VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Metal silicide nanoelectromechanical relays for low power applications [electronic resource]
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

ABSTRACT Scaling down the metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) has continuously brought lower cost, higher density and increased performance since the 1960s. However, as MOS transistors scaled down, the standby power dissipation increased due to thermodynamically limited finite subthreshold slope, which possibly limits transistors scaling. Thus, novel devices are required to solve the power dissipation issue. Nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relays have attracted attention due to their steep on-off characteristics with zero off-state leakage current, unlike MOSFET relays which show severe deterioration of the subthreshold characteristics with scaling down. However, the dynamic power dissipation of NEM relays is still larger than MOSFET relays due to high actuation voltage. Therefore, scaling down of NEM relays are critical for low power applications. In my dissertation, I will focus on scaling down actuation voltage and improving contact properties of NEM relays. First, laterally actuating NEM relays design and materials selection by COMSOL simulation based structural optimization will be proposed for sub 1V actuation. The electrical test results of fabricated Si NEM relays will be presented compared with COMSOL simulation results, as well. Secondly, in addition to the scaling down, improving contact properties will be discussed since NEM relays physically contact the drain electrode for current flowing. However, Si suffers from oxidation. If NEM relays are oxidized, the relay performance will be degraded due to the deteriorated contact property. There have been many efforts to improve switching contact such as using metal beams or metal sidewall coatings. Metal silicide processes have been widely used in MOS technology due to their low junction leakage and low sheet resistance. To improve the relay contact, metal silicide processes were selected. Moreover, the materials characterization and fabrication process of metal silicide NEM relays will be presented followed by electrical test results including promising sub 1V actuated Nickel silicide NEM relay test results. This dissertation will end by discussing the implications of experimental achievements for low power NEM relays.
Methodology for the application of bim-based decision support methods to evaluate sustainability metrics for master plans of a large-scale development [electronic resource]
Keywords: Civil and Environmental Engineering.

To achieve successful implementation of a large-scale development, a master plan for a large-scale development must create sufficient alternatives in a structured way and analyze multiple performance metrics, taking into account economic, social, and environmental sustainability in a timely manner. In addition, the master plan must analyze both construction and operation-related metrics over time. However, unstructured decision management and the inability to integrate multiple attributes of the traditional master plan prevent project participants from creating sufficient alternatives in a structured way. In addition, manual mapping and an unintegrated reasoning process prevent the participants from quickly analyzing multiple performance metrics over time. For this study, the CIFE team investigated the existing Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) methods to determine how to overcome the problems. Since the existing VDC methods had several limitations, the CIFE team was required to develop a methodology specific to the master plan of a large-scale development as well as an integrated decision-support system capable of 4D visualization, multiple metrics analysis, and display of the metrics over time. Specifically, the CIFE team, based on the VDC, has developed the Development Strategy Formulation and Evaluation Methodology (DSFEM); it moreover has developed the Development Strategy Simulator (DSS). The DSFEM supports the quick creation of alternative scenarios in a structured way, as well as a quick information search. The DSFEM also supports 4D visualization and analysis over time for multiple metrics. The DSS provides an automatic linking and mapping process that enhances the speed and consistency of the analysis. In addition, an integrated reasoning process enables the DSS to simulate development scenarios, analyze multiple metrics over time, and display the metrics simultaneously and in a timely manner. However, since there still are limitations in both the DSFEM and the DSS, the CIFE team recommends further development of the DSFEM and the DSS.
Microfabricated Thermionic Electron Emitters
Keywords: Stanford Nanofabrication Facility
thermionics
emitter
MEMS
thermionic emission
µTEC
energy converter
Thesis

Thermionic energy converters (TECs) convert very high temperature to electricity without any moving parts. Specifically, the heat gives rise to electron emission from one electrode (‘emitter’) to a nearby electrode (‘collector’) and the resulting current can drive a load. To produce a useful current, both the temperature and the work functions of the emitter and collector must be sustainably controlled. Previous work established that the gap between the two electrodes should be in the range of 1 - 10 μm to minimize space charge at larger gaps and excessive heat transfer at smaller gaps. The microfabricated thin-film emitter is thermally isolated from the substrate by a poly-SiC suspension. This thesis describes the redesign of the suspended emitter and its fabrication process. The suspended plate is optimized for vertical emission by eliminating the recessed emitter surface in the previous design. Furthermore, the process includes the etching of apertures in the silicon substrate, so that underside of the suspended plate can be heated by laser illumination. The thermal resistance of the emitter suspension beams is increased by 50% in the new designs. The five-mask fabrication process is in progress in the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility.
Microtubule stability mediated by new mammalian STOP family members [electronic resource]
Keywords: Molecular and Cellular Physiology.

Stable Tubule Only Polypeptides or STOP proteins are a class of microtubule-associated proteins that are unique in that they have been shown to protect microtubules from depolymerization under destabilizing conditions. To date, MAP6 and the related protein MAP6 domain containing 1 (MAP6D1) are the only known mammalian STOP related proteins. However, through a recent screen identifying genes upregulated during ciliogenesis in multiciliated tracheal cells, we have identified two new uncharacterized mammalian MAP6 related proteins, FAM154A and FAM154B. Though MAP6 has not been previously shown to localize to the primary cilium and centrosome, we sought to assess the ability of these new proteins to stabilize microtubules and their potential function at the cilium and centrosome. Proteins related to FAM154A and FAM154B are found in all vertebrates and most organisms containing cilia and centrosomes including drosophila and chlamydomonas. A C. elegans homolog of the protein has been localized to neuronal cilia and mammalian FAM154B, much like MAP6 is expressed in mammalian cortical neurons. Overexpressed FAM154A and FAM154B localize to the centrosome and the primary cilium and overexpressed FAM154A protein and deletion variants stabilize microtubules against cold treatment in RPE1 cells. Endogenous FAM154A and FAM154B localize to centrosomal structures and cilia respectively in multi-ciliated cells. Similar to MAP6, FAM154A and Fam154B also contain repeated motifs in their amino acid sequences, however their protein level similarity to MAP6 is very limited. We have shown that FAM154A is a bona-fide microtubule associated protein via biochemical assays and can interact directly with microtubules and with calcium calmodulin which may modulate its microtubule binding affinity, similar to MAP6. Ongoing work to resolve the molecular structure of these MAP6 related proteins will illuminate their exact mechanism of microtubule stabilization.
Mid-infrared laser absorption spectroscopy for carbon oxides in harsh environments [electronic resource]
Keywords: Mechanical Engineering.

Advancements in measurement science are presented regarding in situ laser-based detection of CO and CO2 in harsh combustion environments. Mid-infrared absorption sensing strategies, utilizing transitions in the 2.7 and 4.3 micron vibrational bands for CO2 and the 4.8 micron vibrational band for CO, were developed to enable sensitive measurements of temperature and carbon oxide concentrations in high-temperature gases. These new strategies (1) extend the utility of carbon oxide absorption sensing for hostile aeroengine applications and (2) offer significant improvements to previous methods for shock tube kinetics studies. The recent maturation of mid-infrared diode and quantum cascade lasers, combined with parallel progress in mid-infrared fiber optics, provides the platform from which the field-deployable sensors were designed. State-of-the art signal processing strategies, including calibration-free wavelength modulation spectroscopy, were implemented to tackle the thermo-mechanically harsh environments of a pulse detonation combustor and directconnect scramjet. Time-resolved and spatially-resolved measurements of temperature and carbon oxide species concentrations were demonstrated to provide an in situ metric to evaluate combustion completion for engine development. For shock tube kinetics studies, a multi-band CO2 sensing strategy was developed to provide ppm-level species detection and highly-sensitive measurements of gas temperature with microsecond temporal resolution.
Mind matters [electronic resource] : how an intelligent in-vehicle agent can help female drivers under stereotype threat
Keywords: Communication.

This dissertation investigates how an intelligent in-vehicle agent can help female drivers under performance pressure by offering appropriate appraisal feedback on their experiences of failure in a driving task. In particular, the current work examines the effects of appraisal types provided by the agent on drivers' performance under stereotype threat. Study 1 examined the effects of stereotype threat (stereotype threat: threat vs. no threat) and attribution type (agent's attribution: internal vs. external) in a between-participants design (N=52). There was a significant interaction effect between stereotype threat and attribution type on performance. When female participants were under stereotype threat, external attributions of failure increased participants' driving performance. On the other hand, internal attributions of failure improved performance among those not under stereotype threat. Study 2 extended Study 1 by adding one more variable, mindset (fixed mindset vs. growth mindset), to the model. The results showed that failure appraisals with a growth mindset can lead to enhanced performance in general. Furthermore, the mindset moderated the stereotype threat effects. When participants were provided with appraisals with a growth mindset, their performance was not inhibited by the presence of stereotype threat. In addition, the mindset moderated the effects of attributions on performance. Participants in the fixed mindset condition drove worse when failure was attributed to others than to the self. However, participants in the growth mindset did not show a significant difference on performance based on the attribution type.
Minimizing the effects of distortion and noise in fiber-optic communications and interferometric imaging through digital signal processing [electronic resource]
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

In this dissertation we will study the effects of distortion and noise in fiber-optic communications and interferometric imaging and methods to reduce their impact. In the area of fiber-optic communications, we will explore the two most economically significant applications: intra-data center links and optical access networks. The motivation for this study is the imminent need for optical links to undergo a large-scale upgrade in capacity to meet the needs of exponentially-growing Internet traffic. As these markets are high-volume and low-cost, we favor techniques which emphasize digital signal processing (DSP) over optical signal processing. The ability to transition to heavily DSP-based architectures is now possible due to recent development of commercial CMOS digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters with up to 65 Gsample/s conversion rates. However, such ultra-high-speed converters have limitations in resolution, and so we will investigate methods to compensate for this deficiency. In particular, we will introduce a new method of spectral reshaping to greatly increase a transmitter's signal-to-noise ratio when limited by a low-resolution digital-to-analog converter. Next we will discuss a novel architecture which enables electronic dispersion compensation in optical access networks using minimal opto-electronic components. We will present simulation and experimental measurement of record bit rates in a single polarization and wavelength using a receiver based on single-photodiode detection. The third topic within fiber-optic communications relates to intra-data center communications. For this application, chromatic dispersion is minimal and thus direct modulation of distributed feedback lasers is preferred, as it eliminates the need for both a laser and a separate high-speed modulator. However, direct modulation is characterized by significant nonlinearity in the conversion of drive current to optical intensity. We will show how this effect can be mitigated through the use of novel quadrature amplitude modulation constellations in a fully-digital implementation. Finally, we will discuss the impacts of noise and non-ideal detection in an interferometric imaging system based on the concept of phase-sensitive spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. We will analyze the impacts of noise and digital processing on the sensitivity of such a system in measuring sub-nanometer features.
Mistresses, Maids, and Maternalism: Representations of Gendered Cross-Class Relationships in Victorian British Writing, 1834-1901
Keywords:  Department of English
 Department of Sociology
Department of English
Department of Sociology
maternalism
Victorian novels
Victorian manuals
digital humanities
Victorian Britain
Victorian British writing
Thesis

This interdisciplinary thesis combines sociological theory, critical methods, and digital humanities methods, taking a unique approach to investigating the cross-class relationships between middle- and working-class women in Victorian Britain. It focuses on one of the few situations in which there was sustained contact between the two groups of women—within the middle-class home as mistresses or servants. The historical relationships between the women are analyzed using sociological theories, particularly the concept of maternalism. Moreover, due to the circular relationship between printed writing and society, an investigation of mistress/maid representations in two different types of Victorian writing—domestic how-to manuals and novels—serves to provide a broader perspective on these invisible relationships, the social forces that influenced them, and the ideology surrounding them within Victorian society.
Mixed signals [electronic resource] : negotiating multiracial identity in high school contexts
Keywords: Education.

This study investigates the ways in which mixed-race adolescents racially identify in our current racial climate, the relationships between racial identity and important life outcomes for this sample, and how the experience of schooling can be an important source of information in the development of a racial identity. Using a mixed-methods design, two types of analysis were employed. Statistical analysis was used on survey data revealing border racial identities are an overwhelmingly popular racial identity choice, regardless of participants' high schools' racial demographics or racial climate. This analysis also supports research with monoracially-identified samples that posits racial private regard is positively associated with social-psychological well-being and positive academic outcomes. Interview analysis supports the popularity of border identities, but as one of many shifting ethnic and racial identities employed for various reasons and with varying levels of agency. Interviews also reveal the ways in which high schools are places where mixed-race youth both endure microaggressions and seek out opportunities for ethnic racial socialization and understanding. Recommendations for further research and implications for practice are discussed.
Mobile visual search with text and image features [electronic resource]
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

Visual text information is a descriptive part of many images that has been largely neglected when performing mobile visual search (MVS). In previous methods, visual text information is treated the same as any other parts of the image and is typically represented inefficiently. In this dissertation, a new way of using visual text information for MVS is presented. To use visual text information more directly, a word patch descriptor based on image gradients in a text box is developed. The word patch descriptor can be used for large scale word patch matching, and achieves a word patch matching performance that is better than the state-of-the-art image feature-based approaches. The newly developed word patch descriptor is called the word histogram of oriented gradients (Word-HOG). An image retrieval system that uses the Word-HOG descriptor for retrieving images from databases is also developed. Text retrieval tf-idf inspired scoring methods are developed for the image retrieval system. Furthermore, a random sampling-based method is used to reduce the database. The image retrieval system achieves comparable performance to state-of-the-art image feature-based retrieval systems for images of book covers, and performs better than state-of-the-art text-based retrieval systems for images of book pages. Lastly, a lossy compression method is developed for the Word-HOG descriptor and is used with the Word-HOG-based image retrieval system to construct an MVS system. The system achieves more than 10-to-1 query size reduction for images of book covers while achieving more than 16-to-1 query size reduction for images of book pages.
Modalities of the long take in the era of late socialism [electronic resource] : Miklós Jancsó, Sergei Parajanov, Andrei Tarkovsky (1956-1986)
Keywords: Art and Art History.

In the years between 1935 and 1975, a tangible transformation takes place in certain films of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. What was once the nationally-venerated cinema of rapid-fire montage under directors such as Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov becomes the slow, single-take study of individuals and their environments. At the same time, a parallel progression of the history of the Soviet Union and the countries comprising the Eastern Bloc occurs. With the death of Lenin comes the waning hopes of world-wide revolution, the rise of Stalinism and its monumental betrayal of the Soviet People, and social and economic woes as the Soviet Union attempts and fails to integrate itself into a capitalist world system under Brezhnev. The overtly-didactic essence of montage cinema, then, makes way for its obverse: narrative and political ambiguity introduced by the long take, and viewers who must fend for themselves. This dissertation examines three filmmakers whose employment of the long take -- the realist aesthetic par excellence -- both assists and complicates our understanding of the rich historical contexts from which they emerge. This comparative analysis of the work of Miklós Jancsó, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Sergei Parajanov situates the long take at its core and will reveal the multiple ways the device as trope is used to articulate the emerging, post-Stalinist subject, the ambiguous space of criticism, and the illusion of revolution as the antidote to the horrors of Stalinism.
Modeling geological CO2 sequestration [electronic resource] : translations across spatial scales and advancements in nonlinear Newton solver
Keywords: Energy Resources Engineering.

Characterization of formation heterogeneity is the first step for constructing geological models that are used in simulating subsurface flow migration, such as CO2 geological storage and oil/gas recovery. Technologies such as seismic survey, well logging, and core analysis reveal the formation heterogeneity at different scales. Due to the computational limitations on model construction and flow simulation, the gridblock size of a geological model is usually much larger than a core. The common industry practice is to assign core-scale properties directly to a geological model gridblock. The sub-grid- and sub-core-scale heterogeneities are neglected. The objective of this work is two-fold. First, we demonstrate that these small-scale heterogeneities can influence large-scale CO2 migration during geological storage. Significant modeling error may occur if these heterogeneities are not accounted for properly. Second, we improve the nonlinear convergence performance of numerical simulation, which is a crucial tool for translating small-scale physics in large-scale modeling and for uncertainty quantifications during the scale-up. A new Newton solver is developed, which converges quickly by avoiding the oscillations and overshoots that are often encountered in traditional solvers.
Modeling networks with auxiliary information [electronic resource]
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

Networks provide a powerful tool for representing social, technological, and biological systems. The study of networks has focused on developing models that either analytically show the emergence of global structural properties in networks or statistically perform inference tasks, such as link prediction, on given network data. This thesis presents a model of networks that not only gives rise to realistic networks with the global structural properties but also permits statistical inference for given network data. Under the proposed model, we prove many structural properties commonly found in real-world networks, such as heavy-tailed degree distributions and small diameters. We also develop a statistical inference algorithm that fits the model to given network data and represents common linking patterns through our model. A network is often associated with auxiliary information, such as node features or temporal information about node and link creations and deletions. This thesis also proposes models of networks with such auxiliary information so that the models capture the relationships between given network links and the auxiliary information. In the second part of the thesis, we propose a model that allows for relationships between given node features and network links. We develop a fitting algorithm that identifies which node features are relevant to network links and how the node features affect the formation of the links. By fitting our model to given network links and node features, our model improves performance for various prediction tasks compared to baseline models. Finally, we develop a model for dynamic networks by considering two notions of dynamics: the birth and death of each group of nodes, and each individual node's behavior of joining or leaving some node groups over time. By embedding these two dynamics into the model, we can achieve the interpretable representation of network dynamics as well as the predictive power of inferring missing links or forecasting future networks.