VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Ant Group and China's State Banks: Partners, Rivals, or Both?

Among the many Chinese Fintech companies, Ant Group has been a leading player in the market, used almost universally on the mainland and hailed internationally as a sign of China’s uniquely innovative financial technology. Its long-awaited IPO had raised $34.5 billion; valued at an astounding $313 billion, it was set to list as the world’s largest in history, and was considered proof of the mainland’s truly global capital markets. Despite the good press for China’s financial sector, on November 3, 2020 the IPO listing was halted by Chinese regulators, just two days before its debut. It was a startling reminder that China’s markets, despite their Western characteristics, are still confined within the bounds of a state-run economy.
The sudden implementation of strict regulations on Ant’s activities was nothing new: before the 2020 crackdown on their consumer loans arm, or CreditTech division, Ant Group’s Yu’e Bao—the money market fund within their InvestmentTech services—had come under fire from financial regulatory bodies in 2018. How did this Fintech company become so large that it posed a threat to the State not just once, but twice?
Weak points within China’s financial system both enabled Ant Group to reach historic heights and begot its precipitous decline. While Ant Group’s operations were certainly beneficial for some aspects of the economy, the company was also a source of competition to traditional banks, and posed significant risks to the stability of China’s financial system. This study examines how Ant’s CreditTech and InvestmentTech arms negatively impacted the Big 4 state banks’ access to individual deposits, exacerbated the riskiness of smaller commercial banks, and created the potential for a series of massive consumer loan defaults through targeting a historically present financing gap.

Keywords:  Stanford Global Studies
Stanford Global Studies
East Asian Studies
FinTech
China's Financial System
Ant Group
State Banks
China
Text
Thesis
Advisor: Oi Jean
Application of spin squeezing in free space atomic sensors

Atomic sensors measure a variety of physical quantities with ensembles of atoms. With careful engineering, the resolution of the atomic sensors will reach the quantum-projection limit. To beat this limit and further improve the resolution, spin squeezing, a specific entangled state, can be utilized. In this thesis, I will introduce efforts in integrating cavity-generated spin squeezed state into free space atomic sensors; specifically, atomic fountain clocks and atom interferometers. First, I will introduce two methods to retrieve spin squeezing in free space. The first method is based on an optical cavity and the second one uses a CMOS camera. The cavity method retrieves almost all the squeezing at short release time and the retrieved squeezing degrades at long release time. The study of this degradation leads to the understanding of the effects of coupling homogeneity loss. The application of the camera method successfully results in a free space Ramsey spectroscopy 5.8dB below quantum-projection limit, which is an important step to build an atomic fountain clock. Finally, I will detail the laser systems we constructed to do atom interferometry based on Raman transitions

Keywords: Applied Physics.
Advisor: Kasevich Mark A.
Hollberg Leo (Leo William)
Safavi-Naeini Amir H.
Applied single-cell methods for basic and translational immunology

The immune system is a complex network of specialized cells that coordinate to eliminate immune challenges while minimally damaging self. Understanding the role of each cell in that network requires accurate quantification of informative biological features of single cells. Here, we innovated and applied single-cell methods and purpose- driven computational analyses to problems in basic and translational immunology. We developed a highly-multiplexed screen to quantify the co-expression of 351 surface molecules on millions of human B cells. We identified differentially expressed molecules and aligned their variance with isotype usage, VDJ sequence, metabolic profile, biosynthesis activity, and signaling response. Based on these analyses, we proposed a classification scheme to segregate B cells from four lymphoid tissues into twelve unique subsets, providing a framework for further investigations of human B cell identity and function. Additionally, we introduced morphometry, a high-throughput, quantitative, single-cell mass-cytometry-based assay that measures cell morphological features by their underlying molecular components. We applied multiplexed morphometric profiling and surface molecule immunophenotyping to 71 diverse clinical hematopathology samples and demonstrated that our approach was superior to flow cytometry and comparable to expert microscopy for tumor cell identification and enumeration. We introduced linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to generate morphometric maps that facilitate visualization and quantification of tumor cells. This contextualization of traditional surface markers on independent morphometric frameworks permits more sensitive and automated diagnosis of complex hematopoietic diseases

Advisor: Bendall Sean
Boyd Scott
Mallick Parag
Pulendran B. (Bali)
Applied statistical methods for high-dimensional generalized linear models

The Generalized Linear Model (GLM) is a fundamental statistical model to describe the relation between a response variable and a set of covariates. The model coefficients of a GLM are usually estimated using the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) and confidence intervals for the coefficients are constructed using the classical asymptotic theory of the MLE. While the classical theory is valid under the condition that the number of variables p is vanishing compared to the number of observations n, it is invalid when p is comparable to n. To infer model parameters in the high-dimensional setting, researchers have been studying the asymptotic distribution of the MLE when p grows with n at a constant ratio, which they found to be informative in practical settings. These works typically focus on the setting when the covariates are i.i.d. or multivariate Gaussian. One open question is how to estimate the MLE distribution for general covariates. In this work, we study the distribution of the MLE with the objective of achieving valid inference for a high-dimensional GLM. We take two approaches in our study. First, we derive the theoretical distribution of a high-dimensional logistic regression when the covariates are multivariate Gaussian, and we demonstrate that our theory is accurate for moderate sample sizes. Second, when covariates are not Gaussian, we develop a resized bootstrap method to approximate the MLE distribution. We observe in simulated examples that the resized bootstrap method provides valid inference for a variety of GLM and covariate distributions. One application of our method is constructing confidence intervals for GLM coefficients

Keywords: Statistics.
Advisor: Candès Emmanuel J. (Emmanuel Jean)
Montanari Andrea
Taylor Jonathan E.
Approaches for the functional interpretation of rare genetic variation

Rare variants, due to their abundance and often relatively recent appearance, are expected to play a large role in genetic contributions to disease. However, determining rare variants with potential to impact the development of rare or common diseases remains a challenge. In this dissertation, I discuss several projects assessing multi-omics data integration to identify functional rare variation and connect variants to both rare and common disease. In chapter 2, I present work analyzing transcriptomic data to improve rare disease diagnosis and in particular, identifying patterns of allele-specific expression in rare disease individuals that highlight genes associated with the patient's phenotype. In chapter 3, I present approaches using transcriptomes across ~50 tissues for ~800 individuals with matched whole genome sequencing to characterize rare variation leading to multitissue changes in gene expression, allelic imbalance and alternative splicing, a subset of which show strong associations with common diseases in an external cohort. In chapter 4, I assess additional functional signals, DNA methylation and plasma proteome abundance, in addition to transcriptomic information to further refine our understanding of how rare variants can contribute to downstream phenotypes, and identify rare variation contributing to large changes across DNA methylation, gene expression, and protein abundance in a multi-ethnic cohort. Together, this work provides several approaches for integrating functional multi-omics data into rare variant interpretation pipelines and evaluates their use across multiple contexts

Keywords: Biomedical Informatics.
Advisor: Montgomery Stephen
He Zihuai (Researcher in biostatistics) 
Pritchard Jonathan (Jonathan K.) 
Sabatti Chiara
Approaching the limits of low resistance contacts to n-type germanium

For over half a century, we have witnessed an incredible increase in the performance of digital electronics by virtue of Moore's Law. This improvement has largely been powered by aggressive scaling of silicon (Si) transistor technology. However, as device dimensions continue to be reduced to smaller dimensions, Si may be reaching its limits as a high-performance channel material. Germanium (Ge) is a promising candidate to augment or replace Si due to its high electron and hole mobilities, and its compatibility with existing Si process technology. High-performance Ge PMOS transistors have been demonstrated, but NMOS lags behind due to the difficulty in making low resistance contacts to n-type Ge. In this work, I investigate the factors limiting the contact resistance and explore techniques to reduce the electron Schottky barrier height and increase n-type dopant activation in order to achieve low resistance contacts to n-type Ge. First, I investigate the use of metal-interlayer-semiconductor (MIS) contacts to alleviate the strong Fermi level pinning on Ge. I experimentally determine the pinning properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) through electrical measurements and show that it is a suitable choice for the interlayer material. Fabrication of ZnO MIS contacts, however, reveals some practical limitations, including a high tunneling resistance and reaction at the metal-ZnO interface. I demonstrate that interlayer doping can be used to overcome these issues and effectively reduce contact resistance. Next, I introduce differential Hall effect metrology (DHEM) as a technique to accurately measure high-resolution electrically-active carrier concentration depth profiles. Using this technique, I demonstrate the first measurement of a large decrease in electron concentration within 10 nm of the surface for Ge ion-implanted with both a single phosphorus (P) implant and with antimony (Sb) and P co-doping. These measurements indicate that ion implant damage causes severe near-surface dopant deactivation. Finally, I present a thorough investigation into the effects of various process parameters on contact resistance to n-type Ge. I show that removal of Ge native oxide (GeOx), nickel germanide (NiGe) formation, and co-doping can improve contact resistance but are ultimately not enough. Finally, I demonstrate that low temperature nonthermal equilibrium molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) of Ge with in-situ Sb doping can be used to realize heavy n-type electrically-active doping. I fabricate nickel (Ni) contacts on this substrate to achieve an ultra-low specific contact resistivity which is among the lowest reported values to date for contacts to n-type Ge. This work demonstrates that low resistance contacts to n-type Ge can be achieved and provides a pathway towards the realization of Ge NMOS technology

Keywords: Electrical Engineering.
Advisor: Saraswat Krishna
Fan Jonathan Albert
Pop Eric
An archaeology of Chinese transnationalism

Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, tens of thousands of Chinese immigrated to the United States to labor as miners, railroad builders, cooks, farmers, laundry workers, and merchants. My dissertation project uses archaeological methods to understand the transnational linkages that Chinese migrants maintained between their home villages in southern China and the Chinese communities they established in America. Specifically, I examine two diasporically connected areas: two Chinatowns in Southern California, and Wo Hing, a remittance-built village in Gom Benn, Taishan County. Established in 1902, Wo Hing was built in part by residents living in the Riverside Chinatown (1885-1940s) and San Bernardino Chinatown (1878-1940s). I use multiple lines of evidence—artifacts collected from archaeological survey, legacy archaeological collections, architecture, archival documents, genealogies, and oral history interviews—to examine how the transpacific movement of people, objects, and information impacted the diasporic communities and home village

Keywords: Anthropology.
Advisor: Voss Barbara L.
Chang Gordon H.
Ebron Paulla A.
Hodder Ian
Architecting small and bright upconverting nanoparticles as a toolkit for bioimaging

Upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) have the unique ability to absorb light in the near-infrared and emit light in the visible and ultraviolet via a multiphoton process. UCNPs have emerged as a new optical toolkit for tagging, sensing, and drug delivery in biological systems, where they have gained attention due to their: 1) near-infrared rather than visible or ultraviolet excitation, enabling low background noise and high penetration depth through biological tissue, 2) stable emission, without photobleaching or blinking, and 3) biocompatibility. However, small UCNPs are limited in emission efficiency and brightness due to surface quenching of emissive states. Here, we explore ways to improve and alter the emission properties of sub-20 nm UCNPs using nanoparticle architecture, dopant concentration, and host lattice. First, we design and synthesize a unique core-shell-shell nanoparticle architecture for bright upconversion within a sub-20 nm footprint that features: 1) maximum sensitization in the core, 2) efficient energy transfer from sensitizer core to emitter shell, and 3) emitter localization near the surface to enable efficient resonant energy coupling to an external optical probe. We synthesized this novel architecture and compared it with the field-standard core-shell architecture, showing that our novel architecture exhibits up to 2x greater single particle emission and up to 8x greater emission enhancement when coupled to a fluorescent dye. Next, we investigate host lattice effects by synthesizing and comparing sub-20 nm UCNPs composed of 8 different alkaline earth host lattices doped with Yb3+ and Tm3+, passivating these nanoparticles with a biocompatible CaF2 shell. We further explore improvements in efficiency and ultraviolet emission via core-shell design and Yb3+/Tm3+ concentrations in Sr-based host materials. We synthesize and measure sub-20 nm UCNPs with upconversion quantum yield as high as 2.5% and up to 16.5% of their emission in the ultraviolet. Finally, we explore the capabilities of more broadly lanthanide-doped nanoparticles for sensing applications and how we may be able to leverage small and bright nanoparticles for single particle sensing and other future applications. Through this work, we show methods to maintain bright and effective UCNPs in sub-20 nm size regimes, enabling the unique capabilities of UCNPs to applications that require small optical probes for tagging, sensing, and photochemistry

Keywords: Materials Science and Engineering.
Advisor: Dionne Jennifer Anne
Brongersma Mark L.
Salleo Alberto
Aristotelianism and English Political Thought: Variations on an Elizabethan Theme

This thesis traces the development of a vocabulary of "political Aristotelianism" in the English Renaissance. That vocabulary is defined and its historicity defended by an interpretation of major Aristotelian texts in the first chapter. The second through fourth chapters treat, in turn, the Aristotelian dimensions the thought of Sir Thomas Smith, John Case, and Richard Hooker in order to establish how their contributions to the history of English political thought were significantly inflected by their commitments to an Aristotelian theory of politics defined, chiefly, as an epistemology of citizenship. The encounter between that theory and the politics of Elizabethan England generated novel accounts of the English polity (especially as a "monarchical republic") and of political knowledge, itself.

Keywords: history
political thought
England
Aristotle
Aristotelianism
monarchical republic
Sir Thomas Smith
John Case
Richard Hooker
political epistemology
citizenship
Thesis
Artifacts of accountability : a case study of California's local control funding formula

Accountability and evaluation systems are pervasive throughout the U.S. K-12 education system. Former reform efforts, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), used high stakes testing and punitive sanctions in combination with incentives to shape organizational practices according to desired outcomes. More recent developments in federal and state legislation, however, have given rise to a new type of accountability system that relies less on singular rankings or ratings, provides support rather than punishment, and extends local control to school districts. The changes occurring in California via the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) set the stage for this new era of accountability, which incorporates some elements from the previous system while also introducing new evaluation components. These shifts provide an opportunity to examine accountability under a new policy context. How do school districts respond to these changes? Through qualitative content analysis of accountability documents, known as Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs), I conduct two studies to better understand how school districts justify resource allocation to their varied institutional audiences and to investigate how school districts make sense of performance outcomes in narrative form. Ultimately, I claim that these documents represent artifacts of accountability, which reveal how organizations avoid, negotiate, or resolve tensions in public priorities and values

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Hakuta Kenji
Powell Walter W.
Bromley Patricia (Assistant professor of education)
Asian Americans and the color-line : an intellectual history of Asian American studies, 1969-2000

"Asian Americans and the Color Line: An Intellectual History of Asian American Studies, 1969-2000" reconstructs Asian American Studies scholars' changing ideas about the place of Asian Americans in the U.S. racial landscape. In particular, it explains why Third Worldism - the belief that Asian American, Chicanx, African American, and Native American communities faced analogous, though not identical, situations of racial oppression - went from being ensconced within Asian American Studies to appearing untenable to its former adherents, over the course of three decades. I argue that this shift developed from theories Asian American intellectuals mobilized in response to conflicts in the 1990s that pit Asian Americans against other communities of color. Drawing on Asian American Studies publications across fields ranging from legal studies to literary theory, as well as privately held collections, unprocessed records, and archival research, I explore the field-defining debates over Asian American political behavior, class, gender, educational access, and multiracial solidarity, from the beginning of the field in the late 1960s to the turn of the 21st century. I show how Third Worldism inspired Asian American Studies scholars - Asian Americanists - to develop analytical frameworks based on the idea that a unique anti-Asian racism affected all Asian Americans and provided the potential basis for ethnic and multiracial solidarity. These frameworks, however, produced unintended consequences. As rapid demographic changes within Asian America generated greater levels of ethnic and class diversity, and as those changes precipitated conflicts with other communities of color, the belief that anti-Asian racism grounded a common Asian American group interest actually led Asian American intellectuals to conclude that Asian American group interest might diverge from those of other communities of color. In providing the first intellectual history of Asian American Studies, the project locates the historical roots of contemporary controversies over relations between Asian American communities and other communities of color. It places Asian American Studies scholars at the heart of the broad and complex discussion about the validity of the white/nonwhite binary in the post-civil-rights era. Ultimately, it demonstrates how Asian Americanists' discussions of racial identity shaped the national discussion on racial and ethnic politics

Advisor: Chang Gordon H.
Freedman Estelle B.
Palumbo-Liu David
Aspects of locality in quantum many-body physics

These collected works address several basic questions about the evolution of quantum lattice systems. While a choice of local tensor factorization of the Hilbert space is often implicit in the writing of a Hamiltonian or Lagrangian, the identification of local tensor factors is not intrinsic to the Hilbert space itself. In Chapter 1, we show that generically, the tensor factorization of the Hilbert space into local degrees of freedom is uniquely determined by the Hamiltonian, at least when such a factorization exists. In Chapter 2, we discuss how a generic local Hamiltonian may be uniquely recovered from a single eigenstate such as the ground state. In Chapter 3, we characterize when local dynamics can be generated by local Hamiltonians, providing a converse to the Lieb-Robinson bounds in one dimension. In Chapter 4, we explore the emergence of classicality in large quantum systems. In particular, we show that for any evolution of the system and environment, for everywhere in the environment excluding an O(1)-sized region, any locally accessible information about the system must be approximately classical, i.e. obtainable from some fixed measurement

Keywords: Physics.
Advisor: Qi Xiaoliang
Hayden Patrick (Patrick M.)
Shenker Stephen Hart
Assessing Measures of Explanatory Power

Measures of explanatory power have a key point of discussion recently in the context of epistemic research into abduction or inference to the best explanation. Many recent works have integrated explanatory power into Bayesian inference rules, arguing that such inference rules converge more quickly or are otherwise better than inference using Bayes' rule. This thesis proposes a pragmatic test, explanation task superiority, which attempts to determine if belief inference rules capture more or less valuable information than one another. This test borrows the decision theory literature's partially-observable Markov decision process (POMDP) formulation to separate epistemic and pragmatic rationality to assess a belief update rule by the value of its epistemic rationality. Through simulation, the thesis then shows that currently proposed inference rules which incorporate explanatory power fail to capture valuable information that inference by Bayes' rule does not and thus are not explanation task superior.

Keywords: Epistemology
Philosophy
Symbolic Systems Program
School of Humanities &amp; Sciences
Thesis
Advisor: Icard Thomas
Gerstenberg Tobias