cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.25549/krieger-c64-6412
title: Alphacast Foundry, Inc. at lunchtime, Los Angeles, 2005

description: Alphacast Foundry, Inc. at lunchtime, Los Angeles, 2005. 826 South Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles.
DOI: 10.25549/krieger-c64-8223
title: Around USC as a bureaucracy; Martin Krieger's desk at home, 2004

description: Around USC as a bureaucracy; Martin Krieger's desk at home, 2004
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-633117
title: Seismic velocity contrast across the San Jacinto fault, california, from travel time measurements of ambient noise correlations

description: We analyze 2 years of continuous ambient noise data recorded at 24 broadband stations around the San Jacinto Fault Zone (SJFZ), California. Using similar techniques as Roux et al. (2005), we obtain noise-based cross-correlations in the frequency range 0.1-1.3 Hz in +/-50 seconds time windows across &gt;200 station pairs with distances ranging from 2 to 130 km. To study the effect of seasonally varying noise sources on the resulting cross-correlations, we stack 3-months of data from winter and summer periods separately. The following two main arrivals are resolved independent of the season: (1) a Rayleigh wave travelling at ~3.2 km/s and (2) an arrival around t=0 likely resulting from teleseismic P-phase with near-vertical incidence. In addition, two phases travelling roughly at 6 km/s and 12 km/s appear during winter which are also attributed to teleseismic P-phases with high apparent velocities. Amplitudes in winter are stronger than in summer, reflecting the seasonally dependent energy content of noise in the microseisms frequency band. An approximate 3-6% velocity contrast across the SJFZ can be resolved from our analysis.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-634860
title: Social capital: a lever for school change and student growth

description: American high schools teach students basic academic skills in an effort to produce employable, civic-minded, globally contributing adults.  However, formal classroom instruction in and of itself does not always provide these same high school graduates with the practical experience and job-related knowledge required to gain a competitive employment advantage over students in other industrialized countries (Prestowitz, 2006). ❧ Entering the employment market is more complex today than in previous decades.  Markets are continuously shifting, new knowledge alters employment standards and the lack of jobs in various sectors makes the journey into global employment a high-risk endeavor.  Seemingly, for American high school graduates, jobs and a quality life enabled by gainful employment are even more elusive because so little high school focus is given to the relationship between skill development, information access, and the world of work.  Instead, emphasis is placed on high school graduation requirements which often lack specific focus on career-based training.  This is problematic because high school graduates make critical decisions about future career choices based on limited information which is easily accessible (Gasper & Omvig, 1976). ❧ A possible solution is to have high school students develop relationships with persons whom Stanton-Salazar (1997) refers to as institutional agents.  Through these connections, students have access to educational resources and exposure to a myriad of career-path choices.  As of now, the American high school system continues to produce graduates inadequately prepared to participate in a global economy.  Therefore, access to employment information through social networks becomes crucial (Stanton-Salazar, 1997). In order to provide American high school graduates with a competitive advantage in the global economy, educational systems need to take immediate action to develop and integrate social capital in the high schools.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-640834
title: Fidelity: A quantum information-theoretic approach to problems in condensed matter physics and quantum chaos

description: In this dissertation, we address several problems in condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics, and quantum chaos from the perspective of the quantum information-theoretic notion of state distinguishability, as measured though evaluation of the appropriate fidelity measure. ❧ We find that the fidelity susceptibility, a measure for the response of the fidelity to infinitesimal changes of the Hamiltonian parameters, serves as a useful tool for studying the effects of disorder on quantum phase transitions. We study in detail the phase diagram of the well-known one-dimensional random quantum XY chain. Through an analysis of the fidelity susceptibility’s finite-size scaling and statistics for this model, we find that the fidelity approach reflects large variation between average and typical behavior, may detect the presence of Griffiths phases, and indicates the modifications to the phase diagram due to disorder. ❧ For this same model, though without disorder, we evaluate the dynamics following a sudden Hamiltonian quench using the Loschmidt echo, a form of the fidelity that compares the initial state with the time-evolved state. Through a central limit theorem-type argument we find that the long-time statistics of the Loschmidt echo takes one of two universal forms, even at finite temperature, depending on the system’s proximity to the quantum critical lines. ❧ Finally, for a canonical model exhibiting quantum chaos, the hydrogen atom in a uniform external magnetic field, we evaluate the operator fidelity susceptibility (OFS) between unitary operators generating the dynamics. We find that the part of the OFS which corresponds to the variation of the Hamiltonian eigenvectors serves to indicate the transition from the regular perturbative and n-mixing regimes to the quantum chaotic regime.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-666129
title: An internship journey through entral Juvenile Hall, Los Angeles, California: a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project exploring the efficacy and transformational possibilities of the Liberatory Arts in a Restorative Justice Context

description: The rate of incarceration in the United States has skyrocketed since the 1980s. Numerous economic and social causes lead to the criminalization of youth. What changes in the direction of juvenile justice are needed to protect the lives and dreams of young people caught in “the system”? Since the 1970s, the restorative justice approach has been gaining approval and may signal the change of direction needed. ❧ The Central Juvenile Hall internship was a participatory action research (PAR) project to explore the efficacy and transformational possibilities of the liberatory arts in a restorative justice context. PAR is predicated on the ethical rights of a people to shape and direct their own inquiries and the goal of transformation as opposed to academic reporting. PAR involves an ongoing cycle of action and learning from action. ❧ The first semester of the internship (Fall 2010) was a period of getting to know the facility and the collaborative team. The second semester (Spring 2011) involved the implementation of a collaborative work plan entitled “WHAT?”— “Word, Healing, Art and Transformation.” This plan was piloted in Unit W, the lockdown unit, of Central Juvenile Hall from February to April, 2011. There were many issues of communication, attendance and protocol that led to the complete revision of the plan. ❧ Nevertheless, the liberatory arts did help to bring an atmosphere of openness and encouraged the sharing of stories in Unit W. This internship journey led to the submission and approval of a proposal to pilot a new class as part of an ongoing PAR effort at Central Juvenile Hall.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-668898
title: Evaluating mobile phones as opportunistic on-body sensors

description: Mobile phones are an inexpensive sensing solution that can provide insight into the personal environment of the person using the device. However, the challenge for developers is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the sensing capabilities of mobile phones when exploiting them for novel applications. For mobile phones to be useful as opportunistic on-body mobile sensors, they must be able to operate with minimal interaction from the user, operate independently of their position with respect to the body of the user, and conserve the resources of the device. ❧ This thesis discusses these issues and presents three sets of experiments that test sample applications using different sensor types to solve the specific mobile sensing problems of movement tracking and friend proximity discovery.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-674004
title: An experimental and modeling study of NOₓ and soot emissions from biodiesel and its surrogates

description: The use of biodiesel is attracting substantial attention currently as a potential effective and environmentally friendly solution to the world’s dependence on conventional petroleum resources. As with conventional diesel, concerns exist with the use of biodiesel in terms of its emissions, especially NOₓ emissions and particulate matter (PM) due to their potential health effects. Although there is strong incentive for using biodiesel to substitute for petroleum fuels, the NOₓ and soot emissions of those fuels are not yet well characterized and understood. In this study, the NOₓ emissions of a class of model biodiesel fuels, namely fatty acid esters (FAME) were studied systematically in both premixed as well as non-premixed flames. The soot emissions of these model biodiesel fuels were also studied systematically in non-premixed flames. In addition, a diesel surrogate was also studied in order to compare its soot emissions with those of the model biodiesels. ❧ The experiments were conducted in the counter-flow configuration for different fuel/oxidizer ratios (for premixed flames) or fuel/N₂ molar ratios (for non-premixed flames) at atmospheric pressures. The NOₓ measurements were carried out using the quartz microprobe sampling method. The soot volume fractions were determined using the laser extinction method. The experimental data were compared against those obtained in flames of n-alkanes with similar carbon numbers. Additional experiments were carried out, in order to assess the effects of carbon number, type of ester group (methyl or ethyl), and the extent of saturation (presence of double bonds) on the NOₓ emissions and sooting propensity of these model biodiesel fuels. ❧ Recently developed chemical kinetic models were utilized in order to simulate the flames and to investigate the kinetic pathways controlling the formation of key soot precursors, such as C₂H₄, C₂H₂ and C₃H₃, aiming to provide insight into the experimentally observed differences in the sooting propensity among the various fuels. In simulating the NOₓ emissions, a recently developed NOₓ sub-kinetic model was incorporated into the aforementioned fuel combustion mechanisms in order to investigate the relative contributions of the four different reaction pathways to the total NOₓ formation in these flames. Overall, this study constitutes a systematic effort to investigate the fundamental emission characteristics of biofuels, and to provide significant new insight into fatty acid ester combustion leading eventually to the detailed study of real biodiesels.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-135940
title: The importance of changes in relationship between self-destructive individuals and significant others in their lives
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-247805
title: “Fire alarms” revisited: Limitations for effectuating institutional change and the promise of “police patrols”

description: A previous round of police reform efforts held great promise through the possible application legalized accountability to officers and departments for consistent misconduct. Yet a quick look at the news headlines of the past few years would tell anyone that issues of police misconduct are far from resolved. This essay examines the conceptual and practical limitations of that prior reform movement and then looks ahead to possible additional reforms to improve the state and image of policing in America.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-311156
title: The functional gene expression dynamics of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 under various external voltage potentials

description: Demand for clean energy and the deleterious effects of burning fossil fuels have triggered a global exploration of alternative energy technologies. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are types of electrochemical systems that utilize living microorganisms as catalysts to drive oxidation of organic matter, while producing electricity in a non-polluting manner. Although harnessing the metabolisms of microorganisms in MFCs to source cleaner energy is promising, MFCs face several challenges including scaling, economics and of course bottlenecks in bacterial metabolic signaling pathways limiting energy production. The rapid innovation and advancements in genomic sequencing technology within the last century both in academia and in industry has provided an unprecedented opportunity to garner insight into the cellular pathways that control the activity and functions within an organism. This study provides original genomic data from the energy-generating networks in the metal-oxide reducing bacteria, Shewanella oneidensis (MR-1), specifically examining the expression patterns of the c-type cytochrome genes of the mtr pathway, a key metabolic pathway involved with extracellular electron transfer (EET) in MR-1 cells.   Utilizing external voltage to create different environmental conditions, MR-1’s transcription behavior was observed in response to changes in external voltage potential. An up-regulation of the c-type cytochrome genes of the mtr pathway was observed as external voltage potential was increased. Transcriptomic analysis was also used to identify other genes that are highly up regulated in response to increased electrode potentials. These data have implication towards answering fundamental questions about microbial physiology: specifically understanding gene regulation of how bacteria respond to changes in surface potential.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c40-336621
title: Preparing prospective secondary mathematics teacher to be culturally responsive in their teaching

description: As the population of African American and Latino students continues to grow, it is imperative for teacher education to prepare preservice teachers to teach students who are of a different background than themselves. The purpose of this study is to further examine how a teacher education program provides prospective teachers the tools and strategies to be culturally responsive in their teaching. The research questions of this study focused on culturally relevant pedagogy in mathematics; how does teacher education program provide prospective teacher candidates the tool to be culturally responsive in their teaching, how does culturally relevant pedagogy manifest itself into the classroom after a candidate graduate from a credential program, and how does a math teacher model culturally relevant pedagogy in the classroom. Data was collected from thirty-seven secondary math teachers who graduated from Los Angeles Metropolitan University (LAMU) teacher’s program. Eight out of the thirty-seven teachers volunteered to do an interview for this research. Results from this study indicate teachers are culturally responsive in their teaching; however, teachers addressed some of the challenges they have encountered. Teachers who are teaching higher level math, including Algebra 2 and above, are challenged with being more culturally responsive in their teaching than teachers who are teaching lower level mathematics. Recommendations for research and practices are provided.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-624666
title: Dynamic equilibrium model for limit order book and optimal execution problem

description: In this dissertation we study the optimal execution problem on an order driven market under our equilibrium model for the limit order book (LOB). In our model the dynamics of the price of a financial security can be decomposed into two independent elements, the fundamental price and the supply / demand of the market.  The main feature of our model is that the shape of the LOB can be determined endogenously by an expected return function via a competitive equilibrium argument. The resulting equilibrium distribution is random, nonlinear, and time inhomogeneous. Thus the liquidity cost and the price impact of large trades are self-contained in our model, and can be dynamically defined in a natural way. Assuming the zero resilience, we argue that the liquidity cost should be essentially linear with respect to the instantaneous trade size. As a consequence, we show that the optimization problem could be formulated as a special finite-fuel type of singular stochastic control problem. We verify the Dynamic Programming Principle (DPP) in this case, and prove that the value function is a viscosity solution to the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation, which is in the form of a quasi-integro-variational inequality (QIVI) as expected. We then construct the optimal portfolio strategy using the classical solution to the HJB equation, and it turns out to contain both singular and regular continuous parts. We conclude the work and make remarks on some topics for future research at the end.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-627775
title: The Euler number of unit yangent bundles of surfaces

description: In this thesis we investigate the Euler number of bundles over surfaces with fiber the circle S¹. We connect this quantity with the existence problem for sections of the bundle. We then compute the Euler number of the unit tangent bundles of various surfaces and deduct a general formula for orientable surfaces of any genus.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-640714
title: Assessing selected educational outcomes among Filipinos at Rainbow Community College

description: This is a descriptive study using 6 years of secondary data to determine how a cohort of entering Filipino students at Rainbow Community College were performing on selected educational outcomes including Math and English placements (based on COMPASS test scores), remedial, developmental, and college level English and Math course attempts and completions, and finally, degree and certificate outcomes. Scant research exists on Filipino student performance in community colleges, especially since Filipinos are typically aggregated into a larger Asian category. Results found a majority of the cohort placing into at least one remedial or developmental course in English or Math and very few students transferring and completing a Baccalaureate degree. No significant differences were found when comparing English and Math completion rates by gender and no discernable patterns were found regarding English and Math course taking patterns in relation to degree completion. The results indicated that students’ best chance to successfully complete their remedial/developmental coursework is if it is attempted within the first year of enrollment in the college. Some policy implementations are suggested. The small size of the Filipino cohort was one of the major limitations of the study. Future research possibilities are also discussed.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-632939
title: Characterizing the relationship between violence exposure and academic performance

description: The present study attempts to characterize the relationship between exposure to community violence and academic performance during late childhood and adolescence. Using longitudinal data, this study examined the influence of timing and chronicity of violence, in addition to cross-sectional relationships. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder were also evaluated as potential moderators of the relationship between violence exposure and academics. Results indicate that community violence is strongly associated with poorer academic outcomes across late childhood and adolescence with both concurrent and prospective effects. Chronic violence exposure was also associated with poorer academic outcomes. Finally, reexperiencing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder were found to moderate the relationship between violence exposure and academics. Implications of these results for helping violence-exposed youth, particularly within the academic domain, are discussed.
DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-640997
title: Budgeting the shallow slip deficit: implications for geologic slip rate studies

description: Comparison of seismogenic slip from 3 – 6 km depth modeled by the inversion of geodetic data with surface displacements measured by geologists for large (Mw &gt; 7) strike-slip earthquakes indicates that the degree to which surface slip is in deficit to slip at depth is a function of physical characteristics inherent to fault zones.  Specifically, the structural maturity of a fault, as measured by its cumulative displacement, is the primary control on how much total seismogenic slip manifests itself within a narrow zone of surface rupture.  I find that there is a bi-modal distribution of Surface Slip Manifestation (SSM) values, which I define as the proportion of slip at depth that extends to the surface in a narrow-width fault zone, for the six large, strike-slip earthquakes I studied.  Structurally immature faults (&lt; ~40 km of cumulative displacement) produce SSM values that range from 0.4 to 0.6, whereas structurally mature faults (&gt; ~85 km of cumulative displacement) have SSM values from 0.78 to 0.9.  In addition to quantifying the surface slip deficit in relation to the structural maturity of the faults, I also investigate how this deficit changes spatially along individual faults.  I calculate Local SSM (LSSM) values that describe the proportion of slip at depth to surface slip at each surface slip measurement site.  On average, LSSM values calculated from sites located along sections of a fault where the fault trace is continuous and straight are 38% higher than those from sites located along sections where the fault trace is either discontinuous or is multi-stranded.  These results have basic implications for our understanding of fault zone evolution as well as the interpretation of geologic slip rate data.  The clear correlation of relatively low SSM values with structurally immature faults and of high SSM values with structurally mature faults supports the position, at least at the surface, that shear strain localizes to a narrower fault zone and less deformation is distributed away from the fault plane with progressive fault offset.  In terms of geologic slip rates, these results indicate that those determined using narrow-aperture (within a few meters of the main fault trace) piercing point offsets may be severe underestimates of total fault slip rate accounting for only a minimal amount of surface deformation.  This is especially true for structurally complex sections of all faults, and structurally immature faults in general; although some structurally simple parts of young, immature faults do manifest a high proportion of slip at the surface.  Additionally, the near-surface lithologic material appears to be an important control of LSSM, in that offsets measured in areas where a fault ruptures bedrock generally exhibit a greater proportion of slip at depth than do offsets measured in alluvium.  This work argues for scrupulously justifying the locations of slip-rate sites and serves as a quantitative method of doing so for future paleoseismological studies.