VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Ethnic Identity Among the Children of Vietnamese Refugees at a Highly Selective University

Building on literature around biculturalism, segmented assimilation theory, and existing research on children of Vietnamese refugees, this thesis tests the validity of segmented assimilation theory, and in particular, the outcome model linking high achievement with intentional preservation of immigrant community values (Portes and Zhou 1993, Zhou and Bankston III 1994). Using attendance at a highly selective university as a proxy for academic achievement, the study investigated the patterns and degrees of ethnic identification amongst high-achieving students whose parents were Vietnamese refugees through surveys and follow-up interviews. I found that while the students within this sample of high-achievers varied with respect to ethnic involvement scores, they coalesced around shared traditional Vietnamese values, especially hard work, and expressed strong self-identification with their Vietnamese heritage. In addition to validating segmented assimilation theory and the positive nature of biculturalism, these findings underscores the need for firstly, a more holistic research approach to ethnic identity beyond conventional expressions such as language, and secondly, more research on how cultural pluralism can be promoted in educational spaces.

Keywords: segmented assimilation theory
Vietnamese refugees
ethnic identity
Graduate School of Education
Thesis
Advisor: Padilla Amado
Willinsky John
Ethnically and linguistically diverse children [electronic resource] : teachers' perceptions and classroom effects on vocabulary development

In recent decades, the share of ethnically and linguistically diverse children enrolled in schools in the United States has exponentially increased. Despite the growing representation of ethnic minority and dual language learner (DLL) children, there is persistent evidence of early vocabulary gaps between low-income and DLL children and their higher-income and language majority peers. In addition, teachers hold diminished perceptions of ethnic minority and DLL children's academic skills. In three papers, this dissertation examines aspects of ethnic and linguistic minority children's classroom experiences that hold implications for children's vocabulary development and teachers' perceptions of their executive functions (EFs). Two papers utilize the nationally representative Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) to examine how the languages used by teachers and peers can promote preschoolers' English vocabulary development while supporting their Spanish vocabulary development. In the first paper, I examine whether the languages used for instruction and the proportion of DLLs in the classroom are associated with DLLs' English and Spanish vocabulary development. Findings hold implications for the optimal balance of English and Spanish for instruction, as well as the composition of classrooms for DLLs. In the second paper, I consider the association between peers' vocabulary ability and DLLs' English and Spanish vocabulary development. I also examine whether these associations vary by DLLs' initial vocabulary skills. Findings hold implications for the creation of mixed ability classrooms and the value of peer-to-peer interactions in preschool. Finally, in the third paper, I examine teachers' perceptions of elementary students' EFs. I test whether teachers' ratings of students' EFs vary systematically as a function of students' gender, ethnicity and English Language Learner status, while controlling for a direct assessment of students' EFs. Moreover, I examine whether these associations change between the fall and spring. Teachers' perceptions of students' executive functions could hold ramifications for students' academic trajectories, and may contribute to minority students' overrepresentation in school discipline and special education. Implications for practitioners and policy-makers are discussed in each paper.

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Stipek Deborah J.
Goldenberg Claude
Obradović Jelena (Education professor) advisor. Thesis advisor
ETS-dependent telomerase reactivation in human cancers [electronic resource]

Telomerase is up-regulated in 90% of human tumors where it confers cellular immortality. Gliomas, melanomas, and cancers of the liver, bladder and thyroid, sustain highly recurrent mutations in the promoter of the gene encoding telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), whose transcription controls telomerase expression. These proximal promoter mutations, C124T and C146T, are the most common noncoding mutations in the human cancer genome. Each mutation creates a new DNA binding consensus site for ETS transcription factor GABP, but the requirement for GABP in telomerase function and cell immortalization remains unknown. In a larger context, transcriptional activation of TERT in cancers without promoter mutations has remained an intractable mystery. A detailed understanding of how TERT regulation in cancer compares to that in normal cells is also lacking. Closing these gaps of knowledge would greatly advance our understanding of the immortalization process and provide insights into therapeutic designs targeting telomerase in cancer. The work described here aims to answer the fundamental questions regarding the mechanisms governing telomerase reactivation in cancer. Using CRISPR mediated genome editing, here we show that GABP is not only indispensible for telomerase expression and immortality in TERT mutant cancers, but also necessary for TERT activation in TERT WT cancers. GABP activates wild type TERT promoter by binding to a conserved ETSbox. In TERT promoter mutant cancers, cooperation between ETSbox and the de novo ETS site is crucial in allowing heterotetramer formation of GABP. Furthermore, we demonstrate that GABP is not only required for TERT transcription in cancers but also in human and mouse embryonic stem cells. We propose that an evolutionarily conserved role of GABP in regulating TERT promoter in telomerase positive cells, and TERT promoter mutations operate by potentiating this mechanism through allowing heterotetramer formation and therefore stronger effects of GABP.

Advisor: Artandi Steven E. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Brunet Anne
Sage Julien advisor. Thesis advisor
Wernig Marius advisor. Thesis advisor
Evaluating Causal Pathways to Sustainable WASH Infrastructure in Developing Countries

In an effort to achieve the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals, external partners, such as multilateral agencies, donor organizations, and non-governmental organizations, are providing water infrastructure assets to developing communities at an increasing rate. Unfortunately, while external partners provide technical, management, and monetary support for these projects, there can be negative impacts to their involvement. When these external partners withdraw from projects after the construction phase, lack of technical knowledge transfer or community ownership can jeopardize sustainable infrastructure operations and maintenance. To better understand which factors can predict sustainable infrastructure operations and maintenance, there is a need for more exploration of how external partners are involved in project delivery. Aligning with this goal, this study looks at 26 water well projects that have been implemented in developing countries with the assistance of an external partner, Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA). Using past literature on sustainable water infrastructure project delivery in developing communities, emergent coding techniques with project documents, and surveys with EWB-USA team members, the research team developed a set of project conditions to conduct fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and respective truth tables. Preliminary results show there are several paths towards sustainable infrastructure operations and maintenance. These paths include factors that span technology and construction processes, project governance, and community engagement strategies. Results from this research will be helpful for informing how external partners deliver water infrastructure projects in the future and establish mechanisms that increase sustainable asset operations and maintenance. This thesis and the research it explains was completed as part of the degree requirements for a Masters of Art in International Policy Studies at Stanford University.

Keywords:  Stanford Global Studies
sustainable infrastructure
water service
developing communities
qualitative comparative analysis
Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies
Thesis
Advisor: Walters Jeffrey
Stoner Kathyrn
Evaluating diagnostics under dependency [electronic resource]

Though estimation and inference procedures for the receiver operator characteristic ("ROC") curve are well studied in the cross-sectional setting, there is less research when both biomarker measurements and disease statuses are observed longitudinally. In a motivating example, we are interested in characterizing the value of longitudinally measured CD4 counts for predicting the presence or absence of a transient spike in HIV viral load, also time-dependent. The most common existing method neither appropriately characterizes the diagnostic value of observed CD4 counts nor efficiently uses status history in predicting current spike status. We propose parametric and nonparametric procedures to estimate the ROC in the longitudinal setting. Extensive simulations have been conducted to examine the small sample operational characteristics of the proposed methods.

Keywords: Statistics.
Advisor: Tian Lu primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Holmes Susan
Siegmund David
Evaluating the Role of U.S. Foreign Policy Institutions in Permitting a Coercive Russian Energy Policy

Since 1991, the Russian Federation has repeatedly curtailed natural gas deliveries to European states for geopolitical reasons. The Soviet Union, however, never once cut off natural gas supplies to Europe during the Cold War.
While other scholars attribute the rise of Russia’s energy weapon to Russian institutions, geopolitics and individuals, this thesis expands upon an underdeveloped explanation by examining the role that institutions of U.S. foreign policy may have played during the Cold War in permitting Russia’s aggressive energy policy today.
Recently declassified documents reveal that President Nixon’s response to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo forced institutions U.S. foreign policy to effectively respond to the rise energy threat. However, by concentrating focus on oil security in the Middle East, the administration established an institutional blind spot on natural gas in Europe. The very same institutions that exhibited a blind spot also experienced institutional atrophy under the Carter administration.
Decisions made during the Reagan administration compounded on institutional failures. By sanctioning European companies, the Reagan administration prevented practical institutional exchange between American diplomats and their European counterparts on issues of energy security for nearly a decade.
When the collapse of the Soviet Union was imminent, the institutional blind spot and lack of institutional exchange laid the groundwork for institutions of U.S. foreign policy to permit Russia’s aggressive foreign energy policy today.

Keywords: Soviet Union
Russian Federation
Energy
Natural Gas
Pipelines
Cold War
OPEC
Energy Crisis
Thesis
Advisor: Blacker Coit D.
The evaluation and development of techniques used to model the effects of aircraft emissions on climate and air pollution [electronic resource]

As the popularity of and global access to air travel expands, quantifying its impact on climate and air pollution becomes increasingly important. Despite advancements in research, large uncertainties remain in quantifying the impact of non-CO2 aircraft emissions on the atmosphere. The highly-varying spatial distribution of emissions and their byproducts, as well as the wide temporal range over which changes occur, make in-flight measurement campaigns difficult, and have only recently become available. The complex micro-physical and chemical processes that occur in an early aircraft plume make modeling these effects equally difficult, and the methods by which they are assessed are continually updated. This work discusses several techniques used to model the effects of aviation on climate and air pollution in an attempt to quantify and minimize the uncertainties associated with model results. First, a study is presented comparing the results of modeling aircraft exhaust in an expanding sub-grid plume, versus adding it directly to the model grid-scale. The effects of adding additional layered plumes representing multiple, overlapping flights, and the frequency with which those interactions occur, is also examined. The following chapter explores the effects of global, all-altitude aircraft emissions on surface air quality, a subject that necessitates the use of global atmospheric chemistry models. However, the techniques and interpretation of results from previous studies have varied widely. Here, five models with harmonized input are used to predict aviation-induced changes in surface ozone and particulate matter. The inter-comparison also helps identify the primary reasons results from previous studies have shown such large variation. Finally, a study is presented comparing the modeled evolution of aircraft exhaust aerosol and contrail particles and gases with measurements from the ACCESS II field experiment. The ACCESS II campaign measured short-term, near-field exhaust from several flights in order to compare the contrail characteristics of flights using traditional JP-8 jet fuel versus an alternative biofuel/low-sulfur JP-8 blend. This work explores the methods used to model early contrail development, and the impact these methods have on longer-term atmospheric simulations.

Advisor: Jacobson Mark Z. (Mark Zachary) primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Hildemann Lynn M. (Lynn Mary) advisor. Thesis advisor
Lele Sanjiva K. (Sanjiva Keshava)
Evaluation of water security in Jordan using a multi-agent hydroeconomic model [electronic resource]

This dissertation focuses on the development of a multi-agent, hydroeconomic model for water policy evaluation in Jordan. Jordan ranks among the most water-scarce countries in the world, a situation recently exacerbated due to an influx of refugees escaping the civil war in neighboring Syria. The modular, multi-agent model is used to evaluate interventions for enhancing Jordan's water security, integrating biophysical modules that simulate natural and engineered phenomena with human modules that represent behavior at multiple levels of decision making. The hydrologic modules are developed using spatially-distributed groundwater and surface water models, which are translated into compact simulators for efficient integration into the multi-agent model. For the human modules, the multi-agent approach explicitly accounts for human agency at multiple levels of decision making, with agents representing riparian, management, supplier, and water user groups. Human agents are implemented as autonomous entities in the model that make decisions in relation to one another and in response to hydrologic and socioeconomic conditions. The integrated model is programmed in Python using Pynsim, a generalizable, open-source object-oriented software framework for modeling network-based water resource systems. The model is run for a historical period (2006-2014) and for a future period (present-2050). For the historical runs, the model performance is validated against historical data for several observations that reflect the interacting dynamics of both the hydrologic and human components of the system. In addition, model sensitivity analysis is conducted revealing the hydrologic and human aspects of the system that most strongly influence water security outcomes, providing insight into coupled human-water system dynamics as well as priority areas of focus for continued model improvement. A historical counterfactual scenario is also constructed to isolate and identify the impacts of the recent Syrian civil war and refugee crisis on Jordan's water system. For the future period, model narratives are constructed to evaluate potential supply, demand, and institutional interventions over a wide range of plausible climate and socioeconomic scenarios.

Keywords: Earth System Science.
Advisor: Gorelick Steven
Freyberg David L. advisor. Thesis advisor
Lobell David
"Everything depends on where consciousness is directed" [electronic resource] : narrative, attention and experiences of form in Tolstoy

This dissertation explores Tolstoy's long, broad, deep engagement with questions of attention, an area which has not before been fully studied. It focuses on Tolstoy's exploration of the interrelationship between attention, narrative, writing and form through both his fiction and non-fiction. It illuminates the context of Tolstoy's inquiry into attention - his engagement with the mid-late nineteenth century science of mind and attention - specifically the field of psychophysics (pioneered by German scientists Gustav Fechner and Ernst Weber) and the English late-nineteenth century field of materialist aesthetics that it influenced, with a focus on Tolstoy's engagement in What is Art? with the work of late-nineteenth century English theorist of aesthetics James Sully, who drew on the work of Weber and Fechner. This dissertation reads Tolstoy's texts through the lens of attention, specifically the stakes between unconscious attention (as articulated in the diary entry made famous by Viktor Shklovsky in which Tolstoy realizes he cannot remember whether or not he has dusted the sofa) and unconscious attention (as in the representation of Prince Andrei walking across the battlefield at Borodino bringing conscious attention to the feel of the ground under the feet and the length of his strides). I explore narrative modes through which Tolstoy brings consciousness to attention and argue that the movements between unconscious attention and conscious attention (a state of being aware of the attention) in Tolstoy are a fundamental and unexplored dynamic of his work. Through exploring Tolstoy's investigation of the relationship between attention and awareness in this way, I seek to move us beyond the limitations of reading Tolstoy in terms of psychological realism, psychological accuracy, psychological portraiture; in other words, beyond the context of thought and the contents of the mind to the context that Tolstoy, as we see through both his non-fiction and fiction, was most invested in - the relationship between thought and awareness, between attention and awareness. By doing so, I offer an approach to reading the literary text in terms of the relationship between attention and awareness. This approach gives us a perspective on the process of attention and awareness that makes "the stone stony" -- the process of bringing consciousness to attention, of making us aware of our attention. Tracing the various modes through which Tolstoy brings consciousness to attention offers the possibility of expanding our understanding of Shklovsky's conception of renewing and revivifying perception.

Keywords: Slavic Languages and Literatures.
Advisor: Greenleaf Monika
Safran Gabriella
Woloch Alex
Evolution of antibodies and human disease [electronic resource]

This thesis explores the effect on human disease of two evolutionary processes: environmental selection on human disease risk alleles and antibody selection in response to vaccination. Examples of the effect of environment on the genetics of human disease exist, but the relative contributions of environmental selection and neutral forces, such as Out-of-Africa migration, on the genes that increase disease risk are not well understood. Chapter 2 explores the stability of a method commonly used to infer selection due to environmental variables and proposes a method to decrease run-to-run variability. Then, using this method as well as a novel method for determining environmental selection across human populations, chapter 3 examines the effect of Out-of-Africa migration and climate variables on the worldwide frequencies of disease risk alleles. The second half of this thesis focuses on the selection of antibodies, proteins that identify and neutralize foreign molecules in the human body, that occurs within an individual in response to seasonal influenza vaccination. Although the general mechanisms underlying antibody selection have been studied for decades, few quantitative measurements have been made, and the details of this process are not well understood. Using high throughput sequence data, chapter 4 explores the dynamics of the antibody response. Our analyses identify selection on specific sequence characteristics and estimate previously unknown distributions that allow inferences on the biological processes that occur during antibody selection. Chapter 5 examines the similarity of the antibody response across individuals, showing that a much stronger convergence of antibody sequences occurs within individuals than between.

Keywords: Biology.
Advisor: Feldman Marcus W. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Fisher Daniel
Quake Stephen Ronald advisor. Thesis advisor
Rosenberg Noah
Examining the immunometabolic role of the kynurenine pathway in states of Aβ42 toxicity

Recent human genome-wide association studies have implicated microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system, in contributing to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Oligomeric amyloid-beta (Aβ42), the precursor to Aβ plaque formation, elicits pro-inflammatory responses in microglia. Recently, using two separate AD-immune models, our lab has identified the kynurenine pathway (KP) as being highly regulated in microglia and in peripheral monocytes. The KP metabolizes tryptophan (TRP) through the KP, forming quinolinic acid (QUIN), a precursor of de novo nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). Recent data from the lab also shows that microglia suppress the KP enzyme quinolinate phosphoribosyl transferase (Qprt) when stimulated with Aβ42, resulting in accumulation of QUIN and decrease production of NAD+. Considering that NAD+ also functions as the main electron carrier in oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), we sought to examine whether the immune KP regulates the metabolic state of microglia and macrophages. Using an immune model of AD by stimulating human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs) with Aβ42, we characterized the KP using transcriptomics and quantitative western analysis. We also conducted seahorse and NAD+ assays to assess cellular respiration and NAD+ levels, respectively. Finally, we ran metabolomics on mouse macrophages as a preliminary experiment to document metabolic changes that occur due to genomic and pharmacological inhibition of the KP. Our findings show that in the presence of Aβ42, MDMs exhibit a decrease in OXPHOS and down-regulate Qprt. Pharmacological inhibition of various KP enzymes replicates the decrease in OXPHOS and also induces the MDMs to adopt a pro-inflammatory phenotype. Last, untargeted metabolomics reveals enrichment of metabolic processes that are implicated in inflammation. Our study strongly suggests that modulation of de novo NAD+ through the KP can influence the metabolic activity and the inflammatory state of the cell.

Keywords: Andreasson, Katrin
Biology
Alzheimer’s disease
microglia
macrophages
immunometabolism
NAD+
kynurenine pathway
Warburg effect
Thesis
Advisor: Minhas Paras