Showing 271 - 280 of 583 Items

Responses of central pattern generators in the American lobster STNS to multiple members of a novel neuropeptide family

Date: 2020-01-01

Creator: Benjamin Harley Wong

Access: Open access

Neuropeptides are important modulators of neural activity, allowing neural networks, such as the central pattern generators (CPGs) that control rhythmic movements, to alter their output and thus generate behavioral flexibility. Isoforms of a neuropeptide family vary in physical structure, allowing potentially distinct functional neuromodulatory effects on CPG systems. While some familial neuropeptide isoforms can differentially affect a system, others in the same family may elicit indistinguishable effects. Here, we examined the effects elicited by members of a novel family of six peptide hormone isoforms (GSEFLamides: I-, M-, AL-, AM-, AV-, and VM-GSEFLamide) on the pyloric filter and gastric mill CPGs in the stomatogastric nervous system (STNS) of the American lobster, Homarus americanus. Recent unpublished work from the Dickinson lab found that five of the six GSEFLamides elicited similar increases in contraction amplitude when perfused through the isolated lobster heart, while one (AVGSEFLamide) had virtually no effect. Using extracellular recordings, we found the pattern of GSEFLamide effects on the STNS gastric mill to be similar to the pattern observed in the lobster cardiac system; the gastric mill circuit was fairly consistently activated by all isoforms except AVGSEFLamide. The intrinsically active pyloric pattern was also significantly enhanced by three out of five peptide isoforms, and nearly significantly enhanced by two more, but was likewise non-responsive to AVGSEFLamide. While the reason AVGSEFLamide had no effect on either pattern is unknown, the similar phenomenon noted in the isolated whole heart potentially indicates that this isoform lacks any function in the lobster.


“Bosques Si, Tala No”: The Uprising of Cherán K’eri

Date: 2020-01-01

Creator: Ray Tarango

Access: Open access

In the spring of 2011, the indigenous community of Cherán K’eri in western Mexico rose up to protect their forests. Organized crime, and its allies, had taken over this town during the previous decade and had logged significant portions of its communal forests in the surrounding hills. This thesis examines the following questions: How do townspeople recall their experience under a narco state? What pushed this indigenous community to organize to protect the forest despite the threat of violence? What was it about this landscape in particular that brought people together? Previous research into this uprising has overlooked the gender dynamics of the community, and has failed to consider the townspeople’s connection to nature. Using interviews gathered over eighteen months in three separate visits, this thesis argues that despite patriarchal expectations that men “protect” the community and its resources it was women who led and organized the uprising. Chapter One analyzes how organized crime took control of the community, suggesting that memories and trauma of the “war on drugs” deeply affected the townspeople. Chapter Two centers on the uprising itself, exploring not only the gendered dynamics of that spring, but connecting the material and affective importance of the forest to the women who led the uprising. This thesis analyzes how organized crime took control of the community and argues that townspeople’s multilayered connection to nature played a central role in the town’s movement.


Miniature of Gateway to the Forest City? Portland, Maine's Bayside Neighborhood, 1866-2014
Gateway to the Forest City? Portland, Maine's Bayside Neighborhood, 1866-2014
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      Date: 2014-05-01

      Creator: Alexander J. Tougas

      Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



        Miniature of Long Day with The Office: An Analysis of College Student Demand for Streaming Video on Netflix
        Long Day with The Office: An Analysis of College Student Demand for Streaming Video on Netflix
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            Date: 2020-01-01

            Creator: Summers Askew

            Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



              Miniature of Characterization of an <i>Arabidopsis thaliana </i>Adhesion Mutant
              Characterization of an Arabidopsis thaliana Adhesion Mutant
              This record is embargoed.
                • Embargo End Date: 2025-05-14

                Date: 2020-01-01

                Creator: Jacob Dexter-Meldrum

                Access: Embargoed



                  Digital Authoritarianism in China and Russia: A Comparative Study

                  Date: 2020-01-01

                  Creator: Laura H.C. Howells

                  Access: Open access

                  Digital authoritarianism is on the rise around the world and threatens the data privacy and rights of both domestic and international Internet users. However, scholarship on digital authoritarianism remains limited in scope and case study selection. This study contributes a new, more comprehensive analytical framework for the study of Internet governance and applies it to the case studies of China and Russia. Special attention is paid to the still understudied Russian Internet governance model. After thorough literature review and novel data collection and analysis, this paper identifies relative centralization of network infrastructure and the extent and pace of change in governance as the most notable differences between the two models. These points of divergence may be explained by two theories; the varieties of authoritarianism hypothesis posits that different political systems face persistent and unique constraints to governance of the digital realm. The development trajectory theory argues that each country’s technological development path foreshadows the systems’ capacity for and extent of governance. This study is among the first to distinguish between Internet governance strategies of authoritarian regimes.


                  Miniature of Being and Salvation: Environmental Implications of Martin Heidegger's Thought
                  Being and Salvation: Environmental Implications of Martin Heidegger's Thought
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                  • Restriction End Date: 2027-06-01

                    Date: 2024-01-01

                    Creator: Eleanor S. Huntington

                    Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



                      Political Polupragmones: Busybody Athenians, Meddlesome Citizenship, and Epistemic Democracy in Classical Athens

                      Date: 2016-01-01

                      Creator: Harry D Rube

                      Access: Open access

                      The figure of the πολυπράγμων, the overactive, over-engaged, or meddlesome democratic citizen, is a literary trope that emerges in Classical Athenian literature in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. This project seeks to use the πολυπράγμων as an entry point into understanding Athenian attitudes toward citizenship and socially acceptable political behaviors in Athens’ democratic era. I explore the history and usage of the term πολυπράγμων, and the associated characteristic of πολυπραγμοσύνη (meddlesomeness), and its synonyms and antecedents. I demonstrate that to be labeled πολυπράγμων is a term of social restraint—one is named a πολυπράγμων if they do not “mind their own business.” In 5th century Athens such an admonition is primarily political. It refers to and demonstrates the existence of a contested definition of what is and what is not acceptable political behavior on behalf of the non-elite citizens of Athens. Through a reading of Plato’s dialogues and an analysis of other Athenian literary productions describing street-level social and political interactions in the fourth century, I endeavor to demonstrate in the second half of this thesis that the behaviors of social inquisitiveness, over-activity, and the negative characteristics attributed to the πολυπράγμων by contemporary writers such as Plato, could actually have served to increase the common knowledge and cohesiveness of the Athenian city-state. To do this, I consider the πολυπράγμων through the lens of modern scholarship and social science that considers Athens as an “epistemic democracy” concerned with aggregating and employing politically useful information.


                      Vienna Secession

                      Date: 2023-01-01

                      Creator: Bobby Murray

                      Access: Open access

                      ‘Vienna Secession’ is a poetry manuscript broken into four distinct sections: “The Vienna Secession,” “Waltzes,” “Short Talks,” and “Other.” Most of the manuscript is in dialogue with Secessionist artists, or the ethos of the Vienna Secession. However, others, like the haikus, are exercises of form and responses to other contemporary poets, such as Robert Hass or Richard Wright. The manuscript explores different genres, including ekphrasis, prose, and experimental poems, like the ‘Waltzes,’ which employ 3/4 meter to emulate the Viennese waltz. The heart of the project is its sonic awareness—pulling from W.H. Auden, August Kleinzahler, and other musically-oriented poets. Outside the ‘Short Talks’ section, the poems’ sonic and phonetic qualities are integral to their style and meaning. At times this may be subtle, or even indiscernible, but overall, careful attention is paid to the sound and rhythm of the poems. The manuscript should be considered in both musical and literary terms. Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Duino Elegies’ and advice in ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ are instrumental in creating these poems. As a ‘first statement,’ many poems battle with the insecurities of a young poet and exemplify the grapple of an aspiring creative. The poems consider antiquated things through contemporary frameworks; relationships, communication, masculinity, and suffering, to name a few. A general incentive of the work is to provide fresh perspectives on historical art and to import its most apposite sentiments into our current moment.


                      Miniature of Dual Isotope Model Insights on the Nitrogen Cycling Network of Coastal Sediments
                      Dual Isotope Model Insights on the Nitrogen Cycling Network of Coastal Sediments
                      This record is embargoed.
                        • Embargo End Date: 2026-05-20

                        Date: 2021-01-01

                        Creator: Zoë Alexandra Dietrich

                        Access: Embargoed