VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Synthesis of norbornyl benzocyclobutene ladder polymers and the transport of gases therein

Industrial chemical separations account for 15% of the world's energy consumption, and therefore developing energy-efficient separation technologies represents a critical need for sustainability. Compared to traditional energy-intense separation processes such as chemisorption and distillation, membrane separations can save up to ten times more energy. However, the persisting challenge to develop membranes with both high permeability and selectivity has hampered widespread industrial adoption of membrane separations. Polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIM) have recently emerged as promising next-generation membrane materials for gas separation due to their abundant and tunable microporosity. However, PIMs have limited structural diversity and often exhibit very high permeability but only moderate selectivity, hindering their tuning of properties and applications for gas separations. In this thesis, the catalytic arene-norbornene annulation (CANAL) was developed to synthesize rigid microporous ladder-shaped polymers with norbornyl benzocyclobutene backbones in high molecular weights. The versatile and efficient CANAL reaction enabled the synthesis of a myriad of CANAL polymers with diverse functionalities and backbone conformations. Robust freestanding films can be formed by solvent casting of these polymers. By systematically varying chemical structures of these polymers, we have been able to tune the gas transport properties in their films and develop understanding on the structure-transport property relationships for these microporous polymers. The gas permeability can be enhanced without compromising their selectivity by varying the substituents on the polymers. The selectivity can be significantly improved by introducing 3-D twists along the polymer ladder backbones through the incorporation of five-membered rings. The resulting polymers exhibit an unprecedented combination of high selectivity and permeability. Detailed studies of their transport mechanisms revealed that the remarkable performance is a result of the highly selective diffusion barriers in the polymers films, while maintaining high permeability through micropores

Keywords: Chemistry.
Advisor: Xia Yan
Frank C. W. 
Waymouth Robert M.
Synthetic glycopolypeptides to study human health

The field of glycobiology defies the central dogma. Unlike many other post-translational modifications, glycosylation of proteins and the structures of glycan trees are not genetically templated. Consequently, many of the traditional biochemical approaches to studying structure and function are not amenable to studying the structure and function of glycans. Thus, glycobiologists have developed and employed a host of tools to study and manipulate the structure and function of glycans. Chemical biologists have been key to this endeavor, providing numerous metabolic, enzymatic, genetic, and synthetic tools specifically suited to this purpose. Herein, we first review some of these tools, providing a brief historical overview, as well as some recent additions that of which the new chemical glycobiologist should be aware. Then, we describe the applications of a new generation of synthetic glycopolypeptides towards studying receptor-glycan interactions in immunity and, in some cases, bringing these materials towards the clinic through translational research. We leverage glycans to modulate inflammation, in the context of inducing inflammation for immunoncology therapies or inhibiting inflammation in hyperinflammatory conditions

Keywords: Chemistry.
Advisor: Bertozzi Carolyn R.
Cegelski Lynette
Khosla Chaitan
Takeoff and landing in birds as a source of inspiration for designing aerial robots

Perching can enable small flying robots to extend their battery life and raises opportunities for a diverse set of tasks including exploration, inspection, and collection of samples. However, these robots are currently limited in their reliability and usefulness when interacting with objects in natural environments. On the other hand, birds make interactions in unstructured environments with apparent ease, in particular taking off and landing on a wide range of complex surfaces, including trees. To understand how, we studied takeoffs and landings made by Pacific parrotlets from instrumented perches ranging in diameter and surface texture. Across all perches, these birds employ stereotyped takeoff behaviors that enable them to simultaneously detach their feet while generating the impulse needed to initiate flight. They crouch and then extend their legs to push off, directing peak forces at a consistent angle relative to the perch. Meanwhile, they peel their feet from the surface starting from the rear toes. During landing, the parrotlets exhibit stereotyped leg and wing dynamics regardless of perch diameter and texture, but foot, toe, and claw kinematics become surface-specific upon touchdown. A new grasping model, which integrates our detailed measurements, reveals how birds stabilize their grasp. They combine predictable toe pad friction with probabilistic friction from their claws, which they drag to find surface asperities—dragging further when they can squeeze less. Synthesizing the learnings from the birds, we developed a bird-inspired bipedal robot that can dynamically perch on complex surfaces. Like birds, the robot employs a stereotyped set of behaviors for robustly handling varied surface geometries and textures, such as tree branches. The robot's two legs enable independent passive energy absorption responses to accommodate variable surface geometry. The underactuated grasping mechanism wraps around irregularly shaped objects in less than 20 ms and employs a bird-inspired release technique that can detach from objects consistently. A tendon differential allows the toes to share loads under elastic tension, and the tendon-driven claws scrape over the surface to find viable asperities. Closed-loop balance control increases the range of states, including kinematics, hardware design, and behavior, over which the robot can land, which we term the sufficiency region. This platform can be used not only to study how and why birds take off and land the way they do, but also for biological and environmental studies

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering.
Advisor: Cutkosky Mark R. 
Lentink David
Follmer Sean
Targeting the disialoganglioside GD2 with chimeric antigen receptor T cells for immunotherapy in diffuse midline gliomas and exploration of neuron-opc synaptic connectivity in the context of adaptive myelination

Histone 3 K27M mutated diffuse midline glioma (H3K27M DMG) is a universally fatal pediatric brain tumor. Despite improved understanding of the molecular origins of this disease, translations to improvement in clinical outcomes have yet to materialize. To date, there has been little target exploration for immunotherapy applications in H3K27M DMG. In this thesis, I describe my work that elucidated substantial preclinical efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-bearing T cells targeting the disialoganglioside GD2 as an immunotherapy regimen in patient-derived orthotopic xenograft models of H3K27M DMG. Single-dose systemic administration of GD2-4-1BB-CAR T cells in multiple orthotopic xenograft models of H3K27M DMG achieves potent and lasting antitumor efficacy, including tumor clearance by in vivo bioluminescence imaging and follow-up histology. Treatment-associated toxicity was transient and generally tolerated during the period of peak anti-tumor activity in brainstem orthotopic xenografts. If these results are predictive of human response, GD2-directed CAR T cell therapy in the setting of careful clinical management could have a transformative impact upon H3K27M DMG outcomes. In part two of this thesis, I present data revealing a brain-wide map of afferent neuronal connectivity to oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). Neurons form bona fide synapses with oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs), but the circuit context of these neuron to OPC synapses remains incompletely understood. Using monosynaptically-restricted rabies virus tracing of OPC afferents, I identified extensive afferent synaptic inputs to OPCs residing in secondary motor cortex and underlying corpus callosum of adult mice. These inputs primarily arise from functionally-interconnecting cortical areas and thalamic nuclei, demonstrating that OPCs in motor-associated territories have synaptic access to brain-wide projection networks engaged in planning and execution of motor tasks. This circuit map is a foundational tool for future studies of context-specific neuron-OPC synapse function

Advisor: Monje-Deisseroth Michelle
Mackall Crystal 
Malenka Robert C.
Palmer Theodore W.
Techno-economic analysis of capture of California oilfield CO2 emissions with produced water

Fossil fuels remain the major source of primary energy globally, making emissions reductions from fuel combustion critical on the path to the decarbonization of energy. More than half of California’s oilfields utilize steam flooding or cyclic steaming for enhanced oil recovery, producing significant quantities of brine.
This project explores the techno-economic feasibility of capturing produced CO2 emissions from a California oil production facility in Orcutt Hill, Pacific Coast Energy Company (PCEC), using produced water, given the large available volumes from the site due to high water-oil ratios from oil production. The water capture project is coupled with the injection of resulting carbonated water into oil reservoirs to produce marginal oil recovery benefits. This technology is then compared to the conventional alternative for capture, which utilizes monoethanolamine as solvent in an energy- intensive solvent-regeneration process, with the injection of captured CO2.
Costs for both proposed projects at the PCEC facility are estimated by designing the capture systems using the Aspen Plus commercial process simulator, and estimating project costs using cost factors on equipment cost estimates, given simulated equipment sizes and specifications. Benefits are assumed to be obtained from improved oil recovery by either carbonated water injection or CO2-flooding, as well as existing state and federal tax incentives for emissions mitigation.
The net present value of net benefits for both projects are negative, with that of the MEA capture system estimated at approximately ($14million) or ($23.50/tonCO2 captured) and that of the water capture system estimated at ($40million) or ($48.50/tonCO2 captured). In the former, capital cost estimates greatly influence investment outcomes, while in the latter, water treatment costs are prohibitively high and limit project viability. However, net benefits estimates are sensitive to changes in prevailing market interest rates, and even more so to the proven marginal enhanced oil recovery improvement, among other factors. Results show the MEA project being more viable, although one advantage of the water capture project over the MEA capture project that is difficult to quantify and yet particularly pertinent, is the CO2 leak risk reduction.

Keywords:  Department of Energy Resources Engineering
School of Earth Energy &amp; Environmental Sciences
Energy Resources Engineering
carbon capture
carbonated water injection
LCFS
low carbon fuel standard
oilfield CO2
decarbonization
Thesis
Advisor: Benson Sally
Techno-mediated safety : social atomization and the growth of residential security in recessionary Japan

In contemporary Japan, the once proverbial truth "mizu to anzen ha tada" (water and safety are free) is, more often than not, either heard in the negative, or relegated to a position of skepticism. While lauded internationally as a preeminently "safe society" by OECD and Global Peace Index rankings, the designation no longer accurately reflects the national mood, despite downward crime trends. Instead, pervasive social changes have led to a weakening of traditional forms of safety and with them confidence in the public sector. Consequently, the phrase now suggests a yearning for a long-gone Japan, real or imagined, its utopian vision of free-flowing safety standing in contrast to the contemporary "jidai" (age)— an age where you must protect yourself. This dissertation examines this dynamic of perceived worsening social conditions and the subsequent growth of a technologically mediated form of safety—residential security. Drawn from 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo, Japan, it examines Japan's emergent culture of securitization through the very products now enlisted by families to keep safe. Going beyond securitization as a technological shift, through locks, sensors, intercoms and access control systems, it shows how techno-mediated safety encompasses a changing worldview tied to the reimagination of the Japanese family and community

Keywords: Slater, David H., 1960- degree committee member.
Anthropology.
Advisor: Jain Sarah S. Lochlann
Garcia Angela
Sato Kyoko
Thallo : a domain specific language for non-linear least squares optimization in visual computing

Large-scale non-linear least squares (NLLS) optimization problems lie at the core of many graphics, vision, and imaging applications. The mathematical descriptions of these objective functions are extremely concise, but in order to use them in interactive applications, solvers are often implemented by hand in tedious and error-prone processes (particularly on GPUs). High-level libraries exist but are orders of magnitude slower than specialized optimized implementations. Even competing handwritten implementations can vary in performance by multiple orders of magnitude, depending on the problem. A survey of existing work reveals that the keys for high performance are twofold: exposing the data-parallelism in these problems and a problem-specific schedule that enables efficient usage of the underlying hardware. This thesis argues that cleanly separating the energy formulation and organization of computation from implementation details of NLLS using a domain-specific language (DSL) enables the generation of high performance massively parallel GPU solvers from high-level specifications. Thus I introduce Thallo, a DSL for large-scale non-linear least-squares optimization problems. I observed various code reorganizations performed by implementers of high-performance solvers in the literature and then define a set of basic operations that span these scheduling choices, thereby defining a large scheduling space. Users can either specify code transformations in a scheduling co-language or use an autoscheduler. Thallo takes as input a compact, shader-like representation of an energy function and a (potentially auto-generated) schedule, translating the combination into high-performance GPU solvers. Since Thallo can generate solvers from a large scheduling space, it can handle a large set of large-scale non-linear and non-smooth problems with various degrees of non-locality and compute-to-memory ratios, including diverse applications such as as-rigid-as-possible mesh deformation, bundle adjustment, blendshape fitting, and spatially-varying Poisson deconvolution. By abstracting schedules from the energy formulation and using a domain-specific compiler, we outperform the fastest state-of-the-art comparable high-level systems, the Ceres solver library, by multiple orders of magnitude and even outperform hand-tuned problem-specific GPU implementations

Advisor: Hanrahan P. M. (Patrick Matthew)
Fatahalian Kayvon
James Doug L.
The Abolishment of Life Sentences: Evaluating the Impacts of Capping California Prison Sentences at 15 Years

The United States relies on life sentences and virtual life sentences much more than other countries, and the reliance on these long term and permanent sentences has been increasing despite a general decline in violent crime. In this thesis, I evaluate a hypothetical proposal to cap all prison terms at 15 years in California. I estimate the effects of such a proposal on both crime and costs for the state, and I also offer anecdotal evidence to capture how such a proposal would affect the lives of individuals who are formerly incarcerated. I estimate that the three-year recidivism rate of those who would be released under a 15-year cap would be 26% and that the state would see increased spending via social services and parole costs but increased savings via prison closures. The savings would outweigh the costs, with an estimated net savings of $13-18 billion in total accrued 15 years after the policy is implemented. Finally, I recommend that this policy change would be improved if it was paired with increased spending on rehabilitation and reentry services.

Keywords: criminal justice
life sentence
recidivism
Stanford University Public Policy Department
Thesis
Advisor: Pal Chee Christine
Romano Michael
The Accommodation of Older Adults in Ride-Hailing Technology

Although existing research indicates the potential for ride-hailing apps to address mobility challenges and improve the quality of life for older adults, the proportion of older adults adopting this technology is growing proportionally at a much slower rate. This thesis aims to answer the research question: what design affordances are being made by ride-hailing companies for older adults, and how can the design be improved to better accommodate an aging population? To answer the first part of the research question, I used mixed methods to address four key areas of communication, presentation, implementation, and perception of the technology. First, I conducted a content analysis of the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center and Uber and Lyft blog posts and webpages to understand communication of the product. The key themes identified from the content analysis informed the presentation studies; I conducted a product evaluation of the Uber and Lyft apps and observational study at the San Francisco International Airport, a key area of ride-hailing usage in the United States. Finally, to understand the perception of the app, I conducted a survey that yielded 380+ responses across 45 states, and interviews with 10 older adult participants from suburbs and major cities within Santa Clara and Los Angeles County. This thesis concludes that 1) older adults face a combination of technical and physical usability challenges that result in safety and comfort concerns in using ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft, and 2) there is a significant need for further research into the intersection of digital apps and transportation for older adults. Ultimately, this thesis offers novel data into current older adult interactions with ride-hailing systems, and provides insights and implications for the future of aging and mobility that can be used by designers, researchers, and policymakers.

Keywords: STS
Science Technology and Society
Stanford
Design
Transportation
Aging
Accessibility
Danna Xue
Thesis
Advisor: Kohn Marlo
The Art of Storytelling: Do Differences in Framing Climate Communication Influence Climate Change Mitigation Policy Outcomes?

Robust scientific consensus about anthropogenic climate change suggests that coordinated policy action is needed to prevent severe environmental and economic damage globally in coming decades. However, public perceptions about climate change vary considerably, and policy actions have been mixed. This study examines the extent to which congressional voting records on climate-related issues in the United States may be influenced by differences in public attitudes about how such issues are communicated. Congressional voting record data is analyzed against national survey data consisting of public opinion estimates for a number of different climate- related statements posed to survey participants. Using regression analysis, I compare the coefficients of the different survey statement data (independent variables) to examine their relative effects on congressional voting records (dependent variable). I find that differences in the way climate communication and policy proposals are framed and reflected as public opinion do seem to have significant measurable effects on congressional voting behavior around climate-related issues.

Keywords:  Public Policy Program
Stanford University
Humanities and Sciences
Public Policy Program
climate communication
environmental framing
climate policy
climate psychology
climate change
global warming
Thesis
Advisor: Joe Nation
The Author's Second Coming

By leveraging close readings of several poems from W. B. Yeats—most notably “The Second Coming”—this paper explores both the accord and opposition of authorial notions in Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. Championing the relevance of authorial intent via the framework of Foucault’s notions of discourse, this work applies a historical-bibliographical criticism to the discourse surrounding Yeats and his immediate social environ.

Keywords:  Department of English
W. B. Yeats
The Second Coming
Roland Barthes
Michel Foucault
Aleister Crowley
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
occultism
Thesis
Advisor: Vermeule Blakey
Phillips Patrick
The BPS Spectrum and Metric on the Moduli Space of Seiberg-Witten Theory

We report on an alternative method for determining the BPS spectrum of Seiberg-Witten theory. Seiberg-Witten theory describes the low-energy dynamics of N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with gauge group SU(2) [1-3]. An iterative formula for the metric on its moduli space of vacua can be used in a procedure to calculate its BPS spectrum [4]. Verifying that this procedure leads to the known BPS spectrum of Seiberg-Witten theory will demonstrate a novel way to find BPS spectra. It will also serve as a proof of concept for this iterative formula that has applications to finding an analytic expression for K3 metrics [5].

Keywords:  Department of Physics
BPS spectrum
Seiberg-Witten theory
metric on the moduli space of vacua
Thesis
Advisor: Kachru Shamit
Senatore Leonardo
The Cost-Capitulation Paradox: Compellent Signals, Sequences, and Selection Effects

Why do some militarized threats compel opponent states to change their policy or behavior while others do not? Despite a number of game theoretic models and public opinion survey experiments, few studies evaluate the historical record of compellent signaling. An original data set compiled by analyzing over 124,000 archival documents catalogs every compellent military mobilization and verbal threat by the U.S. President since strategic parity in 1970. The results call into question theories regarding “hand-tying” and “cost-sinking” signals, reputation, and assurances. Moreover, they challenge the conventional “costly” signaling framework. Instead of a simple, positive relationship between a signal’s cost and its coercive utility, the data indicate a different dynamic: at some point, greater cost is associated with a diminished likelihood of capitulation. Case studies of compellence prior to the First Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War suggest that this apparent incongruity may be explained by the sequencing of very costly signals. By the time they are used, compellence might already be likely to fail, and these signals may therefore be employed primarily to serve other objectives, including preparing for war, legitimizing intervention, and conveying a sense of “last resort.” Policymakers should consider that effective compellence is rare and that using costly signals to demonstrate a commitment to the use of force might not make capitulation more likely.

Keywords: Center for International Security and Cooperation
military strategy
compellence
deterrence
threats
President
Schelling
Thesis
Advisor: Sagan Scott D.
Rice Condoleezza