Honors Projects

Showing 171 - 180 of 564 Items

Miniature of Phenotypic divergence between sites in photosynthetic thermal response despite low genetic differentiation in Gulf of Maine <i>Ascophyllum nodosum</i>
Phenotypic divergence between sites in photosynthetic thermal response despite low genetic differentiation in Gulf of Maine Ascophyllum nodosum
This record is embargoed.
    • Embargo End Date: 2028-05-18

    Date: 2023-01-01

    Creator: Olivia Bronzo-Munich

    Access: Embargoed



      “Something most girls don’t do” An Ethnographic Study of Women in Extreme Sports

      Date: 2022-01-01

      Creator: Jacqueline Boben

      Access: Open access

      Extreme sports, like skateboarding, whitewater kayaking, and skiing, have historically been male-dominated. As women’s participation in these sports grows, my research asks: how do women navigate sports spaces and cultures that have for so long been defined by men? To answer this question, I draw on ethnographic research on communities of skateboarders, whitewater kayakers and skiers conducted during the summer of 2021 in Bozeman, Montana. I found that the specific landscapes where these extreme sports take place are often conceptualized by participants as more masculine spaces. Within these spaces and communities, women participants often leverage gender performances associated with masculinity to gain entry into these male-dominated communities. Performing in more masculine ways mitigates feelings of hypervisibility, while also helping to build connections to established members of the community. More than simply fitting in, women find that these gendered performances also help them to build competence in the sport. At the same time, women are transforming skateboarding, whitewater kayaking, and skiing through their participation by creating opportunities for more dynamic and fluid gender performances.


      Miniature of Theories of Thanks: Affect Studies, Reciprocity, and Theoretical Perspectives on Gratitude
      Theories of Thanks: Affect Studies, Reciprocity, and Theoretical Perspectives on Gratitude
      This record is embargoed.
        • Embargo End Date: 2027-05-19

        Date: 2022-01-01

        Creator: Clayton James Wackerman

        Access: Embargoed



          Church Space as Queer Place? LGBTQ+ Placemaking, Assimilation, and Subversion within Progressive Faith-Based Spaces in Maine

          Date: 2023-01-01

          Creator: Salina Chin

          Access: Open access

          In popular discourse, understandings of queerness and religiosity as antithetical proliferate. However, the political involvement of Portland, Maine’s First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church in Maine’s queer political movement points to a more complex relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and progressive religious institutions. Through participant observation, archival research, and semi-structured interviews with nine LGBTQ+ community members and informants, I reveal the crucial role of Portland’s First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church in Maine’s queer political movement from the late 1980s into the present day. On the one hand, progressive faith-based spaces across Maine provide safe spaces for queer political organizing. On the other hand, “ephemeral placemaking” in progressive faith-based spaces represents an assimilationist political strategy that stresses LGBTQ+ respectability. Thus, I argue that queer placemaking in progressive faith-based spaces reflects both subversive and assimilationist politics. LGBTQ+ activists utilize ephemeral placemaking strategies within progressive faith-based spaces to challenge political opposition from the religious Right while also reinforcing what Mikulak (2019) terms “godly homonormativity”: the normalization of LGBTQ+ identity and the upholding of heteronormativity by emphasizing respectability and monogamy. My analysis of queer political organizing within progressive faith-based spaces “queers” religion and LGBTQ+ politics, disrupting dominant narratives of religion as homophobic and LGBTQ+ politics as radical.


          Miniature of The Photocatalytic Degradation of 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) and Related Estrogens
          The Photocatalytic Degradation of 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) and Related Estrogens
          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: Kevin Jairre Fleshman

            Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



              Stretch Feedback in the Lobster Heart: Experimental and Computational Analysis

              Date: 2016-05-01

              Creator: Katelyn J Suchyta

              Access: Open access



              Identity Formation in the Lebanese-American Christian Diaspora

              Date: 2024-01-01

              Creator: Matthew Cesar Audi

              Access: Open access

              Since the late 1800s, people have immigrated to the United states from Lebanon and Syria, and the community’s racial and ethnic position within the United States has been contested ever since. Previous research emphasizes that while people from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are legally classified as “white” on the U.S. Census. However, many people from the region do not identify as white, and they often face discrimination or threats of violence. For people of Arab and Christian backgrounds this is further complicated because they are a part of the majority through their religion, but part of a minority through their ethnic background. In addition, media depictions of MENAs tend to be homogenizing and stereotypical. This thesis attempts to fill a gap in literature on Christian Lebanese American identities by conducting ethnographic interviews with Lebanese-Americans from a variety of generations. It pulls from theories of diaspora and race, emphasizing the importance of context and migration trajectories when understanding Lebanese American identities. My findings demonstrate wide-ranging diversity in how Christian Lebanese-Americans understand and articulate identity due to three major factors: divergent migrant pathways in multiple countries, generational difference given changing racial politics in the U.S., and generational difference given the impacts of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East upon young Lebanese-Americans.


              A Machine Learning Approach to Sector Based Market Efficiency

              Date: 2023-01-01

              Creator: Angus Zuklie

              Access: Open access

              In economic circles, there is an idea that the increasing prevalence of algorithmic trading is improving the information efficiency of electronic stock markets. This project sought to test the above theory computationally. If an algorithm can accurately forecast near-term equity prices using historical data, there must be predictive information present in the data. Changes in the predictive accuracy of such algorithms should correlate with increasing or decreasing market efficiency. By using advanced machine learning approaches, including dense neural networks, LSTM, and CNN models, I modified intra day predictive precision to act as a proxy for market efficiency. Allowing for the basic comparisons of the weak form efficiency of four sectors over the same time period: utilities, healthcare, technology and energy. Finally, Within these sectors, I was able to detect inefficiencies in the stock market up to four years closer to modern day than previous studies.


              Host and symbiont-specific patterns of gene expression in response to cold stress in the temperate coral Astrangia poculata

              Date: 2023-01-01

              Creator: Kellie Navarro

              Access: Open access

              The coral Astrangia poculata inhabits hard-bottom environments from the Gulf of Mexico to Massachusetts and withstands large seasonal variation in temperature (–2 to 26 °C). This thermal range and its ability to live in a facultative symbiosis makes this species an ideal model system for investigating stress responses to ocean temperature variation. Although it has been shown that aposymbiotic A. poculata upregulates more genes in response to cold stress than heat stress, the transcriptomic response of the holobiont (coral host and symbiotic algae) to stress is unknown. In this study, we characterize changes in gene expression in both the host and symbionts under cold stress (6ºC) and ambient (12ºC) seawater temperatures. We use RNAseq to visualize how patterns of global gene expression change in response to these temperatures within the transcriptomes of replicate corals (n=10, each temperature) and their symbiont partners. By filtering the holobiont assembly for known coral host and symbiont genes, we contrasted patterns of differential expression (DE) for each partner and the functional processes for each set of DE genes. Differential gene expression analyses revealed that the cnidarian coral host responds strongly to cold stress, while algal symbionts did not have a significant stress response. In the coral host, we found up-regulation of biological processes associated with DNA repair, immunity, and maintaining cellular homeostasis as well as downregulation of mechanisms associated with DNA repair and RNA splicing, indicating inhibition of necessary cellular processes due to environmental stress.


              Miniature of Neurophysiological Effects of Temperature on the Mammalian Spinal Central Pattern Generator (CPG) Network for Locomotion
              Neurophysiological Effects of Temperature on the Mammalian Spinal Central Pattern Generator (CPG) Network for Locomotion
              Access to this record is restricted to members of the Bowdoin community. Log in here to view.
              • Restriction End Date: 2026-06-01

                Date: 2023-01-01

                Creator: Eliza M. Rhee

                Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community