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Finding High Mass X-Ray Binaries in NGC 3109
Full text linkHigh Mass X-Ray Binary systems can be difficult to find in the Milky Way due to high metallicity contributing to mass loss due to stellar wind, so we turn our attention to the galaxy NGC 3109 in order to find these systems. Using archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope using the Wide Field Camera 3, we do photometry in both the F475W and F814W filters for the two fields of view that cover the galaxy. We then plot these magnitudes on a color-magnitude diagram and use isochrones of 5 and 10 million years to gather minimum mass estimates of massive stars that exceed a threshold of 15 solar masses. We present a catalog of the positions of these stars, as well as their masses, to be used in conjunction with positions of x-ray sources as part of a larger project to find High Mass X-Ray Binary systems in NGC 3109
Changes in Dialect Usage Across Generations in the Osaka Dialect of Japanese
Full text linkSociolinguistic research on Japanese regional dialects has generally found that regional dialects are assimilating to Standard Japanese, but that recently an increase in the popularity of dialects has led to reverse trends of “de-standardization” as well. This paper aims to utilize quantitative and qualitative analysis of a corpus of Osaka dialect interviews in order to observe how usage of the dialect differs across generations. The quantitative results find that some dialect features are falling out of use among younger generations, while others stay consistent, and some features are actually used more by younger speakers than middle-aged generations. The qualitative analysis then examines the ways in which individual speakers of various ages switch between dialect and standard forms strategically in order to add additional meanings to their speech, demonstrating the complex linguistic evolution of the Osaka dialect
Neither Here nor There: Passing through Race, Culture, Transnationalism, and Generational Inheritance in Mixed-Race Japanese American Literature
Full text linkMy honors project explores the concept of passing in Japanese American mixed-race literature written after World War II by examining how acts of passing are racially, transnationally, and formally represented in Ruth Ozeki’s novel, My Year of Meats; Asako Serizawa’s novel-in-stories, Inheritors; and Brian Komei Dempster’s poetry collection, Topaz. Through my analysis, I seek to expand traditional notions of racial passing by reconceptualizing the term\u27s connection to physical and spatial mobility, generational inheritances, and literary forms in order to recognize and celebrate mixed-race Japanese American voices within larger conversations by and around Asian American and BIPOC American writing. The first chapter of my project interrogates physical manifestations of mixed-race identity in all three texts, inspecting the ways the experiences of these books\u27 narrators, characters, and speakers, through their shifting understandings of their own mixed-race identities, evoke the discursiveness and instability of social constructions of race. My second chapter considers transnational identity, investigating how movement across the Pacific and within the U.S. impacts sense of self and explorations of family history. Finally, my third chapter analyzes these authors\u27 use of varied literary genres and forms as not only reflecting Japanese American mixed-race experiences, but also as resisting the notion that mixed-race individuals are fractured by their multiple coexistent racial identities
Breaking the Barrier: Implications of 2024 Ruling Against NAR on Home Prices and Market Quality
Full text linkOn August 17, 2024, a court ruling changed real estate market practices that prohibit the posting of real estate agent commission rates on multiple listing services and mandate buyer contracts that specify agent commission fees. Real estate agent commissions function as intermediary transaction costs, and this ruling aims to potentially reduce these costs. Using data on single family home transactions in St. Paul, Minnesota from Zillow.com, Realtor.com, and Ram- sey County Property Tax database, I utilize a difference in difference model to examine the short-term impacts of the ruling on market dynamics in resi- dential real estate such as home prices, market liquidity, market frictions, and the efficiency of price discovery. Findings suggest that there are no short term effects of the 2024 NAR ruling on home prices and market quality. Robust- ness checks using non-single-family properties, different control and treatment groups based on price range, and a visualization of neighborhood-level effects on single family properties also support these results
Who Gets to Have Fun? The Alternative Earmarking of a Memecoin Marketplace
Full text linkPast research on cryptocurrency has highlighted its sociotechnical aspects, framing crypto projects as community-grounded movements disrupting traditional state and market structures through technological advancements. What happens when these disruptive promises are absent or only playfully invoked? Cryptocurrencies known as “memecoins” have grown their own followings without pledging future legitimacy that would seriously challenge existing institutions, instead linking their value to the meme they brand themselves with and vague democratic promises. That new scheme of valuation is especially evident in coins launched on the site pump.fun, which has lowered the barriers to crypto-coin creation. The platform\u27s accessibility provides a new dimension for analysis, as its content demonstrates what users drawn to these alternative cryptocurrency schemes choose to create and support when technological barriers are reduced. This paper builds on existing research by incorporating literature on memes, economic sociological theories, and social theories of technology and digital structures. Analyzing the pump.fun website, external promotional materials, and a sample of the top coins on the site in a 30-day period, this project argues the site earmarks itself and its contents as a distinct form of legitimacy, rooted not in financial pragmatism or institutional endorsement, but in memetic subcultural performance and the gamified mechanics of its platform. It does so in contrast to previous generations of cryptocurrency through referencing memes and subcultural language and leveraging the social and gamified site mechanics to construct an image of meritocratic success
The Law of the Biggest Pump: Legal Consciousness and the Texas Groundwater Dilemma
Full text linkTexas’s localized system of groundwater regulation is complicated by its strong tradition of property rights. This paper examines the legal consciousness of the everyday people subjected to that system. It relies on interviews with local water authorities, as well as an analysis of public comments made by stakeholders. When conflicts emerge, stakeholders tend to attribute negative outcomes to a failure to properly follow legal procedure, or to the improper intrusion of some non-legal entity. Authorities, however, blame the law itself. Both groups feel the law’s presence but struggle to locate its specific source or meaning
Transformations of Bound Quivers
Full text linkA quiver Q is a directed multigraph. Representations of Q are assignments of vector spaces and linear maps to the vertices and arrows of Q; these are categorically equivalent to the modules over the path algebra kQ. The indecomposable representations of a given quiver and the irreducible morphisms between them are summarized combinatorially in the Auslander-Reiten quiver which, in the case of algebras of finite representation type, gives almost complete information about the category of representations. We introduce an intuitive transformation from a family of bound quivers to a family of A-type quivers which preserves properties of the Auslander-Reiten quiver
Improved Computational Modeling of the Kinetics of the Acetonyl Peroxy + HO2 Reaction
No full textThe acetonyl peroxy (CH 3 C(O)OO) + HO 2 reaction has many impacts on the chemical composition of the troposphere, with both a triplet and singlet surface pathway. The radical termination triplet pathway (R1) leads to the production of a hydroperoxide species and O 2 . This pathway competes with two singlet surface pathways. The first produces OH radical, O 2 , and acetoxy (R2), the second results in the formation of ozone and acetonol (R3). We utilized MultiWell2021 to solve the master equation for this reaction and RRKM theory to find microcanonical rate constants ( k (E)). We used both the B97X-D and DLPNO-CCSD(T1) levels of theory to find the energies of all species. By including extensive conformational analysis of the system in our RRKM/ME simulations, we were able to find strong agreement between the predicted rate constant of the singlet surface using DLPNO-CCSD(T1) level of theory (1.31 x 10 -12 cm 3 molecule -1 s -1 ) and experimentally found values (1.65 ± 0.50 x 10 -12 cm 3 molecule -1 s -1 ). Our predicted rate constants for DLPNO-CCSD(T1) for the triplet surface, however, were in poor agreement with experimental results. As were the simulations conducted with the B97X-D level of theory.
Survey of Possible Magnetic Field Sources Around the Intragroup Medium of NGC 2563
Full text linkThe origin and evolution of magnetic fields in space is an ongoing mystery in astronomy. Previous work has concluded the existence of magnetic fields in galaxy clusters, and to build an evolutionary model, the motivation behind this project is to determine how these magnetic fields form. In order to answer this question, we want to search for magnetic fields in galaxy group NGC 2563. To do this, our project determines the contribution to observed rotation measures of the galaxy group that come from the Milky Way and from the sources themselves
Hearing Caste: Dalit Resistance Through Folk Music in West Bengal, India
Full text linkCaste—a graded structure of hierarchy—has historically shaped identities in South Asia and persists to this day. In opposition, Dalits (caste-marginalized communities) have utilized diverse mediums to communicate their resistance. In this thesis, I analyze the role of music in Bengali Dalit resistance through the work of Dalit singer-songwriter Smritikana Howlader (b. 1960). Based on ethnographic research, I investigate how folk music becomes a mode of Dalit historiography. In particular, I explore how Howlader aims to transcend caste boundaries through song, evoking shared humanity. I argue that Howlader’s performances combat dominant caste discourse and Dalit erasure, furthering Bengali Dalit resistance