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Impacts of a Movie\u27s Rivals\u27 Releasing Decisions on its Domestic Box Office Revenue
No full textThis paper uses the OLS regression model to investigate and quantify the competition effects in the film industry, aiming to help film distributors in the making releasing decision. To do so, I define the movies that release within the same week as rivals and use the rivals’ characteristics variables to capture the competition effects. The regression results show that a movie’s rivals’ total production budgets and the number of opening weekend’s theater have significantly negative impacts on this movie’s box office revenue. After adding control variables and indicator variables for seasonality, the competition effects become less obvious with less precision. This regression result, however, shows that the attributes of a movie explain the most variance in box office revenue. By interaction term of major distributors and rivals’ characteristics variables, I find that major distributors are more vulnerable to the competition effects
Give ME a Choice: Perceptions of Freedom and the Anti-Vax Movement in Maine
No full textWhile vaccination has proven to be an incredibly effective method of disease prevention, the growing ‘anti-vax’ movement threatens the population-level benefits conferred by widespread immunization. Recent findings indicate that anti-vax beliefs are not, as had been previously assumed, necessarily the result of scientific illiteracy but rather, are likely produced by intertwining social and situational contexts. With these considerations in mind, the goal of this study was to identify potential motivations underlying anti-vax behavior by performing a deep examination of anti-vax rhetoric, coupled with demographic and situational analyses. I focused specifically on the anti-vax community in Maine, with a special interest in the group’s recent campaign to reject new measures calling for stricter immunization policy. Demographic analysis of anti-vax campaigners suggested that the movement was led predominantly by residential women, while close-readings of select Facebook profiles indicated that group members relied primarily on themes of choice, parenthood, ‘Big Pharma,’ and Maine to effectively ‘sell’ their message. Situating these concepts within the framework of modern neoliberalism proved fruitful: Anti-vaxxers’ emphasis on ‘choice’ and control in the home could be seen to reflect both neoliberal/conservative principles and economic anxieties, made all the more acute by Maine’s tumultuous history with opiates. I took a second look at the anti-vax movement amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that followers generally stood firm to their convictions regarding individuality and ‘choice’ in the face of community crisis. This pointed towards a larger takeaway, suggesting that anti-vax behavior is more related to feelings of powerlessness than to immunization itself
Creating Dynamic Spaces: Exploring Student-Empowered Self-Expression through Art
Get PDFResearch suggests that students living in rural areas may be more likely to face adversity and stress due to intersecting challenges present in their communities including poverty, substance abuse, addiction, poor health, reduced economic opportunity, and geographic isolation. I conducted an engaged scholarship project in partnership with students and staff at JES to explore ways that open-ended art activities that provide students with self-directed creative spaces can cultivate a student-centered environment built around strong relationships. This type of environment can mitigate the negative impacts of adverse childhood experiences potentially affecting rural Maine students and improve a culture of emotional wellness and a focus on student empowerment in school contexts. In two four-week pilots with two trial groups, I worked with students aged four to eight in art exploration activities designed to disrupt the power differentials of the traditional teacher-centered classroom by placing control over the environment with students. Over the course of the four sessions, students gained confidence and developed a sense of empowerment in their self-directed environments. Students in both groups demonstrated social-emotional learning through art and developed their relationships with peers and school staff in positive ways
The Colby Echo (October 22, 2020)
Get PDFPublished by the students of Colby College since 1877, The Colby Echo is the weekly, editorially independent student-run newspaper of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Published monthly, 1877-1886; semi-monthly, 1886-1897; and weekly, during the academic year, 1898-present
The Colby Echo (March 5, 2020)
No full textPublished by the students of Colby College since 1877, The Colby Echo is the weekly, editorially independent student-run newspaper of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Published monthly, 1877-1886; semi-monthly, 1886-1897; and weekly, during the academic year, 1898-present.
Ground to a Halt: A Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding U.S. Government Shutdowns
No full textGovernment shutdowns are a relatively frequent, yet understudied, phenomenon in American politics. To better understand these shutdowns, I present them as competitions between parties in two areas: First, the policy space, in which each party tries to end a shutdown with a policy that coincides with that party’s ideology and; second, the public opinion space, in which each party attempts to win support from the public. I use both qualitative (case studies), and quantitative (formal and statistical models) methods to evaluate shutdowns using this lens. Through my case studies, I found that parties which propose shutdown-ending policies that are close (in ideology) to the status quo fare better—in both policy and public opinion—than parties which propose a major policy change. Additionally, I show through formal and statistical models that the public opinion and policy spaces do not adequately capture the utility maximization of parties during government shutdowns. Rather, parties that instigate shutdowns view them as base mobilization opportunities and show limited regard for aggregate public opinion or the ideological position of the shutdown-ending policy. Still, my results show that shutting down the government is not an effective workaround for parties attempting to circumvent the separation of powers outlined in the U.S. Constitution
Québécois, malgré nous : Naissance et évolution d’une identité québécoise dans trois romans de Réjean Ducharme
No full textThis honors thesis focuses on moments in Réjean Ducharme’s L’Avalée des avalés, L’Hiver de force et Va savoir that are indicative of historical and social questions in Quebec. These novels span a 30 year period of critical developments for Quebec. This analysis, consequently, examines the relationship between Ducharme’s universe and the world in which he lived. It argues that Ducharme’s texts indirectly respond to social questions and discourses, and moreover, that they elaborate a new vision for Quebec and its people.
Le présent mémoire porte sur des instances révélatrices de questions historiques et sociales au Québec dans L’Avalée des avalés, L’Hiver de force et Va savoir de Réjean Ducharme. Le contexte historique des romans s’étend sur une trentaine d’années, voire des années 60 aux années 90. Une période critique de l’histoire du Québec durant laquelle la province a vécu d’importants changements politiques majeurs. Cette recherche, par conséquent, s’attarde au rapport entre l’imaginaire ducharmien et le vécu de l’auteur. Elle montre que le texte de Ducharme répond d’une manière indirecte aux discours sociaux, et que l’auteur élabore une nouvelle vision pour le Québec et son peuple.
The Impact of Climate Change on the Migration Phenology of New England’s Anadromous River Herring and American Shad
No full textAnadromous fish play important roles in food webs and nutrient cycling in both aquatic and marine ecosystems. As a result of climate change however, anadromous fish’s migration timing has begun to change, with potentially deleterious consequences to both anadromous fish, and the species that depend on them. Western coastal US studies have linked earlier anadromous fish returns to warming marine temperatures and changes in river flow regimes, but the exact temperatures thresholds that anadromous fish respond to, and the relative importance of temperatures and river flows, remain somewhat unknown. Additionally, there has been relatively little research on anadromous fish phenology on the east coast, especially in the Gulf of Maine, which is warming faster than 99% of the world’s oceans. This research addresses this gap by using time series datasets to determine how river discharge and marine sea-surface temperatures have altered migration timing of river herring and American shad in New England. River herring and American shad return times got significantly earlier over the 30-year study period, a trend driven mainly by the earlier onset of warming in the fish’s marine habitat. River discharge was not as strongly related to migratory timing as marine temperature phenological indices, but played an important secondary role, especially in years with spring high flows. Overall, this research shows that climate change is having significant impacts on anadromous fish in New England, and highlights the need to account for climate impacts in fisheries management
Development and validation of gene delivery methods for Crassostrea virginica
No full textThe Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) is an important part of the East Coastal USA economy because aquaculture creates jobs. Sadly, the oysters are under constant threat due to increasing pollution, red tides, and diseases. Bivalves, and oysters in particular, are also becoming potential model organisms in medical research. With the sequencing of the oyster genome, scientists are focusing on deciphering the function of the predicted genes. However, the limited number of molecular and cellular tools available makes functional annotation of the genome challenging. A consistent, replicable gene delivery system needs to be developed to assess gene function and understand the oyster phenome. In this study, we adapted and furthered early methodologies for delivering DNA into oysters. We tested both chemical (dendrimers) and physical (electroporation) gene delivery into oyster hemocytes, in vivo and in vitro, using plasmids under CMV (pm ax-GFP, pC gVEGF-HA-GFP) and SV40 (pMLS-SV40-GFP) promoter control with green fluorescent protein (GFP) tagged genes. We observed GFP expression as early as 24 hours post transfection, in both in vivo and in vitro studies, using confocal microscopy. Indirect immunofluorescence analysis co-localized GFP with the anti-hemagglutinin antibodies in C. virginica hemocytes, expressing C. gigas vascular endothelial growth factor fused with hemagglutinin and GFP (pCgVEGF-HA-GFP). Transfection efficiency, using flow cytometry analysis, for in vitro and in vivo was 0.042% and 0.008% for pm ax-GFP, 0.061% and 0.01% for pMLS-GFP, and 0.071% and 0.009% for pCgVEGF-HA-IRES-GFP respectively. Here, we provide the basic methodology to understand the gene functions, and mechanisms that underlie oyster physiology and ecology, in order to annotate the oyster genome
Acoso Visual: Staring Back at the State and Gender Conformity
No full textA semi-autoethnographic piece that uses a radical transfeminist lens to interrogate hegemonic systems of gender and race in the Dominican Republic through the violence that Trans and Gender Nonconforming people face. While focusing on trans violence, this thesis explicitly turns its gaze away from Trans/Gender Nonconforming people and interrogates the state, cisnormativity, and gender conformity. This thesis explores how acoso visual (visual accosting) is a historically informed process that works to border trans/gender nonconformity out of the idea of Dominicanidad. Ultimately, this text reminds Trans/Gender Nonconforming individuals that they are not the reason for the transphobia that they experience, and urges cisgender individuals to question their agitations with Trans/Gender Nonconformity. Moreover, this thesis provides an articulation for the violence that Trans/Gender Nonconforming individuals experience