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The Effects of Fluoxetine, Metformin, and Crowding on Daphnia magna
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/bfc5463c-c541-48c4-9acc-b03691e2837b/thumb/128.jpgPharmaceutical pollutants in aquatic systems are an emerging concern. Because Daphnia magna are a keystone species, studying the effects of pharmaceutical pollutants on D. magna in a comprehensive manner is crucial for understanding the effects these pollutants may have on aquatic ecosystems. Additionally, D. magna’s quick generation time, small size, and ability to reproduce clonally make them an exceptional model organism for ecotoxicology studies. Studies have shown that metformin, a diabetes medication, is found in in waterways at high concentrations globally. Additionally, previous work has found that fluoxetine—an SSRI that is also a known pharmaceutical pollutant—has had adverse effects on Daphnia survival and reproduction. Despite this, research into how combinations of pharmaceuticals, as well as research into how pharmaceuticals affect Daphnia in stressful environments, is lacking. Therefore, this study examines the effects of fluoxetine and metformin, both separately and combined, in both crowded and non-crowded treatments on Daphnia magna. The crowding treatment was meant to replicate a naturally-occuring stress that can cause Daphnia to produce male offspring. I found that generally, crowding increases fitness and fecundity. Fluoxetine caused treated animals to produce larger and male offspring. Metformin and the combination of fluoxetine and metformin together decreased offspring fitness. Lastly, crowding affected the different pharmaceutical treatments in different ways, suggesting that fluoxetine and metformin change how D. magna respond to stress. Overall, the effects of pharmaceuticals on D. magna in stressful conditions were unpredictable and largely negative
Jorge Luis Borges: Refashioning the Argentine Literary Identity
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/cf1b7119-6307-472e-ae32-dea6af229cc6/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis explores how Jorge Luis Borges worked to reconcile traditions and histories into an Argentine literary identity. It investigates the question of what constitutes Argentine literature and how Borges utilized different literary modes to grapple with his own Argentine identity. The first chapter examines one of his short stories, “Story of the Warrior and the Captive Maiden.” It shows how his own questioning of what it means to be Argentine manifests historically through an exploration of the memories of two intertwining tales. The second chapter analyzes another story, “The Other Death,” focusing specifically on the use of the fantastic. It shows an example of Borges’s reworking of the Argentine tradition into a narrative medium that allows for accessing problems of identity through the work of memory and forgetting. Borges’s work disrupted and redefined the literary landscape of Argentina by expanding a narrow understanding of tradition
Examining Model Robustness for Treatment Efficacy Prediction in Major Depressive Disorder
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/b46cf9f1-344b-4923-8fce-26a714e0581d/thumb/128.jpgMajor Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a complex disorder that often has overlapping symptoms with other psychiatric disorders. MDD symptoms show up differently in every person and can typically arise from different biological and environmental factors. The current practice for prescribing treatments (i.e. antidepressants) for MDD is a trial-and-error approach. This typically involves clinician discretion and knowledge of how others have reacted to the treatments. The current approach to prescribing treatments for MDD is inefficient and does not consider individual differences between patients and their symptomology. Precision medicine is an emerging approach that tailors treatment to an individual and their experience. This thesis applies the precision medicine approach to patients with MDD in hopes of providing more evidence supporting the importance of individual-level treatment response predictions. We sought to replicate and extend on the 2021 Taliaz et al study, “Optimizing prediction of response to antidepressant medications using machine learning and integrated genetic, clinical, and demographic data.” We used machine learning approaches to build drug-specific models that predict treatment response based on genetic, clinical, and demographic feature types. Our methods yielded an average accuracy of 82% across all drug models in the testing set. The extension portion involved training the models on different combinations of these three feature types, resulting in the confirmation that multimodal approaches are best for building accurate predictive models. We extracted the features that contributed most to model predictions, which provide insight into mechanisms that contribute to the development of depressive symptoms and drug processing. Ultimately, these results tell us that machine learning approaches applied to large, multimodal datasets can aid in improving the process and accuracy of antidepressant prescription
"If we ourselves are to suffer deception, our hands are no longer tied": an Analysis of Icepick Lodge's Pathologic (2005)
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/a7a1dcb8-4af2-4490-aaf2-24424e465eef/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis examines the story and ludic narrative of the 2005 Russian survival-horror video game Pathologic (Мор: Утопия) by the Moscow-based indie game studio Icepick Lodge, with the goal of providing an analysis of it as a work of post-Soviet, postmodern fiction. Each chapter focuses on a different layer of analysis. The first chapter outlines the overarching plot of the game and compares it to anthropological and sociological research on the “post-Soviet condition” in Russia. The second chapter examines the references to various historical events and works of Russian literature and poetry that are included in the game, and the significance of them in creating a sense of nostalgia for an imagined Russian past. The third looks at the game through the context of horror and game theory, specifically with regards to how it uses horror to recreate the experience of living through Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The final chapter examines the responses and reception to the game from both the Russophone and Anglophone fanbases, the issues of localization, and the ways in which participatory culture impacts the overall meaning of the game
Use of Adversarial Graph Neural Networks for MRI Super-Resolution
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/80f30fb0-7426-4590-a557-2902b5562257/thumb/128.jpgMagnetic Resonance Imaging is an immensely powerful form of medical imaging, used to aid in diagnosis in many subfields of medicine. As it becomes more ubiquitous, problems have emerged in supplying enough machines, technicians, and time to keep up with demand. One solution to this issue is to cut down on image quality, which shortens acquisition time and lowers machine prices, and use computational post-processing to artificially increase image resolution. This paper uses a variety of image and mesh processing algorithms in tandem with a Generative Adversarial Super-Resolution Graph Neural Network in an attempt to super-resolve MRI data outside of the static structure provided by the standard 3-dimensional arrays normally used to store these scans. Training was unsuccessful at generating output data that improved on low resolution data, which is likely due to some combination computational impossibility, computing-power constraints, and inefficient algorithm design
Aristotle's Empeiria in Legislation
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/fa493dbe-b1b4-4e57-b5b4-ef03f01a5498/thumb/128.jpgAristotle closes his Nicomachean Ethics with an investigation of the epistemic value of empeiria for technical skills such as medicine and legislation. I first investigate how we should understand Aristotle’s use of the term empeiria. I argue for the relevance of distinguishing between practical and theoretical epistemic standards in order to properly understand empeiria and its distinction from what Aristotle calls scientific knowledge. The rest of this thesis is dedicated to determining the nature of legislation that operates on the basis of mere empeiria. After evaluating the extent to which one can understand legislation on the basis of mere empeiria from Aristotle’s texts, I introduce two case studies (Zimbabwe and Cambodia) that help reveal the conditions for the proper aim of legislation on the basis of mere empeiria. These case studies lead to the introduction of two necessary conditions for a legislative act to count as legislation on the basis of mere empeiria, called Good Knowledge and Good Care. Finally, I argue that there are circumstances where legislation on the basis of mere empeiria is superior to legislation on the basis of scientific knowledge
At the heart of the beat: A critical ethnography and semiotics of Afro-Uruguayan Candombe
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/daecadb5-c213-46b4-bfcd-4bfc54947944/thumb/128.jpgCandombe is an Afro-Uruguayan percussion practice which has been folklorized and nationalized since the mid-20th century. My thesis, based on a month of fieldwork in Montevideo, Uruguay, engagement with Uruguayan scholar Olga Picún’s investigation of Candombe within Uruguayan Popular Music, and critical semiotic analysis inspired by linguistic anthropologist Kristina Wirtz, aims to investigate Candombe’s symbolic and pragmatic meanings across three ‘genres’ of practice. These three genres are 1) Candombe Callejero (Street Candombe) 2) Música Popular Uruguaya (Uruguayan Popular Music) and 3) Candombe-Fusión. Each genre constitutes a chapter of my thesis, with the introduction serving to contextualize some pragmatic aspects of Candombe’s practice and some details of the Uruguayan context. Over the course of the thesis, I detail a set of processes by which differently positioned actors within Uruguayan society find meaning in Candombe, paying close attention to how musical and sonic performance of Candombe interacts with other forms of representation. At once inextricably linked to its imagined past in Africa and to the contemporary Uruguayan public, Candombe is a discursive field through which Afro-Uruguayans fight for recognition and valorization, and through which their subjugated position is broken down and reconstituted
Negotiations over Space: Human Rights Organizations and the Claim to Argentina’a Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/1189cebd-d0cd-4da7-99ee-007ba35c7ca8/thumb/128.jpgThe ESMA (Escuela de Mecánica de la Armada, School of Army Officer) is a former clandestine detention center located in the center of Buenos Aires, Argentina, where suspected communists and guerilla members were detained, tortured, and disappeared during Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship. With the return of democracy in 1983, the former clandestine center became a space of memory. This thesis examines the claims and proposals of human rights organizations regarding the redistribution and repurposing of buildings at the ESMA. It investigates how these human rights organizations have utilized the spaces previously operated and occupied by the Argentine Navy in order to represent state violence, commemorate victims of state terror, and promote human rights. Through an on-site visit to the former ESMA memory and human rights site, this thesis aims to assess the spatial distribution of the buildings, and study how each organization has chosen to utilize its designated space, and how human rights organizations employed frameworks of identity, ideology, and legitimacy in order to generate symbolic and material gains over the course of the negotiations
Migration as a Result of Civil Conflict
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/b6449be2-668d-43ad-bcad-9bfc0a7b0fbd/thumb/128.jpgMigration is when a person moves from one place to another. Causes can range from economic to social incentives. One of the main causes of internal migration is displacement caused by civil wars and conflicts. The following study determines the effect of deaths caused by Sendero Luminoso, a violent insurgency group in Peru, on internal migration. Results show non-linear effects of Sendero Luminoso’s violence on migration. Individuals from districts with a presence of moderate violence increased migration by 2%. On the other hand, districts with high levels of violence (in the 10th percentile of deaths per capita), decreased their probability of migration by 3.8%. The data used is from Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and Peru’s National Household Survey (ENAHO). This study is important as it highlights how migration is affected by violent conflict
10,000 Ways to Not Grow a Neuron: An Updated Procedure for Culturing Primary Neurons from Drosophila Embryos
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/55b944be-b719-41a9-97ab-43a79365e829/thumb/128.jpgPrimary cell cultures are an effective and powerful method for observing neurons in vitro. Primary neuron cultures can be made from Drosophila at three different developmental stages, and neurons from these stages are generally seen as equivalent to each other. The Applewhite lab initially made primary neuron cultures from Drosophila embryos but eventually switched to make primary cultures from the brains of larval Drosophila to get purer neuron cultures. However, upon making this switch it was observed that larval neurons did not develop growth cones, a developmental structure important for axonal pathfinding, while embryonic neurons developed robust growth cones. This challenged the idea that neurons at these developmental stages are equivalent. This thesis initially aimed to directly compare embryonic and larval neurons to confirm the nature of this difference, but the procedure that was previously used to create embryonic primary neuron cultures. The results of this thesis are an updated procedure for primary embryonic culture, a review of published procedures used to create embryonic cultures that allow neuron differentiation, and potential causes for the difference between neurons at embryonic and larval stages