Digital Commons @ Colby
Not a member yet
16478 research outputs found
Sort by
“Off to Greek Camp”: A History and Examination of Greek America and its Adaptation of American Summer Camp Culture
No full textCamps are one of the most distinct institutions of American childhood, offering children a place to socialize and explore their identities. Since the late 19th century, camps have been used to inspire religious, social, and ethnic identity. Extensive research has been done into some kinds of summer camps, this thesis attempts to add to this literature through analysis of Greek Orthodox Summer Camp programs run under the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (The Metropolis of Boston Camp and Ionian Village). This dissertation examines the role of the modern religious summer camp in building and maintaining Greek American and Greek Orthodox identity in children descended from Greek immigrants. It seeks to prove that there was a demonstrated effort from the Orthodox Church in the mid-20th century to link youth ministry with Orthodox camping programs as a way to preserve culture, ethnicity, and religion. This dissertation argues that the creation of these programs played a role in a significant number of ethnically Greek American youth choosing Greek ethnic association in religion and culture
The International Transracial Adoption Effect: Measuring The Well-Being of Korean Adoptees vs. Non-Adopted Korean Americans
No full textIn this study, I examine the differences in well-being and long-term outcomes between adopted and non-adopted Korean Americans. The vast majority of adopted Korean Americans are placed with white, heterosexual couples, positioning them in a unique position in American society. While they are raised in white families and often disconnected from Korean culture, they are still perceived and treated as Asian by society. Scholars refer to this tension as the transracial adoptee paradox. This study explores how that paradox affects both economic and non-economic outcomes. The analysis finds that adopted Koreans tend to earn higher incomes than their non-adopted peers, but adoption is associated with 0.722 fewer years of education. In terms of non-economic indicators, adopted Korean Americans are 5% more likely to be married, yet they have, on average, 0.0739 fewer children than non-adopted Korean Americans. These findings underscore the complex ways that race, family, and identity intersect to diverge the life trajectories of transracial adoptees from non-adopted individuals
Drivers of Heat Pump Installation in Maine: Climate Shocks, Politics, and Incentives
No full textHeat pumps are a growing trend as climate adaptation measures around the world and are gaining significant popularity and attention due to a number of environmental and social factors across Maine. Homeowners in Maine face difficult financial and personal pressures when considering a heat pump. Impacting this decision is a high cost of energy, a substantial rebate offsetting the purchase price, as well as summers and winters that are warming beyond record highs and lows. Previous research has looked at specific populations or large regions without considering the long-term personal drivers of this decision. I use data from Efficiency Maine, NOAA, and the US Census Bureau, to construct a dataset that captures the cost, location, financial, and social drivers that influence heat pump adoption. I uncover significant correlations between warm weather, rebate incentives, and politics on town level heat pump adoption. My findings have implications for the appropriate policy levers and interventions that need to be made to increase the heat pump adoption rate across the state to hit statewide targets and beyond
Shared Tracks, Divided Rule: The Role of Polycentrism in Shaping Public Transportation in U.S. Metropolises
No full textAmerican public transportation is notably less comprehensive and efficient relative to peer nations. The reliance on private automobiles and commercial air travel for routes that can be served by high-speed rail is a uniquely American phenomenon. This inefficiency is deeply rooted in governance structures, where centralized decision-making has often failed to address the complexities of metropolitan transit systems spanning multiple jurisdictions. This project explores polycentric governance as a potential mechanism to address these shortcomings by fostering competition, enhancing collaboration, and promoting localized responsiveness within metropolitan transit systems. By developing an empirical inventory to measure governance polycentricity and comparing transit outcomes in regions with varying governance structures, the analysis reveals that polycentric systems can improve ridership, user affordability, and customer satisfaction. The findings suggest that embracing polycentric governance could make public transportation in the United States more adaptable, equitable, and efficient, offering a pathway to mitigate the country\u27s dependence on cars and planes while improving transit infrastructure and service delivery
Does the 25th Amendment Merit Reform?: The Challenge of Determining Presidential Disability
No full textThis research project examines the persistent lack of use of the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution in its original form, despite many calls for the reform of the language or expansion of its application as situations unfold. Adopted in 1967, the amendment was created to address the challenges of presidential succession and incapacity. However, historical events over the last few decades, such as the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, Reagan’s colon cancer, and the general increase in the age at which presidents assume office, have contributed to scrutiny over the amendments’ provisions. This study will explore why specifically Section 4 of the amendment has not been utilized throughout its tenure, analyzing factors such as partisanship and polarization, constitutional rigidity, and the amendment’s ambiguous language. It will investigate the complex interplay between the amendment’s legal mechanisms and public perceptions of presidential health and capability. Through a comprehensive review of historical sources—including legislative records, newspapers, and scholarly work—this project aims to understand the barriers that have deterred the use of the 25th Amendment the way it was originally intended, while analyzing situations when the amendment likely should have been utilized, ultimately contributing to broader discussions on constitutional adaptation and the balance of power within the executive branch of government
The Anatomy of a Reconstruction: From Fourier Space to Image Recovery in Computed Tomography
No full textThis thesis develops the mathematical foundations of computed tomography (CT) reconstruction through the lens of harmonic analysis. Beginning with the Schwartz class, we introduce the Fourier transform and its role in expressing the Radon transform and its inversion via a fractional Laplacian. After constructing the Radon transform in general dimension R^d, we specialize to the cases d = 2 and d = 3, demonstrating explicit inversion formulas and the associated instability in lower dimensions. For its computational advantages, we study filtered back-projection using classical low-pass filters (Ram-Lak, Shepp–Logan, Cosine, Gaussian) and formulate a discrete reconstruction algorithm grounded in convolution and interpolation. Quantitative evaluation on synthetic phantoms with spatially varying Gaussian noise is performed using metrics such as Mean Square Error (MSE), Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structural Similarity Index (SSIM), and a Laplacian-of-Gaussian (LoG) edge preservation index. We then introduce a spatially adaptive post-processing filter guided by local LoG responses, which improves structural accuracy and noise suppression beyond frequency-domain methods. Our results establish a rigorous and computational framework for CT reconstruction, connecting classical analysis with applied imaging
Abortion on the Ballot: How Direct Democracy Shapes Abortion Policy Post-Dobbs
No full textSince the return of abortion policy to the states following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), sixteen states have considered ballot measures addressing core questions of abortion access. Distinct from pre-2022 initiatives, these recent measures present binary choices on issues such as viability-based access, six-week bans, and the existence or repudiation of a right to abortion in state constitutions. Although existing scholarship generally frames initiatives and referendums as mechanisms that enhance congruence between public opinion and policy outcomes, this focus overlooks the broader effects of direct democratic processes on voters. I hypothesize that there is something unique in the political environment created by initiatives and referendums on abortion policy that is inadequately captured by the existing scholarly emphasis on congruence. Using three experiments to approximate the political environment created during the initiative and referendum process, this research anticipates that the environmental and structural forces inherent in the initiative and referendum process shift voter opinion and mobilize voters. The findings from these three experiments suggest that the conventional emphasis on congruence may inadequately assess ballot measures, but that hypothesized fears of direct democracy functioning as a polarizing mechanism did not materialize. This research contributes a critical perspective to ongoing discussions on the role of direct democracy in American policymaking and offers insight into the evolving dynamics of abortion policy in the post-Dobbs landscape
See the Trees, Then the Forest: Tensions and Alignments in Parent-Teacher Relationships within Maine’s Special Education System
No full textTo examine relationships between parents and teachers within the special education system, the present research utilizes Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) ecological systems theory to understand how these relationships are influenced by interconnected systems, ranging from immediate school-level interactions to wider institutional and cultural contexts. Research has found that despite efforts to keep parents involved in the education process, barriers to full support of special education students often exist, such as the capacity of school systems and disagreements between parties (Leiter & Wyngaarden Krauss, 2004). Regardless of policies promoting parental inclusion, such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), inequities in geography, resources, and capital continue to stratify experiences, especially in places like Maine. This research identified a range of material and spatial factors shaping relationships, such as geography, financial situations, access to knowledge, increasing need for special education services, and staff shortages. Along with these factors, the standardization of the education system and beliefs about dis/ability held by parents and teachers impacted how they navigated relationships. Additionally, parents’ past experiences with schools and advocacy, differences in communication styles, and a perceived mismatch in beliefs about students further shaped these interactions, often creating misunderstandings despite shared holistic views. The results of this research may be used to inform the work of schools and family advocate groups through the improvement of communication and the dissemination of information to families
Optimizing Radial Interfaces for Eye-Movement Authentication on Smartphones
No full textRadial authentication interfaces offer privacy-preserving, calibration-free eye-movement authentication. While their effectiveness has been demonstrated on large displays, their performance on smartphones remains underexplored. This study investigates seven radial interface configurations on the iPhone 13, varying the number of radial indicators and password lengths to examine trade-offs between accuracy, security, and entry time. Through a controlled eye-tracking experiment with 27 participants, we evaluate each configuration’s performance and collect user prioritizations of the three factors. Our findings reveal that shorter passwords with fewer indicators improve speed and accuracy but reduce security, while longer configurations enhance security at the cost of usability. Based on both empirical results and user preferences, a configuration with four indicators and a four-digit password provides the optimal balance between these competing criteria
Mortal Rivers: A Case Study Analysis of Indigenous Water Sovereignty within the Penobscot and Lakota Nations, 19th Century to Present
No full textIndigenous water sovereignty has long been a contested problem within the continent of Turtle Island. In 2016, the Lakota Nation globalized the message Water is Life through their movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline, an oil infrastructure that would put one of the continent’s largest watersheds at risk. The revolutionary fervor of the Water is Life movement travelled all the way to the Penobscot Nation in the Dawnland, a place we now call Maine. In an adjacent vein to the Lakota, the Penobscot people have spent the 21st century addressing damming projects and rampant pollution from the 1900s in a slew of court cases. For both the Penobscot and Lakota people, the many water injustices they are fighting against in the present have roots in the 19th and 20th centuries as the US nation-state dammed, polluted, and took control of vital water bodies in the name of profit. Indeed, economic maximization was the driving force behind much of the US’s dealings with these two Indigenous nations, and the continued commodification of water and land was representative of a larger conceptual difference between the US and the Penobscot and Lakota. In my research, I call for a shift in the way the US nation-state addresses its water systems—a shift from inanimate to animate, from commodified thing to being. Through a case study of the Penobscot and Lakota Nations, two unique fights for water sovereignty give light to intersecting ideas of water as mortal, in need of reverence and protection