VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Youth Participatory Action Research: Studies on Mental Health, Psychological Empowerment, and Transformative Social and Emotional Learning

Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an approach that engages young people and academic researchers as equitable partners in each phase of the research process. YPAR positions youth as experts and aims to increase the power of marginalized groups in advocating for change to address issues that youth want to change. Key principles for YPAR include that it is 1) inquiry-based and topics selected are relevant to youths’ lived experiences and concerns, 2) participatory, which means youth are collaborators across research phases and methods, and 3) transformative, which means the purpose of YPAR is to change knowledge and practices through social action to improve the lives of youth and their communities. Engaging youth in participatory research can help address gaps between adolescent developmental needs and traditional school environments, such as increasing self-efficacy, establishing a sense of purpose, and creating supportive social relationships with peers and trusted adults. The continued emergent growth of the YPAR literature provides insights about study methodology, YPAR project characteristics, and the potential for youth and environmental outcomes from participation in YPAR.In this body of work, I apply frameworks from the fields of psychological empowerment, transformative social and emotional learning, and the use of research evidence. In the first paper, I conduct a systematic review of the recent YPAR literature published between 2015 and 2022, and report findings related to study methodology, YPAR principles and project characteristics, and youth outcomes. I contribute a unique, theoretically-driven analysis of youth empowerment outcomes with respect to the intrapersonal, interactional, and behavioral components of psychological empowerment. In the second paper, I extend the systematic review by applying a unique, theoretically-driven analysis of transformative social and emotional learning outcomes with respect to the transformative focal constructs of agency, belonging, collaborative problem solving, curiosity, and identity. In the third paper, I describe two YPAR project focal cases in which youth-generated evidence and youth recommendations were utilized in the development and implementation of mental health policies and practices in school settings. Further, I report conditions that facilitate and limit use of YPAR evidence addressing mental health issues in school settings. These findings will be of interest to key stakeholders including school administrators, teachers, and mental health professionals given the importance of theoretical insights and recommendations into the use of YPAR as an approach for promoting positive youth mental health, psychological empowerment, and transformative social and emotional learning outcomes in community and school settings.

Advisor: Ozer, Emily J
Essays on Behavioral Finance and Social Media Technology

How does social media change the information landscape and what are the effects on various stakeholders? This dissertation contains two essays that study this question empirically by investigating how social media affects investors, firms, influential individuals, and the stock market./nIn the first chapter of the dissertation, I study the implications of social media comment visibility on retail investor consumption and production behavior. I exploit a shock in the comment display sorting algorithm in 2018 on Daily Discussion posts on Reddit’s WallStreetBets. By comparing the market reactions to comments before and after the change, I find that going from a more curated but less timely display (Best Regime) to a less filtered but more timely display (New Regime) increases absolute abnormal returns and abnormal retail trading volumes in the five minutes after comment publication. Following the initial five minutes, Best Regime comments see a stronger price drift while New Regime comments see a slight return reversal. These results are driven primarily by firms with small market capitalization and high Robinhood user ownership. In addition, I find that changes in comment display also affect comment production timing and volume./nIn the second chapter of the dissertation, I investigate the social media posting behavior of influential individuals, namely CEOs at S&P 1500 firms, in the context of quarterly earnings announcements and provide evidence of CEO strategic behavior. Quarterly earnings announcements followed by an earnings tweet from the CEO correspond with a 1.5-2.6% higher 3-day industry-adjusted announcement return conditional on the same level of earnings surprise and are not followed by return reversals. An intraday event study around earnings tweets shows that CEOs time their tweets to ‘take credit’ for quarters with positive stock price reactions above and beyond the earnings news. I attempt to tie this behavior pattern to CEO career management concerns and find evidence that suggests that CEOs can reduce their likelihood of being fired conditional on performance measures by leveraging social media.

Advisor: Fedyk, Anastassia
Between Languages: Interlingual Retextualization Between Latin and the Medieval German Vernaculars

Scholarship in the field of Medieval Studies on the topic of translation between Latin and the vernacular languages has, in general, been plagued by certain overarching narratives and biases. More specifically, at a macro level, translation in the Middle Ages has often been viewed in terms of a cultural struggle between Latin and vernacular literary cultures and thus reifies existing assumptions about the nature of the relationship between Latin and the vernacular languages as one that is fundamentally antagonistic and competitive. The overreliance on such narratives, in turn, has lead to an overemphasis on the role of rhetoric in structuring specific translations (to the exclusion of other areas of Medieval academic thought) and further fails to adequately account for medieval texts that present themselves as translations of a particular source text but that nevertheless do not pursue faithfulness to the same degree as modern translations.Rather than offering an overarching theory about the nature of translation in the Middle Ages, the present study seeks to reexamine and ultimately deconstruct the existing scholarly narratives on the topic of medieval translation and ultimately does so via the expansion of the discussion from simply “translation” to the somewhat broader semantic field of “retextualization,” which allows for the incorporation of works that are difficult to encompass within the traditional paradigm. By exploring three specific moments of medieval retextualization—Notker’s 10th-11th century Old High German translation of traditional Latin school texts (including of the Latin translation of Boethius and Aristotle), the macaronic Latin-Middle High German compositions within the 13th century Carmina Burana, and finally, the 13th century Latin and 14th century Middle High German translations of Mechthild’s originally Low German Fliessendes Licht der Gottheit—the current study applies a discourse-analytic approach that examines the specific texts both in close dialogue with each other as well as in terms of the larger cultural and literary discourses with which each retextualization engages.

Advisor: Largier, Niklaus
Structural and Functional Studies of the K+/Cl- Cotransporter 4

Cation-chloride-cotransporters (CCCs) play critical roles in cellular volume regulation, neural development and function, audition, regulation of blood pressure, and renal function. Disruption of CCCs has been implicated in pathophysiology including epilepsy, hearing loss, and genetic disorders. In this study, we present the structure of a CCC, the Mus musculus K+-Cl- cotransporter (KCC) KCC4, determined by cryo-EM. The structure, captured in an inward-open conformation, reveals the architecture of KCCs and offers mechanistic insights into the function and regulation of this important transporter family. Our findings provide a structural explanation for the varied substrate specificity and ion transport ratio among CCCs, identify binding sites for substrate K+ and Cl- ions, and demonstrate the importance of key coordinating residues for transporter activity. These insights have significant implications for developing novel drugs and treatments targeting CCCs.

Advisor: Brohawn, Stephen G
Do the Memory Support Intervention and Improving Memory for Treatment Facilitate Behavior Change in Cognitive Therapy?

Background: The memory support intervention (MSI), derived from basic science in cognitive psychology and education, was developed in response to evidence showing that patient memory for psychological treatment is poor and that poor memory for such treatment is associated with both poorer adherence and poorer outcomes. The present study aimed to assess differences in specific factors impacting behavior change (domains) described in the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) among participants who received the MSI compared to those who received psychotherapeutic treatment-as-usual. This study also investigated whether these memory for these domains facilitate behavior change. The “platform” for this research was cognitive therapy (CT) for depression./nMethods: Participants were 64 consecutively randomized participants from a “parent study” in which adults with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (n = 178) were randomly allocated to CT + Memory Support (MS) or CT-as-usual. In the parent study, participants were assessed at baseline, post-treatment and at 6 and 12-month follow-up. To ascertain whether CT+MS better improves expertise in domains of behavior change, the Cognitive Behavior Change Interview was administered at the 12-month follow-up of the parent study. This is a qualitative and quantitative interview, grounded in the TDF. It includes ratings of potential facilitators of behavior change from the TDF, coded from audio recordings of the Cognitive Behavior Change Interview. Regression analyses were used to determine relations between memory support, these facilitators, and behavior change./nResults: On average, participants who received CT+MS scored better on overall engagement with domains of change compared to participants who received CT-as-usual. Also, improved memory for treatment was positively associated with overall engagement and the number of domains engaged. In turn, overall engagement and the total number of domains engaged were each associated with multiple outcomes at 12 months post-treatment, including utilization of skills learned in CT and better impairment and depression scores./nConclusions: This research helps facilitates understanding of the potential role of memory for what occurred in psychological treatment in improving long-term behavior change among recipients of an evidence-based psychological treatments as well, exploratory analyses highlight specific (a) domains that may be driving factors for changes in behavior as a result of CT and (b) reductions in depression and functional disability.

Advisor: Harvey, Allison G
Morse-Bott Embedded Contact Homology

This dissertation constructs a Morse-Bott version of embedded contact homology (ECH). The dissertation is comprised of two parts, corresponding to the two papers written by the author as a graduate student at UC Berkeley. The first part explains how to compute ECH in the Morse-Bott setting when certain transversality conditions are met and provided a certain correspondence theorem is true; and gives a large class of examples where the transversality conditions are satisfied. The second part provides the analytic foundations of the first part by giving a proof of the correspondence theorem.

Advisor: Hutchings, Michael
Perception for Real-World Robotics Applications

Recent advances in artificial intelligence, particularly deep learning and large foundation models, have demonstrated remarkable progress. However, when applying AI to real-world robotics applications, we still face many challenges due to the diverse scenarios and objects encountered, as well as the need for high throughput and accuracy. Off-the-shelf models often fail to meet the stringent requirements for high-performing robotic applications, because they do not adequately model uncertainty that arises in the real world. Moreover, training such models require large datasets which can be expensive to annotate or not immediately applicable for robotic applications./nWe address these challenges by introducing a novel class of models that explicitly model and handle ambiguity in 2D and 3D perception. These models offer improved adaptability and decision-making capabilities by incorporating uncertainty estimation, better equipping robots for the dynamic nature of real-world environments. Furthermore, we explore methods of leveraging diverse data collected in robotic applications without requiring costly human annotation. We propose a self-supervised learning method that enables robots to autonomously learn from the rich information available in the diverse images they encounter during operation. This approach leads to enhanced performance and adaptability, allowing robotic systems to continuously refine their perception capabilities. We hope these contributions pave the way for more robust, adaptable, and high-performing robotic systems that excel in complex and dynamic environments, addressing the unique challenges posed by real-world robotics and bridging the gap between AI research and practical robotic applications.

Advisor: Abbeel, Pieter
Essays on International Economics: Theory and Evidence from Micro-level Data

This dissertation explores modern international economics, whereby the accessibility of micro-level data has propelled the boundaries of the discipline, both in terms of theoretical modeling as well as empirical substantiation./nIn Chapter 1, we propose a model that features firm heterogeneity in both exposure and responses to input tariff shocks. We show that this setting gives rise to a new anti-competitive effect that extends the benchmark welfare gains from trade liberalization. We derive a sufficient statistic for the anti-competitive effect in a general environment — the correlation between firm market shares and their cost shares of imported inputs. The interplay between import-intensiveness and market power implies that larger firms both benefit more from input tariff cuts and pass through less of the cost reductions, leading to an increased dispersion of markups in the aggregate./nIn Chapter 2, we provide empirical evidence using a unique collection of firm-level microdata from Colombia around its 2010 trade reform to empirically test this framework. The dataset records the entirety of firm-level inputs, both imported and domestically sourced, which enables us to disentangle and identify firm-specific exposure and responses to input tariff shocks. Our quantitative analysis demonstrates that input tariff liberalization brings about a substantial anti-competitive effect, whose magnitude can be on par with the pro-competitive effects in the episode we study./nIn Chapter 3, we switch gears from firm heterogeneity to household heterogeneity to investigate the main factors driving household saving rates using cross-country household survey data collected by the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. This allows us to observe household-specific characteristics and examine the ambiguity in the existing literature on the signs of the main determinants of household saving rates. We find that households at lower saving quantiles are more vulnerable to macroeconomic shocks. The evidence from household microdata suggests the need for targeted rather than universal policy intervention.

Advisor: Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés ACR
Robust Hierarchical Control with Connected Layers

Complex systems, such as autonomous vehicles and missile guidance systems, use hierarchical control schemes where each control layer employs a different system model. This approach enhances computational efficiency because using a simpler model in the higher-level control layer reduces computation times, enabling real-time control strategies. This dissertation presents a framework in which a lower-fidelity planning model is employed for online planning, and a tracking controller, synthesized offline, keeps the tracking error between the high-fidelity (“tracking”) model and the planning model within a bounded set. To ensure safety, the error that arises from the different models in each control layer is rigorously accounted for through augmentation of the planner safety constraints with the tracking error bound. Accommodating more sources of real-world uncertainty enhances the safety and usefulness of the control scheme. We next describe a robust extension which utilizes integral quadratic constraints to accommodate input uncertainties such as unknown delays or unmodeled actuator dynamics in the tracking model. Finally, through a case study of shared vehicle control between a human driver and a supervisory autonomous system in longitudinal driving scenarios, we present a novel method called Driver-in-the-Loop Contingency MPC that leverages simplified dynamics to compute invariant sets that guarantee safety with respect to other vehicles. This contribution can be viewed as adding robustness to other agents in the planning layer.

Advisor: Arcak, Murat
Exploring the role and function of American policing: A historical and qualitative study

The institution of American policing is at an inflection point. While most Americans connect the police with safety, highly publicized police killings of unarmed people of color have brought racial disparities to the forefront of the American consciousness, and pushed many people to question the fundamental role and function of the police. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the institution of American policing, starting with its historical origins, to develop theory on the role and function of police in an attempt to identify strategies for safety. Combining historical analysis with qualitative data collected from police officers and community members in a mid-sized American city, this dissertation identifies new insights into how deeply rooted racial divisions are to the establishment and structure of American policing, the centrality of communication to the role and function of police and how police use communication as a strategy to create and maintain safety, perceptions of safety for community members, and community-based strategies for safety. Findings from the historical analysis indicate that police violence persists because it is operating within larger systems of structural violence exerted against racialized and marginalized groups. Additionally, findings from the qualitative research signify the importance of communication for police officers and community residents and the central connections between communication and safety for both groups. Taken together, these findings can inform policy intended to create greater safety, both for police officers and community residents.

Advisor: Glaser, Jack
Art Criticism: A 'Poetic' Conversation

One of the more compelling claims in the history of aesthetics is Theodore Adorno’s claim in his AestheticTheory that, “The task of aesthetics is not to comprehend artworks as hermeneutical objects; in the contemporary situation, it is their incomprehensibility that needs to be comprehended” (2015, p.118). In a few words, this sentence addresses the question that motivates this dissertation. Artworks resist understanding. Adorno sees this as a problem for aesthetics. In this dissertation I reflect on the problem Adorno’s claim illuminates for art criticism. If art criticism is an inquiry of understanding, and works of art resist comprehension, then what is it for art criticism to be appropriately and productively responsive to a work of fine art? I contend that a discourse adequate to the challenge of art criticism needs to be ‘poetic’. Not in the sense of a literary genre, but rather in the Platonic sense of poiesis as the ‘bringing-forth’ of new forms of thought. Art criticism is not principally about describing or evaluating. Instead we should see that art criticism is primarily about opening a conversation that responds to an artwork. The result of my inquiry is a radically different picture of art criticism to that offered by prevailing discourses in philosophical aesthetics./nMy goal in this dissertation is twofold. My first aim is to offer a novel analysis of art criticism. Iconsider the structure of thought involved in criticism, the form of interpretation proper to criticism, the language of criticism, and the kinds of sociality that are thereby emergent. My second aim is to bring German Classicism and Idealism, the work of Friedrich Schiller and Friedrich Hölderlin in particular, into contact with contemporary philosophical thought.

Advisor: Noë, Alva
Novakovic, Andreja
Essays on the Economics of Recent Public Policies

This dissertation empirically studies the economics of several recent important public policies in the United States, including the corporate tax cuts enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017; the Opportunity Zone program enacted by the same legislation; housing policy changes in the city of San Francisco; and tariffs enacted during the ongoing US-China Trade war. The chapters offer both causal and descriptive evidence and build on previous economic research in the fields of public finance, labor economics, and international trade. Overall, the dissertation highlights the importance of economic research in evaluating the tradeoffs inherent in setting policy and in empirically evaluating policy impacts.

Advisor: Rothstein, Jesse
Toward a Refuge of Difference: Assessing the Opportunities and Challenges of Radically Inclusive Community Organizations

Contrary to ideals many world religions champion, religio-spiritual organizations (ROs) have historically struggled with identity-based inequality. With more ROs disrupting this pattern and embracing a radically inclusive ethos, critical research can help us better understand these dynamic social spaces. This study adopts a mixed methods approach and a typology of work types to investigate some of the organizational and social processes associated with two self-proclaimed radically inclusive religio-spiritual organizations (RIROs) in the San Francisco Bay Area: City of Refuge (COR) United Church of Christ (UCC) located in the Coliseum Industrial neighborhood of Oakland, and East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) located at the west edge of Oakland’s historic Lakeside District. Descriptively, this study explores how COR and EBMC articulate and attempt to actualize organizational radical inclusion (ORI), address and, if possible, resolve interpersonal conflict, and engage in internal and external community outreach efforts. Analytically, this study explores some of the underlying motivations for these processes and how they impact individuals’ experiences of ORI. Informed by theories of multiculturalism, community, and organizations, the argument advanced here is that religio-spiritual and ethical frameworks, as well as historical and organizational contexts, shape COR’s and EBMC’s policies, practices, and processes, ultimately impacting individuals’ experiences of in-house diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). These findings contribute to research on RIROs specifically and DEIB more broadly by elucidating factors that bring about such spaces, identifying effective and ineffective mechanisms for achieving ORI and evaluating individuals’ experiences of radical inclusion.

Advisor: Harding, David J.