VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Asymmetric Information, Repeated Trade, and Asset Prices

Financial intermediaries play an important role in the pricing of financial assets. For example, intermediaries may act on behalf of consumers in deciding how their wealth is invested, or they may act as providers of liquidity. This dissertation explores several ways in which intermediaries impact price informativeness, the transaction costs investors incur, and investor welfare./nIn the first chapter, I examine how prices reveal information when intermediaries are informed. Using a model of repeated trade between a long-lived, informed, price-discriminating market maker and risk averse traders with endogenous hedging demands, I first show that traders are weakly better off trading with an informed dealer, as they may learn something about an asset's value in the process of transacting. Second, while long-term incentives can induce an informed market maker to honestly reveal information and increase risk-sharing, they also enable the market maker to hide her information and extract more rents, reducing price informativeness. This less desirable outcome dominates with respect to both the parameter space and a selection criterion. Finally, measures of market quality, such as the transient component of price volatility (illiquidity), may not accurately reflect welfare./nThe second chapter discusses how relationships affect prices when intermediaries are concerned about adverse selection. When counter-parties trade in OTC markets, such as those for corporate bonds or derivatives, the lack of anonymity implies that future terms of trade can influence prices today. Using a model of repeated trade between an informed trader and uninformed market makers, I show that information asymmetry can affect the markups charged by dealers in two ways. First, for a given market structure (number of market makers), traders with more private information incur lower trading costs because dealers offer better terms to mitigate adverse selection. Second, even when dealers can not compete directly on price quotes, they compete indirectly by improving the informed trader's outside option, though this competition is imperfect. While repeated trade allows two given counter-parties to ameliorate adverse selection, the maximum number of dealers, and hence the total gains achievable, are limited by information frictions. An empirical implication is that the comparative statics of transaction costs only make sense conditional on market structure./nThe third chapter considers the effect intermediaries have as financial advisors, and whether measures of their performance as mutual fund managers accurately reflect the value they add to an economy. Relative to the existing literature, I look at how the presence of mutual funds affects the price of the underlying asset in an economy. Once this pricing effect is accounted for, I show that standard measures of mutual fund performance may not accurately reflect whether fund management is welfare improving

Advisor: Parlour, Christine A
Photodissociation and Hypergolic Reaction Dynamics of Ionic Liquids

Ionic liquids (ILs) are room temperature molten salts with unique properties and broad range of applications. The properties are tunable based on the cation-anion (C+-A-) combination. Studying the ion pairs provides understanding of the interaction between the isolated cation and anion, which primarily determines the electronic and nuclear structure./nNew velocity map imaging experiments were initiated to study the dissociative pathways upon photoexcitation of isolated ion pairs. Dissociative ionization and ion pair dissociation pathways initiated by 54 nm light of an IL, 1-ethy-3-methylimidazolium ([Emim]+) bis(trifluoromethyl-sulfonyl)imide ([Tf2N]-), are revealed. Furthermore, the ultrafast excited dynamics of an IL, [Emim]+[Br]-, has been studied using time-resolved photoion spectroscopy. Momentary depletion of the intact cation and rise of the alkyl-loss fragments are observed, suggesting a possibility for a short-lived electronically or internally excited state that promotes the formation of alkyl-loss fragments upon probe excitation./nThe volatilization process of thermally stable and unstable ionic liquids is studied using tunable vacuum ultraviolet light (VUV). Heats of vaporization for imidazolium-based ionic liquids are measured and the ionization threshold for the neutral ion pair is directly measured for the first time. The thermal decomposition mechanism for [Emim]+[Br]-is explored to understand the volatilization process better, showing that alkyl abstraction upon heating occurs via an SN2 type mechanism./nMoreover, an IL hypergolic reaction mechanism is studied using an aerosol flow tube method combined with tunable VUV light to understand the reaction chemistry of a potentially less corrosive and toxic rocket fuel system. Isolated ion pairs are monitored from IL aerosols with the advantage of less photofragmentation. Observation of early stage reaction intermediates, cyanamide, N2O, and CO2 from a hypergolic IL reaction with nitric acid reveals the existence of a nitro-substituted intermediate.

Advisor: Leone, Stephen R
On the Dynamics and Control of a Medical Exoskeleton

A number of passive orthoses have been developed to provide gait assistance and rehabilitation for individuals who have lost the ability to walk. However, the required metabolic cost for legged mobility with conventional orthoses is huge, preventing its daily use. Using the forces/torques generated by external actuators is one of the effective ways to solve the problem induced from the considerable effort required for orthotic gait. For that, design of a compact, efficient and light weight actuation system and its delicate control are required./n/nIn Chapter 1, Powered Reciprocating Hip Orthosis, a novel hip actuator making use of the coupling hip mechanism of the reciprocating gait orthosis (RGO) is proposed. The RGO, a wearable and passive orthosis, provides paralyzed patients with hands-free standing and the ability for dynamic ambulation without any external actuation. Therefore, the mechanism of the RGO can be utilized effectively for improving the hip actuator design for a powered lower limb orthosis. Starting with this motivation, a powered limb orthosis combined with the conventional RGO was designed and its control structure was implemented on a paraplegic subject (T12 complete). First, a dynamic analysis is presented to identify and better understand the potential use of the RGO mechanism. For the analysis, the simple RGO dynamic model at a single support phase is obtained and its equations of motion are derived using Lagrange's equations of motion. Through the physical interpretation provided by the inverse dynamics, it is proved that the required maximum hip torque for stance phase is significantly decreased when the RGO hip coupling mechanism is applied. An unproved torso stability provided by the design is also investigated. Subsequently, overall control structure with a user-interface module is introduced to provide basic functions to the powered orthosis for locomotion./nWhile implementing the designed orthosis with the human subject, a difficult problem on the dorsiflexion-activated passive knee orthosis of the conventional RGO is discussed and leads to Chapter 2: Friction Damping Control Knee Orthosis. A simple, but effective, microprocessor orthotic knee control method is presented with a novel knee joint design and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor in Chapter 2. First, an electric hardware and a control structure with the IMU sensor are introduced. Next, to understand the knee dynamics and determine a control strategy, a lower extremity model is set up. Using this model, a dynamic analysis for ballistic walking with overshooting and circumduction of the hip joint motion, and downstairs walking is executed with the experimental hip motion data. Based on the observations for human hip joint motion and the obtained dynamic simulation results, a friction damping control method is proposed. Its implementation enables natural walking on level ground and provides the appropriate resistance of the knee joint in downstairs walking for assistance and safety to normal human subjects using the designed knee orthosis.

Advisor: Kazerooni, Homayoon
Characterization of in situ Deformation Texture in Superelastic Nitinol

This dissertation is motivated by the increasing usage of Nitinol in biomedical implant devices as well as the disturbing numbers of device failures as reported in the literature. Given the recent awareness of the complex in vivo loading conditions experience by the devices, combined with the lack of commercial finite element analysis program capable of accurate lifetime prediction for such devices, it is imperative to understand the fundamental mechanism of the underlying phase transformation behind the superelastic mechanical properties of Nitinol. Macroscopic multi-mode fatigue is examined through classical continuum mechanics. It is found that normalization of the dissimilar mechanical behaviors of superelastic Nitinol under multi-modes loading is possible through Coffin-Manson approach. The influence of austenitic texture under in situ multi-mode monotonic and fatigue loading is explored with micro-X-ray Diffraction. It appears that the martensitic transformation propagation occurs in competing pathways between the grain boundary and grain with favorable transformation orientations. It is found that initial austenitic textures as well as loading modes favors different propagation paths. The resulting evolution of austenite texture may explain the fatigue degradation of Nitinol. Austenite texture sharpness as well as grain boundary density is found to have negative influence on the fatigue lifetime of Nitinol. The results determined through this research can be used to derive a better constitutive relation as well as methods for better fatigue lifetime prediction.

Advisor: Ritchie, Robert O
Regulation of Alternative Splicing in Drosophila Melanogaster

The patterns and mechanisms by which eukaryotic cells regulate the expression of their genetic information are highly complex and intricate. The transmittance of this information from nuclear repository to cytoplasmic translation contains within it several steps, including the selective removal and concomitant joining of pieces of information in a process called alternative splicing. The projects detailed within this document describe the regulation of alternative splicing through the interaction of specific proteins with specific pre-mRNA transcripts./nThe Rio lab has studied PSI, a protein involved in the regulation of the P element transposase transcript, for many years. It has since been shown to regulate the splicing of hundreds of other transcripts. The experiments described here look at the organization of PSI and other proteins on the P element transcript by site-specific labeling of the transcript using radioactive 32P. We also investigate two phosphorylation events of PSI, identifying the kinases responsible and demonstrate that these events may change the protein-protein interaction partners of PSI./nIt has become increasingly apparent that alternative splicing may not only be regulated by protein/RNA interactions, but also by RNA/RNA interactions. To probe this, we designed experiments to test if some well-known small RNA-associated proteins are regulating alternative splicing. Using splice junction microarrays, we determined that Argonaute-2 (Ago-2) regulated the splicing of over 100 splice junctions, and further experiments using ChIP-seq and mRNA-seq of Ago-2 mutants revealed that Ago-2 also has a role in transcriptional repression, possibly through being incorporating in complexes composed of polycomb-group genes. We also used CLIP-seq to determine the RNA binding profile and preferences of Ago-2 in Drosophila tissue culture cells./nFinally, we characterized the functions of a Drosophila specific splicing factor called LS2. LS2 is orthologous to the highly conserved splicing factor dU2AF50, but its origin through retroduplication and subsequent divergence to acquire distinct sequence specificity, expression pattern, and function show it to be an interesting case in the evolution of alternative splicing regulation. This may be a mechanism that underlies the existence of some members of the large families of splicing factors, including hnRNP proteins and SR proteins. That is, by duplicating functional copies of genes, cellular systems create new proteins to tinker with and acquire new functions while keeping the former functionality and stability of the parent protein./nWhile these projects are essentially independent of each other, they all fall under the umbrella of protein regulation of RNA metabolism and hopefully contribute to a more complete understanding of the regulation of gene expression.

Advisor: Rio, Donald C
"For Future Generations": Transculturation and the Totem Parks of the New Deal, 1938-1942

From 1938 to 1942, Tlingit and Haida Native men enrolled in a New Deal work relief program known as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked with the U.S. Forest Service to restore more than one hundred nineteenth-century totem poles in Southeast Alaska. Reversing decades of assimilation policies that had nearly ended totem pole carving in Alaska at the turn of the century, the CCC restored or replicated nineteenth-century totem poles and re<–>erected them in <“>totem parks designed to attract tourists traveling on the steamship route known as the Inside Passage. This dissertation provides the first extensive analysis of this New Deal program, situating the totem parks as <“>contact zones where Natives and non-Natives met to negotiate the complex (and often cross-purposed) catalysts of the restoration program: modernist primitivism, New Deal nationalist heritage, and indigenous rights movements of the Indian New Deal. Attending to the carving styles as well as to tourist and government photography of the parks, the project positions the totem parks as a case study for a transcultural model of American art history.

Advisor: Lovell, Margaretta M
Education by Dispossession: Schooling on the New Suburban Frontier

Both the housing bubble and the subprime meltdown ratcheted up levels of class and racial inequality to levels not seen since the 1930s. In the nation's increasingly diverse suburbs, this has meant both new forms of interaction and new forms of division. This dissertation looks at these dynamics through the eyes of an often-ignored subject--youth. Through an ethnographic examination of young people's transition to high school during the subprime crisis, I explore the ways in which a new economic paradigm--one based largely on dispossession--is transforming the educational and cultural lives of both very wealthy and very poor suburban youth. I introduce the framework of "education by dispossession" as a means of linking the current economic paradigm to the ongoing transformation of the educational institutions, ideologies, spaces and practices these youth encounter.

Advisor: Baquedano-López, Patricia
Oxidative Coupling of ortho-Aminophenols and Anilines for the Application of Labeling Proteins with Fluorine-18

Chemically modified proteins have been of great use in both the pharmaceutical industry and in academic research. Development of new reactions is necessary to further increase the diversity of protein-based biological agents available to researchers and physicians. In particular, high efficiency reactions that can site-specifically modify proteins are sought by the research community. In this thesis, a new reaction that oxidiatively couples o-aminophenols and anilines at very high rates was presented, as the MS2 viral capsid coat protein was fully modified site-specifically with a small molecule in under 30 s. The products of the reaction were characterized using small molecule model compounds and a reaction mechanism was posulated based on the available information./nFurther, the reaction was used to synthesize of variety of protein-peptide or protein-polymer conjugates. Over 100 copies of 2k or 5k molecular weight poly(ethyleneglycol) (PEG) were attached to a 28 nm diameter MS2 virus-like particle in under 2 min using this new oxidative coupling reaction. In addition, several small peptides were also attached in the same way with similar results. The reaction was also utilized for modification of other proteins such as lysozyme to show its general applicability./nFinally, the reaction was applied to labeling proteins with radioactive Fluorine-18 for the purpose of positron emission tomography (PET). Fluorine-18 was incorporated into a small molecule prosthetic group to form [18F]-p-fluoroaniline ([18F]-FA). 18F-FA was successfully coupled to both lysozyme and MS2 virus-like particles containing aminophenol functionality. Again the reaction reached completion in under 2 min and gave excellent yields./nIt is our hope that this reaction will be utilized by other protein chemists looking for a highly efficient way to assemble challenging protein bioconjugates.

Advisor: Francis, Matthew B
From actin to Zap70: the outcomes of the interaction of the actin cytoskeleton with T-cell receptors

The actin cytoskeleton has for decades been known to be important in the process of T-cell recognition of antigen. Upon receiving stimulus from T-cell receptors (TCRs), the T-cell cytoskeleton adopts a pattern of radially symmetric, centripetal flow that imposes multi-micrometer scale organization on the protein complement of a T-cell membrane. Many of the details of the interactions between actin and cell surface receptors remain unknown; of particular interest are the connections to TCRs themselves. The actin cytoskeleton appears to modulate TCR-mediated signaling, and thus T-cell behaviors, on a number of levels. On the level of single TCR molecules and oligomers, the presence of actin affects TCR-antigen recognition by altering binding kinetics through mechanisms that are still unclear. On a larger spatial and longer temporal level, actin drives the formation and centripetal movement of small TCR assemblies whose radial distribution correlates with their signaling state. Little is known about the local organization and dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton around these assemblies. A more complete understanding of the process of T-cell activation depends on the ability to characterize the involvement of actin in detail./nThis thesis describes how the T-cell actin cytoskeleton locally reacts to TCR assemblies, how it modulates the kinetics of the TCR-antigen interaction, and what role myosin IIA plays in organization of and signaling by TCRs. Direct imaging of actin reveals that the cytoskeletal network transiently slows and compresses at sites of mobility-limited T-cell receptors. Actin disruption during direct observation of antigen peptide binding to TCRs shows that the presence of a functional cytoskeleton increases the rate of antigen unbinding from these receptors. Tracking and disruption of labeled myosin IIA indicates that the motor protein helps but is not required for proper establishment of T-cell membrane organization, but it is necessary for appropriate calcium influx into the T-cell cytoplasm during activation. For all of these observations and others, new experimental and analytical methods are developed or applied.

Advisor: Groves, Jay T
Isacoff, Ehud
The Sober Revolution: The Political and Moral Economy of Alcohol in Modern France, 1954-1976

This dissertation examines how, after World War Two, the French state and powerful interest groups shifted the debate over drink from an issue of personal morality into a battle of political economy. Contrary to the widely held Tocquevillian assumption that France has had weak and fragmented interest groups with little capacity to influence state policy, this dissertation argues that a relatively weak public health movement became influential when it struck alliances with powerful state and economic interests. Working together, the different and sometimes antagonistic interests of doctors, French and European technocrats, luxury winegrowers, and automobile and insurance groups combined to issue alarms about France's allegedly rising alcoholism and mobilize public opinion against the country's alcohol producers and industrial, mono-cropping winegrowers. This movement was abetted by important structural transformations: the fall of the Fourth Republic (1946-1958) and the foundation of the Fifth (1958-), where a strong executive branch circumvented the industrial wine lobby and Parliament; the end of empire, which meant the eventual termination of cheap Algerian wine imports; and the creation of the European Community, which adopted France's luxury Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) labeling system and discouraged industrial wine production and consumption. In short, I maintain that this anti-alcohol campaign helped prepare appellation wine producers and the state for competition in the world economy./nThis dissertation uses drink as a prism through which to understand France's dramatic economic modernization after World War Two. It contributes to our understanding of France and Europe's so-called "Economic Miracle," particularly the role of the state and the wine industry in shaping European market integration. Against the common view that the wine industry has been a conservative force in French society, this dissertation argues that it played an active role in its own modernization in order to compete internationally in the context of European integration and, by the 1970s, globalization.

Advisor: Laqueur, Thomas
Cultural Orientation and Parent Emotion in the Chinese American Immigrant Family:

The present dissertation used a developmental, sociocultural models approach to culture and emotion, and examined the prospective relations of immigrant parents' cultural orientations and their expression of emotion in the family context. Chinese American immigrant parents (n=210) with elementary-aged children were assessed at two time points approximately two years apart. Parents reported on their own and their children's patterns of engagement in both Chinese and American cultural domains. Parents also reported on their patterns of emotional expression in the family context (positive, negative dominant, and negative submissive emotion), and their endorsement of emotion-relevant values (collectivism, conformity, emotional control, and ideals toward high/low arousal positive and negative affect)./nMain analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that parents' greater engagement in Chinese cultural domains predicted their lower expression of negative emotion in the family context. Parents' engagement in cultural domains positively predicted their endorsement of emotion-relevant values; however, across models, parents' endorsement of emotion-relevant values did not mediate prospective effects of parents' cultural engagement on their emotional expression. Finally, differences between parents' and children's orientations to Chinese culture predicted parents' lower expression of positive and negative submissive emotion in the family context./nResults underscore the relevance of the family context in the transmission of cultural norms toward emotional expression. Implications of these findings for developmentally-informed approaches to the study of culture and emotion are discussed.

Advisor: Zhou, Qing