VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A Chinese American Vision of The King and I: American Culture, Democracy, and Policy in Soft Power
Keywords:  Stanford Global Studies
Center for East Asian Studies
China-US relations
Asian American
Theatre
David Henry Hwang
Thesis

This thesis on David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori’s Soft Power foregrounds the importance of cultural exchange in an era when global powers like the US and China are obsessed with wielding greater influence and spreading their respective values. Hwang offers an alternative vision from the perspective of a Chinese American: he sees cultural collaboration rather than cultural competition as the key to examining the faults within each culture, and as an essential step in creating a pluralist world. The “musical within a play” itself is an example of how the in-depth understanding of one country can expose the inherent flaws within another: Hwang uses the debate surrounding China’s rise, namely, the “China Threat” theory versus “China’s Peaceful Rise” policy, the Confucian concept of self-cultivation, and his cross-cultural experience as a Chinese American to expose the arrogance of Western culture, the fragility of American democracy, and the short-sightedness of unilateralist foreign policy. I argue that David Henry Hwang’s bicultural perspective allows him to transform a problematic musical into a star vehicle for elevating Asian voices artistically and politically. More importantly, Soft Power reveals the healing of the division in both America and the world today requires the insights of people like Asian Americans who can negotiate different ways of seeing.
A comparison of the upper Cretaceous Pigeon Point Formation, northern California, and the Gold Beach Terrane, southwest Oregon, USA: unrelated stratigraphic sequences or parts of a single now-dismembered cretaceous basinal sequence?
Keywords:  Department of Geological Sciences
Geological Sciences
Coterminal Master's
School of Earth
provenance
sedimentology
stratigraphy
Pigeon Point Formation
Gold Beach Terrane
Oregon
California
geology
Thesis

The Pigeon Point Formation, northern California, and the Gold Beach Terrane, southwestern Oregon, are Late Cretaceous allochthonous terranes that outcrop along the Pacific Coast of the United States. Both are characterized by upper Cretaceous deep-water sequences overlain by or including near the top units of fine- to very fine-grained, uppermost Cretaceous sandstone deposited in a storm-dominated shelf setting. Previous studies have suggested that both terranes originated as far south as southern California and have since been translated north by right lateral displacement along the San Andreas Fault System. In this study we use provenance analyses, including sandstone petrography, detrital zircon (DZ) geochronology, and major- and trace-element mudstone geochemistry to determine the provenance of both terranes and estimate whether they were once part of a single Late Cretaceous submarine depositional system. Sandstone petrography and mudstone geochemistry show that both terranes are arc derived; however, the Pigeon Point Formation has a more evolved, felsic source while the Gold Beach Terrane is sourced from more juvenile parent rocks that are mafic in character. Key differences are also seen in the detrital zircon signatures from both terranes. Both terranes contain abundant Late Cretaceous zircons; however, the Gold Beach Terrane contains abundant Early to Late Jurassic zircons whereas the Pigeon Point Formation does not. All of the observations in this study indicate that the two terranes do not share the same provenance and were not once part of the same Late Cretaceous submarine depositional system. Based on our observations, we conclude that the Pigeon Point Formation was likely sourced mainly from the Cretaceous Sierra Nevada Batholith and the Gold Beach Terrane from Klamath Mountains and Sierran Foothills Belt as well as the main Sierra Nevada Batholith. Thus, the Pigeon Point Formation likely originated as far south as southern California, whereas the Gold Beach Terrane likely originated close to its present location.
A Deficit of Due Process: Racial Bias within Death Penalty Sentencing in Harris County, Texas
Keywords: Death Penalty
Criminal Justice
Racial Bias
Race
Crime
Harris County
Texas
Capital Punishment
Law and Economics
Legal System
Thesis

This project researches racial bias within the death penalty in Harris County, Texas. Although Harris County has greatly limited its use of the death penalty in recent years, the area was once regarded as the “capital of capital punishment.” This thesis analyzes crime and legal data to determine if a relationship exists between race and death sentences. The data is collected from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Utilizing data that centers around the type of crime committed, victim characteristics, and defendant characteristics, this research examines if a racial bias exists among all death penalty eligible cases within this prominent county. Overall, this study displays a causal relationship between the race of the defendant and the sentence received in Harris County, Texas. Between 1976 and 2016, a minority defendant is 1.58 times more likely to be sentenced to the death penalty compared to a white defendant. Furthermore, a Black defendant, compared to a white defendant, is 1.82 times more likely to receive a death sentence between 1976 and 2016. Prior to the 2005 legislation that allowed sentences of life without the possibility of parole in capital murder cases, a Black defendant was 1.56 times more likely to be sentenced to death. Following the 2005 life-without-parole law, this disparity drastically increased by 5.42 times to an odds ratio of 8.45.
A Framework for Identifying Local and Universal Symptoms of Emerging Structural Violence: A Case Study in Berlin
Keywords: Emerging Structural Violence
Health
Refugee Housing
Urban Studies
Stanford University
Thesis

Berlin currently faces a housing crisis and is forced to use alternative modes of housing such as converted warehouse spaces for the large number of refugees that began arriving in 2015. While these solutions might prove effective as temporary facilities, the scarcity of housing availability has necessitated the utilization of these spaces on a more permanent basis. The adequacy of these unintentionally designed living environments is called into question.
Poor health often arises as a symptom of distress from inadequate housing. If the initial issue prompting illness is not addressed early enough, the health problems can accumulate and become a chronic disease burden that may impede the ability to work and access quality medical attention, only resulting in larger medical issues. Inadequate living spaces that are created by greater social structures, and house vulnerable or marginalized populations who are being afflicted by housing related illness, are a function of structural violence, a medical anthropological term. Using the temporary refugee housing in Berlin as a case study, this research forges a methodology to identify symptoms of emerging structural violence through qualitative data collected from interviews. Physical health disparities, such as anaphylaxis, weight loss and sleep deprivation, as well as mental health disparities such as a higher prevalence of PTSD and depression were most commonly observed and flagged as potential symptoms of emerging structural violence. If it is possible to identify local symptoms of emerging structural violence in a vulnerable space, it is easier to remedy the problem and mitigate greater future conflict.
A Novel 3-D Culture System for Modeling Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease
Keywords:  Department of Biology
Biology
polycystic kidney disease
3-D culture
gene therapy
cyst formation
Thesis

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the world’s most common monogenic disorder. It is characterized by mutations in the PKD1 and PKD2 genes that cause cyst formation in kidney epithelial cells and bilaterally enlarge the kidney, leading to renal failure by age 60. While gene therapy to correct the underlying mutations in PKD1 and PKD2 could someday serve as a cure for ADPKD in the future, it is limited by the lack of a simple and inexpensive model with a clear phenotypic readout. Here, we describe a novel immortalized 3-D cell model for modeling cyst formation in vitro that shows rapid cyst formation in response to inducible Pkd2 knockout (KO). The cell line for this model was created by crossing the temperature-sensitive simian virus 40 (SV40) “Immortomouse” with a homozygous, Tet-On, Pkd2-inducible KO mouse and then isolating kidney tubular epithelial cells. The temperature-sensitivity of the SV40 transgene allows this cell line to renew indefinitely at 33 °C, but revert to a primary-like state upon transfer to 37 °C. Cells in this primary-like state were seeded into a modified 3-D Matrigel culture system to initiate cyst formation and treated with doxycycline (DOX) to induce Pkd2 KO. Although the wild-type (WT) cells also developed cyst-like structures, the Pkd2 KO cysts grew significantly faster after DOX treatment than the WT controls (p < 0.001), demonstrating that cyst growth in our model was Pkd2 KO specific. This is the first immortalized, inducible cell culture system described in the PKD field with a cystic size phenotype that varies between WT and PKD KO, and will be extremely useful for testing various gene therapy cures for ADPKD in a simple, low-cost, in vitro environment.
A Novel Approach to Detect Heavy Metals and Investigate Internal Exposome-Based Immunological Changes in Children Exposed to Air Pollution
Keywords: Biology
Stanford University
Sean N. Parker Center
Immunology
CyTOF
Lead Exposure
Trace Analysis
Dendritic Cells
Thesis

Ambient air pollution exposure has been shown to be associated with a dysregulated immune response but there are still significant gaps in our knowledge that limit our understanding of specific pollutant-immune responses. For this reason, sensitive methods are needed to more clearly detect and link immunologic changes from exposure to specific pollutants. Due to the large number of constituents in air pollution, it is difficult to assign particular immune changes to all of them. We therefore suggest the novel application of CyTOF to monitor, record and gate toxic heavy metal exposure, in channels that were once disregarded as contamination only to identify possible immune system responses to single air pollutants. This pilot study uses this quantification method to simultaneously perform cell phenotyping and heavy metal pollutant detection, primarily lead (Pb). 36 samples from children aged 6-8 years old, recruited from a 20-km radius in Fresno, were analyzed using a novel application of CyTOF analysis. Samples were stained with a dendritic cell and monocyte panel and run using the Helios CyTOF instrument with expanded channel monitoring. These expanded channels did not have any metal-conjugated-antibodies added. It is hypothesized that quantification of environmental heavy metals during analysis may reveal varying internal exposure, allowing for subsequent grouping. Samples were analyzed using FlowJo software and the statistical software programs R and Prism. The percentage of 208Pb associated with each samples’ live cells varied between samples and allowed for the grouping of low (n=17) and high (n=15) 208Pb groups. The total percentage of myeloid Dendritic Cells (mDCs), HLA-DR+ mature mDCs (mature mDCs), and common DCs (cDC1s) that were CCR7+ was significantly reduced in the high 208Pb group (P=.018, P=.0055, P=.0248,). PD-L1, CD68, and CD206 were also found to be reduced in HLA-DR+ mature mDCs and cDC1s in the high 208Pb group (Mature mDCs: P=.0042 P=.0089, P=.0137, cDC1s: P=.007, P=.0072, and P=.0135). The detection of lead levels was found to vary in PBMCs, demonstrating a potential CyTOF-based method to monitor internal pollutants. In addition, the statistically significant reduction in DC markers between low and high 208Pb groups demonstrated potential immune modulation mechanisms by lead, that direct future follow-up analyses. Further pilot studies are needed to validate CyTOF’s accuracy in monitoring environmental heavy metals.
A Partnership to Strengthen Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation in San Francisco
Keywords: Policy Organization and Leadership Studies
POLS
Thesis

This report was compiled for The Primary School’s San Francisco Early Childhood Education team. The goal of the report is to understand the implementation of the Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative at Wu Yee Children’s Services sites in San Francisco. The report was informed by qualitative interviews with individuals across Wu Yee sites, including the Kirkwood location that is piloting a new mental health consultation model. Ultimately, implementation of the consultation program varied greatly from site to site, with the most success reported out of the Kirkwood pilot. Kirkwood stakeholders reported clear expectations for the consultation program, a site-wide culture of collaboration, and high satisfaction with the changes made in the pilot implementation versus the previous implementation. Across other sites, the data indicate that prioritizing clear communication across stakeholders and consistent expectations for consultants may result in site-level improvements, including increased capacity to support children’s social and academic needs and improved socio-emotional outcomes for children.

The Primary School team may use this report to conduct further research about the implementation of child mental health services. For example, more information is needed to determine if there are key differences among providers that impact their efficacy as mental health partners. In addition, data suggest that a range of interpretation during implementation may occur when request for quote (RFQ) language is flexible or vague.
A Phenome-wide association study of a contemporary polygenic risk score for Coronary Artery Disease in the Women’s Health Initiative
Keywords: polygenic risk score
coronary artery disease
PRS
CAD
phenome-wide association study
PheWAS
women's health initiative
WHI
Stanford University School of Medicine
Health Research and Policy
Epidemiology and Clinical Research
Thesis

Introduction
Polygenic risk scores (PRS) show promise in their ability to predict and improve the treatment of many facets of coronary artery disease (CAD). The basic components of the PRS are known to involve genetic risk related to traditional risk factors. However, associations with carefully adjudicated subtypes of CAD and other health traits have not been adequately tested or documented.
Methods
We conducted a phenome wide association study in 24,693 participants of the Women’s Health Initiative with genetic data and a host of health outcomes, traits, and biomarkers related to cardiovascular disease, cancers, and fractures. Our main exposure variable is a PRS for CAD named ‘meta-GRS’ incorporating 1.7 million genetic variants. We conducted linear and logistic regressions according to variable type.
Results
We found strong significant associations between the PRS and clinical CAD whose magnitude was proportional to the severity of presentation of CAD. We also found statistically significant associations of lower magnitude with other complications of the atherosclerosis. We were able to convincingly extend risk factor observations to include 3 important lifestyle factors (diet, physical activity and smoking), 2 EKG measures that have well-established associations with CAD (LVH and QT interval), an extensive array of LDL and HDL subfractions, multiple biomarkers related to insulin resistance (insulin, glucose, SHGB, leptin), a biomarker of plaque inflammation (Lp-PLA2), and a family history of risk factors of CAD combined with a decrease in parental longevity. Unexpectedly, we found an elevated genetic risk of CAD modestly protects against cancers and hip fractures and increases red blood cell measures.
Conclusion
We confirm that the meta-GRS PRS largely reflects genetic predisposition to CAD and risk factors for CAD. A graded association with presentation subtypes of CAD suggest a strong relationship with burden of coronary atherosclerosis. Further investigation is required to determine the mechanism behind other associations observed including a somewhat unexpected modest protection against all cancers.
A Simple Adaptive Procedure Converging to Forgiving Correlated Equilibria
Keywords: Department of Economics
game theory
correlated equilibria
extensive-form games
one-shot deviation principle
counterfactual regret minimization
no regret learning
Thesis

Simple adaptive procedures that converge to correlated equilibria are known to exist for normal form games (Hart and Mas-Colell 2000), but no such analogue exists for extensive-form games. Leveraging inspiration from Zinkevich et al. (2008), we show that any internal regret minimization procedure designed for normal-form games can be efficiently extended to finite extensive-form games of perfect recall. Our procedure converges to the set of forgiving correlated equilibria, a refinement of various other proposed extensions of the correlated equilibrium solution concept to extensive-form games (Forges 1986a; Forges 1986b; von Stengel and Forges 2008). In a forgiving correlated equilibrium, players receive move recommendations only upon reaching the relevant information set instead of all at once at the beginning of the game. Assuming all other players follow their recommendations, each player is incentivized to follow her recommendations regardless of whether she has done so at previous infosets. The resulting procedure is completely decentralized: players need neither knowledge of their opponents’ actions nor even a complete understanding of the game itself beyond their own payoffs and strategies.
Accelerated scaling of open-air processed perovskite solar modules
Keywords: Applied Physics.

Mechanical properties are excellent predictors for device resilience to environmental stressors that accelerate the evolution of internal defects and cause delamination and device failure in layered structures. The fundamental mechanical and material properties of perovskite photovoltaics (PV) are first investigated to gain insight on relevant degradation modes and failure mechanisms. Perovskites are identified as the most mechanically fragile solar technology, further complicating the prospect of commercial viability. The mechanical integrity and residual film stresses of perovskite materials are connected with device stability, and strategies are developed to improve the thermomechanical reliability of perovskite PV in order to inform design criteria for stable, large-area solar modules. This work demonstrates the first industrially relevant attempt to address both scalable and fast open-air PV module manufacturing for the perovskite layer at production speeds that are > 10 m/min for the perovskite absorber layer. By implementing demonstrated open-air, rapid spray processing techniques with improved thermomechanical reliability of the perovskite absorber material at the highest reported throughput of any solar technology, significant steps are made towards reductions in manufacturing costs necessary to provide a new low-cost PV process that can compete with incumbent Si-based PV
Activity-dependent alteration in synaptic and cognitive function in Fragile-X Syndrome
Keywords:  Department of Biology
Biology
Neuroscience
Fragile-X Syndrome
synaptic plasticity
Thesis

Fragile-X Syndrome (FXS) is the best known monogenic disease in the autism spectrum disorders. FXS occurs when the Fmr1 gene is epigenetically suppressed and the Fmr1-encoding protein (FMRP) is not produced. Previous work has shown that hippocampus-dependent spatial memory is impaired in both human patients and FXS mice. Memories are believed to be stored in engrams, which are a population of learning-activated neurons that are preferentially reactivated during memory recall. However, it remains unclear whether it is the lack of FMRP during embryonic development or the lack of sustained FMRP expression during adult memory formation that underlies the deficits observed in FXS. The objective of the present project is to determine whether deletion of FMRP in adult mice during a hippocampus-dependent contextual fear conditioning task affects subsequent memory recall. Using a virally-introduced recombinase, FMRP was selectively deleted in learning-activated hippocampal CA1 neurons of Fmr1 conditional knockout mice after the learning task but before the memory recall assay. Behavioral analysis showed that contextual memory recall is marginally impaired by this selective deletion strategy of FMRP. Histological analysis indicated that the loss of FMRP specifically in learning-activated neurons does not affect the efficiency of their reactivation during memory recall. The results suggest that the aforementioned selective FMRP deletion does not fully recapitulate the behavioral phenotype, and that engram reactivation during memory recall is not affected. Follow-up experiments aim to probe the putative role of FMRP in memory consolidation, a process that occurs upstream of the memory recall assay in the present study. Broadly, elucidating the mechanistic roles of FMRP in learning and memory advances the current understanding of the pathophysiology of FXS and may help identify new therapeutic mechanisms for the condition.
Adaptive guidance for online learning environments
Keywords: Piech, Chris (Christopher) degree committee member.

In the last decade, online learning platforms have dramatically increased access to educational materials, and replaced and supplemented traditional co-located instruction. Throughout this shift, instructors have struggled with how best to create and deploy materials to online platforms and understand their effectiveness when scaled across hundreds or thousands of learners. To address these complementary problems, this thesis introduces new systems and methods for both learning analytics and adaptive instruction. In OARS, we demonstrate a real-time learning analytics system deployed across more than ten online courses with tens of thousands of learners. We then report on the value of learning analytics from the perspective of course instructors. Learning from these perspectives, we next introduce a system for adaptively scheduling educational activities through reinforcement learning (RL). Without any skill labels, this model learns how to assign educational activities in a way that maximizes learning gains while minimizing redundant work. Finally, in a randomized controlled experiment, we show that our RL scheduling algorithm helped to improve the educational experience for online learners by reducing the number of learning activities required to produce the same learning gains