Showing 351 - 400 of 681 Items
Using data from the LISST-100 to recreate phytoplankton size distribution and processes in Harpswell Sound, Maine
Date: 2014-08-01
Creator: Schuyler Nardelli
Access: Open access
- Phytoplankton are the simple single-celled photosynthesizers that live in the ocean and form the base of the food chain. Cell size is a basic proxy for physiological rates as well as ecosystem structure. Thus, cell size can be used in a model framework to track changing environmental conditions that could potentially lead to harmful algal blooms (HABs, aka “red tides”)—events that can be detrimental to human health, marine life, and fisheries. HABs occur when a single algae (phytoplankton) species either grows unconstrained to a concentration such that it becomes toxic or causes low oxygen concentration in the water. In typical estuaries, less dense freshwater flows towards the ocean, and denser salty seawater flows into the estuary in the subsurface. However, Harpswell Sound is a reverse estuary that receives its freshwater input at its mouth from the upstream Kennebec River. This yields upstream surface low salinity flow and downstream deep high salinity flow. This rare dynamic allows phytoplankton located in the surface of seawater to be retained in the sound in conditions conducive to high growth and HABs, and can be used as a warning for conditions throughout the Gulf of Maine. To study the temporal and spatial dynamics of phytoplankton in the sound, we used the LISST-100, which uses light scattering properties to collect continuous in-situ water column observations of particle concentrations and size distributions. Although the LISST-100 was built to measure sediment size with a spherical shape, studies have been conducted that show it can accurately describe a diverse range of phytoplankton shapes and sizes, provided the population has sufficient size differences and is fairly concentrated, conditions found in Harpswell Sound. Weekly profiles of the water column were collected at the Bowdoin Buoy from 5/21/14-6/18/14, as well as a 20-day continuous time series collected at Bowdoin’s Coastal Studies Center dock from 5/30/14-6/18/14 along with supplementary oceanographic data. We determined that semi-diurnal tidal fluctuations are sufficient to move water masses past the buoy and dock with each tide, thereby connecting them. Phytoplankton were found to be in the 3-50 micron size range, with a peak diameter of approximately 7 microns. Additionally, three independent phytoplankton blooms were observed over the course of the 20-day time series as different water masses flowed through the sound. They were sourced in the oceanic water masses found under the freshened surface layer. Over the five-week period the populations gradually surfaced with their water mass as the overlying freshwater dissipated in the absence of rainfall. The LISST-100 served as a useful tool for determining phytoplankton distribution and dynamics within Harpswell Sound, and with further research there is great potential to continue to increase proficiency with the instrument in order to better understand phytoplankton dynamics and harmful algal blooms. Final Report of research funded by the Rusack Coastal Studies Fellowship.
Vulnerability of eelgrass (Zostera marina) to green crab (Carcinus maenas) invasion
Date: 2014-08-01
Creator: Sabine Y Berzins
Access: Open access
- Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is a perennial seagrass that is widely distributed among the shallow subtidal and intertidal Atlantic coastline of the United States and Canada. A highly productive keystone species, eelgrass helps maintain healthy estuarine and ecosystem functions by stabilizing sediments, regulating water flow, absorbing nutrients, and providing critical habitat for animals including commercially important species like soft-shell clams, blue mussels, and migrating waterfowl. Loss of eelgrass beds can therefore result in degraded water quality, shoreline erosion, and reduced fish and wildlife populations. Historically, the Maine coast supported extensive eelgrass beds. However, between 2010 and 2013, eelgrass distribution in Casco Bay declined in area by over 55%. This decline in eelgrass distribution coincides with a regional population explosion of green crabs (Carcinus maenas), an invasive species that physically disturbs eelgrass while foraging for prey. This summer, I collaborated with several Casco Bay Eelgrass Partners including individuals from the Fish and Wildlife Service, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and the Friends of Casco Bay. Led by U.S. Geological Survey biologist Dr. Hilary Neckles, this project identifies factors that make eelgrass more or less resilient to invasion by green crabs. In June, we established permanent eelgrass survey transects at five locations spanning eastern Casco Bay. Where possible, two transects were established in different types of sediment (fine or coarse/sandy). Most of the eelgrass loss observed over the past decade has been in fine sediments. The question remains; is eelgrass in coarse sediments prone to similar levels of damage? In addition to differences in substrate type, each site also exhibited varying degrees of eelgrass density, shoot height, green crab density and population structure, and other environmental stressors including light availability, temperature, nutrient availability, and natural physical disturbance. I made biweekly measurements of green crab densities at one site, Widgeon Cove in Harpswell. Crap trapping indicated few green crabs occurred near the Widgeon Cove transect, but traps at the other four Casco Bay sites collected as many as 300 crabs within a 24-hour period. Final measurements in the eelgrass transects will be taken in September and data collection will be completed in October. Data gathered this summer will provide information to help move forward with a plan to protect and potentially restore eelgrass in Casco Bay. Additionally, I identified patches of eelgrass in the Kennebec Estuary that might be viable sites for replanting next summer. I hope to continue working on this project next year, thinking about ways to restore eelgrass to the system while identifying ways to increase trapping pressure on green crabs such that their numbers might be reduced. Final Report of research funded by the Rusack Coastal Studies fellowship.
Torture under the Regime of Bashar al-Assad: Two Decades of Failed Human Rights Campaigns and Foreign Interference in Syria
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Olivia Giles
Access: Open access
- This honors thesis analyzes human rights campaigns to end the practice of state-sponsored torture in Syria during the presidency of Bashar al-Assad. It compares the 2000 Damascus Spring and the 2011 Arab Spring using the concept of the “contentious spiral model.” The model is based on the elements of the original “spiral model” introduced in The Power of Human Rights (1999) and the factors of contentious politics discussed in Dynamics of Contention (2001). It suggests that human rights movements that emerge from uprisings need effective mobilization by domestic and international actors. Sustained pressure from both sources should gradually force the state to make concessions until there is an absence of human rights violations. The study uses research on social movements and international politics in Syria, in addition to data on the practice of torture, to suggest that human rights campaigns to end state-sponsored torture in Syria have been unsuccessful because of the interference of Assad’s foreign alliances. These countries have helped the regime backlash against the opposition during uprisings, which has led to the fracturing of the movement. During the Damascus Spring, this interference took the form of shifting the world’s focus to other regional issues, and during the Arab Spring, Syria’s allies directly supported the Assad regime militarily, financially, and legally.
Nonprophets: a novel This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2025-05-14
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Nathan Osiason Blum
Access: Embargoed
Adapting Greek Heroines: Penelope and Medea Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Ishani Agarwal
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Re-formando cuerpos: Las identidades femeninas en escritoras cubanas durante el Período Especial
Date: 2014-01-01
Creator: Amanda M Montenegro
Access: Open access
- Esta tesis explora cómo una variedad de autoras cubanas representan el cuerpo, las identidades femeninas y la relación entre las mujeres y la nación. Las autoras estudiadas incluyen Marilyn Bobes, Karla Suárez y Daína Chaviano. Sus narrativas ilustran y desarrollan una variedad de personajes –desde las mujeres blancas prerrevolucionarias hasta las “hijas de la revolución” afrocubanas—que representan diferentes maneras en que las mujeres construyen y reconstruyen sus identidades en la Cuba revolucionaria y hasta el comienzo del “Período especial”. Ilustran además cómo las mujeres vivieron fenómenos propios de ese período como la migración, la dolarización y el jineterismo. Así, revelan los fracasos en cuanto a la igualdad de género de la revolución, que no transformó la estructura patriarcal de la sociedad. Sin embargo, las autoras presentan una nación cubana polifacética compuesta de más que el Estado, donde las escritoras y las mujeres luchan por definirse a sí mismas. This paper explores how various female Cuban authors represent the body, female identities and the relationship between women and the nation. The authors studied include Marilyn Bobes, Karla Suárez and Daína Chaviano. Their narratives illustrate and develop a variety of characters—ranging from white prerevolutionary women to afro-Cuban “daughters of the Revolution”—which represent different ways in which women construct and reconstruct their identities during revolutionary Cuba and at the beginning of the “Special Period.” The characters also illustrate how women in particular experienced and dealt with the effects of the Special Period such as migration, dollarization and jineterismo. Thus, they reveal the failures of the Cuban Revolution regarding gender equality of the Revolution, which did not transform the patriarchal structure of society. However, the authors present a multifaceted Cuban nation comprised of more than just the State, where writers and women struggle to define themselves.
Investigating the Role of Heterochromatin Protein 1 (HP1) in the Formation of Chromosome Compartments Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2025-06-01
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Diego Andres Villamarin
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Convexity Properties of the Diestel-Leader Group Γ_3(2)
Date: 2014-05-01
Creator: Peter J Davids
Access: Open access
- The Diestel-Leader groups are a family of groups first introduced in 2001 by Diestel and Leader in [7]. In this paper, we demonstrate that the Diestel-Leader group Γ3(2) is not almost convex with respect to a particular generating set S. Almost convexity is a geometric property that has been shown by Cannon [3] to guarantee a solvable word problem (that is, in any almost convex group there is a finite-step algorithm to determine if two strings of generators, or “words”, represent the same group element). Our proof relies on the word length formula given by Stein and Taback in [10], and we construct a family of group elements X that contradicts the almost convexity condition. We then go on to show that Γ3(2) is minimally almost convex with respect to S.
Egg Size, Breeding Phenology, and Parental Investment in Leach’s Storm Petrels Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: James L. O'Shea
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Accounting for Gender Differences in Cultural Industries: Evidence from Film and the Fine Arts Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2020-01-01
Creator: Madeleine Rose Dupré
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Improving Energy Efficiency through Compiler Optimizations
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Jack Beckitt-Marshall
Access: Open access
- Abstract--- Energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important for computation, especially in the context of the current climate crisis. The aim of this experiment was to see if the compiler could reduce energy usage without rewriting programs themselves. The experimental setup consisted of compiling programs using the Clang compiler using a set of compiler flags, and then measuring energy usage and execution time on an AMD Ryzen processor. Three experiments were performed: a random exploration of compiler flags, utilization of SIMD, as well as benchmarking real world applications. It was found that the compiler was able to reduce execution time, especially when optimizing for the specific architecture, to a degree that depends on the program being compiled. Faster execution time tended to correlate with reduced energy usage as well, further suggesting that optimizing programs for speed and architecture is the most effective way of decreasing their overall energy usage.
Instability in a Time-Modulated Lattice This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2025-05-19
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Evelyn Wallace
Access: Embargoed
Assessing the Accuracy of Quantum Monte Carlo Pseudopotentials for CO2 Capture in Metal Organic Frameworks
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Chloe Renfro
Access: Open access
- As global emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases rises, global warming persists as an imminent threat to the environment and every day lives. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, there is a need to design materials to separate and capture the different gasses. Current gas capturing technologies lack efficiency and have extensive energy costs. A class of materials for CO2 capture is Molecular Organic Frameworks (MOFs). In order for a MOF to be efficient for this type of separation, the MOF needs to be able to selectively bind to the gas, while also not suffering a high energy cost to remove the gas and reuse the material. Computationally calculated binding energies are used to determine the usefulness of a MOF at capture and separation of a certain gas. Each computational method has its advantages and limitations. In this work, diffusion quantum Monte Carlo is being explored. This paper focuses on the accuracy of recently developed pseudopotentials for DMC use. These pseudopotentials have been tested on smaller molecules but have not been systematically tested for systems such as MOFs. Results from a DMC calculation of Zn-MOF-74 show a binding energy of -18.02 kJ/mol with an error bound of 16.74 kJ/mol. In order to assess the accuracy of the DMC results for binding energies of this magnitude the uncertainty need to be reduced, a subject of ongoing work.
Investigating the Effects of Mixed Solvents on the Excited State Proton Transfer Mechanisms of 8-Amino-2-naphthol This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2027-05-19
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Alexander Avrom Kreines
Access: Embargoed
A Conscious Image of Liberation: Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) in the Late Franco Regime, Through the Lens of the Press
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Sebastian de Lasa
Access: Open access
- The rise of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) in the early 1970s coincided with the rise of national liberation movements across Europe, which largely were inspired by notable examples of resistance throughout the Global South in the decades prior. ETA’s growth over this period, and in the years prior, was heavily dependent on the image created of the organziation in the local, domestic, and international press, including through documents distributed by the group itself. By comparing ETA’s external presence to the group’s internal strife, it becomes clear that ETA made efforts to align itself with the popular revolutionary language of the period. The group took advantage of, and aimed to create press spectacles, in attempts to manipulate its public image. However, the discrepancy between the group’s public image and internal dissolution became apparent as the group pursued more violent acts in the goal of Basque liberation.
Identification of MPKs Involved in the Wall Associated Kinase Regulated Stress Response in Arabidopsis thaliana Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2013-05-01
Creator: Patrick J Lariviere
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Characterizing Toll Receptors in the Mediterranean Cricket Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2025-06-01
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Warsameh Bulhan
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Unraveling Paradise: Colonialism and Disguise in German Language Literature
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Brigita Kant
Access: Open access
- For centuries, the Pacific Islands have been disguised by Europeans through the trope of “island paradise." Despite Europe’s role in bringing colonization and racial oppression to Oceania, the dominant narrative has been that Pacific Islanders lead simple lives, untouched from the complicated aspects of the “modern world.” This narrative has enabled White outsiders to fantasize about the Pacific Islands as a place for personal denial of Western social conventions, simultaneously allowing White European men to fetishize and possess Pacific Island culture and identity. My honors project will closely examine three fictional German language texts- Haimotochare (1819), Der Papalagi (1920), and Imperium (2012)- centered around the exploration German colonial involvement in Pacific Islands. My analysis of these texts will allow for the understanding of how the false narrative of “island paradise” came to be, how it has been embraced and weaponized, and what it means for both German and Pacific Islander post-colonial identity.
Outlier Detection in Energy Datasets
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Stephen Crawford
Access: Open access
- In the past decade, numerous datasets have been released with the explicit goal of furthering non-intrusive load monitoring research (NILM). NILM is an energy measurement strategy that seeks to disaggregate building-scale loads. Disaggregation attempts to turn the energy consumption of a building into its constituent appliances. NILM algorithms require representative real-world measurements which has led institutions to publish and share their own datasets. NILM algorithms are designed, trained, and tested using the data presented in a small number of these NILM datasets. Many of the datasets contain arbitrarily selected devices. Likewise, the datasets themselves report aggregate load information from building(s) which are similarly selected arbitrarily. This raises the question of the representativeness of the datasets themselves as well as the algorithms based on their reports. One way to judge the representativeness of NILM datasets is to look for the presence of outliers in these datasets. This paper presents a novel method of identifying outlier devices from NILM datasets. With this identification process, it becomes possible to mitigate and measure the impact of outliers. This represents an important consideration to the long-term deployment of NILM algorithms.
"Possessive gentleness": Insecure Attachments in American Literature
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Ella Pearl Crabtree
Access: Open access
- “‘Possessive Gentleness’: Insecure Attachments in American Literature” applies psychological attachment theory to works of American Literature. Each novel examined—Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851), Dred: A Tale of the Dismal Swamp (1856), and The Minister’s Wooing (1859) by Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Third Generation (1954) by Chester Himes, and The Bluest Eye (1970) by Toni Morrison—describes the forces behind insecure attachment relationships between child characters and their caregivers. The first chapter of this project focuses on Stowe’s anti-slavery novels. It argues that the institution of slavery is in conflict with Christianity in these works, because it impedes disinterestedly benevolent mothering and disrupts secure attachments. The second chapter analyzes The Third Generation, and suggests that colorism in the black community is the cause of insecure attachments in Himes’ work. The third and final chapter examines The Bluest Eye, and presents sympathy, as embodied by the novel’s narrator, as a potential remedy for insecure parent-child attachments. Together, these texts elucidate how societal forces (e.g. colorism, poverty) intrude upon the family structure and destabilize parent-child attachments. Optimistically, however, they also suggest that improved parent-child attachments might function as a vehicle of broader social change.
Forests as Fuel? An Investigation of Biomass’ Role in a Just Energy Transition
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Brianna Cunliffe
Access: Open access
- Although wood pellet biomass corporations frame their recent rapid growth as a victory for “green energy”, troubling evidence of their adverse impacts on climate and environmental justice calls for rigorous investigation of these claims. Contextualizing biomass within the envirotechnical regimes that have created industrial ‘sacrifice zones’ in BIPOC low-income communities in the US South, this paper recharacterizes it as an innovation within oppressive regimes. It further critiques carbon accounting frameworks that designate biomass as renewable despite its greater emissions per capita than coal and carbon debts created by deforestation that could take centuries to rectify. Biomass pellet production plants, cited disproportionately in environmental justice communities, also emit serious and often under-reported amounts of pollutants including PM 2.5, VOCs, and HAPs, linked to higher rates of chronic illness and premature death in impacted communities. The current regulatory paradigm guarantees neither distributive nor procedural justice. Ethnographic research including participant-observation, interviews, and site visits revealed that community members felt that regulatory bodies serve corporations above vulnerable citizens, that their voices were not valued in public hearings or by elected officials, and that the pollution, dishonesty, and ecological harms plants bring far outweighs their meagre economic benefits. Communities enact robust resistance to biomass as both a global climate threat and a local injustice. This paper traces how coalitions connecting intersectional grassroots activist networks to larger advocacy organizations are achieving victories on the ground and in the court of public opinion, and the lessons this synergy holds for the endeavor of a truly just transition.
Characterization of the ELMO2 Protein that Mediates Cell Adhesion in Arabidopsis thaliana
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Devaki Rajiv
Access: Open access
- The binding of adjacent cells to one another, or cell adhesion, is critical for the growth and development of multicellular organisms. In plant cells, much evidence suggests that the amount and modification of pectin in the cell wall largely determines how well cell adhesion occurs. ELMO1 is a Golgi protein involved in pectin-mediated cellular adhesion, and mutations in ELMO1 lead to disrupted cell organization in Arabidopsis. ELMO1 is predicted to be a scaffold for pectin biosynthesis enzymes, and thus its absence leads to the adhesion-defective phenotype of elmo1-/- plants. There are four other ELMO homologues (ELMO2,3,4 and 5) which remain to be characterized as to their function and role in cell adhesion. This thesis focuses on the characterization of ELMO2, which has 79% amino acid similarity with ELMO1. A genetic analysis that evaluated elmo2 double mutants revealed that ELMO2 and ELMO1 have redundant functions. elmo1-/-/2-/- double mutants, but not elmo2-/- or elmo1-/- single mutants, have reduced tensile strengths. While elmo1-/- phenotypes are most pronounced in liquid media, they are partially rescued by growth on agar, suggesting a role of turgor in maintaining cell adhesion. Like ELMO1, ELMO2-GFP colocalizes with Golgi markers. The results suggest that like ELMO1, ELMO2 also functions as a scaffold for pectin biosynthesis enzymes in the Golgi.
Investigating the Role of Helicobacter pylori Glycan Biosynthesis in Modulating Host Immune Cell Recognition Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Katharine Barrett
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Errandsphere Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2026-06-01
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Aida Muratoglu
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Economic Costs of Elevated Public Debt Levels During Banking-Crisis Recessions
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Gavin T Shilling
Access: Open access
- The Great Recession of 2007 and 2008 exposed the risks of excessive borrowing. We learned the essential economic principle that greater leverage harbors greater risk. Although this global economic contraction was driven primarily by booming private credit expansion, economically inefficient incentives in the public sector, such as short-term reelection concerns, may lead politicians to engage in rash deficit- financed, fiscal spending. The primary purpose of this research is to assess the economic costs of heightened, preexisting government leverage on real economic outcomes during recessionary periods, focusing on both banking and non-banking crisis recessions. In both advanced economies and emerging economies, this study confirms that banking recessions are associated with more severe economic contractions and more persistent output declines than normal recessions. In advanced economies, GDP recovers quickly and strongly with expansionary and supportive fiscal policy during low debt recessions, even with depressed private investment. While GDP recovers slowly and weakly with less expansionary fiscal policy during high debt recessions, even with strong private investment. Thus, the social marginal benefit of public sector investment exceeds the social marginal benefit of private sector investment in advanced economies. In emerging economies, GDP recovers quickly and strongly with strong private investment during high debt recessions, even with weak fiscal spending. While GDP recovers slowly and weakly with depressed private investment during low debt recessions, even with expansionary and supportive fiscal policy. Thus, the social marginal benefit of private sector investment exceeds the social marginal benefit of public sector investment in emerging economies.
Seasons Without Borders: the Ali Smith Quartet
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Claire M Burns
Access: Open access
- This project considers how the novels of contemporary Scottish author Ali Smith work to destabilize traditional constructions of temporal, formal, national, and gender borders. The motifs of the border and the border identity have been thematically pervasive in Scottish literary history, as reflected in the recurrence of the Scottish split identity. This thesis explores how the borders that have become essential to the construction of Scottish national literature, often relying on binaristic categorizations, have been disestablished in the contemporary era. Ali Smith’s novels, particularly the novels of her seasonal quartet, introduce forms and figures that highlight the instability of many of these borders, challenging fixed representations of the border identity. Through this focus on Scotland, Smith constructs a template for a consideration of national identity beyond the boundaries of Scotland, extending toward a more global sensibility.
Brutal Encounters: Primitivity, Politics, and the Postmodern Revolution
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Archer Thomas
Access: Open access
- The switch from late modernism to postmodernism in Western aesthetic theory and criticism took place in the mid-to-late 20th century, radically changing the face of cultural criticism. Much has been written on how postmodernism broke from modernism, but what factors paved its way in the decades following the Second World War? This paper argues that postmodernism represents both a reaction to and a necessary evolution of late modernism, specifically as it manifests in architecture, politics, and the politics of architecture. It focuses on the crisis of confidence among Western left-wing circles following the upheaval of the Second World War and posits that, because of this upheaval, primitivism came to dominate the epistemology of a renewed modernism led by figures such as Clement Greenberg, Reyner Banham, and the practitioners of “the New Brutalism.” The paper then explores how the Western left-wing reaction to developments like decolonization and postwar modernization challenged primitivity’s newfound importance, resulting in a shift towards a “postmodern populism” in aesthetics and politics by the 1960s as described by Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson, Robert Venturi, and Reyner Banham.
The Mérida Initiative and the Violence of Transnational Criminal Organizations in Mexico
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Brianna Madison Canning
Access: Open access
- Organized crime related violence in Mexico remains at unprecedented levels despite decades of effort and billions of dollars spent attempting to weaken Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) through the Mérida Initiative (MI): a bilateral security partnership established in October 2007 between US President George W. Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón. The MI sought to combat TCOs (often called cartels), their drug trafficking operations, and their networks of corruption. However, since then TCOs have expanded their businesses beyond drug trafficking, and they have adopted violent practices that target civilians. Extortion, torture, murder, and human trafficking have become common as TCOs look to other illicit markets to make up for losses in drug profits, and to signal strength to their opponents. More specifically, the homicide rate in Mexico increased by more than 100% between 2007 and 2008, aligning with the creation of the initiative designed to have the opposite effect. However, case study research into the violence in Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana determined that the MI was not actually implemented until mid-2009 because of bureaucratic delays, meaning it did not impact the initial spike in homicides in Mexico in 2008. Instead, the violence starting in 2008 is a result of changing dynamics between and within TCOs, as they adapted to survive and maintain control of resources. By supporting the Mexican government’s drug war efforts over the next several years, the Mérida Initiative became one of many complex domestic and international factors that ultimately contributed to extreme levels of violence in Mexico.
Photochemistry of Cyano-Substituted 8-Amino-2-Naphthol This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2026-05-20
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Jialin Xie
Access: Embargoed
Can Small Donations Have Big Consequences? Candidate Ideology, Small Donations, and Election Results in the 2016 and 2018 Congressional Cycles
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Michael Borecki
Access: Open access
- Small donors have provided an increased share of total campaign contributions in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 U.S. federal election cycles, including about $3 billion of the $14.4 billion raised in 2020. Campaign funding is still dominated by an influential set of large donors, but small donations may be the basis for an effective response to the disproportionate amount of “big money” in politics. This study investigates whether candidates who are more extreme perform better with small donors, and then examines the impact of small donations and overall funding on election results. These analyses were performed using linear sum-of-squares regression models. The results in Chapter 2 show that candidates who are more politically-extreme receive more of their funding from small donations, but perform worse in general elections when fundraising is equal. Chapter 3 shows that small donations do not have an impact on candidate performance in general elections more generally, but candidates who outraise their opponent also outperform relative to the district’s partisan lean. However, that effect disappears when looking only at elections decided by less than 10 percent of the vote. These results suggest that small donors are more likely to support candidates who are more politically polarized, but the effects of small donors on the makeup of Congress is marginal at best, at least as far as general election outcomes are concerned. The project concludes by considering reform proposals that seek to broaden the pool of Americans who donate small sums to political candidates.
How do long-term above-ground biomass dynamics vary between different forest stand types at Harvard Forest?
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Maya Y. Chandar-Kouba
Access: Open access
- Monitoring forest carbon storage is necessary in accurately modelling the global carbon cycle. In the Northeast, terrestrial forests represent a major carbon sink with above-ground biomass (AGB) accounting for 40% of stored forest carbon. Therefore, understanding how AGB varies spatiotemporally is essential in predicting future carbon storage. Repeated measurements in permanent, long-term plots provide an opportunity to examine how carbon stored in AGB is changing over time. I used 29 years of data from the Harvard Forest Environmental Monitoring Systems (HF EMS) Site to determine how stand composition, intrinsic factors, and extrinsic environmental factors influenced rates of carbon storage in AGB over time. Using a partition around medoids (PAM) clustering method, I separated the 34 ground plots at the EMS stand into their respective stand types. I found that each stand type at the HF EMS plots accumulates carbon at consistent rates throughout the study period, although rates of carbon accumulation between stands were significantly different. Red Pine stands experience a rapid decline in biomass in 2018 due to the introduction of the Southern Pine Beetle. Across all stand types, sporadic mortality events determine variations in yearly rates of carbon accumulation, although this has little significant influence on total AGB accumulation. Leaf area index (LAI) and foliar N contents have no effect on growth increments. Extrinsic environmental variables had mixed effects on growth and mortality, highlighting the complexities of predicting forest carbon storage under changing climate conditions.
Rhythmic behaviors: Understanding neuromodulation at the neuromuscular level
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Kenneth Garcia
Access: Open access
- Neuromodulation allows for the flexibility of neural circuit dynamics and the outputs they produce. Studies of the stomatogastric nervous system (STNS) have expanded our knowledge on the actions of neuromodulators, small molecules that most often activate G-protein coupled receptors and reconfigure circuit activity and composition. In these systems, modulation has been found to occur at every level, from sensory-motor coupling to neuromuscular transmission (Harris-Warrick and Marder 1991). Neuromodulators have complex effects on motor output; they can alter the firing of individual neurons while also modulating muscle properties, neuromuscular transmission, and sensory neuron response to muscle activity (Fort et al. 2004). We investigated this further by recording the motor output produced by the gastric mill rhythm of the lobster STNS under neuromodulator conditions. How is this neuromuscular system as a whole modulated to produce motor flexibility? We hypothesized that these neuromodulators act on individual receptors of component neurons of central pattern generator (CPG)-effector system themselves and at the periphery, coordinately altering muscle contraction by altering all levels of the crustacean neuromuscular system. Application of NRNFLRFamide, RPCH, oxotremorine, and proctolin to the gastric mill 4 (gm4) muscles of the Cancer crab showed that neuromodulators that have been found to have variable, yet significant effects on the activity of the neurons of the STNS directly alter the activity of the gm4 muscles as well, suggesting that coordination of peripheral actions and direct neuronal modulation regulates patterned motor output.
Neptune City This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2026-05-18
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Lily Randall
Access: Embargoed
A multifaceted analysis of Semaphorin-induced neuroplasticity in the nervous system of Gryllus bimaculatus Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2028-06-01
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Ean Lev Small
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Invisible Ailments: A Collection
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Jane L. Godiner
Access: Open access
- "Invisible Ailments" is a collection of short stories that trace the depth, breath, and sweeping range of lived experiences of people struggling with mental illness. While it is a work of fiction, the people in these stories might feel eerily familiar — to your friends, your family members, your loved ones, or, if you're brave enough to admit it, yourself.
Live imaging of somatic homolog pairing in Drosophila supports a button-based mechanism for pairing facilitated by the genetic insulator gypsy This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2026-05-18
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Holden D. Hadfield
Access: Embargoed
The Impact of Toll 6-1 Function on the Maintenance and Plasticity of the Gryllus bimaculatus Auditory System Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2028-06-01
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Jada Scotland
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Characterizing the Roles of Toll7 in the Gryllus Bimaculatus Peripheral Nervous System Development
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Rowland Luo
Access: Open access
- The study of neuronal development could provide foundational information on neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. The small size and relatively simple nervous system of Orthoptera make them ideal models for neurodevelopmental studies. The peripheral nervous system development is an intricate and precise process that each sensory neurons are able to reach their central nervous system partners in a relatively short amount of time. Although the peripheral nervous system in limb buds and their genetic regulations are well understood in grasshopper embryos, few studies have explored the developing nervous system in a cricket model. Therefore, the first goal of the current experiment is to characterize the normal peripheral nervous system development in cricket embryos. Previous studies in Drosophila have suggested Toll6 and Toll7 receptors could serve as important targets for the neurotrophic-like factors Spaetzle2 and 5. Malfunctioning neurotrophic pathways could lead to abnormal nervous system development. Therefore, the second goal of the current study is to explore the roles of Toll7 in the development of the cricket peripheral nervous system. Immunohistochemical staining using anti-horseradish peroxidase (Anti-HRP) was used to illustrate crickets' embryonic developing peripheral nervous system in the limb buds from developmental stage 7.0 to 11.0. Cricket eggs were injected with Toll7 double stranded RNA (dsRNA) and rhodamine dye to suppress the Toll7 mRNA level. The control eggs were injected with GFP dsRNA and rhodamine dye. The peripheral nervous system development in cricket embryos is largely homologous to that observed in grasshopper embryos. All later-emerged sensory neurons followed the pathway established by the first pioneer neuron Ti1. Ti1 made stereotypical turns following the steering signals on epithelial and guidepost cell surfaces and eventually fasciculate with lateral motor axons from the central nervous system. When examining the peripheral nervous system development with Toll7 knockdown, a decrease in limb bud volume was observed at stage 7.7 and stage 8.0, suggesting Toll7’s potential roles in aiding cell-cell intercalation processes in Orthoptera embryos. Furthermore, a delay in Ti1 pioneer neuron development was observed with Toll7 knockdown at early developmental stages, providing evidence for Toll-Spaetzle pathway’s neurotrophic-like functions. The results of the current experiment provide the first description of the peripheral nervous system development in the cricket limb buds and further evidence of Toll-Spaetzle pathway’s neurotrophic properties.
Mathematically Modeling a Nonlinear, Passive Acoustic Filter This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2026-05-18
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Bjorn Ludwig
Access: Embargoed
Playing the Fool: Analyzing the Phenomena of Iurodstvo In Contemporary Russian Cinema and Civil Society.
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Colby Silva Santana
Access: Open access
- Of Russia's cultural and religious icons, the holy fool (iurodivy) is quite possibly the most significant one of contemporary times. The holy fool – a historical and cultural character that feigns insanity to produce moral and spiritual reflections and hide the purity of their souls – has left its traces over a significant portion of Russia's literary history, postmodern tradition, and socio-political thought. In its uniquely positioned role as a powerful form of institutional critique, today taking shape in modern-day political protest performance culture, the holy fool has often been utilized to interrogate the intertwined relationship of the Russian state and the Orthodox Church. This analysis reviews the scholarship on holy foolery and how it has manifested in various fields of study. Although scholarship on this subject is significant, there exists a lack of research into representation of the holy fool in contemporary Russian cinema. Cinema is uniquely positioned to portray holy foolery, thanks to the unique form of spectatorship the film camera allows. This thesis analyzes several case studies of 21st-century Russian cinema that feature characters representing qualities of iurodstvo and its related models. In doing so, this work traces the history and development of iurodstvo through the lens of cinema and suggests new ways of understanding holy foolery's manifestation as a political tool.
The Shah Bano Case: An English-Language Democratic Practice in Post-Colonial India
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Hafsa Hossain
Access: Open access
- In 1985, Mohd. Ahmad Khan v. Shah Bano Begum, known commonly as the Shah Bano Case, became a flashpoint for Indian democracy. The Shah Bano case revolved around the maintenance of a divorced woman, not the first of its kind by any means. A case that sparked major social and political upheaval during a broader period of political turmoil, the Shah Bano case has long been interpreted as an expression of the crisis and contradictions between the democratic rights of women as citizens and the democratic rights of Muslims as a religious minority in the Indian nation-state. In the immediate aftermath of the case, critical feminist and post-colonial scholarship grappled with the dilemmas it involved, but to some extent remained caught up in those dilemmas. This thesis builds upon the important work of these and later scholars, but it also draws new attention to the specific role of the English-language public sphere in shaping the terms of debate that surrounded the case in the 1980s. This paper argues against the binary understanding of the landmark Shah Bano Case as either a failure or success of Indian secularism. I argue that the case and its aftermath demonstrate the continual nature of Indian secularism and democratic practice, especially laden in the post-Emergency era.
Hemocyte-derived proteins from the lobster, Homarus americanus: Changes in response to an LPS immune system challenge Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
- Restriction End Date: 2029-06-01
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Olivia Sewon Choi
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
Racial Bias within Capital Punishment: Instructional Comprehension
Date: 2024-01-01
Creator: Marcus Gadsden
Access: Open access
- This dissertation examines the existence of racial bias within capital punishment. Since colonial times discriminatory death sentencing has impacted racial minorities, and despite living in a post-colonial epoch, the United States Justice system continues to produce alarming racial disparities. Consequently, both law reviews and social science journals indicate that race remains a significant factor in criminal trials. So, to what extent does racial bias influence capital punishment trials? Given that it does exist, how can it be alleviated? Through a statistical/qualitative analysis of psychological studies, Supreme Court cases, and jury instructions, this dissertation suggests that implicit cognitive bias continues to produce daunting realities in contemporary criminal punishment processes. Notably among juries, traditional judicial procedures have ostensibly triggered implicit bias and psychological intimidation, i.e. jury instructions. Moreover, do long and complicated jury instructions heighten instances of partial judgment? In Racial Bias within Capital Punishment: Instructional Comprehension, I argue that inaccessible jury instructions provide a space where jurors adhere to subtle racial preferences. Consequently, the swaying capacity of juries in capital punishment trials proceeds to arbitrarily produce discrepancies in sentencing rates.
Characterization of Retinoic Acid Signaling During Tooth Morphogenesis and Evolution in Danio rerio This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2028-05-17
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Lyn Stephanie Miranda Portillo
Access: Embargoed
Thioglycosides modulate bacterial glycosylation Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Isabella de la Luz Quintana
Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community
"What's Outside the Window?": Evil, Literature, and Detection in Roberto Bolaño's Fiction This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2026-05-18
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Andrew YH Chang
Access: Embargoed
“There’s Nothing More to Get From It”: Subverting Representation in Olivia Wenzel’s 1000 Serpentinen Angst and Sharon Dodua Otoo’s Adas Raum This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2028-05-18
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Annika Moore
Access: Embargoed
On L-functions and the 1-Level Density
Date: 2023-01-01
Creator: Arav Agarwal
Access: Open access
- We begin with the classical study of the Riemann zeta function and Dirichlet L-functions. This includes a full exposition on one of the most useful ways of exploiting their connection with primes, namely, explicit formulae. We then proceed to introduce statistics of low-lying zeros of Dirichlet L-functions, discussing prior results of Fiorilli and Miller (2015) on the 1-level density of Dirichlet L-functions and their achievement in surpassing the prediction of the powerful Ratios Conjecture. Finally, we present our original work partially generalizing these results to the case of Hecke L-functions over imaginary quadratic fields.
White Southerners Respond to Brown v. Board of Education: Why Crisis Erupted When Little Rock, Arkansas, Desegregated Central High School
Date: 2017-05-01
Creator: Abby Elizabeth Motycka
Access: Open access
- What was the impact of Brown v. Board of Education on the United States and how did pro-segregationists in the South respond? In order to answer this question, I argue three key arguments over the course of three chronological chapters. In chapter one, I argue that segregationists from southern states responded to Brown by fighting to preserve segregation in order to protect a racial hierarchy they believed was essential. This racial hierarchy is magnified in the southern capital of Little Rock, Arkansas, which I argue in chapter two exposed segregationists’ political defiance and poor organization around racial integration of public schools. After a year of integration, analyzed in chapter three, I conclude my chapters by arguing the first year slowed down the segregationist organizations, but did not persuade them that racial integration would improve the “southern way of life.”
This is What You Want: Stories
Date: 2017-05-01
Creator: Savannah Blake Horton
Access: Open access
- This is What You Want: Stories is a collection of nine stories exploring the role of humor in dark situations. It is a work of fiction.