VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Design guidance [electronic resource] : assessing process challenge, strategy, and exploration

Performance-based design processes are explorations guided by objectives and analyses of alternatives. Historically, building design teams have relied on precedent-based strategies to guide limited and informal exploration. Today they use more advanced strategies to guide more systematic and extensive explorations. We define design Guidance as the relative impact of strategy on exploration for a given challenge. As strategies are implemented or proposed, the need arises to measure and compare the Guidance provided by competing strategies on different challenges to support their selection and improvement. Design theory lacks precise definition and metrics for design processes and the Guidance achieved. This research addresses the questions: How can we measure the Guidance of a design process? More specifically, how can we assess the challenges addressed, strategies implemented, and explorations executed? I use building energy-efficiency as the domain of the study. The larger opportunity is to provide greater Guidance across objectives. Through case studies, I identify the problem. Through literature review I synthesize a framework and set of metrics. I develop the Design Exploration Assessment Methodology (DEAM) to support the comparison of Guidance across design processes. Using laboratory testing with professional designers, I evaluate explorations afforded by six strategies with respect to two challenges (renovation and new construction of a mid-rise office building). Experimental findings suggest to the order of design strategies' ability to improve exploration from worst to best is: random guessing, tacit knowledge, point analysis, combined point and trend analysis, trend analysis alone, and full analysis. These results question the proposition that more data provide better Guidance. I conclude by adding process cost to my metrics and assessing the value of information generated by various strategies relative to challenge. The contributions of this research are the metrics, DEAM, and the evaluation of design processes. I provide evidence that Guidance can be quantitatively assessed. I demonstrate power by measuring and comparing Guidance of strategies on a challenge. I demonstrate generality across a range of strategies and challenges. Initial findings show advanced strategies support better exploration and suggest further development of such strategies. The value of information generated, however, varies. This work motivates further research to provide greater understanding of the relative value of individual strategies to specific challenges.

Advisor: Haymaker John primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Howard Ronald A. (Ronald Arthur)
Kunz John C. advisor. Thesis advisor
Sweeney James L. advisor. Thesis advisor
Design of a doppler-aided GPS navigation system for weak signals caused by strong ionospheric scintillation [electronic resource]

The fundamental tasks of a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver are signal tracking and noise rejection. The essence of this dissertation is investigating the balance between the aforementioned objectives; taking advantage of the noise immunity property of external sensors, and designing novel integrated tracking architectures to advance the performance of a GPS receiver under strong interference conditions. Specifically, the problem of interest is resolving the interference due to ionospheric scintillation on the GPS receiver used in aviation navigation. Using GPS for landing aircraft in equatorial regions is more difficult than in other regions because ionospheric scintillation is prevalent. Ionospheric scintillation causes amplitude fades of 20 dB or more, and an increase in the phase jitter. This research evaluates techniques to enhance a GPS receiver's ability to overcome ionospheric scintillation. To validate the designed GPS receiver, a GPS channel model for aircraft landing in equatorial regions is built based on the use of a high fidelity GPS constellation simulator, a clock emulator, and real GPS data from the equator that contains an abundance of ionospheric scintillation. The results of this research demonstrate that the integration of a GPS receiver with a low-cost inertial navigation system provides the capability to operate continuously during periods of strong scintillation. In addition, so-called vector processing also shows promise for a less severe scintillation environment. Various combinations of receiver tracking architectures and aiding methods have been analyzed to quantify the sensitivity improvement of an "aided" GPS receiver.

Keywords: Aeronautics and Astronautics
Advisor: Enge Per primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Powell J. David
Walter Todd advisor. Thesis advisor
Design of a multilateral market for heterogeneous goods [electronic resource]

This dissertation studies markets for heterogeneous goods or services using mechanism design theory. Each participant's utility is quasi-linear in money, and depend upon the allocation that he gets - thus, a participant's privately known 'type' is multidimensional. The key properties are individual rationality, incentive compatibility, budget balance, efficiency, and stability against coalitional deviations. In the second chapter, for each combination of desirable properties, I derive an assignment process with these properties in the form of a corresponding direct-revelation game, or I show that it does not exist. The main results characterize mechanisms that are ex post incentive compatible in combination with other properties. Then I apply these main results to specific applications including a labor market, a buyer-seller market, a housing market, and a partnership formation problem. In the third chapter, I study a two-sided matching market with complete information. I define the median stable matching for such markets with wages and prove constructively that it exists. In the fourth chapter, I analyze position auctions with general pricing rules. In these auctions, there are several items to be allocated which are commonly ranked by agents with unit demand. The preeminent example of position auctions is the "generalized second-price'' (GSP) auction used by major search engines to sell online advertising. \cite{edossc07} establish that the ex post equilibrium of the GSP auction and the dominant strategy equilibrium of the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves mechanism have identical payoffs. I extend their result to ascending auctions with general pricing rules where the price for an item depends on the bids of agents who win lower ranked items continuously, even if the agents have multidimensional types.

Keywords: Business.
Advisor: Skrzypacz Andrzej
Wilson Robert
Ostrovsky Michael advisor. Thesis advisor
Design of robust medium access control in wireless networks with channel fading using game theory [electronic resource]

Many medium-access-control (MAC) protocols for wireless networks are designed based on the assumption that all mobile stations (MSs) follow the policy set by the protocol; hence, these protocols are not robust to the self-interested behavior of MSs. However, MSs become more intelligent and flexible, so that they can adapt their MAC policies to accommodate their own interests. Therefore, another requirement arises in the design of MAC protocols: robustness to self-interested behavior. For robustness, this thesis suggests using Nash equilibria (NE) as MAC policies. Since any deviation of a station from an NE penalizes the station, the networks operating in NEs achieve robustness by preventing selfish stations from violating the access protocol. This thesis considers two random-access networks, slotted ALOHA and CSMA, and a single-cell cellular network in fading environment where the channel gains are time-varying. For random-access networks, both collision channels and capture channels are considered, while interference channels are considered for cellular networks. After modeling these networks as non-cooperative games, this thesis establishes the existence and uniqueness of NEs of the games and investigate the characteristics of the NEs. It is shown that the NEs of random access systems are threshold strategies, allowing a station with a high channel gain a better chance to access the channel; thus, ensuring multi-user diversity as well as robustness when operating in NEs. For cellular systems, it is established that an NE is a truncated channel inversion (TCI), a celebrated power allocation policy, under some conditions. As a practical consideration, simple distributed algorithms is suggested to enable MSs to converge to the NEs without global knowledge of the system and any coordination among MSs.

Keywords: Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Tobagi Fouad A.
Cioffi John M. advisor. Thesis advisor
Medepalli Kamesh
The design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of molecular transporter conjugates and their encapsulation inside nanoparticles for drug delivery applications [electronic resource]

Biological barriers prevent the uptake of many potentially harmful xenobiotics yet also limit the delivery and cellular entry of a variety of drugs to their targets. One approach to this problem selects only those compounds with appropriate properties, namely solubility in polar biological fluids yet also able to pass through the nonpolar cellular membrane. This restriction would therefore preclude the use of many polar (e.g. siRNA) and nonpolar (e.g. Taxol) compounds whose inherent physical properties cause problems with formulation, distribution or bioavailability. The research described herein utilizes an alternative strategy that involves molecular transporters, which are agents that, when attached to poorly soluble or poorly bioavailable drugs, produce conjugates that exhibit excellent water solubility and simultaneously an increased ability to cross tissue and cell barriers. Bioactivatable molecular transporter conjugates of the immunosuppressant drug Cyclosporin A incorporating disulfide linkers were developed, evaluated for their biological activity in vitro, and administered topically in an in vivo mouse model. In addition to the inherent physical properties limitation that prevents drug passage across the cell membrane, another significant contributor to the failure of many therapeutics is the overexpression of membrane proteins (e.g. P-glycoprotein or Pgp) that mediate the unidirectional efflux of drugs out of target cells, often doing so prior to the drug reaching its intracellular target. Bioactivatable oligoarginine transporter conjugates of Taxol, a substrate for Pgp, were prepared and shown to overcome efflux-mediated resistance in primary human ovarian cancer tissue ex vivo. The encapsulation of transporter conjugates inside biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles was also investigated as a way to achieve sustained release of transporter drug conjugates over extended periods of time, thereby avoiding metabolism or toxicity problems associated with a bolus administration of therapeutic agents. Nanoparticles encapsulating transporter-probe conjugates were formed using two different methods, and shown to release their encapsulated cargo over time under biologically relevant conditions.

Keywords: Chemistry.
Advisor: Wender Paul A. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Cegelski Lynette advisor. Thesis advisor
Trost Barry M. advisor. Thesis advisor
Detecting and characterizing large-scale human brain networks [electronic resource]

Understanding human brain function is one of the most important endeavors in modern science. There is growing evidence that cognitive functions are executed by large-scale networks, comprising multiple interacting anatomically-connected brain areas. Although considerable progress has been made in understanding which specific brain areas are involved in particular cognitive functions, very little is known about the integrative functioning of large-scale brain networks. This is due in part to the lack of methods to pursue this line of research. This dissertation describes computational methods for detecting and characterizing large-scale human brain networks, combining data from task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and structural diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), two complementary brain imaging modalities. Application of our methods to task-free fMRI and DTI data obtained from a wide range of subject populations provided new insights into how large-scale human brain networks develop, mature, and get disrupted in psychiatric and neurological disorders. More generally, this work demonstrates the power of our multimodal network-analytic approach to obtain a system-level understanding of brain function across the human lifespan.

Keywords: Biomedical Informatics.
Advisor: Musen Mark A. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Greicius Michael D. advisor. Thesis advisor
Menon Vinod
Rubin Daniel (Daniel L.) advisor. Thesis advisor
Detection and quantitative characterization of biomolecular interactions with microfluidic mechanical trapping [electronic resource]

In the era of rapid high-throughput DNA sequencing and increasing bioinformatic capabilities to analyze large amounts of biological data, it is especially important to continue to develop high-throughput experimental proteomic methods. Probing physical interactions among proteins and nucleic acids is a powerful approach to gain insight into their functional relationships. Microfluidic tools are of great potential value to this field because they make it possible to run hundreds or thousands of independent experiments in parallel and at a high spatial density. Here I present and explain MITOMI (mechanically induced trapping of molecular interactions), an in vitro method that was initially created to measure the affinities of transcription factors binding to DNA. I contributed to the development of the system so it could be applied to mapping protein-protein interaction networks, and used it to study the interactions of E. coli RNA polymerase in order to better understand the regulation of bacterial transcription. I also extended the utility of MITOMI by adapting it to be able to measure interaction kinetics and to more efficiently measure affinities. With the ability to discover interactions at a large scale and to quantitatively characterize them on the same platform, MITOMI constitutes a valuable contribution to proteomic methodology.

Keywords: Applied Physics
Advisor: Quake Stephen Ronald primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Covert Markus advisor. Thesis advisor
Ferrell James Ellsworth advisor. Thesis advisor
Devaluing Black space [electronic resource] : Black locations as targets of housing and environmental discrimination

Do spaces have races? Why might space-race associations matter? Across four studies, participants attached racial meaning to a range of locations, as well as negatively stereotyped and reported feeling less connected to Black spaces in particular. Negative stereotyping and lack of connection to Black space explained why these spaces experienced both housing and environmental discrimination. Studies 1 and 2 participants generated raced spaces and then rated the extent to which they thought of these locations (i.e. inner cities, suburbs) as White or Black. The more Black spaces were, the less White they were, showing participants made clear distinctions between these two types of spaces. Further, the Black spaces were rated more negatively than the White spaces, showing participants devalued Black space. Study 3 expanded this finding by manipulating the race of one location—a house for sale by a Black or White family. Participants gave the Black house, relative to the White, a lower evaluation (i.e. they thought it was worth less and were less eager to move there). The Black house received this lower evaluation because participants negatively stereotyped it. They imagined the neighborhood surrounding it to be lower quality than the neighborhood they imagined around the White house (i.e. less safe, lower quality schools and municipal services). Additionally, participants reported feeling less connected to the neighborhood around the Black house, which also helped to explain its lower evaluation. Study 4 participants again discriminated against Black space—this time in the environmental domain. Participants read a proposal to place a potentially polluting chemical plant near a majority Black or White neighborhood. They reported less opposition to this plant when the nearby neighborhood was Black. This Black space received less environmental protection because participants were more likely to think it already housed other industrial facilities (industrial space stereotype) and again because they reported feeling less connected to it. These results are important not only because they expand theory on racial discrimination, stereotyping, and sense of place, but also because they provide an enhanced understanding of the causal role race plays in producing and maintaining disparities in access to high quality, healthy living spaces.

Keywords: Psychology
Advisor: Eberhardt Jennifer L. (Jennifer Lynn) primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Markus Hazel Rose advisor. Thesis advisor
Ross Lee advisor. Thesis advisor
Developing and applying integrative computational methods to study autoimmune disease [electronic resource]

Autoimmune diseases are painful and debilitating conditions which affect millions of people in the United States and all over the world. At present such conditions are often difficult to diagnose and many have no satisfactory treatment. Given the wealth and availability of genomic data such as genetic variation and gene expression, computational integrative methods provide a powerful opportunity to improve human health by refining the current knowledge about diagnostics, therapeutics and disease mechanism. For instance numerous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) performed across autoimmune diseases, provide a great opportunity to study disease relationships based on genetic variation. Comparing such profiles allows us to quantify allele-specific pair-wise relationships between these diseases to find two broad clusters of autoimmune disease. We furthermore find that certain polymorphisms, toggle SNPs, predispose individuals to one class of autoimmune disease but are protective against the other class. While studying allelic differences between diseases may point to key novel disease-specific genes and pathways, studying similarities across diseases might lead to discovery of common therapeutic options as well as common disease mechanisms. In particular we integrate genetic variation data across several studies to discover the role of a complement factor in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Multiple Sclerosis. Gene expression microarrays are also often used to study human diseases as well as the perturbation of biological systems by drug compounds providing an opportunity to discover novel relationships between diseases and drugs. We present a systematic computational method to predict novel therapeutic indications based on gene expression. We tested our top prediction for Crohn's disease (CD) using the rat model of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and successfully demonstrated the predicted efficacy of an anti-seizure drug in treating disease. In this work, we have showed that integrative computational tools can be used to improve diagnostics, learn more about disease mechanism and discover novel therapeutics for autoimmune disease.

Keywords: Biomedical Informatics.
Advisor: Butte Atul J. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Batzoglou Serafim advisor. Thesis advisor
Robinson William (William Hewitt) advisor. Thesis advisor
Development and characterization of a wafer-scale packaging technique for stable, large lateral deflection MEMS [electronic resource]

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are very popular in our everyday lives. They are becoming more ubiquitous, showing in automobiles, cell phones, projectors, toys and many other places. The packaging of these devices is critical to their performance and reliability and must be carefully considered in their overall system design. Due to strict requirements and the fragile nature of these devices, the packaging often represents a significant portion of the total cost of a MEMS product. Stanford University, jointly with Bosch, developed a wafer-scale encapsulation method in which MEMS devices are encapsulated as a part of their fabrication. This process, now used by SiTime, has been dubbed the 'epi-seal' process by virtue of its use of an epitaxial silicon reactor to seal the cavities containing the devices. The MEMS devices are cleaned in situ in the epitaxial silicon reactor just prior to sealing with silicon, resulting in a package environment that is very clean and stable. Because this is a batch process, the overall packaged device cost is very low. One significant limitation with this process, however, is that devices are limited to small (less than 2[Mu]m) trenches, thus prohibiting large displacements and the use of common MEMS structures such as comb drives. In this dissertation, I will discuss two methods for expanding the design rules of the epi-seal process to include large lateral deflection structures, while still maintaining the desirable qualities of the original process. The first method employs a thick SiO2 deposition and its subsequent planarization to fill in all of the large trenches. The second method involves fusion bonding a sacrificial wafer to a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer, in which devices are already etched, bridging over the trenches. The sacrificial wafer is thinned via grinding and polishing, similar to the fabrication of an SOI. Cavities are vented through the thinned wafer and devices released using HF vapor. Like the epi-seal process, the devices are then cleaned and sealed in the epitaxial silicon reactor for both of these processes. Many widely varying devices were produced using this process in the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF) with high yield. I will discuss some of these devices and how we used them to characterize the packaging.

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Kenny Thomas William primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Howe Roger Thomas advisor. Thesis advisor
O'Brien Gary (Gary J.)