VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Exploring the networks of organizations that enable and govern infrastructure public-private partnerships [electronic resource] : an organizational field-level perspective

The use of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure development has received significant scholarly attention of late. Much of this attention emanates from a recognition of the challenges inherent in this move towards greater private participation in infrastructure delivery. Scholars agree that PPPs require new types of public sector capacity from governments in order to address these challenges. Unfortunately the locus and structure of this new capacity remain poorly understood. In this dissertation I propose that the need for this "PPP enabling capacity" has not been addressed by a reformation of public agents alone. Rather, a network of new "enabling organizations" (public, private and non-profit) has emerged in response to the emergent need for new capacity. Adopting the concept of "organization field" from institutional theory, I define this network of organizations as the "PPP-enabling field." I employ a qualitative case-based methodology to investigate the novel concept of the "PPP-enabling field" by looking at three leading cases of PPP-enabling fields: the Canadian province of British Columbia, the Australian state of Victoria, and South Africa. My analysis consists of three main parts. First, I examine these three fields in some detail. I identify differences in various field attributes, including the salient organizational actors, specific roles and responsibilities, dominant institutional logics (cognitive frames and ways of thinking) in the field, and the governance arrangements that guide action in the fields. Next, I turn to historical accounts of field formation in each of the three cases in an attempt to explain the reasons for the observed differences. Finally, I consider the impacts of these field differences on the overall "success" of PPP enablement in a region. To do this, I identify various measures of PPP program "success" and theorize about the linkages between PPP-enabling field characteristics and PPP program outcomes. This dissertation contributes to a more complete understanding of PPP-enablement by delineating, in some detail, contemporary forms of PPP-enabling fields. In this way I move beyond the normative approach that characterizes so much of the current literature on PPPs, to show how and why PPP-enabling fields emerge quite differently in different countries, and to propose functional and outcome implications of the field differences.

Advisor: Levitt Raymond E. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Davis Jenna (Professor)
Scott W. Richard advisor. Thesis advisor
Exploring the Yen Carry Trade: Investor’s Choice of Target Currencies

Empirical studies have shown that carry trade plays an increasingly important role in driving exchange rate movements. Because carry trade can have an enormous impact on macroeconomic factors, understanding basic characteristics of carry trade will be useful for both researchers and policymakers in countries susceptible to carry trade speculations. Focusing on the yen carry trade, this paper seeks to determine what factors investors take into account when they choose target currencies. I accomplish this by estimating the relationship between carry trade volume and other economic and financial variables for nine selected countries in the Asia-Pacific region using a simple multiple regression model. I find that the interest rate differential and a country’s credit rating have statistically significant positive effects on carry trade volume while exchange rate movement does not affect the volume as strongly. The results also suggest that advanced economies are more prone to carry trade speculation, and therefore the risks of unwinding are greater in those countries.

Keywords:  Department of Economics
Stanford Department of Economics
carry trade
unwinding
exchange rate
capital flow
interest differential
Thesis
Advisor: McKinnon Ronald
The false consensus effect [electronic resource] : projection or conformity?

The false consensus effect (FCE) is one of the most frequently cited phenomena in the social sciences and is widely presumed to illustrate how attitudes can shape perceptions. Yet, rarely have researchers directly tested this presumption. The purpose of this research is to address this gap in the literature. I begin with a review of the mechanisms presently thought to account for the FCE, formalizing them in causal diagrams that make explicit the mediational and moderational stories implicit in the explanations. Then, I describe what evidence exists for each of these explanations. And, finally, I report the results of four studies that tested the causal direction of the FCE. Study 1 manipulated participants' attitudes and found no impact of the resulting attitude change on perceptions of others' attitudes. Study 2 employed instrumental variable analysis to estimate the impact of participants' attitudes on their perceptions of others' attitudes and found no such impact. Study 3 tested an alternative explanation of the FCE: conformity to perceived social norms. Consistent with this claim, a manipulation of perceptions of others' attitudes influenced people's own attitudes. Applying covariance structure modeling to longitudinal data, Study 4 found evidence that perceptions of others' attitudes influence participants' own attitudes but no evidence that people's own attitudes shape perceptions of others' attitudes. Thus, instead of documenting attitude-distorted perceptions of others, the false consensus "effect" appears to result from one of the oldest social psychological phenomena in the literature: conformity to perceived social norms.

Keywords: Communication
Advisor: Krosnick Jon A. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Fishkin James S. advisor. Thesis advisor
Iyengar Shanto advisor. Thesis advisor
Reeves Byron
Feeling wronged leads to entitlement and selfishness [electronic resource]

Five studies demonstrate that feeling wronged leads to a sense of entitlement and to selfish behavior. In Study 1, participants who were instructed to recall a time when their lives were unfair were more likely to refuse to help the experimenter with a supplementary task than were participants who recalled a time when they were bored. In Study 2, the same manipulation increased intentions to engage in a number of selfish behaviors, and this effect was mediated by self-reported entitlement to obtain positive (and avoid negative) outcomes. In Study 3, participants who lost a computer game for an unfair reason (a glitch in the program) requested a more selfish money allocation for a future task than did participants who lost the game for a fair reason, and this effect was again mediated by entitlement. In Studies 4 and 5, bad luck from a fair, random system led to the same kinds of effects for men. In Study 4, students (especially men) who received bad numbers in a housing lottery expressed less intention to behave charitably. In Study 5, men who were assigned to bad outcomes by the roll of a die were less willing to help out by signing up for an additional experiment than were men in the control condition, and self-reported entitlement again mediated the effect.

Keywords: Psychology
Advisor: Monin Benoît
Dweck Carol S.
Mullen Elizabeth advisor. Thesis advisor
Ferromagnetism and resisitive switching in magnesium oxide with nitrogen doping [electronic resource]

Over the past several years, there have been considerable interests in the possibility of creating ferromagnetism in thin films of doped oxide materials. Several systems have been identified to be ferromagnetic at room temperature but all of these systems contain either a transition metal element or a rare earth metal element as a dopant. Since in such systems the formation of second phase or clusters of magnetic ions cannot be ruled out, the origin of ferromagnetism is still controversial. Our interest is exploring the possibility of ferromagnetism existing in the oxide materials. We have chosen to study whether doping alkali earth metal oxides with nitrogen yields ferromagnetic oxides. There are several theoretical predictions that such systems will be ferromagnetic, yet there is no conclusive experimental demonstration of such a finding. In this dissertation, we demonstrate the ferromagnetism in the nitrogen-doped magnesium oxide where the N-dopant does not induce structural defects, where the N-dopant is not a metal, and where oxide is an insulator. We find that as-deposited N-doped MgO films are disordered and non-magnetic. These samples upon thermal annealing undergo a significant structural transformation with doped N atoms moving from interstitial/defect to substitutional sites within MgO lattice and the resulting films are ferromagnetic. The largest magnetic moment measured corresponds to 0.35 [mu]B/per N for the 2.2 at% N-doped MgO film. XPS data indicate the presence of an unpaired electron in 2p orbital of N. The long range spin-interaction of these unpaired N electrons mediated by the valence band of MgO is ferromagnetic. NEXAFS data support this conclusion as hole states are also observed in the O 2p state. These results for first time prove the authenticity of prior theoretical predictions about the possible ferromagnetism in N-doped alkali earth oxides. The second part of this dissertation is focused on the resistive switching in N-doped MgO for memory applications. Resistive switching in thin layers is demonstrated herein, in which the thin layer include MgO doped with a small amount of N. The resistance change ratio (RHigh/RLow) can be varied between 1-4 orders of magnitude by varying the N content with just a few percent. In addition, SET voltage can be systematically lowered by varying the N content of the layer. The resistive switching properties of the N-doped MgO structures have several other attractive features. In particular, resistive switching is demonstrated to occur by applying SET and RESET voltage pulses from 1-100 nsec in duration and to exhibit low RESET current (few tenths of [mu]A). Multi-level resistive switching is also demonstrated. These unique advantages of N-doped MgO are highly desirable for the next generation nonvolatile memory.

Keywords: Materials Science and Engineering
Advisor: Harris J. S. (James Stewart)
Parkin Stuart S. P.
Brongersma Mark L. advisor. Thesis advisor
Ferruccio Busoni and the ontology of the musical work [electronic resource] : permutations and possibilities

Ferruccio Busoni's conception of the musical work derives from his multiple roles as performer, aesthetician, editor, composer, arranger, and intellectual. Drawing on unpublished scores, manuscripts, sketches and documents from the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, concert programs from a private collection in Berkeley, acoustic recordings, information about Busoni's intellectual interests gleaned from an auction catalogue featuring the contents of his extensive library, and the published aesthetic writings, letters, and compositions, the present study offers the first comprehensive account of Busoni's work concept. By establishing connections between his ideas and his musical practice, it explores and clarifies the reasoning behind his idiosyncratic compositional style, a style characterized by a blurring of boundaries between original and borrowed material. Polystylistic mixtures of the old and new and a distinctive performance style, in which Busoni creatively altered and embellished existing texts, exemplify his practice in an age in thrall to Werktreue, when originality of idea was prized above all else.

Keywords: Music
Advisor: Hinton Stephen primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Berger Karol
Grey Thomas S.
Hadlock Heather
First observation of the eta_b meson and study of the decays Upsilon(3S) -> gamma eta_b and Upsilon(2S) -> gamma eta_b [electronic resource]

This dissertation presents the results of an analysis of data samples consisting of 122 million Upsilon(3S) decays and 90 million Upsilon(2S) decays collected with the BABAR detector operating at the PEP II asymmetric-energy storage rings at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The eta_b meson is observed for the first time in the decay Upsilon(3S) -> gamma eta_b and its existence is confirmed in the decay Upsilon(2S) -> gamma eta_b. The eta_b mass extracted from the Upsilon(3S) -> gamma eta_b sample is 9388.9^{+3.1}_{-2.3}(stat) +/- 2.7 (syst) MeV/c^2, corresponding to a hyperfine mass splitting m_{Upsilon(1S)}-m_{eta_b}=71.4^{+2.3}_{-3.1}(stat) +/- 2.7(syst) MeV/c^2. The branching fraction for the decay Upsilon(3S) -> gamma eta_b is determined to be [4.8 +/- 0.5(stat) +/- 0.6(syst)] x 10^{-4}. An analysis of the decay Upsilon(2S) -> gamma eta_b confirms the observation of the eta_b meson and provides an additional measurement of the eta_b mass: 9394.2^{+4.8}_{-4.9}(stat) +/- 2.0 (syst) MeV/c^2. The branching fraction for the decay Upsilon(2S) -> gamma eta_b is determined to be [3.9 +/- 1.1(stat)^{+1.1}_{-0.9} (syst)] x 10^{-4}. As the measurements in the two samples are consistent, the masses are averaged to provide a combined value of m_{eta_b} = 9390.9 +/- 3.2 MeV/c^2. After canceling common systematic errors, the following branching fraction ratio is determined: BR[Upsilon(2S) -> gamma eta_b]/BR[Upsilon(3S) -> gamma eta_b] = 0.82 +/- 0.24(stat)^{+0.20}_{-0.19}(syst).

Keywords: Physics
Advisor: Schindler Rafe primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Burchat P. (Patricia) advisor. Thesis advisor
Dorfan Jonathan advisor. Thesis advisor
Peskin Michael Edward
Fluorophores for single-molecule imaging in living cells [electronic resource] : characterizing and optimizing DCDHF photophysics

The number of reports per year on single-molecule imaging experiments has grown roughly exponentially since the first successful efforts to optically detect a single molecule were completed over two decades ago. Single-molecule spectroscopy has developed into a field that includes a wealth of experiments at room temperature and inside living cells. The fast growth of single-molecule biophysics has resulted from its benefits in probing heterogeneous populations, one molecule at a time, as well as from advances in microscopes and detectors. There is a need for new fluorophores that can be used for single-molecule imaging in biological media, because imaging in cells and in organisms require emitters that are bright and photostable, red-shifted to avoid pumping cellular autofluorescence, and chemically and photophysically tunable. To this end, we have designed and characterized fluorescent probes based on a class of nonlinear-optical chromophores termed DCDHFs. This dissertation describes various physical and optical studies on these emitters, from sensing local environment to photoactivation. Chapter 1 is a general introduction to fluorescence and single-molecule spectroscopy and imaging. Single-molecule experiments in living cells are discussed and probes used for such experiments are summarized and compared. Chapter 2 explores the basic photophysics of the DCDHF fluorophores and some general methods of measuring relevant spectroscopic parameters, including photostability. Chapter 3 discusses the various approaches we have taken to modify particular properties by changing the fluorophore's structure. We have redesigned the DCDHF fluorophore into a photoactivatable fluorogen--a chromophore that is nonfluorescent until converted to a fluorescent form using light--described in Chapter 4. Finally, a different, chemical route to fluorescence activation is presented in Chapter 5. The remainder of the Dissertation is the Appendix and a full Bibliography. The Appendix includes a table of photophysical parameter for DCDHF fluorophore, various protocols used in the experiments discussed, MatLab codes, and NMR spectra.

Keywords: Chemistry
Advisor: Moerner W. E. (William Esco)
Pande Vijay advisor. Thesis advisor
Zare Richard N. advisor. Thesis advisor
Force space studies of elastomeric anisotropic fibrillar adhesives [electronic resource]

Previous research into the climbing ability of the gecko lizard has revealed an adhesive system fundamentally different from existing synthetic adhesives. Instead of using a soft material, the gecko uses a complex system of hairs of beta-keratin, a material that is not tacky. This unique architecture affords the adhesive characteristics that make it well suited for climbing. Borrowing themes from the gecko, we developed a synthetic adhesive possessing similar properties using molded arrays of micron-scale silicone pillars. These arrays demonstrate the gecko property of frictional adhesion where increased shear stress at the interface leads to increased normal load capacity. To distinguish between intrinsic and emergent behavior, we also isolated single pillars to test on a dual-axis force-sensing cantilever capable of micro-Newton resolution. We observed that gecko-like properties were observed for tapered pillars but not for pillars of uniform cross-section. Most synthetic adhesive architectures use a uniform cross-section beam but the results presented here suggest such a design does not capture gecko-like behavior. These results point to ways to optimize the type of adhesion demonstrated by the synthetic dry adhesives and to create adhesives tailored for climbing or static applications.

Keywords: Applied Physics
Advisor: Kenny Thomas William primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Moler Kathryn A. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Cutkosky Mark R. advisor. Thesis advisor
Francisella tularensis host-pathogen relationships [electronic resource] : dissecting bacterial interactions with the Drosophila innate immune system

The survival of a bacterial pathogen within a host depends upon its ability to outmaneuver the host immune response. Thus mutant pathogens provide a useful tool for dissecting host-pathogen relationships as the strategies the microbe has evolved to counteract immunity reveal a host's immune mechanisms. In this study, we examined the pathogen Francisella tularensis subspecies novicida and identified new bacterial virulence factors that interact with different parts of the Drosophila melanogaster innate immune system. We performed a genome-wide screen to identify F. novicida genes required for growth and survival within the fly and identified a set of 149 negatively selected mutants. Among these, we identified a class of genes including the transcription factor oxyR, and the DNA repair proteins uvrB, recB, and ruvC that help F novicida resist oxidative stress. We determined that these bacterial genes are virulence factors that allow F. novicida to counteract the fly melanization immune response. We then performed a second in vivo screen to identify an additional subset of bacterial genes that interact specifically with the imd signaling pathway. Most of these mutants have decreased resistance to the antimicrobial peptide polymyxin B. Characterization of a mutation in the putative transglutaminase FTN_0989 produced a curious result that could not easily be explained using known Drosophila immune responses. By using an unbiased genetic screen, these studies provide a new view of the Drosophila immune response from the perspective of a pathogen. We show that two branches of the fly's immunity are important for fighting F. novicida infections in a model host: melanization and an imd-regulated immune response, and identify bacterial genes that specifically counteract these host responses. Our work suggests that there may be more to learn about the fly immune system as not all of the phenotypes we observe can be readily explained by its interactions with known immune responses.

Keywords: Microbiology and Immunology
Advisor: Schneider David (David Samuel)
Monack Denise M. advisor. Thesis advisor
Relman David A. advisor. Thesis advisor
Sarnow P. (Peter) advisor. Thesis advisor
From gender-based violence to women's violence in Haiti [electronic resource]

This dissertation explores the conditions, incentives, and rationale that induce women victims of sexual violence to join armed groups and to become involved in community violence. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus group discussions collected during over one year of fieldwork in Haiti, the findings presented in this study reflect an attempt to deepen the understanding of women's decision-making processes, the interplay between gender-based women and women's violence, and, ultimately, the extent to which female aggression, committed in a context of armed violence, should be interpreted as a survival strategy or a deliberate choice for retaliation. Based on the empirical evidence collected, the three major factors that motivate women and girls to engage in criminal and community violence included their need to protect themselves and their families, their resentment toward state negligence and denial of their plight, and their dysfunctional desire to attain personal and social respect through retaliation. Important implications for legal and policy interventions may be derived from such an analysis. If women's violence is to be understood as a survival strategy within the coercive context of armed violence, the current Haitian legislation that provides solely for girls' and women's prosecution for the offense of association with armed groups, is at the very least inadequate. Conversely, according to international humanitarian and human rights legal norms, specific programs, along the lines of those implemented in other countries affected by armed conflict, should be effectively designed to dispel women's anger and resentment towards forms of community reconciliation as well as to adequately reintegrate them into society.

Keywords: Law.
Advisor: Rhode Deborah L. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Martinez Jenny S. advisor. Thesis advisor
Stacy Helen advisor. Thesis advisor