VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Essays in Homeownership and Mortgage Finance

This dissertation consists of two chapters on mortgage finance and homeownership. Federal policy often institutes uniform pricing across regions in the name of fairness. I study the unintended consequences of such uniform pricing in the context of the residential mortgage market, which is heavily influenced by the securitization policies of the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). I show that the regional uniformity of GSE-conforming mortgage rates leads to credit rationing. I develop three results by exploiting differences in the strength of lender rights --- state laws that limit a lender's recourse and ability to foreclose on property --- as a source of regional variation. First, controlling for borrower characteristics, I find that GSE-securitized mortgage rates do not vary across lender rights whereas those of privately securitized mortgages do vary. Second, the lack of regional variation in mortgage rates leads to the credit rationing of marginal borrowers in regions with borrower-friendly laws, whereas, regression discontinuity and bunching estimates show that the GSEs "cherry-pick" the better risks leading to greater credit access in lender-friendly areas. Finally, I find that the GSEs' cost of funds advantage distorts the pool of borrowers available to the private market and that only some of the GSE-rationed borrowers can access privately securitized mortgages. Overall, the results demonstrate how uniform regional pricing and cost of funds advantages of the GSEs distorts the competitive landscape of the US mortgage market./nThe second chapter studies the impact of homeownership on intergenerational mobility. The benefits of homeownership feature prominently in the academic and policy discussions alike. Increasing homeownership has been a major policy goal for decades, especially in low-income areas. We show that the positive relationship between homeownership and intergenerational mobility is highly place-dependent. First, we link commuting zone-level homeownership rates to intergenerational mobility, and find a strong positive relationship. The relationship persists after instrumenting for ownership using housing supply and price shocks. Second, we show that the positive relation between of homeownership and upward mobility is significantly diminished or disappears in areas with high sprawl or segregation, whether we use income segregation, racial segregation, or a new measure of homeowner segregation. These results, as well as additional findings on the formation of social capital and on school quality, suggest that homeownership may not benefit, or may even disadvantage children in segregated, poor areas, possibly through reduced residential mobility.

Advisor: Wallace, Nancy
Malmendier, Ulrike
Archaeology For, By, and With the Navajo People- the Nihook'aa Dine'e' Bila' Ashdlaa'ii Way

The following chapters are a dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley. This dissertation is a project that attempts to develop a template for implementing an “Indigenous archaeological” research paradigm for the Navajo Nation. The first chapter is a reflexive narrative, which is intended to situate the project within the field and within the wider socio-economic politics of becoming an “indigenous archaeologist.” In the next chapter, a description and analysis of Indigenous archaeological concepts and practices that can be used to create a Navajo approach to archaeology are discussed. Following this chapter is a presentation of a case study on the anthropological and archaeological historical legacy that has created and perpetuated the displacement of Navajo people in the prehistory of the Southwestern US; which will include examples of influential projects that has shaped Navajo displacement from the past. The fourth chapter will present a research design adopted by the Navajo Nation Council that will guide research on Navajo prehistory and history, and one which will allow for a uniquely Navajo perspective and history. The concluding chapter will discuss some of the wider implications of the research and provide recommendations for working with tribal communities to create tribally centered archaeological practices.

Advisor: Conkey, Margaret W
Statistical Analysis of Small-Scale Membrane Signaling Reactions: the Role of Membrane Recruitment and Catalysis

Molecular kinetics in living systems fundamentally shape the response function of signal transduction. Signaling cascades in cells are often initiated and amplified at the plasma membranes, where decisions are made under constant presence of molecular noise. Conceivably, the signaling geometry of membrane reactions are intimately related to the system’s ability to robustly detect signals, down to single-molecule level. However, the physical mechanisms of signal transduction embedded in membrane signaling reactions are poorly understood. One of the limitations stems from a lack of well-controlled experimental assay to conceptualize the role of stochastic processes in membrane signaling. In this dissertation, I attempt to lessen this gap by developing single-molecule assays accompanied with statistical kinetics theory to analyze the molecular processes of reconstituted biochemical systems, derived from T-cell receptor triggering, on supported membranes. Broadly speaking, cytosolic proteins in membrane signaling reactions commonly follow a membrane recruitment-activation protocol. Therefore, the content of this dissertation will begin by discussing the role of membrane recruitment in signaling accuracy, with specific emphasis on kinetic proofreading. The later section focuses on the activities after successful activation, from determination of simple catalysis to elaboration of a bistable network response. These discourse hopefully provide a basis to discuss the design principles underlying signaling reactions.

Advisor: Groves, Jay T.
Mismatched: Adoption Agencies, Parental Desire, and the Economy of Transnational Adoption

The United States has historically been the top receiving country for children adopted from abroad. Since 2004, though, massive changes in sending countries have led to a significant reduction in the supply of adoptable children, and a corresponding decline in transnational adoptions. Not only are there fewer children legally available for transnational adoption, but the types of children available today are markedly different from those that were adopted during the international adoption boom of the 1990s. This shift has created a mismatch between the desires of adoptive parents and the types of children that are most readily available for international adoption. Managing this mismatch becomes particularly challenging without a pricing mechanism—one of the central legitimating factors of adoption is that parents do not pay a price to adopt a child, but instead pay a fee tied to professional services. This dissertation asks: when there is no pricing mechanism to restore the balance between supply and demand, how do organizations and individuals manage parental desire and the shortage of certain types of children? How do the children available for adoption come to be emotionally valuable to the parents who eventually adopt them?/nTo answer these questions, I draw on government reports, in-depth interviews with adoption agency professionals and adoptive parents, participant observation in an adoption agency, and textual analysis of agency promotional materials. I show that perceptions of permanency, racial boundaries, and certainty of placement affect parents’ decisions to pursue transnational adoption over other types of adoption. I then trace the origins of the mismatch between supply and desire to massive changes in policy that constrain the supply of children and the eligibility of certain types of parents. I argue that when confronted with this mismatch, adoption agencies, and the parents they serve, engage in a process of (re)evaluation that recasts previously less desirable types of children as sentimentally valuable. In a transnational adoption economy characterized by shortage, parents must make compromises about the children they are willing to bring into their families, and the shape of these compromises reveals a hierarchy of socially constructed desire. By considering the work of adoption agencies and the experiences of adoptive parents, I show how classificatory schemes, boundary making, morality and emotions operate within this economy. Through the emotional connections that they forge with parents, agency staff carefully frame parental preferences for different types of children, while helping parents feel that their decisions are supported and legitimate.

Advisor: Fourcade, Marion
Energy Homeostasis in Cellobiose Utilizing Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Plant biomass is a promising renewable starting material for chemical and fuel derivations. Complete consumption of sugar components in the plant cell wall is essential for a cost effective process design. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae can be engineered to co-consume cellobiose and xylose, a scheme that allows simultaneous consumption of sugar content from cellulose and hemicellulose polysaccharides, decreasing overall process time. As the reactions are expected to occur in anaerobic conditions given the large-scale nature of the process, cellobiose phosphorylase (CBP), an enzyme that catalyzes intracellular cellobiose breakdown in anaerobic bacteria was studied and showed energetic benefits in anaerobic conditions./nHowever, xylose was identified as a mixed-inhibitor and a substrate forming a byproduct of the CBP reaction. Protein engineering of CBP partially relieved the negative impact of xylose. A single distal mutation on CBP altered its susceptibility to xylose, potentially by modifying spatial conformation of CBP. In parallel, a novel xylose synthetic pathway involving xylulose-1-phosphate was tested, in an attempt to increase the xylose consumption rate, decrease cellular xylose and its negative impact on CBP. However, the existing xylose utilization pathway outperformed the synthetic pathway, likely because exogenous gene integration interfered with the existing regulatory network. Finally, cellobiose consumption was used as a minimal 2-gene synthetic biology pathway to explore cell physiology. This pathway induced drastic changes in cellular metabolites, allowing for the identification of novel regulation controlling ATP levels in cells. Uncoupling extracellular glucose sensors Snf3/Rgt2 from carbon utilization revealed a novel role of Snf3/Rgt2 in ATP regulation at the transcriptional level, potentially via the master regulator Gcn4. This regulation acted independently of proton pumping by Pma1, which is a known to be a major source of ATP consumption in yeast cells, but whose regulation remains to be determined. Together, these two pathways set an upper bound on ATP concentrations needed for optimal fermentation.

Advisor: Cate, Jamie HD
Glass, N L
Trajectories of Children's Development in Pre-Kindergarten: Six Months of Repeated Measures

Early writing during pre-kindergarten is increasingly the subject of basic research and applied classroom practice. Findings from multiple disciplines highlight the role of young children’s print-related skills in predicting and enhancing later literacy abilities./nThis growing body of research, however, lacks a refined model of writing development for this age group. Moreover, the early literacy field needs streamlined, valid assessments of writing progression from scribble lines to letters, first words, and sentences./nIn this study I investigate the writing development of 62 children (ages 3 and 4) across six months in a state-funded pre-K program. The Play Plan, a daily activity from the Tools of the Mind curriculum that includes children’s speech, drawing, and writing, served as the source of repeated measures. I created a synthetic, 10-point coding system (Early Writing-10; EW10) to score the continuum of early writing across an average of 16 weekly samples per child. The inter-coder agreement was excellent (r = .94, p < .001). Findings from Hierarchical Linear Modeling demonstrate that growth in early writing was substantial, highly variable, and often rapid across the 24 weeks sampled. The overall shape of the trajectory yielded significant linear, quadratic, cubic, and quartic trends. Among predictor variables, only name-writing ability, assessed at school entry, strongly predicted writing scores at the end of the investigation, but univariate analyses showed higher writing abilities for 4-year-olds than 3-year-olds. Three trajectory profiles of early writing development were categorized: slower, incremental, and rapid./nFuture steps include examining the trajectory scores as predictors of subsequent literacy development, evaluating the EW10 scoring system in larger and more diverse samples, and extending it to more advanced writing development in kindergarten. I discuss implications for a developmental model of early writing and for the use of early writing assessments by researchers and educators.

Advisor: Cunningham, Anne E
Protein-based Nanoparticles for Imaging and Drug Delivery Applications

Protein cage architectures such as viral capsids, heat shock proteins, and ferritins are naturally occurring nanoscale structures with exquisite homogeneity and stability. This dissertation work describes endeavors toward the use of three different protein cage architectures: the MS2 bacteriophage, a mutant of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV), and the nanophage scaffold (derived from fd phage) as therapeutic and imaging agent delivery systems. The cages were reacted with several types of organic molecules, such as drug molecules, imaging tracers, and targeting ligands. Towards the development of the platforms for therapeutic delivery, the antitumor agent doxorubicin was covalently bound on the protein scaffolds via a pH sensitive linker. The effects of these constructs on cultured mammalian cells, their biocompatibility, in vivo tumor homing and biodistribution were investigated. Tumor growth inhibition studies were also performed with these structures. Together, the results presented herein demonstrate the utility of the protein cages as robust nanoscale platforms for the delivery of cargo.

Advisor: Francis, Matthew B
Frontiers in Iridium-Catalyzed C-H Borylation: Attaining Novel Reactivity and Selectivity

The following dissertation discusses the development of novel methodology for the catalytic borylation of C-H bonds and includes in-depth studies on the mechanism and selectivity of these synthetic transformations. These methods include the borylation of heteroaryl C-H bonds, the selective borylation of benzylic C-H bonds, and the directed and undirected borylation of unactivated alkyl C-H bonds./nChapter 1 contains a comprehensive review of C-H borylation methodology. This review focuses on the initial development of catalytic C-H borylation and on the state-of- the-art of methodology for the undirected and directed borylation of aryl, benzylic, and alkyl C-H bonds. Additionally, this review highlights knowledge gaps and unsolved challenges. Furthermore, this review provides the author’s opinion on future directions for research on the borylation of C-H bonds./nChapter 2 describes the study of the iridium-catalyzed borylation of heteroaryl C- H bonds. Contained is an examination of the scope of the borylation of heterocycles containing more than one heteroatom and rules for predicting the site-selectivity of this reaction. Also included are experimental and computational studies that reveal the mechanism of this reaction and the origins of the observed regioselectivity./nChapter 3 discusses the development of the selective borylation of the primary benzylic C-H bonds of methylarenes. Key to this development was the discovery that the combination of a novel iridium catalyst and a silylborane allows for the selective borylation of benzylic C-H bonds over aryl C-H bonds. Experimental and computational studies that investigate the origins of this selectivity are also discussed./nChapter 4 discusses the development of the iridium-catalyzed, hydrosilyl-directed borylation of alkyl C-H bonds. This methodology allows for the diastereoselective borylation of secondary alkyl C-H bonds under relatively mild conditions./nChapter 5 explores the effect of ligand structure on the rates of alkyl C-H borylation catalyzed by Ir-phenanthroline complexes. Experimental and computational studies reveal that in addition to the relative electron-donating ability of phenanthrolines, weak interactions involving the phenanthroline in the transition state of the turnover- limiting step for the borylation of alkyl C-H bonds can have a large impact on the relative rates of alkyl C-H borylation catalyzed by various Ir-phenanthroline complexes.

Advisor: Hartwig, John F
Influencing cell fate decisions using physical and chemical cues

Directed genetic reprogramming of cells from one identity to another offers tremendous potential in regenerative medicine, disease modelling and drug testing. However, its application is limited by the low efficiency at which it occurs, and existing methods to improve efficiency mostly utilize additional molecular biology and biochemical manipulations. This thesis explored an alternative paradigm for improving reprogramming efficiency: presentation of physical cues. To this end, I first showed that simply agitating an adherent culture with an orbital shaker enhanced its efficiency of reprogramming to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). I further demonstrated that convective mixing of the culture medium by orbital agitation blunted the upregulation of CDK inhibitor p57/Kip2 that was caused by the culture becoming overconfluent, which in turn enhanced the efficiency of reprogramming to iPSCs. Next, I showed that culturing reprogramming cells on solid supports scored with microgrooves enhanced their reprogramming into cardiomyocytes. I demonstrated that the microgrooves caused upregulation of the activity of the transcription factor megakaryoblastic leukemia-1 (Mkl1) / myocardin-related transcription factor A (Mrtf-a) and also enhanced organization of sarcomeric structure, with both effects contributing to better reprogramming efficiency. In addition to physical cues, I also explored whether treatment with only small molecules could reprogram fibroblasts into skeletal muscle cells. Indeed, I found that an optimized basal medium (10% FBS in DMEM with 50 μg/ml of ascorbic acid and 50 ng/ml of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)) containing just 2 small molecules— 616452 [an inhibitor of the protein kinase activity of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) type I receptor (R1)] and forskolin (a plant diterpene that stimulates adenylyl cyclase and elevates the intracellular level of 3',5'-cyclic-AMP)—was sufficient to achieve reprogramming at high efficiency. In summary, this thesis described how both physical and chemical cues can contribute to enhancing the reprogramming of cell identity.

Advisor: Li, Song
SuperCDMS Soudan High Threshold WIMP Search

Over the last 80 years, a preponderance of cosmological evidence points to the existence of a significant portion of non-luminous in the universe. Experiments have shown that this dark matter is composed up of an exotic, undiscovered particle. Many potential models have been proposed to explain the existence of these particles, but the most well-motivated and well-studied of these models posits the existence of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). These particles are a thermal relic of the big bang and can potentially help resolve currently unanswered questions in particle physics including the Hierarchy problem./nThe Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) is a direct detection WIMP search. The experiment employs high purity germanium (Ge) semiconductor detectors instrumented with electrodes and Transition Edge Sensors (TES) to measure the ionization and phonon signal from particle interactions. The two signal pathways allow discrimination between electron recoils (ER) and nuclear recoils (NR). SuperCDMS Soudan consists of data taken with 15 IZIP detectors at the Soudan Underground Laboratory between 2012 and 2014. Three main analyses were conducted on this data: CDMSlite, Low Threshold (LT), and High Threshold (HT). The CDMSlite and Low Threshold analyses were optimized for lower mass (<10 GeV) WIMPs over subsets of the available data./nThe HT analysis consists of a blind analysis of the data from the 10 functional detectors installed at Soudan. The total exposure for this data was 1694 kg-days. A multivariate method based on a gradient boosted decision tree was used to optimize the fiducial volume of the detectors. Background components from gammas, radon-decay surface events and both radiogenic and cosmogenic neutrons were modeled. Based on a preliminary limit optimization study, the final efficiency corrected exposure will be ~900 kg-days with an expected background of 0.4 events. This corresponds to an expected limit of ~1.3e-44 cm^2 at a mass of 50 GeV./nWhile not yet entirely complete, the HT analysis represents has built off a large amount that of work that I did during the development and commissioning of the experiment at Soudan. As the primary operator of the Test Facility at UC Berkeley, I was responsible for the detector characterization and selection testing that both determined which detectors were included in the final payload, but also established the justification for multiple detector modifications that significantly improved both production and operation of the IZIP detectors. Then as one of the members of the collaboration with the most hands on experience operating the IZIPs, I was involved in most aspects of installing and commissioning the detectors that were used to set the world leading low mass limits in addition to the High mass reach currently nearing completion.

Advisor: Sadoulet, Bernard