Digital Commons Network^™

African-American Poetry, Music, And Politics, Tyler H. Macdonald

Honors Theses

The 2016 decision to award songwriter and musician Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature sparked a worldwide debate on the relationship between music and poetry and raised many questions about music’s place in literary canon. However, this debate is nothing new. Questions about the relationship between music and poetry have long been debated. Some scholars believe the two disciplines should be studied separately, while others prefer to consider the connections between the two.

My project begins with a question: if Bob Dylan’s songs can be considered poetry, what other forms of music might also be considered poetry? Rap implements …

Geochemical Differences In Calcic Horizons Due To Parent Material And Anthropogenic Water Input In Southeastern Arizona, Alicia Fischer

Honors Theses

Calcic soil horizons are significant carbon sinks. Yet, despite their abundance in semiarid environments, calcic soils are enigmatic for two reasons: (1) some authors hypothesize that dust input does not, independently, control the geochemical properties of these soils; and (2) few studies have examined how these calcic soils change geochemically with respect to irrigation. A 2017 pilot study used portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) on calcic soils in Southeastern Arizona (SEAZ) to address these questions. However, this technology has not been widely employed to evaluate soils. The current study addresses whether pXRF and XRF data obtained from the same soil samples …

Investigating Phosphorylation Patterns And Their Effect On The Activity Of Transcription Factor Taabf1 In Imbibing Cereal Grains, Grace Uwase

Honors Theses

The wheat transcription factor TaABF1 plays an important role in hormone-mediated regulation of seed dormancy and germination of cereal grains. Evidence shows that TaABF1 activity is regulated by phosphorylation, and previous work in our lab showed that when serine residues in its conserved regions; S36, S37, S113, S115 were altered to phosphomimetic aspartate, the 4xD TaABF1 mutant had increased activity as a transcription factor. However, when only S113 was altered, TaABF1’s activity was greatly reduced. The work presented here explored whether the S36D/S37D/S115D mutant would have stronger activity than the 4xD mutant. Using the particle bombardment technique to introduce the …

Silicon And Tin Substituted Halocyclopropanes: Approaches To New Carbenes And Strained Cyclic Allenes, Noura Srour

Honors Theses

Chloro(trimethylsilyl)carbene and chloro(trimethylstannyl)carbene were generated through photolysis of cyclopropanated phenanthrene precursors which were synthesized in two steps. The photolysis reactions were done in the presence of cis and/or trans-beta-methylstyrene. Though product peaks corresponding to the carbene-alkene adducts were observed in the GCMS, the yields were too low for their isolation and complete characterization. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed on the stereoisomers of the precursor to Chloro(trimethylsilyl)carbene and the carbene itself. Surprisingly, Chloro(trimethylsilyl)carbene’s triplet state was found to be more stable than the singlet at this level of theory.

In a related project, (1-bromo-1a,9b-dihydro-1H-cyclopropa[l]phenanthren-1-yl)trimethylstannane, was …

Strategic Nationalism: Deciphering Chinese Strategy In The South China Sea, William Levesque

Honors Theses

Over the last two decades, the South China Sea has become an international flashpoint and site of frequent Chinese aggression. Chinese naval, coast guard, and militia vessels frequently sail the natural-resource rich waters, and China has undertaken a massive campaign of island building to support its claims. The motivations behind China's aggression and their choice of strategy, however, remain ambiguous and the topic of major academic discussion. This Honors Thesis provides a new hypothesis, strategic nationalism, which is capable of explaining China's recent actions in the South China Sea.

The Impact And Radical Queer Possibility Of Youth Participatory Action Research, Adrienne R. Carmack

Senior Scholar Papers

In this paper, I review and analyze the year long implementation of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project at a small-town alternative education program. PAR is a feminist research method, as well as a form of feminist education, in the way that it facilitates a critical-consciousness raising. PAR is queer in its emphasis on analyzing social and relational structures, as well as in the way that it subverts power dynamics within traditional, heteronormative research; it also is distinctly queer in its ability to imagine other ways of being while orienting itself toward social change. Finally, this paper offers a critical …

What The Walls Say: Finding Meaning And Value In Tel Aviv’S Street Art, Rachel R. Bird

Honors Theses

This thesis explores street art in Tel Aviv, Israel through anthropological concepts of value. By defining street art as an interstitial practice—one that exists between permeable, socially defined boundaries and is characterized differently by different power structures—I attempt to define some of the different regimes of value that apply to street art. Using the emerging market of “street art tours” as a fieldwork site, I look at how street art is presented and re-presented to both tourists and locals. By situating my research in a historical and geographic context, I hope to understand the ways different value schema, from economic …

Waste Reduction In Public School Cafeterias Through Sorting And Diversion: An Analysis Of Three Southern Maine Schools, Jeremy P. Ravenelle

Honors Theses

Solid waste is a serious environmental problem in the modern world. School cafeterias are one source of food and packaging waste that must be dealt with. Reducing the amount of cafeteria waste disposed of as trash through source reduction, recycling, and composting can not only improve environmental outcomes but also teach students about sustainability and save schools money. Social practice theory provides some factors that may be helpful to examine school cafeteria waste reduction programs. Using these factors, this thesis first examines school waste reduction programs in articles from academic databases, and then in three case study elementary schools in …

Arts Education: A Philanthropic Priority?, Clare Murray

Honors Theses

Through restricted donations, donors to private, independent not-for-profit US art museums are able to affect the prioritization of museum activities. Using annual data from museums’ Form 990s and AAMD survey responses, I test whether restricted giving affects a museum’s educational programming by analyzing the effect of restricted assets on education department performance indicators. I find that a percentage point increase in permanently restricted assets as a proportion of total assets is associated with a 0.1876 percentage point increase in education expenses as a share of total expenses. Through qualitative informational interviews, I recognize this impact as evidence that arts education …

Sacrifice, Benefit, And Reciprocity: Evidence From A Trust Game, Mirco Dinelli

Honors Theses

Social preferences have generated much interest in recent economic literature. While reciprocity has been closely examined by several economists using gift exchange and other games, much of their focus is on the effect of intentions and motivations. Instead, I focus on two strictly outcome-based factors in the context of a trust game: sacrifice made by the giver and benefit received by the recipient. I attempt to isolate these influences by varying the multiplier across variations of the trust game to create comparison groups that differ in one of these factors, but not both. Unable to control for all expected sources …

Haloferax Volcanii For Carotenoid Production, Erika Smith

Honors Theses

Carotenoids are used as natural colorants and have been shown to have numerous health benefits, making these molecules highly desirable in the aquaculture, pharmaceutical, and nutraceutical markets. There is increasing consumer demand for the natural synthesis of carotenoids, but current methods are limited by the cost and difficulty of extraction from organisms. The halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii is amenable to extraction and has an endogenous carotenoid biosynthetic pathway that culminates in the accumulation of the carotenoid bacterioruberin; however, H. volcanii also synthesizes important precursors that can be converted into more highly-desired carotenoids, such as β-carotene and astaxanthin, in the presence …

Mechanism Design, Matching Theory And The Stable Roommates Problem, Yashaswi Mohanty

Honors Theses

This thesis consists of two independent albeit related chapters. The first chapter introduces concepts from mechanism design and matching theory, and discusses potential applications of this theory, particularly in relation to dorm allocations in colleges. The second chapter investigates a subset of the dorm allocation problem, namely that of matching roommates. In particular, the paper looks at the probability of solvability of random instances of the stable roommates game under the condition that preferences are not completely random and exogenous but endogenously determined through a dependence on room choice. These probabilities are estimated using Monte-Carlo simulations and then compared with …

Parametric Polynomials For Small Galois Groups, Claire Huang

Honors Theses

Galois theory, named after French mathematician Evariste Galois in 19th-century, is an important part of abstract algebra. It brings together many different branches of mathematics by providing connections among fields, polynomials, and groups.

Specifically, Galois theory allows us to attach a finite field extension with a finite group. We call such a group the Galois group of the finite field extension. A typical way to attain a finite field extension to compute the splitting field of some polynomial. So we can always start with a polynomial and find the finite group associate to the field extension on its splitting field. …

What Effects Did United Airlines' De-Hubbing Of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Have On Cleveland Passengers?, Joshua A. Young

Honors Theses

This paper uncovers the effects on passengers from United Airlines’ 2014 de-hubbing of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE). Airline networks are often reorganized for efficiency; during the process, an airport may gain or lose hub operations, affecting passengers in different ways depending on the market environment. I take an empirical approach using difference-in-differences models to analyze 28 quarters of Bureau of Transportation Statistics data. I find that de-hubbing contributed to significant reductions in airfare per mile out of CLE. This is consistent with past cases of de-hubbing where low-cost carriers were present. However, quality measures, including the number of nonstop …

Is It A Dragon? No, It's A Salamander. The Supreme Court's Effort To Slay The Partisan Gerrymander, Tim Harris

Honors Theses

The Supreme Court sits on the precipice of undertaking major action to limit the strength and scope of partisan gerrymandering. The Court has never struck down a partisan gerrymander. Although the Court appears to possess the authority to invalidate an unconstitutionally discriminatory districting plan, it has never decided on what indicates unconstitutional discrimination in districting. It has never settled on a workable standard to judge whether or not a specific partisan gerrymander is unconstitutional. In November 2016, a lower court in Wisconsin struck down a partisan gerrymander and put forward what it claims is a workable standard to judge the …

Drawing Borders: Images, Representation, And (In)Visibility Of Migrants On The Balkan Route, Nora Hill

Honors Theses

This honors thesis in Global Studies explores issues of (in)visibility and representation of migrants travelling along the Balkan Route to Western Europe from 2015-2018 through visual analysis of the images of migrants and borders found in news media, social media posts, art galleries, and on the cell phones of migrants and activists. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Belgrade, Serbia, one of the key nodes of the Route, as well as online archival research, I examine key differences in the ways migrants are represented and examine the power relations that are represented and reinforced through these images. My research is rooted …

From Antagonists To Protagonists: Muslims On The Hollywood Screen, Brooke K. Gentry

Honors Theses

I investigate the depictions of Muslims in Hollywood film. Have the Muslim protagonists been reduced to antagonists? Are the depictions historically and culturally relevant? How can films psychologically impact viewers? What kinds of stereotypes pervade even the most innocuous of films? What context to these stereotypes rise out of? What impact do Hollywood images of Muslims have on the ideas, actions, and politics of the American public? How do non-Hollywood films portray Muslims, and what impact do these films have on viewers? This paper finds that Hollywood’s negative portrayal of Muslims is not an accident. It reflects the geopolitical atmosphere …

From Forced To Voluntary Participation: The History Of Biomedical Human Experimentation In The United States After The Second World War, Haley L. Andonian

Honors Theses

For as long as medicine and medical practices have been around, so has the need for testing treatments in or procedures on the human body. Over the course of history, however, the nature, structure, and prominence of human biomedical experimentation has changed drastically both on an international and national level. My thesis focuses on revealing the driving forces behind these changes in administrative, legal and social factors related to human experimentation in an effort to connect the dots from the manipulative, forceful and unethical experimentation of early medical practitioners to the safe, voluntary and highly regulated experimentation characteristic of clinical …

Painters Of Modernity: A Bourdieusian Analysis Of Manet And Degas, Gillian Wei

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I utilize the theoretical framework of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to analyze the representation of class ideology in the paintings of French Impressionists Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas. Using Bourdieu’s theories of habitus and class distinction, I investigate various historical and biographical factors to illustrate how Manet and Degas were simultaneously endowed with significant cultural and economic capital of the old elite, yet predisposed to create reactionary art. I also identify several examples of bourgeoisie iconography within specific paintings created by these two artists. I argue that Manet and Degas, acting as agents within the fields of cultural …

The Colby Community In World War I, Eleanor A. Hanson

Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the roles of members of the Colby community during World War I from 1914 until after the Armistice. It covers the roles of soldiers, students, and members of the home front, all somehow related to Colby College to discover how Colby and its community engaged with the war.

Welcome To Europe? Consequences Of The Eu-Turkey Deal For Refugees Contained On Lesvos, Julia Endicott

Honors Theses

In 2015, the world experienced the greatest flow of migrations since World War II. During that year, more than one million people entered Europe, the majority of whom werefleeing civil war and political unrest in the countries of Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Eritrea, aswell as many other places. The quantity of refugees was unprecedented and challenged theexisting borders of Europe. Some countries on the continent were willing to accept newcomers,while others acted to keep them out. One tactic developed by European Union (EU) policymakers to manage the migration flows was the EU-Turkey Deal, which was implemented onMarch 20, 2016. Under …

Algebraic Number Theory And Simplest Cubic Fields, Jianing Yang

Honors Theses

The motivation behind this paper lies in understanding the meaning of integrality in general number fields. I present some important definitions and results in algebraic number theory, as well as theorems and their proofs on cyclic cubic fields. In particular, I discuss my understanding of Daniel Shanks' paper on the simplest cubic fields and their class numbers.

Stable Bromine Isotope Signature Of Bromoform From Enzymatic And Abiotic Formation Pathways And Its Application In Identifying Sources Of Environmental Bromoform In The Damariscotta River, Chengyang Wang

Honors Theses

Bromoform is a major source of atmospheric bromine. Most bromoform is produced by marine organisms including macroalgae and phytoplankton, using the enzyme bromoperoxidase (BPO). Bromoform can also be a byproduct of industrial processes such as water disinfection. Identifying sources of environmental bromoform is still a challenge. A novel technique of using quadrupole mass spectrometry coupled to a gas chromatography (GCqMS) was developed and optimized for Br isotope analyses. The study shows that GCqMS in single ion monitoring (SIM) mode can measure 81Br with precision of around ±0.7‰ (60pmol bromoform injected). This study aims to investigate stable Br isotopes of bromoform …

The Effects Of Nutrient Limitation On Toxin Production For The Harmful Algal Bloom Species, Pseudo-Nitzschia, In The Gulf Of Maine, Julia M. Park

Honors Theses

Pseudo-nitzschia is a pennate marine diatom that produces the neurotoxin domoic acid (DA). Domoic acid accumulates in the digestive tract of filter feeders and becomes concentrated at higher trophic levels. When DA concentrations reach critical levels, consumption of toxic shellfish can induce a condition known as Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP), which has been responsible for the deaths of marine mammals, seabirds and humans. This study worked to respond to a toxic Pseudo-nitzschia bloom in the Gulf of Maine during the fall of 2016, with the goal of quantifying and identifying Pseudo-nitzschia spp. in the bloom region and to determine the …

When You Meet Me Again: A Novel, Jacob O. Hyatt

Honors Theses

This document is Part One of a novel. Join an unnamed central character and five other odd individuals on a journey through a near-future college landscape, where a virtual-reality sandbox world called "Daydreamz" provides people with the opportunity to do whatever they want in a fake landscape of their own creation. This freedom ultimately comes with a deadly cost...

Presence And Potential Sources Of Pharmaceutical And Personal Care Product Chemicals In Messalonskee Lake, Alyssa T. Kullberg

Honors Theses

Pharmaceuticals and personal care product chemicals (PPCPs) represent a large group of contaminants that are mostly not regulated in surface or drinking water and whose presence and environmental and health impacts are poorly understood. We investigated the presence and potential sources of 18 PPCPs in Messalonskee Lake. We collected samples four times over the summer of 2017 at 13 sites around the lake. Samples were tested for PPCPs using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. We detected five out of the 18 PPCPs we tested for at the ng/L level: caffeine, 1,7-dimethylxanthine, acetaminophen, sulfachloropyridazine, and amphetamine. PPCPs showed a significant positive correlation …

Compositional Craft And Theory Across Tonal Languages, Liam Butchart

Honors Theses

This paper accompanies Liam Butchart's senior honors voice recital and his composition for the Colby Symphony Orchestra, Genevan Overture. The essay examines how form and cadence, two integral components of compositional craft, have been utilized by composers who either were included in the voice recital or were major influences on the composition. Specifically, the paper analyzes how different composers end their musical sentences similarly and differently through the lens of structurally-relevant cadences.

“¿Qué Coño Es Esto?”: Exploración De Identidad De Género Y De Orientación Sexual En La Mucama De Omicunlé, Vianny C. Lugo Aracena

Honors Theses

La mucama de Omicunlé (2015) es una novela escrita por la autora dominicana Rita Indiana, que lidia con temas que son considerados tabúes dentro de la sociedad dominicana: sexualidad, identidad de género, y espiritualidad afrodescendiente. Indiana utiliza la espiritualidad afrodescendiente para facilitar la exploración de las respectivas identidades de género y de orientación sexual en los personajes principales, Acilde y Argenis. El utilizar la espiritualidad afrodescendiente también permite ver a la novela como un texto literario que utiliza el patakí, una narración que contiene conocimientos afrodescendientes, como elemento estructural principal. Los temas que normalmente caracterizan a los patakíes son abundantes …

Emerging Care Regimes: An Analysis Of The Domestic Labor Market Of Shanghai, Nellie S. Lavalle

Honors Theses

The People’s Republic of China today faces a rapidly growing demand for care. Care consists of childcare, eldercare, and various domestic duties. Due to the increased pressures for dual-earner families and the aging population, there has emerged a significant deficit between the amount of care needed and the care available. In recent years, private employee-based enterprises have risen to a prominent position in the system of care provision. The phenomenon leads to questions of how states structure care provision. This paper seeks to answer two questions. First, what care-regime model has arisen in Shanghai to meet the demands of the …

On Spectral Theorem, Muyuan Zhang

Honors Theses

There are many instances where the theory of eigenvalues and eigenvectors has its applications. However, Matrix theory, which usually deals with vector spaces with finite dimensions, also has its constraints. Spectral theory, on the other hand, generalizes the ideas of eigenvalues and eigenvectors and applies them to vector spaces with arbitrary dimensions. In the following chapters, we will learn the basics of spectral theory and in particular, we will focus on one of the most important theorems in spectral theory, namely the spectral theorem. There are many different formulations of the spectral theorem and they convey the "same" idea. In …