3948 research outputs found
Sort by
Anti-Codifiability in Normative Ethics
No full textThesis advisor: Micah E. LottThis thesis is a critique of consequentialist and deontological attempts to reduce normative ethics to strictly formulaic models of direct action guidance according to purportedly universal laws and principles of morality. This project explores how dominant theories such as John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism and Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative fail to account for critical nuances and contextual determinants that inform right action in moral conundrums. An applied analysis of each model suggests that, as exceptions to supposedly universal principles arise, both theories face a double-bind between appealing to a non-principle entity or necessitating immoral action in strict accordance with a codified verdict. By examining the limitations of codified frameworks, this thesis advocates for a paradigm shift towards incorporating virtue, contextual literacy, and practical discernment into ethical decision-making. Rosalind Hursthouse’s Neo-Aristotelian model of Virtue Ethics and indirect action guidance offers a more flexible and context-sensitive approach to normative ethics that corresponds to the dynamic and multifaceted nature of morality.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Philosophy.Discipline: Departmental Honors
The Impatience Premium: Analyzing Discount Rates and Pick Valuation in the Three-Day NFL Draft System
No full textThesis advisor: Michael GrubbThis paper investigates the discount rates applied by NFL teams to future draft picks when engaging in trades during the annual NFL Draft. Utilizing a dataset of 353 draft pick trades from 2010 to 2024, the study employs a non-linear regression model to estimate the parameters of a Weibull distribution, which captures the value decay of draft picks over time. The model incorporates a discount factor to account for the devaluation of future picks. The results provide evidence of varying discount rates across the three days of the draft, with the highest rate of approximately 182% on Day 1, and lower rates of 53% and 97% on Day 2 and Day 3, respectively. These findings suggest that NFL teams place a greater premium on immediate returns when trading early round picks. The study contributes to the understanding of decision-making under uncertainty in high-stakes environments and offers insights into the strategic considerations and market dynamics of the NFL Draft.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics.Discipline: Departmental Honors
Estimates of Accretion Rates of Salt Marsh Islands in Southern New Jersey
No full textThesis advisor: Noah SnyderSalt marshes are an essential ecosystem for connecting nutrients between coastal and land environments, protecting shorelines from erosion, and providing habitat for various species. Anthropogenic climate change causing sea level rise poses threats to salt marshes and the coastal communities nearby. In southern New Jersey, the relative rate of sea level rise (4.21 ± 0.15 mm/yr from 1911-2022; SLR; NOAA, 2023) is greater than the global average (3.4 ± 0.04 mm/yr). In this study, I measure chronologies, bulk density and organic content (loss on ignition, LOI) from cores collected in 2021-22 at four locations in the Seven Mile Island Innovation Lab (SMIIL) in Stone Harbor, New Jersey to determine multidecadal accretion rates. Chronologies are developed from a radionuclide dating analysis (using concentrations of 210Pb, 241Am, 137Cs and 7Be) following procedures similar to Boyd et al. (2017) and Landis et al. (2016). The accretion rates from 1911-2022 of the four cores analyzed are 4.3 ± 0.2 mm/year, 4.1 ± 0.1 mm/year, 5.2 ± 0.1 mm/yr, and 6.0 ± 0.2 mm/yr, respectively, which are similar to the local SLR rate and are within error of RSLR in Atlantic City. The mean LOI for the 4 four cores is 27.2 ± 19.0%, 21.3 ± 8.9%, 20.2 ± 7.5% and 14.2 ± 13.0%. The mean dry bulk density for the 4 cores is 437 ± 127 kg/m3, 380 ± 103 kg/m3, 415 ± 88 kg/m3, 657 ± 353 kg/m3. The higher accretion rates of the salt marshes in SMIIL compared to relative sea level rise and consistency with the Sadler Effect indicates that the salt marsh vertical accretion rate is keeping up with increases in sea level rise. Thus, the salt marshes are not in immediate risk for inundation from sea level rise and supports the adaptability and resiliency of the salt marsh ecosystem.Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors
The Defeat of Scheme Z: How Bostonians Changed the Big Dig
No full textThesis advisor: David QuigleyThesis advisor: James O'TooleThe most expensive single highway project in U.S. history almost never happened. When the Big Dig was first envisioned by planners, it was meant to deeply incorporate citizen participation into the planning process. Despite this lofty philosophy, planners failed to properly do so when they designed Scheme Z -- a blueprint for the Charles River crossing. The design stirred so much controversy that citizen participation was fully incorporated. This resulted in the designing of a new crossing which is now known as the Zakim Bridge. Though it stands today as the focal point of the Big Dig and an iconic gateway into the city of Boston, the story of the fight to get it built, which was decades in the making, serves as an important lesson in the role of citizen input in public projects.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: History.Discipline: Departmental Honors
Remembering in Solidarity: Memory, Identity, and Belonging Among North Korean Migrants and Their Children
No full textThesis advisor: Patrick ProctorIn this dissertation, I discuss how North Korean migrants and their children reflect on their migratory narratives and construct memories and postmemories vis-à-vis their North Korean heritage. The North Korean migration context has primarily centered on women (Sung & Cho, 2018), labeling them as Confucian communist mothers (North Korea), trafficked wives (China), smuggled refugees (Southeast Asian countries), and finally, unsettled settlers (South Korea) across their migration trajectories (Song, 2013). Considering the trafficking of North Korean women to rural Chinese men after crossing the border, and their subsequent experiences of human trafficking, forced marriage, and forced pregnancy (Kim, 2012, 2014, 2020), it is significant to understand how the children who were born to North Korean mothers make sense of their heritage. With this, I foregrounded the intergenerational transmission of family memories as a critical vehicle to examine how bi/multilingual North Korean migrants and their children construct identity and belonging across time and space. I found that the children mobilize multiple linguistic and cultural repertoires to understand varying narratives that run across multiple resources from family, school, and digital platforms to construct a multifaceted understanding of North Korean heritage. I also found that mothers seek a nuanced perspective on migration, challenging the reductionist approach that portrays them solely as impoverished victims by sharing personal and cultural memories in various contexts. By highlighting the evolving culture of memory construction, I argue that North Korean mothers and their children navigate, re-imagine, and re-construct the understanding of ethnic identity through shared narratives and literacy practices, often mediated by digital technology and cultural knowledge. This dissertation contributes to the field by focusing on the dynamic process of intergenerational transmission of memory between North Korean mothers and their children who live across multiple borders.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teaching, Curriculum, and Society
As Close as Lips and Teeth: The Formation and Deformation of Communist Alliances
No full textThesis advisor: Timothy W. CrawfordWhy do communist party-states decide to enter or to exit a military alliance? What explains the existences of the Cold War-era China-North Korea and Vietnam-Laos alliances in a post-Cold War world? I argue that a communist party-state only enters an alliance if it shares security interests and ideological values with its military partner. In other words, the two variables are individually necessary, jointly sufficient. This is due to the party-state having to defend both the survival of the state and of the ruling communist party. Allying with a security compatible but ideologically hostile state poses threats to the communist party, while allying with an ideologically friendly but security incompatible state can endanger the interests of the state. A communist party-state exits an alliance if it no longer shares either security interests or ideological values with its ally. I evaluate the theory against three other alternative theories of alliance formation and deformation: balancing, bargaining, and bonding. I use the qualitative methods of structured-focused comparison and within-case process-tracing across seven cases of alliances involving a communist party-state. Those cases are Vietnam-Soviet Union, Vietnam-Laos, Vietnam-China, Vietnam-North Korea, North Korea-Soviet Union, North Korea-China, China-Soviet Union. I also test the theory against two cases of non-alliances involving military cooperation between a communist party-state and a non-communist state. They are China-United States and Vietnam-United States. I show that in all the cases, the communist party-state under investigation only joined or exited an alliance as the theory expects. My dissertation contributes to the contemporary scholarly and policy debates in the United States on the nature of contemporary military cooperation between China and Russia, Russia and North Korea, as well as Vietnam and the United States.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Political Science
Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Dynamics of Non-Thermal Systems:
No full textThesis advisor: Xiao ChenThe development of highly controllable quantum coherent simulators such as superconducting qubits and Rydberg atom arrays has stimulated the study of non-equilibrium quantum dynamics, opening the door to exciting topics including dynamical phase transitions, thermalization, transport, and quantum error correction. This thesis addresses various questions from non-equilbrium quantum dynamics, with a concentration on measurement-induced phase transitions (MIPT), adaptive dynamics with feedback mechanism, and Hilbert space fragmentation. In the first part, we study the hybrid quantum automaton (QA) circuits with different symmetries subject to local composite measurements. For -symmetric hybrid QA circuits, there exists an entanglement phase transition from a volume-law phase to a critical phase by varying the measurement rate. The special feature of QA circuits enables us to interpret the entanglement dynamics in terms of a stochastic particle model. With the help of this stochastic model, we further investigate the entanglement fluctuations and quantum error correcting property of the volume-law phase in QA circuits with no symmetry, and study the entanglement dynamics in QA circuits with U(1) symmetry. Despite being a hallmark of non-unitary quantum dynamics, MIPT is absent in the density matrix averaged over measurement outcomes. In the second part, we introduce an adaptive quantum circuit subject to measurements with feedback. The feedback is applied according to the measurement outcome and steers the system towards a unique state above certain measurement threshold. We show that there exists an absorbing phase transition in both quantum trajectories and quantum channels. In the end, we turn to the phenomenon of Hilbert space fragmentation (HSF), whereby dynamical constraints fragment Hilbert space into many disconnected sectors, providing a simple mechanism by which thermalization can be arrested. However, little is known about how thermalization occurs in situations where the constraints are not exact. To study this, we consider a situation in which a fragmented 1d chain with pair-flip constraints is coupled to a thermal bath at its boundary. For product states quenched under Hamiltonian dynamics, we numerically observe an exponentially long thermalization time, manifested in both entanglement dynamics and the relaxation of local observables. To understand this, we study an analogous model of random unitary circuit dynamics, where we rigorously prove that the thermalization time scales exponentially with system size. Slow thermalization in this model is shown to be a consequence of strong bottlenecks in configuration space, demonstrating a new way of producing anomalously slow thermalization dynamics.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Physics
Learning with One Another in the Spirit: A Decolonial and Synodal Religious Education
No full textThesis advisor: Theresa A. O'KeefeGrassroots church communities demonstrate what it means to resist colonial ways of learning and of being church that have been internalized and reproduced in educational and ecclesial spaces. In their practices of communal discernment, they bear witness to a kind of religious education wherein all learn with one another. Learning from the practices of these communities, this dissertation is an exercise of reimagining a religious education that resists colonial ways of being and creates the possibility for all to learn with one another in the Spirit. Informed by a theology of synodality and the principles of critical pedagogy, I argue for a religious education that is a practice of creating space for an engagement with local theologies that are grounded in the everyday, for dialogue to emerge wherein all learn through diffraction, and for the voice of the Spirit to arise from a kind of dialogue that is not merely an exchange of ideas but a meeting and being with one another.
Synodality, as seen in the synodal practices of basic ecclesial communities, creates space for a church that learns together. Synodal practices show how people can do theology together in a dialogical way, discerning how the Spirit is guiding the church in the context of the everyday. Critical pedagogy, on the other hand, centers silenced voices in the practices of learning and teaching. In doing so, critical pedagogy fosters a critical awareness of hegemonic epistemologies while creating space for capacitating silenced voices in dialogue. These two foundations inform the religious education I am arguing for in this dissertation.
I propose that this religious education is seen most concretely in participatory action research (PAR) which creates spaces for people to learn with one another for transformation. PAR expands the pedagogical imagination as it involves the people as active agents of the process of knowledge production, decolonizing the research process and presents a way of learning with one another in a way that is just. Using PAR as a way to do a synodal and decolonial religious education, grassroots church communities can listen to the Spirit together, guiding the church into new ways of knowing and being.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry.Discipline: Theology and Education
Resolving Central Nervous System Inflammation in Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: The Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy on Macrophage In and Traffic Out of the Central Nervous System
No full textThesis advisor: Kenneth C. WilliamsThesis advisor: Welkin JohnsonUnderstanding the persistence of viral reservoirs despite durable antiretroviral therapy (ART) is essential to addressing the challenge of viral clearance and chronic immune activation with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). It had not previously been demonstrated that HIV or SIV- infected macrophage traffic out of the CNS to reseed the periphery, potentially contributing to viral recrudescence. This thesis proposes the central hypothesis that persistent traffic of monocytes and macrophages out of the CNS and subsequent viral reseeding of the periphery plays a key role in viral dissemination, particularly in the context of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), with ART, and following ART interruption. In Chapter 2, utilizing Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) as a novel in vivo method to label CNS macrophages, we demonstrate that under normal conditions, CNS macrophages migrate out to the deep cervical lymph nodes. However, during SIV infection, we observe an accumulation of macrophages within the CNS and a reduction in traffic out to the periphery. Importantly, with SIV-infection, we found that SIV-infected macrophages traffic out to deep cervical lymph nodes. From these, we find that under normal conditions, macrophages traffic out of the CNS. However, during SIVinfection, macrophages are retained within the CNS, contributing to inflammation in the brain, and those that do migrate out are virally infected. In Chapter 3, we hypothesized that ART restores CNS macrophage traffic and prevents viral dissemination from the CNS reservoir by eliminating the traffic of virally infected macrophage out of the CNS, as seen with AIDS and SIV-induced encephalitis (SIVE). We also hypothesized that following four weeks of ART interruption there would be expansion of the CNS viral reservoir with traffic out of virally infected macrophages to the deep cervical lymph node. Utilizing a rapid AIDS model with CD8 depletion to induce a high incidence of SIVE and intracisternal injection of SPION, we found that SIV-infected macrophages accumulate in the perivascular space, meninges, choroid plexus, and traffic out at a low rate to the deep cervical lymph node, spleen, and even to the dorsal root ganglia (DRG). With ART, we found clearance of virally infected macrophages in the brain perivascular space but not in the meninges or choroid plexus. Importantly following four weeks of ART interruption, the perivascular space remained clear of virus but there was a rebound in the meninges and scattered virally infected macrophages in the choroid plexus. With ART and following a brief ART interruption, there was no traffic of CNS virally infected macrophages out to the deep cervical lymph node, spleen, or DRGs. These data demonstrate that ART effectively clears virus-infected perivascular macrophages and eliminates the traffic of virus-infected macrophages out of the CNS to the deep cervical lymph node and spleen but does not eliminate virally infected macrophages in the meninges or choroid plexus. By using two differently colored SPION injected early and late, we observed an increase in early SPION+ macrophages within and outside the CNS with SIVE, ART, and ART interruption, indicating that SIV-infected perivascular macrophages establish an early viral reservoir with ongoing seeding in the meninges and choroid plexus throughout infection. These findings are consistent with the retention of CNS macrophages in the presence of inflammation and viral infection, as well as the potential for viral rebound in the CNS from sources such as the blood, meninges, and choroid plexus with ART and following ART interruption. In Chapter 4, we propose a novel pathway for virus-infected macrophages to traffic out of the CNS via cranial and spinal nerves. Due to the persistence of virally infected macrophages in the meninges with durable ART and continuity of the CNS meninges with peripheral nerves, we hypothesize that virally infected macrophage traffic out of the CNS via cranial and peripheral nerves with AIDS and SIVE, on ART, and following ART interruption. To test this hypothesis, we tracked SPION+ macrophages by quantifying them at central (spinal cord and cranial nerves) and peripheral sites (dorsal root ganglia, DRG). Similar to our previous findings in the brain, SIV infection increased the numbers of macrophages in the spinal cord and decreased them in peripheral sites. Staining for viral RNA and GP41 identified virus-infected SPION+ macrophages in cranial nerves and DRG, which were significantly reduced but not eliminated by ART. In animals with AIDS, late- and dual-labeled SPION+ macrophages decreased, suggesting reduced macrophage trafficking late in infection. ART appeared to restore traffic, as higher numbers of late- and dual-labeled macrophages were observed, though this reversed to levels seen in AIDS/SIVE upon ART interruption. Our findings reveal a previously understudied pathway that allows CNS macrophage viral reservoirs to reseed virus to the periphery, a process that persists despite ART. In Chapter 5, we performed a literature review to better understand the effects of HIV infection on aging, as age is a primary risk factor for the development of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders and HIV-associated sensory neuropathy. With ART extending the lifespan of people living with HIV, they now also experience accelerated aging, leading to earlier onset of age-related conditions like cardiovascular disease and neurocognitive disorders. Evidence suggests this is due to chronic immune activation, co-infections, and possibly ART itself. HIV and aging both alter immune cell populations, increasing inflammatory markers and contributing to "inflamm-aging." While ART slows this acceleration, it cannot prevent aging or related comorbidities. This thesis explores the role of macrophage traffic from the CNS and its contribution to the spread of the virus to peripheral tissues. To investigate this, we utilized a novel in vivo labeling method to track CNS macrophages, identify migration out of the CNS, and evaluate how ART and ART interruption influence the traffic of virally infected macrophages to peripheral tissues. Our findings underscore the role of CNS macrophages in the resolution of inflammation by trafficking out of the CNS, viral rebound from blood- derived sources following ART interruption, and the role of perineural pathways in viral dissemination even with durable ART.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Biology
Prayer and Memory: What Christian Theology Can Learn from Jewish Practice
No full textThesis advisor: Ruth LangerThis project attempts to draw the contours of defining the human experience of prayer as an intentional act in which we come before God and reach beyond the moment we pray to a life that embodies a prayerful attitude. It does so by examining the conceptions of prayer Jean-Louis Chrétien’s and Johann Baptist Metz’s writing and by bringing them into a conversation with Jewish liturgical concepts on prayer as found in the Talmudic discussions and Rabbinic interpretations. The dialogue between the three interlocutors provides the basis for defining the human approach to prayer as prayerfulness –the conscious mindset in which a person is aware of their existence before God, embodied in the moment of prayer and as a lifestyle. Jean-Louis Chrétien’s poetic take on prayer as a responsorial act of speech conceptualizes prayer as an intimate experience of one’s relationship with God. We give ourselves to God insofar as we become present with God. Prayer, then, becomes a vulnerable act in which we become aware of God and our limitations and frailties. This exposure of ourselves causes Chrétien to call prayer “wounded speech.” Our exposure is a blessure, a wound, because in it we recognize our inadequateness compared to God. This awareness becomes an unforgettable struggle, an ordeal. Also, we become aware that our speech, our prayer contains nothing that God does not already know. In other words, everything we say and do is preconceived by God. Here, memory becomes a factor in Chrétien’s thought. It seems as though prayer helps us relieve ourselves from this agony in our lives insofar as we are reminded of God’s love and the memory of God’s suffering for us.
Johann Baptist Metz adds another layer to the discussion. Metz conceptualizes prayer within his political theology. Like Chrétien’s thought, this account frames prayer within the context of suffering. However, Metz is less interested in the personal suffering caused by one’s own limitations than in the suffering of those who are at the margins of society. Embedded in the context of post-world-war Germany and the shaking events of the Shoah, this concept of prayer calls for a compassionate embodiment of the suffering of the disenfranchised voices that endure physical or emotional pain. Prayer becomes a mode of remembering the other when embodied and experienced to compassionately raise the voices of the other. Here, Metz introduces a spirituality that he calls “Poverty of Spirit” that envisions one’s embodiment of prayer as a lifestyle. Prayer becomes an agent that incentivizes moral action.
When brought together into dialogue with one another, the three interlocutors paint the picture of an experience of prayer this project defines as “prayerfulness.” It is the conscious mindset in which a person is aware of their existence before God, embodied in the moment of prayer and in their life. This awareness is multi-faceted and springs out of the connection between memory and prayer. One facet is the awareness of God’s presence. When considering Chrétien’s account, it is not so much the act of communicating one’s thoughts that is the primary purpose of prayer but the presence before God. This exposure itself reflects an unreserved vulnerability before God. In remembering God’s own suffering for us, we also become aware of God’s love for us. Metz, then, shows how prayer is a cry that expresses the wish that God is present, yet in this cry, God is already and always present, even if we do not perceive it.
The memories of the Jerusalem Temple and the Patriarchs in Jewish liturgy bolster a perceived awareness of God. For instance, the imagery of the Temple, the focal point of God’s presence in the world, immerses the praying person in its memory. In the face of the reality that the Temple has been destroyed, the discussed texts reveal that the Sages took great care in providing guidelines to orchestrate a Temple memory through postures and liturgical attributes. Prayer, considered as service of the heart, and thus referring to the Temple cult, becomes a vessel for the memory of the same.
This palpable notion of God’s presence adds to the perception of our presence before God, enhancing one’s focus. This concept of intentionality or focus, kavvanah, in part facilitated by the memory of the Temple and the Patriarchs, applies to a broader range of issues and speaks to what Metz has been calling for to realize prayer in daily life. It allows for us Christians across the denominational spectrum to reconsider the value of intentionality and prayerful engagement, not just in the moment of prayer but in life. Judaism helps facilitate a pragmatic, practice-oriented view to the often rather concept-oriented Christian thinking.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology