VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Constructing Humanity’s Conscience: Violence, Victims, and the Practice of Justice in the Congo

The International Criminal Court is a deeply divisive international organization. To some, it is the political pawn of neocolonial states; while for others, it represents hope for millions of victims of the world’s gravest crimes. The autonomy and authority of international justice, however, remain poorly understood. In this dissertation, I examine the social conditions of power in the international justice field, focusing on the nexus between the ICC’s organizational development and its interactions with communities in the Ituri district of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ituri, a small and relatively unknown corner of northeastern Congo, is where the ICC has pursued its first trials and will soon implement its first reparations orders for victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Contrary to notions of victims as a mere rhetorical or symbolic concern of global governance, I argue that victims have been central to the ICC’s struggles to consolidate its autonomy and overcome fundamental sources of illegitimacy, both from the states whose sovereignty it threatens and the communities whose interests it claims to represent. To manage these threats, the ICC has come to depend on a variety of victim-centric practices, the majority of which ultimately serve its institutional interests while reinforcing local cycles of violence. At the same time, the ICC has displayed remarkable flexibility in crafting creative responses to victims that can serve as models for the practice of justice in the future. Ultimately, this analysis clarifies the social conditions of autonomy in fields of global governance, highlighting the productive practices that shape their authority and their relationship to vulnerable populations.

Advisor: Evans, Peter
Fourcade, Marion
An Evaluation of Market Based Policy Instruments for Clean Energy in the Global South

The growth of carbon markets over the past decade has emerged as a powerful form of pro-poor financing that has quickly increased the number of rural household energy efficiency programs implemented in the global south. This dissertation explores the role that market-based policy instruments can have in advancing the dual goals of rural energy access and sustainable development in the global south. Historic low carbon prices combined with contentious international climate negotiations and an uncertain future for emission trading systems serve as the context for this study, which offers insights for policymakers in structuring future market mechanisms for increasing energy access for the global poor. My findings highlight the important role of nonstate actors in creating predominantly private and voluntary systems of market-based policy initiatives that are only now emerging in the face of faltering international action for climate change in a post-Kyoto Protocol era. Through grounded case studies I examine key assumptions that underlie carbon accounting rules and metrics to understand the consequences for practical monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) under market-based policies. I also present empirical data from household air pollution and fuel consumption measurements from village homes in China to highlight the importance of developing robust monitoring protocols for new technologies prior to inclusion into market-based programs.

Advisor: O'Rourke, Dara J.
Some Case Studies in Algebra Motivated by Abstract Problems of Language

This thesis concerns three different topics. The first has to do with axiomatizing the universal theory of certain classes of multisorted algebras arising from intersection, union, and other first order operations on relations. The second has to do with axiomatizing certain classes of actions arising from intersection and union, and axiomatizing certain classes of posets arising from actions arising from intersection. The third has to do with understanding under what conditions morphisms between two structures can be finitely determined.

Advisor: Scanlon, Thomas
Yalcin, Seth
Multiphysics Modeling of Selective Laser Sintering/Melting

A significant percentage of total global employment is due to the manufacturing industry./nHowever, manufacturing also accounts for nearly 20% of total energy usage in the United/nStates according to the EIA. In fact, manufacturing accounted for 90% of industrial energy/nconsumption and 84% of industry carbon dioxide emissions in 2002. Clearly, advances in/nmanufacturing technology and efficiency are necessary to curb emissions and help society/nas a whole./nAdditive manufacturing (AM) refers to a relatively recent group of manufacturing/ntechnologies whereby one can 3D print parts, which has the potential to significantly/nreduce waste, reconfigure the supply chain, and generally disrupt the whole manufacturing industry. Selective laser sintering/melting (SLS/SLM) is one type of AM technology with the distinct advantage of being able to 3D print metals and rapidly produce net shape parts with complicated geometries. In SLS/SLM parts are built up layer-by-layer out of powder particles, which are selectively sintered/melted via a laser. However, in order to produce defect-free parts of sufficient strength, the process parameters (laser power, scan speed, layer thickness, powder size, etc.) must be carefully optimized. Obviously, these process parameters will vary depending on material, part geometry, and desired final part characteristics. Running experiments to optimize these parameters is costly, energy intensive, and extremely material specific. Thus a computational model of this process would be highly valuable./nIn this work a three dimensional, reduced order, coupled discrete element - finite difference model is presented for simulating the deposition and subsequent laser heating of a layer of powder particles sitting on top of a substrate. Validation is provided and parameter studies are conducted showing the ability of this model to help determine appropriate process parameters and an optimal powder size distribution for a given material. Next, thermal stresses upon cooling are calculated using the finite difference method. Different case studies are performed and general trends can be seen. This work concludes by discussing future extensions of this model and the need for a multi-scale approach to achieve comprehensive part-level models of the SLS/SLM process.

Advisor: Zohdi, Tarek I.
Racialization in the Context of the Urban: Asian American Students & the Asian-Black Binary

Asian American students attend increasingly diverse schools, yet scholarship on their experiences typically considers them in isolation, leading to a group-level emphasis rather than a focus on the relational processes that give ‘Asian’ meaning as a social and educational construction and social location. Building on theories of racialization, I study an urban context where multi-group ethnic and racial relations are negotiated. My dissertation examines how Asian American and Black students, as well as staff, engaged in discourses and practices that reproduced patterns of inequality among groups of students of color in a high-poverty school that was 99% non-White, but where Asian Americans comprised almost half the student body. This research clarifies how positive but conditional notions of Asian-ness were created through and against negative ideas of Blackness, in particular. Staff generally contrasted engaged Asian American students with oppositional Black youth, despite the diversity of students’ aspirations and performance. While some contested these constructions, many students acted in ways that reinforced them. These biased perceptions ultimately led to greater support for Asians American students, who expressed a stronger sense of belonging to and ownership of the school than non- Asians. My work examines formal and informal stratification among racial minority youth and elucidates the ideologies and mechanisms that normalized it. Despite their academic heterogeneity, urban Asian American students were privileged through a re-inscription of the model minority myth that imputes a cultural basis for Asian American educational success, while Black students were interpreted through negative stereotypes and expectations. This dissertation highlights the costs of Asian American students’ privilege in this context and draws attention to the continued marginalization of racial minority students. It argues that the model minority trope and the trope of the oppositional and deficient Black subject were bound together in the schooling of Asian American and Black students. It reveals the power of the myth to shape how all students are positioned in a racial hierarchy, thus giving insight into racialization itself.

Advisor: Perlstein, Daniel
Clarity, Communication, and Understandability: Theorizing Language in al-Bāqillānī’s I‘jāz al-Qurʾān and Uṣūl al-Fiqh Texts

Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403 AH/1013 CE) is known as a preeminent theorist of both the Ashʿarī school of Islamic theology and the Mālikī school of law, and his writings span a wide range of disciplines. This dissertation brings together his thought in two apparently disparate discourses, uṣūl al-fiqh (jurisprudence) and iʿjāz al-Qurʾān (inimitability of the Qurʾān), to highlight how these discourses are actually in dialogue with each other. It explores the centrality of al-Bāqillānī’s theory of language in his thought and devotes particular attention to his understanding of the role of figurative language./nIn his jurisprudential work al-Taqrīb wa-l-irshād fī uṣūl al-fiqh (Proximation and Guidance on the Roots of Law), al-Bāqillānī redefines keywords in Islamic discourse in ways that support his vision of Qurʾānic and human language use. He emphasizes the argument that all language, even figurative language, is systematically understandable according to rules, thereby establishing a consistent basis for legal and theological interpretation./nAl-Bāqillānī’s text on the literary inimitability of the Qurʾān provides another, consistent aspect of his theory of language. His Kitāb Iʿjāz al-Qurʾān (Book of the Inimitability of the Qurʾān) sheds light on al-Bāqillānī’s theory of the relationship between aesthetics and meaning. He distinguishes between rhetorical features that are deeply connected with expressing ideas, which contribute to the Qurʾān’s rhetorical inimitability, and ornamental figures, which do not./nIn both texts, al-Bāqillānī explains the meanings of contested terms (including muḥkam, mutashābih, and bayān) in consistent ways that support his own arguments. The understandability and clarity of utterances, and particularly the Qurʾān, emerge as a central concern of al-Bāqillānī’s thought. He establishes the expressive clarity of the Qurʾān as both a sign of its inimitability and a verification of its understandability, thereby setting the practice of exegesis on a stable theoretical footing. In this way, al-Bāqillānī proposes a resolution to the tension between views of the Qurʾān as rhetorical miracle and the Qurʾān as a reliably interpretable basis for Islamic doctrine and law.

Advisor: Larkin, Margaret
Stability of Reinforced Concrete Wall Boundaries

Structural (shear) walls are used worldwide to resist gravity and earthquake loads. In many countries, structural walls commonly are constructed with a rectangular cross section, or a cross section made up of interconnected rectangles, without an enlarged boundary element. In some countries, design practice has resulted in walls that are more slender than those used in the past. For example, in Chile and elsewhere it is not unusual to find rectangular wall edges having thickness of 6 to 8 in. (150 to 200 mm), resulting in floor-to-floor slenderness ratios reaching hu⁄b= 16 or greater. Such walls can be susceptible to overall wall buckling in which a portion of the wall buckles out of the plane. The main objective of this research is to develop a methodology for evaluation of the onset of lateral instability in reinforced concrete slender walls. First, a simplified buckling mechanics solution for prismatic columns under inelastic tension/compression cycles is presented and later evaluated using the results of column tests. Later, three numerical models for buckling in columns are evaluated: nonlinear beam-column elements with fibers, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional nonlinear finite element models. Wall boundaries have strain gradient along the wall length, which would tend to brace the edge of the wall with the result that the simplified mechanics solution may give an over-conservative estimation of the onset of buckling. The theory may also be conservative for walls where the axial force in the boundary elements is not constant along the unsupported height, as may occur where moment gradients occur. To study these effects, analytical models of columns and walls are implemented. A simple approach is proposed to reduce the over conservatism of the simplified mechanics in cases where strain gradients cannot be neglected. Later, two-dimensional nonlinear finite element models are used to analytically reproduce the experimental response of wall tests. These models are used to estimate strain profiles for evaluation of the onset of lateral buckling in slender boundaries. Strain profiles are also estimated from a plastic hinge model. Finally, three damaged buildings in Chile are analyzed using linear models for the buildings and nonlinear models for isolated walls. Both buildings had some buckled walls after the 2010 Maule earthquake. Based on these studies, it is concluded that buckling in Chilean buildings most likely was a secondary failure that occurred after initial crushing of the wall boundaries.

Advisor: Moehle, Jack P
Food Security and the Inclusion of Family Planning within Social Safety Net Programs: A Present Value Costing Analysis in Two Landlocked Countries

This dissertation examines the effects of food insecurity which undermine both the health and the social and economic development potential of those affected by it. The majority of both the chronically undernourished and those who face acute food security crises, often on a recurring and increasingly predictable basis, are children. The intergenerational transmission of poverty and disadvantage mediated by food insecurity and malnutrition is substantial./nCash transfer programs for the poor have expanded rapidly in the past decade and have become a powerful political tool to combat food insecurity. This project examines nascent safety net programs in two food insecure, landlocked countries with medium and high levels of population growth: Tajikistan and Niger. While not an obvious pairing, these countries furnish illustrative examples of food security challenges in Asia and Africa. Their growth rates encompass a range which may trigger policy attention in the presence of chronic food insecurity./nThe project estimates the cumulative present discount value of public budgetary commitments to cash transfers under medium and low population growth trajectories within each country. It calculates the cost savings in each country associated with slower growth over 25 and 40 year periods. It then estimates the family planning program commodity investments required to reduce fertility to a level consistent with the low growth trajectory. A comprehensive literature review of family planning program efficacy and effect sizes informs these estimates./nThe work demonstrates that the cost savings to national safety net programs associated with slower population growth could cover a substantial portion of contraceptive commodity needs in each country. In some scenarios, safety net program savings exceed forecast contraceptive costs. Surplus savings could be reinvested in the safety net programs to increase benefit levels, to expand coverage, or both. Illustrative expansion levels on both margins are discussed, along with discount rate sensitivity and other methodological assumptions. Finally, implied differences in dependency ratios and the size of each national labor force associated with divergent fertility trajectories are examined. Implications for domestic tax revenue streams are discussed./nThere is great potential for national safety nets and comprehensive family planning programs to benefit from shared management, staffing, infrastructure, and data collection resources, thereby driving down costs that each might incur on its own. At this time of heightened international donor interest in both cash transfers and food security, the substantial complementary contributions of voluntary family planning programs should not be overlooked.

Advisor: Lee, Ronald D
An Arranged Marriage: Special and General Educators’ Preliminary Openness to Co-teaching

Co-teaching relationships between special and general educators are built on a shared vision and mutual respect. Often, it is difficult to establish these relationships due to differences in training and teaching philosophies. This study measured special and general educators’ openness to co-teaching and surveyed their instructional preferences and willingness to share responsibility for teaching a heterogeneous group of students. It honed in on the personal commitment required to build teaching partnerships across special education and general education. The purpose of this study was two-fold: (a) to develop of a new measure of teachers’ openness to co-teaching, and (b) to understand special and general educators’ attitudes about and preferences in connection to co-teaching that might affect the formation of a co-teaching relationship. Results demonstrate that teachers were positive about collaboration and co-teaching, but there were differences in openness based on teacher type (special or general educators) and experience co-teaching. In addition, special educators were much more likely than general educators to have any experience co-teaching. Half of general educators had never co-taught, while only 16% of special educators had never co-taught. There were also differences between special and general educators in their ideas about which teacher would be responsible for instructional tasks. Although all teachers reported that they wanted to collaborate, general educators were likely to prefer taking the lead on all instructional tasks except modifying the curriculum to reach struggling learners. Special educators preferred equal responsibility on all tasks except modifying the curriculum; they wanted the lead on that task to a greater extent than general educators, but all teachers reported that special educators should take the lead when modifying curriculum. Findings from this study have implications for teacher training and school districts who want to implement co-teaching. The measure could be used to screen teachers for openness to co-teaching before attempting to establish these relationships and pinpoint areas for additional professional development.

Advisor: Murata, Aki
Courey, Susan J
Synthetic and Mechanistic Studies of Transition Metal-Mediated Carbon-Nitrogen Bond Forming Reactions

The following dissertation discusses reactions for the formation of carbon-nitrogen bonds mediated by organotransition metal reagents and catalysts. Chapter 1 presents a synthetic method for the formal hydroamination of unactivated alkenes to form anti-Markovnikov primary and secondary amine products. This transformation is accomplished through the hydrozirconation and subsequent amination of alkenes. The method is then applied to the reaction of complex molecules to emphasize the functional group tolerance of these reactions./nChapter 2 of this thesis comprises the synthesis and evaluation of a series of rhodium-phosphine hydroamination catalysts. These complexes are evaluated in a series of catalytic intramolecular Markovnikov hydroamination reactions. The mechanism of hydroamination catalyzed by the rhodium(I) complexes in this study was examined computationally, and the turnover-limiting step was elucidated. The difference in reactivity of electron-rich and electron-poor catalysts was compared to the computational results of a computational ligand screen, and it was found that the computational analysis of reaction intermediates overestimated the reactivity of electron-poor catalysts. The analysis of the catalysts in this study was expanded to include the binding preference of each ligand, compared to the unsubstituted ligand, which corrects for the disparity between observed reactivity and the calculated overall reaction barrier for electron-poor ligands. The ligand-binding preferences for new ligand structures were calculated, and it was found that ligands that were predicted to bind strongly to rhodium had improved reactivity in catalytic reactions./nChapter 3 discusses the mechanistic study of the palladium-catalyzed aminocarbonylation of aryl halides with ammonia and CO to form primary benzamides. Conditions for reactions of aryl bromides, chlorides, and iodides are described, and the mechanism of reactions of aryl bromides was studied. The kinetic order in the concentration of aryl bromide was found to be first order, and the order in the pressure of CO was found to be inverse first order. These studies were complemented by DFT calculations on the mechanism of oxidative addition of aryl bromides. The products of oxidative addition, aroyl bromide palladium intermediates, were reacted with ammonia in the presence of additives to gain insight into the mechanism of release of product. The overall dependence on the rate of the catalytic reaction was found to be insensitive to excess ammonia, indicating that the overall turnover-limiting step of the reaction is during the oxidative addition step.

Advisor: Hartwig, John F