Digital Commons Network^™

A Critical Analysis Of American Foreign Policy In The Syrian Civil War, Sydney Heath

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the development of American policy in the Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011 and has caused the world’s largest refugee crisis, among other humanitarian issues. Through analyzing popular debates about U.S. foreign policy in Syria, this project attempts to determine how the United States should have responded to President Bashar al-Assad’s aggression towards his people in order to most effectively alleviate suffering. The analysis finds that the United States under President Obama missed a crucial opportunity to weaken Assad and prevent the suffering of millions of Syrians. This paper also explores the present day implications of …

An Analysis Of Impacts Of Covid-19 On Salary Cap Allocation And Performance In The National Football League, Abai Houser

CMC Senior Theses

Professional sports are one of the most successful industries in the world. The live spectacle and in-person nature make sporting events a unique and individual experience. COVID-19 shifted how athletic events were operated, financed, and viewed, thereby changing leagues as well. The National Football League was one of the last sports to start its season during 2019 and 2020, setting the stage as the only league to not isolate its players in a safe operating space. This paper studies the effects of COVID-19 on the salary cap management of teams after the pandemic. The findings suggest that financial metrics analyzed …

Rice, Reciprocity, And Generosity: Embedded Ecologies In Hindu Women’S Rituals, Zoe Carlson

CMC Senior Theses

Hindu women’s perspectives of the more-than-human world are illuminated through ritual. Researching ecological actions millions of people of different faiths across the world partake in every day, in the context of the climate crisis of our present time, is a vital project I undertake in this thesis. I look to Hinduism, which has traditionally been called an “ecological” religion, but without a clear definition of what “ecological” means. I use Vijaya Nagarajan’s theories about Hinduism, women, and ecology as a theoretical guide. I apply her theory of “embedded ecologies” to analyze how knowledge about the environment is layered in cultural, …

Economic Propaganda In The United States, Brooklyn Montgomery

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis aims to identify and analyze three different forms of economic propaganda: cultural, structural, and political. I first examine ‘Do What You Love’ culture and its impact on the labor force. Chapter Two explores the propagation of neoliberal economics as an objective study, and the final chapter analyzes the use of Black capitalism as a political mechanism to quell Black radical sentiment. In detailing these phenomenons, I investigate the implementation, normalization, and effects, as well as the material repercussions of these ideas and structures.

The Faces Of War: Reintroducing Women's Narratives In War, Robin Makena Peterson

CMC Senior Theses

Women take part in every war, but their accomplishments are mostly unacknowledged in the thousands of war stories told in the aftermath which tend to valorize men’s contributions as political leaders and soldiers. This erasure of women’s experience’s and agency in war holds true for war in Afghanistan, as well. This thesis identifies the gendered narratives told in books, movies, television shows, and the media but then offers, in contrast, narratives of Afghan and American women’s action during the forty years of war in Afghanistan. By sharing and contextualizing women’s stories, this paper strikes a blow against women’s erasure from …

Using Short Bursts To Optimize Redistricting In Georgia, Vedika Vishweshwar

CMC Senior Theses

Identifying extreme outliers in large state spaces is a difficult prob-
lem. I consider this problem in the context of finding political district-
ing plans that maximize the number of districts in which the majority
of the population is from a minority group, such as African Americans.
Since the set of all possible districting plans is enormous and unfeasi-
ble to examine in practice, this paper proposes a sampling method to
find these outlying plans. Specifically, this paper experiments with short
bursts in the context of minority voting rights in Georgia. Short bursts
are a type of Markov Chain in …

Migration And The Quality Of American Cities, Chase Mendell

CMC Senior Theses

Across the United States, cities are expanding. It is the role of the city leaders to promote policies that benefit both current and incoming residents. While these policies have intended results, the realized benefits and damages are challenging to define because they are the result of individual choices and the unique characteristics of the city. As a result, policymakers need to consider a complex web of factors such as employment, taxation, housing, mobility, and environmental quality. This thesis seeks to analyze these overlapping factors to discuss how policymakers can increase well-being while mitigating potential harms.

Designing Virtual Reality Headsets To Prevent Myopia, Kyril Van Schendel

CMC Senior Theses

Virtual reality (VR) headsets are currently being designed and developed for consumer use. Simultaneously, the rate of myopic development is increasing around the world. Little is known about the connection between the proximity viewing in VR headsets and myopic development. The past three decades of research have indicated a probable relationship between near-work activities and the development of myopia. Based on the current research, VR headsets do not appear to induce a strong myopiagenic stimulus on axial elongation. This paper offers a potential explanation and proposes a set of design recommendations for designing future VR headsets that prevent myopia.

Mixing Sports And Politics: How Totalitarian Regimes Used Sports To Achieve The Goals Of The State, Caroline Phillips

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores how sports were used by totalitarian regimes to achieve the goals of the state. The three case studies involve the totalitarian governments of interwar Europe: Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and Spanish Francoism. Three main trends were identified. Sports were used to improve their nation’s health and fitness for military preparation, construct a national identity, and as a diplomatic tool to improve their international reputation. I also explore what ideological themes lent themselves to construction of these three specific goals.

Dynamic Nonlinear Gaussian Model For Inferring A Graph Structure On Time Series, Abhinuv Uppal

CMC Senior Theses

In many applications of graph analytics, the optimal graph construction is not always straightforward. I propose a novel algorithm to dynamically infer a graph structure on multiple time series by first imposing a state evolution equation on the graph and deriving the necessary equations to convert it into a maximum likelihood optimization problem. The state evolution equation guarantees that edge weights contain predictive power by construction. After running experiments on simulated data, it appears the required optimization is likely non-convex and does not generally produce results significantly better than randomly tweaking parameters, so it is not feasible to use in …

In Search Of Unicorns: An Analysis Of Japan's Startup Ecosystem, Kaito Komoriya

CMC Senior Theses

While Japan previously dominated global consumer markets in innovative electronic products, the economy has failed to live up to this performance since the burst of the asset price bubble in 1992 and the subsequent lost decades. In the modern economy, startup companies have become synonymous with innovation. Most of these companies have emerged from Silicon Valley, as well as other startup hubs around the globe. However, critics have criticized Japan for the limited number of notable startup companies from the country.

My thesis seeks to answer the two following questions: First, what is the current state of Japan’s startup ecosystem? …

Does The Weapon Of Mass Destruction Impact Masses Equally? Examining The Disproportionate Impacts Of Nuclear Weapons, Carley Barnhart

CMC Senior Theses

Regarded as the most powerful weapon ever created, the nuclear weapon is associated with mass destruction and even total annihilation. This thesis aims to answer the question: does the weapon of mass destruction impact masses equally? The use of three theoretical lenses is employed to guide this thesis’ analysis: the lenses of internal colonialism, neocolonialism, and feminism. These lenses allow for previously marginalized experiences to be placed at the center of analysis. The entirety of the ‘nuclear web’, from nuclear scholarship and nuclear decision-making to weapons design, creation, production, and disarmament is analyzed to understand the total impacts of the …

Forest Offsets In The California Carbon Market: Challenges Of A Market Based Climate Solution, Eric Warmoth

CMC Senior Theses

Within California’s cap-and-trade program, forest offsets allow landowners to earn carbon credits for protecting forests that sequester carbon and sell these credits to polluters that can then emit one additional ton of carbon. The state’s top regulator, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), is tasked with overseeing cap-and-trade and the forest offset system. CARB is currently updating the state’s Climate Change Scoping Plan to set California on track to achieve its 2030 climate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels. CARB is approving forest offsets that overestimate emissions reductions, while allowing companies to continue polluting in …

How To Vote Well: Rebuilding Barriers To Demagoguery And Incentivizing Responsible Leadership In The American Republic, Harper Rubin

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between the public and government institutions in the United States as a way to form good political leaders. While democracies rely on publics to elect responsible leaders who will act with their constituencies best interests in mind, best interests are not always clear. Furthermore, people are easily duped by demagogues and can be goaded into undermining important democratic institutions that protect rights and freedoms. This thesis first determines what the qualities of good leadership are. Then, it studies how the barriers to demagoguery envisioned by the American founders have deteriorated, partly due to changes in …

A Study Of Limited Bedding And Nesting On Maternal Behavior For Postpartum Depression, Emma Brezoczky

CMC Senior Theses

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects up to 20% of mothers in the US and can detrimentally affect both the mother and psychosocial development of the child (Pearlstein et al, 2009). So far, research on PPD is limited and the underlying neuropathology remains unclear. Low socioeconomic status is one risk factor that increases the risk of PPD tenfold (Goyal et al, 2010). The low resource limited bedding and nesting (LBN) paradigm used for rodents has the potential to model this risk factor. LBN has not previously been studied with PPD, but observations of disrupted maternal behaviors and depressive phenotypes makes it a …

Outside The Box: Using A Sibling Training Protocol To Increase Imaginative Play Among Autistic Children, Rachel Podl

CMC Senior Theses

Autistic children seldom develop imaginary play skills. Previous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of therapist and parent training interventions to increase imaginative play among autistic children. However, few studies have utilized a sibling training model, especially when tackling the complexities of pretend play. The purpose of this study is to examine a sibling training program as a supported intervention for increasing imaginative play among autistic children. The results indicated that the sibling training program was effective in increasing the imaginative play of autistic children. This study demonstrates the importance of incorporating typically developing siblings as change agents in behavioral interventions …

Disembedded Liberalism: The Global Pressure On Democracy, Hallie Spear

CMC Senior Theses

The international political order is at a crossroads with divergent paths. Liberal democracy is once again threatened on the international stage. What's more troubling is that the most stable and influential democracies, the United States, those in Europe and India, seem to be vulnerable to the autocratic wave sweeping through the world. This thesis completes a critical analysis to understand the root causes of the recent disruption to democracy the world has observed. Focusing on three established, diverse, and populous democracies, this thesis investigates the economic conditions at play that made each nation vulnerable to populism. Neoliberal economic policies implemented …

"Ethnic" Some Days, White The Rest: Whittier, Ca As A Case Study In Mexican-American Racialization And Assimilation In Los Angeles County, Maria Gutierrez-Vera

CMC Senior Theses

Per the U.S. Census Bureau, the Latino population in the United States stands at 60.5 million. This thesis tells the story of a few hundred-thousand Mexican-Americans in Southeast Los Angeles County’s suburbs, who live in a region nicknamed the “Mexican Beverly Hills.” This is a unique site of middle-class ethnic affluence, but also a place where questions of “Hispanic” racial identity, assimilation, and belonging are played out. The Mexican Beverly Hills promises residents the fulfillment of their own (Mexican-) American Dream, but also plays into tropes of model minorities, demands assimilation and ethnic betrayal from its residents, and is the …

The Transforming Importance Of Social Skills In The Labor Market In The 2010s, Andrew Bradjan

CMC Senior Theses

The growing importance of social skills has led to an increase in returns to wages and employment for workers specializing in social skill-intensive occupations. Between 2012 and 2019, social skill-intensive occupations grew by 3 percentage points as a share of the U.S. labor force. Math-intensive occupations also grew by a similar amount during this time. To analyze these patterns, I utilize a model of team production where workers trade tasks to exploit their comparative advantage. Social skills reduce coordination costs between workers and allow them to specialize and cooperate with other workers more effectively by trading tasks. This model predicts …

Liquidity Outbreak: A 49 Country Analysis Of The Money Supply’S Effect On Stock Markets During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Dylan Porter

CMC Senior Theses

This paper compares the effects of monthly money growth on monthly stock market performance in 49 countries around the world before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries are grouped in aggregate, by continent, and development status. OLS panel regressions show that lagged monetary growth variables are better monetary indicators of stock market performance than contemporaneous values. Variables that measure the pandemic’s progress (infections/deaths and government responses) are included alongside macro-economic variables but are seldom significant. Monetary growth had less correlation with the stock market during the pre-pandemic period (January 2018 - December 2020), suggesting that the uncertain economic conditions of …

“¿Te Acuerdas?” An Anecdotal And Critical Analysis Of Storytelling As A Pedagogical Tool For Chicano Nationalism And Pride, Lesley Chavarria

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the validity of storytelling as a pedagogical tool for students, particularly students of color. The project begins by presenting the value of storytelling and communal education using Zapatista philosophy and indigenous examples. The goal of this theoretical foundation is to begin to critically think about what education is, versus what it can be. Then, the main case study is introduced in the next section: Escuela Tlatelolco. Escuela Tlatelolco is a Chicano centric school in Colorado that closed in 2017. Through numerous primary sources, my discussion of the school will illuminate how this community used storytelling to support …

Rural Development In Papua New Guinea: Mining, Logging, Agriculture, And Alternatives, Tj Askew

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines multiple approaches to providing rural, indigenous Papuans with improved social services and economic opportunities. Rural Papuans, who make up 80 percent of the population, face below average rates of nutrition, education, disease, crime, and other quality of life indicators. Due to location, land use rights, lack of infrastructure, and minimal access to economic markets, the PNG government has struggled to provide rural communities with basic social services. Historically, the development of resource extraction projects such as mining, logging, and agriculture have been the main strategies used to improve the livelihood of rural Papuans, with limited success. This …

Mano Dura And Beyond: An Analysis Of Police Reform In Latin America, Ari Moore

CMC Senior Theses

Physical insecurity and high rates of crime plague Latin America. The problem is economically costly, detrimental to physical and mental health, and damaging to political legitimacy, while also fueling a migration crisis and negatively impacting societal views on human rights. The police are tasked with responding to and investigating crime, but have been historically ineffective at doing so. In recent decades, many countries in the region have implemented significant police reforms in pursuit of decreasing crime and insecurity. This thesis will analyze reforms in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico to determine regional themes of reform. The lessons from those case …

Exploring The Politics Of Fear And Its Intersection With Anti-Asian Violence And Discrimination In The Context Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Madelyn Kwun

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the linkage between the politics of fear and anti-Asian sentiment and violence following the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada and Australia. While anti-Asian sentiment is not new, society does not always address it or educate people on the Asian experience. Throughout the history in which Asians arrived in both Canada and Australia, what started with Chinese exclusion in the late 1800s, led to further discrimination in society leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. The early foundations of mistrust and disgust towards Asians in Canada and Australia made the onset of the COVID- 19 pandemic worse …

Redundant Reliance And The Supreme Court's Application Of Stare Decisis, Daniel Kim

CMC Senior Theses

When the Supreme Court invokes the doctrine of stare decisis in their opinions, they are appealing to the fundamental principle that precedents have authority by virtue of being a precedent. However, they also recognize other concerns that come with the decision to defer to precedents or to overturn them. In pursuit of maintaining the rule of law, the Court uses various legal tests to guide them through sometimes competing concerns of precedential authority, including what is called reliance interests: the consideration of whether the precedent has engendered a reliance to the said precedent, to the extent that overturning it would …

Over-Wintering Grounds Social Behavior Of White-Crowned Sparrows, Lauryn Jeans

CMC Senior Theses

White-Crowned Sparrows (WCSP), Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii, are small, migrating passerine birds whose over-wintering ground social behavior is poorly researched. Suitable wintering grounds must balance climate preference and migration length, are affected by territory size and habitat competition, and have long-term effects on bird fitness. A study observed Golden-Crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia atricapilla) returning every year to the same wintering ground and forming strong social communities during those winter months. We predicted that WCSPs exhibit wintering ground fixation and form stable flock structure at the Bernard Field Station (BFS) in Southern California during the winter months of October to …

Putative Mechanisms Underlying The Antidepressant Actions Of Ketamine: A Review And Study Proposal, Tristan Reece

CMC Senior Theses

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a highly debilitating and common psychiatric disorder that affects over 250 million people globally; it is among the most financially and emotionally burdensome illnesses in the world. Currently approved antidepressants are suboptimal in their efficacy and latency of therapeutic action. In contrast, single administrations of sub-anesthetic ketamine have been shown to rapidly alleviate depressive symptoms within hours, even in treatment-resistant patients. Ketamine is believed to exert these effects by increasing glutamatemediated neurotransmission and promoting rapid neurotrophic factor release, restoring the integrity of neural circuits that are compromised in depression. However, uncertainty surrounding its specific antidepressant …

The Federal Reserve’S Qe Practices Impact On Inflation: A Comparative Analysis Of The Gfc And Covid-Eras, Robert Driscoll

CMC Senior Theses

This paper investigates and compares the effects of the Fed’s quantitative easing policies on US inflation during the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-era up to February of 2022. As inflation continues to rise, a quantitative measurement of the Fed’s monetary policy response to recessions and its resulting effect on the price level is becoming increasingly relevant. Supporting the quantity monetary theory, I test the impact of the Fed’s increasing their total assets and securities on their balance sheet on CPI and core CPI. Using multiple time series regressions and a single lag component on the analyzed variables. The model …

Analyzing Marriage Statistics As Recorded In The Journal Of The American Statistical Association From 1889 To 2012, Annalee Soohoo

CMC Senior Theses

The United States has been tracking American marriage statistics since its founding. According to the United States Census Bureau, “marital status and marital history data help federal agencies understand marriage trends, forecast future needs of programs that have spousal benefits, and measure the effects of policies and programs that focus on the well-being of families, including tax policies and financial assistance programs.”[1] With such a wide scope of applications, it is understandable why marriage statistics are so highly studied and well-documented.

This thesis will analyze American marriage patterns over the past 100 years as documented in the Journal of …

The Impact Of Social Movements On Austerity Measures: An Analysis Of Argentina’S Piquetero Movement And Greece’S Anti-Austerity Movement, Katrina D. Frei-Herrmann

CMC Senior Theses

Social movements have sprung up in countries after their respective economies experience an economic crisis and the International Monetary Fund places restrictions on a country’s fiscal policy. Argentina’s piquetero movement and Greece’s anti-austerity movement have both mobilized after economic crises to protest the neoliberal shifts to their economics, yet their success at shifting those policies have not been studied sufficiently. The dominant explanation for social movement success involves analyzing political opportunities or seeing the social movement as an actor with limited resources. These existent methods fail to answer how nuances about internal decisions or forms of protest could influence the …