Honors Projects

Showing 581 - 590 of 662 Items

The role of behavioral diversity in determining the extent to which central pattern generators are modulated

Date: 2020-01-01

Creator: Jacob Salman Kazmi

Access: Open access

Neuromodulation may be a substrate for the evolution of behavioral diversity. The extent to which a central pattern generator is modulated could serve as a mechanism that enables variability in motor output dependent on an organism’s need for behavioral flexibility. The pyloric circuit, a central pattern generator in the crustacean stomatogastric nervous system (STNS), stimulates contractions of foregut muscles in digestion. Since neuromodulation enables variation in the movements of pyloric muscles, more diverse feeding patterns should be correlated with a higher degree of STNS neuromodulation. Previous data have shown that Cancer borealis, an opportunistic feeder, is sensitive to a wider array of neuromodulators than Pugettia producta, a specialist feeder. The observed difference in modulatory capacity may be coincidental since these species are separated by phylogeny. We predict that the difference in modulatory capacity is a product of a differential need for variety in foregut muscle movements. This study examined two members of the same superfamily as P. producta, the opportunistically feeding snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) and portly spider crab (Libinia emarginata). Using extracellular recording methods, the responses of isolated STNS preparations to various neuromodulators were measured. Initial qualitative results indicate that the STNS of C. opilio is sensitive to all of these neuromodulators. Additionally, previous data on the neuromodulatory capacity of L. emarginata was supported through similar electrophysiological analysis of the isolated STNS. As a first step in determining the mechanism of differential sensitivity between species, tissue-specific transcriptomes were generated and mined for neuromodulators.


Miniature of Metabolic inhibitors reshape <i>Helicobacter pylori</i> glycosylation
Metabolic inhibitors reshape Helicobacter pylori glycosylation
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      Date: 2020-01-01

      Creator: Owen Templeton Tuck

      Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



        Hermeneutic Encounters: Hans-Georg Gadamer in North America, 1968-1986

        Date: 2020-01-01

        Creator: Ian Ward

        Access: Open access

        Hans-Georg Gadamer’s myriad contributions to the continental philosophical tradition have been well documented, but his influence on North American intellectual life has gone largely gone unrecognized. This paper attempts to fill that gap, using primary and secondary source material to document Gadamer’s scholarly activities in the United States and Canada between 1968 and 1986. The paper also evaluates Gadamer’s influence using detailed accounts of “hermeneutic encounters” that occurred between Gadamer and four notable North American philosophers: Richard Palmer, Paul de Man, Charles Taylor, and Richard Rorty. Through these accounts, this paper argues that Gadamer made lasting contributions to ongoing debates in the humanities about the nature of literary interpretation, the social sciences, and analytic philosophy. Finally, the paper explores the philosophical and historiological possibilities that Gadamer’s hermeneutics opens up for intellectual history more broadly, especially in the field of reception history. Building on Gadamer’s own hermeneutics and Hans-Robert Jauss’s reception aesthetics, it develops the concept of the “encounter” as the starting point of a more hermeneutically-sensitive approach to intellectual history.


        Living Upstream: Kennebec River Influence on Nutrient Regimes and Phytoplankton Communities in Harpswell Sound

        Date: 2020-01-01

        Creator: Siena Brook Ballance

        Access: Open access

        Phytoplankton underpin marine trophic systems and biogeochemical cycles. Estuarine and coastal phytoplankton account for 40-50% of global ocean primary productivity and carbon flux making it critical to identify sources of variability. This project focuses on the Kennebec River and Harpswell Sound, a downstream, but hydrologically connected coastal estuary, as a case study of temperate river influence on estuarine nutrient regimes and phytoplankton communities. Phytoplankton pigments and nutrients were analyzed from water samples collected monthly at 8 main-stem rivers stations (2011-2013) and weekly in Harpswell Sound (2008-2017) during ice-free months. Spatial bedrock and land use impacts on river nutrients were investigated at sub-watershed scales using GIS. Spatial analysis reveals a 10-fold increase in measured phytoplankton biomass across the Kennebec River’s saltwater boundary, which demonstrates ocean-driven phytoplankton variability in the lower river. The biomass pattern is accompanied by a transition in phytoplankton community structure with respect to which groups co-occur (diatoms, chlorophytes, and cryptophytes) and which are unique (dinoflagellates in Harpswell). Upstream, the timing of each community depends on land-use proximity and seasonal discharge. In Harpswell Sound, the nutrient regime and phytoplankton community structure vary systematically: first diatoms strip silicate, then dinoflagellates utilize nitrate, followed by chlorophytes and cryptophytes that utilize available phosphate. These findings reveal, for the first time, patterns in phytoplankton communities and nutrient dynamics across the fresh to salt water interface. Ultimately the Kennebec River phytoplankton communities and nutrient regimes are distinct, and the river is only a source of silicate to Harpswell Sound.


        Miniature of Ideal Point Models with Social Interactions Applied to Spheres of Legislation
        Ideal Point Models with Social Interactions Applied to Spheres of Legislation
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            Date: 2020-01-01

            Creator: Luca Ostertag-Hill

            Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



              The Colombo-Venezuelan Border Through the Lens of the Colombian Press

              Date: 2020-01-01

              Creator: Diego Rafael Grossmann

              Access: Open access

              The Colombo-Venezuelan Border Through the Lens of the Colombian Press examines the dominant Colombian press coverage of crises of sovereignty at the Colombo-Venezuelan border, Venezuelan migration, and the February 2019 attempt to introduce humanitarian aid into Venezuela, as seen in El Espectador and El Tiempo’s coverage from the period of August 2018-November 2019. Through theories of nations and power, this thesis reveals the divergent editorial lines and dominant narratives within each newspaper’s construction of the relation between the Colombian and Venezuelan nations, states, and their people. The study details how both newspapers construct different “truths” through divergent constructions of similar events in a manner coherent with the ideological affinities and conceptions of Colombian national identity held by their respective audiences and editorial leadership, constrained further by economic factors. The thesis is split into three main chapters. Chapter 1 addresses the construction of Colombian nationhood rooted in militarism and the presentation of the Colombian state as a protector in El Tiempo’s coverage concerning binational tensions at the border. Chapter 2 traces the coverage regarding Venezuelan migration to Colombia within El Espectador, detailing the conception of national identity rooted in liberal-democratic values that the newspaper constructs and appeals to. Chapter 3 considers both newspaper’s coverage of the attempt to introduce humanitarian aid into Venezuela in 2019. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the discursive actor––and construction––of Venezuela permits the “imagining” of the Colombian nation, a project framed through a discussion of the Colombian conflict and official commitments to multiculturalism by the Colombian state.


              Miniature of Daily, seasonal, and yearly timescales of seawater carbonate chemistry variability in Harpswell Sound and the Gulf of Maine
              Daily, seasonal, and yearly timescales of seawater carbonate chemistry variability in Harpswell Sound and the Gulf of Maine
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                  Date: 2021-01-01

                  Creator: Eugen Florin Cotei

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                    Miniature of Metabolic glycan inhibitors interfere with glycoprotein biosynthesis in the human pathogen <i>Ralstonia pickettii</i>
                    Metabolic glycan inhibitors interfere with glycoprotein biosynthesis in the human pathogen Ralstonia pickettii
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                        Date: 2021-01-01

                        Creator: Melissa G. Demczak

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                          Miniature of Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Probe Compounds at Predicting Anionic Pharmaceutical Sorption to Soils
                          Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Probe Compounds at Predicting Anionic Pharmaceutical Sorption to Soils
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                              Date: 2021-01-01

                              Creator: Ben Cook

                              Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



                                Miniature of Albert Camus: An Ethical Politics in the Absurd World
                                Albert Camus: An Ethical Politics in the Absurd World
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                                    Date: 2015-05-01

                                    Creator: Stephanie Lane

                                    Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community