Browsing FAS Theses and Dissertations by Issue Date
Now showing items 1-20 of 5848
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The Structure and Dynamics of Tropical Forests In Relation to Climate Variability
(2011-08-22)Although trends and changes in environmental forcing over tropical regions have been recognized, the question remains: how do tropical forests respond to current and future global climate change? Results from long-term ... -
Unconditional Relationships within Zero Knowledge
(2011-09-09)Zero-knowledge protocols enable one party, called a prover, to "convince" another party, called a verifier, the validity of a mathematical statement such that the verifier "learns nothing" other than the fact that the ... -
Optogenetics and Computer Vision for C. elegans Neuroscience and Other Biophysical Applications
(2012-07-19)This work presents optogenetics and real-time computer vision techniques to non-invasively manipulate and monitor neural activity with high spatiotemporal resolution in awake behaving Caenorhabditis elegans. These methods ... -
The Good, the Bad and the Cunning: How Networks Make or Break Cooperation
(2012-07-19)Groups often find themselves in a position to self-govern: sometimes a formal governing apparatus is weak or nonexistent; sometimes the legal system is underdeveloped, heavily back-logged or inapplicable; and sometimes ... -
Development and Field-Deployment of an Absorption Spectrometer to Measure Atmospheric HONO and NO2
(2012-07-20)Field observations show daytime HONO levels in urban, rural and remote environments are greater than those expected at photostationary state, that is, balance between production by \(NO+OH\) reaction and loss by UV-photolysis ... -
Photonic Crystal Nanobeam Cavities for Biomedical Sensing
(2012-07-20)Manipulation of light at the nanoscale has the promise to enable numerous technological advances in biomedical sensing, optical communications, nano-mechanics and quantum optics. As photons have vanishingly small interaction ... -
Metal-Ligand Multiple Bonds in High-Spin Complexes
(2012-07-23)The chemistry of late first row transition metals supported by dipyrromethane and dipyrromethene ligands bearing sterically bulky substituents was explored. Transition metal complexes (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn) of the dipyrromethane ... -
Dark and Light: Unifying the Origins of Dark and Visible Matter
(2012-07-23)The Standard Model of particle physics can account for neither the dark matter dominating the universe's matter density, nor the baryon asymmetry that leads to the visible matter density. This dissertation explores models ... -
Mastering Emotions: The Emotional Politics of Slavery
(2012-07-23)Mastering Emotions: The Emotional Politics of Slavery explores how the emotions and affective norms of the Antebellum South were conditioned upon and constructed through the institution of slavery. Though slavery is a ... -
Essays in Social Economics
(2012-07-23)This dissertation consists of three essays using economic methods to understand social policy issues. The first chapter uses a regression discontinuity framework to understand how teen birth rates respond to the first college ... -
Fantasies of Reason: Science, Superstition, and the Supernatural in Iran
(2012-07-23)This dissertation examines uncertainties about the supernatural among members of the urban middle class in Tehran, Iran. In particular, I attend to the ways in which the category of the supernatural (mavara) has become, ... -
In Pursuit of New Worlds: Searches for and Studies of Transiting Exoplanets from Three Space-Based Observatories
(2012-07-23)This thesis presents studies of transiting exoplanets using observations gathered in large part from space, with the NASA EPOXI Mission, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Kepler Mission. The first part of this thesis ... -
Income Risk and Aggregate Demand over the Business Cycle
(2012-07-23)This dissertation consists of three essays on income risk and aggregate demand over the business cycle, each addressing an aspect of the Great Recession. The first chapter reframes the standard liquidity trap model to ... -
Global Positioning: Houqua and His China Trade Partners in the Nineteenth Century
(2012-07-23)This study unearths the lost world of early-nineteenth-century Canton. Known today as Guangzhou, this Chinese city witnessed the economic dynamism of global commerce until the demise of the Canton System in 1842. Records ... -
Essays on Labor Markets in Developing Countries
(2012-07-23)This dissertation consists of three empirical essays on distortions in labor market outcomes in developing countries. Chapter 1 tests for downward nominal wage rigidity in markets for casual daily agricultural labor. It ... -
Online Institutions, Markets, and Democracy
(2012-07-23)In this dissertation, I explore the implications of the advances in information and communication technology on democracy. In particular, I examine the roles of online institutions—search engines, news aggregators, and ... -
Interpreting Assessments of Student Learning in the Introductory Physics Classroom and Laboratory
(2012-07-23)Assessment is the primary means of feedback between students and instructors. However, to effectively use assessment, the ability to interpret collected information is essential. We present insights into three unique, ... -
Fervent Faith. Devotion, Aesthetics, and Society in the Cult of Our Lady of Remedios (Mexico, 1520-1811)
(2012-07-23)This study examines the cult of Our Lady of Remedios from an art-historical perspective. Choosing this specific cult statue as a case study is not arbitrary: Remedios is among the oldest Marian images in the New World and ... -
The Role of Microglia in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Analysis of MicroRNAs
(2012-07-24)Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive adult onset neurodegenerative disease characterized by selective death of the upper and lower motor neurons of the brain and spinal cord. Neuromuscular synapses are ... -
Chemical Vapor Deposition of Thin Film Materials for Copper Interconnects in Microelectronics
(2012-07-24)The packing density of microelectronic devices has increased exponentially over the past four decades. Continuous enhancements in device performance and functionality have been achieved by the introduction of new materials ...