VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The therapeutic encounter

Therapy and literature have a storied history, from the advent of psychoanalysis to the rise and fall of psychoanalytic literary criticism. Literary critics have debated the implications of therapeutic modes of narrating experience. They contend that by privileging individual psychology, therapy runs the risk of blinding individuals to the structural conditions that contribute to their mental distress, even as it might also develop therapeutic vernaculars that make people feel less alone. However, while studies have shown that certain literary genres can be therapeutic for specific readers, little work has explored how therapy influences literary form across genres and over the course of the 20th century. As a result, scholarship either measures how accurately literature represents a certain kind of therapy or maintains that a given genre is therapeutic for readers of specific classes and genders. Neither approach asks the deeper question: What does it mean—for literary history, contemporary theories of reading, and the mental health crisis—to argue for literature as a therapeutic endeavor? The Therapeutic Encounter remedies these gaps by situating the scene of analysis as both cause and effect: on the one hand, I show how historical sessions between analysts and analysands condition the creation of 20th-century literature. On the other, I demonstrate how 20th- and 21st-century literature creates the conditions of a therapeutic relationship with readers. In so doing, I reveal the often unexpected ways that therapy inflects literary form across genres, from diary and memoir to short story, novel, and play. The Therapeutic Encounter plumbs the paradoxical promise that dialogue, even if painful in the moment, reduces shared suffering in the long term. These dialogues can often lead us astray, whether we think too well of ourselves or shirk responsibility for making changes. Yet therapy is less terminable than interminable, not a one-stop cure but a reckoning: a salutary process of coming to understand ourselves in relation with others. Like therapy, reading literature can also be a process of learning to appreciate the conflicts and inconsistencies that arise when we discover we do not know ourselves as well as we tend to think we do

Advisor: McGurl Mark
Bronstein Michaela
Castle Terry
Jones Gavin Roger
Thermo-mechanical design and reliability of high-performance ultra-thin vapor chambers

Silicon-based vapor chambers are an appealing choice for electronics cooling application due to their low thermal resistance and ease of system-level integration. However, challenges in high heat flux applications necessitates development of high-performance evaporator wicks for these two-phase cooling solutions. Here, we design, fabricate, and characterize a novel hybrid microporous evaporator wick capable of removing > 150 W from 5×5 mm2 hotspot (> 600 Wcm-2 heat flux with thermal resistance of 0.02 oCcm2W-1). We use copper wire meshes (CWMs) to provide liquid feeding and copper inverse opal (CIOs) for boiling. Surface oxidation of the copper is a critical degradation mechanism that must be addressed to preserve the integrity and hydrophilicity of the wick. We systematically investigate the contact angle change of micro porous copper. To avoid hydrophobicity, we propose to pre-oxidize the copper evaporator wick to form a hydrophilic cupric oxide CuO. Furthermore, we develop a recipe for creation of a reliable superhydrophilic layer for micro porous wick application. We investigate effect of various maintenance protocols to ensure superhydrophilicity of the wick for long term functionality. Thermo-fluidic performance of ultra-thin vapor chambers has been studied extensively in the past two decades, however; the thermo-mechanical design and reliability of these devices has not received much attention. The mechanical design and reliability of the vapor chamber is crucial for avoiding the device breakdown or leakage due to the high internal pressure. We develop a parametric model for thermo-mechanical design and structural analysis of an ultra-thin (1 mm thickness) miniature (15×15 mm2 area) silicon vapor chamber. We study the effects of various design parameters such as cavity area, cavity thickness, and fillet radius. We introduce the circular cavity design for the vapor chamber application. To increase the mechanical reliability, we propose the implementation and study the design parameters of various mechanical support structures such as ribs, crossbars, and micro-post arrays. The critical point of the mechanical design is the evaporator-condenser bonding area. Gold-tin and gold-silicon eutectic bonding are proposed as the bonding materials and methods. The samples and the tensile test setup are designed, fabricated, and tested specifically for the vapor chamber application. Findings of this study are largely beneficial in development of silicon-based heat spreaders, high-performance thermal rectifiers, next-generation heat routing technologies and heterogeneous two-phase cooling devices

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering.
Advisor: Goodson Kenneth E.
Howe Roger Thomas
Kenny Thomas William
A threatening opportunity : conversations about race-related experiences between Black and White friends

Similarities are foundational to building and maintaining friendships, but for cross-race friends, differences in experiences related to race are also inevitable. I theorize that conversations about race-related experiences are a threatening opportunity. In Part I, Black and White friends expected that these conversations can enhance closeness and intergroup learning, but these benefits can be accompanied by identity threat. In Chapter 2, Black and White adults anticipated both benefits and risks of such conversations, though more benefits than risks. In Chapter 3, Black participants reported less willingness to disclose race-related experiences to extant White friends than Black friends and anticipated feeling less comfortable doing so, controlling for closeness. However, they also desired to be understood by Black and White friends equally. In Chapter 4, White participants also felt less comfortable when an imagined Black friend disclosed race-related versus nonrace-related experiences to them. However, they expected to feel closer to their friend after the race-related disclosure. Part II examines real-time video conversations between existing Black and White friends and reframes conversations about race to address friends' identity-based concerns. Findings revealed that Black and White friends are relatively well-positioned to discuss race-related experiences, and the framing had long-term benefits for Black friends' relationship quality, authenticity, and comfort talking about race. Taken together, this dissertation highlights the benefits as well as the risks of conversations about race for cross-race friends and begins to uncover strategies to help friends engage in these conversations productively

Keywords: Psychology.
Advisor: Walton Gregory M. (Gregory Mariotti)
Eberhardt Jennifer L. (Jennifer Lynn)
Steele Claude
Tissue engineered 3D in vitro bone cancer models for elucidating drivers of cancer progression and drug discovery

Malignant bone tumors are aggressive neoplasms which can arise from bone tissue or as a result of metastasis. The most prevalent types of cancer, such as breast cancer and prostate cancer, preferentially metastasize to bone, yet the role of the bone niche in promoting cancer progression is poorly understood. Tissue engineering tools have the potential to bridge this knowledge gap by providing 3D in vitro platforms that can be specifically designed to mimic key properties of the bone niche. However, most 3D models to date have been designed to mimic soft tissue tumors, which lack the unique matrix and cellular compositions of the bone niche. Here, we present our work on engineering 3D models of osteosarcoma (OS), an aggressive pediatric bone cancer for which treatments have seen little progress in over 30 years. Using microribbon (µRB) scaffolds with bone-mimicking compositions, we evaluated the role of 3D culture and hydroxyapatite in OS signaling and drug response. Our findings reveal hydroxyapatite in 3D was critical to support retention of OS signaling and drug resistance similar to patient tissues and mouse orthotopic tumors. Integrating 3D PDX OS models with RNA sequencing, we identified a 3D-specific druggable target for OS which predicted in vivo drug response. Together, our results demonstrate the potential of 3D µRB models to serve as novel experimental tools to enable discovery of new therapies for OS which would otherwise be missed in 2D screens. Bone is the most frequent site of metastasis in breast and prostate cancer, yet why cancer cells preferentially metastasize to the bones remains unknown. Furthermore, there are currently no effective treatments for bone metastases, highlighting a critical need to elucidate the mechanisms underlying bone metastasis development and establish tools to facilitate the discovery of new therapies. To address this unmet need, we developed 3D in vitro models of breast cancer and prostate cancer metastasis to bone using spatially patterned biomaterials that mimic the in vivo cancer cell interface with bone tissues. Our data demonstrate that spatially patterned, 3D models recapitulate the preferential migration of cancer cells into bone, cancer aggressiveness, and drug response consistent with in vivo models. Importantly, we show that such 3D models can recapitulate cancer-induced dysregulation of bone remodeling, a key pathological outcome in patients which leads to significant morbidity and mortality. Lastly, we demonstrate the potential of integrating spatially patterned 3D models with single-cell RNA sequencing to identify key signaling drivers of cancer metastasis to bone. Taken together, our findings establish spatially patterned 3D in vitro bone metastasis models as a promising platform to elucidate bone metastasis biology and expedite drug discovery

Keywords: Bioengineering.
Advisor: Yang Fan (Bioengineering researcher and teacher)
Bhutani Nidhi
Yang Yunzhi Peter
To co-opt or to coerce? How the adversaries of great power proteges respond to retrenchment

When great powers withdraw security from weaker proteges, how will the territorial adversaries of those proteges respond? While existing scholarship in international relations implies that adversaries will respond by coercing territorial concessions from the former proteges, the historical record shows that many adversaries actually make territorial concessions to former great power proteges in the wake of retrenchment. Scholars had not previously identified - much less explained - this puzzle. To do so, I argue that retrenchment offers adversaries a few strategic opportunities. While the loss of great power assistance weakens the protege's defenses, it also leaves the protege's foreign policy alignment ``up for grabs." Thus, the adversaries of former great power proteges have the opportunity to coerce territorial gains or to attempt to bring the protege into their sphere of influence. Because offering territorial concessions is a powerful way for the adversary to co-opt the protege's foreign policy alignment, however, pursuing both strategies simultaneously is challenging. Thus, the adversaries of the former proteges face a trade-off between gaining territory and gaining influence. I offer several predictions about the conditions under which adversaries are likely to pursue territorial coercion vs. foreign policy co-option and test my theory in two cases: (1) Britain's withdrawal of security from proteges in the Middle East after World War II and (2) the Soviet Union's withdrawal of security assistance from client states in the late 1980s. The results support my hypotheses. My theory and findings contribute to existing scholarship on alliances, alignments, territorial disputes, and retrenchment and also have important implications for current policy debates about the potential consequences of American retrenchment

Keywords: Political Science.
Advisor: Schultz Kenneth A.
Fearon James D.
Tomz Michael
To Trust or Not to Trust: Exploring Legal Control in the Context of Youth Homelessness in Portland, Oregon

Alisha Zhao’s capstone project combines ethnographic research with her interest in art as a medium to explore and bring awareness to youth homelessness in the US. She interviewed youth experiencing homelessness in her hometown, Portland, OR, in order to better understand youth experiencing homelessness and their perceptions on authority, which may affect their willingness or ability to seek institutional support and resources. Alisha's capstone includes a series of oil paintings that depict different forms of homelessness, such as family homelessness, in addition to her ethnographic research. Alisha hopes that this art series can serve as an accessible way of engaging in dialogue about pressing social and human rights issues.

Keywords: Homeless teenagers
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Too Big to Fail?: Evaluating the association between large-scale irrigation schemes and civil violence in sub-Saharan Africa, in the context of the climate crisis

A “code red for humanity;” the “number one threat to mankind;” as lethal as “guns and bombs.” Climate change represents an existential threat to humanity. The coming decades will see a surge of funding for climate adaptation aid in response to this threat – led by US President Joe Biden’s pledge of $11 billion in climate aid annually by 2024. This expansion of funding for climate development interventions, in particular, suggests a need to evaluate how past infrastructure interventions have impacted communities, and lessons for the future. This thesis thus explores the relationship between large-scale irrigation projects in sub-Saharan Africa and communal violence. Recognizing the wide-ranging variation in use and effectiveness of irrigation schemes, it asks: To what extent does violence influence the location and effectiveness of large-scale irrigation projects? Essentially, is there a violence effect – does violence prior to or during the construction of projects influence projects influence their utility, and, conversely, in what circumstances do these projects amplify or reduce the risks of communal violence? Using a mixed methods approach, the paper does not find a strong relationship between violence and the relative success of irrigation projects. However, it finds that irrigation projects are more likely to be placed in locations with greater exposure to violence. The reason for this increased exposure to violence appears two-fold: first, there is an intentional decision to use irrigation projects as a mechanism to promote regional stability and socioeconomic development. This relationship is also, in part, unintentional, reflecting multilateral funding bodies’ historically limited efforts to mitigate risk. A case study of Nigeria is used to delve further into these findings, identifying several instances in which projects have exacerbated community grievances against the state –– and where violence has ensued. These findings suggest that stakeholders in the climate change, development, and peacebuilding spheres should prioritize mechanisms for greater environmental and social risk assessments; increase opportunities for community-based development and governance; and strive to better integrate conflict-sensitivity into climate adaptation interventions.

Keywords: Center for International Security and Cooperation
Irrigation
Violence
Security, International
Peace-building
Nigeria
Dams > Social aspects
Dams > Evaluation
Dams
Sub-Saharan Africa
Food security > Climatic factors
National security > Climatic factors
World Bank
International Development
USAID
Civil conflict
African Development Bank
Crops and climate
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Thesis
Advisor: Schultz Kenneth
Topological photonics in non-Hermitian and scattering systems

In photonics, topological effects can be used to design systems with robust and novel behavior. These topological effects are traditionally studied in closed systems without gain, described by Hermitian Hamiltonians. However, many systems in photonics do have gain or loss and can be described by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Systems with inputs and outputs are also widespread in photonics and are usually described by a scattering matrix. In this Thesis, we study topological features in non-Hermitian and scattering systems in photonics. First, we give a characterization of the space of all gapped non-Hermitian Hamiltonians using the mathematical framework of homotopy theory. We do this pedagogically in two-band systems, starting with the familiar Hermitian case before generalizing to the non-Hermitian setting, and then giving several physical interpretations of the results. Next, we study the topology of many-band non-Hermitian systems, and we see the importance of braid-group eigenvalue topology emerge. We provide a complete description of eigenvalue topology in gapped and gapless systems, again using the mathematics of homotopy theory. Finally, we move to scattering systems, where we study a topological feature in the spectrum of the scattering matrix known as a scattering threshold. Here, the scattering matrix has a square-root branch point, and we show that this singularity leads to a universal behavior in a wide variety of physical systems

Keywords: Electrical Engineering.
Advisor: Fan Shanhui
Brongersma Mark L.
Miller D. A. B.
Topology and disorder in quantum condensed matter systems

This thesis covers a number of topics related to condensed matter systems in which degrees of freedom are strongly interacting with each other, subject to strong randomness from impurities and dirt, or both. The first part of the thesis presents the lattice constructions of the recently proposed web of dualities between quantum field theories in (2+1) dimensions. These dualities and the lattice constructions shed light on non-perturbative aspects of strongly interacting systems in two spatial dimensions. The second part of the thesis covers exactly solvable 2D Hamiltonians for topologically ordered states with chiral edge states and quantum spin Hall insulators. These models, obtained upon decorating previously-well-known physical models with fermions and parafermions, provide analytically tractable ways of studying 2D topological phases of matter in presence of strong interaction, disorder, or both. The final part of the thesis shows how the phase transitions involving dirty three-dimensional topological insulators can be understood in terms of the semiclassical percolation picture of electrons in the 3D network

Keywords: Physics.
Advisor: Raghu Srinivas
Devereaux Thomas Peter
Khemani Vedika
Toward the rational design of fluorescent proteins : elucidating the photodynamics of the GFP chromophore in various environments

The green fluorescent protein (GFP) has revolutionized the fields of chemistry and biology. Due to their ability to highlight protein dynamics in living organisms, GFP and GFP-like proteins have emerged as ubiquitous tools in biological imaging. The versatility of GFP has inspired a rainbow-like palette of fluorescent reporters; however, the creation of novel GFP variants is often imprecise and inefficient. Using molecular dynamics simulations, I unravel the intricate steric and electronic factors responsible for the performance of these fluorescent proteins. Across many systems (i.e., gas phase, water, and GFP/Dronpa2 scaffolds), I study the photodynamics of the GFP chromophore. Changes to the chromophore's intrinsic properties (e.g. fluorescence propensity, photoisomerization quantum yield, etc.) are monitored as the molecule occupies various condensed phase systems. Applying this knowledge, I have developed a computational workflow that can (1) generate structures for tens of thousands of GFP mutants and (2) characterize these mutants using steric and electronic features. This structural data is coupled with machine learning models to identify important interactions within the system and inspire the creation of novel GFP reporters

Keywords: Chemistry.
Advisor: Martinez Todd J. (Todd Joseph)
Boxer Steven G. (Steven George)
Markland Thomas E.
Towards a human-like understanding of the physical world

Humans have a rich understanding of the physical world, which enables us to effectively interact with and navigate in our environment. A core component of this understanding is the ability to decompose the visual environment into objects, and reason effectively about the dynamic interactions between these objects. We introduce an end-to-end differentiable graph neural network that learns to predict the physical dynamics of a wide variety of three-dimensional objects using a hierarchical particle-based object representation. Additionally, we present a physical prediction benchmark that compares a broad suite of state-of-the-art models to humans on a diverse set of physical phenomena. We show that graph neural networks with access to the physical state best capture human behavior, whereas models that receive only visual input fall far short of human accuracy. This suggests that endowing models with more physically explicit state representations is a promising path towards human-like physical understanding

Keywords: Electrical Engineering.
Advisor: Yamins Daniel
Boahen Kwabena (Kwabena Adu)
Finn Chelsea
Towards a Multiple-Systems Understanding of Race-Related Biases in Human Memory

Human memory is biased. In memory research, bias is often studied as a monolith, operationalized in a single behavioral measurement. However, memory behaviors are supported by a concert of interacting systems, and understanding our biases requires disentangling the unique contributions of each system and how each one is shaped by social dynamics around us. Here, we begin to isolate the contributions of perceptual and mnemonic race-related bias to episodic memory retrieval. To do so, we construct a novel stimulus set of face images capturing both naturalistic variation (including across subjectively classified racial categories) and low-level control and implement a multi-task behavioral experiment. Participants performed a 3-way concurrent face discrimination task, and subsequently a 2-alternative-forced-choice recognition memory test. Moreover, to test for race-related bias in the generalizability of memory representations, we tested participants on previously seen faces from both studied and unstudied viewpoints. We find evidence for canonical ingroup perceptual biases but (reverse-canonical) outgroup-favoring memory bias, with preliminary evidence that viewing time at encoding may explain some of this memory bias. Furthermore, we find no evidence for bias in participants’ memory generalizability to decisions on novel viewpoints. This work offers a more fine-grained understanding of how social biases (here, racial biases) shape different systems of human cognition and models new approaches to studying race-related biases with attention to the subjectivity of race perceptions, the social ramifications of race and racism, and the complexity of human cognition and behavior.

Keywords: Wagner, Anthony
Bias
Memory
Episodic memory
Psychology
Neurosciences
Behavioral neuroscience
Perception
Attention
Race
Racism
Cognitive science
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Thesis