Honors Projects

Showing 471 - 480 of 564 Items

*dhéĝhōm,*héshr, and *wek (earth, blood, and speech): an archaeological, genetic, and linguistic exploration of Indo-European origins

Date: 2017-05-01

Creator: Lara Bluhm

Access: Open access

This project investigates strategies for learning about prehistoric languages that have left no written records. It focuses upon the origins and expansion of the Indo-European language family (the world’s largest by total speaking population, today including most of the languages between Iceland and India) and its associated speakers, who likely emerged during the Neolithic from someplace in eastern Europe or western Asia. There are two primary hypotheses regarding the origins of these languages and the so-called Indo-Europeans themselves. In one, it is argued that they arose via the expansion of agriculture out of Anatolia and into Europe, c. 5000 BC. The other, and leading, hypothesis suggests instead that the languages spread through migrations of highly mobile pastoralists outward from the Black Sea steppes at the end of the Neolithic, c. 3000 BC. This project will explore the developing interface between archaeology, genetics, and linguistics in prehistoric resarch. There are three main chapters: (1) some background and historical context about Indo-European studies; (2) an examination of methodological interaction among archaeology, linguistics, and genetics; and (3) a survey of various archaeological, genetic, and linguistic data as they pertain to the Indo-Europeans and the above two hypotheses of their origins.


Visions of Unity, Memories of Violence: American Civil Religion and the Japanese American Incarceration

Date: 2018-05-01

Creator: Brigitte Helene McFarland

Access: Open access



Benchmarking Ab Initio Computational Methods for the Quantitative Prediction of Sunlight-Driven Pollutant Degradation in Aquatic Environments

Date: 2016-05-01

Creator: Kasidet Trerayapiwat

Access: Open access

Understanding the changes in molecular electronic structure following the absorption of light is a fundamental challenge for the goal of predicting photochemical rates and mechanisms. Proposed here is a systematic benchmarking method to evaluate accuracy of a model to quantitatively predict photo-degradation of small organic molecules in aquatic environments. An overview of underlying com- putational theories relevant to understanding sunlight-driven electronic processes in organic pollutants is presented. To evaluate the optimum size of solvent sphere, molecular Dynamics and Time Dependent Density Functional Theory (MD-TD-DFT) calculations of an aniline molecule in di↵erent numbers of water molecules using CAM-B3LYP functional yielded excited state energy and oscillator strength values, which were compared with data from experimental absorption spectra. For the first time, a statistical method of comparing experimental and theoretical data is proposed. Underlying Gaussian functions of absorption spectra were deconvoluted and integrated to calculate experimental oscillator strengths. A Matlab code written by Soren Eustis was utilized to decluster MD-TD-DFT results. The model with 256 water molecules was decided to give the most accurate results with optimized com- putational cost and accuracy. MD-TD-DFT calculations were then performed on aniline, 3-F-aniline, 4-F-aniline, 3-Cl-aniline, 4-MeOacetophenone, and (1,3)-dimethoxybenzophenone with CAM-B3LYP, PBE0, M06-2X, LCBLYP, and BP86 functionals. BP86 functional was determined to be the best functional. Github repository: https://github.com/eustislab/MD_Scripts


Fact vs. Faction: Polarization in the Information Age

Date: 2016-05-01

Creator: Noah Finberg

Access: Open access

How can individuals in the contemporary media and political environment form better political beliefs? In chapter one, this thesis considers what it means to say American politics is polarized. It evaluates the extent of polarization in American politics. And it presents original evidence that suggests that just as the public and members of Congress have polarized, so too has American political discourse. Through the lens of political psychology, chapter two investigates how America’s polarized politics has influenced the quality of individuals’ beliefs. Chapter three explores the role that the media plays in encouraging or minimizing the biased information processing practices identified in chapter two. Finally, I conclude by arguing that individuals need to fundamentally rethink how they consume political information; advocate for the creation of a completely new social media platform specifically designed to encourage political deliberation; and outline what such a platform might look like.


Miniature of Characterization and distribution of allatostatin type-C (AST-C) neuropeptides and receptors in crustaceans
Characterization and distribution of allatostatin type-C (AST-C) neuropeptides and receptors in crustaceans
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      Date: 2016-05-01

      Creator: Tess Lameyer

      Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



        Investigating the Effects of Student Debt on Career Outcomes: An Empirical Approach

        Date: 2019-05-01

        Creator: Gideon Moore

        Access: Open access

        High student debt has been hypothesized to affect career choice, causing students to desire stable, high paying jobs. To test this hypothesis, I rely on plausibly exogenous variation in debt due to a federal policy shift. In the summer of 2007, the Higher Education Reconciliation Act (or HERA) expanded the cap for federally subsidized student loans. I examine how variation in debt affects career choice and eventual salary of students using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child and Young Adult Cohort of students who were of college age during the implementation of the policy. I find that student debt has no impact on salary two years after graduation; however, it does seem to shift students’ career choices, leading some to avoid careers in public service industries such as teaching and social work.


        Crazy American

        Date: 2022-01-01

        Creator: Emma Quan Dewey

        Access: Open access

        Crazy American is an evening-length dance solo choreographed and performed by Bowdoin's first Dance honors student, Emma Quan Dewey. This dance is an embodied exploration of her mother's family migration history from South China to the Philippines to the US, and how it places her and her family within structures of US imperialism, racial hierarchies, and Chineseness itself. Based on ethnographic, historical, theoretical, and embodied research, Crazy American examines the intimate ways these structures play out at the level of the body, and seeks to imagine new possibilities for moving through systems and stories of power.


        Modeling Oyster Growth Dynamics in FLUPSY Systems to Develop a Decision Support Tool for Seed Management

        Date: 2023-01-01

        Creator: Gretchen Clauss

        Access: Open access

        As the Gulf of Maine warms and lobsters move north to colder waters, Maine’s working water front has begun to diversify. There is a thriving new ecosystem of aquaculturists looking to keep Maine’s waterfront traditions alive in a lasting, sustainable way. One of the most popular aquaculture industries is oyster farming. With an increasing number of oyster farms developing in Midcoast Maine each year, we seek to develop a decision support tool to aid farmers in seed management. Oyster farmers can choose weather or not to use an upweller on their farm, and our goal is to provide guidance on this choice, as well as on upweller management. We begin by culminating and synthesizing data from previous literature and oyster farmers. We then use this data to first build a basic analytical model of a cohort of oysters based on an exponential growth model. We expand this model to include biological differences among oysters as well as management practices. Finally, we walk through a case study, illustrating how our tool could be used to make seed management decisions on an individual farm scale.


        Que vivan los estudiantes: Cycles of Contention and the Chilean Student Movement (1906-present)

        Date: 2018-01-01

        Creator: Jonah Watt

        Access: Open access

        [No abstract]


        The Role of Competition and Patient Travel in Hospital Profits: Why Health Insurers Should Subsidize Patient Travel

        Date: 2013-05-01

        Creator: Joseph S Durgin

        Access: Open access

        This paper explores the effects of patient travel distance on hospital profit margins, with consideration to the effects of travel subsidies on hospital pricing. We develop a model in which hospital agglomeration leads to a negative relationship between profit margins and patient travel distance, challenging the standard IO theory that profit margins are higher for firms with greater distances of customer travel. Using data on patient visits and hospital finances from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD), we test our theory and confirm that a hospital tends to have less pricing power if it draws patients from beyond its local cluster. We then consider how our results might justify the subsidizing of patient travel by insurers and government payers. Lastly, we present an argument for why the ubiquitous Hirschman-Herfindahl index of market concentration can be robust to owner and system-level hospital cooperation.