VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Recomposed corporealities, purity, body, and self in the mishnah [electronic resource]

The purpose of this dissertation is to trace and analyze the ways in which the rabbis who created the Mishnah, a Palestinian rabbinic legal codex whose final compilation is dated to the first half of the third century C.E., developed a unique notion of a bodily self in their remaking of the biblical laws of purity and impurity. As I show throughout the dissertation, while the rabbis adhere to the basic scheme of purity and impurity as it is portrayed in the Priestly Code, they suggest a whole new set of principles regarding the contraction, conveyance, and management of impurity. At times these principles are not only unprecedented in the Bible, but actually run contrary to the biblical understanding of impurity as a phenomenon. These remarkable innovations, I argue, are a strong indication that the rabbis reshaped the inherited system of purity and impurity not only in an attempt to preserve it but also in an attempt to make it relevant, and to adapt it to a changing conceptual and cultural framework. By examining some of the fundamental innovations that the rabbis introduced to the system of purity and impurity that they had inherited from their predecessors, I show that questions of subjectivity and consciousness profoundly shape the concepts of purity and impurity as those are developed in the Mishnah, ultimately presenting the self as a new focal point in the discourse of ritual impurity. In particular, I emphasize the ways in which the human body, which is the main and most critical site in which the drama of purity and impurity takes place, is negotiated in the Mishnah as both subject and object, both as identical to the self and as disparate from it. Through my analysis of various themes in the mishnaic discourse of purity and impurity, I demonstrate that the rabbis constructed the daily engagement with impurity and the ongoing pursuit of ritual purity as closely reflective of one's relations with one's self, with one's human and non-human environment, and with one's body.

Keywords: Religious Studies
Advisor: Fonrobert Charlotte Elisheva primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Bashir Shahzad
Gleason Maud W.
Weitzman Steven
Reconfigurable technology for future optical access networks [electronic resource]

Fiber-based access is recognized as the most promising technology for solving broadband bandwidth bottlenecks. Time division multiplexing passive optical networks (TDM-PONs) that are passive and non-reconfigurable are currently the most widely deployed type of fiber access networks. However, due to their passive nature, TDM-PONs faces several limitations such as inflexible service area coverage, lack of intelligence for control, and inability to counteract security attacks. In order to address the current limitations of optical access networks, we propose reconfigurable technologies for next generation PONs. Two novel reconfigurable technologies are proposed, analyzed, and experimentally evaluated. The first solution is a reconfigurable power-and wavelength- assignment technology based on a novel non-volatile, reconfiguration node. The proposed remote node can reconfigure the network to adapt it to varying degrees of deployment conditions and/or network attacks. Moreover, the proposed remote node incorporates a novel quasi-passive device that does not consume energy once it is reconfigured into a new latching state. Therefore, the proposed remote node has very low energy consumption and does not require local power supply to preserve the passive character of the distribution network. In particular, two novel quasi-passive optical power splitter technologies based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and transition metal oxide have been designed for the reconfigurable device. A simulation study shows the proposed reconfigurable device would outperform traditional passive splitter in terms of maximum number of supportable users under realistic deployment conditions. The second solution addresses the issue of reconfigurable network consolidation and infrastructure simplification. Current TDM-PONs suffers from limited reach and split-ratio. To enhance the performance in terms of service range and quality of service, reconfigurable network consolidation is a promising solution. It can also simplify the network and reduce cost. We propose the following novel reconfigurable technologies for consolidation and simplification of next generation access networks: (1) Passive reach-extension technology for the drop section of optical access networks; (2) Sleep mode ONUs for energy saving; (3) Centrally managed optical signature that can monitor and protect the upstream link; and (4) Multi-rate burst mode receivers. These reconfigurable technologies can bring the intelligence into optical access networks and improve the efficiency and flexibility for next generation optical access networks.

Keywords: Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Kazovsky Leonid G. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Nishi Yoshio
Solgaard Olav advisor. Thesis advisor
Refining the mathematics knowledge base [electronic resource] : the relationship between knowledge, practice, and student learning

Understanding the knowledge that teachers must bring to their classrooms is critical to the advancement of the field of teacher education. Understanding how teacher knowledge impacts various aspects of teacher practice is also critical. Understanding the interplay between teacher knowledge and practice, and consequently the result that this relationship has on student learning is most important. This dissertation attempts to advance our collective understanding of the complex relationship between teacher knowledge, teacher practice, and student learning in the field of elementary mathematics. Four third-grade teachers were followed as they taught a subset of lessons in a unit on fractions. The study first investigates the types of knowledge that the teachers brought to their classrooms. Then, an examination is conducted of the way in which these types of knowledge impacted their teaching practice. Finally, the student learning that resulted over the course of these lessons is discussed. This study supports the widespread belief that teacher knowledge is important to instruction. The descriptions of the case study teachers highlight that their varying levels of knowledge resulted in unique aspects of practice being emphasized in their classrooms. This dissertation documents the differences in teaching practice and the trade-offs that produce differences in student learning. Interesting student learning patterns emerged, based on qualitative student interviews. Medium students from classrooms in which teachers focused for more sustained periods on mathematical concepts seemed to demonstrate greater procedural fluency and deeper conceptual understanding than their peers in the other classrooms. Low students in classrooms where fluency was the focus seemed to show slightly greater procedural fluency, though less conceptual understanding, than their peers in the classrooms that spent more time on concepts. High students showed no appreciable difference across all classrooms. This study adds to the field by introducing a new construct, the conceptual threshold, to offer an explanation of these student learning trends.

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Murata Aki primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Boaler Jo
Borko Hilda advisor. Thesis advisor
Goldman Shelley V. advisor. Thesis advisor
Regulable and cell-type-specific rescue of Niemann-pick disease type C, a neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder [electronic resource]

Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is a rare metabolic lysosomal storage disorder (LSD) marked by accumulation of large quantities of cholesterol, lipids and other metabolites in cells. Though the disorder has been extensively explored using various genetic animal models, an understanding of the molecular and cellular pathology of the disease remains limited. A cell-type-specific and regulable rescue mouse model of NPC disease was engineered in order to identify the therapeutically relevant cell type and ascertain the effect of inflammation on disease progression. With the current information presented in this dissertation, a probable road map of NPC disease pathology has been drawn. The road map for NPC may also be applicable to, or act as a template for, other lysosomal storage diseases and neurodegenerative disorders with similar pathologies.

Keywords: Developmental Biology.
Advisor: Scott Matthew P. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Barres Ben
Luo Liqun
Regulatory response to environmental challenge in caulobacter crescentus [electronic resource]

Bacteria have evolved robust systems to sense environmental stimuli and limit proliferation under unfavorable conditions. While bacterial defense mechanisms have been characterized, the integration of environmental signals into the regulation of growth and development remains for the most part a mystery. The goal of this work was to identify the mechanisms by which the aquatic bacterium C. crescentus integrates information from the environment into the regulation of growth and development. I studied the transcript and protein changes that occur in C. crescentus in response to nutritional deprivation. The integration of high-throughput transcriptome and proteome analyses allowed me to obtain a comprehensive view of the process. The transcriptome changes were the starting point for the identification of genetic regulatory pathways involved in the response to environmental challenge. The alternative sigma factor SigT, one of the key regulators identified, was shown to activate the expression of a core set of general starvation-stress response genes that are cell cycle regulated during normal development in C. crescentus, and are candidates to mediate the inhibition of growth and division occurring upon environmental challenge. Furthermore, the SigT pathway was shown to directly integrate information from the environment into the circuit that regulates cell cycle progression, through the post-transcriptional regulation of the CtrA master regulator. The molecular analyses were complemented with cell biology studies, which revealed the differential effects of starvation and osmotic stress on chromosome replication and polar morphogenesis in swarmer cells. Overall, this work contributes to the emerging understanding of how the well-characterized regulatory circuit that controls cell cycle progression in C. crescentus integrates environmental signals.

Keywords: Developmental Biology.
Advisor: Shapiro Lucy primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Batzoglou Serafim advisor. Thesis advisor
Kingsley David M. (David Mark) advisor. Thesis advisor
Talbot William
Religion and nation [electronic resource] : identity manipulation in diverse societies

This research examines the ways in which national and religious identities condition cooperation in a diverse society, thus ameliorating or exacerbating the challenges posed by diversity for economic development. It asks whether national and Islamic identities in Indonesia---promoted by the main ideological camps in the country---can affect the ease of cooperation across ethnic and religious lines in a large and diverse population. The research employed a novel methodological approach that combined behavioral economic experiments with randomized psychological priming for identity. The results show the efficacy of both national and Islamic identities in conditioning inter-ethnic and inter-religious generosity. The study explores the political contexts of the results in Indonesia and the specific motivations behind patterns of behavior exposed in the lab. It demonstrates both the malleability of identity to political manipulation and the limits of this manipulation set by the power and status relations in society.

Keywords: Political Science
Advisor: Laitin David D. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Fearon James D. advisor. Thesis advisor
Weinstein Jeremy M. advisor. Thesis advisor
Resistance switching mechanism in TiO2 [electronic resource]

Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) has attracted significant attention recently, as it is now considered as the promising candidate for the next generation of non-volatile memory device, due to its high density, low operating power, fast switching speed, and compatibility with conventional CMOS process. Among many resistance switching materials, TiO2 has been widely studied. However, the most challenging issue is that the underlying switching mechanism is lacking in-depth understanding. It has been proposed that the resistance switching is strongly coupled with the presence and a preferential distribution of oxygen vacancies involving the formation of a conductive filament. Although many experiments have been done to address the switching mechanism during the last decade, it is hard to figure out what happens at microscopic level. Therefore, systematic interpretation about the microscopic details of the role of oxygen vacancies in the formation of a conductive filament is essential. To address the conduction and the resistance switching mechanism, the effect of oxygen vacancies on the electronic structures in TiO2 has been investigated using first principles calculations based on density functional theory. In this dissertation, we report "ON"-state (Low Resistance State) conduction mechanism of rutile TiO2 including oxygen vacancies, and then the transition from "ON" to "OFF"-state (High Resistance State) is investigated. Although it is known that TiO2 exhibits n-type semiconducting property with extra electrons generated by the formation of oxygen vacancies, "ON" and "OFF"-state conductivity during resistance switching cannot be explained by isolated single oxygen vacancy. We calculated electronic characteristics such as density of states, electron localization function, band decomposed charge density distribution, and energy band structure, and show the influence of oxygen vacancy configurations on these properties and on the resistance change. Oxygen vacancy ordering and diffusion of either oxygen vacancy or hydrogen impurities have a significant impact on both the formation of the conductive filament and the transition from "ON" to "OFF"-state. Results from this study indicate that the "ON"-state conduction and resistance switching model that can be ascribed to the formation and rupture of conductive filament consisting of oxygen vacancy-ordered structure.

Keywords: Materials Science and Engineering
Advisor: Clemens B. M. (Bruce M.) primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Nishi Yoshio
Magyari-Köpe Blanka
Retinoic acid deficiency reprograms lamina propria dendritic cells to drive inflammation and tumor growth in spontaneous intestinal neoplasia [electronic resource]

In the Adenomatous Polyposis Coli Multiple intestinal neoplasia (APCMin/+) mouse model of Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP), T helper 17 (Th17) cells mediate tumor-promoting intestinal inflammation, but the underlying cause of inflammation is unknown. We find that in contrast to wild type lamina propria dendritic cells (LPDCs), which maintain intestinal tolerance by inducing TReg formation, APCMin/+ LPDCs instead induce Th17 formation. The reprogramming of LPDCs is due to a local deficit of the vitamin A metabolite, retinoic acid (RA), which results from insufficient synthesis and excessive breakdown of RA by gut associated Raldh and CYP enzymes, respectively. Exposure of APCMin/+ LPDCs to RA in vitro neutralizes their inflammatory phenotype. Treatment of mice with Liarozole, a CYP inhibitor, restores intestinal RA, eliminates Th17 inflammation and markedly reduces adenoma formation, whereas a vitamin A-deficient diet exacerbates disease. Elevated IL-17 and dysregulated vitamin A metabolism were also observed in FAP adenomas, suggesting that the same mechanism responsible for tumor-promoting intestinal inflammation in APCMin/+ mice applies to humans.

Advisor: Engleman Edgar G. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Butcher Eugene advisor. Thesis advisor
Contag Christopher H. advisor. Thesis advisor
Negrin Robert S. advisor. Thesis advisor
Re-writing the myth [electronic resource] : Gershom Scholem, zionism, and kabbalah

The objective of this dissertation is to offer a fundamental reevaluation of Gershom Scholem, his life and his work until the year of the publication of Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 1941. The following chapters describe, on the one hand, the twists and turns of Scholem's life from his youth in Berlin before the First World War and until becoming a fulfilled historian, working in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem during the Second World War. And they discuss Scholem's grand thesis of Jewish modernity as described in Major Trends, starting with the Spanish expulsion in 1492, leading to the creation of the Lurianic myth of exile, through the traumatic eruption of Sabbatian heresy that ended with the splintering of the Jewish national spirit on the doorstep of a new era in Jewish history. The dissertation shows how Scholem's historical thesis about the development of Jewish history was fundamentally shaped by the concerns, ideas and events that were instrumental to Scholem in his life. Living in exile in Germany aspiring to overcome social alienation and the experienced mechanization of mass society translated in Scholem's mind to a vision of Zionism and in turn to an idea about the revival of the ancient myth of the Jewish people. The dissertation thus sets out to prove that not only that Scholem self fashioning was extremely sided, but also the relation between his political views and his work on the Kabbalah were dramatically more complex than otherwise assumed.

Keywords: German Studies.
Advisor: Eshel Amir primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Berman Russell A.
Gumbrecht Hans Ulrich advisor. Thesis advisor
Rhodium-catalyzed oxidation reactions for the synthesis of diamines and polyamines [electronic resource]

The utility of 1,2- and 1,3-diamines is far-reaching as the diamino structural motif is found in pharmaceuticals, ligands used for asymmetric catalysis, and natural products. While chemists have developed a number of effective methods for installing oxygen-containing functional groups, the synthesis of equivalent nitrogenous structures remains an enormous challenge. For example, the catalytic dihydroxylation of olefins is a transformation covered in every undergraduate organic chemistry textbook, and the development of its asymmetric variant has garnered a Nobel Prize. Yet, despite extensive effort, the analogous diamination reaction has eluded synthetic chemists for more than 40 years. Densely-functionalized nitrogen-containing molecules, such as the naturally-occurring antibiotic pactamycin, have motivated us to develop methods for the preparation of polyamine structures. The cornerstone of our approach has relied on the selective oxidation of C--H bonds and olefins by dirhodium catalysts. Our research has involved: 1) the design of novel sulfonamide reagents, 2) explorations into the oxidizing ability of unusual metal-nitrene species, 3) reactivity and mechanistic studies involving a previously unknown class of heterocycles, 4) the development of preparative processes for the rapid assembly of diamine and polyamine derivatives, and 5) efforts towards the total synthesis of pactamycin. Nitrogen-rich molecules like pactamycin continue to challenge our inventiveness as chemists, and as a result, have led to a number of advances related to the synthesis of diamines and polyamines. All told, we feel that these discoveries demonstrate the power of Rh-catalyzed oxidation reactions for synthesizing amine-containing compounds and should prove of general use for chemical synthesis.

Keywords: Chemistry
Advisor: Du Bois Justin primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Khosla Chaitan
Wender Paul A. advisor. Thesis advisor
Rock, crowds and power [electronic resource] : race, space and ideology at American rock festivals, 1965-present

This dissertation examines the interplay between rock crowds and power at American rock festivals from 1965 to the present. It focuses primarily on rock festivals that are held on repurposed land, that draw over 40,000, and that are literally or nominally free of charge. This project questions the utopian rhetoric that underpins these festivals and unpacks the disjunctive logic that causes audiences to take part in celebrations. Building on the assumption that these types of rock festivals are a postwar phenomenon born of advances in amplification technology and shaped by countercultural aims, it argues that the enormous longevity of this form of entertainment rests on three powerful appeals: sex, drugs, and nature, all three of which touch on American notions of liberty and freedom. But while these three ideas -- sexual liberty ("free love"), liberal drug use ("legalize pot!") and participating in nature as a regenerative idyll -- appeal to white male audiences, they serve to alienate audiences of color. This is doubly unfortunate, because the artistic content of most rock festivals rests on black pop idioms and the display of black bodies. Far from being the utopian and communal spaces of spiritual regeneration that they claim for themselves, I find that they serve mostly to display the free market to consumers in its very best light. At the same time, they may have helped link computer technology to rock music by, among other things, physically illustrating what I call "the digital diaspora, " that is, the new global routes for culture being carved out by the digitization of music.

Keywords: Modern Thought and Literature.
Advisor: Lunsford Andrea A.
Heise Ursula K. advisor. Thesis advisor
Turner Frederick
A role for simulative mental models in science concept representation [electronic resource] : the case of instantaneous speed

What kinds of thinking go into learners' cognitive representations of fundamental science concepts like force or ion? The work reported on here advances the broad hypothesis that there are many science concepts for which representation depends upon a special kind of thinking, depictive mental simulation, and that the representations that result from this thinking are simulative mental models. This hypothesis is developed within an empirical study of the representation of one concept in particular, instantaneous speed. The study was a true experiment with two conditions. In one condition, high school students participated in learning activities in which they engaged in a form of depictive mental simulation hypothesized to be useful for understanding instantaneous speed. In the other condition, students participated in the same learning activities except that they did not engage in depictive mental simulation. On a posttest, students who had engaged in depictive mental simulation understood instantaneous speed better than those who had not. Interpretation of these results in light of a classic set of studies in science thinking and learning leads to the broad hypothesis that depictive mental simulation plays a key role in the representation of many different science concepts. This hypothesis calls for changes in the field's conception of what it means -- and what it takes -- to teach for understanding in science.

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Shavelson Richard J.
Osborne Jonathan advisor. Thesis advisor
Schwartz Daniel L. advisor. Thesis advisor