VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Anatomy of the australopithecus scapula and evolution of the human shoulder [electronic resource] : insights from a new fossil specimen, KSD-VP-1/1g
Keywords: Biology.

Striding bipedalism is a mode of locomotion that defines our lineage. Bipedality freed the hands, arms and shoulders from the mechanical constraints of locomotion, an evolutionary innovation that has had an obvious impact on our species' fitness. As I will discuss in this dissertation, the shoulder blade (scapula) is shaped to optimize use of the upper limb in certain positions. Our closest living relatives (chimpanzees and gorillas) possess adaptations that likely increase efficiency in overhead use of the arms, as in forearm suspension or vertical climbing. The modern human shoulder, on the other hand, lacks such adaptations. This difference may reflect an evolutionary change in shape that occurred as our ancestors transitioned to a terrestrial way of life and became increasingly dexterous, eventually losing ancestral adaptations. On the other hand, recent discoveries suggest our lineage may have never possessed adaptations to suspension. Fossils from the shoulder of our early human ancestors are scarce. A recently discovered partial skeleton from Woranso-Mille (Afar Depression, Ethiopia), KSD-VP-1/1, preserves the oldest and most complete scapula of an adult Australopithecus afarensis individual. The intended contribution of this dissertation is to provide a comparative description of the new scapula (KSD-VP-1/1g) and to detail its implications for our understanding of anatomy and adaptation in the Australopithecus shoulder, and the evolutionary history of the modern human shoulder more generally.
Anomaly detection as creative insight [electronic resource]
Keywords: Mechanical Engineering

The costs of undetected design problems are huge, especially for automobiles, and similar expensive, complex products manufactured in high numbers. If design issues are not discovered before production begins, the cost and impact of design changes increase dramatically. When design problems remain hidden all the way through manufacture, substandard products may reach the public, with severe consequences. This research began with a qualitative field study using grounded theory and ethnography to examine the activities of geographically distributed automotive design workers. The early detection of design issues was predicted to produce higher quality products and improved productivity. Research questions were chosen: What is an anomaly? What is the anomaly detection process? Anomaly detection was explored with an experiment in which test subjects (N = 65) reviewed images for anomalies. The primary finding was that anomaly detection is a significant human design activity. Specific definitions for anomalies and the anomaly detection process were developed. The steps in the anomaly detection process were identified. The differences between errors and anomalies were researched and described. An anomaly coding scheme was created. Anomaly detection was found to be learnable and teachable. Opportunities for the use of anomaly detection in design were revealed. It was found that anomalies are creative insights. The role of ambiguity in design representations was revealed. The study found a need for representations to be unambiguous and easily understood by users. The role of poor quality representations that prevent observers from detecting structural and functional anomalies was clarified.
Atomic force microscopy methods for characterizing drug delivery agents [electronic resource]
Keywords: Materials Science and Engineering

Recent successes in the pharmaceutical industry have yielded a variety of new drugs based on proteins and nucleic acids. While these drugs are very promising, they are only effective once they are inside cells. Unfortunately, transporting drugs into cells tends to be challenging because cell membranes provide a protective barrier. However, there is hope for these drugs since researchers have identified many drug delivery agents that can shuttle drugs past this barrier. Cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) are particularly promising delivery agents due to their low toxicity and ability to deliver a wide number of therapeutic agents. However there are challenges to using CPPs, because their delivery mechanisms cannot yet be controlled. Engineering new CPPs that use specific, known translocation mechanisms would be a key achievement that could increase delivery efficiency and prevent unwanted side effects. Accomplishing this goal requires new experimental methods for determining the factors that control a CPP's translocation mechanisms. In this thesis I present new atomic force microscopy (AFM) methods for studying CPPs and other cell membrane active species. I first present a theoretical model that shows how results from AFM can indicate whether CPPs change the energy barrier to bilayer penetration. I then describe new experimental AFM methods we developed for examining CPP transduction mechanisms.
Autonomous Sign Reading for Semantic Mapping on the Stanford AI Robot
Keywords: Computer Science.
Robots > Control systems
Autonomous robots
Semantic networks > Information theory
Thesis

This thesis considers the problem of automatically collecting semantic labels during robotic mapping by extending the mapping system to include text detection and recognition modules.In particular, it describes a system by which a SLAM-generated map of an office environment can be annotated with text labels such as room numbers and the names of office occupants. These labels are acquired automatically from signs posted on walls throughout a building using a feed-forward system that collects a set of building images; uses a trained classifier to detect candidate text regions on those images; runs optical character recognition on those regions to extract the textual content; and post-processes the text string set with alignment information before placing each string at its original location on the map. Such a system faces difficulties using current text recognition techniques, as standard approaches to optical character recognition fail when faced with text from natural images as opposed to document text. Despite these difficulties, our system provides a series of additions to the typical mapping pipeline which provide practically useful results. In fact, our text detection and recognition system, combined with other ingredients, allow the robot to generate an annotated map from which it can recognize named locations specified by a user 84% of the time.
Bahamian students' experiences with mathematics in American universities and colleges [electronic resource]
Keywords: Education.

This longitudinal, qualitative, multi-case study examines the mathematical experiences of three Bahamian students pursuing science degrees in American universities and its relationship to their previous mathematical experiences in their Bahamian high schools. Drawing on cultural psychology and sociocultural theories of learning, this study found that the relationship between the academic preparedness of the participants on their experiences with collegiate mathematics is not limited to subject content only. The lessons learnt from the implied curriculum also play a role in their experiences with collegiate mathematics. Of the three participants, two have had to learn/develop techniques for studying because they had not been sufficiently challenged in their previous environments to do so. Each of the cases also highlights some powerful constructs needed for success in mathematics and at least two emphasize making connections between concepts, procedures, manipulatives/tools and multiple approaches when solving problems. This study contributes to an emerging area of research on student persistence in college-level mathematics courses as well as to the ongoing discussions in mathematics education regarding the role/importance of conceptual understanding and how to promote it. The study makes visible some of the ways in which students' post-secondary experiences with mathematics are shaped by their perception of their mathematical preparation, thus providing a basis for discussions of possible curricular change in the Bahamas. It also suggests that issues such as confidence and school/teacher expectations of students may play a role in the development of conceptual understanding.
Battles in boardrooms [electronic resource] : the diffusion of shareholder value rhetoric and practices in Finland, 1990-2005
Keywords: Sociology.

This dissertation examines the consequences of economic globalization for organizations and the corporate elites through an investigation of recent transformations in the Finnish corporate governance system since the early 1990s. The core thesis of this dissertation is that globalization encourages diversity in organizational forms rather than convergence. Globalization is not a sweeping trend that affects all states and organizations in the same way or to the same extent. In drafting public policies, governments try to strike a balance between global pressures and political and ideological preferences, and competing demands of different stakeholders. Similarly, organizations respond to global pressures in unique ways by recombining foreign elements with already available templates and scripts to create new, blended forms and unique configurations of the old. To capture transformations in the systems of governance, I focus on changes in three distinct layers of economic life: organizational practices and structures, managerial rhetoric, and political discourse around issues of ownership and control. I show how the rhetoric of shareholder value permeated the managerial and political discourse in Finland, and document how Anglo-American governance practices diffused among Finnish corporations. Although many governance practices associated with the American model have spread widely among Finnish firms, none of them have diffused throughout the entire corporate population. Similarly, although shareholder value rhetoric has become increasingly common, it has not entirely replaced the old rhetoric emphasizing the importance of all stakeholders. Thus, globalization has not entailed a clean transition from one homogeneous environment to another, as suggested by convergence theorists. Instead, globalization has lead to the emergence of a heterogeneous order, in which some firms stayed true to the stakeholder model, some aligned both their rhetoric and practices with the shareholder value concept, and some mixed and matched elements from both.
The bean [electronic resource] : a pulse processor for a particle physics experiment
Keywords: Electrical Engineering

The International Linear Collider (ILC), a next generation particle accelerator, will smash electron and positron bunches at up to 500 GeV (1000 GeV after a planned upgrade). The 31-km long collider's experiments will help scientists to understand the fundamental constituents of matter. Located at the ILC detector's forward region, the BeamCal is a highly segmented (> 90,000 channels) calorimeter that will serve three main purposes: ensure hermeticity of the detector for low polar angles, reduce the backscattering from pairs into the detector center, and provide a low-latency signal for beam diagnostics. The BeamCal specifications in terms of radiation tolerance, noise suppression, signal charge, pulse rate and occupancy pose unique challenges for the front-end and readout electronics design. Designed for the 180-nm TSMC mixed-signal technology, The Bean -- BeamCal Instrumentation IC -- is a 32-channel front-end and readout ASIC that will address the BeamCal instrumentation requirements. By employing a charge-sensitive amplifier and a switched-capacitor reset circuit, the Bean will process the input charge signals at the ILC pulse rate. Each channel will have a 10-bit successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter and digital memory for readout purposes. The Bean will also feature a fast feedback adder, capable of providing an 8-bit, low-latency output for beam diagnostics purposes. This work presents the design and characterization of The Bean prototype, a 3-channel ASIC that proves the principle of operation described.
Becoming illegal [electronic resource] : modeling rationality and morality of unauthorized migrants
Keywords: Sociology.

Why do millions of otherwise law-abiding people violate immigration laws? Past research on legal noncompliance shows that people's views about the law and legal authority are important determinants of their willingness to comply with the law, above and beyond economic considerations. A more comprehensive understanding of unauthorized migration thus requires a serious consideration of normative factors such as people's moral values and beliefs about the legitimacy of legal authority. This dissertation takes up that task through three papers that investigate the ways in which current and prospective unauthorized migrants view the U.S. immigration system and their acts of legal noncompliance. The first paper draws upon a unique set of focus group data with current and prospective unauthorized migrants from Latin America to analyze how they make sense of their noncompliance with U.S. immigration law. The second paper uses data obtained from a survey that was designed specifically for this study, to examine three important dimensions of legal values among prospective migrants from Mexico. The third paper develops and tests a decision-making model of unauthorized migration that considers not only the economic motivations of prospective migrants, but also their beliefs, attitudes, and social norms regarding U.S. immigration law and legal authorities. Together, these papers show that even in the context of unauthorized migration in which individuals are strongly motivated by economic need, the decision to migrate illegally cannot be fully understood without considering an individual's underlying values and norms.
Behavioral and genetic dissection of polarotactic responses in Drosophila melanogaster [electronic resource]
Keywords: Neurosciences.

Polarized light plays a prominent role in shaping navigational decisions and course control in a variety of insects. Work in ants, crickets and bees have highlighted the importance of a specialized subset of ommatidia in the dorsal rim of the retina, the DRA, in detecting these signals. However, the retina's full capacity to detect polarized light has not been probed, nor are the behavioral mechanisms by which animals respond to such cues known. We have developed a novel, fully-automated behavioral paradigm for detecting polarotactic responses in Drosophila, and have used genetic and behavioral approaches to address these issues. We demonstrate that when polarized UV light stimuli are displayed to populations of Drosophila, animals align their body axis with the e-vector of plane polarized light. Surprisingly, while photoreceptors in the DRA can indeed guide this behavioral response, other photoreceptors distributed across the retinal surface can do so as well. We show that that one class of UV sensitive photoreceptors, those expressing the Rh3 opsin, is both necessary and sufficient for mediating polarotactic behavior. In particular, flies in which only Rh3 expressing photoreceptors are functional can respond to UV polarized light, while inactivation of these cells blocks polarotactic behavioral responses. Moreover, ectopic expression of a green-light sensitive opsin in Rh3 expressing cells allows flies to acquire the capacity to respond to green polarized light. Detailed behavioral studies demonstrate that the ability of flies to align to the e-vector occurs via a stereotyped modulation of the flies' rotational velocity and acceleration as a function of their angular position relative to the e-vector. These studies define the precise computations necessary to explain the behavior, and provide insight into the organization of the neural circuitry that links polarized light signals to course control.
Believe the change you wish to see in the world [electronic resource] : the role of implicit theories in targets' responses to explicit bias
Keywords: Psychology

What motivates targets of prejudice to confront people who express explicit bias? This dissertation reports the results of eight studies investigating this question. In the first three studies, I tested the hypothesis that targets who hold an incremental theory of personality (i.e., the belief that people can change) are more likely to confront prejudice than targets who hold an entity theory of personality (i.e., the belief that people have fixed traits). In Study 1, targets' implicit theories predicted whether they spontaneously confronted an individual who expressed bias. Study 2 replicated this effect and showed that incremental theorists were less likely to anticipate withdrawing from future interactions with an individual who expressed prejudice. In Study 3, I manipulated implicit theories and replicated these findings. Next, I explored one potential explanation for why. I tested the hypothesis that incremental theorists would be more likely to view confronting as effective in creating change than entity theorists, even if both did so. In Study 4, targets who held a more incremental theory reported being more likely to confront prejudice and anticipated their behavior to be more effective. Study 5 elicited African American adults' retrospective accounts of encounters with bias while Studies 6-7 used a hypothetical scenario to expose participants to evidence of someone who had expressed bias either remaining the same or changing over time. The pattern of results across these studies revealed that even when entity and incremental theorists enact the same (actual or anticipated) confronting behavior, it is exclusively the incremental theorists who view this behavior as more efficacious. Study 8 investigated whether implicit theories play a causal role in perceptions of the efficacy of confronting. All targets expressed disagreement with a biased statement, but those in the incremental theory condition expressed the belief that speaking up would create change to a significantly greater degree than did those in the entity theory condition. By highlighting the central role that implicit theories play in targets' motivation to confront prejudice and their perceptions of whether confronting is effective, this research has important implications for intergroup relations and social change.
Bestiario Onírico [electronic resource]
Keywords: Music

Bestiario Onírico This series of works, collectively entitled Bestiario Onírico, consists of four pieces for chamber ensemble allied with different combinations of electronic means. The title translates roughly as "a collection of beastlike images from dreams". I have always been driven by the enigmatic nature of dreams that fix a revelation from the unconscious, haunting me until it later becomes manifest as a concrete artistic gesture. Though it is not my intention to imitate or literally represent the idiosyncrasies of dreams, they act as an inspirational reservoir and have always been present in my work. In some cases a dream impression or image is transferred into a formalizing device; in others the literal content of a dream generates a musical idea. These pieces are not only connected through a common creative approach, but also explore similar formal concerns. One of these is the interplay between continuous and discrete sound masses, as well as the transformation of one into the other. The series of Bestiario Onírico resembles a series of voyages unfolding through diverse states. For example, the first piece, Migración, is the most continuous, while the last piece, Humedal, is envisaged as a synthesis of discrete and continuous transformations. The combination of electronic and acoustic media suggests a global "virtual reality" within which the entire series is situated. In the individual works, the integration of acoustic and electronic aspects complements the employment of the extended means of sound production in the acoustic ensemble. The complete series of pieces has an approximate duration of 37 minutes. The following scheme shows the overall form of the series: I. Migración for flute, oboe, clarinet, trombone, viola, cello, double-bass and electronics. (9.5 min) II. Ciudadela for amplified flute and cello (6.5 min) III. AMBA for bass clarinet, accordion and electric guitar (8.5 min) IV. Humedal for amplified trombone, amplified percussion, electronically modified harp, double-bass and two electronic performers (11 ~ min).
Bio-inspired globally convergent gait regulation for a climbing robot [electronic resource]
Keywords: Mechanical Engineering

The priorities of a climbing legged robot are to maintain a grasp on its climbing surface and to climb efficiently against the force of gravity. Climbing robots are especially susceptible to thermal overload during normal operation, due to the need to oppose gravity and to frequently apply internal forces for clinging. These priorities guided us to develop optimal climbing behaviors under thermal constraints. These behaviors in turn profoundly constrain the choice of gait regulation methods. We propose a novel algorithm: "travel-based" gait regulation that varies foot detachment timing, effectively modifying stride length and frequency in order to maintain gait phasing, subject to kinematic and stability constraints. A core feature of the algorithm is "travel, " a new metric that plays a similar role to relative phasing. The method results in linear equations in terms of travel, leading to straightforward tests for local and global convergence when, for example, disturbances such as foot slippage cause departures from the nominal phasing. We form recurrence maps and use eigenvalue and singular value decomposition to examine local convergence of gaits. To examine global convergence, we implemented a computational geometry technique in high-order spaces. Our travel-based algorithm benefits from a compact code size and ease of implementation. We implemented the algorithm on the RiSE and Stickybot III robots as well as a virtual hexapod in a physics simulator. We demonstrated quickly converging gaits on all platforms as well as gait transitions on Stickybot III and the virtual hexapod.