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Description
Food provides nutrients and sustenance that are essential to life. Humans rely on food to fuel our thoughts and actions. However, food isn’t just a source of energy; it’s a fundamental part of culture and connection. Simply sharing a meal with someone can build teamwork and create a bond. Throughout this short memoir, I explored the ways in which food creates a connection across language and cultural barriers through reflection on specific experiences that I had in India, Uganda, and South Africa. While my experiences in each of these three countries were vastly different, there was one defining theme that brought them together: food. This memoir uses mixed media (personal reflection, research, recipes, and photos) to connect the three different international experiences. Reflection on my own family traditions and history bridges the gap between my upbringing and my interactions with people while spending time abroad. Popular recipes from each of the three countries are mixed into the personal reflection, showing how preparing food in a different geographic location can change the experience of preparation and eating. In addition to personal experience, included is a synthesis of research done on the effects of sharing a plate or a meal on negotiations tactics, how eating the same food increases trust, the ways in which food sharing is an act of social intimacy, and how it can build community. Food is an important part of family connection, a tool in many rituals such as Sunday dinners or breaking bread, a critical aspect of many religions, and is tied to the celebration of both birth and death in cultures around the globe. We all need to eat; food is the great commonality among people.
ContributorsRivard-Lentz, Haley Marie Anne (Co-author) / Rivard-Lentz, Haley (Co-author) / Fette, Donald (Thesis director) / Jacobs, Mark (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Optical Communications are at a high point of interest by the space engineering community. After successful projects like the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD), NASA has become interested in augmenting their current Deep Space Network (DSN) with optical communication links. One such link is Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) which will be launching with the Psyche mission. To gain a full understanding of the advantages of this network, this thesis will go over the history and benefits of optical communications both on Earth and in space. This thesis will then go in depth on NASAs DSOC project through an algorithmic implementation of the communications channel.
ContributorsHorton, Paul Alexander (Author) / Mauskopf, Philip (Thesis director) / Sandy, Douglas (Committee member) / Martin, Thomas (Committee member) / Software Engineering (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
A guidebook meant to be used by the leadership of the club Poly Purrs. It includes definitions of key terms as well as literature-backed discussion of free-roaming cats in general. The second half of it is advice and information drawn from my own experience with the cat population on the Polytechnic campus.
ContributorsWiese, Alexa (Author) / Murphree, Julie (Thesis director) / Gallaway, Cynthia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
We discuss the intricate and puzzling concept of quantum entanglement, and not only
define it but also consider the implications of the behaviors of entangled particles. The ability of
these particles to provide instantaneous information about their entangled counterparts sparked a debate among physicists as to whether or not these particles had definite quantities before
measurement, and whether or not their behaviors could be explained by a local hidden-variables
theorem. Mermin’s gedanken demonstration for a two-particle entangled system is introduced, as well as Bell’s inequality, and an explanation of how a pair of two entangled particles violate this inequality. Additionally, we also discuss various experimental verifications that were able to use Bell’s inequality to verify the expected quantum mechanical results for their entangled systems.
ContributorsDavis, Elsie (Author) / Foy, Joseph (Thesis director) / Hines, Taylor (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Terrestrial hermit crabs serve an incredibly important ecological role in seed dispersal and as decomposers along coastal shorelines. They have also become quite popular in the commercial pet trade, with one species, Coenobita clypeatus, being particularly favored. Typically, these hermit crabs are easily captured and removed from the wild with little protection in their native ranges. In Hermitage Bay, Tobago, there is little information about the population numbers, composition, shell preference, and substrate preference of C. clypeatus in their native habitat. In this study, we estimated population size, gastropod shell preferences, and substrate preference conditions when clustering. We conducted mark re-capture surveys in March, July, and December 2023 and collected morphological data from captured hermit crabs. Our results indicate that the estimated population was highest in July, with the variation being significant when using the Schnabel mark re-capture estimation formula. The most common overall shell type, Columbella mercatoria (West Indian Dove Shell), was prevalent among the smaller sized, younger hermit crabs; while the larger hermit crabs preferred Cittarium pica (West Indian Top Shell). The most preferred substrate for these terrestrial hermit crabs were areas with a mixture of sand and dirt, with high amounts of vegetation and leaf waste and low amounts of human litter. These results suggest a predominantly young population and that beach cleanups should focus on removing human litter entirely, while leaving leaf waste and other fallen logs and branches and not using the collected decomposing plant matter for bonfires. This can help maintain a healthy hermit crab population that continues to benefit the coastlines in Tobago as well as other ecosystems.
ContributorsLindteigen, Amy (Author) / Briggs, Georgette (Thesis director) / Mohammed, Ryan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Chisholm’s contrary-to-duty paradox raises important questions for formulating instances of conditional obligation. Angelika Kratzer is one linguist whose theories offer some solutions to these questions; more generally, she provides theories for how we should represent modals, conditionals, and other features of language in terms of functions. Though her theories are incredibly useful, they do not adequately represent the Chisholm scenario as a whole. In this paper, I attempt to address this shortcoming in her theory. First, I present and explain some of Kratzer’s main ideas. Then, I explain how her theory offers a solution to Chisholm’s Paradox, and examine a shortcoming of her theory as presented– specifically, the fact that her theory does not account for the importance of different norms in relation to each other. Finally, with the Chisholm situation as a backdrop, I offer my own contribution to her theory. Namely, I propose assigning an importance “score” to each norm, and factoring that “score” into the machinery of Kratzer’s theory.
ContributorsBrooks, Elizabeth (Author) / nair, shyam (Thesis director) / Pinillos, Angel (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Immediate early genes (IEGs) are the first set of genes to be transcribed in a cell in response to stimuli; their expression is quick and is not protein synthesis dependent. Neurons are activated in response to external stimuli, causing a rapid increase in IEG expression in the brain. IEG proteins go on to affect fundamental neurobiological processes that are known to be dysfunctional in patients with psychiatric disorders, and therefore IEGs have been connected to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Early growth response (Egr) genes are immediate early gene transcription factors (IEG-TFs) that are expressed in response to an altered environment. The IEG-TFs, early growth response 1 (EGR1) and early growth response 3 (EGR3) are necessary for processes such as memory and synaptic plasticity; lack of function in these genes causes dysfunction or disruption of these processes. We wanted to observe if increasing the function of Egrs by overexpressing them will lead to improved memory. To help further understand how behavior is affected by the overexpression (O/E) of Egr1 in response to stimuli, the AAV-ESARE-Egr1 virus was developed to be injected in the hippocampus of mice. In the hippocampus of wild-type (WT) mice, cells that are active endogenously express Egr1. The virus was created using the synaptic activity-response element (SARE), an element discovered on the promoter of the IEG activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated (Arc) gene by our collaborators in Japan. Using an “enhanced” form of SARE (ESARE), our newly created virus acts to overexpress Egr1 only in response to activity in the hippocampus; we can then observe if the behavioral processes associated with Egr1 will improve. First, this project aims to validate that the AAV-ESARE-Egr1 virus is increasing Egr1 expression in the active hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) granule cells of WT mice, and only in response to activity. The activity is in the form of a physiological stimulus, environmental enrichment (EE) and a non-physiological stimulus, electroconvulsive seizures (ECS). After confirming these characteristics of AAV-ESARE-Egr1 we can then use it to observe if EGR1 O/E improves the memory of mice.
ContributorsWallace, Sophie (Author) / Lewis, Candace (Thesis director) / Gallitano, Amelia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Objective: Previous studies have expressed that individuals with dyslexia may be hypersensitive to stimuli when compared to typical individuals, creating the neural noise hypothesis. This study uses electroencephalogram (EEG) to look at participants' mismatch negativity (MMN) response to the distinctive English phoneme /æ/ and an allophone of the phoneme /æ/, measuring their reaction to the variation between these two sounds.
Methods: Twenty-two adults, fourteen with dyslexia and 8 controls partook in an auditory oddball EEG experiment measuring MMN with the amplitudes and latencies being collected.
Results: Five participants demonstrated a large MMN response, four of which were in the dyslexic group. These participants’ results indicate an increased sensitivity to phonetic differences.
Significance: Understanding how some individuals with dyslexia process phonetic differences may be key to comprehending how a dyslexic subtype takes in auditory information.
ContributorsOvaska, Madeline (Author) / Peter, Beate (Thesis director) / Daliri, Ayoub (Committee member) / Kim, Yookyung (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2024-05