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Monitoring of White-tailed Deer Population using Citizen Science in Urban Neighborhoods
No full text40 p.An overabundance of deer populations in urban are rural areas has been an increasing issue in the past recent years. With urban sprawl on a continual increase, tracking deer populations in urban areas is becoming increasingly common and difficult. In order to find a way to track these populations, scientists have recently been utilizing citizen participation, or citizen science. This method of collecting data allows citizens to participate in a scientific study by taking pictures of deer and uploading to a website. I am continuing a project started in Fall 2020, where students used an app called iNaturalist to catalyze community participation. The app allows for citizens to assist in the tracking of deer populations as they are traveling at an increasing rate due to habitat loss. Residents of Kalamazoo neighborhoods are able to upload pictures of deer that the spot to iNaturalist. The app then creates a map of the sighting locations. These locations were then plotted on Google Earth to estimate herd location and movement. I then compared the results to the results of last year's project. I classified 4 new herds of deer, creating a tentative map of 18 different herds. There was statistically significant data to suggest a relationship between deer their hunt for resources. This study has been conducted and written with the intention that it will aid in the city of Kalamazoo’s ongoing attempt to control the local white-tailed deer population
It's Time to Give a Flock : Small Agribusiness Alternatives, Market Contradictions, and Organic Floriculture
No full textvii, 52 p.Recently, there has been growth in sustainability-oriented and small agricultural businesses. To be a part of the broader economy, however, these businesses can sometimes compromise their objectives or mission statements aligned with the notion of sustainability. Although contradictions may permeate their market and business operations, these businesses remain vital in manufacturing environmental change. Thus, my project examines how small scale, sustainability-oriented farmers navigate tension and market contradictions to produce positive environmental change. Moreover, it will be crucial to consider if and how small-scale farmers incorporate innovative business techniques in the sustainable agricultural movement; are their methods environmentally effective; do they generate recognizable planetary and social change? In addressing the latter, dissecting the consumer perspective and perceptions of alternative agricultural businesses is of utmost importance; how do alternative agricultural businesses tailor their farm products according to consumers' market desires? Small and alternative farmers must reimagine the possibilities of their agrarian practices to operate within the confines of capitalism (e.g., accumulation over preservation, emphasis on output/production rather than sustainability) to develop an alternative, "transformative project" capable of shifting the current commercial and unendurable agricultural paradigm to sustainability-oriented businesses and technologies
Mice lacking the a-Dystrobrevin or Dystrophin proteins of the DGC exhibit dystrophic characteristics in skeletal muscle
No full textv, 29 p.Muscular dystrophies are a group of genetic disorders that primarily affect skeletal muscle and are characterized by progressive muscle wasting and a shortened life span. Within skeletal muscle, the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC) links the extracellular matrix and the muscle cell cytoskeleton. Major forms of muscular dystrophy have been linked to abnormalities of the DGC proteins. Due to this, mice with mutations affecting the DGC are significant models for studying muscular dystrophy and its pathology. In this study we examined MDX mice, which do not express the Dystrophin protein, a-Dystrobrevin knockout mice (a-dbn- /-), which do not express the a-Dystrobrevin scaffolding protein, a-Syntrophin knockout mice (a-syn-/-), which do not express the a-Syntrophin signaling protein, and double knockout (DKO) (a-dbn-/- , a-syn-/-) mice. We performed histological analyses of their skeletal muscle in search of dystrophic characteristics and inspected the morphology of their neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) to look for denervation. We found that the expression of the Dystrophin and a- Dystrobrevin proteins of the DGC are both significant determinants of skeletal muscle integrity and innervation. The expression of a-Syntrophin proved to be insignificant in determining the health of skeletal muscle. This study expanded our understanding of the DGC in both healthy and diseased muscle as well as how mutations of the DGC proteins influence the health of muscle fibers and contribute to characteristics of muscular dystrophy
My Summer Department of Defense Internship and a Discussion of Serialization
No full textiii, 12 p.This paper discusses my experience working as an intern with TRAC-FLVN as a result of being a SMART scholar. The details of what each of those organizations are, how I came to be connected with them and what I did during my summer are listed below. The largest time commitment of my summer was to a project involving the creation of a serialization algorithm in R using Java’s standard, due to R’s open-source nature and the already established functionality of Java’s standard for the purposes of TRAC-FLVN. This internship will not be a one-off experience for me, as I will move to Kansas City in the year 2022 to begin a two-year commitment to TRAC-FLVN as a result of the SMART scholarship terms and conditions
Blurring the Divide : The Role the Internet and the Surge of Online Magazines Have Played in Conflating Matters of Academia and Popular Culture
No full textxii, 39 p.The central focus of my SIP—the blurring of the divide between academia and pop culture—was largely influenced by my own scholarly interests and internship experiences. Since a sole focus on pop culture would not adequately reflect my coursework at K or the theoretical framework that this particular SIP option is heavily reliant on, I chose to incorporate the additional layer of the countless subtleties of writing about pop culture—whether done while asserting one’s identity as a fan, distancing oneself from this identity for the sake of objectivity, or carefully incorporating elements of these two authorial tones to further enrich one’s argument. While I reflect that there is merit to be deemed from writing about pop culture throughout my SIP (contrary to the beliefs of many conventional academics), I also maintain that such merit should not be derived from the belittlement of other forms of writing. Since each style of writing inherently possesses dynamic aspects that separates it from others, I thematize the blurring of the divide between conventional and unconventional forms of literary merit in order to legitimize writing styles that have customarily been subject to harsh ridicule—from personal blog posts to articles written for digital publications that lack the editorial staffs that universally lauded publications possess. At the same time, I hope to remind both the scholar and pop culture consumer alike that all opinions regarding pop culture are valid and no one should be made to feel less than if their own views on pop culture drastically stray from the popular discourse. In doing so, I strive to reinstate the popular sentiment that there is no wrong way to write or think about pop culture
Diffused Religion : The Religiosity of BABYMETAL
No full textii, 53 p.The world of metal music was at an interesting point in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but that is not to say it was dying or lacking in volume. Simply put, these years marked the creation of a band that would push forward the ways in which metal bands are thought about as well as create something the music world, in general, has never seen before. The band I speak of is BABYMETAL. To best understand what this group is and why it will be important to look at I will provide a brief history of the band from its inception until the present moment. In 2010, entertainment company Amuse Inc. from Japan was looking to create a new metal band, something that blended genres and changed perceptions of what was traditionally thought of as metal music. In order to accomplish this, they selected three young girls who would adopt the monikers Sumetal, Moametal, and Yuimetal.1 The company immediately got to work developing music for the girls to sing and dance along to. This resulted in the first single, “Doki Doki Morning,” being released internationally in 2011 to some success.2 The band would feature its largest boost in popularity upon the release of the single "Gimme Chocolate," which was released internationally in 2013.3 From this moment onward the band featured a relative international success and in turn, the next few years of BABYMETAL’s existence continued relatively uneventfully, releasing two albums and touring Japan and abroad. Then prior to the release of their third album the band saw a variety of unfortunate events occur in 2018, key among them being the death of one of the instrumentalists, and the departure of Yuimetal from the band due to health concerns.4 5 Now with questions to be answered and needing to recover from the loss of these members the band continued to tour with just two members before adding a group of backup dancers that cycled through each show to replace Yuimetal. Despite these hardships, the band released its third album and has remained successful in maintaining a fan base. That brings us to the present day where after a couple of years of near silence the band has announced a new album and set of singles to be released. That is a simple history of the musical undertakings of BABYMETAL as they worked to establish themselves as a legitimate metal phenomenon within the modern world of music. However, it illuminates very little as to what BABYMETAL truly is. The enigma that is BABYMETAL is a world of fusion and ambiguity. When exploring the productions of BABYMETAL one can see the ways in which religion manifests. These religiously adjacent aspects of the band are varied and appear often. To understand the religious importance of BABYMETAL it is important to also understand how religion and its traditions have developed and manifested within a modernized society. Particularly, the world of BABYMETAL works together with concepts of lived and diffused religion that allows the band to create religious moments without designating themselves as a religious body. Particularly, looking at scholars work on how religion has diffused within modern society can be useful to better understanding BABYMETAL. The ways in which BABYMETAL approaches and uses religion can be ascribed to concepts of diffused religion
Hay comida en Ia casa : The Role of Food in Intergenerational Relationships of Mexican Mothers Away from their Homes and How Mothers Pass Down Culture through Food
No full textvi, 49 p.This paper analyzes the role of food in intergenerational relationships among Mexican women who move away from their homes and how they pass down their culture to their children. I looked at gender, gender roles, motherhood, and food as a concept and then went more specifically into my chapters. I looked at the gender roles of the mother and Daughter in Mexican culture and families. Then I looked at how culture is passed through maternal figures. Due to cooking and household labor being categorized as women's work, I looked at the labor and value that goes into cooking. Lastly, I looked at cooking as more than a gender role. When Mexican women moved away from their homes, they found new communities and the kitchen was their space to create relationships. Through these relationships, mothers created a new imagination of what Mexico is and taught that to their children through food and dishes that were passed down through generations or traded between women. It takes a lot of labor to cook and feed so by seeing those two actions as much more than women's work, one will appreciate how hard mothers work to maintain their families. Mothers show their love for their food, and they pass down their identity
Between the Walls : Belonging, Identity and Citizenship for Migrant Students
No full text35 p.I had the chance to study in Strasbourg, a beautiful and diverse city. It was there that I landed an internship in a college in Hautepierre, 15 minutes by tram from the city center. Here are some questions I would like to address in my SIP. I will explore in the methodology of the literary and filmographic analysis of suburban education through a few examples: the film “Entrée les murs” (2008), the research of Tobias Warner and Frantz Fanon on colonial education and alienation, the novel “Kiffe Kiffe Demain” by Faïza Guène, and my personal experiences as a middle school teacher in France. Thus, we ask: What are the historical precedents that inform the ideologies that dominate the French school system? How do school language policies reflect attitudes toward immigration and immigrant students? How does the application of these policies affect the identity and esteem of young students in France? In order to understand the experiences of migrant students in the contemporary French classroom, it is important to understand the colonial history and the development of the French school. I examined the colonial educational projects that developed in Africa in the 20th century, using Tobias Warner's “Tongue Tied Imagination: Decolonizing Literary Modernity” and using “Peau Noire, Masques Blancs” by Frantz Fanon
“THE JAPANESE INVADE AMERICA”: An Overview of Japanese-American Intercollegiate Baseball, 1905-1936
No full text40 p.This essay seeks to provide an overview of Japanese-American
intercollegiate baseball beginning with the first voyage by Waseda University to the US in 1905
and ending with Waseda’s last tour of the states in 1936. The brainchild of Waseda University’s
manager Abe Isoo, his ideals about the role baseball could play in spurring international peace
and easing Japanese-American tensions formed the framework upon which subsequent college
tours would be organized. At a time when each nation’s government often viewed the other as
rivals in the Pacific, Abe believed that bringing diverse people directly into contact with one
another through baseball could spur close ties and mutual respect between the people, ultimately
2 Newspaper reports often mistakenly referred to it as quadrennial.
3
forging a lasting peace based on the good relations of the people rather than government
agreements. Envisioned as a method for connecting the people of both nations, the baseball tours
undertaken by Japanese and American colleges provide an excellent example of how sports can
be perceived as tools of engagement by popular society. Additionally, studying these tours, their
motivations, and how they were perceived at the time can be helpful in better understanding the
role of sports on a local level in international politics
French Universalism and Jewish Particularity : French Jewish Identity from Emancipation to WWI
No full textiii, 29 p.French Jews saw unprecedented prosperity in 19th century France due to the universalist ideas that led to their emancipation. At the time, they were the only Jews in Europe who could actively participate in the educational, political, and economic institutions of their country. However, the Dreyfus Affair exposed the disadvantages of the rigid French universalist ideals that didn’t align with the Jews’ distinct sense of community and culture. These differing identities among French Jews do not necessarily align with the assimilationist version of universalism that had been subscribed to pre- Dreyfus Affair. Maurice Samuels suggests a spectrum to describe different versions of universalism; on one side of the spectrum would be assimilation and the other side of the spectrum would be pluralism. The far side of the assimilation pole represents the traditional French universalism which would expect Jews to shed any distinction from the majority culture in the political, cultural, economic or religious sense. The pluralist side of the spectrum would be represented by an embracement and acceptance of different minority groups’ distinctions by society and the state, with the acknowledgment that there are still certain universal rights and values among our differences.45 Judaism is deeply rooted in community (e.g. needing ten people to form a minion for certain prayers, the formation of social societies, the celebration of holidays, etc.), but it is not a monolith and each individual must decide for themselves what it means to be Jewish. The endless interpretations of what it means to be Jewish results in many particular Jewish communities, linked together by a common identity; universalism with the acceptance of pluralism. The same holds true for French identity; each Frenchman has their own idea on what it means to be French. Their ideas on what French identity is may differ- as I discussed before, French citizenship and French nationality are not always equated to each other- but they still share a universal identity, whether it be through cultural similarities or just by living in the same country. This pluralistic universalism does not align with the version of assimilationist universalism that the writers of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen intended. The “French universalism” that Samuels defined is more of a prescriptive idea than a description of how universalism has actually worked in France. No group is a monolith; difference and diversity are inevitable wherever freedom reigns, so France has mostly functioned as a pluralistic universalist society. While each French Jew may articulate their identities differently, they still define themselves the same way: as French Jews. I’ve been using the writing of Maurice Samuels as a base for the definitions of universalism and pluralism, and I think the title of his book perfectly encapsulates what French Jewish identity is all about: The Right to Difference. No matter how differently two French Jews express or relate to their identities, the universal right to difference means that neither is more or less French or Jewish than the other. The ambiguity of these identities can lead to gate keeping and exclusion, as I’ve written about, but it also means that each individual can pick and choose which aspects of these identities that are meaningful to them while still being a part of a shared community; universalism with the acceptance of pluralism