VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The wandering sage [electronic resource] : Zhi Dun's (314-366) life and thought in multiple contexts
Keywords: Religious Studies.

This dissertation explores the life and philosophy of the Chinese Buddhist monk-scholar Zhi Dun (314--366). Zhi Dun was a leading Buddhist figure who represented "gentry" Buddhism in South China in the Six Dynasties era (220--589). He was a celebrity who had broad social relationships with notables of his time; he was one of the most prominent representative figures of his time. Zhi Dun's philosophy combined Buddhist and indigenous Chinese thought, including Daoism and Confucianism. Despite Zhi Dun's contribution to the development of early Chinese Buddhism by propagating Buddhist teaching, his life and thought have received much less attention from scholars than those of contemporary eminent monks such as Dao'an (312--385), who represented Buddhism in North China at the time. Above all, Zhi Dun's Buddhism, which was strongly influenced by native traditions of thought, has often been understood as reflecting an immature stage of early Chinese Buddhism in the Six Dynasties era, when the Chinese people attempted to understand Buddhism through the lens of indigenous thought. This dissertation reassesses Zhi Dun and his Buddhism by examining his life and philosophy in multiple contexts and backgrounds of his time, including socio-political, intellectual, and cultural contexts/backgrounds. I assume that Zhi Dun's Buddhism, as well as early Chinese Buddhism more generally, cannot be understood apart from the various contexts of the era. Research on Zhi Dun's life and thought illuminates not only early Chinese Buddhism but also the Six Dynasties era, in which Buddhism played a significant role in developing the cultural and intellectual history of the era.
A wavefront coded light field microscope [electronic resource]
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

Light field microscopy is a high-speed computational imaging method, which enables reconstruction of a 3-dimensional volume from a light field image. Unlike standard imaging systems, the light field microscope uses a microlens array to capture both spatial and angular information about the incoming light in a single image, from which a volume can be reconstructed computationally. Among volumetric imaging methods in microscopy, light field microscopy is unique in that it allows imaging large volumes, spanning hundreds of microns in depth, at a speed limited only by the camera frame rate. Due to this unique advantage it has recently been adapted to in vivo imaging of neural activity, enabling biologists a glimpse into an organism's brain while in action. Despite its advantages, the light field microscope still suffers from a major limitation - its lateral spatial resolution is not uniform across depth. Some depths, particularly at the center of the imaged volume, where the microscope is focused at, show very low resolution which hinders its use in applications. This non-uniform resolution stems from the way the light field microscope samples the volume: at the center of the volume samples are angularly discriminative but spatially redundant, hence for isotropically absorptive or emissive volumes, they cannot support high resolution reconstructions. We present a method that, for such isotropic volumes, significantly improves the resolution profile of the light field microscope across depth and enables accurate control over it, thereby overcoming the limitations of traditional light field design. The key to our approach is using a technique called wavefront coding to control properties of the point spread function of the microscope. By including phase masks in the optical path we a create a wavefront coded light field microscope that samples the 3-dimensional volume more uniformly than the standard light field microscope, solving the low resolution problem at the center of the imaged volume and improving the resolution at its borders. We derive an extended optical model for the wavefront coded light field microscope and propose design guidelines and a performance metric which we use to choose adequate parameters for good phase masks. To validate our approach, we show simulated data and experimental resolution measurements, and demonstrate the wavefront coded light field microscope's utility for biological applications.
Wavelength demultiplexing using multilayer structures with frustrated total internal reflection [electronic resource]
Keywords: Electrical Engineering.

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) has been the primary technique used to increase fiber channel capacity to keep up with the increasing information demands of modern society. WDM enables one to multiply existing channel capacity without having to install new fibers. The increased channel capacity is usually accompanied by the need to use more complex (more expensive) transmitters and receivers; this complexity has currently limited WDM primarily to long-haul optical networks. With optical links replacing electrical links at shorter length-scales all the way down to the chip level (silicon photonics), the need for compact, energy efficient devices for WDM arises. Conventional devices used for WDM either require long path lengths (e.g. arrayed waveguide gratings) or rely on resonators (microring-based devices) that require on-chip tuning, which can be highly energy-intensive. In this thesis, we discuss the design of multilayer structures that employ frustrated total internal reflection (frustrated TIR) to successfully demultiplex wavelengths in the telecommunication bands without relying on long paths or resonances. The devices are designed using materials compatible with the CMOS platform, which is essential for large scale integration. We believe frustrated TIR-based devices can serve as a viable alternative to conventional resonator-based approaches and open up a new design space for silicon photonics.
Waves and turbulence in aquatic canopies [electronic resource]
Keywords: Civil and Environmental Engineering.

For this dissertation, three major topics were explored, each related to submerged aquatic canopies exposed to waves. The first topic was the dynamics of flexible vegetation, specifically how models of wave attenuation can account for flexibility of submerged plant communities. A model for dynamic simulation of a single flexible element exposed to waves was developed and validated through laboratory experiments. The model demonstrated that, despite the presence of chaotic motion, most of the attenuation of mean energy occurs when the element is nearly stationary and has a predictable orientation. Based on this result, an algebraic model with a simple set of parameters was developed for predicting wave attenuation by flexible vegetation. The second topic was the modeling of velocity profiles in wave-driven flows over canopies. High resolution canopy flow measurements were used to determine the hierarchy of momentum budget terms, to test parameterizations for terms in the momentum and turbulent kinetic energy budgets, and to validate a simple 1-D model for predicting velocity profiles. The Reynolds stress was found to be less important in the momentum budget for wave driven flows than previously thought, indicating that relatively simple models can be effective at predicting velocity profiles. The 1-D model developed in this study was designed to be straightforward to implement either in experimental studies of canopy flows or in large scale numerical models. The third topic was the small-scale horizontal variability of the flow within a wave-exposed canopy. An innovative experimental approach was used to fully resolve the in-canopy flow. The resulting data was used to evaluate the possibility of leveraging the self-similarity of element wakes to account for small-scale variability. This approach was found to be effective under certain conditions. When the flow was nearly quasi-steady and 2-D, the behavior was found to be approximately self-similar. In addition some flow statistics were better characterized by self-similarity than others. The results of this study may act as guidelines for how to approach the development of parameterizations for small-scale variability based on self-similarity in future studies.
Wearable sensing and feedback for gait retraining [electronic resource]
Keywords: Mechanical Engineering.

Gait retraining traditionally is performed inside a gait laboratory with expensive equipment such as optical marker-based motion capture and a force sensing treadmill. Bringing gait retraining to patients' homes for their convenience is not possible with such equipment. With the emerging technology in miniaturized sensors, it is becoming possible to monitor and correct gaits at home. This thesis is the first step toward a wearable solution for gait retraining, combining both wearable sensing and feedback in one system. The system enables users to train their gait by way of monitoring foot progression angle and providing haptic feedback about the required motion correction. In wearable sensing, two experiments were conducted to validate the the accuracy and its potential in everyday life activities. The first experiment was done inside a laboratory with an optical marker-based motion capture system and a force sensing treadmill. This experiment confirmed the accuracy of wearable sensing of the foot progression angle while walking on the treadmill under three walking conditions: normal, toe-in, and toe-out, and three walking speeds of 1.0, 1.2, and 1.4 m/s. The accuracy was consistently within 3 degrees average root-mean-square (RMS) error across 13 healthy subjects tested. This accuracy is sufficient for typical gait retraining of foot progression angles above 7 degrees. In the second experiment, wearable sensing system performance outside the lab was demonstrated. Foot progression angle variations on overground walking were found to be statistically different (p < 0.05) than for treadmill walking. However, as the number of strides increases, the variation decreases and eventually levels out. When comparing with a reference system, we found wearable system accuracy to be within 2 degrees average RMS error. These are promising results for outside-the-lab environment tests simulating real-world scenarios. In complement to wearable sensing, a new wearable haptic feedback device was developed, as we believe that gait information can be even more powerful when it is delivered in the form of easily noticeable and accurate feedback. With this new device called the virtual pebble, we stimulate both slowly adapting and fast adapting mechanoreceptors simultaneously. The result is distinctive from typical vibration feedback. An experiment on healthy subjects showed that with the virtual pebble in combination with vibration, there was a 7% increase in feedback accuracy versus with vibration alone during a multi-parameter gait retraining session. Thus, the virtual pebble is a good complementary feedback to the widely used vibration devices. This thesis explores the future of human movement training from a gait retraining standpoint. It presents a wearable solution that could become part of a solution for longer-term monitoring and training at a user's home, allowing for a sustainable and inexpensive training.
Weedy science [electronic resource] : the cultural politics of herbal medicine science in Ghana
Keywords: Anthropology.

Weedy Science: The Cultural Politics of Herbal Medicine Science in Ghana examines the vocation of science in postcolonial Africa through an ethnographic study of herbal medicine research in Ghana. Weedy Science is based on twenty months of ethnographic research comprising over fifty interviews, two surveys, archival research, and over 1,000 hours of participant observation across three primary field sites in Ghana. The dissertation identifies four groups of people, each of whom had a different understanding of what it meant to be a scientist: For independence era scientists, science promised a method of decolonization and modernization; For university students, science marks the achievement of a cosmopolitan professional identity; For entrepreneurial herbalists, science offers professionalism and legitimacy; For laboratory researchers, the current state of science represents the disappointments of postcolonial Ghana. However, all of them expressly described themselves as practicing a crude, embarrassingly local, or inadequately modern form of science. Ghanaian herbal medicine researchers of all class and educational backgrounds worry that they fall short of the expected ideals of science. This situation is explained through a historical analysis of herbal medicine science in Ghana since the colonial period. The twentieth century saw the rise of a form of science expressly intended to symbolize progress, where the building of scientific institutions, the training of African scientists, and the practice of scientific research were representative of the promises of African modernity. However, while scientific research in Africa was one held as a symbol of a coming world of political, economic, and intellectual equality, today it is seen as ironically emblematic of the secondary status of Africa. Weedy Science describes the sensibilities and cultural strategies that emerge in response to this situation. The dissertation describes the vocation of science outside of Europe and North America, the classic sites in the canon of social studies of science. In doing so, it argues that science, technology, and medicine are imbued with the capacity to represent "modernity" and "progress" on a global scale, and provides a thick description of life lived in this symbolic position.
What difference does a variable make? [electronic resource] : the robustness of teacher value-added estimates when including additional variables
Keywords: Education.

Using an eleven-year longitudinal database of over 210,000 grade 3-11 student scores and 7,500 teachers ratings, this study examined whether teacher VA ratings remained consistent when seldom-used variables were added to a Base Model. Ten separate alternative models were run in English Language Arts (ELA) and in Math. These alternative models added student gifted status (GATE), language development level for English learners, engagement measured by attendance and suspension rate, ACT Explore performance, PSAT performance, class-size, variability in achievement, school fixed effects, and combined models that included (a) all variables but ACT Explore and PSAT, and (b) all variables but ACT Explore, PSAT, and school fixed effects. Correlations between Base Model VA estimates and alternative model VA estimates ranged from 0.93 (ACT Explore) to 1.00 (Engagement, Class-Size, and Achievement Heterogeneity) in ELA. In Math, correlations between alternative models and the Base Model ranged from 0.92 (PSAT) to 1.00. The effects of these alternative variables on teacher VA were grouped into three tiers, with school effects (estimated by school fixed effects) making a difference in VA ratings for a substantial majority of teachers (on average, 65.9% changed deciles compared with the Base Model), measures related to academic preparation and/or student ability altering the decile rankings for, on average, 41.1% of teachers, and other types of variables having affecting fewer teacher ratings, with an average of 19.7% of teacher decile ranks changing for these models compared with the Base Model. However, even in this last category, a given variable change in the model may have a substantial effect on the ratings of a small subset of teachers. Including school fixed effects led to 30% of teachers moving out of the lowest decile in ELA, and almost 40% doing so in Math. Including ACT and PSAT led 19.0% and 27.3% of teachers to move out of bottom decile in ELA and 17.4% and 10.3% to do so in Math. Including GATE moved just over 10% of teachers to move out of the bottom decile in ELA and in Math. Other variables affected the ratings of less than 10% of teachers in the bottom decile. Implications for teacher evaluation as formative feedback and summative decision-making were discussed.
What is the role of the state in entrepreneurship and venture performance? [electronic resource]
Keywords: Management Science and Engineering.

What is the role of the state in entrepreneurship and venture performance? Prior empirical studies on entrepreneurship are limited in their answers to this question because they do not account sufficiently well for the variety of institutions, mechanisms, and features of local institutions within the state on the venturing process. Through three empirical investigations of Chinese technology ventures, my dissertation finds three roles that the state plays during the venturing process. Public-private institutions (science parks) play an intermediary role whereby these institutions connect private-sector entrepreneurs to public-sector resources. Public research organizations (Chinese Academy of Sciences institutes) play an integrator role whereby these institutions develop and transfer public-sector knowledge for use in private-sector commercial applications. Local governments (provincial governments) play an implementer role whereby these institutions tailor national policies to local markets. Taking these institutions and their roles together, I provide a more nuanced picture of the role of the state in the venturing process and in so doing, advance organizational theory, namely institutional theory, and its nexus to research on entrepreneurship and emerging economies. My dissertation's findings also have public policy and venture strategy implications, particularly for those policymakers seeking to promote entrepreneurship and for those ventures seeking to acquire public resources.
When an issue becomes a lens [electronic resource] : people who moralize an issue view their social world in terms of that issue
Keywords: Business.

How does moralizing an issue change the way people perceive and relate to each other around that issue? Across seven studies, I demonstrate converging evidence that people who moralize an issue come to view their social worlds through the lens of that issue—in other words, they are more strongly schematic for the issue. I show that people who moralize an issue report stronger schemas, based on an established measure, as well as a greater desire for social distance from dissimilar others (Study 1), and that moralization is associated with a desire for social distance even for a disagreement over an optical illusion with no moral content (Study 2). When people imbue an issue with moral weight, they believe that they see the objective truth—in other words, they show increased naïve realism—and hence they dismiss dissimilar others as unintelligent, uninformed, and immoral (Studies 3-4). The stronger meaning they attach to where others stand helps them remember this information: in a memory task, participants who moralized an issue were better able to remember strangers' positions on that issue (Study 5). This increased awareness does not lead to increased confidence, however (Studies 5-6), in part because people avoid openly discussing moralized issues, particularly in relatively distant relationships (Study 6). In turn, people may avoid these discussions in part because they feel uneasy about their prejudice against dissimilar others: contrary to prior research, I find that people believe that they are more prejudiced against morally dissimilar others than they ought to be (Study 7). Taken together, these findings help to explain how and why moral disagreements create deep and lasting divides.
When bias and threat persistently interact [electronic resource] : a holistic approach to understand the lingering effects of stereotypes
Keywords: Psychology.

Can social-psychological theory provide insight into the extreme racial disparities in school disciplinary action in the United States? Disciplinary problems carry enormous consequences for the quality of students' experience in school, opportunities to learn, and ultimate life outcomes. This burden falls disproportionately on students of color. Integrating research on stereotyping and on stigma, I theorize that bias and apprehension about bias can build on one another in school settings in a vicious cycle that undermines teacher-student relationships over time and exacerbates inequality. This approach is more comprehensive than accounts that consider the predicaments of either teachers or students but not the two in tandem; it complements nonpsychological approaches; and it gives rise to novel implications for policy and intervention. It also extends prior research on bias and stigmatization to provide a model for understanding the social-psychological bases of inequality more generally.
When Blue Helmets Do Battle: Civilian Protection in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Keywords: United Nations
Peacekeeping
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Center for International Security and Cooperation
CISAC
Thesis

For the past fifteen years, United Nations (UN) peacekeepers have had robust mandates that require them to protect civilians and authorize them to use force beyond self-defense to achieve that goal. Despite these changes, longstanding debates on the offensive use of force in peacekeeping continue. This thesis enters into these debates by asking the following question: How does the offensive use of force by UN peacekeepers affect rebel violence against civilians? In particular, it examines UN peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from 2000 to the present as a case study. Drawing on both data analysis and qualitative research, this thesis finds that the offensive use of force by UN peacekeepers in the DRC often contributed to a substantial decrease in rebel violence against civilians. These findings demonstrate that the offensive use of force can, in certain contexts, be an effective tool for the protection of civilians. Given this potential, Blue Helmets should have the choice to do battle.
This thesis also presents four factors that influenced whether the offensive use of force contributed to the military defeat of rebels and, in turn, to a decline in violence against civilians. These are the deployment of additional UN peacekeepers, the capacity of rebel groups relative to Blue Helmets and their allies, rebel tactics, and problematic alliances between the government and rebels who commit atrocities. Blue Helmets should take these four factors into account when considering the offensive use of force to protect civilians.
Where it's at [electronic resource] : the making of setting in American fiction from Mississippi to Mars
Keywords: English.

This dissertation shows how the narrative variable of setting becomes increasingly significant to the American novel throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. Along with advances in transportation and communication, new patterns of immigration, the emergence of global capitalism, and the environmental crisis have influenced representations of fictional space, thus bringing historical fact and aesthetic practice into close association during the period of my study. I argue that these unprecedented changes in the American experience of place have led to technical innovations in literary setting, from the focalization of space through multiple narrators to the compression of geographic distance into a single paragraph of text. As it stands, there are surprisingly few studies devoted to setting as a narratological category, and this dissertation operates across several genres, including the modernist and postmodernist novel, science fiction, and the geopolitical thriller, in order to answer key questions about setting.