VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The borders of culture [electronic resource] : public diplomacy in United States-Mexico relations, 1920-1945
Keywords: History.

"The Borders of Culture" is a comprehensive study of U.S. government-sponsored transnational cultural programs to focus on the U.S. and Latin America. After the end of the military phase of the Mexican Revolution in 1920, the Department of State established a variety of initiatives--celebrity tours, libraries, cultural centers, film, and radio campaigns--to give Mexican citizens first-hand knowledge of the U.S. These projects aimed to promote the U.S.'s vision of modernization for the Americas and to temper the perceived radicalism and violence of the revolution. As U.S. fears of extremism increased during the 1920s and 1930s, transnational cultural and educational programs became well-funded and permanent tools of U.S. statecraft. These new institutions and campaigns formed a crucial part of the Good Neighbor Policy, allowing the U.S. to influence the development of the Mexican state without resorting to military intervention. Cultural and educational programs became the main vector of power through which the U.S. attempted to transform Mexico into a better neighbor by shaping the information available to Mexican citizens, influencing educational reforms, and encouraging Mexicans to reproduce a U.S. middle-class lifestyle.
A bound on wireless power transfer to subwavelength devices in the body [electronic resource]
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

Wireless power transfer to medical devices in the body is desirable for removal of bulky energy storage components. Most existing power transfer systems are concep- tually based on coils linked by slowly varying magnetic fields (less than 10 MHz). These systems have many important capabilities, but they are poorly suited for tiny, millimeter-scale devices where extreme asymmetry between the source and the re- ceiver results in weak coupling. In general, system parameters such as operating frequency and the structure of source that optimizes efficiency should be determined based on the receiver structure and position, as well as the tissue property of the body. Although many researchers attempt to optimize the system through numerical electromagnetic simulations and experiments of specific source structures and operating frequencies, it remains unknown which design parameters yield the highest global efficiency. This dissertation instead analytically solves the problem. With a proper modeling of tissue, we prove that for a given receiver structure and position, there exists an upper bound on power transfer efficiency and a solution for the current distribution that achieves this bound. The bound on efficiency and the optimal current distribution are evaluated for various medical applications -- a cardiovascular device to sense and stimulate heart signals, a wireless endoscope in the small intestine, and a neurostimulator in the brain to record neural activity. Reminiscent of Shannon's channel capacity in information theory, this theory predicts that there is significant room for improvement in existing power transfer systems and facilitates the design of structures to approach this optimal bound. The design procedure of the wireless power delivery system for a given receive structure in the body is demonstrated. The theory is verified with both numerical simulation and experimental results.
A bridge to text [electronic resource] : an exploratory study of film as a scaffold for reading comprehension
Keywords: Education.

Historical feature films are regularly nominated for Oscars, grossing billions of dollars in revenue, and are consumed by the public more frequently than history books (Rosenzweig & Thelen, 1998). Film is also popular among history teachers and has become a ubiquitous part of the classroom. Teachers tend to use films to get students excited about a topic or present them with background knowledge (Stoddard & Marcus, 2005). But too often these rich interpretations of the past go unquestioned, unanalyzed, and unconnected to the disciplinary ends of history. This study informs educators' efforts to integrate film into the classroom. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of film on struggling readers' ability to comprehend historical primary sources. In this study, students read two letters written by a black Civil War soldier and responded to questions about each letter to measure their comprehension. Prior to reading each letter, participants were given either a film scene or a textbook equivalent with relevant background information. After reading each letter, participants responded to a series of questions designed to measure their comprehension. This study asked the following questions: 1. Can viewing a film scene help struggling readers to comprehend the literal meaning of the text; and/or make inferences related to and which go beyond the text? 2. How does the content and characteristics of a scene influence struggling readers' comprehension of a related primary source? 3. How do adolescence make sense of historical feature films? What do they understand and misunderstand? What parts of a scene resonate with young people? Participants' responses to the questions were evaluated. No significant differences were found between the film and textbook conditions. However, there were intriguing differences in the patterns of response that give rise to a variety of hypothesis about the influence of film on literacy and historical understanding. Additionally, participant comments revealed patterns of interaction with film that were not anticipated prior to this study. This study offers no conclusive evidence for the benefits of film on reading comprehension. If anything, it provides insight into how film can both help and thwart comprehension. This study offers a framework for teachers and researchers to evaluate the potential negative and positive influence that background information has on comprehension. Finally, this study hopes to lay the foundation for pedagogical practices that support teachers' discerning use of film in the history classroom and beyond.
Broadband nanophotonics [electronic resource] : plasmonic band theory and light trapping for solar cells
Keywords: Applied Physics.

Remarkable progress has been made over the past two decades in controlling light propagation and absorption in compact devices using nanophotonic, plasmonic structures and metamaterials. From sensing and modulation, to on-chip communication and light trapping for solar cells, new device applications and opportunities now motivate the need for a richer understanding of the optical properties of these devices over a broad range of frequencies. In this dissertation, we present two strands of original, fundamental and applied work on the broadband behavior of nanophotonic devices: a plasmonic band theory and nanophotonic light trapping. First, we introduce a photonic band theory that rigorously models the behavior of plasmonic nanostructures or metamaterials made of dispersive materials such as metals. The theory extends traditional photonic band theory for periodic dielectric structures by coupling the mechanical motion of electrons in the metal directly to Maxwell's equations, and formulates the band structure of plasmonic structures as a Hermitian eigenvalue equation. We then construct a perturbation theory to physically explain and predict the effect of dielectric refractive index modulation or metallic plasma frequency variation in a plasmonic nanostructure. Furthermore, we provide an intuitive physical picture of the source of modal material loss in such devices, and derive an upper bound on the modal material loss rate of any plasmonic structure. This in turn places fundamental limits on the broadband operation of such devices for applications such as photodetection and absorption. Next, we discuss a nanophotonic light trapping theory that rigorously describes light absorption enhancement in nanoscale solar cells. Conventional light trapping techniques increase the path light of incident solar light in active material, and are subject to a fundamental absorption enhancement factor limit. We show that, at the nanoscale, it is possible to exceed this limit for all absorption regimes, and explain the mechanisms for this enhancement using our theory. We next apply these principles to organic solar cells by designing and optimizing a light trapping scheme where the transparent conductor is patterned to enhance absorption in the organic semiconductor layer below. We numerically demonstrate that such a design can provide up to 10% photocurrent enhancement relative to an optimized planar organic solar cell. Finally, we investigate the potential of plasmonic light trapping schemes to exceed conventional limits of light trapping at the nanoscale. In particular, we use principles and results from our plasmonic band theory to probe the role of parasitic loss in the metal on achievable absorption enhancement factors in the active photovoltaic material. Opportunities to exceed conventional limits using such plasmonic schemes exist but are subject to the material damping rates of the metal used, and therefore necessitate careful design consideration.
Building the roads [electronic resource] : expertise, labor, and politics in provincial France, 1675-1791
Keywords: History.

I capture a turning point in territorial development when public works outgrew medieval organizational methods, and provincial leaders sought to establish new controls over land and labor. In their approach to public works, leaders of the French province of Brittany took older compulsory labor and estate management practices and shaped them into enlightenment-era administrative methods. Breton nobles, urban magistrates, engineers, and villagers reshaped their political and professional identities at eighteenth-century highway construction sites. Road construction introduced a new kind of political interaction between country and city. My study of provincial highway construction brings to light long overlooked connections between early modern people, their local built environment, and their political sensibilities. "Public" once meant royal, but the road construction experience was key in broadening the word's definition to include civic engagement and provincial administration. Use of the corvée to build highways introduced rural communities to the idea of provincial public administration. The experience of highway construction offered the Breton Estates an opportunity to rise in political and administrative prominence. With the corvée, the provincial population participated in the transfer of technological information among experts, estate owners and managers, and local practitioners. While social and economic reform in Old Regime France is usually discussed in terms of orders or classes, a person's perception of his responsibilities to village, province, and kingdom was spatial. The highway -- part of the royal domain -- was culturally transformed by the act of construction into an active, communal space. The experiences of workers in this space, combined with debates about corvée reforms, laid the groundwork for thinking about roads and other parts of the public domain as democratic spaces.
Calcineurin regulates the yeast synaptojanin Inp53/Sjl3 to promote membrane recovery during hyperosmotic stress [electronic resource]
Keywords: Biology.

In response to hyperosmotic shock, cells of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae lose up to 50% of their volume. This drastic decrease in cell size results in excess plasma membrane, which forms large infoldings that must be quickly removed. How these plasma membrane invaginations are resolved to restore the cell surface is not well understood. We show that hyperosmotic shock activates calcineurin, the Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein phosphatase, leading to restoration of normal membrane morphology. During hyperosmotic stress, actin patches (sites of endocytosis) become depolarized; we find that under these conditions calcineurin accumulates at sites of polarized growth and promotes actin patch repolarization. Hyperosmotic stress causes calcineurin to bind to the yeast synaptojanin Inp53/Sjl3 and dephosphorylate its proline rich tail. Dephosphorylation by calcineurin activates Inp53, which in turn dephosphorylates PI(4,5)P2 at the plasma membrane and promotes repolarization of the actin cytoskeleton. Consistently, cells lacking the partially redundant synaptojanins Inp51/Sjl1 and Inp52/Sjl2 require calcineurin for growth even in the absence of hyperosmotic stress, and display abnormal plasma membrane morphology when calcineurin activation of Inp53 is blocked. Finally, we find that calcineurin binding to Inp53 stimulates its association with the yeast amphiphysin Rvs167, suggesting model where calcineurin stimulates Inp53 and Rvs167 mediated membrane scission, promoting recovery from excess membrane stress and allowing resumption of polarized growth. In neurons, periods of intense synaptic vesicle release also result in excess membrane, and calcineurin stimulates association of synaptojanin with amphiphysin to promote synaptic vesicle endocytosis. Our findings in yeast suggest that stimulation of endocytic complex formation by Ca2+/calcineurin is a fundamental and conserved feature of the eukaryotic response to excess plasma membrane.
Calibration ADC and algorithm for adaptive predistortion of high-speed DACs [electronic resource]
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

In this thesis, the design and implementation of circuits and signal processing algorithms required for digital predistortion of a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with an open-loop driver is presented. On the circuit design side, the implementation of a high precision, high acquisition-bandwidth calibration analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for sampling the DAC output is discussed. The ADC has a cyclic core and a variant of the switched-RC sampling network suitable for high frequency operation. It is implemented in 90-nm CMOS and achieves an SFDR of higher than 72 dB for input frequencies under 500 MHz. On the signal processing side, a calibration algorithm is presented that uses the input/output data of the DAC to identify its nonlinearity and cancel it through digital predistortion. The algorithm represents a novel technique for the linearization of Hammerstein systems with low computational cost and is suitable for hardware realization. Overall, this calibration architecture improves the SFDR of the DAC by close to 30 dB to achieve a final linearity of 53 dB for input frequencies up to 400 MHz and peak-to-peak differential output swing of 800 mV.
Capital allocation strategy for commercial banks [electronic resource]
Keywords: Management Science and Engineering.

This dissertation analyzes the capital allocation problem for commercial banks with the objective of maximizing long-term growth rate of wealth. In particular, a bank is faced with the problem of deciding how to allocate its capital into the available multi-period commercial loan products. Under common financial regulations and mild assumptions concerning the bank's internal policies, we prove the existence of a policy that yields the near-optimal long-term growth rate almost surely. The almost sure property implies that it is the best policy for policy makers, regardless of their risk tolerance levels, who wish to maximize the bank's long-term growth rate of wealth. Since the exact algorithms for this problem usually have an impractical computational complexity, we provide an efficient approximate algorithm to solve for an approximated policy and demonstrate its effectiveness in a numerical example.
Cast aside [electronic resource] : boredom and homelessness in post-communist Bucharest, Romania
Keywords: Anthropology.

Based on 30 months of ethnographic fieldwork with Romania's new homeless population, this dissertation details the experience of being cast aside in an era of radical economic reform by foregrounding the felt reality of boredom. Central to this dissertation is the historical novelty of homelessness in Romania. Prior to 1989, Communist-era employment and housing guarantees ensured most every Romanian's material subsistence. It was only after the fall of Communism, and in the wake of liberalization, that Romanians started living on the streets. Labeled "homeless" by western aid workers, a new shelter system quickly codified their status. This dissertation traces how the newly minted homeless experience and manage life on the streets through boredom. While boredom is typically thought of as a temporal phenomenon associated with privilege, this study draws upon ethnographic research that moves between homeless shelters, squatter camps, public parks and black labor markets to highlight boredom's spatial dimensions. Boredom, the homeless insist, is a marginal space lacking purposeful things to do. In this sense, the language of boredom captures homeless people's alienation from work and family but also from the pleasures of consumption. Once stuck in a space of boredom, homeless persons struggle to find relief by moving towards certain places and away from others in search of opportunity and excitement. This ethnography of boredom, in the end, provides empirical depth and analytical insight into how people make sense of contracting economic possibilities -- a reality for many in Bucharest, but also the world over following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
Catalysis on platinum surfaces probed using synchrotron-based core-level spectroscopies [electronic resource]
Keywords: Chemistry.

Probing chemical reactions on solid surfaces in situ remains a major challenge in heterogeneous catalysis, because most methods of surface characterization require ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions. In addition, the effects of morphology, particle size, and chemical composition are frequently difficult to disentangle due to sample heterogeneity. This work addresses these limitations by applying synchrotron-based core-level spectroscopies to well-defined systems based on single crystals. With a view to developing improved electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells, the behavior of oxygenated species on the Pt(111) and Pt/Rh(111) surfaces was examined in situ under both electrochemical and ambient-pressure conditions using high-energy-resolution fluorescence-detection x-ray absorption spectroscopy (HERFD XAS) and ambient-pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS), respectively.
Catalytic promiscuity in the alkaline phosphatase superfamily [electronic resource] : identifying specificity determinants in the diesterase family leads to a hypothesis of a "generalist" core bimetallo site found throughout the superfamily
Keywords: Biochemistry.

Catalytic promiscuity, the property of enzymes possessing low levels of activity toward non-cognate reactions, can be exploited as a functional tool to investigate conserved and non-conserved mechanism of enzyme specificity and catalysis between members in the same superfamily. Members of the main branch of the Alkaline Phosphatase (AP) superfamily have a structurally conserved core and active site bimetallo site. Other active site features that confer specificity for a given reaction differ between the families. Families within this superfamily catalyze a wide range of reactions, and enzymes within different families show catalytic promiscuity toward reactions catalyzed by other families within this branch. Structural comparisons and phylogenetic analysis suggests that all of the families in the superfamily arose from a common ancestor whose active site consisted of the bimetallo site alone, absent of peripheral, specificity determining features. Experimental data with a member of the nucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase (NPP) family suggests that a "minimal" mutant version of this enzyme that lacks peripheral, specificity determining features, has equal activity toward the two major reactions catalyzed by the AP superfamily, phosphate monoester and phosphate diester hydrolysis reactions. Together, the structural comparisons, phylogenic analysis, and experimental results lead to the hypothesis that the common ancestor of the AP superfamily is a "generalist." By using a variety of techniques, we provide support for a mechanism of evolution in which a "generalist" enzyme may give rise to multiple enzymes specific for, related, but individual reactions. Support for this mechanism, first proposed in 1976, has, until, now been limited. We suggest that this "generalist" mechanism is a valid mechanism for the evolution of ancient enzymes, present in the early evolution of life, into diverse superfamilies in which each family possesses specificity for one given reaction.
Cavity nonlinear optics with a cold atom ensemble on an atom chip [electronic resource] : all-optical latching, modulation, and amplification
Keywords: Physics.

I present the setup, the procedure, and the result of the experiment in which I probed nonlinear optical phenomena at very low optical power (femtojoule energy scales) in a multi-atom cavity quantum electrodynamical (cavity QED) system. I also explain the semiclassical model of this system in detail that explicitly treats heterogeneous coupling of atoms to the cavity mode, which I use to analyze the experimental data presented in this thesis. The nonlinear behaviors I demonstrated can be exploited in the design of all-optical memory, modulation, and signal amplification devices. These results highlight the interest of cavity QED systems for ultra-low power photonic signal processing as well as for fundamental studies of mesoscopic nonlinear dynamics.