VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Here and Now: The Modernist Poetics of Do'ikayt

This dissertation explores the connections between Ashkenazi Jewish relationships to place and revolutionary politics in Central and Eastern Europe in modernist Yiddish literature in the first half of the twentieth century. I investigate the Yiddish concept of “do’ikayt” (“hereness”), which is used to describe practices of political organizing and cultural activism among Yiddishists and Jewish socialists especially during the interwar period. Do’ikayt meant an investment in the long history of Jews in the territories of Europe, an investment in Ashkenazi culture, in Yiddish, and in the possibility of continued Jewish life in places like Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus in the aftermath of World War One and the revolutions in the Russian Empire. I argue that there is a strong trend of do’ikayt in Yiddish literature of this period, which entails representation of “lived Jewish space,” local history, culture, and language, as well as a political commitment to the improvement of Jewish and non-Jewish life in those spaces, often aligned with revolutionary socialist politics. Through close readings of works by Izi Kharik and Moyshe Kulbak, I further argue that it is not only (or not even especially) in realist or naturalist genres of literature that we find this poetics of do’ikayt, but rather in works of modernist literature. Formal experimentation, and an aesthetics of abstraction and fragmentation, especially, become these authors’ modes for representing the tensions between building connections to history and culture, on the one hand, and the drive for revolutionary change on the other. Chapter One explores the concept of “do’ikayt” in political and historical contexts. I discuss works by Chaim Zhitlowsky and Sh. An-sky as examples of political do’ikayt in the contexts of early socialist and territorialist politics, and I read An-sky’s novella In shtrom as an early example of the trend of literary do’ikayt. The second chapter focuses on Izi Kharik’s poema (a long form narrative poem), “Minsker Blotes” (“Minsk Mud”), about the experiences of the pre-revolutionary period and the revolutionary period in a poor Jewish neighborhood of Minsk. I include a complete translation of “Minsk Mud” in the appendix to the dissertation, the first time the poema has been translated into English. In the third chapter I explore Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of heteroglossia as a framework for these modernist representations of place and use it to read the poetics of do’ikayt in Moyshe Kulbak’s novel, Zelmenyaner (The Zelmenyaners), about a large multi-generational Jewish family living through Sovietization in Minsk in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In the final chapter I begin to investigate what a modernist poetics of do’ikayt might look like outside of Yiddish literature, taking the example of Alfred Döblin’s writings about Berlin and his travels in Poland.

Advisor: Kronfeld, Chana
Two-Dimensional Electronic-Vibrational Spectroscopy

This dissertation describes the development and initial applications of Two-Dimensional Electronic-Vibrational spectroscopy (2DEV), a multidimensional ultrafast spectroscopic technique that is capable of directly probing the coupling between electronic and vibrational transitions in molecular species./nThis thesis first provides the necessary background and motivation driving the development of this spectroscopy, discussing the role of electronic-vibrational coupling in small molecule photophysics and the ways we can take advantage of these physics to study electronic excitation transfer in photosynthetic light harvesting systems. It then discusses the details of the apparatus constructed to perform the 2DEV experiments, as well as some of the important aspects of the signal processing and extraction of the desired signal, using phase cycling techniques. It goes on to describe the development of a simple model to be used in understanding the new information content accessible with 2DEV, and presents experimental results from the laser dye DTTCI. The basic predictions of the model, such as the dynamics of the spectral lineshape, are shown to hold in these experimental results, and we provide an experimental measurement for the difference in the strength of the vibration-bath coupling between the electronic ground and excited states./nIn chapter 4, the model is extended to the case of an electronically coupled dimer, and a method is proposed by which 2DEV could potentially be used to study the movement of electronic excitations through a molecular aggregate, such as a photosynthetic light harvesting complex. It is shown how it might be possible to measure the electronic excited state populations directly in the site basis, without the need for an accompanying model. To demonstrate an experimental implementation of this method, the 2DEV spectra of Chlorophyll a and b in solution are then presented, assigning the important spectral features and demonstrating conclusively the connection between spectral shifts along the electronic and vibrational axes due to changes in the axial coordination state of the central Mg. This is a first step which is then expanded upon with the demonstration of the experimental application of 2DEV to the major light harvesting complex in plants, LHCII, and an illustration that the technique proposed in chapter 4 is technically sound. Indications are observed of long lived population of Chl b which contradicts the predictions of current models for the excitonic structure of this system, and calls into question our current understanding of the initial energy transfer dynamics in plant photosynthesis./nFinally, a discussion is provided of some of the promising directions for 2DEV to be further developed in the future.

Advisor: Fleming, Graham R
First-Principles Modeling and Experimental Investigation of Novel Materials for Energy Storage

The following dissertation presents several studies aimed at better understanding the/nbehavior of different materials employed in energy storage and conversion applications with the goal of putting forth design criteria that can enhance the performance of fuel cells and batteries with different chemistries. The third chapter models the ion conduction in the rare earth phosphate DyPO4. This material is investigated for use in intermediate/ntemperature solid oxide fuel cells, and the results highlight the benefits for proton conduction associated with a higher symmetry structure, relative to previously studied orthophosphate solid electrolyte materials. The fourth and fth chapter combines modeling and experiments to understand why Ti substitution of Co in the cathode material Li(NixMnxCo1-2x)O2 results in enhanced capacity and cyclability when used in lithium ion batteries. The results of these studies show that Ti substitution results in a lower intercalation voltage that allows for higher lithium extraction given a set voltage cut-o. Further results indicate that Ti helps suppress the formation of a secondary rocksalt phase that reduces cell efficiency./nThe sixth chapter investigates the intercalation mechanism of Li and Na into alkali titanate compounds that are of interest as anode materials in lithium-ion or sodium-ion batteries. The goal is to elucidate the susceptibility of each kind of titanate to phase transformations during the lithiation or sodiation process in a functioning battery. The results indicate that these materials fail to deliver theoretical capacities due to site limitations, that can be further aggravated by solvent uptake. Analysis of sodium energy barriers reveal a strong dependence on the state of charge, and potentially the rate of charging./nThe seventh chapter investigates electrolyte concentration effects in lithium-oxygen batteries. The model electrolyte system of lithium bistrifluoromethanesulfonimidate (LiTFSI) dissolved in 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) is investigated in order to identify different contributions to the failure mechanism of this class of battery. Combined experimental and computational results indicated that the TFSI anion was susceptible to decomposition, which contributed to cathode passivation in cells employing saturated electrolyte, and to kinetic limitations in cells using dilute electrolytes./nThe combined work of this dissertation serves to demonstrate the capabilities of a combined experimental and computational approach to understanding and solving the challenges revolving energy storage and conversion materials. The ability to provide atomistic insights to experimental results allows the creation of design criteria for next generation materials, that leverage the insights gained from this combined approach.

Advisor: Asta, Mark
Doeff, Marca
GEMM-I riboswitch-based fluorescent biosensors for live cell analysis of cyclic dinucleotide signaling

The bacterial second messenger cyclic di-GMP (c-di-GMP) holds a prominent position within the repertoire of bacterial signaling molecules. With its presence established in over 75% of sequence bacteria, c-di-GMP responds to primary environmental signals by affecting the bacterial lifestyle transition between the motile and sessile states, regulating biofilm formation, host colonization, and bacterial virulence. Over the past 30 years, many aspects of the c-di-GMP signaling pathway have become well characterized in no small part due to the plethora of tools that can quickly and conveniently detect c-di-GMP. Despite these triumphs, we have only begun to contend with the enormous scope of c-di-GMP signaling, an endeavor that would be greatly aided by new tools that are harder, better, faster, and stronger./nThe four fluorescent biosensors introduced herein bring us towards that goal. These second-generation RNA biosensors were designed based on a natural c-di-GMP riboswitch aptamer fused to the Spinach dye-binding aptamer, producing a fluorescent signal upon c-di-GMP binding. Their speed, sensitivity, and selectivity secure their place as a valuable tool for studying c-di-GMP signaling, with demonstrated efficacy in monitoring c-di-GMP in vivo in E. coli in a variety of conditions, including anaerobic and zinc-exposed environments. Furthermore, these sensors were adapted towards studying the related cyclic dinucleotide cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP), a recently discovered second messenger known for roles in bacterial intestinal colonization and surface sensing. Both c-di-G and cGAMP-specific biosensors were used to uncover components of the cGAMP signaling pathway in organisms not previously known to have cGAMP signaling. It is envisioned that these biosensors can be used to further understand c-di-GMP and cGAMP signaling in a variety of organisms, in vivo, in real time.

Advisor: Hammond, Ming C
Improving Measurement, Quantifying Variation, and Predicting Tree Carbon Mass in California Conifers

Carbon sequestration and storage are important areas of scientific research. Despite this importance, the current approach to carbon mass estimates consists primarily of estimating wood volume, multiplying that volume by a species average wood density value to obtain biomass, then multiplying biomass by 0.5. Alternatively biomass may be estimated from allometric equations and then converted to carbon with the same 0.5 carbon conversion value. This approach is fundamentally inaccurate. This dissertation presents three improvements in carbon mass estimation that are critical to moving the science forward. In the first chapter I explore the importance of utilizing carbon fraction measurement methods that are capable of capturing the volatile component of tree tissues. I demonstrate a novel method that captures an additional 1.10% - 2.21% carbon mass in tree tissues. This increase is equivalent to “finding” an additional 16 Pg of carbon at a global scale. In the second chapter I explore the variation in measured carbon fractions, wood densities, and carbon densities within tree boles of seven major conifer species. I determine the importance of accounting for this variation, and discover negative correlations between wood density and carbon fractions within trees suggesting that the current approach of studying these characteristics as two independent properties is potentially biased. Applying the carbon fraction measurements at the whole tree level led to increases in carbon mass estimates of between 3.6% to 10.6% compared to carbon mass estimates that used a carbon fraction of 0.5. These values point to a systematic bias in current carbon mass estimation protocols. In the third chapter I develop carbon mass prediction models for five conifer species that capture some of the variation determined in chapter two. The models developed are the first vertically integrable conifer tree models to be based on accurately measured carbon fraction data paired with wood density measurements. The models are validated with an independent database and applied to the whole tree level demonstrate that accounting correctly for carbon leads to carbon mass estimates that are between 98.4% and 109% of the carbon mass estimated using standard approaches. The data presented makes a strong argument for the need of models that accurately account for variation in and correlation of carbon fraction, and wood density.

Advisor: O'Hara, Kevin L
Neoliberalism, gas and livelihoods in northern coastal Mozambique: a real-time analysis of the management of dissent

Oil exploration in the global south experienced a rapid upswing in the 2000s. Since 2000, the/nmajority of new oil-producing states have been in the developing world. Eastern Africa, in/nparticular, has experienced one of the most significant upsurges in oil and gas development./nStarting in 2005, international oil companies embarked on a $500 million exploration program in/nnorthern Mozambique. The history of oil and gas development in the Global South, however, has/nmore often than not been one of socio-environmental devastation, violence, expropriation and/noppression. While oil and gas development has generated billions of dollars in revenue,/nproducing countries suffer from a set of political and economic crises often referred to as the/n“resource curse,” and a set of socio-environmental crises excluded from the predominant/n“resource curse” narrative./nThis dissertation attempts to bridge these frameworks and extend them by conducting a/nsociohistoric analysis of authority and extraction in rural northern Mozambique through recent/ndecades of neoliberal adjustments, and evaluating the institutions and policies guiding oil and gas/nexploration and its social and environmental impacts on local populations. Focusing on recent oil and/ngas exploration programs in northern, coastal Mozambique, this investigation proceeds by: 1)/ntracing the co-evolution of institutionalized rural authority and resource extraction from colonial/nthrough neoliberal adjustments; 2) evaluating the real-time, cumulative impacts to social and/nenvironmental systems resulting from oil and gas exploration considering already-existing/nlivelihood stressors; and 3) identifying the mechanisms within the primary state-investor-community forum that operates to limit dissent and community reaction to these negative/ncumulative impacts--the environmental impact assessment (EIA) public participation meetings.

Advisor: Carr, Claudia J
A Time of Lost Gods: Madness, Cosmology, and Psychiatry in China

A Time of Lost Gods explores madness, haunting, and mediumship in a rural county of China’s Henan province. Drawing on twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork, I find that that given the economic and symbolic dispossession accompanying post-Reform rural outmigration, spirit mediums register psychiatric symptoms as signs of moral-cosmological collapse. I consider this in light of a precarious cosmology, wherein the very world of human and nonhuman persons and relationships are experienced as deeply destabilized. This sense of precarity is linked to the loss of Mao as a divine anti-colonial figure, evoking questions of socialist sovereignty alongside those of heavenly mandate. According to the spirit mediums, the Chairman’s death inaugurated the return of demons and deities, none of whom can be fully trusted, as they now mirror the duplicity of the human realm after market reforms. Mediums must work to discern between the true and false, the virtuous and malicious, amid a proliferation of madness-inducing spirits./nThis contemporary cosmology, I suggest, simultaneously registers the national imaginary of Henan as a quintessential land-locked agricultural province “left behind” in a post-Reform regime of value, and opens up an inverted figuring of the rural as a potential ethico-spiritual center, awaiting apocalyptic renewal. To think with the mediums is to dwell on a historical present of hesitant horizons, at once beneath and beyond discourses of global mental health and religious revival. Across the psychiatric ward of the county hospital, local temples, and home altars of spirit mediums, betrayals of economy and kinship are transmitted through multiple genres of time. In mediumship, the progressive time of the socialist promise merges with a cyclical mode of dynastic anticipation, together carried in a spectral temporality of returns. In the clinic, symptomatic fragments of intergenerational impasse intermingle with the prognostic temporality of diagnostic modernity. After a long century of exasperated responses to the threat of colonial seizure, I approach patients, spirit mediums, and psychiatrists as figures caught in a shared dilemma, in a time when gods have lost their way.

Advisor: Pandolfo, Stefania
Deciphering the Functional Role Bacterial H-NOX Proteins

Acute and specific sensing of diatomic gas molecules is an essential facet of biological signaling. Heme-Nitric oxide/Oxygen sensing (H-NOX) proteins are a family of gas sensors found in diverse classes of bacteria and eukaryotes. In mammals, the H-NOX is the sensor domain of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC). The H-NOX of sGC binds the diatomic radical gas NO with picomolar affinity and activates production of the second messenger cyclic GMP from GTP. Bacterial H-NOX domains are divided into two subfamilies. In facultative anaerobes, H-NOX domains are encoded as single domain proteins that regulate an effector protein expressed on the same operon. These H-NOX proteins specifically sense NO, inhibit the effector, either a histidine kinase or cyclic-di-GMP phosphodiesterase, and regulate a biofilm formation phenotype. In obligate anaerobes, H-NOX domains are fused to methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins. These H-NOX domains have a conserved H-bonding network in the gas ligand-binding pocket that allows formation of a stable bond with O2. The function of these O2-binding H-NOX domains is unknown. However, they are likely involved in regulating a repellent chemotaxis response. Because both NO and O2 are toxic to obligate anaerobes, the physiological ligand for these H-NOX domains is not yet known. These H-NOX domains stably bind NO, but the conservation of the H-bonding network suggests a role in O2 signaling./nIn this dissertation, biological function of both subfamilies of H-NOX domains is explored. The chemotaxis signaling circuit of Caldanaerobacter subterraneus was reconstituted in vitro, but no gas ligand or H-NOX dependence was identified. Crystal structures of C. subterraneus H-NOX and orthogonal functional assays with the histidine kinase from Vibrio cholerae indicate specific O2 signaling function. Additionally, the role of two conserved glycine residues termed the “glycine hinge” was examined. In structures of both NO and O2 sensing H-NOX domains, a conformational change occurs upon ligand binding along this glycine hinge. However, some H-NOX domains from Flavobacteriaceae have a native alanine substitution in the position of one glycine residue. It was predicted that the steric bulk from the alanine methyl group would prevent the conformational shift. However, H-NOX dependent histidine kinase assays display NO dependent regulation. Mutation of the alanine to a glycine however, destabilizes the H-NOX conformation and allows kinase inhibition independent of NO. Finally, function of the NO sensing H-NOX from Vibrio cholerae was explored. Deletions of V. cholerae H-NOX and its histidine kinase show that the H-NOX controls biofilm formation. Proteomics experiments show that the cholera toxin master regulator TcpN is upregulated in an NO and H-NOX dependent manner. Finally deletion mutants of both the H-NOX and its kinase have a modest but significant competitive advantage compared to wild type V. cholerae during infant mouse infections.

Advisor: Marletta, Michael A
Finding the Optimal Shape of an Object Using Design-By-Morphing

We present a new design method, which we call design-by-morphing, for the optimal design of the shape of an object. The surface of one or more objects (or the sub-objects from which it is composed) is represented as a truncated series of exponentially-convergent spectral basis functions multiplied by spectral coefficients. A morphed object or sub-object is obtained from a new set of spectral coefficients, which are a weighted average of the spectral coefficients of the original objects or sub-objects from which it is morphed. Optimized designs are created by choosing the weights such that a cost function of the new morphed shape is minimized. The boundaries of an object and the interfaces between sub-objects can be forced to satisfy geometric constraints on their shapes, slopes, curvature, etc. With these constraints, sub-objects can be seamlessly attached to each other to create a complex object. Because design-by-morphing has the flexibility to adjust independently the weights of sub-objects, users or an automated algorithm can choose some subset of sub-objects to be optimized while preserving or restricting the changes of other sub-objects. Our design-by-morphing method can be automated and is computationally efficient, so it requires much less human input than traditional design methods and is therefore not only inexpensive but also free from human bias in finding optimal designs that are radical and non-intuitive./nWe have applied optimization via design-by- morphing to aircraft and a turbine-99 draft tube, and reduced drag-to-lift ratio and maximized mean pressure recovery factor by 23.1% and 10.9%, respectively. We believe that this optimization method is applicable to a wide variety of engineering applications in which the performance of an object depends on the aerodynamic or hydrodynamic

Advisor: Marcus, Philip S.
Drug Violence, Fear of Crime and the Transformation of Everyday Life in the Mexican Metropolis

This dissertation brings sharp social theory, deep history and precise ethnography to illumine the nexus of social and urban structure, human emotions, and power. I draw on Norbert Elias, Emile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss, among other social theorists and historians, to counter dominant views of fear in the social sciences as a sole destroyer of the social fabric with evidence of how and why fear both tears and tightens the social fabric, both destroys and fosters solidarity. Yet with the exception of a few spaces of hope where families of victims of forced disappearances organized to demand justice from the state, this “tightening” of the social fabric did not transcend but rather exacerbated socio-spatial divides. I draw on comparative urban sociology by Teresa Caldeira, Gerald Suttles and Loïc Wacquant to trace the revamping of San Pedro, a suburb of the Monterrey Metropolitan Area and one of the wealthiest municipalities in Mexico, as an emerging state within a state for the upper class—an example of a new pattern of urban seclusion taking form in Latin America. This dissertation contributes to the sociology of everyday life in the city and the political sociology of fear and violence by providing a rare case study of cross-class responses to gruesome violence.

Advisor: Wacquant, Loic