VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Governing at the margins : how the state manages children at the junction of dependent and delinquent
Keywords: Humanities and Sciences.
Sociology.

The state relies on bureaucratic institutions to govern marginalized groups, but the complexity of people's lives defies institutional boundaries. Given this inherent mismatch, how does the state govern marginalized groups, and what are the consequences of governance processes for group members? This dissertation expands our understanding of governance at the margins—meaning both groups pushed to the margins of mainstream society and those at the margins of state institutions—by studying the unique case of crossover youth, children at the junction of child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Because crossover youth, perceived as both dependent and delinquent, challenge the legal, administrative, and moral boundaries of these two institutions, they present an ideal case for illuminating interlocking processes of state governance. The dissertation makes three primary claims. First, I argue that bureaucratic governance is driven by the efforts of institutional actors—from frontline workers to administrators—to optimize resources and minimize blame. Second, I contend that when institutional actors perceive eligible tasks or clients to unduly strain the resources at their disposal and expose them to blame, they will seek to transfer or deflect responsibility across institutional lines, a process I term institutional offloading. Third, I argue that we can better understand the consequences of bureaucratic governance for marginalized groups by attending to the departures of bureaucratic actors from institutional rules and norms, which I refer to as institutional deviations. I offer empirical evidence for these claims through an analysis of ethnographic data from a California juvenile court and interviews with court actors. The findings contribute to existing research by advancing a more comprehensive framework for analyzing the interlocking processes of bureaucratic governance; showing how punishment—from macro-level decisions to micro-level interactions—is produced by bureaucratic processes; and illuminating mechanisms by which the pipeline to prison for marginalized groups may be perpetuated and potentially disrupted
Governing Culture: A Social Network Analysis of the Culture System in the Chinese Bureaucracy
Keywords:  Stanford Global Studies
Stanford Global Studies
East Asian Studies
Chinese bureaucracy
China
Culture
Social sciences > Network analysis
Local government
Text
Thesis

This thesis explores the organizational side of governing the cultural sphere in China by analyzing the Culture System in the bureaucracy. The goal is two-fold—first, to understand the overall structure that governs the culture sector in the Chinese Party-state, and second, to use empirical data to examine the Culture System at the municipal and county levels, which contributes to the lack of research on the local structure of the system. This thesis utilizes social network analysis (SNA) to analyze the interconnectedness and structural patterns of the Culture System, using datasets of personnel flow and multi-job holding (jianzhi) in a Chinese province. The main finding here is the significant difference between the municipal and county levels. At the municipal level, we can observe a cohesive Culture System that is tied together through mobility and jianzhi relations, which does not exist at the county level. Another main finding is the centrality of the Publicity Department through its connections with important bureaus in the bureaucracy and the distinct structural position it occupies, evidencing its leadership status in the system.
Grassroots transitional movements and international linkages: The case of the #NIUNAMENOS movement
Keywords: Sociology
Latin America, Argentina, femicide, gender-based violence, activist network, social network
Text
Thesis

Demanding an end to the staggering rates of femicide and gender-based violence in the region, the #NiUnaMenos (Not One Less) social movement began in Argentina in 2015 and has since swept across Latin America. Marches organized since 2015 have brought a new era to the Latin American feminist movement, elevating feminist demands to a central political stage and demanding a new reckoning against gendered violence. As a transnational social movement, #NiUnaMenos has diffused widely and transcended national borders. Moreover, it has remained active in its home base Argentina and led to unprecedented policy reform. This research asks the central question: how does the transnational and regional structure of #NiUnaMenos help explain the efficiency and diffusion of the social movement? Employing a social network analysis approach of the #NiUnaMenos activist base on Twitter, this paper argues that the South-South connections of the #NiUnaMenos movements, between Argentina and neighboring Latin American countries, have been essential for its ability to diffuse widely and retain relevance over the years. Through an extraction of 209,984 unique Twitter users compromising the following and followers of the official @NiUnaMenos_ Twitter page, this research builds a network visualization of the #NiUnaMenos activist network. In line with previous research on transnational social movements, it finds that #NiUnaMenos operates similarly to other social movements in its home base Argentine: relying on a dense regional web to mobilize protest actions. However, an analysis of regional and country differences within the #NiUnaMenos movement suggests that its international network operates differently. Centrally, through limited but crucial connections to key network “Bridgers,” #NiUnaMenos is able to connect to an international audience. These “Bridgers” are only loosely connected to the regional Argentinean network hub but connect #NiUnaMenos to distinct activist networks in different countries across Latin America.
Green is the new ivory : the rise of the sustainability imperative in U.S. higher education
Keywords: Education.

As central social and political institutions, U.S. universities have an important public service calling that extends beyond their teaching and research mandate. Over the past two decades, increasing numbers of U.S. universities have reoriented their institutional priorities towards becoming more sustainable across the board, which includes "greening" their physical campuses as much as their curricula. This dissertation investigates the role of U.S. universities in the global sustainability movement, as well as the impact of the movement itself on the internal organization of universities. The findings suggest that the proliferation of sustainability-affirming practices and metrics between 2005-2020 has contributed to the emergence of a new and distinct imperative in U.S. higher education, which manifests itself through a variety of organizational pathways and is also impacted by the relationship between campuses and their neighboring communities (the so-called "town-gown" relations)
Grow a forest: How education nonprofits scale their impact within the ecosystem
Keywords: Team4Tech
Scaling
Education
Nonprofit organizations - education
Educational equalization
Enabling enviroment
Text
Article
Capstone
Thesis
Student project report

Bridging the education equality gaps and addressing the educational challenges at its root requires deepening and expanding the impact of successful organizations and interventions, so collectively, they can benefit more learners and change the whole system eventually.
In partnership with Team4Tech, we conducted case studies of two Team4Tech grantees–Dost Education, India, and LEAP science and maths school, South Africa–to learn how nonprofit organizations are able to scale their impact within their regional ecosystem. Coburn’s (2003) four dimensions of scaling helped frame our analysis.
The two case studies demonstrated that scaling is not a one-size-for-all process. Different nonprofit organizations may take different approaches based on the local challenges, context, and enabling environment. While the approaches are different, there are some common characteristics enabling these nonprofits to succeed in scaling their interventions.
Hardware and software tools to enable the study of sequence-function relationships
Keywords: Engineering.
Bioengineering.

Although humanity has become adept at sequencing nucleic acids and proteins, our ability to predict the consequences of mutations remains limited, as does our ability to design proteins from basic biophysical principles. Inexpensive whole genome sequencing enables us to rapidly identify mutations, but we are yet to realize the full promise of precision medicine: the capacity to predict the significance of novel mutations and, when necessary, respond with targeted treatment. Likewise, we struggle to improve upon natural protein catalysts, keeping designer enzymes, which would find applications from industrial chemistry to environmental remediation, out of reach. What we need are accurate, comprehensive models of how any given biological sequence interacts with itself and its environment to result in function (i.e. binding or catalysis). Since biological sequence space is untraversable in size and resistant to efforts to reduce its complexity, such a model will need to integrate over a far wider range of non-linear factors than any human mind can negotiate. Training these high-capacity computer models will require commensurately high-throughput generation of data that relate biological sequence to quantitative measurements of function. Towards this greater endeavor, my dissertation work contributes a collection of software and hardware to enable high-throughput in vitro functional measurements of large nucleic acid and protein sequence libraries. To aid in the initial planning of massively parallel binding assays, I have developed notebook-based simulations in which integrated systems of ordinary differential equations are visualized to inform experimental duration and library membership. Next, to plan the preparation of large libraries themselves, I have developed opTile, a graph-based approach to determine optimal tilings of biological sequences, particularly for the purpose of high-throughput site-directed mutagenesis. Finally, high-throughput experiments require not just software but also hardware to manipulate physical samples and reagents. My work towards this end is represented in micrIO, an automated platform for microfluidic input-output which can serially introduce samples in our macro world onto microfluidic devices while collecting resulting effluents
Hardware-aware algorithms for efficient machine learning
Keywords: Engineering.

Machine learning (ML) training will continue to grow to consume more cycles, their inference will proliferate on more kinds of devices, and their capabilities will be used in more domains. Some goals central to this future are to make ML models efficient so they remain practical to train and deploy, and to unlock new application domains with new capabilities. We describe some recent developments in hardware-aware algorithms to improve the efficiency-quality tradeoff of ML models and equip them with long context. In Chapter 2, we focus on structured sparsity, a natural approach to mitigate the extensive compute and memory cost of large ML models. We describe a line of work on learnable fast transforms that, thanks to their expressiveness and efficiency, yields some of the first sparse training methods to speed up large models in wall-clock time (2x) without compromising their quality. In Chapter 3, we focus on efficient Transformer training and inference for long sequences. We describe FlashAttention, a fast and memory-efficient algorithm to compute attention with no approximation. By careful accounting of reads/writes between different levels of memory hierarchy, FlashAttention is 2-4x faster and uses 10-20x less memory compared to the best existing attention implementations, allowing us to train higher-quality Transformers with 8x longer context. FlashAttention is now widely used in some of the largest research labs and companies. In Chapter 4, we examine state-space models, a promising architecture designed for long-range memory. As we seek to understand why early state-space models did not perform well on language modeling tasks, we propose simple multiplicative interaction that expands their expressiveness. We also design hardware-friendly algorithms to train them. As a result, we are able to train state-space models to multi-billion parameter scale, demonstrating a new kind of model competitive with the dominant Transformers in language modeling. We conclude with some exciting directions in ML and systems, such as software-hardware co-design, structured sparsity for scientific AI, and long context for new AI workflows and modalities
Hearing beyond vocal twilight : aging vocalities in contemporary American operatic and classical voice performance
Keywords: Humanities and Sciences.
Music.

This dissertation explores how socio-cultural attitudes towards old age as a process of decline shape voice and listening in American operatic and classical voice performance. Opera's conventional vocal aesthetics, focused of athleticism, health, physiology, and transcendent beauty, often lie in tension with dominant age-based decline ideologies. While opera audiences often conceptualize vocal aging as a type of failure, I propose an aesthetic paradigm shift that refigures vocal aging as a socio-cultural as well as material process. Four case studies use archival research, interviews, and interdisciplinary theoretical literatures from age studies, disability studies, and voice studies, to outline the aesthetic legacies of age biomedicalization in classical voice cultures, the late career reception of Jan Peerce and Marian Anderson, and intergenerational creativity in a contemporary chamber opera about Alzheimer's disease. I suggest that traditional life course narratives of decline organize hierarchies of cultural value, sociocultural sonic relationships, employment opportunity, and definitions of virtuosity and creativity in a genre seemingly obsessed youthful, able bodies. I conclude that by listening beyond the tropes of old age, operatic and classical vocalism becomes expressively richer by celebrating the fullness of the human condition.
Herbivory on nitrogen-fixing plants
Keywords: Humanities and Sciences.
Biology.

Nitrogen is an essential element for the growth and development of all organisms, yet it is often scarce in terrestrial systems. Nitrogen-fixing plants (fixers) have evolved to circumvent such nitrogen limitations by forming symbiotic associations with microbes that convert atmospheric nitrogen gas (N2) into biologically usable ammonia (NH3). Considering the advantage of having an additional nitrogen source in the face of widespread nitrogen limitations, one might expect nitrogen-fixing plants to surpass non-fixing plants in competition. Surprisingly, however, non-fixing plants often outnumber fixers in numerous instances, even in nitrogen-poor systems. At present, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the underlying dynamics that prevent fixers from outcompeting non-fixers in terms of fitness and abundance. One popular hypothesis suggests that tissue loss from herbivory limits fixer growth and abundance. This theory proposes that herbivores preferentially consume the leaves of fixers at higher rates than non-fixers, primarily due to the higher nitrogen concentrations found in fixers. However, to date, this theory lacks robust supporting research. In this dissertation, I aimed to fill this knowledge gap with empirical data. To achieve this, I performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the existing literature in Chapter 2. Subsequently, in Chapter 3, I conducted a multi-year experiment in the Mediterranean region of California, USA. I hypothesized that: 1) fixers would have significantly higher leaf nitrogen concentrations than non-fixers; 2) fixers would exhibit higher rates of leaf herbivory than non-fixers; and 3) leaf nitrogen content would positively correlate with herbivory. The results of the meta-analysis supported all three hypotheses. The results from the herbivory experiment were similar, with fixers exhibiting 25% more leaf nitrogen and double the leaf herbivory rate as non-fixers. However, no significant relationship between herbivory and nitrogen levels was observed. These findings provide the first comprehensive assessment of the concept that fixers experience greater herbivory than non-fixers, utilizing multiple empirical approaches
Hermite polynomial expansions : theory and computation
Keywords: Engineering.

In uncertainty quantification, polynomial chaos is a non-sampling technique that can be used to approximate the solution of a partial differential equation (PDE) with random variable parameters. The stochastic PDE solution is expressed as a countably infinite polynomial expansion that is truncated via an M bound for the sake of approximation. The approach is then to derive a resulting system of deterministic (often coupled) PDEs, called an M system, with Galerkin projection and solve the M system for the expansion coefficients with standard numeric techniques. Some challenges with traditional computational methods applied in this context are as follows: (1) the solution to a polynomial chaos M system cannot easily reuse an already existing computer solution to an M_0 system for some M_0 < M, and (2) there is no flexibility around choosing which variables in an M system are more advantageous to estimate accurately. This latter point is especially relevant when, rather than obtaining the PDE solution itself, the objective is to approximate some function of the solution that weights the coefficient variables with relative levels of importance. In the first portion of this thesis, we present a promising iterative algorithm (bluff-and-fix) to address challenges (1) and (2). For the former, we find that numerical estimates of the accuracy and efficiency demonstrate that bluff-and-fix can be more effective than using conventional methods to solve a series of M systems directly. The work then showcases how bluff-and-fix successfully addresses challenge (2) by allowing for choice in which variables are better approximated, in particular when estimating statistical properties such as the mean and variance of an M system solution. In the presence of multiple uncertainties, Galerkin projection introduces products (Nth order moments) of the basis polynomials. Prior to this dissertation, when uncertainties were represented by correlated random variables, there was no closed-form expression for these products for any N > 2 even when the uncertainties had a joint Gaussian distribution. Consequently, the products were typically computed via sampling methods, which can (a) become computationally expensive to implement, and (b) introduce errors if the sample count is insufficient. In the second portion of this thesis, we offer a new expression by introducing multiset notation for the polynomial indexing that allows for the simple and efficient evaluation of the double products (N = 2). We then present a number of theoretical results for correlated multivariate Hermite polynomials, including a formula for the Nth order product in terms of the double product computations. These contributions will allow polynomial chaos methods to be more readily applied to solving stochastic partial differential equations with dependent Gaussian parameters.
Hiding in the crowd : corporate climate lobbying under investor and consumer pressure
Keywords: Humanities and Sciences.
Political Science.

Across the globe, investors and consumers have become concerned about climate change. With this concern comes a heightened interest in the climate lobbying of large firms. In this dissertation, I examine how companies adjust their lobbying practices to these new pressures. I argue that one important way in which companies react to potential consumer and investor scrutiny is to adjust the observability of their lobbying. Less climate-friendly firms shift away from lobbying by themselves into industry associations. Lobbying through associations complicates the attribution of positions and distributes the potential blame for lobbying activity across all firms in the sector. Companies with greener climate preferences than their competitors will react to consumer and investor pressure by taking more lobbying positions individually. This logic implies that investor and consumer pressure on climate lobbying could lead companies to shift their lobbying strategies rather than their positions. I test this argument by investigating the example of climate lobbying in the European Union. The first set of empirical chapters provides observational and survey experimental evidence of consumer and investor reactions to information on lobbying. The second set of empirical chapters presents quantitative and qualitative evidence of firms' strategic choice to lobby individually or collectively
High fidelity peripheral nerve interfaces
Keywords: Engineering.
Chemical Engineering.

The peripheral nervous system is integral to how we perceive and interact with the world around us. It bridges our central nervous system to our organs and limbs, enabling sensorimotor control and homeostasis. Through peripheral nerve interfaces (PNIs), recording and modulation of neural activity have enabled control of prosthetic arms for amputees, restored functional grasp and bladder control in spinal cord injuries, and treated drug-resistant epilepsy and depression. However, major challenges lie in their selectivity, chronic stability, and scalability. In the first part of my work, I designed biomimetic axon-like thin-film electronics mirroring the dimensions and mechanical properties of native axons. For the first time, I demonstrated that we could evoke highly selective moments in individual mouse toes. The device could record single unit activity during locomotion and be used to decode hind limb position and velocity. Finally, immunohistochemistry revealed a lack of a fibrotic capsule around the device 1-month post-implantation, indicative of minimal foreign body response. In the second part of my work, I developed a novel microstructure, facilitating the scalable connectorization of thousands of channels between thin-film electronics and CMOS chips at a millimeter scale. This increased the channel density by 17 times in comparison to state-of-the-art methods. Leveraging this technology, I subsequently explored the use of thin-film electronics outside of the peripheral nervous system. In the Scn8a+/- in vivo model of absence epilepsy, I discovered that seizure dynamics do not have a constant site of onset or propagation trajectory. Additionally, I demonstrated that organoid neural dynamics can be recorded at the air-liquid interface with increased cell viability.