VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Wearable sensing and feedback for gait retraining [electronic resource]

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.

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering.
Advisor: Cutkosky Mark R. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Andriacchi Th. P. (Thomas P.) advisor. Thesis advisor
Shull Peter J.
Weedy science [electronic resource] : the cultural politics of herbal medicine science in Ghana

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.

Keywords: Anthropology.
Advisor: Luhrmann T. M. (Tanya M.)
Ferguson James
Jain Sarah S. Lochlann
Kohrman Matthew
What difference does a variable make? [electronic resource] : the robustness of teacher value-added estimates when including additional variables

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.

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Darling-Hammond Linda
Haertel Edward advisor. Thesis advisor
Stipek Deborah J.
What is the role of the state in entrepreneurship and venture performance? [electronic resource]

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.

Keywords: Management Science and Engineering.
Advisor: Eesley Charles primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Eisenhardt Kathleen M. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Barley Stephen R. advisor. Thesis advisor
Katila Riitta advisor. Thesis advisor
When an issue becomes a lens [electronic resource] : people who moralize an issue view their social world in terms of that issue

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.

Keywords: Business.
Advisor: Monin Benoît
Halevy Nir
Miller Dale T. advisor. Thesis advisor
When bias and threat persistently interact [electronic resource] : a holistic approach to understand the lingering effects of stereotypes

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.

Keywords: Psychology.
Advisor: Walton Gregory M. (Gregory Mariotti) primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Dweck Carol S.
Eberhardt Jennifer L. (Jennifer Lynn) advisor. Thesis advisor
Markus Hazel Rose advisor. Thesis advisor
When Blue Helmets Do Battle: Civilian Protection in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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.

Keywords: United Nations
Peacekeeping
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Center for International Security and Cooperation
CISAC
Thesis
Advisor: Stedman Stephen J.
Where it's at [electronic resource] : the making of setting in American fiction from Mississippi to Mars

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.

Keywords: English.
Advisor: McGurl Mark
Ngai Sianne advisor. Thesis advisor
Sohn Stephen Hong advisor. Thesis advisor
Who wants to get to the top? Class and lay theories about power [electronic resource]

We investigate class-based differences in the propensity to seek positions of power. We first propose that people's lay theories suggest that acquiring power requires exercising political dominance — manipulating one's way through the social world, relying on a pragmatic and Machiavellian approach to impression management and social relationships to get ahead. Then, drawing on empirical work showing that individuals with low social class are oriented toward interdependence and community, we hypothesize that these individuals will show less interest in seeking positions of power than others, because they feel less comfortable engaging in political dominance. We test these ideas in seven studies. Our findings indicate that, even though individuals with lower class see political dominance as a necessary and effective strategy for acquiring positions of power, and report that they have the competence to execute this strategy, they are reluctant to do so; as a result, they have a weaker tendency to seek positions of power. Consistent with our theorizing, we also find that individuals with lower class have a stronger desire to seek positions of power in organizations that provide an alternative route to power -- power through prestige -- and when they reconstrue power as a superordinate goal that suits their interdependent self-construal. These findings suggest that current institutional norms that reward political dominance may help explain why class inequalities persist and why creating class-based diversity in upper-level positions poses a serious challenge.

Keywords: Business.
Advisor: Laurin Kristin primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Neale Margaret Ann
Pfeffer Jeffrey advisor. Thesis advisor
Winning words [electronic resource] : the efficacy of literary discourse in politics during the French wars of religion (1562-1598)

The Renaissance was a moment of great creativity and promise in philosophy, history, and literature, but opportunity does not often come without crisis. The upheaval of the Renaissance resulted in a semiotic crisis by which traditional modes of meaning were no longer effective. Amid the optimism of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, this usually did not pose a problem, but in latter sixteenth century France, when divisions between Catholic and Protestant turned to violence and then to civil war, writers needed to recover meaning quickly in order to bring peace. They desired to create winning words that would convince one side or the other to lay down their arms, as well as their ideologies, to reunite a divided France. I explain how they tried to do it. For many reasons, success was elusive, but their experience tells us much about what constitutes effective discourse when literature intervenes in a political sphere where words are failing.

Keywords: French and Italian.
Advisor: Alduy Cécile primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Apostolidès Jean-Marie advisor. Thesis advisor
Edelstein Dan advisor. Thesis advisor
Wireless powering for bioelectronics [electronic resource]

Miniaturized bioelectronic devices hold promise as a new class of medicine based on modulating neural signals that control functions in the body. With advances in semiconductor technology, bioelectronic devices at the scale of a millimeter or less are within reach, but no suitable method for powering them deep in the body has been demonstrated. This dissertation focuses on the development of wireless methods for powering small-scale electronic devices implanted in living systems. We describe the theoretical basis for wireless systems based on wave interactions with biological tissue, and demonstrate applications of these systems to powering small scale bioelectronic devices in both computational studies and animal experiments. The approaches developed here may enable new generations of bioelectronic devices for accessing and modulating the neural states underlying disease and health.

Keywords: Electrical Engineering.
Advisor: Poon Ada Shuk Yan
Fan Shanhui
Miller David A.
Pauly John (John M.) advisor. Thesis advisor
Women's ascents to executive leadership in the Middle East and North Africa [electronic resource] : the potential of swift moves in the face of stagnated progress

This dissertation explores how women in the Middle East and North Africa reach executive corporate leadership. I identify three navigational behaviors (expanding, prospecting, moving) and show how women use these behaviors to move across structures and settings.

Keywords: Management Science and Engineering.
Advisor: Hinds Pamela primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Correll Shelley Joyce advisor. Thesis advisor
Eisenhardt Kathleen M. advisor. Thesis advisor
Sutton Robert advisor. Thesis advisor
The workers' dilemma [electronic resource] : collective action and factory workers in China

Which factors explain the patterns of labor protests in contemporary China? I explore the empirical puzzle of why foreign-invested and large-scale factories in China -- that are more likely to abide by labor laws than their domestic private counterparts -- nonetheless experience higher incidence of workers' collective action. Scholars have suggested that Chinese workers rely on law to legitimize their claims during collective action. Yet my research demonstrates that a growing number of migrant workers in China make interest-based demands that go beyond the legal minimum defined by the state. I argue that the changes in the socioeconomic conditions during the 1990s have created the incentives for the regime to move away from overt labor repression and to adopt more lenient attitudes towards labor protests. As a result of the change in the regime's approach in managing labor, workers in China have perceived a wider opening for contention since the mid-2000s. Instead of relying solely on law, contemporary workers seek to publicize their cause to gain support from the public. At foreign-invested and large-scale enterprises, workers have a stronger perception that they can attract the public's attention due to the firms' higher visibility and newsworthiness. My findings suggest that relevant outside actors' interests in workers' activism, rather than workers' legal knowledge per se, help mitigate workers' collective action problems.

Keywords: Political Science.
Advisor: Oi Jean C. (Jean Chun) primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Blaydes Lisa
Magaloni Beatriz advisor. Thesis advisor
Tomz Michael advisor. Thesis advisor