VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Principle-Based Mathematics: An Exploratory Study

Although educators and policymakers are becoming increasingly aware of the need for professional development that is content specific (Kennedy, 1999) and focuses on deepening and broadening teachers' knowledge of content for teaching (American Federation of Teachers, 2002; National Academy of Education, 2009), little attention has been given to supporting teachers' development of content knowledge as defined by Shulman (1986). Principle-Based Mathematics (PBM), a presentation of K-12 mathematics that adheres to the "fundamental principles of mathematics" (Wu, 2011a), has the potential to fill this void. This dissertation is an instrumental case study (Stake, 1995) that explores how teachers of 2 different grades (fourth and sixth) attempted to implement PBM in their classrooms and what the impact was on student learning. Results from analysis of teacher interviews, classroom artifacts, and student state test scores suggest: (1) The different approaches that the teachers used to teach the division interpretation of a fraction demonstrate the flexibility of PBM instruction to accommodate different curricular demands and teaching contexts; (2) The estimated average effect of PBM training on student achievement ranged between 0.25 and 0.34 standard deviations, but only 1 of the 4 teachers exhibited an increase in effect after PBM training. Estimated standardized effects on student achievement either decreased or remained nil for the other teachers after PBM training. The study's findings provide exploratory evidence to inform future evaluations of PBM training and instruction.

Advisor: Newton, Xiaoxia A
Arithmetic Dynamics of Diagonally Split Polynomial Maps

Let $K$ be a number field or the function field of a curve over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0. Let $n\geq 2$, and let $f(X)\in K[X]$ be a polynomial of degree $d\geq 2$. We present two/narithmetic properties of the dynamics of the coordinate-wise self-map $\varphi=f\times\ldots\times f$ of $(\bP^1)^n$, namely the dynamical analogs of the Hasse principle and the Bombieri-Masser-Zannier height bound theorem. In particular, we prove that the Hasse principle holds when we intersect an orbit and a preperiodic subvariety, and that the intersection of a curve with the union of all periodic hypersurfaces have bounded heights unless that curve is vertical or contained in a periodic hypersurface. A common crucial ingredient for the proof of these two properties is a recent classification of $\varphi$-periodic subvarieties by Medvedev-Scanlon. We also present the problem of primitive prime divisors in dynamical sequences by Ingram-Silverman which is needed and closely related to the dynamical Hasse principle. Further questions on the bounded height result, and a possible generalization of the Medvedev-Scanlon classification are briefly given at the end.

Advisor: Scanlon, Thomas
Vojta, Paul
Interfacial Engineering of Molecular Photovoltaics

One of the most worthy pursuits in the field of organic solar cells is that of discovering ways to more effectively harvest charge generated by light absorption. The measure of the efficacy of this process is the external quantum efficiency (EQE). It is determined by the efficiency of incident light absorption, exciton diffusion, exciton splitting and charge transfer, and charge collection. Enhanced EQE can be realized by engineering interfaces between materials in the device to allow for smoother charge transfer throughout the extent of the device, which is usually between 10 and 200 nanometers. Improvements in charge transport are vitally important because the photogenerated excitons in electron donating polymers and small molecules typically only diffuse between 5 and 10 nanometers. These excitons must reach the interface between the electron donor and electron acceptor in order to be split so that the resulting electron and hole can be harvested at the cathode and anode, respectively./nThe aim of much of this dissertation is to describe a method by which the donor-acceptor interfacial area can be augmented using nanoimprint lithography, first with a single donor and then with multiple donors. Nanoimprint lithography is introduced as a simple embossing technique that can create features in a single component donor with dimensions as small as 20 nm. Solution-processable small molecules are of interest for their ease of synthesis and fabrication. I continue the discussion of nanoimprint lithography by offering candidates for a two-component donor combination. A two-component donor can extend the absorption range across a broader portion of the solar spectrum than just one donor to improve energy harvesting./nAfter considering ways of optimizing the donor-acceptor interface, I describe the use of a charge selective layer for better charge transport and collection. When incorporated into a bilayer solar cell and an inverted solar cell, these two molecules markedly improve the energy conversion efficiency.

Advisor: Wu, Junqiao
Ma, Biwu
Evaluating Transcriptional Regulation Through Multiple Lenses

Scientific research, especially within the space of translational research is becoming increasingly multidisciplinary. With the development of each new method there is not only a need for a broad fundamental understanding of all the sciences and mathematics, but also an acute awareness of how errors propagate across methods, the limitation of the methods and what contextual frameworks need to be used for the interpretation. The ability to understand transcriptional mechanisms and the affect that subtle changes in equilibrium may have on cell fate decisions has been greatly advanced by next generation sequencing and subsequent tools that have been developed. Bioinformatic techniques can serve multiple roles. They fundamentally provide a global picture of what is happening within an experimental condition which can then be used to either confirm individual experimental findings as globally relevant, or to discover new insights to inform the next iteration of experiments. Many of the experiments are done in in vitro conditions and therefore I have also focused energy on trying to understand how the mechanical inputs, largely not representative of what is occurring in vivo, from these methods affect transcriptional regulation. Much of this research requires the switching of frameworks to understand how results from disparate data sources can be correlated. I then applied a similar thought process to the development of Lens. Without an effective means of communicating research findings in an elegant and streamline mannered, we are slowing down the ability for researchers to learn new frame- works to efficiently approach the next research questions. In addition to better methods of communicating, we also need more modular and simplified tools that can be applied to various experimental systems to increase the speed and efficiency of translational research.

Advisor: Tjian, Robert
Fletcher, Daniel
Culturally-based theme houses and university adjustment among Latino students

Culturally-sensitive programs may be one means by which universities can promote the well-being of underrepresented students. I examined participation in an ethnically-based residential program or "theme house" during the first year of college as a predictor of downstream immune health markers among Latino undergraduates. Using a four-year prospective design, I compared the immune system functioning of Latino students in a residential theme program with a matched sample of non-residents. Given the association of race-based rejection sensitivity (RS-race), or anxious expectations of ethnic discrimination, with negative college adjustment among minority students (Mendoza-Denton, Downey, Purdie, Davis, & Pietrzak, 2002) and research linking expected discrimination to health vulnerabilities (Williams, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2003), I assessed RS-race levels at matriculation and again after theme house residency. Findings suggest a protective benefit of theme house membership among students with RS-race concerns. High levels of RS-race were associated with more circulating inflammatory cytokines, specifically Interleukin-6 (IL-6), among non-residents only after the first year of college. Even 1-2 years following theme house residency, the positive relationship between RS-race and IL-6 levels was weaker among residents compared to non-residents, controlling for IL-6 levels at the previous timepoint. Culturally-based spaces may support aspects of students' physical well-being as a function of identity-based acceptance concerns.

Advisor: Mendoza-Denton, Rodolfo
Bordered and Borderless Realities: The opening and closing of the U.S.-Mexico border to Mexican Nationals

We live in an era of human mobility from which two different perspectives on borders have emerged. On the one hand, hyperglobalizers celebrate a borderless world where international borders are becoming obsolete. On the other hand, skeptics argue that nation-states continue to be powerful, regulating borders through the barricading and militarizing of international boundaries. I draw on data from 60 in-depth interviews with residents living in the border town of Mexicali, as well as ethnographic field data from 14 months of participant observation at a deportee center in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, to argue that the U.S.-Mexico border simultaneously embodies contradictory perspectives, as it stands neither completely sealed (through its militarization) nor completely opened (through the process of globalization). My research shows that an important element that shapes whether people experience the U.S.-Mexico border as open or closed is determined by their ability to cross the border legally. Thus, by juxtaposing the experiences of Mexican nationals with different legal relationships to the U.S. (as tourists, unauthorized migrants, and deportees), I demonstrate how these legal categories differentiate people. The process of legal differentiation shapes whether Mexican nationals experience the U.S.-Mexico border as a borderless site of opportunity and privilege, or as a bordered site of hardship and stigmatization. Moreover, I argue that this process of differentiation creates divergent identities and experiences of policing and violence along the border. Legal differentiation obscures convergent underlying similarities of normalized border violence and racialized experiences of Mexican nationals in the U.S. Ultimately, I show that the border is more than the territorial boundary of the state, where citizenship and legality are enforced, determining who is or who is not allowed into the United States. The border is also a site where state power is exercised, and this power is exercised through legal classifications. While other scholars have shown how the state directly shapes violence and identity, among other aspects of life, my dissertation contributes by showing one mechanism by which the state exerts power, namely, by establishing and enforcing legal categories. I show four arenas that exemplify how the state exercises power through legal classifications: by exerting violence, (Ch 2); by influencing identity, (Ch 3); by shaping what is considered normal, (Ch 4); and by structuring racialization, (Ch 5).

Advisor: Bloemraad, Irene
Blood CD4 T cells are resistant to cell death by pyroptosis during HIV infection

Progression to AIDS is driven by HIV depletion of CD4 T cells. Most CD4 T cells residing in lymphoid tissues die from abortive HIV infection. During abortive infection, HIV fuses normally to quiescent cells but the elongation step of reverse transcription is very inefficient leading to cytoplasmic accumulation of short DNA transcripts. The host DNA sensor IFI16 detects these incomplete viral DNAs triggering both interferon-β expression and the assembly of inflammasomes containing caspase 1. Caspase 1 activation induces pyroptosis, a highly inflammatory form of programmed cell death. We studied whether this mechanism also promotes the death of quiescent, non-permissive CD4 T cells circulating in the blood. Here we report that blood CD4 T cells are highly resistant to pyroptosis at least in part because they lack expression of the DNA sensor, IFI16. However, blood CD4 T cells undergo HIV induced pyroptosis when co-cultured with lymphoid tissue-derived CD4 T, CD8 T, or B cells. The interactions between these co-cultured cells induce IFI16 expression likely by mimicking events occurring within lymphoid organs. These results highlight a fundamental biological difference between blood and lymphoid tissue-derived CD4 T cells and underscore AIDS as a disease of lymphatic tissue.

Advisor: Harris, Eva
A Micro-Mechanically Based Continuum Model for Strain-Induced Crystallization in Natural Rubber

Recent experimental results show that strain-induced crystallization can substantially improve the crack growth resistance of natural rubber. While this might suggest superior designs of tires or other industrial applications where elastomers are used, a more thorough understanding of the underlying physics of strain-induced crystallization in natural rubber has to be developed before any design process can be started./nThe objective of this work is to develop a computationally-accessible micro-mechanically based continuum model, which is able to predict the macroscopic behavior of strain crystallizing natural rubber. While several researchers have developed micro-mechanical models of partially crystallized polymer chains, their results mainly give qualitative agreement with experimental data due to a lack of good micro-macro transition theories or the lack of computational power. However, recent developments in multiscale modeling in polymers provide new tools to continue this early work./nIn this thesis, a new model is proposed to model strain-induced crystallization in natural rubber. To this end, a micro-mechanical model of a constrained partially crystallized polymer chain with an extended-chain crystal is derived and connected to the macroscopic level using the non-affine micro-sphere model. On the macroscopic level, a thermodynamically consistent framework for strain-crystallizing materials is developed, and a description of the crystallization kinetics is introduced. For that matter, an evolution law for crystallization based on the gradient of the macroscopic Helmholtz free energy function (chemical potential) in combination with a simple threshold function is used. A numerical implementation of the model is proposed and its predictive performance assessed using published data.

Advisor: Govindjee, Sanjay
Papadopoulos, Panayiotis
Coming Down From the Mountain: Dialect Contact and Convergence in Contemporary Hutsulshchyna

Despite the recent increased interest in Hutsul life and culture, little attention has been paid to the role of dialect in Hutsul identity and cultural revival. The primary focus of the present dissertation is the current state of the Hutsul dialect, both in terms of social perception and the structural changes resulting from the dominance of the standard language in media and education./nCurrently very little is known about the contemporary grammatical structure of Hutsul. The present dissertation is the first long-term research project designed to define both key elements of synchronic Hutsul grammar, as well as diachronic change, with focus on variation and convergence in an environment of increasing close sustained contact with standard Ukrainian resulting from both a historically-based sense of ethnic identification, as well as modern economic realities facing the once isolated and self-sufficient Hutsuls. In addition, I will examine the sociolinguistic network lines which allow and impede linguistic assimilation, specifically in the situation of a minority population of high cultural valuation facing external linguistic assimilation pressures stemming from socio-political expediency. Throughout this examination, I define the current social status of the dialect, its future viability, and the differences in attitudes and behaviors among various social groups, including members of the younger generation, in both the public and private realms. The broad conclusion supported by my research is that, despite Hutsul cultural prestige in Ukraine, their distinct dialect is endangered as a result of socio-economic pressures, including policies actively promoting the use of Ukrainian language in all spheres of public and private life. Through sustained contact, Hutsul has come to resemble Contemporary Standard Ukrainian (CSU) more and more in structural typology. The precise manner and degree to which this has occurred has not been analyzed in previous research.

Advisor: Nichols, Johanna
The Movement Ecology of an Agricultural Pest, Navel Orangeworm, Amyelois transitella

Tracking the movement of small organisms is of tremendous importance to understanding the ecology of populations, communities, and ecosystems. However, it remains one of the most difficult challenges facing the field of movement ecology. This dissertation focuses on the movement of an agricultural pest, the navel orangeworm (Amyelois transitella, NOW). I first examined intercrop movement of NOW between two agricultural commodities, almonds and walnuts. By using protein markers and an enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay technique to detect markers on recaptured moths, I demonstrated significant male NOW movement (up to 300 meters) and no significant directional preferences of movement based on crop, season, or wind velocity. However, protein marker contamination of control moths within traps was significant, limiting our ability to detect movement patterns. In addition, the scale of this study may have been too small to capture larger scale directional patterns of movement./nIn order to overcome some of the observed challenges of protein marking techniques for small organisms, I developed and tested an intrinsic marking technique for tracking NOW using dietary fatty acid profiles as a biomarker. This was accomplished by analyzing fatty acids from NOW moths raised on two different host plants with significantly different fatty acid profiles. Using this data a linear discriminant analysis model was developed and validated to distinguish NOW based on their larval host plant. Results showed that NOW fatty acid profiles are strikingly similar to those of their host plant. Therefore fatty acids can act as a valuable intrinsic marking technique for tracking small organisms, avoiding many of the drawbacks of external markers, and providing a useful tool for the study of movement ecology./nFatty acid tracking is effective for small organisms, but does not determine movement paths, direction, or distance of movement in a localized setting. In order to draw meaningful conclusions from localized movement data using intrinsic marking techniques, I developed a Gaussian-based dispersal model. This model was applied to field-caught NOW moths from three sites in the central valley of California. Average movement distance was estimated to be about 50 m per generation at two sites and about 600 m per generation at the third site. The study demonstrates that probability-based dispersal models combined with intrinsic marking techniques provides a useful tool for both tracking and understanding the localized movement capabilities of small organisms.

Advisor: Welter, Stephen C
Tax Preference on the Income Roller Coaster: How Income Volatility Changes the Relationship Between Income Inequality and Preference for Redistribution

This dissertation considers how income inequality affects attitudes towards tax policies and income redistribution. In the first paper, I adopt traditional models of the relationship between income inequality and policy preferences to incorporate income volatility. I find that greater income volatility can lead voters to prefer less progressive taxes depending on the distribution of the income shocks. Because income volatility and inequality are positively correlated, with each potentially having an opposite effect on public opinion, my model predicts that support for increasing taxes on upper incomes may not rise in the face of growing income inequality. In the second paper, I estimate the casual effect of short term, temporary changes in household income on individuals' tax progressivity preferences through a series survey experiments. I find evidence that volatility does in fact diminish preferences for tax progressivity. Respondents preferred significantly less progressive taxes when described households that had more volatile incomes regardless of the pattern of volatility over time. For the third and final paper, I develop a new, more powerful permutation procedure for analyzing two-way factorial experiments. The method is a non-parametric alternative to traditional analysis of variance (ANOVA). In Monte Carlo simulations, the procedure was better able to disentangle main factor and interaction effects than regression-based ANOVA tests, particularly when the design was imbalanced. I developed the procedure for use in the analysis of the income volatility experiments.

Advisor: Schickler, Eric
Lifshitz Holography

In this dissertation, we examine the holographic description of strongly-coupled quantum field theories with Lifshitz fixed points. After reviewing the standard dictionary of Lifshitz holography, we carry out the holographic renormalization procedure for two different bulk gravitational theories that support asymptotically Lifshitz spacetimes. The first bulk theory is relativistic gravity with a massive vector and the second is an anisotropic theory of gravity./nIn the bulk theory of relativistic gravity with a massive vector, we find that the holographic counterterms induced near anisotropic infinity take the form of the action for Horava-Lifshitz (HL) gravity, with the appropriate value of the dynamical critical exponent z. In the particular case of 3 + 1 bulk dimensions and z = 2 asymptotic scaling near infinity, we find a logarithmic counterterm, related to anisotropic Weyl anomaly of the dual CFT, and show that this counterterm reproduces precisely the action of conformal gravity at a z = 2 Lifshitz point in 2 + 1 dimensions, which enjoys anisotropic local Weyl invariance. We find, however, that only one of two independent central charges appears in the anomaly./nWe next argue that bulk HL gravity provides the minimal holographic dual for Lifshitz-type field theories with anisotropic scaling and dynamical exponent z. First we show that Lifshitz spacetimes are vacuum solutions of HL gravity, without the need for additional matter. Then we show that it reproduces the full structure of the z = 2 anisotropic Weyl anomaly in dual field theories in 2 + 1 dimensions, while its minimal relativistic gravity counterpart yields only one of two independent central charges in the anomaly./nFinally, we search for static asymptotically Lifshitz black hole solutions in HL gravity. In contrast to general relativity, we find that these static solutions do not have black hole horizons and instead contain naked singularities. In general, we argue that it is necessary to search for stationary (but non-static) black holes with universal horizons.

Advisor: Horava, Petr
Quantum Correlations and Energy Transport in Trapped Ions

We present experimental results of using trapped ions for the study of energy transport and quantum correlations in many-body systems. We investigate energy propagation by locally exciting one end of an ion chain and then observing the subsequent dynamics. The experimental results agree with the presented normal mode model of ion motion, and signify the first steps towards realizing theoretical proposals of studying many-body physics with the motional degree of freedom of trapped ions. Additionally, we present a method for detecting correlations between an open quantum system and its environment by acting only locally on the open system. We implement this method using a single trapped ion and discuss our current work towards extending the results to larger systems. Lastly, we demonstrate how the presented method for local detection of quantum correlations can be used for detection of quantum phase transitions.

Advisor: Haeffner, Hartmut