Honors Projects

Showing 71 - 80 of 564 Items

Midterm Decline in Comparative Perspective

Date: 2019-05-01

Creator: Duncan Gans

Access: Open access



Beyond Urban Bias: Peasant Movements and the State in Africa

Date: 2019-05-01

Creator: Connor Rockett

Access: Open access

Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, this study tests the hypothesis that state intervention in agrarian economies causes peasant movements to engage in broad-based contention, on regional and national levels. The study traces the connections between government land and agricultural institutions and the characteristics of rural movements that make claims on them. Case studies of regions of Tanzania, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia show the ways in which rural movements are constructed in response to the political and social environments in which they arise. That is, the comparisons demonstrate that the character of political authority and social organization are important determinants of the form taken by peasant movements.


Miniature of Tension production and sarcomere length in lobster (Homarus americanus) cardiac muscles: the mechanisms underlying mechanical anisotropy
Tension production and sarcomere length in lobster (Homarus americanus) cardiac muscles: the mechanisms underlying mechanical anisotropy
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      Date: 2019-05-01

      Creator: Matthew Maguire

      Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



        Active and Passive Spatial Learning and Memory in Human Navigation

        Date: 2019-01-01

        Creator: Caroline Rice

        Access: Open access

        Previous studies show that active exploration of an environment contributes to spatial learning more than passive visual exposure (Chrastil & Warren, 2013; Chrastil & Warren, 2015). Active navigation and cognitive decision-making in a novel environment leads to increased spatial knowledge and memory of location compared to a passive exploration that removes the decision-making component. There is evidence of theta oscillations present in electroencephalography (EEG) recordings from the hippocampus and pre-frontal cortex (PFC). These low-frequency waves could reflect spatial navigation and memory performance, suggested by their involvement in communication between the formerly named brain regions. Through communication with the hippocampus, theta oscillations could be involved in the integration of new spatial information into memory. While undergoing EEG, subjects in this study either actively or passively explored a virtual maze, identified as the “Free” or “Guided” groups, respectively. After exploring, subjects’ spatial memory of the maze was tested through a task that required navigation from a starting object to a target object. Behavioral data show increased spatial memory for the Free group, indicated by significantly greater navigation to the correct target object in the memory task. EEG results indicate significantly greater theta oscillations in frontal regions for the Free group during the exploration phase. These results support those found in previous studies and could indicate a correlation between frontal theta oscillations during learning of novel environments and spatial memory.


        Traders and Troublemakers: Sovereignty in Southern Morocco at the End of the 19th Century

        Date: 2020-01-01

        Creator: Joseph Campbell Hilleary

        Access: Open access

        This thesis explores changes in and challenges to Moroccan political authority in the region of the Sous during the late nineteenth century. It attempts to show how the phenomenon of British informal empire created a crisis over Moroccan sovereignty that caused the sultan to both materially and discursively change the way he wielded power in southern Morocco. It further connects these changes and the narrative contestation that accompanied them to the construction of the Bilad al-Siba/Bilad al-Makhzan dichotomy found in Western academic literature on Morocco starting in the colonial period. It begins with an examination of letters between Sultan Hassan I and local leaders in the Sous that show a shift toward a more bureaucratic form of governance in response to repeated openings of black-market ports by British trading companies. It then investigates the textual debate over the framing of Hassan I’s military expeditions to southern Morocco in the 1880s and 90s by drawing on a collection of European travel accounts, American consular reports, and a royal Moroccan history. Finally, it ties the illegal trade in the Sous to the broader theory of informal empire through a close examination of the Tourmaline Incident of 1897, using documents from the British Foreign Office as well as published accounts by crew members aboard the Tourmaline, itself.


        Miniature of Photosynthetic phenology of a boreal spruce forest observed at stand and needle scales
        Photosynthetic phenology of a boreal spruce forest observed at stand and needle scales
        This record is embargoed.
          • Embargo End Date: 2025-05-19

          Date: 2022-01-01

          Creator: Jeremy A. Hoyne Grosvenor

          Access: Embargoed



            Miniature of Finite Element Modeling of Piezoelectric Surface Wave Focusing
            Finite Element Modeling of Piezoelectric Surface Wave Focusing
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                Date: 2022-01-01

                Creator: Kieran Enzian

                Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



                  A Problem Best Put Off Until Tomorrow

                  Date: 2023-01-01

                  Creator: Evan Albers

                  Access: Open access

                  Effective Altruism has led a recent renaissance for utilitarian theory. However, it seems that despite its surge in popularity, Effective Altruism is still vulnerable to many of the critiques that plague utilitarianism. The most significant amongst these is the utility monster. I use Longtermsim, a mode of thinking that has evolved from Effective Altruism and prioritizes the far-future over the present in decision-making processes, as an example of how the unborn millions of the future might constitute a utility monster as a corporate mass. I investigate three main avenues of resolving the utility monster objection to Effective Altruism: reconsidering the use of expected value, adopting temporal discounting, and adopting average utilitarianism. I demonstrate that at best there are significant problems with these responses, and at worst, they completely fail to resolve the utility monster objection. I then conclude that if situations do exist in which the costs to the present do not intuitively justify the benefits to the far future, we must reject utilitarianism altogether.


                  Miniature of Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Unidirectional Interdigital Transducers
                  Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Unidirectional Interdigital Transducers
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                      Date: 2022-01-01

                      Creator: Shane Anthony Smolenski

                      Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community



                        Miniature of The Regulatory Effect of High Dopamine on the Hyperpolarization-Activated Inward Current  (I<sub>h</sub>) and its Role in the Stability and Rhythmicity of Mammalian Locomotor Neural Networks
                        The Regulatory Effect of High Dopamine on the Hyperpolarization-Activated Inward Current (Ih) and its Role in the Stability and Rhythmicity of Mammalian Locomotor Neural Networks
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                        • Restriction End Date: 2025-06-01

                          Date: 2022-01-01

                          Creator: Abigail Raymond

                          Access: Access restricted to the Bowdoin Community