Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating Energy Storage Methods For The Stabilization Of Rural Microgrids, Colin Pennock

Honors Theses

Microgrids are a hot topic in industry at the moment due to their ability to help integrate renewables into the national grid. However, they are mainly used in urban settings, despite the stability benefits they could provide to rural communities. This research aims to help expand microgrids into a rural context by building a streamlined, phasor-domain model of a microgrid in MATLAB-Simulink’s toolbox Simscape Electrical and using it to evaluate three energy storage options: a national grid connection, battery, and flywheel. My capstone involved testing models of these three solutions by subjecting my overall microgrid to faults typical of a …

Mental Health Is Wealth Too: Did The Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion Improve Mental Health Outcomes?, Dereck Wang

Honors Theses

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated mental health, which has long been a growing problem in the United States; poor mental health not only jeopardizes the well-being of Americans but also has severe implications for America’s economy. Not only do mental health conditions have significant costs of treatment, but the absenteeism, presenteeism, early retirement, and mortality stemming from poor mental health also severely impact productivity. One health policy that could alleviate this problem is Medicaid expansion. The Affordable Care Act gave states the choice to expand Medicaid eligibility for individuals with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty …

Women Are More Likely To Use Tentative Language, I Think: A Literary And Statistical Analysis Of Ulysses By James Joyce And Debate Speech, Cozette Blumenfeld, Claire Bracken, Tomas Dvorak

Honors Theses

Language and its utilization can provide valuable information about individuals and their cultural norms. Negotiation is a major factor of the gender wage gap, perpetuated by gender bias. This paper seeks to discover—does language influence gendered cultural norms? Or reflect it? This thesis is divided into eight sections that engage the relationship between gender and language in literature and debate speech. Through critical literary and statistical analysis of the “Penelope” and “Proteus” chapters of Ulysses by James Joyce, it is evident that the female chapter’s invalidation found in literary criticism is from the reception of her speech, and not the …

Development Of Quantitative Methods To Study Pfas Using Proton Induced Gamma-Ray Emission, Colin Langton

Honors Theses

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made chemicals that have become a major environmental concern. They can be found in a broad range of everyday products and pose a significant risk to the public due to their adverse health effects. They are persistent, bioaccumulate and do not break down in the environment. This project specifically aims to determine the concentration of Fluorine, a key identifier of PFAS, in environmental samples. To do this, we employ proton induced gamma-ray emission (PIGE) to screen for Fluorine within our samples. PIGE is performed at the Union College Ion Beam Analysis Laboratory using a …

Investigating The Thermodynamics And Seismic Profile Of The Europan Hydrosphere Through Pure-Water Modeling And Saltwater Experiments, Samantha Rosenfeld

Honors Theses

We explore the properties of the hydrosphere on Europa involving both a modeling technique and experimental methods. We perform a computational analysis of the thermodynamic properties for an ideal, pure-water Europan ice shell using a Python programming framework called SeaFreeze. We create four models assuming surface temperatures of either 50 K or 140 K and ice shell thicknesses of either 3 km or 30 km. We observe mostly linear trends for the density and seismic wave velocities with respect to depth and find that surface temperature has the greatest effect on the models. Simultaneously, we experimentally investigate the phase diagram …

Sewage And Pathogen Contamination In Urban Streams In Schenectady In The Lower Mohawk Watershed, Joanna Wright

Honors Theses

Urban streams are becoming increasingly polluted by anthropogenic activity, and in Schenectady (NY) two primary stressors include poor wastewater infrastructure and road salt use. Urban streams in Schenectady include Mill Creek and Cowhorn Creek that empty into the Binnekill (feeder to the Mohawk), and the Hans Groot Kill that empty directly into the Mohawk River. These streams were sampled to evaluate water quality and analyzed for pathogens. This study is primarily focused on fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) Enterococcus, which is an EPA-approved method of determining surface water quality and it is an established indicator of sewage in waterways. The average …

Sexual Objectification Of Women: What Can Ancient Rome And Modern Psychology Teach Us?, Noa Raskin

Honors Theses

Sexual objectification (SO) is an omnipresent experience for women that decreases their quality of life. Researching why SO occurs and is perpetuated can help us understand how to decrease the interpersonal, mental health, and safety consequences women face from being sexually objectified. This presentation looks at sexual objectification through the lenses of two different disciplines: psychology and classics. The psychology component involved an empirical study aimed at better comprehending women’s perceptions of their own SO and the connection SO has to Greek life. Nineteen men from Union College completed two scales to assess their direct and indirect SO of women, …

Impact Of Movements On Facial Expression Recognition, Zhebin Yin

Honors Theses

The ability to recognize human emotions can be a useful skill for robots. Emotion recognition can help robots understand our responses to robot movements and actions. Human emotions can be recognized through facial expressions. Facial Expression Recognition (FER) is a well-established research area, how- ever, the majority of prior research is based on static datasets of images. With robots often the subject is moving, the robot is moving, or both. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of movement on facial expression recognition. We apply a pre-existing model for FER, which performs around 70.86% on a given …

The Patient Narrative And The Impositions Of Implicit Biases In Health Care, Dhara Shukla

Honors Theses

The patient narrative includes the patient’s sentiments about their health condition and how this has affected their lifestyle as opposed to a list of ailments. A large portion of the patient’s diagnosis and treatment plan is rooted in the patient’s narrative. If the health care provider does not listen to the patient’s story, they may miss a vital puzzle piece that could aid them in solving the mystery. The extent to which the health care provider listens to and values the patient narrative could be clouded by implicit biases that the provider holds. Implicit biases are preferential attitudes and associations …

Katrina Vs. Ida: A Comparative Analysis Of Fema Housing Recovery Efforts With Regard To Vulnerable Populations, Alyssa Harrynanan

Honors Theses

When Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana in 2005, it revealed disparities in the way that recovery efforts are handled after storms. For example, it demonstrated flaws in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s attempt to provide housing for disaster survivors. The agency failed to adequately accommodate vulnerable populations, including communities of color, low-income individuals, the elderly, and people with disabilities, in its housing recovery process. Since then, efforts have been made to reform the agency and ensure that all individuals, regardless of race, income, education or disability level, are accommodated by FEMA. However, when Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana exactly 16 years later …

Tracking Xenophobic Terminology On Twitter Using Nlp, Harper Lyon

Honors Theses

Social media is a major driver of political thought, with platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok having a massive impact on how people think and vote. For this reason we should take seriously any large shifts in the language used to describe issues or groups on social media, as these are likely to either denote a change in political thought or even forecast the same. Of particular interest, given the international reach of social media, is the way that discussions around foreign relations and immigration play out. In the United States of America online spaces have become the default space …

Sewer System Infrastructure And Stressors On Water Quality In Streams Within The Alplaus Watershed In Upstate Ny, Camryn Ragland

Honors Theses

Healthy aquatic ecosystems require clean water, but many creeks and streams may be impaired by human activity. This study is focused on surface water quality of the Alplaus, and Indian Kill streams located within the Alplaus Watershed in Schenectady and Saratoga Counties (NY). The primary goal of this study is to understand the extent of water quality impairment within the Alplaus and Indian Kill using a range of indicators to understand the impacts of failing infrastructure and stressors to surface water. Sixty-five water samples were collected in the fall of 2021 from six locations in the Alplaus and Indian Kill …

The Influence Of Body Temperature On Motion Patterns On Anolis Lizard Visual Display, Timothy P. Fagan

Honors Theses

Anolis sagrei has a display in the form of bobbing its head up and down. In order to more accurately understand the communication and honesty of the display two experiments were done. Honesty, in reference to it being an honest signal; meaning that this form of communication is correlated with the condition of the animal. The first experiment examined the lizards in a recreated environment. By controlling the temperature of the setting and recording the interaction we were able to determine how changing the temperature could cause a difference in display. The second experiment examined the lizard's ability to see …

Crítica Social Y Esperanza Para Las Próximas Generaciones: Representaciones De Seropositivos En Todo Sobre Mi Madre (1999) Y Positivo (2016), Grace Heiting

Honors Theses

This thesis criticizes the progression of the HIV/AIDS pandemic from post-Franco Spain to contemporary Venezuela through the analysis of a domestic film from each country. From Spain, the comedy-drama film Todo sobre mi madre (1999) by Pedro Almodóvar is a reflection of an earlier stage of the epidemic, when the country was challenged to recreate its political and social identities. Almodóvar’s film highlights the struggles of the LGBTQ community to transgress stereotypes (not limited to HIV) and find hope in future generations to solve the lingering social inequalities. From Venezuela, the short film Positivo (2016) from De Tovar Films is …

Un Estudio Comparativo De Cómo Los Documentales Retratan La Falta De Dignidad Y Humanidad De Las Políticas De Inmigración En España Y Los Estados Unidos: La Normalización De La Detención De Inmigrantes, Lauren Dori

Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes two documentaries that are the primary sources of this project: La puerta azul (2015), directed by Alicia Medina, and Immigration Nation (2020), directed by Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwartz. These documentaries focus on how detainment of undocumented immigrants is dealt with in Spain and the United States, respectively. In Spain, many undocumented Spanish immigrants have been sent to Centros de Internamiento de Extranjeros (CIE) for detainment, while in the United States, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains illegal immigrants. While these are different methods of detainment, both have undermined the humanity of immigrants in the societies …

Los Defectos De La Perfección: Un Análisis De Los Temas Recurrentes De Secretos, Traumas Intergeneracionales E Identidades Biculturales En Yo No Soy Tu Perfecta Hija Mexicana, Tiffany Vembenil

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the social critiques by author Erika L. Sánchez in her debut novel Yo no soy tu perfecta hija mexicana (2017). This is a fictional coming-of-age story of teen Julia Reyes, who is grieving the death of her “perfect” older sister. Sánchez explores intersectional feminism, describing Julia’s struggles with gender roles, power dynamics, race, and socioeconomic status.

Sánchez employs imagery and irony to critique how the judging, silence, and secrecy that younger generations learn from their community permit predatory behavior, sexual assault, and victim-blaming. However, she also shows how keeping secrets can be a necessary evil to protect …

U.S. Monetary Policy As A Hegemonic Tool In Emerging Markets, William Martin

Honors Theses

This paper, drawing on my Senior Thesis, analyzes how the U.S. Federal Reserve policies impact the economic conditions of countries around the world. In particular, my research focuses on eight countries considered as emerging market economies from 2000 to 2020. Country-specific macroeconomic and political variables help me examine how developing countries alter their short-term targets to avoid volatile spillover from Washington. Moreover, I use each country’s sovereign nominal credit spread to assess its economic conditions, in particular its perceived risk premium or cost of borrowing. The countries examined in my thesis are Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, Korea, Qatar, and …

How Presidential Disapproval Affects Bitcoin Returns: A Product Of The President, Joseph Libretti

Honors Theses

There has been a growing fascination for decentralized electronic assets, and Bitcoin has emerged as the face and leader of the movement. There have been three different presidents coinciding with the growth of Bitcoin. Since the creation of Bitcoin, each president has faced periods of net disapproval, and these periods have been the norm throughout Obama’s, Trump’s, and Biden’s presidencies. There is currently no existing literature on Presidential ratings as a predictor of Bitcoin, however, there has been research on the predictors of Bitcoin and Presidential ratings as a predictor of financial markets. I hypothesized that increases in net disapproval …

Die Ermittlung: Eine Analyse, Garyfallia Ralli

Honors Theses

My analysis of The Investigation by Peter Weiss focuses on three songs. In the second song, we can look further into the interactions between the witnesses and the defendants. In this way, we can establish a profile on how the accused react to the charges. In the sixth song, Weiss puts Stark in focus. Upon analysis, we can establish the characteristics that make Stark unique as a perpetrator and relate this to the theory of the banality of evil. In the last song, the different categories of guilt and responsibility related to Holocaust are presented and the timelessness of the …

The Effects Of Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries On Local Opioid Mortality, Patrick Morrison

Honors Theses

This study examines how recreational marijuana dispensaries in Colorado affect opioid mortality at the county level. Using a difference-in-difference model with county and year fixed effects, I estimate the impact of recreational marijuana dispensary access on fatal opioid overdoses. Additionally, I employ distance from a major roadway and border as two instrumental variables to help limit the endogeneity associated with the location of dispensaries. Previous studies have shown that medical and recreational marijuana dispensary access decreases opioid mortality at the state level. Still, no study has explored the connection between recreational marijuana dispensaries and overdoses at the county level. Using …

Implications Of Antibiotic And Bacteriophage Resistance In Environmentally Isolated E. Coli, Michael Connolly

Honors Theses

The increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is an emerging problem for humans. Clinical misuse, overuse in agricultural and food settings, and limited numbers of new antibiotics have accelerated the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. To confront this threat, scientists must develop new therapeutics that kill these antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In this study, we used Escherichia coli to analyze antibiotic and bacteriophage susceptibility. E. coli is a common, mostly benign, enteric, gram-negative bacteria. We isolated three E. coli strains from the Hans Groot Kill, a stream that runs through Union College’s campus. We sought to assess various E. coli strains’ antibiotic resistance, susceptibility …

Investigating The Role Of The Cholesterol Recognition/Interaction Amino-Acid Consensus Sequence In Follicle Stimulating Hormone Receptor Function And Structure, Tatyana Lynn

Honors Theses

Human infertility is a complex disorder that can often be attributed to a dysfunction of the endocrine system. Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is one of many hormones that participate in a complex process in both women and men to regulate normal reproduction. The dysfunction of this hormone and its receptor are some of the many causes of infertility. FSH is secreted by the anterior pituitary and, in women, initiates a cascade of biological events that enable ovulation. FSH carries out its function by binding and activating specific receptors. The FSH receptor (FSHR) is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that is located …

Changes In Work Hours During The Covid-19 Pandemic By Sex, Marital Status, And Parental Status, Margaret Hayes

Honors Theses

In the past several decades, there has been a cultural movement towards women being employed in the labor force rather than working in the home. With the Covid-19 pandemic, as many workers began to work from home, boundaries between home and work became less clear. Using pooled cross-sectional data from the 2019-2020 American Time Use Survey I examine how the work hours of different groups were impacted during the pandemic, with respect to sex, marital status, and parental status. I find that work hours decreased most significantly for partnered mothers who did not work from home. Partnered mothers likely reduced …

Context-Dependent Memory Effects For Those With Adhd Symptomatology, Kira Kascha

Honors Theses

Research has revealed a context-dependent memory effect in which stimuli tested in the same context that they were encoded in tend to be remembered better than stimuli tested in a different context. The impairments of those with ADHD suggest that the restoration of context may be less beneficial for these individuals. The present study examined context-dependent memory effects among individuals with high and low ADHD symptomatology. It was expected that those with higher ADHD symptomatology would benefit less from the restoration of context compared to those with lower ADHD symptomatology. Participants were presented with a series of words on colored …

Bootstrapped Fractional Designs Applied To Models With Both Mixture And Process Variables, Laura Vinton

Honors Theses

Mixture variables are unique as the components must sum to 1, causing problems when there is interaction between mixture and process variables. The best model is the fully linearized model, but this can get large quickly. We began by comparing models on multiple data sets. These models include linear and nonlinear models. After seeing that nonlinear models appear to be the best alternatives, we used the systematically selected fractions of each data set in order to obtain an in and out of sample RMSE. This allows us to see if there is evidence of overfitting, how well the model predicts …

两岸问题从三个看法来谈, Michael Connolly

Honors Theses

现在，我们都知道两岸问题。在问题的基础上：台湾是否属于中国的一部分？当然，台湾跟中国有很大的关系。今天，每些土地都称自己“中国。”差不多四百年以前，台湾成为一个中国的殖民地。很多汉族人来台湾，带了他们的文化和语言。但是，从1895年到1945年，日本领导了台湾。这个外国的领导时期改变了台湾的历史。中国的现代政府，中华人民共和国，连一天都没治理了台湾。但是，这个问题可以造成了战争。为了懂这个问题的重要性，我们得寻找历史了解中国的身份。我们会发现台湾的政治重要性，这个问题结果的未来。这个问题对亚洲和世界的政治和和平很重要。台湾的经济，政治状态使两岸问题当作新冷战的中心。在这个文章，我会分析台湾的历史、政治、经济和国际的看法。

Finance And Fear: Sentiment, Media, And Financial Markets During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Alison N. Sommers

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to build on existing research of market psychology and the effect of sentiment on financial markets. The main objective of this study is to determine the ability of investors to make rational decisions during the most recent period of high sentiment. The anomalies that have occurred in the stock market can be better understood by market psychology which focuses on the biases and social factors that influence investors. The media is a newly relevant factor impacting the volume of sentiment present in the market. A review of literature reveals that many studies of sentiment and financial market’s …

Fight Like A Ya Girl: Fourth Wave Feminism, Defense, And Weaponization Through The Lens Of Object Relations, Amanda Blakeman

Honors Theses

This thesis will discuss how the genre of Young Adult (YA) fiction, more specifically Fantasy YA fiction, reflects the major goals and objectives of fourth wave feminism, ultimately arguing for the need for more intersectional representation in heroine characters. YA Fantasy fiction consistently features a strong heroine in both spirit and body, one who uses weapons to take on systems of injustice in their respective worlds, from systematic child murder to modern slavery. What and how, then, are these books teaching the next generation about feminism? I attempt to answer this question with this thesis, looking at three YA female …

"Meatheads" Redefined: An Analysis Of The Union College Football Team, Michaela Wood

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the experiences and representations of the male football player. It provides an anthropological study of Union College football players and a film analysis of the sports film genre, revealing critical insights about relationships among bodies, diet preferences, and gendered stereotypes. These insights move beyond the “meathead” stereotypes that society constructs for the male football player. This thesis combines Anthropology and English to reveal that questions about hegemonic masculinity arise in the minds of the very athletes who embody the stereotypes of ‘the man.’ Moreover, sports films’ popularity lies in themes that entice men to acknowledge their emotions. …

Migraine And Anxiety In The Context Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Emma Gray

Honors Theses

Migraine and anxiety are common health conditions that are highly comorbid. In this study, I examined the relationship between migraine and anxiety in the context of migraine triggers and the COVID-19 pandemic. 188 participants (mean age = 34.18 years; 10.63% male, 85.63% female, 3.72% other) who were recruited online completed two measures of state-level anxiety and two measures of migraine disability. The first two measures prompted participants to report the anxiety and migraine disability they experienced before the COVID-19 pandemic. The second two measures prompted participants to report the anxiety and migraine disability they experienced during what they personally believed …