Vassar College Digital Library

Vassar Scholarship

Vassar Scholarship, the institutional repository formerly known as Digital Window, reflects the research and scholarly output of the Vassar College community.  It provides access to a variety of collections, including senior theses and projects across a wide range of disciplines.

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Vassar Scholarship

Automatic control: the vertebral column of dogfish sharks behaves as a continuously variable transmission with smoothly shifting functions

Publication Date
2016-July-07
Document Type
article
Authors
Marianne E. Porter
Ewoldt, Randy H.
Long, John H., Jr.
Department or Program
Biology Department
Cognitive Science Department
Document Type
Article
Abstract

During swimming in dogfish sharks, Squalus acanthias, both the intervertebral joints and the vertebral centra undergo significant strain. To investigate this system, unique among vertebrates, we cyclically bent isolated segments of 10 vertebrae and nine joints….

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Vassar Scholarship

Built for speed: strain in the cartilaginous vertebral columns of sharks

Publication Date
2014-February-01
Document Type
article
Authors
Porter, M. E.
Diaz, Candido, Jr.
Sturm, Joshua J.
Grotmol, Sindre
Summers, A.P.
Long, John H., Jr.
Department or Program
Biology Department
Cognitive Science Department
Document Type
Article
Abstract

In most bony fishes vertebral column strain during locomotion is almost exclusively in the intervertebral joints, and when these joints move there is the potential to store and release strain energy. Since cartilaginous fishes have poorly mineralized vertebral centra, we...

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Vassar Scholarship

Identifying Opportunities and Pathways to Increase Carbon Sequestration through Reforestation on the Vassar Ecological Preserve

Publication Date
2022-May-01
Authors
Skuches, Ethan
Department or Program
Environmental Studies Program
Document Type
Senior Capstone Project
Access Level
Open
Abstract

The goal of this research was to devise methodology and recommendations for forest restoration that concurrently increases potential carbon sequestration. We surveyed permanent forest plots on the Vassar College Ecological Preserve in the summer of 2021 and used diameter at...

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Vassar Scholarship

Testing biological hypotheses with embodied robots: adaptations, accidents, and by-products in the evolution of vertebrates

Publication Date
2014-November-12
Document Type
article
Authors
Roberts, Sonia F.
Hirokawa, Jonathan
Rosenblum, Hannah G.
Sakhtah, Hassan
Gutierrez, Andres A.
Porter, Marianne E.
Long, John H., Jr.
Department or Program
Biology Department
Cognitive Science Department
Document Type
Article
Abstract

Evolutionary robotics allows biologists to test hypotheses about extinct animals. In our case, we modeled some of the first vertebrates, jawless fishes, in order to study the evolution of the trait after which vertebrates are named: vertebrae. …

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