VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Policing an Pobal: Community Policing and Legitimacy in the United States and Ireland
Keywords:  Fisher Family Honors Program in Democracy
community policing
legitimacy
police reform
An Garda Síochána
Denver Police Department
Dublin
Denver
Thesis

Community policing has been a widely accepted police reform ideal in the United States since the 1980s—but in most American police departments, it has never really taken root. Today, even notoriously aggressive, racist, and invasive police departments, like that of Ferguson, Missouri, claim to practice community policing while engaging in practices indistinguishable from its opposite. Still, community policing, when implemented well, promises enormous benefits, including improved police-community relationships, increased state legitimacy, decreased reliance on the criminal justice system, and safer and more cohesive communities. This thesis uses qualitative interviews and observations to compare community policing in Denver, Colorado and Dublin, Ireland, which treats community policing as a specialization, with its own training, promotion schemes, and units within each police station. This qualitative study suggests that: 1) community policing is fundamentally an ethos of trust and respect for the community, and its successful implementation will look different in different contexts, 2) the Dublin model of specialized community policing units working in a specific patch is more effective toward the goals of community policing than Denver’s less structured, more response-oriented model, 3) merely adding community policing to a non-community police force is not sufficient to reap the benefits of community policing, and 4) applying the label of community policing to a reform effort without making more fundamental changes undermines the goals of community policing and police reform.
The politics of expertise in 21st century American policymaking
Keywords: Political Science.

One of the consequences of political polarization in American today is that Democrats and Republicans not only disagree with each other on matters of values but also on matters of fact. With the growing concerns over fake news, social media echo chambers, and a decline in trust in experts, some have gone so far as to label our current discourse as "post-truth." However, most systematic evidence on these phenomena are drawn from studies of the mass public. We know very little about the extent to which this description extends to policymakers. One the one hand, elected officials tend to be committed partisans; consequently, we might expect policymakers to be especially prone to partisan biases in the processing of information. On the other hand, policymakers have the responsibility of making real decisions that affect the welfare of real people, potentially moderating these biases. In three studies, I adopt a range of empirical strategies to investigate these competing predictions. By (1) comparing the factual beliefs of policymakers and the public, (2) assessing policymaker responsiveness to expert evidence, and (3) analyzing who testifies on climate change in Congress, I present new evidence which challenges the dire predictions that follow from applying behavioral theories of partisan bias to policymaking
Polymer-nanoparticle materials for prophylaxis : from passive immunity to wildfire prevention
Keywords: Materials Science and Engineering.

In order to broadly enable prophylactic strategies in fields spanning medicine to agriculture, there is a need for new carrier materials that can deliver active ingredients over extended timescales, while being easily manufactured and deployed. Because of their dynamic nature, physically crosslinked networks provide a route to meet these criteria. Among the many physical crosslink motifs, polymer-nanoparticle interactions stand out as a modular and simple way towards creating highly-scalable, multifunctional materials. In this work, I will first discuss the fundamental understanding we have developed on how our polymer-nanoparticle networks form viscoelastic materials. We showed that elasticity arises from overlap of polymer coronas that are adsorbed onto nanoparticles, which leads to bridging polymer chains as well as caging of local polymer-nanoparticle units. Furthermore, we found that contrary to traditionally used physical crosslinking motifs, polymer-nanoparticle interactions are entropy-driven and this difference manifested in temperature-independent mechanical properties. I will then describe how we used these networks to design hydrogels for long-term delivery of therapeutic antibodies for passive immunization. We explored combinations of cellulose derivatives and hydrophobic pendant modifications for the polymers that made the most robust and biocompatible hydrogels. From this screen, we identified the best hydrogel formulation and conducted in vivo release studies of a broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibody-like protein. These results demonstrated that our materials are able to extend the pharmacokinetics of antibody drugs and can potentially enable new prophylactic strategies. Lastly, we applied the design concepts developed from our passive immunization work to address the growing wildfire epidemic. Importantly, we identified that ignitions are localized in specific high-risk locales that are responsible for the majority of severe fires. Treating these small areas of high-risk land with fire retardant would prevent a large proportion of the worst fires, but current carrier materials do not retain the retardant on fuel through weathering. By engineering a sprayable viscoelastic carrier fluid, we demonstrated in pilot-scale and large-scale studies that we can provide season-long protection against wildfires
Practical applications of difference tones in electronic music composition and synthesis
Keywords: Music.

Difference tones are frequency components produced within the ear upon the physical and physiological interactions of spectral components in a given auditory input. Under certain conditions, these additional frequencies are audible and appear to be localized within the head. The phenomenon is the result of nonlinearities in the auditory system. The specific frequencies can be predicted by a classical power series expansion of a sum of sinusoids. With a two-tone signal, the quadratic and cubic terms of the polynomial yield two of the most audible difference tones. Difference tones introduce creative opportunities when applied in musical contexts. However, the effect is highly dependent on parameters of the acoustic primary tones. The conditions for evoking difference tones with a two-tone stimulus are well understood, but a three-tone signal is more complex and not typically employed in music. For the effective implementation of three-tone difference tones in creative work, the parameters for reliable detection must be understood. This dissertation consists of three interconnected branches of research. A psychoacoustic study on the detection of up to nine classes of two and three-tone difference tones reveals the most audible difference tones and the required stimulus conditions. Creation of an open-source toolbox of digital audio instruments for the synthesis of difference tones allows both creative and educational opportunities. With the results of the psychoacoustical study and the implementation of digital instruments, two series of compositions illustrate the physically of sound and spatial depth uniquely available with difference tones
Practical determination : action, capacity, knowledge
Keywords: Philosophy.

I defend the thesis that intentional action constitutively involves practical knowledge: a distinctly practical form of knowledge that an agent has of her action when acting intentionally. I identify intentional action as an agent's felicitous exercise of her corresponding practical capacity, practical knowledge as a distinctive form of practical judgment involved in such exercise. I argue that such judgment constitutes knowledge in that it constitutes the agent's capacity to guide herself by the fact of her intentional action; that this knowledge is practical in that it is constituted by the agent's practical judgment, in felicitous exercise of her practical capacity. The argument develops over three parts. In Pt I, Action, I attend to the ontology of happening and action and of intentional action specifically. Standard ontologies of action conceive of action in terms of completed events, thus complicating the recognition of practical knowledge, the primary locus and object of which is ongoing intentional action. I develop an account of happening and action in terms of a focal notion of "practical determination": of a particular of a general, determinable type developing in a determinate way. I understand intentional action along these lines as the agent's intentional practical determination of what happens. In Pt II, Capacity, I turn to the nature of practical capacity as the capacity for intentional action. Following the discussion and framing of Pt I, I understand such capacity as the capacity for intentional practical determination. I develop an account of practical capacity along the lines of Aristotelian "rational two-way" capacities: as a capacity to act in a determinate way according as one intentionally determines to do so. I argue that intentional action is nothing other than the felicitous exercise of such capacity. In Pt III, Knowledge, I offer an account of practical knowledge hinged on the exercise of practical capacity. I argue that, where an agent exercises such a capacity felicitously, the particular judgment constitutively involved in her exercise constitutes her practical knowledge of her intentional action. Following an epistemological tradition that recognizes knowledge as the capacity to guide oneself by facts I recognize practical knowledge as the agent's capacity to guide herself by the fact of her intentional action
Practices and Judgements of False Accusations during the Late 18th Century and Early 19th Century
Keywords:  Stanford Global Studies
History Department
CEAS
China
false accusation
female chastity
the Qing Dynasty
chastity cult
wujian
wuzhi wengjian
Thesis

During the late 18th century and early 19th century, false accusation (wugao) was an illegal but prevalent customary practice that people used to escalate their disputes to the local courts. In archival materials, local residents usually used female chastity, the importance of which was repeatedly emphasized by the Qing state, to falsely accuse others of adultery and rape (wujian) with the aims to obtain financial gains or to take revenge on their enemies. In most cases, female chastity was a manipulable weapon taken by males, while female voices were often muted. In some cases, women also took the initiative to falsely accuse others of raping them. However, many women framed others for rape because their illicit sex was caught by the accused; they resorted to wujian as the last option in desperation to cover their affairs. Wujian cases, like other types of false accusation cases, were usually adjudicated as minor matters at the local level. Nevertheless, some circumstances that offended patriarchy and challenged the ruling supremacy of the Qing would transform false accusations from minor matters to severe cases.
Precision margin : first-principles margins for aircraft design under uncertainty
Keywords: Aeronautics and Astronautics.

This thesis is about design under uncertainty, with a particular focus on aircraft structures. This work uncovers weaknesses in present aircraft structural design criteria, presents an alternative con- ceptual framework—precision margin—for treating uncertainties in design, and develops the math- ematical theory and computational algorithms to put these ideas into practice. Through several computational experiments, we will see how precision margin can improve current aircraft design, and enable smarter engineering decision-making. Developing this thesis was transformative for my perspective on engineering as a practice. My initial training as an engineer provided me with the tools to carry out deterministic design: a toolkit that deeply articulated physical phenomena, but provided only the crudest means to express and handle uncertain factors. This thesis is a product of learning to embrace uncertainty: I have gone to great lengths to connect the ideas in this work to current aircraft design practice, and moreover the current, broadly-accepted engineering mindset. My hope is that, in making a direct comparison between the current and prospective practice, the reader may see new opportunities for improved engineering practice
Precision synthesis with atomic layer deposition for oxygen reduction reaction enhancement
Keywords: Materials Science and Engineering.

Proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) technology has progressed significantly over the past few decades for CO2-free energy conversion. However, the energy efficiency of PEMFCs is still far below the thermodynamic limit for numerous reasons. A major cause is the overpotential induced by the sluggish reaction kinetics, especially for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on the cathode. To overcome the limitation, efforts have been devoted to developing catalyst material structure engineering to maintain a high intrinsic catalytic activity. In this thesis, I will firstly discuss a strained Pt catalyst with an enhanced catalytic activity for ORR. The catalyst was fabricated by sequential atomic layer deposition(ALD) of cobalt oxide and Pt on the carbon supports, followed by acid leaching that removes almost the entire cobalt oxide template. A compressive strain in the Pt-Pt lattice of the strained catalyst was observed by both extended x-ray absorption fine structure and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy in which negligible Pt-Co interaction is found. Therefore the performance enhancement is mostly attributed to the Pt lattice strain. Secondly I will introduce a precision alloyed Pt-Ti catalyst with a Ti-rich subsurface layer. This catalyst structure was found to have a higher confidence level regarding significant catalytic activity enhancement in density functional theory model. An almost 8-fold activity enhancement compared to Pt ALD catalyst were achieved. Both dynamic secondary ion mass spectroscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy indicate significant Ti enrichment close to the very surface. Finally, I will describe the fabrication and performance of strained Pt catalyst and Pt-Ti alloy catalyst integrated in membrane electrode assembly(MEA). To further improve the mass activity of the strained Pt catalyst, passivation gas incorporated atomic layer deposition (PALD) was applied. The mass activity was pushed to 0.59A/mg on a Ketjen Black carbon support and even close to 0.8 A/mg on CMK-3. The Ketjen Black-supported catalyst additionally demonstrated impressive durability. For Pt-Ti alloy catalyst, significant performance enhancement especially in specific activity was demonstrated. The temperature-dependent performance was studied and the Pt-Ti alloy catalyst indicates improvement in ORR performance mainly attribute to lowered activation energy barrier
The prince of Monaco gave me a present : an ethnographic examination of the governance and social world of the International Olympic Committee
Keywords: Anthropology.

This dissertation examines the interplay between governance, social world, and habitus within the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to understand how decisions are shaped and made. In doing so, it uses the IOC as a privileged site to study a board of directors of a private global organization of import. This study shows that despite an increasing emphasis on the tenets on good governance and transparency, the rule of law, and the idea that the organization operates with all of these practices and principles front of mind, legal-rational governance does not chiefly inform decision making within this organization. This dissertation asks how decisions are really made in the IOC, and how does culture, diverse backgrounds, and disparate access to capital frame power and internal politics within the organization? This dissertation examines an elite, global, private organization at a time of dynamic contestation. It examines how an organization structured around logics of history, cultural capital, and comportment in its membership negotiates calls for good governance. This dissertation argues for the importance of attending to logics in the 'personalistic economy' and in doing so, attests to the ways in which ethnography, through its observational sensitivities and keen eye, can reveal how power actually operates in non-obvious but significant ways. This dissertation demonstrates what an animating force culture and the social world is vis-à-vis governance, even in the most cosmopolitan, modern, Western organizations. It contributes, then, to the growing field of the anthropology of global institutions by highlighting the importance of attending carefully to social worlds in understanding how impactful decisions are made
Projection-based model order reduction and hyperreduction of turbulent flow models
Keywords: Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Despite significant advances in simulation-based engineering science in recent decades, time-critical applications struggle to take advantage of high-fidelity, partial differential equation-based computer simulation. This is due to the large processing time and storage requirements associated with large-scale computational models. Projection-based model order reduction (PMOR) methods offer the ability to dramatically reduce this computational cost by generating compact, low-dimensional models for which solutions can be obtained in near real-time while still retaining the accuracy of an associated high-fidelity, high-dimensional model for the time and parameter domain of interest. PMOR is thus an essential technology for the application of model-based control, probabilistic analysis, or design optimization to problems involving increasingly complex engineered systems and physical phenomena. Unfortunately, nonlinear problems, in particular turbulent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications, continue to present a number of challenges for constructing stable, accurate, and computationally efficient projection-based reduced order models (PROMs). This thesis addresses some of these challenges, demonstrating PROMs for a number of large-scale, unsteady, turbulent flow applications which showcase the potential of PMOR for nonlinear CFD models with multiscale physics. These results leverage advancements in hyperreduction, a technique for the treatment of nonlinearities in the underlying computational model, to obtain CPU time and wall-clock time speedup factors of several orders of magnitude. This work also presents an investigation of the role of projection in the numerical stability of PMOR for convection-dominated flow problems, ultimately disproving an often-stated claim in the literature with the support of several numerical examples
The proliferation of state and local elections in the United States, 1776-1900
Keywords: Political Science.

Circa 1787, Americans elected very few state and local officials. Yet, by 1950 they elected far more such officials than any other country. This dissertation presents original data on the nineteenth century reforms that proliferated public offices at the state and county levels. To explain this historical sea change, I present a model of a bargaining problem, faced by all governments, in which leaders must simultaneously fill public offices and fully fund the government's budget. Applying the model to the early American states, I argue that the growth of elective offices at the state and county levels stemmed from elite fears that unitary executive power would fall into the hands of the newly-enfranchised poor. Thus, the main driver of office proliferation was neither Jacksonian Democrats' desire to expand spoils, nor western states' desire to attract labor. I support my thesis mainly using difference-in-difference analyses that compare the timing of "electoralization" to the timing of suffrage expansion from 1776 to 1900
Provenance and sedimentology of the Archean Mapepe Formation, southeastern Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa
Keywords:  Geological Sciences
School of Earth Energy &amp; Environmental Sciences
Geological Sciences
Archean
banded chert
provenance
Thesis

The 3.5 to 3.2 Ga Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB), South Africa, offers a view into the surface of the Early Archean Earth. The Fig Tree Group and the Buck Reef Chert of the Onverwacht Group, the subjects of this thesis, are comprised mostly of sedimentary rocks. These rocks still display primary sedimentary structures, and some original geochemical and geochronological signatures are preserved. This study is broken into two parts. The first chapter examines the relationship between three different types of banded cherts seen in the BGB: black and white banded chert (B&W), banded ferruginous chert (BFC), and banded iron formation (BIF). These banded cherts represent a spectrum of related processes and depositional settings. Based on sedimentary structures, petrography, and lithologic associations, we infer that BIF was deposited in deeper water than BFC, and B&W chert was deposited in shallower water than BFC, at depths commonly affected by storms. These relationships suggest that silica was precipitated within the uppermost part of the water column and settled to all depths. Siderite formed mainly in waters of intermediate depth, below the storm agitated surface layer but above the deep basin bottom settings and is a major component of BFC and deeper BIF. A hematite precursor formed in the deepest waters, producing BIF made up of hematite and other components that settled into this setting from shallower sites of precipitation, including silica and siderite. The second chapter is a provenance study of a newly mapped and analyzed structural block, the Mlumati Syncline, and the neighboring blocks in the southeastern part of the BGB. Its proximity and similar stratigraphy to the adjacent Manzimnyama Syncline suggest that these two structural blocks represent parts of the same Archean depositional system. Their similar sandstone petrography, shale geochemistry, and detrital zircon geochronology emphasize the similarity in their source terrains, affirming the hypothesis that they represent parts of a single depositional basin. The sedimentary rocks in these synclines are also compared to those in other structural blocks in the southeastern BGB. The provenance proxies suggest different source terrains, implying the sequences were not part of a single large source, transport, and depositional fairway.