VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Convex Approaches to Text Summarization

This dissertation presents techniques for the summarization and exploration of text documents. Many approaches taken towards analysis of news media can be analogized to well-defined, well-studied problems from statistical machine learning. The problem of feature selection, for classification and dimensionality reduction tasks, is formulated to help assist with these media analysis tasks. Taking advantage of L1 regularization, convex programs can be used to efficiently solve these feature selection problems efficiently. There is a demonstrated potential to conduct media analysis at a scale commensurate with the growing volume of data available to news consumers./nThere is first a presentation of an example text mining over a vector space model. Given two news articles on a related theme, a series of additional articles are pulled from a large pool of candidates to help link these two input items. The novel algorithm used is based on finding the documents whose vector representations are nearest the convex combinations of the inputs. Comparisons to competing algorithms show performance matching a state-of-the-art method, at a lower computational complexity./nDesign of a relational database for typical text mining tasks is discussed. The architecture trades off the organizational and data quality advantages of normalization versus the performance boosts from replicating entity attributes across tables. The vector space model of text is implemented explicitly as a three-column table./nThe predictive framework, connecting news analysis tasks to feature selection and classification problems, is then explicitly explored. The validity of this analogy is tested with a particular task: given a query term and a corpus of news articles, provide a short list of word tokens which distinguish how this word appears within the corpus. Example summary lists were produced by five algorithms, and presented to volunteer readers. Evidence suggests that an implementation of L1-regularized logistic regression model, trained over the documents with labels indicating the presence or absence of the query word, selected word-features best summarizing the query./nTo contend with tasks that do not lend themselves this a predictive framework, a sparse variant of latent semantic indexing is investigated. [cont.]

Advisor: El Ghaoui, Laurent
The Cutting Edge of Fun: Making Work Play at the New American School

This dissertation presents an ethnographic account of the launch of "The Downtown School for Design, Media, and Technology," one of the most prominent American school reform projects in recent years. Drawing on popular accounts about children and young people's pervasive affinity for digital media, and especially video games, the Downtown School's progressive founders hoped to create a new model of schooling for the twenty-first century. By attempting to make the entire curriculum "game-like," and by braiding digital media through pedagogic practices, the Downtown School's founders hoped to make a model of schooling that was more "student-centered," equitable, creative, engaging, fun, and technologically sophisticated than canonical models. In this dissertation I draw on my ethnographic documentation of the Downtown School's first class - a group of 75 sixth graders coming of age in New York City - to show that despite the best intentions of its founders, the Downtown School's techno-centric model mostly overlooked, rather than overcame, schooling's contributions to the making and remaking of privilege. I argue that the school's enthusiasm for digital media and games led educators to underestimate the power that students, the state, and privileged families would exert on the school to thwart the founders' aims, as well as to play down the school's embeddedness in a system that legitimated biased social selection. As a result, the school paradoxically helped remake many of the inequities its planners had hoped to ameliorate.

Advisor: Duguid, Paul
Burrell, Jenna
Productive High Performance Parallel Programming with Auto-tuned Domain-Specific Embedded Languages

As the complexity of machines and architectures has increased, performance tuning has become more challenging, leading to the failure of general compilers to generate the best possible optimized code. Expert performance programmers can often hand-write code that outperforms compiler-optimized low-level code by an order of magnitude. At the same time, the complexity of programs has also increased, with modern programs built on a variety of abstraction layers to manage complexity, yet these layers hinder efforts at optimization. In fact, it is common to lose one or two additional orders of magnitude in performance when going from a low-level language such as Fortran or C to a high-level language like Python, Ruby, or Matlab./nGeneral purpose compilers are limited by the inability of program analysis to determine programmer intent, as well as the lack of detailed performance models that always determine the best executable code for a given computation and architecture. The latter problem can be mitigated through auto-tuning, which generates many code variants for a particular problem and empirically determines which performs best on a given architecture./nThis thesis addresses the problem of how to write programs at a high level while obtaining the performance of code written by performance experts at the low level. To do so, we build domain-specific embedded languages that generate low-level parallel code from a high-level language, and then use auto-tuning to determine the best performing low-level code. Such DSELs avoid analysis by restricting the domain while ensuring programmers specify high-level intent, and by performing empirical auto-tuning instead of modeling machine parameters. As a result, programmers write in high-level languages with portions of their code using DSELs, yet obtain performance equivalent to the best hand-optimized low-level code, across many architectures./nWe present a methodology for building such auto-tuned DSELs, as well as a software infrastructure and example DSELs using the infrastructure, including a DSEL for structured grid computations and two DSELs for graph algorithms. The structured grid DSEL obtains over 80% of peak performance for a variety of benchmark kernels across different architectures, while the graph algorithm DSELs mitigate all performance loss due to using a high-level language. Overall, the methodology, infrastructure, and example DSELs point to a promising new direction for obtaining high performance while programming in a high-level language.

Advisor: Yelick, Katherine
Fox, Armando
Gold(I)-Mediated Nucleophilic Additions to Allenes: from Enantioselective Catalysis to Supramolecular Chemistry

The ability of gold(I) complexes to activate carbon-carbon multiple bonds for the addition of nitrogen and oxygen nucleophiles has emerged as an attractive synthetic method in organic chemistry. While many transformations catalyzed by gold(I) have been reported in recent years, few studies provide insight into the mechanism of gold(I) mediated processes. The first half of this thesis will discuss the development of an enantioselective gold(I)-catalyzed hydroamination of allenes with hydroxylamine and hydrazine nucleophiles and mechanistic studies of this and related systems. The second half of this thesis will cover our efforts to incorporate gold(I) catalysts into supramolecular host-guest complexes and will highlight potential advantages of this novel approach to gold(I) reactions./nChapter 1. In this chapter, we report a novel enantioselective method for formation of isoxazolidines, pyrazolidines and tetrahydrooxazine heterocycles catalyzed by dinuclear bisphosphine gold(I) complexes. Furthermore, we discuss our efforts toward the development of a dynamic kinetic resolution of chiral allenes via intermolecular asymmetric hydroamination./nChapter 2. We perform detailed kinetic studies to elucidate the mechanism of two transformations: the gold(I)-catalyzed hydroamination of allenes with hydrazine nucleophiles and the intramolecular hydroamination of dienes in the presence of alcohol co-catalysts. While the hydroamination of allenes proceeds via an outer sphere ¥ð-acid mechanism, the related reaction with dienes likely proceeds via a Lewis-acid assisted-Br©ªnsted acid pathway./nChapter 3. This chapter will focus on our efforts to incorporate catalytically active gold(I) complexes into tetrahedral supramolecular guest of the form Ga4L6. Using such a complex, we catalyze the intramolecular hydroalkoxylation of allenes. We demonstrate that encapsulation of gold(I) increases the rate of reaction relative to Me3PAuBr and also leads to improved catalyst lifetime./nChapter 4. Herein we apply the supramolecular host-guest complex with gold(I) and Ga4L6 to tandem reactions with enzymes. The encapsulated complex performs as well, if not better than the ¡°free¡± gold(I) complex in chemoenzymatic processes with a variety of esterase and lipases. In some cases the free gold(I) cations significantly reduce the rate of enzyme catalysis while the encapsulated complex has no effect on enzyme activity.

Advisor: Toste, F D
On extremizers for adjoint Fourier restriction inequalities and a result in incidence geometry

Whenever we have a bounded linear operator T:X → Y between two Banach spaces X, Y we can ask what nonzero elements x* ∈ X satisfy ||Tx*||=||T|| ||x*||. Such elements of X are called extremizers for the inequality ||Tx|| ≤ ||T|| ||x||. A sequence {xn}n ∈ ℕ in X satisfying ||xn||≤1 and ||Txn|| → ||T||, as n → ∞, is called an extremizing sequence. For extremizing sequences we can ask whether they are precompact after the application of symmetries of the operator T. We can also ask for the value of the operator norm of T, ||T||./n/n/nThe adjoint Fourier restriction operator associated to a hypersurface S with measure σ in ℝd, f ↦ (fσ)^, is known to be bounded from L2 to Lp in the case of the cone, the hyperboloid and the paraboloid in ℝd, for a certain range of exponents p ∈ [1,∞]. Existence and nonexistence of extremizers, precompactness of extremizing sequences, Euler-Lagrange equations for extremizers and best constants is what we study in the first three parts of this dissertation./n/n/nIn the first part we study the adjoint restriction inequality on the cone, Γ2⊆ ℝ3. We prove that an extremizing sequence for the inequality from L2(Γ2) to L6(ℝ3) is precompact up to the natural symmetries of the cone, dilations and Lorentz transformations./n/n/nIn the second part we study extremizers on the hyperboloid in dimensions 3 and 4. We prove that in both cases extremizers do not exist and compute the best constant in the adjoint Fourier restriction inequality./n/n/nIn the third part, in a joint work with Michael Christ, we consider the case of the paraboloid, or equivalently, Strichartz inequalities for the Shrödinger equation. It is shown there that a natural class of functions, the Gaussians, known to extremize the L2 → Lp adjoint Fourier restriction inequalities in dimensions 2 and 3 are no longer critical points, and thus are not extremizers, of the nonlinear functional associated to the Lq→ Lp inequalities for q ≠ 2. The case of mixed norms is also studied./n/n/nIn the last chapter we look at an incidence geometry problem, the problem of counting noncoplanar intersections of lines in ℝd. The problem can be seen as a discrete version of the Kakeya problem, an open problem in real analysis. There we prove a sharp upper bound for the number of transverse intersections of a collection of lines.

Advisor: Christ, Michael
Nano-Optoelectronic Integration on Silicon

Modern silicon technology offers unprecedented spatial and temporal control of electrons with high levels of integrated complexity. Integrating nanophotonic functionality onto silicon should then allow us to extend this level of control to photons. Resulting nano-optoelectronic systems will inevitably create new functionality, which not only enables next-generation technologies like optical interconnects, but also gives rise to yet unforeseen applications./nDirectly growing III-V nanomaterials on silicon provides an advantageous pathway towards optoelectronic integration. Conventional wisdom often breaks at the nanoscale, and traditional integration challenges like lattice mismatch are circumvented. In particular, III-V nanoneedles and nanopillars with attractive optical properties grow on silicon under conditions that are compatible with the process constraints of CMOS technology./nThis dissertation will present a variety of nano-optoelectronic devices developed using the nanoneedle and nanopillar platform. Nanolasers are demonstrated under optical pumping, and progress towards electrical injection is shown. Under reverse bias, nanopillars enable avalanche photodiodes featuring gain-bandwidth products in excess of 100 GHz. Nanopillar devices also exhibit clear photovoltaic effects and even support nonlinear optical generation. The breadth of functionality shown suggests that a powerful marriage between photons and electrons on silicon is well within reach.

Advisor: Chang-Hasnain, Connie
Super Learner and Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Longitudinal Data Structures with Applications to Atrial Fibrillation

This thesis discusses the Super Learner and Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation (TMLE) for longitudinal data structures in nonparametric statistical models. It focuses specifically on time-dependent data structures where the outcome of interest may be described as a counting process. A Super Learner for the conditional intensity of the counting process is proposed based on the minimization of squared error and negative Bernoulli loglikelihood risks. An analytic comparison of the oracle inequality for the cross validation selector of the squared error and negative Bernoulli loglikelihood risks is provided. TMLE is extended to enforce a calibration property, defined as an implicit constraint, on the Super Learner. Tradeoffs between calibration and risk minimization are explored through simulation. The final chapter discusses and implements a recently developed TMLE for the intervention-specific marginal mean in general longitudinal data structures. A modification of this general TMLE algorithm template is implemented to respect model constraints for the estimation of the cumulative event probability in survival data with time-dependent covariates and informative right-censoring. Each chapter is supplemented with practical examples of these estimators using data from the the Kaiser Permanente ATRIA-1 cohort study of adults with atrial fibrillation. The primary appendix presents a new Super Learner software implementation as a SAS (Statistical Analysis System) macro for data-adaptive machine learning. SAS macro code for the TMLEs are provided in secondary appendices.

Advisor: van der Laan, Mark J
3D Single Particle Tracking Spectroscopy and Nanoparticles for Interrogating Complex Systems

3D single particle tracking spectroscopy is a technique which allows a person to follow a freely diffusing nanometer-sized particle in three dimensions, in real-time. The basic scheme involves illuminating a nanometer-sized probe with a confocal microscope, optically detecting its position change with avalanche photodiodes, and then moving a piezo-electric stage to counteract the particle's movement. The tracked particle is centered within the collection volume of a confocal microscope, enabling concurrent spectroscopic readouts of the tracked particle's emission./nThe motivation for this technique is the desire to perform spectroscopy in complex environments. Dynamics in complex environments, such as within a living cell, occur over a range of time and length scales. Unlike homogeneous systems, the multiple dynamical length and time scales are correlated, prohibiting the use of simplifications like timescale separation. In order to understand the correlations across different scales, new experimental techniques are needed which can provide long-time observation and spatially-correlated dynamical measurements. 3D single particle tracking spectroscopy is the realization of this dream for nano-scale environments. Counteracting the particle's diffusion with the piezo stage enables long-time observation of the freely diffusing particle. Because the current stage position is a measure of the particle's position, one can perform spatially-correlated spectroscopy./nThe scientific impact of this thesis has been to develop the 3D single particle tracking spectroscopy technique, demonstrate the potential of using nanoparticles to design new kinds of single-molecule/probe assays, and open the possibility of using an under-appreciated class of bright, photo-stable nanoparticles (large gold nanoparticles) for biophysical applications.

Advisor: Yang, Haw
Klinman, Judith P
Attacks on Emerging Architectures

New architectures require careful examination of security properties in order to assess and contain new threats. In light of this, emerging technologies, such as web APIs, medical devices, and applications on mobile phones, are a new security landscape that has recurring security problems. We develop new techniques to analyze these applications for security vulnerabilities, utilizing techniques including: dynamic symbolic execution, binary analysis and reverse engineering, and wide scale application comparison and classification. We develop Kudzu, a system for symbolic execution of JavaScript, and use it to evaluate a wide variety of JavaScript applications in order to find client-side validation vulnerabilities. Secondly, we use this system to evaluate the security, in practice, of new HTML5 primitives. Then, we conduct the first publicly available reverse engineering and security evaluation of a ubiquitous medical device, namely an Automated External Defibrillator. We discovered a wide array of vulnerabilities and we confirm our findings using COTS software components. We offer considerations to help guide future development of medical devices. Finally, we developed Juxtapp, a scalable, efficient system for detecting code reuse in Android Applications. Using Juxtapp we detected instances of piracy, malware and buggy code reuse among Android applications. We demonstrate that these techniques are useful at discovering and/or preventing attacks, in their respective application domains.

Advisor: Song, Dawn
The Morality of Collective Harm

Collective Harm Cases pervade the modern world. In these cases, people collectively cause harm, or fail to prevent it, but no individual seems to make a difference. For example, while climate change is caused by millions of people acting in certain ways (driving in cars, flying in planes, using coal-generated electricity, etc.), it seems that no individual such act will make a difference. Similarly, while the large-scale consumer patterns of wealthy nations can affect the lives of people in poorer nations, it is hard to believe that any individual purchase will make a difference for the worse. In cases of this sort, if it is true that no individual act will make a difference, it is unclear how we can say that anyone ought, or even has reason, to act otherwise. But if we cannot, this would be very troubling. Morality would be powerless in a wide array of cases in which it should have force. This is the Problem of Collective Harm./nI argue that the key to solving the Problem of Collective Harm is to reject a standard, intuitive assumption that underlies it. The assumption is that if an act cannot make a difference with respect to an outcome, then it cannot play a morally significant, non-superfluous causal role in bringing that outcome about. Or, to put it another way, we must reject the assumption that helping to bring about an outcome requires making a difference to it. This assumption is highly natural, but I argue that it is mistaken and that once we see that it is mistaken, the central puzzle of the Problem of Collective Harm is resolved./nChapter 1 is devoted to setting out the problem and how I will approach it. Chapters 2 and 3 discuss a range of proposed solutions that have been put forth by others. The upshot of the critique of these views will be that we cannot solve the Problem of Collective Harm unless we can reject the assumption that helping requires making a difference. In Chapter 4, I turn to my positive proposal. There I give an account of what is required for an act to help to bring about an outcome, where this does not require being able to make a difference. I use this account to explain our reasons for action in Collective Harm Cases, and I give an error theory that explains why the standard assumption seems right, even though it is not. In Chapter 5, I highlight some noteworthy features of my proposal and some important questions about it that still need to be addressed.

Advisor: Kolodny, Niko
Wallace, R. Jay
Moralistes of Modern Life: the Subjectivization of Moralist Discourse in Eighteenth-Century France

Moralistes of Modern Life: the Subjectivization of Moralist Discourse in Eighteenth-Century France/nby/nÓrlaith Catherine Creedon/nDoctor of Philosophy in French/nUniversity of California, Berkeley/nProfessor Nicholas Paige, Chair/nThis dissertation studies the breakdown of classical moralist discourse in the post-absolutist moment and traces the newly flexible forms of this self-defined "literature of social observation" over the course of the eighteenth century. Tied to the specific context of absolute monarchy, moralist literature had analyzed the world in function of analytical grids and rigid codes, and hence generated a literature of closed forms: maxims, portraits, caractères. I argue that the static completeness of moralist literature reached its limits of possibility under the Regency, when the migration from the closed system of the court to the "open" system of the city radically destabilized the finite and fixed nature of social categories and their codes - presuming this had ever been a social reality, though it had in fact been represented as such in moralist texts. Analyzing generically diverse texts which have never before been put into dialogue - Le Spectateur français (Marivaux), Le Neveu de Rameau (Diderot), and the Tableau de Paris (Mercier), I study a feature of the emergence of urban modernity that has heretofore remained overshadowed by Benjaminian studies of the nineteenth-century capital: the figure of the urban spectator. Informed by eighteenth-century aesthetics and drame theory, my dissertation argues for the figure of the urban spectator as the mediator and model of a public in the making. No longer an implied, disembodied narrator, the spectator's emergence produced not only new ways of writing, but also of knowing, what La Rochefoucauld referred to as "les choses de la vie." This dissertation focuses on narrative texts that stage the spectator in the act of beholding; that is to say, narratives in which moralist discourse is subjectivized.

Advisor: Paige, Nicholas D