CMC Senior Theses

Why Korean Reunification Will Be Good, Necessary, and Different From Germany

Bernadette O. Asuelime — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:18:26 PDT

Much of the literature pertaining to North and South Korean reunification is written under the presumption that the two nations will—and more importantly, that they should— eventually reunify. Rather than assuming that reunification is inevitable and hypothesizing how it might come about, I examine political, social, and economic ramifications of reunification in order to discuss why Korean unification should occur, if it all.

Introducing the Stability Theory in Alliance Politics: The US, Japan, and South Korea

Rachel Cone — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:40 PDT

Analyzing the current state of the United States' alliances with both Japan and South Korea underscores the failure of the traditional alliance theory concepts, realism, liberalism, and constructivism, to adequately describe their continuation. Introducing a concept termed the stability theory to alliance theory explains the current trajectories of the US-Japan and US-South Korea alliances. Stability theory is an extension of the conception of the three aforementioned theories and hedging, and is based in part upon the inherent inertia resisting change, in a long-standing alliance. In setting the stage for the introduction of stability theory, the past, present, and future of the alliances come into play, illustrating how this new theory picks up where others fall off.

Applications of Fourier Analysis to Audio Signal Processing: An Investigation of Chord Detection Algorithms

Nathan Lenssen — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:39 PDT

The discrete Fourier transform has become an essential tool in the analysis of digital signals. Applications have become widespread since the discovery of the Fast Fourier Transform and the rise of personal computers. The field of digital signal processing is an exciting intersection of mathematics, statistics, and electrical engineering. In this study we aim to gain understanding of the mathematics behind algorithms that can extract chord information from recorded music. We investigate basic music theory, introduce and derive the discrete Fourier transform, and apply Fourier analysis to audio files to extract spectral data.

The Rise and Fall of Record Labels

Ilan Bielas — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:38 PDT

This thesis studies the music industry as a whole, and delves more specifically into how new technologies have disrupted the old business model. Advances in technology such as the Internet, MP3s, and file-sharing software have made it possible to bypass the traditional role of record labels, thus creating a closer link between artists and consumers. As the music industry transformed over time, the role of record labels became less defined. This has left once behemoth labels struggling to find a competitive advantage in a rapidly devolving industry. Record labels are no longer the most relevant segment of the music industry, and this work provides an in-depth analysis of the processes that destroyed their relevance.

This thesis begins by examining the music industry at a macro level, before tracking record labels from their prominence to their current marginalized role. Advancements in MP3, P2P networks, and other consumer-enabling technologies have transformed the music industry. The lack of a significant response to this shifting landscape within the industry has left record labels on a slippery slope towards extinction. As record labels failed to adapt to shifting demand and changing methods of consumption, private entrepreneurs have intervened to solve inefficiencies in the market. This thesis will leave the reader with an expansive knowledge of how the music industry has transformed, as well as its future trajectory without record labels.

The Effect of Negative Media on Political Campaigns: Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher

Rachel Vinson — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:36 PDT

Hillary Clinton and Margaret Thatcher are role models who have had a significant impact inspiring everyone, especially young women. They have had long political careers and are prominent politicians. In certain respects, many political observers including the public and media have misunderstood her personal, public, and political life. Since the media has become the most fundamental way people receive information and make judgments based on that information, it is vital that it accurately represent such prominent role models.

The media plays a crucial role in political campaigns and changes the way the public views candidates. I compare Clinton and Thatcher’s achievements, negative gender bias portrayal in the media, their campaign strategies, and the ultimate effect of this media attention. I will show that while both these women faced similar depictions in the media, Thatcher was able to win as a result of the difference in politics. This difference in the relationship with the media, and ability for Thatcher to have more control in her campaign strategies were the result of tighter restrictions on British broadcasting and campaigns, including political finance.

Countering Insurgency in Colombia: Building State Capacity to Confront the FARC and Reduce Violence

Nicholas Rowe — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:35 PDT

Colombia has faced contestation from leftist insurgencies since the period of La Violencia (1948-1958). The largest and most militant of these insurgencies is the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). As a result of their armed struggle against the state and the confluence of the drug trade and paramilitary groups, Colombians have suffered pervasive insecurity and violence. The Democratic Security and Defense Policy (DSDP), implemented in 2002, reversed this trend: it reasserted state control and legitimacy while decidedly diminishing the capabilities of the FARC. This thesis examines the explanatory factors for the achievements made in countering the FARC and the lessons it provides for domestic and international institutions.

The Synthesizer: Modernist and Technological Transformations in Film Sound and Contemporary Music

Dusin J. Green — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:33 PDT

The invention of the synthesizer meant the possibility of achieving virtually any sound in one mechanism, a superbly convenient device for musical creativity. Perhaps the perfect space for this approval of sound creativity was in the modern electronic film score. The synthesizer also flourished in popular music immediately following its emergence, but a common form began to solidify itself among synthesizer music. Shortly after, improvements in electronic instrument technology led to the democratization of electronic music and equipment, ultimately leading to electronic music as the new mainstream.

Googling to Forget: The Cognitive Processing of Internet Search

Elizabeth T. Friede — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:31 PDT

Technology is currently extremely integrated with everyday life. Popular media has made bold claims that the internet is making us “dumber” and people struggle to remember information more now than they ever have in the past. Scientific research on the effect of internet search on cognition and memory is still in its infancy. This research will analyze the literature and theories discussing memory and the internet. Based on an original experiment by Sparrow, Liu, and Wegner. 20 participants (10 young adults and 10 older adults) performed a typing task with twenty trivia statements, followed by a recall and recognition memory test to look for the effects of directed forgetting and transactive memory. This experiment did not replicate the effect found in the original experiment. It calls to question if the effect of transactive memory is applicable to social relationships that only include a person and a computer.

Render Weight of Animation Scripts: A Framework For Identifying Performance Pain Points In Mobile Web Applications

Juan C. Medina — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:29 PDT

In conjunction with the rapid growth of mobile devices, web developers are faced with optimization obstacles in providing their products and services to mobile consumers through rich Internet applications. Programmers utilize available research and tools to effectively guarantee optimal performance of their web applications on wide sets of devices. Due the lack of adequate information on rendering performance of mobile browsers, developers either use a pre-existing framework which constrains their application design or expend many hours in code refactoring in attempts to ensure optimal performance of their web applications. To this end, a framework is developed for identifying factors which might lead to significant lag or bottlenecks in web applications. A small web application is used to showcase the feasibility of integrating this framework on pre-existing web applications in order to assess performance of user devices in real-time.

Monetary Policy, Business Cycles, and the Behavior of Small Manufacturing Firms

Philip A. Brady — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:27 PDT

This is a substantially revised version of an earlier paper with the same title written by co-authors Mark Gertler and Simon Gilchrist written in 1994. The goal of this paper is to further understand the importance of financial propagation mechanisms for aggregate behavior and build upon their results. A large portion of economic research on the topic has concluded, with convincing evidence, that credit market frictions may influence business cycles, as well as the direction of changes to monetary policy moving forwards. It also shows that the change in business cycle behavior should be evident across all firms, with the level of effect being dependent on access to credit markets. Because of these conclusions, this paper will look to explore the differences in behavior between small firms and large firms regarding their sales, inventory, and short-term debt.

The American Colonization of Liberia & the Origins of Africa's First Republic

Aaron Outland — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:23 PDT

The American Colonization of Liberia is a unique example of statecraft, reflecting the domestic political concerns of free blacks and colonizationists in the United States. The founding of Liberia reflects the objectives of these two factions.

Invisibility: A Mathematical Perspective

Austin G. Gomez — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:22 PDT

The concept of rendering an object invisible, once considered unfathomable, can now be deemed achievable using artificial metamaterials. The ability for these advanced structures to refract waves in the negative direction has sparked creativity for future applications. Manipulating electromagnetic waves of all frequencies around an object requires precise and unique parameters, which are calculated from various mathemat- ical laws and equations. We explore the possible interpretations of these parameters and how they are implemented towards the construction of a suitable metamaterial. If carried out correctly, the wave will exit the metamaterial exhibiting the same behavior as when it had entered. Thus, an outside observer will not be able to recognize any abnormal changes in wave frequency or direction. This paper will survey studies and technologies from the past 20 years to arrive at a concise mathematical examination of the possibilities and inherent issues under the umbrella of modern ”cloaking.”

TARP and the Wall Street Reform Consumer Protection Act: An Examination of Constitutional Protection of Economic Liberties

Patricia Ingrassia — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:19 PDT

The 2008 subprime mortgage crisis is characterized by an increase in subprime lending and default on such mortgages. A combination of factors, such as risk excessive risk taken on by financial institutions, poorly implemented government housing policies and biased regulation are perceived to have caused the crisis. In response to the crisis, Congress approved the largest bailout of the United States financial system in taxpayer history. Signed into law by President George W. Bush, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) authorized the federal government to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to purchase distressed assets, including mortgage-backed securities, and provide liquidity to banks. Comprehensive financial reform followed the bailout package in the form of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This paper examines how both pieces of legislation threaten the constitutional protection of economic liberties.

Social Piracy in Colonial and Contemporary Southeast Asia

Miles T. Bird — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:18 PDT

According to the firsthand account of James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, it appears that piracy in the state of British Malaya in the mid-1800s was community-driven and egalitarian, led by the interests of heroic figures like the Malayan pirate Si Rahman. These heroic figures share traits with Eric Hobsbawm’s social bandit, and in this case may be ascribed as social pirates. In contrast, late 20^th-century and early 21^st-century pirates in the region operate in loosely structured, hierarchical groups beholden to transnational criminal syndicates. Evidence suggests that contemporary pirates do not form the egalitarian communities of their colonial counterparts or play the role of ‘Robin Hood’ in their societies. Firsthand accounts of pirates from the modern-day pirate community on Batam Island suggest that the contemporary Southeast Asian pirate is an operative in the increasingly corporate interest of modern-day criminal organizations.

Tradition. Passio. Poesis. Retreat: Comments around “The Gallery”

Daniel B. Lipson — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:12:16 PDT

Although Andrew Marvell wrote and published relatively little, his poetry collects from the full range of “schools” and idiosyncratic styles present in the seventeenth century: echoes of Herbert, Donne, Milton, Traherne, Herrick, Lovelace, and Jonson, among others, permeate throughout his work. Although much of his imagery seems novel, if not strange, it is clear that Marvell has a deep engagement with several important long-running traditions. His work is conversation with Ovid, Horace, and Theocritus as much as it responds directly to the poets whose lives overlapped with his own. In his engagement with such varied sources, Marvell demonstrates an astounding degree of poetic flexibility. He is a master of imitating voice and style.

The Effect of the Establishment of the Day Clearing Branch on Trading Costs: A Look at the NYSE In 1920

Samuel W. Wong — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:10:45 PDT

As a financial institution that clears and settles payments for equity and other securities, a clearinghouse essentially reduces the counterparty risk. It diminishes the risk of one party failing to meet its obligations, and makes markets more efficient through netting. This paper examines the impact of the establishment of the Day Clearing Branch on April 26, 1920, which allowed the NYSE Clearinghouse to net cash values and clear loans, supposedly resulting in savings in banking, time, and labor. The common and preferred equity securities that traded on the NYSE during the year 1920 were analyzed. The effect on bid-ask spreads and volume traded were scrutinized. It was found that these securities had increases in bid-ask spreads and decreases in volume traded, contrary to prior hypotheses.

Enabling Successful Environmental Partnerships

Meredith Reisfield — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:10:44 PDT

This thesis discusses environmental partnerships, in which an NGO and corporation collaborate to address mutual goals. I begin by discussing the goals of environmental partnerships before reviewing a brief history of these partnerships, the current state of the partnerships landscape, and partnership trends across industries and within NGOs. Next, I examine the potential benefits and drawbacks to partnering for both public and private participants. Finally, strategies for corporations, NGOs, research institutes, academia, and government to enable the creation and maintenance of successful partnerships are proposed to address critical environmental issues in the absence of effective regulation.

Fossil Fuel Subsidies: Impacts and Reform Strategies

Jennifer E. Good — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:10:42 PDT

This thesis uses cross-country panel regressions to identify the effects of fossil-fuel subsidies for both oil importers and oil exporters on GDP growth, industry growth, crowding out of government expenditures in education, health, and infrastructure, government debt, carbon dioxide emissions, inequality and poverty. Fossil-fuel subsidies are found to be associated with lower levels of growth and industry growth, less government expenditure on health and education, poorer infrastructure quality, more government debt, and higher rates of carbon dioxide emissions. No relationship is found between fossil fuel subsidies and poverty and inequality. These results confirm the arguments of those that argue that fossil-fuel subsidies should be rationalized.

However, removing subsidies is politically challenging. In order to identify strategies for fossil fuel reform, the successful reform efforts of Indonesia and Turkey are examined. These cases are then used to draw lessons for governments undertaking subsidy reform. The key strategies used were to exempt some regions, groups, or fuels from reform, use funds from subsidy removal for social safety nets and other poverty alleviation programs, time the reforms strategically, and communicate clearly to the public the reason for reform and how the funds will be used. These lessons are applied to countries in the developing Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.

Per Aspera Ad Astra: Wandering To The Stars of British Romanticism

Elizabeth Yeo — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:10:41 PDT

This senior thesis examines celestial imagery, stars in particular, and their varying connotations in the works of Romanticism, expressly in poetry of Shelley, Keats, and Wordsworth.

Understanding How Deciding and Relationship Confidence Predict Relationship Satisfaction

Elise M. Yoshida — Thu, 23 May 2013 10:10:39 PDT

This study examines how gender, deciding, and relationship confidence predict romantic relationship satisfaction using the Relationship Deciding Scale (Vennum & Fincham, 2011). Deciding refers to the thoughtfulness regarding the decisions made in and about relationships. Relationship confidence is the confidence a person has toward their ability to maintain a healthy relationship and handle conflicts in the relationship. Using an online survey, participants (age range: 18-22 years) answered questions about relationship confidence, deciding, and relationship satisfaction. They rated relationship satisfaction using their most recent relationship, so single people were included in the study. Multiple regression determined that deciding and relationship confidence positively predict relationship satisfaction for both sexes. Relationship confidence predicts above and beyond gender and deciding. Men were more satisfied than women.