Reed Digital Collections (Reed College)
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Suboptimal Multi-Heuristic Approaches for Solving the Rubik’s Cube Incorporating Deep Learning and Group Theory
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/bb85f0ac-2aea-4513-be4c-8625dcaed773/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis explores efficient algorithms for solving the Rubik's Cube by balancing solution quality with computational constraints. The study integrates group theory and deep learning to enhance heuristic algorithms, aiming for suboptimal solutions under specific conditions: rapid solving within 26 moves and finding the shortest solution within a 60-second computational limit. Additionally, this research introduces a robust algorithm designed to validate the solvability of Rubik's Cube states, employing group theory to analytically dissect and understand the cube's theoretical structures.The thesis reviews heuristic search methods and proposes a novel model combining deep reinforcement learning with supervised learning approaches. This model serves as an advanced heuristic function to direct informed search algorithms toward more efficient solutions faster. Using the improved heuristic function and group theory along with other improvements to A* search and beam search, this thesis implements Multi-Heuristic Batched Weighted A* Search (MBWA*), Multi-Heuristic Beam Search (MBS), and Anytime Variation of MBWA* (MAWA*) for different objectives. These methods are tested through comparative studies to assess their effectiveness in solving the cube under the stated constraints. This work contributes to computational theory and algorithm design by demonstrating the potential of merging theoretical mathematics with practical computational techniques to address complex problems. The findings could lead to more sophisticated algorithms that might be applicable in other complex systems beyond Rubik’s Cube, pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved within stringent computational and time constraints
Who’s the Leader: Dorsalized signaling pathway interactions of BMP, RA, and MAPK affecting neurogenesis within the retina.
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/e7f9fe9b-ebd8-4e13-a3e4-3d8f5a26404c/thumb/128.jpgEye development is highly conserved among vertebrates including between zebrafish and humans. Within zebrafish, the neurons that form the optic nerve are generated across the retina, beginning in the ventral-nasal region and fanning out toward the temporal region of the retina. The dorsal retina is one of the last locations in which neurons are generated but it is currently unclear how this specific spatiotemporal pattern of neurogenesis is regulated. When compared to wild-type zebrafish, gdf6a (-/-) embryos, which carry a missense mutation within the bmp13 gene, show earlier neurogenesis in the dorsal retina as well as a range of ocular anomalies, including small and misshapen eyes. In wild-type zebrafish, three signaling pathways — BMP (Bone Morphogenic Protein), MAPK (Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase), and RA (Retinoic Acid) — are active in the developing dorsal retina. To test how these signaling pathways and their interactions can influence neuron formation, I performed pharmacological manipulations, gene expression analyses, and microscopy of living and fixed embryos. Specifically, I analyzed the precise timing of the BMP, MAPK, and RA pathways within the retina, and elucidated the relationship between MAPK and RA activity within the dorsal retina, providing evidence that the MAPK pathway may activate RA and RA, in turn, RA inhibits MAPK. Results suggest that there are two critical periods of transition during retinal development: the transition from optic vesicle to optic cup morphology between 17-24 hpf, and the transition from dorsal MAPK activity presence to dorsal RA activity between 24-30 hpf. Inhibition of the MAPK led to significant decreases in aldh1a2 expression, an upstream target of RA, suggesting that RA may be being activated by MAPK. Inhibition of the RA pathway within both wild-type and gdf6a (-/-) embryos led to significant increases in dusp6 expression, suggesting RA may inhibit MAPK signaling. It is unclear whether MAPK or FGF receptor activation has differential effects on proliferation though inhibition of either signal appears to increase the quantity of proliferating cells in the dorsal retina, but targeting MAPK expression appears to be a more responsive target, suggesting that outside signaling pathways may interact with MAPK each other not at the FGFR level
The Status Quo Bias on Mobile Privacy Settings
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/ed8f0be6-4926-4394-9b9b-ba791c1085ae/thumb/128.jpgData privacy settings dictate one’s digital security, safety, and peace of mind. They affect our mobile and desktop devices and our digital and physical presence. If handled without care, one’s livelihood – spending, communications, health, or physical location – can become monetized or exploited by third parties. These settings receive little personal attention because of the tendency to stay with things as they are, also known as status quo bias. I explore the behavioral stories behind status quo bias on altering mobile location settings and whether Android and iOS users respond differently. To my knowledge, this thesis is the first look at general status quo bias from a privacy perspective. I summarize the status quo bias literature to clear some definitional murkiness in past research. I also present a model to determine the presence and causes of status quo bias in changing one’s mobile location settings. Ultimately, this thesis answers explores the variation and absolute strength of SQB among Android and iOS users. I report a 19-percentage point chance increase in status quo bias for iOS users because of higher perceived transaction costs
The Birds and the Biases: The Influence of Socio-demographics on Urban Bird Communities & eBird Surveys in Portland, OR
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/03e131cf-6e8f-4d04-8a47-65b37b561615/thumb/128.jpgResearch has shown that ecosystem services are inequitably distributed in many of today’s cities. Often services, such as tree canopy cover, is concentrated in white and wealth communities, leaving disadvantaged communities without important natural resources. This thesis investigates if this type of inequity can be found in the urban bird communities of Portland, Oregon . Urban bird communities are a frequently used study system in the field of urban ecology because they are both sensitive to disturbance and relatively easy to detect in the wild. Extensive previous research has demonstrated that urbanization decreases bird diversity with urban bird communities frequently becoming dominated by disturbance-tolerated (often non-native) generalist species at the expense of native, disturbance-sensitive native species. I hypothesized that due to Portland’s long history of racial segregation, communities with a greater proportion of people of color would experience less bird diversity. To test this, I performed 101 bird surveys in Portland public parks. The result indicated that community diversity did not differ according to socio-demographics. However, I found that diversity was strongly correlated with coniferous canopy cover and that the presence of nine specific species did vary according to the proportion of people of color. My findings have important implications for future park management, especially regarding the incorporation of native conifer species to equitably foster diverse bird communities in Portland. This thesis also investigates whether the bird survey data provided by the popular citizen science project, eBird, is biased in where surveys are being perform. Recent research has begun to show that the flexibility eBird participants are given in choosing their bird survey location leads to surveys being concentrated in white and wealthy communities. In my analysis of Portland’s eBird data from the last ten year, I found only a weak correlation between survey distribution and the proportion of residents of color; however this relationship was negative, indicating that less surveys are being performed in communities of color
Got Gossip? Examining Gossip Tendencies and the Effects of Gossip on Trustworthiness
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/22b639d8-2837-4105-b478-0fcf3efbc947/thumb/128.jpgThis study sought to examine general tendencies to gossip, and how trust ratings of gossip sharers are impacted by gossip valence (positive or negative gossip) and relationship (friend or acquaintance) of the gossip sharer and the gossip target, to the listener of the gossip. Previous studies have revealed gossip to be an essential form of communication among humans, dating back hundreds of years. It has been shown to strengthen social groups, communicate social norms and values, and allow for the spread of information about others. Gossip has been shown to work as a “social sanction”; the threat of others gossiping about an individual’s behavior limiting their self-serving behavior. The current study examined trust ratings of gossip sharers across 8 vignettes that alternated in gossip valence and relationship of the gossip sharer and target. Participants (N=111) rated the trust levels of the 8 sharers. Gossip tendencies were examined through an adapted Tendency to Gossip Questionnaire (TGQ) that participants (N=112) completed. Means were calculated to examine which behaviors were most frequent. Clusters of questions were found based on the similarities in which they were answered. Exploratory analyses explored possible connections between trust ratings and tendencies to gossip. Across all vignettes, positive gossip sharers were rated significantly more trustworthy than negative gossip sharers. No correlation was found between trust and tendency to gossip. The effect of valence replicates prior research, suggesting that humans create judgments based on the content shared with them. Implications of these findings, limitations, and future research directions, are discussed
Imagining Digital, Queer Utopias: Queering the Map as Archival World-Making
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/f6d4249d-bd59-4ae1-b9e8-a3a5f6fee0ac/thumb/128.jpgIn this thesis, I explore the website Queeringthemap.com, which is an open-access mapping project in which queer people pin stories, memories, and much more to a digital map. I approach this site as a complex intersection of disjointed logics, specifically exploring queerness in relationship with the normative logics of geography, archives, and digital technology. By teasing these relationships within Queering the Map, I seek to ask larger questions about the relationship between the queer individual and archives themselves. In contrast to the normative logics of documentation, in archives and maps, Queering the Map reorients these forms towards relational desires of a collective. I detail the ways in which users formulate a collective subjectivity within the site, through mutual desires and longing within in the site—seeping into the thematic elements of posts and the experiences of viewers of the site. From this, I observe the ways in which users emerge through this longing—redefining the logics presented by the site and extending the archive into a world of its own. I analyze these emergences as a new archival world-making practice, converting the desire for another world into the iterative construction of a utopic reality within the archive. I call this practice, which occurs on Queering the Map, utopic archival world-making. Ultimately, I argue that Queering the Map demonstrates a unique site for the emerging relationships with archival repositories through digital forms, pioneering a new collective relational experience of the archive
I WOULD NEVER THROW A FIRECRACKER INTO DRY GRASS, BUT–
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/069f5437-7882-4e8e-aecf-1c5888cb5765/thumb/128.jpgI would never throw a firecracker into dry grass, but – is a collection of poetry. Informed by the frameworks of ecopoetics, it explores suburban ecologies, christian cultural inheritance, wildfire, foot travel, and coastlines. I wrote this collection between September and March the 2023-24 school year, at times drawing on content from older notebooks I’ve kept or texts such as the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas. The four sections of the project: Powerline, Bloodline, Fireline and Tideline are four intersecting lines of inquiry into personal and enviornmental entanglement and anxiety, four distinct yet overlapping exercises in attention
Perception of Creaky Voice: Effects of Listener Age
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/51adc334-b6b4-4aa9-9f3a-d7122efa4a59/thumb/128.jpgCreaky voice (vocal fry), a non-modal voice quality, is a socially salient linguistic variable in American English which is often associated with young women's speech with negative connotations. While studies have found that younger speakers have high rates of creak production regardless of gender, there is currently little research and consensus on the potential effect of listener age on the perception of creak. This study investigated how listener age influences the perception of young women's use of creak through ratings of 11 attribute scales. In an online between-subjects matched-guise perception study, 208 listeners aged 18-86 heard short audio stimuli of creak and modal utterances produced by three speakers and were asked to rate each of the speakers on 11 Likert scales and provide their initial impression of the speaker in three words. The ratings were then analyzed in mixed-effect regression models. The results suggest that age is a significant factor in some attributes, including femininity, sense of humor, and a solidarity indicator presented as "does the speaker sound like you", where younger listeners rate creaky voices more positively relative to older listeners. The significant effect of age could indicate social meaning changes and indexical obsolescence. Age is not a significant factor in competence, intelligence, leadership, and trustworthiness, where all ages rated creaky voices significantly more negatively compared to modal voices. Neither age nor voice type are significant factors in ambitiousness, body height, likeability, and masculinity. Overall, creak is heard more negatively than modal, which corroborates the current literature. Other secondary independent variables, such as gender, education level, and race, are also largely insignificant. In all, the results fill the current gap in literature about the effect of listener age on creak perception, and call for further attention to the other potential factors
Sïrankua
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/7f8bfc5f-8a84-4017-9aad-2a8fb108dbb4/thumb/128.jp
Culture and Compliance: Identifying Reed's Coupling Processes with its Alcohol and Other Drug Policy
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/43a652d3-dc2f-4e67-b348-108741175b87/thumb/128.jpgOver the past 30 years, federal regulation of higher education has significantly increased creating a requirement for organizations to comply with policies in exchange for funding. Situating itself within organizational theory, this thesis used the Drugs Free Schools and Campuses Act (DFSCA) as a primary example of federal policy that functions as an institutional rule for organizations in higher education. Predominantly followed by other higher education organizations, this institutional rule facilitates legitimacy maintenance by communicating to the public and federal authorities an organization’s shared commitment to the values the institutional rule represents when it complies. However, in the case of Reed College in the early 2000’s, a lack of compliance threatened the organization’s legitimacy, specifically when the authenticity of previous compliance was called into question. Based on data collected from archival materials, staff, and faculty, this study sought to understand the relationship between Reed’s formal structure and internal practices and how that relationship changed as the college tried to repair its legitimacy after being exposed for noncompliance