VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
When Secrets Should Stay Secret? Accountability, Democratic Governance, and Intelligence

This dissertation investigates how intelligence activities, largely opaque from the public view, are held accountable in a democracy. Much of regulation and what is considered good governance is the result of strong, transparent regulatory structures, the activities of interest groups, openness to the media, and to the public. National security and intelligence matters, by necessity, do not fit neatly within these expectations of transparency. This dissertation explores how the three branches of government maintain control over the intelligence agencies, describes the mechanisms that have been developed to assure accountability, and explains what causes them to change over time./nThe institutional development of oversight mechanisms described above contributes to an original theoretical framework of accountability that disaggregates the nebulous concept of accountability into two sets of characteristics that can help understand the concept of accountability on a more granular and, eventually, operational, level. This project divides "accountability" into two sets of components: those that correspond to external accountability--through mechanisms external to the supervised agency--and those that relate to internal accountability--incorporating internal control mechanisms, institutional culture, and organizational standard operating procedures. The objective of this disaggregation of accountability within the context of intelligence is to understand how to assess the oversight mechanisms for both weaknesses and strengths when it comes to their oversight responsibility over the intelligence function. Specifically this approach facilitates understanding how responsibilities for oversight and control over intelligence activities vary across government institutions./nBeyond contributing a unique theoretical framework to the academic assessment of accountability and intelligence, this project contributes to the study of intelligence oversight in the breadth of its operational analysis. While many studies focus on one branch of government, usually Congress, to understand how intelligence is supervised, this study incorporates the oversight mechanisms from all three branches of government. The purpose of this expansive approach is to understand how the mechanisms interact in practice, and thus to understand how they may be developed to meet the needs of an emerging threat environment and thus an adaptive intelligence community.

Advisor: Cain, Bruce E
Meditation, Repentance, and Visionary Experience in Early Medieval Chinese Buddhism

This dissertation explores the development of Buddhist meditation in China between 400 and 600 CE. Although texts discussing Buddhist meditation were known in China from the end of the second century, only during this period did it become a commonly practiced form of Buddhist training, and did Indian meditation masters come to China in appreciable numbers. Focusing on a body of meditation texts written in China during the first half of the fifth century, I argue that Chinese Buddhists came to understand the practice and meaning of Buddhist meditation in relation to rituals of repentance, which during this time became the core of Buddhist liturgical life. Meditation was thought to produce a state of visionary sensitivity in which practitioners would obtain visions attesting to their karmic purity or impurity, and hence to either the success of or need for rituals of repentance.

Advisor: Sharf, Robert H
The Portrait of the Kings and the Historiographical Poetics of the Deuteronomistic Historian

This dissertation explores the historiographical style and method of the Deuteronomist (Dtr) in the book of Kings, with particular attention to what I call the prototype strategy in the portrayal of the Israelite kings. It lays out a systematic analysis of Dtr's historiographical composition and the ways he includes and reshapes his inherited sources to suit his purposes. This work offers a framework for the selectional and compositional method that Dtr employs in the construction of his history, and especially in crafting the portrait of the kings. This analysis suggests that Dtr has a specific set of historiographical priorities to which he adheres in order to interpret the history of the monarchy in light of deuteronomistic theology. This is done through crafting a comprehensive narrative that functions didactically, instructing the kings and the people of Judah how to behave through illustrating the consequences of disobedience./nA key element to Dtr's historiographical process is the use of a prototype strategy. Dtr focuses on the royal portrait as a literary tool to convey his theological message. This prototype is based on a literary picture of David as the exemplum of covenant fidelity. Dtr uses David as the royal comparative to construct the portrait of both good and bad kings. He is the model of the deuteronomistically adherent king, the one whom all subsequent kings are required to emulate. Only those kings who contribute to Dtr's meta-narrative are constructed using this prototype./nThe analysis of the portraits of David, Solomon, Jeroboam, Manasseh, and Josiah highlights the historiographical poetics at play in the construction of the accounts and the expression of Dtr's theological concerns. Each example demonstrates how the selectional and compositional strategies are used by Dtr to create an effective account of the king's reign and to promote deuteronomistic theology. This work contributes important perspectives to the study of Kings and the Deuteronomistic History as a whole. Greater understanding of Dtr's historiographical method results in a greater understanding of the book of Kings. Also, by indentifying Dtr's literary and historiographical style, it is possible to see the differences between the method of the pre-exilic and exilic Dtr, contributing to redactional decisions, on grounds beyond thematic justifications.

Advisor: Hendel, Ronald S
Improving Traveler Information and Collecting Behavior Data with Smartphones

The recent growth of smartphones along with cheap, scalable cloud computing infrastructure has allowed for a plethora of new applications to be built. In transportation, two main efforts have been greatly impacted by this, delivering better traveler information to users, and collecting travel behavior information for researchers. This thesis describes 4 major efforts along these two themes; the development of a real-time transit trip planner, the evaluation of the value of real- time data, the development of a smartphone based automated travel diary system, and the design and evaluation of a behavior change experiment using the travel diary system. The first half of the thesis describes the technical development of the real-time transit trip planner along with experiments showing the positive impacts to travelers. Prior to this work, transit trip planners primarily used schedule data to route people through a transit network. This work is the first solution to the K- shortest paths problem to use real-time transit arrival data retrieved from a third party API. The algorithm then was implemented in an application called BayTripper, which serves over 1,000 users in the San Francisco Bay Area. The second half of the thesis describes the technical development of the automated travel diary system, which consists of battery efficient smartphone applications, server infrastructure to process data with trip determination algorithms, and web tools used to evaluate the accuracy of the system. The contribution to the literature is a catalogue of problems and related algorithmic solutions to building an end-to-end, battery efficient, automated travel diary. A behavior change experiment was designed and run using the automated travel diary system, which showed the potential for/n changes/n in/n users' awareness of their travel behavior, intentions to change, and short-term behavior change. This experiment represents a large scale test of the automated travel diary system, as well as a demonstration of using behavior change techniques, feedback and comparison, to promote sustainable travel behavior.

Advisor: Sengupta, Raja
Model-based Bayesian Seismic Monitoring

This thesis presents the underlying probabilistic model, the parameter/nestimation, and the inference algorithm of NET-VISA, Network/nProcessing Vertically Integrated Seismic Analysis. NET-VISA is an Open/nUniverse Probability Model (OUPM) for seismic events, the transmission/nof seismic waves through the earth, and their detection (or/nmisdetection) at stations, as well as a model for spurious detections./nThe probabilistic model allows for seamless integration of various/ndisparate sources of information. Applied in the context of the/nInternational Monitoring System (IMS), a global sensor network/ndeveloped for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT),/nNET-VISA achieves a reduction of around 60% in the number of missed/nevents compared to the currently deployed system. It also finds events/nthat are missed by the human analysts who post-process the IMS/noutput.

Advisor: Russell, Stuart
The effect of Abstinence, Being faithful to one partner, and Condom use (ABC) messages on HIV infection among youth in Uganda

The effect of Abstinence, Being faithful to one partner, and Condom use (ABC) messages on HIV infection among youth in Uganda/nBy/nJohn Paul Ekwaru/nDoctor of Philosophy in Epidemiology/nUniversity of California, Berkeley/nProfessor Arthur Reingold, Chair/nUganda has suffered a devastating epidemic of HIV/AIDS for the last two and a half decades, with an estimated 2.6 million people becoming infected by 2005, half of whom had died by the end of that year. In 2009 an estimated 1.2 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda, including 120,000 who became infected in 2009. A campaign for abstinence from sex, being faithful to one sexual partner and condom use (ABC) became a pillar of HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in Uganda. Though there are indications that this intervention played a role in reducing the prevalence of HIV in Uganda, there are no data with which to estimate the impact of this intervention. It is important to determine the effect of this intervention, particularly among youth, who are thought to be a window of hope for changing the course of the HIV pandemic. There is also a need to explore the relationship between stigma and risky sexual behavior. While it has been shown that stigma affects uptake of voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), it is possible that stigma may also have effects on sexual behavior. While reluctance to take up VCT may be due to fear of being stigmatized when found to be HIV positive, it is also possible that fear of being stigmatized may lead to safer sexual behavior. Exploring the relationship between HIV/AIDS-related stigma and sexual behavior requires a valid measure of HIV/AIDS related stigma, but there is currently no such instrument that has been validated for use among youth in Uganda./nThe aims of this dissertation were to estimate the effects of the abstinence, being faithful, and condom use messages (ABC) on risky sexual behavior and HIV infection among youth in Uganda and to develop an instrument for measuring HIV/AIDS-related stigma among youth in Uganda./nChapter 1 presents an overview of HIV/AIDS and prevention efforts in Uganda./nChapter 2 utilizes data from the Uganda National HIV sero and behavioral Survey of 2004/2005 to estimate the effect of the ABC messages on the prevalence of HIV infection among youth in Uganda./nChapter 3 also utilizes data from the Uganda National HIV zero and behavioral Survey of 2004/2005 to estimate the effect of the ABC messages on risky sexual behavior among youth in Uganda./nChapter 4 presents a report on the development process for and psychometric properties of an instrument that was developed to measure HIV/AIDS-related stigma among youth in Uganda./nChapter 5 presents a summary of study findings, conclusions and implications for public health and future research.

Advisor: Reingold, Arthur L
Measuring and moderating the water resource impact of biofuel production and trade

Energy systems and water resources are inextricably linked, especially in the case of bioenergy, which can require up to three orders of magnitude more water than other energy carriers. Water scarcity already affects about 1 in 5 people globally, and stands to be exacerbated in many locales by current biofuel expansion plans. This dissertation engages with several of the analytical and governance challenges raised by this connection between bioenergy expansion and global water resources./nMy examination begins with an overview of important concepts in water resource analysis, followed by a review of current literature on the water impacts of most major energy pathways. I then report on a case study of ethanol fuel in California. This work employed a coupled agro-climatic and life cycle assessment (LCA) model to estimate the water resource impacts of several bioenergy expansion scenarios at a county-level resolution. It shows that ethanol production in California regularly consumes more than 1000 gallons of water per gallon of fuel produced, and that 99% of life-cycle water consumption occurs in the feedstock cultivation phase./nThis analysis then delves into the complexity of life cycle impact assessment for water resources. Despite improvements in water accounting methods, impact assessment must contend with the fact that different water sources are not necessarily commensurable, and that impacts depend on the state of the resource base that is drawn upon. I adapt water footprinting and LCA techniques to the bioenergy context, describing comprehensive inventory approaches and developing a process for characterizing (weighting) consumption values to enable comparison across resource bases. This process draws on metrics of water stress, accounting for environmental flow requirements, climatic variability, and non-linearity of water stress effects./nMy assessment framework was developed in hopes that it would be useful in managing the risks and impacts it describes. The primary actors in this governance effort are government regulators, whose policies and incentives continue to drive and to shape the expansion of the bioenergy industry. However, the ability of governments to manage the impacts of biofuels is severely constrained by their obligations under international trade law. This dissertation concludes, therefore, with a detailed investigation into relevant precedents under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). I use these precedents to identify the policy tools that governments would be able to bring to bear in moderating the water resource impacts and myriad other environmental and social concerns raised by bioenergy expansion.

Advisor: Kammen, Daniel M
Torn, Margaret S
Eddy-covariance observations of the atmosphere-biosphere exchange of nitrogen oxides

Oxidative forms of reactive nitrogen (NOy) impact air quality, nutrient dynamics, and climate. Our understanding of the sources and sinks of atmospheric NOy that result from exchange between the atmosphere and biosphere is poorly constrained due to the lack of adequate instrumentation./nIn this dissertation, I apply novel technologies to the question of NOy exchange and describe observations of fluxes at the atmosphere-forest interface. I use thermal-dissociation laser-induced fluorescence, chemiluminescence, and the micrometeorological eddy-covariance method. Simultaneous observations of the rate and magnitude of exchanges and vertically resolved concentration measurements of the NOy species (NO, NO2, RO2NO2, RONO2 and HNO3) were measured in addition to a wide suite of relevant parameters including canopy structures, meteorological parameters, and associated chemical species as part of the Biosphere Effects on AeRosols and Photochemistry EXperiment (BEARPEX), which took place June 15 - July 31, 2009 at a Ponderosa pine plantation on the western slope of Sierra Nevada Mountains in California./nI present observational evidence for active within canopy chemistry resulting in simultaneous production and removal of NOX within a forest canopy. My observations provide direct evidence for a NOX canopy reduction factor and for an NO2 compensation point. I also establish that an unusual peroxynitrate is formed within the canopy and then emitted to the atmosphere above underscoring the importance of coupling between biogenic volatile organic compounds and NOX to the fluxes of NOX, NOy and BVOC.

Advisor: Cohen, Ronald C
A Study on Formation and Thermal Stability of Nano-sized Oxide Clusters in Mechanically Alloyed NiAl for High Temperature Applications

The intermetallic compound, B2 NiAl, is a promising material for high temperature structural applications such as in aviation jet engines or gas turbines, provided that its high temperature mechanical properties can be improved. Although extensive efforts over the last several decades have been devoted toward enhancing ductility through alloying design and reducing impurities, as well as improving high temperature creep strength through precipitation and dispersion strengthening, these efforts have relied on traditional approaches, a combination of large grain size to limit diffusional creep and precipitation/dispersion (50 ~ 100 nm size) strengthening to limit dislocation creep, for high temperature strengthening. While traditional approaches have shown a good improvement from a relatively high temperature strengthening point of view, the size and number density of dispersoids were not able to provide sufficient strength in the high temperature creep regime. Furthermore, details of the interaction mechanism between dislocations and dispersoids are not yet well understood./nThis study focuses on designing and developing advanced oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) NiAl intermetallics with improved high temperature creep strength by incorporating a high number density (~1024 m-3) of very thermally stable Y-Ti-O nano-clusters, akin to those recently observed to improve creep strength and radiation resistance in nano-structured ferritic alloys./nAdvanced ODS NiAl alloys have been produced by mechanical alloying of pre-alloyed Ni-50at%Al with Y2O3 and Ti elemental powders. The milled powders were subsequently consolidated by spark plasma sintering, with the objective of producing very high number densities of nano-sized Y-Ti-O precipitates, along with fine grain size. Advanced experimental characterization techniques, combined with microhardness strength measurement, were used to investigate the material microstructure and strength following processing and to evaluate the thermal stability during an extensive matrix of long-term thermal annealing. In particular, the size, number density and composition of nano-clusters were assessed./nWhile improvements in strength were obtained in the advanced NiAl ODS alloys, and the higher strength persisted through thermal annealing for 100 hrs at 1723K, characterization revealed the presence of Al in the oxide precipitate phases. The Al incorporation is believed detrimental to the formation of a high density of thermally stable Y-Ti-O nanoscale precipitates.

Advisor: Wirth, Brian D
Molecular Imaging Approaches toward Optical Detection of Hydrogen Peroxide and Copper in Murine Models of Disease

The study of biological processes involved in the development and progression of disease has the potential to uncover new treatments or cures. While there are many techniques to study biological analytes involved in disease states, molecular imaging offers tools that are amenable to imaging biological processes as they occur in living systems. Previously developed fluorescent molecular imaging tools have lead to an improved understanding of the roles of both hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and copper in both normal physiological processes and in disease. However, most of these tools have been limited to the study of H2O2 and copper in cells or tissues. A more comprehensive understanding of molecular disease processes involved in disease states can be gleaned by studying animal models of human disease, as the affects of the disease on the entire organism can be monitored. This dissertation describes the design, synthesis, and characterization of bioluminescent and fluorescent molecular imaging tools for the detection of H2O2 and copper, and their application to the detection of these analytes in murine models of disease. In a first demonstration, Peroxy Caged Luciferin-1 is developed using a firefly luciferin probe scaffold and utilized to monitor increased H2O2 production in androgen-sensitive prostate tumors following stimulation with a growth-inducing compound, testosterone. Using a new approach for firefly luminescence imaging, in situ formation of firefly luciferin, two unique probes, Peroxy Caged Luciferin-2 and IETDC, are developed for simultaneous imaging of H2O2 and caspase 8 activity in a model of sepsis. Development of a third luminescence-based probe for H2O2 detection, Peroxy Caged Luciferin-3, offers a tool for the detection of H2O2 in the brain of mice, with possible applications for studying H2O2 during seizure. Finally, development of a near-infrared fluorescent probe for detection of copper in vivo is discussed and applied to the detection of alterations in copper levels during the development and treatment of a murine Wilson's disease model.

Advisor: Chang, Christopher J.
Study of the Electrochemical System of Antimony-Tellurium in Dimethyl Sulfoxide for Growth of Nanowire Arrays, and an Innovative Method for Single Nanowire Measurements

There is a strong interest in thermoelectric materials for energy production and savings. The properties which are integral to thermoelectric performance are typically linked, typically changing one of these properties for the better will change another for the worse. The intertwined nature of these properties has limited bulk thermoelectrics to low efficiencies, which has curbed their use to only niche applications. There has been theoretical and experimental work which has shown that limiting these materials in one or more dimensions will result in deconvolution of properties. Nanowires of well established thermoelectrics should show impressively high performance./nTellurium is attractive in many fields, including thermoelectrics. Nanowires of tellurium have been grown, but with limited success and with out the ability to dope the tellurium. Working on previous work with other systems, tellurium was studied in dimethyl sulfoxide/n(DMSO). The electrochemical system of tellurium was found to be quite dierent from its aqueous analog, but through comprehensive cyclic voltammetric study, all events were identified and explained. The binary antimony-tellurium system was also studied, as doping/nof tellurium is integral for many applications. Cyclic voltammograms of this system were studied, and the insight from these studies was used to grow nanowire arrays. Arrays of tellurium were grown and analysis showed that by using DMSO, antimony doped tellurium/nnanowire arrays could be grown. Furthermore, analysis showed that the antimony doped tellurium interstitially, resulting in a n-type material./nMeasurements were also performed on arrays and individual wires. Arrays of 1.15% antimony showed ZT of 0.092, with the low ZT attributed to poor contact methods. Although contacting was an obstacle towards measuring whole arrays, single wire measurements were also performed. Single wire measurements were done by a novel method which allows for easy, reproducible measurements of wire properties. So far, this method has only been used to measure the properties of bismuth telluride, but can easily be adapted to any type of nanowire. Bismuth telluride nanowires were found to have electrical resistivities matching that of bulk (1.4*10-5<\super>&Omega-m), and thermal conductivities lower than bulk (<1 W/m-K).

Advisor: Stacy, Angelica M