VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Coupled hydro-mechanical modeling in unsaturated soils with applications in hillslope processes [electronic resource]

Coupled hydro-mechanical problems involving unsaturated soil conditions have been investigated broadly in geotechnical and geo-environmental engineering. Focusing on hillslope processes, this thesis develops a time-adaptive numerical method for simulating the interactions between fluid and solid in geomaterials. The thesis is divided into two parts, namely, modeling and application. For the modeling part, a system of finite element equations based on porous media theory and two constitutive assumptions is presented. Unsaturated flow in deformable media gives rise to a stiff problem emanating from the nonlinearity in the constitutive relations and the Neumann boundary conditions in the fluid flow. To address this issue, a time-adaptive method is introduced. In addition, previous efforts to improve the efficiency of the computational modeling scheme are summarized. For the application part, a well documented case of hillslope process involving heavy rainfall that resulted in slope stability failure is analyzed. Using two-dimensional modeling, the proposed continuum hydro-mechanical is used to quantify the stress and pore pressure fields in this slope, which are then used to conduct limit equilibrium analyses. Subsequently, three-dimensional continuum modeling is conducted to highlight the multiphysical processes responsible for the failure of this slope.

Advisor: Borja Ronaldo I. (Ronaldo Israel)
Coupling optional pólya trees and the two sample problem [electronic resource]

Testing and characterizing the difference between two data samples is of fundamental interest in statistics. Existing methods such as Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Cramer- von-Mises tests do not scale well as the dimensionality increases and provide no easy way to characterize the difference should it exist. In this work, we propose a theoretical framework for inference that addresses these challenges in the form of a prior for Bayesian nonparametric analysis. The new prior is constructed based on a random-partition-and-assignment procedure similar to the one that defines the standard optional Pólya tree distribution, but has the ability to generate multiple random distributions jointly. These random probability distributions are allowed to "couple", that is to have the same conditional distribution, on subsets of the sample space. We show that this "coupling optional Pólya tree" prior provides a convenient and effective way for both the testing of two sample difference and the learning of the underlying structure of the difference. We provide both simulated and real data examples to illustrate the work of this method and compare its performance to several existing methods, both frequentist and Bayesian. We demonstrate through an analysis of the Wellcome Trust Case-control Consortium data how the method can be applied to conduct multiple marker association tests. We also discuss some practical issues in the computational implementation of this prior and explore techniques that can be utilized to improve the computational efficiency in the appendices.

Keywords: Statistics
Advisor: Wong Wing Hung primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Siegmund David
Tibshirani Robert advisor. Thesis advisor
Creating destiny [electronic resource] : youth, arts, and social change

In this ethnographic study, I examine the work of a company of youth artists who create art to create social change. I explore how they define social change, and how they make it through a process of creating and performing an original work of hip hop, modern dance, and theater. The company is the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company in Oakland, CA, which brings together 15 to 20 young people each year to work with the company's adult co-directors to create an original performance for social change. The company members are high-school-aged and diverse with regard to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background. Its work is part of a larger tradition of programs in which artists "apply" the tools and processes of the arts to social problems (McCammon, 2007). Through inductive analysis of field data that I collected documenting the company's ten-month process, I surfaced a theory of social change embedded in the company's work. The company posits social change as a process of changing relationships--that is, changing how we relate to ourselves, to one another, and to the world around us. This process requires understanding how our ways of relating are shaped by social structures and our positions within them; imagining new possibilities for these relationships that would exist in the world in which we want to live; and then transforming our relationships to embody these possibilities. Transforming our relationships in this way, the company suggests, is a means to create the world we have imagined. In this study, I elaborate this theory and it's potential to complement more traditional notions of social change, which focus on changing social structures more directly. Such theories rely on the imposition of social structures to align human activity with principles of equality and social justice. By contrast, the company focuses on how social change created among small groups can radiate outward to effect change in communities and to shift social structures. Through fieldnote, interview, and photographic data that I gathered in the role of participant observer, I describe what dance and writing offer the company as media for social change during their creative process. I also explore the impact of the company performance through audience focus group and survey data. My analyses elaborate the concept of third space in the arts and the ways in which it functions to facilitate social change at an individual, interpersonal, group, and community level. They also illuminate the importance of cross-cultural collaborations among youth to creating social change.

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: McDermott Monica
McLaughlin Milbrey Wallin primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Elam Harry Justin advisor. Thesis advisor
Cross-validation and regression analysis in high-dimensional sparse linear models [electronic resource]

Modern scientific research often involves experiments with at most hundreds of subjects but with tens of thousands of variables for every subject. The challenge of high dimensionality has reshaped statistical thinking and modeling. Variable selection plays a pivotal role in the high-dimensional data analysis, and the combination of sparsity and accuracy is crucial for statistical theory and practical applications. Regularization methods are attractive for tackling these sparsity and accuracy issues. The first part of this thesis studies two regularization methods. First, we consider the orthogonal greedy algorithm (OGA) used in conjunction with a high-dimensional information criterion introduced by Ing& Lai (2011). Although it has been shown to have excellent performance for weakly sparse regression models, one does not know a priori in practice that the actual model is weakly sparse, and we address this problem by developing a new cross-validation approach. OGA can be viewed as L0 regularization for weakly sparse regression models. When such sparsity fails, as revealed by the cross-validation analysis, we propose to use a new way to combine L1 and L2 penalties, which we show to have important advantages over previous regularization methods. The second part of the thesis develops a Monte Carlo Cross-Validation (MCCV) method to estimate the distribution of out-of-sample prediction errors when a training sample is used to build a regression model for prediction. Asymptotic theory and simulation studies show that the proposed MCCV method mimics the actual (but unknown) prediction error distribution even when the number of regressors exceeds the sample size. Therefore MCCV provides a useful tool for comparing the predictive performance of different regularization methods for real (rather than simulated) data sets.

Keywords: Statistics
Advisor: Lai T. L. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Rajaratnam Balakanapathy advisor. Thesis advisor
Zhang Nancy R. (Nancy Ruonan) advisor. Thesis advisor
Curricular program implementation in the context of randomized field trials [electronic resource]

Abstract curricular program implementation in the context of randomized field trials Gloria Isabel Miller This study examined three cases of commercially available curricular program implementations to determine if a unified approach to measuring the level of implementation was possible (proof of concept). Further, the study investigated whether the level of curriculum and implementation plan specificity made a difference to the strength of implementation achieved in classrooms; and described the implementation evolution in different contexts. The study sample consists of a total of 163 teachers in eight school districts across the United States. In each case teachers were randomly assigned to using the curricular innovation or their currently used materials and processes. The three cases, HS-Math, NewScience, and MathIntervention, were purposely chosen to represent three different points of curricular and implementation specificity and two different subject areas, math and science. Each case features a commercially available program that also had opportunities for teachers to use "electronic" technology to enhance their learning or to engage their students. The cases represent differing student grade levels. The cases are different enough to provide a range that exercises the measurement techniques introduced in this study so results can begin to generalize across curricular programs and grades. However, the cases are similar enough in research design, instrumentation, and data collection methods to make them comparable. A key contribution of this investigation is the creation of a framework to measure the level of implementation (the extent to which the teacher and students display the actions, behaviors, and interactions expected by using the innovation). The unified conceptual framework arrived at by using an Activity Theory perspective together with the analytical methods employed provide a way to view the rich complex interaction of implementation as a system with the larger system of the school organization. Data from the analysis revealed that variations in the level of implementation were no different regardless of the level of specificity. A strong finding of this work is that implementation evolves slowly even when the curricular program is scripted and coaching support is provided to teachers. The paper concludes with implications for policy and future research.

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Goldman Shelley V. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Borko Hilda advisor. Thesis advisor
Pea Roy D. advisor. Thesis advisor
A data-estimation-based approach for quasi-continuous seismic reservoir monitoring [electronic resource]

Current strategies and logistics for seismic data acquisition impose restrictions on the calendar-time temporal resolution obtainable for a given time-lapse monitoring program. One factor that restricts the implementation of a quasi-continuous monitoring program using conventional strategies is the time it takes to acquire a complete survey. Here quasi-continuous monitoring describes the process of reservoir monitoring at short time intervals. This dissertation describes an approach that circumvents the restriction by requiring only a subset of a complete survey data each time an image of the reservoir is needed. Ideally, the time interval between survey subset acquisitions should be short so that changes in the reservoir properties are small. The accumulated data acquired are used to estimate the unavailable data at the monitor survey time, and the combined known and estimated data are used to produce an image of the subsurface for monitoring. Quasi-continuous seismic monitoring can be used to monitor geologic reservoirs during the injection phase of a carbon dioxide sequestration project. It can also be used to monitor reservoir changes between injector and producer wells during the secondary recovery phase in an oil field. The primary advantage of a quasi-continuous monitoring strategy over the conventional strategy is the high temporal resolution of the reservoir changes obtainable. Naturally, the spatial resolution of the image obtained using a subset of the data from a full survey will be worse than the spatial resolution of the image obtained using the complete data from a full survey. However, if the unavailable data are estimated perfectly, the spatial resolution is not lost. The choice of estimation algorithm and the size of the known data play an important role in the success of the approach presented in this dissertation.

Keywords: Geophysics
Advisor: Harris Jerry M. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Clapp Robert G. (Robert Graham) advisor. Thesis advisor
Mukerji Tapan
Orr F. M.
Zoback Mark D. advisor. Thesis advisor
Decision analytic approach to customer experience design [electronic resource]

Customer experience influences purchasing behavior. How do we measure this subjective phenomenon called customer experience? What are the best approaches to design customer experience? In my dissertation I present a new approach to assessing customer experience using emotion cues, which is a departure from commonly used self-reporting methods like surveys. I also demonstrate a modeling approach to designing customer experience that can offer more actionable insights than best practices and basic principles. I call this the Decision Analytic Approach to Customer Experience Design.

Keywords: Management Science and Engineering
Advisor: Howard Ronald A. (Ronald Arthur)
Giese-Davis Janine (Janine Ellen)
Leifer Larry J. advisor. Thesis advisor
Decoding the CEO-board relationship [electronic resource] : strategic decision making and monitoring in entrepreneurial firms

While the CEO-board relationship has been a subject of extensive scholarly inquiry, prior literature overlooks the CEO's perspective on the CEO-board relationship, and almost exclusively focuses on public firms to the neglect of ventures. To explore the CEO's perspective, I use inductive multiple-case study methods to examine how CEOs use their boards effectively to make board-level strategic decisions. The emergent theoretical framework suggests that CEOs launch the decision making process by seeking advice from directors through a dyadic, role-centered approach. Subsequently, CEOs propose a decision rather than suggesting alternatives to the board. They mainly discuss strategy in special-purpose meetings, not during the board meetings, and finally, they use political actions to close the decisions. A key insight is that CEOs who are more effective at board-level strategic decision making seek advice but also maintain power in the decision making process. To explore boards in ventures, I develop a theoretical framework on the monitoring function of venture boards. I build upon the unique characteristics of ventures that distinguish them from public firms, and focus on those aspects of board monitoring that are distinctive to ventures. The propositions focus on the attributes of the venture and the composition of the board as drivers of board monitoring, and the implications for venture performance. Overall, this study contributes to the theories of corporate governance by proposing a new, effective model of the CEO-board relationship where the CEO flips the traditional principal-agent relationship so that he or she becomes the principal and the board members become agents. Further, this study highlights the under-emphasized "principal problem" in the CEO-board relationship and recognizes that this relationship actually comprises several CEO-director dyadic relationships. Key words: corporate governance, strategic decision making, advice, power, monitoring, entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Management Science and Engineering
Advisor: Eisenhardt Kathleen M. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Byers Thomas (Thomas H.) advisor. Thesis advisor
Katila Riitta advisor. Thesis advisor
O'Reilly Charles A. advisor. Thesis advisor
Sutton Robert advisor. Thesis advisor
Deconstructing the Rosenfeld Curve [electronic resource] : structural determinants of energy consumption

California's energy efficiency policies and energy use patterns have attracted widespread national and international interest. Over the last three decades, the state has implemented a variety of regulatory and legislative measures aimed at reducing the demand for energy, through encouraging more efficient consumption. In a startling contrast to the nation as a whole, the state electricity consumption per capita has stayed relatively steady since 1970. A comparative graph of the state and national electricity intensities is called the Rosenfeld Curve, named after the influential former Commissioner of the California Energy Commission. This thesis examines the structural determinants of electricity consumption with a view to answering the question -- What fraction of the state-nation difference in electricity consumption intensity might reasonably be attributed to policy interventions? I begin with a simple decomposition analysis of the residential, industrial and commercial sectors, using empirical data from a variety of sources. I find that over two-thirds of the difference between state and national energy intensity may be attributed to structural factors that are independent of policy interventions, leaving a smaller, unexplained portion that could owe to program interventions (a share that has increased over time). I next consider the residential sector in detail, a topic that is the primary focus of my thesis. I describe residential consumption of electricity and secondary heating fuels, using a structural model of household energy demand estimated using micro-data from the period between 1993 and 2005. In doing so, I account for heterogeneity in household types in the population. After controlling for structural factors such as climate, I find evidence suggesting that policy may have been particularly effective in reducing the energy needed for heating and cooling end uses. I also find evidence of increasing policy effects over the ten years between 1995 and 2005. Additionally, the model suggests that incentive compatibility considerations may have resulted in inefficiently high energy consumption in rented dwellings. Overall, the econometric model indicates about 20 percent of the state nation difference in the residential sector may owe to program effects. These results are interesting as a retrospective look at the California experience, but more importantly as a benchmark of what might reasonably be expected from energy efficiency elsewhere in the world. They also underline the importance of using counterfactual policy evaluation techniques instead of comparisons of aggregate statistics in understanding policy impact.

Keywords: Management Science and Engineering
Advisor: Sweeney James L. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Levin Jonathan D. (Jonathan David)
Weyant John P. (John Peter) advisor. Thesis advisor
Derlin-1 is a rhomboid pseudoprotease required for the dislocation of misfolded proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum [electronic resource]

The degradation of misfolded secretory proteins is ultimately mediated by the ubiquitin-proteasome system in the cytoplasm, therefore endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD) substrates must be dislocated across the ER membrane through a process driven by the AAA ATPase p97/VCP. Derlins recruit p97/VCP and have been proposed to be part of the dislocation machinery. Here we report that Derlins are inactive members of the rhomboid family of intramembrane proteases and bind p97/VCP through C-terminal SHP boxes. Human Derlin-1 harboring mutations within the rhomboid domain stabilized mutant [alpha]-1 antitrypsin (NHK) at the cytosolic face of the ER membrane without disrupting the p97/VCP interaction. We propose that substrate interaction and p97/VCP recruitment are separate functions that are essential for dislocation and can be assigned respectively to the rhomboid domain and the C terminus of Derlin-1. These data suggest that intramembrane proteolysis and protein dislocation share unexpected mechanistic features.

Advisor: Kopito Ron Rieger
Bogyo Matthew
Elias Joshua advisor. Thesis advisor
Harbury Pehr advisor. Thesis advisor
Design at a distance [electronic resource] : tangible telepresence using gesture and robotics

How can we help design engineers, who are so often spread around the globe, work as cohesive teams when design is so dependent on in-the-moment, physical actions like sketching, prototyping and gesturing? This question prompted three studies into the design and operation of embodied, robotic telepresence proxies for group interaction. These devices afford a head-and-shoulders view of an individual, distant collaborator, on a physically situated platform that moves in a way that recreates (some of) his or her body language. Study 1 starts by noting that telepresence creates two representations of the distant collaborator in the local workspace—one audiovisual and the other physical—resulting in the proxy-in-proxy problem. We therefore asked crowdsourced participants to compare on-screen and physical behaviors, from which we distinguished four categories of telepresent gesture: intentionally expressive, unanticipated response, focus of attention, and thoughtful, internal states. Study 2 extended this approach to include team interactions, and found that proxy gesture influenced how people interpreted personality traits and group roles of not only distant collaborators, but also their collocated teammates. Study 3 explored the differences between kinetic and idle proxies, as well as implicit and explicit interfaces, during a distributed working session. The ability to physically turn and face particular teammates projected the remote collaborator's focus of attention better, but led others to feel excluded. We also found that implicit control created a tradeoff between lower cognitive effort for the remote user and greater distraction due to incidental motion for the local team. A set of design principles and recommendations (for example, to refine implicit control of proxy gesture by incorporating an activity threshold) helps us understand how to design telepresent communication that is more intuitive for remote collaborators, and more familiar and understandable for their local teammates.

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Leifer Larry J. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Cutkosky Mark R. advisor. Thesis advisor
Nass Clifford Ivar advisor. Thesis advisor
Design for new manufacturing technology [electronic resource] : a management framework to identify and evaluate manufacturability risk to realize new technology success

Even with the utilization of concurrent engineering in the product development process, the application of a stage-gate approach to manage the process, and the employment of Design for Manufacturability methodology, existing literature indicates that once a company is able to produce a prototype, the company automatically proceeds to product development, resulting in production quality issues. This is particularly troublesome when a new product utilizes new manufacturing technologies where key process capabilities are not yet well-understood. In my research, I identified the challenges and opportunities of the product development process that companies employ, with a special focus on process development. I also developed a framework that companies could use in the early design stage to identify the risk of using new manufacturing technologies in production. This framework is a systematic approach that helps companies to identify, evaluate, and mange the manufacturability risk of each product realization activity.

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Waldron Kenneth J. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Beiter Kurt (Kurt Andrew)
Sheppard S. (Sheri) advisor. Thesis advisor