VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
When Ukraine ruled Russia [electronic resource] : regionalism and nomenklatura politics after Stalin, 1944-1990
Keywords: History.

This dissertation is a study of regional elites in postwar, post-Stalin Soviet Ukraine, focusing on local bureaucracies in Kyiv, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk, and the personal networks that shaped Soviet Ukrainian relations with the Kremlin. It is one of the first in-depth, archival monographs on the post-Stalin Soviet elite. It incorporates biography and memoir to shed light on the informal connections among elites, as well as their interactions, codes of conduct, and forms of civility within a power structure that was decidedly uncivil. I examine the issues of housing and defense in Dnipropetrovsk, illicit trading and agricultural reform in Lviv, and the Brezhnev-era culture wars in Kyiv in order to better understand the forces influencing the interactions between the party, the KGB, and the state with Soviet Ukraine's "unofficial official world" of factory directors and local powerbrokers. In Kyiv, I also focus on the transformation of Ukraine's top leadership and the efforts they made to expand the republic's political and economic autonomy within the Soviet system and internationally. In doing so, I am able to show how Ukrainian regional elites contributed to the emergent postwar socio-political order and reshaped politics and grographies of power in the Soviet Union. I also show how socialist legality reframed citizen claims for greater equity and justice during these crucial transformations.
Women and Work in Egypt: The Effect of the Election of the Muslim Brotherhood on Female Labor Force Participation
Keywords:  Department of Economics
labor force
women
politics
Egypt
development
Stanford Department of Economics
Thesis

In this paper, I analyze how the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood,
marked by increased parliamentary power in late 2006 due to unprecedented
success in the 2005 elections, impacts female labor force participation in districts in which Muslim Brotherhood candidates won compared to those in which they did not win. I use a difference in differences estimation strategy, using both district and individual fixed effects. Using data from the 1998, 2006, and 2012 Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey and district-level voting data, I match district-level electoral outcomes to individual labor market variables. I find that compared to women in non-Muslim Brotherhood supporting districts, women in Muslim Brotherhood supporting districts show a generally insignificant change in likelihood of labor force participation following the Muslim Brotherhood’s parliamentary success. The lack of a differential trend in female labor force participation for women in Muslim Brotherhood supporting districts holds for most subpopulations and when a Heckman correction is used. These results suggest that the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power cannot explain the decline in female labor force participation observed
in Egypt.
Worthy of freedom [electronic resource] : antislavery, free labor, and indentured labor migration in the era of emancipation, 1834-1878
Keywords: History.

Worthy of Freedom explains the "normalization" of Indian indentured labor migration after the abolition of slavery in the British empire. In the immediate aftermath of abolition, indenture caused a public scandal and faced legal and economic instability. But over the course of three decades, indenture came to be accepted as a legitimate form of "free labor." It was also consolidated in a material sense, as thousands of new workers bolstered sugar production. This dissertation explains how these transformations occurred. In the process, it argues that new ideas about race and political economy displaced older modes of antislavery thought, transforming perceptions of indenture and emancipation. Linking ideological and structural change, it further argues that shifting local and global economic dynamics helped legitimize indenture. In short, the dissertation illuminates the peculiar ideological, legal, and economic conditions that shaped the category of "free labor" in the era emancipation.
Wrongful harm by emitting [electronic resource] : individual & collective agents in the context of climate change
Keywords: Philosophy.

In this dissertation, I argue that climate change is not a natural disaster. By contributing to climate change, certain human agents wrongfully harm other people. The central thesis of this dissertation is that at least one type of collective human agent—functioning democratic nations—can do wrongful harm by emitting greenhouse gases. Further, I argue that democratic nations that do wrongful harm by emitting ought to be held accountable for the wrongful harm that they do. In making my argument about large collectives doing wrongful harm by emitting, I rule out the possibility that individuals cause people to suffer harm by emitting greenhouse gases. This gives rise to the objection that it would be unfair to hold citizens of high emitting nations accountable, because they are not personally liable for the harms of climate change. I answer this objection by distinguishing between personal liability and the duties of citizenship.
X-ray studies of magnetism in the 3-d transition metals [electronic resource] : from the nanoscale to the ultrafast to the nonlinear limit
Keywords: Physics.

Resonant X-Ray phenomena associated with electronic core-to-valence transitions have provided a wealth of information on modern magnetic nanostructures. In this thesis, we will describe two sets of experiments, both focusing on a different measurement related to the magnetic properties of the 3d transition metals, and both showcasing different advantages of modern X-Ray sources. We will show how large polarization-dependent resonant effects allow the determination of weak element-specific static and transient magnetic moments and also offer the capability of recording movies of nanoscale magnetization dynamics with femtosecond temporal resolution. We demonstrate such effects with sensitive spectroscopic measurements of magnetism in Co/Cu alloys and of spin injection studies in Cu. In the next set of experiments, we show that when such techniques are extended to higher intensities at X-Ray free electron lasers, they also reveal completely new non-linear effects, which are especially pronounced when probing spin-dependent effects. We will demonstrate how these non-linear effects dramatically alter both magnetic diffraction and elastic transmission through a magnetically-patterned solid Co sample. Together, these studies show both the exceptional current capabilities of X-Ray in studies of 3-d magnetism, but also the potential for studying interesting nonlinear phenomena in solids as brighter X-Ray sources become available in the future.
7SK RNA regulates gene expression by scaffolding multiple protein complexes
Keywords:  Department of Biology
noncoding RNA
transcription
enhancers
chromatin loops
7SK
gene expression
chromatin remodeling
epigenetics
Biology
Thesis

Noncoding RNAs can orchestrate eukaryotic gene expression programs through diverse yet only partially understood mechanisms. One noncoding RNA in particular, 7SK, is known to repress mRNA transcription by blocking RNA polymerase II activity at gene promoters. Recent studies suggest that 7SK may be physically associated with chromatin, the target of RNA polymerase II, but the functional significance of this association has not been explored. Here we discover novel roles for 7SK at distinct genomic loci and find that it coordinates the functions of multiple protein complexes. 7SK binds both promoters and enhancers across the genome. At enhancers, mass spectrometry and co-immunoprecipitation reveal a direct, previously unknown interaction between 7SK and a major eukaryotic chromatin remodeling complex called BAF. Depletion of 7SK disrupts the BAF complex, causing aberrant transcription as well as increased DNA damage signaling at thousands of enhancers. These results suggest that 7SK has a multifaceted role in controlling gene regulation. By scaffolding at least two separate nuclear protein complexes at distinct genomic elements, 7SK provides a conceptual framework for how noncoding RNAs may operate as versatile regulators of information flow through the nucleus.
A Ba'athist Insurgency? The Role of Saddam's Elites in Iraq's Civil Conflict
Keywords: Center for International Security and Cooperation
Iraq war
civil conflict
Ba'athist regime
Saddam Hussein
Thesis

Since the start of the Iraqi insurgency, journalists, scholars, and politicians have argued that former Ba’ath Party officials are to blame for the Sunni insurgency. Proponents of this perspective argue that de-Ba’athification –or the exclusion of former Ba’ath Party members from government service or political office – motivated former officials to fight against the US-led coalition and, eventually, Iraqi government forces. Because the inner circle of Saddam Hussein’s regime was made up primarily of Sunni Arabs, the exclusion of Ba’athists was simultaneously the exclusion of Sunnis, explaining why the insurgency became an ethno-sectarian war, as well. Yet, there has been little scholarship examining the extent to which the exclusion of Ba’athists from the post-2003 Iraqi government can actually explain the Iraqi civil conflict. In this thesis, I examine the connections between Saddam’s regime and the insurgency at the leadership level. I find the link is not as strong as the conventional wisdom suggests; insurgents are less tribal in origin, and less likely to come from central Iraq. Insurgents are also more likely to be foreign and more likely to come from western Iraq than the Ba’athist elites. These findings suggest that a narrative focused on the unintended consequences of de-Ba’athification cannot easily explain the post-2003 insurgency. From a policy perspective, stemming the insurgency first requires expelling foreign fighters from Iraq and then on creating a more equitable distribution of political power between Sunnis and Shias.
A Comparative Analysis of Augmented Reality Technologies and Their Marketability in the Consumer Electronics Segment
Keywords: Winograd, Terry
augmented reality
marketing
computer vision
artificial intelligence
computer interfaces
projections
media campaigns
magic leap
meta
google glass
stanford
microsoft hololens
military interfaces
marketability
oculus rift
pokemon go
Thesis

In this paper, we analyze past approaches in designing and marketing Augmented Reality apps or devices, and we discover key issues that prevented their mainstream adoption. We offer insights into novel approaches to marketing consumer technology products; in particular Augmented Reality devices. We analyze marketing strategies in order to understand which have been successful and which problems should be avoided in future campaigns. Although other papers have discussed some of these topics, none of them has discussed them with an interdisciplinary lens. We also attempt to understand how recent Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality devices have been perceived in society and reported by media. This research includes human-computer interaction expert interviews, historical evolution models for consumer technology, and socio-cultural and political analyzes.
A Gene Ontology Approach to Autism Spectrum Disorders Through the Window of Hypoxia
Keywords:  Department of Biology
Biology
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Neurobiology
Genetics
Thesis

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are fundamentally social and behavioral disorders with a range of comorbidities and social and financial impacts. Recent studies have estimated ASDs to have a heritability of around 50%, while indicating that there is also a significant environmental component. It is clear that neither genes nor environment in isolation can explain the etiology of autism. Large-scale genomics studies have identified a set of genes that have been shown to have a high association with ASDs. In addition, recent studies have identified certain environmental factors associated with an increased risk for developing ASDs, with pre- and perinatal hypoxia as one of the more salient factors. However, the interaction between genes and environment through the lens of hypoxia has yet to be evaluated.
This study aimed to find and characterize the intersection between genes associated with autism and the genes associated with the cellular response to hypoxia. Every gene in a database of autism-associated genes was interrogated, through a thorough literature search and comparison with a set of microarray data, for evidence of its regulation by hypoxia. This process created a set of genes associated with both autism and the hypoxia response. A statistical test for overrepresentation indicated that hypoxia-regulated genes were overrepresented in the ASD database; the proportion of ASD genes also responsive to hypoxia was roughly twice what would be expected by chance. Functional and network analyses then showed that specific biological functions were overrepresented in the ASD/Hypoxia gene set, indicating that the number of hypoxia-regulated genes among all ASD genes, were indeed greater than would be expected by chance, and fell into specific networks and pathways. This lays the groundwork for functional characterization of variations in these genes in a population affected with autism as well as a neurotypical population. With a better understanding of how variations in certain genes can affect an individual’s response to a potential hypoxic event, researchers and medical professionals alike can open up better therapeutic avenues for children and adults affected by ASDs.
A Generation Without Memories: Understanding Pinochet's Dictatorship Among Chilean University Students
Keywords: generations
memory
chile
pinochet
students
Stanford Department of Anthropology
Thesis

Through this project, I investigated perceptions and understandings of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship (1973-1989) among university students in Chile, a generation that did not live through the dictatorship yet still interacts with those who did. The main framework for the analysis is that of generations, drawing primarily on Karl Mannheim’s essay “The Sociological Problem of Generations” (1923) and engaging with his ideas of generational location and generation units. As memory is an important discourse surrounding the dictatorship in current Chilean society, I also engage with literature about memory, including Pierre Nora and Andreas Huyssen. In performing this research, I spent summer, 2016 in Santiago, Chile, interviewing students from La Universidad de Chile and La Universidad Católica while also sitting in on a class at La Universidad de Chile and exploring sites of memory. I argue that, not experiencing the dictatorship directly but still having their lives shaped by those who did, university students experience a unique generational location, one that divides itself into generational units due to the controversy over the dictatorship and political spaces of their universities. These students still engage in the discourse of memory surrounding the dictatorship, particularly emphasizing that it can’t be forgotten. However, their temporal distance from the dictatorship creates an emotional distance as well, something that enables them to acknowledge the dictatorship while still focusing on important current issues. The generation of university students therefore illuminates Chile’s process of reconciliation and moving forward while still interacting with the past and the polarization it created.
A Model of Firm Formality and Tax Evasion
Keywords:  Department of Economics
Stanford Department of Economics
Thesis

Rampant informality in developing economies proves to be a major obstacle to public revenue collection, limiting investment in crucial public infrastructure. The model presented in this paper sheds light on inter-firm mechanisms that motivate firms to either transact formally or transact informally and evade taxes. The formulation allows us to predict comparative statics on a variety of parameters, including the effective tax rate, the likelihood of audit, the penalties levered against firms caught transacting informally, and the distribution of firm sizes in the economy. Empirical support for each of these predictions is discussed. In particular, the model provides theoretical underpinnings for predicting the effect of multinational entry and trade liberalization on the size of the informal sector—two questions which have hitherto been largely neglected in the literature.
“A Secret System of Caves and Conduits”: Patterns of Thought in W. H. Auden’s Poetry About the Natural World
Keywords:  Department of English
W. H. Auden
Auden
nature
poetry
nature poetry
English
landscape
mines
Rookhope
Department of English
natural world
Thesis

This paper analyzes recurring themes and patterns of thought in the nature poetry of W. H. Auden. This topic, typically neglected in most Auden criticism, focuses on the themes from Auden's nature poetry that persist throughout his poetic career. Divided into three sections--poetry about mines and mining, poetry about the body and the natural landscape, and poetry about places unknown--this paper argues that a more complete reading of Auden occurs when one examines his work in light of the subject, the natural world, rather than in a chronological way, as in most criticism. In combining the critical approaches of Edward Mendelson and John Fuller, this paper hopes to examine an atypical topic in a unique manner. In conclusion, Auden's poetry about the natural world keeps returning to the same concerns and anxieties. Though Auden is a poet characterized in part by the way that his poetry changes throughout his life, this paper examines how these recurring themes appear repeatedly in Auden's poetry about the natural world.
A structure–function analysis of the C. elegans γ-TuSC protein GIP-1
Keywords:  Department of Biology
biology
caenorhabditis
elegans
cytoskeleton
microtubule
microtubule organizing center
MTOC
γ-TuRC
γ-TuSC
γ-Tubulin
gip-1
GCP3
gip-2
GCP2
Thesis

The microtubule cytoskeleton is spatially reorganized from the centrosomes to new subcellular sites during cell differentiation in many cell types, yet the importance of possessing distinct microtubule organizing centers (MTOCs) and the mechanisms governing MTOC reassignment remain poorly understood. Centrosomal and non-centrosomal microtubules are nucleated by a conserved nucleating complex, the γ-tubulin small complex (γ-TuSC), which is comprised of GIP-1/GCP3, GIP-2/GCP2, and TBG-1/γ-tubulin. Tissues of the nematode C. elegans display dualistic MTOC localization, in which γ-TuSC proteins are capable of localizing to both MTOCs, but do so at distinct times in development. This makes C. elegans an ideal system for studying the process of MTOC reassignment. We have proposed a model of MTOC reassignment whereby regulation of γ-TuSC protein localization dictates the sites of functional MTOCs. The gip-1 locus is predicted to encode multiple isoforms, presenting the possibility that differential expression of GIP-1 isoforms may play a role in this process. We therefore set out to investigate the role of GIP-1 in the developing C. elegans intestine. In this tissue, MTOC proteins are translocated from the centrosomes to the future apical cell membrane following their final round of divisions, resulting in a relatively simple dichotomy of MTOC function. Because a complete loss of functional MTOCs leads to an early arrest in embryonic development, we adapted an endogenous protein degradation pathway to deplete GIP-1 exclusively in the developing intestine around the time of MTOC reassignment. We found that GIP-1 is required for normal apical localization of GIP-2 and TBG-1, but not for apical localization of microtubules or the polarity protein PAR-3. Embryos depleted of intestinal GIP-1 have fewer and abnormally enlarged intestinal nuclei as compared to control embryos. Using a structure–function approach to identify GIP-1 domains required for MTOC localization and function, we have identified two domains (GIP-1[N], GIP-1a[G+C]) that localize to centrosomes but not apical membranes. Together, these results demonstrate that GIP-1 is vital for normal mitosis in the early embryonic intestine, and highlight the presence of redundant microtubule nucleating and anchoring mechanisms in this tissue. Furthermore, we provide the first evidence that GIP-1 may localize to centrosomal and apical membrane MTOCs through distinct protein domains. Future efforts focused on understanding the consequences of GIP-1 depletion for microtubule dynamics will greatly inform our understanding of the role of GIP-1 in regulating the microtubule cytoskeleton. With aberrant microtubule organization linked to some epithelial cancers and invasive cell behavior, understanding this basic cellular process may inform future efforts to inhibit cancer proliferation and metastasis.
The academic resilience of Latinas in STEM fields [electronic resource]
Keywords: Education.

This dissertation adds to the literature on Latinas in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Furthermore, it is one of the few studies to focus on Latinas in STEM in graduate school and in the workforce. Each of the three qualitative studies in this dissertation uses academic resilience as a framework to explore Latinas' journeys through the STEM pipeline, identifying protective factors or sources of support and the risk factors or challenges they encountered. In the first study, twenty Latina graduate students were interviewed about their experiences from early childhood through their time in graduate programs in STEM fields. The participants were master's or doctoral students at the same private elite university at the time of the interviews. The following were some of the major themes that were identified: earliest STEM experience, special teachers and mentors, community college experiences, decision to attend graduate school, familismo, graduate school faculty advisors/mentors, sense of belonging, and ethnic/cultural identity. The findings point to four potential areas for intervention. In the second study, twelve Latinas were interviewed about their academic and career trajectories in STEM fields. The participants had received their doctoral degrees or were employed in STEM fields at Research I institutions. Some of the risk factors or challenges that these women faced included: their families' gendered expectations, undocumented status, inaccessible research advisors, and cultural taxation. The protective factors or strengths and support systems that helped participants overcome these challenges included: family support, undergraduate research experiences, and access to academic mentors and diversity offices. In addition to the risk and protective factors identified, the Happenstance Learning Theory is used to describe participants' academic and career paths in STEM. The third study examined Latinas' experiences with microaggressions and discrimination in STEM fields and explored how experiences varied by skin tone and field of study. This study combined the participant samples of the first two studies and included analysis of survey data and interview responses. Survey results indicated that participants with lighter skin tones reported fewer experiences with microaggressions. In addition, women in science fields reported fewer microaggressions than the women in engineering fields. Responses to microaggressions included ignoring the events, confronting the offender, and relying upon protective factors such as external sources of support. Findings draw attention to colorism and phenotyping as barriers to success in STEM fields. Together, the three studies in this dissertation confirm previous findings about Latinas in STEM fields and identify new risk and protective factors.