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Concrete Legacy: The Effects of the Interstate Highway System on Black Communities in the U.S.
Full text linkThis article examines the role that racism, racial capitalism, neoliberalism, and classism played in the construction of the Interstate Highway System as a part of 20th-century urban renewal. It will first understand the context of American urban renewal and then look at the policy specific to the Interstate Highway System. After that, I will discuss the resistance many communities portrayed and how bureaucracy stood firm against grassroots organizing. Then, this paper will explore the process of highway removal and new construction, as well as reparations for the communities most affected by the Interstate Highway System. Finally, I will give warnings of possible ramifications that could emerge from highway removal. This article is rooted in the community of Rondo/Old Rondo in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where this paper got its start. The Rondo community was targeted by city planners to be destroyed as the highway rolled in, as were many other Black communities in the United States. Hundreds of homes were damaged, but now, the community, in partnership with the city government, is making plans for repair. I recognize the importance of the Rondo community and the City of Saint Paul to the future of highway-related reparations and this paper specifically. The answer to the question of the most effective way to restore and repair affected communities lies within those very people
Urban Farm, Not Toxic Harm: East Phillips Urban Farm and the Indigenous Right to the City
Full text linkThe East Phillips neighborhood in South Minneapolis has been planning to transform an abandoned warehouse into an indoor urban farm for nearly a decade. When the city of Minneapolis announced it would demolish the warehouse–releasing arsenic from the soil into the community–and use the land for a public works facility, a fierce battle over environmental justice and the right to produce space (a theory popularized by Henri Lefebvre) ensued. East Phillips is a geographically significant place: It has the largest urban concentration of Indigenous people in the country, and it is the birthplace of the American Indian Movement. Indigenous land defenders led the community in a series of protests over the span of 2022 and 2023 that halted the city’s plans. This initiative is an excellent case study to examine who gets to determine how space is produced, how marginalized communities push back against colonial planning practices to create counter-spaces, and what successful community-led planning initiatives can look like. This paper will explore the history of the contested land as abstract space, East Phillips as a marginalized place and hot spot for community organizing, the production of space and the Indigenous right to the city, environmental justice, and community-driven planning initiatives as a tool for resistance, healing, and growth
Multimodal Musicianship
No full textAccess Online: https://pressbooks.macalester.digital/multimodalmusicianship/
Multimodal Musicianship is an open educational resource for learning music theory and ear training. The content engages concepts related to tonal harmony, suitable for a two- or three-semester music theory and ear training curriculum in a liberal arts college or other higher education setting. This collection of materials offers multiple modes of engaging content—with text, musical examples, audio examples, video content, application activities, and links to supplemental content—designed for users to learn and reinforce their knowledge according to their learning styles and needs.https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/books/1007/thumbnail.jp
The Hodgkin-Huxley Model for Neuron Action Potentials: A Computational Study
Full text linkNeurons are the fundamental units of the nervous system that receive stimuli as signals and pass on this information to other cells in different parts of the body. An action potential refers to the transmission of the electrical nerve impulse along the neuron. In their seminal work published in 1952, Alan L. Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley proposed a mathematical model of neuronal membrane action potentials based on a series of experiments they conducted using the giant squid neuron. This thesis is a study of the nature of the action potential used to transfer signals along the neuron based on the Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) model. The model consists of four coupled differential equations that contain non-linear terms and have no analytic solutions, and so numerical methods must be employed. In this work we developed MATLAB programs using the Runge-Kutta and Finite Difference Explicit Method to solve the space-clamped and full spatial and temporal HH equations respectively. Results illustrated that the solutions from these programs are consistent with current understanding of action potential behavior. The space-clamped calculations describe the behavior of an action potential as it evolves through time when a uniform potential is maintained in the neuron. The full spatial and temporal calculations describe how action potentials evolve in both space and time. The results can be interpreted as a type of non-linear diffusion of voltage, but with important differences compared to classical linear diffusion. Finally, some preliminary work on extensions of the HH model is provided
Variability of High-Degree Modes over Multiple Solar Cycles Using Local Helioseismic Data from GONG
Full text linkIn this investigation we use the local helioseismic technique of ring diagrams to study the power, energy, and damping rates of high degree solar acoustic modes. Our data covers the period from the maximum phase of solar cycle 23 to the ascending phase of cycle 25. The goal is to examine the variations in the mode parameters with solar activity as well as the differences between different cycles. For this, we use different proxies of solar activity. We use 10.7 cm radio flux measurements and a measure of magnetic flux known as magnetic activity index from magnetograms
Linking the Population of Binary Black Holes with the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
Full text linkThe astrophysical stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) is the product of overlapping waveforms that create a single unresolvable background. While current LIGO sensitivity is insufficient to uncover the SGWB, future space-based detectors and Third Generation (3G) experiments are expected to probe deep enough for detection. Predictions of the SGWB can constrain future searches as well as provide insight into star formation, merger history, and mass distribution. Here, three primary methods are used to calculate a theoretical SGWB. The first method integrates over a precomputed mass distribution probability grid, while the second and third employ Monte Carlo integration with simulated data. After standardizing a prior distribution across both methods, the output energy density spectra is analyzed with regard to parameters such as binary black hole mass, merger rate, and spin distribution. Increasing the maximum merger mass shifts the gravitational-wave (GW) energy density peak to lower frequencies, while increasing merger rate parameters increases the GW energy density. In addition, higher spin magnitude and more closely aligned spins produce a maximum GW energy density higher in amplitude and frequency
Integrative and Holistic Approaches to Treating PTSD: Two Theoretical Models to Guide Best Practice
Full text linkPosttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder that deserves quality psychotherapeutic treatment. As research on PTSD has progressed, it has become increasingly clear that the disorder is rooted in both neurological and psychological abnormalities. However, many currently available gold-standard psychotherapies target symptoms which arise from only one of these dysfunctional origins, leaving symptom profiles inadequately addressed and contributing to issues with attrition and residual symptoms. Integrative therapies, while still in the early stages of gaining empirical support, seem promising in terms of their ability to offer more complete symptom resolution than cognitive or somatic therapies alone. Another crucial aspect of PTSD psychotherapy, the therapeutic alliance, often goes inadequately discussed in research on trauma treatment approaches despite its known curative effect. Considering the role of the therapeutic alliance alongside integrative therapies’ potential to more fully address the PTSD symptom profile, it becomes clear that a holistic approach is needed to effectively treat PTSD. In this paper, a theoretical model advocating for integrative psychotherapy as best practice in PTSD treatment is introduced, followed by the proposal of a second theoretical model that centers psychotherapy within the larger context of the therapeutic alliance and offers a holistic framework for PTSD treatment approaches
“Triple Consciousness”: How Chinese International Students Navigate Identity Amidst U.S-China Tension and COVID-19 Xenophobia
Full text linkInternational students from China account for the largest number of international students in the United States. Behind their vast and growing population lies the legacy of U.S. soft power diplomacy to spread democracy during the Cold War era, while a similar strategy has been utilized by the Chinese government for students to “represent China.” However, Chinese international students now stand on the intersection between COVID-19 xenophobia and the contentious U.S.-China relationship. How do these individuals navigate and (re)orientate their identities when they are pulled to opposite directions? This study utilizes one-on-one interviews with 22 Chinese international students from a small liberal arts college in the Midwest to explore this question. Using W.E.B. Du Bois’ concept of double consciousness, I argue that Chinese international students develop a “triple consciousness” with two external and competing gazes from the U.S. and China, and one internally conscious self. The findings suggest that the students develop an ambivalent self that forms more nuanced self-consciousness to reflect on the state gazes. The study provides a lens into how historical xenophobia and Cold War legacies shape the contemporary Chinese international student within the current U.S.-China debate while illustrating opportunities for individual autonomy to exist outside of those state ideologies
Mapping beyond-Landau phase transitions in 1+1 dimensional U (1) quantum field theories
No full textPhase transitions are widely studied in the context of statistical physics and condensed matter systems, but the principles of this study can be extended to more generalized field theories. We examine a 1+1 U(1) quantum field theory in one spatial and one Euclidean temporal dimension that displays a dualism with the classical rotor model in 2D. The classical rotor model is known for the BKT (Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless) transition which is not consistent with the Landau paradigm of phase transitions and is instead driven by the proliferation of vortex field solutions. We use this dualism to examine a Villain formulation of our U(1) QFT and observe the analogous phase transition.
To probe the phase transition we use Monte Carlo methods to calculate expectation values in the path integral formulation of QFT via a novel Python-based software package. We begin by using this package to reproduce supercomputer mappings of the BKT transition performed in 1993, which yielded a transition point at a critical thermodynamic ß~0.74. In the latter part of this paper, we develop the so-called Worldline formulation, dual to the Villain formulation via Poisson resummation, which allows the use of worm algorithms for Monte Carlo updates. These worm algorithms can circumvent the critical slowing of the Monte Carlo Markov Chain autocorrelation, which is otherwise characteristic of such studies. Further applications, including the implementation of vortex winding constraints, are discussed