaces. We propose Single Nugget Kriging, which is a method with better predictions at extreme values than the standard method of Kriging. Our prediction exhibits robustness to the model mismatch in the covariance parameters, a desirable feature for computer simulations with a restricted number of data points. For high dimensional computer experiments, dimension reduction methods in regression are essential for solving optimization problems and inverse problems. We compare model-free sufficient dimension reduction methods and the active subspace for computer experiments. We propose a modification of the active subspace. We further discuss the analysis of dimension reduction methods in computer experiments, using projected Gaussian processes.