VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
How Relationships between the District Office and the High School Sites Influence the Implementation of Algebra for All

Federal initiatives have put great pressure on districts to show student success. Prior research on education reform focused on the school as the unit of change to improve student achievement and implement systemic reform. However, because districts have the responsibility to improve the instructional quality and performance of all their schools, researchers have begun to focus on responsibilities of the district in supporting and implementing systemic reform. Scholars are beginning to investigate how the connections between central offices and schools influence systemic reform. Social networks are a way to investigate the connections between central offices and schools, and how they matter for implementation of educational reform. I conducted a case study of how relationships between the central office and the schools influenced reform efforts in high school mathematics education. My cross case study is of four school sites in a district that was implementing Algebra for All, a reform where all students are placed in an algebra class or higher when they enter high school. I used social capital theory and the four dimensions of ties, trust, access to expertise and the content of interactions to guide my study of how district policy and support influences social interactions and fosters the development of social capital to implement mathematics reform at a school site./nI found that school sites adopted Algebra for All in spite of reservations because they trusted the district. Teachers and schools drew on the assets of social capital and their networks for resources and expertise to assist in implementing the reform. Principals played a key role and acted as boundary spanners to broker resources for their schools. Organizations outside of the district were also sources of support. However, sources of support and expertise from the district and outside resources were not always leveraged due to a lack of ties internally in the school. The teachers did not have congruent and deep discussions about the reform effort but this did not impede implementation. Informal social networks supported implementation and allowed teachers to share resources. The nature of teacher networks including proximity, educational values, longevity of ties and expertise supported the reform Algebra for All. These conclusions have practical implications for educators seeking to understand how districts and schools can work together to implement reform efforts successfully.

Advisor: Coburn, Cynthia E
Assessment of the Effect of Different Isolation Systems on Seismic Response of a Nuclear Power Plant

Seismic isolation is utilized in both traditional and industrial structures for its ability to reduce structural responses while effectively protecting sensitive building contents. Although this mature technology has been studied extensively, there is limited research on its application to Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). Studies have yet to address topics such as sensitivity of equipment and the effects of seismic isolation on floor response spectra (FRS) caused by high frequencies and the inclusion of vertical motion. This paper's studies investigate the relationship between structural response and isolator mechanics, ground motion sensitivity, and the effectiveness of various isolator types, especially nonlinear isolators. Overall trends are identified that provide insight into the interaction between the isolation system and the response at various levels of the NPP. By understanding these relationships and connections, a set of valid recommendations for the selection and design of isolation systems is provided. This work is pursued through analyzing the performance of an APR1400 plant considering regulatory guidelines and utilizing a variety of ground motions, isolator types, and isolator models.

Advisor: Mahin, Stephen
PRESERVING LOCAL PUBLIC HEALTH LABORATORIES IN CALIFORNIA BY SPECIALIZATION IN LOW-TO-MODERATE VOLUME TESTS

Public health laboratories are the first line of defense in the fight against communicable diseases and bioterrorism. The local public health laboratories in particular serve important functions including the identification and monitoring of pathogens in the community. They have the ability to respond to individual challenges within their jurisdictions with creative and innovative solutions. Unfortunately, instead of investing in and expanding the functions of their public health laboratory, many jurisdictions are forced by budget cuts, workforce shortages, and competition with private/commercial laboratories, to consider downsizing or closure of these essential facilities.2-4 California has been especially targeted by reorganization approaches, including regionalization, consolidation and privatization, because it has a unique, decentralized system consisting of one state- and 35 local laboratories, many more than other states.5 Reorganization, however, might be applicable only in a few isolated settings and faces opposition from many lab directors and health officers.2 It would result in further public health laboratory closures to the detriment of the overall mission of public health./nIt would be imperative to strengthen the local public health laboratories, improve their cost-effectiveness and maintain their quality service. This could be achieved through specimen volume increases in certain testing areas. Economies of scale would arise due to costs being distributed over more samples, and quality might be improved. One strategy to achieve volume increases is specialization, or the sharing of testing services amongst several neighboring public health laboratories. If focused on the particularly cost-inefficient low-to-moderate volume tests, specialization might be able to achieve the greatest benefits. It was the goal of this research to identify the current level of support for and the prevalence of specialization in low-to-moderate volume tests in the local jurisdictions of California and to examine how feasible wider implementation would be. Additionally, a Cost-Effectiveness Evaluation Model was developed to evaluate past or future service changes, such as volume increases or service sharing, based on their effect on the cost, revenue and quality of testing. Overall, this alternative strategy to strengthen the public health laboratories was examined so that public health policy makers, administration, and lab directors can make a more informed decision about the future of their public health laboratory.

Advisor: Buehring, Gertrude C
Liver Fluke Infection and Fish Consumption in Khon Kaen, Thailand: A Case Study on Negotiating the Middle Ground between Western Science and Eastern Culture

This research investigates why typical strategies for promoting health, prolonging life, and preventing disease do not work in many communities. I use the liver fluke infection endemic in Khon Kaen, Thailand to explore the middle ground between Western science and Eastern culture. Prior work on the O.viverrini infection in Khon Kaen, Thailand has focused almost exclusively on developing effective medical treatment for the liver fluke infection. This dissertation employs a case study designed to explore the conditions that created and perpetuate the problem in the first place. In concrete terms, I analyze how the worldviews of local villagers shape their attitudes toward life (and death), which in turn determine if they engage in the high–risk behavior — eating undercooked fish — that makes them vulnerable to the infection. My research focuses on these people in–situ over a three–month period, and includes data from participant–observation, interviews, and video–recordings. This work seeks to illuminate how people’s thinking and reasoning skills, and personal/cultural identities affect their abilities to learn and act on new health concepts. This potentially provides a window into future educational strategies in a complex world.

Advisor: Syme, S. Leonard
Agogino, Alice M.
Mineralization of carbon dioxide sequestered in volcanogenic sandstone reservoir rocks

We proposed to use volcanogenic sandstones for CO2 sequestration. Such sandstones with a relatively high percentage of volcanic rock fragments (VRF) could be a promising target for CO2 sequestration in that they have a sufficient percentage of reactive minerals to allow substantial mineralization of injected scCO2, which provides the most secure form of CO2 storage, but can also be porous and permeable enough to allow injection at acceptable rates. The limitation in using volcanogenic sandstones as CO2 reservoir rocks is that porosity and permeability tend to decrease with increase of volcanic rock fragments (VRF) and with the length and complexity of the diagenetic history. Decreased porosity limits the rate at which CO2 can be injected. We evaluated these tradeoffs to assess the feasibility of using volcanogenic sandstone to achieve highly secure CO2 storage. Using relationships between VRF percent, porosity and permeability from available geological data, the reactive transport code TOUGHREACT was used to estimate the rate and extent of CO2 mineralization over 1000 years, and the trade-off between higher reactivity and lower porosity and permeability. For the parameter set that we believe is defensible, the optimal VRF percent for the largest amount of mineralized CO2 is around 10-20%. The results show that as much as 80% CO2 mineralization could occur in 1000 years and still allow sufficient injectivity so that ca. 1 megaton of CO2 can be injected per year per well. The key to estimating how much CO2 can be injected and mineralized is the relationship between permeability (or injectivity), reactive mineral content, mineral dissolution rates and reactive surface areas. We have sampled examples of volcanogenic sandstones from the Miocene Etchegoin Formation, central California to examine these parameters. Characterizations of these samples by SEM, XRF and XRD show that they are very rich in reactive minerals with around 32% plagioclase, 10% orthopyroxene, 2% clinopyroxene, and 1% ilmenite. Porosities range from 10% to 20%, and permeabilities range from 10 mD to 1000 mD. Batch experiments are also conducted to measure dissolution rates of one of the common minerals in volcanic sandstones, i.e. chlorite. Results show that the released Mg from chlorite in such sandstones could provide enough cations to potentially mineralize about half the stored CO2 in the pore space within 1000 years. The last chapter presents an extension of the TOUGHREACT code to include carbon 13 isotope into reactive transport modeling. 13C isotope proves to be a great tracer for monitering subsurface flow of CO2.

Advisor: DePaolo, Donald J
Emergent Identities in the African Diaspora: The Bocas Way

This dissertation is an example of community-engaged scholarship. Working with descendant communities in Bocas del Toro, I have conducted ethnographic and oral historical accounts, archival research, and archaeological excavations. My work combines these sources to trace how identities are created, maintained, and change over time. I argue for the importance of social context in identity formation and explore how identity in Bocas del Toro is often expressed through foodways./nToday Bocas del Toro, Panama is a diverse racial and ethnic gumbo that has produced a unique Afro-creole culture. The culture area primarily consists of self-identified Afro-Antilleans, but with important contributions from Latino, Chinese, indigenous Panamanians and wealthy White European and American retirees and adventurers. Within the written history of this fascinating culture there are many silences and unanswered questions regarding the early Afro-Antillean inhabitants. My research offers insight into the chronology and components of the present-day culture and explains current demographic trends as well as the local culture history. My research further offers insight into the interactions and trade spheres that developed and supported the early post contact inhabitants during a time when neither the Spanish nor the English had firm control over the region.

Advisor: Wilkie, Laurie A
FGF-dependent patterning of the Ciona intestinalis anterior neural plate

Tunicates are marine invertebrates belonging to the sister group to vertebrates. Their simple embryogenesis and compact genomes, along with the ease of experimental manipulation, make them well-suited for the study of cell-fate specification in chordates. Despite their extreme divergence, tunicate larvae possess a characteristic chordate body plan, and many developmental pathways have been shown to be conserved between tunicates and vertebrates. For example, FGF signaling is important for induction and patterning of neural tissue in both groups. Here, I demonstrate the role of FGF signaling in patterning the mid-gastrula neural plate and explore the transcriptional effectors functioning downstream of FGF signaling at this stage. I find distinct roles for two ETS family transcription factors in medial versus lateral cells of the neural plate. Furthermore, I provide evidence for a more posterior origin of photoreceptor cells than has been previously reported and show that photoreceptor specification does not depend on FGF signaling. I suggest that the cells previously identified as the photoreceptor progenitors in fact give rise to ependymal cells of the larval brain, and may be among the population of "stem-like" cells that differentiate into neurons in the adult brain.

Advisor: Levine, Michael S
Teach Them to Earn a Living: U.S. Education Policy, Racial Legacies, and Welfare State in a 1960s Global Context

Despite the transnational turn in American history, relatively little research in U.S. education history steps beyond the traditional nation-based framework. This dissertation examines the War on Poverty's unprecedented focus on racial inequities and education-based policies within a global context. Employing an array of primary sources, the dissertation demonstrates how global political economic forces shaped 1960s policymaker and activist concerns from which these novel and historically contingent policies developed. To illuminate these processes, the dissertation analyses three seminal reforms in which questions of education, racial equality, and the welfare state intersected: the Job Corps, Head Start, and bilingual education./nThe first two chapters illustrate how global economic shifts translated into competing explanations for why poor blacks struggled to secure work and rear children respectively. In doing so, both chapters demonstrate how policymakers offered education-based anti-poverty reforms as genuine concessions while simultaneously rechanneling black activists' concerns from economic reforms toward cultural, educational ones. The Job Corps as a means of addressing a "culture of poverty" that placed exceptional obstacles on young black men entering the job market and mainstream America. Head Start as a notion of the inadequacy of family services coupled with growing family dysfunction symbolized by the matriarchal black family./nThe last chapter illuminates how bilingual education similarly resulted from concerns over global economic shifts shaping vying claims of Latino cultural citizenship versus cultural deficit. Likewise, while both policymakers and activists sought to promote a coherent Latino ethnic community as a means to assist poor Latinos, the focus on bilingual education ultimately benefited policymakers over activists. Each of these three reforms provides a complementary lens to understand how global developments intersected with national contestations over race, class, gender, and culture. Combined, the cases demonstrate how 1960s education-based reforms served both as arenas of ideological contestation resulting from global instabilities and as state instruments that produced institutional and behavioral changes with significant material effects./nThe dissertation offers two key contributions. First, the dissertation integrates federal educational policy history as part of the broader history of the American welfare state. Second, the dissertation positions postwar education and welfare state reforms within global economic and political developments largely unnoted in U.S. education history. Understanding the layered history of these political, economic, and ideological shifts is significant because, despite the retrenchment of the traditional liberal welfare state, the relation of racial disparities to poverty and the state reliance on education-based reforms to address both concerns continues to drive U.S. public and policymaker debates.

Advisor: Perlstein, Daniel
Galaxies and Dark Matter in Groups

This thesis presents a systematic study of the relationships between galaxy properties and their environments. Multi-wavelength imaging and spectroscopic data are used to construct a large sample of galaxy groups spanning nearly half the age of the Universe. Weak gravitational lensing measurements enable a census of baryonic and dark matter in these groups, and in particular, identification of halo centers. With empirically determined centers of mass, trends in galaxy colors and morphologies with groupcentric distance are studied to test models of galaxy evolution.

Advisor: Schlegel, David
Seljak, Uros
Wired to Sleep on it: Interactions between Structural Neuroanatomy, Sleep Oscillatory Acivity, and Hippocampal-Dependent Learning and Memory

Sleep is highly conserved across phylogeny, yet marked inter-individual differences in sleep physiology are expressed. In humans, such variability is especially evident for non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep spindle and slow wave oscillations, representing trait-like physiological "fingerprints". Nevertheless, the mechanisms accounting for these differences, and the functional consequences of this variability, remain largely unknown. This thesis combines structural MRI, sleep EEG, and cognitive memory paradigms to test the hypothesis that brain morphology represents one candidate factor explaining inter-individual differences in NREM oscillations, which, in turn, consequently predict functional learning and memory. From this central hypothesis, three inter-related, yet distinct, studies are presented. Study 1 demonstrates that inter-individual variability in NREM physiology is accounted by grey matter morphology in functionally relevant brain regions. Specifically, grey matter in the sleep-regulating center of the basal forebrain/hypothalamus, together with the medial prefrontal cortex, accounted for individual differences in NREM slow waves. In contrast, grey matter in interoceptive and exteroceptive cortices predicted slower NREM sleep spindles, whereas grey matter volume in bilateral hippocampus was associated with faster sleep spindles. Study 2 establishes that the substructure of the hippocampus--specifically, the CA3/DG subfield--determines inter-individual levels of learning impairment following sleep deprivation, yet conversely interacts with post-deprivation recovery NREM sleep in predicting learning restoration. Finally, Study 3 describes a beneficial influence of fast NREM sleep spindles on differentially gating the selective offline consolidation of memories, based on prior waking instructions, leading to the selective remembering and forgetting of discreet item information. Together, these data indicate that macroscopic differences in structural brain morphology represent one mechanism accounting for individual differences in NREM sleep physiology, as well as associated consequences for learning and memory. More generally, these findings offer translational relevance to the structural brain abnormalities present in conditions such as dementia, sleep apnea, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, where sleep disruption and memory impairment are highly co-morbid.

Advisor: Walker, Matthew P
Models for Understanding Student Thinking using Data from Complex Computerized Science Tasks

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) define performance targets which will require assessment tasks that can integrate discipline knowledge and cross-cutting ideas with the practices of science. Complex computerized tasks will likely play a large role in assessing these standards, but many questions remain about how best to make use of such tasks within a psychometric framework (National Research Council, 2014). This dissertation explores the use of a more extensive cognitive modeling approach, driven by the extra information contained in action data collected while students interact with complex computerized tasks. Three separate papers are included. In Chapter 2, a mixture IRT model is presented that simultaneously classifies student understanding of a task while measuring student ability within their class. The model is based on differentially scoring the subtask action data from a complex performance. Simulation studies show that both class membership and class-specific ability can be reasonably estimated given sufficient numbers of items and response alternatives. The model is then applied to empirical data from a food-web task, providing some evidence of feasibility and validity. Chapter 3 explores the potential of using a more complex cognitive model for assessment purposes. Borrowing from the cognitive science domain, student decisions within a strategic task are modeled with a Markov decision process. Psychometric properties of the model are explored and simulation studies report on parameter recovery within the context of a simple strategy game. In Chapter 4 the Markov decision process (MDP) measurement model is then applied to an educational game to explore the practical benefits and difficulties of using such a model with real world data. Estimates from the MDP model are found to correlate more strongly with posttest results than a partial-credit IRT model based on outcome data alone.

Advisor: Rabe-Hesketh, Sophia
Progress in Microfluidic Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has matured into an extremely powerful technique, with applications ranging from chemical analysis to molecular biology to medical diagnostic imaging. Unfortunately, the hardware associated with this technique has traditionally been large, immobile, expensive, and required frequent specialized maintenance. Microfluidic technology has allowed for a great reduction in complexity and expense for most common analytical techniques; however, little work has been done to leverage the advantages of microfluidics and nuclear magnetic resonance in a single device. In this thesis, I describe advances toward the goal of creating small, portable, inexpensive, easy-to-use NMR microfluidic instrumentation. First, I describe projects relating to the use of Xe-129 chemical sensors on microfluidic devices. I demonstrate a silicon and glass microdevice which allows the production and optical detection of hyperpolarized Xe-129 at low magnetic fields. The device enhances the NMR sensitivity of Xe-129 experiments by a factor 10^4 on hardware that is a factor of 10^6 smaller in size and power requirements than current polarizers. I describe techniques for patterning arrays of Xe-129 chemical sensors on microfluidic devices and using them to detect chemicals at picomolar sensitivities. These technologies may be integrated to produce highly integrated portable devices for detecting arbitrary chemicals in complex fluids. Due to the use of NMR as the detection modality, they may be used on dirty samples which cannot be interrogated through the use of optical spectroscopy or mass spectrometry, such as biofuels or whole human blood. The second part of this thesis deals with a method of encoding imaging information using arrays of thin magnetic films instead of magnetic field gradients. This technique obviates the need for large instrumentation in imaging experiments and may allow for greater portability, further increasing the practicality of microfluidic NMR experiments. These advances represent a significant step toward microscale NMR technology.

Advisor: Pines, Alexander