VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
(En)Gendering Whiteness: A Historical Analysis of White Womanhood, Colonial Anxieties, and “Tender Violence” in US Schools

Within educational research, the over-disciplining of Black/nand Brown students is most often presented as a problem located/nwithin pathologized or misunderstood communities. That is,/ntheories and proposed solutions tend toward those that ask how/nwe can make students of color more suited to US educational/nstandards rather than questioning the racist roots of those/nstandards. This dissertation takes as a provocation this/n“discipline gap,” in exploring a thus far unconsidered stance/nand asking how white women (the majority of US teachers) have/nhistorically understood their roles in the disciplining of/nnonwhite student bodies, and how and why their role has been/nconstructed over time and space in service to the white colonial/nState. Toward this end, I take a genealogical approach in making/nsense of a contemporary phenomenon by asking, “How and why has/nthe persona of the benevolent white female teacher been put into/ndiscourse during the foundational period in public schools’/nhistory, and how has it been reproduced over time, specifically/nin relation to students of color?” With this perspective, my/nproject helps to fill a much-overlooked void in the contemporary/nconversation on raced and gendered student-teacher interactions/nin schools./nThis project employs two main methodologies: (1) close/nreadings informed by literary theory, and (2) Foucauldian/ndiscourse analysis, which I use in constructing a genealogy of/nheroic white womanhood (what I am calling “benevolent/nwhiteness”). Using these methods I analyze the archival writings/nof and about white missionary women in the 19th century to/nexplain how the collective acceptance of and participation in/nthe discursive construction of heroic white womanhood has been/nthe normative underpinnings of US educational and disciplinary/npractice for nearly two hundred years. Toward this end, this/nproject serves to refocus whiteness within current debates on/nthe over-disciplining of students of color toward a historical/nand structural analysis with a goal of understanding, refusing,/nand reimagining the roles of white female teachers.

Advisor: García Bedolla, Lisa
The Development and Evolution of Floral Symmetry in the Zingiberales and Interactive Tools for Teaching Evolution (ArborEd)

Abstract/nThe Development and Evolution of Floral Symmetry in the Zingiberales and Interactive Tools for Teaching Evolution (ArborEd)/nby/nRiva Anne Bruenn/nDoctor of Philosophy in Plant Biology/nUniversity of California, Berkeley/nProfessor Chelsea D. Specht, Chair/nFloral symmetry is a key innovation in the evolution of flowering plants. Zygomorphy, or single-planed symmetry, is associated with the diversification of many flowering plant lineages. The model system for floral symmetry is the snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus). In A. majus flowers, a set of TCP and MYB-related transcription factors form a core gene regulatory network necessary for zygomorphy. The genes involved in this network have been implicated in several independent transitions to zygomorphy from actinomorphy (many-planed symmetry). Although the TCP components of the symmetry network have been investigated across flowering plants, MYB-related transcription factors remain largely unstudied outside of the Asterid group containing A. majus and close relatives. Here we investigate the evolution of MYB-related genes DIVARICATA-like (DIV-like), RADIALIS-like (RAD-like), and DIVARICATA and RADIALIS INTERACTING FACTOR-like (DRIF-like) across flowering plants, and their expression patterns in the developing flowers of two zygomorphic species of the monocot order Zingiberales./nWe found that RAD-like and DIV-like are sister MYB-related genes which diverged before the diversification of flowering plants. Each gene contains one MYB-like domain that has been closely conserved throughout flowering plant evolution. Furthermore, we identified candidate homologs to A. majus RAD and DIV in several monocot taxa, with at least three copies of each in the Zingiberales./nIn the Zingiberales, RAD-like and DIV-like genes are expressed in Costus spicatus (Costaceae) and Musa basjoo (Musaceae) in patterns consistent with roles in floral symmetry. Using Reverse Transcription PCR and in situ hybridization we recovered asymmetric expression patterns for some RAD-like genes across the dorsal/ventral plane of developing flowers, and universal expression of DIV-like genes, consistent with the model known from Antirrhinum majus./nWe identified DRIF-like genes across flowering plants, recovering a previously undescribed duplication in eudicot DRIF Group 1 genes. Furthermore, we recovered candidate DRIF-like genes in Musa basjoo (Musaceae: Zingiberales) with expression patterns similar to those described in A. majus DRIF1 and DRIF2./nFinally, we developed a tutorial for high school and college students to investigate a coevolutionary hypothesis in sharpshooters and their bacterial endosymbionts. This tool will help students understand how comparative evolutionary research is performed, and give them hands-on experience performing common analyses.

Advisor: Specht, Chelsea D
A New Approach to Network Function Virtualization

Networks provide functionality beyond just packet routing and delivery. Network functions such as firewalls, caches, WAN optimizers, etc. are crucial for scaling networks and in supporting new applications. While traditionally network functions were implemented using dedicated hardware middleboxes, recent efforts have resulted in them being implemented as software and deployed in virtualized environment . This move towards virtualized network function is commonly referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). While the NFV proposal has been enthusiastically accepted by carriers and enterprises, actual efforts to deploy NFV have not been as successful. In this thesis we argue that this is because the current deployment strategy which relies on operators to ensure that network functions are configured to correctly implement policies, and then deploys these network functions as virtual machines (or containers), connected by virtual switches are ill- suited to NFV workload./nIn this dissertation we propose an alternative NFV framework based on the use of static techniques such as type checking and formal verification. Our NFV framework consists of NetBricks – a NFV runtime and programming environment, that uses type checking to provide isolation, and presents a novel dataflow based approach to writing high performance network functions; and VMN a verification tool that can automatically check whether a set of NFs correctly implement network policy. Finally, we also show that simplifying NF development and deployment enable new applications, both in the wide-area and within datacenters.

Advisor: Shenker, Scott J
Sowing Seeds and Knowledge: Agrarian Development in the US, China, Taiwan, and the World, 1920-1980

In the 20th century, development became practiced on a global scale by states, missionaries, philanthropic organizations, scientists, and other groups hoping to achieve a better condition for human society. Many of these efforts focused on social improvement and modernization for the relatively poorer agrarian societies and economies of the world. This dissertation interrogates the rise and practices of agrarian development, particularly by the United States in China and Taiwan, and then by Taiwan in the rest of the world./nThe first half of the dissertation explores the emergence of development from agricultural science, Protestant missions, and philanthropic famine relief in China, focusing on how Chinese practitioners localized globally circulating ideas. These ideas and practices eventually coalesced into a development “model” in China and Taiwan, which distilled a range of practices, from village-level social reform (i.e. organizing farmers associations) to high modernist science (i.e. plant breeding and chemical fertilizer production). The second half of the dissertation examines the subsequent iteration—how Taiwanese development experts then marketed practices of farmers organizations, land reform, and high yield crop varieties in their Cold War development missions to Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Through demonstrating their technical prowess and ability of providing humanitarian aid abroad, the Taiwanese were attempting to pursue their own political goals and find a postcolonial identity through international development./nAs development practitioners repackaged ideas of agrarian development for local conditions, they imagined distinct visions of modernity and society that reflected their own expertise, historical experiences, and political goals. Development was a complicated process that Chinese and Taiwanese actors not only co-opted to realize their own visions of modernity at home, but also to demonstrate the superiority of those visions abroad to an international audience.

Advisor: Sargent, Daniel
Applications of Nanotechnology to the Life Sciences

This thesis describes three experimental thrusts applying nanotechnology to develop novel tools for the life sciences./nPart I (chapters 2 and 3) covers the development of a graphene based nanofluidic platform for in-situ electron microscopy. The Graphene Flow Cell (GFC), as we have referred to it, consists of a nanofluidic channel integrated into a SiN/SiO2/SiN stack on a Silicon chip, with a layer of graphene sealing the channel. The graphene serves as an electron transparent membrane as well as a scavenger of oxidative radicals during imaging. We discuss the fabrication and testing of the GFC, as well as a few demonstrations of its capabilities. The GFC outperforms commercial nitride cells in resolution and contrast, and allows for the introduction of reactants/nduring imaging and precise control of sample concentration, features sealed liquid cell architectures lack. These advantages have already allowed for advances in our understanding of nanobubble geometry and stability, as well nanoparticle dynamics. Finally, we discuss some future applications and improvements for the GFC./nPart II (chapters 4 and 5) discusses work towards carbon nanotube intracellular neural electrodes. Due to their nanoscale nature, extreme aspect ratios, and unique mechanical and electrochemical properties, carbon nanotubes make an ideal electrophysiological probe. We demonstrated their capability using a single-unit probe device, and further demonstrated that such a probe is scalable, having the potential to record from a high-density of neurons in a small volume. We walk through the micro- and nano-fabrication considerations in developing such a probe, and progress we have made towards this aim. Finally, we discuss an alternative application of CNTs as neural probes, using them to bias plasmonic nanoparticles to create a voltage sensitive optical probe./nFinally, Part III (chapters 6 and 7) covers ongoing work applying atomically precise nanopores in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) to DNA sequencing. Previous work out of our lab has demonstrated that defects in hBN introduced by electron beam irradiation grow in atomically-quantized metastable triangles. Taking advantage of this property, it is possible to produce individual triangular nanopores in hBN with atomically precise diameters. This precision allows us to create nanopores for DNA sequencing in which the pore size is tailored to the size of DNA strands. Currently, solid-state nanopore sequencing has been limited by the speeds at which DNA passes through the pore, as well as limited blocking current signatures of the nucleotide bases. Atomically precise pores address both of these issues and will likely mark a significant advance in the field. We cover the progress we have made towards this goal, as well/nas aims that are still outstanding.

Advisor: Zettl, Alex
Hardware Innovations and Biomedical Applications of Magnetic Particle Imaging

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) shows extraordinary promise for biomedical applications: it is highly sensitive, linearly quantitative anywhere in the body, has zero signal from biological tissue, and is safe for patients. One of the major challenges in MPI is spatial resolution, which is fundamentally governed by selection field gradient strength and nanoparticle properties. In Chapter 3 of this dissertation, I describe the design and construction of a high gradient field-free line (FFL) scanner for improved spatial resolution. This is the world's first iron return MPI scanner, and the highest resolution FFL imager in the world. Armed with MPI-tailored nanoparticles created by our collaborators at the University of Washington and Lodespin Labs, we were able to achieve 700 micron resolution in vivo. We also successfully demonstrated dynamic projection MPI as well as 3D projection reconstruction MPI with this scanner. In addition to hardware innovations, I have also demonstrated the use of MPI in two very important applications, namely cancer imaging and gastrointestinal (GI) bleed detection. In Chapter 2 of this dissertation, I demonstrated the first use of MPI for in vivo cancer imaging with systemic tracer administration. Due to the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, the tumor was highlighted with tumor-to-background ratio of up to 50. The nanoparticle dynamics in the tumor was also well appreciated, with initial wash-in on the tumor rim, peak uptake at 6 hours, and eventual clearance beyond 48 hours. In Chapter 4 of this dissertation, I demonstrated the first use of MPI along with long-circulating, PEG-stabilized SPIOs for rapid in vivo detection and quantification of GI bleed. MPI-tailored, long-circulating SPIOs were systemically administered into a disease model of GI bleed. The tracer biodistribution was then tracked over time using our custom-built high resolution FFL MPI scanner which was described in Chapter 3. Dynamic MPI projection images captured tracer accumulation in the lower GI tract with excellent contrast. The robust contrast, sensitivity, safety, ability to image anywhere in the body, along with our MPI-tailored long-circulating SPIOs, demonstrates the outstanding promise of MPI as a clinical diagnostic tool.

Advisor: Conolly, Steven
Entropy Bounds and Entanglement

The generalized covariant entropy bound, or Bousso bound, is a holographic bound on the entropy of a region of space in a gravitational theory. It bounds the entropy passing through certain null surfaces. The bound remains nontrivial in the weak-gravity limit, and provides non-trivial constraints on the entropy of ordinary quantum states even in a regime where gravity is negligible./nIn the first half of this thesis, we present a proof of the Bousso bound in the weak-gravity regime within the framework of quantum field theory. The bound uses techniques from quantum information theory which relate the energy and entropy of quantum states. We present two proofs of the bound in free and interacting field theory./nIn the second half, we present a generalization of the Bousso bound called the quantum focussing conjecture. Our conjecture is a bound on the rate of entropy generation in a quantum field theory coupled semiclassically to gravity. The conjecture unifies and generalizes several ideas in holography. In particular, the quantum focussing conjecture implies a bound on entropies which is similar to, but subtly different from, the Bousso bound proven in the first half./nThe quantum focussing conjecture implies a novel non-gravitational energy condition, the quantum null energy condition, which gives a point-wise lower bound on the null-null component of the stress tensor of quantum matter. We give a proof of this bound in the context of free and superrenormalizable bosonic quantum field theory.

Advisor: Bousso, Raphael
Mean field games with singular controls of bounded velocity

This thesis studies a class of mean field games (MFG) with singular controls of bounded velocity. By relaxing absolute continuity of control processes, it generalizes the MFG framework of Lasry and Lions \cite{LL2007} and Huang, Malham\'e, and Caines \cite{HMC2006}. It provides a unique solution to the MFG with singular controls of bounded velocity and its explicit optimal control policy establishes an \epsilon-Nash equilibrium of the corresponding stochastic differential N player game with singular controls./nIt also includes MFGs on an infinite time horizon. Our method to approach MFGs with singular controls is from bounded velocity processes, and we analyse the relationship between singular controls with finite variation processes and singular controls with bounded velocity./nFinally, it illustrates particular MFGs with explicit solutions in a systemic risk model originally formulated by Carmona, Fouque, and Sun \cite{CFS2013} in a regular control setting and an optimal partially reversible investment problem with N players originally formulated by Guo and Pham \cite{GP2005} in a single player setting.

Advisor: Guo, Xin
Multisymplectic Geometry in General Relativity and other Classical Field Theories on Manifolds with Boundaries: A Deobfuscating Role

In Chapter 2, the multisymplectic formalism of field theories developed over the last fifty years is extended to deal with manifolds that have boundaries. In particular, a multisymplectic framework for first-order covariant Hamiltonian field theories on manifolds with boundaries is developed. This work is a geometric fulfillment of Fock's formulation of field theories as it appears in recent work by Cattaneo, Mnev and Reshetikhin (2014). This framework leads to a geometric understanding of conventional choices for boundary conditions and relates them to the moment map of the gauge group of the theory./nIt is also shown that the natural interpretation of the Euler-Lagrange equations as an evolution system near the boundary leads to a presymplectic Hamiltonian system in an extended phase space containing the natural configuration and momenta fields at the boundary together with extra degrees of freedom corresponding to the transversal components at the boundary of the momenta fields of the theory. The consistency conditions for evolution at the boundary are analyzed and the reduced phase space of the system is shown to be a symplectic manifold with a distinguished isotropic submanifold corresponding to the boundary data of the solutions of Euler-Lagrange equations. This setting makes it possible to define well-posed boundary conditions, and provides the adequate setting for the canonical quantization of the system./nThe notions of the theory are tested against three significant examples: scalar fields, Poisson sigma-model and Yang-Mills theories./nIn Chapter 3, inspired by problems encountered in the geometrical treatment of Yang-Mills theories and Palatini's gravity, a covariant formulation of Hamiltonian dynamical systems as a Hamiltonian field theory of dimension 1+0 on a manifold with boundary is developed. After a precise statement of Hamilton's variational principle in this context, the geometrical properties of the space of solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations of the theory are analyzed. A sufficient condition is obtained that guarantees that the set of solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations at the boundary of the manifold, fill a Lagrangian submanifold of the space of fields at the boundary. Finally a theory of constraints is introduced that mimics the constraints arising in Palatini's gravity./nIn Chapter 4, a covariant Hamiltonian description of Palatini's gravity on manifolds with boundary is presented. Palatini's gravity appears as a gauge theory satisfying a constraint in a certain topological limit. This approach allows the consideration of non-trivial topological situations./nThe multisymplectic framework for first-order covariant Hamiltonian field theories on manifolds with boundary, developed in Chapter 2, enables analysis of the system at the boundary. The reduced phase space of the system is determined to be a symplectic manifold with a distinguished isotropic submanifold corresponding to the boundary data of the solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations.

Advisor: Reshetikhin, Nicolai
Essays in Corporate Finance

This dissertation consists of three chapters, each of them analyzing different important managerial choices: payout policies, financing decisions and acquisitions./nThe first chapter argues that workers’ unemployment risk may induce firms to adopt conservative payout policies. I show that firms increase their dividend payout following sharp increases in unemployment insurance generosity, a policy effective in reducing human costs due to layoffs. By focusing on policy changes plausibly unrelated to macroeconomic conditions, I show that firms increase payout by about 6% in presence of stronger protection for unemployed workers. Consistent with public insurance crowding out private insurance by firms, I find that this effect is driven by firms with worse growth prospects, high labor intensity, and in more volatile industries. Overall, this evidence suggests that labor market considerations play an important role in shaping firms’ payout decisions./nThe second chapter, co-authored with Ulrike Malmendier and Hui Zheng, focuses on financing choices made by potentially biased managers. Analyzing the traits and biases of individual man- agers, such as CEOs, in isolation can result in the misattribution of corporate outcomes, especially under assortative matching. We illustrate this insight for the role of CEO and CFO overconfidence in financing decisions. We show that the CFO’s rather than the CEO’s type dominates in determining the choice of external financing when we consider their beliefs jointly. At the same time, overconfident CEOs (and not CFOs) obtain significantly better financing conditions, as predicted by our theoretical model. Moreover, overconfident CEOs tend to hire overconfident CFOs whenever given the opportunity, generating a multiplier effect./nThe third chapter analyzes the ex-post ouctomes of acquisitions presenting different degrees of synergies between acquirors and targets. Theoretical and empirical work suggests that mergers involving vertically integrated firms are more likely to produce gains in productivity. I show that the post-merger change in productivity is positively related to the degree of relatedness between acquirors and targets. On the other hand, firms acquiring unrelated targets display a drop in stock and cash flow volatility, suggesting that such acquisitions are motivated by managers willing to “enjoy the quiet life.” Yet this information is not apparent to investors at announcement and only becomes available slowly. Notably, acquirors of unrelated targets significantly underperform acquirors of related targets in the 18 months following a merger announcement. These results suggest that the announcement returns may be a poor proxy for the “diversification discount,” and that investors may be unable to realize how different industries exhibit different degrees of connection.

Advisor: Malmendier, Ulrike