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I am here today not because I want to be”: How the #MeToo Movement Impacted New York Times Reporting of Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Supreme Court Nominees
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/d8fdcc26-dcbf-4df1-b0f9-e3b49d5bd234/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis seeks to conceptualize the differences between the treatment of sexual misconduct allegations in the United States across two different time periods. Through a comparison of New York Times coverage of Anita Hill’s allegations against Clarence Thomas to Christine Blasey Ford’s against Brett Kavanaugh this thesis examines the impact of the #MeToo movement on public response to sexual misconduct allegations. The findings from this analysis can be extended to better understand the social ramifications of the #MeToo movement on a broader scale and can be used as a lens through which to consider a hypothetical future case in which a Supreme Court Nominee is accused of sexual misconduct
A Study on the Lindblad Master Equation of Open Quantum Systems Using Spin-1/2 Chains
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/2fff270a-1de1-4445-8dee-2fea8c9029c4/thumb/128.jpgWe use the Heisenberg Model to create one-dimension spin chains (world), and assign the first spin as the system and the rest as the environment. Utilizing this well-understood model, we are able to further study the open quantum system dynamics through this setup. The Lindblad Master Equation is derived with the assumption of the environment being fixed. The modification is made according to this condition not being true in our model, which leads to time-dependent coefficients in the equation. Therefore, we are able to obtain the exact time evolution using the initial condition with unitary time evolution of the world. We implement this procedure into code and numerically calculate the system’s time evolution and its time derivative. We also provide a proof that the first time derivative approximation at t = 0 will not capture the dynamical interactions for any world that has unitary time evolution. With the modified equation, we use the Taylor expansion to the second time derivative at t = 0 to approximate the effect and to isolate the time variable, which gives good approximation for short times
Illusory Motion Produced by a Computational Model of the Retinal Direction Selective Circuit
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/f6950cd6-364a-4958-9d02-6f4917f84fa7/thumb/128.jpgBiological vision of the human retina is susceptible to a wide variety of optical illusions, including those that produce illusory motion. Thus, an exploration of the mechanisms of the human retina has been conducted in order to understand in depth how illusory motion is perceived. Ultimately, a computational motion detector has been built, in Python, that is exclusively modelled off of the neurobiology of the retina-- something that has not been done in the literature thus far. The model is based on three phenomena that occur in the retina: phase advance, lateral inhibition, and biological motion detection using null direction inhibition. In order to test the accuracy of the model, a variety of one- and two-dimensional stimuli were inputted. In particular, the main goal was to detect illusory motion in Kitaoka's Rotating Snakes illusion. The model successfully detected illusory motion in multiple stimuli that induce the phenomenon, including the snakes illusion; it also detected motion in a moving stimulus, and no motion in a static stimulus. The implication of these results is that the model does in fact behave similarly to the human retina, and thus models its mechanisms analogously
Complexity in Comfort: The 21st-Century American Weekly-Release Sitcom
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/ae309cfb-ef81-4b38-b743-34fb37d46541/thumb/128.jpgThe field of television studies is constantly evolving alongside the relatively new art form. There are a myriad of books covering the industry itself, as well as its many subgenres, and yet experts in television studies have struggled with defining the sitcom form. The scope and publication dates of the most commonly cited monographs devoted to the sitcom—Brett Mills’s Television Sitcom (2006) and The Sitcom (2009) —suggest there is a gap in the literature about 21st century American sitcoms. Most scholarship about this era of television is restricted to articles about specific programs, rather than analysis of this period of the sitcom genre at large. This leaves ample room for a discussion of how the 21st century weekly-release sitcom works and how they can help define the sitcom genre itself. This thesis claims that the primary reason sitcoms have been so difficult to define is that the genre is built on three core relationships, each being pairings of antithetical ideas. These are comedy and closeness; episodicity and seriality; and artificiality and authenticity. Much of current scholarship analyzes these first items in each pairing, focusing on the aspects that serve to distance the medium from the audience. While these are valid ways of looking at the sitcom, they ignore the affective side, which appears to oppose these ideas. As often as we laugh at characters, we care about them. As often as characters remain static, they grow. As self-aware as the tone is, it feels real. The pleasure of the 21st century sitcom arises from an oscillation between these conflicting ideas. I set out to explore these relationships, with the goal of building clear ideas of how the sitcom works
Stalling in the Salt Flats: The Paradox of Bolivian Lithium Development under Evo Morales
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/a2752ddd-30df-4d9b-9f5c-a2257927ec84/thumb/128.jpgAs the global economy increasingly turns its attention toward developing cleaner forms of energy, lithium has become crucially important to the manufacturing of electric cars and other rechargeable technologies, serving as the basis for the batteries which power them. Former president Evo Morales of the MAS party envisioned a future where Bolivia dominated the lithium industry at every step of the process, from extraction to refinement to the production of finished goods. This future was tied up in the rhetoric of national development, promising that the returns from this boom would fund an expansive social infrastructure network. Though the MAS has attempted to make a significant number of leaps in its extractive regime since 2006, Bolivia has not seen the yields which Evo Morales promised it. I propose that the MAS under Morales overcommitted to a variety of agendas, limiting its ability to effectively enact new extractive policy in the context of lithium development. This paper outlines the process of neoliberal intervention, social pressure, and expanded political inclusiveness through which I suggest the MAS under Evo Morales entered a state of developmental gridlock
Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in Maine Oyster Aquaculture
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/12b28cc6-bdd1-43e0-bde1-9d4171493479/thumb/128.jpgIn recent years climate change has become an increasingly large pressure on many coastal economies and has driven many wild-catch fishery members to diversify their livelihoods through investment in the aquaculture industry. However, despite the promise that aquaculture holds for building a sustainable seafood industry, there has been little research done on the effects of climate change on aquaculture itself or how farmers are mitigating these challenges on their farms. In a case study of the Maine oyster industry, interview data from farmers and organizations affiliated with aquaculture is used to consider: What are the challenges facing farmers from climate change and how are they adapting to them? Why are many of the successful adaptations being innovated collectively despite a long history of rugged individualism in Maine fisheries? By centering farmer perspectives on climate change this study highlights the importance of formal and informal social networks in shaping how farmers understand and respond to climate change. Further, by assessing the role of organizations, this study shows that farmers are self-sufficient in adapting to most short-term challenges, but often need assistance from organizations when addressing long-term challenges, seeking funding, or getting started in the industry
"Take a Hundred Lines for the Memory of Those who Lived on Tubabao”: The Poetics of Exile and Displacement in Olga Skopichenko’s Verse
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/9cdeb1c4-5e3b-4bdf-83ef-cb1789946f33/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis analyzes the verse that Olga Skopichenko produces from 1949 to 1951, while she was a refugee on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines. The first chapter focuses on the development of poetic voice and the role of the scribe, as Skopichenko identifies herself as the mouthpiece for the largely forgotten refugee camp. I analyze three poems“Deviatyi val” (The Ninth Wave), “O nas” (About us), and “Ia dlia stikhov…” (I, for poems…), tracing metapoetic elements, dynamics between speaker and addressee, and the theme of exile to explicate how Skopichenko asserts her identity. My second chapter centers on Skopichenko’s depictions of the setting of Tubabao, analyzing a diary written in verse, as well as two lyric poems entitled “Govoriat, Zhiul’ Vern ob’ezdil” (They say, Jules Verne went around) and “Moia strana” (My country). Using these poems, I highlight the dynamic relationship between space and time that Skopichenko ties to the experience of displacement. This thesis further situates Skopichenko within the Russian émigré poetry at large, placing her in dialogue with other figures that tackle themes of exile in their verse
So What We Get Drunk: Social Anxiety, Drinking Motives, and Drinking Outcomes in an Emerging Adult Gender Diverse Community Sample
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/dd152867-ee5f-4971-9405-9a98c9e6bd9e/thumb/128.jpgObjective: The current study explored social anxiety, reasons for drinking, alcohol consumption, and potentially hazardous drinking behavior in a gender diverse community living sample of emerging adults (18-25 years old). Methods: Survey data was collected 625 emerging adults (Mage= 22.24, SD= 2.21; 37.60% cisgender women, 42.72% cisgender men, 19.68% gender diverse; 42.72% white; 15.61% Hispanic/Latine) using an online participant recruitment tool. Participants completed demographic questions, anxiety associated with social interaction (SIAS), motivations for drinking (DMQ-R), quantity and frequency of alcohol use (DDQ-R), potentially problematic drinking behavior (AUDIT). Results: Significant indirect paths were found such that increased social anxiety was associated with an increased endorsement of coping motives for drinking and as such an increased average and maximum drinks per week and AUDIT scores. Given these results gender was tested as a moderator but did not reach significance. Conclusions: While consistent with the existing literature, the lack of significant gender differences diverges from the literature base, suggesting that gender diverse individuals complicate the relations between social anxiety, reasons for drinking and alcohol use. Future research should explore the nature of these relations longitudinally and whether targeting coping strategies in individuals with social anxiety lessens maladaptive alcohol use
Visualizations to Improve Ranked Data Analyses, with Applications to Board Game Data
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/b52c8de6-883c-41e3-83fc-83335bd1173a/thumb/128.jpgVisualizations of ranking data often carry misleading implications for readers. In this thesis and the associated R package, we aim to provide tools for creating visualizations that better communicate the results of ranked data analyses in comparison to many commonly-used methods. We begin by introducing a number of potential pitfalls to keep in mind in order to avoid misleading readers when communicating the results of descriptive or inferential ranked data analyses. For example, many types of ranking visualizations do not display information about how much separation exists across the values that form the basis for a ranking, overemphasizing the "winners and losers" in the ranking, and potentially feature unclear methods, and in the case of inferential analyses, uncommunicated uncertainty. After this, we introduce two new types of visualizations: a modified bump plot that preserves and clearly presents information about how far apart each rank is over time, and a plot for displaying the confidence intervals of paired comparisons between each object in a ranking. Finally, we apply those techniques to analyze preference data from Board Game Geek, a website dedicated to reviewing board games, to present a real-world use case for these new types of plots, keeping the potential pitfalls discussed before in mind when creating each plot
Spanish Cinema Adapted: What Hollywood Changed and Why
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/e04f0226-c8ac-4c6c-bdd5-3433efab6d6e/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis will concentrate on the analysis of three Spanish films, Abre los Ojos (Amenábar, 1997); El Desconocido (Dani de la Torre, 2015 ); and Campeones (Javier Fesser, 2018), and their Hollywood adaptations, Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001), Retribution (Nimród Antal, 2023), and Champions (Bobby Farrelly, 2023). By contrasting their similarities and differences I intend to find what was changed, with an emphasis on the story and the characters, and analyze why the changes were considered necessary. Ambiguity and likability rise to the forefront: where Spanish cinema seems to tend towards being more ambiguous and have a less likeable protagonist while Hollywood films are more direct and have a main character that is easier to support. While this is true for all three of the films analyzed, there are also moments that make the Spanish film seem more Hollywood and vice versa. I will argue that, while there are definite themes that are exclusively Spanish or Hollywood, the lines that distinguish them are becoming blurred and they include many similarities as well. In the end, the biggest difference is the language