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

Benjamin Bagby performs Beowulf

Publication Date
2016-January-01
Document Type
research
Authors
Bagby, Benjamin
Amodio, Mark C.
Department or Program
English Department
Document Type
Research
Abstract

Recordings of <em>Beowulf</em> performed by Benjamin Bagby (voice; Anglo-Saxon harp). The recordings were made in Cologne, Germany in January 2016.
Running times:
Track 1: 04:34
Track 2: 06:33
Track 3: 13:56

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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

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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Vassar Scholarship

Voice of the Machine

Publication Date
2015-January-01
Document Type
Senior Capstone Projects
Authors
Eads, Sean Jackson
Department or Program
Media Studies Program
Document Type
Senior Capstone Project
Abstract

Opening a discussion about digital voices in contemporary spaces and popular music in two parts: 1) An essay that traces discourses of disembodiment and the rise in prominence of digital voices in electronic music, enumerates the ways in which they...

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