VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Design of Online Peer-to-Peer Investment Platform Offering Incentive-Compatible Revenue-Sharing Innovation

Motivated by my 2010 field investigation of the rural credit market in Thailand, which revealed the appalling extent to which low-income entrepreneurial-minded population are underserved by existing capital-providing sources, including formal financial institutions and the microfinance movement, I conducted further exploration of alternative funding models, such as online-social lending organizations, as well as assessment of innovative financial products, in the hope of identifying novel micro-funding model capable of providing better financial inclusion for a group of financially underserved population at the base of the economic pyramid, representing 3 billion of the world’s population. With main characteristics of the potential platform in mind, I design a novel online peer-to-peer social investment platform, offering incentive-compatible revenue-sharing product, which solves many of the problems inherent in the developing world’s credit markets. This financial product exhibits the beneficial features of a quasi-equity financing scheme, while overcoming the implementation challenges that have prevented widespread adoption of quasi-equity financing instruments in MFIs for many decades. The business plan for the platform is illustrated in one main section of this paper, while another section features indepth analysis of the revenue-sharing model and complementary mechanisms used to align Investor-Client incentives and alleviate informational asymmetry problems.

Keywords:  Department of Economics
Stanford Department of Economics
rural credit market
Thailand
Thesis
Advisor: Jackson Matthew
Design of versatile telerobotic systems using variable impedance actuation and control [electronic resource]

Telerobotic systems allow a human operator to remotely manipulate an environment. Using telerobotics, we can remain distant from dangerous or difficult-to-reach locations, or scale our motions and forces to levels beyond normal human abilities. We would like these systems to be capable of the widest possible range of actions, from delicate and gentle to strong and firm, making them more capable tools in the remote environment. Human versatility, in part, comes from our ability to adjust impedance to suit the task we are performing. Humans accomplish this by flexing and relaxing muscles, reorienting the skeletal structure, bracing on nearby objects, and through sensory feedback. In a telerobotic system, the impedance is a combination of the robot impedance, the controllers, position and force scaling, and the human impedance. This multiplicity of contributions limits the operator's ability to affect the overall system behavior directly, ultimately limiting the system's potential abilities. In this research, I have worked to extend the range of telerobotic performance capabilities by incorporating variable impedance actuators and control into the telerobotic system. Their inclusion gives the operator a more direct ability to control the telerobotic impedance and lessens the need for high-bandwidth, transparent controllers. This ultimately lets the operator perform a wider range of tasks. Additionally, the system performance becomes less sensitive to factors such as force feedback level and time delay. In this thesis, I investigate accomplishing impedance control for telemanipulation using variable stiffness actuators and software impedance control. I discuss the need for variable hardware actuators to control short-duration interactions, such as impacts. Based on insights from this work, I design several variable impedance telerobotic control architectures for improved manipulation performance. Results are presented from experiments in one-DOF and multi-DOF, as well as a user study, confirming improved versatile performance and reduced sensitivity to force feedback level. It is my hope that this work will help encourage a design perspective for telerobotic systems which emphasizes the system's versatility and usability over the goal of pure transparency.

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering.
Advisor: Niemeyer Gunter primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Salisbury J. Kenneth primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Cutkosky Mark R. advisor. Thesis advisor
Designing automated systems for sample preparation of nucleic acids using isotachophoresis [electronic resource]

Purified DNA serves as a template for a wide array of analysis techniques, ranging from sequencing to PCR and hybridization assays. DNA analysis can be used for clinical diagnosis, for forensic investigation, and for a range of research purposes. These analysis techniques improve each year, but they are all constrained by the availability of purified DNA. DNA is typically derived from raw biological samples that contain a host of other molecular species, including proteins, lipids and metal ions. These species can inhibit analysis of the DNA, so purification of DNA from complex sample matrices is a necessary precursor to analysis. Typically, DNA purification is performed using either liquid-liquid extraction or solid-phase extraction, both of which require manual labor, involve toxic chemicals, and are difficult to miniaturize. Isotachophoresis (ITP) is an alternative method for DNA purification that does not rely on specialized surface chemistry or toxic chemical species. Instead, ITP uses electric fields to selectively pre-concentrate DNA from a raw sample, and simultaneously separate it from inhibiting species. ITP purification of DNA has been demonstrated from human serum, plasma, and whole blood, and the same technique has been used to purify RNA from bacteria in human blood and urine. Until recently, the parameters governing extraction efficiency, throughput, and separation quality in ITP purification were not well established. This thesis is focused on rational analysis for designing and optimizing ITP systems for rapid, high quality DNA purification.

Keywords: Chemical Engineering.
Advisor: Fuller Gerald G.
Santiago Juan G. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Goodson Kenneth E.
Shaqfeh Eric S. G. (Eric Stefan Garrido) advisor. Thesis advisor
Designing behavioral solutions to reduce residential energy use [electronic resource]

Energy use in the U.S. residential sector accounts for a substantial portion of the United States' greenhouse gas emissions when considering residential buildings, personal transportation, and food. One opportunity to significantly lower this footprint is to focus on individual-level behavioral changes. To date, however, few climate- and energy-related behavioral interventions have been designed, implemented, rigorously evaluated, and reported in peer-reviewed literature. This dissertation begins to address that gap using an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach that targets different population segments with studies that aim to better understand and reduce energy use in homes. Three studies constitute this dissertation: (1) identification of options for sizable residential energy savings; (2) design, implementation and evaluation of a theory-based behavioral intervention to motivate reductions in residential energy use, and (3) investigation of the concept of "global identity, " which is hypothesized to be associated with change in energy use behaviors. The first study identifies viable energy-saving alternative behaviors from experts and historical and contemporary cultures to inform the increasing number of behavioral interventions being planned and developed. This project uses exploratory ethnographic and design methods to develop foundational insights on these issues from a user-centered perspective, specifically among adults. The project identifies over one hundred options, as well as distinct principles to guide energy reductions. The second study undertakes the design, implementation, and efficacy of a social cognitive theory-based, school-based intervention for adolescents in a public high school setting. Results of the randomized controlled trial indicate significant improvements in energy- and greenhouse gas emissions-related behaviors in students who received the intervention compared to controls. The third study examines the measurement characteristics of a global identity measure previously used in other domains and its relationship to energy- and greenhouse gas emissions-related behaviors in a subsample from the intervention study, finding global identity to be directly associated with those behaviors. Collectively, this work uncovers insights about home energy use and other greenhouse gas emissions-related behaviors and potential ways to change them, and will inform the design of future behavioral interventions.

Advisor: Ardoin Nicole M. (Nicole Michele) primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Robinson Thomas (Thomas N.) primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Armel Kathleen advisor. Thesis advisor
Designing life [electronic resource] : studies of emerging adult development

Emerging adulthood often includes a number of important transitions, moving out of the parental home, and transitioning from life as a student to work. Much research on this period of life focuses on work development; however, the present studies instead focus on self-development more broadly. In order to understand such development, these studies are integrated with a course on life design. Three methodologies are brought to bear, a survey study drawing on measures of well being and goals examining participants and non-participants, an interview study focusing on emerging adults conceptions of morality, and an observational and repeated interview study examining course activities and course participants experiences of and reflections on those activities. These studies demonstrate the relevance of the course to increases in life meaningfulness, personal growth, life decision-making, and moral formation. They also serve to demonstrate new models of goal development and moral development. These findings are then interepreted as they illuminate meaning and emerging adult development.

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Damon William
Barron Brigid advisor. Thesis advisor
Krumboltz John D. advisor. Thesis advisor
Designing visual text analysis methods to support sensemaking and modeling [electronic resource]

This dissertation examines the co-design of interactive visualizations and statistical analysis algorithms to improve the process of visual analytics--to create effective workflows where human cognition and algorithms work in tandem to yield insights about large and complex data. I present the results of applying a human-centered iterative design process to a variety of projects: visualization of statistical topic models, analysis tools to assess topic model quality and domain relevance, and descriptive phrases for text summarization. This work develops novel interactive visualizations, enables more efficient analytic workflows, and contributes to our understanding of human categorization, topic modeling, and text summarization. I also distill design principles and processes to help practitioners incorporate increasingly sophisticated models into data analysis tools. Across these projects, I demonstrate how we can effectively integrate diverse perspectives from information visualization, human-computer interaction, and machine learning to support effective model-driven data analysis.

Advisor: Heer Jeffrey Michael primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Manning Christopher D. advisor. Thesis advisor
McFarland Daniel (Daniel A.) advisor. Thesis advisor
Detection of multiple change-points [electronic resource] : sequential testing and model selection

In this thesis, we consider the problem of estimating the number of change-points and their locations in a process. In the first part of the thesis, we focus on a sequence of non Gaussian observations with changing mean values. Motivated by the heavy tail, Laplace-like data in the array based experiments, we derive a score-like statistic for testing whether the mean changes or not in Laplace data in Chapter 2. We then generalize this test statistic to a class of non-parametric test statistics and apply these robust statistics to detect change-points in array based data. In Chapter 3, we consider the abrupt mean change problem in the one parameter exponential family data. With the assumption that the number of change is unbounded, we derive a modified BIC to determine the number of change-points in the sequence and apply our method to detect DNA copy number changes in sequencing data. This modified BIC connects naturally to the second part of the thesis, where we consider model selection of smooth change-point models. In Chapter 4, we investigate the segmented line regression model and propose a slightly different smooth change-point problem. We derive a modified BIC for the smooth problem based on the Laplace's method. Because irregularities in the likelihood function vanish after smoothing, the derivation of this modified BIC is similar to the classic BIC. In the last chapter, we extend the modified BIC to other change-point problems.

Keywords: Statistics.
Advisor: Siegmund David
Walther Guenther advisor. Thesis advisor
Zhang Nancy R. (Nancy Ruonan) advisor. Thesis advisor
Developing the anemone aiptasia as a tractable model for cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis [electronic resource] : generating transcriptomic resources and profiling gene expression

Coral reefs are animal-built structures that provide habitats for a disproportionately large number of marine species relative to the small percentage of the ocean that they cover. Corals, and some other cnidarians such as anemones, host dinoflagellates within the cells of their gastrodermal tissue. The dinoflagellates fix carbon photosynthetically and transfer it to the host; the dinoflagellates can provide up to 90% of the hosts' metabolic requirements. The symbiosis between the cnidarian host and its dinoflagellate symbiont is therefore the trophic foundation on which coral reef are built. Despite its importance, the molecular mechanisms controlling symbiosis establishment, maintenance, and breakdown remain poorly understood. Our lab is working to further develop the small sea anemone, Aiptasia, as a model system for studying cnidarian-dinoflagellate symbiosis. To this end, I sequenced the transcriptome of aposymbiotic Aiptasia, of symbiotic Aiptasia, and of the dinoflagellate symbionts. I then used these resources to perform gene-expression analysis comparing symbiotic and aposymbiotic anemones, which provided numerous testable biological hypotheses about both the structural basis of the symbiosis and the downstream metabolic effects of metabolite transfer to the host. These resources should serve as the foundation for future experiments in our laboratory and more widely in the field of coral biology.

Keywords: Genetics.
Advisor: Pringle John
Fire Andrew Zachary advisor. Thesis advisor
Frommer Wolf B.
Sherlock Gavin advisor. Thesis advisor
Development and application of quantitative methods for clinical high-throughput proteomics [electronic resource]

The ability to generate robust quantitative high-throughput protein abundance estimates directly from clinical samples would be useful for translational biomedical research. Knowing the protein content and abundance of a clinical sample would enable, for example, effective biomarker discovery, risk stratification of patient outcomes, and the ability to better understand disease mechanisms. Mass spectrometry has emerged as a powerful tool in the high-throughput measurement of proteins from human tissues and fluids. We are now beginning to have access to proteomics data of the coverage (hundreds to thousands of proteins), scale (tens to hundreds of samples), and throughput (a few days to weeks per experiment) to bring mass spectrometry proteomics to the study of clinical questions. In this work, we discuss methods for quantitation of peptide and protein abundance from mass spectrometry proteomics data. We apply our approaches to identify key proteins that are differentially expressed in the urine of kidney transplant patients with acute rejection. We also investigate the response of the human plasma proteome to severe burn injury. We characterize the protein composition of T-cells, monocytes, and neutrophils of trauma patients, healthy controls, and stimulated cells, and compare information content of proteomics data from these cell populations with gene expression data from similar samples. Finally, we discuss a novel metric for scoring normalization algorithms from mixture titration quality control experiments, and we apply this metric to proteomics and transcriptomics data. Through the methods for quantitation of peptides and proteins, application of proteomics to different clinical questions, and integration of proteomics with other high-throughput data, we demonstrate the utility of mass spectrometry based proteomics to the study of human biofluids in human disease research.

Advisor: Davis Ronald W. (Ronald Wayne)
Altman Russ advisor. Thesis advisor
Xiao Wenzhong (Geneticist)
Development of optically active cyclopentadienyl ruthenium complexes and their application in asymmetric catalysis [electronic resource]

Novel ruthenium complexes were developed containing a cyclopentadienyl (Cp) ligand tethered to a chiral sulfoxide, which also serves as a ligand. These complexes were synthesized via a [3+2] dehydrogenative cycloaddition between a Ru-[pi]-allyl complex and a terminal acetylene. Using the cycloaddition as a key step, the desired sulfoxide-ligated complexes could be prepared in six linear steps without the use of toxic metallating reagents such as thallium salts. A diverse library of complexes could be accessed through this method, which speaks to the robust nature of the key cycloaddition step. Using these complexes, a CpRu-catalyzed branched-selective asymmetric allylic alkylation (AAA) was developed. Using this method, various oxygen nucleophiles could be alkylated with allyl chloride electrophiles to provide branched ethers, esters and alcohols with high levels of regio- and enantioselectivity. These complexes also were effective in catalyzing an asymmetric redox bicycloisomerization to generate complex [3.1.0]- and [4.1.0]-azabicycles from simple propargyl alcohol substrates.

Keywords: Chemistry.
Advisor: Trost Barry M. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Du Bois Justin advisor. Thesis advisor
Khosla Chaitan
Developmental enhancers [electronic resource] : ancient origins, neofunctionalization, and pleiotropy

In this work, I present two studies of the evolution and function of developmental enhancers. In the first study, I describe the discovery of the first examples of cis-regulatory elements that are conserved across the two great clades of the bilaterian tree (deuterostomes and protostomes). These bilaterian conserved regulatory elements (Bicores) are developmental enhancers that respond to key signaling pathways and have been conserved for approximately 650 million years. In vertebrates, Bicores have neofunctionalized to drive expression in the central nervous system. In the second study, I present a genome-wide set of putative enhancers that function in the development of the mammalian neocortex. These elements, identified through ChIP-seq, are validated through both computational and experimental approaches. I show that many elements are anciently conserved beyond mammals, and we show that older elements are more likely to be pleiotropic. Pleiotropic elements most likely function in other aspects of central nervous system development, and elements that are conserved to zebrafish function in the developing zebrafish forebrain. I also provide evidence that specific repeat families have played a major role in the generation of enhancers that function in neocortex development. Finally, in the conclusion, I discuss how enhancer neofunctionalization and pleiotropy fit into a model of enhancer evolution and the evo-devo framework.

Keywords: Genetics.
Advisor: Bejerano Gill
Bustamante Carlos (Carlos D.)
Fuller Margaret T.
Snyder Michael
Deviation inequalities for eigenvalues of deformed random matrices [electronic resource]

We consider two models of deformed random matrices. The first model is the deformed GOE. Let G be a n by n matrix in the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) with off diagonal entries having variance $\frac{\sigma^2}{n}$ and let P be a n by n real symmetric matrix whose non zero eigenvalues are $\theta_1 \geq \cdots \geq \theta_r > 0$. We establish non-asymptotic deviation inequalities for the extreme eigenvalues of A = P + G of the following type: $P(\lambda_i (A) - \lambda_{\theta_i}[vertical line] \geq t) \leq C_1 n^{r-i+1} e^{-C_2 nt^2 / \sigma^2}, 1\leq i \leq r$, where $\lambda_{\theta_i} = \theta_i + \frac{\sigma^2}{\theta_i}$ or

Keywords: Mathematics.
Advisor: Papanicolaou George primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Dembo Amir advisor. Thesis advisor
Johnstone Iain advisor. Thesis advisor
Device engineering for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells [electronic resource]

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) offer a variety of advantages to typical silicon and thin film solar cells. And while the advantages of ease-of-processing and fabrication from low-cost, earth-abundant materials make DSCs an attractive technology, the efficiency of DSCs (13%) is still too low to compete with the current inorganic incumbents. Hence, new 'outside-of-the-box' strategies must be used to render DSCs competitive with current commercial technologies. This thesis describes my work on identifying losses in DSCs and 2 strategies to improve the efficiency of DSCs: the use of highly-soluble energy relay days to broaden the spectral response of DSCs, and the fabrication of semi-transparent solid-state DSCs to help improve the efficiency of inorganic devices in a tandem solar cell. Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ssDSCs) have historically lagged behind their liquid-electrolyte counterparts in efficiency. To gain a better understanding of why this is so, we have developed accurate internal quantum efficiency (IQE) measurements for ssDSCs. By analyzing the IQE, it is found that while charge collection is efficient in ssDSCs, often charge injection is not. This analysis also shows that parasitic absorption by the Spiro-OMeTAD is an important loss mechanism in ssDSCs and suggests that stronger absorbing sensitizers are the most promising path to higher efficiencies. In DSCs, the roles of absorbing light, injecting charge, and blocking recombination are all given to the sensitizing dye, resulting in a myriad of design rules for DSC sensitizers. An energy relay dye (ERD) is a second dye that helps relax these design rules by providing complementary absorption and then transferring energy to a sensitizing dye. However, such ERDs come with their own design rules, including the need for high solubility for full light absorption, and high photoluminescence for efficient energy transfer. We have designed and synthesized two such dyes, and characterized them as ERDs in DSCs, yielding a 65% increase in efficiency. Finally, even if DSCs are unable to reach efficiencies that render them competitive against traditional inorganic solar cells, DSCs can be used in conjunction with an inorganic solar cell in a hybrid tandem photovoltaic (HTPV). High open-circuit voltages and cheap processing render DSCs attractive top cells in HTPVs, and such devices can exceed efficiencies of 20%. However, in order to be used in HTPVs, a DSC must be fabricated such that below bandgap light can pass through the device and be absorbed by the inorganic bottom cell. Toward that end, we have developed a transparent top contact for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells that renders ssDSCs attractive candidates for HTPVs.

Keywords: Applied Physics.
Advisor: Fisher Ian R. (Ian Randal) primary advisor. Thesis advisor
McGehee Michael
Bent Stacey advisor. Thesis advisor