Sewanee: The University of the South
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Understanding conservative women in the Trump era
No full textThe 2016 presidential election was a turbulent one that required many voters, particularly women, to make difficult decisions when it came time to vote. With this in mind, this research examines whether the particular issue of the future ideological direction of the Supreme Court was a possible deciding factor for women who chose to vote for President Trump. Specifically, I asked whether women who voted for Trump were more likely to have a negative assessment of the current Supreme Court. In my research, I used a logistic regression to examine data collected from the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) of both Republican women and voters in general. Since the CCES did not directly ask voters a question about the significance of the Supreme Court as a voting issue, to measure its significance, the models were organized using four major issues that were deemed particularly relevant to the Supreme Court recently: abortion, gay marriage, immigration, and healthcare. The results from this research were mixed – showing that, for Republican women in particular, the Supreme Court was likely a relevant factor but not necessarily a clearly deciding factor. Interestingly, Supreme Court assessments exhibited the most substantive significance among models examining voters in general, not just women
Carryover effects of wastewater treatment reduce anuran success
No full textConstructed wetlands are a potential solution for wetland mitigation and wastewater treatment due to their ability to simultaneously support native species and provide tertiary wastewater treatment. However, they can expose wildlife communities to excess nutrients and harmful contaminants, affecting their development, morphology, and behavior. To examine how the ecology of constructed wetlands may affect wildlife, we raised Southern Leopard Frogs (Lithobates sphenocephalus) in wastewater from traditional treatment and constructed wetland treatment and untreated drinking water and monitored their juvenile development for any carryover effects in the terrestrial environment. Individuals emerging from the secondarily treated wastewater demonstrated higher survival rates and faster time to metamorphosis but had lower survival as terrestrial juveniles than those emerging from untreated drinking water. Individuals from wastewater treatments exhibited differential growth for specific morphological features with faster growth in the aquatic environment and then slower growth in the terrestrial environment relative to those from untreated drinking water. Common duckweed (Leman minor) had smaller but generally positive effects on aquatic development and no impact on terrestrial development. Finally, we found that 2.64% of individuals from wastewater environments had visible external abnormalities. Our results reflect a trade-off between short-term developmental benefits of development in treated effluent and long-term consequences on overall fitness. Overall, we demonstrate that constructed wetlands for the purpose of wastewater treatment are not suitable replicates for wildlife habitat and may have consequences for local population dynamics.The Yeatman Fund and McCrickard Awards at the University of the South; the Ledford Fellowship from the Appalachian College Association; the Chadwick Lewis Memorial Grant from the Tennessee Herpetological Society
Shortleaf Pine Restoration at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee
No full textIn upland oak-pine systems in the eastern United States, mesophication is suppressing oak, hickory, and shortleaf pine regeneration. The forests on the Cumberland Plateau are historically a pyrogenic ecosystem, but due to centuries of fire exclusion, these areas are experiencing a wide-scale conversion to mesic, closed-canopy forests. As a consequence of this habitat conversion, formerly wide-spread species such as shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.), are disappearing from the landscape. In fact, the shortleaf pine ecosystem has been reduced to only 50% of its natural range over the last 30 years. Consequently, many flora and fauna that rely on shortleaf pine for suitable habitat are declining. Sewanee: The University of the South, is a part of a restoration effort called The Shortleaf Pine Initiative (SPI). The goal of the SPI is to restore shortleaf pine ecosystems and create conditions favorable for shortleaf pine throughout its native range. This restoration project is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Service, and is a collaborative effort between Sewanee, Berea College, Tennessee Wildlife Federation, and the Forest Stewards Guild.
During spring 2020, we have monitored shortleaf plantings on the Domain of the University of the South. There are a total of 21 openings where shortleaf has been planted inside three different management compartments. These openings range from a half acre to two acres in size and some plots have been burned since planting. We have assessed seedling density and worked to determine when the openings were created, as well as the timing and the source of shortleaf seedlings. Each plot was inventoried for shortleaf, and the height and diameter of any living
shortleaf was recorded. Our preliminary analysis indicates that shortleaf diameters varied very little among all three compartments, and the annual growth rate across all three compartments was fairly consistent. Shortleaf seedlings in Compartment 22 had an average annual growth rate of 20.2 cm per year, while compartment 46 had an average growth rate of 19.7 cm per year, and compartment 50 experienced a growth rate of 20.2 cm per year.Dr. Ken Smit
Models and Measurements of Heat Flow in an Aluminum Plate
Get PDFI have constructed a device to quantitatively measure two-dimensional heat flow across an aluminum plate using a grid of temperature sensors. This array is regulated by a user-programmable microcontroller, which allows for temperature variance to be observed in real-time after a point heat source is applied to the plate. This apparatus provides high levels of precision while remaining a low-cost alternative to similar setups and costly analysis/simulation software
The Economic Implications of Mexican Immigration in the United States
No full textThe Trump administration has put immigration reform at the forefront of its 2016 agenda. To protect American workers, this reform has reduced the number of Mexican Immigrants allowed into the United States. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of Mexican Immigrants on the wages of native low-skilled workers, and testing whether this immigration is truly unfavorable to America’s low-skilled labor force. Because Mexican immigration begane to surge in the 1980s and 1990s, we examine the period 1980 through 210, using data from Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS) of the US Decennial Census data. We construct a pooled OLS model and find that natives do see a small percentage decrease in low-skilled wage across our time sequence. However, Mexican Immigrants experience a larger decrease in wages comparatively
Gamma Gamma Coincidence
No full textGamma gamma coincidences occur from radioactive materials decaying into more stable nuclei and can only be seen with specific lab equipment. These coincidences are interactions between various particles, like electrons, photons, and positrons, that, in very small amounts of time, can produce multiple gamma rays which can be detected. These gamma rays are primarily produced through decay mechanisms and matter anti-matter annihilation, which all originate from the radioactive sample. Clearly there is a lot going on in a small sample. This experiment wouldn’t be possible without my Sodium-Iodide crystal (NaI(Tl)) detector. The crystal in the detector acts as a scintillator, sending photons to the Photomultiplier Tube(PMT). The PMT converts high energy photons into photoelectrons which are accelerated and amplified to create an electronic pulse that is more measurable.Dr. Randolph Peterso
Exploring sex differences in oxycodone place preference in the mouse
Get PDFOpioids drugs, like oxycodone, are often used as medicines because they can relieve the pain, but can also cause euphoria and are thus commonly abused and addictive. Research suggests that there are sex differences in the reward value of certain drugs. For instance, negative affective states are reported more frequently in women than men, with women often initiating drug use as a coping strategy to deal with anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, and feelings of isolation (Becker & Chartoff 2019). Less is known about sex differences in oxycodone reward.
In rodents, the reward value of drugs, like oxycodone, can be studied using a procedure called conditioned place preference (CPP). The CPP apparatus consists of two chambers, a black and a white one. During the training period, one chamber is paired with oxycodone injections while the other is paired with neutral saline injections. These chamber-injection pairings occur once per day for eight days, on alternating days. During a subsequent testing session, which is drug-free, the animal’s preference for each chamber is determined by allowing the animal to run between the two sides (Cunningham 2006). The amount of time that mice spent in each chamber reflected their preference for that chamber and therefore for oxycodone.
Our primary hypothesis was that female mice are more likely to spend more time in the chamber in which they received the oxycodone injection than males. Our results indicate that male and female mice both preferred the oxycodone-paired chamber, compared to control mice, F(1,39) = 11.86, p<0.01. Although many studies state that females become addicted to drugs more easily, our results suggested that males’ preference may have been slightly stronger than females (p=0.08). One reason for these results might be that females have an estrous cycle, during which their hormone levels change; drug self-administration has been shown to change across the estrous cycle. This potential confound is also one reason that males are still so commonly used in scientific studies (Zucker & Beery 2011). Future projects will analyze preference by females’ estrous stage
The observation of spontaneous ionic currents in sea urchin protractor muscle
Get PDFSea urchins utilize a complex set of masticatory muscles that surround a centralized structure called the Aristotle’s lantern. The muscles that surround the pentaradial lantern include paired and unpaired muscle groups. One muscle in particular is the lantern protractor muscle. What remains unknown are the type of ionic currents involved in maintaining the membrane potential of protractor muscle cells that controls contraction. Individual protractor cells were isolated from muscle segments in the purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), and the ionic currents passing through the membranes of these cells were measured using whole cell patch clamp electrophysiology. A reduced potassium solution was utilized in a perfusion system to measure differences in ionic current between control sea water and reduced potassium sea water. Changes in membrane currents were observed in both extracellular conditions. The resulting electrical events recorded from these current changes were indicative of ion channel functioning on the muscle membrane in response to differing extracellular solutions. Quantitative analysis of the frequency, amplitude, and area of these events will determine the effect of potassium in the generation of the spontaneous currents observed in protractor muscle contraction. The present study forms the basis for further electrophysiological investigation into the lantern protractor muscle. Future studies should look to incorporate a calcium reduced ion solution in the perfusion system to see whether there are calcium-activated or calcium permeable channels in the protractor muscle cell membrane
Impacts of Summer Olympics on GDP and Tourism
Get PDFIt is commonly believed that hosting the Olympic Games generates substantial revenue and has a significant positive effect on a country's economy. In this paper, we examine the long-run economic impact (GDP and Tourism) that the Summer Olympic Games have on, comparing host and bid countries. Sourcing data from 1954 to 2016, we examine fifteen Summer Olympics Games. Using a differences-in-differences model, we compare the findings of the host countries’ to all of the countries that placed a bid but were not awarded the Games. The results suggest there is a minimal change in economic impact in the long term for a country’s GDP per capita and tourism arrivals.Professor Aaron Elro