IDA Mount Holyoke College Institutional Digital Archive
Not a member yet
1794 research outputs found
Sort by
Considering the Impact of Directional Variance in Bandwidth and Latency on Optimal Data Partitions in Heterogeneous Systems
No full textComputing power is expensive, in terms of equipment, time, and energy, and these costs limit the feasible expansion of computers. To maximize the size and complexity of problems we can solve, applications are optimized to use available computers more efficiently. Parallel matrix-matrix multiplication (MMM), a linear algebra kernel function, is one such task for which the computation algorithm has been highly optimized on many systems. In addition to being used widely in scientific computing, MMM is also used to solve other standard matrix-matrix operations. The partitioning strategy for MMM has been optimized for homogeneous platforms, where all processors and communication links are identical. However, finding the optimal partitioning strategy on heterogeneous systems, where there is some variation in processor or communication speed, has been identified as NP-complete for an arbitrary number of processors, and thus is still an open problem.
In the case of a two-processor heterogeneous system, two partitioning strategies had previously been identified as the only potentially optimal strategies. This thesis models communication time in more detail to determine the impact of those details on which of the two partition shapes is optimal for 2 processors. Specifically, I create models for execution time for four common MMM algorithms that allow for different bandwidths and latencies in different directions of communication. Based on these models, I develop an algorithm that takes in problem size, system parameters, and the desired matrix multiply algorithm and determines the optimal partitioning strategy. Though my model agrees with simpler models in most cases, communication factors do impact some decisions made near the boundary zone of the simpler models.Computer Scienc
Effects of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) recolonization on resident cutthroat trout (O. clarki clarki): competition or cooperation?
No full textIn 1901, the Landsburg Diversion Dam was established in the middle of the Cedar River in Washington, effectively cutting off access to habitat for migrating salmon populations. For a hundred years, no salmon dwelled in stream reaches above the dam, but the resident cutthroat trout populations remained. This was the case until 2003, when a fish ladder was built into the Landsburg Dam, reopening passage to spawning habitat for salmon and reintroducing the species to existing trout populations.
In this project, coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and cutthroat trout (O. clarki clarki) were used to study the competitive effects of recolonization in two neighboring streams, Rock Creek (salmon present) and Williams Creek (salmon absent), in the Cedar River watershed. Though it has been found that opening up passageways to previous spawning sites leads to successful recolonization of the target species, few studies have determined if reintroducing a species to an ecosystem that has survived without it for so long has negative effect on resident species. Previous studies determined that salmon exert dominance over cutthroat trout in certain conditions. Conversely, some recent studies have found no negative impact on cutthroat trout from coho salmon recolonization. Species population densities were computed and tested for correlation to observe temporal and spatial population trends and determine if coho negatively influence the population dynamics of cutthroat trout. Our results indicate that both species populations in Rock Creek are growing since the fish ladder was built. However, coho populations are growing more rapidly than the cutthroat trout in the shared stream. However, the trout population in Williams Creek is growing at a faster rate than that of the trout in Rock Creek. Nonparametric testing indicated that there is a significant and positive relationship between coho and cutthroat pool densities, thus refuting our hypothesis. Our results suggest that there is not a significant competitive effect as a result of the coho recolonization. Stream conditions could be improving for both species and aiding in population growth. Future testing should compare the mixed stream (salmon present) with more isolated streams (salmon absent), like Williams, to confirm if the discrepancy between cutthroat trout population growths, in habitats without salmon versus habitats with salmon, is a result of the coho presence or if it is due to improved habitat conditions in general.Biological Science
IN DEFENSE OF NAÏVE REALISM
No full textAt the heart of philosophy of perception, and often in philosophy in general, lies the question: how can we know that what we perceive is reality? There is a myriad of skeptical responses, which essentially conclude, in different variations, that we can never perceive the world as it actually is. Then, there are arrays of “naïve” responses to this question, which reply that we are in fact able to perceive the world as it actually is. Naïve, or direct, realism takes the latter view, and states that we are able to perceive objects in the world as they really are, and thus gain objective knowledge from the world.
Often, the existence of sense data is used to show that naïve realism is false. In contrast with this, I argue that the existence of sense data, which are a part, and not the whole, of objects, are what proves that naïve realism is true. I do this through a serious of steps, beginning with examining John Searle’s Argument from Illusion in his book, Seeing Things As They Are.
Next, using H.H. Price’s book, Perception, I show how the existence of sense data are the best explanation for how objects behave in a systematic way.
Last, I present my own view of naïve realism, which ultimately says that sense data are what we use to justify true and objective beliefs about objects and state of affairs in the world.Philosoph
DENTAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF THREE POPULATIONS OF CHRISTIANS AND NON-MUSLIMS IN POLLENTIA, MALLORCA
No full textThe diet, health, nutrition, and genetics of an individual leave unique and identifiable markers on dental remains. Those markers can be used to understand the diet and health of an ancient population. This study presents findings from an analysis of the dental remains of individuals from three Christian populations within the Roman city of Pollentia, located in Mallorca, Spain that was inhabited from 123 B.C. to 1229 A.D. The Christian populations of Ca’n Fanals and Sta. Ana are sites from the later Christian periods of the city, but the Forum is representative of the Islamic Period. My study compares the occurrence of hypoplasia, calculus, periodontitis, caries, occlusal wear, and agenesis to understand differences in diet and health between the three subsites. The comparison was conducted with One-Way ANOVA and Fisher’s Exact Test. The result of this comparison is that there is no significant difference in the occurrence of the six pathologies between Sta. Ana and the Forum. Despite living during the Islamic Period, the Christians of the Forum had the same access to high quality food to which the Christians of Sta. Ana. This study presents the possible explanations for this interesting situation.Biological Science
No Name Women Write Back: Silence and Transnational Subjectivity in Asian American Women's Literature
No full textThis thesis focuses on silence wrought and refracted through transnational Asian American gender formation in the works of Maxine Hong Kingston, Rupi Kaur, and Tarfia Faizullah. Experimentation with the genres of memoir and poetry forms a critical feature of these texts, and captures the nuanced forms of articulation each narrator adopts as she grapples with the transnational layers of her subjectivity. For my purposes, “transnational” serves as a geographic, spatial mode that destabilizes the American and Canadian home life Kingston, Kaur, and Faizullah each detail in their writings. As a result, a transnational framework facilitates the discussion of how these texts and their narrators broach lineage and history that traces back to the lands from where their parents emigrated.
This meditation on transnationality is symptomatic of each author’s narrative vantage point as a second-generation daughter of Asian immigrants who must navigate gendered disciplinary formations that transpire in domestic spaces yet remain imbued with transnational ruptures and migrations. In my applications of transnational readings, however, my aim is not to denationalize these texts and their narrators from their North American contexts. Rather, I maintain that Kingston, Kaur, and Faizullah write with a Chinese American, Indian Canadian, and Bangladeshi American orientation that in turn fortifies the structures of a transnational silence whose percolation their narrators strive to articulate.
In pairing Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior with Rupi Kaur’s Milk & Honey and Tarfia Faizullah’s Seam, this project incorporates South Asian North American authorship within the discourse of Asian American feminist literature. This pan-ethnic conjunction stems from a transnational feminist approach that groups these texts for their potential place these Chinese American, Punjabi Canadian, and Bangladeshi American women writers in conversation about silences exacted through a disciplinary gender formation that implicates transnationality.Englis
The Galois Group of 8-Torsion Points on Elliptic Curves
No full textIn this paper, we explore the Galois group of 8-torsion points on elliptic curves over Q. In particular, we present algorithms that allow us to find the subgroup of GL2(Z/8Z) that best represents the 8-torsion group of a fixed elliptic curve E. We first give a general introduction to elliptic curves, algebraic number theory, and representation theory, which together provide a theoretical background for computations. We present the algorithms at the end of the paper, along with some computational results of its application.Mathematics & Statistic
The Implications of the Built Environment and Individual Sovereignty: An Examination of New York Skyscrapers and Lakota Tipis
No full textMy senior thesis research explores how spatial theory is linked to social systems. I argue that the built environment reflects and reinforces societal values. After all, social systems are enacted through a physically lived experience. How have individual sovereignty, capitalism, and modernity shaped the Euro-American urban landscape? What did that space look like before settler-colonialism, and what can we learn from that? Through analyzing two contrasting case studies, New York skyscrapers and Lakota tipis, I aim to break down the implications that organized space has for society. I concentrate on how skyscrapers, with their imposingly tall and rectilinear forms communicate values of individual sovereignty. In contrast, Lakota tipis, with their functional mobility and circular base, promote communal ideals. I question the assumption that individual sovereignty is a worthy goal in society, especially within the geologic time of the Anthropocene. Furthermore, I contextualize how climate change provides an opportunity for us to reconfigure society to be a more just and accessible system.Politic
Investigating Research: Corporate and Social Responsibility in Action
No full textMy work this summer was with Covalence EthicalQuote, a non-government organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. During my 12 month tenure with Covalence, I undertook research projects on the subject of corporate social responsibility, intersecting human rights issues, environmental concerns, consumer protections, and humanitarian work. I also got the chance to work on policy for the Working Group for Environmental Monitoring and Assessment at the UN Office in Geneva. Through focused research and study of international law and practice, I was able to best utilize my time and energy in a setting where I felt that I was helping to inform and impact the change I want to see in the world. Since returning to Mount Holyoke, I have been able to expand on the research on industry compliance and sustainable development that I began with Covalence. In my course work, I am expanding on my internship related projects through industrial development and historic approaches to technological advancement with concerns to human rights and protections. My goal through college and beyond is to continue compliance-based work and research to ensure that international organizations and corporations are fostering the development of economically equitable and environmentally sustainable projects at present and in the future.We found a common connection in one area of all of our work this summer: research as a productive capacity for information building, marketing, policy directives, and more. Through our work and research with the organizations, firms, and companies we worked for this summer, we developed breadth and depth of information that shaped how we worked and what we were able to do. By investigating such things, we share the common experience of developing our academic faculties in the context of meaningful action
A CHALLENGE TO SYRIAC PALEOGRAPHY: USING DIGITAL TOOLS TO CONTEST CURRENT SCHOLARSHIP
No full textManuscripts are important because they provide information about ancient times. Historians use manuscripts to understand ancient peoples and what they believed was worthy of being recorded. Even the manner in which a manuscript is written can tell scholars about a culture. Paleography is the study of handwriting for the purpose of dating manuscripts. Dating back to the seventeenth century, paleography was originally done using only the eyes, but modern technology has facilitated new paleographical research methods. This project began as a test of new technology developed by Mount Holyoke Professor Michael Penn and Smith College Professor Nicholas Howe that uses digital handwriting analysis tools to compare the hands of different manuscripts with the result of matching the script styles of undated manuscripts with dated manuscripts.
I conducted paleographical research using a database of 200 digitized, securely dated Syriac manuscripts ranging from the fifth to the eleventh century. These manuscripts were collected from libraries across the globe for the purposes of this project. Syriac is a form of the ancient language of Aramaic. In traditional Syriac paleographical scholarship, there are two early scripts: Estrangela and Serto. For the purposes of this project, I call this system of dividing Syriac into two hands the “Standard Model.” Using my sizable manuscript database, I challenge the standard model by using securely dated manuscripts to illustrate its flaws. I also propose a new paleographical schema for Syriac manuscripts: The Bush Model. My new model has more specific script categories that apply to a smaller date range, therefore, scholars will now be able to date manuscripts more accurately than ever before. While my project is only a case example in a particular linguistic tradition, the larger goal of this project is to serve as a model for other language groups that wish to use this software.Medieval Studie
Altered Expression of Core Circadian Gene Bmal-1 in Cancer-associated Macrophages
No full textCircadian rhythms are endogenous time-keeping machines that allow organisms to anticipate and respond to environmental changes. In the past decade, accumulating evidence has pointed at the direct association between circadian dysfunction and increased prevalence of cancer, as observed in nightshift workers and in individuals with chronic jetlag. Studies on the immune system have deciphered multiple regulatory roles of circadian rhythms. On the other hand, immune cells have also been shown to actively participate in the growth, promotion and invasiveness of cancer. Previous studies on circadian rhythms in macrophages have been limited to exploring the role of circadian genes in activation of inflammation against bacterial endotoxins. While at least 8% of the macrophage transcriptome and many core functions of macrophages, undergo circadian variations, little remains known regarding how circadian genes are expressed in cancer-associated macrophages. Here, we present the first study to characterize macrophage circadian rhythms upon interaction with cancer cells or with specific cytokines. Our data provide evidence that cancer cells could alter circadian rhythms in macrophages. Our results show that upon interaction with cancer, or with cytokine activation, the expression of the master clock gene, Bmal-1 is repressed. Inhibition of Bmal-1 can cause macrophages to remain in an inflammatory state, suggesting that cancer cells can directly disrupt immune homeostasis. Our work therefore has unveiled another dimension in understanding the complexity of the tumor microenvironment, and further suggests a bidirectional tumor-immune crosstalk.Biochemistr