VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A Markov Model-Based Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Interventions for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Steatohepatitis
Keywords: Computer Science
Liver
Markov processes
Diabetes
Obesity > Surgery
Semaglutide
Diet
Exercise
Weight loss
Cost effectiveness
Quality of life
Text
Thesis

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its more aggressive form, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), are the most prevalent liver diseases in the U.S. and throughout the world, and that prevalence is increasing. The current standard of care for these diseases is weight loss through diet and exercise with counseling support. No medications for NAFLD/NASH have been approved by the FDA. Using a Markov model with parameters from the literature, we compared the cost-effectiveness of no treatment, diet/exercise, bariatric surgery, and semaglutide, a possible treatment for NAFLD/NASH currently undergoing clinical trials. Diet/exercise and bariatric surgery are cost-effective alternatives to no treatment, but semaglutide is not cost-effective compared to other treatment options due to its high cost. Conditional policies where patients switch to bariatric surgery after one year of diet/exercise if they lose < 5%, < 7%, or < 10% of their weight are also cost-effective. Therefore, diet/exercise should remain the standard of care for most NAFLD/NASH patients even if semaglutide becomes FDA- approved. Bariatric surgery is a cost-effective alternative for NAFLD/NASH patients with a qualifying BMI.
A Movement for Myanmar Democracy
Keywords: Myanmar
Democracy and education
World politics
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Thesis

Sandra Kong’s capstone projects focused on advocating and bringing awareness to the political conflict in Myanmar following the military coup on February 1st, 2021. Along with other strong advocates and community members, Sandra worked with Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4MD), a youth-led grassroots organization coordinating international action among the Myanmar diaspora in support of Myanmar’s democracy, to create a centralized website platform for international campaigns and resources. While the website was created as a way of providing credibility and information about GM4MD’s projects, it quickly became a digital space providing real time and archival updates of the democracy movement such as snapshots of campaigns, political advocacy mechanisms, poetry and art, and breaking updates about fallen heroes. Moreover, the website’s central advocacy mission of positioning Myanmar’s political conflict as a global issue was critical in highlighting how the human right abuses (from women’s rights violations to endangerment of democracy to preventing access to healthcare) had impacts beyond Myanmar.
A Multi-Phase School Choice Mechanism: Theory and Practice
Keywords: School choice
Singapore
Mechanism design
Matching theory
Elementary schools
Regression discontinuity
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Thesis

We study aspects of a multi-phase school choice system used to allocate students to primary schools (first to sixth grade) in Singapore. We first examine the institutional objectives and contextual constraints of the market. Using interviews and public sources, we then present evidence of strategic decision-making by parents, and outline common considerations they face. We then introduce a novel theoretical model of a sequential matching mechanism, and analyze its performance under uncertainty. We find that the sequential nature of the mechanism may permit equilibrium welfare improvements for students when compared to the static Boston Mechanism. However, we also find that in some important respects (e.g. stability of equilibrium outcomes), such a system may be less desirable than a slot-specific Deferred Acceptance mechanism, a variant of Deferred Acceptance that allows for quotas. We use empirical evidence to demonstrate, using a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) inspired approach, that many parents use prior year's application information in strategic decision-making. We make partial progress towards additional empirical questions, such as explaining a spike in unassigned students in 2020. Finally, we use our data to provide recommendations for students and parents in their decision-making process.
A New Rhetorical Legacy? Humanitarianism, Human Rights, and US Foreign Military Intervention (1980-2020)
Keywords:  Program in International Relations
Human rights
Intervention (International law)
Humanitarian intervention
Rhetoric > Political aspects
Text
Thesis

Previous academic literature indicates that the United States has used the rhetoric of democracy, international norms, and national security to justify its foreign military interventions from the Cold War to the War on Terror (Kerton-Johnson, 2011). However, scholars have failed to substantially investigate the American use of human rights rhetoric as a defense of military intervention. When the United States has intervened militarily in a foreign country, how has it used human rights rhetoric to justify its military action? Which human rights does the U.S. cite, and how do these statements match the reality of the human rights conditions on the ground for each case? To answer these questions, I conducted original textual analysis of 60 presidential speeches from the American Presidency Project and compared human rights justifications from these speeches to the actual human rights situations of each case. Through my research, I critically analyze the existence and political implications of the invocation of human rights rhetoric in the past, present, and future of American foreign policy. This thesis finds that American presidents historically have used human rights rhetoric to justify U.S. foreign military intervention, particularly during responses to humanitarian crises in the 1990s and more recently since the 2011 intervention in Libya. Further, within these justifications, presidents most often invoke the rhetoric of personal integrity rights, such as the human right to "life, liberty, and security." However, presidential uses of human rights rhetoric do not match human rights situations on the ground. American presidents frequently portray U.S. foreign policy as addressing human rights violations, yet there is no statistically significant relationship between presidential uses of human rights rhetoric and the actual human rights situations within countries of intervention. This thesis contributes new scholarship to the understanding of U.S. foreign policy and how it is argued to domestic and foreign publics. Through its multilevel investigation, this thesis raises critical implications of presidents’ potential to abuse the use of humanitarian and human rights rhetoric in justifications for U.S. military intervention.
A REDOX-FOCUSED GEOCHEMICAL SURVEY OF PHANEROZOICSOURCE ROCK-RESERVOIR SHALES FROM NORTH AMERICA
Keywords: Shale
Shale gas reservoirs
Geochemistry
Phanerozoic
Source Rocks
Geology
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Thesis

Source rock-reservoirs (SRR) are continuous-type hydrocarbon systems characterized by fine-grained facies that contain adequate organic matter (OM; typically >2 wt%) to generate and retain significant hydrocarbon¬ accumulations. It is clear from modern analogue studies that O2-deficient conditions favor preservation of qualitatively- and quantitatively-enhanced OM, with appreciable productivity and OM flux to the sediment required to establish and maintain these conditions. However, debates regarding controls on source rock quality have mainly focused on oxic versus anoxic conditions, and the implications of different anoxic redox states for exploration and production remain unexplored. Here, we present detailed multi-proxy sedimentary geochemical studies of major Paleozoic and Mesozoic North American SRRs to elucidate their depositional redox conditions. This is the first study focused on SRR geochemistry to use Fe-speciation – presently the only proxy able to independently distinguish anoxic conditions as ferruginous (H2¬S-limited) or euxinic (H2S-replete, Fe-limited) – coupled with total organic carbon (TOC) and redox-sensitive trace element proxies. These analyses demonstrate that SRRs were almost exclusively deposited under anoxic bottom waters, but that there is wide variance in the prevalence of euxinic versus ferruginous conditions. Specifically, in contrast to most modern analogue systems, many SRRs were deposited under dominantly ferruginous or oscillatory conditions. TOC is significantly higher under euxinic bottom waters, although sediments deposited under both redox states have economically appreciable levels. Differences in initial redox condition likely impact organic matter quantity and quality, the presence of carbonate and clay cements, and the abundance of authigenic phases (pyrite and toxic metals) that can cause environmental or engineering issues during production. Increased emphasis on how initial depositional conditions affect the properties of the sediment, and the downstream implications of these differences, will ultimately lead to better sweet spot targeting and higher resource extraction efficiencies than a ‘one-size-fits-all’ model.
A web-based platform for blind and visually impaired Russian-speaking children to learn English vocabulary and spelling
Keywords: Kanatbek kyzy, Malika
Blind and Visually Impaired Learners
English language > Acquisition
Kyrgyzstan
Accessible educational technology
Text
Thesis

In developing countries, children with blindness and visual impairments (BVI) have limited access to education. They are placed under the “protection” of the Ministry of Health rather than the Ministry of education because disability is viewed as a disease that must be cured. Therefore, instead of creating an accessible environment for development, they try to rehabilitate or fix children to make them “normal.” I was born in Kyrgyz Republic, one of the developing countries where BVI children have limited educational opportunities. One of the commonly identified difficulties that children with BVI experience is learning foreign languages because adequate language learning materials are rare and inaccessible. Hence, I decided to develop an educational technology to support BVI children in improving their English vocabulary. BeeVoice represents an accessible audio interactive gamified web platform for BVI children. It will utilize Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles for accessibility, gamification techniques for engagement, the explicit vocabulary learning approach and associative networks theory for vocabulary acquisition, and spelling mode for spelling acquisition.
Accelerating numerical methods for gradient-based photonic optimization and novel plasmonic functionalities
Keywords: Applied Physics.

Optimizing the design and performance of photonic systems has been an active and growing area of research over the past decade with many practical applications such as image sensors, augmented reality and virtual reality, on-chip photonic systems, and more. Moreover, gradient-based methods, such as the adjoint variable method (AVM), have led to very distinctive and complex designs for on-chip multiplexers, tapers, dielectric laser accelerators, and more, while yielding much higher performance metrics which classical design approaches using first principles physics cannot match. However, less research has been dedicated in the photonics community to understanding and improving the underlying numerical methods which are critical for the success of these applications. In this thesis, we will demonstrate four key numerical advancements in the use of gradient-based design methods using frequency domain numerical solvers of Maxwell's equations, particularly finite difference frequency domain (FDFD) solvers. The first is the application of domain decomposition techniques to gradient-based optimization, allowing us to reduce the effective system size for a gain in efficiency. The second exploits the physics of perturbative series expansions to efficiently determine the optimal learning rate essential to gradient-based optimization. The third leverages the fundamental similarities of the previous two methods, allowing us to combine the two to achieve a further multiplicative acceleration. The fourth is exploiting the choice of boundary condition in the context of perfectly matched layers to minimize overhead and optimize the efficiency of the simulations required during the optimization procedure. Furthermore, we will demonstrate one novel practical application in designing a next generation replacement for traditional filter-based image sensors that we term a 'color router'. By using a gradient-based approach, we demonstrate not only can we overcome the traditional limitations of filter-based approaches, but we can approach the absolute physical limit of color separation efficiency. In the context of this problem as well, we also demonstrate one further novel method to accelerate optimization, using an L1-like penalty method inspired by L1-regularization popularized in machine learning to improve the robustness to manufacturing errors and other perturbations to the device design. Finally, as a contrast to the gradient-based technique of optimization, we also showcase two examples of more traditional device optimization using the theoretical principles of Maxwell's equations. The first is to exploit analytic continuation and the band-structure of insulator-metal-insulator waveguides to design a reflector with superior reflection properties to that of a uniform metal but with lower loss (essentially a nearly metal-less metallic metamaterial). The second is to engineer interesting radiative properties and extraordinarily high reflection in atomically-thin monolayer graphene nano-ribbon system
Accelerating structural optimization in the early aircraft design phases
Keywords: Aeronautics and Astronautics.

In the search for higher efficiencies, a number of unconventional aircraft planforms have been proposed to replace the conventional tube and wing airliner. With entirely new designs, these new configurations would have to be designed from a clean sheet and makes for a risky proposition. To ensure that such an endeavor would succeed, high-fidelity geometry and analysis would need to be introduced earlier in the aircraft design process to ensure that the configuration is feasible before any component is manufactured. This thesis pursues this idea and presents several methods in which high-fidelity aircraft structures can be generated, analyzed and optimized in a faster manner. Within the design process, bottlenecks can occur in the geometry/mesh generation and the computationally expensive analysis modules. To speed up the generation process, a parametric framework was written which takes a set of inputs and automatically and quickly generates a finite element analysis (FEA) model of a wing structure. Fidelity is maintained by being able to model all primary structural components in both conventional and unconventional aircraft configurations. This ability to rapidly create meshes is then leveraged to generate models of different resolutions, which can be tailored for the various FEA analysis types in terms of computational speed and accuracy. One of the most computationally expensive FEA analysis is finding the buckling eigenvalues. To reduce the cost of local buckling analysis, an iterative method calculates the eigenvalue of an aircraft panel and its surrounding section. This method was found to match the eigenvalues of the same global model to high degree of accuracy at a lower computational cost. To find the global eigenvalues without repeating the local eigenvalues, a displacement constraint method was applied to limit the possible mode shapes. This application guarantees only global mode shapes from the eigenvalue solver, making the extraction of global buckling eigenvalues easier. These methods are applied the optimization of a conventional wingbox and the unconventional structures of a blended wing body and truss-braced wing, where the complete model is generated from scratch and optimized under its aeroelastic loading with stress and buckling constraints. Their demonstration shows that ability design and optimize with high-fidelity geometry and methods can be applied at the start of the aircraft design process and can be applied for unconventional aircraft planforms
The accidental ethnographers : race, recording technology, and nature in modern Latin American fiction
Keywords: Iberian and Latin American Cultures.

My dissertation, "The Accidental Ethnographers: Race, Recording Technology, and Nature in Modern Latin American Fiction, " examines how fictional works of early 20th century Cuban, Colombian, and Brazilian criollo authors were shaped by these authors' use of recording technologies in their ethnographic endeavors. I show that the process of perceiving the world through cameras and tape recorders, and interacting with unfamiliar places, cultures, and cosmologies, prompted these authors to incorporate Afro-descendant and indigenous worldviews in their texts. These fictional texts enable the conception of a reality that does not necessarily subscribe to the anthropocentric division between human culture and the natural world, commonly found in 19th-century literary naturalism. With this research, I participate in contemporary debates on technology's impact on literature and, by extension, the role of technology in defining Latin American fiction
Adaptive and sensory machines : active foam and swimming rheometers
Keywords: Mechanical Engineering.

Passive adaptation and sensing are exceptionally useful attributes, enabling robustness and redundancy in the design of functional machines. We see this for example in biological tissues and in hierarchical network infrastructures. In this dissertation we discuss two specific examples of fully-synthetic engineered systems that display these attributes of passive adaptation and sensing: active foam [1] and swimming rheometers [2]. First, in the context of studying the self-assembly of programmable soft matter, we discuss the response of 2D air-liquid foam to cyclical inflation and deflation of an embedded "active" bubble. Experimental and numerical results suggest that such volume oscillations can be used to train foam to achieve local structural properties, communicate long-range mechanical signals through the CW/CCW motion of vertex trajectories, and may be used to actively probe properties of the surrounding network structure. We will also discuss the statistical influence of microstructural yielding events ("T1 transitions") within the material, and the role of disorder on the mechanical response. In the next example, we will discuss how an untethered robot is capable of self-propulsion at low Reynolds number only when submerged in an elastic fluid. Based on prior theoretical results, this robot consists of two counter-rotating rotationally-symmetric objects, and propels itself in the direction of the larger "head" object. By controlling the relative rotation rate of this device while recording motility, the robot acts as rheological sensor of the surrounding elastic fluid, with remarkable sensitivity (at strain rates < 1 Hz). We will discuss our experimental discovery of a non-inertial, viscoelastic jet structure responsible for propulsion, and the specific rheological properties that can be inferred by observation of the device. Fundamentally, these examples demonstrate how adaptive and sensory machines can be used in engineering to enable exceptional redundancy and robustness in real-world environments. [1] Kroo, Laurel A., Matthew Storm Bull, and Manu Prakash. "Active Foam: The Adaptive Mechanics of 2D Air-Liquid Foam under Cyclic Inflation." arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.00937 (2022). [2] Kroo, L. A., et al. "A freely suspended robotic swimmer propelled by viscoelastic normal stresses." Journal of Fluid Mechanics 944 (2022)
Addressing data scarcity in humanitarian health and environmental justice
Keywords: Medicine. Department of Biomedical Data Science

Modern computational approaches promise to address issues of health equity through identifying potential disparities or interventions. However, such approaches are subject to data scarcity: structurally marginalized populations tend to have poorer-quality data, and computational tools reliant on high-quality data may exacerbate existing inequities. Through examples in humanitarian, occupational, and environmental health, we examine data science approaches to circumvent data scarcity. We investigate the use of machine learning to model forced migration in humanitarian settings, microsimulation models for high-risk occupational health contexts, and systems-level public health risk estimation for an impending environmental catastrophe. Taken together, this body of work demonstrates how unconventional data sources, novel approaches, and rigorous study design can be employed to advance health equity and environmental justice in the absence of high-quality data
Advances towards the development of an artificial pancreas
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

Type 1 diabetes is characterized by autoimmune islet beta cell destruction and insulin deficiency. Islet transplantation is a heavily targeted therapy for type 1 diabetes, as it would provide a continually replenishing source of insulin. However, current therapy requires lifelong immunosuppression. Cell encapsulation would overcome the need for immunosuppression but introduces new challenges to providing insulin release on a physiologically relevant timescale. Here, I present a novel approach for electronically actuated insulin release from encapsulated islets and beta cells, via applied pressure. I demonstrate the efficacy of this release approach for insulin bolus delivery and improved glycemic control. I also discuss the development of a line of genetically engineered beta cells to release various "peptides-of-interest" targeted for a multi-hormonal artificial pancreas. Finally, I introduce the design and characterization of a miniaturized wireless potentiostat for sensing of salivary glucose and lactate. Detection of salivary lactate could provide insight into exercise intensity and improve glycemic control for an artificial pancreas. Together, these developments overcome key limitations of current artificial pancreas designs