Student Theses and Honors Collection

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10166/141

Library, Information, & Technology Services (LITS) established the electronic Student Theses Collection in 2005. It contains over eight hundred e-honors theses created by MHC seniors from across the disciplines. By archiving your honors work in the Institutional Archive, you are contributing to the legacy of excellence in student scholarship at the College.

To submit an honors thesis to the collection, please start by reviewing the information found here.

Once you are ready to submit, click on the "Login" link within the "My Account" box on the lower right side of this page. Click on the MHC logo, and then enter your MHC username and password. You will be redirected back to the Institutional Archive homepage. Scroll down to the "My Account" box and click on "Submissions. Then choose "Student Theses Collection."

For questions about the Student Theses Collection, please contact Digital Library and Academic Technologies.

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 1045

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New Constraints on the Timing of Deformation in the Maberly Shear Zone in the Grenville Province of Southern Ontario
(2024-02-02) Fulmer, Anya; Markley, Michelle
I present new U-Th/Pb monazite dates for the development of the Maberly Shear Zone (also known as the Sharbot Lake Shear Zone) in the Grenville Province of Southern Ontario, Canada. This shear zone is of regional tectonic significance as a major boundary within the Central Metasedimentary Belt; it juxtaposes the Sharbot Lake Terrane to the west against the Frontenac Terrane to the east. My sample is a granitic gneiss with well-developed foliation and lineation parallel to the regional fabric in the Maberly Shear Zone. I report dates based on in-situ electron microprobe analysis of monazite grains, and compositional domains within these grains, conducted at the UMass Geosciences Electron Microprobe/Scanning Electron Microscope Facility. Dated monazite grains occur both within garnets and in the deformed matrix of the schist, and range in size from tens to hundreds of microns in scale; grains are relatively round and equant, although a few show unusual shapes. I dated domains in ten monazite grains, many of which show multiple domains that I defined based on domain geometries and variations in Y and Th content. I present twenty-six dates that range from 1222 ± 2.6 to 1145 ± 6.5 Ma (all errors reported here at 1 sigma). High-Y cores of monazite grains yield dates whose mean is 1206 ± 3.5 Ma, and lower-Y inner regions of grains yield mean dates of 1190 ± 4.4 Ma. Inner mantles yield a mean date of 1182 ± 3.4 Ma; outer mantles yield a mean date of 1172 ± 4.0 Ma. Some grains show geometric rims, not distinguished by unusually high Y content as is common in similar rocks; and mean rim dates are 1163 ± 4.2 Ma. All of these dates are in excellent agreement with predictions based on field mapping in the region and dates yielded by U-Pb analysis of zircon from neighboring granitoids (Corfu and Easton, 1997; Davidson and van Breemen, 2000). I interpret these dates as a record of shearing and high-grade metamorphism of metasediments in the Maberly Shear zone starting before and continuing through the later phases of the Shawinigan Orogeny.
Open Access
Quantifying and Analyzing Plastic in Seabird Nests in the North Sea
Karapin-Springorum, Anna; Werner, Alan
Plastics in the environment are of increasing concern for many organisms including seabirds. In this study, I examined the nests of four seabird species – northern gannets, black-legged kittiwakes, great cormorants, and gulls (herring and lesser black-backed gulls) – on two small islands in the North Sea. I quantified the proportion of plastic in each nest following methods described by Thompson et al. (2020), and compared the types and colors of plastics in their nests to those found in the environment. I examined the proportion of nests of each species that contained plastic, and found that northern gannets (98%) and great cormorants (95%) were both more likely to include plastic in their nests than kittiwakes (44%) and gulls (28%). I also found that the average amount of plastic in nests differed across species (northern gannets 36%, great cormorants 9%, black-legged kittiwakes 2%, gulls 1%). These differences in proportions of nests containing plastic and average amount of plastic in nests are likely due to differences in materials used in nests and whether a species reuses nests each year. In comparing plastics in the environment to that in nests, I found that fibrous plastic, in particular dolly rope, a type of sacrificial chafing material used in commercial bottom trawling fishing, was highly preferred by all the studied seabird species. Orange dolly rope was also favored over other colors of dolly rope. Chemical testing of dolly rope pieces found that it was polyethylene, which is consistent with previous reports for the North Sea, and mechanical testing of dolly rope strands highlighted the dangers of entanglement posed by the material. There is a strong preference for orange dolly rope by nesting birds that may be due to morphological similarities to natural nesting material and an ease in locating the brightly colored material in the water. While seabird deaths by entanglement alone are not likely to lead to a population decrease, these deaths are often slow and painful and should be prevented if only for humanitarian reasons. I explore different methods of mitigating deaths by entanglement and reducing plastics in the marine environment, as well as ways in which plastic monitoring in seabird nests can provide information regarding the levels and types of pollution in the marine environment.
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The individual differences of bilingual readers when using phonological information in word identification
(2024-02-01) Yuan, Jingyi; Breen, Mara
Two theories have been proposed to explain how readers access the mental lexicon through written words: phonological mediation theory suggests that the sound of words activates the meaning of words; direct access theory suggests that the orthographic representation of words activates the meaning. Prior work has demonstrated that readers rely on phonological mediation in both alphabetic languages (e.g., English), and in less phonologically predictable logographic languages (e.g., Chinese); however, little research has investigated the relationship between bilingual readers’ phonological activation in both languages. Therefore, the current study assessed bilingual readers’ reliance on the phonological route for both English and Chinese reading. We hypothesized that readers who show a strong reliance on the phonological route in one language will show a similarly strong reliance on it in their other language. Replicating prior work, our study showed that in both Chinese and English tasks, readers made slower and less accurate judgments on homophone distractors. However, we did not observe a significant correlation between individual’s reliance on phonological routes in different languages.
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More Than “Vietnam Flashbacks” and Trauma: Quiet Images of Vietnamese Women As Disidentification With Nationalist Framing
(2023-07-24) Bui, Linh; Day, Iyko
Open Access
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE STABILITY AND STRUCTURE OF POLY(VINYL ALCOHOL) THIN FILMS ON POLYDIMETHYLSILOXANE
(2023-07-14) Griffin, Julia; Chen, Wei
The hydrophilization of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH) thin films has been studied to utilize hydrophilic materials in PDMS-based micro- and nanomanufactured devices more effectively. Previous studies have determined that PVOH spontaneously adsorbs from aqueous solution onto hydrophobic substrates due to the hydrophobic effect. Following spontaneous adsorption, PVOH thin films are stabilized via crystallization driven by hydrogen bonding. PVOH thin films can also be prepared via adsorptive spin coating on flat substrates. We have found that the PVOH-PDMS system varies from the well-established Meyerhofer model, which predicts film thickness from spin rate, solution viscosity (polymer concentration), and other variables. We proposed a new model to describe film thickness (h) from spin coating, which includes polymer-substrate interactions (spontaneous adsorption) and polymer-polymer interactions (e.g., crystallization and the hydrophobic effect). We hypothesized that these two types of interactions form the h1 and h2 thicknesses of the multilayered spin-coated PVOH-PDMS thin films. However, recent evidence has shown that the structure of polymer thin films is even more complex and nuanced. In this study, we continue to elucidate the complex structure and dynamics of PVOH-PDMS thin films via static adsorption, adsorptive spin coating, and water annealing experiments. We use PDMS polymers of various molecular weights (MWs) (PDMS340, MW = 340 Da; PDMS2k, MW = 2 kDa; PDMS9k, MW = 9.430 kDa; PDMS49k, MW = 49.350 kDa) since the PDMS polymers vary in hydrophobicity and mobility. We also study two different PVOH polymers (PVOH88%H, MW = 85-124 kDa, 87-89% hydrolyzed; PVOH99%H, MW = 89-98 kDa, 99+% hydrolyzed) since the PVOH polymers vary in hydrophobicity and crystallinity. We vary the time before water annealing (0 h vs. 24 h) to determine the stability of partially dry vs. completely dry films. We characterize film thickness, wettability, and morphology to identify changes in the PVOH thin film layers. We can separate the spontaneously-adsorbed h1 layer into sublayers: a tightly-bound h1 layer and a loosely-bound h1 layer. The tightly-bound h1 layer is first formed when PVOH adsorbs onto the PDMS substrate and is resistant to desorption in water. We found evidence of this layer on almost all of the PVOH-PDMS systems in this study. The only exception was the PVOH99%H-PDMS340 system, in which the hydrophobicity of the substrate and the polymer were insufficient to drive spontaneous adsorption. The loosely-bound h1 layer is formed on top of the tightly-bound h1 layer and is desorbed during water annealing. We found evidence of this layer on PDMS9k substrates alone. While a hydrophobic substrate is generally sufficient to form a tightly-bound PVOH h1 layer, it is insufficient at forming a loosely-bound h1 layer.
Open Access
Haunted by the Past: Battles over Civil War Myth-Making in Gettysburg
(2023-07-14) Morikawa, Sari; Renda, Mary
As the smoke began to dissipate over the small town of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, what was revealed was a scene of unimaginable carnage. The battle that lasted for three long days had left a scar on the town and its residents. It is well known that the Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War. Lesser known are the ways that the event changed Gettysburg from a small and beautiful town surrounded by nature to a place that commemorates and commodifies the battle. Other towns also saw extensive changes, but change in Gettysburg was unique: the site of a national historic park, with some 20 museums, countless tourist shops, and one to two million visitors from the 1980s to 2010s, Gettysburg still carries the legacy of that bloody battle. This project explores how tourists, activists, and others interested in the meanings of narratives of the Civil War centered on Gettysburg. By examining guidebooks, maps, and newspaper articles, I analyze the remaking of Gettysburg in relation to heritage tourism, civil rights struggles, and politicians' rhetoric about American exceptionalism. Times of commemoration and division — the World Columbian Exposition, the battle’s 1913 reunion, and the Vietnam War — prompted Americans to revisit Gettysburg, to reclaim their citizenship, national memories of the war, or a romanticized past. To understand the development of Gettysburg tourism in recent decades, how current residents engage the town’s history, and the battle’s resonance in relation to contemporary political struggles, I conducted oral history interviews with 18 Gettysburg residents and Gettysburg College students. These accounts highlight some of the recurring issues in modern American society, such as the presence of right-wing militia groups in the context of political polarization and the challenge of teaching accurate American history. Gettysburg continues to serve as a battleground in contests over the Civil War and its legacies.
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El Pacte Nacional per la Llengua: una exploración contemporánea de la función del catalán desde la perspectiva glotopolítica
(2023-07-14) Barber, Gabrielle; Castro, Esther
This thesis explores the process of El Pacte Nacional per la Llengua (henceforth: PNPL), a contemporary initiative in Catalonia, Spain by the Generalitat of Catalonia, its Department of Culture and its Secretariat for Language Policy, to improve the linguistic situation of Catalan, in terms of its use and the population’s competency. The PNPL, which was mandated by a 2021 resolution of the Catalonian Parliament, has sought to study the current linguistic situation through a sociolinguistic report, to inform both citizens and organizations of its findings and efforts, and to encourage widespread participation in the process. Besides justifying a glottopolitical study of the PNPL, describing the process, documenting the materials it has produced, and contextualizing it historically, this thesis addresses the way in which the sociolinguistic report talks about language, drawing on Riera Gil (2013) and Woolard (2016 & 2018) to consider the PNPL alongside the concept of common language and the ideology of linguistic anonymity. The thesis ends with a consideration of how the sociolinguistic report views the juridical framework which pertains to Catalan, dialoguing with the overarching perspective of this thesis, glottopolitics, as well as theories regarding language rights.
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Modularity and integration of copulatory structures in male Ratfish, Hydrolagus colliei
(2023-07-14) Serna-Solis, Valeria; Brennan, Dr. Patricia
Genitalia are one of the most diverse structures in nature. Different evolutionary processes, such as natural and sexual selection, influence their diverse and complex morphology. A combination of these processes may operate simultaneously in complex genital structures on a single system because they can have multiple modules and different genes that are responsible for the phenotype development. Male spotted ratfish, Hydralogus colliei, have modular structures that function together to achieve copulation, including two grasping structures, a frontal tenaculum paired pre-pelvic tenacula, and one intromittent structure, paired claspers. We produced 3D models of structures of adult and juvenile males and used a 3D geometric morphometric approach to study their allometric patterns, and their integration. We asked what the roles of ontogeny and function are in shaping the modular patterns and the integration among the components of these complex genital traits because they are unlikely to share the same development. In adults, we found that there is no significant relationship between body size and the pelvic tenacula and claspers, but the relationship between body size and frontal tenaculum size was significant. In juveniles, we found different significant relationships between body size and the copulatory structures. Interestingly, we found that the structures’ centroid size and shape change suddenly and significantly when the juveniles become adults. This discrete rather than continuous growth pattern for genitalia has not been previously described in vertebrate groups.
Open Access
The Effect of Compulsory Primary Education on Mother's Labor Force Participation
(2023-07-14) Baskar Prabhakar, Deepika; Ted, Gilliland
India’s female labor force participation rates have been steadily declining for the last decade. Low female labor force participation is often associated with a reduction in GDP per capita and economic growth. Thus, as part of a strategy for increasing economic growth, it is necessary to examine factors that could potentially increase female labor force participation. One of the aspects that could increase labor force participation is childcare. However, in low-income countries like India, childcare is often expensive and inaccessible. In my thesis, I examine if relaxing this constraint by providing free and compulsory education to children as substitute childcare will encourage higher female labor force participation. I find that the probability of a woman’s decision to enter the labor market increases by 1.7% − 1.8% in some states. However, my results remain statistically insignificant when I include all states in India in my estimation. Thus, other factors such as gender norms, safety for women in the workplace, and wage disparity should be explored to encourage higher female labor force participation in countries like India.
Open Access
Transcending Time and Space: Historias de Convivencia in Rural El Salvador
(2023-07-14) Villatoro-Alvarez, Rebeca Sarai; Renda, Mary
Yucuaiquin is a small pueblo in La Union, El Salvador, hidden between mountains. In Poton, the Indigenous tongue to Lenca peoples, it means “tierra de fuego” or “land of fire.” My research asks about the history of daily life in Yucuaiquin before and after El Salvador’s war (1979-1990), and for yucuaiquinenses who subsequently moved to the Greater Boston area. My approach to this work honors the oral history and storytelling tradition of Yucuaiquin by using interviews and convivencia (shared life, time, and dwelling) with people to learn the history of the pueblo. Given the limited scholarship on the history of Yucuaiquin, this project required a creative approach. Interdisciplinary scholarship from sociologists, anthropologists, economists, psychologists, and historians of other places filled in some gaps, as did memoirs. But sharing time with yucuaiquinenses who migrated to Greater Boston and with community members in Yucuaiquin, engaging in their daily routines of selling, cooking, building, attending church, and such, has been crucial to my research. From these community relationships my central question emerged: How have rural salvadoreñes and yucuaiquinenses understood what it means to live together? I explore this question through histories of water, commerce and labor, and migration. Routines around access to water, street commerce, and transnational migration have been areas of struggle as yucuaiquinenses have contended with systemic forces – colonialism, privatization, wealth disparities, and imperialism.
Open Access
Relative Levels of Drice Expression During Metamorphosis In Larval Fat Bodies of Drosophila melanogaster
(2023-07-14) Bloomgarden, Abigail; Woodard, Craig
Programmed cell death (PCD) is the self-destruction of a cell as part of development or maintaining homeostasis. The main drivers of apoptosis are a family of enzymes called caspases. The two main caspases in Drosophila are Dronc and Drice. Dronc is an apical caspase, which means it is directly activated by apoptotic signals and in turn activates Drice. Drice is an effector caspase, which means it cleaves certain molecules in the cell which lead to cell death. During Drosophila pupation, larval salivary glands die at 10-12 hours after puparium formation (APF). Unlike most larval tissues, the larval fat bodies of Drosophila do not undergo apoptosis. Instead, they remodel, going from a sheet of fat cells to individual cells at around 12 hours APF. Therefore, it would be expected that larval fat bodies would have much lower levels of Drice than larval salivary glands. In this project, relative levels of Drice protein between Drosophila larval salivary glands and larval fat bodies at 0, 6, 10, and 12 hours APF were measured using Western blotting. It was hypothesized that at all time points levels of Drice protein would be lower in the fat bodies than in the salivary glands. Unfortunately, difficulties with the Western blotting protocol and the antibody used led to a lack of statistically significant results. However, troubleshooting of the experiment did lead to revisions of the Woodard Lab Western blotting protocol that will increase the efficacy and efficiency of future blots. Despite the issues with the project, future study in this area would be very valuable and should make use of the updated Western blotting protocol.
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Being Realistic About Reducing Incarceration: Political Approaches to Incarceration Reform in Michigan, What Works, and What Does Not
(2023-07-14) Wadhwani, Avni; Smith II, Preston
Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness took the criminal justice space by storm. Published in 2010 just as states began reversing War on Drugs policies, the book transformed the way activists and policymakers think about prison and the state’s role in incarceration. The book’s core premise posited that incarceration’s purpose is to systematically and intentionally disenfranchise African American men. My research challenges the dominance of Alexander’s narrative on the carceral system and aims to answer the question: what is the most effective political approach to getting criminal justice reform policy passed that significantly reduces the incarcerated population given existing political conditions in Michigan and other states with similar conditions? My research draws on interviews with state policymakers and activists, political messaging in newspaper articles, press releases, and legislative hearings, and successful and unsuccessful legislation passed in Michigan’s 100th and 101st state legislative sessions to create a comprehensive analysis of when and where certain political approaches succeed and fail. I argue that Alexander’s “race approach” is not the most effective political approach to reducing incarceration on a messaging or policy basis. I argue instead for the success of the “economic approach” in passing reform legislation. This economic approach aims to ameliorate the effects of the carceral system, both by making it easier for offenders to access socioeconomic resources after incarceration and through preventative but piecemeal measures before incarceration, such as increasing funding for an individual program or resource. I argue that while the economic approach has achieved the most success from a messaging and policy standpoint thus far, mass redistribution into working- and middle-class communities is needed to truly shrink the carceral state. This thesis categorizes and measures different political approaches to carceral reform, which previous scholars have not done, and creates a political framework for how legislators in purple states can get reform legislation passed.
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The Taste of Spoiled Earth
(2023-07-12) Kilroy, Rebecca; Hong, Anna Maria
The Irish Famine of 1845-1852 is an event defined by silence. Despite its tremendous demographic impact on both Ireland and the worldwide Irish diaspora, the Famine received relatively little literary or historical treatment prior to the late 1990s. Even now, a crucial element missing from both history and scholarship is the voice of the victims, which nineteenth-century chroniclers struggled to convey. One way in which chroniclers sought to convey the destruction and suffering of the Famine was through supernatural and often apocalyptic imagery of “living skeletons” and “walking dead.” Drawing on this legacy, “The Taste of Spoiled Earth” presents a speculative history novella in which the Famine dead rise, imbued with a hunger for living flesh. The figure of the undead allows for a blurring of boundaries that defies traditional rationalist narratives of history, while remaining true to, and commenting on, the social and political realities of hunger in a colonial state.
Open Access
JAPANESE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH: SPACE AND OPPORTUNITY FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH TALK AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN’S COLLEGES
(2023-07-06) Sakai, Yui; Luce, Jacquelyne
This project examines Japanese college students’ experiences with reproductive health care and information access in Japan. I engage with participants’ stories to understand the complexity of the issues around sexual and reproductive health rights in Japan, identify the barriers to accessing care and knowledge, and learn how they overcome the barriers with constraints. Each participant offers their perspectives on reproductive health and experience as a person who lives in Japan, who attends a women’s college, and who is in their early twenties in this project. I use a feminist methodological approach, Interpretive Phenomenological Approach, and feminist usage of Foucault’s theoretical framework of biopower/biopolitics to analyze and deeply engage with the participant’s embodied knowledge. With an interdisciplinary approach, I focus on the participant’s own interpretation of their experiences and of the world they live in. Additionally, I interpret what participants are noticing about how complex social structures, norms, policies, and interpersonal relationships intersect with women’s experiences with reproductive health in Japan. Participants shared their stories within the category of visible, invisible, and shifting reproductive health topics. Visible topics are the focus of society for resolution as well as a heightened focus on gender discrimination. On the other hand, invisible topics are not often talked about in public spaces and women’s embodied experiences are kept silent as they are sources of stigma, discomfort, and discrimination. Lastly, shifting topics can appear or disappear in certain spaces and in contexts. Through this project, it is identified that Japanese women, who are mainly the center of the reproductive health discourse, are not noticing themselves as articulating their thoughts within the framework of reproductive health. With social norms, stigmas, and political ideologies that often discourage women from having conversations about their bodies and health, I suggest that women’s colleges have the possibilities as a space for women to feel empowered, build self-efficacy and self-affirmation, gain knowledge and skills to confidently exchange their thoughts and experiences with reproductive health in Japan, which then leads to the promotion of reproductive health care and information access.
Open Access
The Gap Between Technology Access and Efficient Use in Rural Communities of Less Developed Nations
(2023-07-06) Haware, Dnyaneshwari; Gabriel, Satyananda
This research aims to investigate the gap between access and efficient use of communication technology in less developed rural communities, with a particular focus on rural Indian communities. Economic processes, infrastructure, behavioral and social factors influencing efficient technology adoption in low-income, low-resource, and information constrained communities are explored to identify strategies to overcome these barriers. The potential for media related technologies to uplift rural communities is analyzed, including the emergence of mobile phones as a primary form of media communication infrastructure. The research compares digitization plans and initiatives by less developed country governments to expose limited effort to enhance media exposure and media literacy within rural communities. Common factors that affect the efficient use of technology are lack of investment in local telecommunications infrastructure, lack of diffusion of devices for accessing information, improvement in literacy rates, exposure to a wider range of social norms, and willingness to learn new work and life strategies. Through qualitative data collected from a survey of residents in the Amravati district of Maharashtra, India, and case studies from other developing nations, this research shows the significant impact digitized social and information technology can have on rural communities' quality of life, poverty alleviation, enhanced self-employment, including farming, reduced unemployment for those seeking jobs, and development of other social sectors with critical media literacy. The study emphasizes the need for media literacy and related technological infrastructure to support rural communities ability to innovate and protect these communities from potential adverse impacts of social media misinformation and to encourage increased awareness of and participation in telecommunications and media-related policy-making processes. It should be a major policy goal to improve rural citizens’ participation in these policy-making processes.
Open Access
LIVE NOW: Assessing "Parasocial" Relationships Through the Evolution of the Dream SMP Fandom Space
(2023-07-06) Durand, Tatum; Sever, Cass
Open Access
Myth Adaptations in Chinese American Literature
(2023-07-06) Xue, Yumu; Shea, Mark
This thesis explores the question: how do Chinese American writers adapt the Chinese traditional myths in their work? The definition of myth used in this study is inclusive, encompassing both stories of supernatural beings and stories of humans. Through a home framework, I examine how Maxine Hong Kingston’s use of the myths of Mulan and Ts’ai Yen in The Woman Warrior shows the dilemma of being a Chinese American female. Through the same framework, I investigate the ways in which Chinese American writers might diverge in their mythological reimagination by looking at different adaptations of one myth: the myth of Sun Wukong. Through a close reading of Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book, Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, and Ken Liu’s “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King”, I give insights into the ways in which three different writers make faithful or subversive decisions when adapting the essence of Sun Wukong and the effects of these myth adaptations. While Kingston and Yan both discuss Chinese Americans’ identity crisis, Ken Liu addresses a historical topic beyond that recurring theme in other texts: the crimes of the Qing Empire. Additionally, this study examines Liu’s Sci-Fi short story “Good Hunting” which sets in British Hong Kong. Through an analysis of Liu’s portrayal of the hulijing, this study aims to provide insights into issues related to colonialism, environmentalism, and sexism. At last, this study provides the means for future researchers interested in exploring myth adaptations, examining the influence of foreign language story collections on American literature, and even critiquing silkpunk literature.
Open Access
Major Transitions: Cultural Capital and Major Selection for Chinese International Students at Historically Women’s Liberal Arts Colleges
(2023-07-06) Zhu, Wanqi (Angie); Gebre-Medhin, Ben
This thesis explores major selection for Chinese international students and the role of cultural capital in this process. Previous research has predominantly examined the impact of cultural capital on academic achievement among domestic students, with limited attention given to its role in shaping college major selection, particularly among Chinese international students. This thesis uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the process of major selection and the transition of cultural capital across nations. The findings reveal that cultural capital accumulated through strategic approaches employed by families at different life stages significantly influences the major selection process for Chinese international students, particularly women. Specifically, embodied cultural capital acquired through pre-high school cultural activities decreases the likelihood of choosing STEM majors. Furthermore, science-related cultural capital influences the significance of career aspirations in major selection, highlighting the role of parental education in this process. Additionally, parents play an active role in shaping their children's major selection through strategic plans, such as investing in shadow education and working with private counselors. Shadow education develops both embodied and institutionalized cultural capital, indirectly influencing college major choices. Accessing private counseling services facilitates the transition to U.S. colleges, enabling the acquisition of transnational cultural capital, and impacting the selection away from STEM fields.
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FEMALE SYMBOLISM: Translation and Interpretation of Selected Works of Mu Shiying
(2023-07-06) Wang, Yixuan; Wang, Ying
When it comes to the early 20th century, China—the forbidden land, the Eastern fantasy— was forced to open the gate and “welcome” its unpredictable future. On the one hand, the drastic social, political, and cultural changes paved the way for modernist thinking and lifestyle. Yet on the other hand, ongoing wars and ever-increasing tensions worldwide had broken down people’s perception of ordinary civil society and became the hotbed for hedonism, nihilism, and even hermeticism. In the early 20th century Shanghai, rapid modernization brought people a seemingly fantastic newborn world—a world full of awakened desire, love, and fleeting happiness. Thus, the notable change in lifestyle and outlook attracted many young writers, whose stories primarily focused on people’s turbulent city lives and romantic relationships with modern Chinese women. Among those talented young writers was Mu Shiying 穆時英 (1912-1940), the rising star of Chinese modernist writings, who vividly illustrated the bizarre and motley metropolitan life in his unrivaled avant-garde writings and deliberate depiction of sensations. Throwing himself into the world of literature, Mu lived a modest life while depicting the luxurious yet unsettled city life. Later some of his modernist stories, such as “Five in a Nightclub 夜總會裡的五個人,” “Shanghai Fox-trot 上海狐步舞,” and “Poles Apart 南北極” outstand in Chinese modern literary world. Because of Mu’s contentious political standing during wartime, a large part of his literary works remained undiscovered until the 1980s. However, it can never be denied that Mu is one of the most brilliant early Chinese modernist writers, who had a significant impact on later contemporary writers such as Eileen Chang and Mo Yan. When it comes to the 21th century, scholars such as Leo Ou-fan Lee and Shu-mei Shih have introduced Mu Shiying and his masterworks to Western audiences. In their researches, Lee and Shih thoroughly illustrated the short but unrivaled life of Mu Shiying and his adventure in literature, modernity, as well as a semi-apocalyptic world. Appreciating their works on Mu’s life and legacy, I have noticed that the images of female characters in Mu’s work have been rarely discussed or analyzed. Though female characters in Mu’s short stories vary from socialites to religious figures, they still naturally, consistently possess a strong sense of unreality. The unreality—even fantasy—has made Mu’s female characters divorced from reality and become literary symbols, which subtly blur the boundary between fantasy and reality, and profoundly embody sexuality, hedonism, and even serenity. Thus, I was encouraged to translate another four short stories of Mu, which profoundly involve the utilization of female symbolism. This thesis will provide a thorough explanation of the time and cultural condition of 1930s Shanghai as well as Mu’s extraordinary yet turbulent life. Through analyzing Mu’s depictions of women as symbols, allusions, and images, I argue that the female characters in Mu’s work are highly abstracted and become symbols of desire, of nostalgia, of peace, and of hedonism.
Embargo
Understanding the Relationship Between Ecdysone Signaling and the Lipin Protein in Drosophila melanogaster
(2023-07-06) Gloege, Helen; Woodard, Craig
Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, undergoes four major stages of development: embryonic stage, larval stage, pupal stage, and adult stage. During the larval stage, individuals increase in size and consume nutrients, which are then stored in the cells of the fat body. When the larva reaches critical weight, the formation of the pupal case or pupariation occurs over four days and undergoes a transformation from its larval form to its adult form. During these four days, the pupa will not consume any external nutrients and is reliant on the nutrients stored in the cells of the fat body as a result. The pupal stage is an energetically expensive process. In Drosophila, there is a single lipin gene orthologue known as dLipin. Lipin is a protein that is encoded by the lipin gene. Lipin is considered essential for normal adipose tissue development and triacylglycerol (TAG) storage. dLipin is linked to energy metabolism and is considered to be crucial under nutrient deprivation conditions. dLipin also plays a role in insulin sensitivity in the larval fat body (Lehmann, 2018). Ecdysone is a steroid hormone that acts through a receptor to regulate the transcription of specific target genes. This steroid hormone is the central regulator of developmental transitions in Drosophila and leads to pupariation at the beginning of metamorphosis. I hypothesize that ecdysone signaling activates the transcription of the dLipin gene during metamorphosis. To test this hypothesis, I am using the wild-type genotype as a control, and Cg-Gal4; UAS-EcR-DN flies as an ecdysone-signaling-deficient experimental genotype. Results of the Real-Time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) indicate the opposite of the hypothesis and that ecdysone signaling instead inhibits the transcription of the dLipin gene. Ecdysone deficient Drosophila resulted in up-regulation of dLipin compared to the wild-type Drosophila. Studying lipin in the Drosophila model will help lead to an understanding of the basic function of lipin in metazoans and lipin’s role in fat cell function and energy metabolism (Schmitt, 2015).

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