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To Bomb or Not To Bomb: The Strength and Weakness of the Anti-Strategic Bombing Norm in Conflicts and Wartime
No full textThesis advisor: Jennifer EricksonWhat explains the changing strength and weakness of the “anti-strategic bombing norm” (ASB) during conflicts in the 20th century and beyond? The ASB norm encourages states to avoid the use of strategic bombing (targeting civilians to destroy enemy morale) in conflict. Yet these periods of conflict have had an inconsistent effect on the strength/weakness of the ASB norm. What explains this variation? I use qualitative historical cases of “key” conflicts in the 20th and 21st century to assess the strength/weakness of the ASB norm using the Ben-Josef Hirsch and Dixon (2021) “Indicators of Norm Strength” scale (see Table 1.1). Once I determined norm strength in each case, I then analyzed the norm strength in each case using four hypotheses derived from IR theory and previous ASB research. These hypotheses include (1) high enforcement, strong norm, (2) high enforcement, weak norm, (3) hegemonic leadership, and (4) technology used by states. I find that the “high enforcement, strong norm” hypothesis best explains the rise and fall of the ASB norm- but that sources of enforcement other than the hegemon itself are key. Indeed, contrary to some theories, the hegemon often weakens rather than strengthens the norm in this case.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: International Studies
Addressing the Need for Recognition: A Fundamental and Constitutive Point of Departure for Catholic Social Ethics
No full textThesis advisor: James F. Keenan, SJWhy should any society acknowledge and address recognition as a vital human need? This dissertation primarily sets out to offer a theological ethical response to this opportune and critical question. Fundamentally, it does not attempt to develop a new theory of recognition or, even, correct the existing ones. Rather, in agreement with the Aristotelian eudemonistic principle that the end of ethics is virtuous action and drawing on major theories of recognition, it highlights the necessity of acting virtuously in a manner that properly addresses the human need for due recognition. Its ultimate goal is to highlight the ethical significance of recognition as a vital human need. This goal is premised on the central thesis that all human beings need to be duly recognized and consistently treated as subjects with inherent dignity and fundamental rights; and, that failure to address the need for recognition leads to a catch-22 situation in human society. Therefore, it argues that doing a proper social ethics, especially Catholic Social Ethics, practically demands that we duly address the human need for recognition and explore how to integrate the habit of mutual recognition into the moral schemas of our societies so as to create a thriving culture of recognition – one that normalizes, prioritizes, and sustains mutual recognition as a common ground for negotiating the common good in modern multicultural and pluralistic societies.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology
Contributions of the anterior and posterior hippocampus to long-term memory:
No full textThesis advisor: Scott D. SlotnickThesis advisor: Robert S. RossDistinct patterns of connectivity are thought to give rise to specialized functions within the anterior and posterior hippocampus. Consequently, there are several hypotheses regarding hippocampal long-axis specialization, including memory encoding versus retrieval, broad/gist-like representations versus detailed/fine-grained representations, and other cognitive processes versus spatial processing. This dissertation investigates the contributions of the anterior and posterior hippocampus to long-term memory. Chapter 1 investigates domain specificity in the hippocampus to determine how retrieval activity differs for two types of context information. Chapter 2 distinguishes between two prominent hypotheses of long-axis specialization to determine whether spatial memory encoding involves the anterior or posterior hippocampus. Chapter 3 investigates functional connectivity with the anterior and posterior hippocampus during spatial memory encoding and retrieval to test the predictions of the hippocampal encoding/retrieval and network (HERNET) model of memory (Kim, 2015). Together, the results presented in this dissertation provide insights into the roles of the anterior and posterior hippocampus and their interactions with the rest of the brain.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Psychology
Essays in Industrial Organization and Applied Microeconomics:
No full textThesis advisor: Michael D. GrubbThesis advisor: Julie Holland MortimerThis dissertation consists of three self-contained essays that explore industrial organization of the advertising agency and airline markets, as well as the role of local political environment in identification of treatment effects in minimum wage studies. In the first chapter, “Competitor Avoidance and the Structure of the Advertising Agency Industry in the United States,” co-authored with Sylvia Hristakeva, we develop an applied theory model to show that the tendency of advertisers to avoid sharing their agencies with product-market competitors may have led to creation of a unique organizational structure in the advertising agency market, known as a holding company (HC). HCs control multiple agencies and coordinate their bidding choices when competing for new clients. Although many other professional service markets, such as markets for legal and accounting services, feature competitor avoidance, HCs are forbiddingly costly in these markets due to restrictions on outside ownership. Using a theoretical model, we show that HC structure helps agencies manage client conflicts by allowing them to choose an unconflicted agency to bid for a client. We collect a novel dataset on identities of bidding agencies and estimate that serving an advertiser's competitor reduces an agency's odds to compete for the advertiser by 91.6 percent. We predict that the market concentration would increase by 35 percent if competitor avoidance was not a factor in this market. We also predict that banning bid coordination within HCs would increase the average number of bidders in an account review from four to nine. Auction theory predicts that an increase in the number of bidders would create a downward pressure on the mark-ups charged by agencies, however some of this pressure may be counteracted by increased costs of winning a client due to entering multiple bids. In the second chapter, “’Use It or Lose It,’ or ‘Cheat and Keep?’ The Effects of Slot Restrictions on Airline Incentives,” co-authored with Ratib Ali, we investigate the impact of slot control on competition in the domestic airline market. The Federal Aviation Administration manages congestion in high-density airports by capping the number of flights permitted in any given hour and allocating the rights (or slots) to a take-off or landing among airlines. Airlines must use their slots at least 80% of the time to keep them for the next season. This rule creates a perverse incentive for airlines to hold on to underutilized slots by operating unprofitable flights instead of forfeiting these slots to a rival. Using exogenous removal of slot control at the Newark Airport in 2016, we investigate the lengths at which airlines go to meet the minimum requirements that let them keep the slots while violating what a neutral observer might call the “spirit” of the regulation. In the third chapter, “Political Trends in Minimum Wage Policy Evaluation Studies,” co-authored with Andrew Copland and Jean-François Gauthier, we explore the role of local political environment in identification of treatment effects in minimum wage studies. The effects of minimum wage on employment in low-wage sectors have long been debated in the literature. Some economists find small disemployment effects, whereas others argue that these effects are close to zero and statistically insignificant. The core of the debate lies in establishing adequate control groups for areas that experience minimum wage changes. At the same time, minimum wage changes are almost always a consequence of a political vote. Our paper adds to the debate surrounding control group identification by highlighting the importance of accounting for underlying political trends. Failure to do so may result in a violation of the standard “parallel trends” assumption maintained in most of the literature. We illustrate this possibility by re-estimating Dube et al. (2010) on a sample of politically aligned and unaligned counties and controlling for state expenditures that may be used to finance confounding policies. We document that the sample of never politically aligned county pairs produces a positive and significant estimate of elasticity of employment (0.245), suggesting that the restaurant industry labor market may be non-competitive. In contrast, when we restrict the Dube et al. (2010) sample to perfectly politically aligned counties, we obtain a marginally significant estimate of employment elasticity of -0.145. These two estimates explain the seminal result in Dube et al. (2010) that the elasticity of employment with respect to minimum wage is zero.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics
digitalSELEX: A Novel Oligonucleotide Design Platform
No full textThesis advisor: Tim van OpijnenThesis advisor: Michelle MeyerMolecules that have high affinity and specificity for their target are critical for functioning biosensors and effective therapeutics. Aptamers, or single-stranded oligonucleotides, are one type of molecule capable of both high affinity and specificity. Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) is the iterative in vitro process for identifying aptamers with high affinity and specificity from an initial pool of approximately 1015 randomized nucleotide molecules. There have been a multitude of SELEX variations developed over the years to include incorporation of machine learning algorithms to address the limited success (~30%), cost, and time required to identify high affinity and specific aptamers. While some SELEX variations have been more successful than others in addressing some of the challenges, issues remain. To confront these challenges, the digitalSELEX platform introduces a novel de novo design approach. The platform has two main components. The first component analyzes the target molecule identifying clusters of amino acids along the molecule’s surface based on their accessibility and proximity of atoms relevant to target-aptamer binding. The platform then proposes aptamers built from sequences of nucleotides that paired to the amino acids in the clusters. The second component improves these aptamers sequentially. This is done via simulation-based optimization procedure which uses molecular docking and stochastic optimization techniques. It explores small adjustments made on the starting aptamer that increase the affinity and specificity that is calculated extracting binding related features from the output of the docker. Once in silico counter-selection is complete, the best possible sequences are extracted for in vitro validation.
To validate digitalSELEX, aptamers were designed for four different target molecules of varying size ranging from 18 – 140 kDa. Some of the aptamers were designed with specific counter-targets while others did not have counter-target molecules. In total, 19 oligonucleotides were chemically synthesized, and their affinity and specificity tested for five explicit validation problems. All 19 aptamers demonstrated high affinity for their respective target molecules. Sixteen of the 19 oligonucleotides were tested for specificity with nine meeting the 4-times Kd-value difference specificity criteria. Depending on the computational capacity being employed for each problem, the approximate time required from initiating the de novo design to the point of validation was 170 hours. The cost of in silico oligonucleotide design is negligible while validation of a few aptamers is few hundred dollars.
The digitalSELEX platform was comprehensively tested examining the initial de novo design through affinity and specificity determination. The digtalSELEX platform is a prototype that has the opportunity for further development such as employing different molecular simulators.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Biology
TheEffects of Online Review Ratings: A Case Study of the Hotel Industry
Get PDFThesis advisor: Michael GrubbOnline reviews have gained importance for consumers when shopping for experience goods. This dissertation documents the impact of Tripadvisor.com reviews on the hotel industry. In the first chapter, I investigate the causal impact of Tripadvisor review ratings on hotel performance via a regression discontinuity design. The results indicate that a 1-point increase in review rating leads to a 1.6% increase in revenue, a 1% increase in bookings, and a 0.4% to 0.6% increase in prices. Furthermore, the impact on bookings has increased over time. In the second chapter, I evaluate the welfare impact of Tripadvisor review ratings in providing information about quality. I develop a structural model of hotel demand and supply that takes price endogeneity and capacity constraints into consideration. Counterfactual experiments reveal that the removal of Tripadvisor from the status quo results in per-capita consumer surplus loss ranging from 5.8, with a more significant decrease in consumer surplus when prior knowledge about quality is less accurate. Hotels with higher quality than expected absent reviews benefit from review ratings, while the opposite is true for others. In the third chapter, I analyze the relative influence of Tripadvisor ratings on chain-affiliated and independent hotels and evaluate the value of Tripadvisor ratings compared to chain brands using the methodology developed in previous chapters. I find there is no significant difference in the effect of rating rounding on occupancy rates for chain-affiliated hotels versus independent hotels. Counterfactual experiment results suggest that despite chain brands providing value to consumers, Tripadvisor ratings provide additional value of about 4 per capita. In scenarios where Tripadvisor was not present, Chain-affiliated hotels benefit from brand affiliation while independent hotels are harmed.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics
On Rules, Values, and the True Self: The Organizational Prevention and Permission of Authenticity in Highly Regulated Environments
Get PDFThesis advisor: Judith A. ClairThe concept of authenticity, or being true to the self, has received sustained interest and inquiry for centuries with a particular swell in recent years, as values-driven notions of sincerity, genuineness, and truth abound. Extant definitions of authenticity abound, although the idea that authenticity denotes alignment between one’s individual prioritization and outward enactment of specific values—particularly when held values may contradict organizational regulations—remains overlooked. In an ethnographic study of a highly regulated service environment, the Registry of Motor Vehicles, I find that employees embedded in service roles experience values tensions of various types (service, humanity) which challenge their ability to adhere to personal and organizational values and expectations. These tensions are manifest during episodic work tasks, wherein the prioritization of particular forms of values (dignity versus efficiency) results in markedly different approaches for completing said tasks. Further, the tension that individuals may experience between their ability to enact individually prioritized values may result in transgressing regulations in favor of satisfying personal values, even to their detriment. This study offers several contributions to literature on authenticity and values, suggesting that various manifestations of the authentic self are possible in regulated environments which depend on the degree to which individuals experience tension between personal and perceived organizational values. Further, I suggest that, due to these possible (mis)alignments, organizations may either constrain or enable the enactment of an individual’s authentic self.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management.Discipline: Management and Organization
Struggles, Resistance, and Solidarity: Immigrant Families’ Interactive Learning During the COVIID-19 Pandemic
Get PDFThesis advisor: Mariela PáezIn 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated persistent educational inequities and added exponentially to the existing “education debt” (Ladson-Billings, 2006). Public schools’ sudden shift to remote learning marginalized a large population of students, including young bilingual children from immigrant backgrounds. These students are among the most vulnerable when it comes to remote learning not only because of accessibility issues, but also because many of these students’ families live in underserved and under-resourced communities that were negatively affected by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and persistent systemic racism (Fortuna et al., 2020; Schmit et al., 2020). Hence, there is an urgent need to understand pandemic-related experiences of immigrant families with young bilingual children and to respond with educational strategies that strive to mitigate the negative effects of this educational crisis. This dissertation study comprised of three papers addresses this need through a collaborative project with 20 immigrant families with 42 young bilingual children and two community organizations from the Metro and Greater Boston Area. Paper 1 used sequential mixed methods to provide an in-depth account of immigrant families' remote learning experiences and investigate structural barriers such as lack of support and oppressive practices that hindered the establishment of home-school connections during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paper 2 employed transformative mixed methods to document the development, implementation, and evaluation of a family engagement and remote learning program—the Home Connection. This program was firmly grounded in the equitable collaboration framework of family engagement to build a strong partnership with the family participants and to recognize the crucial roles of the families as co-designers, co-educators, co-researchers, and co-evaluators. Paper 3 is a practitioner inquiry reflecting on what I have learned as a teacher-researcher implementing culturally sustaining pedagogy to partner with immigrant families and teach young bilingual children from diverse backgrounds during pandemic remote learning. Findings from this dissertation documenting the struggles, resistance, and solidarity of these immigrant families will help inform educators, administrators, and policymakers in their planning and delivering of learning experiences and family engagement initiatives that center on the motivation, needs, and assets of diverse students and their families.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction
Body Size in Ray-Finned Fishes: Revisiting Bergmann's Rule
No full textThesis advisor: Christopher KenaleyBergmann’s rule predicts a change in body size with latitude, with larger members of a taxonomic group occurring further from the equator. This pattern has been described for many groups of organisms; however, no study has assessed this relationship across a substantial number of ray-finned fish species, the largest group of vertebrates. I performed Bayesian phylogenetic modeling using maximum length and latitude data for 3021 species of actinopterygians to assess Bergmann’s rule in the group. The impact of salinity tolerance on the relationship between length and latitude was also considered. Maximum length and salinity tolerance data were obtained from FishBase, and latitude data were obtained from museum records. I found that, overall, Bergmann’s rule holds and is not significantly affected by salinity tolerance except when not considering phylogeny, in which case only marine species show the trend.Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Biology
Thyroid Hormone Modulates Zebrafish Pectoral Fin Development
No full textThesis advisor: Sarah McMenaminPectoral fins are evolutionarily homologous to tetrapod limbs and can serve as useful models for studying the genetic and hormonal factors regulating appendage development. To test the roles of thyroid hormone (TH) in the development of these appendages, we examined the morphogenesis of zebrafish pectoral fins under euthyroid (EuTH) or hypothyroid (hypoTH) conditions. TH plays an important role in modulating the development of the pectoral fin endoskeleton, as well as the proximo-distal patterning of the fin rays. Additionally, in HypoTH fish, shh was expressed in the same domains, but at ~50% of WT expression levels. Nuclear TH acts by binding to dual-action receptors, including Thrab, which represses or activates expression depending on interaction with the TH ligand. When Thrab was absent in HypoTH fish, we found that many elements of the HypoTH phenotype were rescued, suggesting TH relieves Thrab- mediated repression. We also found that TH modulates the development of the musculature surrounding the pectoral fin. Lastly, we generated CRISPR-Mediated knockouts of dio1 and dio3b, to learn how the deiodination of TH may be affecting the development of the pectoral fin.Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Departmental Honors.Discipline: Biology