Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Claremont Colleges

2014

Discipline
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 91 - 102 of 102

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Let's Not Eat Alone: A Search For Food Security Justice, Emma Shorr Jan 2014

Let's Not Eat Alone: A Search For Food Security Justice, Emma Shorr

Pitzer Senior Theses

The food justice movement has taken off in recent years. Despite its call for justice in the food system, it has been critiqued as being inaccessible to people who need food the most. The food system marginalizes women, minorities, and low-income people, making these groups the most at risk for food insecurity. Solutions to food insecurity come from both government and non-governmental avenues. This thesis calls for a merger of solutions to food insecurity and food justice in food security justice, and assesses the ability of solutions to food insecurity to confront issues of injustice. Community-based solutions currently have the …

Go to article

A Discussion Of The Impact Of Political And Economic Forces On Equitable Access To Potable Water In Ecuador And Recommendations For Improvement Through Better Watershed Management, Eliza States Jan 2014

A Discussion Of The Impact Of Political And Economic Forces On Equitable Access To Potable Water In Ecuador And Recommendations For Improvement Through Better Watershed Management, Eliza States

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis will address the impact of political and economic forces on the equitable access to fresh water in Ecuador. Demographic factors such as the rural-to-urban migration and the political and economic forces have strongly influenced the debate over the privatization of the provision of potable water and sanitation services. Within the context of Ecuador, two different approaches by the largest cities, Quito and Guayaquil, are analyzed; in Guayaquil, the services were privatized, while in Quito, the public utility was corporatized, remaining under public control. It concludes arguing that in the face of political instability and a lack of regulatory …

Go to article

A Volumetric Study Of Aqueous Butanol Solutions, Priyanka P. Chary Jan 2014

A Volumetric Study Of Aqueous Butanol Solutions, Priyanka P. Chary

Scripps Senior Theses

Alcohol molecules consist of two distinct regions: a polar, hydrophilic alcohol group, and an aliphatic hydrocarbon chain. These regions interact with solvent water molecules in different ways. While the alcohol group acts as a solvent structure breaker by hydrogen bonding with nearby water molecules, the hydrophobic carbon chain acts instead as a solvent structure maker and causes the surrounding water molecules to align themselves in a Clathrate structure. The presence of these two contrasting solute-solvent interactions affects the properties of the solution, among them the molar volume. The partial molar volume of the alcohol is analyzed with respect to three …

Go to article

Wetlands And Greenhouse Gas Fluxes: Causes And Effects Of Climate Change – A Meta-Analysis, Robert E. Ventura Jan 2014

Wetlands And Greenhouse Gas Fluxes: Causes And Effects Of Climate Change – A Meta-Analysis, Robert E. Ventura

Pomona Senior Theses

Climate change is one of the largest problems facing this generation. Anthropogenically caused increases of greenhouse gas emissions is a significant culprit to this problem. Although the obvious problems such as cars, industry, and urbanism garnish a significant amount of the criticism, natural sources such as wetlands are also beginning to contribute to this issue. This is becoming increasingly significant as wetlands shift from being sinks of greenhouse gases to becoming sources as various anthropogenic impacts, including global warming itself, begin to affect the health of the wetlands. The aim of this project is to look at four common types …

Go to article

“It’S Like We Are Free”: An Analysis Of Soccer-Based Programming In A California Prison, Lillian S. Barrett-O'Keefe Jan 2014

“It’S Like We Are Free”: An Analysis Of Soccer-Based Programming In A California Prison, Lillian S. Barrett-O'Keefe

Pitzer Senior Theses

The concept of space goes well beyond just buildings and infrastructure; it can represent feelings of attachment and belonging, it can interact with us and generate meaning. The built environment is not just the “backdrop” of our lives, but rather it plays a major role in them. In the state of California prisons have become a prominent element of our communal landscape, now housing 2.4 million Americans today. This paper explores prisons as a rich site of analysis in terms of how our built environment affects our daily lives. In order to delve into this analysis, I will explore sport-based …

Go to article

Missing Voices, Hidden Fields: The Gendered Struggles Of Female Farmworkers, Keiko A. Budech Jan 2014

Missing Voices, Hidden Fields: The Gendered Struggles Of Female Farmworkers, Keiko A. Budech

Pitzer Senior Theses

Known for its fertile soil and ideal climate, California has been one of the most agriculturally productive areas in the world. Often left out of this picture are the farmworkers who make it possible. Within this farmworker community, females are a sub-class that has been even more marginalized. This thesis investigates the gendered aspects of fieldwork and exposes female leadership working towards changing these specific struggles, such as sexual harassment in the fields, domestic abuse, pesticide exposure, and the perpetuation of submissive gender roles in the household and workplace. An in-depth case study of Lideres Campesinas, a community- based grassroots …

Go to article

A Look Into The Industry Of Video Games Past, Present, And Yet To Come, Chad Hadzinsky Jan 2014

A Look Into The Industry Of Video Games Past, Present, And Yet To Come, Chad Hadzinsky

CMC Senior Theses

Since its inception, the video game industry has been both a new medium for art and innovation as well as a major driving force in the advancements of many technologies. The often overlooked video game industry has turned from a hobby to a multi-billion dollar industry in its short, forty year life. People of all ages and genders across the world are playing video games at a higher clip than ever before. With so many new gamers and emerging technologies, it is an exciting time for the industry. The landscape is constantly changing and successful business models of the past …

Go to article

Finding Zeros Of Rational Quadratic Forms, John F. Shaughnessy Jan 2014

Finding Zeros Of Rational Quadratic Forms, John F. Shaughnessy

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, we introduce the notion of quadratic forms and provide motivation for their study. We begin by discussing Diophantine equations, the field of p-adic numbers, and the Hasse-Minkowski Theorem that allows us to use p-adic analysis determine whether a quadratic form has a rational root. We then discuss search bounds and state Cassels' Theorem for small-height zeros of rational quadratic forms. We end with a proof of Cassels' Theorem and suggestions for further reading.

Go to article

Block Kaczmarz Method With Inequalities, Jonathan Briskman Jan 2014

Block Kaczmarz Method With Inequalities, Jonathan Briskman

CMC Senior Theses

The Kaczmarz method is an iterative algorithm that solves overdetermined systems of linear equalities. This paper studies a system of linear equalities and inequalities. We use the block version of the Kaczmarz method applied towards the equalities with the simple randomized Kaczmarz scheme for the inequalities. This primarily involves combining Needell and Tropp's work on the block Kaczmarz method with the application of a randomized Kaczmarz approach towards a system of equalities and inequalities performed by Leventhal and Lewis. We give an expected linear rate of convergence for this kind of system and find that using the block Kaczmarz scheme …

Go to article

Scalable Collaborative Filtering Recommendation Algorithms On Apache Spark, Walker Evan Casey Jan 2014

Scalable Collaborative Filtering Recommendation Algorithms On Apache Spark, Walker Evan Casey

CMC Senior Theses

Collaborative filtering based recommender systems use information about a user's preferences to make personalized predictions about content, such as topics, people, or products, that they might find relevant. As the volume of accessible information and active users on the Internet continues to grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to compute recommendations quickly and accurately over a large dataset. In this study, we will introduce an algorithmic framework built on top of Apache Spark for parallel computation of the neighborhood-based collaborative filtering problem, which allows the algorithm to scale linearly with a growing number of users. We also investigate several different variants …

Go to article

Changing The Climate Narrative: How A Long-Term Climate Change Might Save Our Lives, Natalie P. Harreld Jan 2014

Changing The Climate Narrative: How A Long-Term Climate Change Might Save Our Lives, Natalie P. Harreld

CMC Senior Theses

The goal of this paper is to offer new insights into the climate change debate by shifting away from the heated anthropologic arguments that dominate politics, media, and popular science. Instead, I choose to rely on the long-term impacts of a changing climate on our planet. The paper begins with a break down of key processes involved in short-term and long-term climate change, using the latest research. After a foundational understanding of climate sciences is established, we will discuss the failure of the climate change debate in educating the general public about the facts of a changing climate. Finally, the …

Go to article

Colormoo: An Algorithmic Approach To Generating Color Palettes, Joshua Rael Jan 2014

Colormoo: An Algorithmic Approach To Generating Color Palettes, Joshua Rael

CMC Senior Theses

Selecting one color can be done with relative ease, but this task becomes more difficult with each subsequent color. Colormoo is an online tool aimed at solving this problem. We implement three algorithms for generating color palettes based off of a starting color. Data is collected for each palette that is generated. Our analysis reveals two of the algorithms are preferred, but under different circumstances. Furthermore, we find that users prefer palettes containing colors that are compatible, but not too similar. With refined heuristics, we believe these techniques can be extended and applied beyond the field of graphic design alone.

Go to article

First Prev