VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Politics of Exclusion and Retribution in the Hungarian Film Industry, 1929-1947

This dissertation examines how the interwar and postwar governments in Hungary politicized and shaped the film industry to do their bidding and how filmmakers, actors and actresses reacted to those political pressures. The interwar conservative government of Miklós Horthy set out to mold the film industry to suit its ideals and ideas, while, at the same time, seeking to limit the number of Jews in the professions. This dissertation investigates the resulting conflicted political forces that brought about the creation of the Theatre and Film Arts Chamber. It examines the impact of the chamber, specifically how those working in the film industry were affected by these laws and new measures. The archival files of the postwar certification committees provide significant historical insight into the leadership and antisemitic narrative of the entertainment industry during the interwar era. In particular, these files illuminate the motivations of the individuals leading the Theatre and Film Arts Chamber. The certification committees established to investigate the wartime activities of those involved in the film industry played a significant role in creating a positive postwar identity. In 1945, this identity grew out of the belief that Hungary had been a victim of Nazi aggression. The postwar system of retribution sought to smooth the transition, and to salvage the once thriving film industry. After the Communist Party consolidated its hold on the government in May 1949, the regime recruited and rehabilitated famous Hungarian actors from the interwar era. The alleged crimes of these actors and actresses and their subsequent postwar convictions were no longer an issue of importance. The political trials that unfolded in the late 1940s served the position and power of the new elites more than anything else. By the early 1950s, the Cold War took precedence over retribution following the Second World War and the outcome of these trials seemed irrelevant. This dissertation notably adds to the research and discussion of how to shape, and for what purpose, a nation’s memory of the war and postwar years. This question is still being formed and framed in Hungary today, as it is in many European countries.

Keywords: anti-Jewish laws
Certification committees for actors
Film Arts Chamber
Film industry in Hungary
interwar and postwar Hungary
postwar certification committees
Advisor: Kasekamp, Andres
Wrobel, Piotr
The Economic Relationship between Patron and Freedman in Italy in the Early Roman Empire

The Economic Relationship between Patron and Freedman in Italy in the Early Roman Empire explores how economic and productive relationships between patrons and freedmen continued after manumission in Roman Italy during the early Principate. This dissertation surveys a range of ancient sources, including inscriptions, literary sources, alimenta tables, and wax tablets, to show how Roman patrons deployed different social and legal mechanisms to continue to draw on the productive capacities of their former slaves in a range of economic sectors. The techniques employed varied depending on productive context. Freedpersons who had been slaves in domestic familiae were redeployed as agents, not just associated with the urban households from which they originated, but also as agricultural procuratores overseeing the legal administration of rural properties. This indicates a recognition that unique skills and personal connections to their former masters could continue to be exploited after manumission for a variety of purposes. That mid-level domestic slaves were preferred for such posts instead of other, ostensibly better-suited skilled slaves, such as urban dispensatores or rural vilici, indicates a deliberate and concerted organization of both enslaved and freed workforces alongside each other. This suggests that practical economic considerations played a role both in the direction of freed labour and in manumission itself. The procuratio, a form of agricultural agency, was also used in Roman banking firms to facilitate flexible representation by freedmen, as evidenced by its repeated use by the Sulpicii from Puteoli. Efforts at patronal control were not necessarily to the detriment of the freed slaves involved, however, and sometimes could provide economic benefits and incentives to the latter. In urban manufacturing, the clustering of freedpersons in productive units enabled patrons to draw on services owed after manumission more efficiently, but also facilitated cost-sharing among skilled liberti and greater flexibility in the day-to-day management of their own businesses. In short, Roman patrons drew from a toolkit of strategies, including operae, personal links, forms of agency particularly suited to the freedman-patron relationship, and other social and legal mechanisms, to continue to draw on the productive capacity of their former slaves.

Keywords: economic
freedmen
occupation
patron
Rome
slave
Advisor: Bruun, Christer
Mammary Lineage-dependent Homologous Recombination Repair and PARP Inhibitor Vulnerability

Deleterious germline mutations in the key homologous recombination (HR) repair genes, such as BRCA1/2, strikingly increase the lifetime risk for breast cancer, underscoring the importance of faithful double-strand break (DSB) repair in maintaining the genome integrity of mammary epithelial cells. It has long been assumed that all normal cells have the same capacity to engage high-fidelity HR and error-prone non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) to repair DSBs, and that the choice between these two DSB repair pathways are determined by the cell cycle. Here, we show that the two major mammary epithelial lineages, basal and luminal, are not equally equipped to resolve DSBs. Global proteomic analyses of primary mouse mammary epithelial subpopulations and enumeration of their DSB repair activities have revealed that HR is predominantly restricted to the luminal lineage, while NHEJ operates in all mammary epithelial cells. This intrinsic differential HR repair translates into a divergent sensitivity to poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPi), selectively reducing basal clonogenicity while sparing luminal progenitors, in both the mouse and human, irrespective of BRCA mutation status. Furthermore, we generated proteome-defined lineage-specific signatures, referred to as basal or luminal progenitor identification (ID), that correlate to the PAM50 breast cancer subtypes and predict the PARPi response of triple-negative human breast cancer xenografts. Thus, mammary epithelial cell types underpin a new strategy for identifying PARPi responders. We further sought to potentiate the efficacy of PARPi by concurrently blocking progesterone receptor given its pro-tumorigenic role in the BRCA1/2-mutated carriers. This novel PARPi combination with a selective progesterone receptor modulator, ulipristal acetate (UA), abrogated clonogenicity of both lineages from primary, high-risk breast tissue specimens. Altogether, we demonstrate that mammary cell lineage is an unprecedented determinant of DSB repair pathway choice, and understanding cell lineage-restricted vulnerabilities can be leveraged to enhance intervention strategies for improved therapeutic outcomes in high-risk women.

Keywords: BRCA1/2
Breast cancer
DNA damage response
Homologous recombination repair
Mammary stem/progenitor cells
PARP inhibitors
Advisor: Khokha, Rama
Shaping Nonlinear Laser Interactions Inside Thin Film and Bulk Glass

This thesis experimentally investigates spatial beam shaping for two- and three-dimensional manipulation of laser interactions inside thin film and bulk glass. In thin film, the interferometric processing was tailored by spatial light modulator beam shaping to form a high aspect ratio nanochannel inside a silicon oxide film. Structuring nanochannels with only a single laser pulse opens up new opportunities for the fabrication of lab-in-thin film devices. In bulk glass, experiments explored the complex relationship of linear and nonlinear optical interactions in transparent glass, where self-focusing, plasma defocusing, and surface aberrations play different roles with increasing focal depth and pulse energy. The key contribution centres on manipulation of femtosecond laser interactions with beam shaping based on generating both concave and convex conical phase fronts. A comprehensive investigation was carried out over a broad domain of laser exposure conditions not previously investigated that sheds light on the competition between nonlinear and aberration effects. In this way, beam shaping enabled tuning of the modification zone to form long and uniform filament tracks over shallow to deep focusing conditions. In addition, the study expanded the laser processing zone for forming low loss optical waveguides or rapid-etching modification tracks from shallow to very deep positions (up to 2.8 mm) that were not previously feasible. As a result, the thesis sheds light on new beam shaping opportunities for steering the physics of light propagation and interactions with transparent materials, which are of central importance to the rapidly advancing field of femtosecond laser material processing. The present work dramatically extends the understanding and application of conical phase fronts, which have been rapidly transforming the field of laser processing based previously only on fixed angle axicons. This work introduces a facile means for tuning the conical angle, thus unlocking new physical insights and application directions. Alternative beams such as sheet-like shapes were further examined in shallow focusing depth of bulk glass. The technical advances will be of broad interest to the communities of optical material processing, nonlinear optical interaction physics, laser photonics manufacturing, and three-dimensional micro- and nano-structuring of transparent materials.

Keywords: Laser material processing
Nanochannel
Nonlinear optical interactions
Optical waveguides
Spatial Light Modulator (SLM)
Three-dimensional micro- and nano-structuring
Advisor: Herman, Peter R.
Evaluating the Metabolic and Anti-tumor Properties of CD8+ T Cell Lineages

Harnessing the immune system to attack cancerous cells is an exciting treatment strategy that has shown great promise clinically. Many immune cell types are involved in mediating tumor rejection with CD8+ T cells playing an important role. Typically effector CD8+ T cells are regarded as being a homogenous population of cytotoxic cells that produce the cytokine interferon (IFN)-γ. However, this outlook does not fully encompass the diversity of the CD8+ T cell population as multiple subsets of CD8+ T cells (Tc subsets) have been identified each demonstrating distinct effector functions. As many of these Tc subsets are not well defined, the first part of this Thesis was aimed at defining and characterizing the different Tc lineages. I identified the polarizing conditions to induce an interleukin (IL)-22 producing CD8+ Tc22 subset, which we found to be dependent on IL-6 and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor transcription factor. Further characterization showed that this subset is highly cytolytic and expresses a distinct cytokine profile and transcriptome relative to other subsets. Moreover, Tc22 cells demonstrate robust anti-tumor properties that were attributed to increased mitochondrial metabolism. Given the potential role of T cell metabolism in mediating the Tc22 anti-tumor responses, the second part of the Thesis was aimed at understanding the metabolic pathways involved in Tc22 polarization. Here, I found that Tc22 were distinct from other Tc subsets in that Tc22s required oxidative phosphorylation for polarization. Moreover, I identified coenzyme a (CoA) as a reagent to induce Tc22 cells in the absence of polarizing cytokines. CoA-treated cells demonstrate robust anti-tumor properties in multiple mouse models. Importantly, I found the CoA precursor pantothenic acid to be a marker of complete response to anti-PD1 therapy in human melanoma patients. In summary, the findings presented in this Thesis identify Tc22 cells as a robust anti-tumor subset with potential therapeutic implications in the context of checkpoint blockade in addition to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T or T cell receptor (TCR) transduction based immunotherapies.

Keywords: Cancer
CD8+ T cell
Immunotherapy
Metabolism
Tc subsets
Tc22
Advisor: Ohashi, Pamela S
Structural Characterization of Photoreceptor Complexes by EPR Spectroscopy

Photoreceptor proteins are detectors that sense and respond to light signals in various organisms. In vertebrates, rhodopsin is the primary element of vision and is responsible for converting light to nerve impulses through a series of signaling events. In bacteria, however, a light-driven proton pump, bacteriorhodopsin, utilizes the energy of light to create proton gradients which leads to the generation of chemical energy. The goal of my thesis is to understand the molecular mechanism of these photoreceptors and their signaling complexes. Technological advances in protein crystallography in recent years have brought many outstanding results; however, not all samples are suitable for protein X-ray crystallography due to their heterogeneous and dynamic nature. First, I applied electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy together with spin labeling techniques to study the conformations of visual arrestin upon its activation. In this study, I propose that visual arrestin only adopts a twist conformation when it interacts with light-activated rhodopsin. Second, I solved the crystal structure of a novel rhodopsin kinase and characterized its interaction with rhodopsin using EPR spectroscopy. Lastly, I solved the crystal structure of a cyanobacterial rhodopsin and determined its oligomeric states in detergent micelles with pulsed EPR techniques. Overall, I demonstrated that EPR spectroscopy is a powerful tool to study membrane protein complexes and it provides valuable information on protein structure and dynamics.

Keywords: EPR spectroscopy
GPCR
Photoreceptor
Rhodopsin
X-ray crystallization
Advisor: Ernst, Oliver P
Millimeter-Scale Magnetically Actuated Robotic Tools for Surgery and Cell Manipulation

Small scale robots are precise end-effectors that can manipulate objects with a high degree of accuracy. Many surgical and on-chip tasks can be performed by manipulating these robots in their dedicated environments. Mobile untethered surgical robots are an attractive research area because of their ability to maneuver inside small and constrained environments and perform tasks that were previously considered infeasible. These robots enable us to make surgery minimally invasive. Surgeons can drill a hole in your skull and insert the tools inside the ventricles from where they can navigate their way to either cut or grasp tissue. Because these robots are too small for electronics and on-board power, they are often actuated remotely using magnetic fields as these field can penetrate most environments and are relatively safe for biological organisms. This makes them an ideal tool to use inside the human body and for on-chip applications. Magnetic tools can be developed and placed inside microfluidic platforms for cell manipulation such as sorting and stimulation. Both on-chip and mobile devices are explored in this thesis focusing on applications related to cell manipulation as well as surgical tools. Specifically, this thesis involves a discussion on the development of a pair of micro-surgical scissors for cutting of soft tissues as well as a magnetically oscillating beam that can be used to apply shear stress to cells and used for cell sorting purposes.

Keywords: cutting
magnetics
mechanisms
microrobotics
modelling
on-chip device
Advisor: Diller, Eric
Modeling and Experimentation of Squeeze Film Dampers Considering Fluid Inertia, Film Cavitation and Design Features in Aircraft Engine

Unbalance-induced vibration in aircraft engines is the major source of cabin noise and discomfort for passengers. One key component in attenuating the vibration level in an engine rotor is the squeeze film damper (SFD). The implementation of SFDs in high-speed turbomachinery increases the rotor stability and reduces the vibration amplitude at critical speeds. Despite the successful operation of SFDs in aero engines for decades, currently applied SFD models are not sophisticated enough to recognize unique features that affect damping performance. Development of an accurate and computationally efficient model has been an ongoing challenge. The object of this thesis is to develop SFD models that incorporate the fluid inertia, film cavitation, lubricant seals, and supply mechanism to provide a precise prediction of damper behavior at high operating speeds. To be specific, the fluid inertia is resolved by the momentum approximation method and perturbation method; film cavitation is formulated by the Elrod cavitation algorithm [1] and the linear complementarity problem method [2]; the effect of lubricant seals is addressed by the leakage flow at the seal groove for piston ring seals [3]; the supply mechanism is modeled by the flow interaction at the central groove. Moreover, the developed models are integrated into a rotordynamic system to estimate the critical speeds and vibration amplitudes. To accelerate the simulation time, a polynomial interpolation technique for SFD models is introduced to solve for the SFD forces under different operating conditions. Both the steady-state response and the frequency response are presented for an open SFD application. To validate the developed SFD models, an experiment for a single flexible rotor supported with two identical SFDs is executed. Displacements of both the central disk and support SFDs are measured to correlate the theoretical prediction. Some design and operation parameters including the film clearance and supply pressure are examined in the test to evaluate their effect. Results have shown excellent agreement in terms of the critical speed and vibration amplitude. In addition, several other design parameters such as the film length and bearing stiffness are discussed in the model sensitivity to demonstrate the significance of their impact.

Keywords: Aircraft Engine
Squeeze Film Damper
Advisor: Behdinan, Kamran
Design of Viscoelastic Surfactant-oil-water Structures with the Hydrophilic-lipophilic Difference (HLD) and Net-average Curvature (NAC) Frameworks

Manipulating the self-assembly of surfactants into viscoelastic structures such as wormlike micelles and liquid crystals is an important aspect in the development of personal care products and nanostructured materials. Central to this is the curvature of the surfactant membrane, which is one of the governing concepts of surfactant self-assembly. It can be altered with multiple parameters including differences in surfactant molecular structure, added salts, added oils, and temperature. Current frameworks used to guide the design of formulations such as the packing factor do not excel at predicting the necessary combination required to produce the desired structure. A new approach presented in this work relates the formation of viscoelastic structures including wormlike micelles and liquid crystals to curvature-related phase inversion phenomena observed in surfactant-oil-water systems. The phase inversion point, in turn, can be predicted with the hydrophilic-lipophilic difference (HLD) framework. This approach was successful at predicting the formation of viscoelastic fluids for extended anionic surfactants, and a model anionic surfactant, sodium dihexyl sulfosuccinate for a variety of salinities and polar/non-polar oils at low surfactant and oil contents (

Keywords: liquid crystals
micelles
microemulsion
rheology
surfactant
Advisor: Acosta, Edgar J
Biological Network Tuning in Memory Systems Consolidation

The growth of civilization stems from our collective ability to encode, store and retrieve more facts than ever before; progressing from oral histories to vast digital databases. Central to that progress has been our own individual ability to encode, store and retrieve information. The brain’s mechanisms for processing experiences reflect a pillar of neuroscience research. Systems consolidation is the process by which encoded features of an experience are stored and refined within a network of neurons. The work presented in this thesis examines the tuning of these neuronal networks as a component of systems consolidation. First, it finds that the formation of new oligodendrocytes and myelin supports successful memory consolidation. Second, it finds that these same processes contribute to the synchrony of neural activity between the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex following learning, and that without this synchrony, consolidation is impaired. Third, it develops a method for mapping brain-wide neuronal networks. Fourth, it finds that unsuccessful remote memory retrieval, due to neurogenesis-mediated forgetting, surprisingly results in a state of global cortical synchrony relative to the successful retrieval state. Fifth, that this failed retrieval stems from the neuronal network being biased to motifs for processing external rather than internal cues. This is in contrast to successful retrieval, where the consolidated network emphasizes internal cues and motifs. Together, these results show how the tuning of a neuronal network facilitates memory systems consolidation and that incomplete tuning biases the state of the network to one where external information processing dominates. These findings collectively contribute new data on the circuit mechanisms underlying memory systems consolidation and retrieval.

Advisor: Frankland, Paul W