VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Battles in boardrooms [electronic resource] : the diffusion of shareholder value rhetoric and practices in Finland, 1990-2005

This dissertation examines the consequences of economic globalization for organizations and the corporate elites through an investigation of recent transformations in the Finnish corporate governance system since the early 1990s. The core thesis of this dissertation is that globalization encourages diversity in organizational forms rather than convergence. Globalization is not a sweeping trend that affects all states and organizations in the same way or to the same extent. In drafting public policies, governments try to strike a balance between global pressures and political and ideological preferences, and competing demands of different stakeholders. Similarly, organizations respond to global pressures in unique ways by recombining foreign elements with already available templates and scripts to create new, blended forms and unique configurations of the old. To capture transformations in the systems of governance, I focus on changes in three distinct layers of economic life: organizational practices and structures, managerial rhetoric, and political discourse around issues of ownership and control. I show how the rhetoric of shareholder value permeated the managerial and political discourse in Finland, and document how Anglo-American governance practices diffused among Finnish corporations. Although many governance practices associated with the American model have spread widely among Finnish firms, none of them have diffused throughout the entire corporate population. Similarly, although shareholder value rhetoric has become increasingly common, it has not entirely replaced the old rhetoric emphasizing the importance of all stakeholders. Thus, globalization has not entailed a clean transition from one homogeneous environment to another, as suggested by convergence theorists. Instead, globalization has lead to the emergence of a heterogeneous order, in which some firms stayed true to the stakeholder model, some aligned both their rhetoric and practices with the shareholder value concept, and some mixed and matched elements from both.

Keywords: Sociology.
Advisor: Powell Walter W. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Ferguson John-Paul advisor. Thesis advisor
McAdam Doug advisor. Thesis advisor
The bean [electronic resource] : a pulse processor for a particle physics experiment

The International Linear Collider (ILC), a next generation particle accelerator, will smash electron and positron bunches at up to 500 GeV (1000 GeV after a planned upgrade). The 31-km long collider's experiments will help scientists to understand the fundamental constituents of matter. Located at the ILC detector's forward region, the BeamCal is a highly segmented (> 90,000 channels) calorimeter that will serve three main purposes: ensure hermeticity of the detector for low polar angles, reduce the backscattering from pairs into the detector center, and provide a low-latency signal for beam diagnostics. The BeamCal specifications in terms of radiation tolerance, noise suppression, signal charge, pulse rate and occupancy pose unique challenges for the front-end and readout electronics design. Designed for the 180-nm TSMC mixed-signal technology, The Bean -- BeamCal Instrumentation IC -- is a 32-channel front-end and readout ASIC that will address the BeamCal instrumentation requirements. By employing a charge-sensitive amplifier and a switched-capacitor reset circuit, the Bean will process the input charge signals at the ILC pulse rate. Each channel will have a 10-bit successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter and digital memory for readout purposes. The Bean will also feature a fast feedback adder, capable of providing an 8-bit, low-latency output for beam diagnostics purposes. This work presents the design and characterization of The Bean prototype, a 3-channel ASIC that proves the principle of operation described.

Keywords: Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Wooley Bruce A.
Haller Gunther Martin advisor. Thesis advisor
Murmann Boris advisor. Thesis advisor
Becoming illegal [electronic resource] : modeling rationality and morality of unauthorized migrants

Why do millions of otherwise law-abiding people violate immigration laws? Past research on legal noncompliance shows that people's views about the law and legal authority are important determinants of their willingness to comply with the law, above and beyond economic considerations. A more comprehensive understanding of unauthorized migration thus requires a serious consideration of normative factors such as people's moral values and beliefs about the legitimacy of legal authority. This dissertation takes up that task through three papers that investigate the ways in which current and prospective unauthorized migrants view the U.S. immigration system and their acts of legal noncompliance. The first paper draws upon a unique set of focus group data with current and prospective unauthorized migrants from Latin America to analyze how they make sense of their noncompliance with U.S. immigration law. The second paper uses data obtained from a survey that was designed specifically for this study, to examine three important dimensions of legal values among prospective migrants from Mexico. The third paper develops and tests a decision-making model of unauthorized migration that considers not only the economic motivations of prospective migrants, but also their beliefs, attitudes, and social norms regarding U.S. immigration law and legal authorities. Together, these papers show that even in the context of unauthorized migration in which individuals are strongly motivated by economic need, the decision to migrate illegally cannot be fully understood without considering an individual's underlying values and norms.

Keywords: Sociology.
Advisor: Grusky David B. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Dauber Michele Landis advisor. Thesis advisor
Jiménez Tomás R. (Tomás Roberto)
Behavioral and genetic dissection of polarotactic responses in Drosophila melanogaster [electronic resource]

Polarized light plays a prominent role in shaping navigational decisions and course control in a variety of insects. Work in ants, crickets and bees have highlighted the importance of a specialized subset of ommatidia in the dorsal rim of the retina, the DRA, in detecting these signals. However, the retina's full capacity to detect polarized light has not been probed, nor are the behavioral mechanisms by which animals respond to such cues known. We have developed a novel, fully-automated behavioral paradigm for detecting polarotactic responses in Drosophila, and have used genetic and behavioral approaches to address these issues. We demonstrate that when polarized UV light stimuli are displayed to populations of Drosophila, animals align their body axis with the e-vector of plane polarized light. Surprisingly, while photoreceptors in the DRA can indeed guide this behavioral response, other photoreceptors distributed across the retinal surface can do so as well. We show that that one class of UV sensitive photoreceptors, those expressing the Rh3 opsin, is both necessary and sufficient for mediating polarotactic behavior. In particular, flies in which only Rh3 expressing photoreceptors are functional can respond to UV polarized light, while inactivation of these cells blocks polarotactic behavioral responses. Moreover, ectopic expression of a green-light sensitive opsin in Rh3 expressing cells allows flies to acquire the capacity to respond to green polarized light. Detailed behavioral studies demonstrate that the ability of flies to align to the e-vector occurs via a stereotyped modulation of the flies' rotational velocity and acceleration as a function of their angular position relative to the e-vector. These studies define the precise computations necessary to explain the behavior, and provide insight into the organization of the neural circuitry that links polarized light signals to course control.

Keywords: Neurosciences.
Advisor: Clandinin Thomas R. (Thomas Robert)
Fernald Russell D. advisor. Thesis advisor
Luo Liqun
Wandell Brian A. advisor. Thesis advisor
Believe the change you wish to see in the world [electronic resource] : the role of implicit theories in targets' responses to explicit bias

What motivates targets of prejudice to confront people who express explicit bias? This dissertation reports the results of eight studies investigating this question. In the first three studies, I tested the hypothesis that targets who hold an incremental theory of personality (i.e., the belief that people can change) are more likely to confront prejudice than targets who hold an entity theory of personality (i.e., the belief that people have fixed traits). In Study 1, targets' implicit theories predicted whether they spontaneously confronted an individual who expressed bias. Study 2 replicated this effect and showed that incremental theorists were less likely to anticipate withdrawing from future interactions with an individual who expressed prejudice. In Study 3, I manipulated implicit theories and replicated these findings. Next, I explored one potential explanation for why. I tested the hypothesis that incremental theorists would be more likely to view confronting as effective in creating change than entity theorists, even if both did so. In Study 4, targets who held a more incremental theory reported being more likely to confront prejudice and anticipated their behavior to be more effective. Study 5 elicited African American adults' retrospective accounts of encounters with bias while Studies 6-7 used a hypothetical scenario to expose participants to evidence of someone who had expressed bias either remaining the same or changing over time. The pattern of results across these studies revealed that even when entity and incremental theorists enact the same (actual or anticipated) confronting behavior, it is exclusively the incremental theorists who view this behavior as more efficacious. Study 8 investigated whether implicit theories play a causal role in perceptions of the efficacy of confronting. All targets expressed disagreement with a biased statement, but those in the incremental theory condition expressed the belief that speaking up would create change to a significantly greater degree than did those in the entity theory condition. By highlighting the central role that implicit theories play in targets' motivation to confront prejudice and their perceptions of whether confronting is effective, this research has important implications for intergroup relations and social change.

Keywords: Psychology
Advisor: Dweck Carol S.
Eberhardt Jennifer L. (Jennifer Lynn) advisor. Thesis advisor
Walton Gregory M. (Gregory Mariotti) advisor. Thesis advisor
Bestiario Onírico [electronic resource]

Bestiario Onírico This series of works, collectively entitled Bestiario Onírico, consists of four pieces for chamber ensemble allied with different combinations of electronic means. The title translates roughly as "a collection of beastlike images from dreams". I have always been driven by the enigmatic nature of dreams that fix a revelation from the unconscious, haunting me until it later becomes manifest as a concrete artistic gesture. Though it is not my intention to imitate or literally represent the idiosyncrasies of dreams, they act as an inspirational reservoir and have always been present in my work. In some cases a dream impression or image is transferred into a formalizing device; in others the literal content of a dream generates a musical idea. These pieces are not only connected through a common creative approach, but also explore similar formal concerns. One of these is the interplay between continuous and discrete sound masses, as well as the transformation of one into the other. The series of Bestiario Onírico resembles a series of voyages unfolding through diverse states. For example, the first piece, Migración, is the most continuous, while the last piece, Humedal, is envisaged as a synthesis of discrete and continuous transformations. The combination of electronic and acoustic media suggests a global "virtual reality" within which the entire series is situated. In the individual works, the integration of acoustic and electronic aspects complements the employment of the extended means of sound production in the acoustic ensemble. The complete series of pieces has an approximate duration of 37 minutes. The following scheme shows the overall form of the series: I. Migración for flute, oboe, clarinet, trombone, viola, cello, double-bass and electronics. (9.5 min) II. Ciudadela for amplified flute and cello (6.5 min) III. AMBA for bass clarinet, accordion and electric guitar (8.5 min) IV. Humedal for amplified trombone, amplified percussion, electronically modified harp, double-bass and two electronic performers (11 ~ min).

Keywords: Music
Advisor: Ferneyhough Brian
Applebaum Mark advisor. Thesis advisor
Chafe Chris advisor. Thesis advisor
Ulman Erik
Beyond early American exceptionalism [electronic resource] : class and the rise of the U.S. novel, 1792-1846

Between constitutional ratification and the crisis over slavery, the market revolution transformed labor relationships and exacerbated disparities in wealth; in these same decades, the first self-conscious working-class movements began to emerge in the United States. Yet, literary history has yet to appreciate the representation of class division and conflict in American fiction of this period, as if class enters the U.S. literary imagination only in the late 1840s. This dissertation uncovers the decisive impact of economic inequality on the first fifty years of the U.S. novel, tracing the prominence of poor and working-class characters in novels by Charles Brockden Brown, Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, and James Fenimore Cooper. Genre is where history and form intersect. Each chapter examines a different generic mode of the early U.S. novel: the Bildungsroman, the picaresque novel, the sentimental domestic novel, and the frontier romance. By revealing the extent to which these genres were all embroiled in debates about the distribution of wealth, Beyond Early American Exceptionalism demonstrates how the paradox of class motivated a spectrum of fictional responses in the early U.S. and thus impacted the emergence of the U.S. novel as a form. Novels, I argue, made economic inequality in the early U.S. highly visible--but they also represented it as a desirable fact of American life.

Advisor: Jones Gavin Roger
Moretti Franco
Tawil Ezra F.
Bio-inspired globally convergent gait regulation for a climbing robot [electronic resource]

The priorities of a climbing legged robot are to maintain a grasp on its climbing surface and to climb efficiently against the force of gravity. Climbing robots are especially susceptible to thermal overload during normal operation, due to the need to oppose gravity and to frequently apply internal forces for clinging. These priorities guided us to develop optimal climbing behaviors under thermal constraints. These behaviors in turn profoundly constrain the choice of gait regulation methods. We propose a novel algorithm: "travel-based" gait regulation that varies foot detachment timing, effectively modifying stride length and frequency in order to maintain gait phasing, subject to kinematic and stability constraints. A core feature of the algorithm is "travel, " a new metric that plays a similar role to relative phasing. The method results in linear equations in terms of travel, leading to straightforward tests for local and global convergence when, for example, disturbances such as foot slippage cause departures from the nominal phasing. We form recurrence maps and use eigenvalue and singular value decomposition to examine local convergence of gaits. To examine global convergence, we implemented a computational geometry technique in high-order spaces. Our travel-based algorithm benefits from a compact code size and ease of implementation. We implemented the algorithm on the RiSE and Stickybot III robots as well as a virtual hexapod in a physics simulator. We demonstrated quickly converging gaits on all platforms as well as gait transitions on Stickybot III and the virtual hexapod.

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Cutkosky Mark R. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Khatib Oussama advisor. Thesis advisor
Waldron Kenneth J. advisor. Thesis advisor
Boundary layer dynamic soaring for autonomous aircraft [electronic resource] : design and validation

Dynamic soaring is a flight technique used by albatrosses and other large seabirds to extract energy from wind gradients in the atmospheric boundary layer over the ocean. This technique enables them to fly for extended periods without flapping their wings, in some documented cases circumnavigating the globe. This work examines the application of dynamic soaring to propulsion of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). First, the equations of motion were derived and the energy transfer mechanisms were explained for a vehicle flying in a spatially and temporally varying wind field. Next, a robust and efficient dynamic soaring trajectory optimization method that forms the foundation for the remainder of the research was outlined. This method was used to solve for optimal periodic trajectories through a number of different wind fields. It was also used to investigate UAV designs that have the ability to extract electrical energy from their environment and store it on-board, allowing operations during lulls in the wind. Vehicle speed polars were generated that show the maximum cross-country speed achievable as the a function of the wind speed and the cross-country flight direction. The method of isochrones was applied to the long-range routing of dynamic soaring vehicles across the ocean by combining vehicle speed polars with satellite based ocean wind measurements. As part of this work, a small UAV, dubbed Mariner, was designed to demonstrate autonomous boundary layer dynamic soaring over water. The objective of the UAV design problem was to minimize the required reference wind speed. Constraints were imposed on vehicle size and weight, and careful attention was paid to stability and control requirements imposed by the optimal trajectories. Sensors and sub-systems were specified to allow for accurate state estimation in close proximity to the water surface. Experimentally, a small off-the-shelf airframe was flown to aid development of Mariner's flight control hardware and software. An extended Kalman filter (EKF) was implemented for vehicle state and wind estimation and tuned through flight testing. In addition, a novel GPS tracking tag was designed and tested to improve our understanding of albatross dynamic soaring.

Keywords: Aeronautics and Astronautics
Advisor: Kroo Ilan primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Alonso Juan José
Gerritsen Margot (Margot G.) advisor. Thesis advisor
Breaking boundaries [electronic resource] : a study of human-mobile interaction

Based on providing visual representation of all functions and key pieces of content, What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) is the current interface design paradigm primarily used in personal computing machines. As we move into a world where computing power continues to increase, and we choose to decrease the physical size of our machines so that they will fit into our pockets, WYSIWYG will break. This research agenda explores a paradigm shift, asking whether users of computing machines can effectively complete tasks without this reliance on visual representation of all functions and information. The two experiments described in this dissertation seek to answer these questions: 1) do visual cues of information and function continue to be required by users in order to complete tasks using mobile devices? 2) are users moving beyond a reliance on recall and recognition memory in human-computer interaction? Furthermore, if these experiments are successful in showing that users no longer need to rely on visual cues in ways similar to the WYSIWYG interactions, can we then describe human-mobile interaction within a memory framework beyond standard recall and recognition? We built two distinct task-based protocols in which participants were asked to work through multi-step tasks, enacting functions and locating pieces of information that we described as being located outside of the physical space of the screen. These functions and pieces of information were not visually represented on the screen. Rather, the participants were primed to understand that the functions and information existed in this non-visual form and could be enacted through particular interaction techniques that referenced the particular, specific space outside of the screen where these items "lived." In the two experiments, participants worked through tasks, either in a WYSIWYG or in a YUMYS paradigm. We took a series of behavioral measurements, including time on task, total number of interactions between the user and the machine in order to complete the task, and successful, correct completion of the tasks. The outcome of this research agenda indicate that the YUMYS interface paradigm will provide a better design framework for mobile designers that will allow mobile users to perceive a decreased workload and increased success as they complete tasks within a YUMYS interface.

Keywords: Communication
Advisor: Nass Clifford Ivar primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Musen Mark A. advisor. Thesis advisor
Reeves Byron
Roberts Donald F. advisor. Thesis advisor
Building a learning community [electronic resource] : examining the factors associated with the implementation of professional learning communities

Education research says that collegial work is connected to teachers' sense of efficacy, professional growth and positive student outcomes, but for various social, psychological as well as organizational reasons teachers often face challenges to working together. As a result, efforts to bring teachers together have had uneven success. There is a good deal of research about what effective professional learning communities (PLCs) look like, but less has been done to examine the implementation process. This study combines survey data of 33 New Jersey public schools involved in a state-sponsored PLC training program and case studies of two of those schools in order to trace the factors associated with the implementation of PLCs. The data suggest that a set of predicted variables—vision, community, resources (including time to meet and expertise) and processes —were associated with the development of collegial professional practice, and all of these factors were mediated by principal leadership and the wider distributed leadership structures at the schools. These qualitative findings were corroborated by the survey data from the two case study schools and the larger pool of schools in the program. Other factors such as the state and local contexts of the two case study schools and the leaders' judicious use of their means of control while also supporting teacher autonomy proved to be important factors for these schools as well. While both schools saw even reluctant teachers notice greater depth to their collegial work, there were challenges that remained in terms of scheduling equity and the use of data to support high quality teaching as opposed to state testing preparation.

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Darling-Hammond Linda
Cuban Larry advisor. Thesis advisor
Lotan Rachel A. advisor. Thesis advisor