VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Decolonizing Being, Knowledge, and Power: Youth Activism in California at the Turn of the 21st Century

By focusing on the politics of age and (de)colonization, this dissertation underscores how the oppression of young people of color is systemic and central to modernity. Drawing upon decolonial thought, including U.S. Third World women of color, modernity/coloniality, decolonial feminisms, and decolonizing anthropology scholarship, this dissertation is grounded in the activism of youth of color in California at the turn of the 21st century across race, class, gender, sexuality, and age politics. I base my research on two interrelated, sequential youth movements that I argue were decolonizing: the various walkouts organized by Chican@ youth during the 1990s and the subsequent multi-ethnic "No on 21" movement (also known as the "youth movement") in 2000. Through an interdisciplinary activist ethnography, which includes speaking to and conducting interviews with many participants and organizers of these movements, participating in local youth activism in various capacities, and evaluating hundreds of articles--from mainstream media to "alternative" sources, like activist blogs, leftist presses, and high school newspapers--I contend that the youth of color activism that is examined here worked towards ontological, epistemological, and institutional decolonization. This study, which addresses negative social understandings about youth in general and young people of color specifically, highlights how the oppression of youth is systemic and central to modernity/coloniality, and calls attention to the necessity of incorporating age, power, and their theorization into the discourses on decolonization. Along with making youth's politics and political identities essential to the research, this dissertation aims to contribute to, not only knowledge production, but also the unfinished project of decolonization--which most literature on young people or youth activism has yet to do.

Advisor: Briggs, Charles L
Lusus Naturae, Folklore, and DIsplay in the Nineteenth Century in the United States

Exhibitions of lusus naturae were at the height of popularity during the nineteenth century in the United States and reveal how popular culture reflects emerging themes in folklore. This study takes an interdisciplinary approach by examining these exhibitions as a process, where an interdependent relationship based on the knowledge of familiar folk narratives is formed between the latent performer (seller), the pitchman (lecturer), the performer (display), and the audience. The presentation, marketing, and reception of these entertaining and unusual exhibitions are analogous to various forms of folklore, and therefore function in the same manner as folklore./nThe interaction and experience with these living motifs are defined as motif ostension. Motif ostension evoked whole stories from fragments of information given to the audience directly or indirectly, allowing the audience to employ their own unique knowledge to add context to the narrative. The interest in these displays permeated through gender, age, and social classes in early America, allowing these displays to use folklore to negotiate a plethora of newly emerging issues under the guise of entertainment and education. The use of motif ostension was an integral form of social expression during the nineteenth century; it pushed the boundaries of folklore, and showed how folklore could be at the root of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in the history of the United States./n

Advisor: Lindow, John
Characterization of the Structure and Function of the Normal Human Fovea Using Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy

In order to study the limits of spatial vision in normal human subjects, it is important to look at and near the fovea. The fovea is the specialized part of the retina, the light-sensitive multi-layered neural tissue that lines the inner surface of the human eye, where the cone photoreceptors are smallest (approximately 2.5 microns or 0.5 arcmin) and cone density reaches a peak. In addition, there is a 1:1 mapping from the photoreceptors to the brain in this central region of the retina. As a result, the best spatial sampling is achieved in the fovea and it is the retinal location used for acuity and spatial vision tasks. However, vision is typically limited by the blur induced by the normal optics of the eye and clinical tests of foveal vision and foveal imaging are both limited due to the blur. As a result, it is unclear what the perceptual benefit of extremely high cone density is. Cutting-edge imaging technology, specifically Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO), can be utilized to remove this blur, zoom in, and as a result visualize individual cone photoreceptors throughout the central fovea. This imaging combined with simultaneous image stabilization and targeted stimulus delivery expands our understanding of both the anatomical structure of the fovea on a microscopic scale and the placement of stimuli within this retinal area during visual tasks. The final step is to investigate the role of temporal variables in spatial vision tasks since the eye is in constant motion even during steady fixation. In order to learn more about the fovea, it becomes important to study the effect of this motion on spatial vision tasks. This dissertation steps through many of these considerations, starting with a model of the foveal cone mosaic imaged with AOSLO. We then use this high resolution imaging to compare anatomical and functional markers of the center of the normal human fovea. Finally, we investigate the role of natural and manipulated fixational eye movements in foveal vision, specifically looking at a motion detection task, contrast sensitivity, and image fading.

Advisor: Roorda, Austin
Structure-Function Studies of Anthrax Protective Antigen Octamer

Abstract/nStructure-Function Studies of Anthrax Protective Antigen Octamer/nby/nAlexander Frederick Kintzer/nDoctor of Philosophy in Chemistry/nUniversity of California, Berkeley/nProfessor Bryan Krantz, Chair/nThe assembly of bacterial toxins and virulence factors is critical to their function, but the regulation of holotoxin assembly during infection has not been studied. The protective antigen (PA) component of the toxin assembles into ring-shaped homooligomers that bind the two other enzyme components of the toxin, lethal factor (LF) and edema factor (EF), to form toxic complexes. To disrupt the host, these toxic complexes are endocytosed, such that the PA oligomer forms a membrane-spanning channel that LF and EF translocate through to enter the cytosol./nWe found using single-channel electrophysiology that PA channels contain two populations of conductance states, which correspond with two different PA pre-channel oligomers observed by electron microscopy--the well-described heptamer and a novel octamer. Octameric complexes are likely integral to the PA assembly mechanism, as dimeric and tetrameric intermediates are the intial populated species during assembly. While complexes are functional translocases, a 3.2Å crystal structure suggests that the PA octamer prechannel may be more thermodynamically stable than the heptamer. Indeed, the octamer comprises 20-30% of the oligomers on cells, but predominates (70-80%) during assembly in physiological plasma./nTo probe the mechanism of octamer stability, we measured the pH-dependence of channel formation using circular dichroism, mass spectrometry, and electron microscopy. We found that octamers form channels at lower pH than heptamers. This results in heptamer inactivation under physiological conditions, while LT complexes containing octameric PA maintain maximal cytotoxic activity. Thus the PA octamer is a physiological, stable, and active assembly state capable of forming lethal toxins that may withstand the hostile conditions encountered in the bloodstream. This assembly mechanism demonstrates a novel means to control cytotoxicity during anthrax infection./nFinally, we studied the mechanism of channel formation. We found from structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic studies that two barriers define the prechannel to channel transition--a pH-dependent and independent process. Further analysis revealed that the protonation of the membrane insertion loop, dissociation of domains 2 and 4, and interactions with phenylalanine-clamp comprise the rate-limiting, pH-dependent barrier.

Advisor: Krantz, Bryan A
The Limits of the Literary: Senegalese Writers Between French, Wolof and World Literature

This dissertation argues that the category of the literary emerged in colonial Senegal through the exclusion of some indigenous textual cultures and the translation of others. In readings of Mariama Bâ, Ousmane Sembène, Cheikh Aliou Ndao, Maam Yunus Dieng and others, I examine how postcolonial Senegalese authors working in French and Wolof have responded to this legacy. Through analyses of a variety of 19th-20th century texts, this dissertation explores how the Senegalese literary field has been crosscut by a series of struggles over how to define proper reading and authorship, and what the shape of a future literary public might be. I argue that Senegalese writers working at the interstices of French and Wolof have engaged with a variety of crises of authorship and audience by addressing their work to a public that is yet to come./nThe dissertation begins in the 19th century with a reading of works by an influential 19th-century métis intellectual, the Abbé David Boilat, in whose scholarly activities one can perceive the discursive preconditions of a future francophone literary field. From there, the dissertation turns to the early 20th century, when literary studies were introduced into the French colonial curriculum as a discipline for cultivating new and putatively modern modes of authorship and reading. The focus then shifts to the 1960s-70s, where I explore the postcolonial politics of language and the emergence of modern Wolof literature and film in Cheikh Aliou Ndao's Buur Tilleen (1967) and Ousmane Sembène's Mandabi (1968). I then investigate how the circulation of Senegalese literature as World literature echoes the ideals of colonial literary study. Here, I reconsider the reception history of Mariama Bâ's Une si longue lettre (1980), contrasting the terms in which that novel became internationally acclaimed with how it has been reworked by a Wolof writer, Maam Yunus Dieng. Finally, in a Coda, I query how the `work' of Wolof literature has been transformed in the age of structural adjustment - through readings of Boubacar Boris Diop's Doomi Golo (2003) and Cheikh Aliou Ndao's Mbaam Aakimoo (1997).

Advisor: Britto, Karl
Understanding Substrate Selection and Functional Output of Bacterial Type IIA Topoisomerase Orthologs and Paralogs

Key processes in the cell, such as replication, transcription and repair, result in the/nsupercoiling of genomic DNA, which is resolved by molecular machines known as/ntopoisomerases. Type II DNA topoisomerases remodel DNA by passing one duplex DNA/nstrand through a transient break in a second duplex DNA strand. Type II topoisomerases/nachieve DNA cleavage and religation with high fidelity by the coordination of multiple/ndomains. Achilles heel-like enzymes, which are indispensible to cells, topoisomerases are/ntargeted by numerous antibiotics and cancer therapeutics, necessitating a thorough/nunderstanding of their structure and function./nPreviously thought to be a uniform group of enzymes, a number of bacterial type/nIIA topoisomerase paralogs have been identified with highly specialized functions but it/nis not understood how each paralog recognizes and acts on unique DNA topologies. The/ncentral hypothesis of this project is that the bacterial type IIA DNA binding domain,/ntermed the C-terminal domain (CTD), is principally responsible for substrate/nidentification and functional output of type IIA topoisomerases. I performed an array of/nstructural and biochemical studies on three unique bacterial type IIA topoisomerases to/nunderstand how the CTD controls type IIA topoisomerase activity. The work presented in/nthis dissertation identifies novel type IIA topoisomerase evolutionary paths, characterizes/nnovel regulatory mechanisms, and introduces evidence that many characteristics refine/nenzyme activity.

Advisor: Berger, James M
The Landscape of Klamath Basin Rock Art

For the past three decades, efforts to interpret Klamath Basin rock art symbols using ethnographic literature and concepts of sacred landscapes have advanced our understanding of the art. This approach, however, is limited by the assumption that the rock art symbols meant the same thing in every social and land use context. From my research of the past decade I have inferred that rock art designs are not distributed randomly across the landscape. Instead, rock art displays appear to vary predicatively across three archaeologically-defined contexts that I have identified as settlement sites, frequently used areas and special use areas. In the research presented here, I use this apparent pattern to propose a context model for the rock art of the Klamath Basin and suggest that Klamath Basin shamans situated their varied repertoire of sacred symbols within these distinctive contexts in order to structure the way people encountered and experienced them. Understanding how rock art is patterned on the landscape has led to refined interpretations in an area where relatively little rock art research has been done.

Advisor: Conkey, Margaret W.
Migrations of Hunger and Knowledge: Food Insecurity and California's Indigenous Farmworkers

This dissertation explores two elements of farmworker food insecurity in California, the structural conditions of food insecurity, and the use of immigrant/cross-border agricultural and culinary knowledge as coping strategies. The first component, structural and systemic causes for farmworker food insecurity, investigates how farmworker food insecurity is linked to international trade and immigration policies, as well as the historical exploitation of people of color in California's agricultural sector. Rather than simply chronicle a story of exploited laboring bodies, I expand upon on this narrative, exploring the ways that indigenous Oaxacan farmworkers, who for the most part come from a culture deeply rooted in food and agricultural practices, cope with food insecurity by utilizing their embodied agricultural and nutritional knowledge. I explore the linkages between their place in the food system as both producers and consumers, as they are simultaneously exploited for their labor, and creating coping mechanisms using their culinary and agricultural experience.

Advisor: Walker, Richard
Kosek, Jake
An Interactional Account of Online Collective Action

The diffusion of networked information and communication technologies has facilitated the rise of novel modes of online collective action, collaboration, and public goods production. In this dissertation, I elaborate an interactional account of online collective action, emphasizing the role of micro-level social interactions in shaping organizational dynamics and collective behavior. This approach provides a clearer explanation of both the means by which individuals and groups within online collectives establish stable patterns of activity as well as the mechanisms through which those patterns change over time. The argument proceeds through a series of interconnected empirical studies of several different domains of online collective action including crowdsourcing labor markets, Wikipedia, and the U.S. political blogosphere. Across these studies, I find that interactions and interactional dimensions of behavior play a central role in mobilizing, retaining, and organizing participants engaged in online collective action. Interactional motives and incentives not only mobilize participation in online collectives, they also contribute to the emergence and persistence of participation patterns and organizational forms. The character of these inequalities and organizational forms vary widely, likely contributing to the uneven impact of online collectives.

Advisor: Evans, Peter B.
Band-to-Band Tunnel Transistor Design and Modeling for Low Power Applications

As the physical dimensions of the MOSFET have been scaling, the supply voltage has not scaled accordingly and thus the power density has been continuously increasing. This is mainly due to the fact that transistor operation requires carriers to go over the source side potential barrier which limits the subthreshold swing of a MOSFET to 60mV/dec at room temperature and thus inhibits the scaling of the threshold voltage. Tunneling devices utilizing the band-to-band tunneling mechanism have been known to overcome this fundamental limit./nIn this thesis, the tunneling field-effect-transistor (TFET) is explored to replace conventional MOSFETs for low power applications. The band-to-band tunneling mechanism is looked into in order to develop a more accurate tunneling model that considers the change in effective mass during the transition between the conduction and valence band. Device simulator parameters are modified with this model and are used in designing the TFET. The silicon P-I-N structure TFET is studied through simulation and various experimental splits as a baseline for the TFET development. High tunneling currents are measured from a short channel device with a flash and spike anneal combination and a novel silicided source TFET using silicide induced dopant segregation is shown to achieve sub-60mV/dec subthreshold swing. Measurement and analysis methods of the transistor current and subthreshold swing to verify the TFET are discussed. Lower band gap Ge devices and Strained Si/Ge hetero-structure devices utilizing a lower effective bandgap are also explored to improve the performance of the TFET.

Advisor: Hu, Chenming
The Astrological Imaginary in Early Twentieth-Century German Culture

My dissertation focuses on astrological discourses in early twentieth-century Germany. In four chapters, I examine films, literary texts, and selected academic and intellectual prose that engage astrology and its symbolism as a response to the experience of modernity in Germany. Often this response is couched within the context of a return to early modern German culture, the historical period when astrology last had popular validity. Proceeding from the understanding of astrology as a multiplicity of practices with their own histories, my dissertation analyzes the specific forms of astrological discourse that are taken up in early twentieth-century German culture. In my first chapter I examine the revival of astrology in Germany from the perspective of Oscar A. H. Schmitz (1873-1931), who galvanized a community of astrologers to use the term Erfahrungswissenschaft to promote astrology diagnostically, as an art of discursive subject formation. In my second chapter, I discuss how Paul Wegener's Golem film cycle both responds to and intensifies the astrological and the occult revivals. As the revivals gain momentum, Wegener explicitly depicts seventeenth-century astrological and occult practices with the intention of generating a "purely filmic" experience. I provide new insight into Wegener's last Golem film through the film architect Hans Poelzig's personal investment in both baroque architecture and contemporary astrology. My third chapter explores Aby M. Warburg's lifelong preoccupation with the investigation of astrological symbolism in art. This pursuit led him to create an institution that has played a pivotal role in the material conditions of possibility for people to study the history of astrology, even today. In my fourth chapter, I investigate the many references to astrological phenomena in Walter Benjamin's intellectual work. I read his work on mimesis and experience alongside his practice of graphology in order to situate him in the debates brought up in the first chapter on the idea of astrology as an Erfahrungswissenschaft. My dissertation reveals how aspects of astrological discourse--specifically its approaches to issues of legibility and interpretation--constructively informed and shaped the middle brow (Schmitz) and the high brow (Warburg), the cinematic (Wegener) and the literary (Schmitz), the institutional (Warburg) and the philosophical (Benjamin) realms of early twentieth-century German culture.

Advisor: Largier, Niklaus
Kaes, Anton
Interference Management Techniques for Multi-Standard Wireless Receivers

The performance of wireless standards is improving steadily for a foreseeable future./nWireless communications are used for a variety of applications from data steaming to Internet access. There is an increasing need for wireless connectivity with emerging applications. More frequency spectrum is going to be opened-up and the number of standards seems to increase even further to cover this gap and the question arises of how to design the next generation of wireless receivers./nFrom a general perspective it is very appealing to have a single handheld device that can support a large number of wireless standards. Consequently, mobile handsets have started supporting multiple modes over the past few years. Since there are too many standards, integrating multiple dedicated radios on one platform is leading to bulky, complex designs and hence hardware sharing is becoming the only solution./nOne of the last hurdles in the realization of a multi-standard receiver is the elimination of off-chip SAW filters. Direct conversion receivers are widely implemented due to low cost and high-levels of integration at the cost of sensitivity to interferes and second order distortion, which are key contributors to degrading system sensitivity./nThis thesis describes two linearity enhancement techniques for an RF receiver./nA self-calibrating even-order distortions technique is presented whereby different mechanisms responsible for even-order distortions, characterized by IIP2 metric (Second Harmonic Input referred Intercept Point), were independently calibrated, resulting in robust performance independent of the amplitude and frequency of the blocker. Second, an active dynamic blocker-notching scheme is proposed and tested. The filter uses the blocker frequency to up-convert a DC null to the pass-band, attenuating the blocker before entering the receiver./nThe prototype circuits are fabricated in a 90nm CMOS technology. Measurements were performed on a PCB with a packaged chip./nIIP2 measurements were performed with the blocker frequency and power swept. The IIP2 of more than 60dBm for wide range of blockers as high as -10dBm has been achieved which satisfy the most stringent IIP2 requirements. To test the functionality of the dynamic notch, a blocker signal and a desired signal are summed and injected into the front-end receiver. The amount of desired blocker attenuation and the amount of undesired in-band signal attenuation are both measured versus the offset frequency of the blocker. Blocker attenuation as large as 20dB is observed at only 40 MHz offset while the in-band attenuation increases by only 2dB. The resulting increase in noise figure due to the blocker is 4dB. When all of this data is taken into account, the overall SNR improvement due to the notch filter is as high as 14dB. This proves that the technique may be effective for attenuating blockers.

Advisor: Niknejad, Ali M